To sleep, perchance to dream. To find the peace and relaxation that comes with fanciful flights of sleeping whimsey, is something that Naru has been lacking for a very long time at this point. It's been better or worse, depending on a whole host of factors from stress to exhaustion to the positions of the stars and if she ate a big meal right before bed, but as the months have worn on, it's been getting worse. And worse.
Finally, even Naru's had enough, and has swallowed enough pride to request assistance. Somewhere in her thoughts, she's decided that clearly they're just dreams and its silly to not be able to shake off the horrible feelings when one wakes. They're just dreams, after all, right? Still. Silly or not, the request has been put out to Ariel and Seishi for help.
Of all places to be, Ariel was elsewhere tonight. There was someone else who's dreams she had been spending time in. Though she had told her, perhaps unexpected, host that she had an obligation tonight. Naru had mentioned issues sleeping, and there is perhaps a very real possibility of what that could mean.
A nightmare.
Or at the very least bad dreams that have a high chance of BECOMING nightmares if left unchecked.
This is why after some time spent in the dreams of another, for the evening, she makes to excuse herself. It's time to go. That is... Unless her prior host, wants to come help?
That was the offer and outstretched hand as Ariel gears up to meet Seishi and head into Naru's dreams.
Lacrima's dreams vary from night to night. She has not had something like the dream last time. Most of these dreams are spent in what appears to be some sort of strange garden, with olden stone benches- under a canopy that has twisted vines growing up it.
Ariel's apparently been trying to help her figure out things. Or cope with things. Either/or.
When Ariel says she has to be somewhere else to help someone else. She hesitantly agrees- but then Ariel offers for her to come along?
That can happen?
She decides to take Ariel's hand. Hesitantly.
Where exactly are they going?
"That was clumsily done," O-Yasu comments from the ground, a pudgy little shape trotting along to keep up with the walking pace of a very winded dark bay horse as they reach the place in the landscape of dreams where Ariel and Lacrima are waiting.
"Shut it." Akashimaru is winded herself, voice breathless and shaky and her face rather pale. "I didn't see a lot of options, with everyone waiting for us." Still, she grimaces as she reins her mount to a halt and looks down at the other passenger, slung in undignified fashion in front of her across the horse's withers. "...Sorry about the rough ride," she says. "Are you all right?"
As for Akashimaru's other passenger? White hair, yes. Tall, for his age, anyway. But the magical community of Tokyo doesn't typically see battered and bloodied eight-year-old boys in leather knee-length coat and trousers, neither one of anything that's been a fashionable cut in the last thousand years or so. "Yes," the boy patently lies, voice indistinctly polite. "Thank you. He's very nice; I like him." Presumably he isn't talking about O-Yasu. "Is it all right for me to move now?"
The dream scape that holds Naru's thoughts tonight is not a happy place. It's hard to make out a lot of details as one approaches it: the area gets darker both in ambient light and in the colours around them, more oppressive, the sense of Things looming just on the edge of awareness, lurking in the darkness on either side of a narrowing path. The path crunches lightly, stone becoming gravel, rougher beneath the feet.
At a slightly wider section of the path, before the darkness encrouches all the more, Naru waits, watching for those who are coming to visit her dreams. She mostly masks the nerves, the anxious energy that keeps her moving just a little bit up the path and then back to the meeting spot, watching as people gather. Ariel and Seishi are expecting, Kunzite and Lacrima are not, but Naru nods to each in turn, her attention lingering upon the battered child Kazuo for a few long moments. "I'd say welcome." Naru's attention moves away from him to include everyone. "But it generally isn't overly welcoming around here. Thank you for coming, though."
So maybe Ariel is coming with an unexpected guest, still, she's coming like she said she would. Though Lucky tilts his head curiously, when his ward decides to bring Lacrima along, Ariel pays it no mind. So this is why the tiny unicorn arrives hand-in-hand with a vampire. The truth is she has no idea what to expect in Naru's dreams, and spends a moment waiting.
There's Seishi- arriving with-... Ariel does not recognize Kunzite as he is. And now both Lucky AND Ariel are tilting their head, at first, before she flashes a little grin. "Hi, Seishi."
On to business, though. Into Naru Osaka's dream. That makes Ariel's grin drop entirely as light and color mute noticably; the shadowy nature making the girl's skin prickle. Ariel cannot see in the dark. Naru's voice might have caught her a bit by surprise, considering the sudden sharp bleat. But to her credit, Ariel rallies well. "Oh, Naru, hello. --Um." No it doesn't feel welcoming it atll. "Well, ah that's why we're here. To try and fix thatm right?"
Lacrima arrives into the dark, oppressive like dream after Ariel. Her eyes turn to the horse. She does not know Seishi. Kunzite is unfamiliar in this form. This is a small boy. She just gives them a glance and some sort of awkward wave.
She doesn't know if dream meetings are any different than regular meetings. Lacrima looks mostly the same as she does in life. Save for the regal-like attire. She turns back to---
Is that Naru's voice.
Is Ariel here to help Naru. She sort of squints over.
"Naru-chan...?" she asks a pause.
"Is this your dream?" she asks. Though. It seems more like a 'nightmare' honestly. She wonders if she should be using that term.
"Oh - sure." Akashimaru leaves off eyeing the traces of glowing goo clinging to the edge of her sleeve and, still a bit unsettled, hastily kicks a leg over the horse's back and slides to the ground, the better to help steady Kunzite while giving him enough room to right himself. "If you want to get down, mind your footing. It's dangerous here."
How dangerous, truthfully, she's not yet sure - but the oppressive feeling of the darkness around them doesn't seem like it bodes well. Nor does Naru's greeting. Seishi gives her a careful look before nodding in agreement to what Ariel has said. "We're here to help," she says. "We'll go at your pace."
A soft snort from O-Yasu, down beside Akashimaru's legs. She very pointedly does not look at him.
The boy moves with reasonable caution, though whether that's because of the warning about footing, because of whatever Akashimaru carried him off from, or simply because he does not want to irritate or spook the horse is an excellent question. When he straightens up, the blue of the blousy shirt he's wearing under the long leather coat is cast by the ambient light into something made more of shadow than anything else. Naru's welcome calls his attention, and he gives a familiar little cock of his head to look up at her and an even more familiar thoughtful frown ... it's just that the interest and the puzzlement and the half-recognition are actually plain in his expression, which isn't so familiar at all. He turns that attention to Lacrima, and Akashimaru, and then at that sudden sharp bleat to Ariel, straightening up at the sound --
Straightening all the way up, better than half a meter, as Kunzite shakes off the last of the dream Akashimaru pulled him out of in favor of familiar height and cape and uniform.
There's a pause as he parses back through the things he heard without entirely comprehending them, and then says again to Akashimaru, "Thank you." 'We'll go at your pace' is echoed with a nod toward Naru, straightforward and steady. The lack of any question about Lacrima might be notable in itself.
"This is my dream." Naru confirms to Lacrima, her voice holding notes of apology in dragging anyone else into it. Naru crosses her arms in front of her chest as she glances behind her to the path that leads from dark into darker, almost as if she's cold just thinking about it.
"I hope so, Ariel." Naru takes a slow breath and nods to the wee unicorn. "It's been getting worse, and this week hasn't helped. So ideally."
The soft chuckle at Seishi's words hold no bit of humour in it. "So I've been generally through this nightmare before, although of course it always changes at least a little. I try and take the maze at a run, but that's panic and adrenaline talking rather than any sort of cunning /plan/. I've never gotten to the centre, the pathways narrow as you get closer and something generally happens."
Naru pauses and then adds. "I've never really met anyone in it, which makes it hard to know how to /fight/, per se. But that's your expertise and not mine." She glances to the group of them and gestures towards the pathway, turning that way. "Er.. and I'm sorry."
Bleat? What bleat? After that happened, Ariel's lips pucker tightly, and the girl is quick to try and play it off like it never happened. Just because Naru's dream is dark and spooky does not mean she's scared. It means she's nervous, though, without a doubt. It takes the little unicorn a beat or two to just clear her throat and shake it off. Naur confirms Lacrima's question for her, so she puffs her cheeks out and moves on. "Mmm."
The dream has been getting worse.
It's a note that makes her look pointedly to Akashimaru, before she's distracted by the boy. Who stands tall. Taller. Tallerrrr... Until she's staring up at Kunzite like a doe locked in headlights as she parses just what happened there. "Oh."
Right then. "Hello, Kunzite." Politeness first, then business as she looks back to Naru.
"You've been through this dream before? It keeps coming back?" This is a very important thing to ask.
Lacrima listens to Naru. So Naru's been having bad dreams? And they've gotten worse and worse? And there's a maze something happens in? But there's something at the center?
Lacrima seems to frown a little. Because immediately 'wait, did I do this with the feeding?' is the first part in her head. But then she resolves that 'probably not' because no one else has told her about nightmares like that. Also. She hadn't touched Naru in a while, anyways.
This helps, a little bit- as the frown grows more straight.
"Ariel dragged me along. She was in my dream for a moment, helping me with." her eyes look to the right and back. "Things."
She looks back to Naru and...
Kunzite. Kinda stands up. ALL the way up. She blinks once.
"Ah..hello. Kunzite." she says kind of uncomfortably.
She turns back to Naru. "Do you know how we can help...?" she asks. "Do we follow you?"
She asks. "I don't know what the rules are in other people's dreams." she admits kind of ashamedly. She imagines it's like being in someone else's house-- ask first, etc.
Oh good she didn't break him. Akashimaru nods silently to Kunzite's thanks, looking wholly embarrassed, before finding somewhere else to look; the horse that is not really a horse cants its ears back but otherwise stands quite still and doesn't fuss.
"...The rules mostly depend on the dreamer," she answers Lacrima quietly. "That can be good or bad, depending."
Her eyes flick to Ariel for a moment before settling on Naru. "It could mean your mind trying to work through something it hasn't been able to yet," she says, filling in on Ariel's question. "Or it could be something from the outside trying to break you down. You said something generally happens before you can make it to the center... what kinds of things?"
Unicorns and reincarnated samurai have worries that nobody else on the planet has, really.
"Hello, Lacrima." Kunzite's voice is as unemotional as ever, as casual as if there was never an eight-year-old here, who are you going to believe, your memories or him. He adds aside to the vampire, quietly so as not to disrupt the dreamwalkers' questions of their host, "Usually we have access to at least most of our own skills and abilities, though that may well be by Ariel's and Akashimaru's grace. I wouldn't recommend going far from them; we don't presently know if it's possible to be stranded, and I'd prefer neither of us find that out tonight."
"It keeps coming back." Naru nods to Ariel, as she looks to answer both her and Seishi's questions, letting Kunzite explain details to Lacrima on the whole dream protocol thing. "It changes a bit everytime. I've tried to do a speed run of the maze based on memory and that ended poorly." Naru wrinkles her nose. The voice of unfortunate experience right there.
"Lessee. The walls will grab and absorb you in." Naru quirks her head, thoughtfully as she thinks backs. "Turn a maze corner into a dead end and some sort of pit or unfortunate experience waiting. Sometimes you just stay lost forever until your alarm wakes you up, which is oddly one of the better ways to wake up."
A recurring bad dream. Ariel frowns. Now there's a definite glance to Akashimaru on that note, especially on the mention of 'something from the outside'. But her lips purse into a thin line. She doesn't want to suggest that it could be a full blown Nightmare. If anything, she's hoping it hasn't reached that point yet.
"Well... I guess the only way to find out is to head in and see, right?" She suggests, finally hopping onto Lucky's back. Though there is a moment of concentration, that little horn flickering with a green glow. Akashimaru and Kunzite will rexognize this; the gleaming 'threads' of gossamer spreading to connect to everyone's pinkies and tie themselves to hers as a focal point.
"There."
Now no matter where anyone goes in the maze they should have an idea of where the others are.
Lacrima softly looks to Kunzite and nods, so she steps a few steps toward's the maze and just stares at it. She's trying to get a sense of it almost. Trying to probe-- and poke like she might do in the Dusk Zone when she's studying the creatures she seeks out.
"There's something Dark Energy-based in that maze." she says matter of factly, as she steps a few feet back toward's the group. "I can sense it. But. Not sure if it's the maze itself. Or something particular." she says.
A small 'thread' of gossamer attaches to her pinky. She blinks-- and then 'ahs' when it's explained in her usual deadpan manner.
A little hint of a smile flickers over Akashimaru's face as she looks down, lifting her hand to tug lightly at the dream-thread that's attached itself to her finger. Admiring.
"That sounds more like something from outside," she comments after Lacrima has spoken. "I don't think we'll be able to find out what without going in and poking it." Her hand drops to her belt, sliding the metal bar of her tessen free. "O-Yasu--?"
The baku huffs quietly. "Yes, yes." Akashimaru's feet and O-Yasu's tiger-striped paws crunch quietly together on the gravel of the path as they start forward.
A few steps, and Akashimaru glances back to the others, while O-Yasu sniffs at the air. "If everyone's ready..."
Kunzite stretches his hand briefly without comment when the bright thread attaches itself to him; there's no other experimentation. He's had this connection before. "Sailor Moon purified Naru this summer," he says, confirming his acceptance of Lacrima's report in passing, half-agreeing with Akashimaru. "So either it's not always present, or it's from within the last three or four months." He does not actually ask Naru how long the dreams have been occurring. He can't guarantee the dreamwalkers won't, but he can avoid being invasive herself.
The question of whether everyone's ready only garners a nod from him. Everyone here has fought either next to or against him often enough to have a reasonable idea of what he can do.
... though whether the dream's darkness will try to interfere with his and Lacrima's is always a question. One to deal with when the time comes. Worrying about it, or voicing the concern, might only give something ideas.
"Well /that/ is never promising." Naru comments at Lacrima's declaration but she nods, accepting that as the reality it is. She turns towards the maze, glancing briefly down to the thread of light connected to her pinkie.
"I agree, let's go in there and do this thing." Naru doesn't take the maze at a run this time, but she's not lingering over much as she follows the path forward. The gravel underfoot becomes roughly hewn, with dead sticks and roots mixed amongst the large gravel. The walls loom up on either side of the group, tall enough to make it feel ominous, and close enough to keep the group tight together. To a closer look, the walls are dense branches and vines, thorny and rough and uninviting to the touch. Twisting and entwined, with swirling shapes that are hard to distinguish in the gloomy dim.
The general ambience is as if a druid minotaur drew their decorating inspiration from Giger and the Dark Kingdom with extra splashes of uncomfortable.
There is a sheepishly proud looking little moment, after Ariel completes her work. The thin strands of dream-stuff should keep everyone reasonably interconnected regardless of location. It earns a slight little grin. That fades as soon as she hears Lacrima. Actually, hearing that there's something comprised of dark energy in Naru's dream makes loppy goat-like ears fold back, and Lucky start growling softly, low in his throat.
Though she curls her fingers into her canine mount's scruffy neck fur, Lucky starts padding along the path. Kunzite doesn't pry, but Ariel does, nevertheless.
"Um... How long has this been going on?" Asked as she tries to not look too creeped out by the leafy dark ambience.
Lacrima softly looks to Seishi and nods a bit. That makes sense. Do.. dreams not breed dark energy normally? She looks back to Ariel and purses her lips. She's dark energy! But she also has actual intelligence and reminder of what it felt like to be human.
She gently peeks back at Kunzite and Seishi as she looks back forth and begins to move forward with Seishi when she asks if everyone is ready. "I'm ready."
Once she's assured that the others are agreed in following, Akashimaru's strides lengthen. Tessen in hand, she takes point, keeping a wary eye on her surroundings while O-Yasu jogs beside her snuffling at the air.
"Definitely something there," the baku states after a short interval of walking. "Not the Eater. I don't know this smell. But it's not a normal dream."
Occasionally, as they move, the faint gleam from the gossamer threads binding them to Ariel reflects from Kunzite's eyes as it would from some nocturnal predator's -- not something that comes from the real world, only a signal in the dream that his power lends him the ability to see in far more darkness than most normal humans. Not likely something unusual in this group. But it shows when his eyes linger on those indistinct shapes.
"You mentioned the walls absorbing victims," he says toward Naru, after O-Yasu makes his own declaration. "Let's presume that's part of tonight's arsenal." Naming the threat again, casually. Because it is a human trait that something named is more easily grasped, more easily considered and addressed.
"Hmm? How long? For this one in specific?" Naru asks and then she considers as she continues forward along the path, careful not to touch the walls, gesturing to indicate which way around a corner with confidence, for Seishi. Apparently this part of the maze is familiar at least. "I'd say since the summer, but hard to give an exact date. July or so?"
The notion of it not being 'normal' prompts a moment of hrm from Naru, but no actual comment there. She turns towards Kunzite at his comment and she nods. "Sometimes the walls scream too. Those aren't good nights." She presents that additional notion with the calmness that one might comment upon the elevator music.
The walls and path are quiet tonight, although slowly as they travel through the maze, there's a sense of the walls creeping ever closer. Where once it was negligable to not brush against the sides, as twists and turns are chosen, it grows harder to not occaisionally feel the rough brush of the plant walls down some passages. Others seem a little wider, making them quietly easier to choose, some aspect of the maze directing their path through it.
Since July?
There is a moment of Ariel just openly staring at Naru. Her own bad dream had lasted a few days and it was driving Ariel up a wall. She just stares, gobsmacked, to hear Naru's has been haunting her for months. Thankfully she is mounted on Lucky, who though grumbling, follows Naru without pausing. If she were on her own two feet, she probably would have stopped to stare.
It's good Lucky kept her moving, because... "Um. Is it just me or... Is it getting a little cramped?" Ariel murmurs. Anywhere else, the unicorn would love the gentle brush of leaves and foliage against her while wandering through wilds. Anywhere else but here in this dark maze. Her nose scrunches though, a peek at O-Yasu and she tips her head up, nose twitching as she tries to sniff the air. The resultant look to follow is little more than a boggle and she decides to not question the baku. And then there's another gleam she notices. Squinting a little when peeking up at Kunzite's eyes. But she shakes her head out.
That horn glows again. She holds up her hand, and there's a flicker at first, before she tries to manifest an old style hooded lamp, for better light. Just to see if she can, once this deep in the maze-like dream.
Lacrima doesn't exactly know what O-Yasu is. But she's encountered stranger to apparently not really bother asking. Also, perhaps it is none of her business. She softly closes her eyes as she walks and reopens them. She doesn't need light. Darkness. She isn't afraid of darkness in and of itself. She can see in it. She's a vampire after all. What kind of effective hunter would she be if she couldn't /see/ her prey.
Not that Ariel's light she makes isn't unwelcomed. The cramped-ness is something she notices. She taking note of any stranger feelings. Like feeling like she's being tugged into a wall for example- and so far not feeling much.
"I wonder if it can sense all of us." she says.
"Right. A polite warning. If any of you use...positive...energy- at all- Tonight. Just. Call out some sort of warning at me. It's abhorrent to me and will hurt me if I'm too close in something like a blast radius." she insists.
She looks upward. It's too dark-- unnaturally dark. Is there a ceiling? If if there isn't, it's probably not a good idea to fly into unnatural black inky darkness for her- /anyways/. So she follows gently.
"Why do you think this thing is giving you problems, Naru?" she asks.
"If it's intent was to... hurt you- and it's an outside force... wouldn't it be easier to do that from the outside?" she asks. "Maybe it's feeding on something..." she muses outloud, making guesses.
Akashimaru pauses in her forward advance for a moment to frown back over her shoulder, in time with Ariel's wide-eyed staring. "That's way too long to let nightmare energy fester," she says. "We're lucky it's not the Eater of Dreams, but this could still be really bad."
The glance she turns Lacrima's way is a considering one, but after a moment, she nods. "--I'll keep it in mind," she says. "My abilities are for purifying dreams. I don't really know how much that counts, but it'd be best to be cautious."
An indrawn breath, and then she's moving forward again, focusing ahead. "It might be something from the dream realm," she hazards, "making itself at home. Since it's not one of the servants of the Eater of Dreams, though, I can only guess."
"July," Kunzite says, thoughful. "Early in the month, the doll and the curse. Midway, the first Wrath incident, and the ... territorial squabble. And Naru drinking enough coffee to make her hands shake." Establishing a calendar of sorts, if putting attacks and Unfortunate Events into a timeline counts. " Later in the month, the psychic didn't react to you. And there was the Shadow--"
He doesn't have time to detail Shiniko's attempt on Naru. Or even finish a brief capsule reference. In the light of Ariel's lamp, something can just be seen moving in the hedge to their left. Kunzite turns to face it, his hands lifting to summon a spell -- an attack, maybe, or a weapon, or a shield.
Vines whip out of the hedge and wrap around his wrists and forearms before he can complete the gesture. More of them secure one of his legs. Thorns that might better be described as outright spikes puncture cloth and skin, marring his usual gray with a sudden red. The tendrils haven't even finished securing him by the time they're dragging him toward the hedge wall.
Lacrima was wondering if it could sense them. That the first one attacked is the one who was analyzing the situation out loud might suggest a possible yes. And it definitely suggest that Ariel's and Akashimaru's evaluations are correct. A little cramped. And festering way too long.
"I dont chuck energy around, positive or not, generally." Naru assures Lacrima before continuing. "Why are my dreams trying to kill me?" Naru asks Lacrima at her question. "That I'm not sure, I expect it..." She might have had more to speculate on, except that the answer of if its noticed them or not is answered by the wall taking offense at Kunzite. She lunges over to make a grab for Kunzite, to provide more resistance to him becoming part of the hedge wall. "Oh hell no, no no no. You do not get to steal other people. Bad enough that you try and kill me."
Now that there's more light from Ariel, one can see the swirls and twists in various spots along the hedge walls have the look of grotestque and elongated human figures, a la 'Han in vegetation carbonite' as filtered through Giger. The walls seem to have chosen Kunzite as their next decor addition.
"Riiight." That's to Lacrima. Ariel should have not much of an issue around her there unless she like. Cries on the vampire or something, but she's still frowning. "So if it's not the Eater of Dreams...?" She leaves unsaid the question of just what could have brought this on, while Kunzite backtracks.
Ariel summons light. She very quickly, very shrilly, voices her regret in doing so. As soon as she lifts the lantern with its soft glow, and so much as gets a glimpse at the closest freakish face in the wall of foliage, she bleats. Even Lucky is caught off guard with a sound that's somewhere between a yelp and a bark, but when Ariel falls off his back and lands on her butt, it's her fault for jumping, not his.
Between that brief instant of heart-wrenching horror, and the sudden lashing vines going for Kunzite, there is a moment of just purest, plainest, shock that leaves her unable to act for several painfully long seconds. Before she manages to pick herself up. "Ummm."
Again her horn glows, as she weaves the stuff dreams are made out of... Into a large set of gardening shears. It's not violence if she gives working at snipping terrifying plants, while trying to not think about the walls. She focuses really hard on that.
Lacrima stares at the wall. She stares at the humanoid figures in the wall. She sort of scrunches her face into a 'ewwwww'- and actually goes. "Ewwwww." in a manner that suggests disgust at this creature's decorating tastes. Not that her personal dream garden is anything to shake a stick at with it's unearthly twisting tentacle-like vines.
"Collecting people." she mutters. "I'll never get such an act." she mutters "..and why such creatures have such taste." she says. "Maybe. They just don't want to be alon---" as she turns back around to---
Kunzite trying to be stolen. Her eyes sort of blink more rapidly at this- since this is something going on she's currently watching. She raises her hand and--- she frowns a bit. She can't just... blast it with a wash of dark energy. That hasn't worked out well for her in the past- empowering these things instead of hurting them.
Instead, she uses a trick Riventon-sama has been teaching her.
She focuses that dark energy that would had been a wash into something like a blade edge-- giving it something of a physical force as he aims to swing it downward into the vines--- blurring into a purple swipe on the downswing.
"I would rather you not." she says deadpan to the wall.
"Because they're being corrupted," Akashimaru says in reply to Naru - all there is opportunity to say, before the dream goes on the attack. Immediately, she whips around in place, the tessen in her hand snapping open with the same motion.
As Ariel and Lacrima make their own moves, her arm swings out, sending the fan spinning through the air on an arc that slices between Kunzite and the wall. "Hirai-sen!"
Pruning is absolutely not violence. It's for everyone's good, the plant's and most especially Kunzite's. Ariel's pruning shears glow as they snap their blades over spiked vines that have claimed one of Kunzite's wrists. One hand freed from the wall, the vines around his skin withering as they're cut away from the main hedge.
Lacrima's dark energy blade cuts through another of the vines, letting Naru manage to tug Kunzite a little further away from the actively attacking wall.
It's Seishi's spinning fan that severs the last of the connection between the Shitennou and the wall trying to claim him. The vines retreat at the attacks, rendering the wall back to it's entirely not innoccuous look, not with the looming humanoid shape in its shadows.
The sense of immediate oppression and darkness has retreated along with the vines, a strategic retreat after encountering such a forceful response.
Not violence at all. Though Ariel is a little hurried in her panicked snipping at the vines, it's for the sake of freeing Kunzite, more than anything else. Even if it helps take her mind off the terrible things from the dark corners of Naru's dreams, when she lifted that lamp up. She works quickly, and tries to work with Lacrima as best she can, before Seishi throws her fan.
When the vines retreat and the miserable sense of oppression and danger ease off, Ariel collapses to her knees, panting. She stares at Naru.
She just stares at Naru.
Lacrima frowns a bit heavily. She lowers her hand and the dark energy dissipates from her hand- along with the purple aura glow. She frowns. "Is he okay? Are you okay...?" she asks to Kunzite- providing he is conscious after that. She's pretty sure she saw red, and red usually means blood. She's seen that plenty enough.
She looks to Naru and head tilts a bit as she hrmmms. "You're too used to this. Aren't you?" she asks.
She frowns a bit. "Do we keep on going?" she asks the group.
"We made it retreat. So it's probably going to second guess another attack." she suggests. "Unless we get close enough to endanger something/whatever it's hiding or protecting or itself." she says.
"That would be my best guess." she says. "But that's just based off my experiences with similar dark matter creatures." she says with a head tilt. "I'm not sure if--- this dream realm--- changes the rules any."
Akashimaru snatches the Shinken back out of the air at the end of its arc, bringing the fan back down to hold it poised in front of her. There's no further attack to guard against, though - frowning, she watches as the nightmare itself seems to retreat.
She looks to Kunzite first, checking to make sure whether he is in fact okay or not before she addresses Lacrima's question. "That's up to Osaka-san," she says. "It's her dream. I don't like the idea of trying to force it out, though. I'm not sure what kind of effect that could have on the mind."
Sighing, she lowers her weapon and straightens out of the defensive stance. "This could be tricky."
Naru has assistance in tugging Kunzite further from the wall, in that Kunzite is actively fighting on his own behalf as well. Not as effectively as he might have, given his lack of capacity for movement and the fact that pulling away digs the thorns behind him in deeper, but -- his cape is the best focus for his defensive powers he has; it holds, even if his sleeves, for instance, are less fortunate.
"Thank you," he says roughly, as he starts peeling off severed loops of tendril the way someone might pull burrs off of their clothing. He's conscious. He doesn't necessarily look pleased with being conscious, but he's conscious. Given the equally automatic way that he tears damaged cloth loose and starts bandaging the most copiously bleeding puncture, he's too used to this kind of thing, too; but that surprises pretty much nobody on his part. Naru, on the other hand. Naru is too used to this in several ways. "They weren't obviously poisonous. You reacted fast. I'll probably be fine."
Lacrima's estimation of the lurker's priorities is met with a brief sharp nod from him; one defeat is often enough for a little while. He glances aside to Akashimaru, then to Naru... while making sure that the hedges to either side do not have a clear shot at Ariel while she's staring.
"I.. yeah." Naru admits self consciously to Lacrima's comment about being used to it, all the more self conscious as she has Ariel STARING at her. She stays near to Kunzite, as he peels vines off and banadages himself up.
"I think stepping back and re-evaluating is probably valuable at this point." Naru looks around. "Information gathered by people who have some clue, and we pushed it back. I.. am not sure I'm comfortable with hunting it down /right now/ either." She looks to Seishi and nods, avoiding the horror filled look that Ariel is giving her. "Re-conviene sooner rather than later and take another crack at it?"
"That works," Akashimaru answers Naru with a short nod. "In the meantime--"
She turns her eyes downward to O-Yasu where the tapir-like beast is busy sniffing around the ground. "Hey, old man," Seishi says, and the baku's head lifts to fix her with an unwavering stare with eyes that glow like coals freshly plucked out of a fire. "Will you keep an eye on her for a little while? I don't want to risk this getting any further out of hand."
Lacrima frowns. She looks at Kunzite and Seishi and Naru and Ariel's staring. "Alright." she says. There's no skin off her back. She's not the one that has to live with a dark energy maze creature in her head/dreams/brain. She has other things she has to live with.
She does owe Naru though. So she wants to help. Of course.
But there's little she can do right now. Dreams are not her specialty and neither is warding or protecting.
"If you need help, you know where to find me." she says.
A pause. She looks at Seishi. "Do I just wake up, and go home that way now?" she asks bluntly.
She assumes the answer is some form of yes. So that happens. Eventually.
"Between the lot of us," Kunzite says quietly, including Lacrima with a brief nod, "we can keep an eye on her during the days, too." But O-Yasu has abilities that he and Lacrima, and that Naru's classmates, do not.