OF WISPS AND WHISPERS

ORION - In Nightmares

Those who lived in Orion, those who visited, those who had the unfortunate luck to sleep there this night, would find themselves gripped by nightmares. These were not just any nightmares: but a shared dream, its details similar, even identical, between those who suffered it...

You awaken from your sleep to a strange fog that fills Orion. It feels unnaturally cold, muffling sound and leaving it feeling dull and lifeless. For a time there is utter silence, and you find yourself alone. No one else is here.

You wander, alone and afraid, for hours. Yet at last you hear a noise in the distance--a quiet cracking and clacking, like stones breaking one by one and slowly falling away. It is soft, and far, but you follow for what feels like hours, years, lifetimes.

At last you come to the base of the Cliffs. Here, the ruined buildings of an ancient city still stand, and you pick your way among the dust, trying to pointpoint the sound. Yet soon you realize that it is echoing--the noise all around you, from everywhere, from nowhere.

It is still cold. It is still lifeless. You are still alone.

As you search, the sound abruptly stops. You are left there, alone. Still alone. Yet it feels as though you are being watched, and the darkness seems to be closing in. It grows colder, and you can see your own breath.

You move to leave, yet find yourself unable: you are lost, lost in the maze of tangled buildings and ruins. Every turn seems to only bring you further in.

Finally you see it: a black shape, still and silent in the distance. You don't know how you know, but you know it is watching you. You call out to it. It does not answer. It begins to move toward you. You flee, or perhaps you fight: yet the thing is nowhere to be found, always behind, always around, untouchable and intangible, yet you know it is your end.

As you turn a final corner--in pursuit or fleeing--you find it standing there, towering, inches from you--and as it lunges

Your character awakens.

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

The King Cheetah dreamed.

He had been spending most of his time in Orion. It was beautiful, and fitting. King Envy ruled there, and the rest of the Sins tended to spend most of their time there, as well. He hadn't spoken much with the others, preferring to spend time by himself, learning.

And he was growing, three cycles old at this point. Muscles rippled beneath his hide, and he was beginning to become a respectable, handsome cat.

Currently, he was fast asleep, but not peacefully. Anyone who found the drowzing cat would see that his sleep was fitful, ears twitching, eyelids fluttering, legs twitching. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and croaks of pieces of words spilled from his throat.

When he jerked awake, electricity leaped from his pelt. He scrambled to his paws, head snapping this way and that, jaw gaping as he panted for breath. Alarm ran down his spine, a prickle of fear alarming him.

"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

Reseda picked her way through the ruined city, not much on her mind. The Sinful Seven, perhaps, or thinking about what a city like this could have been like, once. Was there a ruler? A king, just like Envy? Or a proper queen, a powerful queen, just like she would become? She imagined herself, sitting atop the throne, towering above a glimmering city and she nodded to herself. Yes, that would be good.

But then she saw the thing in the distance and she focused her attention on it. This was a dream, right? Why was there a Thing in her dreams. There were never any Things in her dreams. She did not need the stupidity of the other cave dwellers following her into her sleep. She made her way towards the thing and she...she felt something.

It was so sudden and so unnatural that she stopped in her tracks. And the Thing lunged and the feeling climaxed and she snapped awake in her nest. She didn't move from where she was, feeling the feeling die away quicker then it had come. She had felt something...but what it was, what was it? She tried to go through a list of emotions that she had observed in her studies. The feeling had come with the need to run, to get away and never see it again. To save herself. Then it had to be fear. She had been afraid.

She stood and began to make her way out of her nest and down the Throne. She would go to where she had seen the Thing. It had to be real, especially if it made her fear. Especially since it had made her feel anything at all.

She approached the place where her dream had ended and stood, swinging her head around to find whatever creature was there. She thought that maybe she could attract its attention by using magic, but she really didn't feel like putting in the effort. She cleared her throat, in case something was nearby, and then simply waited.

Zevruu lay, dreaming, in Orion, as he did every night.

But this time it was different. Rather than a simple dream - if he dreamt at all - this one was strange. He was alone, all alone. And...the Cliffs. He knows where those are. Is something there? Someone? Or was he still all alone, all alone?

No. Something is here. But where? Eyes narrowed, he moves his head wildly trying to find it. But there's nothing. Just all-encompassing sound.

And then it's gone. But whoever it is, it's still here. He can feel it watching him. He tries to leave with minimal success. Until he comes face to face with it. It lunges...and he awakens.

Breaths coming out in short pants, he looks around. What...what was that? He looks over toward the Cliffs. Would it be there? Has it been there previously, and he's just never noticed? Slowly, he gets up and walks over towards it, sniffing the area. Movement caught his eye, and he saw something. Another creature. A gembound, perhaps? Surely not the thing he saw in his dream, so he pays it little attention.

"Speech" l 'Thoughts'

The dragon did not often dream, and when it did, it was normally of gliding low over fields and forests and setting guttering fire to herds of beasts; or to circling high into the sky, a moon or sun unknown to him lighting him with a silver glow, or warming his hide.

He certainly did not often have nightmares, and when he did he most definitely wasn't unable to simply fly away--most times. But that was, this time, the case. Dread was asleep, curled over the top of the Tower of Orion where he'd been trying to scrape out quartz crystals for his collection. There was already a scattering of stones about its top. When he dreamed, he twitched, and let out a few curls of smoke, a soft grunt that might have been fear; in his nightmares he was twisting through the ruins below, too large to turn back, the shadows closing in. It had been too narrow for him to lift his wings and take flight, and he found himself roaring in fear as the thing came for him--a roar that echoed, sharp and screeching, as the dragon awoke.

Ember eyes blinked, the third eyelid retracting as he came fully to and looked around, head peering for his enemy. No-... it was a dream. Not real, he decided, at length. For a time he merely lay there, but eventually he decided to go fly over--and if he saw anything, he would incinerate it. From above. While flying.

As it turned out, a big lizard was already there (a dragon without wings?)--and a small thing, a cat, he thought. Dread's wingbeats carried him with soft, bass thumps as he slid down to land some distance away, his body heavily lurching forward as the forelimbs caught his weight, his body horizontal over the ground.

He took a few shuffling steps toward the pair, calling out in a bellowing voice, though it did not sound urgent.

"WHAT IS IN THERE?" he at first demanded, though he did not sound aggressive so much as socially inept--almost childlike. Certainly any polite gembound would have introduced themselves first, at the very least.

It seemed natural, to Dread, that gembound who were here must live here, must be familiar with these battered clusters of ruins, with the deep shadows that pooled between them, and with whatever must lay within. "THIS PLACE WAS IN MY DREAM," he added.

Without, of course, admitting that it had been a nightmare.

Alone among the ruins- walking, walking. No mice to play with, no gembound to watch, the perfect silence broken only by a clattering in the distance. How long had she been wandering here? How long had it been since she had eaten? Days? Years? Hunger did not gnaw at her stomach and the soft gnaw of boredom was rather week for as long as it felt like she had been walking amid an empty room. Still it was just enough to push the fox to investigate the noise just out of eyes reach.

More time passed, with still no life to be seen. Still she walked, still she sought the noise. How far away could it be? How big was this room? How had the call of sleep not taken her yet? The answer lay ahead within the clattering. Surely there she would see.

Silence falls upon the eternal traveler, and with it the feeling of eyes. <mrt>Not just any eyes, Miru imagined as she closed her own- the sightless cats eye chrysoberyl in her forehead keeping steady gaze- <mrt>Eyes of mirth, eyes that have seen much, but eyes which carry with them a weight too heavy for me to bear

The impression felt off though, there was more that she couldn't see. It became clear though as the owner of the unseen eyes made itself known. Towering and dark, imposing. If there was joy in that face it was surely only in the pursuit of harm. If there was expertise it was not in anything the poor fox cared to be a part of. As for the burden...

Miru ducked low and bolted, feeling in those eyes a specter of death. The burden she could not bear, the loss of her existence. It drew near it was unavoidable it was...

Everything disappeared without warning- the buildings the figure, the gaze of death. In its place was a wall of yellow stone and an world without air. This was... her shell? Had she died and gone back to her first moments of life? No, her limbs were strong, her body grown, and bit by bit her groggy mind was coming to. She hadn't been wandering for cycles, she had gone to sleep. Had her sleep been so deep as to progress into full hibernation?

There had been noise outside, she was not alone. A paw pushed forward, easily breaking the seal of the stone that had formed around her. Even if she knew that to be a dream Miru was more than ready to get out and see faces that weren't out to kill her.

With a couth and sputter she fell forward, landing upon four paws as one might hope to expect from a newly-reemerged gembound. Not a word said, simply a shift in placement to try to see what was making the noise outside.

---

Though my thoughts are my own
"This is my greatest tool to hone"
Notes: RW3C10P10W

we burn the brightest

in the dark

Aries awoke to cold fear gripping his spine. The ram looked around in the darkness, his ears swiveled, trying pick up the slightest sound. He wasn't sure if he was still dreaming or not. The nightmare had felt frightfully real, too real. Eventually, Aries settled down. Pippy's death had been weighing heavily on his mind, to make matters worse, Valeria had still not returned. He was beginning to worry, she had never been gone this long. He would never forgive himself if something horrible happened to her, and he still hadn't forgiven himself for losing Pippy. His mind was stressed. He wasn't surprised he had a nightmare, but this nightmare, something was off about it.

Aries got up from his bed of moss and limped passed the over hanging rock formations and battered sparring bolder he and Kin-Kin trained with all those cycles ago. The ram stood on the edge of the Cliffs overlooking Orion. In the dream, he was at the bottom, exploring the ruins below, lost and afraid, then something black attacked him, and he fled. He fled like a spineless, milquetoast coward, but, he was so afraid, and even awake, Aries could still feel this thing watch him from the shadows.

His golden eyes flickered in the dark as they cut to the rocky trail that led below. He did not want to go down there, but felt something from the dream pull him towards the Cliffs' base. Aries gritted his teeth and huffed. The curiosity was killing him. He had to go down and see for himself. He had to face whatever was down there. Aries started down the rocky trail. With his lame leg, it was a daunting and painful task, some might say foolish for a crippled quadruped, but he had to go. He felt compelled to face the fear.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

OF WISPS AND WHISPERS

ORION - In Nightmares

The ruins looked somehow darker than normal, as if something were blocking the dim light glowing from the weakened orbs. Voices, too, seemed unnaturally muted--muffled, not carrying as they should.

It would be difficult to hear or see those more than a dozen or so yards away, within those ruins.

A voice came from within, distorted and surreal. It echoed throughout the ruins, their shattered walls shrouding the true direction of its source.

D̸̳̼͐̍ͩ̌͊̽̃͘O̞̹̽̓ͬ͐͛̊͛͟N͂ͫ̾ͨͬ̆̐̒ͯ͢͏̟̹͎̩̭͇'̷͙̫̱͓̙̹͉̎ͥͫ͒̉̓͆͟Ț̖̈́ͭ̍͢ ̙̼̣̳͍̝̖͉̒̒̆̃L̳̮̻ͭ̾ͭ̈́̈́̅ͤ̚͘E̱̦̘̼̥̘̙̖͙͊̔́T̢̘̭̻͙̙̐̄̆ͮ̋̓̑̎͌͝ ̵̴̞̘͓͉͈̞̏̄ͭͣ̀ͧ̂̓T̷̯̅̎ͥ̇́̄͐̕Ḩ̟̪͐ͬẸ̏̎ͭ̑ͤͫͅM̷̹͍̻̠͖̪͙ͪ̒ ̭̫̪̜̬̱͐̃͋͛ͩ̊T͍̙̼̱̠ͧ̐̍̑͐ͭͨ͒Ȧ͓̥̤ͧͅḴ̸̟̹͈̗͐ͣ̈̀͡Ę̳̯͔̻̦̮̀̔͒̍̇ͬ̅͜ ̨̮̰̮̜̺̉̋ͮ̐ͮ͢͢ͅM͓̹̣̖͚̱̫ͣ̊͊ͥ̿ͩͭͅE̦͉̖̣̞̍ͨ͛̅ͯ̔̚!

Something brushed over Zevruu's fur. Something not visible; something soft and cool. A jumbled, distant whisper seemed to brush by his ear, and then it was gone.

@Reign @Greed @Zevruu @Dread @Miru @Aries

There were other creatures joining Reseda at where the nightmare had happened and, for once, she observed their arrivals with interest. The dragon had proclaimed to see this place in his dreams...did the others as well? "Have we all had the same dream?" She asked both to herself and to others, her voice burning with curiosity. Well, now, she had to know what this was and no matter how much fear this thing tried to make her feel, she would not stop until it was discovered.

The whispering voice came from the ruined city and Reseda turned that way without hesitation. But before she started moving, she made her intentions clear in her mind - to go and investigate, to explore the ruins until she found the voice's source - and she mixed it up with her magic in her mind. It spread through her body as she felt her consciousness waver and darken, as if she was pulling herself from her body. She thrust her magic forward, willing it to break the barriers of time and see what lay in their future.

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

Shaking himself, the Cheetah attempted to dispel the static from his pelt. He could hear voices, and so began to follow them, eventually finding many he knew, at the place that his dream had ended. Greed - Reseda, was there. As was a cat he didn't know. A massive lizard. A fox. A sheep.

He eyed the ruins, which looked darker. His ears twitched, straining to pick out voices. But he couldn't tell what they were saying, until, suddenly, he could hear what they were saying.

Greed asked a question, and Reign spoke up. "I believe we have."

The shadows seemed to close around him, and the King Cheetah shivered. His magic lashed out, shocking any that were too close.

"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