Chapter Text
The mid-afternoon Alternian sun burned down brightly, and Jade squinted to see through her thick glasses and shimmering heat waves. She stood in the midst of an improbable Eden in the otherwise completely barren desert. Beyond the tops of meticulously-sculpted shrubs and the petals of high-climbing blossoming vines there was nothing but unending waves of dunes fading into an uncertain distance.
By her side, Kanaya Maryam knelt to fondly regard a small plot of what looked like ruby-colored lotuses, gently pinching the tips of their leaves as if checking for galls. Jade told herself she had no real reason to stay, that she should wake up so she could get to work preparing for the Scratch. But she couldn't bring herself to do so yet.
-- show dreamlog --
GG: omg this place is so pretty!!!!
GG: i really wanted to check it out last time even if we were in the middle of aradias magical alternian history tour, too bad we didnt have enough time
GG: but seriously this is the most amazing alien garden with the most amazing alien plants and i want to know as much about them as possible!!!!!!
GG: like ummmmmm how about this one, what is it called??
GA: Unfortunately Trolls Dont Make A Habit Of Meticulously Naming And Cataloging Every Species Like Humans Do
GA: Since We Are Fated To Leave Our Home Planet And Never Return I Suppose We Grew Accustomed To The Idea Of Not Getting Overly Attached To The Native Flora And Fauna
GA: Especially Considering The Fact That A Majority Of Them Have Evolved To Kill Off The Weak
GA: This Very Specimen Included
GA: But I Suppose If I Had To Spontaneously Give It A Name I Could Call It
GA: Hmm
GA: The Bioluminary Infant Eating Tree
GG: :D!!!!
GA: Actually Now That I Think About It That Sounds Terrible
GA: Could You Disregard What I Just Said
GG: no that is a lovely name!!! i love it! <3
GA: I Must Warn You That The Feeling Is Not Mutual On The Plants Part And That Its Bite Is Considerably More Painful Than Its Aesthetically Pleasing And Complementarily Colored Bark So Please Refrain From Touching It
GA: But On The Bright Side
GA: When No Feeder Grubs Are Available And I Am Busy It Does An Admirable Job Of Repelling Or More Specifically Consuming The Local Hordes Of Undead That I Will Abstain From Dreaming Into The Bubble With Us
GG: how considerate of you :p
Jade turned to examine another plant at random. And hesitated. Earth and Alternian flora differed in a near infinite number of ways, but the most obvious was probably color. Sure, of course flowers on earth spanned the visible spectrum and then some, but there was a reason why the word “greenery” existed. Whatever the Alternian equivalent of chlorophyll was, it was a lot more flexible to reflected light in comparison to its terrestrial counterpart. Wherever she looked, her vision exploded in vivacity: aquamarine blossoms framed with cerise sepals, jet-black fruits connected with a network of scarlet stems, trees with iridescent bark and translucent leaves, fields of cyan grasses waving in a breeze like tentacles.
And this was only in a single garden comprised of species that could tolerate the arid environment. How much more plant life existed on the whole planet? She probably wouldn't be able to study them all to satisfactory detail even if she had spent her whole life on Alternia rather than on a desert island on earth. Where could she possibly start in a dream?
She glanced back over her shoulder to see Kanaya looking in her direction, a lotus flower tucked in her hair, tugging lightly at the fingertips of her own hands.
GA: Is Something The Matter
GG: oh! no, its just...
GG: do you miss it?
GA: By It Are You Referring To Fighting The Undead Masses
GA: Or This Plant In Particular
GG: yes :)
GA: I Set Myself Up For That Didnt I
GG: maybe :(
GG: if you really think about it, those zombies and these plants, your home and this desert and even the whole planet it stands on........
GG: theyve been meteored by skaia and destroyed by the game. as far as the universe is concerned, everything were looking at doesnt exist
GG: except here, in your memories, in your dreambubbles
GG: otherwise this tree might as well never have been planted in the first place
GG: i guess thats one thing the horrorterrors did for us that was actually a little nice of them
GG: make it possible for us to revisit our old life and realize what we took for granted before we played the game and destroyed our worlds
GG: its just too bad that we wont have the chance to explore more before the scratch happens and well have to abandon this universe too :(
GA: Jade
GG: haha...
GG: sorry i didnt mean to get so depressing all of a sudden!
GG: im actually going to have to wake up pretty soon so i guess maybe im just a little frustrated that youll never get to show me all the cool stuff in your garden, and ill never get to show you mine
GA: Maybe We Still Could
GA: In Another Dream
GA: In The New Universe
GG: ....... but there definitely cant be dreambubbles there because we are so not bringing over the horrorterrors :|
GG: otherwise we would really have screwed up!!!!
GA: True Enough
GA: And I Am Fully In Agreement With That Last Comment
GA: But Consider This
GA: How Exactly Are Dreams Supposed To Work Anyway
GG: ???
GA: It Occurs To Me That The Both Of Us Have Spent Practically Our Entire Sleeping Lives Awake On Prospit
GA: Unlike The Rest Of Our Comrades We Have Never Actually Experienced What It Means To Have What Could Be Described As A Quote Normal Dream
GA: Well I Mean
GA: Obviously We Must Have
GA: In My Case It Would Be During That Brief Period Of Time After I Pupated And Designed My Hive But Before The White Stranger Contacted Me
GA: However I Dont Actually Recall What The Dreaming Experience Was Like Since I Had Roused On The Moon So Early In Life
GA: I Believe That Memories Customarily Play A Certain Role In Dreams In The First Place And That This May Account In Some Part For The Setup Of These Bubbles
GA: Of Course This Is Only Speculation On My Part But Intuitively It Just Feels Right
GG: i dont know if people can usually share dreams though!
GG: rose taught me about the collective unconsciousness once but it doesnt work like these dreambubbles do >__<
GA: Though That May Be True For Your World It Could Be Remedied In The New One
GA: Successfully Creating And Maturing The Prize Universe Endows The Winning Players With Limited Power In Rewriting Its Laws Of Reality
GA: Its Possible That This Is Something You Can Change If Youd Like To
GA: In Fact Im Absolutely Certain That You Can Do It
GA: I Have Full Faith In Your Abilities
GA: But Even If That Falls Through
GA: There Will Be Other Gardens
GA: Ones Based In Reality Even
GA: We Will Cultivate Them Together In The New Universe
Kanaya turned to gaze at the distant horizon. Jade followed her gaze reflexively in an almost Pavlovian response to years of cloud-watching and future-seeing. Prospit dreamers learned to regularly check in on the sky. They never knew what they were going to find.
What Jade found was that there was something about the radiant curve of Kanaya's shoulders over her strapless dress, something about her delicately painted lips that was just as if not more distracting than fields of unknown plants. Jade itched to research all three in intimate detail, if only she had more time.
GG: kanaya... i have to go now
GG: its getting really close to the critical moment and i probably shouldnt have risked being here in the first place since were running out of time
GA: Yes That Appears To Be A Precious Commodity Nowadays
GA: Im Sorry And Youre Right I Shouldnt Have Brought You Here
GA: The Fault Is Mine
GG: nooooo no dont apologize, this is the last chance well ever be able to meet like this in a bubble and probably the last chance i could ever see your garden :(
GG: im really really really happy i could do that <3 <3
GA: Im Glad To Have Shown You
GG: also
GG: i wanted to let you know how much i appreciate your help all this time
GG: i would never have been able to make this genesis frog without you
GG: so
Kanaya's shoulders tensed in surprise when Jade took one in a careful grip and stood on her tiptoes and took off her glasses with her other hand and tilted her head in for a calculated kiss she had deliberated over stealing for hours. She'd been distracted by the other girl's lips for a long time. More exactly, a single dream ago. Maybe it was the color: green like the reflection of chlorophyll pigment, like leaves of extinct terran flora, a green like her namesake, a green that practically asked to be tasted.
GG: ill do my best <3
Flower colors were still fading from behind her eyelids and a memory of a slyph's lips lingered on her own when Jade woke up and touched her fingertips to her mouth. For the last few seconds of a dying dream, she imagined that Kanaya had kissed back.
But the moment was over and Jade scrambled out of bed, grabbed the crystal ball that held the flickering slime tadpole of a newborn universe, and ran for the gate that would take her to the Beat Mesa. There may or may not be other gardens, in the future. For now, she still had a game to win.