18 - Rye

[radiantwingedone]

Who: Duke and any other sleepers~
What: Welcome to Duke's nightmares
When: During Nightmare plot
Where: Random forest clearing - or dream-like odd shifting. It's a blind guy's dream, who knows.
Rating: pg 13 for blood and deaths.

Its a bit murky, the forest and trees of an area remembered but not seen in a long time. Unsurprising, to those who knew Duke, who is currently sitting along the side of...

Calling it a monster would be accurate, given its size, and meld of parts. Large with fur, feathers, scales in white and yellow, multiple pairs of wings tucked against its side. The creature is the only thing, aside from Duke, who is clear about the dream. Duke looks a bit like a doll in size to the creature, and both seem to be injured, but healing, by the brown splotches to the fur and bandages to Duke. It was almost peaceful, a forest and small birds..

That all take flight as faceless warriors swarm in, causing both human and creature to lurch to feet, try to get clear. Surely a creature of that size, injured or not, wouldn't be troubled by a score and half of men and women with swords, spears, crossbows, and magic. Should have been able to get one swordmage and one large monster out.

It wasn't. Duke staggers away, then struggles to remain from going down as the creature roars-screams, and Duke freezes half down as blood splatters over him.

There are other faceless fighters, other people knocked apart and hurt. Maybe they aren't familiar to Duke, but they might be familiar to someone.

(OOC: The other "fighters" can be any sort of officials, or soldiers, or military for the added characters. The person getting targeted is anyone close to the added character. Duke's own 'friends' will get oddly described from when he's in Para, so o/ ... and he probably won't remember more than vague details of any other dreamers.)

Comments

[fuckinghateadrenaline]

A forest. Why was he in a forest?

That was the one thought going through Stuart Bayldon's head as he looks around... Before a commotion draws his attention down to the clearing again.

There was a group, fighting... something. That was until a group of the swordsmen peel off and go for three figures. The first one to go down is a tall man in a green polo-shirt like Stuart's. The second, dressed similarily, except with brown, curly hair. The third? A woman in a black and white uniform with blonde hair.

All of them fall to the men's swords, their corpses left as they go back to killing. Stuart? He stands there for a moment, dumbstruck as he watched, before getting his arse in gear to go over, yelling their names.

"Ashley! Rachid! Maxine! God, please don't be dead... Please don't be."

[radiantwingedone]

Duke struggles to get back up, shoved back down and aside from his friend. Some else screaming, a vaguely familiar voice. He really should know that voice.

Looking about isn't really that much help - but there is someone who is in the wrong clothes. They didn't look like anything he had seen before.

"Run!" Duke struggles to get back up but collapses again, because of the scent of blood and the feathers in it... A rough shape of a man on a horse tries to stop the men in armor, and meets the same fate. Duke stares blankly at the shapes - no no no nononono...

[fuckinghateadrenaline]

Fuck the men around him. Stuart comes to a stop, first off by the brown-haired man. "Shit... Ashley... Hold on. You're not dying on me, sunshine..." Stuart's voice is panicked as he starts to try CPR on his friend.

Realising that it isn't going to work, he's moving onto Rachid. "No... No, no,no... This isn't how it's supposed to happen..."

[radiantwingedone]

"You should go!" Duke doesn't manage to get up this time either, more or less knocked against the slowly fading body of his friend, which makes him freeze in that sort of terror that may come with 'I am going to get sick soon'.

He shudders, falling back fully to the ground, and struggles to gain enough focus against the scents and sounds to throw a Havoc Gale into the middle of the group. "Run!" He shouts that after the noise starts, doing his best to be loud.

[fuckinghateadrenaline]

"I'm not leaving them!" Stuart yells back at whoever's telling him to run. "They're still bloody alive!"

Barely... But they were... He could save them... He had so save them...

[radiantwingedone]

Maybe Stuart shouldn't have said that. The soldiers seem to have noticed him, finally, and are starting to keep him away from his friends. The best way to hurt someone, make them useless in the face of death.

"You should go!" He really doesn't have much more to say to that, because if they're still, it won't be for long.

[peeta_bread]

Peeta's so confused as he looks around. It's not until the commotion that Peeta runs forward. But he stops when he recognizes some faces. A young girl with olive skin and brown hair, an older man, a stunningly gorgeous man with bronze hair.

Peeta fights to get to them before they fall, but they fall, one by one. "NO!" They can't be dead. They can't be. Tears start falling down his cheeks as he looks around, looking for the man he saw earlier.

[radiantwingedone]

Duke has tried to get back up, again and again when he spots the new faces. They didn't make much sense to him, but anyone who wasn't the knights was someone who he should probably help. But when his friend finally falls, Duke is trying to become as small as possible on the ground.

The knights are milling about, even as the creature fades and a rough man-on-horse shape tries to help them. This one sounds like Vanyel - and would be the right size and shape for the man and his Yfandes, but there's no color or detail to him. The knights swarm him, one knocking Duke to an angle where he could see.

"No! Go!"

[deductiongeek]

The first thing Conan noticed was that he was no longer three feet tall. He stares blankly at his hands. Larger hands than he had become used to. The hands of a teenager.

The second thing Conan noticed was the faces of some of the soldiers. One with long brown hair and the athleticism of a karate champ. A dark-skinned kendoist shouting angrily. Another with a face nearly identical to his own. All falling.

He starts to run.

And then Shinichi's world collapses as blood spatters across his face.

He screams.

[radiantwingedone]

Screams are loud and very piercing and Duke struggles to get up, getting half trampled as it fails. He has no idea who you are, he doesn't even think that voice - even as out of normal as it is from screaming - is anything he's heard before.

"Go! Run!" Duke's voice strains a little at getting louder than room-suitable, to be audible over the crashing and -

the creature falls, splattering Duke and painting his hair closer to his coat and he stops, trying not to echo that scream as he registers.

[deductiongeek]

He runs alright. Right toward all the fallen bodies to check their vitals.

[radiantwingedone]

The soldiers don't hinder him - well, it wasn't exactly helping, tripping him. Conan may need to check his balance so he doesn't faceplant into a mess.

Another creature lands, trying to catch Duke and pull him free, but spears and spells flash for wings and it falls to fight on the ground, struggling.

"Khroma, no! Just leave!" Duke manages to get to his feet this time, but is knocked back toward the edge, a small group of soldiers keeping him there. It looks like a stereotypical trap.

[deductiongeek]

[His years playing soccer had left Shinichi with excellent agility. He dodges around the shoulders and rapidly reaches them.

He cannot find any sign of life. It was too late.

But the currently teenage detective doesn't have any time to grieve. He sees the danger developing on the other side of the clearing. Hastily he lines up a large rock and kicks right into the center of the building trap.

[radiantwingedone]

[ It both helps and doesn't - Duke is able to get free and some of the soldiers are distracted trying to catch him again, but the rest are still intent on the new creature.

It does its best, scraping up the ground and knocking weapons and men away, but its not enough.

Duke is quite willing to remain curled up on the ground now. ]

[ninjainviolet]

This was wrong.

The words came unbidden to Sheena as she stepped through the trees. These weren't the familiar vibrant, verdant green of Gaoracchia Forest; they were of a darker, sinister hue, and the young ninja had no idea how she came to be in such a place.

Taking a step forward to explore, she stopped and turned suddenly as the sounds of screams came through the gloom towards her. Abandoning all thought of exploration, she whipped out her Lightning Cards and bolted towards the heart-rending commotion.

Coming upon the clearing, everything suddenly came into sharp focus as she saw everyone she knew and cared about being slaughtered where they stood before her very eyes. No more would she hear the bubbly laugh of Colette, or talk to Lloyd about anything, or share views with Raine, or smack Zelos in the head. They were her friends, and they were gone forever. But as important as they were to her, there was one person she would always care about more, and seeing him cut down finally brought her out of her shocked stupor with a growl of pure outrage as she ran towards them.

"GRANDPA! YOU BASTARDS! I JUST GOT HIM BACK!"

[radiantwingedone]

He didn't know those people. Of course, when people are limp and too-red, its hard to recognize them at all, same with never getting a clear view because moving killers and a wing trying to sweep him out of the commotion.

"No!" Duke tries to find another blade from the ground, but after any of the soldiers fell, their belongings vanished. Duke will have to use fists if he wanted to help. Even if he can't quite remain steady.

[ninjainviolet]

She barely hears him as she continues, her heart pounding almost as loud as her feet as she tries to get to Grandpa and the others. There's no way they can be dead--not from something like this, and she begins yelling as she slashes through the soldiers, trying to convince herself of this.

"Get up! Get up! Get up! You guys are stronger than that! If Volt couldn't beat you, then these idiots can't! GET UP!"

[radiantwingedone]

"He promised he would do nothing! Leave him be!" Duke struggles with a knight, trying to take the soldier's blade from him, to get past him to the side of the creature again.

He's caught, hauled back by his stained hair, and kept, even as he struggles to be free, and to not be such obvious bait. Its fear and rage that color his voice as he struggles, the creature moving to try to free him, taking the bait.

[ninjainviolet]

They aren't moving.

As much as Sheena hates to admit it, her friends are gone; there's nothing more she can do for them. Her grief at losing even more who are precious to her is replaced by an almost uncontrollable rage, but before she can do something she may regret, she hears the scream from the other side and turns just in time to see the man captured.

She doesn't think, she merely reacts, running towards the duo, sending Lightning Bolts into the crowd of those who seek to hurt them.

She had failed her friends; she'd be damned if she failed these two.

[radiantwingedone]

Unfortunately, it seems like every one that falls down and vanishes, another pair come pressing in. The soldiers give a little, with Sheena's help, but the great creature still falls before it can reach Duke, who stops struggling as more red sprays across him.

"We saved you!" It almost seems like he's going to fall over, hoarse and broken as feathers settle. "We saved you!"

And before the creature can fade out, leaving another to fight in its place, a smaller one of different colors and a more dragon like shape with no fur, Duke focuses and the sky begins to rain meteors.

[lord_wizard]

He's lost for a moment - not unusual for him. This place isn't the castle or the Mirador. The trees all look the same to him. Nothing familiar until he spots Duke in the distance and moves that way.

Close enough to call out, but before the words can leave his lips it starts. He's paralyzed with fear and uncertainty until he sees the other shapes in the crowd. An older man - thin and dark haired - definitely not a fighter but there all the same. He's being knocked to the ground. Strangled.

Not again.

He's screaming in anguish before he even knows it's him making the noise, trying to run to his aid but his knocked back suddenly by a another redheaded, snarling blur. His brother, almost feral with rage, deflecting an attack from a soldier aimed at him.

[radiantwingedone]

Duke sort of recognizes that voice too. Voices screaming are much different than voices speaking, and it takes Duke a moment before he places who that voice is. Felix.

No. Felix should not be here...

"Go! Go, go go go!" The creature has fallen, and it looks like it meant to protect Duke, although the wing half over him doesn't help anything.

This would be a panicked dome of light Duke casts, one that knocks the soldiers flying about, although they blur and get up again.

[lord_wizard]

"Duke!"

He's not sure what to do. Help Duke or save his brother. But he's not a fighter and he knows it, and his doctrine prohibits him from using his magic, but he feels that conviction slipping.

"I can't!"

Mildmay is fighting the soldiers off but he can't win, slowed as he is by his lame leg, and there are too many. A sword catches him from behind and straight through the stomach and crumpling to the ground.

"MILDMAY NO!" He's screaming again, lunging for the body as if could do anything at all to save his brother.

[radiantwingedone]

Duke is confused by the 'I can't', as his world mostly produces combat-oriented mages, and Felix could use magic, why couldn't he, but the cry of an unfamiliar name and the no after it are confirmed with a glance, and Duke is fairly sure that may be a 'why'.

Duke still wants Felix to run, though, and it will take more than rough soldiers hauling him from under the still wing to make him lose this green-glowing spell. A great funnel cloud forms and pulls at them both, but tears soldiers from the ground to drag into the center, where lightning strikes them repeatedly.

"Run! Get out of here!" Before that shape on another edge can slowly fill in with what could be a mimicry of what Felix looks like, indistinct and lacking any color, in what might look like what he had worn on the day Duke had tried his magic experiment, 'solidifying' as the winged creature faded. Almost as if he was taking the place.

[lord_wizard]

He hesitated, wanting to get to this brother's body even though there was clearly no point. Duke was trying to save him from a battle he should have no part in. Nor should anyone else he knows, and seeing that is enough to make anger replace the fear.

There's a feeling like static in air as he turns a glare on a group of soldiers, a pulse, then they simply all fall to the ground in pain.

And then he's running towards Duke, even though he'd rather fall to the ground and be sick.

"We can both go!"