Epileptic Trees

[cityship]

The crew dreams.

As they have been for the past while, their dreams are being tampered with, but tonight it's different. Roxie, one of the crew members has done rituals to try to give the crew good dreams. However, the power of the Nightmare King can't easily be overcome, as a result, rather than pleasant or nightmarish, people's dreams are instead taking a turn for the surreal tonight.

Get ready to go down the rabbit hole, Meatship.

The jovial extra terrestrial sporadically giggled at the sight of the imaginary synthetic meat by-product. Exuberance!

Curiouser and curiouser.

Comments

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

Asuka's dream ends up being horrifically surreal. It essentially ends up as this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY-qzq_hou0) scene, with the people from Tokyo-3 replaced by various Meatship peoples. Brainiac Five (the robot version) replaces Shinji, Meluly ends up taking over from Misato and for some reason Rei is replaced by Lafiel.

She wakes up horribly confused.

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

Wedge dreams.

He dreams he is an X-wing, drifting in the void of space. How odd. There's nothing here. No star or planet, no ships or anomalies. Simply himself drifting alone in space with nothing and no one. Stark emptiness stretches on towards the pinpricks of light representing stars, far off in the distance. It's not really terrifying. Just surreal.

And a little lonely.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

There a voice on his radio. A crackle. Some static. A hissing sound. Arha found herself floating, tumbling through space, crammed into some sort of protective suit. She almost didn't notice the X-Wing at all until she hit it with a dull thud.

Her faceplate hit the cockpit window and she grunted.

The radio crackled again.

[[Wedge?]] she asked quietly. Because who else would be in an X-Wing in a dream? Her own X-Wing drifted by, scorched, and being eaten by some sort of massive purple, glowing space bug.

[bears-omnitrix.livejournal.com]

Ben found himself sitting in what one might call a Tea Party.

He was also in a DRESS. A blue and white dress and he could feel the black bow that was sitting in his hair. “What…?” he murmured.

“I dare say m’girl, that you look astounding today,” replied Vilgax who was dressed in a fancy suit complete with cummerbund and a monocle. His usually gruff tones were spliced with a British accent. “Very fetch Alice.”

“My name’s not Alice, its Ben. And what the heck Vilgax?”

Vilgax gave him a look. “I’m not this so-called Vilgax that you speak of dear girl, I am the Hatter.” He poked the sleeping form in a teacup. “Mouse, please wake up! You’re sullying the tea!”

Wildmutt grumbled and rolled over in the too-small teacup, focusing bleary not-eyes at the Hatter. “I dare say old chap, you’re quite gruff this morning. Oh hello Alice, come to visit?”

“My name’s not Alice!” protested Ben and his voice hit a different pitch. Clapping his hands to his throat, he coughed and forced out a squeaky, “What the…?”

“I dare say she’s been befuddled,” remarked the third resident of the tea party, Eon who sported two heads on the tops of his ears. The usually violet-clad man was dressed in what seemed to be a long waistband and overcoat with no pants.

“Quite right,” remarked the Gwen-ear in a dapper accented voice.

“Old girl’s gone round the bend,” added the Kevin ear.

“This is not happening,” groaned Ben. “Can’t we trade places?”

“TRADE PLACES!!!” roared Vilgax and in a mad dash, everyone was in another configuration of seats save for Ben who blinked widely.

“Oh dear, oh dear oh dear!” cried the voice of Elena who was dressed as well in a tophat and running around with a pocket watch. “You didn’t trade places! The queen will be most displeased with you!”

“Queen?” replied Ben, his voice definitely pitched to a girl’s tone now.

The earth shook and as if on cue, a giant red dress clad figure stormed into place. It was Azmuth and he carried a flamingo with Max’s face on it. “Best run son, this’ll hurt if you get hit.” Remarked Max as the Azmuth-Queen raised the flamingo.

“OFF WITH HER HEAD!”

“Crap.” And Ben bolted.

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

Nura is a little farther up ahead than Ben, staring in utter bemusement at the scene before her. ...was that a boy in a frilly dress with bows? Nura can't tell, since the scene is somewhat murky.

And if Ben thinks his outfit is bad, Nura's is ten times worse (http://takhisis.deviantart.com/art/Is-this-wonderland-36569714).

[sandsofthepast.livejournal.com]

(http://s861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/GreybillGirls/duncan%20icons/?action=view&current=idaho02.jpg)

Duncan dreams. Hayt just watches. Dreams are nothing to Mentats, Nothing more than a random firing off of synapses, the brain's way of coping with RNA restructuring and the relationships between cells. Mentats have control over how their brains use information down the the smallest input, and dreams are a waste of cellular division.

Duncan remembers the last fight he was in; Sardaukar swarming him, some grinning, some berserk with the fight. Duncan's limbs are a blur, his breath steady and his mind the only thing sharper than the Kris knife slicing through armor and flesh as though it were nothing. He took the water of more than a dozen men before a mortar streaks by his head, explodes behind him, and the world goes dark.

Hayt swims in nothingness, a Mentat's dream underneath the dreams of the deceased. Mentats do not dream.

[sandsofthepast.livejournal.com]

However,



would sometimes flash in his mind.

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

Kala dreamed of darkness. Complete darkness. There were rustling sounds somewhere and eyes. Or dots. She couldn't tell. But all around her there were colors, some bright red--like goo-bug eyes--, and others weren't eyes at all but shapes, like a wash of color that glimmered and gleamed. Maybe she was floating, too, for the ink black of it was everywhere and she could tell which way was up or down.

The lights moved with her, as if tracking her, but nothing ate her, and she just watched them warily as she tried to reach out with a hand to touch something. Kala blinked and watched her own skin glow, pulsing with gold-white light and a touch of rainbow-esque shine at the edge of the glow. It was...disturbing...but pretty all at once. The lights rotated around, making her dizzy, and she called out.

[notsaintkaiser.livejournal.com]

And as she reached out, something reached back, her hand meeting with another. The second hand linked fingers with Kala's as a voice called out.

"It's okay. I'm here..."

And Kala could see her 'savior' was Vivio... though she was a bit strange in her own way. Adult, yet still had her childish hairstyle. Transformed, yet a mixture of her mothers' Barrier Jackets.

"I won't let you go... I'll be here for you..."

[governorkang]

Kang yawned, desperately trying to fight off sleep as he half-listened to the lecture on the difference between poikilothermy and homeothermy. Slith doodled on a sheet of paper with a piece of charcoal in the seat next to him; somehow, the bastard was able to pick up everything without even studying. A few feet in front of him, Marsel sat, paying rapt attention to every word coming from the massive five-headed dragon.

Currently, the black head was speaking, a few drops of acid falling from its jaws and sizzling when they hit the ground, "Humans, elves and dwarves, in order to cool down..."

It wasn't going to hurt to just close his eyes for a moment.

"Kang!" a small puff of smoke escaped the mouth of the red head.

The bozak jolted awake. Crap. Hopefully he hadn't started snoring. "Yes, Professor Takhisis?"

"Would you care to explain to the rest of the class why reptiles do not shiver when they are cold?"

It really was kind of creepy how she kept switching which head she spoke with. Slith snickered, earning himself a kick.

[greennotgold]

This was not Fletcher's best class. He preferred botany lessons, and the five-headed dragon who was their teacher was a little frightening. But he knew the answer, and he hated to see one of his classmates called upon unawares. So he raised his hand as high as it would go, which wasn't very. "I-I know why..."

[notlewis]

Thank god Luis wasn't dreaming about Pueblo again. He was at the bar in his favorite nightclub in Madrid, blocks away from his apartment and a mile or so down the road from the university. The music was lively, the night was young, and the ladies were out in droves.

In fact, Luis stood up from the bar, slicked back his hair and prepared to put on the charm for a small group of ladies out on the corner of the dance floor.

"Buenas noches, señoritas bonitas," he said amicably.

The women giggled to each other, each of them giving him an appraising glance.

"Listen, mis amigas. I want you to picture yourself-"



He woke up face-down at the bench he'd been working on earlier in the evening, his notes scattered about the table and an open test tube full of chemicals sitting on the rack beside him.

He would blame the chemicals.

[playsin-traffic.livejournal.com]

For some odd reason Tony finds himself in New York. It's nothing like the New York he saw briefly in Rhiow's dream, though. Instead of steel and concrete the buildings are gigantic trees, with windows cut into them. There are no cars, no people. Just swaying grass and rustling branches. Thin shafts of light work their way through the canopy overhead, leaving the whole scene dimly lit.

He's also a wolf, which isn't really a surprise. He glances around and then trots onward, a lone wolf moving in a soft, gentle sea of green. How odd. He moves down towards the river and the Atlantic - and instead of water, a massive, vast plain of swaying grass stretches out before him. He settles down on the end of a "dock" to watch, the wind ruffling his fur.

Huh.

[cityship]

And man floats by through the grasses in a boat. It's a raft made out of old-fashioned dairy jugs all bound together.

He holds up two slices of cheese.

"The cheese stands alone."

1/2

[snapsforyoutoo.livejournal.com]

Roy rolls over in bed, a sigh escaping noisily, a curtain of sleep-tousled black hair shifting to obscure his closed eyes, lashes barely visible underneath. His eyes are shifting jerkily under their lids, and he mumbles occasionally. Everything is going as usual until he starts... smiling?

The song on the radio is one of his favorites, and he hums along as he brings a pot of water to a boil. The oven to his right is radiating the heat and scent of baking meat, and as the song reaches its second verse, he is slipping potatoes into the bubbling, churning water.

A shout and a chorus of raucous giggles echo down the stairs in the next room, and he looks up from his work, eyebrow lifting, a smile tugging at his lips.

"I hope that shout wasn't your brother being pushed, again!" he calls, not all that concerned. The kids were good, if a little over-exuberant at times. A sigh puffs out as he turns back to the stove, eyeing the potatoes, shifting the pot a little to get it better on the burner. Pulling a dish towel off his shoulder to wipe his hands, he glances at the clock, and bites back a curse at the time.

"Shi - Oh, schnikeys, she'll be home soon! The ham isn't finished!" Tossing the towel on the counter, his hands fly to his hair, trying to make it look decent as he stares fixedly into the oven, toe tapping on the floor. He whines vaguely, dropping hands to his waist to untie the apron fastened there, tugging it off over his head. Fixing it on its hook in the pantry, he pads out of the room, leaning up the stairs, contemplating calling for the boys but changing his mind at the last minute. The last thing he needs is them under foot, and he purses his lips, fingers snapping anxiously as he shifts from foot to foot.

Five minutes find him back in the kitchen, shirt tucked into his trousers nicely, hair properly combed, hands gloved in oven mitts to protect from the heat of the pan. The ham smells simply exquisite, and he's quite pleased with himself until something tugs on his pants leg, and he starts so badly that the glass slips from his hands and shatters on the floor, scaring a cry from the pants-tugger, eliciting a sound of horror from Roy himself. He is frozen for a second before rounding on the now crying being, eyes fixing on a small, chubby blond boy, wide gold eyes tearful and fearful, fixed solidly on his father's face.

Roy blinks, head tilting, because this small child is undoubtedly Alphonse Elric, and what in all holy hell is he doing on the floor with glass and a large hunk of ham? And oh God, here comes Elysia Hughes, her eyes just as wide and startled, Ed behind her, their hands clasped, and why the hell is Ed even shorter than usual?

The door slams, and he shakes his head, coming back to himself in time to sweep the toddler into his arms and shush him from his fresh, growing sobs.

"Would you shut that damn kid up? Jesus Christ," she says, dropping things in the foyer, stomping across the hall into their bedroom. He can hear her jacket hitting the mattress, can practically see that aurulent hair sweeping across the white of her uniform shirt, and he shivers, not hearing as Al's crying escalates to absolute wails.

Ed whispers something in Elysia's ear, and the little girl giggles as Roy tries to smile.

"Is Elysia staying for dinner?" His voice is strained, and he can feel an odd sort of hectic, bone-deep confusion creeping up on him. The screaming child in his arms squirms, Elysia giggles, and Ed stares at him blankly.

"Dad, Elysia's your daughter. Why wouldn't she?" And suddenly what looked to be a seven-year-old Fullmetal was seventeen, full of the glory of his teenage sarcasm, golden eyebrow quirked. A perfectly manicured hand closes on the teen's shoulder, and though he isn't sure why, Roy tenses as his eyes travel up to that full-lipped face.

2/2

[snapsforyoutoo.livejournal.com]

Olivier Armstrong raises her only visible eyebrow at him, blue eye tired, and it occurs to him that her temper is likely to be short tonight.

Al sobs into his shirt, Ed smirks at him, Elysia giggles into her fists, and there is what had formerly been a perfect ham sitting on his foot. Glass is scattered across the floor in small, dangerous bits, Olivier is staring at him with that look that clearly means that he's in for a long night, and he has no clue why he knows that. Hit with a stroke of genius (and foreboding), his eyes slide to his left hand, fingers spreading wide as she shifts the still-yelling child into his other arm. He stares blankly at the gold band on his ring finger for several moments before he drops the child, hands fisting in his hair.

"Oh, Jesus, no!"

Al is no longer there - it is only the ham at his feet, and now Ed is laughing, and of course, everything is on fire. General Armstrong smirks, blinks an eye, and turns on her heel, disappearing into the haze.

That goddamn ham had taken so fucking long.

[bonnypiperlad]

The Banana Man has big ears, made of yellow peels. He's turning cartwheels on the cotton-candy grass. There is a big red button labeled 'Do Not Push' on the swing, its arms wrapped around the chains. It swings back and forth slowly, looking up at the plaid sky. The Banana Man sees the button, and stops his cavorting. He pulls back the peel that is his mouth, revealing a giant set of pearly-white teeth.

"Fantastic!"

He presses the button.

A giant cardboard cutout of a old-fashioned ink pen is lowered down on a clockwork frame. The ink that drips from its nib swirls with rainbow colors until it touches the ground and turns black and white. Starting feet first, a figure slowly begins to take shape. It's Jamie, but he's merely a drawing of himself.

He catches sight of his hands and turns them over and back, a very confused expression on his face.

"H-hey?"

The word flows up, swelling into a bubble that bursts and forms a flock of winged recorders. They take flight, trailing musical notes behind them like smoke on the wind. Cartoon Jamie stares after them while the Banana Man laughs and laughs.

[cityship]

A drawing of a man in a taupe suit, and glasses, holding two square slices of cheese appears.

"Where's there's a will, there's a cheese."

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

Theme music plays. It's a bouncy, jingly little tune.

The TV announcer says:

"My Two Dads! Starring Superman as Clark Kent! That Bastard as Lex Luthor! And That Wonder Girl Next Door, Cassie Sandsmark.

With America's favorite teen hearthrob and All-American boy, Kon-El, as Conner Kent.

My Two Dads! is brought to you by Morton Frozen Foods. Delicious desserts, right in your freezer! Filmed before a live studio audience!"

Everything is in black and white, because that's just how it is. Cheerful morning music plays, as the show cuts to a shot of the kitchen. Clark is cooking breakfast with his heatvision as Lex sits at the table and reads the paper. He's humming to himself as he cooks, and Lex starts to look increasingly annoyed.

Eventually, he puts the paper down, and says, "Must you do that while I'm trying to read the paper?"

"Must you read the paper while I'm trying to cook breakfast?" Clark retorts, to laughter from the audience. "You could cook your own breakfast, you know."

"The apron wouldn't be very flattering," Lex says, and he goes back to his paper as the audience laughs.

Kon runs down into the kitchen. He's wearing a old-fashioned cap, with his hair styled with pomade underneath, dorky slacks that were the height of cool in the 1950's, and a dorky sweater with a Varsity jacket.

"Mornin', pop!" A pause. "Mornin', pop!" The audience laughs. "Mmm mmm, that smells great! But can I get that to go?"

"Why the rush today, son?" asks Clark.

"I'm meeting the gang down at the malt shop today."

"I don't know," says Clark with a knowing smile. "Seems like it's a little more than that with how excited you look."

Kon admits. "Aw, pop. I guess you caught me." He scuffs his foot against the floor. "Well, it's just Cassie is going to come by first and I'm going to walk her there. You know she's my best girl! I think she might even let me hold her hand!"

Lex puts the paper down. "Now wait one moment, do you have your supervillain homework done?"

"Aw, but pop, I don't wanna be a supervillain."

"You're not allowed to go out and be a superhero until you've done your supervillain homework."

"Don't pressure the boy, Lex," Superman says, turning his heatvision off and turning around to face Lex with his hands on his hips. "He's got to have some fun now and again."

"If your idea of fun is saving kittens from trees," remarks Lex.

"What's wrong with saving kittens from trees?" asks Clark.

"Everything."

The audience laughs.

Kon chuckles and says, "Them's my pops!"

The audience laughs wildly. That's his catchphrase, after all.

[crusades]

"Honey, I'm Batman!" canned laughter as Weird Uncle Bruce enters, slinging his fedora onto the hat rack.

[grayaura.livejournal.com]

Mai is standing on small stone island in the middle of nowhere. The ocean stretches out for miles around. This wouldn't be so unusual if it were water. However, instead of water it's fire. Mai recoils at first and then bends down. There's no heat. Closer examination reveals that the fire is, in fact, stage fire made of paper. It moves and sounds exactly like real fire, though. She shrugs and then strips down to her undergarments.

A moment later she's taking a nice refreshing swim. In paper fire.

No, this doesn't make sense.

[restoresbalance.livejournal.com]

Luke dreams, and it is odd.

In his dream he is piloting the Jade Shadow through the gravitic field between two black holes. He was passing through an area where things caught between the two events hovered in place, tumbling end over end in the place where the tidal forces were in perfect balance. It wasn't the usual collection of space junk, though; as he watched, Luke saw an avian (http://timetoeatthedogs.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/kevin.jpg) with bright neon-colored feathers; a quartet of pink elephantine (http://www.boingboing.net/images/pinkelephants.jpg) creatures passed by the viewer a moment later. He turned his head to look at it all. And then he realized the ship was transparent, because he could see right through it.

No, it wasn't just transparent; Luke was outside it, staring at himself piloting the Shadow through the field of debris. Rainbow-y falling stars passed him by, and for some reason the fact that he was moving away from the Shadow and that the meteors (though they didn't look like meteors at their core so much as tiny beating hearts) were moving in a place where there shouldn't be any movement or gravitic pull at all didn't bother him. Luke twisted around and stared ahead of him.

"What are you looking at?" a Greek letter asked him, very rudely.

"Sorry," Luke replied. "I think you've lost your equation." He pointed, where the formula for the area of a circle was waiting impatiently.

The pi looked at him haughtily. "I was on my way there already." It rejoined the formula and then large potted plants on spindly legs were dancing around him and he was on the surface of a strange planet, and a pink and blue unicorn were goggling at him.

"It's the Banana King! You're the Banana King, Luke!"

Luke looked down at the banana in his hand, and felt for the crown on his head, and smiled. "I guess I am the Banana King."

[cityship]

A man shows up. A man carrying two slices of cheese in his hands.

"The cheese does not wear the crown. You wear the crown."

[wantstobebatman.livejournal.com]

The doc is pretty used to having crazy dreams. Between the haunted forest, the ninja zombie incident, the meatship zombie incident, and a few too many rounds of Left4Dead in the media library of COURSE his dreams are full of zombies too.

But normally the zombies clamor for his brains from outside the office windows, or do coordinated dance numbers in the street.

Tonight the Doc is instead having a bizarre step back from all that by observing himself from outside his own body. He's running around the city aboard Stacy, wearing a zombie defense system suit, and mentally clicking from weapon to weapon to weapon as he runs. A points bar in the corner of his view is dinging up as he goes.

He runs into a zombie of Luis and punches it's head off. He runs into a zombie of Jean and sets her on fire. He runs into a zombie of Nanoha and defeats her with a musical number about the power of love. He runs into a zombie of Batman and beats him to death with an alligator.

It's like playing GTA4, only populated entirely by zombie meatship people and without any cars to jack.

He wakes up out of breath, still hearing Batman's last gasp of 'WHYYYYY MCNINJA?' echoing in his ears.

[cityship]

When he wakes up, he wakes up with his bed covered in slices of cheese. A strange man with glasses is standing there.

He says, "The cheese will keep you warm when the cold winter comes."

Then he actually wakes up for real.

[different-skies.livejournal.com]

She's at the Crossroads, as always, floating around in her little blue and purple biosuit. "'Sup," she nods to a Tzoafo in its bubble ship, "Hey," she grins at a Jijijijika cruiser. One of its two large windows winks back.

Jump Point Station, dead ahead! She falls through, suddenly finding herself travelling the wormhole network at a rather impressive speed considering it's normally instantaneous. Left! Left! Right! Middle! Up! Junction of four coming up - she commands, "Split up!", and suddenly there are four Kims flying down four tunnels.

One flies through a supernova and her hair catches alight, and Kim decides she rather likes orange hair. One gets shot through nebulosity, attracting strands of it on her limbs like cobwebs. One gets caught in the event horizon of a black hole, turning into spaghetti and rather enjoying the entire process. Maybe she can see what's in it! Dive through the singularity like a dolphin through a hoop, and that's weird because she doesn't know what a dolphin is. And out the other end - oh, a white hole! Of course. And there are her other selves, flying out of other white holes for one big collision, and suddenly she's back together again.

She's in freefall through the atmosphere of Lakoni.

And she has cake.

And it's not a lie.

Kim scoops up a forkful, and salutes at a whale and a bowl of petunias as she falls.

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

This is pretty far off from the nightmares Brenda has been having for most of the week, but it's not entirely unfamiliar. The setting (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/x-files/images/d/d6/X-Files_Office.jpg) was a staple of the frightening dreams of her childhood. What she gets for watching too much tv.

She's in a pants suit, hair tied up, ranting and raving her way through the door.

Brainy is at her side, tap tap tapping on his omnicom as always, floating along with his flight ring and forcefield belt... but wearing a skirt-suit, stockings and high heels. He has a rather fetching figure in it too.

"You and your logical science!" Brenda rails. "We almost cracked the conspiracy! Why are you always holding me back?!"

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"What a fantastic theory you had," Brainy says smartly.

"What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look. Your proof was only circumstantial."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Paco leaned back, drumming the fingers of his tingly technicolor left arm against the back of the couch as he flipped through channels on the television in front of him.

"Let's see... Brenda seducing Brainy (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/273656.html?thread=21391864#t21391864), now with hilarious dialogue and cross-dressing... Brenda the Werewolf Stalker... Brenda rescuing Dark Smoke Puncher from the Man-Eating (Hur Hur Hur) Femazons of Jupiter... Brenda flirting with Jaime -- no wait, Khaji Da, my bad... Brenda beating Kon in a footrace, I do approve of the toga on her... Brenda making out with Jessica Alba, YES!"

He tossed the remote over his shoulders and folded his hands behind his head. This was the channel he wanted!

[is-the-ultimate.livejournal.com]

(http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j138/SoaringHeadache/Cape%20and%20Cowl/Shadow%20The%20Hedgehog/?action=view&current=thShadow015.png)

The desert... or it should be, if it didn't look like something out of a 60's cartoon. Shadow scanned across the area, looking for something. He mumbled something when he saw it - a familiar blue hedgehog and a two-tailed fox. What was amazing was that the hedgehog's feet were nothing but wheels and the fox just kept flying and flying...

It didn't matter to Shadow, though as he leaped into the air, his own feet spinning, as he raced towards the two, cutting them off at the pass.

"Well, hello there, Sonic." Shadow said... his voice sounding less like his normal and more... high-pitched. "This time, I'm going to STOP you, you faker!"

Stop?

"Woah!" Sonic yelped out, coming to a stop. "Listen, slo-mo, we've done this dance before! There's no way Ro-butt-nik's second rate me could ever win!"

"You tell 'em, Sonic!" his companion, Tails, said.

"This time, I'll prove it!" Shadow said, chasing after Sonic. Chasing? With that, two streaks - one blue, one black - raced across the desert, running up and down mountains, through loop-de-loops and covering all sorts of terrain. As Shadow caught up to Sonic, the blue hedgehog came to a stop, forcing Shadow to look back in confusion. "What in the...?"

"Hey, Shadow!" Sonic called out before pointing down. Shadow came to a stop, looked down, then looked back up at... someone, a worried look on his face as gravity kicked in, dropping him down into the large canyon below him.

"I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!" Shadow screamed as he fell.

"Man, oh, man. Whatta loser." Sonic said. "C'mon, Tails. I feel the need for SPEED!" With that, the two raced off.

[lackofdarkwings.livejournal.com]

Spain. 1519 AD.

Matt found himself in era-type clothing. For a long moment, he looked at himself seconds before a trio of kids with white faces started to sing.

[f-u-im-a-human.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, Hisk hates being the only one of the three Longwing siblings with the patience to succeed in getting a driver's license. Sometimes, Hisk also hates her brothers. And on occasion, their crappy secondhand car.

This particular morning, it's all three.

"Jek, getcher claws off m' seat when I'm drivin'!" she tells him for the fortieth time, knowing he's only doing it to bug her.

The smaller dragon grumbles but sits back in his seat, scowling at her in the rear view mirror. They hit a bump in the road, which causes Fnar to leave a big pen streak across the history report that he's trying to write against the passenger's side window.

"Gods hang it," he snarls.

"This wouldn' happen if you'd do that at home," she tells him.

"Shove it, Hisk," he snaps, now trying to white out the streak without ruining the rest of the paper or getting it everywhere.

"Shove it back, Fnar."

They pull into the parking lot, Hisk with teeth gritted, and find their spot. Cherl Snaketail's parked too close on the left again but they manage to get out and retrieve backpacks from the trunk without incident. Hisk slams the trunk and a little more rust falls off the back bumper.

"Now git," she growls to her brothers, who slink off to find their friends before class. She stalks toward the doors, wings folded tightly, daring the world to be even more annoying today.

Gods, how she hates Mondays.

[starlightace]

"I was just an ordinary nine-year-old girl..."

In Nanoha's dream, she's a lot younger than she is now - ten years younger, in fact - and there's nothing magical about her at all. No Raising Heart, no Yuuno, no Fate... just an ordinary nine-year-old girl who loves sweet potatoes.

"But sometimes... I couldn't help but wonder if my family was as ordinary as I was."

The girl walks into a room where her father and older brother are having a quiet, hushed discussion - both holding katanas - but upon seeing her, the conversation immediately ends.

"They always just said it was business about our family's kendo dojo, but I don't know. Maybe they aren't telling me something, after all."

The young girl sits up in bed, unable to sleep, and looks out of her window - just in time to see her brother and sister jump off the roof clad wholly in black outfits, blades in their hand, and vanish into the trees nearby.

Yes. Her family was, in fact... a family of ninjas.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

The heat of the sun burned her, but not how it used to: she found herself strangely comfortable in this. Nothing seemed to be famliliar about what she considered normal in her life: somewhere in the back of her mind she could hear her brother screamimg, "What did you do to my baby sister?" But that was fine. He would have that reaction. After all, much of her changed.

Where she had once seen her teacher stand she stood now, and the desert sand blowing in her face did nothing to deter her being here. She couldn't see her face, but she didn't have to: somehow, knowledge passed into her head that she kept tempered back. Her hair was bound back, her clothes tattered, almost unrecognizeable. Her face was half covered: she looked a little like the ninjas on the ship, although her eyes, which were usually blue, were not now.

At least, not a blue she knew her eyes to be, but that of her teacher and Arha, the fremen of the former Rakis, forever changed once partaking of the Spice Melange. In her mind, perhaps this was what she pictured it to be: a sense of knowing and understanding, of a stillness that she could control. She kept her eyes on the trembling sand dune in the distance: she could feel the tremors, the quiet movement that would becomke a rumbling, and she would answer that now.

She danced slow, deliberate, as she had seen her teacher do, but now the difficulties seemed to disappear: her body felt trained, awake, able to do things it could not before. She could somehow feel the blood of the Fremen in this place, and it saturated her blood as she repeated the cry now, the Voice coming almost effortlessly.

"Shaitan!" she said, and now the rumbling grew louder, and the noise like an orca/like a lion resounded in the air, but she was not afraid. She had become strong, and with that strength, she called the worm. Like the day in the Sensorium, the worm showed its teeth, and she clambered up, much faster than she had that day. Now she had a mission, and a desire that burst through any dream, a need that drove her.

"I will go to him," she said, in a voice not quite hers. "I will go to him, and nothing in this world will stop that. If the deserts are drained dry, and the spice gone forever and the Benes Gesserits and all waterbenders gone for good...I will search for him forever."

And she rode, and the scenery changed: she could see, in the distance, an enormous multi faceted jewel that shimmered in the air. It burned in colors of crimson, then dark orange, then light blue. In the middle she could see the unchanging third eye, the goal she always sought of reaching a peace she sought all her life. She could see it in an instance: growing older, teaching younger sisters the way of the Bene Gesserit, uniting water and sand to bring about new, knowledge seeking students. She saw herself passing away in her sleep, a happy. fulfilled life of learning, a string of lovers in her wake, inner peace at her core.

"You will have to wait," she whispered. "None of this is anything without him."

[phaseshifted.livejournal.com]

Garrus is in an elevator.

This strikes him as incredibly odd. He hasn't ridden an elevator since... well, since Shepard died. It was weird how they all seemed to completely disappear from the galaxy in the span of only two years. Kinda like standard-issue auto-cooling firearms, come to think of it. Whatever happened to those?

He blinks and becomes aware of Shepard and Tali standing beside him. They're covered in gore and flecks of electric-blue cybernetics, guns glowing warm through his scanner. The air shimmers around them and then sparks -- their shields have finished recharging.

You're in the Cerberus base above Mnemosyne, his brain helpfully supplies.

He looks around. Oh. Okay. Yeah, this is familiar. He remembers this now -- the heavy, oppressive air bearing down on them, the unnatural silence, the nigh endless hordes of husks and abominations screaming towards them to rip them limb from limb. That would explain the current state of their armor. The only thing that's wrong is that there wasn't an elevator there. Huh.

Something suddenly occurs to him. "Hey, Commander. We're going to be gone for a while on this mission. Aren't you worried about the crew members drinking all your beer?" he asks.

"Not to worry. Guess what I had installed on the Normandy," Shepard replies, shaking her head. Blue glitter -- the last remains of some poor researcher -- slowly falls from her hair like snow. It's pretty. In a really morbid sort of way.

A husk rips open the top of the elevator and drops down with a heavy thud. Its mouth works in a horrifying parody of speaking, and a dead, digitized voice buzzes out. "What did you get installed?" it asks, rushing towards Tali with its arms outstretched.

Tali casually raises her shotgun and blasts the thing in the head. Its head explodes in a cloud of grey and blue.

Shepard raises her omni-tool and calls up a holographic model of the Normandy. She narrows the view to the crew's living quarters, down in the mess hall, and points to a seemingly innocuous section of the bulkhead. Garrus leans forward for a better look -- it seems the same as the rest of the ship, but... what's that on the wall and underneath the refridgerator?

Garrus lets out a long breath when it finally hits him. "A secret revolving wall," he says, incredibly impressed. "Dude, you're a genius. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dHaOwC_4No)"

He and Shepard bump fists like bros, then turn and bump fists with Tali.

Another husk drops from the ceiling. Shepard puts her pistol up to its temple and shoots it in the head. After a moment's consideration, she bends down and bumps fists with it, too.

Elevator music begins to play. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tAcIGhh5Yo)

[morphitudinous]

Billy's first experience in tonight's dream world is a sensation of drowning in the blackness. His skin is saturated with water he can't see behind closed eyelids, his mouth tastes of salt, and he can't breathe at all. He feels that the weight might crush him at any moment, and with that comes a spike of fear.

Then, he feels a prodding in the back of his head by a strange watery tendril, as though someone else is reminding him of---that's right, he remembers. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. As he recites the litany in his head, it's as though a door opens. Without his conscious decision, his limbs uncurl, stretching toward the surface, and...whatever would have happened stops as he is wrapped in a white-hot light.

When it passes, his eyes open. The ocean before him---if it is in fact an ocean---is like none he'd seen before. The wildlife is an haphazard hodgepodge of every 'underwater' species around---fish, dolphins, penguins, seals, eels, and...dogs? Yes, there's a swimming dog at this depth. And humnanoid shapes too, if he squints hard enough.

Little trickles of red float up occasionally through the rocks, as if they're being restrained there, but other than that it's a swimmer's paradise. And a swimmer Billy is, as he looks down at himself and sees an electric blue flipper where his legs used to be. Yup. He's turned into a merman, how convenient.

Cautiously, he tests the new appendage---oh, so that's how to propel! Soon, he's moving toward a place where sea green fades into white, and progress stops. Because he hits a wall. A quick look outside confirms the unfortunate reality: Billy is inside a floating fishbowl, he realizes.

What a sinking feeling.

[smartnass.livejournal.com]

The Centurion has a blaster pointed straight at our intrepid hero. Lyle stands with his arms raised, down but not out.

Lyle half-smirks. "You think you've got me, but you're surrounded by the entire Legion."

"I don't believe you," says the villain, quirking his perfectly manicured mustache.

"Would you believe the Subs?"

"No."

"How about Arm-Fall Off Boy and Proty?"

The Centurion aims and fires, but fortunately Lyle's trusty fellow agent grabs him from behind at the last moment. Lyle turns and raises his eyebrows at the blast hole in the wall beside him.

"Missed me by that much."

[serial-innocent.livejournal.com]

"Do you have to taunt him?"

From where Duncan was standing, the miss hadn't been by all that much. This was annoying for any number of reasons, including - but not limited to - the fact that, "Now everyone will know we've been here!"

The villain was going to ruin everything! Maybe they could rebuild the wall?