DM wrote:

Order:

Finally. With Bellatrix's voice joining in the chorus to get out of the square and Bastet moving towards that end, Aegle summoned her white wings, climbed higher than the dark pile so she could see it in its entirety, and hovered in place, waiting on everyone else to join her and pick a direction. She glanced up into the smoke-covered haze of a sky as Bastet spoke, then to their left, towards the tunnel in the sands, then down to the pile where the chaotic lifeform had escaped detection. What Bastet said made sense, but she'd rather puzzle it over away from where Chalybs's sensors and Nocturnus's device had failed. If Andromeda's fairies had turned evil, and the infant here had been evil, that Bastet assumed the rest of the people had been corrupted made sense, but to her that meant there shouldn't be a question here - either they fled to another world, or they took to the tunnel and fought it. 

Considering what just happened, she would vote for get away and get more help. 

"D-something," she replied, "The travel is weird, that things aren't working is weird... but an illusion? Or a nightmare?" she didn't look convinced. Subconsciously indicating her issue, she tucked her long strands of hair behind one ear, leaving a little blood trail where her hands brushed her face, "Illusions and nightmares wouldn't hurt. Could it be teleportation? I heard there were some with those powers..."

With the others beginning to move, Bellatrix did the same. She was thankful they'd be leaving this place. It was terrible and she never wanted to see its like again.  

Summoning her wings, Bellatrix began to fly up to join those who had already go on ahead. From her vantage point above the ground, she was able to see that the smoke was getting even thicker... too thick.

She felt better, being up in the air, but there were still others who had yet to summon their own wings.

Worried, she called out, "Hurry up guys!" She watched from above, frowning at the situation. She would keep an eye out, and if anyone seemed as though they were having trouble getting off the ground, she decided she would swoop in and lift them up herself.

They'd already lost allies in this strange hell. She didn't want to lose anyone else, especially not to a place such as this.

OOC:

She thought the idea of just leaving this place if it had been retaken by Chaos didn't sound right, but then again they'd been forced to do the same in Zenar. Everyone was urging to go somewhere and she agreed, it was just frustrating to not know where exactly they should be going. Giant worm monster didn't sound fun, but at this point she would welcome something she could fight.

Andromeda resummoned her wings and flew up again after squeezing Nocturnus' hand to encourage her to do the same, not hovering too high in case Nocturnus was still too hurt to fly and needed help.

The rest were talking about piecing together the clues, and she definitely felt whatever place they were in wasn't real - Zenar and this other planet could not be so seamlessly joined together - but the things in it did hurt for real, which was the scary and dangerous thing. Whatever illusion it was, it wasn't just some kind of mirage.

"The Asturlab worked before, when we were in the forest," she pointed out. "If we're still in the same place, why not now? But if the energy towards the cave is the only thing we can sense now, I vote we go there. Something tells me we're not just going to find a way out of here without fighting whoever's doing this."

As the smoke grew thicker, it began to cut through her filter, and SAM forced herself off the ground to get above it before she had her own coughing fit. She settled beside Crysdal again, still worried about her own injuries and the visible blood on her. Just what was going on here? The sudden scenery changes, the lack of life signs she could pick up on, the enemies that should be allies. 

It was when Crysdal happened to say "nightmare" that she remembered what D-word she hadn't thought of earlier.


"...A dream." SAM said quietly, realization hitting her. "Do you think this could be a dream? Crysdal, a nightmare or dream could hurt us, because it's in our heads!" SAM was almost excited now by this revelation, drawing on her knowledge of biology to feed the theory. "The only reason we can even feel pain is because our brains sense injury and give us feedback that feels bad, so if our minds are being tricked into thinking we're hurt for real, we would feel it as well!"

The other senshi moved around the area to help each other, but Sailor Xibalba stayed by Sailor Tartarus' side. It was a shame she had no healing power, so she could not do anything to help Sailor Tartarus except to stay close. At least the other girl felt well enough to crack a joke as she sat on her knees. Sailor Chalybs also came to offer help to Sailor Tartarus and the armored senshi helped steady her as Tartarus attempted to heal herself with a Rejuvenation Helix. Unfortunately, it didn't work. 

Once that was taken care of and Sailor Chalybs picked up Sailor Tartarus, Sailor Xibalba rose to follow and join the rest of the group. Sailor Aegle healed Sailor Tartarus with a kiss instead, since the Rejuvenation Helix had failed earlier. And then, the available options were discussed. One option was to fly away and await backup, but Sailor Xibalba wasn't even sure that back-up would know where to find them. At least, she knew her Lords would have no way to track her here and she assumed it would be a similar situation for the others. 

The second option was just to go anywhere else. Sailor Bellatrix said the smoke was getting thicker and Sailor Xibalba could see she was right. Sailor Bastet urged them to flee from the village, and then she took to the air.

The smoke on the ground began to thicken more aggressively, so whoever remained tried to get off the ground as quickly as possible. Not one to be left behind, Sailor Xibalba called upon her Sailor Wings to do the same and follow Sailor Bastet.

And then, the possibilities began to get weird, but strangely the pieces began to fall in place, sort of. She had thought it was a tad off that they were inexplicably transported to a place that was always familiar to at least one person. Sailor Chalybs had an idea, it was all a dream. 

"A dream?" Sailor Xibalba murmured, testing the idea on her tongue. Then again, none of what had happened to them made much sense, so why not go for broke and say it was all in their heads?

DM wrote:

14  Andromeda is covering Nocturnus

13  Bellatrix is covering the party

12  Nocturnus is airborne
8  Aegle is airborne
5  Bastet is airborne
5  Xibalba is airborne
5  Tartarus is in Chalybs's arms and is airborne
4  Chalybs holding Tartarus and is airborne

Order:

"A dream?" Aegle replied, her brows furrowing contemplatively, going higher to escape the steadily thickening cloud beneath them; while she replied to Chalybs, her attention was on Andromeda and Bastet, ready to bolt in whatever direction they decided to go - up or to the tunnel, making it clear to anyone looking at her that, for her, getting away was the priority and figuring out what was going on was second. "But in a dream the pain doesn't really hurt - that's how you know you're dreaming, right? On my planet you pinch yourself to see if you're dreaming and if it hurts you know you're awake." She hovered higher as the smoke grew beneath her, her eyes glancing down at it and then back to Bastet and Andromeda almost pleadingly, "But if it is a dream, we just have to wake up, right?"

In the air beside Andromeda, she pondered the discussion of the others, ready to follow the group wherever they went. The logic the others were following didn't seem totally bizarre to her, although a few made leaps that she worried might be premature. A dream or illusion would explain the transition between the worlds, and the fact that these were both places others recognized. Nothing was new. Maybe if they kept going and traveled through yet another place, they'd have a better idea of whether this was likely. She wasn't sensing things like Sailor Bastet, so Nocturnus didn't feel qualified to point them in a direction, but she remained ready to follow.

"I don't think this would be a normal dream," Sailor Nocturnus said, the quiet voice speaking perhaps only to herself. "We're together and people are disappearing. Somehow it is connected."

Tartarus's expression quickly blanched after Aegle repeated her insistence at leaving from Destore. She couldn't argue against the pragmatism of distancing themselves from a place that was all but trying to kill the senshi outright. That smoke looked awfully ominous, but Chalybs bore the two of them into the sky before it could pose a breathing hazard.

Tartarus fidgeted briefly while Aegle and Chalybs traded ideas on their current predicament. The senshi in black and white summoned her wings anew, easing herself into a hovering pattern near Chalybs and Xibalba. She nodded to the latter, then spoke up when Chalybs and Aegle started to discuss their situation in greater detail. "I think it's the worst kind of dream. Isn't that the definition of a nightmare?"

Tartarus glanced uneasily between Teeth, SAM and the distressed blonde, then took notice of the blood traces on Aegle's face. "I can go on, but first allow me to thank you for helping me." The demure redhead raised her hands to her chest, then extended them outward towards Aegle, directing a swirling helix of red and silver light and energy to encircle her fellow healer. "Tartarus Rejuvenation Helix!"

OOC:

"You can't just wake yourself up from a dream. And the fact that no one outside has either not tried or managed to wake us up means something is controlling us, keeping us here. And Nocturnus is right, it's not just an ordinary dream. Listen..." she sighed, a headache forming at the back and forth that went nowhere. This was always one of the biggest problems in these group missions. Everyone debated everything and no one was brave enough to make a decision. Not without a leader figure.

"I am going to check the cave where the energy is flowing. None of you has to come if you'd rather stay here. I just hope you will take care of her if she stays," she indicated Nocturnus, before flying toward the caves that Bastet had pointed out earlier, intending to find the source of this nightmare, if that was what it was.

A dream! Ari felt herself getting excited, especially with SAM backing her up. It had to be! If a mere child with the power of the Tapestry Crystal can create a giant illusion with pain inducing bunnies and other terrifying defenses, then Chaos certainly had some way to influence dreams. Though that was a terrifying thought...were their other friends affected too? Just in different dreams together?

The others were right though, this was no dream they could just wake themselves up from. She recalled once reading about different dream states and even some druids meditating so much that they fell into a dream state that sometimes took up to a year to wake up from, their bodies only surviving from the goddess's blessing. Though those cases were few...

"What if the disappearance of the others were just them waking up?  And that girl who was trying to warn us, maybe she's been trying to wake us up?"

Andromeda was right. Something was controlling them and keeping them here. She wanted to follow after her but she wondered if there was another option. What if she tried going towards Cawth instead?

"If you want to follow her, then do so, but I want to try something first."

Ari then flew in the opposite direction of the cave, curious to see if the dream tried to keep her on a certain path or allowed her freedom.

There was no way that she was going to be separated from Andromeda. Images of the time with the river flashed through her mind, and she felt a streak of panic that almost made her zoom after the older girl. She didn't have a moment to question it in any way—no considerations about safety or maintaining the group structure would have been enough to resist following someone she still had nightmares about losing again. She gave a quick nod to the others before departed, but didn't want to allow the older soldier to get too far from her.

"What are we checking for?" Sailor Nocturnus asked, fluttering alongside the teal young woman. She tried to keep her eyes open, preparing for danger.

Aegle made as if to follow Nocturnus and Andromeda, pausing to look back at the others, as though taking it upon herself to create a connection between the fragmenting party, her eyes ever glancing to the roiling smoke below. She didn't want them to split up. She didn't want to face down that smoke, either, but ---

DM wrote:

The smoke exploded upward violently from the pile of bodies, bursting forth like a volcano to engulf the senshi and send them flying, filling their lungs and choking them with its heavy disease-laden mass. 

Sufficiently far enough away, Sailors Aegle, Nocturnus and Andromeda were thrown forward and away, Andromeda's initial path pushing them towards the opening maw of the Cave, the energy flow guiding them along until the trio disappeared through a portal and into another world...

---

Dreamworld has ended. 

A rescue operation is in the works back at the hotel in [Continuation], but the senshi involved in the blast have fallen into a coma; if their rescuers are unable to dispel the dream that has taken hold of them by defeating the being that is behind it, they, along with all the others under its control, may waste away...

Sailors Andromeda, Nocturnus, and Aegle will continue, unsure as to the meaning behind their surroundings; whether a dream or something more sinister, they will continue through as best they can in Dreamworld: Another Nightmare. 


Thanks for playing!   
Questions/comments about the next event can be sent via PM here or DM on Discord! (or use our OOC chat!)

See you soon~

The girl choked and sputtered on the water that flooded her mouth and clouded her vision. Her arms and even her wings tried to push against it as she felt her body continue to sink, but the motion and buoyancy confused her sense of direction. Her flailing initially prevented her from hearing that peculiar music, but slowly it registered in her mind. So soft. So haunting. Nocturnus thought it sounded very far away, but she wasn't willing to move towards it until she was sure Andromeda was still with her. Her lungs and chest burned.

When she broke through the surface of the water, gasping, her hair and uniform heavy with salty water, the dark eyes searched desperately for her teal companion. Seeing the tower that stretched far above them, Sailor Nocturnus shivered. She knew this place.

She would have yelped in surprise when she suddenly fell into water if the liquid didn’t rush too fast, swallowing them whole. Instinctively she began to swim, finding her movements slightly heavier because of the chilling temperature sending a shock through her. Her ears picked up a faint melody, almost too familiar, creating a conditioned response of dread and alarm.

She had heard a second splash and whipped around quickly to find Nocturnus, recognizing her dark senshi uniform. She seemed to be making her own way to the surface, so Andromeda did the same, her trained movements easily bringing herself up and toward fresh air.

The moment she broke surface, she already knew what she would see.

The eyesore of a spire was back, complete with the hurricane. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, she tried to push back all the feelings that came with it. She’d been so terrified she wouldn’t be able to save her family last time and that they’d die thinking she resented them. She had been driven by guilt over leaving her planet to begin with to go on “adventures” saving other planets, which incidentally was also the reason why she’d brought Chaos to her planet in the first place. If she hadn’t left…

“This is just a dream,” she repeated what the others had said shortly before they left. “This isn’t real.” She had already fixed all this. The hurricane, the siren song… even the tower had eventually been torn down. She had saved her planet. She hadn’t failed.

She looked around, trying to see if she could find the other senshi. She hadn’t seen any of them underwater either. Then she looked at Nocturnus. “Are you alright? Have you seen anyone else?”

Had they got separated from the others? Or did they simply choose not to come? If so, she might just have to brave whatever twisted nightmare this was with Nocturnus alone. But even though she had gone alone and asked the others to take care of Nocturnus, she was secretly glad that the younger senshi was here with her for moral support.

She really could use one right now, and the idea of facing this all over again alone made her doubt if she could come out victorious the second time. After all, she only won last time because she had Enya and the others beside her.

"Not yet," Nocturnus replied, shaking her head. The strands of her bangs slapped wetly against her forehead as she did so. It's possible the others might not have made it—wouldn't they have spotted someone else by now? Although she didn't like the thought of being in a tiny group, if it had to have been anyone else, she would have picked Andromeda. The young woman's two previous phrases, repeated like a mantra, helped calm Nocturnus as well.

If this was a dream and wasn't real, this wasn't water. This wasn't Andromeda. They didn't have to fight a Chaos seed.

If that was the case... what did they need to do?

"Where... should we go?" she asked. Her next idea wasn't exactly the best, but if this was based on a place connected to Sailor Andromeda, perhaps she would be able to tell the ways it betrayed itself as a dream. "Does anything feel... different?"

As the smoke erupted below her she had a split-second clear view of the other senshi thrust upward into some sort of barrier before the shockwave burst outward and caught her up, throwing her forward, blinding her and filling her lungs until her back struck against hit one surface that gave with her weight, then was surrounded by darkness and clear, cold air, and then hit another surface that struck her like glass. She sunk with the leftover momentum of the blast and the fall, her senses going into overdrive - Pressure. Wet. Cold.

She gasped against it, sucking in water and coughing it out, her arms and legs reeling to reorient herself, eyes burning to see the surface - she kicked and pushed her way through, holding her breath against further coughing, and when her head finally broke the surface, coughed and sputtered and spat out seawater completely ungracefully, gasping for breath between outbursts. When she settled, she finger-raked her hair out of her face and looked about for anyone else - spotting Nocturnus and Andromeda, she swam over.

Andromeda contemplated Nocturnus’ question. She was right, this was her world. She should know if there was the slightest thing wrong with it. Even a dream wouldn’t be able to create a perfect replica of reality, right? There was always something slightly off…

“I will try. But just in case, and I know it might not work, but can you see if the Asturlab picks up anything?” she asked Nocturnus.

She looked the place all over; the tower, the hurricane, the ocean, to see if she could see that difference and maybe pinpoint a way to go, utilizing all her senses and her ties to her actual planet to detect anything strange and find the source of the force responsible for this.

Hearing the sound of splashing behind her, she turned around quickly, ready to fight whatever it was, but stopped when she saw the blonde figure.

“Sailor Aegle,” she called out. “I thought we were alone. Did anyone else follow us?”

In a way she was relieved to see the blonde, because previous experience had taught her well that additional team members could help tip the balance of a fight in the winning direction. At the same time, she didn't have the same experience fighting alongside this Sailor Aegle, the way she did with Andromeda. Introducing additional variables always made things a bit more complicated. Sometimes she wasn't very good at "complicated". Still, her positive feelings outweighed any misgivings. When Sailor Andromeda asked if there were others, Nocturnus scanned the area again. Maybe they were still under water?

She tried not to worry that they may have drowned, panicked by the change in scene, possibly unfamiliar with this type of landscape. The request from her mature companion gave her something else to focus on, thankfully.

"It might not work, but I'll try," she replied.

Nocturnus removed the Asturlab and held it atop her open palm, her small legs still frantically pedaling water to keep her body afloat. Even if she knew this was a dream, it was almost an involuntary reaction to finding herself in this kind of a place. Her earlier failures to provide useful information still weighed on her mind, and as she tried to concentrate on using her ability, the recollections manifested as a metallic taste in her mouth. She set her lips in a firm line, eyebrows furrowed, trying to focus.

Action:

DM wrote:

From what Andromeda could tell, everything looked and felt... exactly like it should. Nothing was unusual, save that the tower was still there and they seemed to be back in time, minus the companions that were with them the first time around. 

The Asturlab seemed to find something coming from the top of the tower...

Aegle paused a few feet from them, treading water as Andromeda addressed her. In response, her mouth opened as if to say something, but then she pressed her lips together and shook her head, looking to need a minute to compose herself. "They -" she said, her voice cracking, eyes turning aside. With her face wet, it was hard to see whether she was crying or not, but it was entirely possible with the pinkness of her face. She cleared her throat. "There was an explosion. The smoke..." she trailed off, then looked back to Andromeda, very obviously trying hard to keep it together. "We were the only ones outside its radius. They're -" she seemed to choke on her own words, but forced through it. "They're not coming."

“I'm not seeing anything, so I hope you have better luck,” she told Nocturnus.

As Aegle spoke, seeming upset, Andromeda's stomach knotted nervously. An explosion? They were the only ones who made it?

“No,” she brought her hand to her mouth, her eyes widening in disbelief. Was Aegle saying they were... gone?

“But... this was just a dream, right? Maybe... maybe they just... woke up.”

She knew it was unlikely, but she didn't like to think of the other options.

She felt that all-too-familiar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when Aegle replied to Andromeda's question. "They're not coming." Nocturnus had heard words like that before, in other scenarios where the party had been separated. She could only hope that, whatever might have befallen the others, that this world was not denied the influence of Light. Perhaps she would see those familiar faces gathered together in the end, as she had in other battles against Chaotic forces. Their job, now, was to find a way to defeat whatever evil had trapped them here. They couldn't go back.

The child took a deep breath and focused her gaze on the spinning dials of the Asturlab, hoping it would show her something useful. When the motion halted, it pointed to a not-unfamiliar place.

"The tower," she said, turning towards Andromeda. "At the top."

Sailor Nocturnus only hoped that it pointed true.

Of course, at the top. That was where the Chaos Seed had been located last time. She glanced gratefully at Nocturnus for the direction. “Let us get to the top then,” she said certainly, flapping her wings so that she was up and out of the water. At least they did not have to get past the storm this time. Having two other people with her comforted her, too.

She waited for both Nocturnus and Aegle to follow suit before leading them towards the opening they had once made in the wall of the tower to break in the first time around. It was eerie how identical everything was to the real world.

Nocturnus nodded at Andromeda and shook a few droplets of water from her sheer golden wings, concentrating on lifting herself out of the water until she joined the other young woman in the air. The storm that raged around them both chilled her soaked form and seemed to be drying off her uniform and hair. This dream... it was so lifelike. She found herself distracted with déjà vu, every action filling her with a vague sense that this had happened before. The child shook her head, trying to refocus herself, and concentrating instead on observing their surroundings as she followed Andromeda.

Aegle averted her gaze and nodded her head, "I hope so," she replied to Andromeda's idea that they had simply woken up, not wanting at this point to bring up the idea that it might not be a dream - that, beyond disappearances, there was no evidence that it was a dream, and if they were teleporting from place to place like they had just done, even those disappearances could be explained. She didn't want to bring any of that up, especially now that it meant that the others would be... 

Nocturnus's announcement puzzled her, but one glance at the girl's hand answered her question without having to ask it. She followed their looks to the top of the tower, visually steeling herself for whatever threat they would face, following suit as Andromeda became airborne.

She hovered in front of the hole they'd once made to get inside, wondering what they would find in it now. It could literally be anything. It might be playing mind games with her. But she was prepared for it.

"Be on your guard for anything, and stay behind me," she told Nocturnus and Aegle, summoning her Chrome Blade in hand to be ready to fight.

Then she took a deep breath and flew inside, hovering just on the threshold, to let her eyes adjust to the light inside and see what she had to face in the tower of her nightmares.

Quote :

The scene was just like before... The toys, the ornaments, the cradle... The only thing that was missing was the Guardian of the Chaos Seed. 

Her voice still surrounded them, but she was nowhere to be seen.

She frowned at the deserted area. The siren that was supposed to be guarding the Chaos Seed was not here. But Andromeda could hear her haunting voice all around them. Maybe she was hiding. Maybe it wasn't even the real siren - that was more likely anyway since she had already killed her. Looking around, she stepped carefully toward the cradle to see if the Chaos Seed was there this time.

Aegle followed dutifully, her eyes taking in everything around them as Andromeda paused to look through the hole on the wall near the top of the tower. She checked Nocturnus as Andromeda checked it out, but as teal-haired moved into the room Aegle followed, keeping close enough to be of assistance if needed.

The moment she entered she landed, looking around curiously at the creepy room. "Is this... some kind of nursery?" she asked quietly of Andromeda, guessing she knew a little of where they were.