Work Text:
Ariem took slow, even breaths. With effortless grace, her fingers gently tugged at a set of threads; a small handful of the billions upon billions of dreams that filtered their way through her home. She wove each one into place, gradually creating a complex but beautiful pattern, incomprehensible to the mortal eye.
Each thread served a purpose, for each one was but a small part of someone’s dream. Like a thread of fabric, on its own it is not very strong. It holds little purpose, easily cut. Combined with others, however, woven and sewn together by a needle and steady hands, that one thread can help create even the most magnificent of dresses.
Ariem did not believe that any single thread, cloth or otherwise, was worthless. There was potential in each. Just one little piece was a glimpse into something grand. By that logic, sewing was a lot like dreamweaving. Ariem wove together thousands of little threads to bring to life a single, beautiful dream.
The current one she was working on was especially beautiful. The guardian could just feel the amount of joy and happiness each thread radiated. It made her own heart feel light. As she finished the pattern, she took a look inside and found a whole field of emerald green. Dotting it were thousands of colorful flowers, their hues brighter than the shiniest of gems. Why, Ariem could compare their shine to that of her own Dream Orbs.
The guardian smiled as she watched the creator of the dream sitting in the middle of the flowery field. In their hands was a gorgeous flower crown, one with lilacs, daisies, roses, and lilies. They smiled and laughed as they held it out to a mechanical being. Their skin- or perhaps plating was a better word- was a mix of light yellows and oranges, with two bright blue ovals for eyes. It allowed the little one to place the crown on its head. Even without a mouth, Ariem could tell that the being was happy.
“It looks so good on you, Emerl!”
The being, Emerl, whirred in what sounded like agreement.
The little one laughed again and began gathering more flowers. Emerl leaned down to help.
Ariem smiled warmly. Little Cream had such an imagination. Her heart truly was the embodiment of pure and innocent. She felt it the moment the little rabbit entered her domain. The guardian vowed to protect such a beautiful child from the corrupted minds that sought to use her.
Ariem’s mood soured at the memory of the foul doctor, but quickly shook it off and continued on with her work. Once Cream’s dream was done, she moved on to Amy’s.
A bakery. With hundreds of sweets for the hundreds of customers that were lined up out her door. Many of her friends sat at tables, enjoying the treats she baked and offering to help with the lunch rush.
Tails was next. A laboratory full of more gadgets, tech, and tools than he could possibly imagine (ironic, given this was his dream). His prize was a gold and blue biplane, one that could transform into three different modes, flying at speeds unimaginable. It took him to places far and wide, even places not yet discovered.
Such a bright, inquisitive mind, Ariem thought with a smile.
Knuckles had some rather… surprising dreams. Sometimes they were mundane, like just hanging out with his friends eating ice cream. Or spectacularly bizarre like tonight’s, where he was a wrestling pro going up against a big, yellow bear with a green scarf.
Ariem chuckled. The echidna truly was a fascinating creature; strong too. No wonder Rouge took a liking to him.
Speaking of the titular bat…
Rouge’s dream was… predictable. Gems, gems, gems. Rooms of shiny jewels and treasures she could ogle at until the end of time. Tonight seemed to be a museum heist. While Ariem agreed with Sonic that the bat was not worthy of being granted the Reverie’s power, she could still see slivers of a good person within her. During the Dream Orb hunts and the battle with Dr. Eggman, Rouge pulled her weight just like the others. Her morals seemed muddled, but her soul was far from corrupt.
Plus, her dreams could be rather entertaining; they might be the closest Ariem will ever get to watching a spy movie.
Sonic’s dream came next. Ariem wouldn’t say that the hedgehog was as predictable as Rouge, but his own dreams could be… interesting, to say the least. A common link between them all was him running. Running, running, running.
There was something beautiful about the landscapes Sonic traversed through. Something… ethereal almost. A spectacle in and of themselves. Folks Ariem knew and didn’t dot these magnificent places, waving at the hedgehog as he ran by.
His imagination is stronger than he realizes.
Right after Sonic came a rather interesting surprise. Ariem thought she felt another presence during the final battle, even when in her dormant form. This presence was like the others, but… darker.
Well, perhaps “dark” is not the best word to describe them. They had no ill intentions during their time in the Reverie; in fact, they seemed to have been pulled in completely by accident. Ariem was a little disappointed she never got to speak with them, but she was glad they weren’t harmed during their stay.
Ariem frowned as the threads for this one’s dream darkened. Their bright blue and magenta hues changed to that of black. Each thread held a trace of fear. Panic. Regret.
A nightmare, Ariem frowned.
She gazed inwards to see what could be causing this individual such torment. A black hedgehog with red stripes ran down a long, metal corridor. Their ears were flat against their skull, their breathing labored as though they had been running for a while. They turned a corner and froze upon reaching a dead end. They whirled around as blurred figures in white coats closed in.
The hedgehog stepped back. Their red eyes were wide with terror, fists clenching at their sides while their quills bristled. Their back pressed against the wall as they let out a low growl.
The figures stepped closer, the shadows of their tall bodies looming over the hedgehog. One of them held out an odd contraption. It was made of black cloth, with two straps that looped around the back.
The hedgehog’s ears flattened at the sight.
“No…! NO!”
They yelped when two of the White Coats grabbed them by the arms, holding them in place while the contraption was placed over their muzzle.
The hedgehog thrashed their head about, their screams muffled behind the cloth. The grip on their arms only tightened as one of the White Coats took out a needle and stabbed it into their left arm. Tears pricked the corner of the hedgehog’s eyes as they continued to scream and thrash about.
Ariem’s heart clenched at the sight. Her hands shook with each new thread that was woven in. She hated watching someone suffer from a nightmare. Watching them scream and writhe and cry as they were stalked by nightmares created by their minds. It seemed that after meeting Sonic and friends, that ache in her soul had increased tenfold.
Ariem pulled her hands away from the weave. With a flick of her wrist, a pink and blue orb manifested within her palm.
She couldn’t stop the dream -to do so could damage the person’s psyche. She also couldn’t directly interact with the dreamer without letting them into the Reverie, something her Creators outright discouraged. Not to mention letting such energies from a nightmare into the Reverie could potentially damage it.
Ariem wasn’t able to make drastic shifts in a person’s dreamscape, but she could… manipulate it. In small ways.
The guardian crushed the outer casing of the Dream Orb, releasing the energy inside to create a new group of threads. Carefully, she wove them in between the darker ones, cancelling out the negative emotions with positive ones.
Here, little one. Let your dreams be filled with joy and happiness, if only for this one night. Let the light vanquish the dark so that you may sleep.
As she worked, the dream continued to play. The hedgehog went limp as the White Coats carried them off. They still tried to struggle even as their limbs lost their strength. The shadows of the White Coats danced around their body, warping the landscape into one of blurred shapes and darkness with harsh, fluorescent lights. They were about to turn a dark corner when a sharp voice cut through the air.
“What are you doing to him!?”
All at once, the shadows dancing around the group dispersed. The White Coats stopped in the middle of the hallway while the hedgehog weakly looked up. A young girl with golden locks of hair glared at them from the opposite end of the hall. Her silhouette glowed from the soft lighting above her head.
The White Coat with the needle froze in alarm.
“Maria! What are you doing out of bed!?”
The girl -Maria- marched towards the group, her blue dress swaying like a stormy ocean with each step.
“What did you do to Shadow?” she demanded, quite sternly for such a young girl, “And why did you put that thing on him?”
Her baby blue eyes narrowed at the cloth contraption on the hedgehog’s face; Shadow as Ariem now learned. The White Coat gripping them scowled as they spoke in a clipped tone.
“Project Shadow was being uncooperative. We were scheduled to run tests an hour ago and it chose to run.”
Shadow winced from the extra pressure the White Coat applied to their body. His dull, crimson eyes stared at the young girl in desperation.
Maria clenched her fists at her sides.
“Grandfather said all tests were cancelled today. Now let. Him. Go.”
The White Coats exchanged skeptical glances. Or at least, Ariem assumed they were skeptical. This dream must have been a memory; memory dreams tended to be a bit more fuzzy than regular dreams. Details would get skewed, faces and backgrounds forgotten by time.
One of the White Coats let out an annoyed snarl.
“...If I find out you’re lying, brat…”
They turned to their companion with the needle.
“Call the Professor! If tests really are cancelled today I’m going on a fucking lunch break.”
They nodded and left without another word. The other White Coat gasped.
“Dude! Not in front of the kid!”
The White Coat let out a harsh scoff.
“Whatever,” it waved to the barely conscious hedgehog, “Deposit it in the girl’s room. Let her play ‘pet’ with a weapon if she wants.”
Maria’s frown deepened as she watched the White Coat leave. The other one sighed and began to walk until the girl stopped them.
“I’ll take him.”
“Maria-”
She didn’t wait for a response as she ripped Shadow out of the White Coat’s grasp and held him close to her chest.
“Have a nice lunch break, sir.”
She walked off, and the scene faded to that of a bedroom. Maria leaned against the headboard, cradling Shadow in her arms while her hands stroked his quills. The cloth contraption was nowhere in sight.
Shadow’s eyes blinked open wearily.
“...M-...Maria…?”
Maria gently hushed him.
“You’re okay, Shadow. Just rest now. You’re safe.”
Shadow did as told, letting out a shaky breath. Ariem smiled at the way his muscles relaxed beneath the girl’s soothing touch.
“Just sleep, Shadow. Let the medicine run its course.”
One arm shakily reached up to grab the sleeve of her shirt.
“W-Will you stay…?”
“Of course,” the girl whispered, rubbing his ear, “I’ll be here, just like this, when you wake up.”
“...Promise…?”
“I promise. Now go to sleep. And when you wake up, we can have cake for dinner.”
Shadow huffed a quiet laugh, the ghost of a smile crawling up his muzzle.
“...Chocolate?”
Maria smiled and giggled softly.
“As much as you want.”
Seemingly content, Shadow leaned closer into Maria’s arms and drifted off. As he dozed, Maria began to hum a soft lullaby. It wasn’t one Ariem was familiar with, but it was beautiful all the same.
The guardian smiled as she wove the final thread in. The weave was a mixture of darks and lights, intermingling with one another in a delicate, fragile harmony. Ariem smiled softly as she sent one final, silent wish to the hedgehog to have pleasant dreams before letting it go. The dream floated upwards, settling in between the ones of Sonic and his friends.
Ariem hummed curiously at the sight before moving on to the next dream.
“Never a dull moment in the realm of dreams for you, huh?”
A tiny, amused smile crept up Ariem’s face. She didn’t turn around or slow in her work as she replied to the new yet familiar voice.
“If things were dull, it’d mean that people are having peaceful dreams. But that’s the funny thing: you can never guess what kind of dream someone will have until you see it. It could be a hall of shadows, or a field of flowers. Dreams are unpredictable that way. Something I think you know a lot about.”
Ariem finally glanced over her shoulder, tilting her head upwards to face the newcomer: a purple hedgehog with glowing golden eyes, an equally purple cloak, and an uncanny resemblance to Sonic. They laid on their back, arms folded behind their head while dream weaves floated around them.
The guardian’s smile widened.
“Hello Nova. Long time no see.”
Nova’s bright golden eyes shined with mischief as they grinned down at the guardian. They shot her with a quick finger gun and winked.
“Right back atcha, Ari!”
“What brings you to the Reverie this time?”
“No special reason,” the being shrugged, “just felt like visiting my favorite Dream Queen.”
“Still insisting on that name, I see.”
“Yeperdoodles!”
Nova flared their cloak out as they glanced at the dream weaves around them.
“Busy night, huh?”
“I like to think of it as fulfilling,” Ariem countered, letting the current weave float upwards so she could work on the next one.
A snow leopard rode a spiked T-Rex through a humongous jungle while colorful velociraptors ran by its feet. If Ariem didn’t know better, she thought that those raptors were color coded to match Sonic’s friends.
She glanced up when she noticed Nova studying one of the dreams rather closely. One of their hands hovered just above Knuckles.’
“Careful,” she warned, the smile on her face never wavering, “you remember what happens when you touch a dream weave.”
Nova retracted their hand like a child caught trying to steal a cookie from the cookie jar. They laughed, their body morphing to resemble Shadow.
“Ah come on! The last person was fine!”
Ariem raised a playful eyebrow.
“You made them dream about talking cotton candy clouds trying to eat them until the day they died.”
“Hey, at least it was better than the other guy,” Nova dismissed with a wave of their hand.
They flew around Shadow’s dream, gently cupping the bottom of it with their palms, but not close enough to touch it.
“Besides, I wouldn’t dream of messing up these little furries. Eh? See what I did there?”
The guardian rolled her eyes, refusing to acknowledge the pun. Instead, she studied the tender way they held Shadow’s dream. How their golden eyes sparkled with a mixture of warmth and curiosity as they watched the events unfold.
Ariem raised one eyebrow in curiosity.
“Have you met them? Sonic and his friends?”
Nova’s ears flicked as they glanced her way. They grinned.
“Only two of them,” they removed one hand from Shadow’s dream and placed it beneath Sonic’s, “The Blue Boy himself, and his little buddy Edgy Hedgie. They’re my new friends now.”
“...Really?”
Ariem paused her dream weaving. A sense of protection began to grow in her gut as she eyed the purple being. She resisted the urge to fly up there and snatch all the dream weaves from their grasp.
She knew it wouldn’t work anyway.
“Oh don’t look so surprised,” Nova chided lightly, “What, am I not allowed to have friends?”
The tone was teasing, but there was something darker behind it. Defensive, almost.
Or better yet… protective.
Ariem inwardly cursed herself for getting defensive so quickly; the events from Dr. Eggman must still have her shaken up. While Nova could be an unpredictable being, they were never outright malicious. Any harm they caused to dreamers was almost always purely by accident. (Keyword being ‘almost’). With a shake of her head, the guardian let the old instincts fade and looked at the purple being sincerely.
“No, you are,” she assured carefully, “I’m just… surprised. You don’t usually interact with mortals so freely.”
Nova chuckled, the defensiveness in their voice gone. They removed their hands from the weaves and laid on their stomach, holding their chin up with the back of their hand.
“Oh I’m full of surprises, Ari. Not even the others know everything I can do.”
“I see,” Ariem nodded, “How are the others, if I may ask?”
Nova shrugged easily.
“Still as busy as ever. Right now everyone’s got their tails in a twist handling some cataclysm.”
“Cataclysm?”
“Another Chosen One quest gone wrong,” the being explained, their voice dripping with amusement, “They’re still trying to pick up the pieces as we speak. I swear, those guys never learn!”
Ariem frowned, glancing at the dream weaves of her friends.
“Should we be worried?”
“Nah,” Nova waved their hand dismissively, “They got it handled. The lil stunt would’ve barely sent a ripple this way anyway. Oh hey, I rhymed!”
Ariem chuckled.
“That you did. And good to hear. Looks like I’m not the only one without a dull moment in their existence.”
“Huh. Guess not.”
Nova’s form shifted into Rouge’s as they flew around the dream weaves.
“And speaking of things not being dull, I heard you went on a little adventure recently,” they floated down to Ariem’s side, fluttering their eyelashes knowingly, “With a certain group of multicolored furries~?”
Ariem rolled her eyes at the description good-naturedly.
“...That is one way to describe them, yes.”
“Ooh! Ooh! Tell. Me. EVERYTHING! Don’t leave out a single detail!”
Nova flew around Ariem’s body until they were sitting in front of her just a few short feet away. They changed to Tails and laid on their stomach, their legs kicking the air behind them while their cloak laid draped over their whole back. The fluffy twin appendages wagged eagerly behind them.
Ariem giggled at the sight. Her hands continued on with her dream weaving as she regarded the being with her own amusement.
“Don’t you already know what happened?”
“I mean, mostly, yeah. But I wanna hear it from you. You have such an interesting way of viewing things. I wanna hear your thoughts.”
Their body morphed into Sonic’s with a shrug.
“Plus you sound like someone reading a bedtime story and I like that.”
Ariem couldn’t help but laugh. For as unpredictable and chaotic as Nova could be, they were surprisingly straightforward with their actions. It was a fact the guardian always found amusing; it also made them the easiest to talk to.
“Alright. But you’re not allowed to touch any more dream weaves. Got it?”
“Got it!” Nova winked.
Ariem shook her head fondly as she went into her tale. All the while Nova sat perfectly still, eyes glued to the guardian like a mesmerized child. True to their word, they kept their hands to themselves. Even as the dream weaves started circling their body.
Curiously, the dreams of Sonic, Shadow, and a purple winged she-cat floated around them the closest.