don't go around tonight, it's bound to take your life

[iracorn]

Who: Ira and you
Which: Interactive Dream; Open
What: Ira's having Nightmares, Ira's spreading Nightmares. Nightmares for everyone!
Warnings: Might be some spooky stuff and violence



A - Nightmares

[Ira has been having nightmares.

It isn't that surprising, thinking about it. He was exposed to the Nightmare energy in the city, perhaps more than he should have been. To say nothing of the weights on his Heart. He knows the difference now, between what are his memories and what aren't, even if they still feel like they are. It's been a long road to walk.

There isn't a particular theme to this Nightmare. Indeed some of his worst fears have already been broadcast. But it is a Nightmare nonetheless.

Ira walks alone through distorted streets at night. The buildings, a mishmash of various towns and places, dark and tilted, some towering over him, others oddly shaped. He is lost, armed with a vague notion of where he is going but every turn seems to keep him away from where he desperately wants to go. It might be odd to call out in your own dream but he does. He needs helps.]


Where am I? Can someone help me?

...please...

[B - Night Mares]

[If Ira is able to escape his Nightmares, he is changed.

He's taken a similar form before, but this one perhaps seems more malevolent due to the excess energy. What enters your dream comes in a mass of black clouds and shadow. He moves within them, both a defined form and part of the shadow. A Unicorn of awesome size, with glowing red eyes and a slate grey horn. His mane and tail waving between navy blue and deep purple. It would be majestic were it not for the Darkness rolling off of him.

Whatever dream he enters is sure to become a Nightmare, as he stalks, slowly through.

A challenge is met with the pawing of the ground with his hoof and the horn lowering to a deadly angle.]

[C - A Shadowed Heart]

[Whether Ira is saved from his Nightmares or ultimately beaten back, it ends up in the same place. Some from his world may recognize it as a Station. A large pillar with a stained glass image that represents one's Heart.

Ira's Heart looks worn, there is shadow and cracks and places where it does not shine as brightly as it is meant to. One can see images, slightly cracked, of the other foretellers, of two hooded figures wearing very familiar coats, the image of a Unicorn that is his crest. Every so often, something seems to shift as some part of him tries to organize the memories that are his and aren't. There are places where it's been reinforced but there's also the sense that it needs more.

But it's a brief look, before everyone wakes up.

But if you've seen Ira's Heart, it might be worth reaching out. Or he will, once he's a little more awake]

[ooc: Looking to plot, want an additional starter, urbaninja]

Comments

[iracorn]

[It's unseen, but Ira nods. He's managed to find Fountain Square, distorted as it is, and that's enough for now. He can stay here, trying to will some semblance of order back into this place.]

I...I'm by a fountain. If that helps!

[starshower]

Sort of... but just keep talking.

[It's easier to find him that way, and she can at least make sure that nothing terrible has happened to him in the time it takes for her to get there.]

Is Daybreak Town your home...?

[And she's going to break into a run as soon as she hears his voice again to follow it.]

[iracorn]

Yes...it is. It's normally, a lot nicer than this.

[If it's this distorted, maybe his memories are in worse shape than he thought.]

It's normally very beautiful. If you can see the clocktower, that was where I lived.

[starshower]

[She does look around, and—]

I can, yeah.

[Tifa just needs to keep him talking while his voice grows closer and closer...]

What does it look like normally? Blue skies? Bright sun?

[iracorn]

B-both of those. Often. The mornings were always the best time. Something about the way the sun would hit the rooftops. I could watch it rise from my room.

It was always wonderful to see.

[starshower]

I bet it was. You'll have to show me...

[Ah, she hoped that getting him to remember what it was like would have done something to help the landscape, but Tifa sees no changes... but at least—]

Ira?

[She sees the fountain he spoke of up ahead, and him standing near it, and she gives a wave before rushing over to him.]

Are you alright?

[iracorn]

[He would love to, truly. Maybe one of these days he can have a dream of happier times in this place. In his home.

When he sees Tifa though, he is able to muster a smile. He looks tired, wan, but still standing.]

Tifa. I...I've certainly been better.

I'm sorry if I've dragged you in here.

[starshower]

[She shakes her head, looking him over for any signs of injuries or... other tells that might explain what this is about.]

No, it's fine. Better that you did than be stuck here by yourself.

[She's here to help.]

What's the reason for all this anyway?

[iracorn]

[Oh, where to even begin?]

I...I suppose so.

I believe it is just a Nightmare. I may have been over-exposed in the underground city.

And I suppose I have been struggling, as of late.

[starshower]

Struggling?

[The dream itself seems to ripple, distorting the landscape further, and Tifa wonders if her being here has anything to do with that.]

How so?

[She's no stranger to someone struggling to contain nightmare energy, that's for sure. While she has not herself, she's seen it first hand in Eustace, and has also helped pull him out of it, so she can at least empathize.]

[iracorn]

[Oh, how does he even begin to explain.]

It's been going on for a few months now, but I've been experiencing memories, of people, places, events, that are not mine. But they also feel as though they are mine, even if I have never been there.

That and, well, it has led to doubts entering my Heart.

[starshower]

[Well. That is... concerning... and Tifa's expression does nothing to hide that thought from him. She doesn't even know what to say to that, nor does she have an actual solution... an odd feeling, that.]

And that's why this place feels so... off.

[Distorted.

And as she says it, there's a ripple through the landscape, and one building transforms into one that she might have found back in Nibelheim. She stares at it with a wariness before turning back to Ira.]

Do you know whose memories they are?

[iracorn]

Yes, exactly.

[He's been learning to live it with, as he attempts to put things back together. But the healing process is a long one.]

I believe they belong to anyone and everyone, really. I've been learning to identify which ones are really mine, and which ones I've claimed, for lack of a better word.

[He points to a small, white house.]

I believe that is from Destiny Islands, Sora and Riku's home. I've never actually been there, but I could tell you all about it.

[starshower]

Why don't you show me?

[She says it with as genuine a smile as ever. Maybe talking about it and walking around might help for his own dreams to start differentiating between his own memories and those of others.]

[iracorn]

[Ira nods, standing up from the fountain. He considers a moment, before choosing a direction.]

The Market street was this way, from Daybreak Town, so one of my memories. The moogles would run shops and there was always a lot of activity.

[Though, as they walk, the cobbled streets shift from the cool blues of Daybreak town to the warm oranges of Twilight Town.]

[starshower]

[He'll suddenly feel Tifa's arm looping through his and grabbing it firmly—he's stuck now! But more than that, as they walk, she hopes that it will at least keep him a little grounded in the reality, and not in the dream where anything could happen...]

You had moogles in your town!?

[iracorn]

Y-yes. Not a lot of them, but a fair number.

[They're surprisingly entrepreneurial.

If he's surprised by Tifa's contact, it doesn't show for once. If anything, he's grateful. There is something about the presence of another person in places like this.]

Are they present in your world as well?

[starshower]

Only just in the stories and legends.

[Though, there is one moogle summon, but that's a completely different vein.]

I didn't think they were real someplace else...?

[iracorn]

That's...rather interesting. Perhaps there is more of a connection between our worlds than I first thought.

What kind of role do they take in these stories?

[starshower]

Hmm, I guess it depends on the story.

[She is incredibly relieved that she managed to get him talking at least...]

Mostly, they were troublemakers... Sometimes without even realizing it. A little demanding and high maintenance, too. Running the shops and all that, sorta like yours.

[iracorn]

Moogles are the same regardless of the world, it would seem.

[It's a nice though, really.]

Yours are also white fluffy creatures, with a red pom pom?

[starshower]

Yep. Super fluffy, and have big black eyes most of the time.

[Tifa giggles, and shows off the materia that sits in her glove. Strange that she always shows up in dreams wearing the same thing, but how convenient that it's there—]

We did find a materia that could summon a moogle and a chocobo at the same time.

[iracorn]

[It's a comforting thought, that Moogles are the same wherever you go.]

That seems like quite a combination. Depending on what a chocobo is.

[starshower]

Wait, you've seen moogles but never a chocobo?

[These worlds truly are so vastly different, and Tifa can't help but laugh as she looks at one of the shops that they pass on the street.]

We've got a few at the stables, if you'd like to come meet one sometime.

[iracorn]

Not to my knowledge. They do not seem to be as common in the worlds I have been to.

But I would like that.

[The Market district is a collection of stalls and shops, though the colours in the space are a bit more muted than they would normally be. Ahead of them, the clock tower looms.]