Ariel's dream is... Somewhat different from her parents. Oh it's very forested and green, but in the middle of it all is a large section of park that resembles the very same park she had been living in, in Tokyo, when she had first arrived and had no place to stay. There's just one issue.
The sky is looking a little overcast with clouds tonight, blocking out the stars.
Ariel is seated on one of the park playground swings, but she's not swinging, she's just sitting there, sighing quietly to herself. This must be the dream she comes to when she wants some alone time.
Lacrima curls up in her coffin. She wants to speak to Ariel... and speak to Amalathea and speak to her other mother--- she has questions of all sorts. So she pinches the bridge of her nose and takes a deep cleansing breath. 'She won't kill me' she keeps repeating to herself. 'She won't kill me'. She says. She... remembers how Ariel's home dream feels. So. She tries to dream.... nightmare? She doesn't know the exact term for her but regardless. She's trying to go there, in a polite manner.
Instead she just sort of appears in 'green' and she starts flailing. "Omg I'm sorry I didn't mean to just come in I----" she looks around a little. This looks... like Ariel's home dream at first glance. But there's the beach and ocean missing and... this place. Feels familiar? Wait...
Is this just the park? Did... she accidently Dusk Step instead of 'Dream Hop'? No.. no this is a dream hop. Things are off. It looks like the park, but it isn't.
So she's in someone else's dream. Okay. So... she totally aimed wrong. She'll walk around for a bit until she comes to the playground and... Ariel? Is.. Ariel hanging out in someone's dream. She gently steps over. "A..ariel?" she asks quietly.
"A--ah I'm sorry!" she says. "I .. um tried to. Go to your home dream. But.. ended up... here and..." she rubs the back of her head. "A..are you okay?" she asks weakly.. suddenly noticing Ariel's down state. She knows that she must still be... not okay from the Eater. She's still here though.
For a good moment, Ariel doesn't seem to notice the incursion. So deeply lost in her own world of staring at the ground and drawing little nonsense patterns in the dust with her toes. It's Lacrima's voice that makes floppy ears prick up, and then topaz eyes follow, glancing upwards into a slow blink.
"... Norie?" She sounds a little puzzled at being found, but after a beat or so, puts on a bit of a strained smile.
"No, no this isn't my mothers' dream. This is my place." She admits. "The place I like to go to when I need time to think or... ... I've never really wanted to be alone before, until now." She admits, lips pursing into a thin line.
"I'm. Okay." She says after a long pause. Well, she's as okay as she can be after a traumatic experience like that, anyway.
Which isn't very.
When Lacrima hears that Ariel came here 'because she wanted to be alone' she tenses a little. Because that means she's invading for real. And she didn't mean to do that. She blundered into here like a mailman walking into the wrong house. She settles a little. She gently sighs and leans a hand down to place it on Ariel's shoulder. "Sorry I'm still getting used to this... stuff." she says softly.
"I'm sorry... we left you there." she says quietly. "I.. didn't want to. But... I...." she just looks down and settles a little gently.
"Oh-- r...right... stuff. I didn't..." pause.
"Remember. The Mosiac? In the temple? Yeah. That basically meant I was supposed to become the Princess of Nightmare or something. I dunno. How I feel to you now." she says tersely, rubbing her arm a bit. "S..so sorry if it's unsettling...." a pause.
She opens her arms as if to offer a hug. She doesn't want to assume Ariel wants one in such a state.
The hand set on Ariel's shoulder is met with a beat of tension. Though likely not for the reason Lacrima would assume, and it only lasts a split second before Ariel takes that hand and guides it off of her shoulder, to rest her cheek against Norie's palm, golden eyes slowly sliding closed.
"It's fine. I don't mind." She says before falling back into silence and slow breathing.
"But you came back for me." She points out. "I was scared. I was really, really, scared. But what kept me going... Was knowing that you and the others would come back for me."
"... Ah..." And then there's the reveal. Norie is the new Nightmare Princess. But this... This fact doesn't stop Ariel from nuzzling into the palm she's captured for herself right now, arms looping their way around Lacrima in a slow but tender embrace.
"You do feel a little funny now." She admits. "But I'm okay with it, if it's you."
Lacrima is happy to lean into the hug. She's very happy for that. She sighs a bit. ".... It wasn't thrust on me. For the record. He asked. I... have reasons for. That." she says quietly. "Not.. anything bad. I'll tell you. If you.. if you want." she says with a short blush, but she gently moves to sit down in the swing next to Ariel.
She smiles. "Of course I'd come back for you Ariel. Even if I would had to trick your mom to get past into the barrier..." she admits. "Even if I had to come alone." pause.
"Something in there stole your form. I dunno what it is." she says quietly. "But I hope it didn't hurt you either." she says quietly.
It's a long, quiet, tender, and very much needed moment.
"I didn't think you would take such a thing if it had been thrust on you." Ariel notes. "But it was your choice and that's all that matters. Maybe like this... We can be a little closer."
"Mn... I wouldn't have wanted you to come back alone. That would have been reckless. It took everything we had just to escape that terrible place." She says after a pause. "... And um. Mom is very old. I'm sure she knows many tricks." It is, however, the note that something stole her form that makes the unicorn's brow knot.
"I didn't see anything... Though there were some times when I felt like I was being watched, I thought it was just the... Just the Eater." Said much more quietly."
Lacrima blushes when Ariel says that thing about being closer. Because it was honestly one of the major reason she took it. "Y--yeah." she says softly as she bites her lip. "Yeah. It would had been dumb." she says softly. "I had problems sleeping... while you we're in there. And I rarely... have problems sleeping." she says gently.
She gently huhs? "...Yes. There was a very strong Nightmare in there with the Eater... it... said that. It was the nightmare that told Cain to kill Abel..." she says quietly. "Then it attacked us until the Eater got too close..." she says. "Then it ran." she says.
She shifts a bit uncomfortably. "I'm not sure what a 'Princess of Nightmare' does yet. I need to figure that out." she says. "I'm pretty sure it might be what it says on the tin thou." she says sheepishly.
Closer. Closer would be nice. But for now Ariel will have to settle with sitting on the swings with her princess.
"Mn. That... Sounds like an old and powerful Nightmare." She concedes when Lacrima goes into greater detail. But the unicorn shakes her head.
"You'll figure it out in time. ... We'll figre it out together. For now can we just..." She trails off, reaching to take Lacrima's hand in her own and silently thread figers together. It seems like she doesn't want to be so alone, anymore, right now.