video/action for whoever wants to join charlie at the Shop:

[charring]

[The feed clicks on, intentionally. Charlie's hand pulls away from the device and it shows her, unusually calm and surrounded by fire. Things are on fire but nothing is actually burning.]

So...I'm sure I'm awake. I heard my alarm clock and all and things were okay for a second or two but then when I got outside...

[She turns the camera and there are extra buildings, a bit warped and twisted because everything is more nightmare-ish in her dreams and there are people running from the buildings. Faceless people. People who flicker as they go because again, this is how it goes in her dreams.]

I know this place. I don't like it.

[She's not going to say why. A man approaches, faceless as usual, a scar on the left side of his face quite visible and his hair, white and tied back and he has a gun but Charlie hardly flinches. Instead, her hand reaches out and with a flick of her wrist, he's gone in a flash.]

This is a curse, right? I have twenty-four hours of this shit to put up with? [A pause.] At least the fire isn't actually harming anything.

Comments

[candothat]

What place is this?

[Referring, of course, to wherever the dream is supposed to be.]

[charring]

That's the Shop. It's where my father died.

[Oh, hey. That scar-faced man with the gun is back. Another flick of the wrist and he's gone again.] It's a memory. I get those instead of dreams. Or, in this case, nightmares.

[candothat]

Sorry. That isn't such a good thing to dream about.

[charring]

Not really, no. [It's why she's an insomniac, Pavel.]

[candothat]

Do you dream this often? Would company help?

[charring]

Every night for the past few weeks. [Y'know, since Ed...yeah.] I don't think company would be wise.

[candothat]

That does not sound restful.

You are sure?

[charring]

I'm sure, Pavel. It's....hazardous.

[candothat]

I have been running away from hazards all day. Charlie, I would be careful.

[charring]

Okay. I'm...not sure where I am but okay.

[candothat]

Do you have an idea? Even a small one?

[charring]

I was about halfway to the donut shop near me before all this started. So...somewhere between there and my apartment?

[candothat]

I will try to find you.

[charring]

Okay. And thank you.

[She's seated on a bench, once again waving a hand at the scarred faceless man with the gun and once again watching him vanish in a shower of sparks.]

[candothat]

[It's not a lot of space to cover, so Chekov finds Charlie relatively quickly (with only a few curse-related stops). He's just in time to see the faceless man vanish.]

...Who is that?

[charring]

He...his name was Rainbird. He befriended me when the Shop kidnapped my father and I. Rather, he made me think he was my friend. And then he shot my dad right in front of me. The fire? That was my doing right after.

[Charlie is genuinely so bored with this whole nightmare-turned-reality she can't even muster much emotion in what she says. Either that or she's fighting really hard to keep her emotions in check. It's most likely the latter.]

[candothat]

[He doesn't even ask how a shop managed to kidnap people. Chekov does, however, take great care as he sits next to Charlie, ready for something to attack him or to be incinerated by dream fire or--really, it's been an interesting day.]

You have not killed this man enough times in your sleep to make this dream go away.

[Just an observation.]

[charring]

The fire's not going to hurt you. Nothing will. I just pass through in this dream. Plus, the fire is mine so you have nothing to worry about. I have it.

[She shrugs, looking at Pavel.] There's usually more for me to do but I don't want to.

[candothat]

Good, thank you. [Finally, a moment to not worry about being killed by someone's dream.

Now if only he would stop seeing the planet Vulcan collapsing in on itself in every reflective surface; that would make the day almost pleasant.]

What more can you do?

[charring]

I usually head to the barn. That's where everything went wrong. Same trip every time. I want to see what happens if I don't go.

[She's going to head there anyway. At some point. Because here comes the scarred faceless man again and there he goes again. This is getting kinda old.] I'm so not sleeping for a while after this.

[candothat]

Perhaps there is a way to end the dream.

[And, with the tone of someone who is merely reciting something that he has been told several times himself:] That is unhealthy. Not sleeping will not make the causes of reoccurring nightmares go away.

[charring]

No. Extensive therapy would but who'd believe this kind of thing even happened? I'm one of a kind back home. It's not like people with abilities are just running around everywhere.

[candothat]

Perhaps you have not noticed, Charlie, but there are many people with abilities here. I think anyone in the City would believe you. [shrugs] And I would listen. I am not a therapist, but I have taken maybe classes on the subject.