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Fox has been to the Collective before. It doesn't look much different, really. There's even more graffiti here and there. Most of the artwork has been preserved, but there's places where tags and scripts and small pieces of art have been layered up on others, meant to be transitory and ever-changing.
Lux is inside, in the large studio space. They stand before a large canvas, propped up on an easel. The canvas is covered with paint--a mixture of thick acrylics, scribbled pastels, and spray paint, which creates a somewhat chaotic blend of colors and textures. It's dream-like, surreal, shapes blending into other shapes. There's darker, abstract brush strokes that look like... almost like birds in flight? Or like falling leaves. Maybe both.
Lux is covered in paint themself. It's smudged on their hands, cheeks, clothes--they'd clearly tuned out and just... let things be messy. Now they stand back, staring at the canvas with a thoughtful expression.
Pap pap pap. Fox's feet are bare, because when you're a Life Master, you're not so much worried about picking up stuff from sidewalks, even Philly's nasty-ass sidewalks. She pushes open the door, backpack slung on her back, and a box in her hands with the Insomnia Cookies label on it. "Hello, hello! I bring you snacks!" the Orphan crows, scampering across the floor toward Lux and holding out the box.
Lux looks over their shoulder as Lux comes in, flashing a smile. "Hey you. Ooh! Cookies!" They turn, lowering their paint brush to their side as they lean in to peer hungrily at the box. "You know just how to make my day."
Half a dozen cookies in a variety of elaborately-decorated and multi-flavored options: he opens the box to show off the present, and then shoves it toward Lux happily. "I surely try," Fox laughs, and leans up to smooch Lux on the cheek in greeting. "What are you painting? It looks pretty."
Lux smiles, accepting the box, then tilts their head to return the affectionate, light smooch to her cheek. They pull out a cookie to munch into while they look back at the canvas. "Mm... Some things I've been dreaming of, lately. I thought getting the images out of my head would help, but..." A soft puff. "Not really." They take another bite, chewing gleefully. "I've been having a lot of weird dreams lately."
A vague frown, there, and Fox sets the box down on a nearby table, slinging her arms around Lux's waist for a tight hug, a follow-on bit of the greeting, and a reassurance. "Is it something you're trying to do, or is it ... like... just a new thing?" She explains a moment later, "I am kinda used to people having weird dreams or prophetic visions. I live with Leta."
"It's not always the acid, sometimes it's prophecy."
Lux gives him a reassuring smile, leaning into the hug. "It's intentional. Don't worry. I'm... trying to prove myself to Winter, after my... falling out. Also working on getting a new title. Kind of goes hand in hand. But--the title involves being... kind of... a prophet? So I've been doing a lot of oneiromancy. Forcing my dreams to run... deeper. Connecting to a power that isn't just... me."
Fox does a big squeeze of the Darkling, and then loosens their grip. One big squeezle, for a reassurance. "I mean, I'm always going to worry about you, if something is bothering you or making things difficult or scary for you. I'll worry anyway." She blinks her wide gold-green eyes up at them. "Well. That's good, I think? That you have a path forward? Even if it's scary or upsetting at times." Her lower lip gets jutted out briefly. "Can you try to dream about specific things, or is it just... 'hello, fate, tell me what i need to know?'"
Lux presses their lips to his temple briefly, then leans back. "It's not too scary. I can control my dreams and change them when they start to turn to nightmares. Usually. But it is good, to have a path forward. Not that... I really know what that path is, yet. Our Queen is still coming up with a task for me to complete, to prove myself." They shrug. "It seems like I can direct it. But I'm still... getting used to it? So mostly just been letting things... flow."
They chew on their lower lip, and their smile flashes brightly at the kiss to her temple; Fox takes a step back and finds a place to perch. Sitting is overrated; all the best people find chairs and Slav Squat on them, obviously. "I'm not all that good with mental stuff. I leave that to Vasha and Leta, mostly. It's very hard, anything that has to do with ... brains. I'm all body, you know?" His fingers wiggle dismissively. "Yeah. That sounds ... kind of like sleeping isn't that restful? If you're always having to work and reinterpret things. Can you ... turn it off if you need to?"
"It's been kind of tiring, but... not too bad," Lux says, shaking their head. "Dreams are a part of us. They fuel the Hedge, our magic... we're part dream, in a way. So it's been--hard, but not... awful?" They scratch at their cheek. "I think I can turn it off. Or--well--not really turn it off, but... I could... not force my dreams to go so deep."
The Thyrsus frowns a little bit at that. "Oh." Clearly she didn't know how deep the link between Changelings and dreams went, and he takes a moment to think about that, absently chewing on the inside of her lip. "Well, hard but not awful sounds like something you're making progress on." Fox puffs out a little breath. "Like exercising muscles so they get stronger?" A brief bob of her head. "As long as you can get rest if you need rest."
"Exercising a muscle sounds about right." Lux bobs their head, then considers her. "I wander what a mage's dreams would be like. Er--I mean, changelings can go into the dreams of others. Like, directly. I bet your dreams would be awesome."
He purses his lips when Lux says that exercising a muscle sounds right, apparently somewhat soothed by that. Exercise, now that Fox understands! She squints, then, and offers, "... we can try it, if you want to? I don't remember a lot of my dreams, but I am always willing to try. I am kinda stressed out still, so they might be weird processing dreams, but."
Lux frowns at that, looking at her with concern. "Still stressed? Things haven't gotten any better?"
"Not really," Fox answers, frowning and shifting their shoulders. "There's actually more, including murders. Like really bad ones, and I don't want to talk about them that much. But we're working on it. I did find something that's art-related, though, that I can show you in dreams sometime. Someone in our history played an art joke on an asshole in wizard history. It looks like the artist kind of got scrubbed from history for it, though, which I ... intend to undo. Once we catch the murderer."
Lux's brows raise at the news of scrubbed history and art jokes, intrigued. "Huh. That... sucks." They reach out to rest a hand on her arm. "I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. I don't--I don't want to intrude upon your dreams. I wasn't trying to invite myself. Is there anything I can do to help, though?"
"I said you could. It's not intruding if I said it was okay," Fox answers, offering a lopsided but genuine smile to Lux, and resting her hand over theirs on her arm. "I was more just warning you that my dreams might not be all fun and games right now. Or ever, really. Part of -- being involved with the people I'm involved with, and loving the people I love, is that I'm usually in range when things go bad and need to be cleaned up. That's ... what Leta and Vasha and Zoya all do for us. The Guardians of the Veil is ... a very appropriate name, but honestly sometimes I think it should be 'The Ones Who Deal With All The Crap.'"
"Not all bad, but not all good. That's all I meant." A vague shrug. "Oh, I mean, just being here is good. I don't need every time we hang out to turn into talking about what's rough in my life today." And she winks.
Lux puffs out a breath, stuffing the rest of the cookie into their mouth. "Okay. Well--with your consent, I could try to change your dreams. Completely changing dreams is hard, but I could.... try to spin up something more pleasant."
"You have my consent." Fox hops up to go get themself a cookie from the box, and shoves it into her face, eating half of the massive cookie in one sharp-toothed bite. "And in fact my blessing. If you can, uh, spin up something more pleasant, I'd be happy, and grateful, and look, maybe it'd be a good project for you to practice the things you need to practice for your new job."
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