{ nightmare bleed: world fragments }

[dreamposts]

NIGHTMARE BLEED: WORLD FRAGMENTS

Details on everything can be found here. As a reminder, events double as our TDMs and information can be found here. Any outside characters participating in the log are canonly logged as appearing in Songerein in June and will remain in Songerein from the IC date of June 14th. TDM only characters can only thread within this log. Anyone who apps in and is accepted will have their character count June as their first time in the game without any disruption, so all content will carry over. Those who do not apply will disappear which should not seem too unusual, however players in game can choose to retcon and pretend a character was never there to begin with if it would be easier; or even think their presence was just a dream.

IMPORTANT! All outside characters MUST have "TDM" in their subject line, even if you might not app. This will help people differentiate those who are already in the game and those who are not.

TDM threads are required for samples. Refer to the Game Info for general information and feel free to toss any questions here. Reserves will open June 24th and Applications will open on July 1st. Our application cycles are bi-monthly so the next cycle after won't be until September.

TDM Toplevel Link Directory (click to view)

Satan | Obey Me!

We will request any thread submissions for certain prompts during AC and TDM threads will count. For more information, refer to the Game Notes.

I. CORRUPTION

COMMENTS

I. CORRUPTION

It all begins when there is a call for help by the local tapirs. Ever since the final battle against the Story Eater last summer, some tapirs that over indulged themselves on the nostilium never recovered and in fact disappeared somewhere. It turns out they drifted to other worlds, and while they were able to do so already, the amount of nostilium has affected the tethers connecting worlds to Songerein and the dream realm as a whole, causing something of a "nightmare feedback." More dangerously, these tapirs are insatiable, seeking nightmares to feed on and are deliberately corrupting dreams to turn into nightmares.

This nightmare feedback through the tethers means while the original worlds are not seeing much of an effect—yet—Songerein and the rest of the dream realm is. Bits and pieces of these worlds are appearing in Songerein and need to be sealed before it's too late.

A. Safe Place. While most of Songerein is covered with patches of different worlds bleeding in, there is one place that's managed to escape: Dragefjell, the floating island home to the dragons. The massive dreamcatcher found within the strange castle that had been discovered last year immediately released a bright, white light and created a powerful barrier protecting it from the nostilium spreading throughout the world. Along with support from the dragons' own magic, they are quick to offer aid to those suffering below, flying down to grab anyone they could to bring them back to the island.

🩹 Medical aid. Those who suffer any physical injuries will be treated both through traditional and magical means. There are many dragons who specialize in healing magic that will be able to provide greater healing, but they are reserving these abilities for those grievously injured.
♨️ Purifying Springs. The hot springs are available to help purify those who have been affected by nostilium. Although not as strong as the pods, it still helps those who are on the "low" to "medium" scale. Some are even bottling the water so that it can be converted into some kind of spray to try and help purify areas affected.
🐉 Dragon Transport. After the initial flurry of rescues, more efficient means to transport larger groups are constructed. Gondolas carried by the dragons are made and volunteers can assist in finding and bringing people on board. Assistance is also request to help protect the dragons as the days pass so that they do not succumb to the growing effects of nostilium.

B. Corrupted Tapirs: These tapirs have changed entirely, the excess nostilium turning them into unrecognizable shadowy figures that will take on the form of one's worst nightmare to try and instigate more fear and terror. They continue to seek out nostilium out of anyone, sleeping or awake, and will appear outside of dreams to do just that.

🕊️ Purification. Many will try to purify the tapirs, but they must be subdued first. Once the corrupted tapir is down, pure dreamotion can be channeled into them to try and purify the effects of the nostilium. Other methods that have been discovered can also be used to try and reduce the corruption.
🛏️ Orkili Pods. The Orkilins will have brought their purification pods from the city to try and help purify not only anyone who has succumbed to the rampant nostilium, but also for the tapirs. If they can be subdued enough, they can be tossed into the pod to try and help purify them. However, if they still have too much the pod will overload and break.
💀 Eradication. Some tapirs are so far gone there is no saving them. They must be completely destroyed by using any offensive attack type dreamotion possible. Special "bombs" constructed from pure dreamotion can be made and used against them. Although extreme, it may be kinder to put them out of their misery, and those that are destroyed will whisper words of gratitude before disappearing…

C. Nightmare Battles. With both worlds bleeding into Songerein and the spike of nostilium spreading everywhere, noctaere and other nightmarish creatures from these bleeds are running rampant. They are aggressive with two different types. One type will just feed on pure destruction and will try to attack and destroy anything in its way. The other will try to invoke more fear and nightmares so they can feed off the nostilium and grow stronger that way. They need to be handled regardless and dreamotion is key.

🌚 Noctaere. Rather than be killed, those who overwhelmed by these creatures will be corrupted and turn into noctaere themselves. How weak or powerful the corruption is will be up to players. Note: It is possible to save the effects for next month for our second part, or even have the effects last into the next month. Anyone who turns into a noctaere and continues into July willy (hopefully) be saved in July.
👤 Slenderman. He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. And he is angrier than ever. Like before, the Slenderman will prove to be a formidable foe, utilizing its noodle tendril like appendages to trap and capture anyone who has the misfortune to cross its path. Those who are caught will remain trapped inside it in a dark abyss-like cage but can be rescued by those who are able to simply make any cuts to reveal the person inside. Those within can try to escape using dreamotion, but the longer they are captive, the weaker they become as their energy is drained.
👥 The Unknown. The Unknown from the Mirror World has returned, but for some strange reason it is trying to capture noctaere and nightmares in a grotesque, black mirror. However, those who are captured will find themselves in a strange place where all the nostilium is extracted to create a "nightmare version" of themselves. They are then pulled back out of the mirror and returned to normal free of most of the nostilium that once afflicted them, and after the Unknown stares at them it will disappear for its next target. While some may think it is helping, those who actually go through the experience are left feeling strange and wary. After all…what will happen to that nightmare copy that was created? Should people help the Unknown? Or stop it?

D. World Fragments. Technically any canon could be found somewhere in Songerein, especially since the NPCs that live in Reverein are also from different worlds, but in Reverein and surrounding areas specifically, it will be mainly current canons represented in game and any guest character canons participating in the event. While players can create specific toplevels, we also request small blurbs to be added to our Canon World Fragments directory thread so that other players can reference and include them in their own threads. There is the option to include a link to your toplevel as well. For those who need a refresher on how this portion works:

🌎 World Fragment. A fragment of their world will appear somewhere around Reverein. It's most likely in the town, but it could be out in the Wildlands. The fragments will be no bigger than a 2-block square. These fragments can be a specific place or a mashed up amalgamation of places to represent that world, and it can include nightmare versions of people and creatures. While they mostly stay within the fragment area, some may escape to add to the havoc and chaos.
🧎 Conductor. To seal world fragment and contain its spread, natives from that world can serve as "conductors" and absorb the nostilium in the area into themselves. This does mean they run the risk of turning noctaere, but they can be assisted by others to help keep them purified. They also have the risk of falling into a coma-like sleep while still absorbing the nostilium.
🫙 Nostilium Absorbers. The Orkilins will deploy numerous containment devices to help try and absorb nostilium so that it's not just the individual. These devices can work directly on the fragment area or on the conductor to try and help keep them stable. However, these are not strong enough to work on their own and will need to be constantly changed out, especially if they are damaged.
📚 Fairytale Fragments. Because Songerein had such deep ties to the fairy tale realm, it is not surprising that there are nightmare fragments of fairy tales scattered among the different worlds. These bleeds will be as if someone took inspiration from the Grimm brothers and then made it more goth horror. Any fairytale, myth, legend, folklore, and story can be stumbled upon and will need to be purified like any other place. Some may even encounter the original heroes or villains of the story trying to serve as conductors to seal the fragment.

I. CORRUPTION

COMMENTS

Comments

[flamekthunder]

[He knows how she feels about leaving him here, and... Honestly, it would a be a lie to say he wasn't wary himself. It wasn't so long ago he had that episode with the nightmare when Violet invaded his dreams, not to mention the exposure he had not long before that when he was in the tunnels with Joshua.

However, if Lyria were to ever try and come here, he knows she would try to take it all in herself. And with her having Bahamut within her...

No. Once again he decides to sacrifice himself and walk the hard path that he refuses anyone else to take. Besides, he just has to hold out just long enough for Tifa to get those canisters. Just long enough—

Except, while he should have, he feels a sharp pain in his neck that makes him shout in pain and double over to the point that he falls to his hands and knees, a hand clutching his right eye as he feels that all too familiar sharp cold rip through him as black ice erupts around him, turning the once already darkened ground into an impenetrable field of sharp black spikes.]

[starshower]

[She doesn't know if she's ever run so fast in her life as she does coming back with several of the canisters cradled in her arms. It's hard not to when she feels that sense of dread looming over her, following her like a stubborn rain cloud, and her pace only picks up when she feels a drift of colder air the closer that she gets—one that she recognizes as his. She nearly drops them all as she staggers, almost tripping over her feet as she rushes through the town back to where she left him.

Only to find that her path to him is obstructed by that familiar black ice with him at the center of it all.

That's when all of the canisters drop to the ground, and a horrible shiver runs up her spine.]

Eustace?

[She wonders if he can even hear her through all of this, and she moves to try and find a place where she can see him, but everything is blocked off, the ice too thick and too dark for her to see. She calls out louder to him.]

Eustace—! Hold on...! I'm here!

[flamekthunder]

[He can hear her, but...]

Stay back!

[While he knows he needs her, this is different. This...

An anguished scream erupts from him as falls back to the ground, black ice erupting from his arms as they change into those dreaded claws. It's not like the controlled form he used before—no, it's all black, like when he's lost control of the nostilium and its overtaken him.

He still doesn't know what happened. He still doesn't understand how it got to this point. She wasn't even gone for that long, hadn't taken in so much...was using it before with Violet more than he thought? But she cleansed him, he felt it, so why—

Another piercing stab to his neck, as if something sharp is digging into it, and when he reflexively reaches up behind his eyes widen when he feels something hard protruding out from it.]

What is...

[He can only feel it, but he can't see it—a black crystal that now exudes thick, smoky nostilium. Although it may be too difficult for Tifa to see it clearly due to the distance and size, she may be able to catch a subtle glint, notice how he's reaching back behind his neck...and how he grits his teeth to try and wrench it out. The claws dig into his neck, piercing the skin and causing it to bleed, but it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, he needs to take it out, but—

Another yell of pain as the crystal suddenly expands outward to now cover the entire back of his neck, and it's at this point that he can no longer control anything of himself. His thoughts, his actions, his own body. Nostilium explodes around him, the black mist flooding out like a storm to obscure everything.

And when it clears...

Hovering in the air is the large, writhing body of a black lindwurm, Eustace nowhere to be seen.]

[starshower]

I won't!

[Even if his warning sounds dire, she refuses to listen. She rushes around the ice, looking for a safe place to leap over without risking piercing herself with any of it, and she even tries to melt it away with her fire to no avail, the flames burning bright and then flickering as if the air around them is snuffing out them out. Even in her desperation, it doesn't work, and she thinks it might be making them worse as the chill in the air seeps all the way into her bones to settle there.

She calls out for him again, urgently, her eyes pricking with tears as she kicks and punches at the ice, managing to break the tips of some of the spikes so that she can climb over at last.

But by then, it's too late.

Or, it's right on time.

On time to catch the horrifying way that he clutches at himself, screaming in agony, pulling and reaching for something behind his neck. Something that glints in the light—a crystal?]

Eustace—!

[Tifa rushes forward, so close to reaching him, but she's stopped by a thick, dark cloud of nostilium that fogs her view. It beats her back like a snowstorm, pricking and cutting at her face, freezing the tears that she tries to blink back but fails. Not again... Not again... This can't be happening again...

When it all clears, it isn't her husband that is standing there.

The sight of the black lindwurm writhing in the air before her sends Tifa staggering back, memories flickering through her mind, spiking her racing heart with panic. In a single second, she's forgotten how to breathe, how to move, every one of her limbs frozen in place as she stares at him. What once was the shimmering silver lindwurm that she had come to adore, that had helped her through one of her greatest fears, has manifested into her worst nightmare...

She remembers those days like they were yesterday, a trauma that she is not like to forget any time soon. He looks just like he had then, and just like the one that had come for her in the cliffs...

She shouldn't have left him. They should have found someone else to get the canisters. Or they should have gone together. She should have stayed with him at his side, and maybe, she could have prevented this.

She wants to stand her ground, she wants to run, she wants to call out to him, but all she can do is stand there and stare on in horror, her eyes red with fresh tears, her lips parted with his name on the tip of her tongue, waiting for her to find her voice...]

[flamekthunder]

[Slowly, very slowly, the head of the lindworm turns towards her, it's black red eyes glowing menacingly. There is no sign of the erune who once stood in its place, not even a shadow in its eyes.

And then slowly, very slowly, its massive jaws open as it continues to stare down at her like a predator looking at not prey—but a pest, a nuisance.]

[starshower]

[Could she even try to get through to him? If she found her voice, would he even listen? Would he hear it? This all feels so... sudden. Did Violet's dreamotion not work the way she intended it to? Or did something happen while she was gone that triggered a response like this...? A thousand questions race through her mind, and then about a hundred more, as she stares up at this beast, the once blue eyes drowned out in the black and red.

That once beautiful lindwurm with those white, shimmering scales now tainted by the black again.

Just like in those nightmares back then.

Even still, even if there is a chance that he might not hear her, there is still an even smaller one that he will, right?

As he looms over her, its sharpened teeth bared, she stands her ground in spite of herself. She's trembling in her boots, and she feels like all of her dreamotion is being drained right out of her simply by meeting its gaze, but if she backs down now, then what?]

... Eustace? It's me...

[She tries anyway, her voice small.]

[flamekthunder]

[There's no response except for a deep, low, guttural growl that rumbles like thunder, dark storm clouds gathering overhead. And then a if the tension snaps, the lindwurm lunges at Tifa with a deafening roar.]

[starshower]

[Tifa shakes like a leaf at the growl, her chest heaving with an attempt at a breath, but no air enters or leaves her as she finds herself staring down a giant lindwurm that could bite her in half if it wanted to. Still, Eustace is in there somewhere, just like he had been before, so while she flinches at the roar that it responds with, she doesn't budge from where she stands, and hardens her expression.

Though, she would be very surprised if it could not smell the fear that is coming off of her, the cold and hot air buzzing as the two fight it out between each other.

She stretches her fingers, fire dancing across her knuckles as her calm center slowly burns away under its eerie gaze.]

[flamekthunder]

[As if standing there only infuriates it more, its momentum increases, black lightning crackling around it...

But just before it can reach her, the lindwurm suddenly reels back as if hit from somewhere. It twists and spins in the air, thrashing its head with another ear shattering shriek.]

[starshower]

[She slams her eyes shut at the lightning, the heat of it cutting too close for comfort to her, and she expects it to snap its fangs at her, expects it to attack her, but when it doesn't...

Her eyes blink open in shock to find it thrashing about instead, her hands shooting up to her ears to drown out that shriek. She takes this opportunity, dangerous as it is, to take a step closer and try calling out to him again.]

Eustace, I know you're in there somewhere. I know that you can hear me...

[She doesn't, but she can hope.

And she reaches a hand out to try and stay his twisting body, only to jerk back at the lightning before it can touch her, her flames reacting by bursting bright and then dying away into nothing.]

[flamekthunder]

[There's a small flash of silver white in the scales, and when its head twists she'll see a small flicker of blue in those eyes...

But it's all gone in a blink, the lindwurm roaring as it suddenly spirals high into the air and then flies out towards the town, the storm clouds in its wake.

However, Tifa was right.

Eustace is in there, trapped but fighting, if wearily. He had heard her, and although she can't hear him, he wishes he could tell her how sorry he is. Wishes he could stop finding himself in this mess that seems to haunt the two of them. As if feeding off that moment of despair, the nostilium rises, firing off as black lightning bolts as the lindwurm begins its attack on the town...]

❤️💙 to be continued...

[starshower]

[It's so brief that she almost misses the flash of familiar blue in those eyes, but it's enough that she holds onto it as tight as she can as the smallest scrap of hope. She got through to him once before, didn't she? And she would do it again a million times over if it meant saving him from this. She could.

Why him, though? Why them? Why is it always them? Why is it that just when things start to feel normal again, something else goes wrong? And more than that, how could she not have noticed that things were going wrong?

More thoughts that race through her head as she shields herself from the roar of the lindwurm, watching as it flies up and out of her reach. Up and away from her, leaving behind a storm of lightning that rains down around her as she falls to her knees, helpless and defeated. She hadn't realized how much she had been crying until she feels the tears burning just as hot as she watches that black form leave her.

She knows that she doesn't have much time, but she can barely stand or see through them, her vision blurring and her mind going white like static, her face buried in her hands while she cries, as she sorts through all of those memories leading up to now. Their time in Orkili in the caves, the dream that they shared that went wrong on Valentine's Day, the nightmare that she walked into, and Violet...

Where had things started to go wrong?

Where had she failed him?

And how does she fix it?

How does she stop it from happening again?

The sound of the lightning blasting through the town pulls her out of those thoughts, and with one last small sniff, she swipes her hands over her eyes, clearing her vision and trying to clear her mind. The first thing she can do—that she has to do—is stop him before he levels most, if not the whole town, and hurts anyone. She climbs to her feet, takes several deep breaths, and stalks off towards the center of it all to find him...]