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There is a mystery that's currently unsolved. It's in Avedan's head. It's not like he's going insane (he's quite sure that he's not) but lately his sleep's been pretty eventful. He'd always had dreams (didn't everyone?) but lately, they've been getting more vivid. More lifelike. And, most interestingly of all, more internally consistent.
It's really, really confusing. Avedan is somewhere between wanting to learn more about the internal history present in the dreams, and wanting to understand why they're being so - insistent. He suspects it has something to do with malfunctioning servants, but all of his are working just fine. He checked. Twice. So - maybe someone else's aren't working properly? Or something? He doesn't know, there's zero precedent for eerily vivid and consistent dreams. Avedan tries talking to someone about it, exactly once. They immediately think he's having reoccurring nightmares.
But they're not nightmares. Well. Okay, some of them are, one of the more memorable ones included desperately clutching a woman's hand, begging her to stay with him, just keep breathing, to stay alive. She didn't. If it'd been with someone he knew, he might have thought it was just a simple nightmare. But, no. He's never seen her before in his life. Only his dreams, and not all that often, either. Because there are others, with - happier memories attached to them.
He's started to notice patterns. In - consistent people, consistent places, and most interestingly, consistent personalities. He's pretty sure it's not his subconscious being uncreative (if it were that, he would be naked at work or something) but the bizarre internal consistency his dreams are exhibiting.
It's hard, to figure out if there's a timeline to it all. But there is one thing that's consistent: a city. He does a quick bit of research, finds the city's name (Lapis), and after a bit more research is confronted with the dream's reasonable level of fidelity. As in, it's nearly the same, with exception to what he suspects is construction. And he's never been to Lapis in his life. Just what is going on? He can only think of one way to find out, and that way involves packing up his bags, handing them off to a well-maintained servant, and then heading off to Lapis.
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do_over
if_at_first
"It makes the dreams make more sense. Especially the ones where for no reason I'm a boy."
do_over
"That - must have been quite confusing. If I ever turn up as a woman, I'm pretty sure I'll be tremendously confused."
if_at_first
"Lu was worried that you'd turn up a girl and the 'bel' tradition of only liking guys would hold. She thought that would be very sad."
if_at_first
"Yeah." Page, page. "Apparently Kidan took a while to - buy what was going on and it upset Lu, who'd gotten a much higher ratio of - romancey dreams than I have so far. I'm not gonna be pushy, promise."
if_at_first
"You're welcome. Lu also took longer than I did to figure out where she was supposed to go - you've probably had more dreams than I did, since you're older, but I got lucky with landmarks."
do_over
"It took me a while to figure out the city, but I managed after Kidan mentioned some places I could look up. The others were a bit too vague."
if_at_first
"Kib's route between here and the smithy where he made and assembled Charp's component parts went right by that big blue tower, which was easy to look up, and he had to make the trip several times."
do_over
"I think the problem with me is that Aydanci was a recluse that never went outside unless he had to and Kidan kept traveling places. I hadn't known why, but now it's for making slavery go away, which makes sense."
do_over
"Not... Really? I will if it gets me something I want, but I don't particularly want to travel just to travel. I think Kidan's travel was specifically because of the slavery thing, not him secretly wanting to see the world."
if_at_first
"Right, but if you had a travel-y project underway or weren't satisfied with how Kidan left his," she says.
if_at_first
"But in fact you are not. Okay." Pause. "Should one of us get a hotel room? I'd rather not have to hunt one down while half-asleep from having stayed up to read all these notes."
if_at_first
"I'm finding myself pretty open to just - taking Lu's recommendation as read, putting the big pillow in the place where the big pillow is meant to be, and going from there. If you want to get a hotel room you can do it and I won't be offended or mopey or anything."
if_at_first
"What's to thank me for there? Declining to pout at you because you have not yet decided if you want to sleep in the same bed as someone you met less than two hours ago?"
do_over
"Being understanding. I'm - you seem to be adjusting to all of this faster than I am. It's probably a bit annoying. Thanks for not being annoyed."
if_at_first
"I suspect I have an advantage relative to people in general at this - sort of thing. Wouldn't be fair to expect you to catch up instantly."