So... um. I'm sure most everyone's noticed by now, but Derek Morgan left the City.

[There is a pause. If silence could speak, this particular silence would say, "And that sucks. A lot."]

That means the Youth Center doesn't have a keeper and no one's teaching self-defense classes anymore. Is there anyone out there who'd be interested in taking that over? The classes, I mean. It doesn't pay, but it comes with the fuzzy feeling of knowing that you're helping a bunch of people learn to protect themselves. As one of those people who were learning, I'd really, really appreciate it if someone could pick them up.

Contact me here if you're interested, I guess?

Also, is there someone named Mercy out there? I don't know about you, but I got a note when Derek left and it looks like we're looking after the Youth Center. That's cool with me, I'd just like to meet you. Maybe share notes... figure out how to work this, you know.

...That's about all I know, City. Business as usual, right?


[ooc: THIS WAS POSTED YESTERDAY. So May 11th. Pretend with me.]

 [The video flicks on to whipping wind and glittering cityscape. Karl sits perched on a roof parapet, his head silhouetted against a half-moon. His teeth are white and sharp and his eyes are blood-red.]

This is a rather amusing curse. Well, passably so. I haven't allowed my standards to sink that low yet. 

[A dark chuckle.]

Chimeras. Bogeymen. And everyone crying and cowering, like pathetic children. It's entertaining enough to make me want to join the party~

...

I wonder if she's out there tonight. Surely I've given her a delightful nightmare or two~

[Laughing, Karl vanishes from his spot in a blur. The feed snaps shut.]


[OOC: Have a monster? He will kill. Just for the lulz. Give a vampire something to do, City! ^^b]

[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.

[City, you are being treated to a view of Alexis smoking his pipe. He looks happier than he has in a long time and that really is saying something.]

I am afraid, dear City, that I will not be available to make appointments today. One might say that I am indulging myself in a dream come true.

[A woman's hand appears to touch his arm and Alexis reaches over to take a strand of her dark hair, bringing it to his lips.]

Cain, I will make sure to say hello for you since you are not likely to get the chance to do so yourself.

[He chuckles then turns the device off.]

DELACROIX to VOID: 12-05-???? re: Resist

Zhe worms are everywhere. Do not listen to zheir singing. Do you hear me? Do not listen to zhem. Arm yourselves quickly.



[[ooc; All images from here.]]

[Ken's followed by bubbles today. Sometimes they pop, but some of them just stay floating around him, like they're haunting him, refusing to leave him. They never properly fly away, just float around him.

[He's also in the Hall of Missing, this is clearly not meant to be broadcasted.

[Maybe it's the waking dream that spurned this on, or he remembers a conversation he had with her...whichever it is, in front of the portrait that belongs to Estelle, who has now, obviously left, he leaves a cup of what looks like water, with a bubble wand in it.]

I didn't forget, Estellise-san. I'm glad you got out, at least. [He doesn't look very happy, though.]

Please take care of yourself.

[As he turns to leave, a voice calls his name off the screen, he turns to the voice, wide-eyed, and the feed decides to cut out right there.]

[Video Post]
[Blink--! And crash, clatter, drop: the device immediately falls to the floor--polished black marble, shining and slick and dark. There is the sound of a breath caught short--almost a gasp, but not quite. Let the image settle (much as it will), let the breaks and static dissipate (it all will). Now, take a look:

A great hall, almost like a church with all its vaults and arches, but made of wood where it should be made of stone. And dark wood, shining, like a great vaulted cabinet. The floor is black marble (recall) but patterned in labyrinths and geometric circles in red and gold. A church, a cathedral, a palace. It is equal parts house as it is chapel (or so the gold candelabras and urns of flowers placed on altars that are as much table as they are altar would suggest).

There are windows beyond, somewhere, or so the light would suggest. But it's a dark light, like the light of a storm at dawn.

There is the sound of breathing which, slowly slowly, draws closer. A hand passes before the camera, the device is picked up. Ah--so that is Cain there.

He holds the device unthinkingly. It sees what he sees, though he does not intend it.

But it is in this moment that one can see what has stopped him short and now lies before him: a great circle of that same polished wood set into the floor before him, carved in patterns and signs which do not ever entirely become clear--more geometric patterning or scenes of Cain and Abel or arcane pentacles? It's not clear. But it's only a cover for what's below it. It is a staircase descending through the floor, spiraling away from sight and down underground, braced up with brass railings, and each level and step made from more of that dark polished wood. But there are no stairs here. Instead, there is the shape of a keyhole cut into each layer of this spiral, aligned so that one can peer down from layer to layer, like a staircase made backwards, somehow.

Beyond him then, as he stands over this inside out and backwards staircase, then one can see the sky through high windows which ought to be stained glass but which are, instead, the clear plate glass seen in some many of the City's buildings. And through them there is, indeed, a storm--but one seen as though this church or cathedral or mansion or palace is up in the clouds themselves. There is a dark ocean below and a storm at dawn all around this place. The lightning falls from behind the clouds in drops like sparks from fireworks or molten metal. The clouds are gray and black and ragged, the dawn is red.

Cain pays this no mind. He looks towards the keyhole stairs and breathes a word:]

Merry...

[If he starts to climb those stairs, he knows the whole contraption, all those brass railings and all those wires will contract and spin the whole of it--and him--down to the depths and his real destination at the bottom of those stairs. And while he knows he must descend, he does not want to nor does he want this contraption to drive him down against his will. Because, down at the bottom, there are monsters and evil beyond his own imagining--things he knows he must face, and yet...

So he hesitates with one foot at the edge of that polished circle while the lightning falls from the clouds in gold and liquid drops that look like no lightning ever in the waking world.

He is dreaming or a dream has found him in the waking world, and he knows it. He grips the device tighter, draws it up tighter to his chest. There is a glimpse of his face as he stares towards that hateful keyhole staircase--he sees nothing but that. But he still squeezes the device and, fortunately perhaps, finds the button again that cuts the recording short, ending the whole view in a--

--blink]
[//video post ends]

[ooc: Oh, hey. Welcome to "Caru Uses Her IRL Dreams In RP"--Part the Nth. Yup (ngl, this was not really a fun one, but I did go lucid in the middle of it?). Cain's going to be sitting at the top of these spiraling stairs for the time being--feel free to drop into his dream (I'm not sure where these stairs are, but wherever they are, it's not the opera house). Have at it. High symbolism, I'm sure. Yup. Note that this post is not screened--because curses are bitches like that.]

It sure as hell figures somethin' like this would happen not a month after I go around advertisin' my services.

Anyone know if it's worth goin' outside for anything today, or is this a better day for stayin' in?

If you see someone who looks like me today, be cautious. It may not be me.

[And that short, cryptic message is all that Justin has time for. Now that he's (almost) certain that he is, in fact, awake, he has a nightmare to find. Specifically, he has to find himself.

Anyone out roaming the City and its various dreamscapes may unwittingly encounter something that isn't quite Justin. This Justin, usually a part of a reoccurring dream, is stronger, faster, and deadlier than the real Justin could ever hope to be. He doesn't talk. He doesn't think. This nightmare version of Justin just stares... and, occasionally, kills. Perhaps you'll be lucky and the nightmare will pass you by. Perhaps you won't be lucky...]


[ooc: Naturally, Justin has nightmares about a more monstrous form of himself... and those nightmares end with the monster killing someone (that someone has already volunteered, so no need to raise your hand). Justin will be out trying to stop his nightmare from ending as it usually does, so feel free to have your character run into either Justin or nightmare!Justin. Try not to provoke nightmare!Justin.

Action tags from nightmare!Justin will be coming from ohcurses.]

[The setting is the interior of a futuristic ship. A very big ship.

Garrus turns on a video log, watching as a pair of scientists begin to slowly lose their minds and free will.]

Even a dead Reaper still has power.

[He hears moaning further into the ship and raises his gun. No Husks are going to get him while he's still breathing.]

[The curtains aren't drawn shut, so there's a soft light coming through the window when the broadcast starts. Merlin's lying on the bed with a full outfit on, forehead furrowed in a deep, troubled frown when a black cat jumps onto his back, startling him awake. The cat dives under him when he pushes himself up, eyes glowing yellow when he opens them, and while he fumbles for the phone he knows he just dropped nearby him on the bed the evening before, he blinks around him, at the way there's something twisting - raw power surging through the air - and the sound of distant screams.

...oh. This looks just like his dream, aside from the bed. Brilliant.

Looking down at the cat, he mumbles in a hushed tone:]

Shhh, Shadow.

[He rubs a hand over his face before he scoops the cat up to his chest while he sits up, squints his eyes at the phone. Oh...

Brilliant.]

Good morning, City. Not that I'd call it good. So it's dreams-becoming-real day, or something, then?

[Maybe he, and his voice, is trembling just a bit.]

I think I'll stay inside today.

[Rapunzel is sitting on a bench in the park, looking up wistfully at the sky. Floating around her head are paper lanterns that glow softly. Copies of the lanterns she's still dreaming about seeing when she gets home.

She goes to touch one, but the instant she does, it dissolves into dust and a voice that only she can hear, and she sighs.]

I know they're not real, but I just keep hoping...I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever get to see them for real at this point, or...

...I miss Eugene.

Me have much mad child, run up down all stairs. No want go home! Me can no scare away?!

[There's been a scuffle, and the room is in shambles-- broken glasses, furniture strewn about, curtains torn. The Device lies forgotten, sees everything around without its owner's knowledge for the moment.

This is not a room that usually appears in the City, not a building that should be here: it's a little part of England, surely achingly familiar to a certain Earl Hargreaves and those close to him, uprooted and set into the outskirts of the City. The room is empty, at first glance, save for the sound of heavy breathing nearby, movement. Something falls and shatters, and suddenly a blur of motion--

It's Riff, but two of him, one attacking while the other--injured and bloody--scrambles to get away. The latter manages to land a strike, a heavy candelabra slamming against the side of the former Riff's head. He's down for only a second or two, and when the other runs, he draws his revolver.

A door slamming, a gunshot-- both have gone from view, but, after several moments, the Device is picked up. The picture blurs and wobbles, and suddenly it's

voice only

and Riff sounds slightly out of breath, barely checked anger in his low voice.]

It appears today's curse has thought it would be amusing to create a doppelganger of myself, and an utterly insane one, at that. Please pay it no mind.

[And that's that. The device turns off, and he has every mind to follow this 'double' out and put an end to him-- perhaps once and for all.]



((OOC: RIFFAEL VS. RIFF. Sorry for the confusion and the lateness but, basically--

Riff, though injured, has managed to escape. Riffael will be trying to kill him before he can say anything or meet anyone but that just means OPEN TO ACTION! :D Feel free to run into either of them. Riff will be answering with this journal, while Riffael will be answering with judaskiss ))

[Hanna looks like hell as he wanders the streets. He looks nervous, hand gripping his hammer tightly.]

So, uh...I may have accidentally unleashed one of my nightmare monsters on the City....so...uh....if any of you see a really tall guy with no face and noodle arms? Yeah, he's way more terrifying than he looks.

Also, I sort of have no idea where he is. But I'll find him! Hopefully!

[Hanna smiles weakly and heads off towards the woods.]

Stupid creepy slender fucker is probably in there somewhere...

[ooc: based off of this: http://s1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc395/Realaregula/HiNABN/?action=view¤t=tumblr_lcn191AQZO1qcsnmjo1_500.jpg Because Slenderman terrifies me and apparently he scares Hanna too.]

[The City is full of dreams today and as it turns out, even the devil's lost soul has dreams. Nightmares, to be precise.

Standing in the middle of a road close to the fountain, Kira is looking unlike himself today, though some might say that it's much more like his true self. With four magnificent black wings sprouting from between his shoulders and a wicked smile on his face, he seems confident in his ability to brave this nightmare.

What he's fighting does - as so often in dreams - not seem to make much sense. Wires, but moving, bloody, deadly. They've already hurt him, but the wounds have healed, just the traces of his own blood still clings to his skin. So far, he's not received lasting damage, but the wires aren't stopping. And - again, as often seems to be the case in dreams - somehow it's just known that these wires want to kill.

There is something to note to those who know Kira better than most: Despite the wings, he still has the bloodmark on his chest, he still fights with Shiranui, the holy sword. He still has a human body. Dreams don't always make sense, after all.]

I'm not dying yet.

[Such confidence, despite the wires just regrowing whenever he manages to land a hit, despite being out of breath already.]

( Inspirational image after cut... )