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

On the second repeat Nick is noticed. Whelk looks at her suspiciously but says nothing, returning to his predetermined path, plotting the murder that Noah is entirely oblivious to.

He'd already decided to kill his friend from the moment they got out of the car. After that was just a matter of waiting for the right moment.

Noah also notices Nick, gives her a carefree if slightly exasperated smile like he's apologizing for Whelk's attitude right now.

"He's not normally like this," Noah says, nodding back at Whelk, beginning to poke through the underbrush. "Well, alright, he can be kind of a wet blanket, but becoming white trash has hit him hard."

Ordinarily, she's have some choice words about what exactly it's like to be white trash, but that's not what floats to the front of her mind here. She can't shake the vision from just minutes before of him dying in front of her eyes.

"He's gonna hurt you," she says, in a squeak of a voice, barely louder than a whisper.

That is the thing about dreams, isn't it? Try to scream and you're lucky if you can even make a sighing sound. Try to run and you always stumble, your legs move as if lead weights were tied to them.

Try to warn a boy he's going to die and ha laughs. Noah's laugh is different here, in his dream. It's not particularly loud but it isn't the soundless sigh he's got now.

"Whelk? Okay maybe he's a little pissed off about the white trash comment, but he'll get over it. We're friends," Noah assures Nick with confidence that doesn't really leave any room for an argument. "Come on, you want to see some cool trees?"

Just because someone is your friend doesn't mean he isn't capable of hurting you - just the opposite, in fact, which is what Nick's experience has been. She opens her mouth and tries to speak again, to give Noah a better warning, and nothing comes out this time. Resigned, she nods her head - yes, she'll take a look at the trees. Maybe if she sticks close she can stop what she saw before from happening again.

Noah doesn't notice any of her apprehension, leading the way into the woods, onto the same track he was on last time. The same one he can't break from here. The brushing off her nervousness is most likely the dream, but as obvious by his thinking Whelk would never hurt him, completely misjudging how upset and desperate he had gotten... Czerny wasn't the best judge of character, not so great at reading a room.

"There's some weird energy readings around here - Heh. 'Energy readings', I know, right? I sound like one of those crazies on local access channels at midnight." He tosses his notebook up in the air and catches it again, careless and unworried as he casually looks around. "There's some standing stones around here though that if you move the rocks around you can get knocked back, and one time we totally saw a ghost right after."

"It's not that weird." Nick's voice comes out of her mouth like normal this time. "Kennedy used to talk about people having weird energy and needing their chakras balanced and all that kinda stuff." She speaks as if he'll know who Kennedy is from that sole mention.

What is weird is how she's able to speak again, just so long as it's about anything except Noah being in danger from Whelk. She shoves her hands inside the pockets of her jacket and continues following along after him.

"What kinda ghost was it?"

Noah laughs, like Kennedy is familiar somehow, like it's some in-joke between them. Dream logic.

"Oh, like - it was a woman? And she was crying. She was talking in this language that sounded like Latin but Whelk's good enough to teach that class and he said it was gibberish." Noah rolls his shoulders in a very expressive shrug. "Anyway, it was just for a few seconds."

"That sounds incredibly fuckin' creepy," she says, flatly. The idea of seeing some woman crying and speaking a language she wouldn't be able to understand sends a chill down her spine. "But I guess that's ghosts for you, huh."

Noah laughs again.

"Yeah, ghosts, right? Creepy as fuck." He looks back over his shoulder, but he's lost sight of his friend.

"Whelk?" He calls, and while there's a shuffling there's no call back. Noah sighs and shrugs.

"Sorry he's so moody right now."

There's a seizing feeling of cold panic that rises up in Nick's chest. They've lost sight of the guy she saw murder this kid with a fucking skateboard, and Nick has seen enough terrible horror movies to know that's bad news.

She opens her mouth to say something about it, how they need to get going somewhere else, and no sound comes out.

Noah laughs and continues on, like she just made some smalltalk or joke instead.

Whelk is there, just glimpses of him between the trees. He looks so normal, like any other teenager, not some horrific monster stalking them through the dark forest.

Over-privileged young men are a horror story in of themselves more often than not.

Noah slows, because of course he does, pulling out a map to check it against where he is. He calls out to Whelk again but gets no answer, doesn't see the other boy behind him.

The blow comes suddenly again, the actual moment of impact cut out. One moment Whelk is there behind him then the next Noah is on the ground, bleeding, gasping as the shock kicks in.

It feels to Nick like time crawls to a stop, then skips ahead to the aftermath, where Noah is dying and all she was able to do was stand there, helpless and mute, unable to prevent this disaster. She hears a voice shout No! and distantly realizes it's her own, but by that time she's on her knees in the grass next to him, eyes wide with panic. What do you do for someone who's been injured this badly? Apply pressure or something, right? She doesn't fucking know, and she can feel a stifled sob rising up in her throat.

"Hey - don't move, OK?" That's what you're supposed to tell people, right? It's what they always say in movies, on TV. Jesus, why doesn't she know any first aid beyond minor cuts and burns?

The damage to Noah's face is extensive - enough that either Whelk is secretly hiding Hercules-like strength or the cut moment included additional strikes.

There's so much blood. On Noah, his face a ruin as he can't manage more than choked whimpers, one eye wide and afraid. On Whelk, standing back, blank faced as he holds the skateboard loosely in his hand.

"You can't save him," Whelk says as the world begins to darken at the edges again. "He's already dead."

Nick tears her gaze from Noah dying in front of her eyes and whips around to face Whelk, an expression of absolute fury scrawled across her face.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! He's your friend!"

Event Log: Dreamwalker

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