Dreamspace - RP Topic

Community Role Playing
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There was no visible slot, or any indicator of any kind for access. Simply a green panel. Maybe it didn’t need a key?

The door swung open with a slow creak, revealing…

Muck. A really good amount of muck. It was all piled in one corner, as if someone had planted a muck seed there and it had sprouted into a beautiful muck lump. Thoroughly revolting, to say the least, although the room seemed to be furnished nicer than the others.

Maybe this wasn’t the best option.

There was a… peculiar sensation.

Was it coming from the ceiling or the wall? Was it near or far away? No, it had to be close, or it couldn’t feel so… Strong. Like a pulsing sensation of blood, only thousands of times faster. Tens of thousands of times.

Whoa, don’t get overwhelmed. That sensation - it was like feeling for a pulse under the skin. It was like… Feeling the vein, the exact location of the artery, except… Feeling it with your mind. It seemed to run across the wall and the ceiling, and if you decided to focus, you could almost feel an exact path between the panel on the wall and the hatch above.

Kinda sus ngl

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209

Eve, somewhat inoculated against the strangeness of the (very most definitely her own) dream, grunts monosyllabically. She kneels again and spreads her knife fingers, aiming them flat instead of point-up. “Near-shreds, got it,” she says in a flat tone. Probably a joke. Definitely one.

Her fingers are still awfully, awfully sharp though. At least pointed away, they’ll do less damage than pointed straight. Soreness and red marks beat scars after all.

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Miles gave a thumbs-up to Alexis as she left, then turned back towards the terrified bat-child on the floor in front of him. Looking up at the top of the stairs where the robot and scientist went, he tried to sound as un-threatening as possible while he kept talking to Basil.
“I’m sure that they’ll be back soon, but do you want to follow them up? I’d be perfectly fine carrying you if you want to stay off your bad leg.”

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Basil gave a quick nod and then did a violent double-take.

There in front of him, through the room he had just left, was the labcoat girl. But how was that physically possible? She had gone up the stairs behind him, and not come back down past him. Had she?

His eyes turned to look in confusion at Miles, seeing if perhaps he had a solution to this perplexing issue.

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212

Basil’s perplexed look after looking into the mold room made Miles a little confused, so he turned to try and see what was the matter.
“What is it? That’s just the room we-”
Seeing Alexis in the room, and not the room they had left, made the out-of-place lawyer even more confused.
“Hey, can you see us?” He said, raising his voice a little in case they were farther than they seemed.

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Alexis ignored the metal lady’s attempt at a joke and stepped up into her hands investigated the hatch then stepped down and approached the panel, luckily her shoes came out with only a few scrapes. Alexis reached her hand towards the panel, the feeling was always strange at first, like an electrical current was running from her palm directly into the machine it was somewhat nostalgic; a constant in the ever-changing variable, She could work with this, She could fix this.

Alexis paused inches from the panel, she could’ve sworn that was the voice of the Attorney. She turned her head slightly to get a glance and sure enough there they were still sitting at the bottom of the stairs where she left them. She waved the strangeness of the situation away and returned her attention to the panel, “Give me a second, i’m almost done here.” Alexis shouted back as she returned to place her hand on the panel and gave a simple command for the panel to follow.

“Open.”

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The moment her hand made full contact on the panel there was a metallic scratching sound, and the hatch slid backwards before she had time to issue her command. Maybe the panel simply needed human contact?

At the same instant, a large metal ladder shot down and slammed into the floor with a noise like a pistol shot. Up above came the descending muggy light of what had to be the outdoors.

Was she free?

Sadly, there was nothing. What a waste of perfectly good food space.

Then there is a very loud noise, probably bad. But wait- that smell… It was new, it had just appeared in his senses. If he had smelled it before, it must have been very long ago, but somehow it was instantly identifiable as one and only one possible scent, one possible source.

The sea. Seawater.

Alexis responded in the opposite direction, and then…

BANG

A ladder appeared, slamming into the floor with rather violent speed. Something else moved violently fast as well, and a second later there was a cry, followed by the light above him swinging about erratically, barely able to stay attached to the ceiling.

On the light was Basil, who had jumped directly upwards in shock, found his leg unsuited for clinging to the ceiling, and was now holding on to the ceiling light for dear life.

“Help.”

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218

Without a single pause Eve darts up the ladder with alarming speed, knife-fingers leaving scratches all over the construct as she climbs. She barely even thinks about the panel or how it worked, or the others.

She just wants to get out of here. Out of the room, if nothing else. And why should she care about them anyways?
They’re just dreams.
All dreams.

Aren’t they?

Her teeth scrape together in frustration as Eve buries the thoughts and keeps climbing.

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219

The sun.

Well, sort of. It was awfully cloudy today.

If either of you had memories of the superfluous city you lived in before all of this, something would immediately be wrong. It had been surrounded by a rather high wall to diffuse the occasional blusterous sandstorm that ravaged the wilderness beyond its border, each district of the city kept safe and secure in an otherwise inhospitable blank slate of sand and stone.

The wall was gone.

Oh, and the entire city was now surrounded by water.

It was possible to see all this due to the party’s current location, on a small island barely off-shore from the rest of the city. How had they gotten here? Why had this occurred in the first place?

In the skies above the city, something flew. Down below, in the water, something else drifted about. They weren’t alone.

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220

Eve clambers off the ladder and finally comes to a stop. She shades her eyes with a hand, more reflexively than anything else, and gazes over the landscape.

This…isn’t the city she dreamed of. No, no it’s all wrong. Where are the shadows, leering and malevolent and so weak and breakable when she was wrathful? Where are the armies of stick figures in choppers and tanks, waiting to fall before her?

They’re gone. They’re all gone now. Now the streets are drowned in black, hideous water that makes her metal creak anxiously, and huge dark things flying above and below. Things she didn’t dream.
This isn’t her dream. This isn’t her dream.
THIS ISN’T YOUR DREAM ANYMORE EVE

Eve falls to her knees with a deafening clang. The sound echoes below and most likely reaches the others. She doesn’t care. She doesn’t know what…who they are anymore.

Her arms hurt. They hurt and she can’t even focus enough to determine why.

The cyborg wordlessly looks to her immediate surroundings; what the building she’s standing on looks like, and if there are any significant landmarks visible near to it.

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Some concrete slab… Yes, it appears as though she had emerged from a concrete slab. The entirety of the building she just exited was underground.

As for what was immediately around, there was very little. A few evergreen trees, so old and decrepit they seemed to radiate age. No, wait- something behind the trees. A boat, tied to a rickety wooden pier, and from her current position it appeared to have a motor.

Awful convenient, if it functioned.

As for the city itself, it appeared only some of the streets were submerged. Well, hopefully. It wasn’t too easy to see with so many buildings in the way. One area was undoubtedly visible, and if your memory was correct, it was formally the slums, although now it resembled something of a seaport, with a pier built out of old wooden palettes and tarp homes. Enough thought had gone into its appearance that it was evidently someone’s handiwork.

But was it a someone who had made it, or simply the result of a dream? If not her own…

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Sue had never thought a fish would give her hope.

After finding nothing but more M’s in the door, she’d lost interest in exploring the other doors. She’d simply stared into the messy room with disinterest, waiting for… something.

But then, the fish swam… flew?.. into the room, explored it thoroughly, and declared “nothing, next one!” There was something about his seeming excitement, the type of excitement that the quick movements of a flying fish gave off. Suddenly, she wanted to open the other doors, to explore, even if all she found was M. It was like playing with a kid. She started to head toward the next door…

When suddenly there was light. Real light, the kind that came from outside. Not that she could really tell the difference, of course – she’d never seen sunlight before, which sounded kinda depressing – but in the moment, she felt sure it was sunlight and that this was escape to the outdoors.

Maybe it was just hope. She’d never been able to see before, and she wanted to see it all. The sky, the trees, the… cities? She remembered the pamphlet with the map for a fleeting second, then lost interest. The world needed to be seen.

The tall one was already ascending the ladder, and she caught a glimpse of the fish darting up as well. Sue didn’t give any thought to the other girl, or the rest of the people who were around. She dashed to the ladder, stepped up onto it… winced slightly as the rung of the ladder hit the scrapes on her legs left by Eve, but ignores it and ascends the ladder to stand beside Eve.

She still has enough presence of mind to move out of the way of anyone else trying to use the ladder, though…

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Miles was more shocked than anything at Basil’s ability to move so quickly with an injured leg, leaving the lawyer standing there with his arms outstretched and staring at the small bat boy on the light.
“Uuhm… alright, just-”
Looking around to see what had happened in the last few seconds and seeing the now open trap door, Miles tried to coax Basil off of the light and back to the ground.
“Just jump off from there, I’m going to catch you, alright? I know there’s a lot going on right now, but there’s a way out of this place now and I won’t leave you behind, alright? You have to trust me.”

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He must think Basil is mad.

Jump off from a place with scary amounts of vertical space between it and the floor? Especially with one outstretched leg and severe trust issues?

crick

What was that.

Uh oh… The light shifted suddenly. The cord embedded in the ceiling did not like the sudden addition of weight. Perhaps if he just stood still-

KrrRRRIP

crap crap Crap CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP

For Miles, Basil’s eyes traveled tentatively, and after a moment of fear lurking in the back of his pupils, the light ripped straight out from it hold, causing Basil to drop like a rock. Hopefully his excellent reflexes thus far would continue being timely in efforts to save him from a painful meeting with the floor.

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225

Despite Alexis’ desperation to get out of here, she found herself fearing what may be on the other side of the ladder. Perhaps there was another horror to behold outside this place? Maybe it would all be okay, and she could finally go home.

Then she heard the cry, and it was impossibly close. She spun around, but no one was near the stairs, then she turned to the room beyond this one when she saw Basil clutching onto the ceiling light. “Basil, how did you get up there?" Alexis spoke, desperately trying to mask the fact that she was freaking out. How did she go up the stairs then come back down to the first level, there had to be an explanation, potentially there were slopes that then circled back to the first room? Surely she would have noticed those.

Focus

Alexis turned back towards the other two just in time to see basil fall, as he fell time slowed to a crawl for her. the moment felt like it lasted days as he slowly crept closer and closer towards the floor. She would be too slow to stop it, she couldn’t stop it. She was helpless, just like she had been earlier when the beast had made its presence known.

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Nor is it the city you remember. That city was dry and dying - this one is wet and dying.

A jumbled mass of disarray and buildings, of paraphernalia and streets. Even at the long distance, you can see the rakish tilt of entire apartment blocks. Everything, the buildings, the streets, the water, the clouds, seem to be tilted away, towards the center of the city.

Towards the tower.

Rising above the barely-discernible mound of brick and steel and rubber, a tall, dark spire shoots upwards, impossibly high, rising to a single, needle-sharp point. A pinkish glow radiates from that point, a glow that must be blinding up close, but at this distance is soft and distant. It casts a pall on the surrounding clouds.

The light is comforting. Sickeningly comforting.

A swathe of disturbed sand leads down to decrepit trees and the boat. But as Eve drops to her knees, a metallic crank sound rings out. Looking down, she would see two lumps of metal, crushed, twisted beneath her knees. A shape that isn’t overtly familiar, at first - a ring of metal, with a wide strip encompassing its diameter. Wait, no. That strip is the part she crushed, it would have jutted upwards.

Beartraps.

Someone had placed beartraps there, to stop her.

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227

Eve glances at the bear traps, thoughts moving slowly through her head. Someone else is here, which means the city isn’t totally abandoned. Someone else is here and laying traps, which means whoever’s here is a person more likely than an animal.
Someone else is here, and they laid traps on this building specifically…the one Eve and the rest of the not-Dreams were in.

Taimon slowly lets her arms fall to her sides, wincing slightly. There are small cuts that look like her nails did it but she doesn’t pay it too much mind. There are more immediately pressing things to take care of.
Someone else is here. Another not-Dream, and unlike the timid or silent things she woke up with, this one isn’t so keen on talking. Perhaps frightened of them…or other things here.

“Someone else,” Eve says after a long silence. She points to the beartrap as she turns to glance at Sue. “Someone else is out here.”
She smiles widely, looking back over the city. “We should tell the others.”
After all, Dream or not-Dream, they might help me find whoever laid these.
Or they might be good bait.

Eve’s eyes twitch in the direction of the spire. It feels nice to look at, and it feels ugly at the same time. A strange, ugly, peaceful glow that makes her feel more than vaguely unsettled.

What is…this? What dream is this supposed to be?

She stares at it, trying to trace the spire from top to bottom, trying to see if there is even a conceivable trail that might lead there. The water’s probably too deep for them to all walk there. Perhaps they could find a boat somewhere.

Then again, whoever left these traps might have a way to traverse this place.
Eve’s smile widens.

@Winger
@Willess12

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Miles’s eyes went wide in alarm when he saw the light fall from the ceiling with Basil still on it, and of the several thoughts that went through his head at that second the least worrying was great, now I’ll have to catch him in the dark. Not having much time to react, the startled lawyer just stood there under the falling boy and light, hoping that Basil wouldn’t just fall through and that the fixture wouldn’t give him a concussion.

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The light went out with a pop, and the dark silhouette of a large blanket fell directly down. Thankfully, Miles was in the perfect spot to catch him, although the light hit the floor and shattered violently. Basil threw at least one arm around the lawyer’s neck as his reflective yellow eyes darted all around, trying desperately to reorient his position.

A second passed, and there was a hissing noise as the eyelids closed. Evidently he had recalled the difficulty with his wounded limb. “Ow. I’m sorry.” His eyes opened again to look through the far door towards the figure of Alexis, not sure whether or not to address her.

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@Willess12 @Ghid @N01InParticular @Diero @ellswaffle_787

IC: Eve turns. “I’m going to talk to the others,” she murmurs to Sue. “We should start…”

Her eyes twitch, her gaze drawn to the comforting, sickening light above. “…should start moving,” the cyborg finishes.
Without another word she starts climbing down the ladder, two steps at a time until she’s at the bottom.

Being back in this place makes her skin itch. Eve frowns. So long as she can get the other…people out of here, they can move on.
They can find the other people, the ones with the answers yes. The ones who tried to lay traps.

Eve’s thoughts wander as she walks back down the building, back to the space where she roughly remembered the others being. She steps onto the top of the stairs as she arrives, barely taking a second to look over the others.

The strange, furred creature she took to be a child was falling from the ceiling, the man who’d walked through the door standing horrified nearby. The woman (Eve hadn’t learned her name or had more likely forgot it) was also standing nearby.

Sue and the other woman (who’d opened that panel…somehow) were still at the ladder. She’d go back for them on the way out.

“You,” Eve says toward the others frigidly. “We found a way out. Come on. There’s a boat outside, and we have to-”

Her voice wavers just a little bit. “-get out of here.”

@Ghid @Diero @N01InParticular @whoever else is there I’ll ping you if I miss you.

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