The Dreamtime

[Bloody Bomb]

(This is go-aheaded.)

(I'm not really sure if that's the right prefix.)

Every night, DQers sleep silently in their houses. Sometimes they sleep happily.
Sometimes the have nightmares.

Sometimes, their dreams are collective.

And what if, as if in a curse, this happened night after night? Collective dream after collective dream?

Would the average DQer be able to stand it?

This happened, once. Each time, the members would dream the same dream as the first one asleep. Each would be literrally in the same dream.

This is the story of those bizarre nights.




Okay, this isn't realtime. Dreams will last until the initial dreamer wakes.

Roles:

Initial dreamer: This person is randomly selected from participants and gets to invent the dream for that night. They can cause huge things to happen in the dreams and the dream ends when they wake up.

Nightmares: The Nightmares are the creatures of nightmares that are, in fact, dreamers who are scared. These are randomly selected.

Angelia: Even in a nightmare, there are angels to protect. For every large, collective dream, there is an assortment of dreamers that dream as randomly selected Angelia.

Dreamers: Normal dreamers. They can cause dreamlike things to happen, but nothing huge.



Time:

Sleepy time: This is when members are falling asleep. It pretty much lasts until the Initial Dreamer falls asleep and the dream begins.

Dreamtime: The night as you sleep and dream. Need I say more?

The Waking Day: You interact during The Waking Day. This lasts between rounds, as roles are assigned. Any interactions are allowed, but this is the world of reality. No dreamlike events during The Waking Day are allowed.






This is roleplayed. You will get a number when you join. This number determines your role when random selection occurs.

[Damian]

Memememememeeeeeeeeee.


Ok, seriously then, I join.

[username]

cool idea you have there.
im in. :)

[Inretrospect]

I'm in, it sounds interesting. Sounds a bit confusing though.

[Varthonai]

~THIS RP HAS BEEN VARTH-APPROVED

I'm in too. Carry on.

[sgt_Angua]

This sounds cool. Should we base the dreams off dreams we've actually had?

[Varthonai]

This sounds cool. Should we base the dreams off dreams we've actually had?

I think the idea is that the Initial Dreamer decides what happens in the dreams, like a DM. So if you're the Initial Dreamer then yeah, I guess you could.

[leapoffaith]

Seems cool. I'm in.

[Bloody Bomb]

Lessee heeeere...

1. Damian.
2. Username.
3. Inretrospect.
4. Varthonai.
5. Leapoffaith.
6. Aval.
7. Kronosdragon.
8. Me.
9. sgt_Angua.
10. Polo.
11. Mattbot.
12. Demonickilla.
13. Wadling.
14. Shadowdancer.
15. Big Boom.
16. Porosity
17. Jedi-L-FTW
18. Bronze

If I forgot anybody let me know... You can still join, people.
(Currently The Waking Day.)

[Aval]

Count me in.

[kronosdragon]

Sure, hey, why not? I have to do something to pass the time while I'm waiting for people to post in the CTS game! XD

[Bloody Bomb]

I think I'm going to start the game now. If anybody else wants to join, they can, but for this round they can only be Normal Dreamers. From a suggention, I'm using random.org

Initial Dreamer: 9 (That's sgt_Angua.)
Nightmares: 4, 3.
Angelia: 8(YAAAAY), 2.

This makes sgt_Angua the Initial dreamer. (You make the dream and the large events of the dream.)
Varth and Inretrospect are the nightmares. (Guys, you're dream demons. Do whatever demons in dreams that hunt down dreamers do.)
Username and I are the Angelia. (We have to protect dreamers and the Initial Dreamer when they are in over their heads, and we sort of watch over them like guardian angels.)
All other participants are normal Dreamers.

Sleepy Time. Waiting for sgt_ Angua's post. (Unless I'm wrong and sgt_Angua didn't actually join.)

[Polo]

Coey! I have to join on the account my dreams may be raped.

JOIN plz!

[Varthonai]

(I'm talking to her now. She says she did join.)

[Mattbot]

Seems pretty interesting and the chance to be part of Polos dream is too awesome to pass up. Cans i join? :3

[demonickilla]

Me too! This sounds cool!

[emperorbrandon]

i dont get it

[Tyemdi]

Count me in for a festive treat!

[Wadling]

I'm totally in, this sounds awesome.

[Bloody Bomb]

Okey Dokey.

[ShadowDancer]

Eh, what the heck? I'm in!

[Varthonai]

(So it will be Dreamtime as soon as the Initial Dreamer makes the first post, amirite?)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Yeeessir.)

[sgt_Angua]

(This is based on a dream I had. I wonder how it will end this time.)

Angua tries to avoid looking out of place as she tries to find a way out of the dark corridor, and the building. This was another gang’s territory and they wouldn’t hesitate to use her as a way of sending a message to her own gang. So far she’s gone unnoticed in the crowd, but it’s only a matter of time if she can’t leave.

Angua sees two identical blond men in suits, towering over the crowd: the Turtle Brothers. If they see her, she’ll be in trouble.

She searches frantically for a way out, or somewhere to hide, but cannot find either. Angua has to stand by the pool and hope that the crowd will be enough cover while the Turtle Brothers try to intimidate everyone.

(People who have not posted yet are welcome to put themselves in the crowd.)

[Varthonai]

Warren wakes up in bed with a rather odd feeling. He has a salty-iron taste in his throat, for starters, and there’s something small, hard, and pointy stuck uncomfortably between his tongue and the floor of his mouth. When he reaches inside to remove the irritant, it eludes his fingers, slipping down the moist and slippery flesh of the palates and gums until it comes to the corner of his left cheek. This continues for several minutes until Warren finally grows tired of the game and attempts to spit the offending object into the palm of his open hand.

Nothing comes out. The object clings inside Warren’s mouth like a tick or a leech, with its pointed tips pinching ever-so-gently into his flesh. The sensation is neither comfortable nor actually painful, only a little unsettling; Warren nervously reaches once again into his mouth and finally manages to take hold of the thing stuck in there—it has four tiny points, but most of the rest of its surface is smooth and rounded. He closes his eyes and tugs the thing gently from the interior of his jawline. Half-seriously, Warren is worried that it will still cling to the inside of his cheek, pulling off an enormous chunk of his face if it leaves at all…

The worry is ridiculous, of course, and the object comes free without much trouble. Warren raises it up to eye level and studies it meticulously.

It’s a tooth, Warren realizes, startled. But… haven’t I lost all my baby teeth already? This doesn’t make sense…

Four full-length white roots run down from each bottom corner of the slightly-bloodstained tooth, and almost involuntarily Warren reaches inside his mouth again to run a quick dental roll call. He’s missing one of his wisdom teeth—he tongues the sunken spot where the tooth used to be, tasting a far more intense salty-iron flavor as he does so.

Warren begins to panic. Why did this happen? What’s going on? Why—

His questions suddenly seem unimportant as the loose tooth in his hand crumbles into white powder. The bloody saliva that had previously covered the tooth now begins to glow fluorescent crimson, and the entire mess gathers itself into a tiny storm of snow-white powder and blood-red lightning. Warren watches, transfixed, as the storm becomes spherical, sprouts tiny fairy wings, and flutters out of his hand. The tooth-creature reminds him (oddly, he thinks to himself) of Navi the Fairy from Ocarina of Time, only red instead of blue.

<Hello Warren,> Red Navi says, cheerfully projecting a childlike voice into Warren’s subconscious. <Let’s go on a quest together!>

[Damian]

Damian doesn't remember waking up. He doesn't remember going to sleep. It just seems to him as if he was suddenly there. He notices some fuzz on his black business suit, and brushes it off.
"Where am I? Is this one of those collective dreams again? Well, looking on the bright side of this, at least it's easier to bend reality in a dream."He thinks to himself.
He pulls a laptod out of thin air and gets on deletionquality.net.
"There's a thread about this somewhere... Ha!
Damian reads the thread, then looks down at the list of participants.
"Damn it, I'm not a nightmare demon this time! Well, whatever, I'm hungry. Time to go get some non-existent food."
Damian jumped into the air, and begins to fly towards the nearest (non-existent) restaurant.

[Varthonai]

“Who are you?” Warren asks the floating red ball of light that used to be his wisdom tooth.

<Me? Ahahahahahaha> the light giggles. <I’m your best friend, Warren. I’m going to accompany you on your quest to make all your best dreams come true.>

“How did I lose a tooth? Why did I lose a tooth?”

<All people lose their teeth, silly.>

“But I’m… it doesn’t, I’m—”

<And anyway, you haven’t LOST me. I’m still here!> chuckles the floating light. <I would never abandon my best friend. Never, never, never…>

“But it will be harder to chew on that side of my mouth now,” Warren protests, panicking.

<It doesn’t matter,> answers the light. <You’ll never be hungry again.>

“…I’m sorry?”

<Follow meeee!>

Warren watches with ever-growing worry as the floating light bobs into his bathroom and jumps excitedly around the mirror. Reluctantly, Warren gets up and follows.

“Look, I’m begging you, I really want to keep all my teeth!” Warren pleads. “Can’t you… can’t you just turn back into my tooth, and go back in? Can’t this stop? I don’t want it, I don’t need it, it… it just feels bad.”

The light lands on Warren’s bathroom sink and droops its wings sorrowfully. The storm of red lightning within it grows calmer.

<I… I could, I suppose,> it answers, slowly. <But… but then I’d just be a tooth again. Not your best friend anymore.>

Warren feels awkward putting the odd tooth-creature in this position. “I… I want to… look, if I go on this quest with you, will I get a new tooth?”

<Yes, YES!> the little ball replies, flitting its wings excitedly again. <As many replacement teeth as you’d ever, ever need!>

Warren’s will wavers for a moment. “Well, if you give me a moment to—”

<YAY!> it squeals joyously, flitting over to the full-length bathroom mirror and tapping the surface with a lacy wing. <I knew you’d do it!>

“Wait!” Warren shouts, panicking again. “I only—”

The mirror’s surface ripples for a moment, like a pool of quicksilver. Then, without warning, dozens of silvery tendrils shoot out and envelop Warren’s struggling form completely. He feels mirror-fluid invade his nostrils and ear canals, forcefully shoving open his eyelids and squeezing into the space between his eyeballs and eye sockets until he cannot stop himself from screaming and the liquid pours into his open mouth as well. In less than a second the mirror has reeled him in and flattened itself back into a normal state.

The little ball of light looks extremely pleased with itself.

[Bloody Bomb]

(Tooth Fairy, Varth? xD)

I looked around anxiously. Things were different. I could not feel myself, but I felt everything else. I felt many things, but mainly, I felt fear, trickery, and pain.

My tendrils of absolute nothingness stretched to hunt out the dreamers. They had to be guarded in case anything got out of hand. I still didn't understand why I felt responsible for protecting them. For an odd reason, I instinctively followed a certain set of roads I didn't know. I peered into a room and there he was. He was becoming overwhelmed by something. It seemingly attacked him. And then I knew I couldn't save him. I floated off, preparing for the worst. In the space in which nothing had time to happen, I fled completely.

(I think sgt_Angua is about to be into trouble. Angelia duo to the rescue?)

[kronosdragon]

(well, here goes)

KD stood in a forest, surrounded by tall sycamores. She instinctively reached up to touch her ears.

Great, another elf dream...Whoop-dee-doo...

She sat down on a rock, running her hands over the cool moss hanging from the tree branches above her.

Well this is just great. What am I supposed to do now?

She buried her hands in her forest-green dress, utterly bored.

Strange, I would have thought something interesting would have happened by now...

She got up and started walking through the trees. What little light filtered down through the canopy was silver moonlight, barely lighting the ground in front of her. She heard a slight rustle to her left, and instinctively reached for her belt, on which would normally have been a sword. But not this time. This time, she grabbed hold of a whip, even though she had no idea how to use it.

Wonderful. And what beast do I get to be eaten by this night, eh?

Something large and black emerged from the darkness. It glittered, as if it were covered in shards of obsidian. A huge black snake, twice as long as your average anaconda, slithered down the trunk of a tree and poked its head out toward KD. She stood, unafraid yet knowing the inevitable. She'd get swallowed up by a gigantic snake, wake up, and fall back to sleep again.

But not this night.

The black snake hissed, flicking its tongue out at her. In a strange, echoing voice, it said, "You are the young elven queen."

"Go figure," KD said, crossing her arms.

The snake lowered its head slightly in a bow.

"I am glad to have made your acquaintance. Come. I must show you something."

The snake slithered back up into the branches. KD sighed and followed, climbing up the huge sycamore and coming to rest as close to the top as the branches could hold her. She looked out at the hills of green, shining pale silver in the light of the full moon. The stars twinkled down at them from above.

"So what is it you wanted to show me?" KD asked the snake.

"Look yonder, to the west."

KD turned her head westward, a quick burst of wind rustling the leaves around her and forcing her hair out of her face. She could smell the woodsmoke before she could see it. Several plumes of light smoke were rising from the forest, far to the west.

"What do I have to do?" KD asked.

[leapoffaith]

LOF wass muscle bound and sporting a fluffy mustache. Beautiful women were all around him. mustachemustachemustache.
Like a dream come true...
I need some Gelato.
He leapt into the air and flew to get some gelato somewhere. He would find gelato if it was the last thing he did.

[Inretrospect]

Inretrospect is running. He's in a dense forest and doesn't know how he got there. He's naked from the waist up, and his entire upper body is covered in blood. He doesn't know if it's his own or not. he can't feel anything. He suddenly stops and stares at his hands. His fingers are buff and are stained red. The fingernails are long and unnaturally sharp. Then He gets a craving. He suddenly needs... Food.

[ShadowDancer]

(Just a short post before I go to bed)

Shadow ran down the sidewalk, jumping over puddles and pushing people aside. She overslept again and was now racing down the street towards her bus stop. As she rounded the corner, she could see the large yellow vehicle approaching.

I'm gonna make it! she thought, running faster. Just then, she realized something. Dammit! I left my binder at home!

Shadow looked back towards her house, and then at the bus, then her house, and then the bus again. Without her binder, she wouldn't be able to do her work. But if she went back for it now, she wouldn't be able to get to school. She stood there, looking back and forth between the bus and the house, trying to decide what to do. Finally she decided that school was more important, and sprinted towards the vehicle. As she reached the stop, the bus closed its doors and zoomed down the street. Shadow stood there, watching as the bus turned the corner and left. She slowly sank to her knees and stared at the pavement.

I missed the bus... she thought. What am I going to do? What's my mom going to do? Fear welled up inside her at the thought of her mom finding out she overslept. She could see her standing in front of her, eyes filled with anger, ready to tear her to pieces. Shadow shook her head and stood up.

I am so screwed...

(I had a dream like that once. It didn't have a happy ending...)

[Big Boom]

Ok this is based on a nightmare I had not long ago actually. The beggining was just like I had remembered it.
__________________________________________________ ______

A cold sweat, umbearable heat was enveloping the room as he layed in his bed. Alex lethargically got out of his cacoon of blanket and bed sheets. Looking around he started to notice that the room he had remebered going to bed was slowly starting to change form. Chains and cracks on the wall started to creep around the house, or so it had seemed from his point of view. Pipes started to grow from the walls, extending towards him, almost as if he had been the prey of the rusty pipes and walls. He suddenly rushed to get dressed and see what really was going on.

The doors slammed open and close, ripping off the hinges and floating towards the force that had occured to it. Alex, now panicing he ran for the stairs, tiptoeing down each step with extreme anxiety. All of a sudden, the stairs turned down and made a seemingly endless slide that fell towards a pitch blackness. He screamed, but couldn't let out a noise, and maybe if he did it would only be sucked into the eternal blackness below him like a black hole. At that point he slid down into a hallway, the hallway that lead to the kitchen of the house he had once remembered.

Not knowing really what to do, he crept towards the ominous hallway and into the kitchen. It too had been transformed. The refrigerator door started to creak back and forth showing the rotten food that had been inside. Alex coughed, he couldnt breathe all of a sudden. Rushing for the water dispenser and poured a cup of clear and reflective water. But it wasn't water.

A foul and discomforting taste he felt from the "water" made him drop the glass and cough even more. At that point his cough was too much for him. He started to taste a metallic string like object from the depths of his throat. A string started to emit from his mouth. Alex was now in a confusing and unimaginably unpleasent state. His hands started to pull for the string. He pulled and pulled, expelling more of the string from his mouth. The black string seemed endless.

Suddenly at the end of the string, he could feel it, was a round-like object, it scratched the linings of his gum and blood poured down to the ground, making a pool of dark scarlet. The black string, now floating in the puddle started to sliver away like in a snake like pattern and made its way down the hallway.

Alex fell down to his knees, still coughing.

[Inretrospect]

IR had been walking for several minutes, and his hunger was growing with every step. He ran as fast as he could through the dark forest, on and on and on. He came to a stop, because he saw some lights ahead. He emerged from the forest into a busy street. He didn't feel at all embarrassed, being surrounded by people while he wasn't fully clothed, which was odd, because he was normally a very shy person. The people didn't seem to notice him, despite the fact that he was caked in blood, and was half naked. They all had blank looks on their faces. He walked down the street, looking for a nearby restaurant, or even a fast food place. The people who were in his way got shoved away, with suprising ease.
At last, he had found a burger king at the streets end. He tore through the doors, and stole a Big mac from a nearby table. He ate the whole thing in a single bite, but it did little to ease his rumbling belly. The people at this table, he had just noticed, were not as emotionless as the ones outside. " What the hell was that" the man at the table screamed at him. IR was normally a very patient and calm person, but finding yourself in the middle of the forest half clothed and feeling practically starved had incredibly negative effects on his behavior. IR snarled at the man and wacked him in the side of the head with his hand. The man went flying... through the wall and out into the street... He stared at his hands in wonderment, before he fled the restaurant quickly, not wanting to have a run in with the cops.

[Varthonai]

For what feels like an eternity, Warren is enveloped in crushing tangible blackness, like he’s at the very bottom of the ocean. There’s no light, but the force of the mirror squeezes him until he is sure he will explode, pop open like an overripe tomato and coat everything in chunky human salsa…

Then, suddenly, the mirror releases Warren, spits him out like a watermelon seed and sends him crashing over an electric stove which, fortunately, is not turned on.

“Wh—Alex?” Warren sputters, noticing the coughing dreamer on the kitchen floor. “Dude? You ok there?”

<He’s in trouble!> says a familiar voice. <We need to help him before it’s too late!>

“What?” Warren says, looking around frantically. “Where did you—”

<I’m invisible now! Yaaaaaay!>

“Dammit, Red Navi Fairy Person, this isn’t a game, it’s—”

A black string suddenly curls around Warren’s neck and yanks him downward, smashing his face against the cold kitchen floor. Reflexively, with absolutely no idea what he’s doing, Warren grabs the string with both hands and pulls. The string ignites, blazes for a moment, and goes up in a puff of smoke and embers.

<We did it! We saved Alex!>

Warren’s perplexed, but happy enough. He smiles and says, “Yeah, ha-ha, I guess we did at that… hahaHAGHK”

Then Warren chokes a little, feeling the uncomfortable feeling that he had felt earlier—he gags, rears back, and spits out three more teeth.

“Wha—what the F*CK is THIS?!” Warren roars.

<I think they got knocked loose when you hit the floor.>

“Oh, Jesus…” Warren whines, “Dammit, this isn’t… this isn’t…”

Alex looks at Warren nervously. “Warren?” he asks, slowly. “Who are you talking to?”

[Mattbot]

(assuming this is dreamtime)

A stern voice echoed from the front of the helicopter "We're landing sir, grab your gear and get out"
Matt sat up straight and lifted his shades up in order to examine the closing distance from the chopper to the ground, He took another puff from his worn pipe and picked up his bag.

The helicopter landed in the courtyard of the small military encampment located on the shore of a tropical plateau without a hitch and Matt took a step off the transport scanning what was before him.
A cluster of tents, military vehicles and makeshift offices filled to the brim with medical supplies and weapons of all shapes and sizes. Armoured men sprant form one to the other as innocent bystanders stood further offshore examing the base. Matt withdrew his pipe as an armored car power slid by his side, a young and reckless driver calling to him "Its an honor to meet you Detective, please take a seat"

The Armored vehicle came to a stop a few miles into the jungle landing straight on the doorstep of another camp which dwarfed the one on shore, Matt hopped out from the back of the vehicle and instinctively walked up to a large hut which appeared to have been modified into a command deck. At the entrance stood an old yet well built man covered in medals and scars from a long military based past.

"You're looking good, Matt" He said shaking Matt’s hand

"It's been a long time, General"

"Come on inside" The old veteren spoke as he guided Matt into the command center.

The General sat behind his desk and prepared a document full of maps and mission details. Matt had lifted up his shades and pocketed his pipe now firmly concentrating on the files before him.

"18 hours ago, Mrs. Putnam drake the second was discovered in her flower garden burned to her green house by some mysterious force, we believe that what caused her body to fuse with the wall was the tablet of Argos which recently vanished from cheeseburg museum, whoever took this artifact must be connected to the murder we need you to track down the whereabouts of this tablet and apprehend" The General smirked to himself "those responsible for taking the item."

"I'm not some god damn archeologist, why not use the regular detective branch?"

[Wadling]

Wadling was sitting at a wooden table, in a makeshift military camp. He took a quick sip from a bottle of non-alcoholic beer to try to combat the stifling heat and humidity in the hut. He slapped his neck, disposing of a pesky mosquito that was drawn to his direction by the buzzing lamp in front of him. He looked up to see Mattbot stride confidently into the room.

"So why do you need me, why not use the regular detective branch?" Mattbot asked.

"'Cuz some damn fool accused you of being the best!" Wadling said in as gruff a voice as possible.

Mattbot stopped, and turned his head ever so slowly around to face him. Wadling stood up and chuckled to himself while the General looked on.

"Wadling!" Mattbot called in greeting "You sunuva bitch!"

The two raised their right hands and slammed them together, causing a snap sound like no other. They stared each other in the face, neither of them wanting to lose the arm wrestling match they had subconsciously entered. Wadling's arm started to give way ever so slightly, which Mattbot picked up on instantly.

"What's the matter?" Mattbot asked, smiling and looking back and forth from Wadling to the combating arms "Mod-squad got you pushing too many pencils? Huh? Had enough?"

"Make it easy on yourself Matt" Wadling chuckled, trying not to show that he was losing. This display of over-the-top manly competition went on for another couple of minutes, before Wadling finally gave in, laughing. "Okay, okay, okay you win."

"So you really did learn how to quit eh?" Mattbot laughed

"It's damn good to see ya Matt."

"What is this freakin' tie business man?" Mattbot asked, raising an eyebrow at Wadling's tie, and swilling a glass of wine that had appeared from nowhere.

"Forget about the tie" Wadling said, and lead Mattbot over to the briefing files to prepare for the mission.

[Bloody Bomb]

Demonic smiles as he breathes in the clear warm air. He was having another one of those dreams. Demonic runs down towards the next part of the roof top and gives an abrupt leap, clearing the space between the two houses easily. Demonic does a quick roll when he lands, then recovers. He stops and looks up into the sky. Something is wrong, the sky was dark and swirling around, like a tornado, yet the air was warm, and there wasn't a breeze. Demonic looks behind him, thinking something is there, nothing.

Demonic continues his run, this time the next roof top was taller then the one he is on right now. Demonic jumps and reaches for the roof top, he pulls himself easily. He looks behind him again, this time, the roof he was on seconds ago, was collapsing. He feels the one he is on start to collapse as well. Demonic runs and makes the jump again, he lands it and watches as the town starts to crash and tumble. Demonic gasps and continues his run.

(Ahhem. This is to all players. There is really only one Initial Dreamer, and you'll get your turn. But it's sgt_Angua's turn to play as the Initial Dreamer, so please do not rebuild the dream in your post.)

[Wadling]

(Ahhem. This is to all players. There is really only one Initial Dreamer, and you'll get your turn. But it's sgt_Angua's turn to play as the Initial Dreamer, so please do not rebuild the dream in your post.)

(I can't speak for anyone else, but me and Mattbot have planned for our dream to take place near Angua, we'll travel there in the next post.)

[Bloody Bomb]

(I can't speak for anyone else, but me and Mattbot have planned for our dream to take place near Angua, we'll travel there in the next post.)

(Ah. Just as long as it ultimately is reined in by the main setting, which is in sgt_Angua's post.)

(Oh, and I need Username to start posting.)

[ShadowDancer]

Could this day get any worse? Shadow thought as she walked down the sidewalk. Just then, she felt a drop of rain on her head, and then another. She looked up as the large grey clouds soaked her in water. Shadow sighed and kept walking. Her mom wouldn't be home for a few more hours, so she had to think of a good excuse. It took her a while to notice that the rain had stopped falling on her. She looked up and saw the interior of a large pink umbrella.

"Want to play with me?" said a voice from behind her. Shadow turned to see a young girl with strange clothes and spiky blue hair holding the umbrella. She wore a dark purple dress that went down to her knees. Her stockings were covered in purple and pink stripes. Around her neck was a crimson silk ribbon. In her other hand was a large lollipop.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked, puzzled. The girl laughed, let go of the umbrella and grabbed Shadow's arm. She then dragged her down the street with the umbrella following them. Weird girls and floating umbrellas? What the hell is going on?

"Where are we going?" Shadow asked, trying to free herself from the girl's strong grip.

"You'll see..." she teased, leading Shadow down a street she didn't recognize. They walked for a few more minutes and stopped in front of a large building. Shadow tried to look inside through the windows, but saw nothing but darkness. The girl giggled and opened the door.

[Inretrospect]

IR sat down to rest in the dark alleyway. He had no idea where he was, and he was still STARVING. He had "borrowed" a shirt and sweater from a nearby apparel store, but that wasn't his main concern, food was. IR was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the small, blue light speck that was approaching him...

"HELLO!"

IR jumped up from the ground, and looked around.

"I would've asked who had said that, had you not been the only thing around little speck. Can you tell me what I'm doing here and why my body is covered in blood?" IR said.

"WHY DO YOU ASSUME I KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THOSE QUESTIONS?"

"Little balls of talking light usually do, and that's exactly what you are" IR answered.

"YES,I DO KNOW THE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS, BUT THEY CANNOT BE ANSWERED HERE, YOU MUST COME WITH ME."

IR reviewed his options: He could stay here, and starve, and... besides eating his own limbs, there was nothing he could do.

"Alright, I'll follow you, but at least tell me your name"

"MY NAME IS CHATBOT (:eek2:)" and the blue speck headed and down the alley, leaving IR in a shocked silence...

[Big Boom]

Alex finally getting up, noticing that the blood that had spilled from his mouth was on his hands and pants, saw Warren muttering to himself. Gazing directly into his hands, as if the something in his hand were a curse. Alex moved closer to Warren, now looking into Warren's hand. He saw three newly lost teeth.

"Whats the problem? They are only teeth." Alex asked, not really knowing what was about to happen.

"No, you don't understand, there are more of them," Warren murmured to himself in an utter hate and disgust. Alex looked up at Warren's shocked face, pale, almost completely drained of any life or hope.

At that exact moment the teeth in Warren's hands started to make a cloud of white and red. Each small cloud started to get smaller and smaller until each turned into something undescribable. Each had its own aura of light sourrounding each creature, green, blue, and yellow. Almost like the primary colors Alex now noticed. Suddenly, another one of the creatures came, but it had a red colored aura.

<Yippee! More friends to play with!> The creatures started to twirl in a circle. Alex bewildered looked at Warren, his face was in utter horror. Looking at him more he started to see him get more pale, his hair turn an akwardly red.

"Warren, your hair....its turning red.?" Alex stated questionally. Warren grasped for his hair and moved to a reflective glass. It was true, Warren looked at Alex in dispair.

"They are doing this to me, aren't they?" Warren asked, as if Alex knew the answer.

"They look harmless, aren't they?" Alex responded.

"Far from that," Warren retorted and turned towards the creatures.

<Follow us!> said the creatures eeriely at the same exact time. The auras of light disappeared into the hallway, leaving Alex to follow into the open corridor. Warren behind him. They saw the lights go into the endless foreboding, darkness, slowly the illuminating light faded, the laughter stopped as they stared into the black hole of a path.

Then, slowly lights started to flicker on and off, revealing an endless hallway with hundreds of doors. The lights illuminated the hallway barely. Just enough to get through.

[demonickilla]

(Alright, Alright. I'll make my dream better.)

Demonic smiled as the wind ruffled under his hat and into his brown hair. He jumped and landed onto the next roof top, he completed this jump with a roll, he recovered and jumped to the next roof top, barely making the jump, and narrowly missing a fatal fall. Yet Demonic kept running. He kept running until something stopped him.

He didn't know why, but he stared into a large crowd of people, for some reason, it was important, he didn't know why, but it just was. Demonic caught his breath and sat down onto the edge of the roof top.

He stared into the crowd and wondered what he should do, was it just one of those feelings, or was it really important. Demonic let the scene unfold before his eyes.

[Varthonai]

<All right, everyone,> says the creature that Warren has mentally dubbed Red Navi. <We’re here.>

“Where’s ‘here’?” asks Warren.

<The end of the quest,> says Red Navi. <Only Warren can proceed. Goodbye, Alex.>

A door opens spontaneously, and a rushing wind sucks Alex screaming from the hallway and into a cold, dark void.

“Hey!” Warren shouts. “What the hell did you just do that for?!”

<We sent him away,> one of the other Navi-lookalikes says. <Don’t worry, you’ll see him again soon.>

“No! That’s it! This is all over!” Warren roars. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

He turns around and runs back down the hallway.

<Warren, stop!> Red Navi calls, pleadingly. <Stop! Don’t—>

The voice grows distant for a moment, but then grows loud again.

<why, why… why? Why? WHY would you run from your friends? WHY WOULD YOU TURN. WHY WOULD YOU BETRAY US, WHY WOULD YOU RUN AWAY FROM US YOU PATHETIC LITTLE BASTARD TELL US WHY>

The noise penetrates into Warren’s skull, makes it vibrate until he collapses and writhes on the ground in agony. Blackness creeps into the corners of his vision, and he passes out a few minutes later.

***

He wakes up in bed with a rather odd feeling. He has a salty-iron taste in his throat, for starters, and there’s something small, hard, and pointy stuck uncomfortably between two of his teeth. When he reaches inside to remove the irritant, his finger snags on it painfully and blood wells up from the puncture wound, filling his mouth with a disgusting tang. He cries out, and in doing so he accidentally pulls his head back from his hand. The tip of his finger tears messily open, a gash so deep he can see down to the bone.

He runs into the bathroom to find gauze and disinfectant, but as he passes the mirror he realizes that there is no longer any point. The face that gazes back at him is not the one he remembers. It is vaguely similar, but it is dead, corpse-pale, with dark sunken-in eyes… his hair is red at the roots now, somehow, and when he reaches up to stroke his few remaining brown hairs they come out in his hands, falling out in huge tufts at the slightest touch. He looks at his mouth, now; it is bloody, as he had thought, and what he had thought was something stuck between two teeth is actually a pearlescent hook sprouting up from the hole where one of his several lost teeth used to be. A shred of his wounded finger still clings to it, and he doesn’t dare try to pry it loose now.

He also notices that about half a dozen more toothless holes have appeared in his gums.

It is at about this time that he realizes he can’t recall his own name. He does not panic at this—panicking will get him nowhere. He focuses hard and calls up all the things he does remember… most of it is miscellaneous information from his recent Internet research, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

Navi (ナビィ Nabi?) (voice actress: Kaori Mizuhashi) is a fairy who is Link's "sidekick" throughout the game. She is instructed by the Great Deku Tree in Kokiri Forest to assist Link in his quest to stop Ganondorf. All Kokiri have companion fairies, but because Link is actually a Hylian, he never received one until Navi joins him near the beginning of the events in Ocarina of Time.

In gameplay, Navi functions primarily as a guide that points out clues in the environment and helps the player learn the controls and advance in the game. Most of her hints are about how to progress in the story or defeat enemies. She can also be used to lock on enemies in the game, items and other characters. She is one of the few characters with any voice-acting in the series, and the only character who (aside from Link in The Wind Waker) actually uses English words, such as "Hey", "Look", "Listen", "Watch out" and "Hello". Her habit of doing this constantly have made her one of the most hated characters in the series among gamers.

He breathes in. The Navis, they're the problem here… have they taken his name from him? Is that it?

The Rape-aXe is a latex sheath embedded with shafts of sharp, inward-facing barbs that would be worn by a woman in her vagina like a tampon. If an attacker were to attempt vaginal rape, his penis would enter the latex sheath and be snagged by the barbs, causing the attacker excruciating pain during withdrawal and (ideally) giving the victim time to escape. The condom would remain attached to the attacker's body when he withdrew and could only be removed surgically[citation needed], which would alert hospital staff and police.

He shivers. The hook that has grown up in place of his old tooth, he suddenly realizes, is not meant to cut or sever things. No, no, that would be far too clean, far too easy… the hook is meant to hold things, hold them while unspeakable things are done to those whom they ensnare, hold them so that the only escape is a horrible mutilation and ripping of the flesh.

<We DID promise you new teeth,> says Red Navi, drifting across the mirror’s surface but not visible in the room itself. <The others should grow in soon enough.>

His only response is a grimace.

<You’ll know your new name soon,> says Red Navi.

“You lied,” he says. “You said you were going to make all my favorite dreams come true.”

<I said all your BEST dreams, silly,> says Red Navi, <and that’s a matter of perspective.>

“What’s happening to me?”

<You’re finding it increasingly difficult to mask what an ugly bastard you are at heart, that’s what,> Red Navi laughs. <But don’t worry. We’re making you a new mask, free of charge. A mask that’s been worn by countless troubled monsters like yourself…>

The other Navis flit in behind their red leader. Again, they do not appear on his side of the mirror—only in the reflection. They dive at his hair and seem almost to swim through it, churning the decaying red-brown curls and dissolving themselves into it until it is multicolored, frizzled, and frighteningly ridiculous. Red Navi separates into red and white components, then spreads itself out and plasters itself over every square inch of his skin, feeling disgustingly like wet greasepaint. He sputters uncomfortably. Blood drools over his lips and stains them horribly red. One last memory passes through his mind before his sense of self becomes lost forever:

Coulrophobia is abnormal or exaggerated fear of clowns. The term is common, but it does not appear to be used in psychology.[1] It is common among children, but is also sometimes found in teenagers and adults as well.[citation needed] Sufferers sometimes acquire a fear of clowns after having a bad experience with one personally. Coulrophobia can also be said to extend to a fear of covering up one's face with paint—the idea of hiding recognisable features under a layer of facepaint can also unsettle coulrophobia sufferers.[1] Symptoms of coulrophobia can be shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea.[2]

[Inretrospect]

IR hurried to catch up to chatbot for the third time. The thing could move fast for a little speck of light. His stomach was killing him, begging for food. But it didn't feel like a normal craving...

"Hey, chatbot, can we get a bite to eat?" IR asked, hoping that the speck would know how to satisfy his hunger.

"THERE WILL BE PLENTY TO EAT SOON ENOUGH" Chatbot said. The chatbots tone of voice was pretty flat, but the use of the words seemed somehow... ominous. He would've asked what chatbot had meant, but they had apparently arrived at their destination, a tall, deserted looking building. The doors lay wide open, and all of the windows were broken, excluding those on the first floor. Chatbot was hovering at the entrance of the building. IR walked in... and the doors shut behind him.

"I AM SURPRISED YOU WERE ABLE TO RESIST PHASE ONE OF THE TRANSFORMATION, BUT I GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL LOSE ALL TRACES OF HUMANITY AFTER THIS RUN" The speck says, flying to the front of his face. The light starts to get brighter, and IR has to shut his eyes.

"Wait what? What the hell is going on? Get the hell away from me!" IR trys to back up to the door, but feels a pair of hands grab him from behind and force him to the floor.
"What do you want with me!!!"IR yells while struggling to get free. But he's getting weaker, and hungrier...

"YOU MUST FIND THEM, AND YOU MUST KILL THEM. AND THEN IF YOU WISH, YOU MAY EAT THEM. FIND THEM, STOP THEM AT ALL COSTS, THEY ARE THE ONES YOU MUST EAT. WE ARE GIVING YOU THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO KILL THEM"

"Who..." Is all IR can manage before he loses all feeling.

"YOU WILL SEE..."

[shadow_strike]

(Is it too late to join?)

[Big Boom]

They walked down the hallway, Alex's heart was racing, he had never been this paranoid and scared in his life. It was an uncomfortable, almost spectral feeling, like an entity was in the wallls watching. A noise, the noise of the Navis were heard. The flickering continued, but it had sped up. Cracks started to show on the walls just like when Alex had woke up. He felt a deep sinking feeling in heart. Warren answered incomprehensibly, and Alex really didn't care. He was to traumitized to even think straight.

Alex stood with Warren in the hallway, trying to listen to everything that he was saying. He started to feel the stings of his scratches on his body, not paying attention to the unbearably shocking news that the Navis were saying to Warren. As Alex's mind relaxed he heard Warren scream in confusion. The dozing off abruptly stopped, a random door in the back of Alex opened up. Alex could feel a strange breeze start to blow on him, harder and harder until he was blown into a eternal dark void.

At that point he looked at the doorway, getting smaller and smaller, more and more out of sight. He could see it start to close, and the last thing that he could hear were the defensive screams of Warren yelling at the Navis.

***

Alex finally woke up. He didn't recognize the small room that he was in. Now observing the wall he saw inscriptions and drawings that really seemed not to means anything at all. In a writing or language that was completely perplexing and not understandable. Alex tried to get up, but he couldn't. It was only now that he could feel the straight jacket that was restricting his any movements.

"HELP!" yelled Alex, of course not to be heard at all, the noise echoed in the sound chamber of a room and slowly was consumed by the walls. Again he yelped for help but it was hopeless. No one could hear him, no one would ever hear him.

Alex sighed melancholicly and thumped his head against the wall. Only to be welcomed by a sharp pain in the back of his head. He slid around to see blood smeared over the spot that Alex had put his head. It was now starting to slide down the wall and to the ground.

"Dammit, where am I?!" Alex muttered to himself hopelessly. He must have hit the ground or something to make a gash in his head like that. The light overhead started to flicker and suddenly it shut off.

It was dark, and ominous cloud of black consumed the room. Nothing could be heard, nothing could be seen or smelled. Alex closed his eyes, hoping that when he would open his eyes everything would be finally over with, gone.

His eyes opened, everything was still black, but in the distance he could now hear something, a non-familiar voice for all he knew. Could it be help? A savior from the torment that was occuring. There suddenly was a scratch, some shuffles. Alex pressed himself against the wall, ignoring the sharp pain that was covering his body.

A illuminating faded green light was now seen. It was one of the Navis, one of the "new" Navis Alex assumed. It was humming something, a jingle that he had remembered, or at least seemed somewhat familiar. Then it hit him, it was the eerie little song that he heard in each of his nightmares.

"Stop!" Alex screamed at the mocking Navi.

<Stop!> mocked the Navi, <You are pathetic do you know that?> It came as close as possible to Alex's face. It shined a florescent green.

<Asphyxia, the condition in which the body is deprived of oxygen, such as choking. But the apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it Alex?> All of a sudden, his strait jacket dissapeared, and he was put into a familiar sourrounding. It was his old room, he was standing in it, it felt so real. All of a sudden he heard fighting outside his bedroom, his mother scream and fall to the floor. And then he could hear the slight sound of footsteps moving towards his room. The door slammed open, and there stood his father, covered in blood. In a blink of an eye Alex could feel his fathers hand clamp around his neck, slamming his head into the ground. Now he remembered what had happened. Alex's eyes slowly shut as he felt himself being deprived of life.

At that point Alex flashed back to reality. The green Navi came out of Alex's mind, and floated by his face. <He thought you were dead, but like most roaches he underestimated you. We wont make that mistake again.>

He felt his throat getting tense. Alex couldn't let his emotions take over.

"Were is Warren?!" Alex yelled questionally at the neon green Navi, trying to change the subject. It floated away from Alex. Then turned around, and paused.

<He was dealt with already, but dont change the subject, at this point he is an irrelivant person to you. Good bye for now.> slowly said the Navi growing softer in voice. It laughed one last time and disappeared into the wall.

Silence.

[Mattbot]

“I heard about that job you pulled of in Berlin. Very nice, Matt” His old friend spoke as he directed him back to the Briefing table.

“Good old days” Matt replied merrily

“Yeah, like the good old days. Then how come you passed on Libya?” Wadling shot back looking back at his friend.

“That wasn‘t my style.”

“You got no style, Matt. you know that.”

Matt lit his pipe once more and glared back at Wadling questionably.

“Come on. why’d you pass?” Wad continued as he leant on the briefing table waiting upon an answer.

Removing his pipe and blowing a perfect ring of smoke into the hot air “We‘re detectives, not assassins.”

Wadling raised his eyebrows casually and glanced over at the General who was bemused at the sudden appearance of a cybernetic attachment now replacing Matt’s arm.

“Now, Where shall I start Sir?” Matt said scanning through the files on the desk.

“We‘ve recently gained a tip on where the thieves may have taken the tablet, It‘s a little bit of a flight”

“Matt, the tablets been taken to generic grey city, The ruffians responsible for its capture are well armed and dangerous.” Wadling shot interrupting the Generals worries.

“We need the best. That’s why you‘re here.”

“Go on.” beckoned Matt as he stroked his chin in concentration.

“Simple setup - one day operation. We pick up their position at the coincidence motel, Grab those scoundrels, secure the tablet and bounce back across the border without anyone knowing we were there”

“What do you mean “We”?” Matt responded squinting at the sweaty duck master from the north.

“I‘m going with you, Matt.”

The ground beneath the com center began to tremble as if a herd of elephants was passing by the camp, The fans lining the walls and ceilings began to wobble and collapse in on themselves, Men began scrambling for cover and the mosquitoes which up to this point had pestered those in the base suddenly fled the building as Matt Proceeded to yell:

“YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

The promise of a team up with his old friend was more than enough to seal the deal for this mission.

Wadling folded his arms in satisfaction at Matt’s response and began heading for the chopper that had suddenly faded into reality outside the camp. The two boarded the chopper now in full battle detective gear and sped across the surrounding ocean towards generic grey city.

[Big Boom]

(This is off topic, but If some of the people that joined but didn't write anything yet, don't start soon it will be a little random for their characters to just appear. Also, all the characters are entwining already, so it will be hard to join soon.)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Is it too late to join?)
(Not at all. Feel free at any time.)


(And Big Boom, it's fine for them to just start posting whenever. Only problem is if they get a major role for a dream.)


(Oh, and sgt_Angua, you should probably post soon, as this dream really can't keep going without the Initial dreamer. Remember, every Dreamer's dream ultimately has to eventually tie in with the Initial Dreamer's dream.)

[Varthonai]

The room was engulfed in utter darkness. Alex saw nothing, heard nothing, and felt nothing but the straps of the straitjacket that restrained him, until a spotlight flickered to life before him and illuminated a message on the floor, written in bold black letters:

HELLO ALEX

The letters suddenly dissolved into tiny bits and seemed to scuttle back into the darkness along thousands of separate paths. The spotlight turned off, and another one turned on a short distance away. There was another message there as well, in the same black lettering:

NOW TELL ME SOMETHING ALEX
DO YOU BELIEVE IN FREE WILL?

The letters stayed in place for a moment, then silently scattered into countless black bits again and merged back with the shadows.

No third spotlight came on, as if the message’s writer was waiting for a response.

[Polo]

In a dark room, somewhere on an apartment floor, sat someone. This someone who refers to himself as Polo was evermore engrossed into the brightly fantastic super colours from his 'TV Monitor' computer screen. Polo stretched back on his wooden chair, the sounds of the creaks the chair emitted vibrated his delicate and thin ear drums. What an odd sensation. After all, he thought, a creak sounds like a creak, this sounded more like an abrasive smash. He brushed it off and closed his eyes. He saw 1920s Old Films swirling around as if projected onto the back of his eye lids. That was indeed a bizarre sensation. Trying to make sense of it all, he quickly opened his eyes and snapped back to the real world. Of course, when he did this he had an incredible 'closing' sensation that was sent up through the nerve impulses inside his spine which made him want to shut them again. Abstaining such feelings is never too fun, he thought.

He leant back even further now, and to his surprise, if there was any sort of surprise to be held at such an event, the sounds he heard were that of a familiar creek. He smiled. Back to the real world at last, or at least he hoped so, as the ceiling appeared to have grown a pair of eyes not too different from His own. Actually, he wasn't sure if he had put them there in the real world before he went to sleep, or logged onto his computer. He couldn't actually make sense of what he had to do any more. He sighed, and leant forward showing a sense of ascendancy over his current state of being. He tapped sharply onto the keyboard of his Computer system and brought up and ever so common web page known as "DooQle". Wait, that wasn't right, he could have sworn where D and Q were that there used to be a G and another G. Right, he thought, enough of this non-sense. He breathed a breathe of agitation and typed into the search function of 'DooQle' "Am I dreaming?". He paused, what he typed looked about right, even if it did appear in Japanese lettering. He smiled complacently and pressed Enter.

15 seconds passed.

"Ding!" exclaimed the computer. Polo looked back up at the screen, as he was looking down before with his eyes closed. The 1920's projections on the back of his eyelids came in handy when it came to long waits. He read the search results from his search activity, and as expected, it read in a big Tahoma font: "Yes, you're dreaming. Now leave this damn room and fetch us some milk would you?" Polo jumped up out of his chair, and saluted the computer as if it were a Army General. He turned briskly and proceeded towards the only door in the room.

"Oh, and by the way" mentioned the computer "You can speak now."
"Yeah, I know" said Polo "I just didn't want to ruin the mood"

He walked across to the brown door in the centre of the eastern wall and walked through. SMACK! He hit the opposing and perpendicular wall to the door sooner than anticipated, even if he hadn't anticipated such a thing. As it turned out, the room he just left led out into an extremely thin corridor for what ever reason. He sneaked down the converging walls into a very thick darkness.

"mmk, I'm not really sure what's going on but this is one hell of a dr-" He snapped his moving jaw back into its initial position before he said anything further. "Oh yeah, I probably shouldn't say that word..."

[shadow_strike]

Strike looked around. It was a normal day but...why did she feel something terrible was going on? Shadow is probably doing something stupid...again. She looked at the phone. I should call her...

Strike picked up the phone and dialed Shadow's number. She frowned when she got voice mail. Odd, she always answers.

Strike got up, put the phone in her pocket, and headed towards the door. Maybe I should check on her... She blinked when a snake appeared on her neck. Well, it isn't posionous. She shrugged and walked out the door.

[username]

(Yeah, me and bloody bomb [mayhaps i can call you "BB"? :3] should really start postin'. i cant really at the moment. tommorrow ill have my post all set up :thumbsup: looks really fun; ill enjoy this, but for now, ill just have to wait 'till tomorrow, when things in the RPG start picking up, i see a perfect opening, i have time, ect.)

[Tyemdi]

A buzzing noise.

Followed by several more noises, all random in their own way, zig-zagging through the void.

What is this?

I began moving about and felt something. A solid wall. Built of concrete. I was in a room, yet I was still in darkness. I had no idea how big this room could be, or how small. It was as if I was floating in space.
Perhaps there is a door, a way out of this darkness. Feeling around some more, I moved down the wall, my hands groping this way and that. My entire body was on the ground and it was better to keep it that way. Better not to disturb the unknown.

[Bloody Bomb]

(I reccomend we start bringing this together and bringing the dream to its collective world. What sgt_Angua said was that she had to avoid these 'Turtle Brothers' from another gang. Being a COLLECTIVE dream, it sooner or later has to get to sgt_Angua's affair. Also, sgt_Angua and the other major roles, including me, should step up our activity to keep this dream active. However, I really can't post until Username does.)

[username]

(Oh, really? D:> i didnt know, or otherwise i would've posted sooner! ok, where are you, bloody? where ever you are, ill join you)

[Bloody Bomb]

(I kinda spawned unmanifested until I find a dreamer that needs my help.)

[username]

(Which dreamer? I kinda need to know your specific location so i can meet up with you and we can meet angua.)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Everywhere. If you read my PM about Angelia tips, I recall it having an explanation on what Angelia are like. But for sense sake, let's say I manifested in the crowd that sgt_ Angua is in as... A small dog with a telltale 'Bloody Bomb' tag on my collar.)

[username]

(Alright, so I'm just gonna act like you're already there, 'kay?)
I felt Angua's dream commence. I felt her fear. I had to get to that dream. I decided to manifest myself as one of the symbols of peace; a dove. I manifested with skill untill I was perched upon a building, looking over a large crown of loud humans. I scanned the crowd, looking for Bloody Bomb. I did find Angua, looking scared. Finally, I found a dog below, with a collar that housed his name. I flew toward him.
(How's that? lemme know, so i can change some things if needed...)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Excellent, as far as I can tell. Ima start writing my next post in Word.)

[sgt_Angua]

The temperature dropped as the Turtle Brothers talked, intimidating the crowd. Angua hid behind a group of people and looked nervously for an exit as the Turtle Brothers grabbed a man and threw him in the pool. She can see many doors, but has no idea where they lead.

The doors are no help since they all open inward.

(Sorry this took so long and is so short. You can pretty much walk in though any of those doors from anywhere.)

[Bloody Bomb]

I barked and ran up to the Turtle Brothers, biting one of their legs. Before he could react, I hopped back and dashed in circles around the two twins, too fast for them to catch me.
Username, I think a quick.. ahem... peck on the cheek... should distract them for a while...
One of the brothers reached to catch me, but I snapped at his arm and he recoiled.

[Polo]

Polo continued to walk down the narrow passage way that still remained convoluted in thin layers of darkness. It twisted around his body in a very elegant fashion, it was almost intelligent in its manner. This was very weird, because Polo was certain darkness was just lack of light, not some sort of sentient creature. He sighed and gulped, he'd best not let his fears get the best of him. It was apparent that being alone in a dark corridor and not just any dark corridor, but a corridor filled with living darkness, was never anyone's cup of tea.

As he slowly paced himself through the narrow space, his fingers gently brushed against the solid and rough material of the grey brick. He needed to make sure where he was going, and being that his eyes had turned out to be somewhat non-functional in the dark, he was left to rely on only 3 of his senses. Taste not being very handy in this situation either. He could feel the corridor to begin to widen as he felt more room behind him. It wasn't long before he could turn from his sideways slide into a forward step. His hands remained on the wall, as the darkness still seemed to be bothering him.

He still continued down the dark, now open, corridor towards what ever he was walking towards. At this point, Polo started to have some doubts. He'd better not have gone the wrong way, it felt long enough as it is. It was at this moment that the thought had entered his mind that he heard a very distinct and loud 'Meow'. Out of all the things you would least suspect to hear down a corridor, would it turn out to be a meow. Now, a person would assume the meow noise to be from a cat, and you'd be right. Cats do indeed meow. However, there was no cat to be seen, in fact, there was actually nothing to be seen. Coincidently though, out the moment that this meow had been heard, Polos eyes had started to return to functionality, he could see again. The darkness had almost gone. There was still a weird feeling around the base of his legs. Polo peered down, and to his surprise there was a black cat below him, weaving in and out of his legs. He stepped over it, and continued down the corridor, the cat followed, somewhat persistent.

"I thought you were going to stay back at the apartment?" said Polo, seemingly to himself.
"No, I decided to follow." murmured a voice in his left ear. "Besides, you're an absolute shit when it comes to collecting dairy products"
"Hey! At least I try." Polo snapped back, trying to savour his dignity. "Besides, all you do is stay back home and be a complete je-"
"Watch your language boy. You may be dreaming, but even dreams aren't safe from the law"
"Wait. What law?"
"The law that says: Shut up when I tell you to."
"Hey you didn't have to come, but nah, you blatantly just want the milk."
"Who says I do? Besides, milk is bad for cats and you know that"

Polo shrugged it off, he'd have enough of this conversation. The cat still followed behind him, purring and meowing as much as ever. The noise was pretty off putting, Polo had to concentrate while walking and the cat really wasn't helping him. He still pressed on however, not even stopping to explain to the cat that he was annoying him, he had more important things to worry about such as remembering where the milk store was. He could swear the store kept changed dependant on which direction you were looking. 'I guess its just one of those things after all' thought Polo, 'After all, it happens to everyone, right?'. Ah, who was he kidding, did anyone else live in an apartment with a mangy computer situated in the very centre under misplaced eyes? He didn't think so, but no matter how hard he tried to push himself into naivety, the more conscience he became of it.

His fingers remained against the side of the wall. The wall started to feel less rough, somewhat becoming more smooth as he proceeded further down the now capacious corridor. The brick also began to feel more cold, almost metallic in feel. How bizarre indeed, it actually was beginning to feel more like a tin can than a wall. It wasn't long, however, that he reached the very end of the corridor. This was it, this was the end. For what seemed like days, traipsing across the baron wasteland of a corridor, he had finally reached the end of his journey. All that was left now was to enter through the door that was labelled "Polo's Apartment."

Bugger.

He'd gone in a circle. He heard a laugh from behind and quickly turned around. Nothing. Only a cat and nothing more. Well there wasn't much he could do waiting outside his door, he might as well go and apologize for the waste of journey to his computer. He slowly, and precariously reached towards the brass handle of the wooden apartment door, and turned it towards the left. It didn't budge, which made no sense, he always turned the hand towards the left. That was how he opened the door, but instead for what ever reason, it decided today that it was going to be stubborn. Polo sighed, and grasped the handle tighter, this time turning it towards the right. 'This doors antagonizing days were over' he thought, as the handle turned towards the right. The door swung open, and instead of a familiar sight of a computer there was nothing but a white void. Polo gulped as he proceeded into the white light.

SMASH!

Polo opened his red shot eyes, and with an immense pain, writhing on the floor, he tried to make sense of what just happened. He tried to calm himself but he was sure everything he just experienced didn't happen, it was almost like it had been cut out of his brain. His writhing slowly died down into fidgets and then nothing. He got up, his eye sight somewhat blurred, and his stance unsteady. As he stood up right, he started to fall backwards before hitting a cold and hard wall behind him. He stopped, breathing heavily he waited for his sight to return, and just as it did it was apparent where he was. He was in an alley way, and in front of him was a green dumpster. It was opened up and had a spherical dent on the under side of the lid. Beside the dumpster sat a very familiar cat, still purring as much as ever. Polo looked down and steadied himself by placing his hands on his knees. He coughed, and scratched his head. Oh yeah, he remembered, he lived in a dumpster didn't he? He laughed and brushed himself off and groggy limped down towards the more open part of the alley.

[Tyemdi]

Finally my hand reached a crack of some sort. Reaching up, I found a door knob. It was made from what appears to be a cool metal.

At that moment, I felt the entire room magnify as if it was getting larger. The silence was interrupted by a lasting echo, threatening to exaggerate any sound emitted.

With this fact, I did not hesitate to open the door. Twisting the knob and pushing with all my might, I fell through; utterly engulfed in blinding white light. I was falling...falling...falling...not a breeze can be felt. Free.

I landed on something hard with a rough thud. Quickly picking up my bearings, I got up from the floor and found myself within a group of people. Looking back, I saw doors. One of them was open, leading to darkness; only to shut without a force acting upon it.

Suddenly I heard barking noise and shouting. Looking ahead, I saw fighting. A dog was biting someone...

[Porosity]

(Can I join? I'm a new member and I thought it's best to ask first instead of jumping right in the way the rest of you are doing.)

[Varthonai]

(BUMP, because this is an awesome RP. Bloody Bomb, I can't act until Big Boom posts--I sent him a PM weeks ago and he hasn't responded yet. Would you mind if I controlled his character? I don't want this game to stagnate.)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Fair enough.)

[Varthonai]

“Y… yes,” Alex stuttered. “Yes, I do…”

Another spotlight flickered to life and revealed a third message.

GOOD FOR YOU

Like the other two, the third message then scattered into black dots. The light flickered off.

A low rustling sound began to build, starting at the places where the lights had switched on and heading toward the spot where Alex sat, cross-legged and unable to move while bound in the straitjacket. Soon his feet and legs began to tingle, as if the darkness had begun stroking his lower body with thousands of ghostly tendrils.

“What’s… who’s…” Alex started, interrupted by his own shuddering before he could finish. There was no reply. The tingling moved rapidly up to his waist, his arms, his shoulders, his neck. The tingling was felt on his bare skin now, not just on his clothing. Alex hyperventilated, and the tingling got inside of his mouth; instinctively, Alex bit down hard, and suddenly his mouth was full of foul-tasting mess and chunks of filmy carapace.

In that instant, Alex realized that the entity now swarming over his helpless body in the darkness was the same swarm of tiny dark things that had delivered him the horrible messages only a moment before—it was a horde of cockroaches, all with one mind and one goal, all under the control of some silent and invisible puppeteer.

The rustling grew louder as the roaches covered Alex’s entire head. He clamped his lips tightly shut, but the monstrous insects began to squeeze into his ear canals, pushing through cartilage and bony tissue. The rustling was like the booming of a drum, the march of a thousand bloodthirsty legions, and Alex screamed as the insects finally reached his eardrums and began to tear right through them, the first tear bringing unbearable pain and the second bringing an instant of agony until—

—suddenly there was total silence. Alex could still feel the monsters pressing out through his auditory nerves, felt their tiny legs drum against his skull, felt his skin bulge as they walked between layers of his flesh, but he heard no sound at all.

Another spotlight turned on, and this one revealed a clown with a blood-red frown painted on its face, a poofy head of hair dyed in thick rainbow streaks, and a box of sugar in its left hand. The clown poured sugar on the ground in front of him in the shape of an arrow pointing to Alex’s right. The clown opened its mouth and gave a single verbal command, inaudible to Alex—then the spotlight flickered off, seemed to hold its breath for five seconds, and turned back on.

The clown had vanished. The arrow had become totally black, covered in roaches that greedily gorged themselves on the grains of sweetness scattered across the ground—but as they had done thrice before, they panicked in the light and scattered back into the shadows.

Alex felt an odd cognizance pass through the hive that had now merged with his body, felt his legs move involuntarily toward the light. He stepped into the center of the illuminated circle—the horde within him shivered at the brightness.

The light turned off again.

Suddenly the darkness caved in on Alex, crushed him, suppressed his breathing—it was as if the air had transformed into water. He wanted to thrash around in panic but the roaches controlled his body in smooth, relaxed movements. He felt his hands close around what felt like a metal grating, felt himself wrenching it aside, felt a rush of fluid cascading downward and trying to pull him down with it, felt his hands grip the sides of the spot where the grating had been a moment before and resist the current.


***

Far above Alex, the Turtle Brothers and the dreamers they chased looked down in wonder as the swimming pool in the center of the floor began to drain away.

[Big Boom]

Thanks for posting for me....im sorry...wasn't on for a long time so I forgot to post....here i will post now...or what ever is left of me.

[Inretrospect]

(Oh crap! I had started my post a while ago, but forgot to finish. Editing Now...)

[Porosity]

There were odder dreams than this. Other dreams too, that were boring. With this in mind, Porosity treasured flying.

--
He was the defender of a house from which he had long ago been evicted and forced to watch its transformation from sanctuary to hellhole. They took it from him, tore down the architecture within, sparing only the staircase curling up the walls like a dead vine. Unable to fight, he fled. His fear churned in his stomach, driving him on. Perhaps it was this same fear that empowered him to save her. She was lying in a crevasse, huddled in shock and pain. Looking at her, he noticed her dry eyes, emptied of their tears. He couldn't leave her there. So he went down the walls, taking care not to fall and go her way, which would help nobody. Soon he held her in his arms. Then he looked up and jumped.
He jumped and jumped, climbing with his feet. He kicked out on air and the periodic rock underfoot. He blinked hard in the gushing wind, straining to find his next step through the noise. The noise... Suddenly, he found himself lifting up. Cruising through the air, he moved without effort. For a little rotor had come onto his head and lifted him away. Thank you, my friend, he thought to an inhabitant of this dream, a spry old man with a potbelly which food had nothing to do with. As their helper waved goodbye, Porosity looked at the girl's face, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He closed his eyes, moved forward and heard her heartbeat as well.
Now, in the time after that incident, he had earned the favour of a lord, her father, and amassed an army outside his old house. But he was not endowed with the element of surprise. His enemies foresaw his arrival, and gathered at the gates, what had been but a simple door, a long time ago.
He struck first. A marksman fired an arrow at the enemy general, seeking to end this battle fast. The arrow failed to hit. It was stuck in its target's hand, quivering with the energy transferred from the marksman's hand. In that instant, Porosity respected the general. This would be a hard battle against a hard power. They went to war.
Shift.
--

Porosity turned in his sleep, restless in body as his mind was. Change needed energy.


Porosity turned in the air. His army was in battle, but he had been called to this island. It was here that the enemy truly intended to conquer. The Geyser, entrance to the world's internal rages. It was only by grace that their plans had been leaked this early, allowing Porosity's allies to prepare the Mechanism. The Geyser would be a new weapon in this fight.
Though Porosity might have thought the need was unnecessary. He himself had obtained his Sword, a mystic weapon that with a flick of the hand became a pair of metal wings. Beside him was the great Flying Lizard, age-old denizen of the sky, plenty in experience and ruthlessness.
They landed beside the Mechanism. Hoses were arrayed around the ancient machine, spraying jets of seawater to dislodge dirt from the joints. Mud and murk swirled in the growing hollow below, mimicking the energies a league deeper.
Porosity relaxed, finding the instructions for this job. He pulled the water with his wings, shaping it into a sphere. Having achieved this starting point, he aimed and fired. If the hoses had been erosion accelerated, Porosity's work was a disaster's force spent in speed. The Mechanism soon glistened, the sunlight shining unimpeded on its pipes and wheels.
'Go ahead, Lizard,' said Porosity. 'We're done here, but I've something to say to the soldiers.'
The reptile nodded in obedience and powered away with leathery flaps.
Porosity turned to the workmen, currently discarding their overalls in preference for armour. 'You guys have done a good job. At this rate, I'm confident we can push the enemy away, thanks to your mastery of the Geyser's workings.'
'Nay,' shouted one from the crowd. 'Without your help, we would now be overrun.'
'It's the truth!'
'Yes!'
'Aye!'
'Praise the Hero! Praise him!' Porosity nodded good-naturedly. The cries continued to follow him as he turned around, ran and took off after the Flying Lizard.
Indeed, as dreams went, this was enjoyable.

(Man, it feels weird writing for an audience other than me. :tongue:)

[Varthonai]

The Clown is displeased.

The scrying mirror before the Clown, a large Vaudevillian rectangular magnifying mirror surrounded by eerie yellow lightbulbs, shows the Clown the events that are transpiring in the swimming pool. The dreamer thinks that the light in the building will be enough to escape the hive mind of the roaches. The dreamer is trying to evade the Clown's control.

The dreamer will not succeed.

Roaches don't drown that easily, Alex, the Clown thinks to itself, and neither do you.

The Clown curls its glove into a fist and punches one of the glass bulbs around the mirror. Glass shards cut through the rubber material of the glove, but no blood spurts from the wounds. The Clown casually picks the glass bits out of its glove without wincing; the rubber reseals itself instantly.

The lightbulbs appear to have been linked in series; with the destruction of one, the rest have winked out in sync. On the other side of the mirror, the lights in the building have gone out as well. There are screams and yells from the crowd.

Continue as before, the Clown commands. Though Alex never hears the command in words he feels the roaches fearfully obey; in mere moments, his body has been reassembled in a corpse-like Frankenstein's-Monster-esque form.

Take them all, the Clown orders. Bring the dreamers to me alive. Kill any others who stand in your path.

[Bloody Bomb]

(I warn you, Big Boom, that if this vastly changes the dream without Angua's approval, that is not a good plan...)

[Big Boom]

Come on people, I dont want this RPG to die!

Ok fine im going to continue the story alone just to get everything started again....i will post tom.

[Bloody Bomb]

...

It was actually pretty quiet after the pool drained. Said quiet was welcome to my now-enhanced ears, which were ringing from my own loud barking. One of the brothers grabbed at me, but I dodged.

And I fell in the pool basin.

It happened like this: When I dodged, I had not fully figured out the four feet thing, and didn't realize how hard it is to sidestep with two left feet. I fell in the direction I sidestepped in, my paws dragging down below me. Now that I was on my side, chest facing the Turtle Brothers, the first thing I saw was their feet. One shifted back, seemingly about to place a kick, so I rolled further to escape, before I could notice...

I dug my claws into the walls of the pool, sliding inevitably down the slippery. wet surface. My claws came loose, and I rolled down the pool. My fur, wet at this point, had gained some traction, and my motion was hurting me. Imagine sliding down a hill on your head after showering to understand.

"Ugh, it smells like wet dog in here," Said a voice in the crowd.

[Big Boom]

The darkness was now to much to bare, an overwhelming sensation of pain and despair went through his body. His eyes, which were brown at the start of things, were now being tainted darker, an almost blackish color. The water seemed endless, although Alex could not move he could see the florescence of the water flashing. His eyes where hopeless, he had no control over himself, all he could feel were the dark particles still crawling over him, making him like their play puppet. Water crept into his mouth and he uncontrollably started to choke. How was it possible that he was completely under domination?

As the choking sensation went on, he knew his fate. His only thought that was going through his head was suffocation, his ultimate fate that was resting upon him at this right moment. The particles slowled down, not controlling Alex completely, he started to thrash around, distraught. It seemed as if the darkness wanted to observe or at least let him die without being controlled. Alex took his last choking breathe, slowly he stiffened. Alex’s hair drifted in the water, unlike his now motionless body. His eyes where no more brown but a somber, endless black color.

As the water started to drain, the dreamers watching were anxious about seeing what was in it. Lower and lower the water drained into nowhere, and slowly a silhouette of Alex could be seen. His hair was now drifting at the crest of ripples of water, his body now also was at the top. No one knew who’s corpse it was. Suddenly the water was gone, Alex lay face up to the ceiling, his back on the floor. The strait jacket was no longer wrapped on him, it was washed away with the water. There was no movement, none at all.

Suddenly Alex’s fingers started to twitch, he opened his eyes, but it was like nothing was there. It looked like he had been completely drained of the life he had, emotionless, silent. His eyes no longer held a color, they were just black and cold. And as everyone looked down in disbelief and confusion Alex breathed in, many black particles now filled his silhouette and he disappeared into the floor

Silence again

[Jedi-L]

This sounds cool. I'm in.

[Wadling]

Wadling was busy studying a map of the Generic Grey City while Matt talked to someone through a headset he was wearing, both were bathed in a blood red light illuminating the entire interior or the chopper. All he could make out from Matt's end of the conversation is that Matt was agreeing with everything the guy on the other end said. Wadling turned to the boom box resting behind him and flipped through the tracks on the CD until Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally' blared through the chopper.

"Yeah, ok." Matt said before looking up like he was finished with the conversation.

"You smoke too much, Matt" Wadling shouted over the noise of the song and the chopper itself "You're gonna kill yourself with that pipe y'know."

Matt said nothing, but his face darkened as if his very existence had been called into question. He responded by opening a small compartment next to his head to reveal several more pipes of varying make and quality. Clearly this was not an argument that Wadling had any hope of winning. He decided it was best to change the subject, quickly.

"Rendezvous points and radio frequencies are indicated and fixed" He said, looking back at the map briefly.

"Who's our backup?" Matt asked, closing the pipe stash and fetching some pipe weed from another dedicated compartment.

"No such thing, old buddy." Wadling grinned "This is a one way ticket. Once we're in that city, we're on our own."

Matt rested his head on the wall behind him, smiling "This is getting better by the minute"

A flashing yellow light turned on suddenly behind Matt, with an accompanying beeping. Matt spoke into his headset then flicked a switch next to it and made some military hand gestures to nobody in particular. Wadling turned off the music and got his equipment together.

"Alright, let's do this." He flung open the chopper door and looked down to see a generic rooftop below him, he chucked a length of rope out and made his way down it, seeing Matt doing the same thing on the other side. Once they were on the roof, Matt talked into his radio.

"Tally-ho"

[Mattbot]

The chopper danced away through the tall spiraling buildings of the city and out of sight. A quick and easy insertion, not bad. Matt took a quick glance at the surrounding rooftops and windows making sure they hadn’t drawn any attention and then slid over to the end of the roof. The two of them had landed a few blocks away from the supposed location of the tablet so as not to give away their presence. He marked out the next rooftop to Wadling. Upon acknowledgement Matt leapt across the gap separating the two buildings, landing on the other roof with a roll. He was quickly followed by Wadling.

“You don‘t know how much I missed this, Matt.” he said with a grin.

“You never were that smart.” Matt replied jokingly , they never where ones for taking a mission seriously, especially one such as this. A small group of wannabe mafia dirt bags in possession of an ancient artifact of world shattering power, pfft they could deal with these kind of ruffians in their sleep. The world around him flickered momentarily as Matt stopped dead on the spot. After a few moments of deep ponder he was snapped back to the task at hand by Wadling resting his hand on his shoulder.

“What is it Matt? See something” he whispered trying to follow Matt’ line of sight through the steel jungle that was this city.

“Yeah, look down there.” He gestured with his hand down to a shorter building. “Reckon that’s the place they’re cowering in.”

“What makes you so sure?” Asked Wadling gazing down at the emptying pool at the back of the building.

Matt drew out his pipe “Observation my friend.“ He lit the weed inside “Pure, undiluted observation.”

The two of them dropped off the roof of the six story apartment and landed neatly behind a tall wall which surrounded the pool. They both etched up slowly to a small wooden door leading inside, the noise of hushed conversations inside were enough to cover any noise the two made.

Matt made a quick military gesture with his left hand before drawing a heavy M16A2 assault rifle from his back pocket, he quickly checked to see if the grenade launcher attatchement was loaded before turning back to Wadling. “Breach, bang and clear.”

[Big Boom]

Asphyxia, a condition in which the lungs are deprived of oxygen, stopping the ability to breathe.

Alex opened his eyes, he heard the words that the green Navi had told him before he was drowned. But, had the Navi succeeded in killing him? Alex wasn't sure, there was nothing but blackness, it was like he didn't exsist anymore. Yet still he was here.

"If the Navi's really wanted to kill me...why not just do it?" Alex thought to himself. He sighed.

"Where am I?" Alex finally let out, as he scrabbled to his feet. Slowly inching forward he touched a wall. Alex sighed with relief, at least it seemed that he was in fact alive. He let his hands feel the cold walls. "There has to be a way out of here," Alex whisphered to himself. .

Suddenly the lights came on. Alex stepped back, now to see that there were no doors. Just messages scratched into the walls. One in particular:

Roaches dont die that easily, just like you Alex.

So the job wasn't done after all, the Navis still wanted to kill him, they knew Alex was alive.

At that moment a sharp surge of pain came from his head as he remembered the clownish figure. The same clownish figure that helped killed him. And only then it struck him...Warren.

His head started to hurt again, and he could faintly hear Warrens voice. "You know that there is a way out of here." The pain was now unbearable.

"What are you talking about?!" Alex screamed as he stumbled into one of the walls.

Alex heard the voice laugh, "The Navis were right, you are pathetic. Do I really have to do everything for you Alex?" Suddenly, a bright light shined directly into Alex's black eyes. And like a roach his body started to split into particles.

Alex started to fall into the wall, his body now just a silhouette of moving black particles. He glanced at the message on the wall one more time as his head went through. Alex was through, laying on a wet corridor. He quickly examined his hand...normal. Alex lifted himself up, looking at his reflection, at his black eyes.

"Warren...what did you do to me?" Alex thought. Alex could hear the faint footsteps of two people outside.

[Varthonai]

The Clown's heavy footfalls echo through the damp hall that Alex lies in. It carries what appears to be a bag of javelins over its shoulder, and is accompanied by something humanoid in the dark beside it. It looks to be an animated canvas dummy of some sort, life-sized and white and hairless and faceless. Its arms end in stumps. Its feet are floppy toeless ellipsoids.

The Clown looks down where Alex is sprawled, and Alex feels horrible pain gashing through his body; he rolls out of the Clown's direct line of sight and realizes that words have been sliced through his body and cut into the floor below him. Roaches move over the cuts in his body and reseal the holes.

Warren did nothing to you, the message reads. He is irrelevant now. And as for what I did to you... you continue to struggle, you have even somehow managed to regain your sense of hearing, so obviously what I did was not ENOUGH!

The Clown takes a javelin from its back, rears back, and thrusts the point through the side of the dummy's head. Alex screams again--he feels one eardrum torn to bits, then feels his head fill with blood and mangled brain tissue, and finally feels the ear on the opposite end of his head torn as well.

Next the Clown takes two javelins and thrusts one through each of the ends of the dummy's stumps, making holes appear in Alex's wrists. Another two javelins go through the dummy's ellipsoid feet, and black mashed cockroach innards spill out of Alex's ankles.

Each of the javelins has a wrist or ankle strap at the blunt end, and the Clown slips into them and pulls back. Alex feels himself yanked up like a puppet.

The Clown opens its mouth and laughs, but Alex hears nothing--he only feels the horrific pain as the Clown pulls him up and marches him off through another invisible gateway.

Finally, the Clown thinks to itself. We can get to more serious work.

***

Shadow_strike opens her door and steps out, but the sunlight around her transforms into the darkness of an elevator shaft and suddenly she is falling through a narrow space and gashing herself with horrible rope burns as she flails and connects with the cables. The snake coiled around her neck is torn off and thrown away by the air friction. The elevator below is rising up at incredible speed, it's going to--

--a grimy hand reaches out to stop her fall and pull her back through another elevator door into a different floor, this one a sprawling tawny yellow ballroom with hundreds of doors and an enormous chandelier overhead. "Thanks," she says, turning to see her rescuer; it's Alex, "Big Bang" Alex, who she somehow recognizes by way of dream-logic though she doesn't recognize his face. He looks badly torn, wet, and pale, like a mutilated and drowned man.

"Alex?" Strike asks, a little worried now. "What happened to y--"

Strike's words become a scream as Alex opens his mouth in reply, and a horde of cockroaches pour out and swarm over her, burrowing into her flesh and tearing her to pieces before carrying each piece back up into Alex through any of his available orifices.

The Clown watches all of this through his scrying mirror and smiles. Two down, it giggles to itself. Ten to go.

[Big Boom]

The clown sits, staring into his cracked mirror. Slowly the green Navi appears next to him and whispers in his ear, "Dont worry it wont be long, you can be sure of it..."

* * * *

Alex tries to close his eyes as he sees Strike be torn apart by the roaches. He wishes he could let go, but the clown is controlling his every move.

"Help please! Alex! Oh g..." her screams are cut short, the job is near its end. Alex gives a look of sorrow. As he sees his fellow dreamer be torn apart.

The roaches quickly scurry back into Alex, carrying each individual peice of Shadow Strike's body back inside of him. The elevator door clamps shut and Alex slowly turns around.

"You may be controlling my body, but your not controlling my thoughts. Is this what you want? Is it a game to you? Or are those damn Navis controlling you too?" Alex thinks. At that moment he is knocked down to the floor, sprawling in pain.

"Thats just a taste Alex, it seems that the more you try to be brave, the more naive you get. And let me assure you, Im not your little friend anymore. Warren was just an inconvenience, but he is all taken care of now."

Alex starts to remember how Warren started to change, yet he could do nothing to help.

Alex laying down starts to pry himself up. "What exactly do you want with the others, they are irrelevant to you." Again pain surges through his head, making Alex fall back down.

"Retribution," the clown answers quietly and everything goes blank.


* * * *

"He wants retribution he says. With no reason at all," Alexs mutters to himself while he trudges to his seat. Alex stutters and catches himself on the corner of the long banquet table. Everything shakes. "You changed me and even though I should be helping you, your goals still confuse me," Alex states to himself. The lights are dim inside of the ballroom, only little rays of light seep through the cracks and the covered windows.

Finally Alex takes his seat. Looking at the table he gives a small smirk, "See, isn't it better sitting at the table?" he says to Strike, who is sewn together at the other end of the table. "All our guests haven't arrived yet, but don't worry they will be here shortly."

Alex put his hand on the artifact and looked at the direction of the window, "I'm listening, I'm waiting. So come out...where ever you are." Alex closes his eyes.

[Wadling]

"You're standing in my spot, sir" Wadling grinned, then continued "That's my mark you're at, sir!"

"This is not the time" Matt whispered, wiring breaching charges to the door "Might be some civilians inside, we need to be fast. No second chances."

"Right" Wadling readied his rifle and gave Matt a thumbs up.

Click

"Damn" Matt inspected the charges, which had failed to explode "Who the hell packed our equipment?"

"What now?"

Without an answer, Matt kicked the door, shattering the lock and causing it to fly open. Wadling tossed a CS gas grenade into the room, waited for it to pop and then followed it in. What happened next was a series of loud shouts, ordering everybody in the room onto the floor. Wadling prepared to take down whomever resisted.

[Bloody Bomb]

I was now wandering blindly through a dark network of tunnels. Despite my role in this dream as an angelia, I still could not see in the dark as a dog, and at the moment a dog was in demand. So I wandered, bumped, crashed, bonked, and made an utter fool out of myself. Yellow, thin, narrow eyes opened and closed around me, never getting nearer or farther. On one occasion I collided with a wall and the eyes were there too. As if they were in my mind. A mind within a mind, in itself, is interesting.

Slowly, as I became more and more lost, knowing that somebody was in trouble below the pool and not understanding why they weren't there, the tunnel became narrower until I had to squirm to get through and even then I was constantly dragging on jagged stone walls. The eyes continued to blink, watching my every move from inside. Was this a method emplyed by nightmares? Was I losing it? Angelia are mentally strong, but they still have emotions and thoughts which could probably cause this. Maybe it wasn't in my mind. Maybe I wasn't alone in the tunnels after all. But as I wondered about these eyes a new fact came to my attention.

There were no walls.

All the walls were gone. Just like that. I turned around and found the tunnel, but it was not like a hole in the wall. It was more of a tube in infinite space. What's more, the stone I had been brushing on was the only thing that made up the tunnel walls. They were as thin as paper. Nothing but the faces of the stone that I had been brushing against.

I walked away from the tunnel. Still, the feeling of eyes lingered on my mind. (OOOOOOOOH! YES!) Suddenly, I was bathed in white and found that behind me was that black abyss and ahead was a table...

[Varthonai]

LOF spotted a street vendor giving out gelato to children and swooped down to join in.

"How much for a scoop?" he asked the vendor, who was bent down in the ice box.

"You're too old," retorted the vendor, his voice distorted through the hissing vapor of sublimated carbon dioxide.

"Aw, c'mon, man," pleaded LOF. "Just a--"

The vendor's head popped out of the box then, a hideous grinning clown head that sneered at LOF. "Silly old LeapOfFaith," the Clown chuckled. "Gelato's for kids!"

LOF began to fly away, but the Clown picked up the ice box in one hand and hurled it after him, smacking him out of the air and trapping him underneath it when he hit the ground.

LOF looked around the interior of the ice box, which suddenly seemed much larger and more intimidating than it had from the outside.

"So you like frozen treats, then... but you hate needles," giggled the voice of the Clown from every direction.

"How did you know--"

"I'm interested to see how you react to this."

Thin spines of sharp ice began to crystallize on one wall of the box and move toward LOF from the side. At the other end of the box, a doorway opened up into a dark hallway.

"Run, little man," the Clown cackled wildly.

[Big Boom]

There was a creak in the floor a distance away from the table. Suddenly, a gentle wind hit the curtains and let in a streak of light. Alex opened his eyes slowly, and surveyed the room. Alex smiled, as he saw at the corner of his eye a figure. The figure was slightly gleaming.

"I must admit Bloody Bomb, I wasn't expecting an Angelia to appear in the center of the nightmare. Even your will isn't strong enough to face the nightmare here." Alex stood up and turned to Bloody Bomb's direction. Leaning on the table he slowly started to move towards the Angelia.

"What is this place...?" Bloody Bomb demanded, as he pressed herself against the wall.

"Well what does it look like?!" Alex laughed, "Its the feast for the Clown, don't tell me you don't know who that is."

"The clown...." Bloody Bomb thought to himself, still keeping an eye on Alex. Then it struck him, "Of course, the first person to be taken over by the nightmare...Warren." Then he looked up at Alex...what had happened to him. He was dressed in an elegant suit, an old staff that he used as a cane in his left hand.

"Alex what has happened to you?" Bloody Bomb whimpered as Alex got very close.

"Something wonderful happened, the sooner you let the nightmare take you, the sooner you will be happy," Alex smiled and jabbed Bloody Bomb with a sharp instrument, sending him into unconsciousness.


* * *

Bloody Bomb woke up, his eyes focus on the room, soon realizing he was hanging high up on the wall used for showcased animals and furs. He had her own crest. The two metal chains on his arms tightened. Bloody Bomb screamed in pain.

Alex smiled as he gazed up at his masterpiece. Bloody hung on the wall, a crest behind him labeled The Angelia.

"I must be honest Bloody Bomb, your the best showcase in this room, and you will have such a great view of the dining table during the feast," Alex called up to him.

Bloody Bomb frantically shook around, desperately fighting to get free.

"There is no use in trying Bloody, I took away your light when I stabbed you," Alex giggled, showing her his knife gleaming with light. "I will just keep this with me for safety. Now why don't we wait for all the other guests to arrive why don't we?"

Alex hobbled to his seat and sat down. The room was now very dark, and finally Alex closed his eyes, not noticing the low light building inside of Bloody Bomb.

[Big Boom]

Ok I'm pretty sure we are all waiting for Mattbot to post. But i think hes on vacation or some type of break? (I don't know, but it must be a good reason since he hasn't been on for a week) I will just continue my post, and urge other participants to continue posting.

__________________________________________________ __________

Bloody Bomb started to squirm around frantically. Trying desperately to get free, but when whenever he tried, the shackles tightened to a beyond painful size. Bloody Bomb let out a scream, the shackles started to squeeze his wrists so much, that they started to impale his skin. Blood trickled down his hand, and started to drip and fall to the ballroom floor down below.

His breathing quickened, he could feel his inner power weakening as the shackles held him. It was like the nightmare was feeding off of him. From his spot he could see the saber in Alex's tightly gripped hand. The saber glowed with power...his power. It was all taken away, all of it. He couldn't do anything, he was trapped. At the mercy of his captor. Bloody Bomb had no idea what the clown was plotting, and why he dragged Alex into his plot. Did he want to kill the Angelia...? It had happened before. Past Angelia's have died when they crept to far into a nightmare. They all thought they had enough power, but in the end it turned against them. The nightmare mutating the Angelia into something...horrible. An Angelia is especially vulnerable when his/her power is drained. The nightmare could take the Angelia over at anytime, but it seemed to not do anything to Bloody Bomb.

"I was so stupid," Bloody Bomb whimpered to himself as he hung from the wall. "If I hadn't been so careless, none of this would have happened. Maybe I could have saved Alex..." Bloody Bomb started to observe the table, 12 seats were there in total. Alex was at the end, and Shadowstrike's limp body at on of the side chairs.

Bloody Bomb started to except him fate, dieing as a showcase on the wall. But then, he realized that an Angelia always has a bit of inner strength inside of him/her. There is always a backup, but only the strongest of the willed can reach that power, and know how to use it. Bloody Bomb knew he had to try, he took one last glance at Alex, then, just like him, he closed his eyes.

[leapoffaith]

(Holy shit varth you know me too well xD)

The clown's cackling grew ever louder. LOF wanted to stand firm against the creature but could feel himself shrinking away. Finally his resolve broke and he sprinted for the doorway. With a shriek of delight the clown materialized, suddenly much taller then LOF, and flung himself after the retreating form. The ice spines grew and sharpened until their tips seemed to cut through the very air. The clown was on LOF before he was even halfway to the exit.

"Oh come on that isn't fair at all!" LOF moaned
"It's not about being fair. It's about being funny. I have a very unique sense of humor. Now you get to die an entertainer! It will bring me much entertainment! Think of this as your acting debut, and your retirement!

With a snort the clown hoisted LOF into the air high over his head, preparing to toss him to the icy spikes. LOF's body was limp and resigned. Then he remembered his attempted blood tests. The instinctive survivalist fear filled him and suddenly he began trashing like a hooked fish. The clown was surprised and for a moment released his grip. The spikes grew closer... closer... LOF lashed out with his feet and vaulted off of the top of the clown's painted head, slowing his fall with the clown's baggy pants and landing behind it. The clown snarled in annoyance and spun around to grab LOF again. LOF ducked the clown's massive swiping hands then jumped up, ramming his shoulder as hard as he could into the base of the clown's kneecap. The clowns leg buckled and he fell backward straight into the advancing spikes. Shrieking in pain, but with surprisingly blood coming from the sudden open wounds, he focused on where LOF had just been, reaching out his hands in violent, vengeful desperation. But the young man was already gone, ready to face whatever lay ahead. Somewhere up above, a small child happily licked an ice cream cone.
(it is goood to be back :D)

[Big Boom]

(Leapoffaith, your participating again! I will post a list of the people that are now recently posting in this dream. Now i think Bloody Bomb would agree, no more new participants for the current dream. This is just because we are too far in the plot to add any new characters. It would be too confusing. I think it would be ok if people who were participating in this thread to begin with join, since they are already in the in the plotline.)

1. Wadling
2. Mattbot
3. Bloody Bomb
4. Varthonai
5. Big Boom
6. Leapoffaith

[Varthonai]

LOF speeds down the dark hallway, far away from the screaming remains of the impaled Clown flailing behind him, splattering blood loudly against the echoing sides of the ice box. He runs until his muscles burn and his veins pump battery acid, and then he runs some more. Eventually he hears a faint clapping noise.

"Who's there?"

There is a snap, like the release of a taut rubber band, and then a white-gloved fingers closes around LOF's throat from behind and lifts him off the ground.

"Me again, silly boy," hisses the Clown, turning LOF around to make eye contact. "Congratulations on your 'escape.'"

"What? How did you--"

"Word to the wise, kid," chuckles the Clown. "I DON'T BLEED. The creature you fought was merely a sending."

The Clown somehow continues to applaud mockingly, despite having only one hand... or not. LOF suddenly notices that it has a total of six long and rubbery white-gloved arms, three at each of its shoulders.

"Now you've come to the heart of Nightmare," the Clown continues. "And you have done so of your own accord, with only a little prompting from me. That is good. It gives me greater power over you here. You can no longer conjure Dreamstuffs of your own accord, no more than these poor creatures of mine here."

The Clown gestures with one long arm, and the Scrying Mirror appears, showing Alex and Shadow_strike in its murky depths.

"Out there, you could have conjured a magical ally to save you," the Clown smirks. "Out there, you could fly and breathe fire and shoot lasers from your eyes and do anything within the limits of your will and imagination. But in this place, only MY imagination counts for anything. Moral of the story? LOOK before you Leap so faithfully, Frogger."

LOF looks around worriedly, closes his eyes, and tries to wish himself away, to no avail.

"Down here," says the Clown, "there is only me... and your worst Nightmare."

One of the Clown's limbs extends toward LOF's face. Two of the four main fingers pry open LOF's left eyelid, and the rubber on the thumb peels back to reveal a syringe full of throbbing black liquid. The remaining two fingers pump back and forth, and the needle of the syringe extends to almost seven inches in length. The tip of the needle hovers over LOF's left pupil.

"I've taken a liking to you, little Leaper," laughs the Clown. "You've given me the run-around for a longer time than most. So I'm gonna make you a little deal... I can give you staggering power beyond your wildest dreams if you'll agree to be bound by my rule. Or, if you'd prefer, I can stab you through the eye, suck out your brain, and make you a mindless servant. Which sounds good to you, fella?"

LOF tries to close his eyes, but is stopped by the grip of the Clown's fingers on his eyelids. It feels horribly like his eyelids will rip themselves apart if he tries to force them shut.

[leapoffaith]

(AAAH sorry I'm takin so long!)

Leapy was not an evil person, but the fear was excruciating and he saw that he had no real choice in then matter. He glared at the clown as well as he could with his eyes so far opened and gave his answer, trying to sound confident in spite of the needle hovering inches from his pupil. "Fine. You got it man. Lets put the needle down now and let me do bad shit with unlimited power or whatever it is that you want me to do" the clown pulled the syringe back slightly, but did not release it's vice-like grip on Leapy as the dreamer had hoped. It grinned doubtfully.
Really? Really reeeeeeally? You sure you aren't just bullshitting your way out of taking a needle like you always do?
Leapy caught his breath and tried to save his own life, but he lacked the words to do it. The clown's eyes changed to those of a begging puppy
Aw cmooooon. Think of all the fun we could have! Pweeeeeeze?
Leapy's throat was tight
Just say the word, buckaroo!
Still nothing.
Come on! I don't got all day!
LOF looked to the sky hopefully, but saw nothing. He couldn't stall for much longer, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let his morals get his brain sucked out.

(now would be a great time for someone to rescue me... or just abandon me *sniffle* thats fine too :( )

[Bloody Bomb]

(@ Big Boom. I see where you're coming from, but new participants would just be on the list for next dream. Don't forget how it all works.

P.S., Perhaps we should wrap things up and start a new dream. Can I hear opinions from participants?

P.P.S. That gender confusion now has me mentally muddled. Oh good grief. I AM a man, right?)

A sea cucumber can tighten and loosen, practically liquifying to fit in a tight space and then hardening again. It's gross, but it was the first escape method that my Angelia Spark had produced, and I melted through my holdings. Overjoyed at my - somewhat gross - escape, I decided to have a little fun. I oozed through a crack in the glass. Alex reached to grab me and I divided between his fingers and joined again when his hand pulled back.

"You think that you can destroy us? We exist to keep YOU in check, not vice versa. Don't you know what would happen if the Nightmares went free? INSANITY would happen. There would be nothing except madness!"

Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Can't say I see things your way, but I seriously don't see a problem with that."

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. I hardened back to a dog.

"You can't win this war," We said in unison.

[Big Boom]

(Ok Bloody Bomb fixed everything. Again really sorry about the gender confusion. I still frankly don't know everyone's gender in DQ. :|)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Ok Bloody Bomb fixed everything. Again really sorry about the gender confusion. I still frankly don't know everyone's gender in DQ. :|)

(It's cool. Imma be off camping for some days, so I'm leaving you in charge until I are back.)

[Big Boom]

Alex started to grin, Bloody Bomb's face expression hardened. Alex let out a deep sigh as he got up. "From what you said, it looks like you don't know anything about what is actually happening. Our intention was never to break the barrier between Nightmares and Dreams. Although you have a great idea. We are only trying to....correct some dreamers."

"Correct what?!" Bloody Bomb retorted.

"We change them, to the clown's liking. He changed me for the better, and I must say I have never felt happier. We change some of the dreamers for the better, and sometimes kill off the ones that just can't be altered. From what I know, one of the dreamers is being changed as we speak. I can't wait to see how..." Alex told Bloody Bomb.

Bloody Bomb looked at Alex for any of the changes that he claimed to have. But there was nothing that he had not noticed about Alex before. The cane, the elegant clothes, everything was the same. Then Bloody Bomb looked at Alex's face, his eyes....looked like two deep black holes. Endless, helpless....

Bloody Bomb looked to his right and saw the table. More people had appeared...more dead dreamers. Bloody Bomb's time was running out. From the looks of it, the wounds of the dead were to deep and long untreated to do any good. He could only save the changed dreamers now...but he needed more power....his Angelia power...the dagger.

Alex chuckled, "If you want your dagger...go and get it." Alex took out the glowing dagger from inside of him. His body started to turn into particles again, taking the dagger with him. The cockroaches headed for the cracks in the walls, the dagger disappearing with them. Bloody Bomb looked for the nearest door, running after Alex.

[Bloody Bomb]

(BAP! I'm back! -snatches the game up like an illegitimate love child and clutches it with twitchey eyes-

The bold text is for brief insights leading outside of the dreamer universe. Not events, just statements.)

Like the rest, there is nothing special about me. Nothing special about Warren. In fact, nothing special about any of us that are currently in positions of power. I know that tonight, I will very likely not be an Angelia. Maybe I'll be a nightmare, or most likely of all, a normal dreamer. Perhaps I will be the initial dreamer, and the universe will shift to my imagination. But looking back on the experience, I can only assume that the Angelia gift came through a splash of uncommon strength, in my brain one night and in another brain the next. Who knows?

Knowing that time was of the essence, I ran. I ran for sanity. I ran for insanity. Somewhere not far was Alex, and maybe also the big fish - Warren. Using what scraps of light remained to me, I sped up, glowing, until I was just a bright bolt, zipping from point A to point B, bouncing from surface to surface.

"Ow! Aaagh! Oof! Man, if I ever catch up with him tomorrow morning, he's in for the lecture of a lifet-OWWW!"

Bouncing like a rubber ball hurts. 'Nuff said.

And then I was, once again, above the pool. A Turtle brother raised his eyebrow at me.

[Mattbot]

Bursting through the foul smoke, Matt lowered the rifle into his right arm and braced it against his bulging muscles. He began lacing the surrounding area with hot lead, a stream of burnt out empty shells blasting from the side of the gun piling up on the ground around his feet. The heavy recoil from the gun was nearly completely nullified by Matt’s right bicep, his free arm casually holding his smoking pipe in place. The turtle brothers flew back in a shower of bullets, unable to react quick enough to the manly rage. Wadling sprant down to his side and began pumping another round into the already decimated bodies while Matt dropped his empty clip and began firing from a pump action grenade launcher attachment.

Once the smoke cleared, what little was left of the area was a smoldering series of craters and bullet holes. Most of the people in the area at the time of the entry had fled the scene while a few other stood gawping at the chaos around them. A lone dog sniffing the remains of the turtle brothers.

“Nice and quiet, just like Antarctica.” Matt muttered to himself, grinning at a fond memory of a past investigation.

[Bloody Bomb]

(I don't really know how to go on from that. O.e)

[Big Boom]

(Uh we need Varth or leapoffaith to post....so the story continues) (I don't know either, leapoffaith said he would ask Varth what was going to happen to his character. I dont want to continue the storyline without them)

[leapoffaith]

(my bad yall I was off at my log cabin in the middle of internetless Maine :( However I posted so by all means carry on!)

[Varthonai]

LOF watches, sickened, as the Clown's arm detaches from its shoulder and snakes around his body. A new arm grows out of the Clown's arm socket with a comical sprouting noise.

"Alright, Sparky, here's the deal," says the Clown. "That little needle is gonna stay right where it is, fixed in front of your face like the carrot dangling on a stick stuck in the horse's saddle. No one will be able to see it or touch it but you, got me? And only I have the power to remove it."

The Clown grins, pointing its left index finger at its own eye now. "If you're a good little minion and do as you're told, nothin's gonna happen, everybody's peachy. But if you slip up... or if you try to pull a fast one on me..."

The Clown thrusts its finger deep into its eye socket, sending globs of vitreous humour streaming down its hideous greasepaint features. Throughout this horrible display, the Clown never stops grinning.

"Eye think you get the picture," the Clown giggles.

The Clown withdraws its index finger from its eye socket. There is now a roll of paper wrapped around it. The Clown unrolls it and reads from it.

"I've got quite the laundry list here, you can pretty much pick your mission," the Clown says, pensively. "Who d'ya wanna go after, pal? Polo? ShadowDancer? Damian? Aval? Kronosdragon? Demonickilla?"

[leapoffaith]

(Sigh... Oh Varth.)

Leapy was panicking now. Bad puns and displays of eyeball mutilation were about his breaking point. Nobody was going to save him. He half heartedly read down the list, and selected a name at random. "I'm gonna go with... Damian." The clown smiled blissfully
Thank you Leapy boy. I always appreciate when people help me with my workload!

(wait so now what happens?)

[Bloody Bomb]

To say that a Bloody Bomb in the middle of a blasted out and demolished crime scene was disturbed would be slightly understating it. To be specific, I was disturbed by rockets and bullets, and overall just disturbed. And I'm sure they were disturbed that I was talking but I was a dog, but I couldn't care less.

"Who the HELL are you and WHAT did you just do? I've got enemies to chase around. Say, have you seen an insane clown anywhere? Maybe a guy in a suit?"

[Mattbot]

Matt prodded the detached arm of one of the turtle brothers, making sure his adversary was truly down for the count “Looks like you won‘t be causing any further ‘ARM… Cuff em Wads”. Wadling began handcuffing those still present and alive, even removed limbs could not escape his sharp aim.

"Who the HELL are you and WHAT did you just do?” came a distorted voice from below him. A scruffy looking mutt was glaring at him from the crater filled floor, the cold eyes piercing Matt’s rock hard build and penetrating his very soul. A fear he had not felt since his days back in the academy shot up his spine, the world itself seemed to shift around this creatures gaze and Matt had to wince away from it back to the crowd of now subdued bystanders.

“Matt Bot, 7th detective platoon. You and you‘re associates are under arrest for possession of a planetary destructive device. Whatever you say or do now will be used to help shove my boot up you‘re ass.” Matt growled as he slammed the beasts head against the bonnet of a car that had materialized above the pool and began cuffing his front legs behind his back. He turned and nodded at Wadling.

[Bloody Bomb]

"So much for chasing a nightmare and his boy..." I said.

"Do you guys really need to arrest me? I'd hate to go all ooze again. Seriously, I just ate... Ehhhh. This metal is hot. Ow. OW. ow. ow. OW OW OW OW."

Matt and Wadling looked at me with disapproval.

"So this is the pet of those Turtle Brothers, I should imagine."

"I am nobody's pet!"

Matt suddenly leaned in and pushed my neck against the car in uncomfortable manner.

"Listen, you scrawny mutt. If I hear a yip out of you I will break your neck and serve your intestines to the... Wait, that would be cannibalism. Yeah, I'll do it."

[Big Boom]

The clown was seated down, glaring menacingly into his cracked mirror. The mirror was projecting Leapoffiath's little mission after Damian. The clown giggled. "Oh Leapoffiath, you're easier to control than a puppet..."

Suddenly the clown felt a presence. He turned around slowly and stared into a small crack in the room's damaged wall. Quickly hundreds of cockroaches scurried through the crack and into the room. The clown smiled, recognizing his accomplice. In no time of all, the body of Alex had risen from the mound of cockroaches. Alex looked at the clown with his empty eyes.

"Finally Alex, I have been waiting. I have a job for you to do. I need to bring back any member off this list, " the clown gave Alex the list and let him examine it. Alex then nodded hesitantly and gave back the list. That small gesture, the hesitation made the clown wonder about Alex's will power. As Alex quickly left the room and after the person he was tracking down. "I'm going to keep an eye on you, I won't let you gain your control back again."

* * *

Shadow dancer rubbed her aching head. Her missing the school bus was a nightmare. "I should have seen this coming...." Shadow sighed and finally decided to break the news to her mother. As she turned around she was met by a gentlemen in a black suit. His eyes were black and empty, a dagger in hand. Shadow swallowed hard as she stuttered backwards, afraid to make a run for it. Alex started to move closer. He hand reaching out for her neck. As Shadow tried to turn and run, her neck was met by Alex's hand. He clutched her neck tightly and held her up.

"What ever you want to do, please don't do it. I'm young, please have some mercy!" Shadow yelped out and she struggled to get enough air. Alex's hand started to loosen.

"You're right...." Alex whispered as a faint color started to come back into his eye. All of a sudden, his hand started to tighten again, the color faded again. "I'm sorry, but mercy isn't in my job description." Shadow started to squirm faster, at that moment Alex swiftly plunged the dagger into her chest. It was over. He laid her corpse on the ground, the body slowly disappeared into the ground along with the other evidence. Alex slowly walked away towards the nightmare region again, as if nothing had happened.

Just next door, Shadow's mother was getting ready for work, oblivious to what had happened.

[leapoffaith]

(wait so now do I have similar abilities to the clown or am I just using my same old dreamer abilities?)

[Varthonai]

(Whoa, sorry LOF, I didn't think the thread would move so fast. Back now. Yes, you have essentially the nightmare power of the Clown now, but you can't remove the syringe from your face of course :D)

"Damian, heh. He shares your trypanophobia," the Clown laughs.

LOF blinks. "Fear of needles," the Clown explains. "But he's also got a nasty fear of red wasps... ya might wanna keep that in mind when you're huntin' him, bucko."

The Clown closes its beady eyes, both trapped within exaggerated makeup circles, and concentrates. "He's dreaming that he's in a diner," the Clown says, and gestures to the left. "That door will take you to its kitchen."

***

ShadowDancer sank through the floor, blood flowing from where Alex had stabbed her, the floorboards suddenly like thin, watery mud--but soon the substance she sank into was even less than thin liquid, and she found herself falling endlessly in a black, bottomless void.

I was thinking about recruiting you, said a snickering, giggling voice in ShadowDancer's head, but we had our... heh... tryouts, and the position's been taken. Bye-bye now!

ShadowDancer's scream went unheard as she accelerated into the nothingness.

(Big Boom, the Clown has a specific torture and / or death in mind for every member, which he will make clear to his lackeys before he sends them out. You have a fear of silence--the cockroaches punctured your eardrums. ShadowStrike has a fear of cockroaches--she was killed by a roach-man. LOF has a fear of needles--the Clown keeps him in line with a syringe over his eyeball. ShadowDancer has a fear of heights--she's been dropped into a bottomless pit. Next time PM me before you control the Clown into giving orders.)

[Big Boom]

(Sure thing Varth, i'll PM you later about a the next victim. My character just stabbed Shadow with the same dagger used on the Angelia. After reading her part, the only phobia she seemed to have was missing the bus. Sorry.)

[kronosdragon]

(Guess I'll get back in the game now, since everyone else seems to be dying lol)

The smell of smoke and wood filled her nostrils. It was an unpleasant smell. She was so used to the heady scent of the fresh forest that anything so smoky made her nose burn. She could hear the wails of dying trees and animals. It was heartbreaking. From somewhere, she could have sworn she heard a cackling laugh, but quickly shook it off. She had to get to the bottom of this.

[Bloody Bomb]

(Waiting for Mattbot and Wadling...)

[Mattbot]

(Waiting for Wadling or something of interest to happen in our area...)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Waiting for coffee...)

(Okay, maybe not on my own thread. Whatever.)

[leapoffaith]

(tee hee hee I'm evil ^_^ ... crap wait so am I able to write for Damian now too?)

[Big Boom]

(tee hee hee I'm evil ^_^ ... crap wait so am I able to write for Damian now too?)

Yes please.

[leapoffaith]

(ooh boy he barely got started!)

Leapy didn't want to admit it, but being evil actually felt really cool. I definitely beat getting his brain sucked out. The needle had disappeared, but he had no doubt that it was still very much there. He pulled a small metal ball out of his pocket and thought. The ball twisted and contorted and grew until it was a plate. Leap was suddenly standing in a restaurant, clad in an apron. Copies of himself wandered the tables and served dining copies of himself. Leap took up a position at the front desk. It was time to turn Damian's non-existant food into a very real nightmare.

***

Damian flew through the air, ravenous for anything he could pretend to eat. He summoned up a GPS unit and commanded it to find him a restaurant. A dog's nose sprouted from the unit and sniffed the air, abruptly turning due norsoeawest (as indicated by the Unit's compass) and setting off with Damian in hot pursuit. After several minutes of flying a small building labelled "Everythingtastyville: For all your culinary needs" by a glowing neon sign. Damian salivated at the though of a big juicy pretend steak. The GPS until barked happily then disappeared into smoke. Damian wondered why it had left without his dismissing it, but threw the thought aside in favor of ones of cuisine. He landed in front of the swinging glass doors and entered the building. As the doors shut behind him, the neon sign changed to "EverythingNastyville: For all your fears to feed". But Damian was inside and didn't notice. He also failed to glimpse the door melting away into a wall behind him.

***

Leapy was a showman. He couldn't help it. Even though it would be much more straightforward to simply stab Damian to death before the dullard could react or open up a pit of spikes underneath him, Leapy had a predilection for subtlety. He smiled as Damian wandered toward him, completely oblivious to the changes behind him. The dreamer lazily smiled and waved his hand dismissively at Leap's attempt to speak to him.

"Don't worry. I'll sit where I please."
Leapy ground his teeth, but reminded himself the climax of his show would be a glorious retribution as long as he played the part.
"Very good sir."

***

The first thing Damian noticed upon passing the oddly familiar host was how crowded the restaurant was. It appeared that every single inhabitant was a variation on the same gentleman who had let him in. This struck him as odd seeing as his dreams were normally populated with people whom he was familiar with. Before he could pursue his query a waiter pushed him into a chair and he was immediately served a steaming bowl of Miso soup and a bowl of white rice. A form of the waiter with slicked back hair and a curled mustache plopped down a glass of red wine. He dug in. Seconds later he was done
Dream eating is AWESOME
Immediately a massive steak was shoved in from of him, and he was handed a steak knife. The Host walked over to his table and beamed brightly at him.
"That is a special dreamer preparation. Custom tailored to suit your needs!"
and with that Damian stabbed his knife down into the steak.

***

Suddenly, there was silence. Leapy grinned to himself.
Here we go.
Damian's face went white as pain sliced through his stomach and he jerked backward from the table, leaving the knife protruding from the steak. Leapy walked over, feigning concern
"Are you all right sir?!"
Damian looked down and where the pain was coming from and his eyes went wide. There was blood seeping from a gash right beneath his ribs.
Leapy pulled him to his feet.
"A mere flesh wound, my dear friend! Come now your steak awaits! Don't be an ungracious guest now! Eat up!"
Damian sat back down. As he picked up the knife, the throbbing dulled. He was back in the steak zone. He made another cut excitedly, and blood poured down his face, obscuring his vision. He stood up hurriedly and turned to face Leapy. Leapy once again furrowed his brow and pretend to be unsure of what had happened.
"Oh dear... I suppose that steak's no good. Lets just skip right to dessert."

***

Damian was not a stupid man. He was, however, a very confident and very hungry man. These two things overpowered his doubts and fears.
Its was nothing. It's all in your head
He took a deep breath and sat back down at the table. In from of him was a steaming pie. There was a faint buzzing noise, but Damian dismissed it as traffic passing by or whatnot. As he sliced into it, the host spoke to him, smiling all the time.
"This is our house special. We call it Rewd Saps."
Damian went to pull the knife out of the pie, but found it to be stuck.
"Wow I can feel the saps in it! And they're pretty rude about giving this knife back"
He pulled again, harder this time, but the was no give. He tried to let go, but discovered that his hand was stuck fast. He turned to ask one of the waiters for help, but found only the host smiling at him playfully.
"What's the matter sir?"
Damian tried to tell him but found that he couldn't speak. The host's smile grew broader and Damian realized the buzzing was growing louder. Something brushed against his hand, but he didn't look. His eyes were fixed on the gentleman in front of him.
"Wasp got you so tongue tied?"
The buzzing reached a peak and Damian turned back to the pie just in time for red wasps to explode from the slit made by his knife. He tried to scream, but his mouth was filled with wasps, furiously stinging every inch of his body. They flew down his throat and stung his intestines. The host chuckled to himself and the walls melted away into dark smoke, which closed in on Damian's contorting form and enveloped him. He struggled for a moment, then everything went black.

***
Leapy smiled to himself and bowed to the air. It was time to get a new assignment.

(BAM!)

[Bloody Bomb]

(May I please have my RPG back? It's like my adopted foreign baby.)

[username]

(You can expect a post from me by later today; now's not really a good time.)

[sgt_Angua]

(I know this is kind of a sudden change, but my dreams tend to do this.)

Angua's thoughts tuned to pasta, and instantly she arrived at Warren's house. She walked inside and called to Warren, but was only answered by Abby barking. Angua knew Warren's parents weren't home but felt that he should be. She opened the kitchen door and was immediately greeted by a medium-sized white furry dog demanding to be petted.

"Hi Abby," Angua said, patting the dog's head. "Where's Warren?" Unsurprisingly, Abby didn't answer.

Since the change had allowed her to escape the Turtle Brothers, she wouldn't mind petting Abby for a few minutes while she waited for Warren.

[Varthonai]

Excellent work, little Leaper.

LOF heard the Clown's voice hissing directly into his head.

Return to the heart of Nightmare immediately. The next act is on in five, hehehe.

[kronosdragon]

KD walked through the forest, which was suddenly starting to pitch and roll, as if she were on a boat instead of solid ground. Something wasn't right, and she started to feel sick as she dropped down on her knees and clung to a tree for support. She growled softly as she made her body twist and transform into something, anything, that would get her off the ground. She turned into an emerald-green dragon and rose above the trees, looking down at the burning section of the forest, only to see that what was burning had turned into a black void behind the flames. The world was being eaten away.

[sgt_Angua]

Angua goes upstairs to try to find Warren. She looks into Warren's bedroom, the door of which is open. She is about to turn away when she notices drops of blood on the floor leading from the bed to the open bathroom door. Angua walks into the bathroom and picks up a dark brown ringlet, unmistakably Warren's.

(All relics of Varth's transformation, if you remember.)

(By the way, my character has no idea she is dreaming, and is not likely to figure it out.)

[Big Boom]

It was raining heavily, Aval ran through the alley way and into the bar in which he came to regularly. Completely soaked, he hung up his coat on the hanger, and let out a sigh of relief. The day was as bad a usual, absolutely nothing had happened. The rain he was caught in hadn't helped his mood any bit either. Aval moved to the counter and sat on a stool. He listened to the jazz music being played in the background before ordering a drink. A familiar set of fingers played the piano softly, as the figure looking at Aval sitting at the bar drinking.

He stood up after a mild applause, and queued the other players to keep playing. Alex head over to his next target and finally sat down on a stool next to him. After also getting a drink, he looked at Aval, who as clearly caught in the storm outside. This amused Alex, "If you think getting caught in the rain is bad luck, you won't see what is coming next..."

"Had a rough day by the looks of it?" Alex asked, still a bit amused at Aval's drenched clothes. Aval look over next to him and faced Alex.

"I guess you could say that," Aval replied, almost finished with his drink. He decided not to continue the conversation and turned around to the bar tender, and asked for another.

Alex was no longer amused. He turned to the blank TV screen and then looked back at Aval, "I guess I'll just have to show you what I wanted to tell you," Alex whispered as he quickly altered the dream. The bar TV switched to the news. On screen there was a red line on the bottom, and BREAKING NEWS written in white letters. Alex watched Aval turn his attention to the screen.

Suddenly a frantic looking reporter came onto screen, papers flying out of her hand. "How much time do we have?!" the woman yelled to the man in the background. There was a reply, but it wasn't loud enough for the viewers to notice. "I am not pleased to inform that there has been an outbreak of a very aggressive virus. From what we know, the virus is air-borne, and not only does it take control of the dead, but people without it can catch it just as easily. From reports it is said that the infected will stand still until the the person is taken over by the virus. There is a huge lack in information about the virus, but we do believe this was a planned biochemical attack. The infected are...are... multiplying exponentially..." The reporter starts out with a worried and stuttering voice, but it turns into a jumbled mess. The report is suddenly cut short when there is a loud crash in the background of the studio. Aval was now panicking, he looked around quickly, and everything seemed to be still in line. On the TV, there was a loud scream as the woman was attacked by a man who bit into her neck. All of a sudden the camera recording fell over and the signal was cut.

Aval got out of his seat and looked around again. Almost everyone in the room was standing still, except Alex who was smiling and looking at Aval. Aval ran for the door which was already locked.

Alex got up and came closer to Aval, "You aren't where you think you are Aval. This isn't a bar, it's your greatest nightmare. Welcome to where I come from." Aval pressed himself against the door as the people in the bar started to move around, a blank expression on their faces. As they looked around, the only person they noticed was Aval who was now screaming. Screaming. For a second, Alex stiffened and stopped smiling. His eye color changing once again...but it was no use. As if the clown had squeezed his hand, Alex became dark and hollow again. Slowly starting to evaporate, Alex smiled again until he was gone. The infected moved towards the door slowly, paying no attention to anything else. Everyone was close now, and in seconds they were over him.

Alex appeared in the dining hall again, noticing a faint scream of Aval in the distance.

EDIT:

(Bloody Bomb, if you are referring to me temporary in control of the RPG, I'm not anymore. It was always yours. You are in control.)

[username]

(...Meh, I take back what I said, today was just NOT a good day to post.
So I think I'll wait for Bloody Bomb to post something. That'll give me time to work through some stuff, and give me an idea of where I'm at.)

[Bronze]

(May I join in this insanity? I apoligize for my poor timing.)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Yeah, I'll add you to the numberlist.

Also, I can't let you post until next dream.)

[Bronze]

(Alright. Carry on :3)

[Bloody Bomb]

(Waiting for Matt/Wadling to post.)

[leapoffaith]

Leap barely had time to hover as a massive dark pit opened up beneath him. That clown was REALLY good at pissing him off. As the thought flashed through his mind, the needle appeared in front of his eye again. He descended down into the darkness. The air around him seemed to convulse with darkness, bursting to the seams with invisible dreamers trapped in the lining of the nightmare reality. Leap once again reassured himself that he had made the right choice, although he did have quite the guilty conscience. Better to enjoy his freedom of malicious actions until he awoke. He touched down next to the clown, who was leaning gleefully over the swollen, silently screaming form of Damien. It was clear that there was some form of communication occurring, but it went unheard to Leapy.

(please Varth, by all means tell us what the clown is saying :P )

[Varthonai]

(You don't want to know.)

"Ah, you're back," says the Clown. "Got a new job for you, Leapy."

The Clown pulls out a photograph of a three-story yellow brick house on a beautiful street by the side of a lake, dotted with tall trees and gardens in full bloom.

"The Original Dreamer," says the Clown. "She's there. We need her. We need to keep her from waking."

"How do I get there?" asks LOF.

The Clown doesn't respond. It simply reaches forward, grabs LOF's head at the base of the neck and slams him into the photograph headfirst. LOF begins to go through but becomes stuck at the shoulders; he flails for a moment, and then the Clown takes a massive rubber mallet and pounds it against LOF's back. There is a loud popping noise, and LOF falls onto the cement driveway in front of the yellow brick house.

The Clown grins and puts the photograph into its suit pocket. "Poor sap," the Clown chuckles. "She'll tear him to pieces... heh, but there are more where he came from."

The Clown knows that LOF will keep the Original Dreamer occupied, and that will suffice. LOF showed promise in his torture of Damian, after all... he has the imagination to hold her off for a good long time. Long enough for the Clown to kill or corrupt more dreamers, absorb their power, and gain the strength to take on the Original Dreamer itself, no doubt.

The Clown grins--the end is finally in sight.

[leapoffaith]

(Am I allowed to bring her to nightmare if she doesn't realize she's dreaming?)

[Varthonai]

(You can create nightmares in the environment she's in. You can't *force* her to go anywhere, though. You'd have to trick her or scare her into a different place.)

[leapoffaith]

(Ah okay I gotcha. Time to use my... *rainbow* IMAGINAAAATIOOOON)

Follow the yellow brick house, Dorothy The clown cackled in Leap's head. Leapy was getting seriously fed up with the corny jokes. He made a mental note to consult with the clown on it at a later time. As he approached the three floorer, shadows swirled around his body, making a crisp black suit jacket and pants with a white shirt underneath. On his head sat a bowler hat. He grew a small thin mustache and allowed his face to relax into one of haughty carelessness. He spoke a few words and allowed his voice to tighten into an upper class British accent. Finally he tossed his metal ball over his shoulder. It stretched and shifted as it flew until it became a sleek white limousine. Finally, he pulled a gold embroidered envelope from his pocket. He reached the front door and knocked.

[sgt_Angua]

Angua heard someone knock, immediately followed by Abby barking, and pocketed the brown ringlet. With a final worried look at the blood on the floor she went downstairs. Abby was standing at the front door barking. Angua pushed her away and opened the door slightly, making sure to block Abby's escape.

"Hello?" Angua said to the man in the suit and bowler hat.

[leapoffaith]

aaaand action
Leap looked worriedly around, as if expecting something to pop out at any second. He half whispered to Angua through the cracked door in his accent "I come with news of Warren" and shoved the envelope into her hands. She tore it open hurriedly and read Warren's distinctive handwriting

Angua,
I know this is confusing right now but please come with my friend. You can trust him to take care of you until I can speak to you face to face about what's been going on. I hope this letter reaches you before it is too late.
Hopefully,
Warren

Angua looked at Leap nervously, but opened the door just a bit more. He nonchalantly touched his hand to the doorframe, and a sliver of shadow darted into the house. Angua didn't seem to notice, as she was still focused intently on the decision at hand. The dog, on the other hand, woofed softly and moved back into the house. Leapy tried again.
"Please. You have to come before it's too late!"
As Angua moved to respond the house seemed to shudder. And explosion rocked it in its foundations as the back door was blown off its hinges. In the smoking frame stood the Turtle brothers, looking violently angry. Leap sent another speck of shadow darting down the street before reaching into his jacket and pulling out a mini uzi. He shoved his way into the house as the turtle brothers took cover. He sprayed the room they occupied as he shouted at Angua.
"Get to the Limo! It's safe in there!"
Now all he had to do was hope his ploy would work.

[sgt_Angua]

(Leapoffaith.... that is awesome.)

Angua dropped to her knees as debris started flying. How did the Turtle Brothers find me? Angua wondered.

"Abby!" Angua called, not even considering leaving her. Abby instantly pricked up her ears and ran to Angua. Angua ran to the limo, Abby on her heels, opened the door and put Abby in the limo before getting in herself.

(Watch that be the biggest mistake ever.)

[leapoffaith]

(Don't worry I had you either way :P)
Leap sat comfortably in the driver's seat. His doppleganger had done it's job splendidly. The moment he heard the door slam and felt Angua and the dog climb in he floored it. Tires screeching he pulled out and head into the distance. Behind them in the doorway of the house the turtle brothers melted away into darkness and flashed up to the limo, seeping into the trunk. He turned to Angua and smiled sadly. He almost wished she hadn't fallen for it so easily so the rest of his plan could be carried out. She screamed in alarm as he lifted a gun and aimed it at the dog. Instinctively she wrapped her arms around it
"DON'T HURT ABBY" she shouted. Leap rolled his eyes and turned back to driving. He would let his darkness finish the job. "Fine, but you might want to get it groomed. It's looking a bit rough around the edges." and with that, he closed the window between the driver's seat and the passenger cabin. The last thing he saw was the dogs eyes glowing red and growling as the darkness enveloped its being. It hair had begun to grow. Leap focused for a moment and made the door of the Limo disappeared. Angua tore at the fur as pushed her further and further into her seat. She grabbed for the door handle but found there was none. The room itself seemed to shrink even as the course hair multiplied. Finally, she was engulfed in the fur and everything plunged into darkness. Leap picked up his metal ball from off of the ground and plunged back down into nightmare to deliver his catch.

[Big Boom]

Alex was sitting at the banquet table, all of the corrected dreamers sitting lifelessly at the remaining seats. The light was dim as usual and the room was quiet. Alex opened his eyes slowly, taking a look at everyone. Soon there would be a celebration here, and still there was much to do.

A strange breeze of air blew past the curtains of the windows, letting in a stream of light directly pointed in Alex's eyes. The light made Alex shake and close his eyes. But something else happened. Discomfort. It was slight, but it was definite. Alex got up, and wobbled towards the right wall, away from the windows.

Alex stood in front of the dusty mirror in the banquet room. The headache he had recently developed was so bad, it was painful. A feeling he hadn't felt after the clown had stabbed his limbs and took control of him. Alex's hand grabbed the top of his head, as the other touched the mirror, he leaned. It was as if he was at war with himself. After "taking care of" Shadow dancer and Aval, Alex just didn't feel like his new self. Something was off, the nightmare was losing its grip.

Alex looked up at the mirror and stared into it. Colors swirled in his eyes, erasing the black that used to be there. Finally, his brown eyes started to become distinct. Finally color in both of his eyes was regained. Alex turned his head slightly, examining what had just happened. Then, just as the color was regained, Alex thought of the darkness. And just as fast had his color come back, It went away. Alex smiled.

"It's time to take a stand, Warren, you might have tainted me permanently. But now I have control," Alex whispered. The clown had discussed with Alex that Leapoffaith was off after the initial dreamer. And that they would keep her from awaking. He couldn't take on Leapoffaith and the Clown by himself. He needed help. Alex didn't know where Bloody Bomb had wandered off to, and he couldn't lose time searching for him. Username is hiding in a strict unknown location that the clown hadn't even found. But he suddenly thought of a person that could help him.

"Kronosdragon, here I come," Alex thought deviously.

(Kronosdragon, we have already discussed, your character is one of the only dreamers that has concealed their fear entirely. Basically she is safe from being permanently "corrected" by the clown. You can only be captured and such)

[leapoffaith]

(wait so boom you were just going along with it?! Jeez at least I have incentive to be evil :P )

[kronosdragon]

(goody goody, time to get crackin)

KD started to feel sick as the smoke started to make her choke. She ran to the west, hoping to outrun the flames. She same to a cliff and looked down. There was a lake below, and she would be able to get away if she could get to it. Looking back at the smoke billowing through the trees, she started to climb down the cliff face.

[sgt_Angua]

Angua was too surprised to scream when Abby changed and her hair started to grow. She grabbed for the door but couldn't find the handle. Abby's white hair darkened as it began to smother Angua and the limo began to shrink.

Angua reached her hands through the dark fur trying to find some thing to protect her. Claws, far too small to belong to a dog, scratched at her right hand. The pressure from the fur eased and Angua could breathe again, allowing her to notice a familiar and beloved smell: ferret with a hint of mothballs. The level of the fur continued to drop as Angua's hand closed around the small ferret. The fur had receded enough for Angua to see the black ferret she held.

"Morna," Angua whispered. Shielding Morna with her body, Angua broke through the skylight that hadn't been there a moment before.

(Leapoffaith, you can decide where Angua has ended up. Because of how my dreams work and how I feel about it, you can't touch Morna. At all. Varth might be able to--if he dares--I'll discuss it with him, but you can't affect her at all.)

[Mattbot]

“Where’s the tablet knave?” Matt ordered through gritted teeth into the subdued dogs ears resting his gun against the back of its skull. “Where have you hid it!?!?”

[Wadling]

Wadling stepped forward and shoved his rifle onto the back of the dog's head, feeling this wasn't threatening or manly enough however, he also took out his pistol and did the same.

"And don't try anything funny, dog! We have GUNS"

[Mattbot]

Feeling that this was somehow a challenge against his masculinity, Matt dropped his own rifle and pulled out an incendiary grenade. He pushed it up against the dogs nose. He flicked off the pin and waited for an answer.

[Wadling]

Wadling's response was to take out some plastic explosives, mold it into the shape of an overly muscled arm and stick it to the dog's face. He pulled out the detonator and turned to Matt.

[Mattbot]

Discarding the grenade over his back and letting it light up the side of a nearby truck. Matt summoned a detonator into is free hand and flicked off the safety. The surrounding ground was immediately illuminated with large explosives buried under the remaining tile work, dirt and vehicles. Upon further examination the mines made up an image of a large bulging arm cradling a mug of ale... on fire.

[Wadling]

Wadling talked into his radio, a loud bang sounded far in the distance. It sounded almost like a mortar being fired, suddenly a mortar shell crashed through the ceiling into Wadling's arms. Except it wasn't a mortar shell. It was a rocket launcher, made out of chainsaws that fired rocket propelled chainsaws that exploded on impact. It too was on fire.

[Mattbot]

A small glint of reflected light caught the trios gaze as a long object appeared to get closer and closer as it made its way to earths surface. Mat gave a quick smirk at Wadling and threw Bloody Bomb onto the ground. Lifting both his finely oiled arms into the air, the object collided with him in a thunderous smash. The object was similar in appearance to that of a tanks main gun, only three times the size and coated in ornate carvings depicting Norse gods smashing demons faces in with hammers. At the end of the gun was a massive clip of shells and behind that a series of triggers. The ground shook as Matt heaved this thing into his arms and squeezed one of the handles.

A series of Gatling guns and long blades erected from all around the cannons tube and he slammed it down on Bloody Bomb, the canon actually swallowing him up. Lifting the gun above his head and pointing it at the sun Matt yelled something at the dog stuck within but the thick walls of the gun cut out all sound from outside.

[Wadling]

Considering asking for the nuclear launch codes and then quickly deciding against it, Wadling tossed a smoke grenade into the canon, just for good measure. Knowing that he was surely beaten.

[Mattbot]

With a flick of his fingers the god level gun vanished in an angels chorus.

“So you did know when to quit huh.” Matt smiled in triumph before catching Bloody Bomb in his hand and pressing him back against the car “Don’t make me orbital strike your ass!”

[Big Boom]

(wait so boom you were just going along with it?! Jeez at least I have incentive to be evil :P )

(Leapoffaith, If you read the past posts I made, even the posts I made a long time ago. There is always a tension between the clown (warren) and Alex. In the beginning when Alex becomes "evil" he is only being controlled by the clown. Inside he still sees what he is doing. Also, the clown starts to lose his grip on Alex over time. The constant eye color changes and change of heart... Basically Alex was never evil, only controlled.)

(I already discussed this with Varth)

[leapoffaith]

(aaah okay. Just went and read it. Good stuff mate.)

When Angua broke through the skylight, she also broke LOF's pocket. But she was tiny and compacted. She had moved too late, and the nightmare portal had closed above them. Leap had been expecting something like this an casually snatched her and place her back in his pocket, which he zipped up despite the lack of a zipper. about ten feet below he could see the clown staring up and grinning as he popped and sprayed a champagne bottle. It was time to make the trade.

(Okay so now Angua you're in my pocket but not in the limo. Also you're tiny and adorable ^_^ )

[Bloody Bomb]

"Okay, can you two calm down? I don't even know what the hell you're talking about, but I have a nightmare monster to eradicate, his minions to save an an initial dreamer to save! Do you realize that our very mental stability is at stake?! I suppose that doesn't affect YOU! But it does affect some of us who still HAVE mental stability."

At this point, the panic was getting more and more intense. I no longer cared about remaining subtle. Suddenly I stretched and shifted, changing shape to a man-of-war, and stinging the two psychopaths. "Perhaps we can talk... Another time." I said, sliding down through the drain in the empty pool.

[Mattbot]

The testosterone to glorified jellyfish poison ratio quickly countered the sting and the two bulking heroes regained their posture. The two of them glanced at each other for a moment and then back down the pool at the escaping crook.

“JELLYFISH!”

And with that manly roar, the drainage cover burst off its hinges and the two landed either side of it. Priming several thousand grenades, the two of them began decimating the escape route.

[Bloody Bomb]

When they burst through, the didn't find Physalia Physalis, but instead found a small paramacium, inching timidly towards a tiny hole in the wall. 'twas the best I can do under pressure.

The began to blast at me and I realized it was too late. These maniacs were going to win... I had failed.

And then the ground shattered below us, dropping us into a dark abyss.

[Varthonai]

"What are you doing back here?" snapped the creature with the champagne bottle before LOF. Its voice was decidedly more serious and reserved than the Clown's, though in appearance it resembled the Clown superficially.

"You're not the Clown," said LOF, uncertainly.

"Master is off hunting dreamers personally," said another voice from behind LOF. He whirled around and saw yet another clown coming at him from behind, also similar to the original but with a makeup frown rather than a smile. "Master's power grows with every victory. With every victim. Now Master is finally able to spawn more of Its kind. To bring us out of the Darkness. To let us feed."

"Master sent you on a mission," said the clown with the champagne. "You were meant to combat and to waylay the Initial Dreamer. Why have you returned?"

LOF grinned, reached into his pocket, and withdrew the shrunken Angua.

Both clowns recoiled in horror.

"What have you DONE?!" they hissed in unison. "She cannot come here. She is too powerful. We are not ready. MASTER is not ready!"

"What?" said LOF, uneasily. "But... you can turn her now, can't you? Change her, like you did the others?"

Three more clowns tackled LOF from behind. "Wha--get off me! This is--"

"Do not ssssstruggle," hissed all five clowns in unison, their rubbery bodies elongating and coiling around him. "Or your agreement with Master will be broken, and you know the penalty for that..."

LOF stopped struggling immediately. Champagne and Frowny reached down to the floor of hardened darkness underneath LOF, dug their fingers into the cracks, and ripped upwards, forming swirling walls of night that enveloped LOF, Angua, and the three clowns restraining them.

"Because you cooperated, you will not be destroyed," the three clowns whispered to LOF. "We have tapped into the power the Clown gave to you, in order to hold back these walls. The Initial Dreamer will be trapped in here with you--you are her warden. Do NOT let her escape. Do NOT bring her outside."

"Oh," said LOF, wiping his forehead a little sheepishly. "Uh, thanks for letting me off the hook so easily, then."

"Hardly," said the three clowns, becoming translucent and vanishing through the walls again. "She has been trapped in here with you, yes. But because you were foolhardy, YOU have also been trapped in here with HER."

As the echoes of their words faded, the walls of the prison shimmered. Mirrors and white walls and tiled floors grew over them.

(You're back in my house, LOF and Angua, specifically back in a labyrinthine version of the bathroom where I first transformed into the Clown.)

[leapoffaith]

(WHAT A TWIST!)

[Big Boom]

Kronosdragon was half way towards the lake. This was confusing, the cliff from the top didn't seem too high, yet now, It seemed to be endless. She wasn't getting anywhere close to the lake, and her hands were getting tired. Her head turned upwards to look at the edge of the cliff. She could see long streaks of flame become visible and reach off the cliff. What was even more frightening was a strange figure now looking down at her climbing. She studied the figure closely....the outline of the figure was almost like a...clown. Suddenly the outline became a fully visible image. To her horror, the clown figure didn't look anything like the clowns she saw before at the circus. He had a painted face, but there was no expression....and his mouth was stitched shut. Kronosdragon gasped as the figure dug its abnormally long fingers into the cliff side and made the stone crack and shake. Her fingers lost their grip as a deep crack spider webbed down the cliff. Kronosdragon was now falling towards the water, and in seconds was under.

Behind the figure looking down at the lake another figure started to take form. Alex. Alex started to focus on his surroundings, there was an intense heat, and the only thing he saw was the figure at the edge of the cliff. Slowly, Alex moved forward, starting to notice that this figure was familiar...the clown. But when Alex came closer, the figure turned. Revealing a face that was far from what he thought. Unlike the actual clown, this clown had a mouth that was stitched shut, and black hollow eyes. It was like a representation of himself...did Warren know about him?

The clown with the stitched mouth started to moan loudly as he moved towards Alex, his fingernails turning into sharp daggers...

[sgt_Angua]

Angua clutched Morna tightly as the world changed and they returned to normal size. Before she could adjust to her new surroundings she heard the man in the bowler hat speak.

“I hope your knight in shining armor has a scrubbing brush,” he said, suddenly wearing thick fireproof clothing. He opened the lid of the toilet from across the room revealing a fairly small and extremely angry dragon. Its head was visible above the rim but the rest of its body was trapped inside the toilet.

Angua dropped to the floor before the dragon could notice her, and so it attacked the only person it could see, the one who had trapped it in the toilet. The fireproof armor protected the man in the bowler hat, but not completely, and it was still very distracting.

Angua noticed that the dragon closed its eyes when it breathed fire, and the roar of the fire would hide any sound she made. She crawled along the floor, stopping whenever the dragon stopped breathing fire to inhale, until she reached the end of the mirror maze, and the beginning of the bedroom maze.

(This escape plan worked against Lord Voldemort in a gray and purple bunny suit, so I figured it would work here.)

[kronosdragon]

KD splashed to the surface and took a gulp of air, gasping after the shock of hitting the cool water from such a long fall. She spat out the foul-tasting water and started to swim to shore.

Once her feet were on solid ground, she looked back up at the cliff, but the figure that had been there before was gone. She frowned as she wrung the water out of her hair.

"Jerk..."

[username]

( Hey gaiz, is it tiem to start the RPG?!
'Kay, so I really have no excuse for my...inactiveness, I guess you would call it, 'cept life jus' got in the way.
But, NOW I'M HERE TO KICK ASS AND CHEW GUM, AND I'M ALL OUT OF GUM ect. ect.)

Dreams are weird. Very weird.
Username thought this briefly as she took a collective sigh. She was perched apon a magnificent tree, nothing but clear blue skies, extremely green grass, pale yellow clouds, and wind that smelled awesome surrounding her.
Where was she?
Subconscious. Inner peace. Heaven. Solitude. A secret paradise.
She simply found it as the main place within her to collect her core Angelia powers. Nothing more.
Her powers were picking up senses of chaos among the Dreamers as she perched. She did not feel the chaos here; only sensed it. She only felt the dire need to help.
The last memory she had was of her, perched on a building, overlooking Angua's dream, looking for Bloody Bomb, personified as a dove. That's when the chaos erupted, and that's also when she resided within herself to collect the powers she knew would be needed very soon. She allowed Bloody Bomb to do what was needed for the brief period of time she would be here.
She now knew it was beyond time to do her part. She was always fashionably late, anyway.
Eyelids shot open to reveal irises of pure gold and pupils of a blinding white. She was no longer a dove, but a dark hawk overflowing with Angelia powers. A strong mental voice that made a statement called out, heard only by the other guardian. Even in a weak state, he could still hear the voice. Him and only him; she made sure of that.
"Alright, BB. Tell me where you are."
(....So that's what my mind came up with to...dismiss the absence relatively properly. Don't take the "paradise" thing seriously; just think of it as...well, basically, my inner self that only I could get to, nobody else could see, yadda yadda. Couldn't really think of something better, but hey, I think this fits.
So, yeah, I'm back, ect. Now, Bloody, seriously, where the hell are ya? I've studied up before I made this post, but I still don't understand. :/)

[Mattbot]

Raising a tensed fist in the air, the two stopped their barrage, the demon was long gone now. “God damn shape shifter.” he snarled looking down into the darkness below. This was well above his mission description, not the first time HQ had failed to give him all the information. He turned to Wadling and snatched up his collar, he looked up surprised.

“What the hell was that Wadling?!?!? Something you higher ups have been keeping from me?”

[Big Boom]

Alex didn't know what his next move was. The moaning clown was now getting dangerously close to him, desperately swinging with his sharp as knives fingers. But Alex couldn't just keep backtracking, the intense heat of the fire was getting even harsher, and if he moved any further he could be engulfed by them. From this second of unawareness, a heavy pain shot through him. The clowns daggers had scratched his entire cheek, each of the four cut letting blood drip down his face and onto the rock floor.

And just as the stitched-mouth clown swung again, Alex remembered that his dagger was still inside his jacket pocket. Warily moving around, Alex slid his hand into his pocket and clutched the golden handle of the dagger. Finally instinct took over, Alex's hand swung at the clown's neck, making a sickly deep cut. Blood spewed down the clowns torso, but not for long. A long, white thread came out of one of the clown's pores, and quickly started to rap around the wound, stitching it together. The moment of silence ended as the wound was fully stitched, and the clown moaned again.

It seemed that Alex couldn't defeat this clown with the use of his dagger. As the clownish figure came closer, Alex had no choice but to improvise. The took his dagger, and with Alex's body, he pushed the clown back, back to the cliff edge, and finally off the cliff itself. Alex let go of the clown in mid-air, trying to get as far away from him as possible. In seconds the moaning of the clown, and the air blowing in his ears was silenced, as he plunged deep into the filthy water.

From the shore, Kronosdragon looked in confusion, still not sure of what had just happened. And now there was another figure...she tilted her head and squinted, as the silhouette of Alex appeared from the water, followed by the clown.

[kronosdragon]

KD frowned. The clown looked like something from some kid's nightmare. The other man...she wasn't sure why he was here, but he must have had some significance. She slowly started to back up to the cliff face. These...things...didn't smell human, and had an air of evil. She pulled out a small glass vial of blue liquid and smashed it on the ground, sending up a plume of blue smoke that crackled with energy, like lightning. She transformed into a rabbit and ran off into the underbrush.

[Big Boom]

Alex let out deep gasp as he sprung from the water choking. The water tasted worse than it had looked from the cliff-top. He quickly got the taste out of his head as he realized that there was a greater problem he had to deal with first. His eyes spun around to meet the piercing black holes of eyes that the clown had. Instead of a fighting someone that couldn't lose, he turned and ran for the shore, specifically towards a subsiding puff of blue smoke. Alex started to run faster as he started to get out of the deeper end. As he got to the shore, a loud, annoying sound rang in Alex's ears. It was like static, turning around quickly, Alex saw the clown start to fade away, his head moving side to side. The ringing of the annoying sound stopped.

Knowing that this was just a brief moment of silence, Alex called out towards the bosky terrain for Kronosdragon, who was either far gone, or out of Alex's sight.

[kronosdragon]

How does he know my name? He shouldn't be here...I have to stop the fire! But He knows who I am...What do I do? Is he a threat?

Her mind was running as fast as her feet were, but she slowly stopped and peered through the underbrush. Her nose twitched as she caught the scent of the fire far above them, on the cliff side. She frowned and called out to the trees and vines to take hold of the strange man. Roots and leafy vines crept silently along the forest floor, first tripping the strange man, and then wrapping the thick, woody limbs around his legs and arms in swift motions. She transformed back into her normal self and approached the man as he struggled to get free. A thorny vine wound itself loosely around his throat, a deep growl emitting from his throat as beads of blood swelled from beneath the needle-sharp thorns. KD crossed her arms and looked at him.

"What is your business in my forest?"

[Big Boom]

Another pair of vines wrapped around Alex's hands and pulled them to his sides. The thorny vine was now digging deep into his throat, at this rate, soon the vines would cut into his neck. He needed to talk fast.

Struggling to get enough breathe to speak Alex finally let out, "Listen to...to me, I need help from you..." Alex tried to speak as clearly as he could, "A man named Warren...he has been taken over by the nightmare. It seems like the barrier between nightmares and dreams...might be broken. Almost all of the other dreamers...are...are dead. If...it weren't.....for your ability to mask your fear...you...you'd be dead by now too!" Alex couldn't let out another word as the vines started to tighten suddenly.

Kronosdragon didn't no what to say. From her point of view, what was said a second ago sounded like a foreign language. She had heard of nightmares before, and that other dreams existed around her own, but other dreamers dead? And who was Warren? She turned to Alex's scratched face.

[kronosdragon]

KD frowned in thought and released some of the pressure around the man's throat.

"How do I know you aren't working for this...Warren? And why are the dreamers dead? What is this Warren's purpose for killing innocents?"

[Mattbot]

(Got permission to take over control of a few players)

“ Matt you don’t understand. We‘ve finally got tracks on that bastard, this is more than we ever hoped to get-”

“You set me up!” Matt slammed Wadling against the remains of the pool houses wall. “It‘s all bullshit, all of it. The tablet, the whole business. Got me in here to do your dirty work.”

“Look we just delayed a major infiltration, in three days it‘d have infected all the major corporations.”

“Why me?” Matt demanded bringing his face to head but range.

“Because nobody else could‘ve pulled it off. You‘re pissed about the cover story, I knew I couldn‘t get you in here without it!”

Matt released his comrades throat and looked back to the remaining captives. Two men in their late twenties, probably working under the same banner that those turtle brothers were. If those were even under a banner.

“We‘ve been looking for this guy for months, dammit I‘ve lost good men on this case! I needed somebody who could crack that bastard!” Wadling continued in an increasingly emotional but nevertheless manly tone.

“So you cooked up a story and dropped me into this hell. What happened to you Wadling, you used to be somebody I could trust.” Matt replied disappointed, betrayed and fed up with this world.

“I woke up, why don‘t you?”

…

“You‘re an asset, an expendable asset and I used you to get the job done. Got it?”

Matt left his ex partner with the destroyed drain of the pool and strode towards his captives who looked on dumbstruck, lighting his pipe he spoke to them in a more joyous tone than he had with Wads. “What are your names chaps.” the two stammered their responses as Matt shot off their cuffs with a sawn off shotgun. “Well demonkilla, Polo. You‘re both assets now, just like the rest off us. You won‘t be needing names.” He threw them each an oversized weapon and turned back to Wadling. “Well then, let‘s finish the job.”

[Varthonai]

The Clown gazes up at Matt and Wadling and their captives from the darkness of the drain pipe. The ridiculous shapeshifting dog that thinks itself their savior has passed it without taking much notice; though the Clown is all but invisible to the dreamers through a combination of active camouflage and shadows, the dog might have been able to pick up on it if it had been a bit more alert.

Too late now. Heh.

The Clown's form is considerably different here. Underneath the active camouflage, its skin is still rubbery and covered in bone-white greasepaint and its hair is still full of frenzied colors, but it now has two sets of long mandibles instead of a mouth now--smeared with blood-red makeup, of course, as its original mouth had been. Its body is shorter from head to toe, but only because its natural stance is slightly crouched--all four of its limbs are longer and more muscular, as is its torso. Its wildly-hued hair has been darkened and tamed into a set of multicolored dreadlocks. Its eyes and its big red rubber nose have become sunken and distorted--not that its prey would be able to tell, since the disgusting features are concealed behind an ornate metal mask.

The eyes of the mask allow the Clown to see the dream-signatures of the sleeping victims and the auras that their residual self-images give off. Blissfully ignorant of the horror within, they begin to head into the drain pipe.

On each of its arms is a pair of retractable curved knives, all four of them highly serrated, like saw blades recreated for gutting thick-skinned livestock. Engraved on all eight flats of the knives is an image of the Clown in its original form, head reared back and mouth agape in horrible raucous laughter. The Clown flicks his left hand to the side and the two leftmost knives spring out and lock into place with a soft click.

[Big Boom]

Air had never felt so good before, Alex, after regaining his strength he looked up at Kronosdragon who was still frowning. Letting out a big sigh, he started. "Kronosdragon, I saw what happened to Warren from the beginning...he was changing. His hair started to taint a reddish color, and his skin turn pale...he was slowly turning into his own nightmare." Alex paused, then continued, "There were these tiny pixie like creatures, called Navi...they whispered him things...and soon enough I was turned on...by Warren himself. He tortured me...I was drowned, he tainted me with his own nightmare," ending with a stern voice.

Kronosdragon has lost her frown, and now was looking down at the ground, contemplating what was being said to her.

"But, he couldn't kill me...for whatever reason that was, and so, the next best solution was to turn me into his own puppet. I had lost control, I could see everything I was doing, I could think of what I was doing...but Warren was controlling me the whole time. I saw dreamers get hurt...ripped to pieces. But recently...something is a little off with Warren, he didn't have any power to keep control of me any longer."

Kronosdragon looked up at him, one eyebrow raised, "But if you are being honest...what is Warren's motive?"

Alex shook his head, it seemed like he also didn't know the answer for sure. "From what I know, Warren told me he wanted 'retribution', even when I was being controlled I didn't understand. Maybe it isn't Warren's motive at all, just the nightmare's. But Kronosdragon, before he lost control of me, he told me that he was planning to capture the initial dreamer, and but him into isolation, where he would never be able to wake up. If that happens, the nightmare will never end...and the clown will gain more power."

Suddenly, the thorny vines started to unravel. The thorns scratched his wrists and legs slightly, the plants shrank and eventually went back to their previous position. Alex was finally on his feet, but he was badly beat up. The scratches from the clown's blades still remained on this jaw, but in addition, scratched could be seen on his hands, feet, and most prominently on his neck.

"I don't know if I can entirely believe you yet...but if there are more dreamers in danger, there is no time to waste," Kronosdragon muttered. She moved past Alex and stared at the dirty lake water, in the reflection she saw a huge empty pool, and about five silhouettes. "Do you know a place where there is an empty pool?" Kronosdragon asked quickly.

Alex turned around and thought, "Yes...that's where I drowned."

(Kronosdragon, in your next post, head over to Mattbot's position. I already asked Mattbot about this. From this point...the survivors are going to try to get past the nightmare.)

[kronosdragon]

KD nodded and reached down into the water, lightly touching her finger to the water's surface. It cleared and she took hold of Alex's hand and pressed his hand to the water. An image of their destination shimmered into view.

"Alright. Come on. Wait, hold on..."

She pulled out a vial full of green liquid. She poured some over her palm and wiped the sticky fluid on Alex's face. As her hand passed over his wounded skin, the wounds disappeared.

"There. Now come on."

She grabbed his shoulder and threw him into the water. She jumped in after him, and they rose to the surface of a dark pool of water.

"So. Where are we?"

[Big Boom]

Without answering, Alex led both of them behind one of the walls, so they were out of the group of armed mens' view. Kronosdragon snapped, "I asked where are we?!"

Alex turned around and rolled his eyes, "I told you already, that pool is where I almost drowned, and got turned into a nightmare. Of course I didn't know how the landscape looked above the pool until now...because I was inside it the whole time." Alex signaled Kronosdragon to hush for a minute, so they could at least overhear the mens' conversation. Alex peered over the corner of the wall, Kronosdragon right behind him.

"Now men, when we're going to start the infiltration, everyone be on their toes. We don't the enemy to know we are there..." Mattbot informed. In the background Alex scoffed at the though of them not being caught. "Now listen, I don't want to waste another minute in this dump," Mattbot said, glaring at Wadling. "So I want this to be done quickly..." Mattbot started to say when he was interrupted.

Alex came out of the corner and started to walk towards the group, Kronosdragon moved slowly behind, confused about why Alex moved into sight. "You want to do this quickly?! And not being caught? Do you think that some weaponry is really going to do any harm to a nightmare?!" Alex snarled.

Everyone turned to Alex, while Mattbot pointed his gun towards him.

[Mattbot]

"Friends of yours?" Matt asked in a gruff tone to the men previously known as demonickilla and Polo, Now nameless. The two scanned the new arrivals carefully before shruging.

"Guess not, state your business and alignment!"

Wadling followed his lead and raised his own gun. demonickilla and Polo where a little slow to follow suit and clumsilly readied their cannons.

[Big Boom]

"My business?" Alex retorted with a grin on his face. Kronosdragon was now standing next to him. "Our business was to come along with the Angelia, we need to free the initial dreamer from Warren..or the clown as he is known."

"Now, let me repeat myself...If you go into the depths of the nightmare with guns and zero knowledge of what is down there...you're going to die." Alex stated.

(Mattbot, I don't know if your characters are acquainted with the clown yet...so I don't know if I have to explain everything again to your character. :\ )

(I edited it out....somehow i still thought Bloody Bomb was with them.)

[kronosdragon]

Kronosdragon looked on with growing interest. She crossed her arms and looked each of the men over. Their weapons wouldn't be able to do her any harm, but she didn't want her new "partner" to become swiss cheese. It was already clear that the other men wouldn't tolerate any funny business, so without a word, she slipped a hand behind her back and slowly tipped one of the many vials of colored liquids hanging from her ivy belt. A single drop of a viscous violet mixture fell on the ground and shrouded Alex in an invisible shield. It would last for as long as he remained alive.

"So we're dealing with a clown? Like the one that broke the cliff I was trying to climb down?"

[Mattbot]

(My character doesn’t know shit, he doesn’t even know he’s dreaming. All he knows is that he needs to bring down bloody bomb. Probably not the best idea to have him appear up here.)

What on holy terra were these fellows talking about? dreamers? Warren? nightmares? Say what you will about Wadlings story, at least his was believable. Matt eyed the two of them up and down, no visible teleportation device or protective gear, how did they fade into the room like that. Nothing about this mission added up. Shape shifters, teleporters, the insane cover stories being spewed out of everyone Matt seemed to come into contact with.

“Bullshit, this isn’t no dream.” Wadling replied nervously before glancing over at Matt.

“He‘s right, look I even have Identification.” He pushed the end of his chain gun into the mans face “How can my whole life be just a dream when I have a whole service record dating back to 1847!?!?”

The two figures vanished just as suddenly as they appeared. The team stood still for a moment scanning the area around them before turning back towards each other and edging back towards the drain. “Wadling, cover our backs, the rest of you move in nice and quiet.”

[Varthonai]

(Big Boom, didn't Bloody Bomb already head down the pipe in his last post? What's he still doing on the surface? He hasn't done anything important, maybe you should retcon him out while you still can.)

There is a buzzing in Polo's head.

It is very faint. Almost inaudible, but it's there. Like a bumblebee in his skull.

"Guys?" he asks. "Do you hear that?"

They do not listen. They are arguing amongst themselves. All except Demonickilla, anyway... he's glancing around worriedly on the sidelines. Polo goes to him.

"Do you hear it too?" asks Polo, frightened.

Demonickilla shudders.

"What's wrong?" asks Polo. "Is something--"

Demonickilla opens his mouth, and a cascade of blood pours down his lower lip and chin, running down his neck and chest. There is a metal rod protruding a few inches out of Demonickilla's chest.

Suddenly Demonickilla's entire body shudders again. Polo sees that the rod has impaled Demonickilla from behind, and that there is a cord attached to its back end that trails down into the dark pipe below them. There is a jerk, the cord goes taut, and Demonickilla is yanked down into the pipe without a sound.

No one has noticed.

Polo starts to turn and try to warn the others, but suddenly the buzzing in his head increases a hundredfold. His entire head is like a hive of midges and mosquitoes.

He screams. He falls to his knees and claps his hands to his ears.

It does no good.

The sound is not diminished.

[Mattbot]

The omnipresent soundtrack ramped up dramatically as the squad entered the pool. Matt and Wadling spun around trying to spot the cause and noticed their point man had fallen onto his knees and was clutching violently at his skull. Wadling ran over to him and lifted his hands free, the sides of his head bloodied by small fingernail cuts, a large puddle of blood trailed down into the drain where demonickilla was previously standing, the amount of blood was in way too large a quantity to have come from Polo’s small head wounds and Mattbot instinctively dived down after the trail.

He crashed down through the jagged remains of the blasted out tunnel, breaking all sharp protrusions with the broadside of his arms. “Killa! Killa where are you? Killa!” he roared as he crashed down onto the unstable ground and began feeding multiple belts of shotgun shells into his gun. Sharp clanging noises and ungodly roars echoes down the tunnel towards him, Matt promptly fired in all directions.

[Big Boom]

(Ok....I edited Bloody Bomb out...wait so now me and Kronosdragon disappeared..? This is getting confusing...but I'll just go with it)

Alex surveyed his new surroundings, Kronosdragon was standing next to him. The place was very dark, and cylindrical, then it hit him. They were in the pipe lines. He also noticed a trail of blood heading towards the blackness. A large opening letting much light in was visible at the other end. "Why did you send us here?" Alex questioned.

"Things were going to get messy very soon...I thought it would be better to leave." Kronosdragon replied hastily. Alex shook his head to disagree.

"Kronosdragon, as gun happy as those two are...we need to let them know what they are dealing with. They could help." Alex said slowly. He turned to Kronosdragon who was thinking everything over. Suddenly, loud shots of fire could be heard from the entrance up ahead. "I'm going over there..." Alex muttered.

"You can't! Even the shield charm I put on you can't protect you against constant gun fire!" Kronosdragon looked like she regretted saying anything. Alex turned around, one eyebrow raised.

"I'm not going to ask about this charm...all you need to know is that I'm permanently tainted by the clown," Alex informed. Kronosdragon observed Alex who looked very normal. "Right now, I'm taking form of my past self, but if I want to, I can still turn into the nightmare form of me," Alex said. At that moment, Alex's eyes started to darken, until they were dark as charcoal. His skin started to move around, like something was inside of him...and then it stopped. Alex smiled, as he walked towards the entrance, Kronosdragon stayed at her spot, shocked at what she saw...yet still he had control of himself.

The gun fire stopped as Alex appeared from the shadows. "You again?!" Mattbot yelled.

(By the way, my character isn't invincible. He can still be killed by the clown and his minions. But not by dreamers.)

[Mattbot]

(Well I thought kronos put an invisible shield down over you so you appeared invisible to us, also Wadling isn't in the tunnel and could you give me warning next time you wanna control my character? cause I wouldnt have had him shoot you.)

The apparition of the teleporter from outside slammed into the wall of the drain, his upper chest chiseled through by Matt’s combat knife, the weapon he had been carrying droped into the murky water at their feet.

(I'd have thrown a knife at you instead, my guys perception of events may differ to yours)

“Stick around.” Matt responded with a grin. Wadling waded through the tunnel towards him, the wounded man wrapped around his back still crying in agony. “Matt, on your nine!” he yelled before unloading a clip further down into the darkness. The area was illuminated with muzzle flare and the squelch of hit targets echoed back to them. The two paused and edged down towards the sound, Matt yanked his blade from the strangers impaled corpse.

They stopped and gasped at what the found. “By Odin’s beard.” From beneath the foul smelling water rose a long jet black spear of alien design, its tip a series of sleek blades covered in unreadable symbols. A raw red body hung limp from its shaft, its naked carcass skewered from his backside to his open mouth. Bare muscle and organs were exposed and slid out onto the floor. The body was skinless apart from one section of his body. The head. Matt looked into his hollowed out eyes “… demonickilla. Polo, cut him down.” Polo didn’t comply.

Matt jestured with a nod to Wadling and the two stepped back from the carnage “I knew this man, had him recommended for field sergeant once we got this job done. How the hell did he end up down here and like this? Ain‘t no way for a soldier to die.”

“I don‘t know, Matt. This is inhuman. Nobody told me that the shape shifter was capable of this.”

“Well maybe it wasn‘t the shape shifter.” Matts eyes squinted and he turned to head back to the corpse. The teleported blocked his path. “What the hell?…”

[Big Boom]

(Kronosdragon put an invisible shield down over my character, and Wadling isn't in the tunnel, he's outside of it....see this is getting pretty confusing. Your character shot my character because in previous posts it was explained to take down anyone in the way...which Alex was. But sorry, Ill ask you next time.)

Edit: Alex isn't invisible, he is seen by everyone.

Edit 2: I can edit my other post to connect to yours.

[Varthonai]

The buzzing in Polo's head rises, falls, and rises again. The cacophony is unbearable. Polo falls down on all fours and screams. He bashes his head against the side of the metal pipe to try and drown out the sound but it does nothing, nothing at all, and even as Polo's forehead grows slick with blood the all-consuming sound does not abate.

Attention flickers between Polo and the corpse of Demonickilla. The expression on Demonickilla's face--the only piece of skin left on his body--changes subtly each time they look back, until it wears a big smile. And it is clear now why the face was left intact.

The face has been painted over with the Clown's makeup, blood-red lips and bone-white face. It grins madly with no trace of life in its dull eyes.

"Master's power grows," says the corpse of Demonickilla. "Join in the madness, friends."

[kronosdragon]

KD stared in horror at the painted, undead face. She shuddered, feeling sick.

"Tell me what's going on, this is getting too weird, guys..."

[Big Boom]

OK I am down right confused. Alex is visible to everyone. I don't know where to go from now...

[kronosdragon]

(You are not invisible, and from what I understand, everyone is now in some sort of drainage pipe or sewer or something)

[Mattbot]

(Damn I forgot about the clown makeup >.<)

A deep feeling of dread filled up the damp, dark tunnel and the recent occurrences were not helping moral. Polos outbursts were intensifying to the point where his head looked ready to cave in and the remains of demonickilla appeared to be distorting to this.

Noticing the panic this was causing his compadres, Mattbot lifted a pistol to the disfigured face of demonickilla and squeezed the trigger exploding the head like a watermelon hit with a mallet. He turned back to the others with an emotionless expression.

“Wadling, restrain the private and make your way up to the surface, we‘re leaving.”

“But we” Wadling began but quickly decided that getting out of this tunnel was a wise idea. The sooner they got Polo away from this place the better.

“You” Matt said pointing at the resurrected teleported “Tell me again what you meant by clowns? And don‘t give me that dream shit.”

[Wadling]

Wadling nodded and grabbed Polo by the arm. He hoisted him to his feet and cuffed him, he took off running, Polo dragging behind him screaming the whole way.

"C'mon, we're not dead yet!"

[Varthonai]

Wadling runs. He runs until his muscles burn and his veins pump battery acid, and then he runs some more. Polo screams every step of the way.

They soon come to a ladder that leads back up to the surface. Wadling flexes his muscles, picks up Polo, and throws his weight over one of his broad burly arms. "Sorry to give you the cold SHOULDER, Polo," Wadling quips, reaching for the first step of the ladder. "Maybe you should've RUNG ahead!"

The ladder stretches on a great distance upward; Matt cleared a very long space in his tumble to the bottom of the pit. The further up they go, the less Polo screams, but soon Wadling begins to hear a different sound, a faint buzzing. And something lands on Wadling's neck then, and he hooks his knees into the ladder and uses his free hand to swat at it. When he pulls back his hand, his palm is splattered with the remains of an insect that vaguely resembles a gigantic mosquito.

Crane fly, Wadling thinks, wiping the bug off on Polo's shirt in disgust, but as soon as he has two more flies land on him--one on the hand that's holding Polo's back, and one on his cheek. "Gerroff," Wadling mutters, shaking himself, but the flies do not move. "Polo, can you brush these filthy things off me--"

Wadling looks up at Polo's face and sees that Polo's mouth is agape, his mouth crowded with hundreds of the nasty creatures. They crawl down his chin, over his chest and onto Wadling's arm, or simply fly off of Polo and land on Wadling where they choose.

"Shit, Polo, stop--"

Polo's head splits apart into six or seven parts, like a blossoming meat flower. Crane flies swarm out in the thousands, fly into Wadling's eyes and force him to blink. They buzz in his ears and throw off his coordination.

"Dammit, Polo," says Wadling, watching Polo's entire body continue to split like the leaves of a corn husk, "you've got to PULL YOURSELF TOGE--"

The crane flies swarm into Wadling's open mouth in mid-one-liner, forcing him to sputter and spit angrily. He loses control and drops Polo's body, but a moment later his arms split apart and four long, hairy black legs come out and cling to the wall of the drain pipe. Polo's whole skin peels off and falls to the floor below, hitting it with a resounding wet, pulpy smack and slosh; the creature that has shed Polo's body is a spider of Titanic proportions, its head encrusted with shining moist eyes and two massive fangs folding and unfolding reflexively in anticipation.

Wadling knows he cannot outrun the spider to the top of the ladder. He releases his grip and tries to slide to the bottom and take his chances there, but the spider has already intercepted him. It snatches his heel in its fangs as he slides by and rips him off of the ladder in one smooth motion, tearing through his Achilles tendon and sending him into convulsions of agonizing pain... but the pain soon dulls as the spider's venom courses through his system and dulls all sensation of anything physical. Only the fear remains, as the spider draws him in and wraps his neck in a thick loop of webbing and brings its face close to his, its throbbing, pulsating face with pincers pumping and powerful fangs chittering and glistening eyes swelling in excitement.

When its work is finally done, the spider connects one end of a long thread to the drain pipe wall and the other end to Wadling's neck, and lets him fall. The thread goes taut, Wadling's thick neck snaps like a twig, and his corpse bangs against the side of the pipe and resonates through the entire structure like the pendulum of a church bell.

The spider chitters excitedly.

(Kudos to Will for the first two puns)

[Mattbot]

(That's the greatest reaction to a human bananna skin ever.)

From what he understood from Alex‘s explanation. They were up against some form of demonic force capable of turning peoples deepest fears into physical threats by which to either kill or enslave them and that these creatures had specifically targeted both Alex, his partner and among others himself and Wadling. Before Alex could yet again attempt to persuade Matt that this was not reality, they realized that Wadling had ran too far ahead of them and was now lost in the dark unresponsive to their calls. Matt loaded yet another belt into his gun and picked up the pace keeping cautious about his surroundings.

A single manly tear rolled down Mattbot’s cheek as he found his friend suspended above him, dangling on what appeared to be some form of thick organic string that trailed up a snapped and twisted ladder. The air felt heavy and moist around this area and Matt only spent enough time there to cut down his ex comrade and contact HQ. He hefted the body bag under his left arm and walked over to Alex “Aerial says we‘re cut off, there are 4 differing pipes leading from this area. Take the one leading east, it should lead you out of here. If my message meant anything, there should be a chopper waiting on the other side. They might be able to get you in contact with someone who can help.”

He pointed at the entrance to the tunnel and handed the two a sunrod and the schematics of the drainage system incase their teleportation method required co ordinates. “You guys can go on without me, I‘ve been putting death off for long enough now and I might be able to buy you guys some time.”

Before Alex could interject. “If what you say is true and this is really all a dream then we have nothing to worry about now get to the chopper!” Matt hastily threw himself down the tunnel he felt the most uneasy about and found himself sliding down the slick tunnel, water began flooding in from other connecting tunnels. A large opening lay at the bottom of this crude water slide and Matt realized what awaited him. “Oooooh shit-”

He hit the large pool of water hard and struggled to clamber to the surface while keeping Wadling’s corpse under his arm. He clasped hold of a steel frame and hauled himself over onto the grated floor. The tunnel had dropped him into a closed off corridor that looked like part of some futuristic metal dungeon. There was a severe lack of light and from what he could make out, nothing but a maze of corridors in either direction. He was trapped and alone, the soul clinging fear from the shape shifters eyes crept back. Before he picked himself up he unzipped the top of Wadling’s body bag, the corpse already decomposing and sticking to the material of the bag, Matt refused to wince. Better times flashed back through his mind. “You know whoever got you. They'll come back again. And when they does I'm gonna cut your name right into them!”

[Mattbot]

(They spoke out of post, I should have waited a bit longer before posting but I got too into this. Do you want me to delete it and repost later?)

[Varthonai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQwA14YWdqA&feature=related

The Clown's odd clicking growl resonates and echoes throughout the dungeon in which Matt has found himself trapped. Matt frantically attempts to aim his gun at the source of the noise, but it seems to come from everywhere...

This one here, the Clown says, commanding the great spider that was hatched inside of Polo, I'll see to him. You, my pet, will guide the others to the heart of Nightmare... and then the final slaughter shall begin.

[Big Boom]

"Damnit!" cried Alex as he saw Mattbot's silhouette disappear into the dark corridor. His loud screams diminished slowly as the sound of loud gurgling in the distance got louder. Kronosdragon was still in some shock from the events that had happened. What Alex had told her in the beginning turned from a dream to reality. Three innocents died in front of her eyes. It was unfathomable that she was living in her own world, oblivious to what was actually happening in the sidelines. The annoying sound got louder.

Kronosdragon looked at Alex, still in the startling form of his nightmare. She finally let out, "We aren't going to go to the chopper are we?"

Alex turned around and shook his head, his eyes rolling. "And go where? We are in the nightmare, if the initial dreamer is still trapped in the nightmare, he will never wake up. We will be stuck, until we die. So no, we aren't going to the chopper." Alex looked around, there were 4 corridors, one on each side. One was where Wadling died, one where Mattbot was swept away, and two corridors that were untouched.

There was a deep sigh which came from Alex. "I never thought it would turn out like this. But I didn't think Warren would become a monster..." his speech was interrupted.

There was a loud crash from the ceiling, water pouring out in every direction. Alex quickly yelled, "Kronosdragon, if you see one of the clowns. Don't let them deceive you! Run like hell!" The water sent Alex into one of the corridors. His head hitting the corner of the wall and making a sickly crack. Kronosdragon was dragged away by the other current, in the opposite direction. The farther the water took them, the darker it became. Until neither could hear eachothers' screams.

"Yes....I have all of you where I want to..." the clown whispered with a grin on his face. "Let it begin.


(No Mattbot its fine. I just needed to figure out what exactly was going on. But I know now.)

[Mattbot]

Matt tore off his overburdening gear, this place had been draining his strength ever since he had come upon demonickilla’s corpse and it was now impossible to carry the majority of his gear. He clad himself in what he could carry. A few converted bandoliers made to holster a small handgun, sawn off shotgun, his rifle, an overly large combat knife and all that was left of the now considerably limited ammo and grenades. The heat was unbearable down there and his combat shift didn’t give him the greatest camouflage bonus anyway so he discarded of it and instead covered himself in the cooling muck he had fished from the small pool beneath the steel floor.

Now that he had successfully hidden both his heat signature and his visual appearance from these clowns, he decided to try and draw them in. He took a torch to Wadling’s body and roared “WAAAAAREEEEEEEN!”

[kronosdragon]

The rush of dark water swept Kronosdragon away, slamming her violently into the walls of the tunnel with each turn. She fought to keep her head above water, but decided it would be much easier if she'd only shapeshift. After a brief moment of thought, she started to change. Her body elongated and sprouted scales, turning into a large black catfish. Suddenly the water didn't feel as unforgiving, and she gently navigated her underwater world, using her sense of smell and touch to feel her way through the dark water. She soon came to a pool of startlingly cold water, and she swam to shore before changing back, so she could get out immediately. She looked around, and saw that the walls were covered in silvery spiderwebs.

"Well now..."

She spotted the only exit not far from where she stood, and started toward it. Then she heard the clicking and decided better. She closed her eyes, her keen elven ears picking up on the noise as she tried to identify it. A bird? No, what would a bird be doing down here...Footsteps? She opened her eyes when she felt the creature move, and was appalled by the sheer size of the creature emerging from the darkness.

"River Spider..."

She was familiar with this fantastic beast. The giant spider guardian of rivers and bogs. She had come across only a few, and that had been enough for her. And here, she stared it in the eye once again, much to her displeasure. What was it doing down here? Of all places...

"River Spider, strong and fierce, stay your evil heart and state your business in the nightmare world!" KD demanded.

The River Spider clicked its fangs before letting out a shuddering breath.

"Born in flesh into this world I was. What was once two is now one. Danger is my master and evil is my birth. It is my master's will that you become the same."

"River Spider, strong and fierce, who is this once you call your master? Why does the mighty bend to the weak?"

"Master is not weak, and has given me new life. Now is the time for new beginnings in a new era."

The River Spider slowly approached her, the claws on its feet scraping at the stone floor. KD stood firm as it came face-to-face with her, its foul breath accented by the blood that was drying on its mandibles.

"You would do wise to proceed, before my next meal consists of elven flesh."

KD frowned, but didn't want to provoke it any further. She bowed slowly to it before entering the dark corridor beyond the web-spattered walls. As she walked through the darkness, she heard the water babble as the spider submerged itself.

(Many of you may be unfamiliar with the story of the River Spider, it's a very old story based in the Louisiana swamps. I can't find it online, or else I would give you a link, but that's where I'm referencing from. Hence the riddle-like style of speaking from the spider.)

[Big Boom]

It was his nightmare all over again. The corner he had hit had severely damaged his scalp, and now was taking time to reform. But that was the least of Alex's worries. The dark and frigid water felt like it was seeping through his body, and he struggles desperately to stay above water. He heard the last of Kronosdragon's screams as he was dragged underwater by the sharp current. Alex opened his dark eyes, desperately trying to find his way underwater. But it was hopeless, his body was being beaten by the walls and corners, and the light was so low that the farthest he could see in front of him was about a foot.

Constantly alternating between being underwater and gasping for air he finally felt as if he was launched with the water to an endless abyss. There was no floor. He could feel himself falling, the water getting heavier, and the thought that he would be crushed by the water. Suddenly Alex was on the floor, yet somehow he hadn't felt it. He opened his eyes slowly and looked up, only to see a ceiling. He got up, the water was up to his knees, and the walls made of mirror were leaking in water.

The room was oddly quiet, and was slightly illuminated by a dim light in the water. The silence was interrupted suddenly when a strange clicking started to sound. The clicking was a mix of snarling and clanging, and just from the sound, it didn't seem friendly. The sound continued, but the room's water remained very still. Not a little ripple was present. The clicking also didn't seem to be one of the clowns, if it were, they would have been here by now.

As the sound continued, Alex remembered about that Kronosdragon was separated. Everyone was separated. Of course. It was all part of the clown's plan. He knows that the dreamers stand a chance against him and the nightmare, but with them separated, they might as well be dead. He hoped that Kronosdragon would last against whatever it was that the clown had prepared for him. Mattbot on the other hand had the strength to fight whatever the clown sent after him. Alex just worried of his lack of knowledge about the nightmare.

Alex's train of though stopped when the sound got louder, and seemed to come from every corner. Alex looked around raising his eyebrow, "Come out where ever you are you demons..."

Suddenly Alex felt a bite on the back of his leg, particles spewed out, then reformed. Something had bit him, and hard...yet there was no trace of where the creature was. Another surge of pain went through his hand, and crawling was felt on his legs. He shook the invisible creatures off his body frantically.

It seemed like he had no chance against these invisible clicking creatures. Just then, Alex turned to one of the mirrored walls, and saw his reflection...and the reflection of about a dozen over sized spiders. He looked back at the water and himself and saw nothing. "No way..." Alex realized. He could only fight these spiders using the mirrors and the reflections.

He felt a heaviness in his pocket, and quickly pulled out his dagger which was still shining with power. "Ok you little bastards...lets go," Alex uttered. The dagger swiftly ran through his fingers, and then he threw his dagger at the reflections in the mirrors. The dagger went straight into the mirror, right on target. It hit the spider's reflection with force, it's reflection flying into the water limp and sending a spiderweb of cracks on the mirror.

"Yes Alex, the farther you go killing the spiders, the more your vision on the reflections will be ruined...have fun."

Another spider was flung off of him as the mirror was damaged some more.

[Varthonai]

Matt adapts to his situation well, thinks the Clown, to cover himself with the stuff of Nightmare, masking his dreamer's aura... but I can adapt even better. He will not stray far from his friend's body.

A cannon mounted on the Clown's shoulder puffs out a long blue balloon that streaks towards Wadling's position. On impact the balloon pops and sprays flammable liquid everywhere, igniting when it touches Wadling's body and turning the room into a massive, flickering inferno.

The Clown makes another clicking growl and steps into the light. "Where are you, Matt, m'boy?" it giggles. "You and your friends need to get in the game. You can't stay on the sidelines forever, or you'll end up like this charred chunk of spider leftover here."

***

KD swims cautiously down the corridor, but quickly runs into a chamber roped off with thick webbing. The web extends below the water's surface--she cannot swim under it.

"Mother might have considered you unpalatable," hiss a chorus of rasping voices from behind her, "but we are not so picky in our tastes."

KD turns to see dozens of smaller spiders converging from the end of the hallway, blocking off the other end.

"Do not fear for your life, little one," whispers the black spider nearest to her, as he spins a rope of silk with three of its back legs and knots a loop into it for lassoing prey. "We will keep you alive as long as possible. The longer we can feed, the better."

His fangs shine pearly white in the darkness, and his fellows laugh uproariously.

[Big Boom]

The water was slowly rising, it was already up to Alex's torso. And yet, he wasn't making progress with the spiders in the reflection. The walls were all drastically cracked, he felt like he was surrounded by distorting funhouse mirrors. The reflection was scattered in every direction, and trying to aim at the spiders was harder then ever. At this rate, he might as well be bitten to death. Alex waded in the water and pressed his hands against the mirror, killing another spider.

If only there was a way to get out of this room. A strange instinct came over him. Pain was going throughout Alex's entire body. The spiders were not giving him a rest. They whispered constantly, "Let us keep feeding, it will all end soon." But he wouldn't have it.

[kronosdragon]

KD groaned.

"So, first I got past mother, only to run into her hungry children."

She climbed out of the water and shook herself dry, squeezing the water from her hair.

"While I'm not particularly fond of spiders, I'm not afraid of you."

She got a shot of web around her ankles for that. She fell over and hit her head against the wall.

"Ow..."

She quickly pulled out one of her many vials, this one filled with a clear liquid, and poured it over the webbing as the spiders skittered closer. The webbing fizzled away, and she stood back up.

"That wasn't very nice."

[Big Boom]

The last of the spiders was killed. Finally. Alex was feeling an awkward mix of agony, joy, and confusion. The mirrors were devastated. They were almost all white because of the cobweb like cracks. At last there was peace, the dim light continued to shine, letting Alex at the very least know his surroundings.

[leapoffaith]

LOF's dragon was a half hearted dragon. He thanked his own laziness for saving his ass. He raised his hand and the dragon collapsed into dust. The real dragon was behind a throwaway wall, but enough of that- his charge was running away! His shoes sprouted rockets and he blasted after her

[Varthonai]

(Just a pointer for future reference LOF--when the Clowns used your own power to lock you in with the Original Dreamer, the power you have available for free use was significantly reduced. You're still going to be more powerful than a typical dreamer but battles shouldn't be over in three seconds the way it just happened with the dragon. Same goes for you, KD, fighting off those spiders should have taken considerable effort. Both of you should consider revising your posts.)

[leapoffaith]

(Of course I'm the one who created it, but yeah I got ya man.)

(Ah yeah I missed that, sorry. Thought Angua had created it. Carry on ~Varth)

[Big Boom]

Alex sat in the water, leaning against the broken mirror. There had to be a way out of here. And he needed to find out where. The clown so far was successful in keeping the three apart. But now, he needed to rejoin his group. Now standing he slowly looked down in the water. Looking at the dark floor for any type of hole or passage he could use to get out of this strange mirrored room. Alex squinted while turning his head towards the fading light in the middle of the room. Of course. There must be a way out through the light.

"How cheesy..." Alex grumbled. Alex stepped towards the light portion of the floor. As he put his foot were the floor should have been he sank, straight through light. He was underwater, in a large room. Almost like an opening hall. Everything looked elegant but old. Walls were chipping, a glass chandelier was laying on the ground, slowly breaking apart. The room floor seemed to be marble, about six long columns stood along the walls of the room. And at the end were long curving staircases leading to giant double doors.

Alex swam through the room, conserving his breathe. He made it past the stairs and was now holding onto the handle of the doors. Slowly but surely, he hung onto one of the handles and pulled, using the other door as foot hold.

[kronosdragon]

(edited my post)

[sgt_Angua]

Angua stopped at the entrance to the distorted bedroom. The desk loomed over her, as did the bookcase, the two beds, and the two rocking chairs. In one of the rocking chairs sat a corduroy teddy bear she knew to be named Cordy. She started moving again when she heard something behind her, running past a brown Beanie Baby cat called Nip, and a two legged robot with suction cups in each foot and a long, flat, and completely unnecessary head, called a Climb-O-Tron.

Angua ran behind one of the curved rockers of a rocking chair just before the stranger came into view, wearing rocket boots. She heard a faint plastic clicking noise and nearly screamed when the rocking chair began to rock, but was able to back up out of the immediate danger.

The faint click of plastic against plastic suddenly stopped, and the closet door opened. From the inside. By a giant hand made of Legos. The hand disassembled itself and Lego pieces fell and bounced across the floor, recombining into creatures. The Lego creatures started toward Angua. Angua, getting an idea, ran to the bed closer to the radiator.

Angua quickly took off her shoes and socks and leapt, grabbing a low hanging corner of the crocheted blanket. She climbed fairly quickly, using the gaps in the crochet pattern as hand and toeholds. Some of the Lego creatures were coming after her, but, incredibly, some appeared to be attacking the stranger.

Angua reached the top of the bed and ran across the soft surface careful not to get her toes caught in the blanket. She ran toward the two toys who would help her. They would be loyal to their creator.

A Lego creature reached the top of the bed and started after her.

“Belkar! Dr. McNinja!” Angua yelled, running as far as she could from the Lego creature as others joined it. The porcelain statue of Dr. McNinja removed his hands from his hips, withdrew his sword from his coat, and jumped off of his porcelain base, landing on the bed and attacking the Lego creatures. The fabric coved wire frame that was the Belkar toy jumped after Dr. McNinja, pulling two daggers from seemingly nowhere.

“I love the smell of XP in the morning,” Belkar said as he and Dr. McNinja started attacking the Lego creatures.

(It's the room that's oversized, LOF and I are not smaller. This makes a difference in the physics of things.)

[Mattbot]

The large blue projectile had brushed past Matt and bounced down the long corridor before incinerating what was left of Wadling, it’s how he’d have wanted to go. Mattbot had no godly idea where that shot had came from but it at least proved that his slick body paint was working. Nevertheless he didn’t dare move from where he stood. This decision probably saved his life as only moments later a figure emerged from the shadows only a few feet away from him.

The creature was an ugly bastard. It stood a full head size taller than Matt and was well built by human standards. It wears little amour fortunately, a few odd trophy like plates here and there and then a large metallic mask covering the majority of its head . Despite the lack of visible armor it was packing a lot of weaponry, shoulder mounted guns, blades… blades everywhere. The monster passed Matt by and approached the flaming inferno clicking merrily.

Matt slunk away around the maze into a vantage spot. He readied his rifle and double checked the attachment. The creature stood over the fire scanning its surroundings, it was an easy target. Matt squeezed a trigger and launched a frag grenade down towards it. The explosion erupted right besides the monster and it shrieked in surprise yet showed no signs of pain. Matt circled around the corridors into another vantage spot and fired another grenade. This had similar results as before, only now the creature began to emit a distorted laugh as it began firing rapidly at it’s surroundings. Matt moved again under the hail of stray shots and unloaded what little grenades he had left, Stun, Frag, Flash, Incendiary. An emp grenade put a stop to the hail of fire but not before a blast had lit his gun up and knocked him into a pool of murky water that lay to the side of the corridor.

[Big Boom]

The door finally creaked open, letting out a few bubbles of air. The crack was just large enough to swim through, and so Alex squeezed himself into the room that laid ahead. The room itself was cold and empty, there was absolutely nothing there that Alex could possible remember later on. There was a faint beam of light coming from new top of the water. Finally, desperate for breathe, Alex swam up to the surface.

[Varthonai]

"Whether or not you FEAR us," chittered the spider, highly amused, "is of little consequence."

Four strands of web from four different spiders struck Kronosdragon on the wrists and the ankles. The spiders moved apart along the floor and ceiling, yanking Kronosdragon's limbs in different directions and splaying her out in midair. She struggled, trying desperately to transform, but the webbing coiled around her more tightly and held her in her humanoid state. The spiders crawled in from all directions and swarmed over her body, their fangs gleaming and chittering with excitement. It was not until her entire form was engulfed in webbing and writhing spider, until all light and all sound except for the rustling of hairy legs was drowned out, that she first felt a fang penetrate.

The first one went underneath the crevice between her upper left arm and her shoulder, up through her armpit, plunging into her axillary artery and suckling the blood within. The second forced its way into her mouth and underneath her tongue, stabbing deep into her lingual artery. A third pierced her right eye, hesitated a moment, realized that the liquid substance inside was not blood, withdrew, and moved downward to plunge into the profunda brachii of her right arm instead.

Suddenly there was a splash from behind. Several of the spiders at the exterior of the mass surrounding Kronosdragon peeled off to investigate, but the vast majority continued their assault.

(Good timing, Alex.)

(Also KD, even if Alex helps you get out of this, your potions are not going to be sufficient to heal those wounds. They'll be deeply infected with spider venom.)

***

The Clown hisses, and surveys its wounds. Matt is not like most of the others. His fear is a rather general fear of death; specific phobias are harder to identify. This could be a challenge.

The Clown likes a challenge.

The Clown's dream-aura tracking vision has been destroyed by some weapon Matt dreamed up, somehow, and most of its weapons are malfunctioning. But it still has all of its most essential tools. Brute strength. Killer instinct. Sense of humor.

It hears a splash from the pool and understands immediately what it must do next. "A watery grave, eh, Matt?" it clicks. "Fine by me."

The Clown dives straight in after its prey.

[kronosdragon]

KD cried out in anguish and frustration. She steeled herself and bit down on the spider invading her mouth, effectively chomping it in half. She spat out the disgusting bits, flexing her tongue to rid herself of every piece. She growled to herself and clamped her mouth shut, closing her eyes in an attempt to better focus her power. She tried again to transform, but nothing happened. She ignored the throbbing of her punctured eye as she squirmed and struggled, slowly getting weaker.

I will not end like this! There has to be something I can do...

She tried to struggle enough to knock loose some of the potions around her waist. She managed to get some of them to smash into each other, breaking three of the vials. They fell into the water below and filled the room with an acidic cloud, making the web around her arms and legs dissolve away. She held her breath and dropped down into the water, tearing away the spiders still clinging to her. She climbed up onto the concrete, holding a hand over her wounded eye. She could still hear the skittering of spiders somewhere upstream.

Dammit, don't these things die?!

She changed into a catfish again, feeling her way downstream until she came to colder water. She crawled out onto the bank, looking over her bites to see them turning a sickly purple.

[Big Boom]

(Oh my...my grammar in my last post was horrendous...)

Alex was finding himself in this situation of being short of breathe underwater very frequently recently. The clown knew just how to push his buttons...the choking feeling, the mirrors...the slow boiling pain of the spider bites creeping under his skin. The dark abyss below hi started to fade away as he hastily swam upwards. He finally surfaced, letting out a gasp of relief and taking in air into his lungs. It was the best feeling Alex had felt in his time spent in this damned place.

Spiders. Alex heard the tiny legs slowly patter on the walls of this room, the clanging of their fangs. There was a strong scent of death in the air, and in the distance, a groan of disgust and pain. Just as soon as Alex's feeling of happiness came, it had left. Alex quickly dove under again, and made his way down the stream and away from the room.

[kronosdragon]

KD crawled on all fours on the concrete bank of the tunnels. With a sigh, she sat down and dipped her feet in the water. Whatever poison the spiders had injected into her was effectively slowing her down. She pressed a hand to her still-bleeding jugular, feeling the swollen flesh growing hot and tender from the bite. She scrabbled around for whatever potions were still on her belt, trying to find the one she kept hidden in the folds of her clothing. She pulled out a tiny vial filled with clear liquid. She opened it and inhaled the white vapors, quickly pressing the cork back into the top. She sighed in relief as the swelling began to go down. The venom would continue to flow through her veins, but the effects would be slowed and her discomfort eased, but it was still there. She could feel it. She was given the boost she needed to get back up and continue on her way.

[Big Boom]

Underwater again...Alex was not surprised this time, and wasn't going to waste time thinking about it. Alex ran his fingers over the top of the roof, until finally finding an opening that he was able to swim through. Determined to get out of the frigged and maybe try to gather the team up again, Alex fought the current. And finally as if a champagne bottle had been opened, he popped out of the water. Taking in some short breathes, he looked around and realized he was swimming in the river that had been created in these pipes. Along with the current he swam towards the sounds of agony.

In an instant he realized the sounds were familiar. Kronosdragon....she was still alive. Alex picked up his pace of swimming as he called out to her.
__________________________________

From far away the clown was enjoying himself, watching a real circus perform for him. Mattbot had preformed many of his tricks taming the spiders. Along with that he got to enjoy some funhouse mirrors with Alex, and Kronosdragon showed her many magic skills. But the fun was over...everything was now becoming repetitive, and maybe it was just the right time to finish the job.

[kronosdragon]

KD heard a voice calling out to her. and for a moment, she thought it was just a delusion brought on by the spider venom. She called back, hoping that she would hear a reply.

[Big Boom]

It was Kronosdragon. At least one person would be able to help Alex get back the initial dreamer. Almost swimming around the corner Alex shouted, "I'm coming! Is everything ok?!"

[kronosdragon]

"Not exactly. Then again, it could be worse..."

KD stopped, swaying on her feet as her balance faltered. She could see Alex swimming toward her as she flopped backwards and landed hard on her backside. The stinging in her arse wasn't near as troubling as the throbbing in her head. She pulled her dagger from her belt and cut a piece of her sleeve off, though her hands shook and she cut her shoulder a few times. Tying the fabric around her swollen eye, she sat and waited for Alex.

[Big Boom]

She looked pale, a few open, bleeding wounds were scattered throughout her face and arms. It looked like himself not long ago. The spider venom was clearly spreading, the wounds were swollen, and a sickly purplish color had formed around the blood. It didn't look good. Kronosdragon had her hand on her temple, and groaned as Alex finally came to the bank.

"The spider venom is less then friendly," Alex said sympathetically, a faint smile coming across his face. Kronosdragon chuckled weakly but was cut short by a croaking cough. "We have to get you on your feet..." Alex proposed with concern in his voice.

[kronosdragon]

KD coughed again, attempting to push herself to her feet, when she realized she couldn't feel them. She grumbled and stubbornly tried to get up regardless. With the lack of feeling in her feet, she swayed and fell over again.

"I can't..."

She struggled to her hands and knees, pressing her forehead against the cold concrete floor.

Think...Think...

Her mind clicked as she thought of something. It would only be a temporary fix before her whole body went numb, but at least she wouldn't be defenseless. With what power she had left, she changed into a man-sized, serpentine dragon with dull black scales. She only had forearms, her legs melding into her spine as it stretched into a long tail, and small vestigial wings formed do to her lack of energy. She wouldn't have been able to get off the ground anyway. She couldn't feel the very end of her tail, but the rest being comprised mainly of her former legs and spine, she could feel the remaining 5 feet of it. Her potions hung around her neck on her belt, not having the energy it took to meld it to her body like her clothing did. It hung loosely like a glittering necklace of many colors. Her injured eye was non-existent in this form, leaving an empty hole where it would have been. While mobility would be a little easier, she didn't have the energy to give herself the gift of fire either. She only had her potions, her teeth and the claws on her hands.

She coiled up into a tight ball, hiding her dizzy head beneath layers of coils while she rested for a moment, letting the nausea of transforming with such little energy reserves pass. She rose to her full height; only a few inches taller than Alex. Taking a brief survey of the area with her enhanced night vision, she nosed Alex as a signal to move onward. She couldn't speak in this form either, so she could only hope that he would understand her through her actions.

[Mattbot]

Matt began thrashing his way through the thick liquid away from his foe. The water behind him was disturbed as the creature followed him in. With his camouflage now washed away and Warren rapidly closing the distance between them, things got desperate. Dry ground was only a few meters away from Matt now but with each foot he got closer the platform seemed to rise taller. He could hear the armored clown right behind him now, almost able to feel it’s horrid candy floss breath on his bear neck. Matt yanked his knife free from its sheath tearing the leather holster asunder and with a desperate lunge he embedded it into the steel wall in front of him.

Despite his weakening strength, he was still able to hoist himself out of the ooze and up on top of the platform in one quick pull. As soon as he had crawled over the edge and seemingly escaped danger he found his head trapped between two large gleaming blades. The hulking clown stood above him wielding an oversized fork that although looked like a rubber prop felt as cold and sharp as a sword.

[Big Boom]

(It would be such a waste to let all of our work go for nothing....how about finish this story for good this time? :) )

It was more than he hoped for. For now it seemed that Kronosdragon was going to be capable to move on, and time was of the essence. As Kronosdragon, now this creature, started to move down towards the darkness Alex let out, "Kronosdragon...you can understand me correct?" The reptile looked back and nodded its head, its eyes staring right into Alex's.

Although she couldn't say anything to him, at least she could understand him. "Kronosdragon, we have to get to where the clown is keeping Mattbot. Even Mattbot can't fight off the clowns for a long period of time. They are just too powerful."

Kronosdragon nodded again before she turned towards the dark tunnel leading to a spec of light in the distance. Alex getting the idea to follow trudged after her. The tunnel was wet and cold, almost like all the other places in this cobweb of pipes. Alex felt a shiver go up his back, Kronosdragon seemed to get tense too. The place had a malicious vibe to it, as if the shadows could have swallowed both of them whole without mercy.

Alex could only hope that the opening up ahead was closer than it seemed.

[kronosdragon]

KD could feel the chill in her bones, deep beneath the slowly growing agony and the steadily creeping numbness at the end of her tail. In this form, it would take longer for the poison to spread, thanks to a dragon's natural resistance, but in her already weakened state, the poison would go unstopped in her system until it either rendered her immobile or killed her. Either way, she'd cease to move, and she had to keep going as long as she could still move some sort of muscle.

She could see the light getting closer, closer still, and yet it still seemed so far away. She picked up the pace, but not enough to make the poison spread faster. She was determined to get out. She didn't want to die in this dismal place, so dark and cold. She at least wanted to see light again.

[Varthonai]

"Any last words, Matt?" the Clown chuckles.

[Mattbot]

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

[Varthonai]

The Clown grins, rears back, and slashes cleanly through Matt's body--which vaporizes instantly, leaving behind nothing but a heap of brown hooded cloak.

Which is odd, considering that Matt hadn't been wearing a cloak.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!" screams a voice the Clown has heard before.

The Clown turns to see a dragon-like creature moving at a steady pace by the opening of the cavern on the opposite end of the pool, followed by...

Alex...

"YOU!" the Clown roars, lunging back into the water and swimming toward the cavern entrance with all his strength--but Alex grabs a potion at random from around KD's neck and hurls it, and it explodes in midair and brings an avalanche of rock tumbling down to barricade the entrance.

[Mattbot]

"Run Alex, run." Matt's voice calmly whispers into Alex's mind from beyond the dream world.

[kronosdragon]

KD wheeled around, feeling the tug around her neck and believing it to be another monster of some sort. She jolted back after discovering that the entrance of the cavern had caved in. She turned to Alex and nosed his arm, silently asking what had happened.

[Big Boom]

(I will probably get an infraction...)

It was once again silent, except for the slight drops of water hitting the floor. Alex let out a sigh, it seemed that their only option would be to backtrack and find another route. Kronosdragon nudged his arm, this time demanding an answer.

"The clown was one step ahead of us again." Alex frowned and looked towards the wall of unstable rocks now blocking the opening to the cave. "It looks like we are the only ones left here, unless of course the initial dreamer is still alive. Or any other survivors from the dream state. But we have to keep moving...going to the clown will have to wait, if we stay here...death is only certain."

They both turned towards the opening opposite from where they were.

"RRRRrrrruuuunnnn Allleeexxx Ruuuunnnn," a faint moan from beyond the nightmare called. Alex stopped, at first it had seemed like wind, a distant sound being masked by the noise of their own footsteps. But it was more distinct then that, a voice of some sort. Kronosdragon has stopped just as abruptly as Alex, now nosing his arm again.

"Run..." Alex muttered to himself. The patter of the droplets halted, only leaving Kronosdragon and Alex listen to the soft buzzing sound starting to grow from the caved in part of the hallway. Instinctively both of them started to make a dash for the light of the other side of the hallway. Maybe they would make it.

[Varthonai]

(Posting for LOF since he's inactive and under my character's control in-game)

leapoffaith navigated easily enough around the Lego monstrocities that were forming themselves from the ground up and pouring out of Warren's closet.

THUMP

An earth-shattering thud rocked the entire room, throwing LOF off-balance, but he kept running blindly ahead until he suddenly ran up against a brown corduroy obstruction the thickness of a tree trunk. He looked up, and up, and up at the titanic creature that reared its head hundreds of feet above his own. The massive brown toy bear, "Cordy", had leapt from his perch on the rocking chair, which now creaked back and forth with ear-splitting scratches of wood on wood.

LOF tried to dodge to the side, but Cordy lifted a massive foot and plunged it into the floor where LOF was headed, splintering the floorboards and nearly dragging LOF down too as it caved in. Cordy let out a powerful roar that resonated through the walls and the floor, and LOF felt compelled to turn his head skyward and look at the bear's snarling face--its eyes and mouth had begun secreting milk, which ran down its features like tears of rage and rabid frothy drool.

"Help!" leapoffaith screamed to Angua as Cordy moved in. "Help me! They're attacking me, too!"

***

The Clown claws furiously at the cave wall. Brothers! it calls out across the web of dreaming strands, contacting the Clowns in the Heart of Nightmare. Our prey are headed for our home! I have failed to stop them--prepare to intercept the intruders!

[sgt_Angua]

Angua stared at the Giant Cordy as it roared and attacked, but ducked quickly out of sight when the man called for help, not wanting the bear to see her. She wasn't going to help him. He couldn't be trusted. This could easily be a trick to put her in the path of Cordy, or cause her to send Belkar or Dr. McNinja and leave herself unprotected. Even if it wasn't a trick he had tried to hurt her, and was almost certainly involved in whatever happened to Warren.

Warren... Angua needed to get out of here and find him.

[Varthonai]

Cordy took another step forward, creating another pocked crater in the floor and trapping LOF between his two lower paws. The impact shook LOF onto his back and Cordy thrust forward with one of his forepaws, smashing LOF into the ground. LOF felt his ribs splinter like matchwood, and coughed blood.

"F-fuck you, Clown," LOF gasped as Cordy reared back and roared triumphantly. "I didn't sign up for this..."

As treasonous thoughts flashed through his mind, the syringe before LOF's eye reappeared. LOF grimaced.

One way or another, I'm going to die in a few minutes, he realized.

As Cordy reared down again, intending to crush LOF to death this time, the dreamer raised his hand to intercept Cordy's descending paw. With the last of the dream energies the Clowns had left him, he created a portal that tore open the dream-stuff of Warren's room. Cordy roared in pain as the portal shredded through the seams of his paw, ripping it to shreds and sucking out the stuffing; the giant bear pulled back in time to save itself from being completely destroyed, but its entire right arm had been torn off at the shoulder and matted wet white stuffing drooped limply out of it, dripping milk like blood.

Now there's a way to escape, LOF thought gravely. And a way for allies to get in. That's some hope... for Angua, at least.

The syringe quavered violently and then snapped forward, quick as a snake. LOF screamed as the needle buried itself viciously in his face, plunging through the soft tissue of his eye and lodging itself in his brain. The handle pushed itself down and then released, and LOF felt neurons bunching and squishing together and being slowly sucked up through the needle. The pain of having one's brain drawn out while one is still alive is a very unique experience rarely felt in everyday life; there was very little physically painful about it, but the psychological horror and existential dread was more than enough to make it terrible.

At least I DID something, was LOF's final thought. At least I wasn't just the Clown's puppet.

[LOF has been killed off due to inactivity]

***

(KD, Big Boom, the light at the end of the tunnel will take you through LOF's portal and into the room with Angua in the Heart of Nightmare. You'll have to fight LOF's Clownified corpse when you get through, though.)

[leapoffaith]

(dang it I was just about to come back and kill myself off xD nice heroic ending though Varth. I appreciate it.)