It takes some hours of wandering through this perverse take on a dream bubble before she finds someone who looks remotely familiar---a human girl with long, snow-white hair. Aradia stumbles closer, suddenly intensely aware of the startling blue undertones to her skin, eyes, hair, and even horns. She looks at her feet.
“weiss...” She swallows hard, hands bunching up in her skirts. “i d0nt kn0w if you rec0gnize me like this but... its me. aradia. i think s0methings happening t0 me.”
↢ the pictures in her mind awoke and began to breed↣
dreamscape event
Aradia never cared for the color blue.
It isn’t just because of the highbloods who subjugated her, or even specifically because of Equius. Blue represented a sort of calculated, detached aura she had never been able to stomach. It represented ice coldness. It represented water---and where there was water, there were seadwellers. And where there were seadwellers, there was almost certainly death.
For Aradia, blue used to mean danger.
( used t0 )
Before her very blood turned blue.
Strolling through the opulent grounds surrounding her hive, Aradia feels powerful. As lowbloods pass her, they tilt their horns as a sign of deference; she smiles blithely, gifting them with the grace of her favor, whilst inside her there churns a smug sense of satisfaction. Good that they recognize her for the noble creature she is. Good that they know their pl---
Something catches fire in her brain at that thought,
like some sort of sharp, stinging static. It hurts---
Turning, she catches sight of her own reflection in the window of her hive. Her hair, sleek, is pulled back in an elegant braid. Her shoulders are pulled back, her skin unmarred by battle scars, her lips perfectly lined with the most royal shade of blue. It all looks so immaculate. So beautiful.
( s0 wr0ng )
Grasping at her cheeks, her hair, her horns, Aradia looks wildly around for a familiar face to help her make sense of this---but with a thrill of horror, she realizes that the lowblooded trolls surrounding her have no faces. Everything is indistinct, from their style of dress to the shape of their horns. Everything except their blood, in vivid, almost garish shades of rust, mustard, bronze...
Aradia digs sharp claws into the flesh of her palms, watching with mute terror as deep blue blood springs to the surface. Finally, she sees the color the way she does with her waking eyes. Finally, she’s overcome with that familiar wave of fear.
She sinks to the ground, arms wrapped around her knees,
screwing her eyes shut in hopes she’ll wake up from this
nightmare---this insult to her waking self---before long.
Was this a common theme among mortals, or her world in general?
“oh?”
“well youre really missing out! theyre delicious in a pinch especially if you add a little salt and pepper. we used to eat them all the time when the highbloods deprived us of food.” Good times.
A fellow dead gal! Polly can sense it in her metaphorical bones “PHEW…I sure hope your name is Kyle….Nah you’re too hot to be a Kyle…Maybe a Drake?! Like that just sends shivers up the spine…If you HAVE one HA!” she’d give you a warm welcome, but that would require a physical form.
“Well then, cutie! You can either call me Polly…Or you can call me later! Winky face!” yes, she said winky face out loud, this ghost is working with what she’s been given darn it!
“kyle?”
Aradia turns at the sound of the voice, bewildered to find a stranger grinning at her. As she listens to the girl’s spiel, a small smile grows on her face.
“kyle is really more of a human name i think. so is drake! though both of them are really nice my people usually have six letter names. like mine for instance!” She holds out a hand. “aradia! its nice to meet you polly. im guessing from your general ghastly aura and the feeling of joy i experience in your presence that youre a member of the undead?”
for some reason, aqua’s name still came up on his phone. did that mean she was still here? if she was, she definitively wasn’t answering any of his messages, and ventus couldn’t find her anywhere. that left only one option! someone had to of seen her, right?!
“ excuse me, ma'am! ” he calls out to the first person he sees, smiling widely and brightly — she’s really, really pretty, wow — “ i’m sorry to ask, but, um, have you seen a friend of mine? she’s about this tall.. ” he motions with his hands around aqua’s height, “ blue hair, and dressed kind of like me. “ his smile turns a little sad around the end, homesickness gripping his very being.
She turns at the sound of the voice and sees a blond-haired human heading toward her. So many blonds in Hive City! She’s positively fascinated by them all. She listens with a smile as he describes his friend, though she has to confess...
“i havent seen anyone like that no! but then again i just got here not all that long ago.”
She can’t help noticing the young man’s frustration---he looks a little sad, and maybe it’s because Aradia can relate that she offers what she does next:
