hadriel_logs | Event Log: Dreamwalker

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Arya stands in the crowd, near enough to the field to see exactly what's happening. She doesn't know who these corpses are, exactly, but their dead eyes bother Arya far more than those of the corpses she tended to in the House of Black and White. In places like this, it is far easier to be no one -- no one has no friends, and she can focus on the moving bodies instead of the still ones.

That isn't a much better alternative, however. As soon as the first accusation is cast, Arya knows exactly where she is. This is an execution, and once again, she's standing helpless in the crowd.

No. Not quite helpless. This time, she has a sword.

Arya pushes through the crowd as they begin to chant, doing her best not to confuse prince killer with traitor. This is not the execution of Arya Stark's father, and she must put that out of her mind. Eventually, Arya is able to break through the crowd and rushes into the field. She draws her sword, and plunges it into the back of one of the guards holding Damen. ]

Stop! All of you, you liars!

[ Is she talking to these executioners, or the executioners of a different time and place? It's hard to say. ]

[ It's fair to say that this is unexpected. Damen's dream had not been ready for Arya, had not anticipated her, and as such, her intervention makes the entire scene shift. Damen himself wheels around to look at her, and in so doing, he recognises her. It's strange and jarring; she has a face that belongs in another world, and yet she's here.

There's meaning in that, and he knows there is, but his mind doesn't focus on it. He stays in the physical instead. Her move has killed one of his guards, and startled the others, and in the time it takes for them to regroup, Damen has bodily thrown another one off and relieved him of his sword. He stands side by side with Arya, then.

This will not be an execution.

Of course, the Regent is first to regain sense of himself, even within the dream. ]

Get him back under control! [ And those cold blue eyes slide to Arya. ] Kill the girl.

[ Anger surges in Damen anew. He will not let this happen. ]

The only traitor here is you. You'd kill your own nephew.

[ The dream version of Laurent is now also struggling in his bonds. Beside him, Jokaste is warily still. Damen moves to flank Arya. ]

You can run. You don't have to stay. You've done enough.

[ Damen may die here, but she doesn't have to. ]

[ The phrase 'kill the girl' is not a new one to Arya. The man with the cold blue eyes does not frighten her -- he angers her. Those cruel eyes remind her of Joffrey, and it's all Arya can do to bite back a snarl. Arya looks up at Damen. ]

I would not have freed you if I planned to run.

[ Arya slips into a defensive stance, eyes sharp. ]

I will see this through, to your life or death.

[ Arya nods at Damen. If they choose to attack, they should do so together. ]

[ Something in Damen's eyes warms, as he regards the girl. Realistically, the odds they're facing are ridiculous. There are two of them against an entire army. They cannot possibly win.

And yet, Damen has faced impossible odds before. He's faced them at Marlas, and at Charcy. He won't flee from them now. If he dies, then he will die having taken as many of them with him as he can. ]

Then show no mercy, for they will have none.

[ And he moves, turning so that his sword connects with the Veretian steel of an approaching guard. This man is sent surging back towards his fellows. They'll never beat Damen one on one, and they will swiftly come to realise that. He manages a glance back at Arya. ]

Thank you.

[ Arya smiles ruefully at Damen's command. The kindly man nearly gave her Mercy's name, and Mercy's face. Now she gets to be mercy at last.

This, Arya thinks, is for all the people who have tried to capture her and her family. To shackle them in chains, real or figurative.

Arya moves freely with her sword, ducking among swaths of guards and nicking them between their armor. Needle brings a slow death, as the guards will soon find as the blood leaks out of them. She nods at Damen. ]

I am glad I can do this.

[ These men know what to expect from Prince Damianos. He crashes through them, his sword cutting through flesh, bones breaking while he kicks through knees, and brings soldiers down. In battle, Damen is a frightening thing; he doesn't even take in their faces as he brings them down.

But they are also ready for it. They don't try to face him in single combat; they would lose, and they know it, so they rely on their numbers. They swarm him, heedless of how many fall, because they know many will beat one in the end.

The only problem is, he's not alone. The girl fights like Laurent. Quick and sharp, like a serpent moving between men who expect nothing of the sort from a young girl. They know Damen and they're ready for him; they're not ready for her. Their first mistake is underestimating her, leaving them dead in her wake despite her making nothing like the mess that Damen had. With a group of them now holding back Damen, he can only watch as more advance on her, now adopting the same tactic they'd used on him;

They plan to swarm her. ]

No, don't! Don't harm her!

[ But this dream is managed by Fear. They're not listening to him. ]

[ This is Damen's fear dream, not Arya's. Even so, it's impossible for Arya not to be afraid when the soldiers surround her. She's trained in picking men off one by one like an assassin or a water dancer. She can overpower the brute force of one man, but several? That's far more difficult.

Arya remembers watching another fight, long ago. Men similar to the ones before her surrounded a girl's dancing instructor. Syrio Forel had nothing but a stick to defend himself with. And Syrio died.

Arya's eyes grow wide, expression panicked. She breathes rapidly, Damen's fears mixing into her own. ]

Don't touch me!

[ Arya screams. She screams at these men, but it's also what she's wanted to say over and over again: to the Lannisters, to Gregor Clegane, to the Kindly Man. She won't go down without a fight.

So fight she does, thrusting, turning, trying to cut up as many of the men as she can. She does manage to delay the inevitable. But there are still far more of them than there are of her, and they don't retreat until she's lying in the dirt, bleeding out. ]

Go.

[ She chokes out for Damen. One last demand. ]

[ She fights bravely. She's fierce and skilled and full of something that Damen recognizes. She's so different from him, but he feels there's something that's the same, too. She fights like he would, for her last breath.

She's outnumbered. The result is inevitable, but Arya's will makes a mark on Damen, and sends him fighting again. He forces free, and more men go down under the sheer power of his body. He fights his way to her, to Arya. Her lifeless body becomes a part of the scenery of this, and Damen turns, an outraged war leaving him, as swords are turned again on Laurent and Jokaste. this time, Damen's head is forced to the floor, and they come upon him as well. He fights, trying to throw them off and force them back, but instead, he feels steel piercing his stomach.

It happens again and again. He doesn't know how many times, but by the end, he's on the floor, bleeding beside Arya's body. The scream they force from Laurent is the last thing he hears before, in the dream, he dies -

And in the real world he wakes, with Laurent still beside him and Arya nowhere to be seen.

Had that been real? Could it have been? He knows what Fear threatened to do. But if that girl had truly been there...

Restless, Damen gets up, and goes to find his sword. There'll be no more sleep for him tonight. ]

Event Log: Dreamwalker

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