004 - Lucid Dreaming

[tabularasa_mods]

Lucid Dreaming Event Info Pt.1 ▲ Event Info Pt.2 ▼ Comments Please see the two info posts linked above for details on the nature of the event, the nightmares within, and the setting it takes place in. You may ask any unanswered questions in either post. If your character dies at any point during the dream event, please leave a comment in the death report thread to notify the mods.

As a final reminder, all characters will fall asleep for the full duration of this event whether you decide to take part or not. You may continue tagging threads that take place before the event, but everyone will fall asleep simultaneously.

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Falling Asleep, Waking Up
The shift happens without warning, much like the first time people appeared in the world. Perhaps you remember what you were doing in the last moments before a strange feeling of exhaustion overwhelmed you - or perhaps you remember nothing at all. Whatever it may be, you've appeared somewhere new. A seemingly ordinary train station, if not for the bizarre walls of flesh blocking the only exits. The only path forward is down into the pulsating depths, a humid breeze pushing at your back.

There may be others here with you, or you may be alone. Could there be more people trapped in this strange place? You won't find them just by standing around.

Nightmares
The screeching of a distant train will echo through the tunnels on occasion, shadows flicking through the translucent flesh of the walls. Sometimes, however, instead of fading away the noise will only grow louder, closer, until it sounds like the train should be upon you. It never appears, but something else always will.

The train is a siren call for nightmares, and you're unfortunate enough to be their victim. The shadows turn alive, twisting and growing as they rise up from the ground and begin to transform. What form they take varies, but the shadows of the mind know the true fears of those who walk among them. Are you prepared to face the darkness?

Volcanic Panic

The shadows congeal at the edges of the floor, and soon after a hot orange glow begins to fill the room - molten lava is pooling in from the other end of the tunnel. It rolls slowly forward, devouring everything it touches with an unquenchable searing hunger, leaving behind only the charred bones of its victims... although, strangely, the tunnels themselves appear to be completely unharmed.

Outrunning the flow of lava shouldn't be a problem, but there seems to be no end to it. How long can you run from something that never stops? Or worse, what happens if you find yourself surrounded? You'll need to find a way to higher ground before that happens.

A Radiant Plague

The shadows rise up into familiar shapes, and at first glance it'd be easy to mistake them for people. They may even share the faces and voices of people you know, stumbling towards you with wide, open arms... and empty, glowing eyes filled with an orange light. Something smells sickly sweet, and it's only once they're close enough to grab you that they begin to attack.

These are not your friends, and they'll do whatever it takes to make you one of them instead. Unfortunately, it's not an experience you'll be able to survive. Your only hope is to fight back before the plague can take hold, lest you become another mindless husk that knows only to further spread the infection.

Trust No One, Not Even Yourself

The shadows stretch and fill the air, choking everything in a thick blanket of darkness... before dispersing just as quickly as they'd appeared. A few moments pass and nothing else seems to be happening. You must've gotten lucky this time!

... Or did you?

Surely it can't be that simple. Nothing else here has been, so something must have happened just now. It's only you and the person you're currently traveling with... but are you sure that's really them right now? How do you know they haven't been possessed by another nightmare, waiting until you let your guard down to stab you in the back? Should you interrogate them to be sure, or start with restraining them and ask questions later? Wouldn't it be better to just kill them before things get out of hand? The sooner you strike, the safer you'll be when their true form emerges.

Yes, that must be the real explanation. It has to be them that's been possessed by a nightmare. What else could it be?

Joker’s Wild

There’s no limit to what form the shadows can take. The world may have its own perception of fear, but your nightmares are something only you could understand. What darkness lurks in the depths of your heart?

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code bases by tricklet

Comments

Powers 2

[theforgottenboy]

[The bridge is familiar, if not the landscape on the other side of it. And of course he knows Parsee... that is her, right? Something is different. He's not surprised that she can see him, despite this dreamscape making him how he normally would be. Which, if his powers are back, then it's likely the same for her too...]

You know why I'm here.

[To help people. Dream or not, there's so much fear here.]

[bridge_princess]

[The feel of her. It was a thing that might be more familiar, more natural to what she was. Her eyes glittered a fel, unnatural green. And with them, the green eyed monster within her seethed, full of insecurities and yearning.]

Come to save Envy, have you? Finally got your tricks back and now you're here to help...

Because of course you would, compassion. How could you not? [A warning gesture.] Keep your distance. I'm not sure even hell would forgive me if I corrupted you too much.

[theforgottenboy]

[She does feel more like what she should be, from what he knows of her. And of course, tied up in that, there's the envy.]

Is this how you always feel?

[Despite her warning, he takes a shuffling step closer.]

[bridge_princess]

Of course it is. I was created in Envy, and that's all that is left of me. There's always someone better off than me after all.

[She shuffled back on the bridge, eyeing him warily. Depending upon how deeply he could look with his knack for sensing the sources of problems, there was an old, very old bitter wound deep deep down. But it had healed over like scar tissue a long time ago.

It was just a roiling stream of one small slight or another, like a constant stream of self-fulfilling prophesies.]

What about you? What do you envy, little compassion? Or are you always like that too?

[theforgottenboy]

[That she's explained some of her past to him helps give some context to the old wound, even if he can't force the details to rise to the surface.]

[Or maybe he could, if he really wanted to. But he really doesn't.]

You carry a lot of envy with you. That part of you is old, frigid but festering... but I don't think that's all you are.

[He doesn't need to read any deeper to feel that way. They may both be spirits, but that doesn't mean she had to be so accepting of him.]

[What does he envy? He thinks of when he forgot what he was, the despair and fear and loneliness that came with believing he was real, but forgotten. The desire to protect Rhys over anyone else. Lambert claiming he came through to feed off all the things he can't have. Was any of that envy?]

I don't know. I've felt a lot of things. Most of it hurt.

[At least he's honest, but then, when is he not.]

[bridge_princess]

[She snorted, though he wasn't entirely wrong. There was part of her that was still human deep down. She was a spirit of envy, but she'd been a human being once upon a time.]

Fine. I suppose there might be something in there deep under the surface. If I was just envy I couldn't be trying other things. [She grunted.]

And you aren't envious of the ones who don't hurt ever?

[theforgottenboy]

Is it that deep down? If you were only envy, you wouldn't care about anyone else.

[He's decided that must be true, at least.]

[Ones who don't hurt? What would it take to be like that? The simplest of spirits, maybe, wandering the Fade free from the influences of any deeper emotion... or the Tranquil, wandering their lives in much the same way.]

There were times when I did. I thought that it might be nice, to not feel anything anymore.

But I don't think I could be me, like that. I just want to be me. Cole.

[Even if he's still learning for himself what that might mean.]

[bridge_princess]

...You're probably right. Much as part of me refuses to admit it, I wouldn't actually care how you answered the question if I was just envy. [A sigh.] There's a difference between being a vengeful spirit of envy and just being envy.

...

Yeah... I could envy that. It'd be simpler wouldn't it?

[theforgottenboy]

I'm glad that you're not vengeful.

[They probably wouldn't get along as well if she were.]

Simpler, yes. I don't think you should envy Tranquility, though. Not even the Tranquil envy the Tranquil.

[Which, if you don't feel anything then of course you wouldn't feel envy... but look, he knows one that got better, it's complicated.]

[bridge_princess]

I 'was.' I was created in order to repay someone a very long time ago, after all, but holding onto vengeance after you're done's just foolish. I'm just the after-effects.

Besides, he had it coming. [Snort] Why wouldn't I envy them?

[theforgottenboy]

But you aren't now. You can just be you.

[Sorry he's like this, but I mean, that's pretty much what he decided to do.]

Being Tranquil doesn't really make all your feelings go away. It just hides you behind glass, watching yourself live like a silent dream. You know something should be wrong, but there is nothing to be wrong. You can only wait to wake up and feel meaning again. But you never do.

[bridge_princess]

That...

[She listened to him describe and other thoughts fell away as she considered the poetry of it, thought of it like a spirit. Her arms folded and she frowned, growing less and less pleased. That really wasn't a solution. It was like sleepwalking or deadwalking.]

That's like dying so you can go through the motions of living. That's not enviable at all. That's just stupid.