tabularasa_rp | 004 - Lucid Dreaming

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

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It had gone... not great. She'd smelled jealousy in the air, and picked up a snapped 'I'm fucking him' out of her, so there was that. she snorted and shook her head. "I'm definitely not on her level, but people do worship lesser spirits like me, heh. She was interested in my intentions about you." She snickered a bit. "I don't think she was quite ready to deal with being around me."

It had been a fair warning. Buuuut she was much more susceptible than he was. Still, it hadn't gone that bad thankfully. "So, you become what people want most, and then get what you want while they get what they think they want?" Tch. "Do you still need to feed around here?" She didn't actually ask 'are you feeding on Melinoe.' That was rude even for her.

"I had noted the shrine." For all his flippant attitude, Merlin's pretty observant. Parsee is most definitely the sort of being Melinoë had been asking about... But Merlin's also not particularly surprised she got more than she bargained for.

Goddesses do have a tendency to be overconfident at times, after all. It can be rather amusing.

"More or less. Or at least, what they think they want." Even with as benign an incubus as Merlin, there's a good chance of people misjudging what they're getting into. And as for an ordinary incubus? Well, let's just say that there's a reason they're associated with nightmares and leave it at that. "And if you mean outside of this present space, no. Nor am I able to."

It's actually pretty darn unnerving.

"That's for the best. If you'll forgive me being blunt? A few of them are at the edge of their jealousies out there, and risk losing it at times. The last thing they need is that sort of feeding." A grunt followed, but there was no element of judgment in her tone. It was a cold, calculated sort of viewpoint. Feeding through passion would cause issues in the long run in all likelihood. In that sense, she could see him as being as cursed by his nature as herself.

"In a way, our lives are simpler in that place, aren't they? Yours, and mine." She grunted. "So, paint me curious. What do you want most... that you're willing to share?"

"Perhaps."

Or maybe having an incubus draining them would mellow people out a bit. It's a small population, after all, if he wanted to Merlin could definitely focus his efforts.

"In general? To watch humanity's dreams to the end."

He's absolutely serious about that. It's why he acts to protect humanity, for that matter.

... "So, I can say with absolute certainty that I'm not jealous of that dream of yours. As one of the former members of that race, watching them disintegrate until the very bitter end just doesn't interest me, even if their envies keep me existing long enough." She snorted and shook her head.

"But... if it's desires that are your thing, I get it. You'd see the culmination of all of them."

"Ah, but that's just the thing. Humans can be petty and bitter, yes, and yet, as a whole they continue to push forward. Making their homes in a harsh climate more comfortable. Finding a means to make the land more productive. Creating faster communicating and travel. Achieving flight. Temporarily leaving even the planet itself entirely behind to walk on the surface of the moon."

Merlin does genuinely admire and care for humanity... as a whole, more than any particular individuals.

"And perhaps they could use a little nudge from time to time to stay on the right track, but how could I possibly resist wanting to see what humans aspire to next?"

"I mean, I get it. You're a spirit of desires, so you want to see them fulfill those desires. It's kind of like the concept of a Genie, really. The idea of a creature who exists only to make someone's wishes come true. We don't have those back home, unless they're in the west, but I heard the story once or twice." And it really sounded a lot like how he was.

"I think maybe part of why I don't care is that I used to be one of them at one point. I remember still."

Oh, now that gets a laugh.

"I suppose that's one way to look at it, but that's certainly not what a proper incubus is!" Merlin's an anomaly, and he knows it. "Nightmares are a far more nourishing fare, I just happen to prefer pleasant dreams, myself."

"Hah." She snorted and laughed, shaking her head. "Well, like I said I think before. I don't really know you western demons well. There was only ever one in all of Gensokyo, and she kept to the vampire's business, over in that pretty library and mansion of hers. So we didn't really talk. I could point her out in a crowd. that's it."

Her amusement was at least an improvement. "The more you know?"

"I doubt there'd be need for you to deal with them much anyway, under ordinary circumstances."

Such beings typically didn't associate with others, after all. They might all prey on humans in some form or another, but that didn't guarantee they'd get along.

"Yeaaaah, the Scarlet Devil's Mansion definitely didn't qualify as normal circumstances, but that place's weird. It's like this house that ended up transferred in or something. Buncha rejects with more western feel lived there. Remilia's an odd one so she did her own thing, and she liked collecting pretty things. That succubus was one of her maids." A shrug. Remilia Scarlet was... a thing and a half. "But I think she pretty much kept all of them in line and check."

"Ah, so your unfamiliarity with western demons is both of interest as well as lack of encountering them."

It's not an accusation, just a mild observation.

"I'd say it was more a sense of self preservation. I wasn't interested in catching the vampire's eye and ending up in her collection." So getting too close was absolutely out of the question, and thus she never really got to know the succubu.

"I see."

He actually kind of does. There are such exceptionally powerful and dangerous beings in his world, even if most generally keep to themselves.

"Then is your curiosity now safely satisfied?"

"About you? And your relationship with Melinoe?" She said, turning and looking at him directly before smirking. "For the moment. You filled me in a little about what's going on with you, and you're not dumb enough to try anything on me, because I think we both know Jealousy's Desires doesn't need to be investigated... But I'm still curious about you and her."

She snickered. "That can wait for another day."

"You're not human, either, so even ordinarily there wouldn't be too much point."

Melinoë may be a goddess, but she's a reincarnated one, who still is also human. Merlin can work with that, or could, were his incubus powers effective here.

... she picked up the implication. Goddess or not, Melinoe qualified as human on some level, whereas Parsee was just formerly human. She didn't say anything, but she nodded in recognition. "Yeah, I get it. Only humans 'do it' for you. I ... am actually not jealous of that. Makes both our lives simpler."

You know, until they had to share toys.

"Humans can't eat rocks or drink seawater; likewise an incubus can't subsist on things other than humans."

It rather tied his own existence to that of humanity, but Merlin's fine with that.

"Except that we can totally eat rocks right now." she pulled out a small pebble from her pocket, one small enough that she could swallow it. Popping it in her mouth, she swallowed without chewing and waggling her eyebrow. "Heh. I should call them skittles. I saw a bag of those on the beach."

"But I get it. You don't, normally... and whatever changes here, it's hard to see yourself fundamentally changing. Any change has to ... make sense?"

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004 - Lucid Dreaming

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