towerofanimus | DREAM A LITTLE DREAM WITH ME

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM WITH ME

Characters: all the characters involved in the Dream Event
Setting: various dreams, various locations
Format: any
Summary: Xehanort draws a large amount of the tower into worlds constructed from their dreams in an attempt to learn about everyone en masse
Warnings: ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING

[Tendrils of magic wound their way around, lines of energy flickered into existence, forming a large shape on the ground around where Xehanort sat with his back straight and legs tucked neatly beneath him. Perfect. It was a bigger scale than the one he'd done but a month before, already he could feel the flickers of connection, the shape getting brighter and more defined.

More participants. More mental drag. There was little to worry about. With Xigbar on guard duty, his sleeping body would be quite safe. No, it was time to dream... and see just who would follow.

Darkness shrouded his hand, keyblade flaring into life, and he gripped the handle in both hands, aiming it at the ground, at the keyhole defined by criss-crossing darkness responding, resonating...

drowsiness laced through him, the blade in his hands sagging downward until the tip touched the ground, his posture slacking, head and shoulders slumping slightly

in slumber, the dreams of others awaited

the Master was asleep.]

OOC NOTE BECAUSE I CAN'T EDIT THE POST IT'S ON ANYMORE AND NOT REDOING ALL OF THAT: Dreamers should post to their REAL WORLD thread explaining where their character is, if they made it to a bed or if they're on the floor somewhere or wherever.

If you have questions for me, put them in your base character thread!

If I missed you somehow, let me know and I'll add you to the appropriate section!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ahh, he knew that language all too well. Kandori spoke it too, in a voice much deeper than Jun's and perhaps more calculated than giddy, but the message was still there. "Man is a foolish creature, a plague upon this world...I shall be it's liberator."

He spoke again, saying only a single word.

"No."

And nothing else.

The reply just elicited another few chimes of what was quickly becoming far too venom-laced to any longer be considered a laugh. Though this one certainly seemed a lot more...interested.

"Tell me; what is your dream?"

Slipping ever more into the darkness. This question needed a careful answer.

"To see all my friends again in three years as we promised each other. To keep this world safe. To become a computer graphics employer...but most importantly..."

He touched the earring for a second before putting his hands in his pockets, unable to hide his smiling.

"...To continue to find my reason for living."

He looked at Jun, or at least the mask he was wearing.

"And you?"

"Something so vague-- speaking like that, you'll surely lose your way."

He folded one arm across his torso, the elbow of his other arm rest on his hand while he held up the yellow iris from his pocket. "Having to leave your friends like that, no doubt by the time you return they'll be over and done with you. People drift apart, after all. And mankind's foolish desires are only crippling them more each and every day."

He twirled the flower between his fingers as if he was thinking, though it was obvious he already had an answer when prompted. "My dream is to guide humanity towards their dreams-- my dream is to make sure yours comes true."

"I won't." You could think of him a fool all you wanted for that reply, but Naoya said it with uttermost confidence. He closed his eyes for a second, thinking before replying some more.

"I believe in my friends. They might not remember me like I am now, and I might not remember them as they were, but no matter how far we may drift apart, nothing can take away what we did together. I may never truly understand my desires or reason for living...but I'll always make sure to live a life I won't regret."

He used one hand to touch his earring again.

"We do not have dreams with us always," he added. "It is something that is gained by living, searching and discovering one's self. And if you were to give them all they wish, what will they have left?"

When one's wish has been granted, the only thing that awaits is a bottomless solitude, an eternal emptiness...

Tread as carefully as Naoya might, he couldn't prevent Jun's steady decline. It was entertaining though; and Jun let out another round of laughter.

"You overestimate people! Your past and memories may not change, but just because you hold onto those pieces of your past cannot abet the tide of time; whether you will it or not, people will change, whether by themselves or by their world. Are they truly the same person you once knew, after everything you remember is different?"

He flicked the flower away, allowing it to drop to the ground as he lowered one arm and brought the other up to rest on his chin in thought. "When people have their dreams granted, is when their joy is at its pique. They do not find themselves lost at reaching their goal, they revel in it! If I grant their wishes, they can achieve even the impossible!"

He kept a light grip on the bottom of the mask, and pulled it off his face-- but instead of revealing a normal, human face, it only revealed the Joker's white face again, now part of its typical headpiece, his uniform changing from light blue to a crisp white and black. When he spoke again, his voice was warped beyond most recognition.

"Wouldn't that be ideal?"

"No."

"You're not very smart, are you?"

He...smiled despite himself, and the situation.

"Not really. Nanjo was the bright one of our group." And yet there was something about him and the way that he gave the answer that could be seen as infuriating. Like he wasn't afraid of not being the best. Of not being sure where he was going, or why he was here. He had dreams, but didn't need the Joker's help to make them come true. His face became serious again.

"You may think I overestimate...but I trust them, no matter what happens and how much we've changed." He put a hand on his heart this time. "They may revel in it for a time but...eventually the realization that they have no more goals will hit them. After that...Eternal Night will fall again so long as people seek to turn hope to despair. This...is what you'll be giving them. A poisoned gift of false hope."

Edited 2012-08-01 12:59 (UTC)

If it weren't for his perpetually smiling face, you would almost get the impression that he was becoming dissatisfied and bored.

"You are a foolish man," his voice much less giddy than before, but no less off-kilter. Perhaps even more unsettling, that his next words rose right back up to that same level of mad. "I am not seeking their destruction! Is it better to reach a goal and live satisfied with your accomplishments, or to watch your dream hang eternally out of reach? Some can't be achieved by the means we have been given! You make me out as a devil, but they would not reach out to me if they did not believe the same."

And none too surprising either. Naoya wasn't giving him the answers he wanted. The parallels between him and Kandori were growing by the minute. This would be the time for his friends to speak up behind him...but Nanjo wasn't here and Naoya had an idea what he'd be telling the other man. So...he did.

"You're suffering." His voice was cold, almost distant. "I do not know what happened, but you despair at your inability to live any other way. Your so-called wish to help others and their dreams is merely a distraction from your aching heart." He had felt that pain, that anger a short while ago watching him open the box. Something terrible had happened, yes, but it didn't mean it had to turn out like this. "Do you think burdening all mankind with nothing but false hopes and promises will make it go away?"

There was a flash of light and for a brief second, he appeared to be dressed in Vishnu's outfit, his voice echoing as both his and the god's;

"Omniscience. Sovereignty. Energy. Strength. Vigor. Splendor. These are the mankind's and the heart's inner powers that must be discovered by oneself. Otherwise, your Will shall forever be weak."

The flash gone, he was Naoya again, not even questioning what had just happened.

"Your aching heart is allowing the Crawling Chaos to use you like a puppet. Your chosen form tells me as such. You are the jester, the fool providing him with nothing but entertainment at the expense of your own self."

The words might have stung. But he felt, deep in his own heart, that this Jun needed to hear them.

There's a sound almost as if his breath was caught at the scolding; the tension was quickly rising in his stature as Naoya spoke, and the black and green tips of chaos slowly started infecting the scene.

He paid no mind to Naoya's sudden change in appearance. "You would call me weak?" His voice had adapted a grave tone, that almost seemed like it was edging in on hysterical. "That I am just a tool--?"

(--But that was right, wasn't it? Isn't that what everyone had said at the Aquarius Shrine, what Nyarlathotep had said himself?)

"--mankind is burdened by its own ideals! You mock my own lack of self, but I am simply granting people what they need to be their ideal self! My father is the one who gave me this power-- the only one who can. And I am the only one that can guide mankind to their dreams. I suppose it's a pity you can't see that."

"The only one who deserves pity here is you. Weakness is a reflection of one's soul. That was never your intention I'm certain," he stated. "However, if you continue on this path he will bend you until you are nothing more than a shell...because that's not your father. No man has that much power, and I have a feeling that you know this too..." His gaze became even more hardened by what he said next.

"It is Nyarlathotep deceiving you!"

"Stop!"

His warped voice echoed loudly in the cave, and the black tendrils of color began spreading and shaking the scene. The dream was already different than he remembered, it should have ended long ago; but his mind was refusing to let go.

"You know nothing about my father!" A hint of his real voice cracked through for a split second, as his hands came up to claw at his temples. "You speak as if you know, but your wisdom is a sham."

"If it is," he snapped right back, his figure switching back and forth between Vishnu and his own form again for a few more seconds. The tendrils of color seemed to be avoiding him when they got close, as if they were afraid of what he'd do... "Why are you terrified by truth?" And then...a line he had heard Nanjo speak to Kandori. In fact Jun might be hearing three voices at this moment, his own, Vishnu's and Nanjo's.

"Why continue rationalization your neurosis with these grandiose principles?"

"I'm not--!"

Yet despite that, he took a stumbling step backward, his back arching down more as he recoiled. "I'm not scared-- the truth is cruelest when we face it.. I'm simply trying to rectify it with justice."

He snapped up straight again, the pretenses of 'helping mankind' lost. Behind his smiling face, there was only anger.

"Then tell me...what is the truth you're running away from?" For the step backward Jun took, Naoya advanced a step more, the tendrils around him shriveling away. Another flash of light and he was in Vishnu's robes again, the Persona's mask over his own, distorting his voice.

"What is this justice you want to rectify?"

Edited 2012-08-01 20:56 (UTC)

Perhaps it was because of Vishnu, or perhaps he had truly jumped off the metaphorical deep end now; but that mad giddiness was back, as he let out another hollow laugh. He stopped his backwards retreat.

"I'm not running from anyone; it's others I wish to make face the truth. To rectify a transgression done to me and someone close to me many years ago... and repay the burden that has been paid for all these years..."

"You are run away from your own fears," Vishnu answered back. "No misdemeanor nor burden is worth the suffering of following the Crawling Chaos' path." The Persona's clawed hands reached for his face and Naoya removed the mask covering it, holding it with that hand.

"I could have done the same when my twin brother died..." he stopped himself and thought for a second. "No...that's right. I ran away too, for a time. This event weights heavily on your heart, doesn't it? The regret of what you could have and not have done..." He spoke from experience.

"But you don't need to run away anymore. You need to accept what happened...back then, and right now...and then move on, becoming stronger from it."

Edited 2012-08-01 22:42 (UTC)

Oh no, he didn't like this. He didn't like this one bit. It was hard to tell though, from his expression, after all. And the way he kept talking it was clear now that whatever Naoya was saying wasn't even reaching him anymore.

"I'm not running from anything. Fear is a symptom of the weak, and something I have no time for. I have found the strength I need to accept it."

There was a sense that the grin somehow grew more sinister, even if it didn't move an inch. He raised a hand in the air and for a flash, it seemed that Hermes appeared; but the Messenger was quickly over taken by the tendrils of the backdrop, twisting into a spindly white and black creature.

"If you'll stand in my path, you can suffer along with them." And on that cue, a torrent of dark wind blew through the cavern.

He'd never seen Persona twisted like that. Removed from their body, torn away to Tartarus, yes but...he looked away, forming one of his hands into a fist. Without a reply, the mask was placed back to his face, and he assumed a defensive position.

"I will not attack you. But I will stand in your way until you can see the truth."

If Jun listened around, he would hear a voice speaking from all sides, composed of both Vishnu and Naoya's thoughts.

"I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer..."

Edited 2012-08-02 03:10 (UTC)

"Mind-killer indeed...."

He could hear, but he wasn't listening, instead erupting into hysterical laughter as his body both hunched over and-- almost writhed. The dark tendrils twitched and spread along with the echos. The wind became even more turbulent, no longer rushing through the cavern and instead billowing out from Jun himself, a touch of elemental Darkness energy mixed in.

Naoya knelt down from the winds on one leg, but Vishnu's strength was his, and with it, immunity the dark attack as well as the ability to resist the other. It didn't take too long for him to stand up again, casting a healing spell before taking another step forward, still not retaliating.

The voices spoke again.

...Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear..."

"Now what are you so afraid of, then?!"

His laughter ceased, but his mad excitement didn't. Even if he was immune to the darkness, the wind attack persisted, the airborne currents increasing more with each word.

There was no answer for him to give.

It didn't seem that this was and expression of what he feared, but rather a mantra of some sort. As an attack came again, he didn't even kneel nor cast anything. With each word spoken, it was as if Vishnu ~~gained levels~~ was increasing in strength. The louder the winds hollowed, the more determined each advancement became, the very rocks under his feet crashing and leaving footsteps in his wake.

"...I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path..."

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM WITH ME

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