Quite literal sleepwalking (open)

[Danni Lauraina White]

Her mind reeled, and everything seemed to just spin around her. Danni tried to find proper footing but it was a bit hard with how everything was moving around her. She hadn't ever been drunk so she couldn't really compare this to that, but it was something she imagined it would be like. Though she felt incredibly sleepy at the same time.

She swayed a bit from side to side before stumbling then catching herself with a grab against a wall that just suddenly happened to come to be right there. The pale figure just stood there, holding on to the wall for a moment as she waited for the spinning and confusion to pass. Her knees weakened a couple of times but she managed to keep standing. Then, as everything finally seemed to snap into stability, she gave a sigh of relief then blinked a couple of times before looking around.

Just where was she? This place was completely unfamiliar to her. How had she gotten here? Danni tried to retrace her steps but was having a bit of difficulty doing so. But then, the realization struck her and she gave a soft gasp as her pinkish red eyes widened. She was asleep. And so was the owner of this place... It had happened again, Danni was in someone's dream. But who's? She had no idea. Just like she didn't know how she was going to get out of it. Unless she snapped back to her own dreams when the person woke up?

Rounding the corner of the wall, she was just about to look for the person who was hosting this dream but she came to a sudden halt as she spotted said person.

"Well, this was a lot easier than I expected." She commented with a smile.

[Charlotte Greene]

What a day it had been... Virtually zero sleep the night before and only a very brief nap curled up against Connor's chest in the lounge.. She hadn't fallen into sleepwalking only because (ugh) coffee.. She'd been trying really, really hard not to end up sleepwalking through all her classes these days. Connor always worried when she told him and Charlie.. well.. didn't really get any work done. She was still in school, after all. Schoolwork was why she was here. Er, schoolwork and getting these damned wings figured out.

She'd greeter her bed with the smile one might give an old friend, popped a few ibuprofen, and fallen face-first into her pillow.. she was out almost instantly. Out like a light. As in blackness. Dark.. Some amount of time later, the darkness gained a bit of a light to it.. became grey... and Charlie found herself in a rather large expanse of formless greyish..ness.... This had happened before.. Many times, really. Most often after a day like today where she'd fueled herself with caffeine and was right on the verge of theta wave sleep when one didn't dream.. but here she was.. Dead asleep, not lucid, and yet still somehow able to tell that this was 'one of those dreams'.

That was.. until there was suddenly a point of light.. and then.. what looked like a hallway? That was different. And out of the hallway walked what was maybe a faerie, an angel, or someone very, very white.... who smiled and said quite plainly that this was easier than she'd expected.

DreamCharlie willed herself closer to this new person, and Danni would watch the girl (wearing grey short-shorts and a cut-off grey tank top - it was what she wore to bed when it was warm) seem to blur, then very suddenly appear only a foot or so in front of her.. Charlie floating sideways and staring at this new thing in 'this dream'.. While Danni's gravity had remained the same, Charlie's now seemed to have shifted sideways.. as she stood where there was no floor with her feet to Danni's left and her head at Danni's shoulder level.. She turned and took a few steps to the side.... which translated into 'over Danni' to get a view from behind.

"You aren't usually here. Nobody's here. I've never had an angel this dream before.. Where are your wings?" It made sense that the girl would have wings if she were an angel.. especially because Charlie wasn't even an angel and she had wings.. Though hers did look more like big green translucent butterfly wings instead of the ones a person might typically associate with angels.. Though.. given that it made sense.. if Danni was subject to the dreamer's reality.. She would suddenly find that she hid, in fact, have glorious pure-white angel wings sprouting from her back like they'd always been there. "Oh! They're so pretty!"

..And DreamCharlie would step off the nonexistant sideways ground she was walking on and float gently over to wrap her arms around one of Danni's new glorious wings, softly hugging it and letting out a blissful sigh at the amazing softness of the feathers... It made sense to Charlie that an angel's wings aught to be comfortable.. and it aught to feel really good for someone to pet or hug them.. and so, again, if Danni was subject to Charlie's dream reality.. she would quite likely quite enjoy the hug as well.

[Danni Lauraina White]

So the other girl was aware that this was a dream? Interesting. Maybe she was another one of those "dream-walkers" like her? Though, possibly a better one seeing how she managed to have those pretty green butterfly-like wings on her back. Maybe the blonde had a thing for fairies, or wanted to be a fairy. Danni tipped her head a bit to the side with a small grin at the mention of her being an angel. She was about to comment about how Angels might not always have wings, but ended up gasping as a pair suddenly sprouted from her own back. White and feathered.

Well, this was... unexpected. Even as the other girl commented about how pretty they were, Danni was feeling on them and checking them out. She had had the nickname of "dove" before, but now she resembled one even more so. Before she could do much mroe checking out of them, she found her new wings being hugged by the apparently affectionate girl, this causing her to laugh a little. She wasn't used to random hugs, but it wasn't like this was the waking world, right?

"Well, I'm not an angel, but you can call me "Dove" if you want." She said.

Being aware of a dream being a dream made you able to do things, control things... Though, she hadn't controlled the sudden wings, that had been all the other girl. But... She thought of it for a moment and decorated her wings with a couple of random colours. Pinks and reds almost like highlights.

"So you know this is a dream, and you're not just waking up after knowing it? I always wake up when I know... I think. Actually, I'm not really sure about that.... Do you always have those wings in your dreams? They're pretty."

[Charlotte Greene]

Silly Danni.. Passive dream control was a pretty powerful thing.. and one didn't need to be lucid in the slightest to practice it..

"Dove?" Suddenly the grey would around them was like a gigantic movie theater screen.. awash with the image of a thousand doves flying in slow motion all around them.. tiny white feathers floated around them but passed through them instead of ever touching them. They weren't real, after all. "I like doves.."

Did she know this was a dream? Well.. yes? But only in that she knew she was having a dream.. that she'd had before.. That didn't change that she was dreaming.. and it didn't make her lucid. "Oh, I'm sure I'll wake up in a little while. I get uncomfortable and have to flip over to my back.. These are my wings. I love them.. I just wish they didn't cause me so much grief. They make it really uncomfortable to sleep sometimes.. and they don't like it when I put them away. My back gets super sore." At about that point Charlie opened her eyes and leaned away from Danni's new wings.. seeing that they now had some color to them.. which, for whatever reason, made Charlie think about parkeets.. cockatiels.. parrots.. and the doves that had filled the void instantly changed to images of the previously mentioned birds.. The area immediately around them exploded upwards with jungle-like life.. birds were all around them. Each with eyes that were intelligent and cunning. One stood on one leg and waves the other to them.

Charlie let out a small squeal and almost danced the short distance to the nearby tree, offering her hand to the bird, which stepped happily onto it and let out a soft squawk. Charlie brought it to her chest and petted it's brilliant red feathers, lightly hugging the beautiful creature before turning back to face Danni with a huge smile on her face. "Don't you love animals? And birds are so smart.. Like Sona, Connor's horse.. He is super smart."

The jungle landscape was suddenly gone with a whoosh.. and Danni would find herself in s stable with Charlie.. Charlie was now wearing an orange t-shirt beneath an open plaid long-sleeve button-up and some raggedy jeans and hiking boots. She was standing on a stool leaning over a stall door with a huge horse's neck in her arms. The horse was neighing and chewing at his bit excitedly.. "He's always so happy to see me. He knows that I love him and he knows how much I love Connor, too.."

Poof. Suddenly there was Connor.. rooting through Sona's tack trunk, withdrawing a baggie of mints, only to step up behind Charlie and put his arms around her middle and kiss her cheek from behind...

The environment became muddled for a moment.. the entire dream seeming to shift as there was a very faint overlay of a house with a white picket fence.. a wedding in a church and Charlie and Connor kissing before the altar.. A boy and a girl that looked just like Charlie and Connor.. His family's farm and holiday dinners around a huge table, horse races where Charlie and Connor celebrated... And the stable became solid and real again, Charlie clutching Connor's arms with her own. "I love him so, so much. More than anything. Everything about him. I can't wait to meet his family.. I know I'll love them too..."

[Danni Lauraina White]

The other girl, or fairy, whichever one might have chosen to call the green winged lady who was loving on Danni's feathery wings, repeated the word "Dove" then everything just kind of went a little insane from there. They were in a movie theatre, a huge one. With thousands of doves flying around in slow motion, with feathers coming off of them. The birds, not the girls. Though, some of those feathers were passing through the girls. As the other girl commented on liking doves, Danni smirked a bit.

"I can see that." She commented before moving to spin around in the feathers some.

She didn't worry about how she might have looked while doing it, seeing how this was a dream and al. There was a good chance that the dreamer wouldn't even remember most of the dream if any of it at all. Even as she was told about how the fairy would be waking up soon due to an uncomfortable back, Danni spun and danced a little. She did pause though as the doves turned into all sorts of colourful birds.

This dream was certainly more interesting than the others she had been in. As the fairy squealed and pranced over to a tree before letting a bird climb onto her hand, Danni briefly wondered if she had woken up in some kind of Disney movie.

"Yeah, animals are pretty cool, I guess." She replied when she was asked about her love for them.

It was about then, that she noticed the scenery changing up again. They were going from a jungle-like scene to some kind of farm-like place with some guy in an orange shirt there with them. The fairy was standing on a stool and hugging on a horse, commenting about how much the horse loved her and how it knew she loved Connor. Danni guessed Connor was the guy with the shirt and boots. He was moving, grabbing something and then stepping behind the fairy before getting a bit lovey dovey.

Poof. Things changed again. They were at a wedding. The fairy's wedding and house and.... whoa. Danni had to shake her head to try to get her brain unscrambled from all of these changes and stuff. It was a little overwhelming, but at the same time it was kind of fun. Still, she needed some semblance of normal, so she shook her wings, them suddenly becoming a burst of feathers before floating around like snowflakes. Well.. it was a start, she supposed.

"So how long have you two been going out for? And when are you meeting his parents?" Danni asked, leaning back against one of the stable doors.

Was it even okay to ask questions? She didn't know, but she figured she'd get a talking to if it wasn't okay.

[Charlotte Greene]

As Danni spoke up, the scene and everything in it faded and dissolved until they were standing back in the same room they'd started everything in, only their positions relevant to each other having changed. It was a dream after all.. When one gets rid of the thoughts, all that is left is the vessel once more. "Oh, it's been a while now. And it's been so wonderful. I'm so comfortable around him and I can tell he's so happy that I love him for who he is instead of for his family's money.. I just don't understand how people can be like that. What is money? Sure, it's nice to not worry about it but I would rather be homeless with Connor than a millionaire with anyone else."

Rather than literally talking, Charlie simply pointed to an empty space next to Danni.. and that space filled with the blurred image of memory.. Charlie, looking a little anxious and nervous talking into the gym at hammel.. watching countless people walk past her and being too afraid to talk to them.. each blurred, no identifiable faces.. They were just bodies. Finally, though, one with a face. The face Danni had just seen in the stable and at the wedding. Connor. He looked kind, and Charlie swallowed her worries and stepped up to him, desperately hoping that the one kind face she'd seen would be willing to help her. She just wanted something that would help her back..

A blur of excercises and appreciation would put the two a little flushed and ready to leave.. the offer to accompany the other to dinner.. the question of a date.. the confirmation that it could very well be a date... Pure happiness.. passage of time.. So many nights spent cuddled together on a big comfy chair in the student lounge.. Sharing of secrets and hopes and dreams.. confessions about their pasts, so much happiness that the other didn't judge, wasn't surprised.. that they were simply glad to know more.

Riding Sona.. falling off of Sona.. a perfect clearing in the woods near the stable with a picturesque brook and trees and Sona patiently playing Chaperone. Their first kiss.. The nine billion followups.. and finally Connor asking Charlie if she would come home with him for the holidays.. and Charlie so close to the happiest tears that had ever existed.. just hugging him and thanking all of creation that she had been given the chance to know him...

"They said I can spend the holidays with them.. Gonna buy my plane ticket and everything.. It's so soon. I can't wait. I want to meet them and be around the people that made Connor what he is. I want to thank them for bringing him into the world.. for helping him to grow to the person he is. I love him so much, I do." The image faded again and Charlie turned her eyes to Danni. "Do you have anyone like that? Oh, I hope you do.. or if you don't, that you find someone like that someday. It's.. it's so wonderful."