Event Log: Dreamwalker the Second

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Dreamwalker part 2 event
Where: In your dreams
When: October 14th-20th (the second log will go up on Oct 23rd, please keep the two weeks of the event separate!)
Warnings: All different kinds of dreams falling under the umbrella of Delight, Rage, Sorrow, and Hope.

This time, the weird stuff doesn't happen when you're awake- as a matter of fact, your waking hours are the normal ones. That's because you're forced to sleep by some unknown entity, getting more and more exhausted by the moment as night falls. Better make sure you're always around a soft pillow.

Once asleep, it doesn't get any less weird- your dreams will be influenced by one of the four gods that make up the first week. Something to make you smile, something to make you angry- or something that reminds you of your deepest regret or most vulnerable hope, they're all things that you're dreaming about now for some reason, no matter how hard you may try to pull away from them.

To make matters more complicated, there are others intruding on your dreams who definitely don't belong there, and while they may seem like manifestations at first, it becomes clear that these others are actually the consciousness of other members of Hadriel, getting some top quality exposure to your angriest, happiest, most sorrowful moments. Hope it doesn't get awkward when you see them tomorrow...

► This log covers October 14th-20th.
► 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!
► If you die in dreams you don't die in real life, but if you somehow die in real life anyway, please let us know here.

Comments

Sorrow

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin is in the stands. As the runners speed from the starting blocks, the crowd roars. Curufin shouts, "GO, KATE!!!!" in a voice used to being heard about the din of a battle.

[dedikated]

She hears the voice, a vague echo above the whistle of wind in her ears, familiar, but she can't place why. For now, Kate can't let it distract her, pushing herself harder as the track seems to stretch out for an impossible distance.

As it does stretch out an impossible distance, going on and on as the stadium wisps away, leaving Curufin standing alone, dragged alongside her as though the scenery is flickering film, the expanse of nothing eventually plunging into darkness. Into the claustrophobic underground tunnels, curving in a seemingly random map of intersections, where Kate finally screeches to a halt, looking around wildly.

Alone, apart from a familiar stranger, and the echoing rumble of something approaching. Somethings, plural.

[so_dark_a_road]

What a strange sensation, being a stationary observer while the landscape changes like that of a dream. Curufin looks a little surprised, but he just waits to see what will appear.

When the stadium blurs into the tunnels, he looks around, puzzled and a bit worried.

"Kate, what is this?" he says, quietly, although he has no way of knowing whether she can hear him or not.

He doesn't quite like that rumble.

[dedikated]

"I don't-" Know. But she cuts herself off as she turns around, as if trying to find their way out and only seeing a wall. She sucks in air and tastes dirt and decay, and her shoulders raise in immediate response.

"... The Underground." Somehow the dream seems to carry the meaning of that, the capital letter implied in the word, the strong idea that they're not welcome here. It carries the weight of battles fought and lives taken as the noise gets closer still-

And passes them by, a group of something that can barely be seen in the darkness dragging something heavy. Something that grunts and groans and causes Kate to take a step back, her eyes flaring bright with power, following the direction of the noise. It's enough to reveal the legs of someone being pulled forward, as though held captive and being moved.

"Shit."

[so_dark_a_road]

"The Underground. Ominous sort of name . . . "

And then he, too, sees the captive, though the captor is not clear. Kate's eyes show that she is accessing her power, and therefore there must be reason to do so.

Curufin reaches behind him and whisks his sword out of its sheath. A white flame licks up the blade as he raises the level of his own power. He'll take his cue from her, though -- this being her world and not his.

[dedikated]

She raises a hand out in front of him. No. Not yet. "Shhh." She hisses and watches the direction in which they walked for a little longer before silently shifting down the tunnel. Old habits that come too easily, but right now all she cares about is the body being dragged, the dread curling in her stomach as they approach.

This is all unfamiliar, yet somehow, somehow Kate knows what they're about to find.

A trial.

The tunnel hollows out into a large cavern, empty of everything but a few bodies. A group of indistinct shapes huddled together, discussing things between themselves, and six people strung up against a pole running through the room itself.

The shock of pink hair is hard to mistake, but Kate's more concerned with the others there, her fingers curling into the dirt of the tunnels.

"Very well." The voice isn't hers, nor any of the people hanging there, waiting judgement. It's the voice of the one passing it. "Our decision is made, for each of your crimes."

Kate, standing next to Curufin, hisses in a sharp breath. It's the trial they managed to avoid, and the list will be long. C'mon, Alicia, do summat, she urges under her breath, but none of the shapes trussed up so much as blink.

[so_dark_a_road]

He sheathes his blade again, at her bidding. It there is something or someone to kill, it will probably happen soon enough.

They walk through the tunnel and come to its exit into the cavern.

Curufin gazes in horror at the hanging bodies. This does not bode well at all.

As he hears the sharp intake of Kate's breath, he glances at her with a seriously concerned look. He hopes he is conveying his thought: If you need me to rescue these people, just say the word. You are my friend, and my sword is at your service.

[dedikated]

The scene, in all its horror, somehow pales in comparison to the oppressive guilt that seems to hang over the scene. Every crime listed isn't a charge, but a location, a name. Buildings which were destroyed. The weight and images of fighting in streets and the loss of life under attacks and bombs.

Kate's hisses next to Curufin. This isn't what she expected to hear, but there's images of breaking news flickering over the scene, newspaper clippings and echoing, indistinct newscasters talking about violence in the United Kingdom after the events in Manchester.

And something in that voice, their judge, curls the dread in her gut, weaves it through the heavy air. A familiarity.

"Wouldn't you say that it was better as it was, Katherine?" Those words pass the six on trial, aim straight at the two eavesdroppers, make Kate bare her teeth as the judge steps into the light, one good eye glinting steel grey. It's a shock to her heart, enough to jerk Kate straight from sleep, frustrated and bearing the weight of ten years of tension in her chest.

[so_dark_a_road]

The chaos of this world flashes as images over the already appalling scene. It's like something witnessed in a drug-induced trance or accidentally by a visionary -- kaleidoscopic and harrowing.

And then the one-eyed judge makes an appearance. Curufin draws himself up to a ready posture, his hand unobtrusively ready to snatch his sword back out of its sheath.

He glances at Kate. Clearly, she is struck to the heart by these words, by this apparition.