Dreamscape Event

[dreams_are_mine]

Characters: Rhode Kamelot and OPEN
When: Every night March 6th through 12th
Where: Rhode's dreams
Rating: R+
Summary: Rhode dreams. You dream with her.

Comments

The Top Hat

[dreams_are_mine]

The hat is decorated with a grinning golden crescent moon and roses. While it seems rather jolly, there’s something oddly sinister about it. A foreboding aura.

A golden bell with the number 1 engraved on it hangs from the top crescent of the moon. The hat seems to repel you, you don’t want to touch it. There is something inherently evil about the decorative headpiece. Something very old and malevolent. Focusing on it makes even the single light seem dimmer.

[dreams_are_mine]

The scene never finishes. Rhode wraps her arms around Lucifer comfortably as he carries her, but the scene freezes, letting him wander through it as if through statues. The Apocryphos feels both sinister and divine in origin--incredibly powerful, even just the memory of it in Rhode's mind. A truly formidable threat.

"If it were that easy we'd have done it years ago." Rhode huffs lightly. "But that it's come out now... It means we're close. It wouldn't come out of hiding to fight us if it weren't important to keep us away."

Though her tone of voice is matter of fact, even a little bored, there's an anticipation in it, a hunger that might be familiar to Lucifer.

[outsidewindows]

He runs a finger over the Apocryphos, and then rubs his fingers together as if examining some substance. Then again, given how much he disdained touching humans, he may have simply been disgusted by the feel of it.

"Oh, I didn't mean to imply it would be easy." He moves around to look it in the eyes, still keeping Rhode comfortably balanced on one arm. "But these...things could be useful. Or fun for you."

He tilts his head to one side, and for just a moment that gentle expression is gone, replaced by something hateful and utterly calculating. "Do these things think? Or are they like the Akuma?"

[dreams_are_mine]

It doesn't feel human. In fact, it feels holy, and also painful, because this is Rhode's dream. And in her the thing is an object of hatred. Rhode watches Lucifer, not the least disturbed by the change in his expression.

"It's Innocence." She frowns, because that's not really an answer. "Usually Innocence needs to be compatible with a human, and the human carries out its will." She scowls at the Apocryphos.

"That one exists on its own. But sometimes... It eats people." Absorbs them body and soul, incorporates them. She thinks it's disgusting.

[outsidewindows]

His smile is bitter, vindicated. "Does it. What a surprise.... It's like fighting fire with kerosene, isn't it?"

He pushes it experimentally. "I wonder if they realize what they have to become in order to keep us from the Heart."

The irony is so perfect, he could just laugh. He doesn't, but it's in his smile.

[dreams_are_mine]

Rhode just scowls, Luficer's hand trailing through the thing as if it were suddenly made of smoke. "They aren't nice anyway. They're self-righteous and deluded, but they only care if their apostles listen--step out of line, and you'll be punished."

And the humans are no better, experimenting on each other to manually make people compatible with Innocence. And they call her family evil.

The irony isn't lost on her, and she leans her head on Lucifer's shoulder. "Once we find the Heart we can destroy them all."

[outsidewindows]

"They're the same in every world," he agrees with a small hum. "I wonder if we could ever bring one to Adstringendum."

They could experiment on it for years if they wanted.

[dreams_are_mine]

Rhode frowns at the idea, the scene fading away. Yes, they need to find the Heart, but the idea of having that thing around sets her teeth on edge.

"If we have to." Sometimes it's all she can do to stand Allen's Innocence nearby, and as Innocence goes Crowned Clown was a bit unique.

[outsidewindows]

He raises an eyebrow at her reluctance. "You should tell me more about them."

And by 'tell' of course he means 'show'. The benefit to having dreams is that she can.

[dreams_are_mine]

Rhode's frown deepens because Innocence... She hates it. But if he wants to learn more, then she'll show it. The scene shifts to show a gigantic grotesque thing destroying what looks to be a rural area of China.

"It picks an Apostle. But if the Apostle betrays it, it turns on them." The dream fills in the knowledge--this is what happens to an Exorcist that betrays Innocence. They Fall from grace and the Innocence consumes their life, their very soul.

Akuma flock around the figure, trying to destroy it even as the life force emanating from it in waves destroys them.

[outsidewindows]

He knows that for most righteous beings, the sin of thought is as bad as the sin of deed. That the Exorcists are destroyed for their betrayal doesn't surprise him, but he does wonder:

"How many Apostles does this happen to?"

Uhm. Wednesday night.

[sauceytomato]

It makes him nervous, being near the hat. Still, he can't help but feel that there's some sort of familiarity to it, if only very vaguely. The decoration on it is definitely questionable - who'd wear such a thing? - but the actual hat itself...

...It reminded him of someone. He couldn't exactly place who it was, at the moment, and he felt that he should know who it was, and it made him curious. The bell hanging from the decoration didn't help, either. Curiosity got the best of him, and he reached over to turn the bell over to get a better look at the number.

<3

[dreams_are_mine]

The scene flickers, the moon on the hat becomes the moon in the sky and Sasuke is standing in a graveyard beneath a dead and twisted tree, in front of a granite headstone. As Sasuke stares at the stone a name will etch itself there--Whatever dearly departed he misses most. Perhaps his parents, or even his brother, someone missing from Adstringendum, the only requirement is that the name belong to the dead.

And then it hits--that feeling of loss. Grief. Denial. That soul-searing pain of losing the loved one--as fresh as the first time Sasuke discovered the death. Chokingly suffocating and raw as if it had never healed.

He will experience this for several moments before a deep, elderly voice, unfathomably kind and friendly, greets him.

"Good evening ♥."

<3

[sauceytomato]

Sasuke's blood chilled. The hairs on his arms and back of his neck rose as he stared, dumbfounded, at the tombstone for him. There was absolutely no way that it was true. Absolutely none. That did not keep his emotions at bay, however. Even as he started the 'it's not possible' mantra in his head, he could feel his strength leave him.

He sunk down to his knees and reached out with a shaking hand, fingers gently tracing over the engraved name.

Hitsugaya Toushirou.

Before he even knows it, he's crying, blurring his vision almost completely. Dammit. Sasuke sat back and wiped his tears, trying to steel himself at least a little. Of course Hitsugaya was dead, he was a shinigami - a death god. What good would that be if he were alive? Still, the reasoning doesn't keep him from crying like a child that just lost his parents.

At the sound of the greeting, Sasuke visibly jumps. He just sits there for a moment before, slowly, looking up.

"Who...?"

[dreams_are_mine]

A jolly looking grinning fat man at least seven or eight feet tall, in a top hat and over coat, with comically small hands and feet, stands sympathetically behind Sasuke.

"It's very tragic. ♥ The loss of a loved one. ♥" He seems to really feel for Sasuke, despite the fixed and toothy smile. Like a kindly grandfather.

"Would you like him back? ♥"

[sauceytomato]

Slowly, very slowly, Sasuke lowered his arms as he just stared at the man before him. Obviously, Sasuke would love to have Hitsugaya back. He loved him unconditionally. He would do...anything.

Absolutely anything.

"Of course I do."