Entwined Reverie [Phoenix]

[Axel Rosen]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Axel Rosen> The sun would be up soon, the faint light of it burns orange on the horizon, through the filter of trees. Retiring is in his best interest if he's going to not look like a burnt up version of himself. He'd rather not look like one of those people that get third degree burns. Not only is it not flattering on him, but it hurts like hell and prevents him from feeding but once for an evening or two. He'd rather just not. Making his way into the Eyrie, he goes to his hut.

The purple that the previous tenant had recently left is what he now calls home. Instead of getting undressed and going to bed, the male makes his way over to the couch. He's just going to end up in a chair at True Love anyway. There's no need for him to go out of his way only to end up being naked in public. He learned that lesson once already. Better that he just stay dressed. It doesn't take long. Once the sun comes over the horizon (even though he can't see it, he can feel it's pull), he gets tugged down into an abyss of sleep. Falling through darkness, until the darkness fades away into a vibrant jungle of purples and greens.

He knows this place, though as he wakes up he often forgets it. It's like a memory of a memory at times. When he's away only certain things unlock the inspirations that are created here. Quietly, out of fear from the monsters that live within his mind, he makes his way toward a cave. The cave is dark, but luckily the ability to see in the dark that he gained as a vampire has just transferred over to his dreams where he's nothing more than a mental image. In the darkness, at the end of the cave there is a door. Well not really door so much as a door carved into the surface of the granite cave wall. Moving toward it he touches it. It feels warm and dry, different than the cold and dank rocks around him. His palm flats against it, drags down the surface. The sensation is the same throughout. Taking a step back, the stone around the carved outline begins to dissolve into sand. Starting from the top the fine crystals of rock fall to the ground. Soundless and through it he sees something far less dangerous. Though he's not sure what it is.


<Phoenix> Phoenix can stand the sun for a while if she chooses so. As a former bartender, returning home at the *** crack of daybreak, just as the night gave way to that pale grey pre-dawn light was nothing unusual. Back when she were human, she’d get home and sit on the balcony with a glass of wine, watching the sunrise. Back then, she felt alone in the world, as if the show were private, just for her. It happened every day, yet there was nothing so rare as a sunrise. The sentiment holds true even now as the first rays of light burst over over the horizon and sear her retinas. It’s painful, but she stays there, watching for a moment longer until her nerves feel raw and a wave of fatigue washes over her.

Giving in, the woman turns her back on the light and makes her way inside, carefully crawling between the blissfully soft sheets of her bed. The blisters on her face will heal as she sleeps; it was worth it - it was always worth it. It doesn’t take long for sleep to claim her, throwing her consciousness from the mountain stronghold to the place in her mind’s eye that held host to her apartment in Beta Towers. When her eyes open, her reflection is there to greet her, staring back from the depths of an ornately gilt mirror. In the back of her mind, she knows it’s a dream. Never again will she see herself reflected with such pristine clarity. Yet the reflection in the mirror is the only thing that could in any way be considered ‘right’ about the room.

It isn’t obvious at first glance and it takes her a while to realized why the room felt so very… wrong. Every single angle seems off, as if she’d just stepped through a funhouse. Even the granite door at the back that was slowly dissolving into sand. In her mind, this makes perfect sense, of course. At least it does until she peers through the opening doorway to the vague shape beyond. As more of the sand falls away, her brows knit together. What the **** is he doing in her head?

“Axel?”

<Axel Rosen> With a pile of sand at his feet he eyes around the room that is now displayed to him. The woman there. Her red hair, brown eyes, and a face that is familiar to him as most vampires he's come in contact with since being turned. A little more familiar with her than others, actually, but he can't exactly see those parts of her. This is a dream, of course. It's not the first time she's appeared in a dream of his, though it is the first time that her entrance of one of his dreams had been so seamless. Like a movie that perfectly transitions from one topic to another. He finds this the most odd about the encounter with her.

Usually she is not hostile, as she's been in a few of his dreams since his turning and not attacked him like she had in life. Has he attacked her in these perversions of reality? Why yes he has, but not since she killed herself over not having anything and come back to Ty. She's been working through her problems and he doesn't feel the same anger that he once had for her. At times he still feels that there are things that she needs to work on, but secretly he's proud of her for the work that she's put forth. She speaks his name. It echos in the cave behind him. The sand beneath his feet is starting to rebuild the wall that had once separated them and he's not sure which part he should stay in it. Should he stay in this part of his dream and possibly never return to the dangers that his mind creatures or should he rather say here in this parallel dream with a dream Phoenix. He decides on the second as the sand rebuilds a solid wall to his knees.

Stepping over it he turns his back to her to watch the grains reassemble into a thick granite wall again. Once the wall is complete, he moves his hands back over the wall. The wall is still just as warm as it had been on the other side. His eyes close and he turns back around to face her. He wonders why she seems surprised to find him here in his dream. His subconscious must be playing tricks on him? Maybe there is something he's guilty for that is causing his mind to have her inquire if it i him. He can see the confusion on her face. "Yes..." He answers back though unsure of why. Generally in his dreams the two of them are armed. They are either fighting one another or beasts of the jungle. It doesn't appear that will be happening in this small room. He looks at her, trying to check if she's armed, because there is nothing stopping the two of them from attacking one another.


<Phoenix> So it was going to be one of those kinds of dreams. Alright! A grin breaks over her lips as she dismisses the strangeness of the world behind the closing doorway where her closet should have been. In a dream state - which she is becoming more and more aware that this is - it’s always so easy to dismiss the strangeness. Without the laws of physics to rule the scene, anything is possible. All it takes is a little imagination and a lot of effort, depending on how crazy or outlandish the mental request.

Though… why the hell is he molesting the wall? Had dream-Axel never seen a rock door in an apartment wall before? Maybe this version of him is a bit touched. It’s possible, but not probable - she doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with him, so she didn’t know why her brain would project a wrong Axel. When he turns back to her, she still looks very confused. He’s just standing there, staring at her as if he’s trying to act as a human (or vampire) x-ray machine.

“I think this dream is broken… Aren’t you supposed to be sweeping me off my feet, making with the romantic gestures and all that jazz before we… you know. Molesting me instead of the wall?” Her brows waggle as she turns to eye the bed. Which… isn’t there anymore. “What!?” So maybe it wasn’t going to be one of those dreams. Admittedly, she looks a bit disappointed, what with her arms folding over her chest.

[Phoenix]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--


<Axel Rosen> As he looks her over, trying to figure out what his mind is going to make her do, a bed behind her vanishes. It appears that there will be no sex in this dream, which isn’t abnormal for him, though it appeared to be the only thing that made sense to him at the moment. The dream is wrong, off, not entirely like the rest. He doesn’t know of any times that he’s dreamt of a room like this. Though the four walls themselves feel slightly familiar. Not familiar in a way that he feels like he’s been here before so much as familiar in an eerie, mental way. That he has a feeling where this image is coming from. It’s behind the frontal lobe of his mind, unable to pull it to the full of his consciousness… or unconsciousness for that matter. Stepping forward toward the woman his eyes move to hers, trying to read her mind (even though telepaths can’t technically do that). So it must look rather weird for the non-dream Nix to have Axel so close just sort of looking at her. Finally he realizes that she’s spoken and that he should probably respond.

Even in his dreams, it’s better to play out the story that your mind has created for you rather than letting it wait. “Might be broken, because I’ve never made any romantic gestures in a dream where you were present”, this is, of course, a lie. He eyes her again, before making a quarter circle around her. Now at her right sight, he is mid-step to continue moving around her like an animal stalking his prey. “Though the only thing that seems to be off about you at the moment is that you’re not trying to kill me or something else. Granted I’m the only thing ‘living’ in the room”, he puts emphasis on the word living. Even in his dream state he knows that he’s a vampire, though sometimes it’s hard to see through the haze of his mind as to what is true and what isn’t. His finger goes out and pokes her hard in the shoulder, feeling some what solid as he makes impact. Bringing his finger back he looks at it and then back to the wall. Impatiently, Axel tries to will her out of his dream, because he doesn’t know that this is her dream and not his. He has literally no power here, and he’s about to find out.


<Phoenix> He’s never made any romantic gestures in a dream before? “Pfft,” she scoffs, then even snorts. Despite the elegance (or would-be elegance if it were symmetrical) room, she’s hard pressed to act the lady. Then again, who needs to be ladylike in their dreams? She sure as hell doesn’t think it’s necessary. Her eyes track Axel as he circles her like some strange bird of prey. When his finger jabs her in the shoulder, she glares at him. From which dark recess of her mind did this strange little dream man come? Surely it’s not her mental projection of her grandchilde. She thinks far better of him than a weird, paranoid man.

“Why would I try to kill you? That defeats the entire purpose of enjoying this whole dreamy-dream thing.”

The dawning realization that she can control this dream world makes her smile - these kinds of dreams where reality was easily manipulated amuse her to no end. This Axel isn’t the Axel she’d have chosen as a travel companion, but he’s here and she doesn’t seem able to shake him out of his semi-stupor, and so she just accepts it. She gets up and checks her reflection in the mirror. Satisfied with what she sees, she turns to Axel, a single red brow arching in silent question before she tips her head to the door. “Lets go then.”

Where they were going, she has no idea, but they’re leaving the red bedroom. Maybe something fun, some kind of adventure or quest awaits through the door that should lead to her living room. Somehow, though, she knows once it’s opened, what lies beyond will not be what she expects. With a bit of apprehension mingled with excitement, her hand alights on the knob. It, like the stone doorway had she bothered to touch it, is warm. A smile curls her lips as she glances over her shoulder and pulls open that door.

Outside, the abandoned stretch of an amusement park sprawls out before them. Although a few lights blink here and there, attempting to entice crowds that may once have congested the walkways, the soft breeze blows debris and fallen leaves left over from years of neglect. “Interesting…” she muses as she wanders out into the twilight. “Ferris wheel?”


<Axel Rosen> The woman before him beckons him to move with her after she checks herself in the mirror. There had never been any mirrors in any of his dreams because he’s never been on to be too tied up in how someone, even himself, looks. So he watches her before she moves to the living room of the apartment and it’s starting to become obvious to him that this place had really never been in a dream, but in a reality that is bleeding into his dream. He had thought that his dream scape had been one place throughout but it is starting to appear that it might very well be a multiverse rather than a single world for him to kill things in. So at the moment he just follows her. She hesitates and he’s not sure why. Could the outside of that door really be so bad? For her? In his dreams she’s usually not hesitant about anything. Then again, he is usually the one leading a charge into combat. It’s just the way that things have happened. He looks around and then out the door. The fallen leaves crunch beneath his feet and he looks back to face her. “Ferris wheel”, he repeats her question, though mainly because he’d never seen one in the fucked up anti-reality of his dream-state.

Not seeing the item that she is speaking of right off, he just sort of gazes ahead trying to find it like a navigator and the north star. In the distance the male can see the top of one as they walk. The continual crunch at his heels as he moves with one step after the other. He’s starting to realize that maybe this is his mind’s way of telling him that it was okay to take Nix on that date to the Tytonidae event. That has to be it. It’s the only thing that makes sense. His dreams are acting so very odd this evening. He wanders on with her, as the object in the distance is unveiled by the horizon in the distance. Lights being reflected by the star setting in the distance. As he comes closer he can see the very object. “I suppose there is one, is that where we are going?” He looks over to her, taking the lead. As if on their date the other evening, he takes her arm with his and moves toward the abandoned Ferris Wheel.

Finally as they come within sight of the gates of the lot where this object is towering above them, he opens it for her. It creaks open, as if not having been oiled in some time before he motions for her to head in first. A sigh leaves his lips, rather content that he’s not being chased by something that wants to eat him before he closes the gate behind him again. It makes that same screeching sound before the metal is shut. He then turns back to face her, holding his hand out for her.


<Phoenix> This is more like it, she thinks to herself as Axel wanders off ahead. He always does that: tries to keep her safe even though he knows she’s more than capable of looking out for herself. “I want to see over the trees - find out where we are,” she confirms, the soft smile on her lips widens as she trails after him, kicking an empty soda can along the cracked pavement. Once, this had been a popular attraction just based on the number of rides and the care that had been put into the place. Even though the park was a shambles, a long time ago it would have been bright and colorful - a happy place. The faded, flaking paint told a story of more prosperous days.

It takes her most of the way to the wheel to realize why it all feels so familiar in spite of the decay. This is a place she’s been, not all that long ago either. Why her subconscious had brought her back is beyond her comprehension, but knowing it was familiar put her mind to ease. As the leaves crunch underfoot and Axel takes her arm, she relaxes. Though the name of the park eludes her, the more they wander towards the top of the ferris wheel peeking over the dead and dying trees, the more vivid this little world becomes.

Finally, just as Axel opens the car’s gate, the name dawns on her. Maybe it’s the distinctive shape of the little windmill shaped ferris wheel that jogs her memory, maybe it’s something else. “Centreville!” she exclaims, turning to Axel as he slips in beside her and takes a seat. “This place - it’s Centreville. My parents used to take me here when I was a kid.” She doesn’t know why this is important or what it reflects of her psyche, but it must hold some importance. Axel’s outreached hand seems like it’s begging to be held and she couldn’t refuse even if she wanted to. Seemingly of its own volition, the ferris wheel lurches to life with the tortured shriek of rusted metal. Even with the noise, her fingers lace with his, giving a gentle squeeze as the cabin rises. Nix tucks herself against his side just as the Toronto skyline - or what’s left of it - comes into view over the tops of the trees. “Oh… ****… That’s not good.” Way to state the obvious, Nix...

[Axel Rosen]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Axel Rosen> Her hand comes into contact with his and he laces his fingers with hers. Clearly this is the way that his dream would like him to take the story. That’s what dreams really were, plays to be completed so that there could be some sort of pre-sleep stimulation to stay inside REM. Or so he believes. It’s where most of the inspiration for his books and things come from. She mentions where the two of them are and he just sort of looks at her before looking just below them rather than over the city. His eyes try and take in the complete scene of the park. there it is, beneath him. He had only ever been here once. It was when his mother had gotten him away from the house while his father was out at work. The abusive man punished her, as Axel remembers, for having ‘wasted’ money for that trip. He looks back over the city to push the memory away. Then again, there doesn’t appear to be much left of the city. He’s not exactly sure what happened to it, he’d like to say that he was what happened to it, but it’s been too long since he’s been there.

She states that the state of the city isn’t good, but then again he prefers it this way. There are far too many memories there for him to wish that the city were intact. He would prefer it be destroyed, crushed under foot and souls eaten. His eyes peer over to her before he looks back to the remnants of the city again. This wasn’t the place that he found his religion, or anti-religion as it might be called. The souls of this city should be devoured by the beasts of the pit, that’s just where it stands. His hand squeezes hers almost reflexively before he turns away from the ruins and then rolls his shoulders. He tries to mentally sort through why his dream would be doing this. Perhaps this is his dream’s manifestation of his hatred for the very streets and buildings. He lets it go, for the time being. Then again, putting the pieces together would be hard if he doesn’t look at every little thing that is happening around him. The woman at his side isn’t trying to take his head off, the city he hates is burning, all he needs now is burning Paladins on stakes… That scene would make this dream make far more sense.


<Phoenix> When she turns her attention away from the smoldering ruins of Toronto and back to Axel, she frowns. His expression is hardly pleasant - in fact he seems happy to watch the city burn and collapse and decay. At least he’s holding her hand and seems content to do so. As the ferris wheel begins its descent, her eyes scan over the rest of the park. Despite the abandonment, everything seems fine. Old and rusted, but functional. She knows this is a dream, her dream, and so she smiles. Nix had never been much of a literary critic or deep thinker, but she knows these ruins are a reflection of a deep, long-forgotten part of her. The island park is her refuge - despite everything that’s gone to **** around her, this place is safe, secure and even though it’s a bit beat up, it’s still kind of fun.

As the wheel does a full circle and starts another, her eyes fall shut for a moment to enjoy the feeling of the breeze on her skin. It feels so much more real, so much more vivid than other dreams. Axel seems distracted, so she takes the opportunity to lean over and peck a kiss to his cheek before she leans her head against his shoulder. She’s comfortable there, but even then, talking seems like the right thing to do, even if this version of Axel isn’t likely to understand what she’s on about - it’s her dream as far as she’s aware, so she’ll do what she wants.

“The park, it’s like me… kind of broken and a bit beat up, but it’s pretty fun if you give it a chance. Or at least kind of nice.” Not like she feels like she’s gotten much of a chance with a few individuals. “I don’t think I ever thanked you for letting me in… so thank you. I kinda wish I had nice dreams sometimes. With unicorns and rainbows and palaces… Normal dreams. Not like this fuckery…” she trails off, flicking those warm brown eyes up to meet Axel’s icy blues as if searching for something, though she has no clue what it is.

As the ride comes to a halt after the third go around, the door opens seemingly of its own volition. Apparently it’s time to move on. “You pick where we go next. Bumper cars, roller coaster… whatever you want.” See, she can share.

<Axel Rosen> Her statements about the dreams allusion to herself makes him a bit uneasy as he’s not really one to be this close to someone. He’s starting to worry that this dream may be warning to himself to get out now while he’s ahead. The woman, figment of his imagination next to him, it’s telling him that she’s damaged. She’s almost so damaged to the point of being a ruined city with a funland in the middle. That last part just seems overly sexual, so he assumes this is still his dream. Something his mind would do to remind him that it’s still his subconsciousness trying to get messages across. A finger goes, trying to be inconspicuous, as he pinches his arm and twists it a bit. He doesn’t blink or wince or anything. It appears that the statement ‘pinch me, I’m dreaming’ doesn’t exactly work. He does it once more, because if at first you don’t succeed ‘try, try again’. Finally, after the second try, he comes to the realization that it just isn’t going to happen that he should give this struggle up.

Letting her in. What does she mean letting her in. Letterin her into what, that doesn’t make much sense to him. The time before she killed herself or giving her the attempt to prove herself by going to parties with her and things of that nature. He just sort of stares blankly at her after having given up trying to awaken from the dream. Her words confuse him, but it’s not the time to awaken from the dream. They are coming around for the third time and he remains in silence, not sure what to say to her. His hand squeezes her to let her know that he was actually listening and not just blowing her off. Normal dreams would be nice. He’s not even sure what he would describe his dreams as. Axel knows that his dreams are a source of most of his inspiration for short stories, a few of his poems and those novels that he had written. The vibrant colors and jungles of his dream world are just a mockery for the darkness that lies beneath the memories of his childhood. The monsters and beasts that move with intent to kill and rip flesh from bones. He’s not sure if he’s glad to be here, but he knows he’s enjoying the break from there for the evening.

She turns to him as they come to a stop and he wonders what they’re going to do next. He was inclined to follow her lead but it appears that is not what his brain has in store for him. It’s his time to choose and he really doesn't want to. He would rather just play the dream out, learn more about himself and then wake up. That would be the preferable order but it isn’t going that route. So instead he just sort of looks up at her, before standing and helping her out of the cabin. Thoughts start to go through his mind and he shrugs his shoulders. “Bumper cars?” It’s more his style to want to ram into something violently and vent aggression than to go fast in circles over and over again. He remembers vaguely where it is, though he’d rather not. Taking her hand, he leads her there.

<Phoenix> His responses seem strange and distant even though he’s holding her hand. It’s not a physical distance, but she’s always hated having someone respond non verbally. In some cases it worked, but when she started rambling was not one of those cases. The silence bothers her more than she would have expected, but she follows him through the decaying landscape. If he wants to stay quiet, she can play that game just as well as he can. For a few minutes, at least.

As they walk, she kicks at the debris littering the path, not really paying attention to where they’re headed. He said they were going to the bumper cars, but it’s been so long that she can’t tell whether he’s going the right way or not. It doesn’t really matter to her all that much - dreams aren’t something she thought she should be controlling. Maybe the whole place was a metaphor for her psychological state, but that doesn’t mean every detail is important. Quite the opposite, in fact: most of her brain jumble was made up of useless junk.

Lifting her eyes from the path, she spots one of those silly little carnival game stands - ring toss. Hanging on hooks in the booth’s rafters is a myriad of useless junk. Old stuffed bears are suspended next to torn penguins and snakes and wolves. All of them had seen better days, but the ones in the back seemed to have been mostly sheltered from the elements. Her footsteps slow to a stop and she nudges Axel’s side, pointing him in the direction of the stand.

“You should win me a stuffed penguin.”

After the words leave her mouth, she smiles. It’s not like anyone or anything is there to stop them from just taking it, but it seems right to win the damn thing fair and square.

[Phoenix]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Axel Rosen> It’s not that the male is being quiet inspite of her, but because he doesn’t know what’s going on and is trying to figure out if his mind is trying to tell him something about his relationship with his grandsire. This whole thing is rather new to him. He breathes out a little bit and then looks over to her. He’s not known her to be the quiet type, so the fact that she’s being quiet must mean that this is some delusion. His mind imitating the silence and self-reflective time that he is taking?

He watches as she kicks at things in their wake and he doesn’t really pay attention to all the little things before him. Like humans they are beneath him and not worth his time. The woman at his side stops him and asks him to win her something. He looks at it and it and realizes that she wants him to win her a stuffed animal in this game. Games aren’t really his thing, especially games that are physical in nature. Or they used to not be, but since his turning he could be a ‘natural’ athlete. A nod of his head states that he will do this for her, taking a step forward.

Axel takes one of the rings in his hand and then looks back to her. He throws the first one and it misses. He reads the sign and it says that he needs two rings to hit the mark to get her the prize. he has five rings in hand, and one has missed. A frown comes over his lips before he tosses the next one. This one also misses. He almost growls and the ground roubles, good to know his powers work here. He should calm them. Again he tries and the ring is thrown, making a sound as it goes to it’s target. He then throws it another. Another miss and he’s getting more agitated. A sigh leaves his lips before the last one is thrown. He doesn’t really throw it, just sort of tosses it. With more luck than skill it meets the target.

He pulls the stuffed animal down for her and hands it to her. As his hand reaches out and goes to hand her the toy, he is no longer holding unto it. The moment her fingers touch the stuffed animal, the toy no longer exists. They are standing in the dreamscape that he is used to. This is where Axel assumes that Nix will behave the way that she usually does in his dreams. There are plenty of things here for her to kill. The stuffed animal that was between them is now empty space as his hand falls down to his side and then he leans his head back. His nose takes in air and then turns to her. “We should get moving. Staying in one place too long will be… disastrous.” He’s being honest, because the matter is that death will reach them if they don’t.


<Phoenix> Had she really expected her dream man to pick up the rings and start tossing? No, not really - not Axel, anyway. But he did. This whole thing reminded her of Zombieland - they, too, had ultimately ended up in some trashed old amusement park. Albeit the city wasn’t burning around those actors, nor were Nix and Axel running for their lives from a horde of ravenous zombies, but there were similarities. Enjoy the small things had been one of their rules to live by and Nix took it to heart - she stood there, watching her man toss rings to win her a stuffed animal he could far more easily just have stolen.

Even as the rings bounced off the bottles, she smiled. He’d missed, then missed again and gotten angry, but she ignored the rumbling. At least he’d not smash any of her precious windows here. When the third ring found it’s mark, she squeaked happily, clapping for him - she, his captive audience. A fourth toss and a third miss - he was down to one? Could he make it? Would he win? The tension mounted as that final hoop sailed through the air and landed.

“GOAL!” she screamed to no one in particular as Axel retrieved the penguin. She immediately went to retrieve the plush, only to blink as soon as her fingers brushed over its grimy fur. The penguin, along with everything else around them vanished in the blink of an eye.

“What… what just happened?” she stammered as she took in the their new, much unimproved surroundings. The world seemed strange and wrong - nothing like the soft edges of her own post apocalyptic dreamscape. Her eyes darted from place to place, not staying focused on any one thing for long. It was all just wrong. He may not have been the most comforting person, but he was safe, and so she inched over to Axel, pressing herself against the man’s side. After groping around blindly, her hand found his, forcibly lacing their fingers together. It was needy and pathetic, but this place instilled an instinctual sense of foreboding in her very core.

“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.” Her voice lowered to a whisper as she heeded his words. Moving seemed like a good idea - somehow, she knew that the lush trees and ancient temples, crumbling high above the valley below was a lie. There was something sinister lurking near them both. Somehow, she knew deep down in her gut that this tropical paradise was anything but.

“I want to wake up now,” she said aloud, though she didn’t realize she was no longer in control. This was no longer her world and she’d slipped deep into Axel’s bloody nightmare. Far below, the trees rustle and shake violently. Something lets out a blood curdling shriek in the stark pre-dawn light. For the first time in a long time, Phoenix was scared.

<Axel Rosen> Fingers, smooth and soft curl between his, and were it not for the fact that he knows they have to get moving, he’d question it. This isn’t her usual style, not in his dreams anyway. The woman always manifests in the way that she holds herself in the light of public outside this place: rough around the edges. This is the first time that Nix has ever played the role of ‘damsel in distress’ in one of his dreams. Never before has he had to do much explaining, because the ‘other’ Nix is a projection of his subconscious given things he knows about her. She’s speaking but he hardly hears her. His ears are focused out in the trees, trying to get an idea of which direction not to go. Many of the trees below them have vibrant purple leaves that sway in the wind, though there is no feel of it in the air. Axel knows the reason but prefers to keep it to himself.

Moving toward the second sun, almost green above the thick jungle scene, his hand grips hers. He’s deciding, now, that it’s better to keep moving regardless of how weird she’s acting at the moment. It’s only when she repeats that she doesn’t like the surroundings twice, that he looks back at her. His feet do not halt the movement toward the east, or the red star in the sky. “Please…” He is cut off by a sound somewhat near them. It’s more near them than he would like it to be. The two blue eyes shoot to the direction where the chitter comes from. Staring back at him is an odd sight, or would be to someone who has never been here before. The creature stands at least nine feet tall, at eye-level with the lower branches. It crushes underbrush as it walks with it’s massive paw-like feet. The mere sight of the being, makes Axel instantly look for a weapon. He eyes Nix to see if she does the same.

He’s not sure she will, but he doesn’t have time to stare at her in the mean time to do it. Little does he know, that if she were to be attacked here, she would wake up. He would be trapped in it’s jaws until the light of the sun falls over the horizon and leaves the ‘real’ sky dark and blanketed by night. There is a moment where he breathes out and it’s because of the realization that the only weapon he has on his person is a small obsidian knife. The black rock blade glimmers under the light of the twin suns they shine through the canopy.

<Phoenix> He’s looking at her funny and she doesn’t like it one bit, but she doesn’t complain. Instead, she lets him assess their surroundings and pick the direction without further complaint. Though, of course, she wants to complain. Fear is a nearly new emotion for her - so long gone that she hardly recognizes the gnawing ache in the pit of her stomach. It’s like a high school bully long forgotten, waltzing his way back into your life. She hates it and she fears it - she fears fear - and to cover it all up, hide it away behind a layer of steel resolve, she gets angry. ‘Please? Please, what?’ She almost snaps the words at Axel, but there is a far greater sense of urgency to the situation than mending her wounded pride. Than building that fear-resistant barrier to keep her safely cocooned. That would come later, once the immediate threat has passed. Though… there seems to be no immediate threat - at least not that she can see. It’s just the dark, twisting, aching sense of foreboding lurking just out of reach.

While the eerie suns dance in the sky, Phoenix lets Axel lead her off into the rustling trees. Her thoughts are elsewhere, trying to figure out where exactly this place had come from within the depths of her mind. Anything to keep her mind off the growing ache in her gut. Unfortunately, she keeps coming up blank. This isn’t somewhere she’s ever been, ever seen… she’s never been all that interested in mesoamerican culture either, but this whole place has a very Aztec or Mayan or Incan feel to it. One of them, not that she knew which.

When Axel stops, she nearly runs into his side, but manages to stop herself at the last second. At least her reflexes remain intact despite the strange surroundings. Her mouth falls open as the creature steps from behind a veil of strange purple leaves. The only things that seem in any way similar to this beast are the greater mooncalves. The dead, stitched together animalistic counterparts of their humanistic brethren. Monsters put together by someone with far less skill than Viktor Frankenstein, but functional nonetheless. This creature - part insect, part humanoid reptile, part mammal - is different. Straight out of someone’s nightmare, this thing looks very much alive, sentient… and worst of all, hungry. Four arms slash at the foliage while its mandibles click together as if scenting the air for prey - them.

And yet… strangely… This creature instills absolutely no fear in the redhead. Only annoyance, a sense of exhausted irritation that this stupid, big, ugly insect-lizard-wolfy thing is barring their escape route from the other scary unseen things. That paralyzing fear of the unknown has given way to white-hot rage and the insectoid ***** has become its target. Axel has his obsidian dagger; she’s noted it out of the corner of her eye. She has no weapon - no small dagger or knife or gun or mace. All she has are empty hands, but that doesn’t matter - in and of itself, necessary improvisation is an opportunity. Brushing past Axel, Nix reaches down to collect a heavy, black rock from the ground and stepped forward to intercept the monster.

It all comes down to speed, reflexes… The creature is fast and does manage to slice into Phoenix with its curved claws, but the wounds are superficial. Once she’s managed to crawl up its back, clinging to the creature’s sharp carapace, and bring the rock down again and again, the fight is over. It takes a few minutes for the rock to break through its chitinous head, but its four arms just aren’t able to dislodge her. Finally, the rock cracks through the exoskeleton to free a spurting stream of noxious yellow-green ooze. Once the thing collapses, each pump of its still-beating heart sending jets of decreasing intensity out through the hole in its head. Satisfied it was well and truly dead, the redhead covered in visceral goo stands, letting the rock fall to the ground.

“Sorry,” she whispers, almost sheepish, “I’ll let you get the next one.”

[Axel Rosen]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Axel Rosen> To him it doesn’t matter that the creature was killed by her only that it was killed or silenced, or really anything else that could easily get rid of the threat that it poses to them. His eyes scan over the being, then to his grandsire and then takes a moment. Nodding his head up and down before he takes a few steps towards, offering her a hand as to help her off the thing. When she accepts it he finally pulls her off the creature and then practically pulls her away from the scene of this creature’s death. The most disconcerting thing about the creature is, though he would tell her just yet, is that just an hour after death, nine more of them will form from the spores at the heart of the beast. In the distance, through the trees he can see the entrance of a temple, and though it looks safe, he knows that everything in this dreamscape is about as safe as a rusted nail. Closer they come and the sounds of human voices can be heard, conversations trailing through the trees. His eyes look to her and he nods in the direction of the place. “Try and blend…” It would be hard for them, being that they’re not in the native clothes.

The natives are wearing differing colors of rags; whereas, himself and Nix are in their usual clothes from the streets of Harper Rock. As they close in, the temple seems to have been hollowed out and turned into a marketplace, a bazaar. Various people selling things. They come closer and it appears that the statue of the humanoid, male that stood before it is now torn down. The face on the head that lays at the feet of the body is ruined and etched to look defeated and mauled. Closer still they come and Axel looks into the various places where the other humans are selling things. Each of these human-like beings have a mark above their left eye. It appears to be a mix between a birthmark and a tattoo. The mark itself is just a swirl, like the inside of a shell that hooks around the eyebrow. Lines from this spot are attached to blood vessels, various spots along the skin show this same taint in the blood system. Past the people, in one of the near merchant’s sales, he sees something that will help them - rags like the ones the others are wearing. “Nix, you’re good at nabbing things right?” He eyes over to her, hidden in the bushes behind a wall of stone. He points, briefly, in the direction of the clothing that he’s speaking of, “We need to blend better. You’ll grab those, we’ll find a nook to hide in and change.”

A breath later he stands and starts to make his way in the direction of the male peddling the peasant’s clothes. He hopes, though doesn’t look to see, that she is behind him. He moves in a quick manner, but at a walk so that he doesn’t stand out. Soon he steps into the crowd and starts weaving between them rather than shoving them and causing a scene. Though he passes the male, he pushes a part of his cart over so that it distracts him. He hopes this distraction will be enough for Nix to grab two sets of the clothes and make it to the dark corner on the other side of the temple. He makes a dip into it and makes sure to look at her before he does so that she knows that he’s making a move

<Phoenix> Axel seem overly happy about the monster being dead, but if she knew what he knew about the things, she probably wouldn’t have been so quick to kill it. After taking his hand and using it to pull herself off the creature, she follows him through the forest, easily keeping pace. Her fingers trail over the delicate leaves of the tropical plants, marveling at how real the whole thing feels. This wasn’t like any other dream she’d ever had. After a few moments of touching the leaves, the serrated edge of a frond slices into her fingertips, drawing a stream of shadowy blood. Flinching back, Nix shakes her hand to stave off the pain and from then on avoids touching anything within reach. No, nothing in this place is safe.

As they continue on, she hears the voices before she spots the clearly human made structure through the trees. In this strange, strange dreamscape, it seems even more wrong to have other people - people were clearly the outliers in this surreal world. She huddles close to Axel’s side, frowning at the instructions. Blend in? It seemed nearly impossible, and became more and more unfeasible the closer and closer they got to the bazaar. Once she’s able to focus on the features of the natives, she shakes her head. They’ll need more than clothes to blend in - they’ll also need some kind of paint. She’d been about to carefully nudge Axel away from the main road once she spotted what passed for clothing in this place, but he was already off in the direction of the stall.

Muttering under her breath - something about men having something to prove - the Shadow trails after Axel, grateful for her slender form. The natives don’t seem to notice her at all as she weaves her way between them, despite how much her hair stands out in the crowd. Finally, once the cart on the other side is upended, she darts forward and grabs as many of the rags as she can. In the commotion, she manages to go unseen by all but a pair of natives. Luckily, their screams of protest are quickly drowned out by the chaos of the cart.

Ducking from shadow to shadow, Nix skirts the crowds and only minutes later joins Axel in the darkness of the temple. Shoving half the bundle of rags at him, she shakes her head. “I should have grabbed some ink or ash or something to draw in an eyebrow tattoo,” she comments lightly as she sheds her normal clothing and does her best to dress herself in the shambles she’s acquired. “I’m not winning any fashion shows in this,” she grumbles, clearly unamused with the situation, though at least her fear of this strange new world has faded.


<Axel Rosen> As she comes to him with some of the clothes from a nearby cart, he looks to her with a tilt of his head as she speaks. Her words make him grin a tad as he moves to put the rags on. “Don’t worry I have a way of putting that ‘tattoo’ on.” Once the clothes are on his form, he takes a seat and pulls out the obsidian dagger that he has had in these dreams since he was a young boy. Taking the dagger, he places the knife above his eye and, from memory, carves the symbol on his skin. It bleeds a little bit, but once he’s done with it, he stands up and hands the blade to her. The hilt in her direction. “Think you can do this?” He points to the mark above his eyebrow. There are some things they cannot recreate, such as the fact that the poison is in the bloodstream of these men and women, and their accents, but at least they can somewhat look the part. With the knife held out to her, his blue eyes look around the area, and make sure that no one is following them. Luckily no one is doing so. “We’re not trying to win a fashion show, Nix, we’re trying to blend in and not die.”

She doesn’t take the knife and instead says that she trusts him to do the same to her. As he looks at her for a moment he shrugs and tosses the knife so that it lands with the hilt in his hand. His eyes look at her eyebrow as he kneels close to her, making sure that he has very close look at her face. With gentle strokes, though he’s sure it hurts no less, he takes little etches at a time out of her flesh and cuts the symbol into her skin. After several seconds, the flesh is scared and scabbed. Kind of proud of his work, because he’s not good at making art like this, he nods his head at the thing before taking a step back. They are well disguised now and he starts to make his back out of the nook, hoping that the a scarring will work. Turning back to face the bustling crowd, it appears that the ruckus has drawn the attention of creatures that look nothing like the humans that walked here before. The crowd is dispersing, the danger of what is happening is apparent in Axel’s expression as he turns back to Nix. “Our stay here has been prematurely interrupted.”

Trying to blend into the crowd, he pulls Nix behind him, his hand wrapped with hers, fingers laced. He does this, though it’s the first time he’s done it in one of his dreams, other than before in the amusement park. He does his best to blend in, but with the way the crowds are moving around the monsters, he cannot read them right. It’s obvious though that they will not be able to get away from the creatures. As they come close the beasts stand above them, heads of a fish. The gills suck in air at the base of the neck and the creature’s head is at the tower of muscle and splotches of fur. The creature has a set of four tails and wings of a bird. It’s massive arms with four fingers at the end carry massive obsidian axes. They glimmer in the light and Axel sees these first, but knows that the creatures are. This one speaks, “Treacherous worshipers of the false God, I demand you tell me what has happened here.” The sound is guttural, almost the way an animal would speak if it could. The very sound of the voice is as if someone had taken several voices and put them together.

In the distance, Axel can see that the stars are about to go down, that night fall is about to happen. His head turns back to Nix, knowing that he would wake up soon. He’s sure she’s still sleeping and this isn’t the real Nix. It cannot be. There’s no way. He times it, stalling and stammering as he speaks before the stars sink below the horizon. Just as the final star sinks down and darkness falls over the land, he pulls the dagger and stabs the creature in the eye, twisting it. Nix is already gone, disappeared as the monsters scream something about the false God standing before them, ordering him to be killed. He pulls the dagger out and disappears as the the last star goes down. He winks at them as he vanishes from sight and then wakes up in the chair. He startles awake and then takes a breath. He pats himself down. Sitting up, looking over himself. “Those dreams are getting more and more close to feeling real every time.”

<Phoenix> Confusion etches her features as she follows Axel through the crowd. She’d have furrowed her brow, but the cuts hurt, even in the dream state. At least he hadn’t gouged out her eyes when given the chance. She squeezes his hand, finding it surprisingly reassuring to feel the touch of his skin. The sight of the creature disturbs her, but the fact that it can speak even more so. A shiver runs down her spine as she focuses on blending in - something she’d at which she’d always excelled.

For a long moment of silence, she watches Axel watch the sky, confused. As darkness settles over the strange land, she begins to feel herself being pulled away. Despite her hold on Axel’s hand, she seems to be sucked back through space and time until she sits up straight in bed, panting for breath. In the pre-dusk glow of the failing sun that seeps into the room from beneath her bedroom door, she knows she’s slept through the day - not that it felt much like rest. The dream was so vivid, so real... With a frustrated shake of her head, she reaches for her phone and quickly taps out a text message.

To: Axel
From: Phoenix
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I had the weirdest dream today and you were in it… We should make with the adventuring some time!