Dreamscape Event

[dreams_are_mine]

Characters: Rhode Kamelot and OPEN
When: Every night March 6th through 12th
Where: Rhode's dreams
Rating: R+
Summary: Rhode dreams. You dream with her.

Comments

[dreams_are_mine]

The moon on the hat grows large, the empty smile widening as it shoots into the sky--the hat enlarges until it's a black dome, roses sprouting and growing in black thorny tangles along a moonlit road through endless night. The scene shift is brief, leaving Lucifer standing beneath the moon on the white road. Everything is just a little unreal, like a child's paper puppet display. If you squint hard you might swear you could see the strings holding the moon in the sky, and the creases where the cobblestones are actually parchment, the way everything is just a little flat and not quite three dimensional.

A man stands ahead of Lucifer on the road, he may seem familiar, for he is Lucifer, only he is not at all. Without knowing how, you know is name is Adam. His name is also Time. He's just as old as history, and there's an unbearable sadness in the set of his shoulders as he looks up at the sky. His back is to Lucifer, but he's tall and broad shouldered, in a neat Victorian dinner suit and coat, with a tall top hat that he places a hand on to keep from slipping as he gazes upwards.

Tears slip down his cheeks, though his face is never quite visible. He watches as one hundred and eight stars fall from the sky, streaking down from heaven in all directions. As the stars fall, thirteen black figures approach the man, materializing from nowhere, kneeling before their lord, one by one pledging loyalty.

Kindly the man places a hand on each of his beloved protector's heads, giving them his blessing. As they are each silently accepted, so they each rise. Their features flicker--shadowed, blurred. Their forms not quite right, as if someone is trying to impose newer memories on older ones, the memories don't entirely mesh. Each figure is not quite whole, missing something, as if the dreamer can't quite remember their faces and forms as well as she should.

The ninth guardian to receive the sad man's blessing rises, looking down the road, staring directly at Lucifer. Her own form is misty, blurring between that of a little girl and melting at the edges into something half remembered. Just as you knew the man was Time, she is Dreams. The man who is the Devil and God and the source of worship, the tall, sad, crying man called Adam, has moved on, is rising the fourteenth figure up to embrace him.

The girl is still watching Lucifer. She holds her hand out to him, beckoning him to join the family as they rally around this man they love and fear and serve.

The man in the top hat is speaking to the last of his chosen disciples, as the final pieces of the stars fall from the sky.

"...End this war..." Such sadness and kindness in his deep, wise voice. But the words are hard to hear. As if somehow static were interfering, just in the same way the true forms of each of the thirteen followers seems to be smudged and blurred, as if by faulty reception or damaged memory.

"...Hides from me... ... ...The precious Heart."

[outsidewindows]

Lucifer stares, his smile barely more than a quirk of his lips. He recognizes himself there--a version of himself, as there are millions throughout various dimensions.

But this one is special; this one, Adam, is not Lucifer exactly, but also a symbol of the first rebellion of mankind. And the last. Adam is not a man any longer.

He holds Rhode's gaze, and comes to her, shedding his vessel until he is as nondescript as the Thirteen figures, his wings finally visible as shadows outlined at times with lightning.

He looks at Adam with placid familiarity, rests one not-quite-real hand on Rhode's shoulder.

[dreams_are_mine]

Rhode smiles up at him, reaching up to take his hand. As she touches him, something happens between Adam and the last figure. A cry of pain as a knife is pulled, dripping silver light, from Adam's ribs. The fourteenth is the one holding the blade. The rest of the figures converge on the traitor, falling one by one against the foe, until Rhode herself steps away from Lucifer to join the fight.

She's the last guardian alive, when the knife slices through her, trailing shadows. Before the mortal blow, Adam rises, wounded, to fight. The battle is intense and indistinct, and the primary emotion is deep pain and sorrow, Adam crying as he faces the traitor. The mirror of God and Lucifer himself. Jesus and Judas. The great betrayals.

The whole scene shifts, skewed, as Lucifer watches, starting to flicker and static like bad reception as the figure that is Rhode kneels, losing consciousness. Her feeling of failure is almost palpable in the air. I should protect him. Not the other way. And indescribable anger, hurt, helplessness. An inability to fulfill her purpose and duty and love. But it's hard to tell now, what's dream and fantasy, as the world careens sideways and confusion and anger cause the sky to boil and the stars to crash into the moon--

Thin, childlike arms wraps around the being that is Lucifer, pulling him back away from the scene.

Once again in his vessel, Lucifer will find himself seated at the tea table, Rhode leaning on his shoulders, draped over him as she seems to drape over anyone handy, the dream exactly how it started, with the addition of Rhode's company.

"You could have asked." She doesn't sound angry.

[outsidewindows]

"I didn't know what to ask first," he answers, and it's a dreamstate--just enough of his subconscious that he's holding her closer than normal.

Just enough subconscious that he can't help thinking, over and over, of Rhode being cut down. The same way no one is allowed to hurt Michael, no one should touch Rhode, but he knows he can do nothing about it. Adam is his avatar there, or near enough, and if Adam doesn't stop it then Lucifer is helpless.

"What is the Heart he needs?"

[dreams_are_mine]

Rhode's arms tighten, reassuring. She doesn't need to imagine another chair for herself, because she decides to use Lucifer as one. He's in her mind, and while she can't actually read his thoughts if he doesn't want it, even here, she can sense it close enough.

"That was a long time ago." She promises. "And it didn't happen exactly like that." Only she doesn't really remember how it happened. That's the problem. That's only one of many ways it might have, half memories stitched together with old stories to fabricate some explanation.

"It's..." Saying it's the source of the power of Innocence, maybe he'd understand. But she can put it another way. "It's God. And it's hiding."

[outsidewindows]

"God is hiding everywhere." It's cryptic, and true. "He's so good at it some angels think He's dead."

There is always misery, a wash of pfysical pain, when God is mentioned. Lucifer suppresses it with an effort.

"Show me something else."

[dreams_are_mine]

"They're not very good angels then. Of course it's out there." If it wasn't, the world would have been destroyed so long ago. Whether she realizes or just has no interest repeating the name, Rhode doesn't mention God again.

She picks up the tea cup, taking a sip and looking up at him.

"What do you want to see?"

[outsidewindows]

He clasps his hands, tilts his head in serious thought. "Show me...."

What does he most want to see? He has questions, curiosities, things he never has time to indulge in the waking world. And even now, they have so much to do, so he decides how much time he can spare here. It's worth it.

"Show me more of Tyki."

[dreams_are_mine]

She hasn't realized yet that the dreams aren't obeying her like they should. Why should she? So she assumes they have plenty of time, all the time. There's no limit to the time they have, until time itself is destroyed. So she selects the third bell, with it's moon motif, and lifts it to press into Lucifer's hand.

"I love him." She means it. She loves him. The bell chimes. The scenery around them disappears, all save the chair which floats above a new scene that Lucifer and Rhode may watch.

A young Tyki, maybe sixteen, lays curled in an alley. He's sobbing and screaming in agony as the crown of thorns stigmata opens in his flesh, blood pouring from the wounds, blinding him. But it's the pain in his head and soul that's the true pain.

Two figures darken the alleyway, a little girl and a tall, elegant man in a top hat. They don't reach to help the man on the ground, both watching until his face turns towards them, blind with tears. Finally Rhode in the dream steps forward and kneels next to him, arms wrapping around Tyki's shoulders, rocking him gently and soothingly, murmuring comfort.

"It's always painful." Rhode sighs, tightening her arms around Lucifer's shoulders as she watches. Clearly it hurts her to see her family in pain.

The scene below is shadowed oddly, the landscape keeps twisting at the edges, trying to change. Turn the alley into a church, or a cottage, or a river side, but the scenery behaves wherever Lucifer looks at it, only at the edges of vision does it warp.

[outsidewindows]

"He's not much different than he was then," Lucifer murmurs. In his mind, Tyki is human--flawed and too solid, smelling of salt and copper. "Is it like that for all of Joyd's vessels? Do they all fight?"

If Tyki is an anomaly, then he has some of Lucifer's respect. No sympathy, of course. Tyki is, at the end of the day, one of the New Ones Lucifer will never forgive for just existing; but Gabriel does have a point. Some of them are curious, entertaining to watch for a time.

Perhaps that's what Rhode is doing, while Tyki wrestles for control of his humanity.

[dreams_are_mine]

Rhode genuinely loves the incarnations of her family. Some more than others, some deeper than others. But they're all family. Tyki, the human, is her brother as much as Joyd is because to Rhode they aren't separate beings. If Tyki dies, Joyd will be reborn, but he won't be Tyki again. Tyki is a unique incarnation, and so, just as every incarnation is, he's precious to her.

There is also the fact that Tyki's face so strongly resembles the face of the traitor--as shadowed and blurred as it was in the last dream, it's still recognizable in this one. Like Rhode at the time couldn't remember much else but that face.

"They're all different." She leans her head against Lucifer's shoulder. "Tyki's strong." It's said with fondness. It would break her heart if Tyki died. The scene shifts and Tyki is much older, closer to the age Lucifer knows him, but with long hair and a different outfit.

The setting is a cell, and Tyki tumbles through a red and black checkered heart-shaped door in the air, slamming his fist into a man crouching over a chained and shocked looking Allen. Tyki seems to be enjoying himself, a sinister smile crossing his face as he looks down at the man--no, creature, for it isn't human--that he's standing over.

[outsidewindows]

Lucifer's opinion of humans never bends to include 'strong' as an attribute, but he has to admit, Tyki's will is far above what he would have expected from any mortal. Besides, there's something curious about seeing Rhode's devotion to the Family, the ways it includes them. He's beginning to understand it better than he has before.

"What is he fighting?" Lucifer asks, shifting Rhode on his lap so he can lean forward slightly for a better look. "I haven't had the pleasure of seeing Tyki do much. I hope he'll come to accept me enough to work with us."

[dreams_are_mine]

There's a pause in the battle, as a Rhode-shaped doll appears in Tyki's cloak then abruptly turns into a Rhode, who launches herself at Allen--only to hug and reassure the Exorcist as Tyki watches in amusement. And then the thing stands again, diverting the attention of all three from each other to it. Allen and Rhode remain seated in the corner as Tyki and the thing exchange blows. At first it seems as if Tyki will handle it easily.

"It's Innocence. It's called Apocryphos--it exists to protect the Heart. It's one of the clues we've been looking for." The battle switches on Tyki, the man-shaped creature abruptly turning the tables on the Noah.

[outsidewindows]

"What can they do?" Lucifer stands, but he carries Rhode like she's a princess, and he moves down close enough to touch.

"Apocryphos," he rolls the word over his tongue, as if he can pick out its history by doing so. "Can't we interrogate them to find out where the Heart is hiding?"

He watches Tyki instead of the Innocence, then, his head tilted in curiosity although he shows no concern. Tyki is strong, Rhode has said it herself and he knows it the way he knows the hearts of all men.

And if he fails, he is meant to fail, and he will be replaced. It's the way of all vessels.

[dreams_are_mine]

The scene never finishes. Rhode wraps her arms around Lucifer comfortably as he carries her, but the scene freezes, letting him wander through it as if through statues. The Apocryphos feels both sinister and divine in origin--incredibly powerful, even just the memory of it in Rhode's mind. A truly formidable threat.

"If it were that easy we'd have done it years ago." Rhode huffs lightly. "But that it's come out now... It means we're close. It wouldn't come out of hiding to fight us if it weren't important to keep us away."

Though her tone of voice is matter of fact, even a little bored, there's an anticipation in it, a hunger that might be familiar to Lucifer.

[outsidewindows]

He runs a finger over the Apocryphos, and then rubs his fingers together as if examining some substance. Then again, given how much he disdained touching humans, he may have simply been disgusted by the feel of it.

"Oh, I didn't mean to imply it would be easy." He moves around to look it in the eyes, still keeping Rhode comfortably balanced on one arm. "But these...things could be useful. Or fun for you."

He tilts his head to one side, and for just a moment that gentle expression is gone, replaced by something hateful and utterly calculating. "Do these things think? Or are they like the Akuma?"