bakerstreet | △ inceptus nolanus overratus

△ inceptus nolanus overratus

THE DREAMSCAPER MEME

Welcome to the mind - your mind, to be exact. Inside your dreams, anything is possible. You can do whatever you can imagine... and a great deal about someone can be reflected by the world their psyche creates.
Of course, the dreamscape isn't only a place where the normal laws of reality do not apply. It is also home to one's fears, hopes, and memories... now free for you, the visiting dreamscaper, to explore. What will you discover in the maze of a thousand doors leading to each memory? What terrors and aspirations will you uncover? You have until it all fades away, as the dreamer wakes up.
So sweet dreams... and beware of lurking nightmares.

HOW TO PLAY:
△ Post with your character, giving a description of their mindscape! It can be as simple or as detailed as you like, but try not to leave your post blank, so others know what kind of dream world they're going to explore! Example: "Lucy's dream world is a kingdom made entirely of desserts. Her memories are located inside a giant chocolate castle."
△ Choose a scenario from the list, or use RNG if you're feeling indecisive!
△ Tag other characters and explore their dream worlds!

SCENARIOS:
1) EXPLORING THE DREAMSCAPE: The world inside the mind is as vast as you can imagine, and no fantasy is too great to be brought to life. What sort of incredible things are waiting to be found?

2) MEMORY OF A MEMORY: When searching through someone's memories, it's almost like experiencing them yourself as past events unfold before you. Perhaps you stumble upon a happy recollection of childhood, or a horrible, terrible secret locked away...

3) HOPES & DREAMS: We all have our goals, our desires. You can learn a lot about a person from seeing first hand what they want out of life. Are you involved somehow, and is it a surprise?

4) FACING FEARS: Where one holds their fears can be a dangerous place to tread. Do you have the bravery to conquer a phobia? Or maybe, you're just here looking for something to exploit...

5) AND YOU WERE THERE...: You've found yourself in this dream, whether you were meant to be there or not! The dreamer may not even be aware this isn't really happening. What's going on, and is it even something you want to be a part of?

6) IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHTMARE: Seems the pleasant dreams are over and the fears have gotten loose. As darkness takes hold of the dream world and you come face-to-face with a nightmare, it may become difficult to remember none of this is real... none of this is real...

7) BATTLE IN THE MIND: It's a dream fight! Whether it's against a strange dream creature, a horrid nightmare beast or another dreamscaper, you can conjure whatever you can conceive, so just think of cool fighting stuff and it'll happen!

8) YOUR WILDEST DREAMS: Obligatory wildcard or mix-and-match option! It's all up to you!

Inspired by episode 19 of Gravity Falls.
Meme created by

donotsummon. Reposts welcome!

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"Well, of course," Niko returned, almost dismissively. He could always find Cal. "I always know where my little brother is."

Whichever one he wanted to find. Though he hadn't been looking specifically for this one, but he would in the future. He followed closely, eager to see what next Cal's oddball brain could produce for them. He was enjoying this adventure immensely.

Traveling along the ripped-bare path left by the bugs, the trees around them were gradually growing smaller and further apart, which made it more difficult for the snakes to continue dropping on them, something that Cal was thankful for, because he almost knew what was coming next, but only almost, it was an instinct in his bones, but nothing solid and certain yet.

Though seeing the trees give way to buildings helped to cement things a little. It wasn't New York, not exactly, but the had the same sort of towering steel-and-glass monstrosities, except that it also looked like some kind of bomb had gone off, broken glass littered the streets, pavement was cracked and even the asphalt was blistered where it had been heated and then re-solidified like a lava floe.

"Shit." Was all Cal said, having fallen silent otherwise, moving almost silently, using his spear as a walking staff, aware that the cat was still following even though he couldn't see it even with his peripheral vision.

"Just what I always wanted. NYC with a nuke dropped on it," Niko drawled, ghosting up behind Cal. He looked around, searching for enemies in the twisted rubble, and eyed the back of Cal's head speculatively.

Cal had blanched, though it was hard to tell from behind. His reply, quiet and just a little tight was: "You remember Abbagor?" He couldn't be sure if the troll had been as obsessed with keeping this version of his brother as it had with his own.

On the one hand he hoped not, because he wouldn't wish Abbagor on anyone, but on the other hand he hoped so, because he wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to get through this without backup, even if it was just a dream, and one of his own at that.

"Aaaaaah fuuuuuuuuuck...."

Niko remembered Abbagor, alright, and he stepped up beside Cal and tapped the scar on his left temple, the streak of silvered-grey that ran through his blonde braid. "Whoreson damn near killed me." Technically it had been the bridge collapsing, but Niko blamed Abbagor all the same.

"I do not have a rocket-launcher. We are screwed."

"Rocket launcher would make it worse." He replied, shifting his footing to a more stable position as the ground had started to tremble, barely noticeable as of yet, but with a growing tremor, "Godzilla, Mothra, the ants from Them, they've all got radiation in common, right? It's what made them all huge."

He was swaying, just a little, keeping himself steady, "You really shouldn't have said someone dropped a nuke on the place." Because between Cal's subconscious ready to throw a level boss at them and that passing mention of an atomic bomb, it was enough to produce a radiation-imbued Abbagor lurking under the ruin of the city and rising to attack.

"Pardon. I forgot how open to suggestion your odd little psyche is," Niko returned, with exasperation softened by fondness. "How long before we go splat, do you think?"

He kept his balance easily, watchful and wary. The ground groaned and cracked, and Niko stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Cal, braced and ready.

He just shook his head, because the cracked pavement in the middle of the intersection a few yards away had already begun to give way, Abbagor pushing, even seeming to bubble to the surface. Cal took a half-step back, shifting his weight again and bringing the spear up to bear. He already looked half-feral as it was, and being poised to attack just made it all the more obvious.

"You want to take high or low?" The Auphe in him was definitely closer to the surface again, as evidenced by the flash in his eyes, the somehow brittle edge to his voice, and the fact that he was practically vibrating, ready to attack.

"Low," Niko answered, knowing that his katana and range would be more effective. The Auphe fought on multiple levels, gates and all, and Niko recognized the tension, the way Cal's body was balanced. His own Cal often fought in his own mixture of styles, blending Niko's lessons with Auphe tactics. This own fought similarly enough Niko would be able to blend with him easily.

The jungle cat, much larger now, slid down from a chunk of concrete. One ally, at leas.

Cal just nodded once, launching himself forward, vaulting rubble and right into a waiting gate, one that would take him to where Abbagor's shoulder would be by the time he got there. He wasn't planning on letting the troll get all the way free before going on the attack.

The cat, it seemed, harbinger of whatever it was, was going to stick with Niko, at least for the time being and honestly Cal didn't fault it for that, Niko didn't belong there, not this one, anyway, which meant that despite the other dangers, he needed to be watched.

Niko snorted at the predictability of that, and hurried to cross the ground himself, gaze fixed in the rising monstrosity. Tentacles began to writhe free of the trapping concrete, and Niko severed the ones that came too close. As Abbabgor's grinning head rose against the skyline, shoulders shrugging free, Niko saw Cal land on the giant shoulder. Good. Niko snatched a granade from his pocket and pulled the pin. He wasn't the pitcher Cal was, but he could throw well enough for what ne needed. The grenade landed in the gaping mouth and Niko closed the gap.

The small explosion cost him his hearing, but Abbagor's eyeless head rocked back and he faltered. Niko swung his katana and started in on one thick joint, an elbow crooked free of the underworld beneath the streets.

The panther hit writhing flesh and bounded higher, taking the opposite shoulder from Cal, mouth gaping red and hungry.

Cal all but crowed at the explosion, even despite the ringing, even stinging sensation it left in his head. Cal himself was flicking in and out of existence almost too quickly to follow, jabbing and hacking and even biting at those whipping tentacles, anything to keep Abbagor from actually coalescing into a solid mass.

He knew, of course, that the troll's body didn't have the same sort of anatomy as a human's, or even most Paien, but that didn't stop him from effectively going for the jugular, a rolling growl simmering in his own throat as he did so, teeth bared, going increasingly more feral the longer it went on.

Niko couldn't stop to look for Cal - didn't have to. He knew where Cal was, where he would be. It was a good sense to have because Niko couldn't spare a moment to stop, working in and out of the tentacles and severing flesh everywhere he went. Scarlet blood from the wound tat had never stopped bleeding mingled with black in brilliant starburst drops as Niko moved, body flexing and bending, constantly dodging and driving further in to the heart of the matter. There was no retreat. There was no hesitation. Katana in one hand and wakizashi in the other, Niko pushed forward and cut his way through.

Abbagor had nearly killed him once. Niko fully intended to return the favor...a little more thoroughly this time, a little more personally.

He pinned a tentacle to the ground, whipped free another grande, and let it fly. He didn't wait for detonation, only scooped his his blade and kept going.

Above him, Cal and the panther were doing a damned good job of tearing out Abbabor's throat. The smile on Niko's lips was wide and wild and wicked, a death's head grin baring his teeth, a certain kind of berserker fury bright in his grey eyes.

That expression might have worried Cal, if he were in any state to be worried about things like that. Part of him was still aware that this was all in his own head anyway, or close enough, the dream plane was a fluid thing at the best of times, and especially so with multiple people and being there as long as they had.

But logic had long since given way to the Auphe hindbrain instincts, the ones that were having a field day with the current situation, blood and pain and taking things apart for the fun of it with his brother fighting dirty alongside him, because the Auphe-brain was less picky about who it was related to than Cal was.

Even despite losing pieces left and right, Abbagor was still struggling to the surface, the remnants of one arm already free and the second one most of the way there and somewhat more intact.

The troll's bones were like stone and granite and Niko's blade keened an agonized note as it glanced free. Niko drove in again, scrambling up on moving tentacles to work on Abbagor's stil intact arm. It wasn't going to stay that way for long, certainly not! It was harder, now, because he wasn't as mobile as Cal or the panther, but he was agile enough and brimming wth adrenaline.

He was nearly through when a tentacled snagged around the last foot of his braid and snapped his head back to hard for a moment he thought it'd broken his neck. He fell, writhing in mid-air the adjust his landing, to remain upright.

Cal had happened to see that move, and snarled, scrabbling for a moment to get a more stable footing himself, still swaying, practically rolling with the movement of Abbagor's emergence.

It didn't take him very long at all to concentrate enough to open up a handful of gates in various sizes, all up and down what of Abbagor was already visible. He opened them, widened them, and then snapped them shut.

It wasn't enough to drop the troll, but it was definitely enough to slow him down a little.

Niko hit harder than he'd wanted to, because the broken-up pavement was not smooth and nowhere near gentle. He tumbled and fetched up against a jagged upthrust of asphalt, bruised and scraped in half-a-dozen places. He'd lost his shorter blade, but still had his katana gripped securely in had. He scrabbled to his feet and caught the edge of the gates closing again.

Good for Cal.

Niko gasped in a good breath and charged again for the fight, smile sliding back on his lips. No way was he getting left out of this one.

Cal's growl was a constant thing, broken only in brief moments when he shifted between one gate and another, but even then the interruptions were quick enough that the sound might as well have been a constant.

He was tearing at that point, tooth and claw as much as he was using the spear. He felt the point grinding and scraping against bone now and again, when he jabbed deep enough instead of across, and he was fairly sure that whatever Abbagor was on the outside, the inside was reinforced concrete, steel rebar, whatever the broken city had left behind to rebuild himself out of.

Not that it mattered much, Cal was still intent on pulling him to pieces, even if it took all night. Which probably should have been a concern, given how long he'd already been unconscious and just how deeply he was dreaming. He was going to wake up stiff as all get out when he finally woke.

Niko came scrambling, clambering, scrabbling up on a level closer to Cal and the cat. It wasn't easy but the best things in life never were. There was a gash on his cheek bleeding freely along with the cut on his arm. He gained Abbagor's shoulder by burying his katana deep and using it as leverage; once there, though, there was no time to breathe, no time to waste. He flung himself into the fray again, always moving, never still, and his main target was the stony coloumn of Abbagor's spine. Niko's blade couldn't part that, no, but all the fleshy tissue between...

He had one more grenade, and this one he might put to better use.

Cal was puzzled, briefly, by Niko's movement, but he caught on before long and grinned. The expression was still too sharp and too toothy, but he scrambled down himself, bare toes digging in between tendrils -and if he hadn't been barefoot before it was anyone's guess when it had happened- to give himself a somewhat more stable stance.

He twisted easily, using the spear as a lever to pry two of the larger segments along Abbagor's back apart, holding them there even though he had to use both arms and a good portion of his own weight against the weapon to do so.

Where his grin was too sharp, his eyes, likewise, were nearly fully red, nearly glowing Auphe-bright. The cat was still perched where Cal had just climbed down from, tail not quite lashing, but definitely swaying with intent, looking ready to pounce.

Niko traded grins with Cal, wild-eyed and toothy himself, and darted into the opening Cal provided, blade flickering at it plunged deeply. And there, a nice little hole like it was just made for him to shove that grenade right in there, the side of his hand skinned raw against bones like steel and concrete.

The tentacle caught him around the arm this time, and yanked down, but the grenade was set and Niko barely had time to register the ominous pop from his shoulder before he was in freefall - and the ground was much, much farther down this time.

He'd said that gates didn't work predictably in dreams, especially this deep, but that was apparently something that didn't matter, not at the moment, all that mattered was not letting Niko hit the pavement at his current speed, dreamscape or no.

Cal scrambled down Abbagor's side, half-gating and half-climbing, catching Niko again and again on the way down, acting like a drag chute, slowing his fall until they both hit the ground with a thump from less than ten feet up, the cat landing lightly beside them a moment later, "We should move." Was all Cal said, voice brittle, sharp at the edges.

Niko coughed and rolled to his feet wordlessly. He stopped, blinking, as his left arm dangled uselessly. He shook his head and ignored it, because it didn't hurt. But nothing hurt right now, and he still had his sword in his right hand, and that grenade was about to blow.

Like now.

The explosion was muffled, but the effectiveness was clear; Abbagor rocked where he stood and began to fall.

"You ready for a scene change?" Cal asked, the words practically breaking off instead of being said. Abbagor's gravity seemed to have increased, pulling the whole landscape along with him as he fell, Cal did have an occasional flair for the dramatic, and now was no exception.

Except that the cat chose that moment to pounce, a beautiful perfect arc, slamming into Cal's chest, snarling low in its throat, teeth bared and claws digging into his shoulders. Someone, it seemed, objected to the idea of going any deeper into Cal's subconscious, and had decided that it was time to wake up.

Niko's response was split-second, and even as the cat impacted Cal Niko hit the cat from the side. His katana dove between the cat's ribs and he snapped a leg up to kick the body off his blade. He moved fluidly, quick, and the bright fight in him had gone cold, his face blank and still. Pain and personality took a distant backseat to Cal's safety and in the back of his head Niko grimaced. Knowing it was a dream didn't stop him from thinking how much damage he was doing to his own body when he struggled to use his left arm still.

Disassociating sucked, Niko decided again, and watched as he followed up the kick with a rapid pounce, katana gleaming as he drove for the panther's throat.

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