EVENT #8: MÆRE - OOC PLOTTING

[abraxasmods]

Event #8 - OOC Plotting

go to the IC event post

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Beginning on JUNE 18 - 26 (in-game), the Singularity continues to manifest its powers unbidden, this time resulting in a recurring nightmare and an Entity that will continue to haunt characters throughout this period.

Characters will have to confront their deepest fears and/or their troubled pasts alongside others, as well as give players a chance to shape their own nightmarish vision in whichever way they desire. Some may also glimpse something surprising in the Horizon.

As with all events, those who wish to opt out will simply not be affected by this phenomenon.

Recurring Nightmares

During this time, when characters go to sleep they may enter a version of their own recurring nightmare. The nightmare can be based on anything, such as a real memory or trauma, a frightening story they were once told, or any fear they might have - real or imagined. Nightmares can occur as frequently or infrequently as players choose. It may happen once, twice, or multiple times, and not every dream they have will be of this nightmare (although it can be if you choose). In between the recurring nightmare, characters can experience regular sleep periods or unrelated dreams. However, the more they have this specific recurring nightmare, the stronger the Entity will become.

Shaping the Nightmare

Nightmares can manifest in whatever form you feel is suited for your character. One character's fear may not be another's! Additionally, nightmares can start as gentle dreams before they grow progressively worse - or anything else you want to play with. While the nightmare should be recurring, this does not mean it needs to be identical each time. Rather, much like recurring dreams of falling or missing an exam, various details and elements can change, but the underlying theme will remain the same. A character may find they are constantly suffering a nightmare of different ways their cat runs away, for example, with the theme being a fear of losing their beloved pet to the unknown.

Each character's nightmare has the potential of merging with another's and multiple nightmares can merge together to create an amalgamation of visions and landscapes. We encourage players to plot with each other to determine how their respective nightmares and visions will interact or meld. This can look like anything you want, whether the nightmare gradually shifts from one to another, if bits and pieces tumble together all at once, or if the differing landscapes struggle to gain dominance based on characters' emotions or the strength of their fears and traumas. Characters can band together to face their fears, hinder each other, or even harm one another. They may recognize each other or they may believe themselves strangers despite being familiar in the real world. Since this all takes place in a dream, anything is possible!

Furthermore, it is possible for characters to either have a variety of people enter and leave their dreams or to enter and leave a variety of nightmares themselves all within one night. Players have the option for the landscape to transition or meld from one experience to the next, or characters can even briefly wake up without remembering before falling asleep again. This is to allow for multiple interactions without having to force a character to sleep or dream an unreasonable amount of times. As events take place within a nightmare, the amount of time passing does not need to reflect that of reality.

While dreaming, characters will not know they're doing so, similar to how dreams normally work. Should anyone start to piece together while within the nightmare, however, they will find that their budding awareness makes things worse and distorts their thoughts, as though the dream itself is attempting to prevent them from acknowledging that things aren't real. The harder they try to maintain the idea that they're not in the real world or exert conscious control over their experience, the more terrors they will spawn from their subconscious.

The Entity

Within their nightmares, characters will find an Entity begins to appear. It may start as a barely-noticed shadow, a glimpse, or a flicker, but will grow stronger the longer characters stay within the nightmare and the more often they dream. This Entity can be seen by anyone else who joins your character in their nightmare. In fact, it may even be spotted by others before your character ever does.

The Entity should take the form of a manifestation or representation of your character's fear or trauma, related to their recurring nightmare. It can be a person, a beast, an animal, or some other twisted creation, but it must be a figure of some kind. This figure may shift and change somewhat (i.e. a face that morphs from one person to another). However, it should recognizably be the same figure haunting your character rather than a random thing spawning in their nightmare and each character will not have more than one.

Characters will sense that this Entity wants to claw into the real world, possibly to destroy both its creator and the world itself or with some other sinister intention, and that it's attempting to do so each time they dream - steadily increasing in its strength and clarity.

On Day 2-3, the Entity will show signs of beginning to come through - even when awake, characters will glimpse it in mirrors, shadows, or out of the corner of their eye. By Day 4-5 the Entity can start to physically interact with the Summoned in the real world - hearing it, feeling its breath or touch, or even leaving small scratches and bruises. NPCs and other natives of Abraxas will not react to these Entities, as far as characters can tell. It's as if they can only be seen by the other Summoned. Additionally, how much the Entity manifests depends on how often a character has their recurring nightmare. Players may use this mechanic to choose how strong they want their Entity to grow.

Physical Imprints

Aside from the Entity's presence, other aspects of their nightmares seem to follow them in the real world: when they awaken, they may be out of breath from running, discover a bit of sand under their nails, or find a small scratch on their hand. They might even discover more severe injuries, such as a break or a deep wound, that matches the one they received inside the dream.

Players can choose to what degree their characters are physically affected. Not everything needs to manifest and what does appear can be so minor as to be barely noticed, like a faint bruise, or alternatively can be near-fatal. Moreover, regardless of how serious the injuries gained within the nightmare itself are, the effects can manifest with any level of severity that players decide. For example, a character might break a hand in their dream, but awaken to find only a fading ache in their wrist. Or they might have suffered a heavy gash in the nightmare world, but awaken to see that the cut is already mostly healed.

Injuries are not the only possibility. Other options can include grass stains on their skin, damp hair from the rain, or the lingering taste of an apple they ate.

Whatever is going on, though, it's apparent it isn't limited to their minds. Maybe the factions have a point when they soon suggest characters take action to contain the situation?

Faction Intervention

On Day 5-6, faction officials will reach out to the Summoned and offer to help them ease the effects of the nightmares and the Entity. They will be upfront that they are not certain if it will be effective, but will strongly encourage the Summoned to participate, stressing that if this Entity truly does begin to manifest, it could hurt innocents, if not cause a major calamity upon the world. At the very least, these nightmares seem to run the risk of greatly harming the Summoned, physically and mentally, which officials note should be reason enough to put a stop to it.

Participating in this is optional both ICly and OOCly. Officials will not punish or force anyone, but they will ask the Summoned to think of their friends who are suffering if not themselves. They will be given a date, time, and location to convene on Day 7. This will be the only opportunity they have, so characters must make a decision quickly. The Summoned can also try to convince their friends one way or another, or debate the merits of each choice. A separate event log for players participating in this portion will be put up alongside the main event log.

Participating players must have their character experience the scenario in its entirety. Regardless of how your character feels once they're in it, it's up to you to work out ICly how your character will eventually submit (willingly or unwillingly) to the following conditions, whether that is being convinced by their fellow Summoned, threats, bribes, fears, physical coercion, or something else:

◎ Characters must continue to proceed with their task and goal, even if they change their mind or begin to grow uncertain and believe it should be stopped. Officials will tell them there is no way to stop things once it's underway and it will be quite clear, during the process, that attempting to withdraw will put everyone in great danger.

Should your character attempt to withdraw, anyway, you are welcome to plot this out amongst fellow players as to how your character will end up completing the task nonetheless. Once the situation is immediately dire, officials will be less willing to step in among the Summoned involved even should things grow a bit more physical between them, so long as no NPCs are put in danger. Any fights that are spotted during the preparation or gathering stage, though, will be stopped.

◎ Tasks and experiences characters will undergo may include gathering a certain set of items, maintaining an object's or a spell's integrity, and willingly submitting to some discomfort such as feeling drained, irritable, or weakened.

While the impact may not be felt at first, the number of characters who agree to this may alter how things develop for their faction in the following months...for better or for worse. After all, have they dispelled the nightmares or merely contained them? And exactly what else is the Singularity capable of manifesting through the Summoned?

Click to view the specifics for each faction outlined below. The full details will be revealed in the IC event writeup.

FREE CITIES

Characters in the Free Cities will be taken to an underground lab, a short trip into the desert. Their task will involve collecting crystals in a cavern above. Once that task is completed, they must alternate calibrating a device that absorbs their energy into the crystals and thus will leave them feeling dangerously drained if they do not take turns. They may find, however, that the situation grows dangerous enough that they must give more of their strength than they were anticipating, which will result in grogginess, headaches, and some physical weakness for 3 days afterwards. Magic and potions will not help them regain their strength, but they can find some relief from aches and pains.

They will be overseen by Aleksander Klingel and a variety of research NPCs. A few soldiers will also be present, simply to maintain control and lend the occasional hand.

KINGDOM OF THORNE

Characters in Thorne will be taken to an underground research area, deep beneath the Castle. Their task will involve researching and refining a new spell. Once that task is completed, they must implement the spell and cast it successfully. They may find, however, that the situation grows dangerous enough that they must give more of their magic than they were anticipating, which will result in a 3-day bout of insomnia that prevents them from sleeping, resulting in exhaustion and irritability. Magic and potions will not help them sleep until the effect naturally wears off, but they can be used to find some relief from headaches and such.

They will be overseen by Jolene Sybell and a variety of assistant mages. One or two guards will be stationed outside the door upstairs.

SOLVUNN COMMUNE

Characters in Solvunn will be taken to an old shrine full of strange unsettling statues, deep in the forests. Their task will involve collecting herbs and old animal bones found in the area. Once that task is completed, they must help weave a large round bowl made of their collected bones, leaves, and branches and begin a ritual led by one of the Elders. They may find, however, that the situation grows dangerous enough that they must agree to consume part of the concoction in the bowl, which will result in an increased appetite that will last 3 days. Magic and potions will not help suppress their appetite until the effect naturally wears off, but the people of Solvunn will helpfully provide them with all the cheese and fruits they want. Some may even find care packages of food left at their door.

They will be overseen by Rowan March and a variety of assistant mages and commune Elders.

Shadows in the Horizon

Those who enter the Horizon may find some reprieve from their nightmares, but in exchange will discover two of the following disturbing things:

◎ Both the Entity and aspects of their recurring nightmare may manifest subconsciously within their Horizon domain, against their will. The Entity will not be able to destroy domains belonging to another Summoned, but it can interact with the character's domain and affect it to whatever degree you decide, razing the entire place to the ground or merely wilting some flowers. Much of this will be dependent on how shaken your character is by what they're experiencing and their state of mind.

◎ Characters who step into the Horizon might find that there is a brief glitch or flicker of a strange scene before it returns to normal. Intriguingly, this is not something that appears to come from the character's mind or experiences as most things in the Horizon do, and it's difficult to tell how it's related to these recurring nightmares. In fact, what they see might be completely foreign to them, as though they have looked through a window into an otherworldly plane.

More intriguingly, they might find some of their fellow Summoned who experienced the glitching have seen the same thing they have while others have seen something different altogether. While it's difficult to tell what they're seeing, what's certain is that these images are shared among some of the Summoned and that they appear only when one is in the Horizon.

Exactly what the Summoned see will be revealed during the IC event post itself - but the longer they spend in the Horizon or the more frequently they enter it, the more they'll be able to glimpse each time the Horizon glitches for them.

Event Schedule

To allow for a bit of room for players to get things started, the event post will be going up a little prior to the actual in-game date the event occurs.

The IN-GAME EVENT will ICly take place June 18 - 26
The EVENT POST will go up June 17 for players to participate in.
The WRAP-UP POST for the event will be available on June 30 for players to view.

Ability or Transformation Gain

Characters will receive a gain of either one physical alteration, or one new magical spell/ability (limited to level 1 ability or the equivalent thereof) as a result of experiencing this unusual burst of activity from the Singularity. While this gain can be anything, we encourage players to consider linking their gain to what they've experienced during this event! To request your gain, submit it as usual on the upcoming Activity Check form.

Players who chose to receive their character's gain in April's event will not be able to receive another gain for June's event.

Plotting Form

Due to the nature of this event, we recommend everyone use the plotting form below!

<b>Character Name:</b> <b>Arcana:</b> <b>Faction:</b> <b>Nightmare theme:</b> (What's the underlying theme of your character's nightmare?) <b>Nightmare description:</b> (Your character's nightmare setting - what's in it, what does it look like, what caused it, any details you want. This does not need to be set in stone and players are free to have the nightmare shift and change as things play out. This section is just to give other players an idea of what their characters might encounter for plotting purposes. Please note any content warnings!) <b>Entity:</b> (What your Entity monster will look like, how it will behave, and other details. Entities do not need to be inherently monstrous in appearance, but all of them are unsettling in some way to the person they're haunting) <b>Accepting faction intervention:</b> (Is your character accepting the offer from their faction or refusing? Note that your character doesn't need to agree to participate to do some plotting in this aspect! They can try to stop their friends from making a choice they believe is the wrong one or convince them to come along) <b>Is there anything you don't want to interact with?</b> (This can be on an OOC comfort level or just something you don't want your character to experience for any reason - no explanations needed. The purpose of this event is for everyone to have fun.) <b>General Plans:</b> (Anything else!)

Questions and Answers

If after reading these you're still unsure about anything, or your question wasn't covered, please feel free to hit up our Questions thread below!

What if my character doesn't need to sleep like a normal human?

Because this is induced by the Singularity's power, characters who do not sleep can still find themselves entering a nightmare-like experience at some point. They may fall asleep for the first time in their lives or simply black out.

Can characters be physically woken up?

Players can choose how effective attempts to wake up their characters will be. It's entirely possible for characters to be trapped for a bit, and it's equally possible for characters to experience many hours passing in their dream within a 15 minute nap. Eventually, though, characters will wake up after a reasonable amount of time. They will not be physically trapped in an endless sleep.

Does my character have to experience this with other people?

Characters can have their nightmares entirely solo, but we encourage players to plot with others in some manner to play out the aftermath or otherwise demonstrate some interactivity when participating in this event! It's also possible for characters to share their recurring nightmare one night but not the next.

Will faction NPCs be available for threading or speaking to during the intervention?

Unfortunately, they will be quite busy and will not be able to have any extended conversations with the Summoned beyond answering some brief questions. For the assistant NPCs, you may assume they are there to do their best to help the Summoned succeed and feel comfortable including offering food, water, and helping to retrieve books or other materials.

Is there anything suspicious that might be noticed during the intervention?

Not from the factions themselves! It would seem that officials are genuinely concerned about both the world and their Summoned, and are being sincere in their efforts to help. After all, they need the Summoned to be whole and healthy - and they definitely don't want anything to harm the city they live in.

How much can my Entity shift and change?

As much as you want, so long as your character is able to recognize it as a single figure that is continuously appearing and following them from night to night - something distinct from the already strange state of being in a dream.

What happens if my character spends remainder of the week inside the Horizon to avoid having nightmares? Will there be any physical effects?

Typical to the Horizon experience, characters can spend weeks inside without any physical repercussions or changes to their body. This means when they awaken, they will not feel hunger, sleepiness, weakness, or experience beard/hair growth. They will awaken in the exact physical state they were when they entered it.

My character is the sort to hide away in the Horizon, but I want them to participate more. How can I do so?

Entering and staying in the Horizon requires concentration! It's entirely possible for your character to be so disturbed by the Entity haunting them and the shadows of their nightmares taking shape in their own domains that they temporarily disconnect from the Horizon and have trouble focusing to reenter.

How will participating in the faction intervention work?

A separate IC log will be put up during the event for this part. Characters can then tag in under their correct faction heading. Players are completely free to organize among themselves how they wish to play these threads out. You may make a traditional top level, join or create a free-for-all thread, or whatever you like. Just be sure to communicate with everyone you'll be threading with!

We will also be offering some mod roll options during this portion, for any players who want some curve balls thrown their way.

Comments

Questions

[abraxasmods]

[nightwash]

Sooooo... OK I have a bunch of questions lmao sorry mods.

1. How does this work with characters like Ronan and Hennessy who are aware when they're dreaming and can control their dreams?

2. Will they be able to manipulate their nightmares to any degree?

2b. If yes, while dreamwalking with others, will they be able to manipulate anyone else's nightmares to calm them down and such?

3. If they do bring back part of the nightmare when they wake up (like they do with their usual dreams), how much of it are they able to manifest?

4. Will their magical dream swords which were made specifically to fight an identical nightmare entity work against this current nightmare entity?

[blackeyedprince]

Character Name: Kell Maresh
Arcana: Magician
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: Getting trapped and loosing control of his magic. Both of those are very closely related.

Nightmare description: In his nightmare Kell will start in the middle of trying to get somewhere, crossing borders of worlds like he used to, but it would always backfire and he will end up somewhere else. He won't know where he meant to be, only that he ended in the wrong place. Sometimes there will be people he will follow, or people that were supposed to follow him, but he will loose them every time. At all time he will have an impression of being watched.
At its worse point, Kell will end replaying events from just before his Summoning, his capture at the hands of Holland, the subsequent collaring and getting cut off from his magic. As for physical signs he gets from the nightmares: burn marks on his neck from the collar.
CW: torture, paranoia.

Entity: Holland Vosijk, Antari and later king of Makt (the country of While London, Kell's forever nemesis.

Accepting faction intervention: Wholesale accepting. The fact that he got summoned broke him out of the cage and released him from the magic-blocking collar. He's not sure how much of the timing was Singularity's doing and how much was the mages, but he's rather grateful either way.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nothing comes to mind.

General Plans: Kell is working real hard NOT to think about those events, not to think what would it mean if he didn't have magic. This is both social conditioning - his home country ties a lot of person's worth to their magical ability - and his own difficult relationship with his gift. He was special, a prodigy, so he has a lot of his identity invested in it. Only recently, some cracks started to form in this perfect image.

Dee

[hextechhead]

Stuff and things.

Jayce Talis

[hextechhead]

Character Name: Jayce Talis
Arcana: The Magician
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Jayce being a killer and turning into a villain.

Nightmare description: So shortly before coming here Jayce killed some people during a raid, including a child. It has haunted him ever since so it will literally be haunting him now. Obvious this is a huge trigger warning for death of a child, so people who want to avoid it, definitely don't interact. He will be seeing every body of the people he killed as children versions of themselves because he knew they were someone's child/spouse/whatever. He will also be seeing the body of the original child as Viktor instead, and the nightmare will probably at some point just involve him killing Viktor over and over by accident. It is connected to this fight if you want to see the set up. And see how violent Jayce got with his superweapon toward the end there.

Entity: This kid will be the form the Entity takes. It is the one he killed, and it will be full out horror movie creepy kid in this case. It will sparkle with this electricity and look very accusingly.

Accepting faction intervention: Jayce will be accepting the offer and do whatever it takes to stop the nightmares, the Entity, and anything harming Viktor during his own suffering here. He will not try to convince anyone but be certain of doing it himself.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nothing that I can think of.

General Plans: Jayce has already been struggling with this incident and what it made him into, so he's going to be right there in the sticks again for awhile. He's going to be shaken big time. He will sometimes see himself as the monster all scary and carrying the superweapon.

Em

[righteously]

Jack Townsend | Thorne | New CR Pls!

[stations]

Character Name: Jack Townsend
Arcana: The Moon
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: In a way, Jack's theme is nightmares in and of themselves! But to be less abstract, it's going to manifest in the form of this asshole:



Nightmare description: Jack has a sleep condition, in that he... does and doesn't. He never gets any further than the very lightest stage of sleep, always retaining some awareness of his surroundings, sleepwalking and sleep talking, so he could be dreaming/hallucinating and having a conversation with your character at the same time. He does this in canon constantly, and hallucinates all sorts of nightmarish things that leave him constantly gaslighting himself over his own reality. He's going to be hallucinating that his sociopathic stalker — the guy that made him lose his leg and his pinky finger — has shown up in Thorne or is generally haunting him. He'll "dream" about being around the castle seeing murder scenes or getting notes/messages/whatever from Spencer. In the Horizon, he'll be at work at the gas station under threat of Spencer showing up — along with all the other standard nightmarish shit that happens there, so if characters want to swing by and experience some peak gas station creepypasta insanity, it should be a fun time!

Entity: Jack's entity is Spencer Middleton. They went to school together. Spencer is a sociopathic stalker who kills puppies and happiness and generally loves to torment Jack. He's cut off Jack's finger, broken his leg and ultimately led to its amputation, and nearly killed him on a number of occasions. He's a scary, empathy-less murderer and he's fucking rad. He also happens to be the chosen manifestation of Jack's repressed violent memories and childhood traumas!

Accepting faction intervention: Totally accepting.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Jack's genre is dark comedy creepypasta, just the most Sean of the Dead surreal This Is The End satrical horror ever, so I'm down to get as creative and weird with these as you want!

General Plans: Meeting people! Making new friends! Someone save this skinny nerd, or watch him be comically unfazed to whatever your character's nightmare is. He's a fun character to throw into shit because he's so Daria deadpan and occasionally accidentally blonde moment stupid. I'm mostly interested in getting him some new CR!

JEN

[sorser]

STEPHEN STRANGE (MCU)

[sorser]

Character Name: Stephen Strange
Arcana: Death
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: The loss of control and the burden of one's choices affecting many — and not always for the better.

Nightmare description: I'd like to stick with some very trippy imagery for this one, similar to Stephen's initial foray through the multiverse in his first movie. I would also like hand imagery to be prominent (to the point of possibly crossing the line into body horror), so trigger warnings for hand injuries may be present. Though to not be too repetitive, since I did hit on this theme a little for the memshare event, I think it would be fun for Stephen to constantly find himself in varying versions of the trolley problem—in which he needs to decide to sacrifice one person to save many, etc etc—and potentially have other character's nightmare imagery bleed into these scenarios.

Entity: Lots of hands, lots of eyes. Generally monstrous in appearance, but not necessarily aggressive, just Always Watching. (AKA I may make it up as I go along.) Likely, there will be a manifestation of the entity that looks a lot like himself.

Accepting faction intervention: Stephen will be accepting his faction's intervention, and will work tirelessly (or… very tiredly) to get the spell in working order. If anyone wants to deal with a very irritable sorcerer who thinks he Knows Best as his exhaustion escalates, he's your guy.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? N/A, I'm pretty open!

General Plans: Stephen will be very concerned about this entity making the rounds, and he'll be willing to discuss everyone else's take on the matter; potentially to be addressed with the Thorn higher-ups at a later date, depending.

Alucard | Castlevania

[cryptsleeper]

Character Name: Alucard
Arcana: The Hierophant
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Real events where Alucard feels he has fallen short of the values he was raised with and has very much failed to live up to. This is especially true with regards to his mother's regard for humanity and when Alucard has very much acted like Dracula instead.

Nightmare description: CW: Murder; Sexual assault
Alucard's nightmares are really just replays of his worst memories (committing patricide; the sexual assault prepetrated upon him that ended with him impaling those responsible for it on the lawn), usually with the additions of either his mother or Trevor and Sypha witnessing each act or the aftermath thereof respectively. In short: Alucard's nightmares are just amplifications of terrible moments.

Entity: Absolutely dad dying with skin sloughing off of him, revealing bones. The face may change out every so often, and once in a while just be mom.

Accepting faction intervention: Absolutely not. Alucard will leave the Free Cities, but he has no intention of being near or accepting the help offered. Instead, he will be moving out to a cave that he discovered in the desert and will be converting into his new crypt

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? No, but given that Alucard's damage does involve real issues, please, please let me know if you need me to avoid certain details. I tend to gloss over them in the first place, but I want to be 200% careful here.

General Plans:

I am much, MUCH more interested in using Alucard to assist with the nightmares of his CR rather than focusing on his own. I did more than enough of that during the memshare event, and since the two are fairly synced up for Alucard, I'd rather not retread existing ground.

I am very okay with merging nightmares though, if you want some undead Dracula fuckery in there.

I would be interested with Alucard working with others to figure out that the Entity wants to claw into the real world. Alucard is smart when it comes to this kind of thing, working together would be useful and possibly abate some fears.

Alucard will manifest some physical imprints, mostly in the form of silver burns running up his arms and down his legs. Those familiar with that particular memory may recognize what is going on.

He'll carefully be experimenting in his domain. If you're new and or want to establish CR with Alucard, and want a weird creepy figure stalking you through his depression forest, this is perfect.

Alucard will consider taking one or two people to the cave with him, but that is reserved for the CLOSEST CR.

If you want to chat about taking the help from the Free Cities or not, Alucard is very happy to chat about that.

tl;dr: Alucard is really here for the assist this round.

[gunspins]

Character Name: Cole Cassidy
Arcana: The Hanged Man
Faction: The Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Betrayal with a side order of helplessness. Putting too much trust into someone to realize you don't really know them like you thought.

Nightmare description: I'm having a few scenarios here because canon is vague on the details so I may shift between scenes quickly.

— Scenario 1: Sounds of gunfire and screams and quick glimpses of some kind of battle robots tearing through the place. The scene is vague, the people even more so, but after several are cut down one can sense Cassidy's overwhelming feeling of loss. He'll be a child here, but so focused on the scene before him that he doesn't really notice anyone else.

— Scenario 2: Cassidy is a little younger than he is today, maybe around 30. He and another man (Gabriel) walk out of a fancy building while chatting only for the building to explode right behind them. As they pick themselves up and dust off the debris, panic floods in as both rush back inside the rubble to drag people out. Most are bleeding, groaning, and covered in dust and debris. Some aren't moving at all.

— Scenario 3: He's standing in an office with three others at his side facing a smug, well-dressed man who taunts them before Gabriel pulls out his gun and shoots him out the window. Cassidy is left shocked, confused, and angry. Gabriel justifies himself and Cassidy fears how far Gabriel might go because he hardly seems the same man anymore.

Entity: Gabriel Reyes, specifically looking like this. He'll be slipping farther and farther away from protocol and more towards violent decisions made on a whim.

Accepting faction intervention: He's accept the offer.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Scenes of non-con or suicide.

General Plans: I think I'd like to have him experience others' nightmares a bit more than his own so let me know if you'd be interested in this cowboy dropping in!

[fourarmedandangerous]

Goro's dreams or Cassidy's?

[ordinar]

Character Name: Wilhelm
Arcana: The Tower
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: Family expectations and loneliness/losing people he cares about

Nightmare description: The central image tying these two themes together is his brother Erik's death in a car accident. This is the moment that a lot of changes in his life hinge upon. In some versions of the nightmare, he'll be in the car with Erik trying to prevent it from happening, while in other versions he'll be helplessly watching from afar. Subsequently, a larger-than-life version of his mother pulls him along in one direction while he tries to go literally anywhere else...liiiike, for example, toward his friend/ex-bf Simon...

Entity: I'm envisioning some kind of shadowy figure wearing a crown that tries to grapple and strangle its victims. Maybe up close its face bears a resemblance to a distorted, zombie version of Erik.

Accepting faction intervention: He might need someone to persuade him to contribute. OR ALTERNATIVELY, he may initially agree because he's desperate for it to stop, but later try to back out because lmao what is he doing, in which case he'd need someone to talk him off the ledge, so to speak.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nothing that comes to mind.

General Plans: Also looking for a Thorne roomie. :)

Julie Lawry | The Wheel of Fortune

[princessvegas]

Character Name: Julie Lawry
Arcana: The Wheel of Fortune
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Complete and total isolation, coupled with maybe a demon wizard.

Nightmare description: Julie's nightmare, in every version, takes place in a warehouse store. There are shelves with various products, a bunch of sofas, signs advertising sales. There are doors to the outside, which is where daylight enters. But there are no people.

In fact, there is absolutely no indication of life. No birds chirping outside, no noise from air conditioning or fans, no sound at all. Like the whole building is in a vacuum. The only ambient sounds are your own footsteps on the ground, and your own heartbeat, deafening in your ears.

Despite this silence, there are, in fact, two people present. One is Julie herself, in her current incarnation, though she will be mostly unresponsive. She will do very little besides move idly between places to sit. In spite of her appearance matching how she looks now (versus when she had longer, lighter hair and a more youthful overall appearance), there is indication that she has been here in the silence a very long time. If interacted with, she will not believe anyone else to be real, and will instead try to banish the "vision" by screaming and violence.

There is one other person, who will not interact with anyone except Julie, and who will change appearance slowly over the course of the event. He will, at first, be a tall, handsome man in all denim, though he exudes an aura of malevolence. In this facade, he will mostly just sit around, drinking glasses of milk. Always milk. Over time, he will become taller and taller, will begin to wear a dark, hooded robe that hides his face, and the evil aura will grow and grow in magnitude. Anyone who comes near him will feel their worst instincts begin to take over in their mind. The most sick and cruel thoughts become not only acceptable, but preferable, and they seem perfectly normal and logical. This effect is much worse on people who already lean toward questionable behavior.

Julie and the man are linked by many glowing, red strings. They can separate and go to different areas, but the strings stretch between them. The strings can entangle anyone who doesn't manage to dodge them. The strings begin as thin and delicate, but each passing nightmare makes them thicker, until they are like ropes.

CW: GORE
During one night only, there will be a third person, a woman in a bellhop costume with a tray under a cloche. What's under the cloche? That's just something you'll have to find out 😘

Entity: Good-looking but scary at first. By the time he begins trying to claw his way out, he will look much different. Julie will always recognize him. When she sees him, there will always be a flash of lightning.

Accepting faction intervention: Her inclination will be to not help, but I'm open to her being swayed if you have something cool to plot.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? I'm cool.

General Plans: Come at me.

[techmaturgy]

Character Name: Viktor
Arcana: Death
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme:
Mortality, the fear of dying without having accomplished anything, the lengths to which one is willing to go to save oneself (and is it worth it), loss of humanity.

Nightmare description:
cw: animal/human experimentation, terminal illness, medical stuff, etc.
Finally, trauma cave, which might be familiar to some CR, as it exists in his domain. Viktor’s nightmare(s) will focus both on a traumatic experience from his childhood, his own current plans (read: the intent to experiment on himself), the fact that he’s actively dying, and all parallels drawn therein (get ready for weird things in tubes). He’ll be caught up in his own nightmare fairly easily, most often as the subject in various magical and medical experiments.

Entity:
It’s Viktor! But, like, bad end version. Back home, Viktor was about to experiment on himself with something he called the hexcore, a conduit for magical energies that is an entity he doesn’t fully understand and can’t control. Though he successfully augments himself using it, this happens at a later canonpoint, so currently he has no idea what it would have done to him (though it is implied that it’s already in his head)! So, you know, he’ll just be his own worst nightmare; the version of himself that has abandoned all ethics, his principles, and his own humanity in order to save his own life. Visuals forthcoming but he's definitely gonna be a fucked up monster guy.

Accepting faction intervention:
Yes, but only because Jayce will insist on going, and Viktor isn’t about to let him do it alone. That said, he’s not really in any shape to be entering some kind of energy-sharing situation, so please feel free to tell him this is a bad idea. He also doesn’t really dig having to work with the government, so if anyone wants to have discussions along those lines, I would also be into it!

Is there anything you don't want to interact with?
I am all good!

General Plans:
I would be really into plotting with people about how we can combine our nightmares into even WORSE nightmares. Viktor’s stuff will definitely be manifesting in his Horizon, if anyone wants to go spelunking. Also extremely into throwing Viktor’s entity at his current CR, because not enough people know that he is secretly incredibly desperate and about to do some bonkers science crimes. Please make him explain himself.

Hit me up on plurk at whitticus. Happy to discuss!

[cryptsleeper]

1. Alucard will absolutely point out that the situation with the Free Cities is worth a good, solid side eye. If we wanna do that.

2. 8)))))) I would like to assist with Fucked Up Monster Guy in some capacity. Given that they're en route to Ethical Concerns With Blood, I think they probably need that to kick start the particular ethics of that in the first place and some of the practical vampire concerns outside of "no more sunlight ever" and into "blood bonds are kind of important...." The question of how is entirely up to you, be it in meat space or the Horizon

[monomachy]

Character Name: Diana of Themyscira
Arcana: The Empress
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Personal failure (real or imagined), and feelings of helplessness/powerlessness when it came to preventing those failures. There are a few big traumatic points in Diana's life where she feels as if she could have/should have stopped something terrible from happening, but either didn't act fast enough or was incapable of acting at all. That eats at her, and will manifest as her Entity.

Nightmare description: CW: WAR IMAGERY, DEATH MENTION, FORCED RESTRAINT
Diana's nightmare will primarily be set in two places: on Themyscira's beach, and on a battlefield. It won't be any battlefield in particular, but those with a keen eye for Earth history might notice that the trenches, uniforms, weapons, etc. are very early 20th century. As the event goes on, the two settings will merge together, creating a horrible landscape of crushed natural beauty and "modern" warfare.

Whatever the scenario in the nightmare is (Antiope's death, the destruction of Veld, Steve Trevor's death etc.), a dramatized version will play out for the duration of the nightmare, sometimes "resetting" to play out again. A common theme will be Diana being restrained by chains attached to her Amazonian bracers, anchoring her to the earth and keeping her from intervening in any of these tragedies, or being prevented from averting these deaths in some other way.

Entity: Diana's Entity will take the form of Antiope, the General of the Amazons and also Diana's mentor. Antiope died when German forces chased Steve Trevor to Themyscira's shores, and she sacrificed herself to save Diana, who had turned her back to the enemy. Antiope's armor will be largely intact, except for a bullet hole in her abdominal region and smears of blood on the leather. She represents the first failure that Diana feels she could have avoided if only she hadn't frozen during her first real battle.

Accepting faction intervention: Yes, Diana will accept faction intervention, especially when told that the Entity may manifest forreal and wreak havoc. She doesn't want anything to tarnish her memories of Antiope :(

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? N/A, if anything comes up, I will let others know.

General Plans: Diana has been pushing down a lot of her feelings of failure (letting Antiope & other Amazons die, letting the people of Veld die, letting Steve die, realizing that the concept of war is bigger than just one person, etc.), so this is going to be a way for her to have to face it by being subjected to her failures on repeat for several days in a row.

A couple of these concepts/memories were a part of April's event, so I'm leaning towards her primarily entering other people's nightmares or combining with them rather than rehashing some of these things again, but I'm mostly going to go with the flow. And if we missed out on digging into some trauma in April's event and you're interested now, please hit me up via pm or on plurk at watchet!

[assembles]

Given that both of them have battlefield related dreams, I'd love for some combination of the two that they're trying to fight through before waking up! Steve can also put his all into try to free her from the chains that are holding her down for Drama. Or if you want to focus more on Steve's side of things, they can get a visit from the Winter Soldier.

We could play the nightmare part out and then have them run into each other while awake as well, if that works out?

Where is Diana staying in Cadens right now, btw?

Jon Snow | Game of Thrones | The Emperor

[northerndragon]

Character Name: Jon Snow
Arcana: The Emperor
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: Jon has two main anxieties: bastardy makes him feel like he doesn’t belong in his family (House Stark) or his home (Winterfell), and like he’s holding a title (King in the North) that he doesn’t deserve and only got because a lot of his family was killed; he also fears that all of these things will be overtaken by ice zombies (his family turned, his home overrun, his homeland lost to the Dead). Preventing the latter feels like a personal responsibility, but one that is so large that he has serious doubts he’ll be able to put together a coalition that can pull it off.

Nightmare description: Winterfell is empty, and Jon wanders around it alone, calling out to family, servants… anyone? He finds some long-dead animals in the stables, but that’s about it. Eventually he feels compelled to go down into the crypts, where he feels both unwanted (it’s a Stark family crypt, and he’s Not A Stark) and pursued by the shades of the Kings of Winter, his ancestors, who are buried in the tomb and represented by statues. The statues have real swords across their knees and sculpted direwolves at their sides.

Upon getting chased out of the crypt by the statues and re-emerging in the courtyard, he finds that it has become overrun by the Army of the Dead (warning for graphic violence in that clip). Some of the wights have the faces of family members or friends (including, potentially, a zombie version of Ghost). Much of the rest of the dream is a desperate, potentially losing fight against a zombie horde. He wakes up as they overtake him.

Entity: It’s eventually revealed as the Night King with Ned Stark’s face: Jon’s biggest nemesis combined with his most cherished role model. Prior to that, it may look like Robb (the 100% awesome brother Jon loved but was also a little jelly of) or Catelyn (the cold and disapproving “stepmother”).

Accepting faction intervention: Yes, he’ll accept, although he’ll point out to them that he’s not necessarily great at magic and are they sure they want him to try? He wants to help, but he’s worried he’ll do more harm than good.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Not that I can think of!

General Plans: He’ll probably look for distractions (3am cups of wine, that kind of thing) and occasionally slip into the Horizon.

He will have minor injuries consistent with what happens in the nightmare: lots of scrapes and scratches, maybe some torn-out hair.

That aside, this is an opportunity for other people’s nightmares to go all Fast Zombie, or to have disapproving statues walking around in them, things like that. Want a pack of undead direwolves? Now’s your chance.

You can also poke me via PM or at detectivefiction !

[ordinar]

sooo Wilhelm's nightmares will also deal with themes of anxiety stemming from royal titles and from losing loved ones...maybe we could some sort of nightmarish mashup?

Ronan Lynch | Thorne | The Moon

[nightwash]

Character Name: Ronan Lynch
Arcana: The Moon
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: The inability to distinguish between dream and reality.

Nightmare description: Much like the worst dream, the setting of Ronan's nightmare will be utterly mundane. There will be nothing to suggest it's a dream at all. No monsters lurking, no shadows stalking, nothing that isn't present on any ordinary day. The location will be wherever Ronan fell asleep, and he will be "waking up" there and going about his day as usual, interacting with everything he'd normally interact with, until he either encounters another dreamer who points out that this is a dream or he encounters his own reflection, which will spur him to "wake up". And again, he will "wake up" and go about his day as usual, until he either encounters another dreamer who points out that this is a dream or he encounters his own reflection, which will spur him to "wake up". And again… And again… Until he actually does wake up. (Or does he?)

Entity: Ronan. The entity is Ronan. He will usually find himself in mirrors or other reflective objects, but others may encounter the incorrect Ronan in their own dreams, dreamwalking the exact same way the "real" Ronan would. (I would love to play this nightmare Ronan for you.)

Accepting faction intervention: Yes, Ronan will be doing everything he can, although he will be very frustrated that he can't seem to wrangle this on his own.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? I'm good with anything!

General Plans: Well, this whole event bears an uncanny appearance to the exact thing he was dealing with in canon, so he will at first be trying all the usual tricks until he figures out that a) this isn't as urgent a problem as it was in canon, and b) he can't really do shit about it anyway. If he can get out of the looping maze of his own nightmares, he might go dreamwalking to see what other dreamers got going on, but it will be extremely annoying to him that he can't control any of these dreams so he probably won't explore as much as he otherwise would. Much like the Horizon, this feels like dreaming with his hands tied behind his back and it's all just very unpleasant and irritating.

[stations]

I'm hitting you up twice back to back with my tl;dr but suffer me

I am 90% canonblind save that I've done some PSLs with a Blue and I've learned a few things through osmosis in her tags, but I really dig his whole dream thing and how it could interact with Jack's if you find the cr and the character interesting!

Jack's going to be mostly "dreaming" in mundane public places too, but also... half awake at the same time? Dreaming, but also interacting with people who are totally 100% awake, or confusing the Horizon with reality. Dreamwalking Ronan would be like half reality walking Ronan lmao. Jack also can't tell the difference between reality and dreams/hallucinations, like, ever, and his entity is his repressed violent outbursts as an abused kid taking the shape of a total sociopath stalker murderer.

We could get super real, maybe even have his fledgling powers kick in and dream-hallucinate some objects into reality to tip off that he can potentially Do That?

Idk man it just seems like Ronan might be the perfect dude to help teach Jack how the fuck to do the Thing.

[godshattering]

Character Name: Claude von Riegan
Arcana: The Wheel of Fortune
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: A very bad series of What Ifs mostly centered around war and the fallout from it, and/or being isolated/an outsider.

Nightmare description:
For option #1, Claude's nightmares are going to take place in the war he lived through. He was successful in his timeline so basically, his dreams are going to focus completely on failing: losing friends through making bad strategic choices that he was solely responsible for, the world being even more destroyed, a big theme of people's trust in him being misplaced, or going through all of that war only for nothing to have changed at all. His main goal was to unite the continent of Fodlan in order to bring about open borders and better lives for everyone, so this would hit heaviest to have had so many people go through so much suffering for it to result in making lives even worse instead of improving them. Losing people he cares about is also high up there on the deep fears list since he grew up with basically no friends so losing them specifically through his own actions would be rough. I have a handful of ideas for this one and combining them with any other war or family/found family loss dreams someone else is having too could potentially work really well.

For option #2, and sort of related to the above, being in the Free Cities all by his lonesome after having others to rely on could also drag up some dream memories of being an outsider both in his homeland and Fodlan. For this one I would rather focus on that feeling than go heavy into details or maybe make it a vague fine-details-mostly-glossed-over nightmare with just some Bad Vibes rather than something specifically witnessed.

Entity: His Entity is going to look vaguely like his old professor, but like, corrupted and obviously not a true recollection. I'm looking for a visual that might work but I'll provide a link to the "good" version of the professor if I can't find one. This is to play upon his fear of people he cares about turning their back on him after he decided to let his guard down and trust them because why not up the suffering EVEN MORE.

Accepting faction intervention: He's not trusting of anything which seems too good to be true and this would fall under it, so he'll take his time to decide. My plan for right now is to have him end up accepting with serious reservations so I'm all for people pushing him to do it (and would love to use either chatting about it or participating in helping for CR too!). If Claude does end up participating, this would be something he will REALLY want to research once they're back and recovered if anyone would be on board for that. Please feel free to tell him why this is a bad choice before or after the fact too!

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nothing that I can think of right now. If something comes up in a thread I'll reach out, and if we're writing something together please feel free to do the same!

General Plans: I'm all for someone's nightmare melding with his if we have common themes (or we can make up one) or him participating in someone else's, whatever works.

Also, he doesn't sleep a lot and deals with insomnia as it is so this event will definitely have him reluctant to fall asleep even more. If anyone would like to form an informal insomniac support group through the event, count him in! I'm planning on having Claude move into The Sarstina Inn some time vaguely this week in exchange for working odd jobs there, so that's where he'll be wide awake if anyone else is around too.

[assembles]

Slides in here from the CR meme......

So, having their dreams sort of meld together sounds like a good option, and given that their entities are both representations of people who are close to them, I think that would be good too. Steve's also staying at the Inn so they can def had insomniac hours as well, if we want that. Or discussions on whether or not to cooperate with the Free Cities, there are just too many options here!

noa | geralt of rivia | the witcher

[gynvael]

Character Name: Geralt of Rivia
Arcana: The Hanged Man
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Geralt's major thing will be loss, most significantly that of his loved ones and his family. He's afraid he'll fail to protect them but there's a lot of abandonment mixed in there, too, a fear that he'll not only let those important to him down but that it will lead to him being truly alone.

Nightmare description:
CW - child death, massacres, blood, corpses, gore

Geralt's dream will always begin in what appears to be a cold, dank cellar. There are multiple small rickety shitty beds, sized for children, and blood stains the floors and walls, but he will be entirely alone.

The door will open into a variety of landscapes: the woods, a snowy mountain, the inside of a temple, a town, whatever, but what will not change is that it is strewn with bodies, filled with fire-scorched trees or buildings, and the ground will be soaked in blood. From a distance, the corpses will appear to be faceless strangers. Up close, some or all of them may take the form of people he is close to or has lost in the past.

Each time, there will be the voice of a girl who calls for him. Those who know her will recognize it as Ciri, but when he finds her amidst the bodies, she will be the young girl she was when he left her, not the woman she is now. She may be in danger or the danger may have passed, leaving her with fatal wounds. Either way, Geralt will struggle to save her and will ultimately fail...unless someone can come along to help him.

Entity:

Geralt's entity will take the shape of a large white wolf, but one that is not near as friendly as his Horizon wolf. Its muzzle and teeth are permanently stained red, and in its jaws it will carry an identifying piece of someone close to him, like a necklace, clothing, or...in some cases, a body part. Or a whole severed head! WHO KNOWS. I'm leaving this flexible to adjust the gore/horror factor based on what people are into. If you have close CR with him, I am 100% open to the wolf carrying a piece of them that implies they are the one who is dead.

In any case, the wolf both represents his own fears manifest re: being responsible for failing to protect people, and also because the Witcher tradition is a sky burial, where their dead are left for the wolves etc. to eat.

Accepting faction intervention: Nope. Geralt is going to be coming back right as everything is ending, so he'll miss out on this entire aspect. He's smack in the middle of the desert until near the end of the month.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Not that I can think of!

General Plans:

OK so! One thing I'm specifically seeking is that I want Geralt to be severely injured upon waking up, at one point. This is to tie into his current plot where he's out in the desert. So I'm looking for anyone who wants to do this and I'm down for it to occur in any way - your character accidentally killing him, him saving your character and getting himself fucked up in the process, anything at all!

Beyond that, I'm happy to merge nightmares with other people and really make things weird and terrible. Outside of his own particular traumas, Geralt is pretty good at staying calm so dream-Geralt will be able to try and help anyone who's scared or running or just wants a protector. I'm also totally up for using this to kickstart first meetings or deeper CR that would otherwise take wringing blood out of a stone because Geralt is a tightlipped bastard.

[cryptsleeper]

Pulls up carpet square.

I'm Very Here for severe injuries etc. Since Alucard will be high tailing it to the desert to ride this out as well...

Rey | Thorne | The Star

[provenforce]

Character Name: Rey
Arcana: The Star
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: Powerlessness, abandonment, giving in to darker urges.

Nightmare description: Rey's most outstanding trauma is being abandoned, many of her dreams center around when her parents left her behind on Jakku, and on being abandoned by others that she's cared for, Han, Luke, even Kylo. Her nightmare is losing people, over and over, them rejecting her for the darkness inside her. She also has reoccurring nightmares of Snoke torturing her, worming his way into her mind which sort of feeds back into that abandonment as he pulls out her deepest fears. Then there's the dream where she took Kylo's hand on the Supremacy, where she became a dark side user and walked over the corpses of her friends to take power for her own.

Entity:
Ultimately Rey is afraid of herself, afraid of who she could become if she lets go and stops trying so hard to be what she's expected to be. Her entity will manifest as the dark side Rey, who is weirdly less angry and more charismatic than regular Rey.

Accepting faction intervention: Rey will agree to it, bc she knows this is bad news bears.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? nah I'm good with whatever.

General Plans: I'm open to nightmares merging, mix and match or any other things to try and help or hurt everyone! Rey will probably try to get by on sleep less and less and be subsequently irritable and less measured than she usually tries to be.

[catholica]

Character Name: matt murdock
Arcana: the tower
Faction: free cities

Nightmare theme: abandonment and isolation stemming from knowing that everyone he cares about will leave him because of who he is and what he does coinciding with the inability to protect people because of the choices he's made, leading to immense guilt and self hate about himself and his actions.

Nightmare description: there are two sides to matt and thusly, i'm gonna have his nightmarescape be a courtroom, packed full with people counting on matt to save them, to plead their cause and as he fails, it grows darker and darker, more ragged and hazy. there's screaming and accusations, people pointing and turning their backs on matt until it eventually turns violent and instead of taking out their frustrations verbally, they take it out physically, rationalizing that since he wasn't able to help them, they're going to take their fee out on his or anyone else who's there skins.

from there, it morphs into a dark, long hallway. there's no end in sight and every door is closed, locked. but people keep spilling out from parts unknown, spilling out and violently attacking you. you'll find matt there, in dark clothes and a scarf over his face, already in the middle of a fight with a nameless, faceless thug. in the dark, in the far, far distance, there's someone familiar, reaching out but there's no way to get to them without fighting through the hordes of people that continually come between matt and the person desperately calling out.

matt'll get closer and closer, with or without help, and just as it looks like he might reach the end of the hall, a hulking shadow appears behind the person and kills them. the person dies, the blood seeping towards matt until it brushes against his shoes. the shadow laughs. the dead person laughs. everything darkens and the only thing left is matt, blood, and echoing laughter.

Entity: it's good ole kingpin. he will always be still, hulking, but not interfering. he'll be letting other people do his dirty work. during the courtroom, he'll be in the back, impeccably dressed and smirking.

when you see him in the corridor, he'll be at the very end with the person matt's trying to save and he'll be the one to kill them and then laugh.

Accepting faction intervention: matt'll be accepting though he'll be wary since he's new to things. but his want to help will go nicely with him getting help. he's strong and stubborn to a fault so he'll work himself to the bone.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? really, just super severe eye trauma is the big thing.

General Plans: i'm so new here and just hoping i did things right. but let's gooooo!

[carmesi]

maaatt reaches for

should you write a top level, i'm going to throw wanda at him! his nightmarescape sounds like a mess in the best way, so i look forward to it. would matt be defending random/nameless people, or could we throw our characters at him for him to try and defend?

[piqure]

Character Name: Peter Parker
Arcana: Strength
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Loss; Never getting a chance to be remembered again; The fear that people die because of him; and the fear of not making a difference.

Nightmare description: I'd like to play less into the obvious loss (as he's had plenty of that recently) and focus more on disquieting things and the deep-rooted trauma and fears the most recents events have spurred for Peter.
Peter's nightmares will always start as quiet ones. He'll be alone, and the world around him is silent. Sometimes it will be the streets of New York, uncharacteristically empty. Sometimes it will be the planet Titan. The battlefield where they won against Thanos. The toppled Lady Liberty statue. Peter will always be alone, first. They'll warp more the longer he stays in them — New York will be in ruin, with billboards announcing how countless more lives were lost because of Spiderman's carelessness. The longer he looks somewhere, the more bodies he'll see, sometimes of people he recognizes. Sometimes it will be not getting somewhere in time and failing to save someone. These are fast and loose concepts!

Entity: It will be different most times - but, likely familiar faces accusing him of failure, blaming him for their deaths, or simply asking for his name as if strangers.

Accepting faction intervention: Yes! He absolutely will be. While there's a degree of skepticism towards the authorities, Peter will hear this might help and absolutely leap at it. He's got strength to give and can deal with the exhaustion if it means he can help stop this from getting worse (whether or not it actually works). Peter will also hope to learn more about how that calibration stuff works. Would love for him to run into and chat with some fellow crystal collectors or chat during the whole energy drain exercise.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? n/a

General Plans: Open to wondering into nightmares accidentally, helping people out of theirs, and anything in between!

[assembles]

I'd love for them to chat while collecting crystals / donating their superhero energy, etc.!! And probably just awkwardly not talking about their nightmares because Steve would definitely not want to dump on a kid ... Although he'd let Peter know he was there to talk about his nightmares if he needed an ear!

Hennessy | Thorne

[impressionism]

Character Name: Jordan Hennessy
Arcana: Moon
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: It's the same one she has in her canon; a manifestation of the trauma of witnessing her mother's suicide when she was ten. The only elements of the dream are herself and a dark abstract shape that she's named The Lace.

Nightmare description: For the sake of interactivity, her nightmares will start off differently from her usual manifestations of the Lace dream, and will be utterly banal scenes until the moment she glimpses it out of the corner of her eye, or feels the entity coming for her. At that point the dream will become suffused with a heavy aura of dread. Sometimes she'll have her dreamt sword with her, which can fend the thing off for a while, but it's not going to be a guarantee. cw: suicide some aspects of her dream might include flashes of her mother's death or the immediate aftermath, but will be entirely opt-in and warned for in their own prompt.

Entity: Direct from her canon: "A thing? An entity. A situation. Its edges were jagged and geometric, intricate and ragged, a snowflake beneath a microscope. It was enormous. Enormous not like a storm or a planet, but enormous like grief or hatred. This was the Lace. It was not really a thing one saw. It was a thing one felt.

For the sake of shaking things up a bit for her, the Lace will occasionally be vaguely human-shaped at first. It'll look from a distance like a shadow in the shape of Hennessy herself, or at least another girl who looks a lot like her. It'll never quite resolve into anything with an actual face or identity, but will grow into the odd lacy-edged dark shape that she's used to as the dreams recur.

Accepting faction intervention: Y E S. If Thorne can figure out how to stop this thing she'll be firmly Team Thorne from here on out, because she'd really like to know how to stop it for good and she figures this is a step in the correct direction.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nah, I'm good.

General Plans: Want to chat with someone who has experience with this exact thing? Once she gets over her general level of panic and frustration with the dream, she'll be more willing to talk about her own experiences and how she's been able to at least hold the thing back with help and/or glowy swords.

She'll also be likely to seek out her more magically talented CR to help her try to block this thing before she realizes no one else's entities are getting out and eating them alive. Then she might be willing to genuinely fight the thing if anyone wants to team up with her in dream space and help her punch her trauma in the face.

[nightwash]

Ronan would LOVE to see Hennessy punch the Lace in its... face? popcorn.gif

Nadine Cross | The Stand

[nadine_he_loves]

Character Name: Nadine Cross
Arcana: The World
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Hellish post-apocalypse with seriously Biblical undertones. Common themes will be helplessness, loss of sense of self, being overcome/dominated, and demonic threats.

Nightmare description: Lots of imagery of a warped post-plague America, with a lot of influences from the Catholic idea of Hell. There's probably going to be lots of dead kids, zombie-like things, weird sexual symbolism, it's going to be on the brutal side. Nadine's big fears mostly stem from and revolve around the demon-like entity she served most of her life and then married - both who she was and the bad choices she made under his spell and who she could have been if that influence was still in her life. With a lot of Catholic guilt mixed in. It's gonna be real fucked up and appropriate content warnings will be included.

Entity: Nadine's entity is going to take the form of Randall Flagg, which means at any given time may look like a handsome Viking Elvis kind of dude....or a hairless gray skinned vaguely corpse-like creature with cracking and flaking skin. That lurks around being menacing to outright attacking, but is always in some manner of pursuit.

Accepting faction intervention: Nadine is undecided, and inclined to not trust governments but is open to being talked into accepting the offer for the greater good.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nothing I can think of!

General Plans: Pretty open! Nadine is predominantly going to be Very In Distress in her nightmares, so a good opportunity for hero types to flex their muscles. But this event is going to stir up a lot and help her on her emotional journey, so I am eager to dig in and do stuff with it.

ches fields ☾ original (werewolf)

[wolfssegen]

Character Name: Chester "Ches" Fields
Arcana: The Lovers
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: Losing his compassion, becoming a cold killing machine, failing the people he loves and allowing them to be hurt or killed.

Nightmare description: CW: offscreen murder or attempted murder of a child, murder of parents by a teenager, animal (werewolf) attack Ches's dreams will generally be set on his farm and the surrounding land, either in the past or in the present and will probably feature the time his parents tried to murder his younger brother, who was five years old at the time, upon finding out that he was a werewolf. During this occasion, he snapped and killed his parents with a small pocket knife. Mostly the dreams will focus around what might have happened if he hadn't snapped, and his brother had died (in this case, I'd keep the actual death off-screen). The dreams may also contain scenes where other precious members of his pack are attacked or hurt and he doesn't have the wherewithal or compassion to protect them or jump into action. Alternately, the dreams could have scenes where he's lost his capacity to care about killing other people, and kills enemies in cold blood - a lingering fear related to his lack of remorse about killing his parents and what that lack of remorse says about him.

Entity: Chester's Entity would be that version of himself that doesn't care about people dying or killing others, the compassionless, dictatorial type of Alpha he's afraid of becoming.

Accepting faction intervention: As much as he doesn't trust authority and/or the government in general, he'll be accepting the faction's intervention in order to make the dreams stop for everyone.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Hardcore right-wing Christian rhetoric.

General Plans: I feel like this would be a great opportunity for Ches to form some bonds with other people, which he does quickly, and maybe to help protect other people from the dangers in his dreams or their own - which would help form bonds more quickly. He's looking for people to fill the empty hole left by his pack not being here.

[stations]

consider: Jack playing the role of his younger brother; it works 2 ways because Jack's dad was abusive af and almost killed him on a number of occasions

[lightkeeping]

Character Name: Aloy
Arcana: The Hermit
Faction: Solvunn

Nightmare theme:
Literally The Weight of the World. Facing down inconceivable destruction, and losing. Failure to protect loved ones, alternatively, the ones you love dying to protect you.

Nightmare description: The American West, except decaying. The lands are blighted, storms ravage the skies and the oceans churn. Smoking ruins of some kind of battle dot the landscape, the corpses of machines underfoot. Large, walking tanks unearth themselves wasting no time in consuming the very plant life around you, if given the chance. It is not a very safe place to be.

Aloy herself will do her best to escort you through her nightmare and fight off any threats, but it’s clear she’s overwhelmed, and desperate. Things are going poorly, and to her, the stakes have never been higher. She also, you know, has some pretty wacky nightmares in canon, so I might lean on those a little.

Entity:
Oh, you know, maybe just some horrible techno-organic amalgamations of machines and some of her dead loved ones, a reminder of the things she fights and those she’s failed. This will probably (definitely) get into Forbidden West spoiler territory, so please let me know if you’d like me to avoid anything.

Accepting faction intervention:
Oh, oof. She wants it to stop, but she’s also naturally skeptical and isn’t very happy about doing things for them and also being made to drink a weird thing. Seeking any and all who might be like “what the hell is this” with regards to the Old Gods. I’m undecided if she’ll eventually do it or not so, convince her! Or don’t!

Is there anything you don't want to interact with?
All good here

General Plans:
Look she’s SUPER NEW so I’m basically down for anything. Catch her in her nightmare. She can catch you in yours. We can make terrible nightmares together OR Aloy can do her very best to protect those overwhelmed by their own dreams slash entities. Hell of a way to have a first meeting amirite

You can also hit me up on plurk at whitticus.

[carmesi]

here for team "don't let the faction intervene".

dunno if you want these two gals to bond over this nightmare event? machines sound like fun, albeit terrifying. if you go for her dream-game sequence, we can have the red at the end bleed into wanda nightmare territory and just make things 10x worse? THOUGHTS

Psi

[endcaller]

Fandaniel

[endcaller]

Character Name: Fandaniel
Arcana: The Hanged Man
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Infinite sea of dead stars representing not just one apocalypse but countless thousands. Death, despair, emptiness.

Nightmare description: Shifting but generally set against the backdrop of the sea of stars. People might be in a space ship, or on the moon, or on the top of an immense crystal tower, or a floating island. In every setting there are no signs of sentient life. The only things that move are machines... And the Entity. Sometimes deep, heavy thunking, like the ticking of a massive clock, echoes out of the sky.

Entity: A hulking black creature resembling an Iksalion. When it speaks it speaks in a sweet voice like that of a young girl. Sometimes it can be heard breaking the silence with a song.

Accepting faction intervention: Since Fandaniel is working with Aleksander Klingel on his new tower project he will be accepting their intervention and helping out in the underground lab. Want someone to talk your character into accepting? He'll talk their ear off.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nah, it's all good.

General Plans: This will dig deep into Fandaniel's trauma, which he is not likely to talk about otherwise! Fandaniel's dreams may go into themes of nihilism, suicide/suicidal ideation, despair, mental health, death, body horror, existential horror, cosmic horror, cloning, and magical possession. If that sounds interesting then let's do something! If not, then you may want to dodge him for this event.

Mat Cauthon

[a_better_man]

Character Name: Mat Cauthon
Arcana: Wheel of Fortune
Faction: Thorne

Nightmare theme: Dark fantasy monsters, losing control, magical end of the world stuff

Nightmare description: Mat's fears revolve around the attack on his village and his own potential to be a powerful force of evil and darkness, so those will be reflected. Expect a burning village, dead people, a dark shadow city and destruction.

Entity: A horrific and violent minotaur like beast known as a Trolloc.

Accepting faction intervention: Mat wants this to stop, he's going to help.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nope

General Plans: This is gonna mess Mat up and I'm really looking forward to it! No real plans as yet, I am open to anything! Including merging nightmares, I love that stuff.

[impressionism]

hello yes I am here for the trolloc, please?

[funbreaker]

Character Name: Thancred Waters
Arcana: Strength
Faction: Free Cities

Nightmare theme: Despair taking over everything and consuming it, leaving nothing in its wake.

Nightmare description: The setting itself can be just about anywhere — somewhere from Thancred's home, from the other world he's visited (the First), or even somewhere in Abraxas (or your character's world, or some amalgamation!). But the idea is that a malevolent dark force, despair itself, would sweep in and essentially take all of the color and life out of the area, leaving nothing but hollowness behind. Any sense of happiness or positive feelings would just be sucked out of the air. This could be more literal too, with people feeling as if they can't breathe, etc.

Entity: The Entity will be Meteion, a villainous force from Thancred's home who he and the rest of his Scion friends were trying to stop before he ended up here. While he knows that all turns out well with that thanks to Y'shtola, he hasn't lived through that himself, and so her threat and what it represents is still haunting the back of his mind. This can get pretty creepy. She can also appear is a more innocuous black bird.

Accepting faction intervention: While Thancred would like to help if he could, the fact is that magick is not something he's really capable of using. In truth, his ability has recovered somewhat from spending time in the Horizon and he's achieved one power gain, but he doesn't know that! So he'll feel pretty useless and unable to help, but will try to offer support to others who are doing work, even if that means staying up into the late hours of the night with people suffering from insomnia.

Is there anything you don't want to interact with? Nope, I'm down for whatever!

General Plans: I'm happy to have people experience his dreams or to throw him at others! He'll be pretty annoyed by the entire situation and might try to avoid sleeping where he can... but of course, can only pull that off for so long. He'll also dip into the Horizon where he can. He'll be trying to keep others' heads on straight if they're having a hard time, and will also be doing what he can to support those who are doing the spell stuff in Thorne, since he can't help much there.

[endcaller]

I don't know what mooshing their dreams together would be like... But it would be awful.

Especially since Meteion is The Entity for both of them. (Well for Fandaniel it's his soul dream, so it's an Iksalion but it's Meteion)