70. [DREAM/DREAM/DREAM/DREAM]

[foolishwren]

[So while the rest of Johto alternately panics, cries, or rushes around trying to capture as many of the soulstealing insects as possible, there are dozens of souls floating around in that dream limbo, drifting in and out of each other's slumbering thoughts and visions. Whether it's nightmarish flashbacks or just those dreams where you're at school

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[useddeathbound]

[[He doesn't like the look or the smell of the door, but all around him there's simply darkness, now. So where else is there to go? He's no longer carrying his axe. Castor isn't here. His evoker isn't there.

But what does he have to lose?

Shinji opens the door, cautious, and steps in to take a look around.]]

[foolishwren]

[The first thing that will hit Shinji's eyes is somewhat reminiscent of what one sees when they look straight at the sun with closed eyes. Veins-- or something like veins-- crawling up and down the walls, which are red like flesh.]

[It's not immediately obvious what kind of place he's just stepped into... only that the hallways are somehow organic. Moist, sickeningly warm, and... pulsating. Somehow.]

[Either he's wandering through a giant body, or-- ... well he's wandering around in a symbolic giant body. Something like that.]

[useddeathbound]

[The way the floor gives, soft and wet under his boots makes him sick to his stomach, and he stays away from the walls altogether, not really wanting to explore how those large, pulsating veins feel or how they look up close. He really just wants out of here.

Whose dream is this, anyway? Who'd wind up with something as messed up as this?]

[foolishwren]

[That's a pretty good question there, Shinji...]

[Goopy strands of the floor stick to his feet and trail as he walks. All around, there's an incessant writhing sound... not the dull, steady thud of a heartbeat like one might expect inside... someplace like this. Instead, it's more like the noise of maggots squirming through flesh, en masse. Maybe that's what those veins really are...]

[The 'hallway' widens as he travels down it, at least... and starts to dry out. ... Or at least not be quite as squelchy. Eventually he'll arrive at a junction. with two doors. ... The doors, at least, don't look organic...]

[useddeathbound]

[Shinji takes a look at those doors, wondering if there's a difference between them. He doesn't examine too thoroughly though, this place makes him entirely too nauseous, and he wants the fuck out of here. He'll take whichever one opens, randomly picking the one on the right.]

[foolishwren]

[The right door opens without a problem, although it's with a disgusting sound like popping ligaments... as if the fleshy rot covering every surface had somehow grown into the door.]

[The inside of the room is... well, filthy, unsurprisingly... But more important than the continued grossness of the whole environment is the narrow, cagelike structure against the far wall. The bars are thin, but set tightly-- and though thin and circular, it stretches from floor to ceiling.]

[There's something inside it-- twitching spasmodically and thumping against the sides of the cage...]

[useddeathbound]

[Shinjiro steps into the room, looking around for something, anything, besides the creeping, squelching, pulsating grossness that seems to be everywhere. Another door, a corridor, stairs, something- but finds his eyes consistently drawn towards the cage.]

[He's not sure if he wants to know, but then again, knowing is better than assuming. ...isn't it? Either way, he steps closer to the cage, his curiosity getting the better of him.]

[foolishwren]

[The thing in the cage is-- ... well, honestly, it's a little hard to tell with all the jittering it's doing, but it looks like... a body-bag? A body-bag, suspended upside-down from the top of the cage... it's torn in places, but it's hard to see just what's in there... only that it doesn't look human. It doesn't look human at all.]

Did I mention really, really, REALLY late tags?

[useddeathbound]

[Shinji takes a squelching step back, pale as a sheet and gagging for a moment as it dawns on him he really shouldn't have looked. An exit. There has to be an exit.

Now he's looking anywhere but at that thing.

It's just a nightmare, right? ...]

XD WOOOOOOOW

[foolishwren]

[That's right.]

[But... it's a very realistic one.]

[Despite the fact that he's not watching it, the thing in the cage continues to rattle and thrash... as though in terrible pain. It's almost... pitiful.]

I AM THE LATEST OKAY.

[useddeathbound]

[While he's trying not to just gag from the entirety of the surroundings, Shinji starts exploring the room a bit further. Let there be something besides this poor thrashing writhing thing here, come on...]

IT'S OKAY BRO

[foolishwren]

[There really... isn't anything.]

[Just a bare room, with bare, meaty walls... no. Wait.]

[Here and there, there's places where the wall bulges outward a little... like someone wallpapered over something.]

[... The bulges are sort of. Body-shaped.]

[Are you sure you want to explore further, Shinji?]

XDb

[useddeathbound]

[Fuck.

No, not really. It's not something he wants a closer look at, lest those start moving too. But then, where to go? This room has an entrance but no exit, and neither did the last one. Neither of the rooms are places he wants to be in longer than absolutely necessary.

...he wonders if this nightmare will let him go now, but in the end, he's got no other choice than checking the door again. Maybe he missed something in the last room.

He doesn't want to go back out there any more than he wants to stay in here.

His hands just might be trembling.]

I-I kind of forget what I had planned for him, SORRY! /IMPROVISING

[foolishwren]

[Nope. Nothing. Nothing at all. These rooms are empty.]

[Except for that thing.]

[That thing that you probably can't help, even though it's obviously in anguish.]

[How does that make you feel, hmmmm Shinji?]

LOL IT'S COOL. Can't expect you to remember after what, two months? XD

[useddeathbound]

[He doesn't even want to be anywhere near that poor thing. But hell. If that's all there is, it's apparently what this dream is about.

...if he can set that thing free, or do something about it, maybe it'll change something?
He'll try that, despite the nausea, despite the despair knotting in his guts. Maybe we can break the cage down. Find some way to open it.]

XD YEAH IT'S BEEN AWHILE

[foolishwren]

[But IS it?]

[There doesn't seem to BE much of a point, even if it's the only thing there... the bars of the cage are rusty and gnarled, probably cutting into his hands uncomfortably if he tries to rattle thing... as old as they are, they're solid...]

[And still, the thing trapped inside twitches...]