Event Log: Dreamwalker

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The Dreamwalker event
Where: In your comfy bed and your sleepy head.
When: May 16th-26th
Warnings: Good dreams, weird dreams, bad dreams, straight-up nightmares. Please remember to tag for warnings in the header if things are going to be bad!

Have you been having trouble getting a good night's sleep? Tossing and turning, unable to rest those tired eyes? Or maybe you don't sleep at all, and never have. Not to worry! For a little while, you'll have no trouble at all falling asleep - in fact, as night falls, you'll find yourself overwhelmed with exhaustion whether you want to sleep or not. Lay down and rest your weary head, friends. Everyone could use a little extra sleep.

But what will your dreams bring? Something happy, images of a perfect day? Something hopeful, something you've wanted for a long time? Maybe you'll dream of anger, of the face of your worst enemy. Or maybe - just maybe - you'll have a horrific nightmare, and wake screaming, covered in cold sweat.

Not before others have time to see it, though. As you sleep, as you dream, the other residents of Hadriel, friends and enemies and people you've only met once, might find their way into your dreams. Or you might find your way into theirs - and then have to deal with someone's else's nightmares, or hopes, or anger. For the next ten nights, you'll find yourself either a host or a visitor, and no matter how you try you won't be able to stay awake once night falls.

Sweet dreams, Hadriel. Don't let the asshole fear gods bite.

► This log covers May 16th-26th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► You can't die in the dreams, but if you somehow manage to trip and fall and kill yourself getting out of bed, please report it on the death post.

Comments

[thechoiceisyours]

It's only because he's living the dream, at least at first, that Chris doesn't do anything; he experiences the scene from Nick's view, but part of him knows this is totally wrong. Not just wrong in general--which is is, entirely--but wrong for him, because his parents had barely ever even raised their voices toward him when he was growing up. So it's really shocking, even more so than it would've been otherwise, as the dream unfolds.

It's only after Nick's mother has left the kitchen that Chris finds himself as himself once again, in the corner of the kitchen and reeling a bit from the entire thing. But the little girl at the sink is more important than being shocked, and Chris approaches her in concern.

"Hey, are you okay?" He means physically, at last for now, because geez. What kind of adult hits a kid, especially a girl?

[bekommen]

"I'm fine." The girl's shoulders are tense, her voice barely louder than the sound of water running in the sink. She doesn't look back over her shoulder at him; the only thing worse than having her mother find her upset is someone else witnessing it.

"You weren't supposed to see that." She drizzles some dish soap on the plate and scrubs hard against the surface with the sponge.

[thechoiceisyours]

"Yeah, because it shouldn't have happened." It's more scathing than Chris usually is, especially when talking about something a woman did, but he thinks it's entirely warranted. "She shouldn't have done that. It's messed up."

It feels important to make that clear.

[bekommen]

The girl doesn't immediately respond, attention focused on scrubbing the plate clean. The fact that he's being nice to her is somehow worse; she doesn't deserve to have people be nice to her.

"It was my fault," she finally says, dully, running the soapy plate under the faucet. "She's right - I'm stupid if I can't remember to do something as easy as washing dishes."

[thechoiceisyours]

"It isn't stupid; I forget shit all the time." In fact he's pretty sure he was supposed to do the dishes back at the house, oops. "And even if it was like, actually something serious and not a plate, she'd still be totally out of line." He can't imagine ever being angry enough to yell at someone over dishes, let alone hit them, especially if they're a kid.

[bekommen]

"You're not supposed to say swears," the girl says, turning off the faucet and gently placing the dish in the rack to the side of the sink. She turns to Chris with wide, serious eyes, and he'll probably recognize them as Nick's by the piercing shade of blue.

"It's not fair - she says them all the time, but I get in trouble if she hears me say them." Not the only thing that isn't fair, just the most topical. She wipes her damp hands off on the front of her jeans. "But any time I say something's not fair, she just says 'nothing's fair, go cry a river.'"

[thechoiceisyours]

"I'm nineteen." Chris responds to her admonishment, but it's light and joking. He quickly grows more serious as she talks, especially as it begins to dawn on him exactly who this is and therefore whose dream he must be in.

"Well um... Life isn't fair, yeah, but that's just a lame excuse not to actually explain things." His parents only rarely pulled the 'because I said so' card on him, instead taking the time to either answer or find out the answer to any of his questions. "Kids aren't supposed to swear since some stuffy old people decided kids cursing means a whole bunch of things about them that aren't true. But a lot people believe them, so you can't curse until you're old enough not to get judged."

And he pauses a moment. "But then you're still judged on it, just differently, so it's kind of pointless anyway."

[bekommen]

Nick, on the other hand, heard because I said so and do it or else entirely too often, usually coupled with some comment about her being stupid. She learned not to question and internalized the belief that she wasn't very smart, eventually taking it as given fact rather than distorted perception.

"You're old enough to leave," the girl says, examining Chris with a questioning stare. Nineteen is a year past the marker of official adult. "So why are you still here?"