It's that one where you have to give a speech to a crowd of bears and wasps again

[stockingfeats]

You're having a nightmare, and you aren't alone. Someone is here with you in tonight's strange, dark dreamscape--for better or for worse.

1. Chased: Bears, tentacly monsters, giant vengeful wasps. You need to escape from it but you can't find a way.
   
2. Trapped: Elevator, sinking ship, cave. You're in and you can't get out.
   
3. Performance: It's often quoted that people fear public speaking more than they fear death. You don't know the script, you've never seen this Powerpoint, the teleprompter is blurry as hell... forget falling, you're about to die on stage.
   
4. Hated: You know those dreams where everyone you know accuses you of something terrible and they all hate you now? Yeah. It's that one tonight.
   
5. Disaster! You're on an island and a volcano erupts! You're next to a river and it floods! Never mind how geologically, climatologically, or physically likely it would be in this location in real life, it's happening now.
   
6. Haunting past: Your bad memories are just waiting for you to let your guard down, and what's more unguarded than sleep?
   
7. Wildcard: There are infinite nightmares in infinite combinations... why not put together your own?
   

Comments

[pepperedoni]

[Want a loud-mouthed merc stumbling in to help purely by accident?]

[experiment01]

(absolutely! lmk if this works for you. )

[Nightmares were always something that Sae got every now and then. They were inevitable due to her intense PTSD and trauma from her childhood. When she slips into bed and falls asleep, the nightmares come as she expects, but with a twist. Her surroundings are white and blinding, the walls padded to prevent her from hurting herself although it doesn't stop the way it leaves deep gouges from her fingernails behind.

Sae herself was wearing mute grey pants and a t-shirt- simple in color, bland. The kind one would wear in an institution. She barely registers the blurred, almost see-through figure in the shadows that was Dante. Sae is more focused on the people who walk in, all of them wearing knee-length white coats that were designed for scientists and doctors. The faces of the White Coats were blurred and scribbled out, making it hard to see any distinct facial features- the sight of them made Sae feel a sharp spike of fear, dread, and the sense of runrunrunwhycan'tirun- feeling. Dante due to being in her nightmares with her would feel it as well but slightly muted in sensation.

Sae lets out a frightened cry and cowers almost immediately, tiny dark grey wings trembling on her back. She struggles and yells as they grab her by the arms and lift her up to her feet.] Will you stop your squirming? You do this every time. It would make things so much easier if you cooperate with our tests, 01.

[As she's dragged through the door, the memories fade away like smoke and are replaced with a new one- of a sterile room with an uncomfortable-looking seat. Sae is strapped to it and she's still screaming her head off, although the sound of her voice sounds slurred. A sharp punch to the head quiets her, but it's obvious she's in clear distress, tears in her eyes as the scribbled-out faces of the scientists flutter here and there, writing down something on a clipboard. Poor Sae herself was dripping with blood from open wounds on her body, an IV tucked into her wrist as they pumped her full of drugs that kept her placated enough to not squirm around too much. The doctors would mutter about 'enhancements' and 'needing to open her up more to see why her wings weren't growing' Something out of the corner of her eye catches her attention through her blurry tears. She stifles back the noise that is threatening to leave her at the sight of the random man in the corner. Nobody has spotted him yet, red eyes widening. This wasn't part of her nightmare.

Who..? Even though she doesn't speak, this question is something only he would hear, deep in his head. Her voice would sound far away, breaking off sometimes like static, like it was in a bad connection. Please.. She trails off, wrists weakly wiggling in their leather-bound straps.]

[pepperedoni]

[The crappy apartment he chased his prey into had a whole assembly of potential victims to play with. The thing disappeared into a portal and he followed it in, apathetic to the possibility that, potentially, he'd simply never return. There was nothing to lose by then. Nothing would be gained, either. Throwing himself into his work was simply a means of testing how long he'd live, if what he was doing could even be called living in the first place.

He stalked through different dreams, fragmented by glass and mirrors. Hundreds and hundreds of faceless things guided along tormented people, hounded by the demon as it attempted to feed on an entire apartment complex's worth of nightmares in desperation. It was his first time stepping into that realm and, at the rate he was tormenting himself, it wasn't likely to be the last. That night, he suffered each dream and dragged his feet through them all, driven to put a bullet in that thing's head. All the stress and pain served him as fuel--until he found Sae.

Hers had been the last nightmare he could chase it into. He experienced degrees of despair and pain walking through those first nightmares but Sae's had been something that reminded him of those days. The nights he couldn't run, cornered by something stronger or crueler than he was, hadn't been the worst of them but they taught him the most. Moving along the floor, silent as a shadow, he tailed after monsters in lab coats, just as faceless as the rest of the specters found that night. Somehow, their features were more pronounced. The fabric of their coats, the smell of chemicals on their skin, the dry ring of their voices. It was the difference between the primal fear of something unknown and the palpable nature of something that was more a reminder of pain than speculation. The dreamer was reliving something, not imagining it from scraps.

He found Sae, her pain washing over him as if he were stepping into fog. It was a little too familiar, though he was dimly aware that it was only pain. The fear he felt would ebb. The girl had been in hell. She knew those halls. That room. The pain that came from those people prodding her and striking her and keeping her bound had been more real than any nightmare he'd stalked through and he understood why. The demon wouldn't let her free until it felt strong enough to face him. All he had to do to lure the thing out would be to let the nightmare continue and for it to feast. Once it got cocky, he'd put it down and be on his way.

Except, he hadn't looked directly at her that entire time. When Sae's voice feebly called for him, desperate to be freed, Dante took a deep breath and let her pain settle in his heart. Lifting his twin irons, he sprayed those lab coats with lead, flame and thunder. The unwarranted guest to her nightmare twisted his dour expression into something sickeningly joyful. It would be a setback to chasing his prey but this girl needed to be taught an important lesson--that there were monsters who preyed on monsters. Yet, when he stalked towards her, he pressed those irons back into their holsters. Dante found her bonds, unlatching them with care for all the pain she shared him. He withdrew the line from her, careful and light with her.]

Hey, kiddo. [That close, he could see how small she was. Each wound stood out more and, feeling each one on his skin, he understood that he made the right call. Each point of pain for her felt worse to look at and let linger.] Heard you callin' for me.