revenance_rpg | In My Head, It's Like Hell

Entry tags:

character: princess luna

In My Head, It's Like Hell

Characters: Luna and whoever
Content: Luna attends to the latest wave of nightmares. Not the kind with teeth and claws.
Location: The dreamscape / Traverse Town
Time: Night, naturally
Warnings: Depends on the dreams, I imagine

Everyone has different reactions to the recurring dreams. Some don't sleep. Some stay close to their friends for comfort. This time, with these nightmares, Luna almost completely disappears from waking society.

They've been escalating over time, she's noticed; what began as common enough dreams of chasing something out of reach (even if the keyholes were entirely unnatural) have now become depictions of outright conflict. Even though not everyone around here keeps the same sleeping schedule, or even stays in the same world, there is always enough work to go around. She's already spent the better part of several days in her room, leaving her bed only to find food from time to time. Traveling in others' dreams is work, not rest, and if she doesn't get sleep of her own, even she will eventually wind down.

...this is, of course, not to say that she's actually been getting the appropriate amount of rest. She isn't safe from nightmares herself, and she's gone through plenty of conflicts in her long life.

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[Celestia is getting no great amount of sleep either, because she has taken it on herself to greet her sister's return from these dream jaunts with a soothing drink and what comfort her presence could offer.]

[But this go-around has finally pushed her to a place she had been hesitant to tread till now. After passing over the mug, the elder alicorn drops to her knees next to Luna to give her a heartfelt look of concern.]

Sister... let me help you. You cannot keep shouldering the burden of these unnatural dreams alone.

[Luna's eyes had slipped gratefully shut as she took a deep sip of the coffee, but they snap open at that statement. It isn't so much that Celestia wants to start doing Luna's job as well...okay, maybe it is a little. But her first thought is that she does not want her sister inside her dreams of late.]

We art managing perfectly well.

[Celestia folds her forelegs, giving her sister a firm, if loving, look. Is she really gonna stick to that line, when they both know better?]

[So it's a staredown you want, sister? A staredown it shall be!

...for approximately a minute. Her eyes are tired, okay? Luna sighs, rubbing at them.]

When was the last time you practiced dream magic? [Her understanding had been that it simply hadn't been done while she was gone. And small wonder - between ruling a kingdom and raising both celestial bodies alone, her sister needed to sleep sometime.]

I have done some small-scale dabbling here and there. Mostly with daydreams.

[Luna is pretty much correct, although add to that a significant amount of simply not being able to bring herself to take on a role not physically necessary to the survival of Equestria, when it would serve as another painful reminder of her sister's absence.]

I don't pretend for a second I will have a tenth of your skill, but if you continue at this pace, you won't have a tenth of your skill.

[Siiiiiiiiigh]

Very well. Perhaps we may begin in Ventus's dreams; the shields I erected for him several months ago appear to have held up well against this most recent assault.

[Celestia visibly relaxes, most obvious in her wings the way the feathers shift and how they seem to decrease in size significantly.]

If he consents, then you both know I will be as gentle and careful as if he were my own foal.

Very well.

[oh stars she's gonna have to restrain herself mightily from hovering around that]

[No, by all means, please hover! It will reassure Luna and Ventus both to have her keep a close watch.]

[Thus, Celestia nods.] Very well. When we see him next, we shall ask him.

Like everyone else present, Sora had some conflicts in his life. From small things like quarrels with friends over the rules of a game to larger issues such as the events of the past two years, he'd seen more than any fifteen-year-old should. These things didn't normally trouble his dreams but this latest round of nightmares had stirred up a lot of things he would have preferred to leave alone.

On this particular evening, it brought up one of the worst things: his battle with Riku in front of Hollow Bastion's Keyhole, hidden as it was though a seal that resembled a giant Heartless emblem. There was something a bit off about Riku himself, aside from the strange, organic looking armor he was wearing and the fact that he was attacking Sora. As was sometimes typical of nightmares showing memories the situation was going worse than it had in real life and proceeded to get even worse when the other Keyhole, the one frequenting everyone's dreams lately, appeared.

Luna paused over that particular dream. In truth, her usual methods don't work with the recurring nightmares - in Equestria, she would try to help a pony work past that particular fear, but here the dream would return no matter what one's mental state. In many cases, when she thought they were due to interference rather than active worries or trauma, she simply dismissed the nightmare, set up a nice dream to distract from the ever-present Keyhole, and moved on.

But she remembered Riku. The two had been close friends, and yet this was detailed enough to be a memory. The alicorn didn't quite manifest herself yet; instead, she tugged at the nightmare Riku, slowing and hindering him. Perhaps Sora would feel better for winning on his own?

This was a fight Sora had won on his own then, difficult as it had been. In this dream/memory, he usually lost, the tendency of the nightmare being to show him a what-if scenario. However, sometimes he won, but it was nothing like what had really happened. Normally, if he won in the nightmare, he ended up killing Riku without ever realizing that Riku had actually been possessed.

Luna's interference drove the memory/dream to the same conclusion as when the event had actually occurred, with Riku beaten and retreating, leaving behind a strange Keyblade. Sora stared at it for a moment, trying to puzzle out why he was suddenly lucid. Not that he minded lucid dreams. They could be an awful lot of fun sometimes, but this had segued in from something that was decidedly not fun. He looked around, noting the Keyhole outside of the seal.

Well that said a lot. Then the shift was caused by...

"Luna?"

"Sora."

Luna didn't step forward so much as just appear, standing just behind Sora and looking past him at the Keyhole as well. There was hardly any point in pretending she hadn't done what she had just done. She looked, perhaps, a little tired, but it was early enough in this dream-outbreak that she hadn't yet come close to exhausting herself. "My apologies. I can never seem to manage those keyholes properly."

Sora didn't object to the help. And really, the Keyhole in the shared nightmares didn't seem to be anything that could be dealt with other than by finding the real Keyhole. "It's okay. It kind of looks like the only thing we can do about it is find the real one."

It did worry him a little that she seemed a bit tired. If she was going to be covering everyone's dreams, this could be a bit problematic. Especially is she was having Nightmares of her own. And he sucked at hiding his concern, but he might also be easily derailed from mentioning it if she asked after the content of his nightmare...

"Yes, well." Luna pawed disconsolately at the ground. "I hope 'tis soon. These nightmares have been much worse than the others." Whether she meant her own or simply other people's remained unstated.

Turning, she glanced over the rest of the dream. "Thou dost not have to answer if thou dost not wish, but...this appears to be based on a memory."

Sora wouldn't have been surprised if Luna was including her own nightmares in that statement.

Her observation that this one was based on a memory was met with a sigh. He felt he could answer this, though. "It is. Riku... wasn't himself in that battle. More trouble stirred up by Xehanort..."

Luna sighed, briefly rubbing at her eyes with a wingtip. "Are there any problems in thy world that are not caused by Xehanort?" Honestly, how no one had killed him by now was beyond her; didn't they have any powerful rulers to protect them from such things?

"There are some issues he hasn't caused, but he tends to get involved in them anyway and make them worse, usually because it helps his plans somehow." It was actually mildly amusing that Sora didn't have to specify that Xehanort was responsible for the memory turned nightmare. He's pretty sure he doesn't want to tell her that Xehanort's plans also involve time travel, though. At least not until this round of nightmares is over and people are sleeping better.

"Marvelous."

Luna was going to seal him in stone so hard if she ever met him. Well, and got him into his own body, of course. Speaking of... "The Riku I hath met looked...older, than that one," she ventured, glancing over to where the other had vanished away. "Didst thou cleanse him, then?"

"Yeah. But I think his situation might have been a bit different from the others somehow." Sora thinks on it a moment. It wasn't as simple as it had looked on the surface. "It was only Xehanort's Heartless that had gone after him. And I'm not sure how it worked exactly, but what purged Xehanort's darkness from him completely was a machine that was supposed to... encode a fake Kingdom Hearts into data, but it had overloaded and blew up instead."

And killed Ansem the Wise, as far as Sora knew, but Luna seemed frustrated enough with everything she'd heard so far about Xehanort so he kept that to himself.

...wow, absolutely none of that made any sense! Luna arched an eyebrow, before finally latching onto the one part of that that seemed as if it could be explained in any reasonable amount of time. "Heartless?"

To be honest, Sora wasn't sure about some of the finer details himself. He scratches the back of his head sheepishly when he realizes how little sense it made. He's not sure if it's the way he explained it or the details themselves, but he knows it's partly his fault it's a little convoluted. Anyone else from the set of worlds he knows would be better at explaining it, mostly, though he can at least explain the Heartless. He supposed he could leave out the Emblems versus Purebloods business for now...

"Heartless are the darkness out of people's hearts, given form. There's a couple ways someone can lose their heart, but there's always a Heartless when they do. They're mostly hostile, though there's a few that won't really bother anyone or even want to play games. Other than, they seek after other hearts, though they can sometimes be controlled. But anyone that can control them is usually pretty bad..."

Usually. Although the only exception he knew of was Riku and that had only been briefly anyway.

"...I see."

Darkness in the heart - that wasn't a sore spot with Luna, oh no. Her shadow writhed slightly on the ground, starting to grow and darken, until the alicorn stamped a hind hoof down on it with an angry snort and a flare of blue from her horn. Sun and moon, how long had it been since she'd let a nightmare of her own follow her into someone else's dreamscape? It must have just been a fluke, drawn up by the conversation... "Unfortunately, I do not think we can recreate an exploding machine for the others anyhow, 'twould hardly be safe. 'Tis good to see it has been done, though."

Sora could be dense sometimes, but he didn't miss the shadow and Luna's response to it. Clearly she had her own story to tell regarding darkness. But it was her choice if she wanted to. "Yeah, I don't think that's really a good idea either. I don't know what we can do for the others for getting rid of Xehanort's darkness altogether, but we might at least be able to put them back in control of themselves."

After all, Riku had done so, with Mickey's help. It should be possible for the others too, right?

Yes, this was not going well. She thought she'd extinguished all her own nightmares before going out! Was it going to keep on like this?

"That would be enough, I think. Perhaps, having joined with him, they may have some insight on the matter." Luna glanced about, spreading her wings. "Now, I think thy dream shall be well for the rest of the night. I apologize, but there are a few others I must see to." This wasn't at all because she was fleeing her own issues. Nope.

Of all the people around Ven may be having the best luck with his own dreams. It helps that what he dreams about the most - Xehanort removing his heart and his final battle with Vanitas - were things that he actually overcame on his own, in his last moments, that he accepted and made part of him. It also helps that the third-most frequent image in his dreams, namely Eraqus trying to kill him, is something that the two of them have been working to repair in the waking hours. While Ven's sleep has been broken up and somewhat restless, he's not having outright nightmares, and has been able to get through them by himself. The mental "dream shields" Luna erected for him months ago are still holding.

He's noticed, though, that the same couldn't be said for Luna. By now everyone knows that if one person has those disturbing dreams, likely everyone does, and having had Luna in his head to place some blocks he knows what she's been doing most likely all the time now. He's barely seen her since this new rash of dreams began, and that's just not like Luna. If anything she can be a little too nosy. So, one day, he'll knock on her door with a bowl in hand full of lettuce and grapes. "Luna? Can I come in?"

There's a bit of shuffling around inside, probably the sound of a bed being put to order, before Luna calls out, "Of course, Ventus!"

Inside, the alicorn clearly looks like she hasn't actually left her bedroom much recently. She's still lying on her bed, wings splayed out over either side (it clearly wasn't built for alicorns), but sitting up with her attention on the door. She knows for certain Ventus's sleep has been, if not untroubled, then certainly as good as can be expected, so she isn't sure what he could want. There's a few stray puffs of cloud floating around the edges of the room; judging by the dozing blue-and-gray head poking out of one, Noctis has clearly given up here.

Unlike a lot of teenage boys, Ven actually took pretty good care of his room at the castle - partially because Eraqus insisted on it, but also partially because he just wasn't the type to be really messy. Sometimes a few pieces of clothing would find themselves on the floor, but that would be it. So to see Luna's room more ...habitated than his is a weird feeling. It even smelled a little musty.

After a quick glance around, he walked over to the bed and set the bowl of sort-of-salad next to her, then went to the window to open it. "I was worried about you," he said truthfully. "I haven't seen you in awhile."

"Hast thou not?" Without standing, Luna flapped a wing in a quick, complex pattern, blowing some of the stray clouds out the window. "Oh, I suppose thou hast not. My apologies - I hath been busy with the nightmares of late." It was no use playing at anything else, everyone around knew by now precisely what she did when the recurring dreams flared up. Still, her apology was genuine; she hadn't meant to completely abandon her family. "Do forgive us."

Dreams had never been kind to Chell. Sleep remained sparse on her internal schedule, and always punctuated with terrors and rarely ever waking without a panicked jerk out of unwanted memory.

Up until now, however, the dreams hadn't been quite so pervasive with their mental barrage, and what little calm Chell had gathered since moving in with Rarity had evaporated under the stress. Shortly after it became clear that this issue wasn't going to stop, she'd strapped her boots back on, taken up the portal gun, and evacuated the boutique. Whether the threat was imagined or real, the thought of staying still for too long made Chell feel ill.

However she tried, though, she couldn't run from exhaustion, and it had begun to catch up with her. It became difficult to tell where her lurking in Traverse's alleys stopped and where her creeping through the rotted-white halls of memory began.

It was the keyhole that was the worst of it, though. It would show up just in time to fill her with a desperate, clinging hope, before red beams of light fell on her, or the walls pulled away to make room for a glaring yellow eye, or a mechanical claw would strike down to throw her down into darkness. Then she'd shake herself awake again, curse herself for standing still long enough to drift, and get back on the move.

Machines. Luna is growing to loathe dreams of machines. Moreover, she sincerely doubts the nameless woman would much appreciate knowing that she's been watching her subconscious. Lady Rarity has been terribly worried about her, though...

By now, she knows what to make of the eye and claws. It's inevitable that some AIs will be killers, just as some people are. Ears flattening, she reinforces a panel she feels is about to pull back, and strides forward - but what steps out into the bright white light is not an alicorn, but a familiar white unicorn. Hopefully this form will be a little more comforting, or at least less intrusive.

"Goodness," darling. Heaven knows I love white as much as the next pony, but this decor!" Secretly, Luna's a little surprised that her Rarity impression is so good. She moves to Chell's side, tsking up at the wall and completely ignoring any and all environmental hazards. "Come now, we simply must redecorate. I'm thinking perhaps a nice blue?"

The decision had, perhaps, been a wise one on Luna's part, but Chell's reaction still fell far from positive: her eyes went wide, posture stiff, as the light filled the hall, and a creaking, sick notion clawed at her gut as the image of Rarity emerged before her. The floor shuddered, and a sound hissed from between the cracks in the plaster-paneled walls.

'No.'

The voice was little more than a rasping whisper its, source indeterminate. The halls tremble with more murmuring, vague little unfinished words. Locked away from the waking world, her thoughts kept eternally churning, racing for the next idea, within the confines of her mind--her private space, what should have been safe from unwanted ears. In the dream, though, the facility had been invaded, not her thoughts, and the presence of another there brought on an altogether different sort of rage.

'You can't no get out'

She'd staggered away as the pony reached her side, reeling at the thought of someone here--someone innocent, someone undeserving, put into these halls with her. That wasn't fair, Rarity didn't deserve this, shouldn't have to endure. After the moment of shock settles, Chell's expression sinks to a terror-lined fury, bracing herself before Rarity's path, at once demanding and protective. She can't let her go forward here.

'Can't be here how hurry go'

Luna kept her calm demeanor up throughout. Though the way the woman's voice chose to emerge was unnerving, she'd seen and dealt with worse. The reaction actually encouraged her a little. Not in her invasion, but it was good to see her being so protective towards the image of one of Luna's little ponies. It seemed Rarity had made a good friend.

"Well, I'm certainly not going anywhere without you, dear," she replied, flicking her newly curled tail in what she hoped was a Rarity-like gesture as she looked around. What a miserable place, no wonder she was the way she was. Another panel shuddered, and she reinforced it. Normally she would like to face whatever monsters there were haunting her dreamer, but since she technically was pretending she wasn't here... "Where...exactly is the exit, then?"

Chell's head throbbed, and with it so did the hallway. It was true--if she couldn't get out, neither could Rarity.

'out i don't up? It's somewhere I'm trying please go'

Again the walls shuddered, and Chell lifted a hand to point, hesitantly, upwards. For an instant, a glaring yellow spotlight peered between the space between two panels, then winked out of sight.

'Through her'

Edited 2013-08-01 18:06 (UTC)

Life on Alternia itself would have been enough to bring to mind any of a number of violent scenarios. Sgrub has offered more, and while Nepeta's no stranger to unpleasant dreams, the added imagery doesn't help.

She dreams of green fire, and a terrible black demon on feathery wings. She dreams of fighting the Black King and the black queen. She dreams of the great and terrible fight that had taken into account and what had gone into making sure that they'd been able to survive the psychic screams the Black King had inherited from Feferi's lusus. And just when it appears all hope is lost, the keyhole appears to her in the form of the ultimate reward.

Of course, that would be nothing out of the ordinary. It had happened, after all. The green fire that seeks to consume the world and everyone she holds dear (Equius and Karkat burning and she can do nothing to stop it) is new and if she could only stop it then maybe they'd be able to reach the reward (the keyhole?) but the Miles are coming and even she can't avoid those as much as she might like to.

Luna has absolutely no idea what any of this is.

Understandable, she supposes. There is only one troll here, and she must admit she does not know the filly well at all. There are a great many different conflicts blending in this nightmare, for one so young. The alicorn waits, inspecting them all, before finally choosing to reach out her magic and bring the flames forth, her magic turning them a mingled blue and green. Shortly thereafter, a roll of thunder echoes from above as stormclouds quickly gather. Fire is simple enough to put out - and when that is done, they can speak. This one might need some extra attention on a regular basis, if her dreams are going to be like that.

Not all Nepeta's dreams are nightmares, fortunately. However, as befitting a culture of violence, those that are are all the worse for it. Blood and death are commonplace, and she has ever been inclined to being fond of people although she has her limits on that.

It's the changing color of the fire that catches her attention. The demon's fire has always been vividly green and her first thought to seeing them turn to blue as well is to think that somehow Equius' blood has been caught up in in. Her second thought is that it must surely be a trick, and she has her claws out and ready even before the first of the stormclouds rolls in. She doesn't trust any of it to not be a trick, even as the storm breaks and the rain falls over the green fire.

It takes longer than it might be expected to put the flames out. The light of the green sun is not so easily dismissed, and the demon who first called them into being is nothing short of exceedingly powerful. But eventually they do go out.

It doesn't change Nepeta's wariness any, to see them gone. If Luna wants to talk, she may need to first make sure Nepeta knows she means no harm.

For once in his life, Wash's dreams were manageable without outside help or mass amounts of trauma. He'd explained that to Luna after he first night - that he wasn't trying to keep her out again, he actually didn't needher help this time - and he hadn't really seen her since. Evidently the dreams this time around were hard on everyone, which meant trying to wrangle them would be just as hard on Luna.

He'd showed up at and been let into her apartment and now stood outside her door. "Hey, Luna? Are you in there?" He paused for a moment, regarding the cup in his hands. "I brought coffee."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol-gkPEoM7c

Fate felt the familiar bite on her wrists as Mother's bind suspended her from the twin curving edifices who only existed for this one purpose. No- this was not the first time. The room, as ever was dim except for the glowing circle under the 9 year old girl.

She hung limp, although her arms burned from having her whole weight yanking on them. She knew struggle would only make Mother's fury greater. She heard footsteps, and rose her head to watch the shadowy figure move closer. She couldn't make out the features clearly, but the hateful gleam in the eyes were enough to know this was Precia, Fate's biological mother.

At one point Precia would have kept the pretense of thinking of Fate as her daughter, but now there was only cold fury. The staff in the woman's hand turned into a whip, and with a sharp growl the first lash sliced across Fate's chest.

"You disgusting little copy- you dare be here!" Crack went the glowing whip, echoed by Fate's cry of pain. "I never loved you!" And again. "You are an abomination!" And again.

Soon Fate's body was crisscrossed with trickling wounds, and still the rage of her mother did not end. Fate didn't try and resist. She knew better. It was her fault after all.

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In My Head, It's Like Hell

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wow I totally never got a notif for this

stupid notifs

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Warning: Child Abuse