Dreampost continues

[oi_theoi]

[Continuations/new threads for the Dream post go here]

Comments

[supraliminally]

[Stops walking abruptly.]

Of course. This part is all defined by memory, and so it's easy to keep it... sensible, let's say.

I've never actually been in there, though, so it might get a bit hectic.

[Gesturing to the GIANT ASS CATHEDRAL-LIKE BUILDING that they are standing before. This is pretty much the biggest building ever, obviously the centerpiece of the city.]

[misterious]

This is where they keep the power source?

[supraliminally]

Yes.

I cannot in good conscience recommend that you follow me there.

But if you wish to, I won't disallow it.

[misterious]

I'll go.

It's just a dream, anyway.

[supraliminally]

[laughs]

So it is.

[The doors, which are easily 25 feet high, swing open slowly without a sound. The light within them is too bright for the features inside to be made out.]

Dramatic.

Shall we?

[misterious]

[My curiosity is piqued. LET'S DO THIS.]

Sure.

[supraliminally]

[AAAAND

welp.

Inside the building is a large open area. Looking up will reveal not a ceiling but the sky - dusk, with the crescent of the moon visible. The scene before them is that of what appears to have once been a Shinto shrine, but which is now a collapsed ruin. It looks like it may have been torn apart by an earthquake or something along those lines.]

[misterious]

. . . Unexpected.

[supraliminally]

A little bit.

[Starts walking through the ruin, occasionally turning over a broken pit of building-rubbish with her feet.]

The Hakurei Shrine. It preserves the stability of the whole world of Gensokyo.

Nice, isn't it?

[misterious]

In that state?

[supraliminally]

Why not?

The shrine is just a building, really. The god resides within an object inside, the goshintai. So long as that is intact, it's perfectly functional.

[misterious]

And that's the source of the power here?

[supraliminally]

More or less.

Shall we start digging, then?

[SINCE IT'S... UNDER... THAT COLLAPSED BUILDING...]

[misterious]

Alright.

[supraliminally]

[Well, eventually the process of digging - a process during which Yukari hums some irritating song THE ENTIRE TIME - you reach a bit of floor with what looks like one of those trapdoors leading down to a cellar. If you attempt to lift it while Yukari is off messing with some debris, you may note that it is heavy as fuck.]

[misterious]

[Might be studying the content of said song to see if she can get something out of it.

She is.... patient. Ish.]

Together?

[supraliminally]

[You may be able to gather that Yukari likes video games?

Anyway, Yukari is looking at that door somewhat suspiciously.]

I am fairly certain there isn't a cellar in the shrine.

But what the hell, right?

[GRABS ONE HANDLE

ARE WE REALLY DOING THIS Y/N]

[misterious]

It's a dream, anyway.

[Let's do this 8|]

[supraliminally]

[Lifting up the door (even with both of you it takes no small amount of effort) reveals...

dirt. Immediately under the door is dirt, run through with some very thick roots.]

[misterious]

[. . . Pokes at one with a pencil.]

[supraliminally]

[It twitches, violently. There is a noise like something cracking.]

[misterious]

[. . .backs up, slowly]

[supraliminally]

[Oh, well. Since you have some distance now, you might notice what has been distracting Yukari for the last two tags. It's the giant sakura tree that you didn't seem to notice before, rising out of the center of the ruin. It is sort of big. It is, in fact, the biggest tree that has ever existed in the history of the universe, and also the most beautiful. You might even say it's unnaturally beautiful.

Yukari is staring at it without moving. She is still smiling very slightly, but she seems disturbed somehow.]

[misterious]

. . . What do you know about this tree?

[supraliminally]

The Saigyou Ayakashi.

It's a youkai tree. It eats humans.