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[digitalprincess]

[A vast majority of the time, Aelita was cheerful. There wasn't any of that cheer in her voice as she palmed her grumpearl, nor was there a 'Yoohoo' or exaggerated 'hi' as she started the call. ]

Um... Do those visions you have when sleeping mean anything? [And then because those love grumpearls connected mentally. Everyone could get fun glimpses as Aelita mumbled along. Something small running through the undergrowth, glowing gold eyes.]

I keep having ones where there are pokemon. Uh, they look like Mme Mightyena and they're chasing me through a forest, then they try to bite me. [For a moment there was the lovely look at the inside a wolf's mouth, but it suddenly changes. For a brief moment everything shifts, the wolves become a group of faceless men in suits.]

Is there anyway to make them stop?

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[notyourbloodymessiah]

[ a voice that sounds as though it is echoing through water chimes in. ]

The dreams? [ she knows that, in a strict sense, they probably don't. eleanor can only remember so much of her mother's psychological studies, but dreams can be inherently irrational. ] That depends. Have you never seen a wolf before?

[digitalprincess]

Oh, so those are dreams... [She'd overheard Jeremie having those.]

What's a wolf?

[That probably answered a few things.]

[notyourbloodymessiah]

What was chasing you. [ she glances away for a moment. strictly speaking, eleanor's never seen one either. there are wolf-like pokemon, but-- no, she's certain bigby shouldn't count when he's presently a hamster. ]

Are you worried about anything? [ she's searching into the recesses of her mind to try and remember something her mother told her. ]

[digitalprincess]

The pokemon that look like mme Mightyena? [Interesting. As for worries- ]

These dreams keep waking me up. Um, I guess I've been thinking about my friends a lot...

[notyourbloodymessiah]

I don't think that's a Pokemon, Aelita. [ just a normal wolf. ] Did you have wolves, back home?

[digitalprincess]

Um. I've not seen any. Only the monsters and Kiwi... He's a dog. [There was a few rats that'd ventured close to the supercomputer.]

[notyourbloodymessiah]

Hm.

[ if she has dogs it's not out of the question to assume she has wolves. but if she's never seen one... ]

None of the monsters from your world looked like that?

[digitalprincess]

No, they look less organic. [Another visual and...that's just a brick with crab legs. ]

[notyourbloodymessiah]

[ what the hell is that. ]

Right. [ how odd. ] I think the best way to stop them is to just... talk about it.

[ gross now she sounds like her mother ew ew ew ]

[digitalprincess]

[blok]

Isn't that what I'm doing? [A beat.] Um, they howl a lot and even when I hide in a small place, they get me anyway.

[notyourbloodymessiah]

[ eleanor's voice softens. ]

That's good. The-- talking, I mean. Not the fact that they got you. [ see this is why she could never be sofia's successor. ]

Do you remember anything else?

[digitalprincess]

Uh...Sometimes there's a loud banging noise and...voices? I think urg... [She raised her paws up.]

My head hurts...

[notyourbloodymessiah]

Don't push yourself.

[ the pearls probably put an unimaginable amount of psychic strain on those who aren't fully used to them. ]

It's all right.

[digitalprincess]

[Eleanor might have said that and Aelita might wait. But she was going to think about it again.]

I guess it's not hurting anything, it's just strange.

[notyourbloodymessiah]

Well. It is. It's hurting you.

[ nightmares themselves aren't all that strange, they're just the psyche manifesting paranoia. she knows that. ]

[digitalprincess]

[She groaned. Why must you call her back.]

I'm not injured, just confused by them.

[notyourbloodymessiah]

You have a headache.

[ stop being difficult aelita. ]

[digitalprincess]

That could just be the pearls.

[No]

[notyourbloodymessiah]

Being a smartarse won't work on me, Aelita. I've done every trick in the book and then some.

[ eye roll. ] Either way, you shouldn't strain yourself.

[digitalprincess]

You're the one who suggested it first. [meh] I'll be fine. It's a strange feeling but I've had worse.

[notyourbloodymessiah]

I'm sorry I can't do more to help.

[digitalprincess]

Huh? No, you've given me a lot to think about. Thank you.

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[wolfcut]

Dreams don't have to mean anything, but—

[ They're not always out of nowhere, either. He considers what she says, followed by what he sees. It's familiar, just not from her perspective. ]

—not a fan of wolves?

[digitalprincess]

Apprantly... [Eleanor had already explained that part.]

It's strange. I've never seen one before but in the dreams they're always following me making that screaming noise.

[wolfcut]

Howling. It's called howling.

[ Not that it matters to a girl being hunted down. ]

Do you... remember what happened before you got hooked up to that machine?

[digitalprincess]

No... I don't remember anything further back than a year ago. [All thing considered. Aelita was doing well for learning how to not die.]

[wolfcut]

Hm.

[ Only a year ago. He's not sure what that might mean in the grand scheme of things for her. As far as he still knows, she was in some kind of coma back home. ]

Could be something from before then. A bad memory you're trying to process. Dreams... tend to do that.

[digitalprincess]

But that...[Aelita wasn't even sure she'd had memories before. When Jeremie turned the supercomputer on, she'd not even known her name. She'd only found out because the Tower had recognised her.

Was it possible? Why would she only remember now? Why wolves? She wilted, her ears folding.]

What happens when they're done processing?

[wolfcut]

[ He stays quiet as she thinks it over, letting her have a second to herself first. ]

You know... I'm not really sure.

[ He's probably the worst person to ask. ]

I think it's meant to help you. When you're awake, I mean. Like a moment of clarity.

[digitalprincess]

[All those things would have made sense. If she was human. If she'd been a living, breathing creature.]

They didn't start till I came here, I didn't dream before...

[Would this have happened back home? Or was it an aspect of this place?]

[wolfcut]

Can't tell you why that'd be. I'm not much of a doctor.

But here, changes like that are normal. These bodies have their own, uh. Quirks baked into 'em.

[ Get used to being a prey animal, kid. ]

[digitalprincess]

So...you're saying that they might just be a part of the creature I was turned into? Then there'd be no reason to wonder about them.

[wolfcut]

Well...

[ Honestly? Not a bad conclusion to make. ]

If that was the case, wouldn't those wolves be Pokémon instead?

[digitalprincess]

[She wilted. Bigby why... The idea that it was a new thing caused by the Bay was so much nicer than it being some kinda memory from her past. From before Jeremie found her under the factory.]

But I didn't even know what a wolf was before you told me...

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[lightofchaldea]

"Most the time, dreams and nightmares probably don't mean anything in particular, but..."

A pause as she considered the best way to put this. Nightmares were something Ritsuka was extremely familiar with, but that didn't mean it was easy to put into words.

"Sometimes, they can be things you're afraid of. Or things that already happened to you before."

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[digitalprincess]

"That's what Bigby said..."

If multiple people said the same thing, that meant it was more likely to be true.

"The dreams only started when I arrived here. They seem to be getting more frequent." The first part wasn't surprising given she'd not needed sleep before.

Re: Video

[lightofchaldea]

On the one hand, Ritsuka had pretty extensive experience with nightmares. But on the other hand, much of it came in the form of simply learning to live with them, rather than successfully finding a way to get rid of them.

"Well... If they're because of something that's bothering you, maybe doing something about that will make them stop."

Maybe. Hopefully.

[digitalprincess]

"The problem there is, I really can't think of anything that's bothering me."

[lightofchaldea]

"Was there something that happened before you came here, maybe?"

At least, Ritsuka was pretty sure nothing too traumatic had happened to Aelita since coming here...

[digitalprincess]

"Maybe... I only have memories from the last year."

She didn't really sound concerned about that though.

[lightofchaldea]

"Oh, so it could be something your subconscious remembers, or maybe residual memories of some sort...?"

Ritsuka didn't sound concerned either. Nor overly surprised, really.

"Like, if there was something important to you from before then, or something bad happened, it's possible that'd still affect you even if you can't remember it."