[mingle] what's the dream and what's the reality?

[lovetheme]

Lately the castle's nights have been very clear and almost warm, even up so high among the clouds as they are. But regardless of the weather, they are generally peaceful nights, and few things seem to stir during them...apart from the castle's inhabitants, be it with late-night roving or with sleep. The dreams, by extension, are at least undisturbed...if maybe not always pleasant. That sort of thing tends to vary by the person, of course.

But now--and for several nights, consecutively--the castle residents may find their dreams starting to take on stranger shapes: memories they've never had, friends that don't usually arrive, strangers they've never seen. These odd impressions might cling and continue to confuse even upon waking, vivid as they were; was it really just a dream, or maybe something more...? Does that newcomer in your dream remember you there too, in the daytime?

Either way, there seems to be an strange energy in the air during these nights. And it's bringing dreams together.

((ooc: And here's the catch-all post for the dream-sharing event! Feel free to top-level with your character's dreams here, or thread around in others! The event should only last about a week, but backtagging is eternal c: The ooc planning post can be found here!))

Comments

[lostinmyway]

"Of course, my dear," she assures him. She reaches out to help him wipe away his tears. "I'll stay as long as you want me to. I promise."

But first.... She picks up his arm from the floor and holds it comfortably in her hands. "We should put you back together."

[lostlegacy]

"Yeah." For sure. Who would want milk-stars, anyway?

She reaches over with both hands to scoop the stars out of his palm. Touching bone like that should feel weird, but she doesn't feel anything at all. She doesn't notice she isn't feeling it, either.

Once the stars are sitting in front of her on her cloud, she picks up one of S2's crunchy ones and has a bite. There's the cupcake ones.

[lostinmyway]

"Hmm.... All right."

She thinks for a moment, then points. "Let's go that way."

There are more of those pretty blue flowers over there. That must mean it's a nice place to be.

[lostlegacy]

She thinks about that. Both those reasons make sense, and so she nods and says, "Okay."

A moment later, she asks, "Do we gotta fight?"

So am I. orz

[lostinmyway]

Grune's head tilts as she watches him speak. Oh, isn't that a mask?

"I'm here to visit the Batman," she says. "Why is he in there?"

[dustless]

It barks happily, though it sounds far away. The riverperson nods their head politely.

"C'mon, Sophie!" Frisk is already heading down the tunnel, shaded blue by the glowing gems studding the ceiling.

In contrast to the general damp smell of Waterfall, the scent of smoke is wafting their way.

[andthebat]

Dismay crosses the boy's features; evidently Grune's answer wasn't the sort he was hoping for. He turns his face away from her and raises his hands to gently take Grune's wrists and move her hands from his shoulders.

"I- I have to go," he says. "Sorry, Grune."

frisk why

[andthebat]

The Batman twists around in the air at the sound of Frisk's voice, and even in the dream there's a spike of panic when he sees them leap off of the edge. But with a mighty beating of his wings, Batman swoops towards Frisk and grabs them in his arms.

They continue to glide downwards, the electric lights of the buildings around them and the streetlights below whirling and whirling.

"Don't you know it's dangerous to fly without wings?" he scolds.

they have reasons

[dustless]

"Of course I do," they say. Their grin's been replaced with a hint of a glower. "But I don't need them when I've got my cell phone."

Batman's probably had to hold onto people and things that very much don't want to be held before. Add this small child to the list, 'cause now they're struggling, trying to worm their way out of his arms.

"Let go, just want to follow!"

[dustless]

"...There's a door three shelves back. All the kids' books are in there." Hastily, he steps around her and crosses the street, giving an impression of looking nervously back despite lacking the eyes to do so.

The child is gone.

[lostinmyway]

She barely hears his answer.

"Oh? Hello?"

Where did her friend go?

She starts looking around, standing up on her toes and crouching down low.

aaron: please don't get shot frisk i don't want to be responsible for this

[exuviiated]

...Not really, no, but it still leaves a wrong squirmy feeling low in Aaron's chest. "A minute or two. Strix and some of the others are in there drawing fi-- keeping any interruptions away. Stick close to me and we'll do great, okay?"

[dustless]

There's only the echoing noise of the city, though it all sounds oddly far away, even with the rain falling and the cars growling and the people chattering all around her.

Audible through the door, the bookstore's shelves creak.

C.

[consultmybooks]

The greater silence is deafening, loud and vast enough that the soft sounds of the last person left in this little house seems all the more faint in comparison.

Giles can't remember how he got here. He can't remember what happened. The fog in his head feels a little like what might have happened after being returned from a kidnapping, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time he'd been dropped somewhere inconvenient and strange, but this is...different. Wrong.

The sound of a small child's voice shouldn't be a comfort, but it is, and Giles hesitantly calls her name:

"...Sophie?"

D.

[whataprettyname]

The bell. The bell.

She has to get home. She has to find her parents. If the bell tolls again, it will be too late. Chihiro looks around frantically, and that means that she's looking in the complete opposite direction when the boy barrels into her.

"Oof!"

She staggers, arms pinwheeling a little as she tries to regain her balance, before looking up wildly at the boy. He looks human. But sometimes a lot of things can look human. Either way, he doesn't feel like a threat, certainly not as much as the shadows or the fog.

"I...I-I don't know! I don't know where I am! What's happening?!"

B.

[whataprettyname]

She knew that moving here would be a bad idea. The school is too big and no one wants to be friends and her flowers are dying, why won't they stop dying?

Pink petals scatter like dust behind her, to be kicked and trampled by the overly neat and tidy shoes of the other kids. The flowers themselves are wrapped in plastic, clutched tightly against her chest, but visibly (eternally) wilting. Maybe it's because of the air. The air here tastes sickly sweet, somehow. She misses the smoke and the steam, and doesn't remember why.

The girl is taller than most of the children here, but she's still buffeted about like trash on a river. Staring around frantically, wondering where to go, Chara's backpack somehow seems like the only real thing in the world. And so she fights against the current to try and get to it, calling out: "Excuse me...excuse me!" Finally, reaching out almost to the limit, she manages to close a hand around the strap.

B.

[whataprettyname]

Chihiro knows that she's being followed, but every time she dares to look back, the path behind her is empty of anything. Even so, she can feel dread prickling on the back of her neck - or maybe that's just ordinary sweat, as she makes her way through the sweltering, humid jungle. But she still can't shake the sense that something big and dangerous is drawing closer and closer.

Finally, at a loss for what else to do, Chihiro turns sharply on her heel. She bows her head, clasps her hands in front of her, and calls out loud enough to startle birds from nearby trees. "P-Please don't eat me!"

[lostlegacy]

Sophie's head jerks up from looking under a chair in Gee Girl's room.

"Wally?"

The voice is wrong, too soft and with a funny accent, but that's not something she registers until she's run out the door into the living room.

Her shoulders drop. "...Hi Giles."

[lostinmyway]

It's a sound she might not catch normally, but right now, it seems very loud indeed.

"Hello?" she calls again.

Did her friend go inside?

[dr_awesome]

Neil hesitantly pulls his hand away from the doll's wrist, and only relaxes slightly to find the skeleton isn't going to bother to move. It's just so... wrong. Wearing a labcoat shouldn't make him a complete authority. The kid shouldn't take orders from him. All Neil should be able to do is offer suggestions.

Which is what he tries to do. He holds his hands up for a minute, like he's attempting to soothe a savage animal, and when he speaks again, his voice is low and calm.

"Really. It's okay. I'm not hurting you. Not a chance. But if I'm going to get you out of this mess, you're going to need to relax, okay? Try to stop crying. I know you're a hell of a lot tougher than that."

He was created to be something great, even if it's... probably not what his coworkers seem to insist it is. There's a better way to handle the humans left on the surface than sending a mechanized soldier to attack them.

Watts lets out a low hiss as his hands are cut into, and after a few moments, he realizes fingers are not the tool he should be using. He scrambles in his pockets for something to cut through them, and... ah. His hand closes around the handle of something he knows will unsettle the poor experiment, and so his other hand immediately lifts up again.

"Okay. Listen to me, kid. I have something here that's going to free you. And I promise I won't do anything to hurt you. I'm not going to use it for that. Please trust me."

And with that, he brings out the handheld bone saw, watching the blade whir for a moment before bringing it towards the strings.

[systematicsupport]

The sound of terror in his brother's voice, and worse, the sight of him being restrained from running to him, is enough to snap S-4 out of his initial confusion and rush forward. He ignores the other two versions of his sibling, wrapping his arms tightly around Sans-Serif, even if he can't hug him back properly.

He feels better having his brother safe against him, but that's not enough to distract him from what the other Sanses are saying to him. He looks between the two of them, confusion returning.

"What are you talking about? I'll protect him. I always do."

It doesn't make sense for his brother to have to take on the role of shield, when he's weak and low on health and especially because he's too frightened. S-4 isn't scared of his purpose. He'll always be brave enough to protect his brother...

[antitemporal]

"but i'm not." Sans-Serif hiccups faintly, then shakes his head. "i'm not. n-not without my brother." He's not tough, he's not brave, he's not anything without S-4. Or at least, he's nothing that he wants to be.

But despite his spoken doubts, the little skeleton struggles to stay as still as his counterpart, presses both hands tightly against his mouth as though to physically stop the sobs from escaping. Even if it makes his shoulders shake with the effort, it's a little more still. Perversely, perhaps, he freezes entirely when Neil pulls the saw out, even if it's the sort of stillness that can only be borne of real terror. But it's also not the first time he's been told to hold still while someone in a lab coat pulls out one of those. They never meant to hurt him when they did, of course not. Hurting just...happened. Hurting was necessary so the job could get done.

Fortunately for Neil, and fortunately for both skeletons, the strings split easily beneath the blade, parting easily with sharp "twang" sounds that are somehow audible over the whirring. With the doll holding steady against Sans-Serif's initial attempts to scramble away, with Sans-Serif motionless from terror, most of the connecting threads will be easily accessible without having to risk bringing the saw too near to one or the other.

The last one that might be harder to access joins at the elbow of the arm on the opposite side from where Neil is standing. The doll tugs forcibly to bring the other skeleton's arm up - and, unfortunately, he tugs so forcibly that the arm comes off, clattering pathetically against the floor. Sans-Serif whimpers faintly to see it, half-reaches out to try and pull it back. Then he takes another look up at the blank-faced other skeleton, and seems to think better of it. Instead, he scrambles gracelessly back up to his feet, presses his remaining hand tightly over the empty socket, and takes several stumbling steps backwards. The doll, meanwhile, waits patiently for Neil to cut the last thread.

[antitemporal]

Fortunately, as soon as S-4 wraps his arms around Sans-Serif, the other Sanses release him as though physically forced away, like two magnets with the same pole. They step back, step away, their gazes fixed on S-4 instead. Sans-Serif, meanwhile, doesn't hesitate to properly return the embrace once he's able to. He huddles in the taller skeleton's arms, his face turned against S-4's ribcage, as though if he ignores these spectres from another time then they can't touch him again.

"no," says the one in blue. His otherwise perpetual smile falters, his bright eyelights dim. "you don't."

"'kill or be killed'," says the one in red, folding his arms tightly over his ribcage. "you'll learn sooner or later." They always do.

Then they both fade into nothing. Sans-Serif lets out a long, shuddering sigh of relief, but it's short-lived. "they'll be back," he mumbles. "or...different thems. there's a lot of thems. and they're all so loud." He still doesn't dare relinquish his grip right away.

[lightofthestars]

She shakes her head. "I have not seen its like since I was first drawn here. I hope that this will be the only time we are so afflicted."

It is plain to her that her friends are suffering, and yet there is nothing she can do to relieve their pain. That has left her in a poor mood.

frisk: IT'S FINE I'LL BE FINE THIS IS F

[dustless]

"Right!" they repeat, and take 'close' a bit literally, hooking their arm with his at the elbow.

Around them, all the lights are flickering. Frisk doesn't seem to notice.