[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

[sansational]

"Too late. The clock is broken. The clock cannot be fixed."

Gaster reaches down to help Sans up. Sans accepts the offer of assistance, and all but bounds to his feet. He smiles up at them, looking excited, looking overjoyed...

But whatever he's saying is indistinct, and he doesn't notice Gaster look to Frisk and shake his head sadly. "Failure is not always immediately apparent. Should we tell him now?"

"tell him later," the Sans in the hoodie says from Gaster's other side. "papyrus gets cranky if he doesn't get his bedtime story."

"The timer is at zero seconds. The timer is at negative one seconds."

[sansational]

Their steps slow. Sans stares up at Papyrus, Papyrus looks back at Sans, and something unspoken passes between them.

"well..." Sans begins hopefully.

"No," says Papyrus firmly. And that, from the way Sans' shoulders slump, is that. He looks to Sophie, and forces a smile. "You are very small, even for a new member of the Royal Guard! Would you mind if I carried you, so we could get there in time?"

[dustless]

The machines unweave their lines

the machines reach out

the machines spool around his bones

the machines sink their wires-data-time into him

the machines stain him with lines of

[҉҉҉R҉҉҉E҉҉҉D҉҉҉A҉҉҉C҉҉҉T҉҉҉E҉҉҉D҉҉҉]҉

"Wait," Frisk whispers.

[lostinmyway]

She settles her arms more comfortably around them, even attempting to draw them into her lap.

"Oh. I'm sorry." She's quiet for just a moment. Then: "Why don't you stay with me?"

[lostlegacy]

"I'm not small," she protests automatically. "You're too big."

But...even if Pie just insulted her, getting carried is fun. "Okay."

She guesses she'll let him.

[lostinmyway]

"Well," she says, "it's because even if they fight, they're still here. We're all doing our best every day and making a life together."

She reaches into the picnic basket and starts bringing out transparent plastic glasses in pastel colours.

[dustless]

Well, of course there are. It's a maze, and mazes are traps, and traps have weird things going on with the floor. That's just logic.

They skip around the holes and, as soon as they get to the servers, carefully put their hand on one. It's warm and humming and Frisk thinks they might need to climb up it.

[dustless]

The child feels so tiny against her.

What if I say yes and you forget me too?

The darkness is pressing in like walls.

[lostinmyway]

But Grune had stopped noticing anything around her long ago. All of her attention is on the child.

"I won't ever forget you. I promise. We'll be friends forever."

[lostlegacy]

"Why's--hey!"

Any questions she had about what Sans-Serif is doing completely disappear from her mind the moment the picture starts moving.

"S-4, look!"

[ofthehellguard]

Uriel feels no temptation to heed his warning, and follows him around the corner only too willingly. She has a very low opinion of demons and their intelligence, and it's only a matter of time before she can catch up with this one and make short work of it.

[sansational]

Sans looks down at the marks on his hands and arms with complete incomprehension and visible hope that they don't mean what they obviously do. The machine is what they used to give him these powers. The machine must be a good thing. Hope is the thing with feathers, and so it must inevitably die. But they haven't heard him, and he hasn't heard them, and suddenly they're all sitting together in the river person's boat, heading safely home for Snowdin.

Gaster continues speaking as though the shift in time and space hasn't happened, picking up a conversation he never actually began.

"I will not be here to tell him. I am never here to tell him. Please promise me that you will." Gaster wrings his hands miserably, except he's only doing so with one. The other hand seems to have disappeared, somehow.

[dustless]

Frisk reaches over to touch Gaster's one hand. They're in their normal clothes now, labcoat gone (it's hanging on an echo flower, it's bending under the cloth's weight, and they don't know how they know but they know it'll break and they're sad for the wish that it once held) and replaced with a dusty tutu.

"I--I want to. I want to promise." They don't know why they don't think they can.

They look between Gaster and Sans mournfully. The sound of clicking, ticking clocks vibrates through their teeth.

[lostlegacy]

"Good," Sophie says and, as is the case with many children, completely forgets to ask Duchess the same question.

"What are your kids called?"

[lostlegacy]

...That's really weird.

But then she's completely distracted.

"No!" she yells right along with Neil and runs over as fast as she can.

[dr_awesome]

Thankfully, it seems that Neil's grandfather was only teasing. By the time they've run over, he's holding out two hot dogs already wrapped in buns. Neil takes his and heads over to the picnic table with an eager grin.

[systematicsupport]

"Hmm? What are you talking about?"

S-4 doesn't turn the page towards himself. He's practically frozen in place as the figure gets closer. It seems to be an unfamiliar man in a long white coat. The two skeletons waiting look to him, and then frown, looking about ready to run away.

[lostlegacy]

He's not moving, so she grabs his hand and tries to turn the page herself.

"I think there's a bad guy in your picture!"

[lostlegacy]

And Sophie takes hers with a "Thanks" and follows. She doesn't even wait until she's sitting down before she takes a big bite.

"It's really good!" she says with her mouth full. She can't actually taste it right now...but her brain says it's good, so that means it is.

[dustless]

They turn to bury their face against her chest. Their tears are smears of rainbow, glowing neon in the darkness.

[lostinmyway]

Grune lets them cry their pretty rainbow tears, staying exactly where she is. She hums a soft song that neither of them would recognise and waits. If she needs to stay here for hours and hours, then that's what she'll do.

[exuviiated]

Aaron sighs and pulls a flash drive out of his pocket. "Hold on to this. I'll give you a boost, and then you put it in one of the ports. It'll immediately download. Got that?"

If they don't, he presses the drive into their palm anyways; the noises are getting louder.

[systematicsupport]

S-4 looks between the two of them, hand pressed over Sans-Serif's skull, trying to keep his head turned towards him and not to these Sanses, the ones who must have seen something wrong to be so misguided. They must be suffering... but why do they need to take it out on his brother?

"That's not true! He doesn't have to kill anyone! He doesn't want to anymore! Just leave him alone!"

They fade away a few moments later, soon enough for S-4 to wonder if they actually listened to him, before he hears Sans-Serif's muffled voice.

"They come back? Different... versions of you? Why are they here?"

It doesn't make sense. Did they get pulled to the castle too? But then where did they go now?

[dr_awesome]

"Don't talk like that. Honestly, there's not enough room in this excuse for a lab for you to be hating yourself like the rest of these jerks seem to." He mutters under his breath as he continues struggling with the strings. "Besides, I'll get you to your brother soon."

The skeleton's position is a little worrying, but at least he's still. Neil just vows to ignore how sick he may feel and get this over with without a single instance of pain for the skeleton. He's not like the others here. He isn't going to put this kid through hell for the sake of an experiment. They can claim it's for the future of monsters if they want, but Neil sees it as them being psychopaths, plain and simple.

He sees the last thread, and is about to carefully lift Sans-Serif's arm up, but the doll seems to take charge, and Neil almost cries out until he remembers that skeletons can detatch their limbs without much pain. He just scrambles over to the last thread and cuts it, before grabbing up the discarded limb.

"Don't move a fucking inch," he warns the doll, before he turns back to Sans-Serif.

"Hey, buddy. It's okay. I've got you. Could you come over here so I can put you back together?"

[systematicsupport]

"Wowie... that's a lot of work! I didn't know there were so many different kinds of puzzles..."

S-4 has gotten to see jumbles, crosswords, and coloured blocks, but it seems there are a lot more types than just those. Gaster just hasn't shown him near enough yet, it seems.

Since he's so lost in thought, S-4 doesn't quite notice the scenery blurring until it suddenly snaps back into place. He gasps, squeezing Sans' hand a little tighter at the loud noise, before he pinpoints the sound as a voice, as... his own voice?

He lets out a surprised little giggle, looking over at his brother.

"Is that...?"