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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"Your headset's on." Wyn cheerfully informs the swearing woman, who promptly blanches and begins to apologize profusely to the person on the other end of the line. "Sure, this isn't exactly what I wanted to be when I was little, but I wanted to be Batman for a while." she says, pressing her fingers to her temples. "And then reality hit, and I ended up with a degree that means exactly nothing in the current job market and a psychiatric history that means I'm lucky to even be here, even if I'm not doing what I wanted!"

God, she'd kill for some aspirin right now.

"You could be Batman, if you wanted. I think we've already got a couple on the ship."

Lyle finally puts his hand down. If she's trapped in "normality," maybe something a bit harder to explain?

He disappears, and a few seconds later the entire interlocking complex of cubicles is shaking violently, as though in an earthquake that effects only it. It's not enough to knock it down, but now the entire room is full of people's heads popping up while they try to hold a phone conversation at the same time.

The shaking stops, and Lyle reappears floating near the ceiling.

"It's probably easier to believe that I'm the dream. But I'm not. I'd notice."

"You keep talking about a 'ship', we're in the middle of Lon-- Jaysus f%$k." Wyn says, collapsing weakly back into her office chair. There is a man floating near the ceiling above her cubicle, which is located in the basement of a very ordinary office building in downtown London... and yet there's also something very green about the walls and her chair isn't rolling quite like it should.

"Who are you?"

Lyle lands again. His goal isn't to scare her, just snap her out of it.

"Lyle Norg. We met at a dance in the sensoriums."

Lyle waves his hand at the chaos he's caused in the washed-out world.

"This is a dream. You need to wake up."

"Right, Lyle... this isn't going to be like the end of Life On Mars, is it? Because I can tell you now, I'm not jumping off a roof in order to 'wake up'." Wyn says, stubbornly crossing her arms in her chair. (Pop-culture references are actually a good sign.)

Unfortunately, Lyle doesn't get 21st century pop culture references. He frowns slightly.

"No jumping. Just concentrate on what's real and push away everything that feels false. Remember, you're ... Irish? And ..."

There's a pause.

"We didn't actually talk for very long."

"I'm real, you're real... since when do I wear cardigans? Also, my desk is very boring for some reason. There's not even a calendar! Who doesn't keep a calendar on their desk, I ask you! And... is my computer running Vista? That is definitely not real." The nightmare flickers rapidly back and forth from the washed-out office to the green, oddly pulsating walls of Stacy before giving up under Wyn's onslaught of horrified logic.

Vista? Really?

"There you go." Lyle looks around approvingly at the green walls. He looks different too, of course, in his plantsuit instead of business casual.

"Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine in a second, yeah." Wyn says, pinching the bridge of her nose. "If the Nightmare King's trying to spread despair, a few days in that office ought to do it for just about everyone."

Lyle bites his lip a little. "You didn't seem to be asleep."

If she had been, this was an odd place to rest. No beds here.

"Not unless I picked up a surprise sleepwalking habit sometime this week." Wyn shrugs. It's possible, but...

"Thanks for the help, by the way."

Lyle does not like hearing that. It was bad enough getting nightmares in his sleep. Now it seems the only reason he wasn't the sleepwalker was pure luck.

"No problem. And if you see anyone that looks kind of hazy, be careful. They're probably doing the same thing."

Beyond the Walls of Sleep

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