hadriel_logs | Event Log: Dreamwalker

Entry tags:

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

He tenses just a little less and looks at her almost smugly. Whatever game he thinks she's playing, he thinks he's caught her in it. "So you can't report me to the cops, 'cause they could get you for vagrancy too."

'Vagrancy' he says with the very careful and incorrect enunciation of a kid who's heard a word but doesn't quite know its meaning.

"Or you could try, but it'd be stupid."

Despite his enunciation, Rey can make out what he's trying to say.

"I'm not a vagrant, either. I just don't stay in one place for very long. Suppose you could say 'nomad' would be more accurate."

Same difference, right?

Nomad? He looks unimpressed. "That just sounds like you're makin' stuff up."

Focusing on her stuff, though, may keep her from asking again about what's going on with him. "So you're stayin' somewhere, but you're not gonna stay there a long time? Do you keep gettin' kicked out?"

Living anywhere is expensive, if his mother's money troubles taught him anything. Moving doesn't help, he thinks, so there must be some other reason.

She just shrugs.

"Not really. I just get sent to places, all around the world. Before I ever get the chance to settle anywhere, it's already time to pack up and leave."

The soldier life, but also the life of Rey in general. She was never allowed, neither could she allow herself, to get too comfortable in one location for very long. It may just start to become 'home' or something, and no one can have that.

Now, that sounds weird. What kind of job sends you all over? Nobody travels much at all where he lives--he's probably the best-traveled person he knows by virtue of having seen other neighborhoods. He has to to keep himself from being fingered for his pickpocketing.

Maybe the big ticket criminals in larger gangs in some of the nearby streets travel, but they have no one telling them what to do, Firo thinks.

She could be a spy. But why would she be bothering with this place? "Oh, yeah? Who sends you?"

Totally a spy.

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." The corner of her lip twitches, but not into a full smile that tells whether she's actually joking about this or not. "Someone in the military does."

Though telling Firo that this person doesn't actually serve the military (and thus, neither does Rey) and even his name wouldn't make a damn bit of difference to him.

Firo frowns even harder, no hint of amusement on his face. He doesn't like her joking about something like that, and he can't show anything that might be construed as weakness in response.

Military, though. That's a little confusing, considering that, despite her garb, he's pretty sure she's a lady.

"...You're a nurse?"

He supposes she might kind of look like the nurses he's heard about from Bellevue--reasonably well-off, stern, kind of harried and rough-looking. 'Bedside manner' isn't even a criteria for the medical professionals Firo's heard of, so it's no more hard to imagine this lady as one than it is to imagine anyone else as one.

Nurse? Now that's a new one. Rey just casts Firo a querying look. They don't really call them 'nurses' anymore where she's from, so hearing such an outdated phrase strikes her as odd.

"Not quite. More like a field agent. Can't really go into specifics, though. Top secret stuff and all. Like I said, may have to kill you."

She could very well be joshing him.

Field agent? Now she sounds even more like a spy, but Firo doesn't intend to press it. ...Not directly.

"Then why're you here? Don't you have better things to do, lady?"

"Honestly?"

Sort of, she does. Rey could be waking up at any second, wondering whether or not Firo will actually remember any of this. She could be speaking with the actual Firo, the one she knows, rather than this echo of him.

Rey shrugs. "Not really," she concedes.

Firo stares at her flatly. It’s not a very informative answer, and he’s getting impatient with that.

So he returns to that tired old phrase that slips out of his mouth so easily, “So what do you want? There's gotta be a reason you're still here!”

It always comes back to that. The fact that she’s hanging around him, even if she doesn’t have more pressing things to attend to, is concerning.

A reason? Rey hadn't really thought that far ahead, but there was something that had been nagging at her. A feeling that she hadn't paid much mind to because it's such a pesky and troublesome thing.

Troublesome as it is, she forces a casual shrug. "To tell the truth, I was... worried. About you. It seems like you're out here on your own, and I know what that's like."

Perhaps a little too well.

Confusion freezes him, and he stands there as stunned as if she'd just taken out a flyswatter and smacked him with it.

He could be touched, because it's been ages since he's had anyone take an interest. He could be grateful. He could be open and run to her and tell her how awful it is and how much he hates every moment of it.

But Firo's defenses don't come down that easily. He shakes his head back and forth--focus!

"If you know what it's like, then you should know that I'm fine." As shabby, scabby, and scrappy as he is, Firo holds himself upright as if he's all proof of how well he's doing. "I know how to get by. If you're worried, maybe you were just worse at it."

As a concession to her kindness earlier--not that he knows it was kindness, Firo reminds himself, she could still want something--he only says it matter-of-factly, not disdainfully. She's probably not worried, he's relatively sure of that. Curious, maybe.

The barrier that he puts up is palpable, even to Rey. It doesn't come as a surprise, considering that Firo seems like the sort of child that would always be on his guard. Probably it's what kept him alive for so long in such terrible conditions.

"Are you fine, though? Really?" She arches a brow, studying the boy's withered state. He looks like he hadn't eaten in weeks prior to Rey taking him to that restaurant, and while she knows that he isn't going to starve to death out here, she is still left with some concerns and questions. "No one is ever 'fine' with living a miserable life."

In a way, Rey admits her own faults as well. Her life had been nothing but misery, and that was the whole idea. To be as unhappy as something like her could possibly be. And she isn't fine with it at all, never has been. She's just become numbed to it, not much unlike this version of Firo has.

And that's why she feels for the boy. Not out of pity, but of understanding. They may have lived through different sorts of tragedies, but pain can be pretty universal.

She just doesn't quit. Firo's not sure if this should make him feel frantic and threatened or what; she doesn't sound like she's trying to taunt him. But then what is she doing?

Nobody tries for other people. Mr. Gandor was good to him while he was still alive, but that was an exception to the only rule that criminals and 'good people' alike abide by: minding your own damn business and looking out for yourself.

"So what? It doesn't matter if I'm fine with it or not. It's how things are." And it's not going to change any time soon. Firo's pretty sure there's only one way this can change for him.

He isn't wrong. Not completely. Sometimes, you can't control the way things go. Good people get dealt a shitty hand while the wicked reap the rewards. It's how it's always been, and something that Rey has accepted for herself.

But she's wanted things to be different for others, and Firo always seemed like a decent enough person to have deserved something nice. The kid standing before her may have been a snot-nosed thieving brat at first, but he's no different from those who've just been handed a series of unfortunate cards in life.

Perhaps that is why she's here. Why she cares enough to be here. Hell if she knows for certain.

"It does matter, though. And things won't always be like this for you." She knows this because she's seen it. The same Firo she knows now isn't anything like this kid. Whatever will happen to him along the way, she can only imagine. But it must be something good.

Those aren't words he's heard before--at least, not in that fashion. He's been told plenty of times that things will only get worse or that he's doomed to go down a dark road, but that doesn't seem to be what she's saying.

He hesitates. Then he rolls his eyes. "You don't know that."

Ridiculous. She's not going to make him feel better by lying to him.

Despite his skepticisms, Rey isn't deterred.

"Yes, I do," she says, her expression softening. "I also know that you're a good person, and you're going to smile a lot more someday."

This much Rey can say without any doubt. Firo may be on his own now, but this 'family' he's told her about sure did seem to make him happy. He just hasn't met them yet, that's all.

Oh, god, so she's crazy. That's the most logical explanation.

Firo, becoming impatient with these bizarre insistences, shakes his head and sighs. "How can you know that?"

Crazy? Sure, she may be crazy. Which could also explain the next words that come out of her mouth...

"Because, I come from the future."

Like that's going to make her sound any saner.

Should he have seen that coming? Because he didn't.

He sighs heavily and feigns wooden laughter. Yep, either she's mocking him or she really is off her rocker. "Ha ha. Do you think you're a comedian or do you just belong in the loony bin?"

It's a shame, not that he's going to admit it. He'd kind of hoped it was true.

Well, she was technically insane for a few years... But even Rey has enough tact not to blurt that to the kid.

"It's true. You can choose not to believe me, but then you'd still be wrong."

Yes that is a sound argument right there.

He pouts and shakes his head. "You can't gimme any proof, so maybe you're wrong. I'll just look like a chump if I believe you, unless you tell me somethin' you couldn't know any other way."

"Yes, like what?" Her face then scrunches. "And if you ask who will win the World Series, I'm going to twist your arm."

Because Firo totally looks like the type of kid who's crazy about baseball. Right.

He gives her a flat look. "Everybody knows it's gonna be the Yankees anyway."

Maybe he does like baseball a bit, even if it's hard to follow it without access to a radio. So what?

"Tell me about me. How would you know me?"

That seems a bit more logical to him. For all he knows, she could've fixed the World Series. It'd be harder to just make up stuff about another person when they're so hard to understand.

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