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rainbowfic2025-08-21 03:30 pm
paradoxcase) wrote in rainbowfic2025-08-21 03:30 pm
Entry tags:
Realgar #10 [The Fulcrum]
Name: A Suggestion
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Realgar #10: Net
Styles and Supplies: Panorama, Brushes (August 21, 2025: Validate)
Word Count: 697
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.3.1.6
Summary: Qhoroali has an idea.
Throughout the rest of the week, it felt like Qhoroali was always just on the verge of asking Setsiana something, or bringing up some new topic, but for some reason she always seemed to hesitate and back down at the last moment. Setsiana waited her out, and on the last day of the week, Qhoroali finally asked what was on her mind: “Would you by any chance be interested in making a dreamreading of one of your dreams of Sapfita?”
“Do we even have access to a dreamreader?” Setsiana asked. They weren’t considered as secret as the Mirrors, but she had never heard of them being used outside of a temple.
“Yeah, actually, we do. I stole one from my mom before I left her temple. Sometimes I still wear it to sleep, actually.”
“I thought you said you never had any dreams of Sapfita,” Setsiana said.
“Well, yeah. But I was supposed to. I was my mother’s chosen heir to lead the temple some day, and she had dreams of Her all the time, so of course I was supposed to be having them, too. A lot of people used to say that the fact that I didn’t have them meant Sapfita didn’t approve of me being the future leader of temple, and all that nonsense. Well,” she paused, thoughtful. “Maybe it was true, actually. Maybe Sapfita didn’t approve of me because She knew I was going to want to kill Her later, I guess that’s probably reasonable, from Her perspective. Anyway, it was frustrating. After I left, I figured maybe if I just kept the dreamreader hooked up, someday I’d get a dream and prove them all wrong, or something. It’s a little silly, in retrospect; I’m never going to see any of them ever again, probably.”
“Oh.” Setsiana thought, for a minute, about what it would actually mean to try to record one of her dreams. She’d always resisted the idea before, because she was afraid of what kind of dreamreading it would produce, and if it would be accepted by the priestesses, or it would get her kicked out of the temple. But she wasn’t at the temple anymore, and Qhoroali knew all about her dreams, and now she even believed that they were real. “What if I have some other embarrassing dream instead, and then it records that?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” said Qhoroali. “Dreamreaders can’t record things that only happen inside your head. They can only record real dreams that you have of Sapfita, which by all accounts, must take place outside of Time, let alone outside our own heads. That’s why no one has to worry about the Personalists producing any dreamreadings. And since it does appear that your dreams are very likely real dreams of Her, I think it’s also quite likely that a dreamreader could capture them. And I am dying to see what that looks like. Aren’t you?”
She was a little curious, now that she knew Qhoroali did have a dreamreader, but she still felt some hesitation. Her dreams of Sapfita had always been very personal; there had been plenty of things she’d told Sapfita that she’d never told anyone else. “What if She doesn’t want to be recorded?”
Qhoroali shrugged. “She hasn’t had an issue with it for the whole two millennia that dreamreaders have existed and have been being used for,” she pointed out, quite reasonably. “What would be the problem now? The whole idea behind the dreamreader making a dream more likely is that She specifically picks people who are using them so that Her communications will be recorded and relayed. And the reverse could be true, too — if She doesn’t want to be recorded, She can just not give you a dream the night we hook you up, and then we’ll know that She didn’t want that. Right?”
This argument was eminently sensible, and Setsiana could find no reason to object to it, so she shrugged as nonchalantly as she could and said, “Alright, I’ll give it a shot.” If Sapfita did consent to being recorded, she’d just have to remember not to talk about anything too personal during the dream.
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Realgar #10: Net
Styles and Supplies: Panorama, Brushes (August 21, 2025: Validate)
Word Count: 697
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.3.1.6
Summary: Qhoroali has an idea.
Throughout the rest of the week, it felt like Qhoroali was always just on the verge of asking Setsiana something, or bringing up some new topic, but for some reason she always seemed to hesitate and back down at the last moment. Setsiana waited her out, and on the last day of the week, Qhoroali finally asked what was on her mind: “Would you by any chance be interested in making a dreamreading of one of your dreams of Sapfita?”
“Do we even have access to a dreamreader?” Setsiana asked. They weren’t considered as secret as the Mirrors, but she had never heard of them being used outside of a temple.
“Yeah, actually, we do. I stole one from my mom before I left her temple. Sometimes I still wear it to sleep, actually.”
“I thought you said you never had any dreams of Sapfita,” Setsiana said.
“Well, yeah. But I was supposed to. I was my mother’s chosen heir to lead the temple some day, and she had dreams of Her all the time, so of course I was supposed to be having them, too. A lot of people used to say that the fact that I didn’t have them meant Sapfita didn’t approve of me being the future leader of temple, and all that nonsense. Well,” she paused, thoughtful. “Maybe it was true, actually. Maybe Sapfita didn’t approve of me because She knew I was going to want to kill Her later, I guess that’s probably reasonable, from Her perspective. Anyway, it was frustrating. After I left, I figured maybe if I just kept the dreamreader hooked up, someday I’d get a dream and prove them all wrong, or something. It’s a little silly, in retrospect; I’m never going to see any of them ever again, probably.”
“Oh.” Setsiana thought, for a minute, about what it would actually mean to try to record one of her dreams. She’d always resisted the idea before, because she was afraid of what kind of dreamreading it would produce, and if it would be accepted by the priestesses, or it would get her kicked out of the temple. But she wasn’t at the temple anymore, and Qhoroali knew all about her dreams, and now she even believed that they were real. “What if I have some other embarrassing dream instead, and then it records that?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” said Qhoroali. “Dreamreaders can’t record things that only happen inside your head. They can only record real dreams that you have of Sapfita, which by all accounts, must take place outside of Time, let alone outside our own heads. That’s why no one has to worry about the Personalists producing any dreamreadings. And since it does appear that your dreams are very likely real dreams of Her, I think it’s also quite likely that a dreamreader could capture them. And I am dying to see what that looks like. Aren’t you?”
She was a little curious, now that she knew Qhoroali did have a dreamreader, but she still felt some hesitation. Her dreams of Sapfita had always been very personal; there had been plenty of things she’d told Sapfita that she’d never told anyone else. “What if She doesn’t want to be recorded?”
Qhoroali shrugged. “She hasn’t had an issue with it for the whole two millennia that dreamreaders have existed and have been being used for,” she pointed out, quite reasonably. “What would be the problem now? The whole idea behind the dreamreader making a dream more likely is that She specifically picks people who are using them so that Her communications will be recorded and relayed. And the reverse could be true, too — if She doesn’t want to be recorded, She can just not give you a dream the night we hook you up, and then we’ll know that She didn’t want that. Right?”
This argument was eminently sensible, and Setsiana could find no reason to object to it, so she shrugged as nonchalantly as she could and said, “Alright, I’ll give it a shot.” If Sapfita did consent to being recorded, she’d just have to remember not to talk about anything too personal during the dream.
no subject
Sapfita didn’t approve of me because She knew I was going to want to kill Her later, I guess that’s probably reasonable, from Her perspective.
Yeah, not hard to imagine why there... XD
no subject
Thank you, I hope you find the follow-ups to this interesting, as well!
no subject
I definitely am! The concept of dreamreaders is so cool!
no subject
Thank you! I hope the result lives up to expectations, haha.
no subject
no subject
Absolutely!