January Event - Lost in Dreamland

[pumpkinhollow]

**Plain text version here.

Lost in Dreamland

Bedtime Story

{ CONTENT WARNINGS: Unreality, dream logic. Mind the CWs in individual threads, as they will vary! }

It is no secret that in the Emerald Isles, winter and sleep have a deep connection. To some extent, this is true everywhere. The whole world seems to fall asleep under the blanket of snow. Plants recede back into the ground, trees stand leafless and slumbering till spring, animals hibernate. Nights are longer. But the local folklore intensifies this, as Mortanne presides over Winter and the Beyond.

As the tales go, the Beyond is the realm of souls, the place where the essence of a person goes when it separates from their body. And while this primarily refers to death, it can also refer to the half-step between living and dying--- the unconscious mind. Sleep, and moreover, dreaming. And thus, winter and dreams have always been kindred spirits. Connected through their ties to Mother Mortanne and to a hushed and sleeping world.

Perhaps it is for this reason that when you go to sleep on the night of January 19th, 16:55, it is a deeper, more consuming sleep than you’ve ever felt. One that swallows you whole, dragging you down, and down, and down, into a sunken place that is deeper and more terrifying than dreams.

By the time you think to feel afraid, it is already too late to jolt yourself awake.

LULLABY

Beautiful Dreamer, Wake Unto Me

You wake. Or do you? It feels a bit like waking, and yet, it does not. It is similar enough to waking that one might believe it to be so. You feel ground beneath your feet, or perhaps a bed beneath your back. Or something. You feel… something. It isn’t like waking. But it’s a little bit like waking. Perhaps it is not. But perhaps it is as close as you are able to get. Let’s try this again.

You “wake.” Your mind solidifies and reality defines its shape around you. Your eyes focus and you become aware. What are you aware of?

Whatever it is, it isn’t good. Perhaps it seems good at first, but it is not. Wherever you are, only horrors await you here, pulled straight from your own mind. Or the minds of others.

Move. You must move. The dream is a landscape. You must traverse nightmares to escape. Seek other dreamers, and flee. To the center, to safety in false daydreams. To the underground, where the Necropolis will conceal you. To the edges, where you can feel your consciousness break free of this sunken sleep and return to the world of hard objects and light. But you cannot stay here. Gods help you if you stay here.

[ Your nightmare can look however you desire. Laws of reality and physics do not apply. Fuse them, reshape them, choose your flavor. Be liberal with content warnings and respect sensitive content guidelines, but otherwise, there are no rules. ]

Starlight and Dewdrops are Waiting For Thee

If you reach the center of the dreamscape (or perhaps you “woke up” there), you will find an oasis. You find yourself immediately embraced by a beautiful dream. All of your wishes granted, your deepest desires pulled directly from the core of your soul and brought to life before you in vivid detail.

What sort of dream do you find yourself in? What do you dream of? Is it success, love, peace? A life that never came to pass? For your troubles never to have occurred? Do you dream of fame or glory? No matter how beautiful or extravagant, no matter how simple or selfish, the things you desire most are yours.

You cannot escape from here. This is the center, as far away from the waking world as you can go. But the dream entreats you, as do the illusory figures within it. ”Stay,” they croon. ”There is nothing for you beyond here. Only nightmares, only terror. You are safe here. You are loved and wanted and happy here. Why would you ever want to leave?”

Time blends together. It often does, in dreaming, but this feels different. How long have you been here? Do you remember what you were doing before? How you got here? Have you ever even been to a town called Pumpkin Hollow? You can hardly remember.

Maybe that was the dream, and this is your reality. Even as the edges of it bleed together with that of your neighbor, even as fleeting memories come back to you, even as a little voice deep within you screams at you to wake up--- you have no reason to doubt the legitimacy of this place. Here you are happy and safe. Here you are everything you ever wanted to be, living the life you always wanted. Here there are no debts, no suffering, and you shall never die.

You belong here. Surely.

Sounds of the Rude World Heard in the Day

With how far you had to sink into unconsciousness to be here, it’s hard to believe one could go any deeper. But the Beyond is a many-layered place, and perhaps by descending a bit further, a bit deeper, a bit closer to death, you can find another place. Maybe you have a connection to death that brought you here. Perhaps you find your way by mistake. Either way, you may find yourself on a more peaceful journey through the Beyond through the Frozen Necropolis.

A seemingly endless maze of stone walls, mismatched in their depth as if they were patchworked together over centuries. Mausoleums, slotted tightly against one another. Covered marble passageways. Stone statues and carved reliefs depicting gargoyles, knights, Virtues, mages with skull motifs--- necromancers, perhaps? Banshees and dullahans, elves and humans and dwarves and orcs and fae folk of all sorts. All of these things line a network of cobblestone pathways lined with powder snow drifts and crunchy brown grass. Names are carved into the arches above mausoleum doors. Some are familiar, some are not. Fairbanks, Gladwyn, Dirthariel, Leeds, Larson, Endrin, Applegate, Brenning. Above you, white pillar candles float magically overhead, burning bright, lighting your way through the dark pink sunset sky.

In the distance, you see the achingly thin spires of the Winter Cathedral. An austere grey monolith with ornate carvings of horses and snowflake-shaped stained glass windows. Perhaps you will find some solace there. Otherwise, make your way to the river. A familiar ferryman awaits you--- though returning to reality this way will have a small consequence.

[ Encountering Mortanne here is possible, though her threads will be heavily restricted. You can do a thread here with someone else, though! It’s fine to be here without encountering her. Returning to the island by ferry will cause your physical body to die in the process, leaving you a ghost for the usual amount of time. You can also return to the nightmare and get out through the edge. ]

Lulled by the Moonlight, Have All Passed Away

Should you find the edge of the nightmare, you will be able to push yourself through the iridescent membrane at the edge of consciousness. You float through the seemingly endless darkness for a moment, then another, then a third, senses dull and drifting drunkenly, until suddenly---

Like breaching the surface of water, you return to the solid, bright sharpness of reality. Actual reality, firm and true. You are where you went to sleep the night before, though some time has passed. It might take you a bit to figure out exactly how much, though…

Those who escape the nightmare will find themselves home sometime between 1/20 and 1/30. Those who stay in the dream oasis will be comatose until the dream ends, and will not wake until 2/8. They will find the return to reality deeply unpleasant. What are you willing to endure to keep dreaming a while more?

Comments

[heatherbythesea]

Heather tries to swim away, and the kraken snags her by the back fins, ripping at them. She struggles free, but she's going to be much, much slower now.

"Sephiroth! I can cast a spell to send you to safety."

She doesn't mention that doing so will deplete her reserves and she will be relying on her own strength and no magic to fight the kraken.

[imjustaman]

"I will not abandon you to this fight," Sephiroth replies. As a soldier, he would never dream of running when someone needs help. He had always wanted to help, to protect.

[heatherbythesea]

Heather can heal others, but she can't heal herself. She swims as best as she can, but the kraken is following after despite the swath of burns across its mantle, and the stumps of its tentacles trailing blood.

"Something else corrupted this beast, and placed a geas on it," Heather says, "I have my suspicions, but what matters now is that it will not stop until either we're dead, or it is."

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth swipes at it again with his sword as it comes closer.

"There isn't any way to un-corrupt it?"

He's more than a little troubled at the thought of this beast being forced to act against its will. He knows Jenova influenced him, even though at the same time he fully takes the blame for everything he did while insane. He tried to force Cloud against his will several times. That memory makes his hands tremble a bit to think of fighting something else acting against its will.

[heatherbythesea]

"I'm not strong enough," Heather says mournfully. "I could try to compel it to stop attacking, but it wouldn't last against such a powerful geas. And I can't undo the changes that have been done to its body.

The kraken tries to reach for Heather again, and she drops lower in the sea/sky so that it overshoots them. That could be an opening for Sephiroth to attack, if he wishes. Otherwise, the kraken is going to need some extra time to turn around to come for them again.

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth hesitates in attacking and opts not to for the moment. "I wonder if ... I'd be strong enough," he says then. "Can anyone with enough power do it, or does it require knowing something particular about this geas?"

[heatherbythesea]

"It shouldn't. Most geasa will fracture when put against a counter-command that is stronger."

Heather eyes the corrupted kraken as it turns in the distance, and swims backward to try keeping it distant for as long as possible. It's a difficult task, with her wounded fins, but she needs to buy them time.

"Let me try compelling it first," Heather suggests, "and when the kraken is confused, you can cast your spell."

(She calls it casting a spell because that's her frame of reference.)

[imjustaman]

"Very well," Sephiroth agrees. He hesitates, but doesn't yet switch forms except to bring out a black wing on his shoulder. He will first see if he can do this without assuming his most powerful form.

[heatherbythesea]

This time, Heather doesn't advise her companion to cover his ears. It would delay his own attack, after all.

And besides, the effect that Heather is aiming for is a breaking of mind control, not an actual imposition of her will over someone else.

She sings as the kraken approaches:
"Although your mind's opaque
Try thinking more, if just for your own sake
The future still looks good
And you've got time to rectify
All the things that you should..."

The kraken slows, and the blind rage clouding its huge eyes begins to dissipate, leaving confusion. It's an opening for Sephiroth to act.

[[ OOC: "Think for Yourself", the Beatles. ]]

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth pours his will and his power into a burst of magic that goes right at the kraken. Will it be enough? He stays tense, waiting.

[heatherbythesea]

The kraken shudders as that magic washes over it... and then it shrinks upon itself, drawing its tentacles in and making itself look smaller in an effort to seem less threatening. One of its remaining tentacles runs over the stumps of the missing ones, and it shudders again, drifting back and down, away from the two of them.

"I hope that did the trick," Heather says softly. "When I tried before, the geas reasserted itself after maybe half a minute. Do you feel anything pushing back against your spell?"

[imjustaman]

"I don't yet, at least," Sephiroth says. "Whom do you suspect did this,?"

[heatherbythesea]

"I think the kraken was coming after me. If it was, then I suspect that it was set on me by the demon that killed my friend."

[imjustaman]

"And can we find and stop this demon?" Sephiroth frowns in concern.

[heatherbythesea]

"I doubt it. Focalor would be amassing power in my home. I don't think he would come here to strike at me."

Heather tries also widen the distance between themselves and the kraken, but the blood loss is starting to weaken her. They are moving much slower than before.

"Corrupt some beast and set it to killing me, then send it where I am... while he's safe from reprisal where I can't go... that's more his style."

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth frowns. Those types are dangerous.

Like himself.

"You need to stop somewhere so we can tend to your wounds."

He wishes he had healing magic, but without materia, most of his abilities are for destruction.

He had managed to break the mind-control on the kraken, though.... Might he have some healing magic that he just hadn't tapped into?

[heatherbythesea]

[[ OOC: I'd be evil and roll a die to decide if Sephiroth's attempt to heal was successful or just killed her, heh. ]]

"I can't heal myself," Heather admits.

It seems that he was successful with the kraken, at least, as it slinks away without trying to hurt them again.

[imjustaman]

((OOC: Aww, lol. I'm honestly not sure he could emotionally or mentally handle it if it went that wrong at this point.))

Sephiroth isn't sure he wants to take the chance. It could so easily backfire if he's wrong. In a nightmare world, it might do that all the more. He has had experience with mind-control before, which might be why that worked. He just doesn't know what to think.

"How bad is it?" he asks.

[heatherbythesea]

Heather glances back, and gives a shudder. "My fins look like bloody ribbons..." and she means literally bloody, it's not a curse word, "I can hardly propel myself at all."

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth looks too. "... Are there any healers here?" Or could he conjure some healing materia, since this is a dream world? He just isn't sure how much control they have in this world. Or if anything that happens here might be affecting them in the waking world.

[heatherbythesea]

"I don't know. They certainly aren't here." Heather waves a hand, indicating their surroundings -- which have become, more or less, the deep sea with no differentiation.

She huffs, and says,

"It would be best if you let me send you to safety."

[imjustaman]

"Then what will happen to you if you are attacked again?" Sephiroth counters.

He decides to try to will some healing materia to appear. Will it work when it's someone else's dream? It seems a risk he'll have to take. He concentrates hard, focusing on the thought of materia.

((OOC: If you want, you can decide if the materia can appear, or if it's something else, a different object altogether or a non-healing materia. Or if nothing happens.))

[heatherbythesea]

[[ OOC: I found a list of Materia types on a wiki and rolled a die... wiki said Command Materia are yellow, and so... ]]

Heather only shakes her head rather than answer; they both know that she wouldn't survive another attack in her current state.

She watches with interest as Sephiroth focuses to summon the materia... and she cocks her head to one side when a yellowish crystal appears, floating in front of his face.

"What's that?"

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth definitely knows, and won't leave.

He blinks at it and then sighs. "It's a Command Materia. Unfortunately, one of its commands is not Heal."

[heatherbythesea]

"Oh. A repository, then. Like the witches use."

Heather is more drifting than actually swimming now, though she does occasionally correct their course so that they float upward. She's keeping Sephiroth close -- not a difficult task, given how much larger she is.

"What commands does it have?"