tabularasa_rp | 004 - Lucid Dreaming

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1. Beginning

The fleshy surroundings don't bother Indigo at first, not really. She's been in flesh biomes before. The idea that this somehow isn't a flesh biome, but part of the Ruin somehow, does occur to her... but she dismisses it quickly. She hasn't seen any giant eyeballs or the usual creatures that populated the Ruin, and besides, the Ruin is dead. She killed it. The idea that it somehow survived that, that it's still alive after everything she sacrificed to kill it... she's not going to face that.

2. If it's not nailed down (and even if it is)....

When Indigo realizes her Matter Manipulator is working, she quickly taps at the menu only to discover it's somehow been emptied. All her extra materials, supplies, furniture, all gone. She'll have to start again from zero. After moping briefly, she sets to doing just that: Gathering up the surroundings into the Manipulator. A jagged, wavering blue line of light, similar to lightning but not nearly as bright, shoots out from the business end of the device, surrounding her target in a blue glow before sucking it inside. She's pretty indiscriminate about what she takes from the environment; teeth benches from the stations? She's taking those. The subway tracks? She's taking those too. She begins to carve out a perfectly square path through the walls, but after seeing them bleed (and collecting the blood; might as well), she thinks better of it; better to do that one more sparingly.

3. Technology of tomorrow

The Matter Manipulator isn't the only technology that's functioning now. Indigo looks down at her rifle in disappointment; it's ironic that when it's finally working, she doesn't have the space or visibility to use it properly. A shame, really, since Novakid are known for their marksmanship.

Her other tech, though, is a boon in exploring the fleshy tunnels. In places where it's difficult to traverse the terrain, such as across chasms or climbing up to another floor where you're not supposed to, is where they can be most seen; a red sphere with yellow spikes, half the height of a person, can be seen 'rolling' along the walls and ceiling, only to unfurl into a crouched Indigo once it reaches a walkable area. Or perhaps you can see her using her double jump to clear an overhang, or to save herself from falling into a chasm.

4. Return of the Ruin

Indigo's charmed exploration of the tunnels couldn't last forever. She's just walking along, minding her own business, when a massive white laser shoots out from somewhere beyond her vision. She just barely drops to the ground in time, the laser going over her head; when it clears, she runs forward to find the source, ready to drop again should there be more coming.

She finds the source of the laser, a large fleshy room, and the centerpiece, lodged into the wall... a massive yellow eye with a cat-like pupil, staring her down with pure malevolence. The pupil dilates so wide that the sclera of the eye can barely be seen, showing a planet against a backdrop of a black starry sky in its depths; then wall slits on either side of the eye open up, pouring out all manner of creatures.

"I killed you once, I can do it again!" Indigo shouts after overcoming her confusion (how is this thing alive?), charging forward with her iridescent sword in hand.

5. Wildcard???

((Have an idea of your own you want to play with Indigo? Come at me! And as for the Ruin summoning creatures, you can pick anything on the "Biome Monsters" and "Mini Biome Monsters" lists given in the link, other than the Erchius Ghost (or you can ask me to pick something), OR you could mix nightmares and go with creatures from your character's canon!))

Bowser had never seen anything like a Matter Manipulator, but given what sorts of technology and what he knows about the Void, that such a thing exists isn't surprising to him. It is also not difficult to figure out it's function. Still, when he sees Indigo using it, he finds the sight odd and stops to watch.

"What do you need all that stuff for?"

Indigo turns toward the voice, blankly (haha, just kidding, her face is always blank) staring at the odd turtle-creature in curiosity and perhaps a bit of confusion. What is that thing...? Oh well, it can talk, so she might as well talk back.

"I don't need it, not really. But it might come in handy." If she waited until she needed things to grab them, she'd be up the creek without a paddle much more often than she has been. Something something preventions and cures?

004 - Lucid Dreaming

Indigo, Open

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