Nightmares follow you like shadows

[lord_wizard]

Who: Felix Harrowgate and YOU
What: Very bad dreams
When: Anytime during the Nightmare plot
Where: The labyrinth of his mind
Rating: PG-13 to R, depending on preference

[The atmosphere here isn't terribly inviting. The walls are dark, damp stone lit by the occasional sputtering torch, casting shadows so thick and alive that they seem like they could jump out and wrap themselves around your throat at any moment. The air is cold and underneath everything is a fetid, metallic tang that hangs in the air and permeates the stones. You can almost feel the despair leaking out of every pore of the rock.

Felix would call this feeling mikkary, though the word may mean nothing to you.

As for the wizard himself, he's standing with his back up against the wall, staring at you but more correctly through you, as if he can see something there that you cannot, and doesn't like it.]

We have to go...

[His voice is small and strained with the effort of holding back panic. And then you know what he does. Something is out there and it's looking for you. Something malevolent, and you don't want it to find you down here]

Hurry...

[He tugs on your sleeve, pleadingly, and darts into a darkened doorway]

FIRE | WATER | MALKAR

((ooc: Wait for sections. You can do any or all of them. Felix is trying to outrun Malkar. At your option, your someone can be a particular person or thing your character fears...especially if they happen to fear becoming like that. At your option, I can incorporate them into that last section somehow. Feel free to PM or contact to discuss details))

Comments

FIRE

[lord_wizard]

[You hurry together towards the promising glimmer of substantial light ahead. Turning a corner there is a blast of hot air and you're forced to shield your eyes. When you look up, the maze seems to have been replaced by a long city street. Most of the buildings are on fire and smoke hangs on the air, both spiraling upwards into the night sky above you.]

[inafadingcrown]

[No, no, no. Flashes of Doriath run through her mind, the sight and smell of a burning city all too familiar. She has fled from this before.

She blinks back the smoke and coughs.]

Felix- [She can't go toward the flames. There has to be another way.]

[lord_wizard]

[He stops in the street, glancing around. There are the sounds of screaming in the night, but for now they are distant.

Felix turns to her, eyes alive with fear]

We can't stop here...

[inafadingcrown]

[She nods and grits her teeth. She knows he's right, but somehow she's having difficulty forcing her feet forward.]

Is there no other way? To flee into a burning city... this is folly.

[lord_wizard]

Folly is staying here and letting it overcome us, or worse, letting him find us...[For a moment the watches the flames, wondering if sacrificing himself to the flames would be preferable to that fate]

[inafadingcrown]

[She takes a deep breath and nods, looking forward with trepidation.]

Onward, then.

[lord_wizard]

[He tears his eyes away from the fire and then starts to run again, glancing back only a moment to make sure Galadriel is following.

For awhile there is only the roar of the fire and the sound of their feet on the cobbletones, then ahead of them a horrifically cracking sound as the facade of one building collapses into the street.]

Dammit. We have to find another way.

[He looks to either side, frantically, and spots an alleyway as yet untouched by fire]

There.

[inafadingcrown]

[She nods in assent. The lack of fire makes that alleyway much more appealing than their other options.

Nothing to do but keep running, it seems.]

[lord_wizard]

[They run, simply because they must. The night sky is tinged with orange at the edges and the screams increase in volume.

The enter another street. The fire is less close and the sound of a river can be heard somewhere in the near distance.

The pass close to a large brick tenement building that has the beginnings of flame kindling deep inside.

And Felix stops]

WATER

[lord_wizard]

[The more you run, the stronger than wet, metallic smell grows. Soon enough you can hear the source emitting a low burbling rumble as it passes through these halls.

You come upon it suddenly, of course. A river in the darkness, cutting a wide swath through a cavern ahead of you. The water almost appears black, though nothing else about it seems unusual.

Felix doesn't seem to care. He turns on a heel, almost running into you in an effort to reverse direction, and lets out a high keen of despair.

There's a wall blocking the way back. Forward is the only way]

MALKAR

[lord_wizard]

[You probably both knew it was inevitable that running was pointless. In nightmares, whatever hunts you always finds you.

Or, in this case, you find it.

Which, as Felix knows, is to be expected. Malkar loves his traps.

What you stumble into is some gross mishmash of dungeon and parlour - the walls unchanged but marked by a few sets of manacles, a red mosaic pentagram glimmering under the light of braziers, circled about by a pair of velvet-covered couches.

A stocky man stands by the back wall, brown hair swept back and eyes bright, all over a smug smile.

"How nice of you to come visit me, darling. Do come in."

And then the door slams closed of it's own accord.]

[radiantwingedone]

[ Duke blinks, trying to place the smells to this place. Fire was clear enough, if it was one of those low ones for heating that few ever used, and nothing else tells him anything... of use.

The voice is not any he recognizes, but the term of endearment automatically makes him ignore it; its not for him -

Although the slamming shut door makes him turn for the wall to find it. That is another thing he automatically places, this time as 'bad thing'. ]

[lord_wizard]

[The door is there but solidly locked, and not through any mundane means, which says quite a bit more about the situation.]

You're supposed to be dead.

[Felix sounds scared and lost, his back up against the wall near the door.]

So I was. Do your friends here know you're a murderer?

[radiantwingedone]

[ Which means things are quite a bit worse than Duke thought at first. Felix voice adds to that.

Although, so far, the conversation isn't quite enough to pull his attention from trying to figure out how the door is locked. If he can undo that, it would make this quite a bit better. ]

Is that supposed to mean something to me? [ In Duke's mind, simple 'murder' doesn't quite cover what he tried to do. ]

[lord_wizard]

[The door is held with a lock spell. One of Malkar's favorite tools.]

I'll take that as a 'no'. Not surprising. You always were a liar, Felix. I imagine you've hiding the rest of your colorful past as well...

And do please get away from the door. Both of you.

[That doesn't at all sound like a request.]

[radiantwingedone]

[ Duke tilts his head, weighing those words, and pokes about that spell. ]

Again, is it supposed to matter?

[ ... and maybe he takes a carefully measured pair of steps back from the door. Its still within his sensing range, but he's not going go further. ]

[lord_wizard]

[The magic is different that what Duke may be used to, but he may get the sense that forcing the lock, magically or otherwise, might end up unpleasantly for the other person.]

A kindred spirit, then? I see...

[There's a few purposeful footsteps]

Get away from me!

[There's a flare of magic and a burst of heat as the fire in the brazier kindle higher, crackling and sparking like a firework. A warning from Felix.]

[radiantwingedone]

[ Duke hums a little, debating the idea of simply shredding the spell, when the steps and Felix seems to... Well, panic didn't sound quite right, but he did something because he didn't like what was going on.

This probably meant that Duke shouldn't continue standing with his back toward that someone who was also in there, so he turns half way. He carefully gathers some magic - not giving it a purpose yet, but holding enough for a quick spell. ]

Would you like aid in enforcing that?

[legacydeck]

[Clow knows just enough oneiromancy to feel as though where ever he is, something is off. That he doesn't quite fit in right. The way Felix had looked at him - or perhaps more accurately, had not looked at him - only cemented the feeling. And any attempts at trying to snap the other wizard out of his fear had failed, leaving him trailing after Felix through the dark, damp corridors. The place was Gothic architecture gone to ruin, like hundreds of old churchs and keeps he'd seen before. There was no life to be had here, other than themselves - not any more.

And then, abruptly, there was a room different from the others in furnishings, if not in style. The man across the room from them smiles, and for a brief moment, it isn't brown hair and Western features, it's Clow's own face smiling that cold smile back at them.]

[lord_wizard]

Malkar?

[Felix's voice quails a little, stretched with fear and confusion, unsure of what he'd just seen and his mentor's general presence here. Malkar glances at Clow, and for the first time Felix seems to recognize who is with him.]

Why don't you and your friend have a seat?

[He smiles, and there's maybe a little too much teeth in it to be genuinely polite]

[legacydeck]

[It's almost as if he's seeing double: the brown-haired man - Malkar - and himself. Or at least, a version of himself - a could-have-been, and he knows how close he's come to that line in the past]

I'd prefer to stand, thank you.

[lord_wizard]

[There's a flicker of anger there in Malkar's face before he shrugs it away, as if the resistance didn't bother him]

A drink, then, while we talk?

[He gestures back to a liquor cabinet on the back. A bottle of wine is already decanted and waiting.

Felix's throat simply goes dry.]

What is it that we have to discuss?

[He grins]

You coming back to me, of course

[legacydeck]

[Clow glances at the decanter - then at Felix. Fear is easy to read on the other wizard's face. He's not sure if he should step in or not - and then he looks back at the Malkar-him, and he can feel revulsion twist in his stomach. He can't stay detached - not when faced with that]

I would think that's Felix's decision to make, really.

[His voice almost matches Malkar - the same friendly purr over a core of ice]

[lord_wizard]

[Malkar's smiles doesn't falter an inch, though the dark glance he returns to Clow is anything but amiable. But Clow isn't his concern, at the moment.

Felix edges away from them both.]

Felix isn't very good at making decisions. He requires proper guidance from someone who knows better. He made such a mess of his life after I was gone.

Because of you!

[Malkar shakes his head and softly clucks his tongue a few times]

Blaming your actions on others? Very uncouth of you, darling

[legacydeck]

Perhaps you shouldn't be one to cast stones.

[He meets Malkar's eyes, and any pretense of politeness is gone]

I know your kind of wizard. I've killed your kind of wizard.