+ 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

[agemofchange]

"Fine, I'll show you right now! Take a look, at the incredible shrinking boy!"

He pauses, but nothing happens. Then he starts making some grunts, he balls his fists and he closes his eyes. ...And he starts to grow larger instead of smaller!

[manxomnivore]

The woman watches him without comment until he begins to grow.

"You're doing it wrong."

[agemofchange]

"Huh?" He opens his eyes - and they widen as he realizes what's happened.

"W-wait! Am I just getting bigger?! That's, like, the opposite of what's supposed to happen! Hang on...!"

He tries to focus again... only to grow even taller. "Ah!!"

[manxomnivore]

"Perhaps being large is what you truly want? Perhaps you don't wish to be with the others at all."

She smiles and although it is perfectly friendly on the surface, there are sharp teeth behind it.

[agemofchange]

"No, it's not like that!" he says quickly, as he grows another inch. "I- I want to be with them... but I also don't want them to get hurt again. I want to be able to protect them from everything!"

He looks down at the small mansion with a frown.

"...If... if getting too big to be with them is the price to pay for keeping them safe, then... then I'll just have to keep being big." His shoulders slump, and he sounds defeated.

[manxomnivore]

"What if you step on them?" Always a possibility!

[agemofchange]

"N-no!" His face goes pale. "I'd never do that. Not to my friends!!"

But now he's kinda paranoid and looks down at the ground, trying to make sure there aren't traces of any people near his feet.

"I... I'll just have to stay still! Then I'll never step on any of them ever! There, problem solved."

[manxomnivore]

"...I'm not sure that's a good long term solution. Perhaps if you had smaller feet..."

It would ruin his balance and he'd fall, but at least he wouldn't step on anyone.

"But you know, it wouldn't matter at all if you were alone here."

[agemofchange]

Steven gives a confused fret at her suggestion, and then he focuses on what she has to say next.

"What do you mean it wouldn't matter? Being alone is... it's a pretty significant thing!"

[manxomnivore]

"Are you sure about that?"

She snaps and the little Mansion disappears again.

"Now it's just you and I. And if I were to go?"

[agemofchange]

"No!" He gasps as the mansion disappears, and then he grasps at empty air. "Wh-what..."

Steven then frowns as he looks back up towards the woman.

"If - if you left too... then that'd just be really, really sad!"

[manxomnivore]

"But eventually, won't everyone leave? Isn't that natural?"

[agemofchange]

"...In a way, maybe. But not in every way. Even when people leave... they can leave behind some part of themselves, even if it's just memories. And... sometimes people can come back in unexpected ways, even when you might think they're gone for good. There will always be someone, something to hold onto."

[manxomnivore]

The woman is quiet for a moment, thinking that over.

"Even memories can be destroyed. Consumed like so much candy."

[agemofchange]

"Th-they can?" His face goes pale. With the lucid nature of memory within dreams, he then recalls what's relevant about that. "...Right. Wonderland. We're in Wonderland, and it eats memories. But... even when you eat something, it's not gone for good. It - it becomes part of you." He's polite enough not to bring up the other thing that happens to food.

[manxomnivore]

"It becomes part of Wonderland." She smiles. "You become part of Wonderland."

[agemofchange]

He steps back, frightened.

"B-but I don't want to! Not forever. I... I can always leave Wonderland, too."

[manxomnivore]

"Can you? Then why haven't you?"

[agemofchange]

"I actually did leave for a while!" He rubs at his head anxiously. "Just... not willingly, and I did end up back here. ...But I'll keep trying to find a better way to go home!"

[manxomnivore]

The woman comes closer to him, smiling.

"What if I don't want you to leave?"

[agemofchange]

He smiles sheepishly and takes a step back, even as he tries to nervously speak to her.

"Oh! Uh. ...I get it! You really wanna be friends, right? B-but it's alright! I wanna try to find a way to come back and forth between worlds, sooo we can still hang out, it won't be so bad! ...Sorry, I don't think I got your name?"

[manxomnivore]

"You know my name." She continues to smile.

[agemofchange]

"Dooo I?" He scratches at his head, trying to place the face. Something about that smile seems... very eerie. But he tries to focus. He focuses on her clothing and hair. "You're not... the White Queen, are you?" In the dreamy haze of his memories, he tries to remember if that's what the White Queen looked like.

[manxomnivore]

"Not anymore."

Her smile grows wider.

[agemofchange]

That's right. The White Queen is... gone? Steven blinks as memories flitter back and forth from his waking consciousness, and dread grows over his face.

"Y-you don't mean..."

He stumbles back a few steps and gasps:

"...The Jabberwock?!"