don't you mess with a little girl's dreams

unexpected-places

Two weeks ago, a thing that was only doing a very poor job of pretending to be a woman crawled in through Nausicaa's window and raised its knife above her head and she screamed -

And her friend the boogieman tore it apart.

Nausicaa had been scared of him back then. It only made sense. But he seemed so lonely hiding under her bed, so she crawled down there - and kept crawling into the infinite shadows -

He seemed to need a hug, was all. And he did save her.

They've been best friends since, and Nausicaa's become more aware. Of the way Nanny doesn't seem to sleep - no actually she doesn't sleep - and seems to know a weird amount of things, and is always meeting with other Nannies outside in the dark...

Of how her friend Sue's sister died, and how it was probably way more horrible than what the adults told them. Which was nothing. How Sue now has a monster of her own, a skeletal thing (Nausicaa's glad she only needs to keep her boogieman from scaring people, not from eating people).

How there's something wrong with two of her teachers, and how her classmate Lianne has something weird in her family and people are following Silvie around who shouldn't be -

She's also become aware that she probably made her friend the boogieman. Three weeks ago, she saw a fox's skeleton, half decayed, and convinced herself it was going to follow her home and haunt her -

So, naturally, it did.

And now the rain-monster who brought the drowning dreams touched her boogieman and changed him, and he's weird lately and his shadows keep dripping, and maybe if she believed him she can believe very hard in someone who'll fix him -

A magical girl, obviously. Someone who will fight for truth and justice and humanity. Someone who can look into people's hearts and bring out their true selves. Someone who'll help because there's something horrible in this town and none of the adults want to know -

Nausicaa sits on her bed, scrunches up her face, and believes very, very hard.

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unexpected-places

"That's really bad."

slumber-and-disaster

"Don't worry, I won't let it happen to me. I'm a hundred years old, so I know what I'm doing!"

unexpected-places

She nods, apparently accepting that of course adults get that old.

"Boogie can make people scared. Nanny might know some way to make people happy?"

slumber-and-disaster

"We could try asking."

unexpected-places

"Yeah. I don't think my foster parents are home right now so they shouldn't notice you, but Nanny usually is unless she's having a meeting of Nannies. She's sometimes a bit unhappy around Boogie but I think she'll like you..."

slumber-and-disaster

"That's good!"

Anything I should know about the Nanny? she asks the boogieman.

Boogeyman

fear-not-night

"She's scary. She doesn't like me frightening people, even though I have to feed. She's old, and not human, and there's others like her."

slumber-and-disaster

Thanks.

"Shall we go see her now, then?"

unexpected-places

"Yeah! Come on, she's in the living room."

And she heads over to the door, peaking behind it before throwing it open and running through the house calling, "Nanny!"

slumber-and-disaster

Makoto follows, more sedately.

within-yourself

"Yes, Nausicaa?" an old woman - her true age indeterminate, and an aura about her like the oldest of magical girls - calls, standing and turning to face the girl as she rushes into the living room.

Her expression goes slightly hard when she sees Makoto, though her voice is still friendly. "And who might you be?"

slumber-and-disaster

"My name is Makoto. I'm a new friend of Nausicaa's."

within-yourself

"You're not a human, and I've not seen something like you before."

slumber-and-disaster

"I'm a magical girl. From an alternate universe."

within-yourself

"Did something in your universe put you here, then?"

slumber-and-disaster

"No, I don't think so."

within-yourself

"Do you know what did?" She's glancing at Nausicaa.

slumber-and-disaster

"Not for certain."

unexpected-places

"I did, Nanny," Nausicaa says, voice worried. "I know I made boogie so I believed really hard in someone who'd fix him."

within-yourself