Mulan is early to bed and early to wake, and just as early to get to the Sensoriums for practice. A strictly military woman, she's not much for meditation. Quiet reflection is for when you're on the march, and sitting around has no place in the middle of a war. Not the one she fought, anyway.

Her kung-fu reflects this. Her style is a model of efficiency, the sort of fighting that results when an experienced warrior takes a young, underpowered farmhand and trains her to hit for the maximum amount of damage that can be dealt out with the shortest amount of training time. It's not flashy. It's not refined. There's not a lot of spirituality involved. There's just Mulan, and imaginary enemies needing to be hit, and muscles in the process of being kept up.

After her encounter with Sawyer, she's more thoroughly maintaining her gender-neutral garb, still pulling her hair back, still wearing her roomy men's shirt and loose yoga pants with the plantsuit underneath. She flows through the movements of her agressive, active katas, as the sun rises over a simulation of her original training field, illuminating dew and mist over the green grass, and the sound of a rushing river somewhere in the background, out of sight in the forest behind her. A tree hung with ripe lychees shades her as she strikes, evades, and flows. In a few minutes, some of them will be breakfast.

Roxie's lair is much as it has been, though there have been a few changes. With the girl's paranoia inducing the place to run at half-alert status, the runes across the outside walls stand out in softly-glowing dark-edged curlicue, and odd posts topped with silver-chrome metal orbs stand out at odd angles from the building, humming softly. On the edges of the roof perch things like small birds carved out of bits of ivory and fragments of office supplies.

On a level past the physical, the entire building glows with a soft supernatural aura—practically broadcasting that it's at weapons-readied status.

But the door is open, as it long has been, and there is no impediment to entering. Won't you come in?

There's something to be said for finding a place to decompress. Normally, Jamie would go to the City and practice his bagpipes when he wanted to do so. But the city is in shambles, and he's still not up for his usual explorations of the ship. Instead, he turns to the Sensoriums, bringing up a familiar place - a peaceful and quiet location that holds a little bit of home.

There is no strange and interesting technology this time, no war torn battlefield, no people at all. What is there is a small loch, with a tree covered hill visible on its opposite bank. On side closest to the entrance are birch trees, with one standing quite close to the water. Greenish lichen covers a good deal of its trunk, and a faint breeze rustles the summer-green leaves. The hum of insects can be heard, as well as the occasional movement of some small unseen animal passing by.

Jamie rolls up his sleeves, then lies down on the ground next to a nearby rocky outcropping. Supporting himself with one arm, he reaches into the water with the other and begins to feel underneath the rock.

Perhaps it has to do with the silvery shapes that can occasionally be seen darting just under the water's surface, or perhaps he's just lost something. Either way, he has yet to realize there's someone here besides himself and the fish...

Gauron's set up a conference room in the sensoriums to discuss his plans for the city; true to his word, there is food - pastries, sushi, yakitori, and baozi, for the moment, but it's the sensoriums: it's not like you can't have something else if you want - and several choices of teas and gourmet coffees. One wall is taken up by a massive window, looking out over a partly cloud-shrouded mountainside, but the real focal point of the room is the massive table in the center - more specifically, the three-dimensional map of the city occupying most of its surface, updated to reflect the changes Aang had made to numerous buildings' state of existence.

All that's left is seeing whether anyone actually shows, or whether he'd have to mention that he wanted to pay people for their involvement in this as soon as there was someone in charge of the ship's finances before anyone would be arsed - and probably piss off the command staff in the process, because he hadn't said anything about it to them yet.

Welcome to the Unholy Cathedral at the heart of Escherville. It is here, in this place, that the Nightmare King has made his bid for release.

And he will not be stopped by the likes of you.

More monstrosities pour out of every angle, intent on ending this adventure. These monsters are every bit as horrific as the ones you all faced to get to this point, though you will quickly notice there is something drastically different about them.

Magic does not affect these creatures. At all.

Your spells do nothing. Your prayers are meaningless. The power of your God is useless against them.

No force in heaven or hell can affect them.

Nothing at all Magical can hurt them.

You're the ones who are good enough (or lucky) enough to be close to Escherville. You've had the good fortune to be scooped up and now you need to regroup and get ready to take on the Nightmare King himself. Time to reorganize and gear up as best you can with what you've got. The Nightmare King isn't going to wait for you.

Get moving.

_{((OOC: This is for the various groups/peoples who will be fighting the Nightmare King directly or assisting in that endeavor. If your character was in one of the Challenge from Beyond Groups, tag them in here! Feel free to do some tagging back and forth and enjoy yourselves. Please get tagged in by Tuesday night, March 2nd though, so we can get the Final Fight properly organized. ))}

Nightmare becomes reality....

[roster: leader - Jean Grey, Aeneas, Billy Blin, Vivio, Zelda/Sheik]

There is a traitor in your midst, meatship. A crew member working for the Nightmare King, enacting his will subtly on the crew.

This person has access to all the Nightmare King knows about their crewmates, and there's plenty the horrible being can glean from their dreams.

Today, it's time to act, to try to cripple all they can, to bring the fears of their crewmates to the forefront to make them easier prey. Today they revel in their cruelty, their soul twisting and writhing in the grips of their cruel master.

[ooc: This is your cue! Each of you, tag in making a new subthread, and set up the setting of where your character is, like you'd do for an post to the comm in general. In the OOC post please lay out the fears and insecurities you plan to exploit in your character's final nightmare to help with the messin'--they'd be bringing those fears to the forefront with their comments, to make it easier for the Nightmare King to act on them]

Sheik has never met the man that plagues so many of Zelda's dreams. Never has he been unfortunate enough to face the self-described King of Evil - but Zelda's memories of him have slipped the taint into his own dreams.

( Cut for length and blood. )

((OOC: Right, so! Initially closed to Link, will probably later be opened up for general med bay-ness. Can has medic?))

Leaning back in his chair, Apollo stretches while giving out a loud yawn. He'd holed himself up in the Sensoriums, leaving the entrance open in case someone really wanted to use them, for a few hours. A large stack of paper was in front of him, and the table and floor around him was littered with various bits of crumpled... No, folded paper. Paper crabs, paper cranes, paper frogs, paper bugs... He's obviously been busy. In his hand, held between two fingers, is the start of another folded paper project.

He looks at the paper and sets it down, leaning over the back of his chair and letting his arms hang loosely for a bit. He's been at this for too long, but somehow the whole 'wait for a crewmember to stop by the most popular part of the ship for a bit of conversation' plan failed. "Maybe I should have tried the cafeteria?"

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.]

They had been distracted by the podpop, but Sheik still had kept his appointment - payment to the blacksmith, Daja, for fixing his beloved lyre. It wasn't too much of a hardship, either - a few songs and some tea, which would explain the burner, teapot, flask of water, two teacups, and little pouch of just enough tea for two set beneath the tree Sheik was now lounging beneath.

Honestly, he had been pleased to find the little park - and quite close to Daja's forge, too. Now, he set everything out on a flat rock in the shade and settled back to wait, newly repaired lyre in his lap.

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a green-skinned alien and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

Daja fired up the forge, feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment as she watched the burning flames. It had taken her some time to fully clean our the dust and other strange debris, organise and clean the tools, and get everything into working order - but she now had a place where she could work her craft.

But now it was time to get to work. Metals were scarce, but she had found some pieces of scrap-metal that were workable, and so she began the task of melting them down into something she could use.

She wondered if anyone would respond to her message – she hoped she had managed to use the omnicomm correctly – or perhaps even see the smoke from her forge, and visit her today.

Some cheer was definitely needed on this ship. Whatever chance meeting had brought Kaylee and Claudia together in mechanical mischief had also set their minds to turning over what they could possibly do to get some smiles back on the faces of those onboard.

A costume party.

Claudia had come up with the idea, really. She knew a bit more about it than Kaylee did, but she explained it all in such a way that Kaylee really couldn’t resist wanting to throw one. It’d be a good chance for everyone to let loose and have a good time in the midst of the nightmare madness. Who could resist that?

The sensorium had been melded to an image from Kaylee’s mind, though. A grand ballroom, with marble floors and painted ceiling. A large buffet table stood against one of the walls, covered mostly in fruit, but in some other hors d’oeuvres as well.

[[ OoC: Party style!! Costumes aren't a requirement, but they are fun. If you've got questions about anything, ask Cheryle or Holly. :D ]]

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!]

Tonight, once again, the dreamscape of the meatship has been altered.

However, this time, the dream was the same, no matter the dreamer, and was neither good nor bad, but simply odd.

Only a portion of the crew would have this dream, some of them intentionally, others whose mind simply happened to drift upon it in the dreamscape.

Regardless, it starts out the same for each dreamer:

The dreamer finds themselves standing on some rocky, barren world.

( Read more... )

[ooc: This is just Seer's way of checking up on the crew. Once again, posting isn't mandatory, but if you want your pup to meet/interact with Seer, feel free!]

Night-time.

Or, at least, what passes for night-time on the meatship.

Tonight, though, there is something strange happening.

Throughout the ship, an odd tinge creeps into the dreams of the shipmates. A flash of red, perhaps, or the soft chiming of bells—but what follows it are good dreams, in sharp contrast to the darker ones of before.

Pleasant dreams, meatship.

[Good dreams for everyone! Nobody is required to post, but if you, have fun with it!]

After his brief communication with Nanoha the day before, it's a rather nervous Sheikah (with add-on Hylian) who's made his way to Nanoha's office in the Temple.

Is this the right thing to do? He does trust Nanoha, for what it's worth, and if she's involved with subduing the Nightmare King, she does need to know - both about Zelda and about something a little more dangerous. And he's asked Roxie to meet them there as well, at least - not only is she involved as well, but she already knows about Zelda. If nothing else, she's moral support.

Fidgeting very slightly, he lingers outside the office, waiting for Nanoha and Roxie - and really hoping this doesn't backfire.

Nighttime.

Or, at least, what passed for nighttime on the meatship.

A time when most of the crew was already fast asleep, dreaming away pleasantly throughout the night.

...Or, perhaps not. For you see, tonight, something particularly strange is happening.

Now it is not all that unusual for someone to have a nightmare, especially not on the ship.

Yet tonight, no one will sleep easily, for the Nightmare King deems it so.

Everyone's dreams will have a tinge of horror to them. Nothing so out of the ordinary to rouse one's suspicions, but at the same time, no one is left out.

Pleasant nightmares, meatship.

[ooc: And thus begins the start of the Nightmare King's spree of insanity. He's starting out subtle, of course. The nightmares won't be anything more than your run of the mill bad dream, but he is giving them to everyone. Posting in isn't mandatory, but if you want to have fun with your character's nightmare, go right ahead.]