[IC] Vivi-Dream

[benit149]

"Just as I said, you're still alive but in a dream world. Don't worry about being dead," Lin assured him. "So you say you manifested in a labyrinth that led to a garden shed, yes? That sounds surprisingly normal for Vivi-Dream. What happened was you appeared in a 'zone' that you subconsciously created as a result of your identity; our lives, beliefs, personalities, interests, basically what makes us who we are. This means that your zone - which you can name whatever you want - is your personal safe area outside of Remniche. If you allow it, others will be able to visit it as well. It's when our zones become infested with negative emotions that we have to investigate and cleanse the area. The zone you appeared in must be safe or else it would've given me warnings on my chalkboard.

"As for our funky names, we represent our dreamers just like the zones do, but we're still 'characters'. We still need names to address each other, even if we Oneiros technically aren't real. I'm not sure what the overall logic is behind us choosing our names, but it seems to be subconscious too. Well... we can exclude Hez here because I personally named her," Lin addressed her mute friend and chuckled sheepishly. "I kind of played on the word hesitant because that's pretty much what she is. Seems kind of silly now, but she's not complaining.

"As for all of your other questions... well, why not let experience answer them for you? We're all here to help each other, so don't feel too bewildered over all of this."

The group of Oneiros walked up to a roundabout that spiraled upwards to their destination. The concrete road gradually turned into pulsating vessels with miniature strands branching out hundreds of different directions that led towards miscellaneous zones far in the distance. Despite this confusing array, their main path remained visible enough for them to trek.

[TheFake]

Atropos caught up on the branching path, her brisk jog slowing to a walk as she drew level with the back of the group. She reached up behind her head and tightened the knot holding the blindfold over her eyes as it had worked itself loose during her run through Remniche. Turning her head to face each of the group in turn, she became familiar with each presence that she felt.

She took a few moments to get her breathing under control before speaking. "I caught most of that as I came up behind you guys, so I guess we have a bit of a problem to tackle. By the way, I'm Atropos."

[PURRfect93]

Alice stayed to the back of the group, seeming preoccupied with talking to herself in hushed whispers. She was partially listening to the others, and even when altrops came to join them, but she stopped shortly after the new arrival. It seemed as if she was now getting into an argument with herself and was getting quite heated. Out of no where Alice suddenly swung her blade, narrowly missing dice while shouting "Shut up you filthy cat!". Immediately after she noticed that she had almost hit someone and immediately apologized. "I.. uh... sorry... That wasn't directed at you.. I'm guna just stand over here..." Alice took a few steps back and kept her eyes off to the side, thoroughly embarrassed.

[eddieddi]

"I still think I'm dead, I just fell off a cliff, face first in to a lump of granite" he said raising a hand in lazy greeting to Atropos, "I'm dice, nice to meet you, I guess you could call me a compulsive risk taker." he said grinning. "wait, if I'm dead, that means I can't die again. sweet!" he grinned and went to pull his backpack off his shoulders, catching sight of the blade out of the corner of his eye, without thinking he flung his hands up to block his body, a sudden blast of kinetic energy hurling the sword away from his body. "woah...." he clenched and unclenched his hand, small sparks of energy falling off it as the energy dissipated, "someone care to explain what in the bloody hell just happened?" he also finished pulling his backpack from his shoulders and fishing out his thermos flask. "tea anyone?"

[benit149]

"wait, if I'm dead, that means I can't die again. sweet!"

“I just said you’re not dead!” Lin smacked her forehead.

Out of no where Alice suddenly swung her blade, narrowly missing dice while shouting "Shut up you filthy cat!". Immediately after she noticed that she had almost hit someone and immediately apologized. "I.. uh... sorry... That wasn't directed at you.. I'm guna just stand over here..." Alice took a few steps back and kept her eyes off to the side, thoroughly embarrassed.

Hez was utterly terrified of Alice's random attack and shivered a bit, keeping even closer to Lin.

“What in the world were you just doing there?” Lin raised an eyebrow at Alice.

"I caught most of that as I came up behind you guys, so I guess we have a bit of a problem to tackle. By the way, I'm Atropos."

"Yep, we have a much larger problem zone than anything that's appeared before. Any help we can get will be great," Lin nodded. "We're almost there, so get ready for anything."

The team reached the outer edge of the three fusing zones, which looked like a trio of colorful water blobs melding together and gradually turning black at the center. Lin's eyes widened; she had never seen anything like this, and the spectacle amazed her.

"Wow... just... wow," she gasped dumbly. "I don't even know where to begin with this..."

Hez stared blankly at the abnormal zones, mesmerized by the crazy colors while frightened of the myriad of confused emotions swirling around the place, a heavy miasma looming over the Oneiros team. Even so, Hez seemed most interested in the black center of these three zones. Without thinking, she stepped toward the darkness in silence.

Lin exclaimed, "Where are you going, Hez!?"

The mute girl pointed back at the blackness and took a moment to explain her thoughts to her partner.

"The middle...? The center of it all...? You think the artifact is hiding in the center area?" she repeated, then pondered to herself. "Well... it kind of makes sense, since something is attracting them. But does the artifact belong to one dreamer and it mutated the other two? Is it the same kind of artifact for all three of them? Or is there some kind of rogue artifact causing all of this?"

All Hez could do was shrug and continue walking forward.

"You're right. All we can do is go in and look. Don't stray too far from us though. If any monsters attack us, you won't be able to fight them."

[eddieddi]

"If I'm not dead, how come I'm not in pain, and for that matter where did all my base jumping gear go?" Dice asked, then paused, looking at the mayhem before them. "well...." he said sipping his tea. "looks like a oil spill." he said still not quite understanding the gravity of the situation. Watching the onesided conversation between Lin and Hez he he then paused. shrugging at the suggestion to go in. "sounds like fun, can't be worse than out here. anyway, you talk about monsters, but one of us has a sword, I'm pretty sure that getting hit in the face with a acidic vial will discourage them. and whatever else we can come up with." he said shrugging. "but if you say so. when we see one, run."

[PURRfect93]

Alice looked over to Lin "sorry Lin.. i was in an argument with the cat again... hes been pestering me a lot lately and i i don't know why its affecting me so much. but lets move on for now. my problems are for a different day." Alice then looked over to the inky center that had formed. could there be one relic for the three areas? it would explained the fusion... but even i have never seen that happen... she shook the idea out of her head for now. Dice mentioned a sword, which made Alice chuckle. "i wouldn't call it a sword, although its quite a bit more dangerous."

[TheFake]

Atropos smiled at the sword comment, reaching behind herself to touch the scissors in her back pocket. She pulled them out and held them in her left hand down at her side. She quickened her pace and got closer to Hez. "Go in and take a look, huh?" She smiled from underneath the blindfold for a second before frowning, not yet able to sense anything ahead. Her right hand reached up to brush at the knot holding the blindfold for a second. She had no doubt that it would have to be removed by the end of this adventure but not yet.

[Zaresto]

Realm
I was quiet as I listened to this little girl ramble on, evidently having something big planned. Evidently, the explanations given to me were rather mind boggling. I understood this was some sort of dream world, but I never would have imagined it to be as elaborate as this. I felt it improper to ask any questions, given that a rather eccentric fellow was asking many of them already.

I noticed that the girl who had us all here was named Lin, working with her partner, Hez. I was perplexed to how they managed to maintain such a large museum complex, but I assumed it was the norm for this area. She went on rambling about something about some zones and how they were connected to our real world bodies or something like that, but I payed little attention, instead focusing on observing my surroundings and the people, or, I should say, 'Oneiros' near me.

Just then, some crazy chick with a knife came in and tried to kill that question asking dude, who narrowly managed to not get sliced in half using a mixture of luck and some weir voodoo powers, similar to the ones I had observed I could perform, although these made sparks fly, literally. Although he then, rather nonchalantly, offered tea to the group, which perplexed me, seeing as how he almost got diced by that knife.

As we ascended the spiral walkway, the group I was in soon found ourselves staring, dumbfounded, at what was apparently some sort of corrupted zone chimera made up of three separate bad emotions. The colors were pretty and mesmerizing, but I soon saw that girl who denied to talk, Hez, found something quite intriguing within the zones. I followed her, as obviously she had some idea to what she was doing, but I then heard Lin mention that she wouldn't be able to defend herself against monsters. No fears, girls! I have my super cool mind abilities that I have yet to master! I thought to myself, jokingly.

I noticed the man who had almost died now sipping the tea he had within his thermos. As I looked, I wondered what might he be. He seemed to have an obsession with tea, so I immediately thought he might be Turkish, although the use of the word 'bloody' before might mean otherwise. Irish, maybe, they drink lots of tea! His personality sure fit, but I would have to ask him about such things later.

I had an adventure to go on.

[benit149]

Guided by raw instinct, experience, and the narrow direction the emotions were coming from, Hez trekked through the dark color-blob first, followed by the rest of the team. She looked blank and vapid while gazing left and right through the gelatinous area, the eerie colors jiggling like jello beneath their feet. Smaller and brighter-colored blob pieces akin to jelly beans squiggled beneath the surface like parasites, but they were just part of the scenery, not monsters.

A few more steps later, Hez's seemingly aimless wandering led the party to a lone white refrigerator sitting within this colorful mess. It was a standard home fridge, but this was large enough to walk inside. It had numerous blue-colored letter magnets attached all over in random fashion, not spelling anything out in particular.

"Good work, Hez!" Lin congratulated her partner, then investigated the fridge. She told the others, "Looks like this is the entrance. From here, things might start to get nasty."

As the others got ready to enter the real dungeon, Hez noticed that something was a little off about the magnets. Of the nearly one hundred blue letters littering the white appliance, only three of them were colored red - an I, a C, and an N. She didn't know if this had any meaning, so she opted not to mention it to Lin. The group was more focused on dealing with the immediate problem at hand.

[TheFake]

Atropos stood in front of the refrigerator, turning her head left and right for several seconds before walking around the object. She crossed her arms over her chest, tapping the scissors on her shoulder as she thought. "It doesn't look like much from the outside, but nothing really does here anyway. Right now all I can think of is whether or not the freezer opens up into the same place as the rest." Her hand reached up again to the blindfold. "How soon after we go in do the monsters usually show up?"

[eddieddi]

"does it have any milk in there? I feel I may need to make another thermos of tea," dice said putting said thermos in his backpack and pulling out a pair of heavy duty hedge trimmers (manual ones, not the chainsaw impersonates), splitting them in half he set them against his wrists. He smiled and spun the blades round his hands, now a one edged blade in each hand he smiled and nodded. "ready when you guys are"

---

Erebus, who had followed the group in to the maelstrom saw the fridge and the group gathered around it. He grinned and slammed in to the fridge and started to try and rock it back and forth as if something was trying to bust out. He intended to follow them through and cause more chaos, this dark realm was very, very satisfying.

[benit149]

"How soon after we go in do the monsters usually show up?"

"It's really varied, but with the abnormality going on here, I'd expect them to pop up very soon," Lin frowned.

Erebus, who had followed the group in to the maelstrom saw the fridge and the group gathered around it. He grinned and slammed in to the fridge and started to try and rock it back and forth as if something was trying to bust out.

"Whoa!! We got a live one here!" Lin exclaimed, gripping the door handle to keep the entrance from rocking too much. After some struggling, she pried it open and the group took a quick peek inside. It was like walking right into a giant-sized version of a regular white fridge, with the floors divided among three levels - the bottom for meat, the middle for leftovers, and the top for dairy and bread - plus two drawers at the bottom for fruits and vegetables. It sort of laid out like a mansion otherwise, with the food acting like furniture. Several white stairwells led up to each floor, but they were so far apart that getting to each one would be a real chore. The team would have to navigate around giant pieces of food as well, and what's worse was that most of it was already going bad. It was a good thing that the sense of smell didn't exist in Vivi-Dream, but the sight of moldy cheese, curdling milk and puffy green chicken magnified by a hundredfold was enough to make anyone go sick.

"Ooooh, man!! This is SO not right!!" Lin shouted in revulsion as they entered, the door slamming shut behind them on its own. A large lightbulb flashed in cue to their entrance, illuminating the horrendous sight even more. "Who in their right mind would abandon perfectly good food like this!? It's absolutely atrocious! And to think that three people are responsible for creating this dungeon boggles my mind! Don't you agree, Hez?"

The young girl shivered and pulled her hood up, but not because she was afraid - the air was pretty chilly, which was appropriate considering where they were.

[TheFake]

Following along after Hez, Atropos reached up and loosened the knot on the blindfold slightly. A single tug would pull it loose and allow her to fight more effectively. She was spared the revulsion that the sight of the food caused by the fact that she simply couldn't see it. She smiled again, though slightly forced knowing that they might run into monsters at any time. The cold of the scissors felt quite reassuring to hold.

"Maybe the three of them are all in the same situation which is what is causing something like this to happen." She gestured with her hand at the last part. "If things start to go bad could someone knock out the light, it would help me a lot."

[eddieddi]

Dice looked around and stick one half of the hedge trimmers through his belt freeing up his hand to try and create any more kinetic pulses if needed."bust the light, understood." he said prodding one of the bits of rotting food with his blade. "I get the horrific feeling that we may be encountering a walking chicken carcass trying to kill us." he suggested and then looked about. "Hay, I don't see any pre-con food, like no pre-packaged stuff, its all fresh (if rotting) produce, like there's bread buns, lettuce, and all the stuff to make a burger, but no ketchup or brown sauce, also no jam." he observed.

_______

Erebus floated up the fridge reaching the top and finding a lose bread bun, setting his shoulder to it he hefted as hard as he could, it shifted about a foot or two towards the edge. he grinned and hefted again. within a few more shoves it'd be in mid air, and heading down of to the side of the group by a few meters.

[benit149]

"Maybe the three of them are all in the same situation which is what is causing something like this to happen."

"That could be a very likely scenario," Lin agreed. "But unless we investigate, we can't prove anything."

"If things start to go bad could someone knock out the light, it would help me a lot."

"Now look here... You might not be sighted, but the rest of us are. What are we supposed to do to fight our enemies without any lights?" Lin frowned and crossed her arms sternly. Hez tugged her sleeve and 'told' her something in silence. "Hmm... That's not a bad idea, but only if you hide yourself really good, okay?"

The girl nodded. Lin reported, "Hez just said she will illuminate our eyes with a spell, something akin to night vision. She's not a fighter at all, but she's really good with healing and light spells."

"Hay, I don't see any pre-con food, like no pre-packaged stuff, its all fresh (if rotting) produce, like there's bread buns, lettuce, and all the stuff to make a burger, but no ketchup or brown sauce, also no jam." he observed.

"Geez, where are these people getting their calories from? The only good thing in here is that bottled water," Lin remarked sourly.

Hez thought she heard something shuffling from far above and glanced upward. That's when Erebus pushed the bun over the side like a boulder and it clattered near the group, startling her enough to make her fall on her butt!

"Whoa! Are you okay!?" Lin immediately rushed to Hez's side. She helped her get back up, but when Hez looked at the bun, she noticed that it was shifting on its own a little. Her eyes widened into saucers and she got goosebumps. Lin caught her partner's fear and glared at the bread just as a distorted arm broke through the moldy surface! That was precisely when the puffy hot dog on a plate wiggled and burst, allowing several rotting meat zombie-like creatures to emerge from the sausage. Different creatures emerged from the mold, and some formed into specters just from the horrid stench alone.

"We're surrounded!! Someone kill the light!! NOW!!" Lin screamed as her body flashed blue, and her form shifted from a humanoid girl into a floating sentient sword embedded with sparkling blue gems. After transforming, Lin flew blade-first into the group of hot dog zombies and tore them apart with one swoop.

[TheFake]

Atropos pulled the blindfold off and stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans. the area around them reflected slightly in her featureless black eyes. The hand came back out from behind her back with the spool of golden thread. She tied one end to the scissors with a neat little knot before diving to the side, swinging it in a tightly controlled arc and cutting a leaping zombie in half. The thread hummed as it moved though the air in circles and arcs, the thread cutting and the scissors bludgeoning and stabbing.

The headache started immediately as a dull throb. She could ignore it for a while but judging by the amount of food in here she may need to take a break before the end. Atropos began to swing preemptively at items of food, cutting them to pieces before anything could get out. Pausing for a moment, she shut her eyes tightly and felt the pain recede back to the dull ache. The bright light and the stark white interior of the fridge was taking its toll.

[PURRfect93]

Alice listened to the others talking, taking in her surroundings. she made mental notes of Atropos' request of darkness and Hez's abilities to light up their eyes. Suddenly creatures began to burst out of the surrounding rotted foods. Alice's face shifted instantly from calm and controlled to psychotic in a flash as soon as the creatures appeared. With a cackle and a leap Alice was rushing towards the specters closest to a nearby wall, chanting a rhyme as she went in a none to friendly tone.... it seemed her voice was deeper oddly enough...

Speak roughly to your little girl!
~she sliced through a specter, gaining on the wall~
And beat her when she sneezes!
~she lept up and pushed against the wall~
She only does it to annoy!
~Alice flew upwards, dodging specters~
Because she knows it teases!

Wow! wow! wow!
~bracing herself, she smashed through the giant light, plunging them into darkness~
Alice's voice flickered back to her calmer self for a moment. "Hez! ready with that nice light effect yet?"
~as soon as she had spoken, and though she could not see, her rhyme continued~

He speaks severely to his girl....
He beats me when I sneezes....
For I can thoroughly enjoy....
The pepper when I pleases!

Alice shifted into a more personal view on the last few verses, and her tone wavered. There was a fear in her voice that hadn't been there before.....

poem source

http://www.durrant.co.uk/alice/
search for "Speak Roughly" using the search option. and yes i modified when i used it lol

[eddieddi]

Dice grinned. "Lights..." he said trusting that the supposed night vision spell would kick in, he raised one hand and let out a kinetic lance, striking the bulb he shattered it and dented the metal above it, now with glass raining down he rushed forwards to where he last saw a foe. relying on the sounds around him to place things. "skip the camera, and action." jumping in to the air he came down atop the burger bun. landing blade first he drove it as far as he could in to it, the energy around him going from kinetic to thermal with a flicker from gold to red, his blade glowed red hot and he tore it free, toasting the bread and scorching meat. now seeing by the glowing edge of his blade and the flashes of fire rippling from his free hand he did his best to devastate the burger. He was grinning, bounding around as the creature attempted to dislodge him, every strike coming at the last second, every blow dodged by the smallest of margins. everything pushed right to the edge of what would be considered insanely risky. jumping upwards at the last second to dodge a blow coming from both sides he looked down at the burger, his glowing blade embedded in to one of its arms. "That which is already dead cannot die." he said absent minded to himself and leveled both hands at the creature and let lose a column of fire. He laughed as he dropped down the fire immolating anything under him. stopping it for a few seconds he readjusted his angle and blasted it behind him, accelerating him downwards as he drew his other blade and slammed in to the remnants of the burger, the surge of kinetic energy rippling outwards and turning it to so meany bits of burnt bread and meat tumbling across the floor, retrieving his other blade he looked around, still grinning. after a moment of making sure he wouldn't be interrupted he sat down on one of the more solid lumps of carbonized bread and fished his thermos out of the backpack and poured himself another cup of tea.
"Kick ass and drink tea." he observed as he put the thermos away, sipping the cup.

[benit149]

"Hez! ready with that nice light effect yet?"

Hez nodded and closed her eyes to concentrate amidst the darkness and carnage. Her hooded mantle glowed pure white, then flowed off her shoulders and transformed into a rod resembling a large white carnation. She cast her night vision spell upon everyone except Atropos, allowing them to see perfectly in the dark while the food monsters were caught unawares. After that, Hez hid behind the bottles of water during the battle.

Lin floated towards the stairs and called out to the team, "We shouldn't waste time with these cannon fodder! We need to get to the top ASAP so we can purify the artifact! Otherwise we'll be here forever!"

Several slimy baby carrots overwhelmed the stairway, but Lin charged in and sliced them into pieces, clearing the way. Hez emerged from her hiding spot and followed Lin upstairs to the middle level. The carrots had come from a bowl of wilted salad, with a wooden spoon acting as a platform for several vegetables to roll down and bind together to create a veggie golem. Lin slashed across at the tomato head, decapitating the golem. Its celery legs kicked at her hilt, sending her flying towards the wall. It then focused its attention on the frightened Hez, intent on squashing her with its radish fists.