hypnagothic | [The City] IC Contact

For the master of my dreams,

May this missive find you well. Given what care you took to ensure my escape, I thought it only polite to inform you that I managed to find my way back out with ease, in no small part due to your 'fortuitous' timing. I should hope that none of your other friends found any trouble from the demons within? It seemed far too easy a trap for even the most astute to stumble into. I fear that any new building discovered to likely be just as cursed.

Please do take a care with your own steps as you did with mine. Your kindness is something to be admired, but I would worry for you to be taken advantage of in any way. Will you be gentle with your own comforts, I hope?

I do hope.

Fondly,
Vanessa Ives

Post Script: Do you enjoy clementines?

[ some time passes before a reply comes through. Dream had to ask Hob how to use ~technology~ and then he waited to reply in private. ]

Lady Vanessa,

Your reassurance is a welcome tiding. I expect that those you followed after also escaped easily under your guidance. It seems that those others I know here were also similarly caught, though, fortunately, none of them encountered any lasting effects from the event that transpired. Caution would be advisable for any future expeditions within this expanding City.

Not many who know of me would call my decisions and acts a kindness. It is unlikely that any here could take advantage of me, with regards to kindness or otherwise.

What comforts that may be found here, however, I suspect will be found through the kindness of others.

Regards,
Morpheus

Post Script: While mortal food has never held much attraction for me, it would appear that the limitations placed on me since my arrival here dictate that I partake as the price of certain efforts. Simple tastes, when well-made or grown, are preferable, if this is also meant as an invitation.

[ Her response comes the following afternoon, including an address and directions to a quaint little bakery.

If he insists on 'Lady', two can play that game. ]

Dear Master Morpheus,

It is indeed an invitation.

If you are still of a mind for the simple pleasures, please meet me at the address noted below at seven o'clock tonight.

Sincerely,
Vanessa Ives

[ he's getting better at using this phone thing, the reply comes maybe half an hour later. ]

Lady Vanessa,

I will accept the invitation of your company.

Regards,
Morpheus

[ The bakery itself isn't of particular note on the outside. It simply says Bakery, typed in a bland font, but inside it's full of quaint trinkets and antique frames. A few potted plants fill one of the corners, where the tables havebeen pushed closer together to give them space. The photographs in the frames are difficult to focus on, nearly seeming empty, but they spread across the front wall as if it were a family home showing off the grandchildren.

Unsettling to most, how they loom, but this is where Vanessa chose. Make of that what you will.

There are plenty of baked goods and tiny desserts on display, although some spaces on the shelving are noticeably lacking. Whatever she couldn't find in the kitchen, she has thieved away from the front shelving, taken back beyond the quilted curtain that hangs over the kitchen door. On the center counter there is a spread that includes some fruits, cheeses, breads, and she could not resist some lemon cakes.

Curiously, no clementines. ]

[ he arrives at the address at the appointed time, stepping through the entrance quietly with his hands in his coat pockets. it's a slightly different coat today, still black and elegant-looking but with a less dramatic collar and open as well, revealing the plainer t-shirt and pants underneath. his hair is still as messy as ever.

Vanessa might have been able to sense him before since she's expecting it, though she certainly will once he passes over the threshold. it's a vague feeling of a huge but benign nothingness, or perhaps a dim sense of looking up at the distant cosmos of the night sky, the sensation that the stars gaze back down at the observer. whatever she sense of him, she'll know he lingers in the front area before the counter as he pauses to look around him. ]

[ With a mouth full of grapes, Vanessa hops off the counter just before he walks through the front door, struggling them down as quick as she can. How forgiving grapes can be if one doesn't first choke on them.

She can't help but eat like a heathen when nobody's around to judge.

After managing a swift check on her reflection in the large refrigerator door, and relieved she hadn't already ruined her make-up, Vanessa will step around the counter to lift up the curtain and peek out. ]

Good evening. How wonderful to see you.

[ She's already dropping the curtain to disappear, the husky rasp of her voice drifting out from the little kitchen in the back. The decorations there are not as cluttered, but there is still a distinct aesthetic that suggests it's better suited for a homestead. ]

Won't you join me?

[ he stands still as she makes herself known, only his head turning towards her. he makes his way over to the back kitchen at her invitation though, pushing the curtain aside with one hand to step under it. ]

I see that you have had your way with this place.

I can only be credited with stealing away its bounty.

[ Quite the different creature from the one who haunted the network to warn the City against over-indulging. But this isn't the land of the fairies, as a friend had since pointed out. She had fasted for days on arrival and it had served her nothing but frustration; they are cursed no matter how they go about their stay.

So she will enjoy the moments she can, so few are they to find, and she does so with the fervor of a woman who understands that she may not live to see the following day. ]

I believe that something here should find your favor. For simple tastes, they can bring a unique contentment.

[ She'll breeze past him to pull a stool over to the little island where another metal stool had been getting neglected just earlier. ]

As they typically do.

[ but he gives a small nod of thanks for the stool, taking the one she brings over only after she takes hers. he doesn't look over the spread just yet though. ]

Though this engagement was surely not for my sole benefit.

[ She'll sit with a smoothing of her dark plum skirt. Vanessa has been attempting some of the more modern dresses on occasion, but it still covers her from neck to toe and heavily favors black lace.

Already she's having a hard time keeping a grin at bay. She fails miserably, in fact. ]

Quite astute of you. Am I criminal for enjoying the pleasure of your company?

[ he himself does not smile, but there's an ease to his expression at the moment. ]

Hardly that, though some might consider it ... peculiar of you.

[ There's a tight-lipped 'Hm' of amusement while she reaches for an apple. ]

It would hardly be the first time. I have been called far worse.

[ But that is simply the standard for Vanessa Ives. When she stops being peculiar, or even criminal, is when one should worry. ]

You said that not many would call you kind. [ With a small knife she'll begin peeling the apple. ] What would they call you?

You wear such names as a badge of honor.

[ said lightly, without judgement. he watches her work with the apple for a moment before bringing his gaze back up to her face. ]

Many have called me cruel. Others, impartial.

[ She's comfortable with a knife in her hand, to be sure. She doesn't rush it, but she isn't slow for lack of skill. How it's done is important to her. ]

And do you wear those with a badge of honor?

[ he doesn't move save for the slight inclination of his head, but it still somehow gives the impression of a shrug. ]

How others think of me is their own affair. I have many names and titles.

Impressive.

[ Said in a gentle smirk of a tone to suggest that titles are in fact not impressive. And what is it to have many names? Such an idea has only ever caused her to be split apart from her very own soul. ]

No, I do not bear their slander with pride. I do it to spite them.

[ With it peeled, she'll begin to cut out some thin slices, laying them along in an uneven layer upon the counter. ]

But I would only ever call myself Vanessa Ives.

A badge of animus, then?

[ again, said lightly, as if he is puzzling her out. ]

[ There's a breathy chuckle while she leans back and hooks a boot behind one of the bars under her seat. ]

Better a mask of animus, don't you think?

[ another slight motion of his head as he watches her move, another hint of a shrug. ]

I confess that I would not know.

It's a very human trait, perhaps. Protection.

[ Not a lie, though. She doesn't like to lie about who she is. Only, she knows how she must carry on to survive, and so often that will look like a lie.

So often they will call her cruel or impartial. Let them. For them the mask works well, and she remains hidden. ]

A flawed attempt at shaping the world as we would rather others see it.

[ Deciding that there are enough slices between them, if there's to be room for any other indulgences, she'll set the rest of the apple aside and hold out a slice for him to take. ]

Here.

Not only human. Nor is it necessarily flawed.

[ he takes the offered slice, holding it delicately with his fingertips. he does not immediately move to eat it though, lowering his hand to rest gently on the counter. ]

[ In no desire to rush him, she hooks her other foot beneath the bar and rests an arm against the counter while taking a bite of her own slice. Small enough that it doesn't hinder her speech. ]

Everything about us is flawed.

No.

[ said simply, softly. ]

[ It gives her pause, not knowing what to make of that. Holding half a slice still, she lowers her hand with a curious lift to her brow. ]

How could it be otherwise? Are we not all of us sinners?

un: hidden | text (shortly after mall shenans)

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