trans_9 | I can feel the madness slowly creeping in...

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I can feel the madness slowly creeping in...

It is that time again, meatship.

Once again, the King of Nightmares has deigned to spread his touch to all of your dreams.

This time, however, he has decided to give them a much more personal touch, sending his very own children to visit each and every one of you, slowly sowing the seeds of madness within all of you.

Such a kind and loving king he is, isn't he?

[ooc: Alright folks, Nightmare King is ramping things up a bit. These nightmares are a good bit more dangerous now, and he's sending in his minions to make things a little more real. The nightmares will be of a much more serious nature this time, designed to start driving the crew slowly insane. Characters are more likely to run into nightmare minions in the guise of someone or something that will tug at the edges of their sanity. Also, this time, the characters can have joint dreams, as these nightmares are of a more mystical nature this time. Once again, tagging in isn't mandatory, but if you want to, go crazy (literally)!]

[Additional Note: Any injuries won't be carrying over to real life at this point in the plot but don't worry, we'll get there eventually!]

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"...Jamie." That was his name, wasn't it? "I... what's Culloden? This is..."

But, no. It's not a nameless battlefield in Hyrule any more, but an amalgamation of both, the bodies of Scots mingling with the bodies of Hylians and Sheikah. And now their enemies have combined, too - Redcoats and Dinolfos, armed with jagged daggers and muskets both.

And, up on the ridge, both are posed and ready to attack. "I suggest we run," he says as calmly as he can, pointing up at the grouped enemies on the ridge with the hand holding the blade.

And then he has to duck to one side as a musket bullet flies through where his head was an instant ago.

Jamie takes one good look at the Dinolfos and boggles a little - he's never seen anything like them before. "Aye," he agrees heartily. "Running is a good plan." As the crack of a musket is heard, he mentally adjusts it to an 'excellent' plan, and takes off, hoping Sheik will follow and not go in a different direction.

Something is tugging at the back of his mind, though, something about the situation. How can this be happening? It's almost as if...

"Am I dreaming?" It feels like he's awake, but there's just enough off that he's beginning to think he's not.

Even so, he can hear the sounds of enemies behind him, so asleep or awake, he's going to continue with the running.

Dreaming? Perhaps - there are dim memories of this battlefield, and they didn't involve Link and Zelda, or Jamie, or the Redcoats. "A shared dream?" he asks as he keeps pace with Jamie, broken wrist tucked against his chest to minimise any jarring motion. "Perhaps. I remember this place, and -"

And he remembers that gap in the rock, so he grabs Jamie's arm and tugs him hard towards it, and the rock seals itself smoothly over to hide them, to keep them safe. Nearby, a torch flares into brightness, revealing a small entrance chamber with a long dark tunnel ahead of them.

"I remember this place," he says quietly, leaning against a wall to get his breath back, "And you were not there." No, Jamie didn't belong in Hyrule, he belonged in Scotland, but Sheik had never been there, and so...

"...The ship. The Nightmare King."

Congratulations, Sheik and Jamie, you've just achieved lucid dreaming.

Jamie tilts his head back against the cool stone of the chamber, gulping in breaths of air. He definitely does not recognize the chamber, and Sheik clearly does. That coupled with everything else means...

"He's getting stronger." He rubs at his forehead unhappily. That's not good. Not good at all. He takes a few more breaths - this time to try and shove down the little curl of fear that's threatening to work its way up to the surface. It won't do anything other than serve the Nightmare King's purposes, and he's determined to fight it.

As he looks over towards Sheik, his glance falls to the wrist tucked against his chest.

"Is it broken?"

He nods once, already searching for sticks to use as a splint. "The gauntlet that Li-- that the thing that looked like Link had, it gives the wearer immense strength," he says quietly, locating something that looks sturdy enough then struggling to unwrap the bandages around his forearms without too much pain. "He didn't have them, yet, at the point I was taken from - I only knew of them."

From Zelda, as it was -- and then he stops abruptly. If he's caught in a dream, then surely she still is, as well?

"We have to get out of here," he says softly. "The tunnel leads to a secret base under the hill - there's an entrance on the other side. We have to find someone."

Alright, that's probably enough bandage. Still, looking at the awkward angle his wrist is at... "This won't be fun," he mutters.

While Sheik is taking off enough bandages for his splint, Jamie sets the claymore down and takes the time to slip his plaid off of his shoulder. He can't unwrap it completely without taking the kilt off too, but he is able - with the help of his knife - cut off a decently sized piece of the tartan and still leave enough that he can slip the remnants back in place. He makes his way over with the cloth in hand.

"Aye, likely not," he comments. "But I think I can do it a wee bit faster than ye can at the moment." And since he has no idea how long they can safely stay here, the faster Sheik's broken wrist is splinted, the better.

"Just tell me what ye need me to do."

"...Are you any good at setting bones?" he asks dryly, deliberately not looking at the rather nauseating angle his wrist is at. ...Wait. "If this is just a dream, then why won't it fix itself?" he frowns, staring at it as he wills it to go back to normal.

Sighing, Sheik settles himself crosslegged on the ground, leaning back against the wall for support, and carefully feels the break. A clean break, in each bone of his forearm - he'd have to set both.

"When they're back in place," he asks Jamie carefully as he hands him the bandages he's managed to get off and the sticks he's managed to find, "Can you wrap my wrist? It has to be done securely, and I can't do that one-handed." At least, not without a great amount of pain.

"If I was, do ye think I would have asked ye to tell me what to do?" Jamie says honestly. "I can fashion ye a sling out of the tartan, though." He frowns as well. "I don't know. Roxie said something once that ye might be able to learn how to control the dream but I havena gotten past the figuring out if I'm in one or not part."

In other words, he would have no idea how to fix the broken bone, other than try to set it. Before he begins, though, he offers his knife over to Sheik.

"Ye may want to bite down on this." He's completely sure of one thing - whether or not he can do this, it's going to hurt like hell while he tries.

He takes a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," he says, and starts trying to straighten out Sheik's wrist.

Even prepared for it, even biting down on the hilt of Jamie's knife, even having gone through more painful things before, it still hurts. A lot. But finally, Sheik can feel the bones click back in to place, and the pain eases - a little.

Pulling the knife away, he sets it down and leans back against the wall, a little clammy-looking. "Ouch," he says faintly, reaching for the rolls of bandages and handing them to Jamie. "Could you start it off? I can probably finish wrapping it."

And as soon as they do, he's heading back out there to find his princess.

Jamie nods, but keeps an eye on Sheik while he's wrapping the wrist - just to make sure he isn't about to pass out.

Once Sheik indicates that he can take over on that task, Jamie works on fashioning the tartan into a sling that can be used to support the wrist and arm, then retrieves both knife and claymore.

"Are there lights in the tunnel, or should I grab the torch before we go?" He's looking back at the sealed over entranceway a touch nervously, and seems anxious to get going.

Task finally done, Sheik struggles to his feet, reaching for his blade with his left hand. "There should be," he says quietly, "Although I do not believe the Nightmare King would be so kind."

Yes - not even his eyes can spot pinpricks of light in the tunnel ahead. He knows it bends at one point, but even still... "We should take it with us and go," he confirms. And hope it doesn't go out, he silently adds.

The sooner they can leave, the sooner he can find Zelda. He's sure she's still out there, somewhere, trapped in a nightmare. Quietly, barely realising he has spoken, he adds, "And then we can wake up."

Jamie re-sheathes his knife, then reaches up to grab the torch. He is also hoping it will stay lit - he'd really rather not have to try and navigate some strange tunnel by feel.

"Aye, well, I'd like to wake up now." He pauses for a moment, then looks down at himself and sighs heavily. Nope. Still here. "Och, I was hoping that would work. C'mon, Sheik. Let's go."

Sword in one hand, torch in the other, he steps into the tunnel and to whatever awaits them.

Keese, mostly, and rats. As the pool of light from the torch approaches, the keese scatter, flying towards them and becoming easy prey for Sheik's throwing needles. Once, one gets past and flies straight for Jamie's face; it finds itself blocked by a wall of solid shadow and falls, dead, to the ground.

"This is too easy," Sheik murmurs as they reach a twisted spire of rock that signifies the approximate half-way mark, "These are hardly an obstacle. What sort of a nightmare is this?"

Quite possibly, he's jinxed it now.

"I don't know. Maybe the Nightmare King stopped paying attention?" Jamie comments, sounding hopeful.

The torch abruptly flickers, then flares brightly before dwindling to the faintest of flames. At the same time, he starts coughing, as the oxygen in the tunnel is depleted and replaced with a noxious smelling substance.

"Ye had to say it was too easy, didn't ye?" Jamie manages to get out, in between coughing fits.

There's a stirring in the depths of the darkness, further down the tunnel, and a giant figure appears to detach itself from the shadows. From what can be seen in the dim light, it has clawed appendages, each easily big enough to hold a human. Beady eyes glint atop large eye-stalks. And Jamie clearly recognizes what it is, as his eyes go wide in horror.

"Macra!"

It begins to advance menacingly towards them, just as the torch sputters and goes out.

Edited 2010-01-19 09:55 (UTC)

"Oh. Run!"

Unbroken hand reaching for Jamie's (where had the blade gone?), Sheik starts down the tunnel, broken arm slipping out of his sling to feel his way along the shadows. He can deal with the pain later - right now, he needs to find the way out.

Preferably without passing out from pain and hypoxia first.

And honestly, if he hadn't said it, it probably would have happened anyway. ...He thinks.

Jamie follows after, trying to get enough of a breath in so he can speak. He's having a difficult time of it, though, as he's still coughing badly.

"Gas...poison..." He has to stop and lean against the wall as his head starts to swim. Behind them, the Macra makes its slow way towards them, the sound of its chitinous body scraping against the rock echoing eerily down the tunnel.

"Human," Jamie manages to get out. The gas is toxic to humans. It might not affect Sheik as badly.

There's a faint light coming from somewhere now, even though the torch is extinguished. He can see where Sheik is, a little ways further ahead. He lets the torch drop and pushes himself off the tunnel wall, staggering a bit.

He reaches forward to grab at Sheik's uninjured arm. "Find...where. Stop it...stop...Macra." His eyes roll back in his head and he slumps to the ground, unconscious.

Despite the fact that he feels like he's at the brink of collapse himself, Sheik isn't quite as badly affected as Jamie is - working quickly to nudge Jamie back behind a rock to protect him somewhat, he draws his blade again, holding it awkwardly in his left hand.

It's more the lack of oxygen than the Macra's poison that's affecting him, but nevertheless, he drops into a fighting pose. "Alright, you... you oversized tektite," he tells it grimly, even as he coughs again. "You're not going to get the... get the better of us."

((OOC: Want to cut to after the fight? If Sheik wins, he'll probably manage to drag Jamie a little way down the passage before collapsing himself. If not, uh, I assume they'll just wake up in the ship? Up to you!))

Jamie found himself detached from his body, watching helplessly as Sheik pulled him behind the rock. He would be fascinated - if he wasn't furious at himself for not being clearer about how to stop the Macra. He can see the pipe where the gas that it fed off of was coming from, only a short distance away. If Sheik could find the pipe and block the opening, the creature would drop into state of semi-hibernation and they could get away.

The Macra moved down the tunnel towards Sheik. The passage seemed to be narrower here, and it was a tight fit for the large creature. It swung one massive claw out in an attack despite the limited room. The edge of the claw caught an outcropping of rock, smashing it into smaller pieces. One of the pieces bounced onto the pipe with the sound of rock striking metal, then fell, partially covering the opening.

The amount of gas being pumped into the tunnel dropped, and as the Macra went to attack again, it seemed to be moving slower than before. Jamie felt himself being pulled back into his dream-body, and didn't resist.

He started to come to, coughing again as he inadvertently took a deep breath of the gas already in the area. "Och, my head." He still felt very dizzy, and wasn't sure if he could stay conscious for long. Trying to raise his voice enough to be heard over the sounds of combat, he called, "Sheik...the pipe. Block the pipe!"

Edited 2010-01-20 21:15 (UTC)

Sheik only caught the trail end of it, but it was enough. Switching the hand the blade was on (and cringing as he closed the fingers of his right hand around the hilt), he scrabbled for a rock of the right size.

Then, as hard as he could, he threw it, using solid shadow to guide it unerringly in to the pipe.

Immediately, the amount of gas in the area dropped. Stumbling over, Sheik held out a hand for Jamie. "Come on," he coughed, still out of breath from the exertion and the gas and his broken wrist, to say nothing of the few scratches he had got from attempting to fight off the Macra. "Let's get out of here."

Jamie accepted the hand up, and steadied himself against the rock for a moment while he shook his head and cleared it of the worst of the fumes, then picked up his sword. "Aye, lets!"

The Macra, deprived of the gas it consumed, twitched a little but no longer appeared to be a danger as long as one stayed away. However, it still filled the corridor, allowing no room to get through.

"I hope we don't find ourselves back where we started," Jamie mutters as he starts to feel his way along the rock wall.

"Shouldn't," Sheik nods back as they continue onwards - he can see well enough in the dark. "A little further on, there's a... chamber. Was used as a hidden base. It -" He pauses to cough, dragging in relatively fresh air as they move along. "It should have supplies, and a bit further on is an exit."

And then they'll find Zelda. He almost forgot her, in the fight.

He sighs, and murmurs to himself, "I want to wake up." This was not a good time or place.

Jamie's coughing periodically as well, although it's easing as they get further away from the gas and he can breathe in some fresher air.

"I just hope we can wake up. I thought I would when the gas knocked my out, but..." He shrugs, looking frustrated.

He also hopes the chamber's still intact, but he doesn't say that out loud. Maybe if he doesn't, nothing bad will happen.

"Is it much further?" he asks, instead.

"It's close enough."

Really, it was on the tip of his tongue to say that it was right around the next bend - but he has a horrible feeling that if he did say it out loud, then, well - it wouldn't be.

Instead, he's profoundly relieved to find the chamber exactly where he had left it - coated in dust, its supplies of food and water and potion long gone, but otherwise intact. "We're here," he murmurs, and immediately heads to what was once the medical supply area.

Nothing. He levels a glare at his wrist, then straightens up and shakes his head. "It looks abandoned."

Far above, a gap in the rock allows a shaft of sunlight to penetrate the gloom. Sheik gazes it up for a moment, then looks away. "The entrance on the other side of the hill is not far," he tells him, "Although I don't know what we will see on the other side."

The Hylian-Sheikah camps, perhaps? Or only the Hylians, with the deed already done? Perhaps it would be an empty field.

Perhaps it would be Jamie's world.

"Are you ready," he asks softly, "Or do you want to rest first?" For his part, he does not want to stay. Not after the betrayal that took place here.

"I don't think I'll be able to rest until I wake up," Jamie says absently. But in a way, it's true. This nightmare is oddly draining.

He suddenly exhales, then takes a deep breath. "Let's go see what else is in store, then."

It's not so much that he's picking up on any of Sheik's feelings about the area. But he's getting to the 'Och, what is it now?' state of mind that he gets after running for his life a half-dozen times or so.

Jamie looks over at Sheik, pausing a moment. "That is, if ye don't want to rest." It occurs to him Sheik is probably as exhausted as he is currently.

"I'm fine," Sheik nods.

Well, for a given value of fine.

"I did not want to come back here," he sighs to his companion as they press onwards. "There have been many clashes in Hyrule's history, but this was... I saw too many good people die, here."

I can feel the madness slowly creeping in...

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