Azula (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
itstillhurt) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dreamcrystals2023-02-09 02:03 am
itstillhurt) wrote in dreamcrystals2023-02-09 02:03 am
Entry tags:
Second Nightmare: Extinguished
Sender: Azula
To: All
Subject: Passive dream recording
Warning: Gore, blood, and violence in the ugly way under the cut.
Azula is wandering through the ruins of an empty, desolated city- a modern city, skyscrapers and concrete and glass, though she’s far from all of that. Instead, she’s in a forested region, a dark park on the outskirts, next to a river.
At first, it’s dark, barely visible at all under the dim moonlight, but Azula holds up a hand and a blue flame flares up in her palm, lighting the trees around her. A body hangs in front of her- humanoid, but not quite human. Yokai, she dimly remembers. It’s been harvested, its body picked at, muscles and organs crudely cut away, eyes gone from the sockets and teeth pulled from the mouth. She flinches away from the suspended body and keeps walking.
She remembers this. Not this exactly, but something about it is familiar. Something about it-
“There you are, little bird.”
She whirls around with a snarl, sees nothing.
“Come out and face me, I’ll be happy to finish you off this time!”
There’s only a laugh from somewhere in the darkness, a sound of a knife being honed against a stone, and a moist ripping sound. She tries to walk toward the voice, bracing herself for an attack.
None comes, but in the distance, she sees them. The only feature visible in the darkness- two intense and wild eyes, spinning hypnotically.
“Come and claim me, little bird, before I claim you.”
That’s all she needs to see. She runs into the trees, pursuing those horrible eyes. She sees metal glinting on the ground- of course. The traps. She remembers the traps. She leaps up to the trees- these aren’t booby-trapped. He probably hasn’t had the time. She leaps from tree to tree, following the eyes and the laughter. Finally, she emerges from the trees on the edge of the river, avoiding the much more obvious bear trap on the ground.
Last time, this was where they’d fought. This time, he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Come on out, Leshy. You never got to see what I was really capable of.”
No response. She turns, trying to find some sign of the eyes.
“Well? Don’t you want to claim your grand phoenix?”
Her face is… different. Intense to the point of mania, on a level nobody in Reverein would have ever seen from her. She looks half wild, whether it’s from rage or panic or sadistic glee- maybe all three.
And yet… nothing.
“Shame, I was hoping you’d burn more prettily the second time around.”
There’s a sudden eruption from the river behind her, and she spins in time to see a massive, massive creature- barely humanoid, covered in leaves and gnarled bark and antlers like twisted tree roots, wild and hypnotic eyes burning in his sockets as he lunges for Azula.
She hastily throws the blue flame in her palm toward him, and it first erupts into a massive gout of fire before just as quickly being doused by the water that pours from his body. He grasps at her leg, and in her blind panic she lunges backward. Her other foot lands in the exposed bear trap, and it snaps shut, shredding flesh and skin and snapping bone as she screams. She falls to the ground.
Then she hears a chain being hoisted, and suddenly that trap around her leg is dragging her toward the river. Desperately, she claws at the ground, kicking flames with her free foot, but he’s already ducked beneath the water, safe from her fire, as he drags her inexorably down. She leaves long trails in the earth as she’s dragged.
She barely manages to suck in a breath before her face vanishes beneath the water. She only dimly sees shapes around her under the water- humanoid shapes, more of them, all missing pieces, and she sees him above her, his hands effortlessly plunging her deeper ino the water, his eyes still bright and burning as everything else goes dark.
The dream ends.
To: All
Subject: Passive dream recording
Warning: Gore, blood, and violence in the ugly way under the cut.
Azula is wandering through the ruins of an empty, desolated city- a modern city, skyscrapers and concrete and glass, though she’s far from all of that. Instead, she’s in a forested region, a dark park on the outskirts, next to a river.
At first, it’s dark, barely visible at all under the dim moonlight, but Azula holds up a hand and a blue flame flares up in her palm, lighting the trees around her. A body hangs in front of her- humanoid, but not quite human. Yokai, she dimly remembers. It’s been harvested, its body picked at, muscles and organs crudely cut away, eyes gone from the sockets and teeth pulled from the mouth. She flinches away from the suspended body and keeps walking.
She remembers this. Not this exactly, but something about it is familiar. Something about it-
“There you are, little bird.”
She whirls around with a snarl, sees nothing.
“Come out and face me, I’ll be happy to finish you off this time!”
There’s only a laugh from somewhere in the darkness, a sound of a knife being honed against a stone, and a moist ripping sound. She tries to walk toward the voice, bracing herself for an attack.
None comes, but in the distance, she sees them. The only feature visible in the darkness- two intense and wild eyes, spinning hypnotically.
“Come and claim me, little bird, before I claim you.”
That’s all she needs to see. She runs into the trees, pursuing those horrible eyes. She sees metal glinting on the ground- of course. The traps. She remembers the traps. She leaps up to the trees- these aren’t booby-trapped. He probably hasn’t had the time. She leaps from tree to tree, following the eyes and the laughter. Finally, she emerges from the trees on the edge of the river, avoiding the much more obvious bear trap on the ground.
Last time, this was where they’d fought. This time, he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Come on out, Leshy. You never got to see what I was really capable of.”
No response. She turns, trying to find some sign of the eyes.
“Well? Don’t you want to claim your grand phoenix?”
Her face is… different. Intense to the point of mania, on a level nobody in Reverein would have ever seen from her. She looks half wild, whether it’s from rage or panic or sadistic glee- maybe all three.
And yet… nothing.
“Shame, I was hoping you’d burn more prettily the second time around.”
There’s a sudden eruption from the river behind her, and she spins in time to see a massive, massive creature- barely humanoid, covered in leaves and gnarled bark and antlers like twisted tree roots, wild and hypnotic eyes burning in his sockets as he lunges for Azula.
She hastily throws the blue flame in her palm toward him, and it first erupts into a massive gout of fire before just as quickly being doused by the water that pours from his body. He grasps at her leg, and in her blind panic she lunges backward. Her other foot lands in the exposed bear trap, and it snaps shut, shredding flesh and skin and snapping bone as she screams. She falls to the ground.
Then she hears a chain being hoisted, and suddenly that trap around her leg is dragging her toward the river. Desperately, she claws at the ground, kicking flames with her free foot, but he’s already ducked beneath the water, safe from her fire, as he drags her inexorably down. She leaves long trails in the earth as she’s dragged.
She barely manages to suck in a breath before her face vanishes beneath the water. She only dimly sees shapes around her under the water- humanoid shapes, more of them, all missing pieces, and she sees him above her, his hands effortlessly plunging her deeper ino the water, his eyes still bright and burning as everything else goes dark.
The dream ends.
no subject
It hadn't even occurred to her that it might have been broadcast again until her restlessness compels her to check her journal, and she sees... well, an entire page of butchered attempts at communication, followed by the successful final attempt. Which she read with a frustrated scowl.]
I never asked for your admiration, and it makes no difference to me what you saw.
[Okay, so that was probably not entirely productive or helpful, she should-]
Thank you for informing me. You're right, fresh air is probably a good idea.
[Maybe while she was gone she could chuck this stupid dream lantern into the fountain. It wouldn't accomplish anything, but it would make her feel better.]
no subject
Sorry, I probably came off a little pushy. Swear at me if you must. Or better yet, lets meet in person and you can have a free punch. Right in the face!
no subject
[For one thing, it takes all the fun out when they let you hit them.
There's another long delay, and then, finally-]
I'll be at the fountain in the plaza. Come if you like, it makes no difference to me.
no subject
It might be nice to get some fresh air myself. I think I might stop by.
->Action
She doesn't seem to be looking out for his arrival, she seems instead to be... concentrating on something. Something in her hands- something materializing, slowly, through dreamotion. A throwing knife, from the look of it, slowly emerging from a thin vapor of smoke in her hands and becoming solid.
She gives a triumphant smile and holds it up to examine it, eyes gleaming.]
no subject
He was making sure to step in every leaf debris he could, just so she wouldn't jump when he started approaching, and while he wanted to greet her with a normal greeting, instead he saw the way she formed what looked to be a small blade and his eyes widened. ]
Azula! How did you do that?!
no subject
[She scarcely even looks at him as he approaches- and she certainly doesn't seem startled by his presence, regardless. Instead, she's feeling the knife in her hands, testing the weight, the balance, the sharpness...
If the cold- or the recent nightmare- bother her, she certainly doesn't show it.]
I finally made it work.
no subject
Azula, that's amazing! I had no idea you could form weapons with dreammotion!
no subject
[Her first day in Reverein, she'd been shown Dreamotion by Nanashi the zombie boy, but all her attempts to use it had either backfired or done nothing. Until tonight's inspiration.
She seems, very suddenly, to remember herself, and sets the knife down.]
You wanted to talk.
no subject
[ He was so distracted, facinated by the knife she made and wondering if he could do something similar and make a sword appear that his whole reasoning for coming out here left his mind. Frantically he moves to place the spare haori around her shoulders, clearing out his throat. ]
H-here. It's cold and I know you don't care for the cold much!
no subject
I have a coat, I just don't like to run in it.
[...Which didn't mean much now, since she wasn't running, but-]
It was just a bad dream, I'm a little old to be traumatized by such things.