+ Something Is Coming +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: Everyone! (Plus a special guest.)
Where: In their dreams
When: 9/11-9/13
Rating: Let's go with PG-13
Summary: Something is coming...
The Story:

Starting on the night of September 11 and continuing for the following 2 nights, characters will go to sleep as normal. However, they will find that their dreams are unexpectedly vivid. Even characters who don't normally dream will experience this. Even characters who don't normally sleep will experience it.

Many of Wonderland's guests have dealt with events that distorted their dreams before, but this? This is a little different. Because something is coming in those dreams. Something not altogether friendly.

If you'd like your character to encounter this...something, post their dreams to this log.

Comments

[tetractys]

The dreamscape shifts in a way Bill's never felt before, and in the middle of idly watching everyone in Wonderland dream about all the stupid stuff people dream about, Bill Cipher perks up.

"WELL, WELL WELL," He says, to the echoing shifting everything/nothing that exists in the plane above the physical one. There's only one thing this can be, right? "YOU SURE KNOW HOW TO KEEP A GUY IN SUSPENSE. I'VE BEEN HERE FOR AGES!"

He rests both hands on his cane in front of him, stares ahead expectantly.

[manxomnivore]

A low, grating chuckle comes from the void, but what walks out of it is a beautiful woman in a white dress. Regal, you might call her. She licks her lips and her teeth are a little too sharp.

"Ages?"

[tetractys]

"WEEKS, EVEN!"

Bill seems delighted to see her, sweeps off his hat in a little bow.

"BEEN FOLLOWING YOUR WORK. BIG FAN! I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE FOR PEOPLE TO WANT TO KEEP YOU AWAY FROM ALL THE GOOD STUFF, BELIEVE ME!"

[krmvgivv]

Dipper's sitting in a classroom, but the desk is too small. His knees bump up against it (and he doesn't want to think about what might be on that surface) and he feels like he's hunching over it to try and write on the paper.

The teacher clears her throat. "Mr. Pines. I believe you're in the wrong classroom. The college classes are over that way."

"College...?" Dipper looks around.

All the other students are his age. Mabel's sitting next to him looking like herself. There are other faces he recognizes. Sansa. Amethyst. Angel. Clementine and Louis are in the back, holding hands and making eyes at each other. Chara keeps flicking bits of paper at Frisk's head. Dipper knows with all the certainty of dream logic that they're all undeniably thirteen, even though they don't all look it.

Wirt's behind him, pulling the gnome hat down over his ears. "Don't tell her I'm here, she'll make me go too!"

"There's been a mistake," Dipper says. "This is where I'm supposed to be."

"But you're not a kid anymore, Dipper," the teacher says. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

"But..." he gestures over at Mabel, who's sitting at her desk and looking perfectly at ease. "We're twins."

Mabel waves him off. "Nah, you're a grown-up. I'm never gonna be one of those. Gross."

The teacher smiles, and suddenly Dipper realizes who she is. It's Alice. And she's making shooing motions with her hands. "Go on now. You don't belong with us children, do you?"

But he won't belong with the adults either. Where does he belong?

[manxomnivore]

The doorway toward which Alice is gesturing yawns wide and black, seeming to get both bigger and blacker as the seconds pass, though slowly enough that it might be a trick of the eye.

"Where do you belong?" Alice asks, echoing Dipper's thoughts.

And then she repeats herself.

And then a third time: "Where do you belong?"

[krmvgivv]

Wow, adulthood is getting scarier by the minute here. Dipper shrinks back in his seat, to the extent he can when his desk is so small.

“I don’t know!” His voice has an edge of desperation to it. “Does it have to be just one place?”

[mourning_ghost]

This dream is a pleasant dream. He is on Wonderland's roof, having a picnic with Hattori, all his other siblings, everyone he knows from St. Pigeonation's, the people he's met in Wonderland (Ange, Mikan, Kaneki and Claire), and the King. The King has brought his throne with him. Nageki is currently watching as Hiyoko digs in search of lost treasure while Hatori directs her with a map.

"I found it!" Hiyoko holds a sword aloft in the air.

"No, that's not it," Ryouta shakes his head. "It's supposed to have more green on it, remember?"

"Oh, that's right! Alright then, where next Hatori?"

Anghel and Okosan are currently engaged in a battle over pudding and the King is planting trees in the otherwise empty field. He sees Sakuya instructing Nemo (calling him Hatori when his brother is around would be confusing) on the proper way to hold a tea cup.

Momo, Hoppe, and Tsukkun are playing house and his other siblings are playing tag with one another.

While of this goes on, Nageki watches the chaos unfold with a warm feeling in his heart.

[manxomnivore]

The happy picnic continues for some time. The sky darkens, the sun setting at an accelerated pace, as though through a time-lapse shot from a camera. A few stars fall.

Then a few more.

And then it seems like they're just raining down across the dome of the sky, leaving it very dark up there.

[mourning_ghost]

The chicks and Anghel go to sleep as the sun sets, resting on blankets laid out on the ground. The picnickers who remain awake watch the stars fall in the same way they might watch a meteor shower. Nageki mentally keeps track of the constellations as they fall. Scorpius, Aquila, Draco, Lynx...

The empty sky leaves him with an uneasy feeling. He stands up and, ignoring whatever Hatori says to him, wanders away from the group. What he's looking for, he couldn't say.

[choosetruth]

Georgia’s dreams are so often the same. White walls. Clean, antiseptic floors. A faint hint of bleach in the air. Doctors. Lab coats. Bland, uninspired food, and more medical experiments than she can or wants to think about.

She’s on a table, clean white straps holding her in place. There’s the click of heels on the floor and she turns to see her new doctor. White lab coat, same as usual, but worn over a dress dusted in pink and red hearts. Georgia looks up to see the Queen of Hearts looking down at her.

“Now it’s my turn to be curious,” she says, murmuring as she raises a scalpel shaped like the vorpal sword. “We’re going to find out if you’re still so smart once I’ve cut off your head!”

[manxomnivore]

The sword-shaped scalpel begins to lengthen, becoming broader until Dr. Q. O. Hearts is holding a full-size Vorpal Sword. The room starts to grow dingy, though the change is gradual enough that it might be missed if one's eyes were on the sword.

"Off with her head." The Queen of Hearts smiles and raises the sword.

[entreats]

Sometimes the things you'd like to forget are exactly the ones which like to slip into your dreams. Like Ange's dream tonight. Her old high school is the last place she'd ever want to find herself, even if it's just in a dream and not for real. The location so far away from civilisation, the stuffy uniforms, the terrible girls - none of it is exactly pleasant.

Hence why Ange drags her feet as she slowly makes her way through the hallway and then into the classroom. Sitting down at her desk, she glances at it only to find the usual scribbled onto it by her classmates before she entered - Gross. Trash. Just die.

Without saying a thing, she puts her arms down onto the desk and then her head on top of it, closing her eyes. Maybe she can just sleep through this class. Or dream? Whatever it is.

Even with her eyes closed, she can still hear the words: "That's your problem, Ange. You give up so easily." It's followed with a high giggle, no doubt belonging to one of her faceless classmates in the classroom.

[manxomnivore]

It might be easy to miss with her head down like that, but the scrawled letters on the desktop begin to writhe, squirming into different configurations. They make their way across the wood, forming a few lines from a song:

My mother told me something all little girls should know.
It's all about the devil and I've learned to hate him so.

[mothmansplaining]

Oh.

This again.

Ford's in a nightmare hellscape. Not a traditional nightmare hellscape. Oh no -- his first clue to where he is is the alarm clock that reads M:MM.

He sits bolt upright, made more difficult because one leg is dangling off the M-shaped bed, and pulls a truly stupid M-shaped nightcap off his head. Ford stares at it wide-eyed.

"This is a dream," he says, crushing it in his hands. He stands up, leaving the blanket in a crumpled heap, and narrowly avoids hitting his head on the drop of the M-shaped doorway. "Only a dream."

Everything. Is. M-shaped.

[manxomnivore]

Outside the doorway, scurrying past is a little M-shaped lizard. Another follows it. And then three more.

[powerofmabel]

Mabel is sitting in a courtroom being presided over by a rainbow judge and a bunch of rainbow jurors. Xyler and Craz are currently interrogating someone on the witness stand.

"But you totally know that all black is, like, totally not righteous, don't you, Goth Mabel?"

'Goth Mabel,' that is a version of Mabel who is wearing all black with dyed purple and black ombre hair, snaps her gum. "I just needed a change, guys. I'm deep now."

Mabel, at the table for the defense, slams her fist and stands up with indignation. "Objection!"

Xyler and Craz exchange looks. The rainbow judge, through some unfathomable feat of fantasy physics, shrugs, "I'll allow it. What is your objection, More Colorful and Thus Superior Mabel?"

Mabel stammers and gesticulates. "Just on principle. I-" She gets a better look at Goth Mabel. "...I really pull off that hair color. Wow."

Goth Mabel finger guns. "Darn right you do."

[manxomnivore]

Goth Mabel lowers her hands and her hair begins to ooze down around her shoulders, longer and longer, heavier and heavier, until it sloughs off her head completely.

The rainbow judge is likewise melting into a sludgy rainbow puddle, but it doesn't seem to care all that much.

[charlastan]

The ocean is rocky. There's a storm on the seas, and Stan is holding the line taught while Ford sails.

Despite this, the memory isn't a negative one. Sure, they were in some rough waters, but they got out of it alright, didn't they? The dream keeps threatening otherwise - the boat is rocking a lot more than he remembers.

He's been having this dream a lot lately. From here, a giant squid rises up from the depths and starts to beat up their boat, and the Stan twins retaliate with harpoons and punches. However, instead of retreating like he remembers, the squid manages to grab Ford by the ankle and dangle him in the air. The first time spooked him enough to wake him up, but since then he's just been fighting the dream back, using his ability to lucid dream to try and prevent things from going there, or to retreat into the actual memory the way he remembers.

But something feels kind of different this time, as Ford steers and he holds the line steady. He feels...more awake all of a sudden, maybe? He's never been good at putting his finger on stuff like that. But something's off and he doesn't know what this time. He lets go of the line (which stays taught because he wants it to, as though someone is still holding it) and thinks for a second. Ford keeps doing what he's doing though, steering them through the stormy seas, so Stan decides to lean over and pinch him. Why pinch yourself when you can pinch someone else?

Ford doesn't react though, and Stan sighs.

"Alright, so this is a dream," he says. "But if it's a dream, then what the hell's going on?!"

He can smell the salt. The rain feels wet on his skin. There's too much sensory detail that usually gets skipped in sleeping brains. Something's not right here, and Stan leaves his post next to Ford so he can look out over the side of the boat, as though the answer will be somewhere in the ocean.

[manxomnivore]

The squid begins to rise up out of the ocean, but it doesn't attack, just hanging out there, bobbing a bit with the waves.

"Is it a dream?" the squid asks.

[agemofchange]

"Guys? Hey everyone, I'm back!" Steven called out as he kneeled down beside Wonderland's mansion, which was the size of a dollhouse. He was standing on the lawns of Wonderland, though part of the landscape looked different.

He peeked through a window with one eye and saw a grand party unfolding! Everyone was there. His friends and family from home, the friends he's made from Wonderland... they were all there, intermingling freely. And none of them seemed to notice a giant Steven trying to interact with them.

Steven frowned a little, but he tried to remain positive. "Well... at least you guys are having fun! That's... that's what matters..."

He then opted to walk around the petite mansion, which only seemed to be getting smaller each time he looked at it, and he stood guard. Gotta make sure no mean old events (which obviously are and always have been actual living entities) attack while everyone else is having fun!

[manxomnivore]

This is all well and good until tiny screams begin to come from the wee Mansion. What could be happening in there isn't readily obvious, but the screams seem to resonate with the new landscape, making things tremble. Not a lot, because the screams are very high pitched and small, but noticeably.

[honeybadgered]

Gabby’s having a good dream tonight.

She’s a princess with a big fancy dress and an even bigger, fancier sword and she’s climbing a tower. At the top, old man Logan waits, looking grumpy about it.

“Don’t worry, weird alternate universe grandpa, I’m coming!”

She keeps on climbing.

[manxomnivore]

The stairs never seem to end, spiraling up and up and up. And the sword just gets heavier the further she goes, like something's caught onto the end of it and is trying to drag it back in the other direction.

[adaptiveimmunities]

It's not a new dream.

The setup is almost comical. There's a brightly lit stage. The backdrop is full of bright colors and more flashing lights, and anyone who has watched even a little daytime TV would recognize it for what it is--a game show in front of a live studio audience.

Well.

"Live" might be a bit of a misnomer. The people filling the seats aren't technically people anymore. They're zombies, and while they're not leaving their seats to charge the stage as they would in real life, especially in these numbers, they are moaning. A lot.

At the center of the stage is a pretty young woman with streaks of blonde in her hair, holding a microphone and smiling at the audience. She is, of course, visibly armed. "Welcome to 'Who is Your Real Sister!' I'm your host, Becks Atherton, and let's hear it for our guest today. Shaun Mason!" The podium lights up and Shaun is standing there, blinking out at the audience as they moan loudly.

Becks turns toward Shaun, beaming. "Why don't you tell the audience a little bit about yourself, Shaun?"

"Uh. I'm Shaun Mason and this is fucking bullshit."

Becks laughs. "Don't be like that, Shaun! Now, we all know you have a really close relationship with your sister." She smirks. "So now it's time to tell us, who is your real sister!"

Three curtains on the other side of the stage are pulled aside to reveal... George. There is a sign above each woman: [HALLUCINATION] [CLONE] [ORIGINAL FLAVOR] The women are identical, aside from the brown eyes of the George with the label marking her a hallucination.

"It's time to choose, Shaun!"

[manxomnivore]

Things freeze, the audience going eerily silent, the lights mid-blink. It's an odd effect, blinding because of the brightness but also because of the shadows. Both give plenty of cover for something hiding at the back of the audience to move toward the stage.