Diana of Themyscira (cannotstandby) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-09-26 22:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, diana prince (wonder woman), kitty pryde (shadowcat) |
Who: Kitty and Diana
What: Diana has a non-Dream nightmare and doesn't react well.
When: Recently
Where: Their place
Warnings: Mentions of in-dream deaths, but otherwise low
Sometimes, amongst all of the Dreams, it was easy to forget that normal dreams still happened. Diana typically did remember what she dreamed, but the Dreams of her other lives tended to stick more firmly in her mind considering they were far more real than any normal dream was. So while the dream she was having wasn’t a Dream, it somewhat felt like it.
There was an attack. Some sort of stealthy attack that the Amazons hadn’t detected or expected. Someone had infiltrated the palace and was executing the Amazons. Or perhaps it was a small group of someones, it was hard to tell. All Diana knew was that an attack was coming, and she needed to find her mother and help stop the attack. Only she arrived too late to get the warning out. Diana found someone attacking one of her Amazon sisters, and she tried to intervene, but her help didn’t come in time for her sister. She killed the man and worked her way through the palace, but all she found were the bodies of the Amazons. Even her mother had fallen.
Diana was distraught, taking her time to mourn at her mother’s side before she picked herself up went about giving burials to all the Amazons. Diana was the last Amazon, and she opened the palace to those who sought refuge. But the wounds of losing her sisters, her mother, cut deep, and she felt overwhelming sorrow, but she also felt anger towards her enemies who would pay when the time came. She strode through the palace towards the main gate like some combination of a ghost following the path it took in life, and like a warrior with a mission and purpose in her eyes. The new Queen had risen, and she would show her enemies just what they had unleashed.
But Diana startled awake, sitting bolt upright in bed. It was still dark, so the sun wasn’t up yet. Diana was in a cold sweat, heart pounding as she tried to make sense of what she’d just dreamt about. She cursed softly in Greek as she pressed a hand to her face, rubbing it a bit. The dream had felt different from any Dream she’d had. And the palace had not been the one on Themyscira nor the one on Paradise Island. So this was...something else. Something...normal?
She didn’t know if she’d woken Kitty up or not, but Diana carefully slipped out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Perhaps splashing some cold water on her face would help her wake up and sort out what had happened.
It took a few minutes for Kitty to notice she was alone in bed. Normally a light sleeper, she’d been overworked of late, and so it took a moment for her groggy mind to process ‘where Diana?’
Slowly, she sat up, stretching one arm and then rolling her shoulder. “Baby?”
Slipping out of bed, Kitty padded like her namesake into the bathroom.
Diana turned the water on in the sink, letting it run for some moments to get cold before she leaned over and splashed some on her face. She closed her eyes, leaned her hands on the counter and let her head hang, water droplets dripping from her nose and chin and falling into the sink Her long dark hair fell over her shoulders, obscuring her face from view. But all she saw when she closed her eyes were the bodies of her mother and sisters. It may not have felt as real as her other Dreams, but it had just as much of an impact on her, if not moreso. It unsettled her.
She was so focused on the dream that she hadn’t heard Kitty. Instead, she felt that someone was in the bathroom with her. Opening her eyes, Diana reached for a hand towel and gently wiped her face dry before she glanced over her shoulder to see Kitty.
“I’m sorry if I woke you, I did not mean to,” she apologized.
“Was almost awake anyway,” Kitty assured hear, leaning her hip against the door frame and eyeing Diana. She couldn’t tell if this was a nightmare or a nightmade, so she decided to wait for Diana to clue her in as to what actually happened.
“You look shaken.”
Even if she wanted to, Diana couldn’t quite bring herself to stand up straight and square her shoulders. It seemed silly that after all the Dreams she’d had and all the ill effects and terrible things she’d witnessed in both of those lives, that a normal dream seemed to trouble her far more than any of the others had.
“I am,” she answered after a little pause as she folded and hung the hand towel back up. She then turned around to face Kitty, leaning against the sink, her hands braced on the edge of it.
“I had a...nightmare, I suppose is the best term for it. It was not one of the Dreams of Themyscira or Paradise Island. It was just...normal. But I dreamt that someone was going to attack the Amazons. I tried to get back to warn my mother of the attack, but I was too late. Someone had infiltrated the palace and killed every single Amazon, including my mother.” She looked up at Kitty, unable to hide the pain and sorrow she felt at just recounting it. “I was the only Amazon left.”
And at this point, it wouldn’t surprise Diana if at some point she Dreamt of something similar happening in one of her other lives.
It was always kind of shocking, but not in a bad way, how quickly and easily Diana would admit the truth to something. She very rarely tried to hide how she was feeling, opening up to Kitty about almost everything.
It was just one more thing Kitty loved about her. When her life, and even her own heart, was so often locked away and so often hard to really share, having Diana share made her want to share in return. Especially knowing Diana wouldn’t judge.
She stepped fully into the bathroom, leaning against the sink and brushing hair out of Diana’s face. These kind of dreams she could deal with. “I think maybe you’ve been dealing with some anxiety. In your dreams you’re alone. With people and yet….. alone. You’re the only Amazon. Even here, you’re alone. Sure, you have me, just like I have you, but I was the only mutant for a little while there and it’s very lonely.”
Lying or holding back things that bothered her weren’t things that Diana typically did. She hated lying, and she vastly preferred to be forthcoming. Of course, she had her moments of keeping things to herself, but those tended to be highly personal and deeply emotional things that took more time for her to process before she could talk about them. While she wouldn’t completely say that she wore her heart on her sleeve, there were times when what she was feeling was plainly read in her body language. Other times, she did hide thing beneath a mask, but those times tended to be few and far between.
She looked at Kitty as she stepped close to her. Diana closed her eyes momentarily as Kitty brushed some hair aside. “You are right. I am alone in my Dreams. There is no one else like me, at least not in the world of men.” The difference was more stark in the first set of Dreams considering she was more mortal in the current set she was Dreaming. “It is not easy being an immortal in a world of mortals. So much so that I try not to think about it.”
Diana well knew there were other immortals around Orange County, but they were vastly outnumbered by mortals. And Kitty was one of those mortals, even if she could have a longer lifespan than normal, she would grow old while Diana wouldn’t.
“There was a moment,” Kitty said. “In mine. I don’t…. like to think about it, and the memories are vague at best. But I possessed a great deal of power and I held reality in the palm of my hand.”
She cupped her hands, like she was holding a bowl in them. “It was called the Black Vortex, it could alter reality and it always corrupted those who used it, but it didn’t corrupt me. I don’t even know if I got rid of it after I took care of the brood invasion and then locked the vortex away but…”
She frowned. “I guess what I’m saying is that, for that moment, I knew what it was like to be a god, and I didn’t like it. So I guess I understand a little bit.”
Diana listened to Kitty, finding it interesting that she hadn’t become corrupted by the Black Vortex. “Perhaps the corruption does not take hold until after you possess it for a specific period of time. Or you are simply so strong of mind and soul that it could not corrupt you.”
Even knowing that she was a demigoddess, Diana still had no idea what she was actually capable of. She had no idea of how strong she actually was. She didn’t know what other abilities she had outside of what she already knew about. She didn’t think she could call down lightning bolts like her father and brother could, but she hadn’t actually tried.
“It isn’t always the best feeling, honestly. But it is what I am and I can’t change it, even if sometimes I may wish I could.”
“I try not to let it get to my head,” Kitty joked. But Diana was right, it was kind of a terrible feeling. And she tried not to think about too far in the future. Right now, though, she could alleviate some of Diana’s fears, she could be there for her, and have her in her life.
So she raised her eyebrows and asked. “What time is it in Crete?”
“That is a good approach,” Diana responded. Some days, she was able to forget about it. But days like this? She couldn’t. At Kitty’s question, Diana wasn’t certain exactly what time it was, she hadn’t looked at the clock upon waking up, she just knew it was still early as it was still dark out. But even with that, it was a ten hour difference between Orange County and Crete.
“It’s probably about mid-afternoon, I think. I did not look at the clock when I woke up.”
Nodding, Kitty slipped out of the bathroom. There were sounds of her muttering and looking around for something, before she returned and triumphantly thrust Diana’s phone into her hands. “Call your mother and then your aunt. We both know they’re fine but you’re going to feel a little uneasy until you hear from them.”
Diana brushed a hand through her hair, pulling it out of her face as Kitty went back into the bedroom. She took a breath to try and center herself. When Kitty came back and gave her her phone, she managed a smile. She then pulled Kitty into her arms and gave her a tight hug. “Thank you,” she said gently.