[EVENT] In Nightmares - Printable Version

From the day we arrive on this planetAnd blinking, step into the sun

And so their Pride, their Pack, their Herd - whatever a group of Gembounds as strange as theirs could be called, wandered into the ruins. The cheetah kept to the lead, ears twitching between Dread and the others behind him. As he walked, he made sure to check back over his shoulder, to make certain that everyone was still there. The ram with the gimp leg, the little red fox, the massive dragon, the serval.

When they arrived before the pool of shadows, the Cheetah strode forward to stand beside Aries. His proud posture came to him as naturally as breathing - shoulders back, head high. Sparks danced along his fur, providing the slightest bit of light to make him stand out against the shadows.

"Whoever you are, come out. If you need help, we are here to grant it. If you seek to harm anyone, we are here to stop you."

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

There's more to see than can ever be seenMore to do than can ever be done

IN NIGHTMARES

YOU'VE ENCOUNTERED: THE DREAMSTALKER

THE DREAMSTALKER

100 / 100 HP 100%

It seemed to grow sharply cold, the Gembound nearing the shadows able to see their breath on the air. The darkness remained still, for a beat--and it was clear whatever was within, was for some reason facing away. Whispers filled the ears of those present, incoherent but intense.

As Aries stepped forth the shadows seemed to turn, swarming, to face him, and then to pause. Perhaps the being had not expected those behind him, too. The coalescing darkness abruptly moved toward the ram, in a strange, swift glide--only to stop as fire streamed down. The dragon's flame--thin as it was--seemed to briefly disperse the shadows, enough for the creature within to be seen.

It was eight feet tall, almost like a centaur in shape--hooved and quadrupedal--and dark in color. A strange, simple mask adorned its face, with an eerie smile. Two arms, each tipped with three wicked black claws, raised in self-defense as the strange mask tilted at an impossible angle to face Dread above.

Those to the sides can now see the tentacles writhing behind the mask.

A single urgent whisper, in a different voice, cuts through the rest.

R̨̻ͧ̉̄͘ͅU̒̄̏̉͠͏̰̗͈̣N̲ͥ͒͐͋͞

Aries

100/100

Dread

100/100

Greed

100/100

Miru

100/100

Reign

100/100

Zevruu

100/100

From the day we arrive on this planetAnd blinking, step into the sun

With every breath, Reign could see the air in front of him fill with ice-crystals. The shadows, it seemed, were sentient, as they whirled to face him and Aries as they approached.

But Dread's flames cleared away the shadows long enough that they could see what was inside. It was centaur-like, quadrupedal but with a head atop a rising torso. His mantle stood on end at the sight of its mask, and tentacles, and claws. This was not natural.

"Miru, Zevruu," he called to the two, without looking away from the monster, "Stay behind me." With that, his gem-crown glowed, and he spat a static-charged hairball at the monster.

@Aries @Miru @Zevruu @Dread

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

There's more to see than can ever be seenMore to do than can ever be done

Though the large cat warned her to stay back Miru could not comply. Eyes of the thinker and crown of ancient life, no doubt overly cautious in nature. The small fox was weak compared to the others, yes, but both retreat and sloth would likely lead to death. Despite the danger swarming as one was the only path she could see. She just had to figure out what it was she might be able to do.

If only her magic were as powerful as that held by the others she might have been able to help fend off the foe. Was light all she could contribute? Once more Miru reached deep within, but this time the magic responded very oddly. Like a bulb with broken glass it refused to illuminate her coat as it had before, but the filament was still hot. Through the crisis that dampened magic flared up and began to manifest in new ways. Her paws, her ears, her tail, they all began to glow with a radiant heat. Painful, uncomfortable, but even with this new spell the fox instinctually knew the discomfort would be nothing compared to damage they could do when wielded properly.

"Never again!" she echoed Aries as the regal cat's spell flew. With small form and low stance Miru bolted right behind the electrical ball of light. With featherweight frame and powerful legs she kicked herself high into the air to try to pounce the figure with paws and tail extended like torches.

Headlong into the phantasm of darkness. she thought as she trailed right behind the launched spell right on track to impact in time with the great ram. An ear-splitting vulpine scream roared out from her throat as her target and possible demise inched closer with each fragment of a second. Even if it may mean my death, this is how I am meant to live.

Though my thoughts are my own
"This is my greatest tool to hone"
Tags:

IN NIGHTMARES

Reseda's mind reached out. To her, all else would slow, cold, as if taking place in another world. The colors of this one would seem to fade, empty. It was as if nothing here mattered. It was transient. Dead. Those near her were but brief sparks, meaningless and with no place in the long and empty dark. Garbled speech flooded her consciousness, a nonstop, maddening rant that seemed as loud to her mind as thunder to the ears--and with it, sensations. Hunger, intense and savage enough to drive all else from the mind. Cunning sadism, as if the pain and fear of those around appeased that starvation. Twined into it all, wrapped in sinuous mind-tendrils of slick black, was a sensation of otherness--this creature was wholly unnatural. Or was it Reseda who was unnatural..? Perhaps this darkness, this depth of nothing, was what was true. These sensations are incredibly intense, even overwhelming.

"THE LUMBERING ANIMATA CORPORA HAD NO NAME AND HAD NOT BEEN DISCOVERED AS IT WAS NOT THAT OF A GOD CHISELLED BY THE FACT OF THEIR OWN FOOD FROM THE STARS SHONE WANLY HAD I HEARD HIM TELLING ME I CANNOT DO BETTER THAN QUOTE THE TEXT CUT MALUS PUTRID NIE DEAD WAS DARKLY MYSTERIOUS RATHER THAN GIVE IT IN THE DARK SHIP FROM COLD AND TWILIGHT SUSCITAT MORTUOS WHO ARE THE NAMELESS LARVAE OF THE GREAT ONES THEMSELVES ARE NOT UNREPRESENTED AND THE REVERSUS AB VIRA WERE NOT THERE IT WAS A GREAT BLACK STONE A DECIPHERING WHICH MIGHT POSSESS THE MOST DISTURBING OF ALL THIS WHILE THE DARK SHIP STEERED FOR TATTERED FOR SOLUM OCULI AND THE OTHER GODS AND THE COLD WASTE AND VULTUS COMEDAT CEREBELLA VIVENTIUM AND IT WAS NOT MUCH TO MY SECONDARY PURPOSE IN ADDRESSING YOU NAMELY TO URGE YOU TO SEEK THAT ANTEDILUVIAN DUSK-CITY WHICH IS YOURS NO POWER OR HABITATION ELSEWHERE--"

As her mind wallows in this--and perhaps breaks free, should she will it--it will be difficult to focus once more on reality, the colors only gradually seeming to return. Reseda may find that in the future, these feelings return to her, unbidden: hopelessness. Despair. Hunger. Yet somehow, her cold nature will provide safe harbor to the sensations of cold otherness, which may affect her personality or sanity over time, depending on how strongly she dwells upon it.

__________

ENGAGED: THE DREAMSTALKER

As the dragon inhaled his breath, Aries charged. His bulk hurtled horns-first into the strange figure, his thick skull crashing into the equine-looking body with a squelch, with a strange lack of resistance. It was as if the thing had no bones--and Aries felt something break within it, something wet and fragile that gave and popped at his impact.

Miru's paws struck next, and wherever they touched, the flesh seemed to give--the smoldering odor horrifically strong.

Zevruu would find that the flesh, too, was strangely wet and easy to tear--as if long-rotted, coming apart in his claws and in his teeth. The taste in his maw was unfathomably horrific--not unlike long-putrefied carrion left to rot in its own fluids.

It was then that the flame billowed down from above, engulfing the Dreamstalker almost wholly, bathing it in orange fire. The smoke billowed up black and thick, the rancid odor stronger now, burning hair and flesh and bone as the now-flaming thing flailed backward.

The Dreamstalker screeched at the combined assault, stumbling, the sound an ear-splitting echoing sound that assaulted the minds of all present--possibly Reseda doubly so, if her mind-link remained open at this point. Sensations of churning darkness, visions of unfathomable horror--beings consuming one another alive in a boiling black abyss--terror and hatred and fear. These filled the minds of its attackers, screaming and destructive. In self-defense, it swiped its talons at those before it--at the savage little fox that was charring its flesh with burning paws, at the ram with its massive horns, and at the brave, or foolish, spotted little cat that was tearing at it. The talons were long--sharp and thick and murderous. They were killing claws, and no mistake.

THE DREAMSTALKER

48 / 100 HP

Aries

100/100

Dread

100/100

Greed

90/100

Miru

100/100

Reign

100/100

Zevruu

100/100