cause i was born and raised to live beyond

[resipiscent]

WHO: Riku + various
WHERE: Your characters' dreams!
WHEN: All through November.
WHAT: Riku is playing around with a newfound power to travel through dreams, and possibly (probably) gets in over his head.
WARNINGS: None yet, subject to change

[Dream Eaters were made to keep dreams safe. Or at least, that's what Riku had decided. Keyblade Master or no, he felt like it was his responsibility to help with that, now that he found himself with the power to do so. But he realized very quickly that he had no idea what it was he was supposed to be doing with it, or how he was supposed to go about it. So it's with this in mind that he's lying on his belly on his bed, above the covers, head buried in his arms. It feels a little silly, trying to go to sleep to do something like this. Riku almost always dreams lucidly, so that part isn't a problem. But he has no idea how to go about getting into someone else's dream.

Normally, Riku has a hard time falling asleep. He always fights it, knowing that whatever he dreams will be unpleasant. But lately he's had an easier time with it. Maybe it's because he's working on figuring out these powers, but it also has something to do with the fact that he doesn't have to deal with Xehanort's Heartless nearly so much anymore. The man who would sit in his heart waiting until Riku fell asleep so he could come creeping out of the shadows of his dreams to torment him -- he's fallen into obscurity again. Riku had faced him down for what felt like the truly final time, back in the Sleeping Worlds. So sleeping now only meant normal nightmares, not the orchestrated ones Ansem had conducted.

When he finally manages to drift off, Riku finds himself in the middle of a void -- it's black in every direction, but illuminated, and beneath his feet is a brightly-coloured stained glass panel. He can't tell what the image is from here -- it's much too big, the platform extending probably twenty feet in every direction. He can see elements of it, but he's not really certain what it is in its entirety. He doesn't really wait for too long, though. Ahead of him, at the edge of the massive column he's standing atop, is a door -- one he's seen before, but never in this sort of context. It's begging to be opened -- or at least, he's pretty curious about what might be on the other side of it. Perhaps, he muses, this might be the way out. Out of his own dream and into someone else's.

Approaching the door readily, Riku reaches for one of the massive, curved handles, but just before his fingers brush it, it creaks heavily open on its own. He can't see what's on the other side of it, even staring through the opening, and so he simply goes ahead and steps through.

What's on the other side is nothing like he might have imagined in the least.]

Comments

[dejerate]

[This would hardly be the first or likely the last nightmare or dream Yuu might have. Nike's offered to help, with her singing, but Yuu doesn't constantly want to put her out like that every evening. So of course there's some nights he tells her he'll be fine.

And most nights, that is true. Just not this particular night. Unfortunately.

But fortunately, for him, this is one of the nights that Riku shows up. Probably because he senses something with Yuichiro's dream. The dream of the time he lost Mika before, back home.

A much younger, twelve year old Yuu is staring in shock and anger as Ferid attacks and kills his family, the orphans from the Hyakuya Sect Orphanage. At first not even realizing Riku is there at all as he watches in disbelief. Wondering how it ended up this badly. As he realizes Ferid played them, knowing Mika would grab at the map at the chance to get out of Sanguinem while they still had some time before they'd be thirteen and subject to the virus.]

[resipiscent]

[Riku's not really certain what brought him here in particular. Suddenly he's standing not on the stained glass but on the marble of a grand, empty hall, and everything smells like blood.

The black-haired boy in the white clothes, the only one left standing, across from the man with the white hair, is the one who immediately draws Riku's attention. He recognizes him, certainly, for two things: that this is the same Yuu he knows in the present, but younger. The second thing is that he's very certain that this is Yuu's dream. Who else would dream of this? Mika is no longer here to have such a dream, though he can tell that that's him in the vampire's grasp.

Without being told, Riku knows everyone's names. Perhaps that's because this is Yuu's dream, and he knows who those people are. Riku's not certain. What he does know is that this has to stop. And so he steps forward, and the Keyblade is in his hand without his meaning to call it. Riku doesn't bother trying to snap Yuu out of the dream -- he's sure that would be harder than simply interfering directly. He doesn't think he can get actually hurt, not the way the dream-Mika and the other orphans can be. This is a learning experience, he figures, if nothing else.]

[dejerate]

[Yuu isn't sure what to make of it. The stranger's appearance. His strange weapon he wields as his wide, confused green eyes dart to it as the Keyblade appears out of nowhere like that.

He has no idea who this is, not in the dream, but he's not sure how to react. Not when Riku doesn't seem to be turning on him. Yet, anyway. He seems to be another human, at least, even with that odd weapon.

But then his gaze darts back to Mika, to Ferid. Noting the way the vampire also pauses. Which of course means Yuu himself takes the chance, posture probably betraying his intentions to run and try rescue his remaining friend. But Ferid is likely more distracted by Riku and the fact the elder actually has a weapon. So Yuu tries to dart forward, to help Mika, to grab the gun the blonde dropped to the ground.]

Mika!

[resipiscent]

[Riku moves at the same time. He knows Ferid will probably go for Yuu if he realizes he's trying to help his friends -- so Riku goes for Ferid before he can do that. He remembers suddenly Yuu telling him about vampires -- seven times stronger than humans. But Riku's not certain that he's human anymore. So this doesn't concern him as much as it might have once. So while Yuu scrambles for the gun, Riku goes ahead and just engages Ferid, a blast of darkness exploding a dangerous distance away from the vampire's feet.]

Get him, [he barks to Yuu at the same time. He realizes that this is a memory, and that the true events of this story are already written. But in a dream...] Take Mika and go.

[redigere]

[At first, it might not seem like Riku has gone through to anywhere. The other side is just as dark all around, and the floor beneath him is just another continuation of the platform he'd stepped away from. It's easy to tell whose dream it is by looking at the stained glass picture on the floor, though. What might be surprising is how the Station of Awakening has crumbled, exposing a handful of holes in the platform at parts where Kairi's face and body are. Behind what's left of Kairi's head is the outline of Xion's familiar short, black hair, and behind Naminé's is Kagami's sharp smirk.

A lone Shadow is sitting in the middle, uncharacteristically quiet. Upon sensing Riku, it jolts and skitters away up a set stairs that creates itself under the Shadow's feet, spiraling ever upwards towards a small white door with a glowing white crown symbol above the lintel. If Riku were to take the stairs, nothing would attack him, but it would seem to go on forever, without him ever getting closer.

Only the quiet Heartless is his companion, always leading the way, but just out of reach.]

[resipiscent]

[A Shadow... not uncharacteristic just because it's quiet, but also because it's alone. Shadows are almost always encountered in swarms. This, though... just one?]

Huh...

[It runs away, and Riku can't help but follow. He notices almost immediately that he's making absolutely no progress, and he slows, looking up the stairs after the Heartless. What it wants, he can't say.]

How do I catch up to you...?

[This is a dream, though, right? and Riku remembers, that one time he'd had someone enter his dream, that she had been able to alter things. Maybe he can too. And even if he can't alter the dream itself -- he would get it if he couldn't, since it's not something he created -- perhaps he can alter himself.]

[redigere]

[As soon as he has that thought, a narrow and fragile pathway to an identical door appears just to his right. The Shadow slides across with no problems, and slips through the open crack, opening the door wider. On the other side is a white bedroom. It has similar touches that Naminé would've incorporated back in her Twilight Town mansion room-- except the breeze coming in from the open window? It's a sea breeze. A little Kairi doll sits at the center of the bed, surrounded by pages and pages of drawings. All the pages are of Kairi and Naminé together, hands linked and smiling. A mirror sits in the corner, reflecting not the room Riku is in, but Kairi's room, back on Destiny Island.

Just beyond the bed is an open door. A soft laugh, a flash of blonde hair, and then it's shut.

The Shadow moves to the door and then looks up at Riku, waiting for his next move.]

[resipiscent]

[Riku stares into the room, then down at the Shadow, which is looking back up at him in what he feels is an expectant manner. He doesn't have to hesitate very long, and then he's stepping inside, whether it's past the Shadow or after it. He spends little time here -- it seems to him that he'd be snooping, if he were to poke around here too long. Instead he stands in front of the second door, which had been open just a moment ago. And perhaps that was Namine. But he's going to check it out anyway. So much for not snooping, he thinks wryly, and then Riku reaches forward and twists the doorknob open, pushing it hesitantly open.]

[circulets]

[ On the other side of the door is a mountain.

The sun is shining on the summit, and it's a rather nice day. In fact, the view from it looks beautiful for whoever dares to look over the edge. However, that's not what Mikleo's dream was about. Mikleo's dream was about something else entirely.

When Riku finds him, he'll find his younger self near frantically running away with staff in hand, a panicked expression settling on his features. When he sees Riku he staggers, stopping in his steps. ] What-- What are you doing here? You have to go!

[ It's then that Riku should hear a rather loud rawr - followed by the sound of wing flapping. The dragon above them is no joke, and very much a threat. ]

[resipiscent]

[The air is suddenly so clear. Before it'd simply been there, but now it's cool, and it smells good. The scent is nice, except for the undercurrent of some brand of darkness underneath it. It's permeating everything, Riku realizes as he considers it a little longer.

He doesn't have time to consider long, though, because Mikleo practically scrambles past him. Here's someone he didn't think he'd see. But having him interact so directly with him is another surprise, and Riku stares stupidly at him for a moment.]

What?

[And then Eizen makes himself known and Riku can't help but gape. This isn't the first time he's seen a dragon. But this guy might be bigger than Maleficent was. Again, the same as Yuu's dream, he knows the dragon's name without needing to ask about it. Riku isn't going to stay and find out what dragon fire feels like, dreamed up or not. Instead he turns on his heel and follows, starting the descent.]

Lead the way.

[He's probably less concerned about the threat above them than he should be, despite the way he's matching Mikleo's speed.]

[circulets]

[ Mikleo looks to Riku, pace beginning to slow. Never mind how this person could see or hear him. Never mind how he's suddenly meeting someone else with resonance. They cna talk about that later. Right now he's more concerned with getting him to safety. ]

Run in front of me. [ He instructs. ]

If the dragon tries to strike at you, I'll have a better chance of doing it like this. I can cast protective artes should it try to strike us from the front or above.

[ He stays behind Riku, remaining as alert as he can. Listening for any sounds or feeling for any vibrations that might signify that the dragon is nearing onc more. ]

I'll lead the way from here.

[valuemeal]

[ At first, Riku might feel that the door just lead straight back to the waking world or something. The streets look modern enough to be similar, at least - although the signs reveal that it sure isn't anywhere in America. Instead it's the streets of modern day Korea, big building plastered with signs lining the streets.

The only thing that might stand out about it is the fact that it's the middle of the night - a completely dark sky hanging over the streets, the time being late enough that even some of the stores have already closed down, dimming their bright signs, leaving only the 24 hour kind of stores open and few people actually still out on the streets. One of the few faces around is one Riku might recognzie though - Hyunsoo is walking around with a bag from a 24 hour store in his arms, walking on the sidewalk in the middle of the night. ]

[resipiscent]

[It's true, he almost thinks he's stepped out into De Chima at night or something. But then he realizes the signs are in a different language, and he can read them, but they're not what he's used to. Riku's not sure if he can read them because of the dreamer or because of the translation provided by the equipment he's been given in this world. It doesn't really matter. He has to figure out who the dreamer is, first.

It doesn't take him long. There's a guy he recognizes, and while his first instinct is to approach, Hyunsoo's personality is such that Riku feels it'd be pretty alarming for him to just fall into step beside him.

Instead, Riku follows him. (Because that's less alarming.)]

[valuemeal]

[ Let's face it, pretty much anything is alarming when it's Hyunsoo. It's why he starts to feel more and more uneasy as he's leaving the streets with some of the big lights still on and starts heading down smaller and darker streets.. and there's still someone following him. He doesn't know who, since he hasn't looked, but he can sure hear those footsteps.

At first he decides to ignore it, since everyone knows that in horror movies the guy that looks over his shoulder at that moment always gets killed by whatever monster is stalking him, but after a little while he just can't take it anymore. He's too much of a paranoid weenie.

So he turns out quickly and sharply out of the blue, looking scared already.. until he sees who it is. ]

... Riku?

[ Something feels.. odd about seeing him here. Like something about Riku being in Busan isn't right, but his dreaming mind can't exactly settle on just what is wrong with this guy being here of all places.

At least it doesn't feel dangerous. If anything, it's a bit of an anticlimax, and the tension seeps out of Hyunsoo's pulled up shoulders a little bit. ]

[notyourfathersosborn]

[Beyond the door, the sun is shining high in the air, peering out between two tall skyscrapers. The streets are teeming with people, though they seem to be the same dozen or so people merely cloned until they made a crowd: a young black-haired woman, an older man whose face seems perpetually worried, an older blonde woman who almost seems to glow in the sunlight, a red-head with freckles and pigtails, a fashionable middle-aged redhead who looks as though she might be related to the other redhead, and so on. Some of the skyscrapers are visible landmarks: Grand Central Station is right up front, the Baxter Building with its huge "5" logo on the top is only a few blocks away, and the Empire State Building isn't much farther behind it. Everything seems normal and peaceful and safe.

Or at least, it does until an explosion goes off just behind Grand Central Station, sending everything into chaos. The crowd of duplicated people starts to scatter as screams and explosions get closer. As the explosions get louder, a new sound can be heard in the mix--laughter. A green-and-purple clad figure atop a glider flies overhead, laughing like a hyena as he lobs orange pumpkin-shaped bombs into the scattering crowds. Anything it hits merely vanishes from the dreamscape.

The Green Goblin doesn't seem to notice Riku. For now.]

[resipiscent]

[Riku comes out in the middle of the street, and he squints in the sun, trying to figure out where he is based on a landmark, perhaps, or a person. He doesn't know any of these people, though -- though eerily there are multiples of the same ones. He's never encountered a crowd in a dream before, though. Perhaps if they didn't all look like a handful of people, they'd all just be formless shapes hanging around. This, he reasons, is a little less creepy than that.

Riku's not looking toward it when he hears the explosion. And then there's another, and another, and he does look up this time, moving instinctively to press his back to a wall, where he can gain some protection without losing his view of the situation. This is the Green Goblin, the dream tells him, and Riku feels like he'd have known that whether or not the dream had informed him of it. Those bombs... he's seen those before. For him, it's glaringly obvious whose dream this is.

What to do next is a decision, though. He can distract him, certainly, but he isn't sure that would alter the course of whatever's supposed to happen here. But this isn't time travel, he reminds himself, no matter how much it feels like it. It doesn't matter what he does here, because it's already happened, the true events have already played themselves out. This is just a deleted scene.

So Riku does a stupid thing and finds a fire escape, so he can get up on a roof. At the very least, he wants a better view, and he hasn't experimented with whether he can open portals within dreams just yet.]

[notyourfathersosborn]

[He doesn't have to wait very long for the cavalry to arrive, led by Spider-Girl. Normie and his Other (name forever pending) quickly join them from another direction. Before any of them can get out any sort of quip or platitude, the Green Goblin causing all of the problems begins to rant about how they are the corrupters, and a source of weakness. The rant isn't very long, but it does end in more laughter and throwing of more pumpkin bombs. The New Warriors scatter to protect the crowd, and Normie launches themselves like a slingshot towards the evil Green Goblin (not to be confused with the good one currently scooping some of the duplicated crowd out of harms way), turning their hand into a machete for maximum efficiency as they flies through the air.

Unfortunately for Normie and his other, the Green Goblin ducks out of the way of the bladed hand using his glider. He then grabs them by the arm and uses their own momentum against them to toss them onto a nearby rooftop. The roof Riku just so happens to be on. It isn't until they've dusted themselves off and are preparing to jump back into the fray do they notice him.]

Riku? What are you doing here?

[darkimitation]

[Upon entering his brother's dream, Riku will find himself surrounded by tall wall mirrors in a small room that bears a strong resemblance to one from Castle Oblivion. After a moment however, as if by magic, a set of large stairs appear which if Riku walks up them, he'll find himself on the play island from back home on Destiny Islands except there's a difference. What he'll see is Sora, himself, Kairi, Naminé, Kagami, and Xion all together on the beach as little kids. The girls are making seashell charms and drawings, while the boys are sword fighting. Then all of a sudden everything is engulfed by darkness and the happy moment is replaced by the surroundings becoming a small dark laboratory with dolls everywhere, test tubes full of green liquids, computers, and Kagami sleeping in one of the tubes. There's a switch on the floor by the tube he's in should Riku want to press it and let him out.]

[resipiscent]

[Riku's staring back at himself as he enters the dream. Mirrors, lined up along the walls in a white room. Growing accustomed to traveling this way means that he has a good idea of whose dream this is. He doesn't bother with the mirrors too much -- instead, as if in response to his appearance, there's a staircase. It's tall, but he accepts it and ascends. Getting to the top doesn't take long, and Riku gapes as he steps up onto the landing.

Home. He's home, all of a sudden, or a facsimile of it -- and as soon as he sees the children he understands that his suspicion was correct. Kagami's dream. No one else would dream of mirrors, and then this. He doesn't get very much of a look at them before the beach seems to upset itself -- when the darkness lifts, Riku is somewhere he's never been.

Huge cylinders line the walls. Pods like the ones DiZ had, but filled with liquid instead. Behind him are -- what look like mannequins. It smells like ice, Riku muses, and then his eyes land upon one particular Replica and he understands, once more, what is happening here. The switch is on the floor -- he assumes it's so that Vexen would have the use of both hands when removing a Replica from its cell. There are lab coats, a rack of them on one wall, and he gets that and a towel before moving to face Kagami in his tube. He wonders if his brother even knows he's dreaming this. If he did, wouldn't he be awake in the dream...?

Riku steps down on the switch and waits for the liquid to drain.]

[darkimitation]

[Once the liquid drains completely, the tube itself opens and Kagami drops like a rock inside said tube. Eventually he stirs and becomes conscious of his surroundings. His expression is that of a lost child when his eyes look up at Riku. Then as he reaches out for the other from the spot where he was sitting, darkness again engulfs everything around them. Now the two are in the same room once more full of mirrors yet its walls are white with black splatters everywhere instead of pure white. Kagami's place has changed to him being in the center of the room on his knees and hands as well, while Riku will see yet another Kagami standing over the one he's more familiar with. The other Kagami is darker in nature, almost as black as a heartless yet not quite and also sporting his Dark Mode clothing. In due time, the two Kagamis begin talking to each other and Riku will be able to hear their exchange.]

Look at you, you're spineless now. You've lost what made you who you were. Give up the goodie two-shoes act and go back to who you should be.

Shut up! I'm not spineless!

[Kagami gets up from his spot and tries to attack the other Kagami before he gets pushed backwards onto the ground on his back, the more evil one starts laughing at him at this point too.]

I said shut up!! Stop laughing at me!!

[heartisabattleground]

[ The door has opened and inside is a very familiar and calm view that both Sora and Riku knew. It was their island. The beach, the sea, the one little raised island in the water connected by a bridge with a tree that hung over the side with several papou fruits.

Sora sits there by himself looking out over the water, a bottle in hand his expression focused and determined. He hasn't noticed the new person to his dream, perhaps thinking it's all part of it. ]

[resipiscent]

[Riku steps out onto the bridge, and instantly he's staring. Every taste of home he gets he savours, and this is no different, staring out at the ocean for a moment. How many times had he just stood and looked out over that sea? But Sora is here, he'd know that scent anywhere, and he crosses to meet him, settling at his normal spot against the tree. It's a little different, since he has to lean in a particular way in order not to put too much weight on those new little wings of his, but it's close enough.]

... What's up?

[resoundingpledge]

[ It's dark.

—no, that's not quite it. Of all people, Riku knows darkness, understands it, has lived in it. There's no absence of light here. There's simply no vision; it's the dark of the underside of a blindfold, the inward gaze we open when our eyes are shut.

The dreamer of this dream, after all, sees comparatively little with her eyes. Her world is shaped in sound, and so too is this dream—notes weave together to create substance where there is none, to shape a landscape felt and heard before it's seen.

The sigh of old church wood breathes a lecture hall under his feet, a semi-circular amphitheatre, a note of reverence shaping stained glass panels in the walls. A faded memory of footsteps, laughing voices, a stern reprimand from the pew . . . gone now, the ceiling torn open to the sky.

The wind howls. A storm is coming. A storm may already be here, far off on all sides, circling.

The brushing quiet of a bowed head, murmurs of the Key of David—the wall ahead has been opened, the sides pulled back by machines, by a whisper of prayer. For what he shuts, no man can open, and what he opens, no man may close . . . Riku holds a key too, doesn't he? He is not unwelcome in this place.

The motion of great gears comes from beyond that boundary, the slow heartbeat of a clock tower laid bare. And there, amid greased axles and the tension of springs wound tight, a moment of stillness—an idea of self, of a fall of unruly hair straining to be free, of loose folds of cotton brushing over almost-bare skin.

A dreamer, kneeling at the edge of one of those great gears, her attention turned up to a collection of sounds without shape, to the concept of a something that has yet to be formed. ]

[resipiscent]

[This dream is like nothing he's encountered. Up to now, everyone's dreams have been completely different, but they've all been the same, too. They're all closer to movies than music, but this...

Even if he opened his eyes, he doesn't think he'd see anything. So he keeps them closed -- and simply walks ahead, toward the person he knows will be there when he reaches his destination. There's only one person he knows who would have a dream like this, after all. Not a blind person, but one for whom sight just doesn't matter. Someone who was so bothered that her hearing was changed, once, that they'd physically collided in their mutual disorientation.

The sound of the machinery as he grows closer is low in his ears, despite its volume. Riku arrives and simply folds to the ground next to her, sitting cross-legged. His attention is on Kururu rather than on her dream -- he wants to know what will happen here. But he won't bother her just yet -- instead, he'll listen, and find out what she's doing.]

[resoundingpledge]

[ A cocoon, a chrysalis. A heart beats fast and light in that tangle of sounds, its rhythm matching neither hers nor his. It twists together with other impressions, there and gone again—the cracking hiss of fire, the gentle twisting of wind through rice fields. The clanking of large tin bells, the whirring of a small motor and turning wheels . . .

None of it sticks together, but it's all there. Raw materials, raw potential; scattered notes to what could be a breathtaking song.

And she listens. Cloth shifts as she lifts a hand, stretching toward it—

and falters, caught by a note that doesn't belong, of sounds that are strange in this place.

She turns to him, head tilting, curious. He might hear, in that moment, a scattering of those misplaced notes: the gentle fall of piano notes, the aching vibration of violin strings. The flutter of angel wings and bat leather, balancing on a double edged blade. ]

Riku?