Dreams galore!

[notamaniac]

Possibly thanks to a certain priest, Freddy is sick. Walking along the Plaza, Freddy looks at the pockets or bubbles of dreams that have come out of his mind. He sees a cat sniffing at one of the bubbles and reluctantly moves forward. Freddy feels miserable. He's tired, achy, and his head feels like it's in a vise. Still. He feels responsible for the dream world and the power he has over it. Fortunately, the bubble the cat falls into is harmless. It's soon filled with the cat chasing mice made out of cheese. It's almost enough to make Freddy laugh.

Almost. Not all of the bubbles are so sweet.

One of the bubbles is giving off a vibe of suffocation and loneliness. It's looks empty. Subtle shadows in the off white interior vaguely suggest walls and a floor. Mostly though, it's just filled with that horrible, cut off feeling. Freddy quickly steps forward and uses his control of dreams to end that particular bubble.

Once that's done, he leans against the wall of the nearest building. Freddy knew he didn't have the energy to destroy all of the bubbles. He'd have to leave that for the dangerous ones. He frowned, trying to think past his weariness. He knows dreams and some are more real than others. Damn it. He sees a mother yelling at her young child, who is playing happily in a dream with a beach of rainbow sand. Freddy ignores them. The kid is safe, so his mother can deal with him.

Unlike reality, dreams don't last, no matter what kind they are. Freddy is deeply grateful for that, right now. Still. He's not sure it's a good idea to mess around with these bubbles. He just knows, though, that some adventurous sorts are gonna try and explore them and some klutzes will end up in them by accident. He groans in annoyance.

"Has anyone seen these bubble dreams outside of the Plaza? Can you try and stay out of them? I feel like hell and I can't guarantee what'll happen, if you end up in one. Nightmares don't always announce themselves with horror movie shit, y'know. If you need help, let me know! Just call out for Freddy."

He sighs at that last part. He just wants to curl up and go to sleep himself, but he isn't sure if he would be able to get into the bubble dreams, from the main dream world, since they seem to have broken away!

Comments

[chiron_survivor]

Adia is normally much more vigilant when walking in the Nexus, but she has a full cup of coffee in her hand and is also trying to find her PINpoint. She has to pause to actually look in her inside coat pocket for it, which is just enough time for a dream bubble to float down from wherever it had been lurking and completely engulf her.

She looks up -- and freezes. She isn't in the Nexus anymore. She's back in the lab on her ship, the Chiron, the lab that holds infectious diseases, the lab that has a series of failsafes so no one can leave if the alarm has been triggered.

The lab she was in when --

"No," Adia whispers. She drops the cup of coffee, not noticing how it spills out onto the pristine white floor. She runs quickly to the door. Maybe she can get out, maybe --

The alarm panel is broken. She's stuck.

"Help!" She calls out, banging on the steel door. "Help, someone, let me out! Please!"

[notamaniac]

Freddy hears the call for help and frowns. Several of the dream bubbles in this area are opague, not letting him see inside. With a groan, he uses hearing and that special sense of his to find the right bubble. When he finds it, he changes it so he can look in. He hopes it also means she can look out.

"Hey! Lady, simmer down. You're gonna be okay."

He has no idea what's going on in the dream. Only the busted alarm panel tells him this is a nightmare.

[chiron_survivor]

It doesn't look like anything else in the lab is broken. No smashed vials, no shattered glass. But Adia seems frantic to escape, pounding on the door until her fists are sore.

The puddle of coffee on the floor is taking the shape of a man. Like a reverse chalk drawing, the kind police leave at crime scenes. The outline seems to splatter outward at the head,

"No, no, no," Adia whimpers, catching sight of the coffee stain. Then the walls flicker; she can't quite see out, but it's enough to give her pause. She can hear Freddy's voice, but it sounds so far away. "Hello?" She calls out, her voice shaking with fear. "Can you get me out of here?"

[notamaniac]

Freddy looks at the coffee stain and grimaces, more in annoyance, than horror. The dream seems pretty strong, so Freddy decides to take the direct approach. He enters the dream bubble, focusing on standing next to the woman inside.

"Okay, okay, I'm here. I can help," Freddy grumbles. "Could you be any more freaked out? This a dream. Don't you remember being in the Nexus?"

Normally, Freddy would be a bit more sympathetic, but he's so damned tired. He even gives a yawn, stretching to remove some of the aches in his body.

[chiron_survivor]

Adia jumps when Freddy enters the dream bubble, her nerves already stretched thin by her situation. She stares up at him, her face pale. "Excuse me?" she says in a tone that would be incredulous if her voice wasn't trembling so much.

She looks around, visibly trying to calm down. "I... I was in the Nexus, yes. I had a cup of coffee..." Her eyes involuntarily draw back to the stain on the floor. It's looking less like coffee and more like blood. An orange tulip is growing from where its head should be.

"Please," she says, her gaze swinging up to Freddy in supplication. "I don't know what's going on, but I need to get out of here, I've had this nightmare before, and I don't want to see him again. Not here."

[notamaniac]

Freddy rolls his eyes at the tulip. He doesn't know why, but it just irritates him. Exerting his influence, he makes the coffee stain disappear, first. He ends the dream carefully, making sure none of it is real enough to enter the Nexus with them.

"There ya go," Freddy sighs. "We're not in that lab and no one is coming. Who the hell had you so worked up?"

[chiron_survivor]

Much like waking from a real nightmare, it takes several seconds for Adia's heart to stop pounding and for the color to return to her face. "How did you do that?" she asks in wonder. She wouldn't have assumed anything if Freddy had merely pulled her from the dream bubble, but she didn't miss the way he was able to make the coffee stain disappear first.

She swallows hard and looks away, as if ashamed, but... well, he had rescued her. She supposes she owes him an explanation. "Someone close to me killed himself in a lab on my ship," she says quietly, barely above a whisper. "Just before, he tripped the alarm... we studied infectious diseases, it was a failsafe to keep anything from escaping. I was trapped with his body for several hours."

[notamaniac]

Freddy hesitates. In his own town, he would never dare admit what he can do. The good people of Springwood didn't have open minds very often. They preferred everything neat and tidy, with everyone just different enough to seem wholesome. Still, he figured keeping quiet here and now would do more harm than good.

"Dreams are...my territory, you could say. I have power over them," he tells her simply.

Freddy's mom worked hard at teaching her boy compassion for others, so sick or not, he feels sorry for her. He's just not very good at expressing it, so he sounds coarse.

"I'm sorry about that. Sounds rough, but that dream wasn't real. Whatever happened, it's done."

[chiron_survivor]

Maybe it's for the best that he's brusque with her. She hates talking about what happened, even here. Wiping at her eyes, she nods and lets out a shaky breath. "I'll get past it. Sorry."

She looks surprised, but only for a moment. She's met people with all sorts of powers in the Nexus, why not someone who can control dreams? "That's... really impressive. Are you psychic, as well, or is it just dreams that you can control?"

[notamaniac]

Freddy feels a bit guilty, watching her wipe away tears.

"Don't worry about it. Nightmares are supposed to get to you, I guess."

He's glad she's handling his little announcement so well. Freddy's used to people seeing him as a bit odd, not impressive.

"I guess it depends on what psychic stuff you mean. I can use them to tell the future, a bit, though I mostly stay away from that. I can use dreams to read people, if only by going into their dreams."

He's not sure he should mention the part about being able to make dreams, to an extent, real.

[chiron_survivor]

Adia smiles -- a little forced, but she seems to be recovering. "They wouldn't be called nightmares if they weren't."

She listens avidly, both intrigued by his powers and wanting to put her mind on something other than her bad memories. "You can use them to tell the future? Like a prophecy? It must be hard to learn about someone from their dreams. Mine are normally so disjointed that I don't even know what they mean."

[notamaniac]

"I don't think it's so much prophecy, as the fact that time doesn't mean much in dreams. Past, present, and future kinda co-exist there," Freddy explains. "Nah, it's not their dreams that let me know about them. It's...well sort of a telepathy thing. In the dreams, I can see into people and learn about them. Dreams don't really have meaning, in my opinion. Dreams have their own reality. People just tend to draw certain bits of it to themselves."

[chiron_survivor]

"Really? I've never thought of dreams as being timeless, in that sense."

She looks uncomfortable for a moment. Freddy has seen her nightmare, after all, what does that say about her? "Do you use your power often? On your world, I mean."

[notamaniac]

"Don't feel bad. I haven't met many people who know a damn thing about dreams. Most seem to think they're just pretty pictures you see in your sleep," Freddy says, meaning to be reassuring, but he's scoffing at people, really. "Yeah, pretty much any time I go to sleep. I'm always controlling my own dreams and...well, if someone I care about is having a nightmare, I'll step in and change the dream."

Mostly, he does that for his mother, Amanda. He doesn't want to talk about that, though, so he doesn't bring her up.

[chiron_survivor]

"People can be quick to discount dreams," Adia agrees. Then again, she hasn't had a "pretty picture" dream in some time. "But I think that's wonderful that you help your loved ones." If he did mention his mother, she'd only think more highly of him, but she certainly isn't going to pry about who specifically he helps.

"When you control your own dreams, what do you dream about?" she asks curiously, hoping it isn't too private a question.

[notamaniac]

"Uh, yeah," Freddy says, not sure how to respond to her approval. He's pretty sure no one from his town would accept what he did so graciously. He blushes just a tiny bit from the praise. He tilts his head at her question, though, a bit puzzled and intrigued by it.

"What do I dream about? It's not like that for me. I'm too aware of the dream world as it's own place, with its own reality. I spend most of my time there exploring it and what it can do. What I can do, y'know?"

[chiron_survivor]

She bites her lip nervously, hoping that she didn't embarrass him. "Is it ever scary for you? Other people's nightmares?" He didn't seem at all perturbed by her nightmare, but it couldn't have been much fun, either.

"So... it's more like a superpower?" She nods slowly, starting to understand. "Are you ever surprised by what you learn?"

[notamaniac]

"Nah. Why be scared, if you can just make it go away? I guess the images are disturbing, at times, but I'm never afraid."

Freddy laughs at the idea of having a superpower.

"I'm not sure I'd call it that exactly," he objects, grinning. "Yeah, I get surprised quite a bit. The human mind is pretty amazing."

[chiron_survivor]

"I guess so. It sounds like you've had a lot of practice, too. How do you know if someone is having a nightmare?"

"I think it qualifies," Adia insists, smiling. "A friend of mine is a vampire with psychic powers. I don't think she can manipulate dreams the way you can, but she has prophetic dreams. Anyway, she became a superhero, so I think anything's possible."

[notamaniac]

"I don't always," Freddy admits, with a shrug. "Some people I just keep an eye on. Sometimes, I just stumble across nightmares."

Freddy shakes his head. He once entertained the idea of using his power for the public good. In the end, he decided against it.

"Think about it, though. How would I do that, without violating people's privacy? I have a lot of power and it would be way to easy to abuse it."

That was something that had concerned Amanda for a long time and she had made sure Freddy respected others, especially in the dream world.

[chiron_survivor]

Adia nods slowly, feeling a little foolish. He has a really good point about violating people's privacy. "I suppose you could offer your help to people with recurring nightmares, but then you wouldn't have a secret identity. And who knows if anyone would trust you..."

At least he's not using his powers for evil. That'd be a real nightmare. But Freddy seems like a good guy, despite being a little rough around the edges. She smiles at him again. "Well, thanks for helping me, at least. Do you... um, should I not tell people about your powers?"

[notamaniac]

"Yeah and I'm not sure I would trust them, either," Freddy responds dryly. "Oh, you're welcome."

At her question, he gives a sharp laugh, looking around at the dream bubbles floating around.

"Thanks for the offer, but I don't think this is gonna stay quiet. I gotta get rid of these damn bubbles."

[chiron_survivor]

"That, too," she says quietly. At least he can help his loved ones.

Only then, when he mentions it, does she notice the other dream bubbles floating around the Nexus. She turns in a circle, looking around with wide eyes. "Where did these all come from?"

[notamaniac]

"From me," Freddy admits wearily. Fortunately, the dream bubbles have slowed in coming, if they haven't actually stopped. "I'm sick. I feel like shit and these things keep squeezing out of my head. I think some guy claiming to be a priest whammied me."

[chiron_survivor]

If she had learned this right away, she might have been a little cross with Freddy for inadvertently being responsible for her nightmare, but as it is, she just looks at him sympathetically. "That happens here sometimes. Not necessarily the priest part, but weird temporary curses."

She gives another wary look at the bubbles and takes out her PINpoint. She wishes she could get another cup of coffee, but she's not risking getting trapped in another nightmare. "I'll leave you to it, then. I hope you feel better soon."

[notamaniac]

"Oh, this place is just a barrel of laughs," Freddy answers dryly. "Yeah, thanks, because I'm so looking forward to this. I'll feel better as soon as I can get some sleep."