asgardmeridiem | OPT-OUT EVENT LOG: DREAM A LITTLE DREAM

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OPT-OUT EVENT LOG: DREAM A LITTLE DREAM

Who: EVERYONE that stayed in Asgard
What: the Dream a Little Dream mingle log
When: Day 515 ( Sept. 25/26 )
Where: all across the city!
Rating: PG-13. Anything higher than that should be taken to a private log, please!

Day 515 ( Sept. 25/26 ): Progress through the ice blockade will be slow and narrow, as they can't possibly hope to clear the entirety of the forest that has been buried under Thiazi's black ice. Now that they know the source of her magic's corruption, it might not come as a great surprise when cracking open the ice unleashes a strange burst of magic.

At the halfway point between Utgard and Asgard, a pulse of energy will move through the entire city, immediately putting every mortal it touches to sleep. This part of the curse is mandatory and your character must fall asleep; the dream effects of it are not mandatory, and can be played with at your discretion. During this first wave, Travellers will be granted a brief dream - that does not belong to them. They will see, from the dreamer's point of view, every hope and goal and aspiration that the dreamer wishes to complete before the end of days. Whether it's simply confessing their love to an old friend or saving their home planet or perfecting an Asgardian pie, your character will see someone else's ideal resolution before Ragnarok. More on plotting this below!

Upon waking, the Travellers will be plagued with the indistinct whispering of several voices overlapping one another and a slight headache. Both symptoms will gradually increase over time until it reaches incapacitating pain and nausea. The only way to assuage the symptoms is to find the owner of the dream and either maintain physical contact for an hour or discuss the subject of the dream until a full confession has been made. After that, the symptoms will fade and the Travellers will be free to carry on with their day.

There will be other pulses of magic at random throughout the day; these are not mandatory and you can feel free to have your character experience as many or as few dreams as you wish. All dream-sharing will cease by the end of the day, as the blockade progresses past that centre-point of magic.

[ OOC NOTES: This is the mingle log for the Dream a Little Dream opt-out event! Random pairings have already been sent out, but you guys can still feel free to plot with each and pair up anywhere you like. Please remember that these dreams are meant to be positive; details can be found here. Please put [OPEN/CLOSED] along with the time and location in the title of your comment. Let us know if you have any questions! ]

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"Okay." No goodbyes: he hands up immediately and sets off, determined. It takes a while, longer than he intends. He keeps having to stop and lean against things, breathing hard, trying not to be sick. It feels like there are fingers in his mind, voices pressed into his consciousness, trying to leak through; it feels like going crazy.

By the time he finally knocks on Ellie's door, Killua is definitely much paler than his usually already very fair shade, a little gray, fingers trembling. He's leaning on the door frame more than standing, and trying valiantly not to lose his lunch.

The barking of the dog is instantaneous, and Ellie has only recently gotten home. She feels like if she needs to be sick everywhere this would be the place for it.

It takes more strength and focus to wrangle Jackson than usual, but she manages it, putting his shoulders between her knees and opening the door. She holds his collar as Killua comes in.

"This is Jackson. Let him sniff your hand, then he'll be okay."

She sounds like she's running on steam, halfway to forgetting what she's saying.

It's not the best of circumstances, but Killua does seem to brighten a tiny bit at the sight of the dog. He steps inside and crouches down--falls to his knees, more like--so he can reach out and let Jackson sniff his fingers, then gently tries to pet his head.

Unfortunately, kneeling down may have been a bad plan. It's hard to get back up.

"So what the hell is going on?"

The big german shepherd stops growling immediately, cautiously sniffing Killua's hand, and then licks at his fingers, happily accepting the petting. Clearly, he's okay in his book.

Watching, Ellie automatically reaches out to help him up. His fingers just barely brush his arm, but it feels immediately better.

"... like I'd know? Do you feel like death warmed over, too?"

She doesn't want to talk about the dreams, but he must know. He called her, after all.

A little annoyed and embarrassed by how weak he is because of this, Killua nevertheless doesn't argue and lets her pull him to his feet. He feels it too but doesn't realize at first; sometimes the pain ebbs for a moment and comes back way worse, so there's no way for him to know. He lets go of her hand too quickly for the effects to last.

"I feel pretty awful, yeah," he admits with a groan, heading for the couch without asking. His knees keep threatening to buckle.

"I saw you. Or- I saw... something to do with you. I think it was your world. You're the only lead I have, so I called you, but I have no idea what it's supposed to mean."

Jackson follows, sniffing at him, as concerned as a dog can be. Once Ellie sits down next to Killua, he puts his face on her leg. She rubs his neck.

Then, she frowns experimentally at him, reaches out to touch her forefinger to his arm. The pain starts to ebb again, and she sighs.

"... yeah. I saw something too. Of yours."

... and then the pain relents again. The moment she stops talking, it starts to creep back in.

"It's actually a little better now that you're here."

Killua blinks down at her finger, frowning a little, but he seems to get it, as an experiment at least. He doesn't tell her to stop touching him.

The longer she keeps her hand there, the longer the pain feels like it's a little less, and he doesn't feel quite like throwing up anymore, though his stomach still flutters uncomfortably with the threat of it.

"Something... of mine?" He sounds suspicious, eyes narrowing slightly, but tired and resigned more than angry with her. Whatever it is, it can't be good. Most of his dreams are terrible.

"I think it's helping. Keep your hand there."

"I dunno. It was like I was inside your head, watching something that had already happened. Feeling it."

Now that it's over, she can think about it objectively, but it still freaks her right out. Shrugging her shoulders, she puts her whole hand on his arm, resting it there. That feels... better. He's right.

"What did you see, exactly?"

It does feel better, gradual but definitely there. He exhales softly, considering.

"I saw... a house. A sunset. There was a man, and he felt-- like family. Like..." He trails off, a little sad, unsure.

"Like coming home."

Instantly, Ellie knows exactly what he saw, and feels weirdly embarrassed about it. "... that was- well, you probably saw Joel. He's not exactly my family."

She leaves unsaid that he's the closest thing she's ever had, that she has no family to speak of, barely knows a damn thing about her mom. Doesn't even know her dad's name.

"And probably Jackson, as in the town. His brother helps run it. We're supposed to go back there after all this bullshit is done."

Killua is quiet for a moment, watching her face, and then he merely shrugs and glances away awkwardly.

"It seemed like a nice place."

Ellie feels compelled to talk about it, feels the need swelling up on the back of her throat, and the pounding headache comes back, urging her to talk or vomit over the side of the couch.

Clearing her throat, she bulls onward.

"It is. He says that we have a home there, but. Anyway, I hope he's right. We've got a lot of stuff to get done first."

It's not enough. She can tell by the cottony feeling in her mouth that it's not enough. She blurts out more, trying to stave off the feeling.

"I've never had a home."

There it is. It spills out so senselessly, sounds selfish and whiny and young, and she always likes to tell herself that she's past worrying about it, past wishing for things she can't have. But once she starts, she can't stop.

"I mean, nobody wanted me. And if they did, they died."

He looks up slowly, at her eyes, quiet and surprisingly patient. She looks like she needs to talk, and--awkward or not--he'll listen. It does seem to help, oddly enough, the nausea lessening gradually until it's just the vague feeling of discomfort in the pit of his stomach, bearable now.

"What about your parents? Did they die too?"

Maybe that was a little blunt. He catches himself, hesitating.

"--sorry."

"Never knew 'em. No word on my dad, and- my mom died when I was a baby. Marlene was her friend, I guess, and she promised me she'd tell me about her, but I don't even know if she's still alive-"

Well, that's getting dangerously close to self-pity. She wants to turn it back on him, change the subject, laugh it off, but the second she opens her mouth, intending to come back with something sarcastic, the nausea makes her head swim.

"I didn't even know my mom's name until I was thirteen, how's that for stupid?"

Sad. The word was sad, Ellie. Overall, she looked more uncomfortable than depressed.

"Sometimes your birth family isn't really all it's cracked up to be," Killua offers lamely, trying to figure out what would be good to say here. She looks distraught, and it's making him uncomfortable in turn.

"I mean-- It sucks, but you have people who care about you, right? Isn't that more important than knowing the name of someone you never even met?"

"... I want-"

She cut off, swallowed past that lump in her throat. She wanted to talk to Riley about this, but it would only remind her of the fact that she wasn't there. That she would not come back with her. That this was all they'd ever get.

"... Joel to be safe. That's all.

"He means a lot to you." It's not a question, and somehow he sounds pretty understanding. Killua nods, thoughtfully, leaning an elbow against the armrest of the couch and glancing away.

He feels like he's intruding all over again. He has no idea what to do in this situation, and it's throwing him off.

"When I first got here and I was complaining that I want to go home," he admits finally, voice soft, "Riley told me she was happy here. She wasn't interested in going back to her world. It hadn't occurred to me until then that not everyone was so lucky, to have something they want to go back to..."

It's an effort not to grip his arm, to dig her fingers in and make him stop talking. Has Riley told him? Has she broken the news? Hell, if he doesn't know, the look on Ellie's face might straight up give it away.

"... this place isn't all bad."

Edited 2014-09-28 08:16 (UTC)

It makes him stop, and he bites back a sigh. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't really understand Ellie, and he knows she wouldn't be talking about this at all if they didn't have to. It just makes him feel even more like a stranger; this isn't for him to hear.

"Yeah," he agrees lamely, managing a shrug.

"Hey, are you feeling a little better?"

"... yeah."

Surprised, she looks up at him.

"Hey, look, I'm not going to be the only one to spill their guts." She tries for a smile, but it ends up strained around the edges. Still, she's serious. And curious.

"I saw a... dark place, I guess. Filled with dead things. Haunted."

She says the word as if she knows the feeling instinctively. She does.

He scowls at first, but the more she keeps talking the darker the expression gets. If it wouldn't hurt to let her go, he'd have pulled away.

He's not sure what she'd seen, exactly, but he has dreams like that sometimes, and none of them are fun. Usually, he doesn't care that much; it's easy to brush off. But it feels like an invasion of privacy that somehow Ellie ended up seeing inside his nightmares too.

"So?" he shoots back, shrugging.

"What does it matter? It was a dream."

"... I saw Gon."

She says it quietly, every instinct telling her not to pry, but he probably feels like ass, and it's not going to get better until he talks about it. At least a little.

"He's basically- to you, what Riley is to me."

The frown deepens, instantly, a dark and almost threatening kind of look. To anyone who knows what to look for, it's defensive, vulnerable more than angry and trying not to show it.

"How do you know what he is to me? What does that have to do with anything?"

He wants to ask what she saw in the dream, exactly, but isn't sure he wants to know. This isn't fair. This is personal, and this weird magic or whatever's happening is showing his dreams to strangers, and he's getting really upset.

"Why is that a bad thing?"

Ellie still hasn't grown out of wanting to push back, getting defensive when challenged, especially when she knows she's right. She leaves her hand where it is, but only barely.

"Geeze. I just felt it, same way you got inside my head and just. Borrowed my feelings."

"Okay, okay-- I get it. Neither of us are happy about it," he huffs back, jaw still tight.

It takes a moment to calm down.

"Tell me about it," he demands instead. "I don't understand what you saw. What did it have to do with Gon?" He hoped it was nothing bad, even if it was just a dream. It hadn't sounded like a very good one.

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