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

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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nothing-on-my-tongue

They seem to be -

But there's more of the brick-tree-monsters, trying to slip by them towards the school.

slumber-and-disaster

Well we can't have that, can we now.

She transforms in a flash, hits the ones further away with a blanket of crippling despair while building momentum with the chain of her kusarigama before throwing it to wrap around the closest one and pulling herself in to attack with the blade.

nothing-on-my-tongue

The monsters seem highly perturbed by this, and stumble, many of them freezing.

The Beast redoubles her attacks. She keeps making aborted motions to drag monsters towards her mouth, then falling onto them with claws.

slumber-and-disaster

Things are easier to kill when they can't move.

That abortive cannibalism thing is almost creepier than actual cannibalism.

nothing-on-my-tongue

The Beast is feeling significantly frustrated right now! (Not eating things is hard and she's not even sure why the Small One doesn't want her eating Food.)

Still, with her help, dealing with the rest of the demons goes quickly.

slumber-and-disaster

Well. That was fun, wasn't it?

nothing-on-my-tongue

The glass-and-eyes thing buzzes, then wanders off (a bit slowly). The Beast turns to Makoto, tilts her head, seems to be struggling with something, before pawing at one of the monsters that had been frozen in despair.

slumber-and-disaster

That was me. I can tell how people are feeling, and change it. I made those feel very, very bad.

nothing-on-my-tongue

She rocks back, and seems to be thinking. (It's hard, thinking of things that aren't Food and the acquiring of it, but she pushed through for the Small One, and the ravenous is coming...).

'Me?'

slumber-and-disaster

'I... could change your feelings, if that's what you wanted.'

nothing-on-my-tongue

'Hungry.'

slumber-and-disaster

'You want to not be hungry?'

nothing-on-my-tongue

'Yes.'

slumber-and-disaster

Okay. I'll try. Hold still.

She reaches out for the wendigo's emotions, prying deep to get at the core.

nothing-on-my-tongue

Hunger hunger hunger, all consuming, muting everything else -

(She's screaming. She's desperate. She wants.)

(She's afraid.)

slumber-and-disaster

Wow. That is... a lot. She starts by tamping down the hunger, gently, gently, waiting to see if anything rises in its place.

nothing-on-my-tongue

Fear. Fear first. (She's going to die here - )

Impotent rage. She won't go out like this -

Grief. Strangling. Crushing. Dragging her down, swallowed only by the hunger -

But with the hunger fading, her ability to control her own emotions is - it isn't what it once was. But it's better.

slumber-and-disaster

Walk before you can run. As Makoto pushes the hunger further down, she dulls the edges on the other negative emotions, adds a small boost to the positive.

nothing-on-my-tongue

The only really positive emotion is love. She loves, and that's the only thing that survived, winning over even the hunger around the Small One -

No, that's not -

'The Small One. What. Is her name?'

slumber-and-disaster

'Sue. Her name is Sue.'

nothing-on-my-tongue

'Sue...' That's... That's familiar. Sue. She'd...

The grief lurks, like a madness worse than hunger, but... She thinks the woman's helping, with coming back to herself. There's a lot missing still, but -

slumber-and-disaster