A Splitting Decision

[Whatevr89532]

While tempted to take this as generic self-important villain-talk, which she is already familiar enough with to be annoyed by, Anne reports the whole incident to her superiors. If the woman did anything other than break her way in and wreck the tiny dreamworld subuniverse (which was blipped out of existence a little while later), some of the real experts are going to find out. But as far as they and she are concerned, her job was successfully done: The dream was intact, and made it all the way to the end without anyone breaking inside and/or trying to kill the dreamer. Finally, she can go home and take a bath or whatever.

--

In the town, there is some shouting, some panic..before long, a mob forms and comes to take him down before the worst can happen. The dream ends painlessly just as they begin to surround him, but the end result is obvious enough...

And, abruptly, Oyoki wakes up, tucked into her bed, to the smell of eggs and bacon cooking. Maybe she isn't familiar with those specific food-smells, but they probably smell appetizing all the same.

--

"Drastically different effects, yeah. All the different varieties are named after, and in some way related in nature to, particular colors, as one might guess. Yours looks like cerulean; there also things like red, blue, green, orange, and so on. Yes?" Lyra acknowledges the bunny-girl.

[xGoggles]

For any experts that would look into to it, the only thing out of the ordinary still was that little orb that somehow managed to dimensional-traveled back to where it came from, right before the mundanity overran its resistance. Not that it was magically significant beside just having a very reflective surface; just a mirror in a sphere, nothing impressive.

Though it still left the questions of who these beings were, how did they know to get there, and mostly.. for what reason? Likely there was a connection with that troublesome Oyoki.
--

Oyoki jumps up, sweating and panting from her horrible nightmare, looking around the unfamiliar room she woke up in. Slowly she was recollecting her thoughts while catching her breath. her frightened face turning to an unpleasant frown as she mutters, "Cursed witch..."
She did take notice of the smell of breakfast, and even when her body felt quite hungry, she refused to leave her bed, very angry about the unpleasant dream she was positive Lyra had something to do with.

--

"I don't wish to interrupt but, can I perhaps braid your hair or maybe clean the dishes after you are done with your tea? I don't know why.. but I feel like I should be doing something..useful", she asks almost shaking with energy. Perhaps it was her bunny's nature that made it hard for her to just sit still and wait. She didn't seem hyperactive thought, but maybe she was holding back to not misbehave.
Miori takes another sip of tea, still looking at the bunny girl with quite some interests as this was an astonishing sort of transformation to observe for her.

[Whatevr89532]

The small girl's fox-ears will probably pick up some pleasant humming from Lyra as she continues making breakfast, apparently content to wait until Oyoki gets herself out of bed rather than barging in to try and coax or force her out. But it smells pretty good, doesn't it..?

--

"I dunno if there's much use in braiding my hair, I can sorta make it do that myself," says Lyra. "Let's see...would you mind helping me in a couple of simple tests? What happens if you just lightly pinch your arm with the other hand a little bit? I mean, specifically does it hurt at all to do that?" The request might sound a little strange as she's looking to get certain details on information she hasn't shared yet, particularly whether the apparent "indestructible" behavior of Cerulean also lessens physical pain.

[xGoggles]

Oyoki stayed in bed and waited... Waiting for so as long it felt the cooking would be done and the food would be long cold by then.. but for some strange reason the persistent smell still kept on lingering long after that.
But being stubborn didn't do her any good, besides giving her time to think. However, her hungry stomach didn't aid well in keeping a clear mind to form a plan. She groans when she thinks of her pathetic body now with its urges for food, if only she had a just a little bit of magic left...
Her hunger getting the better of her, she finally decided to get out of bed, walking to her dainty little feet towards the door and lets out a big sigh before leaving her room.

--

"Tests?.. Umm, sure?", she says agreeing to the strange request. She pinches her arm, and her skin allowed as much pressure as to not make it painful, any more force she would put into pinching just wouldn't bend her flawless skin any further even to her own surprise.

"Say Lyra, can you explain to me the effects of these other colors?", Miori asks, curious about this new field of magic she recently discovered. Having only her own 'color' as a reference, she was very eager to understand the workings of these other colors and how they would interact.

[Whatevr89532]

The outside of Oyoki's room has changed from the living-room-like area before to a hallway, with the kitchen just across from it. There's a wooden kitchen table with four chairs arranged around it in the center of the view from the hallway, with a particularly strange choice of centerpiece: A flower pot which is actually a hologram projector. It's projecting a perfectly still hologram of Bonsii, the Dark Root. The "motherly looking" fox-Lyra from some point the night before places a hot-holder and then a skillet full of bacon on the table, apparently as if on cue.

--

"That's interesting. I had some indication that you might be physically resistant, but I wasn't sure if that included protection from pain, too. Obviously you shouldn't test that resistance in any way that's dangerous, but it's good to know it's there," says Lyra. "Let's see, would you mind at all pouring me another cup?" While not one to demand being waited on, she is actually trying to accommodate the girl's wish to be useful; anyway the cup is empty.

Then it's to answering Miori: "I'll give you some brief examples, but the spectrum is so wide it's better read out of reference if you really want to remember it all. Pretty much every color enforces some kind of physical transformation, and mental influences along with it, so it makes the most sense to describe each color in terms of its effects.

"Now let's see--red equals cute girl: Usually young, often small, sometimes with a compulsion to obey 'adults'. Green is dumb, man-crazy women with humongous..proportions. Blue is a similar shape of body, but creates attraction to females instead and has no noticeable effect on IQ; I think it's also supposed to make a person unconsciously pose themselves too. Aquamarine's pretty different: it makes a man so charming that his voice changes others into women attracted to him. Actually..hold on a second, sorry." Her eyes flick around briefly, as if at some unseen bug going flitting around.

"Sorry, wanted to jot down an idea for something. Anyway. there's also black and white that make demons or monsters and then angels respectively, roughly speaking; indigo makes literal damsels in distress, often princesses; brown makes heroic women. Ahh, Jale makes inanimate but still-conscious objects, sometimes depicting a female form on them however. Violet is ultra-cheerful ditzes, used to always indicate stupid but the meaning has shifted lately, there's a lot of this new breed of 'smart violet girl' going around..."

[xGoggles]

She reluctantly went forward towards the table, eyeing the hologram and thinking it might be some kind of illusion magic. Eventually, the little fox-girl takes a seat without saying a word, glaring hatefully at Lyra for obvious reasons.

--

The bunny-girl eager nods and starts to gracefully pour Lyra another cup of tea, which might be weird since she had never held a teapot before until now, but she seemed quite skilled with it. Meanwhile Miori comments, "Seems she seems to have taken some of my defensive properties. Maybe a bit on the weak side, but strong enough to bathe in a volcano and not damage her skin." She briefly covers her mouth and says apologetically to the bunny girl, "Not that you are currently in need of a bath. You are quite lovely."
The bunny just smiles and nods and finishes pouring the tea, "Thank you. And please enjoy your tea, anything else I can help with?"

Listening to the explanation of color, Miori finishes her cup as well and lets it get refilled by the bunny girl. "Sounds quite chaotic. How do the people in that universe handle such transformative powers?"

[Whatevr89532]

The rest of the food is already out on the table: A bowl of scrambled eggs, some biscuits, and now there's bacon. "Congratulations, you survived going to sleep," Lyra says teasingly. "Please, help yourself. Be careful, it's hot."

--

"There are a few ways," says Lyra. "One choice is to be defensive: Find various ways magical, technological, or so on to avoid being changed. it can last quite a while for the clever or strong, but it's still a temporary solution; something will find its way past those defenses if one stays in that chaotic world too long." She takes a small sip of her tea. "Another option is simply to accept each change as it comes. People who do that are able to live surprisingly stable lives, often winding up back to normal or finding a new normal preferable to the old one. A third option is to come to embody a piece of that chaos in some way, and gain a measure of control over things. Many I know have done that successfully: A mad literamage who takes on many similar appearances and openly looks to incite chaos with his magic; the avatars--people who embody each color, and by being that one color resist change from any other; an Inidrasil named Raleigh with overwhelming power who constantly changes his form, much more drastic changes than that first one; myself as well. It's very hard to do that last one by choice; in my case I created and took a potion which gives me total control over my physical being. The downside was that I had to re-learn everything to handle such detailed control and not be stuck forever as an immobile pile of goop."
Then she replies to the bunny-girl: "Would you, uhh, like to play chess? Do you know how chess works?"

[xGoggles]

Still glaring daggers and katanas but eventually turns up her nose, and says arrogantly, "Not thanks to you, witch."
Not taking Lyra's warning at heart, for some reason, in her drowsy morning mindset, still believing she was heat resistant, she takes a big scoop of bacon directly into her mouth.

--

"How fascinating", Miori responds to the explanation before drinking back from her tea and enjoying it quite a bit.

The bunny-girl tilts her head at the strange question, "Umm, chess? No, I'm sorry, I have no idea what that is.. Is that a game?"

[Whatevr89532]

"Well, at least I didn't do anything to make it harder," she says. "The dream guardians just did their usual job, which I know better than to interfere with." Lyra has either forgotten what it's like to be bothered by petty things like temperature or decided to let Oyoki cause as much of her own suffering as she wants. The bacon is crispy and delicious, but still sizzling at about the same temperature it had in the oven a minute or so ago; it might actually hurt.

--

"Yes, chess is a turn-based, two-player strategy game on a board." Lyra waves and makes an illusion of a chessboard complete with all the pieces set up on it appear off to one side as a demonstration. "Since you were looking for something 'productive' to do I thought the mental exercise might be enjoyable for you? I don't have a handle on what counts as useful to you quite yet and honestly it was just kinda the first idea I had for something to do."
"Miori, I'll be honest with you--what I've seen so far suggests you might actually count as the avatar for this new cerulean color. Which, would be especially strange since you haven't actually ever been to Muffinville as far as I can tell."

[xGoggles]

Oyoki was about to respond with a witty remark, but then her tongue started hurting by the hot bacon! "Ahhh!!" She shouts and quickly spits the bacon out in distress. "Awww.. aww... iwt hwurts so wmuch!.."

--

"Well, I rather do maybe some cleaning? Or maybe some gardening?.. But somewhere not here, since this place is already so pretty I don't want to ruin anything.. If that is okay?" The bunny girl said as she didn't seem that interested in playing games.

Miori sets her cup down and says "An avatar, one that embodies their representative color. I would say that isn't too far-fetched given that this 'color' is what this world interpreted my already potent aura to be. This unusual effect is far more favorable than what it was back in Sekai. Even there I was admired for a lot of things, but representing a certain and yet undiscovered unique form of magic, is quite remarkable; I'm honestly feeling quite honored."

[Whatevr89532]

"Here.." Lyra makes a piece of ice appear floating in front of Oyoki to put in her mouth and help with the pain.

--

"Alright, just for a bit." The witch makes a door appear next to the bunny-girl, which leads to a (mundane) herb garden whose productss she occasionally uses to heal magic-resistant wounds. "There's a garden through there." Both sides of the door appear to be in this room, but opening it reveals a portal to the garden facing the door's "front" side.
"I'm glad you like it, at least," she says to Miori. "This creates, let's say an interesting situation though. You may not recognize your original world after how long it's been there, and if your nature has changed to be one based on color energy it technically makes you like a Muffinville native. If you want to take a look at certain things I can help with that, but I am a little concerned about spreading that color energy to realms it's not native to." She takes a small sip of tea. "To not beat around the bush, my first instinct is to set you up to live in Muffinville, maybe figure out if there's a new Cerulean Shard or something formed that you could use as a free home..."

[xGoggles]

The little fox girl reaches her hand out to take the cube, but then pulls back, wanting to refuse the offer from the witch, but figuring there was no winning in being in pain.. she eventually takes the cube and hastily puts it in her mouth.

--

A light titter escapes from Miori's lips and she slightly covers up her mouth with her hand in a gentle attempt to mask it. What was strange, however, was that there wasn't anything particularly funny inside the storage room.

The bunny maiden curiously looks through the door as she opens it, discovering a garden much up to her taste to get to work in. Turning to Lyra she smiles and says, "This garden looks very nice, thank you. I'll try to not disappoint you." She does a curtsy and gracefully makes her way past the door into the garden and then closes the door behind herself.

Having already stopped laughing by the time Lyra addressed her, which after Miori responds, "I have no doubt that Sekai has changed substantially without my presence, but I have duties there to attend to. Personal duties.. A few would be restoring my garden, kingdom and continuing my studies. I'm confident that returning there will be more a benefit than a burden, even with these new aspects of my aura. And if not... Well, I'm also very proficient in returning things to how they used to be, if the need would call for it." The tone of her voice has been more forceful now, while she was saying that. Even as a pacifist, Miori did hold her place and asserted a certain dominance in the world of Sekai, dictating her influence in other ways than with violence, but powerful enough that few dared to challenge her, back then.
But any force of her voice melted away like an ice cube in hot tea, and a gentle smile returned, which where she continued, "But if the is one thing I have an immense amount of, it is patience. I'd love to see your progress with little Kyō, and this 'color energy' is quite fascinating as it's relationship with 'Muffinville', intriguing me deeply to research it up close. Sekai can wait a few more millennia, I'm not in a particular hurry."

[Whatevr89532]

The cold helps ease the pain for now, though of course the burns will probably persist for a while after that. "...I really didn't think I needed to say 'careful, it's hot'."

--

Lyra shrugs. "I've made it a rule of mine not to gate-tend. If you want to physically return to Sekai and you find a way to do so then I won't do anything to stop you, and I wouldn't mind giving you visuals and so on of what it looks like. I'd just be concerned I was actively spreading chaos if I sent you there myself. I know it's a strange distinction, but it's surprisingly helpful for making certain kinds of decisions. As for, Kyo. For clarity's sake do you mean you want to get a view on what she's doing or actually talk with her for a bit? Either one would be easy enough, she's asleep at the moment but I could bring you over to when I'll make breakfast tomorrow morning."

[xGoggles]

Oyoki's glare towards the witch couldn't keep up, as her eyes slowly became watery and her new body's instinct urged her sob and cry like the little girl she was; not because she wanted to, but because it felt natural to do so.

--

"Yes, I understand, and I'll respect your principles. You don't have to aid me in my return if you don't wish to do so, I'm quite adaptable myself to do so, given enough time. Though it would not be appreciated if you actively tried to prevent me that is. But I'm happy to hear that isn't the case.", Miori gives a soft nod and takes another sip of tea.
"No need to worry about that either, you could say I'm keeping an eye on her as we speak. But it'll be subtle, I don't think she'd be very happy to see me in person again. Our past.. has been what problematic, to say the least. I couldn't be the person she needed the most, and deep down, I think, she resents me for it...", she says and then pauses, seemingly lost in thought about something.

[Whatevr89532]

"Aww.." Shortly after her sight is obscured by tears, Oyoki feels Lyra's arms wrapping around her from behind in a comforting, rather motherly hug, a napkin brought up to her eyes to help dry her face with. "It'll be alright."

--

"I'll admit to curiosity about that past, not just idle but utilitarian in some ways. But I also don't want to prod."