[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!))

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[lostinmyway]

"You can look after everyone. That's very brave of you," she tells him. "But S2 doesn't want to do that. It's wrong to make people be someone they don't want to be."

Once again, she looks back at S2. Her other hand reaches out to settle against the other side of his skull. "No, dear. I haven't seen your brother yet. Why don't we go look for him together?"

A!

[lostlegacy]

Sophie doesn't care that everything feels a little bit off here. She's been having bad dreams a lot lately--kittens are a very welcome break.

"Hi kitties!" Sophie calls out, hurrying forward with a hand outstretched to pet the nearest one.

[dustless]

Mmm. That's pretty rude.

They hit the ground hard. Bones slam into them, and they take damage, but they can't tell how much. Not that it matters. 1 each hit, and they're not dying yet. They have to go on, they have to get to ASGORE.

At the end of his turn, Sans gets a dirty look with an edge of sarcasm. 10? That's nothing. He's wrong, again. And he needs to go away already.

Frisk shoves themselves up to their feet and try to talk--but their jaw's locked, no matter how much they work it. Fine. If they can't ask him to move, they'll make him move. And so they move to, stomping over the golden, gleaming floor, reaching their hands out to grab.

[sansational]

"and now you two aren't just stalling, you're fussing." Sans snickers to himself. "nerds."

Gaster draws away, trying to frown in an attempt to hide a fond smile. "Well," he says, looking down at Frisk. "If he can still make jokes, he can't be having too many second thoughts. Get ready, Frisk." Trusting them to do so, he turns on the intercom again.

"Typical monster bodies cannot handle large amounts of determination, that much we have seen. Human bodies, with their much larger proportional amounts of physical matter, can handle it with ease." He nods to Frisk in acknowledgement of this fact. It's just a shame that their much larger proportional amount of physical matter is precisely what makes them invalid for taking Sans' place. "Along with the DT infusion itself, this process should condense parts of your body into a more physical than magical state, allowing them to channel both determination and your magic."

They've gone over this already. Frisk probably knows this lecture by heart by now. He's still stalling, and Gaster can't ignore as much forever.

"You will need a strong soul, of course. Fortunately, we know you have one. But do not hesitate to say something if you feel something is going wrong. We will abort the process immediately, and we have emergency care on standby."

His hand is shaking a little when he pulls it away. Gaster stares at it for a moment, and then clenches it tight.

"Well. Here we go." Slowly, he pulls down the lever that will start the culmination of all their work. The pipes are wires around the DT machine come to life with humming and crackling. It almost sounds satisfied, like a large bird that has just sighted prey. Energy courses down along its surface, pooling at the prongs of its beak, before beaming down in a thin laser of light that hits home right between Sans' eyesockets.

Even unable to hear anything from the room beyond, it's a visibly painful effect. Sans tenses, staring straight up without seeing anything. Sweat beads on his skull, his mouth opens and shuts like a fish out of water, trying to scream but unable to find the breath or the sense. He visibly tries to get out from under the light, but the restraints hold him fast. That's probably for the best. It has to be for the best. They've come too far for anything else. This is the only way.

But Gaster, after a first glance, very deliberately does not look into the room beyond. He keeps his eyes on his readings, on his work, and trusts Frisk to do the same. So they'll probably be the first one to notice that Sans' HP is dropping steadily as the seconds tick on.

[dustless]

The yellow SAVE POINT shifts, reads up, becomes something completely different.

"That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say." "That's what they all say."

She lunges, teeth opening wide--Frisk holds their own stick up, just for a moment, and the teeth slam shut around it, somehow clacking and squishing at once. It's enough to reduce it to splinters.

"Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar." "Liar."

[dustless]

They turn to look at him, bewildered. By his words somewhat, but much more by his hand, which they end up stopping in the middle of the street to stare down at. How is he doing that?

Sans-Serif will notice that some of people brushing against him brush through the human child, their edges cracking and fading before reforming a few seconds later.

They try asking him a question, but only smoke drifts out between their teeth, whipped through the air and shredded to nothing by the people rushing by.

[dustless]

The words resonate. They wait. They watch.

They swing their arms at their sides, staring hard at their screen, and imagine Sans with circles of copper over his eyes.

"...Gaster." The numbers were supposed to drop, but not so fast, were they? "Gaster. Gaster, there's something weird--"

They look up and their voice cracks in their throat, their hands slamming over their face. "SANS--!" This is wrong wrong wrong wrong, but they realize as they see it that there are doors all over the lab, and they don't know which one leads to him.

[dustless]

They sink down until they're sitting, too. They try to talk again and fail, and nod miserably instead. They lift one of their hands to point down a street with lights that flicker the most.

There are people behind the kid, too, passing through the restaurant to pick tables, if Grune focuses past them at all. None of them seem to notice her yet.

[lostlegacy]

A

No matter your height in the waking world, in this dream, you're no more than four feet tall--or you seem to be. Everything in the castle is scaled large, threateningly so. The ceilings are higher, the hallways wider, and the shadows longer and darker.

But this is all background to the real horror of the dream: Chara, who looms a head taller than you. They clench a knife that's almost a sword in their hand, and they're smiling with a literal jagged knife slash of a mouth.

"Hold still," they tell you and Sophie both where you're stuck to the floor. Blood pours from their mouth. "I'm going to give you a friendship necklace."

"Then we can be friends forever," Frisk adds from behind them. Their throat matches Chara's mouth; blood gushes unendingly from the wound and streams from the corners of their mouth.

Sophie turns to run. If you join her, you'll find you both have weighted legs. Behind you, Chara laughs and begins their advance.

B

You find yourself standing in the middle of a small playground of wood and rope and metal. Around it is a two-floor building--a schoolhouse, you somehow know--some gardens, and, outside of the dirt area around the playground are tall trees. The sun is shining and the sky is clear, except for some fluffy white clouds. It's morning, and the air is warm with just a hint of a fresh fall scent.

"Hey!"

Sophie is sitting on a swing and kicking her legs, one after the other so that the swing does nothing more than jerk a little in the air.

"C'mon and give me a push!"

C

You find yourself inside a single-storey house, in the middle of the living room. You can hear the sound of opening and closing doors and Sophie's quiet voice. If you look for her, you'll find her going through rooms one by one, searching in closets and under beds, all the while softly calling names:

"Fen? Norma? Wally? ...Mommy?"

[lostinmyway]

She looks down the street, then back at the child. Not through them, even if there's a lot going on further inside; for Grune, there's only her new friend.

"Oh, I see. Did you come here to get a little snack?"

[dustless]

The child looks lost, shrugging exaggeratedly. They don't remember where they were going, they just didn't want to be home. There wasn't a reason to be. There wasn't a reason to be anywhere, in fact.

A few fat raindrops start falling from the sky.

[lostinmyway]

"Hmm.... All right."

One particularly large drop splashes on top of Grune's head. She blinks and looks up at the sky, then back down at her new friend.

"Oh, my. It's raining. Is it raining in there where you are, too?"

B

[lostlegacy]

Whoa, she's up on a cloud! Cool!

With the fearlessness of someone with little sense of their own mortality, Sophie looks about. Oh, hey, there's S2, and he's asking them a question.

"No. What is it?" Not to mention.... "What are you eating?"

She wants some!

A

[lostlegacy]

Sans has since explained to Sophie what "hot dogs" are (...mostly), and so when she hears the old man calling, she follows the kid that's holding up the food.

"Come on, Neil, they're gonna get cold!"

...Wait a minute. She squints at the kid. That's not....

[dustless]

They look even more confused. They tap on the glass and shake their head, then point at the sky and nod. How do they explain? They're right here, but the water isn't enough to splash onto the window yet. They'd probably get wet if that happened.

A

[lostlegacy]

This place is weird. And kinda scary (not that she'd admit that out loud). Who's that in the tube?

...But there are crayons and paper, so it can't be all bad. She picks one up and starts drawing.

She doesn't get very far before S-4 interrupts her. That's a little annoying, but she is curious what he drew. "Okay."

[lostinmyway]

"Oh, I see." She nods, then says, "I love the smell of the air when it first starts raining. It's so nice. Don't you think so?"

A

[lostlegacy]

"Undyne!" Sophie says right away. For some reason, she knows that talking to her will be really, really cool.

A

[lostlegacy]

Even though she's too old to be holding hands, Sophie lets Sans take hers anyway. It'll make him feel better, right?

...It almost reminds her of Luceti, this place, and that makes her heart hurt a little. But not too much, because she's here now, and so it's okay.

But there's one thing she wants to know: "Where are we going?"

[dustless]

...Is it? The kid taps their nose. They never paid attention.

The water stars falling harder, and they stand up, pointing at a nearby bookstore. There's a big ledge above the windows, and they're starting to feel reasonably confident that Grune won't wander off and leave them, just like she said.

[dustless]

"Okay!"

Frisk takes off, and they're at a river. The boat barks cheerfully, and Frisk pats it. The riverperson stands at the bow, as usual.

"Tra la la. Where to, children?"

"Waterfall!" Frisk says, jumping on. As soon as Sophie joins them, the boat starts walking.

"And we're off..."

The air is filled with glittering lights. Whispering blue flowers bob and wave along the edges, and the river has odd, nonsensical turns. Frisk doesn't mind; after all, it's pretty fun.

A~

[buttercup_eater]

This seems... strange.

The room is oddly comfortable, despite the fact that Chara's quite sure they've never been here before in their life. Even if they're lying on the bed, in their pajamas, as if they've been snoozing away for the past however long.

Very slowly, Chara slides off of the bed and pads their way around the room, pausing briefly to stare at their reflection in the mirror. Unless something unusual jumps out any time soon they'll soon make their way down to the door, turning the knob with only a hint of trepidation.

[lostlegacy]

As soon as the boat starts up, Sophie sticks her head over the side. Wait a minute--

"It's got feet!" she crows. She doesn't mind in the slightest that she's getting a faceful of spray, either--it's part of the fun!

[lostinmyway]

Grune looks to where her friend is pointing, then back at them.

"Can you go over there, too?" she asks. She isn't going anywhere until she's sure.

[dustless]

They nod and point at her insistently. Go, go!

And whenever she does, she'll see them reflected in that should've shown her--the other windows, the warped image on the side of the slow cars, the slowly-growing rain puddles on the sidewalk--everything.