Haunted and hunted by nightmares. (Closed to Silence Sei)

[DreamerAwaken]

Shit. Not good. This was the third day in a row that this type of thing had happened. Something was chasing Olivia, something big. It was not your usual assailant either. No, this was something much much worse, a nightmare. Olivia had lived her entire real life in the dream world. She was capable of seeing other people's dreams. Wait, scratch that, she was more than capable of it. She was almost forced to do this. Trying to not see a dream when in the dreamworld was like trying not to see a tree in a forest. The trick was that each dream, like each tree in the forest was isolated from the others, and she was in the middle of this forest of dreams.

She had gained all her knowledge of the world from watching the dreams of other people. That was not to say that she gained knowledge from every dream, though. In fact, the opposite was true. in order to truly watch a dream, she had to isolate the dream, and quite possibly tune all the other dreams out. There were some minds that she couldn't get into under normal circumstances, certain dreams that she had a tough time reading. The stronger the dreamer's mind, the more difficult the dream was to read. She had made it a habit to seek out these strong minds when in danger. She was capable of making her presence known in the minds of people when they were dreaming.

Something was seriously wrong this time, though. It wasn't that she was in danger. That was fully possible even in the dream world. No, the problem was something else. The dreams were supposed to be isolated in such a way that nothing in the dreams of the dreamworld could cross over to the actual dreamworld itself. That would be like leaves and fruits growing in midair in a forest. It didn't happen. Nightmares were supposed to stay inside their dreams like anything else, and so were all other dreams, but someone had let them loose the last 3 days. Someone was out to kill her and make it look like a complete accident

Someone wanted dominance over the entire dream world as far as she could figure out. She was also rather concerned with the fact that this particular nightmare had already chased her through 5 dreams. Normally when she found a dream to hide in, that was it, the nightmare would stop hunting her, but this nightmare was different. It was a giant Cerberus. It towered over her as she ran for her life. It seemed very capable of swallowing her whole. Whoever was behind this had a sick mind, she had decided. She was pretty certain that they planned to use the dream world to give everyone nightmares if left untouched.

Olivia herself was an elf. She had beautiful green hair, stunning silver eyes, somewhat pale skin, and she was wearing a Kimono. A very pretty one at that. It flowed down her body like silk. She had an hourglass body, but that didn't matter much right now. The Cerberus was right on her heels. It attempted to bite at her, and she stumbled, falling into another dream. She was unsure what the dream was about at the moment. She heard a loud thud, though, as the nightmare tried to follow her inside the dream, and yet somehow failed. All she knew now is that she was face down on the ground in the middle of somebody else's dream, and now she was scared out of her wits, and breathing heavily.

She had been running so long that she was too tired to even hide from the people in the dreams as she normally did. She just lay there, face down, inside a dream she knew nothing about, purely at the mercy of the dreamer. She just hoped the dreamer was a nice, kind and understanding person. She was not in the mood to get yelled at for putting herself in someone else's dream, especially when it meant the survival of herself and maybe even the dream world. After a bit of catching her breath, she tried to get the attention of the dreamer and her weak voice uttered out a single word. "Help"

[Silence Sei]

Sei Orlouge was a man of compassion. He would gladly give his last shred of clothing to another if it meant that he had helped somebody. He had adopted four girls with no families without ever once expecting anything in return. By housing his entire army in his own castle, he proved that he cared about each and every person. It was said he even gave grievance money to the widows or widowers of the brave men and women who gave their life for his cause. Sei Orlouge was altruistic, caring, and had a character that flocked people to him en masse.

Sei Orlouge’s dreams, however, had nothing to do with his character.

Ever since the telepath had inadvertently tortured Cassandra Remi, self-proclaimed ‘Gisela Reaper’ in his sleep, Sei tried his best to keep his inner most workings to himself. Though he was a man full of mirth and kindness, Sei Orlouge was also a man plagued by the sins he had committed in the past. At least once a night, the mute would wake up in a cold sweat, reliving anything from killing hundreds upon thousands of Raiaeran elves, to running a wooden board through the heart of the only woman he had ever loved. Sei Orlouge was complex, and his dreams were windows into the tapestry of emotions that welled up inside him, surfacing when all seemed well.

Tonight was no exception. This particular dream found Sei standing over the corpse of a young woman. This particular victim had her head smashed in with a large rock, over and over again. By the time the killer had finished with his murderous blows, little was left of the poor woman’s head. Bits of white bone were strewn about the body. Though she had passed on, the body was still warm. Sei could still find and avenge the death of this teenage girl, see that her killer was brought to justice.

Though normally this dream would meet with a tragic end, and Sei throwing himself out of his bed, something kept him standing there. He wanted to move with every fiber of his body, to take off and locate the murderer as soon as possible. His mind kept telling his legs to go, to no avail. Something was keeping the telepath frozen in place.

The mute did not have time to ponder this peculiar event, as another girl seemingly burst into the room. She lay just as helpless as the poor soul that was no longer of this world. Sei stared at her for a moment, taking note of the long ears, lithe frame and green hair.

“An elf…” Sei spoke, realizing that the sounds were leaving his mouth rather than being projected from his mind. It was at this point that the Mystic knew something was awry. Sei knew that he would never be able to truly speak, and to be doing so at this moment meant only one thing. He was in the recess of someone’s mind. Now, when the mute told his body to walk, his legs complied, and he advanced on the stranger, kneeling down towards her.

She lay on a hardwood floor, a good portion of the ground tarnished crimson by the blood of the third party in the room. A table was set up against a wall, a chair on each end and a candle holder placed squarely in the middle. The light from the candle still flickered and danced, giving a decent visibility in the relatively darkened room. Sei listened as the girl called for help, over and over again. Without any hesitation, the mute reached his hand out towards Olivia in an attempt to help her back up.

“Sei Orlouge,” he said, his attitude coming off as cold and callous. In truth, he was just trying to grasp the situation. This girl seemed to be struggling with something, and she was so powerful that she brought out the mental avatar of ‘The Hero of Radasanth’ in an attempt to seek aide. There was no way he could refuse her please. After all, Sei Orlouge was a man of compassion.”

“How can I help you?”

[DreamerAwaken]

The first thing Olivia saw when she looked up was a dead body. A really dead body. Blood was spilled everywhere. The sight of this made her immediately tense up. Was this the type of person that was dreaming this dream? A murderer? If so, she was in deep trouble. Thankfully this was not the case, and he ended up being a nice guy. There were a few giveaways to this. She knew dreams and he was not moving, forced to stare at the dead body. This was a type of nightmare, and he didn't have blood on any of his body, so he was probably innocent of killing her. Was the dream going to end before she could get his help? If so, she was likely doomed. She seemed to luck out though, for he noticed her easily. Due to the fact that she was not supposed to be part of the dream, as soon as he focused on her, he was freed from the curse of the dream. He was able to move again.

When he came up to her and and spoke to her, giving her his name, she finally realized that she was in good hands. Still, she was in a quandary upon her when he asked how he could help her. How could she tell him in such a way that he would believe her. How much should she tell him? It was a tough problem to figure out, but that didn't mean it was impossible, and Olivia was careful not to say anything that would make her seem suspicious as she spoke. She didn't want him thinking that she spied on people's dreams for fun, after all.

"My name... is Olivia." Olivia began. She figured that since he introduced himself to her first she should do the same to him. Someone is trying to kill me. Someone is setting nightmares loose and siccing them on me. For the past few nights I have been attacked, barely escaping these nightmares. I know that this all sounds a bit weird, but allow me to explain. I live here, in this world of dreams. I can traverse to your world, but only by dreaming. My physical body would still be here. People that dream sometimes have nightmares that involve giant monsters. Those monsters are supposed to stay in their respective dreams, but recently that has not been the case. Someone found a way to release them, thus endangering my life. I have yet to figure out why they are attacking me, but I don't feel safe living here any longer. I need protection. If you need proof that I am not a dream, I will go to sleep. when you wake up, you will find me near where you went to sleep. Please, do you think you could help me out here? I am at my wit's end"

[Silence Sei]

The girl, this Olivia, spoke with such fervor and worry that it was all Sei could do to calm her down. She explained her situation quickly to the telepath, about her, the dream world, and finally her plight. Somebody wanted this elf dead for some reason. The mute simply nodded to each word that Olivia spoke, watching her features for any physicals cues of lying. When she finally finished, Sei looked into her eyes, attempting to gauge her sincerity, before finally nodding to her.

“Honestly, I have heard stranger things,” Sei said the smell of the corpse’s blood starting to die out, his brain’s way of accepting he was in a dream, “And you may not believe this, but I have encountered beings from the dream world before. Neither of them seemed as….timid as you.” He had to carefully choose his words, try to talk to this unique being without insulting her. After all, if she could snap Sei Orlouge out of a routine dream, she could be capable of other powerful mind tricks.

Sei closed his eyes for a moment to concentrate. Now that he was aware of his own situation, he could control the ‘dream’ how he saw fit. A light of white enveloped the body, washing it and the blood from existence. Sei opened his eyes back up towards Olivia. The girl’s surprised, wide eyed expression begged Sei for an explanation. “I am a telepath, a strong one. You must have flocked to someone you knew would be able to help you, someone with a powerful mind.”

He could not tell whether or not the assessment satisfied Olivia, but it did enough for Sei to validate his helping the poor girl. The orange haired man placed his hands upon the shoulders of the frail-looking girl. “Olivia,” he said, his voice carrying soft, calming, monotone-like notes, “I know we just met, but if you wish for me to help you, you are going to have to trust me. I’m used to matters of the mind, but this is a completely different matter. If somebody is trying to kill you, I will stop them, but we have to come up with a plan to expose them first. Do you have any idea who could be strong enough to throw nightmares into other people’s dreams to pursue you?”

[DreamerAwaken]

Olivia nodded as Sei carefully pointed out how weak she was, trying to avoid insulting her. She knew that timid was not the first word that would come to mind when someone tried to describe her. At least not this version of her, in the waking world, she was quite a threat at times, but here? Here she was nothing. She had almost no talent to speak of in fighting, and she certainly couldn't take down any of the nightmares that were sent after her. She didn't try to hide how weak she was either. She may as well admit it if she wanted this man's help. "Just go ahead and call me weak. I won't take any offense to it, as it is the truth." she said to him as he called her timid.

The next thing that he brought up surprised her. She somehow ended up in the mind of a telepath. What kind luck must she have for that to happen? Then again it only made sense in the long run. She had been chased through many dreams, unless this mind was extremely strong, it would have been overrun by the dream too. She also was surprised, yet happy to see him dismiss the things in his dreams. This meant that she had convinced him that he was in a dream, and that he now had full control over it. This was a very good thing to discover, and it made her wish that she had a better answer to the question she asked than she did.

He had asked her a decent question. One that she didn't have an immediate answer for. Who the hell was strong enough to do this, and who had it out for her? She had absolutely no clue. It was a mystery in and of itself. "You want to know who is trying to kill me? Who has the strength to kill me, and the knowledge and resources to do so? I have been trying to figure that one out myself. I can think of one possible way to attempt to figure it out, but... it is not anywhere near quick or guaranteed, and it would put my life in danger again. Still, if you are willing to listen, I will explain what I am thinking."

She took a deep breath. She honestly would take any plan over this one, but this one seemed most likely to get results. "Next time you fall asleep, I will seek you out immediately, before the nightmares attack. The nightmares all seem capable of breaking the barrier between dream and reality in the dream world, and I am pretty sure that with you being a telepath, you should be capable of such a feat too. What we will need to do is lead the nightmares back to the dreams they broke out of, and then defeat them there while looking for any hint of a mind creating the dream. If my hunch is correct, if you are capable of detecting mental signatures, then you will find the same one in each of the dreams that the nightmares came from. That should give us a general idea of who it is if you were capable of getting ahold of the mental signature."

She paused, then sighed. There was more to this and she knew it. "Listen, even if we do find out who it is that is behind this, unless they live in the dream world like me, we are unlikely to be able to stop them here. I am capable of traveling to the waking world to help track down the man if need be. There I am a lot less weak, as I have the powers of one who realizes they are dreaming. The waking world is where I go when I dream, yet the only thing not real there is myself, as such I have the powers to manipulate the dream slightly, but since the dream is your reality, I am limited in how much I can do. Still, I am not powerless there, so if we need to go after the man in the real world, then you won't need to protect me as much."

She paused for a second. Was there something she was forgetting? Yes, one thing. There was one other thing he had said to her that seemed rather important. Something she felt the need to reply to. "As far as trusting you is concerned, I have no problem with doing that. I was more worried about you trusting me in all reality. I mean, let's face it. My story would sound quite far-fetched to a lot of people. Most people would dismiss it as part of their dream. I am honestly rather happy that you didn't. Thank you for believing me."

[Silence Sei]

Sei’s eyes softened a bit with concern upon hearing Olivia’s plan. Any strategy that involved live bait always struck a sour note with the mute. What if something went wrong and Sei woke up abruptly? What if the nightmares worked their way to Olivia faster than either of them anticipated? What if he found himself with a bout of insomnia, as Sei was so prone to do? The Mystic definitely did not like exposing the girl to the mercy of her would-be murderers.

But what choice did he have?

Sei nodded in agreement to the plan. It was not as if he could come up with any other idea that did not involve exposing the elf to the terrors that stalked her. “Very well, Olivia. While the concept of a real girl in my dreams and a dream girl in my reality is all a bit disorienting, I think I understand. When I awaken, I will spend my day by your side. Hopefully we can draw out your assailant swiftly.”

Sei nodded to the girl for a moment, standing there in the abyss of his mind as he waited for himself to wake up. As long as Olivia was here, in his dream, Sei was certain that the dream entity was safe, After all, he had been trained by perhaps the strongest telepath on Althanas, becoming a force to be reckoned with himself in that department. While it bordered on arrogant, the Mystic was certain that no nightmares could penetrate his dreams unless he allowed it.


Sei woke up to the sound of a banging on his door. The mute slowly rose from the bed, holding his head groggily. Of course, it was the Telepath’s daughter, Anita, ready to get her father up to start a brand new day as usual. “Papa,” Anita spoke with a peppy tone to her squeaky voice, “It’s time for you to wake up! Ixian Castle isn’t going to run itself, after all!”

A second voice joined Anita’s, a light giggling of a child. Before Sei could say anything to allow the two people in, a small little girl burst through the door, running towards the Mystic’s bed and tackling Sei back down into his sheets. “Daddy!” Ella Orlouge exclaimed excitedly.

Sei smiled at his daughter, giving her their morning hug and shifting out of his bed. He stretched his arms wide and began to recall his dream. Olivia the dream elf was still going to need his help. Thinking of this, the mute quickly shifted his eyes towards the elder daughter. “Anita,” The mute’s voice seemed to boom from everywhere, and nowhere at once, filling the crevices of the teen girl’s mind, “I am going to be taking the day off today. I know it seems a bit late, but there are pressing matters I must attend to.”

Anita’s expression was one of disappointment, her smile turned into a grimace and her eyes losing a little of that blue sparkle her loved so much. The orange haired warrior then grabbed Ella and placed her on the floor, smiling and giving her one more hug before speaking to her. “Ella, Daddy is going to be really busy today, so I can’t have any distractions, okay? Why don’t you go to Gran-Gran’s?”

Ella’s expression matched that of Anita’s, but quickly faded a few seconds later. “K!” Ella squeaked and ran towards her sister, grabbing her hand and leading her towards their grandmother’s day care. Sei rubbed his head a little, following it up by wiping the sleep from his eyes.

I guess now all that’s left to do is wait…

[DreamerAwaken]

It would only be around 10 minutes before another being would appear in Sei's room. She looked like a ghost, and was well aware of this fact. She also chose to look exactly like she did in Sei's dream. It was Olivia again. She knew that it would be a while before he went back to sleep, and there was more that she wanted to talk about with him, but it had to be in person, as opposed to in his dream. She looked around. His room looked like a rather nice one, and upon further examination it was a castle room. Was he royalty? It was hard to be sure. All she could tell was that he was waiting for her.

She looked him up and down. He certainly looked the same as in the dream. That was always a good sign. After a short time she decided to speak her mind, as it were. She had a lot on her mind, and she hoped that this would make things clearer for him. "Good day, Sei. As I was saying in your dream, it is possible for me to visit your world. I just have to go to sleep to do so. I hope seeing me here, as a dream clears things up. I was real upon our first meeting you are real here, on our second meeting. There is more to it than that though. I have a few additional powers in this world that will help us if we are going to take whoever is after me out."

She transformed her body into that of a young girl, to prove that she could and then into the body of a cat before transforming back. "In my dream form, I am capable of taking any form I want and very mildly affecting the environment around me. Outside of that, I am sorta like a ghost here. Unable to interact with anything. It is a bit... awkward. I wouldn't worry too much about it if I get hit. I usually try to act like I got hit, but in truth they can't harm me... not in the same way as they can harm you. Only way to truly harm me is in the dream, and if that were to happen, you would likely know. I would either suddenly wake or my image here would start flickering out of existance."

She began to think about things again before looking back up at him. "If that happens I will do my best to stay alive as long as possible, but I do not know how long I can last. In those circumstances it would be best to find a way to get to sleep as fast as possible. I shudder to think what would happen if you failed to get there in time. I never thanked you for the save by the way.

She began to say something else but she heard footsteps and was guessing that someone was going to question where the voices came from soon since only Sei had heard her speak so far. Only Sei knew her secrets. Instead of hiding, though, she looked to him for orders, remembering that he asked her to trust him. "I think I hear someone coming."

[Silence Sei]

Olivia’s control over her form in reality was something Sei had seen before, but certainly not from somebody claiming to be a dream entity. The Mystic listened to Olivia’s explanations, which were now coming off more like long-winded monologues. He had to wonder if he did this to his friends when he was explaining a situation to them. Before he could wonder about this in detail, his ears caught the same footsteps Olivia heard.

Olivia looked to Sei expectantly, and the mute simply patted his hand to the air, a motion that Olivia would hopefully understand meant to calm down a bit. There was another knock on the door, three hits that came much softer than Anita’s did earlier. The mute did not even need to hear the voice to know it was that of his middle daughter, Emma Orlouge.

“Father,” Emma’s voice spoke, almost as in a whisper, “Anita says you’re redirecting your duties today. Is everything okay?” Sei smiled at the concern in Emma’s tone. Though Anita would take care of the warrior should he need it, Emma was the daughter that would ensure that he would be brought back to perfect health. The fact that the teen was whispering, which Sei now realized was to keep from waking him again if he went back to sleep, was a sign of her care for her patriarch.

“I’m fine, Emma” Sei spoke with a smile, finally standing up from his bed and stretching one more time, “But there is something I need you to get from Aislinn for me.” Sei knew that Emma was the least likely among his girls to ask questions of him. She would be the perfect candidate for getting the hero what he needed to go back to sleep quickly.

“Sure thing, Father” Emma’s voice was louder now, carried in a normal tone, “What is it that you need?”

“Bring me some Chloroform from the medical department. I’ll explain everything you need to know upon your return.” There was an eerie quiet for a moment. It was, after all, a strange request to be carried out.

“Got a date tonight, Father?” Emma asked jokingly, which even caused a silent laugh from the mute himself. Hearing his daughter in such high spirits and mocking tones made him feel better about asking her to do something that bordered on the cryptic and creepy. “I’ll be back.”

As the young girl’s footsteps began to walk away, Sei focused his attention back on Olivia’s cat form. “As soon as something happens to you, I’ll have Emma use a chloroform soaked rag on me. I’m afraid if I used the thing on myself, I might give myself a fatal dose once I pass out. With a second person here, I’m more confident in my abilities to rescue you. It was after his short explanation that Sei realized something.

He did do that to his friends.

[DreamerAwaken]

Olivia listened carefully to the conversation between them. She wasn't sure what to make of it, and the mention of chloroform had her on edge. She was again questioning just what type of man he was, but she didn't say anything about it, though the joke about him having a date didn't make her feel any better. She had to wonder if he really did that on dates. Although she would likely never get her answer, her mind was easily put to rest by the man's explanation of what the point of the chloroform was. She was a bit uncomfortable with the idea, but at the same time it made sense. He couldn't save her if he couldn't dream, and he couldn't dream if he couldn't get to sleep at a second's notice.

When she was sure that nobody else was in the room again, she transformed back into her elven form to speak to him. The same form he had met in the dream, a 5'4" woman with green hair and silver eyes. She was holding a pair of fans, but just like her, they could not really affect the living world. She had pink flowers in her hair and looked like a dancer.

"Listen, I know that I didn't imagine that you spoke to me in the dream, and I also know that in dreams we can sometimes do things we normally can't, so I have to ask, is that your preferred method of speech or..." She paused. If it was his preferred method of speech to use telepathy, he would have used it in the dream. "You... can't speak, can you?" She said, finally realizing this. It was a rhetorical question, she was pretty sure she knew the answer already. That wasn't to say that he couldn't answer it, but he didn't have to. It wasn't really a problem, she just hadn't been expecting it.

She moved on to the next question that she had for him, and this one was probably a bit more important. Then again, it wasn't a question that needed to be asked. "So if i may ask, how long until we can expect Emma back? I don't exactly feel safe right now and am hoping she hurries. Oh, and as funny as it seems, in a way, this could be considered a date." The last part was a joke. Of course it wasn't a date, they had just met and she was just going to be around him for protection, but at the same time if she was right, until this was over she would likely be seeing him as often as if they were dating.

[Silence Sei]

The dream girl’s words left a kind of awkward quietness in the mute. In truth, Sei never had time to even consider a relationship with all of his other duties. Raising an army, raising three girls (which was more work than the army, in all honesty), and carrying out his duties to maintain his title as a hero gave him very little time to do any other extracurricular activities. As such, Olivia’s joke made the Dragon of Drantrak uncomfortable, his cheeks starting to hum a pink hue while he hoped for some sort of distraction.

As if the Thayne answered his prayers, Emma came running back into the room, a plain white rag in her left hand, a brown bottle in her right. She looked to her father, and then to the woman who had somehow arrived in his room so quickly. Judging from the patriarchs flushed cheeks, and the way the room had grown so eerily silent, Emma could assume what had just transpired seconds before.

“Um….should I…” Emma was cut off by the furious shaking of Sei’s head. The teen grinned at her embarrassed dad, and proceeded to go sit down on his unmade bed. She looked down at the ruffled covers and shook her head. It was easy to guess that the girl was thinking of the scolding he would get should Anita find his bed in such disarray. The covers were hanging half over the bed, the pillows lined up vertically rather than horizontally. It was as if Sei had been having a nightmare.

“Emma,” Sei spoke into his daughter’s mind, causing the latter to look up at her kin, “This is Olivia. The short version of the story would be that she is a dream deity, and she has asked for my help to save her in her world.” The brief explanation caused the girl to look down at the items in each of her hands before looking back at her father with a grin.

“Well, that explains a lot. So, she’s like Shiryko and Shadar, then?”

“Not quite,” Sei looked to Olivia, now owing her an explanation, “Shiryko Benimaru is a warrior who has the ability to enter another person’s dreams and alter them. Shadar Logath was actually a dream demon, a being which may be the responsible party for your troubles..” Sei looked back to his daughter, walking over to the bed and sitting down, a polite smile on his face as he looked towards Olivia.

“While we wait, would you like some tea? Emma is especially good at making herbal brews.” Emma nodded with excitement at her father’s compliment, awaiting Olivia’s response.

[DreamerAwaken]

"I am afraid that just isn't possible." Olivia stated with a sigh. "In this world I am pretty much a ghost. I can't interact with things in a normal fashion. While I have a way of picking up the tea through means of magic, I could never taste it. Any attempt to drink it outside of the dream world would end up with a bit of a spill as the liquid would go right through me. My existence here is somewhat of an illusion, Albeit a rather good one. My existence in the dream world is the real one, and someone is creating nightmares in an attempt to kill me. That is why I asked Sei for help."

She paused for a bit and hesitated. "Put simply, what you see is me, but isn't me. What you see is the me in my dream. My dreams take place in the real world, but as such, I don't have as much power as, say, someone who has their dreams in the dream world. It is a weakness I am working on fixing. So far I can transform my shape and a small amount of the world around me, but not my existence. Until I find a way to alter it, I will not exist both here and there like most people do when they dream. Think about it. When you dream you can do anything so long as you know that you are dreaming. I can only do that to a limited extent, because your world, the real world, is not meant for such powers."

After a bit, she began to speak more... Thing was, these words would be a lot more worrisome, as they wouldn't relate to anything, and they kept cutting out. Even though this part of what she had to say would start out normal, it would soon turn haphazard and hectic before anything important could be said. "Look, there is something else you need to know. If this thing.... Who? Who's there? I... I don't understand. No." Her entire being began to flicker at this point like a hologram gone berserk. "Listen, you've got to..." Suddenly her presence was gone.

She had been forced awake, and now she was back in the dream world. Surrounding her were 3 nightmares. The first was shaped like a giant dragon. The second looked to be a giant hawk, but the third was a true nightmare. It looked like a mixture of everything frightning wrapped up in one neat package. It was full of screaming faces and arms and feet and it was floating in mid-air. She was clearly surrounded, but there was something to be said for giant creatures. They made great nightmares, but they also gave her an opening. She knew why these nightmares were chosen. It was obvious.

The hawk was for speed, capable of swooping her up. The dragon was for power... And the last nightmare was likely there to wake up anyone who could possibly save her. Thing was, there was a clear opening she saw, and she took it. She ran straight underneath the dragon before anything could react. It's stomach would protect her from the hawk's swooping, and it couldn't breathe on her there. It attempted to squish her, though. She kept running and rolled out of the way of its stomach as it attempted to flop down on top of her. She immediately attempted to hide in a dream, but they managed to follow her through it. She hopped out of the dream again. She was wide open, and if she didn't find Sei's dream quick, she would be torn to pieces. She looked around frantically. She needed that protection. With any luck it would appear in time. She heard the shrill shriek of the hawk. It was about to swoop down and grab her and there was nothing she could do about it unless Sei's dream showed up. She kept running, ready to dive into the dream as soon as it appeared.

"C'mon Sei, where are you?"

[Silence Sei]

The second Olivia started cutting out, Sei’s eyes shot towards his daughter. Emma reacted by lunging at the mute, the rag in her hand already soaked with the chemical that would knock him out. She crashed into Sei, forcing the cloth over his mouth and directly under his nose just as Olivia disappeared completely. The mute’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and within seconds, he was asleep.

When Sei entered the dream world, monsters had just begun to surround Olivia. The bird, with its brown wings and golden like beak peering down at the girl with hungry eyes. The dragon, a swirl of emerald scales and a blue underbelly, seemed especially ferocious with its sharp teeth dripping with saliva. The third nightmare was something Sei had never seen before, some sort of sphere entity compromised of tortured souls and malnourished body parts. Had Sei not seen the face of true evil, had he not literally fought and beaten the seven deadly sins personified; maybe this creature would have stirred the Mystic from his slumber.

However, he had seen the worst humanity had to offer, and he had fought chaos personified. No ridiculously conceived ball of horror would awaken him just from appearances alone.

The mute said nothing, hoping to have the element of surprise on the beings. Two giant butterfly wings instantly sprouted from the telepath, the wings themselves a conglomeration of blues, oranges, and whites. Sei leapt into the air, drawing two metallic rings from his hips. These were the tactician’s most used weapons, his chakrams. Ter’Thok and Hyakureiki had proven themselves under duress time and time again, and now it was once again time for the rings to show their worth.

He threw the rings at the bird, each weapon whistling through the air as it spun at high velocities towards his avian adversary. Olivia, Sei deduced, could probably outrun the dragon and the strange creature, but the hawk could easily catch up with her and take her down. To eliminate the bird would be the first step in securing an escape route for the dream girl. Sei watched to see if his chakrams would find their mark, confident that if the one aiming for the bird’s right wing, Ter’Thok, hit its intended target, the acidic effect of touching the ring would bring the bird down.

[DreamerAwaken]

Olivia never did see Sei's dream, because it never technically was there. This was not to say that Sei didn't dream. He did dream, but he had somehow broken the barrier between his dream and the reality of the dream world, which was almost unheard of. To do it even before one could dream was even more unheard of. It wasn't like he didn't have a clear mission, but the fact that Sei was able to do this was a testament to his power more than anything else. Olivia, sadly, did not have the time to realize this immediately. She was too busy running.

To tell the truth, Olivia was in a panic because she didn't see this fact, nor did she expect it for obvious reasons. This was something that was unheard of after all. She fully expected a dream to appear, and it never did happen. In her mind she was certain she was going to die, there was no sign of Sei that she could see because she didn't dare look behind her. The hawk let out a shriek, she could feel the wind of it closing in on her, and then... It crashed? She was so confused, but as it slid to a halt, she still had to keep running to keep from getting hit by it.

When she was sure it was safe, she turned around to try to see what was going on. The first thing she saw was the hawk on the ground. The right wing had been destroyed due to an acidic effect, and the acid was quickly eating through the rest of the body. The other wing had also been cleanly sliced through. Next she noticed Sei in the sky with what had to be the most beautiful set of wings she had ever seen. She was saved. Sure there were two nightmares left, but at least one was destroyed, or so she thought.

Sad thing is that she was part right, but only because of the acidic effect. The mastermind tried to intervene. He or she had obviously been watching from wherever he or she was and whoever it was attempted to regenerate the hawk's wings, and although the regeneration worked on the left side the acid on the right side was too fast to regenerate the damage. Whatever the case, whoever was the cause left a mental signature when they tried to regenerate the creature. If Sei managed to pick up on this they could easily track the person down. She just hoped that he remembered to look for a mental signature.

It was only then that she remembered something. There were two nightmares left, and the dragon seemed to be the next one trying to cause trouble. It began to breathe fire toward her. Thankfully for now she was at least capable of hiding behind the hawk body that was laying there, but she couldn't do this for long. While she could very easily jump into a dream to avoid this type of attack, she remembered that Sei had asked her to trust him. If she jumped into a dream, she wasn't sure if he would be able to follow. This would be a bigger problem since the nightmares could and would follow her. Instead, she decided to stay put and trust that Sei could destroy this creature before it burnt her to a crisp, but time was not on her side, the acid burning through the hawk was moving fast and giving her less of a body to hide behind with each passing second.

[Silence Sei]

Olivia went into hiding the second the bird fell, which relieved the mute a bit. His relief quickly turned back into worry once he saw the giant dragon bearing down upon the girl, however. Though he knew he was experiencing a dream, Sei could feel the heat of the beast’s flames; smell the smoke being made from the burning corpse of the hawk. He coughed as he thought up a strategy on how to take down the creature. Luckily, the hero’s mind worked fast at finding a decent tactic to subdue the lizard.

He flew downwards, reaching into his pockets as he did so. He closed his eyes in order to keep them from stinging from the dark black smoke rising up from Olivia’s location, and was thankful when he turned upwards, planting his feet on solid ground. His depth perception had not been wrong, even in this awkward dream arena. The intensity of the fire was even greater, and Sei opened his eyes to find that he had landed where he had aimed; right behind the bird he had dropped seconds before.

The dragon stood a good twenty stories high, his wingspan wide enough to tear down half of Radasanth with one fly-by. It would be difficult to take this beast out in a show of brute strength. Luckily, being the youngest of six brothers, Sei knew how to defeat an opponent much bigger than himself. He finally removed his hand from his pocket, withdrawing a white battle fan with the image of a man in a black trench coat painted on it. This was Shadar, A battle fan Sei had used many times in the past, but only once used its secret ability.

Without any more prompting, Sei dived out from behind the hawk, armed only with the fan. His wings began to retract into his back as he began to wave the weapon into the air, running straight towards the dragon. The beast caught a glimpse of Sei and, not one to resist such an easy kill, took another deep breath and began spewing its flames towards the mute. Sei ran, hoping the speed granted to him by his kung fu shoes still applied in the dream world. Luckily, the object being a gift from the Thayne Y’edda, the extra speed bestowed upon the wearer of the shoes was just enough to keep Sei from being burnt to a crisp.

His skin felt as if it were on fire, the red death just a foot from his form as he attempted to close in on the winged reptile. With each step of his run, Sei was consistently waving the fan, a gesture that could have been seen as attempting to rid any nearby smoke from his form. However, that was not the Mystic’s goal at all.

Shadar’s special ability only activated when it was waved. The fan carried with it a special powder that could put its target asleep if inhaled properly. As long as the dragon was spitting flames at the telepath, he would have to eventually take in another deep breath in order to attack once more, it was just a matter of time before Sei had his opportunity.

The flames stopped coming from the creature’s mouth as Sei got within jumping distance of the beast. The warrior smiled and leapt into the air around the time the dragon opened its mouth again, attempting to take in more oxygen for its powerful breath attack. Sei now waved the fan with a new fervor, the sleeping powder flowing directly into the monster’s mouth as he did so. He could see the effects of the enchantment taking place almost immediately, the dragon’s eyes starting to droop down slowly. With any luck, the beast had inhaled enough of the powder to go to sleep. Sure, it wasn’t completely killing the thing, but the less effort that the mute spent on killing, the more of an arsenal he would have left once he found Olivia’s assailant.

[DreamerAwaken]

Olivia watched in amazement as the dragon got felled. Well, felled in a way at least. It wasn't dead, but it didn't appear to be doing much harm either. So long as it remained asleep, it couldn't do any harm. Where was the last nightmare, though? Looking around, she suddenly found it trying to approach the dragon, likely in an attempt to wake it up. Tired of being scared out of her wits and being helpless, not to mention seeing possible problems if the dragon did wake up again, Olivia ran toward the nightmarish, many headed, scary as shit nightmare and tackled it to the ground, or at least attempted to. The plan didn't go over well. The nightmare bit her left arm and held it tightly within its mouth.

She could feel the teeth tearing through her skin and she began to panic. this thing was going to eat her if she didn't do anything. Pulling out one of her steel fans she left it folded up and thrust it into one of the thing's eyes with her free hand. The thing let out a loud scream, and as it did, she took the opportunity to get her arm free, but the wound was still rather bad, as getting her arm free meant tearing off a long strip of skin. She was getting rather frantic now, what with the injury she had sustained. In a panic, she suddenly found what was likely to be her only hope at surviving this fight.

Dreams. People take them for granted, and people fear nightmares, but dreams were the tools she needed too beat this damned thing. Her entire plan involved risking herself and getting herself highly injured in order to guarantee a kill. Looking over her options, she easily found one that would work, but due to the very nature of the dream, the opening wouldn't last long. Someone was having a nightmare about being tied to a chair in a room full of lit explosives. Soon as those things were about too kill them, they would wake up. She needed to make sure she got the nightmare down there and herself out before then. She also thought it best to free the person froom the nightmare so the blast wouldn't stop at the end of the dream.

Not all plans go so well, and this was no exception. She made to drag the monster down to the ground again. As was the case the first time, she got herself bitten. Same arm even. This was what she wanted this time around, though and she pressed her weight against the thing, dragging it into the nightmare. With the fan still in it's eye, she did the only reasonable thing, grabbing it and forcing it to unfold in the eye socket, freeing the fan, her arm, and causing it to scream again. Time was ticking and she quickly cut the rope tying the person to the chair and hoisted them over her good shoulder. Now all that she needed to do was escape the dream before everything went boom

This should have been a simple task, but as she started to leap out of the dream, she felt the thing biting her leg, determined to drag her back down. Without much time left, she tore her leg free from its mouth with all her strength, no longer caring that it tore off a ton of skin, then immediately climbed out of the dream. After about a minute, she dropped the kid back into the dream. The explosion having likely gone off by then.

With the dragon still asleep, and everything else taken care of, Olivia fell to the ground. The skin and tendons in both her left arm and her left leg had been bitten through so thoroughly that one could see the bone underneath. She was bleeding heavily, but she was alive. She managed to breathe out a few words of importance as she lay there. "Please... tell me... you got a read on the mind signature... of whoever sent these out..." She said, then after another few breaths, spoke up again. "And please tell me you can heal this. It hurts like a bitch.... If you need anything... this is a dream... remember... you can manipulate it." There were pauses everywhere mid-sentence. It was hard to speak under such pain, but she felt she had to say it.

[Silence Sei]

Sei’s strategy had worked, and the dragon was now engaged in a deep slumber. Before the mute could savor this victory, however, he heard and loud booming sound, followed quickly by the rush of hot air as it blew past his body. The mute turned to where he had left Olivia, only to find the dream being gravely injured on the ground. The Mystic wasted no time in flying down to her, his feet planting firmly on the white floor of his whitewashed dream.

She asked him about whether or not he had gotten a mental signature on her assailant. Closing his eyes, the mute had found that he did indeed detect a third mind with them now, concentrating hard as if he were conjuring up more monstrosities to battle them. As Olivia spoke of manipulating the dream, Sei was already a step ahead of her, a small tub of salve appearing in the mute’s hands.

“This should help,” Sei explained, “I created a salve that restores missing tissues from the body. Essentially, it’ll replicate your existing cells and restore the ones that are missing to the best of its abilities. My brother told me about this technology once. He called them Nanny Machines or something like that.” As Sei explained, he was already applying the salve to Olivia’s wounds. “I don’t think it will restore any fatigue you’ve suffered, but it will heal your body.”

Sei rose once he finished applying the medication, turning his head this way and that way in an attempt to locate the new mind. “He’s not in this dream,” Sei spoke, his eyes still darting around the room, “but he is nearby, in someone else’s dream. My guess is he’s a mid-level psychic. Able to conjure up whatever in other people’s dreams, but needing to be close to his creations in order to maintain their stability.”

Sei had experienced something like this before. Memories of the Mystic torturing Cassandra Remi flashed in the psychic’s mind, causing Sei to tremble in fear of his own abilities. Perhaps this person was more like the mute than Sei cared to admit. The warrior looked down at his dream companion, offering her his hand.

“Olivia, how fast can you hop in and out of dreams? Do you think you can just do a quick glimpse of everyone dreaming nearby my body and describe to me what you saw? I know my comrades better than most, so I think if you can give me decent descriptions, I can pinpoint exactly whose dream your attacker is in.”

[DreamerAwaken]

Olivia waited patiently as Sei applied the salve to her. It didn't take too long, but it certainly seemed like a long time to her, considering the condition she was in before the salve was applied. When she got up, she heard Sei's question and sighed. It seemed like a good idea, but there was something she needed to know first.

"Well, I can hop in and out of dreams rather fast, I guess, but could you quickly tell me about your comrades, and who they are so I know what dreams to hop in and out of? Also, it would help if I knew what I should expect from the dreams, so I can tell what is wrong myself? Knowledge of those things would definitely help speed the process along, so if you could tell me that, I would appreciate it."

[Quentin Boone]

Given the age of this thread and the fact that DreamerAwaken hasn't been active in over a year, I will be giving feedback and rewards to Silence Sei only. If you ever return, DreamerAwaken, and want to receive rewards for this thread, please PM me and I will ensure that you do.



Silence Sei
Strengths:

Your writing is natural and easy to read. It flows well and its tone keeps the reader interested.
You do a brilliant job of moving the story on at a steady pace that doesn't feel overly rushed.
Your actions are explained well and simply, which ensures everything is clear to the reader.


Weaknesses:

Your use of setting is somewhat lacking; while you give cursory descriptions, they fail to bring the environment to life. Using all five senses would really help here.
Your writing lacks use of imagery to add colour and flavour. As such, it's left feeling a little clinical and plain.
There were a few instances of spelling and grammatical errors; a proof read would have caught these.




Silence_Sei receives:

1862 EXP
96 GP


Congratulations!

[Lye]

EXP & GP Added.