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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Plays sneezes again, trying to clear the smell out of his nose. Every damn time he fought Spirals his mouth ended up tasting like oil and chemicals. He gave the body of his mother - it wasn't really her, he told himself - one last look and then trotted after the big cat, tail tucked slightly. As far as wolves go, Plays wasn't impressive. He looked mottled, mixed. A mutt if there ever was one. He curled up, watching the cat clean herself for a few moments.

"Yeah, I know," he responded. Water would be great right about now.

"They're Black Spiral Dancers. They're... like me. Except corrupted by the Wyrm. Twisted and insane and they were trying..." The words seized in his throat for a moment, "...they were trying to make me one of them. Make me Dance the Spiral."

That was a wonderfully pleasant thought.

Rhiow's ears flicked back and forth quickly at that. "Wonderful," she murmured, unconsciously echoing Plays' thoughts. "Well, now we know what one of your deep-rooted fears is. Hunt's Luck, cousin. I'm Rhiow, and I seem to have stumbled into your nightmare."

Stumbled in or deliberately crossed was up for debate. Maybe the fact that their dreamscapes were so similar was an explanation for why she was able to enter his. "May I ask what city this is?"

Plays rested his head on his paws, ears flicking back and forth. If anything tried to sneak up on him, he wanted to hear it (or smell it) first. He gave the best wolfish form of a shrug and shuddered, "It's a fate worse then death. At least when you die, your spirit goes to Gaia. If they turn you, you're done. You're insane, crazy, you know? And you're fighting against everything you stood for..."

With one more shudder he settled down, "Plays-in-Traffic, Philodox of the Bone Gnawer Tribe. And this is Los Angeles. Thanks for the help."

Rhiow thought of Haath of the Sixth Claw, the wizard who had forsaken the Oath and given his power to the Lone One, who had died a hundred deaths in rapid succession when his master found no more use for him. Would even Haath exist in the Hearth of all things?

"Los Angeles," Rhiow repeated quietly. On the other end of the US from Manhattan, but still similar enough in attitude that it could easily blend with her city. They were both cities of dreams and nightmares.

She stood up and began to walk toward the exit of the apartment building. "The entity who is responsible for these nightmares - aptly named Nightmare King - will try to get at you where you're most vulnerable. Places with strong emotional connections are the easiest places to strike you. Places where you feel safe, or places where you have bad memories. It would be best to get to a neutral place. Ever been to Manhattan?"

Plays stood and shook himself off. A moment later he trotted after Rhiow, tail a bit higher then it had been. He was already calming down and getting control back. He could deal with this. He sniffed at the ground as he fell in alongside her, "Nightmare King. Well, that's original. Wonder how he come up with that."

Sarcasm translated surprisingly well into wolf sometimes, "Anyway... Nah. Never been to Manhattan. Is that where you're from?"

Rhiow led him back the way she had come, through winding streets beside towering skyscrapers, weaving in and out of pedestrians as if they weren't even there. She did it all with the incredible ease that said she'd been part of city life as long as she had lived.

She confirmed that a second later. "Yes, and it seems to be where my dreamscape centers every time I fall asleep. The King knows I have insecurities and fears there. I don't let him exploit them. That makes him... frustrated." She looks back over her shoulder at Plays-In-Traffic. "We've been trying to warn the crew about this. Few of them have been listening."

Plays gazed up at the skyline as they trot along. It's weird, not having anyone react to their presence. Still, he doesn't complain about it. Rhiow got bob of the wolf's head, "Yeah... they should. Dreams and spirits have a lotta power back on my world. Not surprising that it carries over... Hold on."

He paused in his steps and stretched, body shifting and changing. His fur vanished, his tail shrunk and in a moment, a young human man was crouched on the sidewalk. Clothed, surprisingly enough. He sighed softly, "...that's better."

Rhiow flicked one ear back and forth, tilting her head to the side. "Now there's a thing I've never seen before," she said. "Were you born ehhif and turn into a wolf or were you born wolf and were changed into a human?" She continues walking as they speak, spotting the jarring change from LA to NYC suddenly.

"Ah," she said, pausing again for a moment. "We're in my dreamscape now. There's no telling what the King will throw at us here." On her right is Penn Station, and as they walk a few more blocks the Empire State Building rises high out of the concrete.

"Born and raised human," Plays replied, shaking himself out and jogging to catch up, "A lot of my people are. Others are born wolf, though. It varies. We all have the power to change shape though. Human to wolf, wolf to human... either to a ten-foot tall furry death machine with chainsaws for hands."

He flashed an amused grin, then glanced up at the suddenly unfamiliar sky-line, "...whoa. I always wanted t'visit New York, but this is sorta weird."

Rhiow put her whiskers forward in amusement at 'furry death machine,' thinking that it was similar to the way Urruah had described their Downside forms when he first saw them.

"It's a little disconcerting at first, how things bleed into each other," Rhiow said. "We should avoid Grand Central Station. I used to work there - no telling what the King would dredge up for me now." She didn't ask whether Plays was ready to wake up... if he was, he would.

She turned down 36th and made her way over to 5th avenue, turning north. "We'll go to Central park."

"Central park? Bitchin'," he laughed, "Man, never thought a cat would show me around New York. Kate would love this. Probably."

Well, except for the whole nightmare king thing. Speaking of which, he wondered if she was alright and if she was dreaming. Still, this dream was particularly lucid and he wasn't quite ready to wake up.

"Your hometown, your rules, I guess. Lead th' way."

Rhiow's whiskers twitched. "You're not getting the experience unless you're bumping into people and taxis are trying to run you over every several minutes."

She paused, wondering if she could do it the same way she had, and then suddenly she was no longer the large panther but a common housecat - not in a slow shift like a Garou, but like a blink of an eye. The field that seemed to make the bystanders ignore them vanished just as suddenly and now she was shimmying through pushing crowds of New Yorkers as they trotted uptown.

She shadows on the street got longer. Rhiow felt a chill down her back and wasn't sure why - the skyscrapers above her seemed to lean in as the bright blue color of the sky began to leech out. But Rhiow wasn't looking up.

Tony blinked. One moment there had been a primordial killer cat and the next an ordinary black housecat. He shook his head as a smile spread across it, "Heh. Guess I ain't the only shifter in town anymore. Although I think your universe and stuff is really different from mine, at least when it comes to some of that..."

There was a pause and he frowned, hunching his shoulders as a chill ran through him. He glanced around, then up at the giant buildings. Were they leaning in? Was the sky starting to fade?

"Fuck, this is weird."

Rhiow hesitated at the crosswalk across the street from Central Park. It didn't... feel right. She had never made a habit of coming this far uptown, and she enjoyed the park as well as the next person but it didn't have any significance to her. There was no reason for her to-

A shape across the street, a black-and-white kitten shape, caught her attention. "Arhu?" she whispered quietly, trying to see through the rushing traffic. The kitten rose to his feet and turned away like he had heard her.

Her tail switched nervously and she glanced over her shoulder at Plays. "None of this is right," she said. "He shouldn't be here." She didn't elaborate on who shouldn't be here.

He glanced down at Rhiow, then over at the other cat. Why was she freaking out about that...? Tony crouched next to her, senses alert for any sign of danger, "...Arhu? Who's Arhu? Talk t'me here."

He glanced around. Fortunately, no one in the dream seemed to think he was crazy for talking to a cat.

"Arhu was on my team," she said absently, and stepped out into the street as if she was in a daze, her eyes fixed on Arhu.

Distracted as she was, she hadn't noticed the taxi bearing down on her as if the words she had said earlier had summoned one. The driver's horn blared, Rhiow froze in her tracks, and the cab swerved -

- into the oncoming lanes, where Rhiow watched as a larger truck caught it side-on at full speed, an impact that she could feel across the street and in her bones.

"Oh great Queen Iau," she whispered. "Not this. Not now."

"Your team? I didn't know cats had packs," It was a rather poor joke, but he made it anyway. He glanced over at the other cat curiously for a moment. He almost missed Rhiow step out into the street and he yelled in alarm as she was almost struck. He stooped down and snatched her back as the pile-up started, "...what the hell do you mean? Not now?"

If he minded kitty claws in his shirt, picking up a frightened cat was a bad way to display it. Rhiow clung like she was hanging on for dear life. "Ohhh, I know what he's trying to do. Oh my poor Hhuha, it was my fault, my fault..."

Behind her, emergency vehicles were screaming down the street - much faster than they should have been arriving, given both the traffic and the size of the city. As the firefighters began to pry the back of the taxi open, it was clear that whoever had been inside it - a woman it looked like - had not survived the crash. And it was not a pretty sight.

Rhiow turned to look, just once, just because she couldn't not, and then her claws flexed in Plays' shirt and she hid her face with a soft wail.

Plays didn't know much about Rhiow's world, but he knew a bad car crash when he saw one. He gingerly extracted the cat from his shirt and cradled her against his chest. He watched as they pulled the body from the mangled taxi, a frown creasing his features. One of his hands absent-mindedly pet at Rhiow's head (that's what you did to cats, after all).

"...it's OK, Rhiow. This is just a dream. This isn't real. Remember that. Fight him... Come on."

He swallowed, "...talk to me about it. Let it out. I'm here."

"I know, I know," Rhiow said, her eyes squeezed shut. She was grateful for the petting, honestly. "It didn't even happen like that, I wasn't even there, I heard about it later-"

"She was my human. My Hhuha. And then..." Her claws flexed again. "It was a taxi," she said quietly. "But she wasn't in the taxi. This isn't how it happened. This time he had to make it my fault."

Of course. Like I didn't blame myself enough for it the first time - damn you! It was you the first time and it's you again! sa’Rráhh, I am losing my patience for you, no matter what form you choose to take!

"Hey, it's OK," Tony did know how to talk to people. Or at least he thought he did. He crouched, holding the cat against him still. Rhiow got a few more pats and reassuring pets as Tony watched the scene unfold. "...that's rough. You know it wasn't your fault though. You know that you don't needa blame yourself. Come on, buck up gato."

Rhiow's claws relaxed and withdrew, but only because she was more focused on anger - the same anger that had made her want to take out strips of the Lone One's fur, the last time they faced It. Her tail began to switch back and forth rapidly - angrily. She would take the fight to It this time, instead of the other way around.

"Have you tried to wake up lately?" she asked quietly. "Every time I'm about to stop and try, something big like that grabs my attention." Her voice sounded detached - neither as grieved as it had been a minute ago nor as friendly as it was before. "I think that's its goal - to keep distracting us. I don't think it has the power to hold us back if we really will ourselves to go." Not yet, she added silently.

"Not yet," he replied, "I don't want to leave you in here by yourself, especially if you keep on gettin' distracted."

He shrugged, "...I'm ready to fight it, if and when it comes down to that. Don't know if I'll win, but at least I'll go down swinging."

Because, really, that's what the Garou do.

Rhiow sighed. "Thank you, cousin." Even if they weren't cousins in any remote sense of the word, one must be polite. "Let's just... get to the park."

If this had been a normal dream, she could have willed herself there. But forces outside of her own mind were controlling this one. "Just across the street, and across the footpath." She was shaking still, a little, so it was probably not a good plan to put her down.

Hopefully it would be safe...

((OOC: Apologies for such a long wait! I was stuck. Anything fun and scary you want to toss in is great ♥))

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I can feel the madness slowly creeping in...

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Apologies for the lateness.

No worries :)

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