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"Ruined," Dream said. "He's just a complete ruin." He sounded sad.
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Post by Ruin on May 19, 2021 11:03:27 GMT -5
Participants: Ruin and Zatanna Zatara Open/Closed: Closed Location(s): San Francisco Time of Day: Mid-evening Weather: Overcast Summary: Ruin flounders under the enormity of his quest, and draws the eye of the Mistress of Magic...
He walked down the city street with determination and despair warring in his chest. So little time had passed since Lord Dream gave him leave to search for the Dreamer - minutes, maybe? More? Ruin was still trying to get a sense of time in the Waking World. He'd been filled with so much hope and happiness at the proclamation... But now that he was here?
Ruin stopped at a corner, head turning this way and that. The Earth was so vast. He was so small. Faced with the enormity of his task, Ruin floundered in doubt and worry. Was finding the Dreamer really impossible, like so many had told him? Was he foolish for trying? Ruin thought back on the sleeping features of the boy... Foolish or not, he was going to try.
His jaw set. Ruin blinked, though, and turned his azure irises down to a niche in the building next to him's facade. There, huddled beneath a bit of tarp, was a mortal whose odor reminded Ruin of the Box he'd been locked away in in the Dreaming. The wizened man twitched, asleep, and his eyes darted behind their fluttering lids.
Ruin knew a Nightmare when he saw it. He bit his lip, looked around, guilt gnawing at his heart. With a resigned exhalation through his nose, Ruin crouched down. He reached out and his fingertips brushed the mortal's temple...
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From "fake" to "goddess" in one night. You're doing wonders for my mangled self-esteem.
Yvaine
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Post by Zatanna Zatara on May 19, 2021 16:06:00 GMT -5
"Boss? You okay?" Mikey put a hand on Zatanna's shoulder.
Zatanna frowned, "I'm not sure. I thought I... sensed something."
"Like a disturbance in the force?" Mikey returned dryly, putting a fist on her hip.
"You're real funny. I'm not sure what it was. Listen, cover the finale while I go check it out." Zatanna closed her eyes and attempted to focus on whatever that strange energy pattern had been, ready to teleport to its source.
"OH NO YOU DON'T," Mikey said quickly relocating behind Zatanna and taking hold of her upper arms and maneuvering her back toward the stage and unceremoniously shoving her into audience view, "YOU can finish the show then go investigate."
---
The "signal" wasn't as strong by the time that Zatanna finished her show. She felt a little bad that she hadn't done a meet and greet but this energy signature was an unusual pattern from the normal demons and fae that regularly traversed the paths between Earth and their own realms. It was unknown to her and yet innately familiar. It warranted investigation. "Too weak," She muttered and spoke the words to teleport back to her home.
"All right little dowsing pendulum. Let's see if you can't help amplify things a little bit." Zee dangled the quartz point over a map of San Fran and closed her eyes, channeling her thoughts and energy through the crystal, focusing on the energy pattern. She felt the silver chain begin to dance and after a few moments she heard a soft thud as the crystal struck the map. Zatanna opened her eyes to see the quartz's pinpoint tip perfectly balanced on a street in downtown San Francisco. "Gotcha." Without wasting another moment, Zatanna again spoke the words to teleport.
It was dark and that always made things a little unnerving. Zatanna scanned the area carefully, not quite sure what she was looking for or even if it was something visible. Her eyes came to rest on a being with long pastel hair. At first glance no one would likely have pinned him as anything other than a young man but Zatanna immediately sensed he was not human.
She let out a sigh. Great. A creature from the dreaming world. A nightmare if she wasn't mistaken. The dream world was complicated with its own set of rules, much of it alien to Zatanna making her all the more wary. After her recent run in with Fuseli, Zatanna was not looking forward to doing battle with one of his kin.
The creature reached out a hand toward a man sleeping there on the street and she instinctively took a step forward, "I don't know who you are, but I'm gonna need you to step away from the sleeping man." She cautioned pleasantly, a warning in her tone.
Tag Ruin
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"Ruined," Dream said. "He's just a complete ruin." He sounded sad.
Di
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Post by Ruin on May 20, 2021 11:07:49 GMT -5
Passing between the Waking World and the Dreaming was still new to him. Still scared him a little bit, even. Part of Ruin's instincts longed to be back in the realm of his birth, but so long spent trapped there, scrabbling and yearning to leave, meant that it was difficult to make himself willingly do the opposite. On a rational level Ruin knew that Lord Dream wouldn't go back on his word... But his heart throbbed anxiously, fearful that stepping over the boundary between worlds would be one-way.
He centered himself, worry smoothing from his face, and prepared to push through anyway. Presence - like a fallen star or knot of moonbeams - bloomed near him. Ruin paused, and then went rigid at the voice that followed it. His fingertips left the temple of the sleeping mortal, but he didn't pull entirely away. He looked over his shoulder. The black of his pupils, matching his sclera, narrowed and he squinted at the woman. She was... bright.
Ruin was reminded both of Lord Dream and of Heather After, just then. But this woman was distinct. Different, but similar to each. There was power and more behind her. Ruin looked back at the mortal, visibly conflicted. The woman may have been on to something. Good as his intentions were - as they always were - he probably would've just made things worse by trying to help. That tended to be his way.
"He's being visited by a Nightmare," Ruin said. He slowly stood up, height not meshing with the timidity of his character. He bit the inside of his cheek, staring at the twitching man a moment more. Then he squinted back at the woman. "Can you help him?"
Zatanna Zatara
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From "fake" to "goddess" in one night. You're doing wonders for my mangled self-esteem.
Yvaine
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Post by Zatanna Zatara on May 20, 2021 17:55:45 GMT -5
Zatanna blinked. Of all the things that she was prepared to hear come out of this being’s mouth, she had not in fact been ready for such a genuinely earnest plea for assistance. Whatever this dream creature actually was, nightmare or otherwise, it appeared before her as a young man and there was something very vulnerable in his expression something almost… helpless?
She steeled her nerves just then. There were many great evils that came in beautiful packages and whatever this dream creature was or wasn’t, it was beautiful. She wasn’t sure if this was simply what it manifested as outside the dream world or if it was a chosen form but the sincerity in those etherial blue eyes would have been enough to break through the strongest person’s defenses. Admittedly Zatanna didn’t think it meant any harm but she’d been wrong before.
“I’m… not sure what you mean.” She said finally, placing a hand on her hip and tilting her head slightly. She gestured toward the sleeping man and kept her voice quiet, adding gently. “Humans, they have bad dreams sometimes. It’s certainly not pleasant but when he wakes up it’ll dissipate and he’ll forget. There’s not really any way to stop it or help it.” Well… sometimes dreams and nightmares lingered but that’s just how it went as far as she knew.
Zatanna was in no way a professional but she was fairly certain that dreams were a way people worked through their waking stress and anxieties while they slept. Certainly there could be unnatural at play but wouldn’t she sense that?
Tag: Ruin
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"Ruined," Dream said. "He's just a complete ruin." He sounded sad.
Di
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Post by Ruin on May 20, 2021 19:08:57 GMT -5
Ruin tilted his head, and his narrowed eyes became a touch less because of the woman's inner light and more out of genuine consideration. The way she spoke was with such effortless confidence in a way that reminded him of Jophiel. But insulated. Cushioned along the edges with a kindness, even if bits of wariness poked through here and there. That air of authority linked arm-in-arm with Ruin's inexperience - inexperience he was well aware of.
Could that be right?
He looked back down at the frail mortal form curled up in that niche. Ruin thought better than to reach out again. Someone didn't have the kind of power that this woman did without the ability to prove it. Still... Ruin closed his eyes again, shaded as they were by multicolored hair that tumbled over his shoulder. Distantly, like it was almost half-imagined, Ruin could hear a gentle chuckle that was not of this world.
"No... I know that bad dreams can be a making of the Dreamer. This is different. I can tell." Ruin swallowed. What was there to do, though? Nightmares had a job, just like every other employed being of the Dreaming. If one of his kin was meeting the mortal, wouldn't it have been at Lord Dream's request? But for what purpose? And how could Ruin help? Every time he'd ever tried things just went worse.
"I just don't like to watch him suffer," Ruin mumbled, phrasing the feeling in his gut for the first time. He never had. Going back all the way to the first dream he'd been commissioned to twist and the Dreamer that now held his heart. The mortal's brow was beaded with sweat and he twitched under his tarp. "Can you wake him?" Maybe it was wrong. Maybe it was breaking the rules, preventing a Nightmare from carrying out Lord Dream's edict but... If it would mean the mortal was no longer distressed, wasn't it worth it?
Zatanna Zatara
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From "fake" to "goddess" in one night. You're doing wonders for my mangled self-esteem.
Yvaine
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Post by Zatanna Zatara on May 20, 2021 21:09:27 GMT -5
And the bizarre requests just kept on coming. Zatanna couldn’t get over the, for lack of a better word, “newness” this young man displayed. He possessed such an innocence and seemed completely genuine in his desire to prevent the suffering of this man even while sleeping. He seemed to be growing more and more uneasy the longer this went on.
Zatanna was more used to these types of encounters being significantly more hostile than this. A little threatening, sometimes some fighting, things went well or south fairly quickly… While this still could be some kind of elaborate trap, it seemed like a lot of work. Her eyes shifted to the sleeping man and then back to the pastel boy.
If there was something unnatural going on with this man’s dreams she wasn’t opposed to stepping in and trying to help, but she still didn’t know anything about this new arrival. Waking someone up wouldn’t likely be the end of the world and- as someone who had been trapped by a nightmare demon herself- she had no issues helping someone escape the thrall of a poisoned sleep. Yet, deep inside the need for caution she felt endured.
“I suppose one of us could wake him up fairly easily.” She observed, “But before we bother this nice man and potentially anger some unstable dream creature, why dont you tell me who you are and what you are doing here.” She paused and clarified, “Here as in on the street and in the waking world.”
Tag: Ruin
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10Likes
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"Ruined," Dream said. "He's just a complete ruin." He sounded sad.
Di
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Post by Ruin on May 21, 2021 16:38:25 GMT -5
Ruin's brow furrowed, a bit perplexed, when the woman said that either of them could wake the man very easily. Was that so? He knew it took an awful lot in the Dreaming to jolt a visitor out of the realm entirely. Would it be as simple as shaking the mortal in the Waking World? Or would the Nightmare visiting him have their claws sunk deep enough to keep hold? Besides, Ruin couldn't wake him. The woman had already told him to step away. Maybe he could shout?
He couldn't riddle out any of the thoughts and internal questions that the woman's comment raised inside his head. She went on quickly, and Ruin stumbled to keep up. So she did know that Ruin wasn't from the Waking World. That made sense, with what he could glean of her power. And she was asking why he was there. Ruin suppressed the urge to immediately explain everything then and there.
Social interactions were still something he was learning the nuance of, but he was learning. "I'm Ruin," he decided to say, as a good starting point. "I'm from the Dreaming looking for someone." Ruin seemed to realize his restraint could leave some key points in question, and hurried to add, "But Lord Dream gave me leave to. I'm allowed-" at least he was this time.
Another realization dawned on him and his troubled expression opened a little with tentative hope. "It's nice to meet you." See? He was learning.
Zatanna Zatara
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22Likes
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From "fake" to "goddess" in one night. You're doing wonders for my mangled self-esteem.
Yvaine
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Post by Zatanna Zatara on May 21, 2021 17:35:47 GMT -5
Lord Dream. Why did that seem familiar? The name tickled a memory in the back of her mind but she couldn’t place it. Maybe it was something she and John had talked about long ago. From the way this boy talked, this Dream person sounded as though he were in charge of “The Dreaming” this Ruin claimed to be from. Given how much power she held over Fuseli now she could probably question him about all of this but that sounded like a headache she didn’t need just then. In any event it didn’t really matter who or what Dream was at least for the moment.
Zatanna was becoming more and more convinced that whoever or whatever this Ruin was, he was no immediate threat. Generally by this point in the conversation if someone was going to attack or otherwise threaten her they would have done it by now. If anything Ruin’s demenor had been the exact opposite of threatening. He seemed lost, uncertain, and very overwhelmed. He had the look of a scared fawn ready to bolt into the forest first chance they got.
She felt her demenor soften and she offered a small smile, “It’s nice to meet you too, Ruin.” She placed a hand on her chest and told him gently, “I am Zatanna.” She eyed him up and down with a scrutinizing gaze, “You don’t seem like you’re here to make trouble for me.” She observed.
Tag: Ruin
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"Ruined," Dream said. "He's just a complete ruin." He sounded sad.
Di
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Post by Ruin on Jun 4, 2021 10:44:37 GMT -5
Ruin was pretty much working from scratch as far as the whole "common sense" thing went. Which meant that he missed out on a lot of obvious tells and things that no one else would. But he was good at picking up things that you couldn't learn how to see. He didn't think that it had anything to do with being a Nightmare. Actually, it was weird and unexplainable why a Nightmare could. Just another way he was a failure, probably.
When the woman introduced herself, the meek light that'd flickered in Ruin's blue irises grew and steadied. He felt like she - Zatanna, she said - had made some kind of decision, because the atmosphere of their conversation had shifted. At least... He thought it had. The smile that'd been forming on his full lips faltered at the last comment.
Dread and guilt, which were permanent residents in his heart, stabbed deeper. "I never try to make trouble," Ruin said, earnest and sad and remorseful and tired. "It just always seems to happen." He pursed his lips, looking down and nowhere in particular, lost in painful memories. His brows knit in a frown and he looked back to Zatanna. "Can you wake him, now?"
The dreamer at his feet was twisting and turning by that point. Sweat was sticking the tarp he had as a blanket to his skin and veins were standing out in his malnourished temple and throat.
Zatanna Zatara
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From "fake" to "goddess" in one night. You're doing wonders for my mangled self-esteem.
Yvaine
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Post by Zatanna Zatara on Jun 11, 2021 16:40:50 GMT -5
There was so much pain behind the boy’s eyes Zatanna had no idea what to make of him. Where had he come from? What had he been through to make him look as though he might bolt under the nearest low hanging furniture like a startled cat? She intended to get some answers before she released this poor kid back into the wild.
This situation of Ruin practically begging Zatanna to wake this poor man up from whatever it was he was dreaming seemed ludicrous to Zatanna. She might even have chuckled at the situation but for the look of genuine concern and worry on Ruin’s face. No matter what this man was dreaming it seemed almost rude to wake him up. Then again it was only a phone call from a certain cop she most definitely wasn’t going to think about that saved her from her own experience with a nightmare demon. She was certainly no expert on dream creatures so why should she ignore the advice of a being that likely understood the situation better than she?
Zatanna took in a breath and let it out again slowly. Not a sigh and not even to steel her nerves, just to calm and center herself for this bizarre task, “All right.” She said a little skeptically. She motioned for Ruin to move out of eye shot of the man so that neither of them would have to answer any awkward questions when he did wake. Having to use her powers to make him forget was not something she was anxious to do.
Feeling more than a little guilty herself she tucked some money into the man’s pouch and then gave his shoulder a couple of gentle shakes before moving away so far that he wouldn’t think it was either of them that had disturbed him. She watched silently as the man seemed to shift around and groaned. She saw his head shift around as though looking for something and then seemed to curl back in on himself, pulling the blanket tighter.
Tag: Ruin
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