3798/The Cat Came Back

The Cat Came Back
Date of Scene:	24 August 2019
Location:	Plot Room #1
Synopsis:	(Content warning: strong language, references to childhood abuse) After the events of Payday: The Dream Heist, Ariel leads Lacrima, Kotomi, and Riley to retrieve the final shard of the Nightmare Prince's heart -- but this time, Icela is the one who interferes.
Cast of Characters:	Kotomi Kobana, 243, Ariel Theodore, Norie Okana, 226

---

Kotomi Kobana has posed:
This is a relatively desolate dream of an open field, in the center of which is a small white house covered in vines and kudzu, looking like it's in the style of seventeenth-century Japan. The sky is overcast and dreary, and an eerie wind whispers in a way which might seem familiar to those who rescued Kotomi back in February; all plant life ranges from withered and decrepit to black and thorny.

Sitting crosslegged in front of the house is a girl with silvery-white hair and cat-ears, wearing a red and black dress which seems to consist mostly of frills. Yasumi Yumeji has a thin-lipped smile as she holds the shard of the Nightmare Prince's heart she stole last week, wrapped in a white handkerchief which Ariel will no doubt find familiar.

However, her smile doesn't actually reach her eyes. ... which don't have pupils, only red circular irises. Nevertheless, her feelings are clearly very mixed.

Prism Keeper Brass has posed:
"So what happens if you fall asleep in dream land here?"

Riley followed along with the rest of the party, kicking a small piece of long fallen and dried up shrubbery out of her path, its brown shrivelled leaves crinkling and crunching under her boots. "Seriously. Do you wake up? Or do you go into dreamland two point zero? Oh wait no, it's like inception right? Cast into the eternal hellfire of never being able to win an Oscaaahwhattheheck?"

Under more normal circumstances upon seeing a catperson, Riley might have simply cracked an Elon Musk joke; but Yasumi and her dark appearance was enough to give her pause and put her on edge. Still though, this was Riley. She wasn't going to let that dampen her stride *too* much. She ended up deciding that a dry, deadpan "Nice place you got here. Real atmospheric. It's got a real great view of sweet F.A." would do the job just fine.

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    What a dreary dream. But Ariel is not deterred.
    Mounted on the back of her canine steed, the littlest unicorn clutches Lucky's neck by his scruffy fur as the two lead the way, Ariel's cloak wrapped tightly around her to buffet against the winds as she leads the way through the dream ream to where she knows Yasumi resides.
    It takes a little work, battling the thorny plants and wanding-never-straight pathways that all dreams take, before she emerges, company in tow. She's silent for a moment, just regarding the Nightmare, the shard of heart, and the handkerchief.
    "Yasumi. ... We are here now. I suspect you already know why."
    Try as she might to sound upset or angry, Ariel just... Can't bring herself to, when she sees those mournful eyes.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima is here. Of course she'd be here. This is the last piece of the heart. She feels more invested since that mural. She has questions. No one can answer them. The only way to answer that would to be to see it 'till the end. Not even the book had answers for her.

She looked over to Riley, who has a question she can't answer either, because this isn't her domain. She eyes the odd dream, as she frowns, forming her arm into, a really awesome ichor blade that she uses to slash and fight along with Ariel and all that as they make it to the catte in question.

By the time they've reaches Yasumi it's become an arm again, less it look ultimately threating.

Ariel can't bring herself to speak up further.

"What do you want, with that, anyways." she says. "The person that cast that off... doesn't want it. So you're not looking to return it." she says quietly. "-and someone else's heart is not your own." she says.

Icela has posed:
To be frank, Icela doesn't know why she's here. Her long, flowing dress has more frills than usual, and she's clutching in her arms a white teddy bear with buttons for eyes and a ripped off arm that has been clumsily sewn back on, the stuffing spilling out a bit. There's a soft giggle at Lacrima's question as she approaches. "Don't you see?" She asks, "She's in love." That is a complete and total guess. "The poor fool."

Kotomi Kobana has posed:
Kotomi is bringing up the rear, wearing her usual pink dress with the trans flag pin. Honestly, she still hasn't had a chance to take up Sailor Mercury on her offer to scan her to see what the heck is up with monsters thinking she's delicious, and here they are just walking right into the home of the Nightmare who did this to her in the first place. Of course, she's built it up in her head as this big whole thing, and so she keeps frostily informing her anxiety that it's not going to be that bad, thank you very much. "I've, um, never fallen asleep while dreaming before," she says to Riley. "I've only ever just drifted off and woken up."

She hesitates as she looks around at the scenery. A stray memory surfaces, but ... yeah, it was just something she saw during her wanderings at some point.

Yasumi looks over at the approaching group and gets to her feet, maintaining that thin-lipped smile. "Hello," she says. "Indeed, Miss Ariel, I cannot imagine that you could possibly be here for any purpose other than this." She gestures with the shard. "And, well, I'm a Nightmare, Miss La Crima. Causing trouble is what we do. And ..."

She stops.

She goes silent for a moment, looking at Ariel. And then her eyes flit to Kotomi and she says something which is really obviously completely different from what she'd originally been going to say. "Quite truthfully, one of my purposes in luring you here is to check up on you, young lady," she says with mock cheerfulness. "Tell me, how have the past six months found you?"

"Uhhh ..." Kotomi moves a bit closer to hide behind Lucky.

Yasumi does a double-take at Icela. "What?" she says flatly.

Prism Keeper Brass has posed:
"You." Riley's face darkened, contorting into a deep scowl upon seeing Icela just like she did in her nightmare before. It was safe to say, the girl still harboured some pretty harsh feelings after that. "You Freddy Krueger *bitch*." She pointed at the, well, ghost she supposed. At least, she was a ghost as far as she knew, while in her other hand she started to form her magic her left arm becoming wreathed in savage flames. "I should have guessed you were behind this. What did you d-?"

She trailed off, listening to the dark catperson, her eyes shifting to lock onto those empty, emotionless red pupils and trying to stare her down. Sure, Riley knew that *probably* wasn't going to work, but, worth a shot right?

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    It's not that Ariel can't bring herself to speak further, she simply can't force anger. It's a feeling that is just so alien and unnatural to her that she can't even call upon it when she wants.
    "If you fall asleep in a dream you just might have another dream." She asides to Riley, but her focus is entirely on Yasumi, as she climbs down from Lucky's back.
    "I don't think that's the case." She replies to Icela on her arrival. "Hello, Icela." Given far more calmly than Brass' greeting, and Ariel holds a hand up.
    "Peace, Brass, peace." She says gently. "We didn't come for a fight, we just came for the heart piece. But that doesn't answer what Yasumi could possibly want with it." She says with a pointed look at the nightmare. "I don't think it's because she's in love. But I think it's more than just wanting to cause trouble. ... Unless I'm wrong and she just wanted to cause trouble, then I really have no ground to stand on." She rambles a little with a fuss at her gauntlets.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima winces at such harash language from Brass. She'd blame 'American' but her dad's from America and he barely uses that word! She still frowns a little. She sighs a little. "Language. Please." she says curtly. Says the girl that threatened, with many expletives, to suck out Sailor Earth's soul through a crazy straw.

She sighs and frowns. "So? I'm a vampire. Doesn't mean I'm draining everyone I meet and trying to behave." she says softly. "Instead of trying to do the various things this body tries to make me do." she says bluntly.

She does frown as the catte says something ominous to Kotomi, as she turns back to Yasumi. "You know."

"There's easier ways to talk to someone than stealing things." she says softly. "Have you tried knocking?" she asks curtly.

Icela gets a 'deep' frown from Lacrima. "I don't think that's the case." she says. She notes Yasumi's own 'wat?' expression at that.

Icela has posed:
"Language." Is the only answers Brass gets, in a cold tone without even looking towards the Prism keeper. Instead, she's far more interested in the shard. "Look, if you're not in love, then just give it to them, what's the harm?" Icela answers, approaching Yasumi and trying to see if she can harness that way she can get Nightmares to avoid harming her to wrestle it loose. It's an experiment, she doesn't think it'll work, but she's going to give it a try.

"These losers wouldn't ever do anything interesting with it, move on and leave these losers behind, you're far more interesting than them, or than most nightmares. We can be best friends..." There's a beat, and then a strange cheer in her voice when she adds that last word, "... forever." Exerting her influence over nightmares as best she can, even though it's not suited to this purpose.

Kotomi Kobana has posed:
Yasumi raises her eyebrows at Riley's outburst. "... Is she a friend of yours?" she says to the group.

But surprisingly enough, she actually seems slightly intimidated by Riley's look. "Well," she says. "It's," she says. "Uh," she says. She tugs at her collar. "Goodness gracious me." Thunder rumbles overhead, because of course Yasumi's emotional state affects the weather in her dream.

She sighs. "Well, quite truthfully, Miss Ariel, I took this one for the same reason as the last," she says earnestly. "As I described when you paid me a visit before." She can't meet Lacrima's gaze at all.

She looks up at Icela, looking slightly startled. She recoils, starts to hold the shard out to her, then recoils again, and looks between the shard and the eidolon in confusion. Frowning, she leans forward and looks Icela in the eye.

Kotomi starts to step forward, looking worried about this. "Ummm ..."

Yasumi breaks into a thin-lipped smile, and nods knowingly to Icela. "You've just given me an idea, my new friend," she says. "My name is Yasumi Yumeji. What if you and I were to work together to defend this shard against these, ah, 'heroes'?"

... Well, Icela's ability seems to have done ... something? Maybe?

Prism Keeper Brass has posed:
Riley gave both Lacrima and Ariel a quick glance, before letting the flames flicker and fizzle away with a final little flourish. That being said though, the kid didn't look any less enraged. "Fine. You're damn lucky my friends here are more patient than me. You know what we came for, you know *why* we came for it, and you know what we had to do to get it. You also probably know that we can't just walk away without it."

<"What if you and I were to work together to defend this shard against these, ah, 'heroes'?">

"I am so done with this. Look around. There are two of you, and four of us. Two of that damn four have kicked Icela's ass already. Are you really feeling lucky enough to try and ride on those odds?"

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Riley's outburst... Well, Ariel tried to calm it as best she could, but her focus; now, is a lot more internal. Dredging up memories from the last time she had encountered Yasumi alone, and how sad and hopeless the Nightmare had felt.
    It's actually somewhat painful for the little unicorn to remember such things. The reason she had taken the shard of the heart in the first place, and what she had said.
    "That shard of His Highness's hope ... I felt ... 'hope' for ... the first time in perhaps centuries."
    "Brass, peace." Ariel says with a pleading tone as Riley sets the odds. She steps forward, but Icela's cheerful tone actually worries her. An idea?
    Ariel's throat twitches in a nervous gulp. "You're right. We wouldn't do anything interesting with it. We'd just return it where it belongs, there's nothing special about that. I wouldn't even call us heroes. You have nothing to defend it from against us, but more importantly... You shouldn't rely on it as a source of hope. You need to find your own. And I'd like to help you do that, if I can."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "I really don't wanna fight." she says softly. She frowns. She lifts her head a little. "That girl believes herself sacrosanct. She already sees herself as above you, and you as nothing." she says. "I would not find it wise to ally myself with her in any respect." she says bluntly.

She frowns. "...is that what you're after?" she asks Yasumi. "Ari-chan is right... you can't... steal that." she says quietly. "Hope. I mean. It really... stinks. Been there. It sucks." she says.

"It has to come from either inside... or it has to be given.. but you can't just... take it." she says tersely.

Icela has posed:
At first, Icela seems... reluctant to assist Yasumi in that manner. She's about to say no, and then Ariel says the magic word. "Hope? Well I guess we are dreaming." She answers with hollow cheer, turning her gaze back towards "Yasumi-chan, then. I am the Ephemeral Eidolon Icela, and I am a friend to nightmares, but I'm afraid I'm not much of a fighter."

There's a glare towards Brass and Kotomi, "I'd love to teach them a lesson about hurting my friends, but I'm afraid I don't have any other friends nearby." A pause, "I can hold on to it for you a bit, free your hands while I take it somewhere safe. I'm pretty tough and fast. But... " She looks at her hands, "I couldn't hurt a fly." She asides to Lacrima, "You're wrong about me."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima spouts. "I"m not saying you'd hurt her. I'm saying you're already a lousy friend." quickly.

Kotomi Kobana has posed:
Yasumi just looks between Riley and Lacrima, still smiling thinly. But it falters when Ariel and Lacrima speak up about hope. "... I know that," she says quietly. "But ..." She falters. She clearly can't find her words. "Hah. I suppose I am truly an irrational being."

Though her smile returns when Lacrima gives her opinion of Icela. "Oh, you don't need to bother, ah, trying to tell me that sort of thing," she says archly. "I am quite certain I could see in her eyes just what sort of friend my dear Icela-chan will be!"

Kotomi looks affronted at Icela's snide comment about hope. "What bit you?" she blurts out, shooting the eidolon a glare. It's a glare with all the firmness of a wet twig, but it's a glare nonetheless.

Yasumi shrugs. "You'd be surprised what sort of life experiences might tear one's hope away, Kobana-san," she says.

She looks to Icela. "But ... I suppose it cannot be helped." She smiles. "I must say, Icela-chan, I'm thinking of the group which led me to becoming a Nightmare, and I'm quite certain you'd get along with some of them like a house on fire." Uh-oh. "Still. While I might have been persuaded to engage in a battle of four against two, quite truthfully I am indisposed towards four against one, even if Miss Ariel is devoid of violence. No comment on the possibility of violence towards this cat from her very large dog."

She pulls the shard completely out of the handkerchief Ariel gave her, and holds it out towards the group. "Come and take it then," she says coolly, a hint of challenge in her voice.

Prism Keeper Brass has posed:
Riley was barely holding herself together. In fact, she was visibly glowing at this point, the dry grass beneath her feet smouldering away as a haze of fierce heat rose off her almost incandescant form, yet despite this, she held back. She held back even with the shard being waved right under everyone's noses despite every fiber of her being screaming at her to just go and take it. To plant her fist right into Yasumi and Icela's faces, to be done with it, to get this "threat" out of the way like she had done plenty of times before, yet despite that, despite everything it just didn't seem right this time around, and she had no idea as to why.

Riley lowered her fists, and with a few deep calming breaths her tense, defensive posture loosened while her deep scowl and half snarl faded. "If you're so "indisposed" towards a fight, end it now." Riley said when she finally spoke up, her tone calm, and even somewhat reassuring, though it kept a certain firmness to it nonetheless. "You're not going to get anything out of that shard, but, we might be able to help."

She remained silent for a beat...

Before likely completely ruining any good-will along with this potentially heartwarming moment, the girl taking a deep ol' breath and spewing out a long string of pure, well, Riley. "We'd sure as shit be better for you than Freddy Kreuger over there! I mean, Jeeesus fucking christ! She's *using* you! That doesn't seem a lot like friendship from where I'm standing."

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    A small hand sets gently on Kotomi's shoulder, and Ariel squeezes there softly, without a word; doing the best she can to ease that glare. But she steps forward.
    "We are dreaming." She says quite calmly to Icela. "Because sometimes a little dream is all it takes to find hope."
    But she's already approaching Yasumi, slow and purposeful, as Riley lowers her fists and offers aid instead of violence. Though the unicorn still doesn't know who Freddy Kreuger is, she gets the gist that it is not a flattering statement toward Icela.
    She holds her hands out for the shard.
    "We can help. I'm not sure how, yet, Yasumi. But I'll do my best." She offers as well, before pursing her lips.
    "Icela..." She does say, regarding the eidolon; "My offer is open to you too, you know."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima sighs and gently steps back. She frowns a little at Icela, still as she eyes her. She doesn't trust Icela. She doesn't like her. If Ariel wants to help her, and Icela can stop being a horrible being of 'whatever', fine. Maybe then. But not now.

She remains silent for the moment, letting Ariel handle the emotional lifting, at the moment. All she can do is nod, firmly, once, to vouch for whatever Ariel is saying.

Icela has posed:
"Give it to me. I just need you to hold them off for a moment, and then you can come to my place, and have it back. It's protected there, so many friends dedicated to keeping nuisances out." Icela pauses and there's a little metaphysical tug on Yasumi, "It's an invitation, if you accept this, it will lead you to me so long as I don't revoke it. Whether you take me up on this or not, you are welcome any time, Yasumi-chan. It's your shard to do with you as you wish."

Next, to Lacrima. "That's not what I meant. My apologies if I gave you the impression I think you're nothing. Your opinions and views don't matter to me, but that's because I am single-minded. I am a spirit of vengeance, and when I'm done, all will know how little hope is worth. But, you have some time left before that occurs, enjoy it while it lasts." There's a moment before she glances away, "Just remember. You have not earned any of your joy, and when it is ripped away from you, know that it is not personal." Despite her attempts to keep this cool and emotionless, she can't stop her words from dripping with hatred.

There's a glance to Brass. "And you? You nothing about me, you're just a judgmental little know it all who thinks she knows better because she's never faced an inch of pain in her entire life. Your smug, condescending attitude does nothing but make you feel better about yourself." She glances to Yasumi, "Especially since you guys are the ones who want to take things from her, while I just want to help her keep it safe. It's neither mine, nor yours, to decide what to do with."

Ariel's offer gets an unfriendly bark of laughter, "And I'm sure we'll all dance in the fields together and everyone will be happy forever?" That's clearly sarcasm, "I'll pass, but thank you."

Kotomi Kobana has posed:
Yasumi just continues holding the shard out, smiling that thin-lipped smile. At Riley's latest burst of invective, she raises her eyebrows as if Riley had just said the most obvious thing in the world, tilts her head so that her face is turned slightly further away from Icela, and winks. But then she frowns, leaning forward slightly and peering towards Riley, looking her directly in the eye.

When Ariel walks up to her, she hesitates, holding the shard above Ariel's hand for a moment. Now that the moment is here, she's clearly a lot more conflicted than she was a moment ago. "I ... well ..." A few droplets of rain begin to fall.

She pauses as Icela speaks up. "Unfortunately, quite truthfully, it is I who originally took it from them," she says, dropping the shard into Ariel's hand. She looks like she's about to say something more biting, but stops herself, and simply takes a few steps further away from Icela.

Kotomi blinks in surprise. "We ... we got it?" She stops. "Okay, you know what, this time, I'm just gonna wait until it's back in the waking world before waking up, because jeez."

Yasumi makes a face, and shrugs, resolutely not meeting anyone's gaze.

Prism Keeper Brass has posed:
Icela's words were like dropping a burning match into a can of petrol. Riley stormed up to her, wreathed once more in a blazing maelstromn of flames. "Oh I fucking know you better than you think, you're the one who's got it fucking backwards. Haven't faced an inch of fucking pain!? If you was from where I was from, you'd be fucking dead! You see this scar?!" She jabbed a finger at the deep scar running down her brow. "You fucking see it you bitch!? That was from my own fucking birth mother, after she couldn't get her fucking fix! I was the one who took that lunatic bitch's shit! The only reason I'm alive is because I fuckin' got out of that trailer on my own, nearly died in the whoooole fucking process! You ever almost died of thirst, Icela? The sun beatin' down on you? Reduced to nothing more than being able to fuckin' crawl while your whole god damn body starts shuttin' down from under you?! Have you!?"

Her tone quietened down to that, turning from her yelling, completely enraged at nearly the top of her lungs to a quieter snarl. "The only satisfaction I can get from it, is that *bitch* is rotting in a cell on the other side of the ffffucking planet. So no. I've fought for everything I have. Life tried to kill me, I came back stronger. You on the other hand? What the fuck are doing? Diddling around in here, trying to mess with people's heads. Why? Actually, I don't even have to ask that. It's so that *YOU* feel better about *YOUR*self! You're not "avenging" shit, you're just sitting around here playing the creepy fuckin' ghost because you don't have the god damn stones to deal with the knocks life gives you! So you hide away! Crawl up in your little nightmare den and try to make other people's days shit just because you're in *SHIT!* You're a god damn coward who could face up to takin' their knocks!"

Riley was shaking after that, trembling slightly even, yet she was still standing firm in front of Icela, her entire form covered in flames that snapped and crackled with every shout and movement.

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Ariel waits. Patient and with her hands gently outstretched, while Yasumi hesitates. But when the shard is dropped in her hand she reaches up and clasps Yasumi's hands in her own, for a moment.
    "Thank you."
    But then she edges back. "Mm. Not everyone can be happy forever, even I understand that. And there won't be a whole lot of dancing." She says to Icela. "But I mean-"
    She was going to say she meant it, but then Riley has... More than another outburst. That's just, stunning and leaves her staring in abject silence.
    She's going to be silent for a while, after that, too.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima softly speaks up. "Yasumi. You're welcome to come visit my house... or my dreamscape... I dunno if... I dream. Really." she says. "I mean I'm here so.. close enough?" she asks. "If you wish to come and talk." she says. "I dunno if you can enter the .. 'waking world'?" she says. "But... yes. Either way." she says softly. "I mean. Ariel.. might be there. She visits a lot-- But.. if you wanna.... talk. Yeah." she says.

She turns to Icela. "You. You're not invited yet. To either place." she says. "Not yet." she says with a frown.

Lacrima listens to Brass's outburst though as she gently takes a deep breath and closes her eyes a little tightly and walks on over and gives Brass's shoulder a squeeze. "That's enough." she says quietly, as reassuringly as a horrid dark creature can. "There's donuts back at my place. Come on." she says softly.

Icela has posed:
Icela seems unphased, "I wish I lived a live as blessed as yours." Is the sole answer she provides, emphasizing once again. "I would gladly trade my past for yours." The worst part of it, perhaps, is that she sounds entirely genuine. Hundred percent convinced that this would be a worthwhile trade. "But I'm not here to play misery poker. I'll acknowledge that you know what real suffering is."

And with that, she flicks a hand besides and opens a portal into King Penguin Park, she walks through it and it closes behind her. There's one last sentence, though, "And be glad that you have friends to help you with your pain."

Kotomi Kobana has posed:
Kotomi stares at Riley. There's nothing in her expression but open-mouthed horror. Yeah she's gone completely silent, just like Ariel.

Yasumi continues not to meet anyone's gaze, although she does spare a glance vaguely Riley-ward. "Do please be careful not to set my field on fire," she says. "The rain in this dream tends to be rather sparse."

And the minute Icela's portal closes, she deflates. "Goodness gracious me," she says flatly. "Quite truthfully, I never imagined I'd ever see eyes which were simultaneously that naive and that cruel before ..."