Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Apr 13, 2022 20:52:00 GMT -8
“I want all of you to dive into my Bastion.”
It was a cold open, but Yuan felt little need to beat around the bush. He has called his motley, plus Cinder, as the night wound on. If the bottle of rice wine was any indication, he had been working up the courage the reach out. Money had been left to account for it in the inventory.
“And instead of trying to stop me, I would appreciate if you had actual constructive criticism.” He was looking pointedly at the Sun’s Tongue. Cinder was the resident dream expert, and the Beast was hoping he had enough social capital to pull this off.
“I’m trying to separate which parts of me are mine and which parts are… implanted? Mitch said he did something similar with Kai and Oren. And Fawkes.”
“I feel broken. Well, more like… I feel like some parts I have no control over. And I want to have a better understanding on what triggers those parts.”
They were meeting at the massage parlour where Yuan worked. Years of faithful service had netted him a few tiny privileges. Despite friendships and motley oaths, he was fiercely territorial over his space.
“Can I get you guys anything? We don’t have much, but I’ll see what I can scrounge up.”
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Post by Gavin Graves on Apr 13, 2022 21:56:11 GMT -8
Gavin was happy to come support his friend. He didn't really know how he would be much use in the dreaming world. As much as he was an experienced diver, this form was distinctly not his forte. He'd done the Freehold training sessions offered to get people's feet wet in the matter, but he hadn't taken well to it. His instructor did however note how resilient he was in his inner world.
"Alright." was offered with a heavy Oz accent and a very tentative smile. "Happy to try to help," he chuckled nervously.
"I might be able to give you a few insights from this side of things before we get started, depending on how aligned you are with your experiences There." The occultist was familiar with the patterns that manifested in behaviours and the body as a result of strong ties with the Wyrd.
"Now, I don't want you to state any of your quirks aloud or anything, but I'd like you to take a moment to consider any strange obsessive compulsive ticks or 'allergic' reactions to unusual things you might have experienced. Those manifestations tend to follow in line with the core themes in how you were modified. I'd examine things that feed into or extend from that starting point."
The Beast scanned around the room some, taking in the decor. "If we're going to be laying around a while, a good pillow would be nice."
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Post by Henley on Apr 14, 2022 10:34:14 GMT -8
"Yeah, water and pillows would be great, thanks. And a sheet."
Who liked to sleep uncovered? Not Henley.
"We can do this, if you want, yeah. I'm, uh, not an oneiromancy expert, so interpreting the dreamscape isn't going to be something I'm great at, but I'm happy to run support."
Blink. He thought about what Yuan had said for a moment, putting two and two together. The glass angel's Lost were all strange in one way or another: Carr had his tics and was falling apart before his Icon was restored, Fawkes was basically a robot, Rose was an aggressive lie detector and Oren reminded him of the liquid metal guy from Terminator 2. Being honest with himself, Yuan was so eager to please that he wasn't sure if that was a character trait or modification by the Fae. It seemed weird to put them all in one dream just to see what popped out.
"What'd Mitch do? Smash Metatron's Lost together until secrets came out? This is probably a more balanced strategy."
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Post by Cinderella on Apr 22, 2022 19:53:24 GMT -8
"You mean what did Fawkes do," Cinder sighed, mouth twisting around a bottle of vegan aloe drink as Yuan described something unorthodox. "Out of everyone you listed, he's the only occultist. But none of them are therapists or oneiromancers. I doubt anyone came up with that on their own, or I dunno, maybe Kai was really persuasive. What exactly was Mitch suggesting?" And why didn't he extend the same offer to his boyfriend.
The Bright One's brow knit as Yuan stared her down with the anticipation of a lecture.
"People do dream therapy all the time, just the wait list is kind of long," she admitted. "But, yeah I'm not qualified for that sort of thing either. If you're looking to dig up some traumatic memories to figure out why you have debilitating anxiety and whatnot, I can spin the Bastion to keep things on the rails but that doesn't mean it's..." the Fairest paused, clearly uncomfortable with the ethics, "I have no formal training in how to bring people out of PTSD reactions. Are you just wanting to find your triggers so you can start managing them?"
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on May 8, 2022 21:17:26 GMT -8
“Well, this is a massage parlour. There’s comfy beds all around and I’m confident I can scrounge the rest of the supplies as well.” He trailed off as he mentally ran down the possible locations of everything.
“Um? Sorry. They, um. From what Mitch told me, they kinda… recreated their durances? They all shared the same Keeper. I don’t think it’s our case though.”
“Yeah, that.” He nodded to Cinderella. “I get weird around certain people. Certain situations. And it’s been affecting my relationships. I just… I want to understand which parts are me and which parts aren’t. So I can go to the right people for help.
We just look around, you guys help me interpret some of the more abstract stuff. Nothing too heavy or involved.”
Hopefully.
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Post by Cinderella on May 8, 2022 21:53:52 GMT -8
Cinder pulled a face, staring past the wall for a moment. "The Bishop recommended that?" she muttered, pulling out her phone for a moment and texting as she talked.
"Well, glad you didn't try to recreate the conditions. One thing you're going to have to accept before we do this, Yuan, is that it's all parts of you. There isn't really a way to separate yourself from the Fae side of your experience, other than avoiding a stronger connection with Arcadia to awaken more channels of magic. And if you're going to fight that fact, you might not be in the right headspace to do this. You ran around in Fawkes' Bastion and saw how uncomfortable he was getting."
Like a bad trip.
The Fairest accepted that if Yuan wasn't ready to seek a therapist on this, his motley and an Oneiromancer was the best he was going to do, and didn't condescend his choices. "Can you tell me the situations that you're running into, so I can weave the Dream in that direction? Working with your entire unconsciousness just to see what happens will probably have us seeing stuff you'd rather remain private. Relationships, ambitions, wants, who you hate, let downs... you get the picture."
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Post by Henley on May 11, 2022 22:47:45 GMT -8
Henley slid his hands into his pockets, a thoughtful look on his face as Yuan explored the difficulty. It gave Henley cognitive dissonance, trying to parse out the difference between what his Fae had put into him, what was there to begin with and what was a construction that he had made afterwards. The idea of trying to get into his own mind to dig up the difference just sounded like a trauma train waiting to happen.
But then, he wasn't exactly deep in the Whimsy. How could he truly get it?
"Well, bruv, happy to poke about with you but I've got to tell you, I'm no oneiromancy pro. Still. Happy to try to keep you grounded if you face something in there that you don't like."
What else could the Ogre do, really?
"We can do a Dreaming pledge and sling some secrecy onto it if you want. You know. Just in case we see something you'd prefer to remain private. Good news, though. We don't have to have an awkward cuddle puddle where we are all way too warm and touching. Just... snap my fingers and you'll get a great sleep. Spring says night-night."
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Post by Gavin Graves on May 13, 2022 17:18:36 GMT -8
The Beast internally recounted his own exploration of the boundaries of what he had become. He had gone into the wild desert with sparse trees with an ally to learn about what was him and what was Kith.
"I had to explore this question for myself once too. Ran into a Darkling with Riddlekith. As he explained it to me, I actually became a Whisperwisp for a while from its use. Exploring the differences and the similarities between the different versions of myself I got to draw an outline of the common features between the two and the parts that were whole cloth different." He flashed the idea with raised eyebrows and a thoughtful smile. "Didn't do anything to separate Seeming from self though."
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on May 16, 2022 15:36:37 GMT -8
It was difficult to admit one's flaws, instilled or otherwise. "Um... People-pleasing, codependency, performance anxiety, validation seeking... I'm sure I'm missing some." His metallic skin coloured slightly.
His eyes slid to the Terrible. "Yeah, I think it's a good idea. I mean, I trust all of you, but putting some Glamour on it would put my mind at ease. We can work in a clause where you can break the secrecy under specific conditions? Like, if you think I need professional help, or something happens to one of us. I wouldn't want the same thing that happened with the Ritual to happen again." A shiver ran down his spine. The incident had been made public records by the Eternal Echoes, in every sordid detail.
He busied himself gathering blankets and water bottles. Fetching several massage tables, he placed four next to one another while the others thought about his proposition.
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Post by Cinderella on May 23, 2022 19:19:46 GMT -8
Cinder nodded, "Okay, well if you can give me a scenario that would set the stage, so to speak, we can meditate a bit on it so I'm not having to fight your Bastion's dream because it's pre-established."
She winced at the mention of the previous Freehold disaster that took the lives of two, and later three. Dream diving wouldn't that that kind of potential for disaster unless Yuan was secretly housing a Keeper in his mind. The Bright One shrugged it off, before looking to the rest of the motley, "I assume you'd want to draft the Pledge we would all be volunteering for?"
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