Open!

[playitagain]

Who: Nana... and everyone!
What: Banana Stand, training, and dorm hijinks!
Where: The ubiquitous banana stand, out on campus, and Lumiere.
When: First half of August!
Warnings: There's going to be some screaming and panic in prompt three.

I. BANANA STAND

[August begins, classes are ready to start anew, and Nana Daiba is on hand.

The Banana Stand is back. It didn't make an appearance during July, between the Herald and people being gone. Now, though, the snack station is out on the Quad: a large, wooden stand with "BANANICE" painted across the top. Nana is working it -- possibly with help, if you're so inclined -- and handing out free cookies, muffins, slices of banana bread, and more. All of it is flavored, too, with bananas.

She's beaming brightly, waving at everyone -- especially the newer students -- and trying to get them to come over.]

II. WHEN BAKED GOODS GO WRONG

[Nana does a lot of her baking in Lumiere.

But baking at a school with as much magic and strangeness as Daybreak carries... risks. Such as when Nana finds ingredients for sale, which she thought were mundane but high quality, and are actually magical. In this case, it means that there is a rumble from the first floor kitchen -- then the door bursts open, and Nana goes running ahead of... something.]

I DON'T UNDERSTAAAAAAND!

[The something is about a baker's dozen giant banana muffins. They have grown arms and legs; they are groaning audibly, and one hurls a baking tray that Nana just ducks under, before they start to rush forward down the hall and roar.]

Why have my muffins turned against me!?

III. WAKING UP IS THE WORST PART

[Even after the Herald, the dreams don't stop.

Nana hasn't been sleeping so well since June. There's people she can turn to -- the few who know -- but she hides the fact that she is a Seer. Her visions come from the Giraffe; her visions are dreams, and less accurate and have a different cost. Unfortunately, they come more and more often now. Nana is falling asleep, periodically. Maybe it's in class.

Maybe it's out on campus, on a bench or at the side of a building. Maybe it's in a dorm common room. Either way, sometimes, she dozes off...

And then wakes up with a jolt and a start. Sometimes a gasp; occasionally a shout. Nightmares. It might not be the firs time.

ooc: If you'd like this prompt, feel free to set exact circumstances! Ask me if you have any questions.]

Comments

[playitagain]

[She glances at the guard, then Nana stands up. She dusts herself off, smoothing out her skirt, and glances at Toki. She trusts him -- well, more that she feels she knows the contours of when and how she should trust him -- so she considers his handler, for a moment.

That reminds her of Kano, and his being gone.

Time to think about something else. She looks back at Toki, then she nods.] Sure. Let's go to the third floor, okay?

[yokeye]

[He gives her a look of half-confusion and half-surprise, before covering it with a smile. He wasn't expecting Nana to actually want to talk to him, and the fact she didn't think she could talk about it in the common room gives him pause.]

Okay.

[He says nothing else; he'll wait for Nana to start when they get upstairs.]

[playitagain]

[Nana rubs at the back of her head, then starts up the stairs. She waits until she's part of the way up there, before she looks back over her shoulder.]

It was a nightmare. I don't... think it was anything important, but so much has happened lately.

[She rubs between her eyes.]

I haven't slept as well as I should.

[yokeye]

[Toki follows, a little more cautious on the stairs than he used to be. He's fallen down them once; and now, he's mainly hoping they can get to the third floor without a vision incident. When Nana looks back, he nods.]

There's been a lot going on. Did you go to Australia?

[The Herald fight had to leave lasting impressions on everyone. He saw pieces of it, but he wasn't there. It wasn't the same.]

[playitagain]

I did. That's... when I stopped sleeping so well.

[She looks down, her hand on her neck. She stops when she gets to the top. She glances back at him. It was before that, actually. It was when that damned face started appearing. And the way she talks...]

That thing was... I didn't understand. How--how awful it is, how the daemons that want Nightfall to come are... are so strong, and don't care about humans. All those people died. And...

And the Herald, his eyes were so haunting, and it was like he saw me, like he did in--

[She said too much. She shakes her head quickly.]

[yokeye]

[She said she didn't think her nightmare was important... like he did in... A chill runs through him at those words. He suspects, but he won't ask. If he's right, then it would make sense why she wants to talk to him.]

The eyes... the eyes were... I could feel them, all the time, for months... all the time.

[The Herald's eyes were the beginning of his descent really. To be there, to see it in person, to be in its presence; the thought of it brings deep feelings of terror. No wonder Nana can't sleep.]

[playitagain]

...yeah. Like he was watching--like he was really there? [She all but confirms it.

Even as she mentally beats herself up, for lying; for making it sound like an accident, and not something she chose. For hiding how long it's been true. Nana sighs, softly, and wishes she could keep a better secret -- and that she didn't keep any, to begin with.

She looks at him, for a second, and considers:] It was... it was frightening to see him in person. And defeating him--mm. I'm glad we did, but... it opened a lot of questions, too.

It stopped, right? His appearances, in your visions.

[yokeye]

You did see it.

[It's not an accusation, just an observation spoken aloud as he joins her at the top of the stairs.]

It did. I saw the... way they took care of it, in a vision while I was in the hospital. Then it stopped. Like this... pressure was gone, the feeling that it was watching. I had no more visions about it, and I slept for the first time in a long time without dreaming about it.

How long have you been seeing things? [And she called it a nightmare.] Is it... just in dreams?

[playitagain]

Yeah. Since... January, or so. I-- [She's lying. And she's furious with herself for it. She tries to do those little twists of her words; those little ways to make it more truthful... while still lying.

Nana isn't happy about that.]

...It... took me awhile to realize how it worked. I haven't told many people. I didn't... really know where to start.

It's in dreams, though.

[yokeye]

[Toki doesn't think she's lying, even for a second, but he's never been good at sifting out subtle signs. It took him months to realize how often Kano lied.]

Not long after me, then... I don't usually see things in dreams. The Herald was an exception. Is it every night?

[He can't help but be curious of how her powers work. It so varied, between every Seer he's met.]

[playitagain]

It's... no, it's not every night. Sometimes it is, but then I'll go a few days without one. Once, it was a week and a half without one.

[She rubs at her forehead.]

They look like... paper cutouts, of whatever will happen. Like they're props. But then the people will be real.

Is it... different, for you? I never was sure how to ask. It seemed so personal.

[yokeye]

Paper cutouts? That's- I've never seen anything like that.

[He frowns a little, trying to imagine it. Like a puppet show backdrop with real people. Disturbing, in its own way.]

The timing is similar, I guess. I don't have visions every day, but most days, and usually more than one. But sometimes there's a gap of like three days maybe? Never a week, though.

Mine are... mixed. Like, they started out shorter and more colorful with symbolism and weird shit that never made sense. Flashing lights and neon things and, and like... I'm hardly ever watching it, from the outside. I'm there. Things are happening to me, even when it's about someone else. There's only a few times where I've recognized people; features are indistinct a lot of the time. I get... pieces a lot. Not a whole linear concept. Sometimes things blend together from separate events...

I guess I can't really explain what they're like. I used to write everything down, but trying to make it whole never worked too well. I paint them now. I used to think that my visions were so strange compared to other Seers I talked to and read about... because I got them from a daemon.

[It's not really much of a secret he has a daemon contract, though Nana may not have known.]

[playitagain]

It's... I'm not sure. Maybe it's because of me? Something about how I think, or see things.

[Or because of the Giraffe.

She winces, though. She knew Toki was troubled, and just hearing it described... that says a lot. He experiences those things happening to him. That's a visceral experience that she's never had. On the one hand, she's grateful. On another, sometimes, it feels like watching something and being helpless to change it.]

I always feel like... mine are a show. Something I'm just forced to watch. Sometimes, it's on a stage or a movie screen.

Does painting yours help?

[yokeye]

Before she left, Tatsumaki said something like that. That how you think or process things might affect how it's shown to you. I didn't really get it at that point, but I think it makes more sense now.

[Trying to imagine Nana's visions is strange. To be that removed from it, but not distanced. Just watching it all.]

Can you ever... look away?

[He nods, and there's a small smile at her last question.]

Painting helps a lot, because sometimes I can't describe things right with words and there's somehow more feeling in it than words and sketches in my notebooks. It's... alive. I don't show them to people like intentionally, because that probably still counts as "inciting panic" and "spreading impending doom" or something, but they're down in one of the art rooms in Theatre Lenormand if you ever want to look at them. And I keep pictures of them for reference.

[playitagain]

That... that makes sense, actually. I wish I'd talked to her, but... I haven't told any teachers, yet. [She hesitates.] Are there any you trust, with your visions?

[Then, Nana shakes her head 'no.']

I never do, in the dreams. They're not lucid -- sometimes, it feels like I'm being forced to watch. Like... a terrible car crash, that you can't look away from.

[She blinks, though; then, Nana smiles.]

I'll have a look at them. I'm glad they help. It sounds like... um... we cover it, in theater, sometimes. It's an idea that a play is more than the script -- that it's an experience, so you need the visuals, too.

Is it like that, sort of? Like... that describing them with words just loses so much of it?

[yokeye]

[He has to think on that for moment. They all know about his visions, witnessed them, yet they're still dismissed quite often. He has a lingering distrust for most of the faculty after everything that's happened lately.]

I trust Professor Jailbreak.

[Nana understands, and he's grateful for that. It's very hard to explain to someone who doesn't.]

An experience. That's what it is, exactly. Like uh... just writing is like maybe reading a script in a classroom, with no stage and no props and no feeling in the lines?

[And there's something else he wants to ask; what Keith asked him. That he hadn't given much thought to before.]

Nana, do you... Are your visions ever about good things? Or is it just... death and tragedy and- do you ever see happy endings?

sorry for the delay! busy weekend!!

[playitagain]

[Professor Jailbreak... she doesn't really know her. But she files that information away. She may need to come clean to a professor soon. Having an idea of who to talk to helps.

She puts her fingers to her lips, and she looks down for a moment.]

I think I see what you mean. It's... mm. It's never the same, just doing a script reading.

[That, though... that is a hell of a question. Nana hesitates a moment, and then she shakes her head.]

...no. I feel like... they're never really good.

o7

[yokeye]

[Toki expected that answer, and it doesn't give much hope.]

Mine aren't either. If they're not something terrible, they're so disconnected and weird and don't make any sense.

[He wants to see good things, even just once. But he can't voice that thought or he'll cry and Nana doesn't need that right now.]

You saw the Herald, but what else have you seen lately? The last thing I saw was some kind of lizard monster...

[playitagain]

Mm... yes. Sometimes mine are--I don't understand them. They'll be abstract, or... it's a piece of a piece, and it only makes sense after the fact.

[She pauses, though. Then, there's a nod.]

I saw that. Chasing after people... students, I think.

[yokeye]

I couldn't tell if they were students. But there were boats, like with fans on the back.

[Maybe they get different pieces of the same thing.]

Have you seen a... museum, I guess... where everything's frozen?

[playitagain]

I think the fan got lost. I saw the boats, but...

[She shakes her head. Sometimes, her visions get a little weird -- sometimes the abstraction means those details are lost.

She nods, though.]

I saw that one. Do you hear singing in yours? A woman's singing.

[yokeye]

Singing? No, I didn't hear singing... She was laughing in mine. She had red eyes, but was like... a shadow?

[He tries to recall other details; he's had two visions about this.]

There were paintings in a hallway, of this woman, and she came out of them? And I heard a man screaming... She had a crown!

[That, at least, seemed like an important detail.]

[playitagain]

The paintings--I don't think I saw them. But... I did see the crown.

[She looks up, and her eyes widen a little.]

Do you think the crown's important?

[yokeye]

I think it might be? It was the only thing about her that was clear really, besides the eyes. I saw the crown in both visions.

[There was something else, too. Something he'd thought of at the time, but is now having a hard time recalling.]

It reminded me of something, the atmosphere or the setting. What was it?... Oh! Before, like months ago, I had visions of like people frozen in ice, at a... an archaeology dig thing? I think there was a mission to it... that place, right? The ice place? I don't... I forgot a lot of things around that time and I might be mixing it up....

[playitagain]

I--I didn't realize you were having memory problems. I... I didn't realize how hard things were for you, Toki.

[Hard in a similar, and yet completely different ways. Her visions pry at a sense of guilt and reinforce it; his attack his sense of reality, from what she can tell.

She swallows, but then she nods.]

There was an archaeological dig. It was... about an ancient daemon that was defeated, named Zarc, I think.

Maybe it's related...?