trans_9 | Beyond the Walls of Sleep

Slowly but surely, the nightmares have been chipping away at the mental defenses of the crew.

Even those who attempt to stay awake to avoid the nightmares find themselves too on-edge to completely concentrate their defenses.

And the Nightmare King has not been idle during all this, no. He has been slowly feeding off the crew, gathering his strength so that he may yet break free from his prison.

And he now uses that new found power, reaching out to affect the minds of the crew even in the waking world. Even those avoiding sleep will find themselves drifting in and out of their nightmares, bringing everyone a taste of despair.

After all, no one can escape the grasp of the King of Nightmares.

No one.

[ooc: OH NOEZ. As you can guess, the Nightmare King is getting stronger. As such, the crew will start experiencing waking dreams. These are much more subtle than the normal nightmares, however, and are more so depressing and surreal than actually brain-breaking. Mostly they would be miserable versions of the character's normal life, or perhaps even their life on the ship.]

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"I think that's the point," Rhiow said. "To keep you here, in a state of stagnation. One you think is normal - if more drained of life than usual - so that you don't realize the need to wake up from it."

She looked down at the stone of the battlements, focusing on the grain of it so she wouldn't have to look him in the eye when she admitted, "Without Life to preserve, my own Oath is feeling a little superfluous as well."

There was a ringing silence in her ears as she said it, and a low growl at the edge of her awareness that was the Whisperer warning her of the dangers of that line of thought. Rhiow shook her head hard, her ears flapping.

He lets his breath out in a deep, rumbling sigh of assent.

"It is a baseless tactic," he says, though he knows as he says it, it is as much to reassure himself as this . . . talking cat. Well, he would be lying if he said he hadn't spoken to stranger. "Our crew surrounds us with life worth protecting." He lowers his eyes from the horizon. "But a lonely life it is, without loved ones and family to protect among them."

Too lonely for him to stand once before. Must he fulfill some cosmic quota by doing it now?

"Though it makes little difference," he says, at length, "perhaps it would be best if I were to wake up now." A pause. "You seem to know more about these things than I."

One of Rhiow's ears tilted backward in slight embarrassment that he would be the one to point out what she should have already known. As long as there was life somewhere, there would be a need for wizards to preserve it. You must get tired of this going on in my head all the time, she said silently to the Whisperer, but the former pressure of her regard was absent.

"You have to recognize that where you are isn't real. You're near the living quarters, on Stacy. This is a product of your mind and the Nightmare King's magic. Know it, and it'll be real. These things are all about perception and tricking your mind, anyway."

"Very well." Goliath glances at the cat once more. "Shall I thank you before trying, or will you have joined me in the waking world as well?"

These dreamwalkers are curious things to him.

"I'll still be there," Rhiow said. "I meant it when I said you were dreaming awake. I was walking through the ship and walked right into your dream." She licked her nose once, very quickly. "It's becoming rather dangerous for us out there."

"Danger does not scare me."

Goliath breathes deep. He has woken from imposed dreams before. Now that he has realized he is in one, that this despair, however justified, is not his alone -

He closes his eyes, and when he opens them, the city and castle have vanished. The walls of the ship pulse slightly. The humid air is heavy in his lungs, in truth no less nightmarish than the waking dream he just left, but real, a physical imposition, not a mental one, and therefore preferable.

The cat remains by his side, and now Goliath gives it his full attention. Better to meet a crew member with his mind clear and unburdened by the Nightmare King's influence.

"Thank you, my friend." His despair somewhat lifted, his curiosity takes over. "I mean no disrespect, but this is the first time that I know of when I have been saved by - or spoken to - one of your race."

Rhiow let out a slow sigh of relief when the dream dematerialized, leaving Stacy's slowly pulsating walls. She was relieved that he was able to break out of the dream so easily - for a moment there, she thought he was going to reject the idea.

"No disrespect taken, as I can say the same thing - and also, that I'm afraid it's mutual, as I'm not sure what your species is."

"I am a gargoyle. Our numbers are few. It is to be expected."

He would much rather discuss the origins of this talking cat than the depletion of his race, and he continues to inspect Rhiow curiously, kneeling to better converse with someone this much smaller than he is.

"By what magic do you speak?"

"Not magic, precisely, but a language of a kind," Rhiow said. "I know the Speech, which at its base level is the language of magic, but it's more the language of creation, a universal language. When other living creatures hear it, they understand it." She put her whiskers forward in good humor. "It's my wizardry that allows me to use it to communicate with the non-living as well."

"Fascinating. I did not know creatures but gargoyles and humans were capable of wizardry."

He thinks again of his earlier thoughts. It is a coincidence, and a strange one, that a wizard should come to him as he is wondering if he should find one to ask the favor of sleep.

Now, though . . . this is not the right time to bring up the request. He feels foolish, having thought of it. He is not the only one lonely, and suffering, under the Nightmare King's influence, and far from his home. He is not the only one here who is the only one of his kind. Just the only one with a thought of a means to avoid it.

His expression goes grim as he thinks. To sleep would, indeed, be a comfort - to give up, a shame.

Rhiow sat beside him companionably. She hadn't been the best at reading human facial expressions, and his were entirely alien to her - still, it was hard to shake off something like that. "On my world, many creatures are capable of wizardry. The whales are some of the most accomplished wizards on the planet... and then there are the falcons, and other great birds of prey. Even the houiff have their wizards - dogs, that is," she said, translating almost as an afterthought.

Her tail switched slowly back and forth, the tip twitching. She was far from content, though. Something in Stacy's ever-present hum was... off. "The air feels too close in here," she murmured. "Closer than usual, that is. I didn't know the Nightmare King could effect our waking world yet... this isn't good."

It is harder to read his expressions, given that his neutral put up against a human's neutral appears much more dour than he necessarily feels. Easier to interpret is his body language, the tone of his voice.

"He is progressing more rapidly, then?"

He is . . . concerned. But not overly so. One can only confront obstacles such as these. To run from them would be merely to delay them.

"We always knew that his ultimate goal was to break free of his prison, and that eventually he would become stronger," Rhiow said. "We've been trying to warn the crew to that effect but most of the time it seems like anything that comes from the Magical Department is effectively ignored." Her ears laid out sideways and her tail lashed in annoyance. "We have too many creatures of science and reason who seem to be incapable of accepting other universes where the laws are different than they are at home."

Beyond the Walls of Sleep

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