maskormenacelogs | void dream ; open

Entry tags:

void dream ; open

WHO: The Outsider & you?
WHERE: A Shared Dream
WHEN: June, whenever
WHAT: The Outsider dreams of the Void, and sometimes people wander in
WARNINGS: Outsider often talks about or alludes to death, murder, violence etc, though he rarely goes into detail

[ You were asleep, and it almost feels like you've woken up again, but something is... strange. You get up, turn around and wherever you were sleeping is open wide to the Void.

Nothingness as far as you can see, except the strange black rock and some sort of species of whale floating in the Void, and the objects and things on the rocks.

The Void draws from the minds of who is there. Some of what is here may be random objects from this world, a hovercar or televison. But some are definitely from somewhere else - there's machines and objects and bits and pieces of architecture from the Outsider's world. Other things you may recognize from home, as the Void draws from your mind. There may even be people you know, from here or home, frozen and unmoving as if in a tableau.

While you look at something, the Outsider appears beside you in a cloud of his telltale black smoke. ]

You've found your way into the Void.

(( OOC: check here for more on how this power works. His vision power is still an option too! If you're cr, he may have pulled you in. If not, people can randomly wander in if they're sleeping the same time he is. If you have dream powers of some kind, feel free to have your character have more control over aspects of the dream, or jam with me about what that might do.))

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[ She gives a sheepish smile at that comment, not feeling sheepish at all in reality. ] This is far from the first world I've been to besides my own.

I technically work for the government. [ She then gives a small curtsy that has been made to look like it could be a ballet form. ] I am Nightfall, member of the Illinois Junior Hero League. In essence, I am a hero in training. In my world, heroes most often work for the government, in order to make sure they are trained both in what legal actions they are allowed to take, and in order to be better able to support the population.

Isn't that something of a contradiction? Heroes in the employ of those in power.

[ He dissolves into smoke and appears directly before her, black eyes unreadable, but there's a bite to his tone. ]

Perfectly poised and perfectly trained, aren't you? I wonder, who chose this path for you? A mother? A father? The government? Did they steal you in the night? Or was it what you wanted?

[ Oh, this one was sharp, and not in a way she liked. In a way that struck a nerve. She wouldn't show it - her training had prepared her far too well for exactly this sort of conversation - but internally she was quite frustrated, trying to hold back thoughts and feelings that hurt. ]

It was my choice. All American heroes, regardless of our training status, choose to be heroes. It's illegal to force someone to become a hero in our country.

Most commonly, children who become heroes discover their powers and join the trainee program in order to both learn how to control their abilities and to learn how to best help their communities and the world.

[ That was a lie, in spirit if not technicality. Many of the heroes had been in one way or another blackmailed into training, if not into being a hero outright. It turned out it was especially easy to emotionally blackmail children - and she knew this, and knew that was what had been done to her when she hadn't even reached the double-digits. If it weren't for how important their job was, she might not be so willing to play along with the government's story concerning how children were recruited.

In reality it was fairly uncommon to find individuals like Wishmaster and Dynamo, children who actively sought heroship (albeit for two very, very different reasons) and knew what they were getting into from the beginning. Most were like herself, or LAN, removed from their families either because their power was out of control and hurting others or because the family in question was abusive. Once they had removed a child from their family, training was used to re-enforce just how important it was to be a hero, and more subtly just how likely it was for them to be shunned for their powers if they weren't given the good publicity that came from being a hero.

It was an awful system, and were the reason for continuing it not so valid as it was, she would hate every single person involved in its maintenance, herself included. ]

I don't think it's a contradiction, by the way. Heroes are under the employ of the government most of the time so that we can carry things out in safer ways than if we were not. We get reports faster, too. We would all be heroes without the government's aid, but with it we are more capable of protecting people than we would be otherwise.

[ She sure as hell wouldn't have been a hero without government intervention, not when the reason for children heroes was purposefully kept a secret from the public. ]

Edited (typo) 2019-06-09 02:22 (UTC)

That sounds less like the role a hero than a soldier. Or perhaps a glorified Watch Officer. But that seems to be the case in this America as well. Fall in line, use your powers the way they want. But this one provides neither training nor aid.

[ He looks away. It's less that he doubts she is telling the truth, and more that he doesn't usually give the benefit of the doubt to those in power, particularly any organization they may create. ]

I wonder, which is more cruel?

Edited 2019-06-09 18:02 (UTC)

I don't think that either is cruel. [ A lie. ] I think that both worlds are doing their best. [ She offers a smile, despite believing this world is doing pretty poorly on a number of fronts. ]

In my world there have always been superpowered individuals. In the past they were used a slaves, power sources, weapons. In America at least there is a real movement to stop that from happening again. A part of that movement involves letting us decide for ourselves how we want to help our communities.

I think a big difference between a superhero and a soldier is that soldiers can be court marshalled for quitting, a superhero can't. We can go back to a normal life whenever we want, and all we have to do to make sure that's available to us is to make sure no one figures out who we are under the mask.

[ It was all a big lie. No, they wouldn't have to deal with legal repercussions if they hadn't been blackmailed into service, but enough of them had been that there was no way they'd ever be free until their bodies, and maybe their minds too, had decayed so far they couldn't be used. Her former teammate, Falcon, had admitted to her and Wishmaster that the only reasons he was a hero were because if he didn't comply his father would spend his whole life in jail. He'd be as old as she was now, maybe a little younger, and he jumped at the chance to help his father, convincing the man to let him take the deal.

In the end, he was one of he ones who would never, ever be able to stop being a hero, even though he'd served long enough that the deal meant his father was off scott-free. He'd been born with wings, and as he grew so did they, to a point there was no way to hide them without removing them, something that would seriously affect he quality of life.

Then there were people like her. People with scary powers, powers that sometimes acted on their own even despite all the training to control them, who would be revealed to the public the moment they were even a vague threat to the population. It was the law that anyone over the age of 18 whose powers caused harm to the public had their identity revealed, unless of course they signed up with the government.

At least people like LAN, and even Wishmaster if he wanted to, could go and live normal civilian lives some day. ]

[ A small mistake had been made on Nightfall's part. She was capable of hiding many, many things, especially in service of the narrative she was so commonly made to support. But one thing she'd never been able to fully hide, because it happened so rarely, was longing. And for a moment there, just a moment, she thought of how nice it would be to live a relatively normal life with her teammates, and the longing she felt was plain as day in her eyes. ]

[ Now that history lesson sounds like humans. Though the empowered in his world often found liberation through his gifts. Or executions.

But he is always watching and he sees that emotion, and dives for it like a hagfish smelling blood. ]

So why haven't you exercised your right? Don't you want to?

Oh! [ She perked up a little, slipping easily back into the act. ] Of course not. Maybe some day, but right now I really feel I can do a lot to help people. And really, I want to help people. [ She did, yes. But more, she didn't want to be bad. People with powers like hers, well. They always went bad eventually, didn't they? ] I feel that being a hero is the best way for me to do that.

[ There had been something there, something different, for just a moment before and now it was gone. Did he misinterpret the target of the emotion? Or was she hiding something? ]

Is it? I wonder what makes your faith so strong.

[ She nods. ] While as much as 10% of the population is made up of superpowered individuals, only a small fraction of those powers are useful in this line of work. There's also the fact that not everyone who can be a hero wants to be, or has the temperament for it. My world needs superheroes, and I can help in a way a lot of people can't.

[ She closes her eyes for a moment, and gives him a smile when she opens them again. ]

It's just the right thing to do.

[ The thing about being a minor celebrity in her world is that Nightfall has been trained to make eye-contact unless given a good reason not to. So without the knowledge of what could happen, she continued such contact with The Outsider without a second thought.

She had no idea that an image of the past would play out to him. No idea that he would witness herself and Wishmaster, the older, stronger, more capable of the two psychics in her team, someone who was her brother in soul if not in blood. That he would see the two of them holding hands so hard circulation was leaving them, the two ~~heroes~~ children focusing all their efforts on what was before them.

A woman, humanoid but not human, and strangely beautiful while appearing in garb and accessories (blood, a great deal of blood. None of it her own) deeply cruel. She lay unconscious on a gurney before them. It was their effort that was keeping her asleep. The contact between the children was just as much happening to allow Wishmaster to amplify her power as it was to keep them both grounded despite the terror that clearly fought to overpower them, and everyone else in the room.

And the everyone else. They were in uniforms and scrubs. Some were armed to the teeth while others communicated over headsets to important people. The people in scrubs were psychics. Each and every one of them holding on to a young man in his 20s who looked like he was trying to hold back tears. There wasn't a single one among them who didn't look like they felt comfortable breathing.

Every so often the woman on the table would twitch or flinch, but never wake.

The children were keeping the woman from waking up and adding every person in the room to her 'regalia' as the psychics tore her mind apart, and every damn one of them felt the progress.

Eventually the woman stopped breathing, going completely limp and unmoving.

No one cheered, though many people burst out in tears of relief.

The children didn't stop holding each others hands. ]

[ There. That crack in the persona. He knew what she said was too good to be true and there's a grim satisfaction in being right. ]

When she died on that table, before you and your companion, was that the right thing to do?

[ Nightfall freezes, her face going white as a sheet and her breath catching in her throat. A million thoughts race through her mind at once, and on instinct she takes a step back.

This man was now labeled a threat. Not an immediate threat, but a threat.

Her mind tried desperately to cling to that 'fact', to make it a grounding point. She tried to focus on how he could have found that information without her noticing someone digging around in her head. She tried to focus on solving the problem at hand and closing whatever gate had been opened.

But she couldn't. It stuck in her mind, that feeling of watching someone being systematically destroyed from the inside. Without Wishmaster's amplification of her powers she couldn't enter any part of the mind except that of someone having a nightmare, but she'd felt it none the less. She felt it and it was awful, and it haunted her in the moments when she wasn't keeping herself busy, despite all efforts to disconnect emotions from the memories like with all the other traumas she and her team had faced.

There was only so much the psychics could do without breaking laws concerning memory modification and suppression.

So when she spoke, it wasn't as the chipper child hero who joined the cause because it was the right thing to do. Her voice was that of a scared, lost child remembering the worst thing she'd ever experienced. ]

I'm not allowed to talk about that.

[ Her voice was small, and she herself had unconsciously tried to make herself physically smaller to match.

It had only been a couple of weeks, and in the wake of such massive devastation and losing all but a handful of heroes no one had the time to coach her on what to say. No one had given her a handy little script for 'was murder the right thing?'

All she had to go on was the meeting that made it clear that the event was classified on every level imaginable, and that they were never to speak of it again. ]

[ The gilt was peeling from her facade.

Now, at least, he had something to go on. His goal was not to break her, not fully anyway, or to (re) (re)traumatize her, though the latter may have already happened. All he wanted was for her to be a little more interesting. ]

They are not in this world. Not the waking one nor the Void. How can they know? How can they prevent you? There is no one here to snitch.

Your choices are your own. What you do and what you say is entirely up to you.

Edited 2019-06-11 13:15 (UTC)

[ She shakes her head. It's clear he doesn't understand how important it is that this has no chance of getting back to her world. How could he when she hasn't explained?

She tries so hard to force down the fear, and to ignore the memories enough to at least draw upon what she can say. ]

The. The chance it will, get back is not non-zero. [ She swallows hard. ] Even if you never told, an. Another psychic could find out. That psychic might tell someone who. Might tell a person who can retain memories when ported back. Someone might come in without the porter. [ She resists the urge to bite her lower lip, a nervous habit her teacher hadn't been able to break her of, but the government had. ] I don't want to risk hurting people. Lots of people will be hurt if it gets out in my world. People will die. Maybe everyone.

[ And that had been the whole point of killing that woman, hadn't it? To stop the murder of nearly every sapient being on the planet. That was why they were so desperate they used Nightfall and Wishmaster instead of more skilled, more trusted psychics from other states. There just wasn't any time, let alone any reassurance that the more skilled psychics would have made it. ]

Why would they die?

[ He's not going to question whether or not word would get back somehow. That's an unknown. He doesn't think it's probable, but perhaps it may be possible. ]

[ She licks her lips a little and haltingly starts to speak again. ]

It. This type of thing. It would gunk up the works. There would be investigations, and the hero program could be put under greater restraints, and not ones that would help people. The junior hero program could be completely eliminated... And... We're needed. I can't tell you why, because it's classified information. But... But they aren't just putting kids on the field because we're cute and are good publicity... We're needed.

If we aren't there to back up and... And sometimes just take on the jobs that the older heroes should be doing, then a lot of people will die, and the senior heroes won't be able to dedicate their time to finding out what's causing a really big problem that I'm not allowed to talk about.

Is that what they told you?

[ He crosses his arms, the question lying directly in the middle of innocuous and implying something. ]

They tell you you're special and not just that, they tell you you're necessary. They need you to pick up the slack, putting more and more weight on your shoulders until they give you one too heavy to bear.

Is there always another emergency? Is the situation never quite stable? I wonder -

[ That look of longing she gave earlier. He might not know much about superheroes but he does know a lot about people. ]

If you're so vital, how can they allow you the choice to leave?

[ She shrinks just a little more with each thing he says, until something catches. She props herself up a little emotionally, and looks him in the eyes again. She's not doing very well, that much is obvious, but this is something that means something to her. ]

It's what I've observed. I.. They've told me this, yes. But I choose to stay because I see evidence of it all the time.

[ She fights to continue to hold eye contact. ]

The adult heroes apologise to us. They apologise for not being able to come up against every threat. And they're so very tired. More tired than we are. And we're very tired. [ So tired it's sometimes painful. ] They can't do all the work, even though they want to. And... [ She flinches and looks away, back to the floor. ] Now they really can't hope to... That woman killed most of them. But my team is mostly unhurt.

And... They allow us to leave, because if there was even the slightest chance of it being assumed we were forced, it could take the whole program down... And forcing people to work for you is how you get villains. We've seen it happen in other countries.

[ The answer at its core didn't change but everything else did. He's getting something closer to sincerity, answers that were less prim and perfect. That's far more interesting. ]

Now I may even believe you.

The one who killed them are dead and you and others like you are healthy and intact. The enemy was killed and you're all picking up the pieces from the damage.

Or you were. Now you are here. Will you continue your work even though circumstances have changed?

I will. We're still heroes even if we aren't at home.

[ She chews on her lip a little. ]

Even if we were never to make it back home, we're instructed to always do what we can to help the local population. It's what's right. It's what we would like to happen when people come to our world, too. And it wouldn't be alright for us to expect that but not do it ourselves.

[ There was a certain logic there.

Though, in truth, and one she had not yet come to on her own, it was far more likely that this command was to keep them from getting used to a life other than the one they had been conditioned into accepting. Making it a case of 'do unto others' merely gave it a moral backbone to hold it up. ]

You're still relying on what you have been told.

You take your responsibilities seriously, for whatever that's worth. I wonder what will happen when the choice of what to do isn't so clear-cut, and you have no one to instruct you on a course of action. Will you break, without your structure? Or will you find your own path?

[ For some reason this question, more than any other question so far makes her patience bend a little, enough for her to say something she would otherwise have been too controlled to say. ]

Do you enjoy making people feel small and bad?

[ Her tone is accusatory, and laced with the frustration that caused her to look away from easy task of answering questions and trying to ignore what felt like jabs at her. ]

[ Far from being insulted, he seems amused. ]

I enjoy people who make their own decisions, who are capable of standing on their own and making their own way. Those who can do so enough to even change the world.

You are young. You have the potential to grow into something great, just as your growth may be stunted by those who would wish you were a puppet. Or, perhaps, you avoid either fate and eventually lead a normal life.

The future is uncertain, but it is yours to make.

[ She was frustrated. Frustrated and emotionally tired. She knew she should back down, to try and leave, but everything piled on top of everything else was weighing on her too much for her to be willing to do so just yet.

And though he likely didn't mean it to specifically, one part of his words stuck, hitting her in a way that just made her mad. ]

There is no normal life for people like me! People with my powers don't get to settle down and be librarians or farmers or anything normal. People with my powers... [ She gritted her teeth. ] People with my powers only ever have sad stories if we try. One of the reasons I work so hard to be good is because if I'm good enough maybe the people who come after me won't be seen as scary!

[ She started to feel tears welling up in her eyes and went to wipe them away before they could fall, before she went against the rules about crying. ]

[ That was it. That was the reason for that initial crack in the facade. Not that she wasn't allowed normalcy, but that she believed it unachievable. ]

All power has a price. But you never chose it, did you? You only chose to take the route that would lead you to what you felt was the best option.

[ He folds his arms behind his back. ]

All stories end in tragedy. Everyone dies. It's not the ending that matters, but the grand narrative of your life. Isn't it worth making it a good story?

[ She frowns and looks to the ground. ]

I'm not some character in a storybook, someone who exists just so that others can be amused. I... I know that sounds silly, because super heroes are all about performances as well as saving people... But I don't need my life to be narratively satisfying... I just need it to be meaningful on some level... Even if all it does is make it so that people after me might get to have normal lives.

With everything I know now, I would still choose the path I'm on. I would still choose to protect people. Maybe if things were different and less dire I would choose something else. I do not know. My powers don't involve seeing alternate timelines... But with everything...[ Her expression becomes pained for a moment. ] I would choose this, because I want there to still be a world to live in. Even if I don't get the type of life I would like to have.

[ Besides. She's had so little control over her life, even before becoming a hero, she has no idea what she'd like to do. Before, she was on the path of following in one parent or the other's footsteps, they had been putting so much effort into making both paths available to her, but she had been too young to even conceptualise what she wanted to do outside of making her parents proud, and maybe getting to spend more time with them... ]

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void dream ; open

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CW: death, minors technically helping commit a murder

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