Nightmare Moshpit

[ofthedream]

WHO: Everyone trapped in the Nightmares
WHERE: Nightmare Moshpit
WHEN: Starting Friday, 10am, continuing until the Dreamers are freed from the nightmares
WARNINGS: HIDEOUSNESS, everyone's personal nightmares, will probably have blood, gore, trauma, insanity, etc. Go nuts, people!
SUMMARY:

Comments

Late, but open

[ctu_savior]

In the real world, Jack Bauer has fallen asleep at his desk, which is unheard of in the police force: Jack sleeping, to say nothing of sleeping at work. He twitches, he moans. A tear falls down his face and stains the unfinished paperwork his head is resting on.

In the Dreamscape, there is a room. Plain, sleek, modern, high-tech, dominated by a small desk crowded with computers and documents. There’s a missing panel on one of the walls, a trail of blood leaking out from somewhere. It’s dark in the room, the lights are out. Without looking at the clock, one can feel that it is midnight.

Jack is sitting against a pillar in this room next to the desk, shaking and shuddering. He looks at least ten years younger in this place, but at the same time older and more tired than he's ever been in the City. A woman is cradled in his arms. She is not moving or breathing. Her arms hang limply by her sides. An ugly red splotch stains the front of her white shirt. Even though she will never hear him, he is telling her “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’

[prodigitalson]

From darkness into darkness: it's almost a comfortable transition. Keith rarely remembers his dreams--he's trained himself not to--so when he feels the outside pressure of something on his sleeping mind, it simply becomes a matter of forcing himself to wake up.

Into another man's dream.

There's emotion in the air. He can feel it without having any special ability. It's as dangerous as always to him. He zeroes in on the source, studies Jack Bauer expressionlessly.

For some reason, he thinks of Seki Ray Shiroe, and of pulling the trigger. But he says, "Jack Bauer. Did you fulfill your duty?" It seems like the most important question to ask.

[ctu_savior]

For a long time it seems as though Jack has not even heard the question. His eyes are closed as he holds the woman's head tightly against his face, his tears running into her hair. He gives no sign that he has even noticed that Keith is there, that he isn't alone. But then he draws in a long, shuddering, painful breath and whispers, more to himself than anyone else.

"No. No, I didn't."

His duty to his family, his duty as a husband: that will always be unfulfilled now.

[prodigitalson]

And Keith remains dispassionate. He isn't sure where he is or why he is here, but he can't let any panic show. This is another man's horror, and he cannot give any indication that it affects him.

"You were to protect that woman, then." He assumes it was part of some mission. That a man as tough, as professional as Jack Bauer could have personal grief unrelated to his job is incomprehensible to Keith. "Do you think tears and apologies will bring her back?" His face is still stony, paler and harsher than ever in this lighting. "Let your future accomplishments be a requiem to your failure here."

[ctu_savior]

The calm, mechanical, reasonable, verbal smacking snaps Jack out of his memory. He looks up, really noticing Keith for the first time, and suddenly he has aged- the youthful Jack of that day falls away in an instant, and he is fifty again, coming back to the present.

"Keith?" He asks quietly, lost in the intense, nonlinear confusion of the dream world, a sleeper who doesn't realize he is sleeping but is beginning to understand that this isn't reality. "You weren't here. You can't be- This is, was, before I met..." He blinks and takes a breath. "What are you doing here?"

/BARRELS IN HERE

[spiritgun_punk]

Yusuke had crumpled to the floor right in the doorway of the precinct, plunging into sleep and dreams without even a minute to brace himself. He winds up tumbled head over heels through scraps and fragments of dreams, dreamscapes blurring past too quickly for Yusuke to even comprehend, before he comes skidding to a stop in a place he doesn't remember.

This isn't Yusuke's dream, that much he knows. He sits up slowly, rubbing his head, and looking around. There doesn't seem to be any immediate danger but--

"Jack?"

yaaaaay

[ctu_savior]

Jack doesn't even notice Yusuke dropping in, but when he speaks, he's surprised enough by this unexpected intrusion into his memory to open his eyes and look away from his wife's body for a moment.

"Yusuke?" No. No, I don't want him to see this. Yusuke's one of the people Jack is supposed to protect, and so far he's failed miserably: the boy has been gutted, then brainwashed on Jack's watch. The fact that it hasn't been permanent is of small consolation. Maybe it's better if he sees, part of him says even as the rest of him screams no, this is too personal, too painful, this needs to stay classified and buried for the sake of the mission. It will show him what happens.

[spiritgun_punk]

"...what happened?"

Yusuke's heart is hammering in his chest. He can pick up on what this is, if only from the way Jack's clutching this woman, holding her too tightly. Yusuke hasn't lost Keiko, and if he has anything to do with it, he never will, but he knows, knows from the way his chest tightens and his stomach twists, that this is someone Jack loved. He sits on his heels a respectful distance away, unsure of how to proceed, exactly.

[ctu_savior]

He stares down at her helplessly, uselessly. Her head falls back a little, enough to show her beautiful, still face. "Yusuke, this..." Jack swallows, searches for the words to introduce him to a dead person. "This is my wife. Teri. She- she was murdered. Fourteen years ago." The younger Jack of that time is gone now, replaced by the Jack Bauer of the present, older and by now accustomed to this burden and others like it.

[spiritgun_punk]

The guess had been right. Yusuke is quiet for a few minutes, looking at the dead woman, and then at Jack. He's not totally sure what he should say about this, if he even has the right words for this. He feels as if he's intruded on something far more personal than he ever had a right to, and he can't help but want to apologize for it, for seeing what he probably never should have.

"I'm sorry, Jack."

[ctu_savior]

Jack takes a deep breath, then forces himself to look away again, still cradling her. "Thank you."

With one of the sudden intrusions of logic that sometimes disrupts the flow of the dream world, he abruptly remembered that Yusuke hadn't been present on that day. "What are you doing here, Yusuke? I'm not imagining you, am I." He knew his own nightmares well enough to recognize when something didn't fit. "You're real, but this..." he looks around at the still, silent room, forever frozen in that one instant. "This isn't how it happened. I was only alone with- with the body for a few minutes before security found us. This isn't really happening, is it?"

[spiritgun_punk]

"Yeah, it's a dream. I kind of...I didn't mean to fall into yours, Jack, I was just trying to get out of mine."

Yusuke wasn't exactly sure how to handle this. He'd ripped out of his own dream, but he'd gone tumbling into Jack's. He wasn't even sure how he'd done it.

Oops, sorry for tense-switching XD

[ctu_savior]

"So... this is some kind of telepathy." Jack suddenly realizes that his grip on his wife has slackened, and a pang of guilt shoots through him- letting her go was how all this happened. His arms tighten around her. "Listen, Yusuke, you need to get out of here and find out what's causing this. Whatever is happening, it can't be good. I'll stay here and- take care of Teri." He leans his head back against hers.

I...didn't notice alkdasf so it's fine. Also sorry for my late fail fff.

[spiritgun_punk]

Yusuke's expression tightens, and he carefully moves closer, curling his fingers gingerly around Jack's forearm. He couldn't just leave Jack here, not in this room with his wife and--and it just wasn't something Yusuke could allow.

"Jack, c'mon. You can't just stay here."

[ctu_savior]

Jack gives a little shake, freeing his forearm, turning away as he pulls Teri closer to him. "I have to."

[spiritgun_punk]

"No, Jack...it's just a dream. She's not really here."