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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
secondchance
"The questions are what do I want, what do I have, and how can I best use the latter to get the former," says Kib quietly.
do_over
"And occasionally," adds Aydanci, softly, "'What sort of person am I?' though that was less for day to day things."
secondchance
"I have this suspicion that the sort of person I am might be - also Aly in addition to Kib. Somehow. Like I'm her - golem or something, and she's writing on me in my sleep, except I was already a whole lot like her to the point where I scarcely mind -"
do_over
Aydanci takes on a - face that is complicated and holding back an absurd amount of unsaid emotion through willpower.
"I admit," he says, carefully, checking his own voice, "that I don't know what to do in this sort of situation. What would you like me to do?"
"I admit," he says, carefully, checking his own voice, "that I don't know what to do in this sort of situation. What would you like me to do?"
secondchance
"I don't know - I mean - what I want from you depends a lot on you, doesn't it, and all I have of you is the eclipse, so far. What can possibly be going through your head on finding that your wife may have - turned into - a seventeen year old boy who can't yet remember you?"
He pets the magpie. Pet pet.
He pets the magpie. Pet pet.
do_over
"Relief," whispers Aydanci. "Because in some form she's alive. Everything else could be - absurd, upside down and backwards, but if she is alive, that's - good enough for me. I can ask for nothing else."
secondchance
Kib smiles a little.
"Kib is short for Akibel," he mentions. "Akibel Mowar."
"Kib is short for Akibel," he mentions. "Akibel Mowar."
do_over
"My full name's Aydanci Evaret. I'm - very glad you're - here. Alive." Pause. "And the pox will not be able to get you again, it pissed me off."
secondchance
"Is that what - are you the - okay. I consider eradicating the disease that killed Aly a reasonable and proportionate response, congratulations, full marks."
do_over
"Yes, that's me. Thank you. I actually wasn't quite happy with the results and so I decided to study prevention measures. Guess why I'm here."
He smiles. It is not a nice smile, it's the smile of a man who is systematically eradicating several large-scale, deadly diseases because one of them happened to kill his wife. A man who is currently winning against aforementioned deadly diseases.
He smiles. It is not a nice smile, it's the smile of a man who is systematically eradicating several large-scale, deadly diseases because one of them happened to kill his wife. A man who is currently winning against aforementioned deadly diseases.
do_over
"If you like. I don't require it, though, I have a reasonable handle on the situation. Thank you, anyway."
secondchance
"...Is that 'yes, I have a job opening, but you won't personally make or break the project if you have other demands on your time' or 'no, please go be alive and somewhat-Aly somewhere that is not near me'?"
do_over
"First thing." Gently, like he is in love, he adds, "I will never ask you to go be alive and somewhat-Aly somewhere that is not near me."
secondchance
"Okay. Good. Because I'm slowly increasing in proportion-of-me-that-is-Aly over time and I am pretty sure she was very attached to you just based on the part where she married you and the eclipse."
do_over
"The feeling was mutual. Still is, actually. I - never remarried."
Or dated. But let's not come off as crazy, hmm?
Or dated. But let's not come off as crazy, hmm?
secondchance
"I don't seem to have any ability to steer the dreams or I'd - I don't know, look for key moments instead of further excerpts from her learning to master goldfish."
secondchance
"Yes please. Uh, we probably want to be surer than we currently are before - do you have her notebooks?"
do_over
"I do. I - wish I could have gotten her consent for this specific situation before she died, but alas. I did not account for this at all," says Aydanci dryly. "Do please forgive me. Tentatively, you may read them."
the_charm
And Lu is handing him a parrot. "One for me, one for you. I have no idea what the trapper thinks I'm doing with them."
do_over
"He might," says Kidan, taking the parrot, "think you have a strange parrot obsession. Like a collector, but with parrot pets."
the_charm
"Well, at any rate after a while we'll have a breeding population and can have them get busy making more parrots, in case we live to be a hundred and twenty but not longer than that and this batch's lifespan won't cut it. And then the trapper need no longer concern himself with my parrot obsession."
do_over
"As long as you never tell him that you're planning on getting a breeding population going. That'll make it worse."