...Are you that afraid of my dying?

"Of your desire to die."

I see...

[places a hand on his shoulder]

He leans into that.

How else can I help?

"You can change things... change the dream."

[nods]

Do I have to go elsewhere to do so?

"No. You can do it here... I'm sorry, I can't show you. But the ingredients are all around you."

I see...

[...takes a look at the feathers.]

They are made of steel, and if you pick one up you will experience a wave of fear -- fear that even now, his Nation will die, invaded and overwhelmed by one of the great European empires.

If you survey the shelves, you'll find, in addition to the items listed already: silver apples, little gold dolphins, broken grey branches, a curve of iron, a blue hermit crab, a bloody black gamepiece, a tangle of blue, yellow and light green threads, a smooth grey stone, an alaki, a ball of clay, a blooming Selenia in a little vase of water and a white handkerchief...

Edited 2012-08-27 07:47 pm (UTC)

[...That blooming selenia is calling me.]

When you touch it you experience a rush of appreciation for life, an emerging belief that it can be good, that it's worth protecting for its own sake, that forgiveness is possible and change is inevitable but can be influenced, that people are worth saving and living in the world is possible... and hope, raw, sharp-edged hope that you, personally, will start to discover these feelings, that you'll learn to live.

[brings it over to Mau]

The bad dreams are in the cauldron, aren't they? Will adding ingredients change them?

He looks up at that. He seems much more alert, now that there's light in the room.

"It should."

[nods and tosses in the blooming selenia, watching the cauldron closely]

The flower floats for a moment before it's swallowed by the thick, dark liquid. A ripple passes over the surface, and as it settles, the picture changes... now, in the dream, the little figure of Selenia is leading the rest of the crowd to the edge of the islet, helping them down to swim away...

[smiles softly at that, then takes a look at the gold dolphin. that must be nice.]

It contains the hope that his Nation will flourish in safety, for generations.

[into the cauldron that one goes, checking the dream]

[will be grabbing the silver apple after that]

It changes again... a ship appears on the horizon, everybody is rescued, and it sails away... until it's just Mau on his own in the darkness, fighting furiously and hopelessly against Locaha... and now the liquid in the cauldron is a deep, clear blue.

The apple brings you visions of Aather, without darkness -- everybody coming whole out of the book, the Personae's bonds shattered, freedom and hope.

[apple goes in there too cause Mau should dream of everything nice]

[how about those glass stars?]

The apple doesn't cause any change in the images of Mau fighting Locaha that flicker in the cauldron, but the liquid clears further -- it just looks like water, now.

The glass stars contain the memory of this thread with Allen.

[that deserves to go in there as well]

Any better?

He's stopped crying.

"Yes... thank you."

I'm glad. Do you need more?