[OPEN] Another Day, Another Week, Another Month, Another Year...

[lonelysmiles]

Who: Alastor and you
Which: Interactive Dream, OPEN
Where: A warped version of Reverein that looks like Hell and Reverein have merged together.
What: Alastor has a legitimate nightmare for the first time since arriving, and it’s of a version of Reverein where him going noctaere led to him becoming as much of a social pariah as he is in Hell.
Warnings: It’s Alastor, and he’s not having a very good night’s sleep.


Reverein sat quietly beneath the glowing red pentagram that turned the sky purple. Demons, fairies, and others went about their business, going in and out of shops, sometimes pausing to chat on the streets. However, there was a nervous tension that buzzed in the air whenever the breeze caught the edge of one of many posters put up around town, prompting some people to glance at the sketch of a terrifying demon with wicked antlers, terrible claws, and a horrifying fanged smile.

BEWARE!!!!!! HIM!! THE RADIO DEMON!!

Wandering into the Residential District, there eventually came a sudden abandoned gap of treehouses and apartment buildings. Things had become overgrown, all of it leading up to a blackened tree that seemed to be slowly scaling a radio tower.

Anyone who attempted the front door would find it unlocked. Not at all surprising given nobody wanted to come anywhere near the occupant or anywhere he might haunt. The door opened to a black void so cold that it froze the very soul, the emptiness stretching into eternity.

And somewhere inside was Alastor.

But Things lurked in the endless dark, patches of blackness darker than the rest of the darkness that moved out of the corner of one’s eye and watched with unseen, unblinking gazes.

Dare you risk it and rouse the tormented dreamer? Or will you move on to the next person’s dream and leave the demon to his demons?

Comments

[lonelysmiles]

Unseen eyes glared but Alastor's voice came from somewhere in the darkness, near-emotionless aside from tired resignation. "It's not my place to let you into their home. They're just letting me visit for a while."

[abyssbound]

There he is.

"Then come out." Asura's voice is a firm order; the authoritative tone of a commander who isn't having any of this nonsense. "Or is hiding away in there what you really want?"

[lonelysmiles]

"No, I don't think I will. Not yet. I don't need to be onstage right now, so I'll enjoy the quiet while I have it. Screaming gets so grating on the ears after a while."

[abyssbound]

"Enjoying it? Are you really?" Comes his skeptical reply, all three of his burning eyes sweeping the darkness in an attempt to locate Alastor within.

"I'm the only one out here right now and I'm not afraid of you. What are you so afraid of, Alastor?"

[lonelysmiles]

"You think I'm going to reveal something like that to a complete stranger? Come now, how much of a fool do you take me for?"

Alastor didn't remember this other form of Asura's after the man had killed him in that nightmare. Every other encounter he'd had with Asura had been in his more human form though he'd seen those tentacles before in a fight the man had with a noctaere. True, the stranger looked familiar but that was nothing really to go off of.

This was clearly another demon, one who might use it to their advantage.

[abyssbound]

It doesn't matter if Alastor recognizes him or not--not any more, anyway. At any rate, the demon is being foolish in Asura's eyes, and so he steps up his goading.

"You're a coward, Alastor. You created this world and now you're too scared to face it so you'd rather hide away in the dark like a rodent." Asura sneers. "You're not avoiding the screams, you're running scared from your own sins, terrified of the judgment of strangers."

[lonelysmiles]

"You think I don't realize that this is all my fault? That I earned Hell in spades and then turned that delightful little town into a second Hell while trying to avoid doing so?"

There was a bitter laugh from the darkness.

"I confess my sins readily to any who ask. I'm a demon, so what's the point in pretending otherwise? Some people choose to avoid me, but many others in Reverein still chose to associate with me despite my nature."

There was a moment of silence before the bitterness faded to resignation.

"Or at least there were. I can't go down the street anymore without others running away, and I smile like everything is just berries. Back in Hell, I used to love the fear, the terrified respect, but after ninety years of having basically no one to talk to...well, what better punishment is there for someone who wants to be social, hmm?"

He wasn't a lucid dreamer so he had no idea that he was trapped in a nightmare of his own making.

[abyssbound]

"If this is a hell of your own making, then unmake it." Asura finally steps through the threshold and into the void, his bladed tentacles hovering threateningly around his body as he strides determinedly into Alastor's self-inflicted prison. Whatever is lurking in the dark, it will find no fear to feed on from the intruder.

"You may admit your sins, but unless you do something to fix what you've broken, then all your confessions amount to is empty words." Asura's tentacles spread out in the dark, fiery whips made of bone that lash out at the things in the dark.

"You're the only one who can fix this, Alastor, yet you choose to do nothing but wallow in self-pity. If you're too much of a coward to face the light then I will find you in here and drag you out myself."

[lonelysmiles]

"And what, pray tell, would you do? I can't bring back to life those I killed and ate in life nor those I did in death. Nor do I regret those kills. I would do them again in a heartbeat even knowing this was my punishment for them. I've always been a monster, so I chose to hunt my fellow monsters.

"But in Reverein...I lost control. That I do regret. But no matter how many times or ways I try to make up for what I've done, it doesn't work. Not that I'm all that surprised. The chance I had was the life I lived before. My punishment is this."

The last sentence was spoken from behind Asura. When he turned around, he'd see Alastor with the smallest possible smile on his lips. Around his neck was a thick collar made of shadow emblazoned with the red symbols that would periodically hover around Alastor when he was casting spells. A heavy chain of shadow extended into the surrounding void, disappearing into the blackness. His wrists and ankles were similarly bound with manacles and chains all leading into the void.

[abyssbound]

Asura listened in silence as Alastor spoke, and when at last he made his presence visible, Asura turned his head to look at him over his shoulder.

Chains made of smoke, binding yet no more solid save for the will of the one bound to remain so.

"So you've given up? I was under the impression that you had more pride than that." The huge man crossed his arms over his chest, red eyes narrowed at the chains in disgust. "Your 'punishment' is nothing more than an escape. You shackle yourself and accept your punishment because it's easier than atoning. It's easier to give up than to keep trying to better yourself."

Striding toward Alastor, Asura grabed hold of the demon's collar and yanked him forward, forcing him to look into his face. "If I'm wrong, then prove it. Not to me, but to yourself."

[lonelysmiles]

Alastor's smile didn't falter, meeting Asura's eye and not shying away.

"You didn't answer my question: What would you do?"

Alastor was resigned to his fate. Despite his upbringing, he didn't believe in redemption. Once someone died and reached Hell, that was it. They'd made their bed in life, and now they had to lie in it for all eternity. Everything in Hell was some form of punishment.

It was easy for someone to say "you need to atone for your sins", but how did one go about doing such a thing? Even if he did believe it was possible for a loathsome sinner like himself to achieve even some small level of forgiveness, how did they go about it?

[abyssbound]

What would Asura do? The Mara's lip curled in a half sneer, half grin, dropping the lanky demon back to the 'floor'.

"Plant new trees where wildfire once raged. Build sturdy houses where shanties collapsed. Dig ditches to irrigate arid land. Improve the lives of those left behind, and if you need to feel punished, then let their resentment be your punishment."

[lonelysmiles]

The irony was thick as far as Alastor was concerned.

"In other words, keep doing what I've been doing." He gave a chuckle, brushing off imagined dirt from his clothing, scraping off a thin layer of frost from the cold. "Well, when I'm not taking a break from it, obviously."

He summoned his microphone, giving it a twirl as the entrance reappeared.

"The show must go on!...and on...and on..."

For all eternity.

He grinned widely and stepped through...but the chains never left him. Only Asura and Alastor could see them, interact with them.

[abyssbound]

"If that's what it takes." Asura responded, his eyes falling to those chains that still shackled Alastor. So immaterial and intangible, yet unbreakable to all but the one who didn't realize they aren't even locked. Asura had his own chains that bound him, though in his case he at was at least looking for the key.

"Alastor, you are the god of this world." He said suddenly when the demon stepped out through the door and into the ruined Reverein. "Or haven't you realized it yet?"

[lonelysmiles]

"Dear me. Perhaps I should part ways with you before your praise overstimulates my ego. Not even I'd dare place myself above the Creator and His loa."

So, no, he had no idea they were in a dream...or a nightmare, rather. It was so easy for him to tell in others' dreams, but not his own.

Being this far out from others allowed Alastor's keen ears to hear more than what was in the immediate vicinity. One ear swiveled about now at a distant sound farther into the forest.

Whoops, sorry about that.

[abyssbound]

It must be a difference of experience; Asura has spent literal centuries traversing dreams and illusory worlds, and his third eye is capable of seeing through falsehoods. He could never mistake a dream for reality, but dreams are such fragile and volatile things that he can't outright tell the dreamer until they figure it out themselves--provided they'd even believe him if he said as much. In any case, Asura may be powerful, but within the depths of a dream, the dreamer is God.

"I have no interest in stoking your ego, Alastor." Asura sneered with visible distaste, but neither did he elaborate--his ears also picked up the sound that alerted Alastor, and he looked to the tree line to try to spot the source.

"What is it?"

It's all good. December is busy

[lonelysmiles]

"An unwelcome visitor, if I'm not mistaken."

He turned towards the woods, summoning his staff and twirling it between his fingers casually as he started to stroll towards the sound.

"Should prove entertaining enough. Have a good day, sir."