( semi-closed ) sleep now in my arms

[gleans]

Who: Galen and PEOPLE!
What: Dreams, nightmares, nightmare-fighting, lucidity lessons!
When: Day 83-88
Where: ERRYWHER
Warnings: Nightmares, touchy subjects, will update. If you want to get in on this, see my OOC plotting thread here!

Current dream timeline: Day 83: Ned / Fortescue Day 84: Jesse / Kenzi / Anna Day 85: Jesse Day 86: Elizabeth / Pinkman

Comments

fortescue ( day 83? )

[gleans]

( If you want to set up a dream scenario I'll drop Galen in! )

[blackmagus]

It's dark, but it isn't past midnight. Only nine o'clock or so, or eight. The manor, dark wood and oil paintings and old world opulence, is completely silent aside from some music playing in the kitchen. Most of the massive building isn't lit, as it has four wings and two levels. Its sole purpose is to house one occupant, to keep her a secret and away from everyone else. The walls are painted a delicate blue in the lower level, and white in the upper. It's an old manor, the dwelling of some Duke in the past, or perhaps a Lord. Once it was some man's pride and joy, but now it's a remnant of a time past; a frozen smile on a painted face.

In Fortescue's dreams, the place is even larger. A wooden prison, with windows that won't open or be broken. Jazz follows her as she pads about the house, trying to kick at the glass. She wouldn't dare do this with the real house. Naturally, she doesn't get anywhere with the dream version, either: the glass is as hard as steel. Her subconscious is nothing if not a buzz kill.

She pauses in the main parlor, listening to the music. It's some classical piece. Something she'd heard on the radio in the past, maybe. If there's a meaning, Fortescue doesn't care to analyze it. She gets herself a bottle of wine and a glass from the pantry. Evidently, it's going to be a long and tiring night.

[gleans]

After what happened with Ned, showing up in another dream has him wary. He hasn't been able to see who it belongs to, yet; if this is another emotional trap, someone's memory, somewhere he doesn't belong. Honestly, he should leave, go somewhere inside his own dreams and get some fucking rest, but he's curious. He hasn't been to anyone else's dreams in months, and they've never been this vivid. What's happening, and why now?

Galen wanders the dream carefully, taking in the surroundings but following the sound of thumping, and the sound of music. He hides himself as he walks, makes himself less-than-visible, just a slight smear of dark in the air as he moves through the house -- and, finally, past the door to the parlor. There's someone in there, he can tell by the way the room seems a little more vibrant than anything else, but he doesn't enter; just peers around the doorway, for now, hoping she doesn't notice his presence.

[blackmagus]

This dream is always empty of others. It's as much a metaphor for being alone as it is a metaphor of being trapped, which are both sensations that have been plaguing her for the past sixteen years. She loathes them. As such, she gives the dream absolutely no respect by draping herself over one of the finely upholstered love seats: red satin, dark wood. Legs over the arm rest at the knee, back flat on the cushions.

She pours herself a glass of wine, not really caring if she spills some.

Jazz lurks nearby, sniffing at the floor; as a black cat, he's nearly invisible in the dim room aside from the gleaming of his eyes. And it is him, rather than something the dream's cooked up. They're connected at the most profound level, which means that they also dream together.

[gleans]

Galen starts to feel a little weird, watching her like this, and is about to go when he notices the cat. Not only that, but the cat is looking his way -- he'd almost say it's looking at him, even though he isn't visible. Dream elements don't usually do that; they're usually passive, only react to the dreamer, so those eyes are starting to weird him out.

He pulls out of the doorframe, backs down the hall a little, then stops. This doesn't seem like a nightmare, at least, but once again, he can't seem to pull out of this dream, and he has no fucking clue why.

So, not sure what else to do, Galen makes sure he's visible, then shuffles down the hallway far enough that he can reach the open parlor door and, somewhat awkwardly, knock. Then he peeks his head in.

"Uh, hey. Bad time?"

[blackmagus]

Fortescue blinks, startled no matter how obvious the approach is. The point of the dream is being alone. Isn't it? She doesn't bother to move from the sofa, though, and waves her glass of wine at him slightly, ushering him inside.

"Not really. Come on in. It's Galen, isn't it?"

Jazz mewls quietly, cautious, green eyes still fixed on Galen.

[gleans]

Well, that's a surprise. He expected a slightly different reaction, but maybe he's just too used to walking into chaos. She seems lucid. Hell, maybe she is.

"Yeah, that's me," he says, shuffling into the room. "Fffffortescue, right?" The one with the cool name. He remembers. "Sorry to just -- walk in like this, I'm kinda... navigationally, uh, challenged, at the moment."

His eyes dart back down to Jazz, somewhat warily; he's not the biggest cat fan in the world, especially when they stare at him.

kenzi ( day 84 )

[gleans]

[onteamdyson]

The cave is dimly lit but dark around the edges. In fact, the edges are just darkness. No exit. No source of light aside from the candles scattered around the pile of painful, mostly-metal, shiny things that Kenzi's huddled up on. She's been there for a while, at least she thinks she has, and the pain of the beartrap biting into the flesh of her leg, keeping her tethered to the pile of stuff like another trophy, is still very fresh and very raw and very intense.

Inari could come back any second. Asking her more questions, touching her, yelling at her, licking her, all while wearing her face, just so she can go back out there and live Kenzi's life and leave her hear to starve and die and rot.

Kenzi's makeup is streaked down her face from all the crying and she's scared and alone and hurt... and huddled up in a familiar-looking hoodie. It helps, but it doesn't fix everything. Inari will be back. Kenzi is terrified.

[gleans]

At this point, these dreams seem like they're unavoidable. Even he has limited control over where he goes or what happens, so when Galen can't help but doze off again, some part of him hopes that the next dream is just a dream, not a nightmare.

It looks like a nightmare, though, when he comes to. It's so dark in here, save for the dim lights, and he can tell there's a presence in here somewhere -- he can feel it, hear the quiet breathing. He'd rather not sneak up on them, though, so he fades himself from view, takes steady steps closer to those sources of light. There's someone there, but he can't tell who, yet.

Kenzi should be able to sense some kind of presence, at least, coming slowly closer.

[onteamdyson]

Oh god. Oh god, no. Not yet! She can already hear the hissing and the yelling and see the teeth and feel the claws as something approaches. She doesn't want to look. Maybe if she doesn't look, Inari can't get her. Pre-school rules. If I can't see you, you can't see me. She curls in on herself more, pulling the hood down over her eyes and hiding her face against her knees and under her arms as much as she can, but it hurts to move. Everything hurts. Especially her leg.

She's not crying now because she wouldn't give that bitch the satisfaction, but she really wants to. Because she knows what's coming. The cave flickers in and out view, becoming more shadowy each time. Kenzi doesn't dare look up. No chance in hell. But she does speak.

"Just kill me and get it over with! They're gonna find out. You can't keep this up forever!" Or maybe she can. They haven't noticed yet. No one's come to save her and she's alone and her friends don't even know because they don't care. None of them had time for her! None of them would listen! If they'd just given her five seconds of their precious freakin' fae time, this probably wouldn't have happened! She'd be home. With Bo. Ignored, but not alone.

... Okay, now she's crying a little, but shut up!

[gleans]

It's like before, with Ned; the emotion washes over him, staggers him, drops that illusion hiding him from view. Betrayal, loneliness, fear. It almost distracts him from that voice, but he catches the end, tacks onto that familiarity and follows it to the source of light and the one clear, vivid spot in this dark, dark place: it's Kenzi. He recognizes his hoodie, follows it down to -- is that a bear trap? He immediately crouches down, tries to pull it open, but it doesn't budge.

"Kenzi -- baby, it's okay, it's me. I got it." He has to stop and take a deep breath; he can feel everything. "I'm gonna get you out."

[onteamdyson]

Galen? She sniffs and peeks out from her hoodie fortress. Really? SERIOUSLY?! Is it him? Did he ... actually come to save her? She's already tried the bear trap! It's stupidly impossible. She doesn't have fae strength and he's Squishy! ... Or is he?

How did he know she was here? How did he get here? What if it's Inari. What if Inari got to Galen and took over his life instead and came back to torment her? She shies away from him, distrust evident in her expression. How does she know it's him? How does she know it's not?

"There's no point." She sniffs again, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve-covered hand. "It's not coming off." She's still wary. As much as she wants to just wrap her arms around him and have him hold her, she doesn't know if it's him.

"... Who won the snowball fight?" You know the one, Galen, come on. She looks a him intently, hopeful but still terrified.

elizabeth ( day 86 )

[gleans]

[voliere]

This is wonderful.

She's never been out of her tower before, and stepping foot on the ground, on cobblestone, is an odd experience. Seeing the mechanical horses, feeling the sun on her face and the wind in her hair, breathing in the smells - hot dogs and cotton candy (and god, is cotton candy delicious) and everything in between, she's going to make herself sick, trying everything.

But it doesn't matter, because she's free. Her next stop is Paris, of course it is, that's where she knows in her heart she needs to be, but first, she just wants to see what the city she's called home is like.

And hey, staring over the edge of the railing might not be a smart idea, she could fall, but like Elizabeth cares. She's curious, and it must be sated.

[gleans]

This time, he almost forgets to look for a dreamer.

It's hardly his fault, with all this around him; it's all so vivid, and like nothing he's ever seen before. Mechanical horses - mechanical horses?? -, a notably turn-of-the-century aesthetic, a place that screams AMERICA! while at the same time completely unrecognizable. It's almost like being back in New York, with the busy people and the smells and the movement, but just different enough to distract him as he wanders down the cobblestone road, sun on his face, trying to make out the voice over the speakers, the music in the air, the signs that are just this side of illegible, down the street.

He notices the rails, too. Not just in the air, but at the edge of the road - like a guard rail on a dock -, and he's almost nervous to approach it. That is, of course, when he spots the patch of vividness, and the girl looking over the side -- he's seen that dress before.

"Ellie?"

[voliere]

The nickname makes her look up and over her shoulder, clinging to the rail. When she sees who it is, she smiles widely, and lifts one hand to wave. Ah, Galen, the nice boy who asked her if he could call her that before he did. A little politeness goes a long way! Happily, she brushes down her skirt and turns around entirely.

"Galen! What are you doing here?" Something tells her that he shouldn't be in Columbia, but she promptly ignores that. Plenty of pilgrims find their way up here eventually. Besides, she's just happy to have someone with her. Exploring on her own is nice, but having a friend makes the experience more memorable.

[gleans]

Just as suspected, it's Elizabeth, which begs the question: is this that floating city of hers, Columbia? Looking around, there really is a 1912 sort of look to everything, with just a little bit of an anachronistic feel -- probably because the whole damn place is in the air, for one.

"Um --" should he tell the truth? Or just go along with the dream? The fact that he's wearing clothes that he's not sure he was even wearing, five seconds ago - suddenly, suspenders and a tie! -, tells him to wing the latter. "I'm not... totally sure. Is this Columbia?"

He's not getting any closer to that rail, anyway. At least in his apartment, there's thick glass between him and way down.

[voliere]

Well, it doesn't matter how he got up here, anyway. Elizabeth approaches him, hands clasped behind her back. "It is," She confirms, looking up at the buildings around them. "Though I'm not entirely sure where everything is. I've only been in the city once, and it was altogether an unpleasant experience."

Bullets are not fun things! Or guns. Or being shot at.

jesse ( day 84 )

[gleans]

He's worried. He's barely seen much of Jesse at all since he woke up looking a little freaked out in the middle of the night; Galen hasn't actually seen or heard from him in hours. Calling is no use, and waiting is driving him crazy, but it's his only option until Jesse comes home, unless he wants to start calling everyone, but -- hopefully Jesse will come back before that's necessary.

So he waits around the house, trying not to think too much about the dreams he's run into so far, trying not to relax anywhere in case he passes out again. Jesse has to know what's going on. And if he does, Galen knows how stressed out he must be. He just doesn't know Jesse thinks he has something to do with it.

[rigging]

When he starts his weary way home, it's already the afternoon. He feels less like he's going to break apart right this second, but he's still running on fumes, and so when he opens the door to House 20 and slumps down onto the couch, it's clear he's exhausted.

But he still can't sleep yet. He doesn't trust it. He'll be out here in the living room, staring at the ceiling and bouncing his foot on the ground in order to stay awake. Too tired to do anything else, really.

[gleans]

Galen is up in their room, determinedly not sleeping, when he hears the front door open and close. He doesn't rush, but he does quickly get up, hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets, and make his way out of the bedroom and down the stairs. And once he sees that it's Jesse sitting on the couch, Galen shuffles around the back, stops when he can see Jesse's face.

He looks just about as awful as Galen feels.

"Hey," he sighs, relieved, at least, that he's home.

[rigging]

Jesse - doesn't mean to, but he's so zoned out that when suddenly Galen comes into his line of vision and speaks up, Jesse startles. It wakes him up at least, and he has to take one second to breathe before he answers, sinking back down into the couch.

"... Hey," Jesse answers, wrapping his arms around himself.

[gleans]

Jesse jumping like that is never a good thing. He'd stopped doing it since the incident, for a while, and the fact that he's doing it now means that wherever he's been since yesterday, his dreams haven't been kind to him. Galen frowns and moves to sit on the couch, too, one hand reaching to rest on Jesse's leg, reassuringly. Galen looks pretty tired, too, but he has the advantage of very rarely being the dreamer, anymore. He knows what kind of nightmares plague Jesse, and it makes his heart hurt.

"You alright?" He tilts his head, tries to catch Jesse's gaze.

[rigging]

Galen sets his hand on his leg and it stops moving for a few moments, at least. He sort of just swallows hard and tries not to twitch, his chest all heavy like there's someone sitting on it. It's fucking stupid. He was fine, before, he was feeling good and now - a night full of nightmares and he can't even breathe right. They've always been a problem for him. More so now, because here, Jesse wouldn't put it past them being real.

"Nnghmk," is what Jesse manages as an answer to that, scrubbing at his face and sitting up, trying to pull his legs away the best he can without making Galen feel awful. He doesn't want to believe what Ned told him. Look - deep breath. Deep breath. You have to talk to him about it, you can nip it in the bud before it even starts to be a problem. Lead into it.

"Were you in Ned's dream last night?" ... Dammit, Jesse.