Phase 1 [OPEN]

[radioclub_jp]

Characters: Paprika and ANYBODY~~~
Location: in your dreams
Time: while you're asleep
Content: open dream thread - WITH A TWIST. click the cut for details.
Format: first-person, probably
Warnings: May contain scary, messed-up, and/or wacky dreams. Or any combination thereof.

Comments

<3

[hanahanasunday]

[The call echoes off the mirrors, bouncing its way down the hall until it reaches Robin. For a brief second, her reflections change to that of a young, blonde man, before shifting right back to her own perplexed face.]

Mr. Sanji?

[What is he doing here? Of course, she doesn't even know what she's doing here... in fact, it feels like he's the one that belongs, not she. Like she's intruding on something...]

[But she also feels uneasy about leaving one of her crewmates in this... place, especially if he's alone, so she starts to head in what she hopes was the direction of his voice.]

[As she walks, it starts to snow, not everywhere, but just over herself. She doesn't notice the cold as much as she should, but she can see her breath anyway, and when she holds out her hand the snowflakes land in her palm and melt away. She pauses for a second and, on impulse, looks over her shoulder, to see the snow at her back swirling so thick she can't see through the three or so feet of it.]

[She can hear the faint sounds of machine gun fire, however, and quickly turns back to face forward. The horrible sound dies immediately, and she shudders before continuing.]

Mr. Sanji? Is that you?

[love_hurricane]

[A swooping sensation travels through the chef at the instantly recognizable voice, but whether it consists more of joy or consternation is hard to say.]

Miss Robin?! [He takes a gleeful leap in the direction of the voice, now stepping forward with eager dutifulness.] Yes! It's me- are you alright?

[As he tries to follows the path his instincts are directing him to take, he can't help looking up at a faint creaking sound. His brow furrows- it's, familiar, something he's heard before somewhere, but what...]

[Far above the sea an ice is forming, the squeaking tension of the mass muffled through the suspended waters. Unaware, he shrugs, and continues.]

Where are y- [A glimmer of ebony hair catches the corner of his vision, but it's gone, shuffled in with the pack-of-cards mirrors. His breath steams in front of him.]

What is this place?

[hanahanasunday]

[Ah, this place is so disconcerting. Robin stops for a moment, frowning at the strange mirrors, then starts walking again. She is also unaware of anything unusual above them, other than the suspended sea.]

I'm fine. Though I have no idea what this place is... it's almost like something out of a child's fairytale book...

[Not that she would know too much about fairytales, but perhaps the cook would.]

[The snow lets up a bit as she goes forward, but if anything it's getting colder. She wonders if the white wall is still behind her, but dares not look back.]

I suppose I'll just keep heading this way. [Said more for his benefit so he'll have some sort of reference, but with all the echoes it can't help much.] There must be a way through eventually...

[love_hurricane]

[Increasingly annoyed at the persistence of the mirrors blocking his path, warping the light and reflections so that it was impossible to tell which direction was forwards or back, Sanji took comfort in hearing that his elegant companion was unharmed.]

It is rather like that, isn't it... perhaps 'the Snow Queen', or something... [He added, mostly to himself, unconsciously shrugging his blazer further over his shoulders against the chill. The sea above them was starting to play on his nerves as well, as he tried to focus on solving the puzzle.]

A way through, a way through, awHMP-ack! Damnit! [A curse was stifled under his breath as he glared at the panel that he'd just walked slap-bang into, rubbing his forehead before his face cleared with an expression of revelation.]

Miss Robin? [He called in the direction he thought she might be in.] May I ask you to guard your eyes as best you can, for a moment? I have an idea.

[Waiting a moment for the recipient to act, the chef proceeded to consider the best place and angle for the shot, before landing a spectacularly sharp kick to the lower left edge of one of the mirrors where it joined with another. The shock reverberated around the maze in an instantaneous, musical, fracturing noise, before the glass panels shattered in place into heaps of crystalline daggers, empty frames standing in their place.]

I don't even want to know how many years worth of bad luck that just bought me...

[hanahanasunday]

[Somehow, Sanji's direct method doesn't surprise Robin at all. A wall of hands surrounds her just in time for the deluge of broken glass, all falling harmlessly around her barrier. She drops the arms and looks back around, noting that the snow has stopped falling. When she looks back, she doesn't hear gunshots and instead sees only the vast expanse of now empty mirror frames and glittering shards of glass.]

That's certainly one way to do it.

[She chuckles at the bad luck comment, peering through the frames until she spots his lanky frame just a little ways off. Picking her way carefully through the remains of the frustrating mirrors, she approaches.]

Do you think there is a way out, Mr. Sanji? I'll admit, I haven't the slightest idea how I came to be here in the first place...

[Where had she been before? Russia? No, that couldn't be right, it didn't make sense...]

[love_hurricane]

[Looking around to see the welcome partner approaching, Sanji wonders why he was surprised that she was here in the first place- she was here, there was no questioning the fact that this improved everything about his existence in this place.]

I can't say... still, at least we can see each other now~! [He grins in a far-too-pleased manner.]

[The creaking from above sounds again, and this time to underside of a colossal iceberg can be seen, breaking through the ice as floats along the top of the floating sea.]

Well, it doesn't look like going up would be a good idea... [Was the ceiling of water lower than before? It's hard to say.] Where did you come in from?

[hanahanasunday]

[Robin follows his gaze up to the aquatic ceiling, brow furrowed a little in worry.] No, that wouldn't be wise... it looks rather inhospitable up there.

[She sighs, putting a hand to her temple.] I'm... not entirely sure. It doesn't really make sense... but I feel as though I was in Russia, walking down that street, and it-

[She stops abruptly. There's no need to get into all that at all.]

[A few crystals float down from her invisible snow cloud.] It was snowing. It was snowing so hard I must have gotten lost.

[Dream logic said this made perfect sense.]

What about you?

[love_hurricane]

[As with most things that women said, there was little resistance in Sanji's brain against her bizarre explanation, the dream state only assisting with his acceptance of this idea being completely reasonable.] Ah, of course- oh! But, that must be why it's so cold! Here...

[Placing his jacket over her shoulders (regardless of what the good lady has to say about the matter), the cook is given similar pause for thought.] Although, now that I think about it... I'm not sure how I got here either. I was just... [Doing something, what?] Walking... [Something else, there was something else.] I... don't know why. [It's gone. There was no reason. Looking after Robin was what mattered now, any previous agenda is off the menu.]

[He contemplates a snowflake drifting past.] Snowing under water? This place gets weirder by the minute. Strange, it's almost like we're in a dr-

[Blinks.]

Is this a dream?

Idk where this dream is going, if you want something different to happen I'll change this.

[hanahanasunday]

[At Sanji's revelation, Robin's eyes widen. Something about that sounds at once completely preposterous and exactly right.]

A dream... But my dreams are usually very straightforward, and not so abstract...

[She looks back up at the sea contemplatively, and suddenly it all makes sense.]

Sanji... this is one of your dreams.

[She's not sure what is more surprising about it; the fact that she is in the dream, or the severe lack of the half naked women she would have expected. But it certainly isn't what she would have thought; this dream is too empty for her tastes. It makes her sad for her nakama.]

Though if this is one of your dreams, I have to wonder if I am merely a figment of your imagination. Though that seems doubtful; I feel perfectly real myself, and then if you were just imagining someone, I have a feeling I would currently be a bit shorter, younger, and darker skinned, hm?

[She gives him a teasing smile, hoping to keep the conversation light-hearted despite the dreary surroundings.]

[And it might have worked, too, if a pillar of water hadn't suddenly crashed down from the sky, encasing her in an aquatic prison. Her eyes popped in surprise, but she couldn't move.]

[Something about being submerged terrified her more than anything else.]

I lolled at Robin's expectations XD and idk either BUT THAT'S WHY IT'S FUN

[love_hurricane]

[Having stated the idea as something absurd but interesting, the ensuing logic takes Sanji by surprise, as Robin's claim that it must be 'his dream' leads him to wonder what this must mean- he'd supposed it was immediately, but then, what right did he have to think that? But then, if he wasn't real, or, if she wasn't... This was all far too confusing.]

[Still, her comment about who he would imagine causes him to blush in a way that he can't imagine an impression of himself would, as he scuffs a heel admittingly before-] ROBIN!

[Horrified at this turn of events he goes to pull her out of the water, but his hands hit the side of the pillar as if the surface is made of hardest iron. No, no no no this was not good...] Miss Robin!

[Stepping back he looks for a way to break her out of the prison, this was his dream, his fault, he had to fix it somehow... His face is etched with guilt-stricken urgency, as he coughs, the air suddenly thick with snow and... gunpowder? Certainly there was the scent of something burning, as he put his hands up against the water.] Miss Robin, remember, this is a dream, it has to be a dream! There is no water, you won't drown, I'll get you o-*cough*, I swear I'll get you out of there, don't worry!

Only because it's what he probably REALLY dreams about, lol

[hanahanasunday]

[Everything's distorted, warped by the swirling column of water. She sees the cook not as normal but as a swirling blonde, blue, and black shape. If he's yelling at her, she can't hear it, the water roaring in her ears.]

[The water, it's everywhere, clogging her eyes, her ears, her throat, making it so she can't move, can't breath, can't think...]

[She tries to scream but can't; liquid fills her mouth but somehow she doesn't drown. Because this is a dream? It feels too real to be a dream...]

[And then she smells something, somehow, impossibly: smoke.]

[Realization hitting her, she can see for one short, clear, horrifying second: the big, burning mass that was her town behind Sanji. If the soldiers are still there-]

[But she doesn't know; the image is suddenly gone, and all there is is the water.]

[She tries to yell out a warning, but is thwarted.]

[She can't feel it through the water, but she's started to cry.]

[love_hurricane]

[Robin's image is distorted by the rushing torrents around her, but it's all too clear to Sanji that she's in pain and distress, and it's his fault, somehow this is all his fault... It's almost too much to take. Fighting against the tides of panic that are threatening to overcome his senses, he looks up- the water, the water's lower than before, maybe, if he can...]

Hn-!

[He hadn't heard the shot. There was too much noise with the roaring of fires and the rushing of water, the muting snow dampening the short sound of surprised agony as the cook's hand goes to his side. Looking behind his eyes widen at the devastating scene that has appeared behind him, faceless guards marching towards him with rifles trained on him...]

[No, they weren't trained on him.]

You... bastards, what is this...?!

[What should he do? If he tried to reach the water above they'd have a clear shot, if he stayed Robin would still be- What could he do?!]

Think- lose your head, lose the fight, think... [The guns were leveling on them again, there was no time! No way out, but, this was madness, it was just a dream, a dream... A moment of comprehension falls over him.]

[Standing straight with his back against the wall of water he place his arms wide to make sure he's a good enough target, as the guards loose a round of shots straight at the dreamers. He feels every one. Every damned one. He also feels the force pushing his shoulders into the water, the shock and dream logic allowing him to fall back, back, until he can feel his shoulder bump against someone else's.]

[He doesn't stop to think. He takes her hand and swims, upwards.]

[hanahanasunday]

[NO!]

[What was Sanji doing, why wasn't he running away? Damn his chivalrous nature, damn his hero complex; if she could break out of this, Robin would slap him so hard and then drag him out of the line of fire and give up herself, she's the one they want, not him, it's her fault this is happening, they followed her here, she led them straight to him-]

[Thwump.]

[Before she can do a thing for him, he's grabbed her and is swimming. She has no idea how he's doing it-he should be dead, should be laying her arms and bleeding all over and he is bleeding but somehow he's still alive... Because this is a dream, just a dream.]

[A horrible one.]

[She wants to help him swim but she can't, she's never known how; the water was always too terrifying for her to try. But he seems to be making it, so she clings to his hand not wanting to let go and yet hating herself because this is just slowing him down and if she let go he could get away...]

[love_hurricane]

[It's a dream it's a dream it's a dream... Despite reciting this one thought over and over in his mind, Sanji can't quite believe how very un-dream-like the salt feels against the holes in his arms and torso, how heavy his body feels dragging itself through the water, how soft and warm Robin's hand feels despite the icy chill of the ocean around them.]

[If he knew, and if he could say, he would have pointed out that she didn't feel heavy at all.]

[In fact, the one thing that keeps him from slowing down, stops him from giving up and letting the pain drown itself out in the ashen waves, is Robin, as he ploughs up, kicking obstinately against the lucid waters as they thin into a lighter blue, and then a cold ice-white blue, before...] GAH-! *Hack* *Cough*

[How you could feel this out of breath and soaking wet in a dream he didn't know, but pulling Robin out onto the iceberg they'd seen from below with the last of his strength he knows that, mentally conjured or not, he really felt as if he's just swum ten leagues.]

[He flops over on the ice like some blue pin-striped dog, somehow managing to smile whilst panting with exertion and pain.] You're... okay... now...

[hanahanasunday]

...And... you're... not.

[Why is she also panting? She shakes her head at herself. There are other things to think about here.]

[Like how to stop Sanji from bleeding to death.]

[After another coughing fit, she gets up on her hands and knees and leans over him, examining the holes in his body. She's stopped crying (no good showing that to him), but she's still visibly worried, lips pressed in a tight line. This isn't good... and he's obviously in pain.]

Sanji... I'm sorry. They were after me. [May still be; she hopes they can't swim after them.]

You should have dodged. [She added, pulling his coat off her shoulders and starting to rip the material. It's a dream, who cares if it's ruined?] Shouldn't have stood there.

[She sounds less berating than she does panicked, wrapping the bandage around one of the shots in his arm. This is the most she can do for him right now... except leave and lure the soldiers away.]

[love_hurricane]

[Initially he's too tired to resist or argue, the ice sticking to his skin with the cold as he tries to get his breathing under control, but it's hard, like his lungs aren't working properly. He coughs heavily, something warm and wet painting his teeth with something that tastes like iron.]

I- [Another set of coughing interrupts him. He waits for her to finish tying the bandage, it's too hard to talk whilst she's working, but before she sets about the next he rolls the hand nearest to her onto her knee.]

I know, I knew... that's why... I did... [The smile is haphazard and tired, but it's a smile, a real one.]

[He wanted to say it wasn't just because she was a lady, although, certainly, that was an immense part of it, but he feels too dizzy. Too cold. So he abbreviates.]

We're friends, right?