Derams memories and nightmares
Dreams and memories are important things for people. People need dreams to sort out their minds in the dead of the night. They need the sounds and sights in their sleep to carry them through to the morning. And memories help to fuel every detail in the night. Like the oil for a lantern. The memories get burned into every corner of a person’s subconscious and they can come out at night at the best or worst times.
Most nights Ivy has nightmares. She dreams of what she got to see and it goes up in flames. She dreams of the accident that took her eye sight. She dreams of the dark eating her up. She dreams of the dark filling up everything until there is nothing left.
When she wakes up that first time and gags on the air she pushes off the nest of blankets in her bed so the cold air will shock away the dream. She reminds herself she’s fine even though she s fully aware the darkness she’s terrified of is right there in the room with her. She pulls the blankets back up around her body and soon goes back to sleep.
If she is lucky her dreams turn to more pleasant things. Things of the flesh. Things of passion and feelings. The nightmares are gone and she remembers being in someone’s arms. Safe and secure. The darkness she is afraid of can’t touch her here. It can’t eat her alive. Someone is here and so it can’t get her. Each time it changes. The dream is never exactly the same but she feels safe. She can hear them. Or at least hear the good memories she has of them and she isn’t afraid.
If she isn’t lucky the nightmares come back. They come back in frightening ways. The explosion of her old apartment, being poisoned in that bank, that trail, her Uncle’s death. And most recently the creatures that had ended up in her home. They happen again and again in the worst ways possible. In the explosion instead of being found quickly she is trapped forever. The poison drives her mad and she hurts someone she cares about. Worst of all. Her fears are confirmed and her Uncle who had been so kind to her is actually a bad man. He’s so terrible he planed to have everything bad that ever happened to her in Gotham planed. He even planed for the creatures to invade her home. That nightmare kills her. Her greatest fears about what could have been come to life. In the morning Ivy is grateful she is safe. That she was never hurt that badly or lost to her now destroyed former home. But the fear of her Uncle being a boogie man is still there waiting for her to examine more closely one day.
On nights when Ivy’s night doesn’t start in nightmares she rests well. She dreams of happier times through out the night. Lyrics of songs float through her subconscious through out the night and she does dream of safety and warmth at different points.
She also dreams of her classes. The jumbled voices of teachers reciting things she loves to study. The laughter of her study group greets her. Sometimes she dreams of challenges on these nightmare free nights. To her these challenges are more arousing than any sex dream she could ever have. Ivy finds in these dreams she gets an almost euphoric feeling from tackling the insane problems her mind creates.
She always succeeds. And it makes her smile in her sleep in a way that would make one think if they saw her she was dreaming of an intimate night with an imagined lover. But apparently Ivy’s first love will always be a problem she can work on. Though she does take comfort from the dreams where someone holds her and she knows they care. It is odd to her that in her dream they care. But it could be that in the dream it is the ideal. But then that makes the imagined problems being solved ideal. That make it sad so Ivy just chalks the whole thing up to her mind being strange.
On nights when Ivy sleeps in the Nexus she never dreams. Ivy looks forward to nights when she doesn’t dream. She doesn’t have to worry about if tonight will be a nightmare night or not if she sleeps in the Nexus. Sometimes she wonders if she should talk to someone about her dreams. They do bother her at times but she is afraid that they won’t understand her fears. So she won’t talk about them. She buries them every day by slipping on her sunglasses and her long black coat over whatever she’s wearing for the day.
It’s her armor from the nightmares. Everyone has some. She’s sure of it.
Most nights Ivy has nightmares. She dreams of what she got to see and it goes up in flames. She dreams of the accident that took her eye sight. She dreams of the dark eating her up. She dreams of the dark filling up everything until there is nothing left.
When she wakes up that first time and gags on the air she pushes off the nest of blankets in her bed so the cold air will shock away the dream. She reminds herself she’s fine even though she s fully aware the darkness she’s terrified of is right there in the room with her. She pulls the blankets back up around her body and soon goes back to sleep.
If she is lucky her dreams turn to more pleasant things. Things of the flesh. Things of passion and feelings. The nightmares are gone and she remembers being in someone’s arms. Safe and secure. The darkness she is afraid of can’t touch her here. It can’t eat her alive. Someone is here and so it can’t get her. Each time it changes. The dream is never exactly the same but she feels safe. She can hear them. Or at least hear the good memories she has of them and she isn’t afraid.
If she isn’t lucky the nightmares come back. They come back in frightening ways. The explosion of her old apartment, being poisoned in that bank, that trail, her Uncle’s death. And most recently the creatures that had ended up in her home. They happen again and again in the worst ways possible. In the explosion instead of being found quickly she is trapped forever. The poison drives her mad and she hurts someone she cares about. Worst of all. Her fears are confirmed and her Uncle who had been so kind to her is actually a bad man. He’s so terrible he planed to have everything bad that ever happened to her in Gotham planed. He even planed for the creatures to invade her home. That nightmare kills her. Her greatest fears about what could have been come to life. In the morning Ivy is grateful she is safe. That she was never hurt that badly or lost to her now destroyed former home. But the fear of her Uncle being a boogie man is still there waiting for her to examine more closely one day.
On nights when Ivy’s night doesn’t start in nightmares she rests well. She dreams of happier times through out the night. Lyrics of songs float through her subconscious through out the night and she does dream of safety and warmth at different points.
She also dreams of her classes. The jumbled voices of teachers reciting things she loves to study. The laughter of her study group greets her. Sometimes she dreams of challenges on these nightmare free nights. To her these challenges are more arousing than any sex dream she could ever have. Ivy finds in these dreams she gets an almost euphoric feeling from tackling the insane problems her mind creates.
She always succeeds. And it makes her smile in her sleep in a way that would make one think if they saw her she was dreaming of an intimate night with an imagined lover. But apparently Ivy’s first love will always be a problem she can work on. Though she does take comfort from the dreams where someone holds her and she knows they care. It is odd to her that in her dream they care. But it could be that in the dream it is the ideal. But then that makes the imagined problems being solved ideal. That make it sad so Ivy just chalks the whole thing up to her mind being strange.
On nights when Ivy sleeps in the Nexus she never dreams. Ivy looks forward to nights when she doesn’t dream. She doesn’t have to worry about if tonight will be a nightmare night or not if she sleeps in the Nexus. Sometimes she wonders if she should talk to someone about her dreams. They do bother her at times but she is afraid that they won’t understand her fears. So she won’t talk about them. She buries them every day by slipping on her sunglasses and her long black coat over whatever she’s wearing for the day.
It’s her armor from the nightmares. Everyone has some. She’s sure of it.