Daniel and Ava Dancing

**Daniel Leto** · Dec 26th, 2015 01:57 AM

Music

Daniel took up a ballroom frame. One hand up and near her waist.

"Don't worry I'll keep it simple. Just back, side, step; back, side, step," he assured her with a calm smile leading her slowly through the movements. As they started he cut the time in half so they wouldn't be traveling as fast. Not that dancing was the main objective. And perhaps it showed it the less than graceful movements and halting tempo of their feet. Then again, that wasn't why he had brought Ava to the Dance floor.

"Soo... is the Sandman dead?" he asked as casually as someone could inquiring about the death of another Changeling.

failure

Dec 26th, 2015 01:10 PM

failure

Despite keeping it simple, having her lead be distracted did Ava few favors; she managed not to step on Daniel, but she couldn't imagine they were a pretty sight. Maybe they'd fall into the rhythm with a little time, but his pointed question with little lead in suggested otherwise. "I missed you too, buddy," she said with a dry chuckle before adopting a more serious expression to talk about the Sandman.

"He is. After you had to leave we got to the main room of his Hollow, which he had flooded as a, well I guess it was a mixture of defense and being an asshole, he knew I don't like water." Despite how much she liked Daniel, there wasn't much incentive to get into the why and how much of her feelings on water. "We were on one side of the pond and he was in the middle, talking a lot of shit. Lot of death threats, didn't quite work out for him." Grim satisfaction tinged the Scrivener's voice briefly, her disdain for the incubus clear.

"Lynn took a shot at him, and then Coco finished up the rest; it was over quickly, he was starving and crazy. We looked around a bit afterward, didn't find much, but Lynn got a few names out of him after the fact and we're working on helping them recover, as we find them. But some of them were just descriptions so..." She trailed off with a small shrug, clearly dubious about their chances of cleaning up all of the Sandman's mess.

**Daniel Leto** · Dec 27th, 2015 03:05 PM

The gravewight blushed a little at Ava's light joking. Maybe starting with a lighter topic would have been better. "Missed you too. It's good to be back."

Daniel simply nodded when Ava said she didn't like water and didn't pry further. Honestly, he could probably guess it reminded her of her durance and he knew that made her uncomfortable enough. There was also the unspoken discomfort about how the Sandman knew that so much about Ava. Her name, her fears. How many of her dreams had been spied upon? Not a pleasant thought.

Daniel smiled sympathetically at the Nix's satisfaction "Just sorry I missed it," he said regretfully.

He listened to what happened and what information had been gotten. The hint of despair could be heard in the golden glow.

"Well, we still have the pledge with Robby active for a while. Maybe he'll manifest another hub." It was disturbing to think someone's mind could be warped to make such things happen but it could be useful for them in this case. "In any case I know you'll do the best you can. Plus there will be Lynn and me to help." He stood straighter and gave a silly grin like that would solve everything.

"We'll have to try a dream walk sometime soon," he added more seriously "see if we can't figure things out a bit more. Maybe you could cast one of those scopes so we know the best time to do it."

Dec 27th, 2015 09:08 PM

"That's true," she admitted as Daniel brought up the pledge with Robby. "I hope for his sake that he doesn't, though. But we can still use that connection, at least to see how he's doing, poor kid." On the whole, Ava's patience with children, previously considered near infinite, was very thin. But Robby wasn't a neglected child left to wander into the Hedge or be stolen by Privateers, there was nothing about his situation she could dismiss or be irritated with. Just distressed. Nobody could prevent an incubus from creeping into their dreams and setting up shop, especially without the Oneiromantic tools to fight back.

His silly grin brought out an affectionate chuckle as she moved along to the music, woefully off tempo but beyond caring. "I'm glad it's the three of us, not just one person dicking around trying to make a difference. And I'd like that, getting together to do an organized walk. Been reading up on psychology and psychotherapy, trying to get a better idea of what will help instead of just trying to wrap them into little good-dream-burritos and hoping that takes off." A slow blink followed the realization that she had compared children to food, but this was Daniel: if he hadn't been bothered while they were eating ice cream in a park full of children, why now.

"Oneiroscopy is definitely a good idea, we should start with the ones we have names for. Something more than a vague description to anchor on while I do the divination. At this point it seems like the only way we'll find them, lots of oneiroscopy plus trial and error. The three of us should get together soon, do a bit of planning for how we'd like to proceed."

**Parable** · Dec 28th, 2015 12:42 AM

Daniel did his best to not to step on the Nix’s feet while complete ignoring the beat as well. If anything, he felt more awkwardness from some failings of his own, rather than references of cannibalism by Ava (or either of their efforts dance).

“I should probably start looking into that therapy stuff too. Most of my experience was focused on accepting death. Giving in to negativity isn’t the best thing in this circumstance.” He smiled like he had made a joke.

He nodded when she talked about Oneiroscopy. That was more her area of expertise than his.

“There are a couple other options.” He didn’t know which Clause Lynn had invoked to get the names but he could guess it was one of the lower ones. “The Sandman could have lied to Lynn, I could summon a shade that would answer anything question truthfully. Find out how he did what he did.” It wasn’t the easiest thing for him to do and he failed more often than not but it could reveal names that had been withheld, or if any had been included to lead them astray.

“And… even if it goes against Winter principles, we could put out feelers on the mortal side. Local newspaper ads, web forums, that sort of thing. ‘Looking for children with frequent nightmares for sleep study’; so on and so forth.” It was a dangerous suggestion. Not just because it could attract unwanted attention but because they were just as likely to get a bunch of false claims. Or worse, true claims that had nothing to do with the Sandman. As chilling a thought as it was, Daniel was pretty sure there would be other things preying on the dreams of mortals that he couldn’t even imagine. He had barely brush the surface on dream threats.

Why couldn’t everything be ghosts? That would make things much simpler.

Daniel shrugged, ruining his dancing frame as much as he was butchering the waltz.

"In any case, we'll help who we can. And those we can't... it's not our fault. It's the Sandman's. You can't go through life misplacing blame." He had heard enough deathbed confession to know that to be true, though it didn't make acceptance any easier. "Just set a date. I'm sure Lynn and I will be there," he finished confidently. After all, the pledge demanded it.

Dec 28th, 2015 02:05 PM

Ava pulled a face at the idea of talking to the Sandman again, but it might be a good idea if they hit a dead end. She just wanted to make sure it was the deadest of dead ends first. "Yeah, that guy... having the insurance of truthfulness could be good, if we end of needing it. I'm not in a huge rush to pay him a visit, though." It sounded like the clause wouldn't leave a lot of room for verbal assaults and such, but that didn't make her any more keen.

"Sleep study... could be a good excuse, but we'd need to do some research to make sure we could pass ourselves off as half-way respectable. Maybe that should be plan C." One thing the Scrivener kept struggling with was how much time and energy to devote to this: she wanted to help them, but at a certain point other more pressing things were going to come up. But, she couldn't just leave it alone either. Fucking Sandman.

Her arms bobbed with his shrug, mimicking the movement. He was right, but that didn't mean they wouldn't feel it anyway. "I'll do that. I know everyone's busy with the holidays right now, but I'll get a text going soon. I'm also looking into dreamweaving, might need some willing guinea pigs." Eyebrows waggling like 'this is a great idea, you should totally be behind this,' she added, "Peaceful dreams, I promise. You can still say no, though."

**Daniel Leto** · Dec 28th, 2015 04:21 PM

Daniel hid his hesitancy behind a chuckle at Ava's eyebrows. Having your head messed with, even by friends, was a daunting exercise of trust. Though he did trust her to tease more than screw with his mind in any sort of mean spirited way.

"So long as there's no evil furniture I think I'd be okay being experimented on," he with smirk.

So now Daniel injected the conversation with death, guilt, and dire worry; he could move on to lighter topics.

"So how have things been since I left? Anything interesting happen?" he asked with interest.

Dec 30th, 2015 03:32 PM

"Dreamweaving is imbuing objects with static dreams, you just need to sleep with it near you and you should have the dream; you can relieve stress with them, even teach. And no," she grinned, "No evil furniture."

As the topic turned to the time he had been away, she pursed her lips. "Well... nothing major, at least not that I've heard about yet. Some new faces, and there was a small social-dust up at the Autumn Coronation, but that's being taken care of. Honestly, it's been a lot of planning: reading up on things, talking to folks." It had been a slow couple of months, trying to get the council together and in agreement on what was whose job, and what wasn't anyone's job.

"And I've started seeing someone, so we'll see how that goes. How was your trip?"

**Daniel Leto** · Jan 1st, 2016 05:12 AM

It was both good and bad to hear nothing major had happened. On the one hand it meant things were stable. On the other, Fairwaeather was still a shadowy threat over the Freehold. He'd have to talk with Morgan and see if she had come up with any further plans for taking down the Dragon since the exploration of HAL's Hollow. Or may be just some knife lessons. If Daniel wanted to help actually take down the destroyer of the Four Seasons he should at least know how to wield a weapon. Put the gravewight's purchase from Marcus to good use.

He smiled at the news that Ava was dating. "Nice," he said encouragingly "What's he do?"

The smile faltered when she asked about his 'vacation'. As much as it was habit to maintain the happy facade, Daniel decided to drop it after a second and gave a heavy sigh.

"It... was tough," he admitted, his eyes turning to the side. "I wasn't sure what I would find but..." a figure of dried flowers and detritus laughed at him "it wasn't what I found." His court training told him he'd said enough. And yet he wanted to say so much more. What he had found, The hope it had brought, the disgust, the despair. Then again, he had maybe said too much already, as little as that was. He didn't want to burden the Nix with his problems.

Not to mention the fact that he had been found. That his own Court was likely to inform Autumn of where he was heading. That come Fall, he might have to flee.

He smiled again, though the melancholy never left his eyes. "I found out what I wanted to know though," he answered "Just not entirely sure what to do with the information. However, I do know there's nothing left for me back there, so I'll be trying to set up a more permanent station here. Maybe even set up a Hallow," he said with a grin. A place to call home. A place other could call home. The Freehold needed a new Commons, the Winter Court needed more Cottages, and it might be nice to not have to pay rent.

Jan 1st, 2016 11:51 PM

It still felt odd to discuss seeing someone with other Lost. She had worked herself up to a point where she expected them to recoil, aghast, at the idea of someone with her teeth kissing some poor, unsuspecting mortal. Ramona had reacted the most in line with that, which was both reasonable and unflattering, but she had to respect the Ogre for being direct enough to admit it was weird. But Daniel, he didn't seem especially concerned for this mortal stranger's life. Either he trusted her quite a bit, or he just couldn't be bothered to care about every random person that found themselves in harm's way.

"He's a mortician," Ava supplied, trying not to laugh at herself, or David. It just seemed typical, to be not-dancing with a young man who talked to the dead and discussing her boyfriend, who hung out with dead people professionally. "He indulges my taste in off-kilter conversations." The topic was left at that, there wasn't much more she really wanted to say. But at least informing her friends seemed like the normal thing, right? Maybe?

Her ink-stain eyes watched Daniel's face as he spoke, concern in her features. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "I'm glad you're back, and you found out what you needed to know, but it doesn't seem like that's much cause for celebration. If you'd like to talk more, sometime, I'm all ears." It didn't seem like party talk, though.

"And let me know if you want any help clearing yourself a spot." She wouldn't be much help, beating back the Hedge to make a Hollow, but more hands would make the work go faster. Or he could do what she did, and steal someone else's abandoned home.

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-12-26 01:53:39		Daniel Leto rolls 5 to Dex2+1Expression+2Keep it simple stupid (10 Again)		5, 5, 2, 4, 6		failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-12-26 12:27:21		Ava rolls 5 to Dex+Expression (10 Again)		5, 4, 5, 2, 3		failure

Daniel and Ava Dancing

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