[X-World] Unsweetened Dreams

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:13 pm

Blocking out Theresa's weird thoughts was easy enough. That usually left Jennifer orbiting in her own dreams. Tonight's dream was one of the stranger dreams that her subconscious had subjected her too. Assuming it was a dream, because everything seemed more real, more vivid than her typical dreams. She was in a long, smoky hallway. The walls were rounded and the flickering light of torches revealed the occasional door. The hallway itself was big enough to drive a truck through, yet it still seemed confined. Further down the way, the hallway seemed to open up into some sort of larger room, where there was a larger concentration of flickering light as if there were sizeable fires in that direction.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:23 pm

Jennifer is running down the hallway from... well it's not really clear to her either, but the relevant thing is she's running. Barely paying attention to the door on the sides she's headed for the larger room at the end that at least promises more light than the dim hallway.

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:47 pm

Behind her, there's the clank of one of the doorways and a soft shuffling noise adds to her perception of what she was running from. Ahead, the room opened up, the ceiling rising abruptly and the walls fading away into shadow. The light was cast by a ring of campfire-sized fires. A large chair, a throne really, sat opposite the entryway she'd run through. The heat from the fires was oddly muted. The ground in front of the throne was darker than the surrounding ground in an irregular pattern. With the walls hidden in shadow, there was no immediately obvious exit and getting to the outer edge of the room involve crossing the line of fires. The shuffling sound begins to draw closer.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:07 pm

Glancing over her shoulder she stumbles towards the throne as the only immediately obvious point of reference in the large room.

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:15 pm

As she gets closer to the throne, the light, in that weird way of dream light, reveals that there are columns in the room. They're stone and seem to be more structural and utilitarian, though it looks like someone is decorating the lower parts of the columns with carvings of some sort. The throne itself seems to be made of a solid block of stone and is padded with some cushions. As she approaches the darker patch of ground, a feminine voice echoes out of the shadows. "A little lost lamb are we?"

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:17 pm

She spins around, almost losing her footing. "Who's there?!"

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:22 pm

"It's not safe to wander," the voice says, taking on a soothing quality. "You never know where you'll end up." The shuffling from the hallway ends, with nothing revealing itself, though there is the impression of several things hiding in the shadows of the hallway. There's a skittering noise around one of the pillars and a pair of glowing eyes appears near the top of it. "Who are you, precious?"

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:42 pm

"Nobody. I'm just trying to get home." she says, backing a couple steps away from the eyes.

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:46 pm

"Nobodies don't wander here," the voice said and the eyes winked out. "You're special. There's a lot of special people these days," the voice said, coming once again from all around her.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 2:10 pm

"Yeah, real god damn special. Who are you?"

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 2:17 pm

"All in good time, precious." The eyes opening again in the darkness behind the throne, hovering well above the chair, but not near the columns. "You're not yet ready... still too inexperienced to be of use."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 2:41 pm

"Then fuck off! Get out of my head!" she whirls around, trying to find another exit somewhere and finally settles on just making a break for it and throwing herself past one of the fires.

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:00 pm

"But I'm not in your head," the voice said in parting, as the motion of throwing herself over one of the fires also throws her out of her bed... in her own bedroom in the hideout.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:19 pm

She gasps for air as she finds herself lieing on the floor, staring at the cracked ceiling. "What was that?" she stammers as she tries to hang on to the memories of the dream.

by **Narrator** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:30 pm

Nothing answered her except soft snoring coming from Theresa's room and the sounds of the surrounding area stirring for the morning or going to bed from a long night.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 4:04 pm

Jennifer pulls herself to her feet and briefly considers trying to go back to sleep before pulling on some clothes. She briefly stops in the doorway to the other room to make sure Theresa is doing alright, then heads up to the roof.

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:39 am

Once she was out on the roof, she could see the sun on the horizon. Miranda wasn't up here this morning, which probably meant she was down by the river at her shrine. "Something wrong?" It was a voice Jennifer hadn't heard since the trouble all started.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:44 am

She whirls around, a faint haze shimmering in a sphere around her, her hand reaching for a weapon and coming back empty when she realizes her rifle is still downstairs in her room.

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:47 am

Melissa wasn't really there... well not totally anyway. Jennifer could clearly see the other side of the roof through Melissa. "Hey, Jennifer," she said, holding up her hands.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:50 am

"What the fuck is going on?" she asks Melissa as much as herself, wondering if all this crap is finally causing her to go insane.

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:53 am

"You're not insane," Melissa said with a half-smile. "Sorry, can't help but read your thoughts. Kind of comes with this territory. Gar asked me to come make sure Vertie was alright and you were the easiest person to latch onto because of all the time we spent together."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:58 am

Jennifer looks a little more relieved than she'd care to admit. "Where the hell are you? And Vertie's alright as far as I know. Haven't actually seen her. She was going to meet up with Brigid and they haven't come back yet."

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:01 am

"Where is kind of hard to explain. I'm sort of between life and afterlife at the moment. Apparently this occasionally happens to telepaths. The things they don't tell you," she said with a shrug. "It's sort of like astrally projecting yourself with no body to go back to."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:03 am

"Great. Talking to a ghost. Guess that makes as much sense as anything these days. What happened?"

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:07 am

"Throwdown with Iron Man over mutant expulsion enforcement. I don't recommend it. Other than the world ending, everything okay?" She actually sounded concerned.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:16 am

"I guess. I'm holed up with Miranda and Theresa near St. Paul's Cathedral. I don't know what you've heard but the city is pretty much in shambles. Haven't seen any supply drops in months either, I think everyone just kind of gave up on Formerly Great Britain. The government and the royal family either got out or they were buried by what is essentially a primal forest, either way there's no one left to provide any kind of official authority."

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:21 am

"We'd heard something big had happened, but the details were sketchy. Wish we could help, but Gar's doing good to hold onto his part of Miami right now. Getting a ship of any size all the way to the Isles would be a major undertaking and there's not enough authority here to make that happen."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:25 am

"I'm not even sure it'd get here. Apparently someone's entrenched near Dover. Hell for all I know that's the reason no one has tried to come over."

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:33 am

"Would make sense. Shoot down stuff coming in and salvage it." She got a bit distant. "No one I know well enough is there or I'd look. At least you have another telepath to relate to. I sort of miss my tutoring days."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:48 am

"I miss regular showers." she says instead of launching into an explanation as to why Miranda is hard to relate to with her mythological bend to things.

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:52 am

"Yeah, I could see that," she said. "One of the benefits of being free-floating psionic energy. I can look like anything I want and no need for showers."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:20 pm

"So the ones who are dead really are better off, huh?"

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:25 pm

"Considering I can't actually *touch* the love of my life? No. Not better off. Being dead is kinda shitty."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:29 pm

"Sorry..." she says, embarrassed by her own stupid joke now.

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:35 pm

Melissa stepped closer, "Hey, we're coping, just like you are. Everyone's having to adjust. Things aren't ever going to be the same, but that doesn't mean we can't be happy for the stuff we still have, even if it's not exactly what we want."

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 1:22 pm

"Things may not be as shitty as they could be, but it's damn close."

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 1:32 pm

"Then make them better," Melissa said with a smile, "I would hope I taught you that much. There's entire families who are still together because I did what I could. I don't regret doing that for a moment, even now that I know the cost to myself." She reached out and "rested" a hand on Jennifer's shoulder. Jennifer could feel the intent even if she couldn't quite feel the touch.

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:34 pm

"There's only so much we can do. It's like trying to patch a dam with a couple sticks." she sighs.

by **Melissa Castro** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:37 pm

"No one's asking you to fix London. Celebrate the victories you do win. Remember how we used to celebrate when you mastered new telepathy stuff?"

by **Jennifer Newgate** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 4:05 pm

"Miranda's the one winning most victories around here. I just make sure we got stuff like food and fuel for the generator."

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