Dreaming Wide Awake [Fourth Wall/Open]

[revenancemods]

Who: Everyone! Current characters, fourth wall characters, whoever wants to show up.
What: The portals are closed. Everyone's in Traverse Town, including a whole bunch of new people. This should be interesting.
Where: Traverse Town
When: Throughout the day
Warnings: Depends on the characters. Expect language at least.

You didn't expect to be here. You really didn't. The technicolor buildings are a surprise, as is the little white flying bear telling you you're in the dream world. He gives you a bag full of what looks to be currency, enough shiny things to create a creature of your own (or so he says), and sends you on your way.

Good luck.

Comments

[spaceracist]

"I got a damn face." C'mon, he even has a skull on his helmet. That's more face than some Spartans ever show. It's not that easy to get him to take the helmet off, though (but he might if pushed, he just doesn't like to). "You never seen a helmet before?"

Well, at that, maybe he hadn't. The strange hybrid of costume and seemingly functional accessories, like those claws, hint at either a really primitive culture or some weird magic bullshit. His money's on the weird magic bullshit right now.

He decides to take a gamble and give the kid his name instead of his callsign. "Name's Emile. You?"

[endlessnight]

Simba wasn't so sure that talking skeletons could call their skulls a face. Really, more like a vision in a nightmare. "I don't know what that is." The response is quick, still ready to pounce if need be, but this thing hadn't threatened him yet, even if it did look frightening. He would stand his ground thus far.

The rugged introduction at least gets the smallest smile out of him, reminisce of when he had first met Timon and Pumbaa. He at least honors the question with an answer this time, bowing low with an arm bent at the elbow before him before raising his head above in greeting. "Simba. It's...strange. That thing you wear. Is it the skull of another creature?"

[spaceracist]

"Carved it myself." And that's enough cessation of immediate hostilities for Emile to pull it off, revealing a perfectly normal, if very large, human underneath. Not that humans are normal to Simba, but Emile doesn't know that. He holds out the helmet for inspection - just something you wear, though made out of definitely synthetic materials rather than natural ones.

He does recognize the word, though. Explains the lion headdress.

[endlessnight]

He relaxes a little at the mention of a carving. Whether it be bone or otherwise, it's a little more familiar, though wearing something that looked like a skeleton made him think of a scavenger. Buzzards or wild dogs. They weren't the sort you fraternized with, though if his father had taught him anything, everything was connected, and in that connection was to be an understanding.

His eyes widen at the face of the man revealed beneath the helmet. Without such head garmet, he looked small, even if he was a large man. But, he takes the thing offered, holding it in his hands for closer inspection. It felt strange, unlike anything he had ever touched before. "It is a helmet, but what made out of?" He asks not sure what word to use for these foreign things he was seeing, lifting it further to be level with his eyes, as if challenging the skull on the surface of the strange material.

[spaceracist]

In this case, Emile's skull helmet is more to intimidate than to imitate. But it seems to have worked, even with the lion man, so he's not complaining.

"Alloy, polycarbonate, glass, superconductor, probably a little liquid crystal." He'll be surprised if Simba knows what any of those are. "Real high quality. Hard to break." Which makes it excellent for armor, of course, but not any easier to explain to people not from the 26th century.

[endlessnight]

The look of confusion crosses Simba's face again, not sure what any of those words mean. As a proud lion he doesn't want to admit it, but...it's rather obvious and all over his face. "I can feel that it's strong. Are you a hunter then, or are you the hunted to need such strong armor..." Like a rhino had it's tough skin, though crocodiles were quite the same, just far more teeth.

[spaceracist]

Now that's a trick question. "Hunted at first. Then we became the hunters." He gestures to the skull carving once more. "That's to scare 'em off so they won't hurt my people anymore."

Well, that and the knife and the shotgun.

[endlessnight]

That made little sense to a creature at the top of its food chain. But he nods, aware that wars happened, civil or otherwise. The stronger pride would survive...and he supposed Emile's had been the victors in that struggle.

"Wearing bones I suppose would make you more intimidating..." he prefered roaring once he was finally good at it. "What sort of creatures were they?"

[spaceracist]

Well. Eventually they had won, or so Jun tells him, but at the time Emile had left they were still losing very badly. Didn't stop them from giving it their all, though.

"Aliens." No, Emile, be more specific, this guy probably doesn't know what that means. "They came from far away, invaded our land, killed our people. There's all kinds of 'em, and you could tell 'em because they'd shoot first and ask questions never. Little bit like the Nightmares you find here - they just attack you on sight, no reason. Nightmares are a lot easier to get rid of, though. You good in a fight?"

[endlessnight]

While the word aliens was foreign to him, the explanation helps. "I've never heard of anything like that...I'm sorry for your losses." While there had been invading prides at times, the hyenas attacking the pridelands, it wasn't such mindless violence. Most disputes were for food or land, and they didn't end in mindless killings. Nothing went to waste on the pridelands.

Though at his last question, Simba smiles, nodding, "I am if I'm needed to be."

[spaceracist]

Emile nods sharply. Grief for his losses isn't something he tends to deal with on a constructive or personal level, but it's polite to acknowledge someone else's expression of sympathy anyway.

"Probably need to be. There's a couple places in town you'll get attacked by Nightmares. If you need a break, the hotel's a safe place. Don't worry about goin' easy on them or try to give them a chance to negotiate. They're made out of the same dream pieces the Moogles gave you, and they'll return to either that or munny and treasure when you defeat 'em. Like fightin' dreams."