the sharp / the sweet

Heart's Homing Instinct Game 4

TONIGHT IN FORTITUDE: Yeva, Natalia, and Dali visit Jasmine Apocynum in Bluebell Park, where Yeva hopes to consult the least threatening Rider she's found to date on her big-empty-space-in-dreams problem; Dali suggests that a dream is a wish your heart makes and causes some alarm

Jasmine helpfully suggests that dreams, wishes, hearts and souls are basically the same thing, and offers to pull out Yeva's heart and use her flesh in magic to see if that helps; Yeva declines but also cannot curb the urge to big-sister at Jasmine and make her eat her vegetables

Everyone retreats to Natalia's Secret Place, a dark and seemingly boundless tunnel/cave thing on the Vasili grounds, and Yeva comes clean about the extent of her problems; Natalia offers her Secret Place as a retreat in general, and discusses sacred marriage;

Dali makes a LOT of jokes about holes and marriage and what have you; everyone decides to visit the Sosunovs together the next day, and Dali brings coffee; Natalia's friend Evgenia Sosunova takes stock of the situation; Evgenia helps them all to investigate Yeva's dreams;

we initiate the Ritual of the Dreaming Depths; Yeva drinks the lonely poison of her dreams and blooms red flowers from her skin; Natalia considers alternate paths she might have taken and possible regrets; Dali gets tangled up in coils of shed skin and becomes a claymation snake;

we get a glimpse at a lost love of Yeva's, who she inadvertently harmed with her nature; everyone hears lonely whispers in the dark; Yeva and snake Dali hear someone protesting about how loud they're all being; Dali gets protective; the King of Serpents raises Its head;

and then Basilisk takes the form of a human woman with tan skin and vibrant blue hair. ✌️

Ritual of the Dreaming Depths

This ritual begins when a group of friends prevail upon the Sosunovs for assistance in entering the dreams of one of their own, whose subconscious has been adulterated but something dark and deep and alarming.

Ritual Actions

During the Ritual of the Dreaming Depths you may take the following Ritual Actions; you may also choose, but are not required, to claim a Ritual XP Action at any time.

  • Describe what you hear, smell, taste, or touch in a lightless place without vision.
  • Wander with someone else, then become separated, OR run into one of your dreaming companions in the dark when you feel like you're entirely lost.
  • Dwell on what sets you apart from your dreaming companions, and describe it.
  • Dream of a comfort you don't dare let yourself have.
  • Dream of serpents, flowers, or poison, and what they mean to you.
  • Dream of heartbreak or lost love.
  • Hear a whispering voice in the distance whispering your loneliest thoughts back to you.
  • Feel someone reach out to you in the darkness from behind.

This Ritual ends when the dreamer confronts what waits for her in the depths.