Nightmares and Daydreams [QUEST]

[Keeya Satori]

It was the dead of night, and Keeya was curled up by the fireplace, desperately trying to stay awake. She felt worse than she looked, and she looked terrible. Her every movement was sluggish and radiated exhaustion even as she tensed at the smallest sound in the shadows. There were deep, dark shadows under her eyes, which she could barely keep open enough to keep writing into the small book she had open in front of her, the first few pages already filled with the cuneiform runes of the language of dragons.

She had given up on sleeping entirely, but after two nights of that the dreams had simply followed her into the waking world. She was reasonably sure she was still awake. Almost reasonably. Keeya paused her writing, set down the quill, and slapped herself in the face. The sudden pain jolted some awareness into her, and in that moment of clarity she realized she was not only awake, she also had company. Keeya sat up to face them, adjusting her nightclothes and trying to make herself presentable.

Tag: Cassandra Amell, Aspen Lucard, @gwen

[Cassandra Amell]

DREAMED OF PARADISE

EVERY TIME SHE CLOSED HER EYES

There were times when Cassandra liked to patrol the academy to make sure the squires were not up to any mischief. She could remember her own days as a squire where she had attempted to sneak out past curfew when she felt mischievous enough. Getting caught had quickly soured the experience for her, since the knight that had trained her disliked any nonsense that did not apply to training. It also gave her a chance to offer a sort of silent offer of help to squires that perhaps needed someone to speak to if they were simply up late. Becoming a knight could be quite nerve wracking, or there were stresses in life that the squires were unsure of how to handle. Either way, she was accustomed to ignoring sleep in favor of patrol.

Of course, she loved sleep as much as the next person. No doubt she would be crashing in her own bed once the morning set in. Cassandra had nothing of import to do the next day, which was a slight relief. There was only so much paper work a woman could take before it drove her insane. Her thoughts dispersed when she caught sight of a flickering fire within a fireplace. It looked like someone was up this late besides herself. She entered the room quiet to see a squire sitting before the fireplace with quite an exhausted expression upon her face, but she nearly started when the younger female slapped herself to keep alert.

“I find splashing my face with cold water less painful,” she mused in greeting. It was clear that the squire was not attempting to sneak out, but she did feel concerned over how exhausted she appeared. It looked like she had not slept in days. There was no guarantee that the squire would wish to talk about what was wrong, but perhaps she would not mind the company. Cassandra entered the room and sat down quietly before looking back to the younger female. “Do you mind if I keep you company for a time?”

Keeya Satori @gwen Aspen Lucard

Sleepover time?

❖ nox ❖

[Aspen Lucard]

broken dreams and hardened hearts

Aspen wasn’t necessarily stealing it, she liked to think of it as borrowing for a short while. In any case, it was too beautiful to be used as a decoration like it usually was.

She walked down the corridor of the Academy, in her hands an ornate spear that usually found its home on the wall of her Theory in Battle Strategies classroom. It was too nice to waste the opportunity to fool around with the spear for a night, especially since her sleep had been plagued by nightmares as of late. It was much preferable to be able to train with such a fine weapon and continue on with the day exhausted than it was to face a full eight hours of nightmarish renditions of her father’s face morphed onto horrid creatures of evil. She didn’t really like to think about it.

She would have made it all the way out to the courtyard to throw it around and stab offending flowers and such, had it not been for the sudden appearance of Cassandra Amell. Aspen quickly drew back into shadow, and peeked around the corner of a door frame. Cassandra was with what looked like a very exhausted Keeya. Well, that looked interesting.

Aspen quickly wiped her fingerprints from the spear and placed it behind a potted plant. She wasn’t in the mood to walk all the way back and return it, someone else would just have to take the fall for that one.

She strolled casually into the light, acting like nothing suspicious had occurred, and said, maybe a bit too loudly for this time of night, “Hey Keeya!” then, pretending like she’d not seen Cassandra in the hallway, said, “Oh, Cassandra, what brings you here? I’m just coming to, ah, take care of my good friend Keeya.” She figured the lie would keep her out of questions about roaming the halls at night. “Isn’t that right?” she raised an eyebrow at the Gerudo and lowered her chin a bit, really, really hoping she’d understand, and not question the story.

---

Tagged: Keeya Satori Cassandra Amell @gwen
Notes: friend. pfft.
Word Count: 343

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BY AERIE OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Deleted]

this is everything i wanted tonight.

Gwen didn't live at the Academy, since the home she shared with her mother was only a short walk away, but there were times when Gwen would become too absorbed in her training or studies, and end up staying at the Academy past sundown. Once it got dark Skyloft was not exactly safe, as the local Remlits got vicious when the moon came out, and there was a room full of bunks created for these kinds of events, so Gwen often just stayed the night when she lost track of time so thoroughly. She was attempting to make it to that room, moving as quietly as she possibly could so as not to disturb any of the residents, when she heard an obnoxiously loud and irritatingly familiar voice echoing through the sleeping halls. Aspen. It was way too late for her nonsense; Gwen, who was accustomed to eight hours of beauty sleep on most nights, was much too tired to deal with the harpy. But she couldn't leave her be and let her wake all the squires, either. Gwen stormed over to where she heard her voice - still as quietly as she could be - ready to scold the girl to the Surface and back, but she was stopped short by the sight of Keeya and Cassandra sitting by the fireplace. All anger towards Aspen already forgotten, Gwen quickly brushed past the girl, completely ignoring her. She briefly touched Cassandra's shoulder by way of a greeting; she didn't wish to ignore her mentor, but she was focused on Keeya. She looked - well, terrible, honestly. Something had to be terribly wrong and Gwen was dying to know what so she could go out and very politely beat down the source of her friend's problems, but she managed to swallow down the torrent of questions and instead tried for a smile as she settled down on Keeya's other side, opposite from Cassandra. She didn't even spare a glance in Aspen's direction. "Nice night," she tried, but the light tone she attempted to inject into her voice fell horribly flat, and she sounded nothing but strained. She wanted to put a hand on Keeya's shoulder, or hug her, or something, she just looked so awful, but Gwen had gotten the distinct impression that she just didn't like to be touched, so she kept her hands to herself and worried her lower lip with her teeth.

TAGGED: Keeya Satori, Cassandra Amell, Aspen Lucard NOTES: joyous and carefree slumber party

[Keeya Satori]

The room was suddenly full of people. First, Ser Cassandra Amell. Her heroism and her undying support made her much-loved among the squires. Many squires owed her their sanity. A few owed her their lives. Keeya had sought her out when the nightmares wouldn't go away, only to realize every time that she wasn't actually awake. She would say or do something terrible, or she would be perfectly eloquent and graceful as she listened to Cassandra explain in great detail why Keeya would never have a true place in Skyloft.

Aspen asked her to confirm her story, and Keeya could not have given less of a shit if she'd tried. In the dreams, Aspen was always the first to turn to violence. The first to actively cast her out. The most Keeya could do for her was not throw her out of the room.

Then there was Guinevere. Gwen. Perfect, beautiful, wonderful Gwen. Seeing her was always the worst, because Guinevere never saw her. Except, now she did. What would the twist be this time? Keeya's own room was a new setting for it. Would they destroy it, she wondered? Keeya didn't really have much of personal value. Her hair clip, which she wore always. Her journal, which she had in her hands. The clothes Guinevere had given her. No, she reminded herself. I am awake. I just checked. All I have to do is stay awake.

Steeling herself, Keeya got up and left. She returned with a large pile of blankets, and dumped all but one of them on the floor. She saved the last for herself, wrapping it around her shoulders as she sat down next to Gwen and, very gently, rested her head on her shoulder. "Looks like we have a sleepover," she muttered. "Unless this is another nightmare."

Tag: Cassandra Amell, Aspen Lucard, @gwen

[Cassandra Amell]

DREAMED OF PARADISE

EVERY TIME SHE CLOSED HER EYES

Cassandra diverted her attention from Keeya when another presence made herself known. Her brow arched somewhat as she surveyed Aspen coming into the room. This was a squire that was known to have a penchant for trouble, and she did not believe for a moment that she was simply up and about in feigned innocence. Her words were also somewhat forced, and she narrowed her eyes at the young girl as her expression became stern. Cassandra remembered her own antics at that age, but it changed when she was the Knight now. It felt odd that she was now the one being lied to instead of lying like many teenagers tended to do. Her lips curled into a feigned smile before tilting her head to the side sweetly.

“I do hope that I will now find anything amiss should I leave this room, Aspen. I’ve noticed that some of our training weapons have been misplaced as of late. If so, then someone will find themselves on cleaning duty for quite awhile.” It was the only warning she would give to the squire should she find a weapon hidden out in the hallway at a later time. Otherwise, Cassandra would be more than happy to assign Aspen the duty of scrubbing the bathroom floors for the next few weeks. Her eyes flickered to the sight of her own squire stepping into the room next. How many people were out of bed this late? She raised her hand to rest upon Gwen’s briefly in response to the girl’s greeting before surveying her current company. It looked like this would be an unexpected sleepover of sorts.

It was obvious how exhausted Keeya was as she moved to gather blankets for all of them. Cassandra did take one for the moment, but she would not stay for too long. It would be inappropriate for her to remain for too long and spend a night within a squire’s room. No, she would simply stay as long as she was needed to see that everyone here was alright. “I don’t think this is a nightmare. Mine tend to be much more embarrassing than this,” she replied with a quiet laugh. Most of them involved Alexander, which proved to her she was not dreaming tonight.

Keeya Satori @gwen Aspen Lucard

She knows, Aspen. >w>

❖ nox ❖

[Aspen Lucard]

broken dreams and hardened hearts

Aspen was less than pleased to see Gwen arrive. Great. Just, awesome. Why was it that she always seemed to run into this girl, out of all the potential squires to talk to? She looked between the face of the bitchy Gwen, the insane looking Keeya, and then thought of herself. Skyloft’s most dysfunctional! The gang’s all here!

The odd one out here was definitely Cassandra, she seemed to truly have her head on her shoulders. Aspen would have been nervous regarding Cassandra’s comment had she not been as tired and even more flip than usual. She shrugged it off, and grabbed one of the blankets that Keeya’d brought in. Not wanting to have to listen to Gwen breathe, let alone speak, Aspen took a seat next to Cassandra, who’d just reassured them that none present were in the middle of a nightmare. Aspen knew that already – her nightmare topics never varied, but neither did they ever lose their terror. She felt the urge to leave when she realized that someone might ask her what she’d been dreaming about recently, but it was too late for that. She’d have to divert the attention until it eventually came time to lie, she figured.

“Keeya, have you actually slept at all in the past week? You look terrible,” she said. Now that she thought of it, the Gerudo looked really really bad. Aspen had been pulling all nighters for a few days, but she eventually just crashed and had to deal with what dreams overcame her. Keeya looked really bothered. There had to be some sort of explanation for this.

“What do you guys think is causing this? Magic, or something?” Without meaning to, she glanced at Gwen, Aspen’s go-to squire regarding all things magical. Whatever it was, she wanted some answers.

---

Tagged: Keeya Satori Cassandra Amell @gwen
Notes: I suck I'm sorry XD
Word Count: 300

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BY AERIE OF GANGNAM STYLE