Drifting through Dreamscapes [.open, 1x1.]

A breeze ruffled his deep brown hair. His fingernails dug into the soft surface of the tree whose branches appeared to be human arms and hands, upon which his perch was precarious at best. The tree was the tallest thing in the wasteland, though Jeremy knew better than to expect it to remain that way for long. Change was a fact of this plane, some element more fundamental than carbon, helium, or hydrogen.

The sun created a light that burned slightly, but wasn't enough to blot out the oppressively vibrant blue of the sky (a color that closely matched that of his eyes). He shifted his weight to maintain his perch on the pliable surface of the human palms beneath his bare feet. Whoever's dream he was wandering through was making his skin crawl. The dreamer had not shown up yet, either, which also made him nervous.

This did not bode well for his further attendance at Foresta. Only a few hours earlier, Jeremy and his parents had arrived at the school for orientation and check-in. His parents promised that they would wait for him in the town to see if this night turned out well. If it didn't, they assured him that they would not force him to stay.

With a startled cry, he tipped off the branch and landed on the cracked brown earth. The sound of his voice morphed, solely with the power of the place, into an eerie, lilting song carried by the rising wind. The dirt beneath his feet crunched slightly as he moved forward, trying to guide himself along the lines of dreaming to the next mind.


|| I will leave initial description of the dream to whomever joins- it will depend on your character. ||

Miller’s dreams have not been the most coherent after the incident in the library. Often he found himself drifting outside his room when he woke up. His dreams have never been completely comprehendible, but they have changed a lot due to his overwhelming amount of stress of being accused for what had happened in the library. What happened was not his own doing, but there is little evidence to back him up since mind control isn’t entirely believable especially if the one who was controlling him used him to kill herself.

His dreams were always vivid, as though everything he was looking at was melting. The colours tended to mix and collide with each other. In this case, the setting was more so desert-like, it mostly reminded him of the area outside of the laboratory that he was captive within, except the laboratory was nowhere in sight. The plains were flat and looked like they went on forever, except in the distance ahead of him he saw a large luscious jungle with a strange combination of trees that would probably never be seen near each other in the real world. The sand he stood on was as tough as asphalt for some strange reason, but it still kept its yellowish colour. Sounds within this realm were loud and left echoes that seemed to go on forever, though for now it was quiet.

Miller was able to tell this environment wasn’t entirely real as its properties were not the same as the real world, but he still felt as though this was an experience and not just a figment of his imagination. He took a step forward and his body began to wobble as if he was going to fall over soon. After his first step he paused to try and regain his balance. His eyes quickly detracted toward his left arm since its weight was decreased incredibly, in fact it felt as though his blade wasn’t even there.

His eyes swung back in front of him as he saw something appear and then vanish quickly. Immediately he tried all he could to block his vision since he knew exactly what it was. His teeth chattered as he was afraid of the image that would try to rear its unwelcomed appearance. As he blocked his optics he could hear a familiar female voice in the distance. “I no longer hold your leash” it echoed through the landscape. “Go! Be free” it sounded like a whisper in his ear, but it wasn’t quiet enough to be one. He did not reply to it.

After the voice vanished, he quit his quivering and unshielded his eyes. There was still nothing around. Miller began to absorb the setting around him until the sound of something poking out of the ground aroused from behind him. He quickly twisted his body around to investigate and it looked to be a large metal rod growing from the ground up. A large line up of the same type of rod began to rise with the initial rod, forming a wall behind Miller. Miller didn’t want to stick around to figure out what the wall was doing so he ran toward the jungle that lied ahead of him. His body still wasn’t stable when he ran and he felt as though he was running in place because the jungle never appeared to be getting closer to him. However, the wall behind him became further away from him as he ran.

The lines between dreams were often difficult to distinguish, particularly when the themes were so similar. In this case, the wasteland of the last dreamer merged seamlessly with the desert of this one. Jeremy was well-practiced enough to know when he'd entered somebody else's mindspace, though. Furthermore, his garb changed drastically.

It took a moment to adjust to the attenuation of sounds within this realm- his first two steps sounded thunderous to his ears. This he did not like one bit, so he used his ability in the most minor way to soften the amplification of sounds in his general vicinity. In his travels, Jeremy had learned that bursting into dreams was a good way to increase the likelihood of nightmares. No, dreams usually introduced characters subtly, as though they had always been there.

His bright blue eyes scanned his surroundings, noting movement in the distance. A wall was growing from the landscape and a person running from it. Or trying to. Sympathy blossomed in Jeremy's chest. He could not consider himself a psychologist by any standards, but when such futility appeared in dreams it sometimes indicated a preoccupation with being out of control in real life. Sometimes. Or it could be completely meaningless.

The yellow sand was unyielding and rough under his bare feet. That had not changed, but he no longer wore the white button-up and pants from the last section of the dream. Jeremy now saw that his clothing matched that of the boy running a ways off, but torn and stained with mud. Leaf and twigs clung to his hair. To his back, the jungle loomed up like disapproving adults, so he supposed that his appearance must have looked as though he had emerged from the treeline.

It was obvious that he'd stepped into the role of comrade, though he was uncertain that it would take. Dream instability meant that he could be a friend one minute and a foe the next. Jeremy, for his part, knew that his next words would mean a great deal in terms of the tone of the rest of the dream.

He opened his mouth and shouted at the boy, "To me!" He willed the ground to move, but knew that the dreamer would have more control over that aspect of the dream than he would. His abilities were severely limited to his proximity and to the danger of the situation. At this point, he was not in any real danger. "Come on!"

The landscape that Miller’s feet pounded against made no impression or mark making it seem as though the sand was impenetrable. It added to his already incredible amount of disorientation which he did not need more of. His ability to run was terribly hindered by his misbalance, so his sprinting was more like a fast paced hobble that appeared as though he could trip over his own feet at any second.

He didn’t dare look back at the ever growing wall as he could still hear the poles shifting upwards from behind him. The sound was strange as it was similar to nails on a chalkboard only in a bit of a lower frequency and the nails were made of solid steel. It was a fairly irritating noise and the added audio distortions didn’t make it any more pleasurable on the ears. There wasn’t much he could do to block out the sound, but it wasn’t exactly a high priority at the moment.

In the mist of his attempt at escaping the wall, Miller noticed a figure in the distance after it called to him. It was a vocal tone that he could not recognise and what he could see of the figure as well wasn’t anything truly identifiable. It caused a mixture of feelings for him, one was relief that it wasn’t a certain female that has been invading his dreams ever since the incident and the other was curiosity because people he couldn’t recognise were usually scientists and the man didn’t look to be wearing a lab coat. It truly didn’t matter to him, if that man meant an escape from that wall he would gladly take it.

Miller honed in on the man’s position and put all he could into his sluggish strides to meet up with him. Being that the man was so distant, it would take quite some time for Miller to complete the journey and since he was also near the never approaching jungle, Miller also considered that he may not even be able to reach the man. “I don’t know if I can! I keep moving, but it seems like I don’t get anywhere. Maybe you should try to make your way over to me!” he shouted to the man in the distance. He still continued his movements; it was as though he didn’t have any energy in his body to lose granting him the ability to keep his awkward run without tiring.

The wall that was growing behind Miller came to a halt. It was a high towering object looking to be taller than the tallest skyscraper and so long that it seemed endless. The strangest property of all was that it did not cast a shadow, as well the world didn’t seem to have any source of light, but it was as bright as a summer day. Suddenly another wall could be heard growing in the distance to Miller’s left. It sounded to be quite far away, possibly growing at the end of the wall that was recently erected.

Jeremy tensed slightly. This dream was beginning to reek of nightmare, which did not bode well for his first impression of the dream environments at Foresta. He knew better than to assume that each person would have nightmares all of the time, but if the conditions day-to-day fostered lingering feelings of persecution or sensations of being trapped... well, that could certainly be contributing factors. His lips pressed together as he made his decision.

He began to lope towards the other guy, noting other details as he got nearer (he wasn't hindered by whatever force of futility that had gotten hold of the dreamer). Firstly, the other guy had a sword for an arm. Not the weirdest thing Jeremy had ever seen, but he took note of it regardless. It would suck to get stabbed by that thing.

The walls were also something to note. Whatever this was, the trees felt like the safest place (they might not have been, but the vast expanse of open terrain with walls on two sides only boded ill.)

It didn't take Jeremy too long to reach the guy (whose eyes were odd for a dreamer, but not so odd that Jeremy thought twice about it). As he neared, he asked, "Why are the walls going up?" His bright blue eyes narrowed and he added, "Why are you holding yourself back?"

When the first wall seized its movements, Miller got an instant reminder that he has experienced this before. It felt strange to him that it came to him now instead of earlier, but dreams have a way of changing a person’s properties whether it be in the mind or physically. Well, that’s how it was for Miller anyway he wasn’t quite sure how other people dreamt. Anyway, this dream was rather common for him, but when he woke up every other time he could barely remember much of it besides flashy images of him being trapped within the box that was about to be created and it closing in on him until it made a small three by three box that didn’t allow him much movement. A man trying to help him though seemed out of place since he was never a part of this dream before.

The man ran after Miller as he had asked him to do which meant he could have good intentions. Though being that the nightmare he was having was a reoccurring one and he had no memory of the man, but had the memories of being trapped meant that trusting him could be his downfall because he would have done the same thing every other time. Or perhaps he expected that he would have expected that every other time and didn’t trust the man thus leading him to his downfall. Having to circle this around in his head was torture enough added to the amount of disorientation he felt by running so strangely.

The man had a much quicker pace than Miller, so much so he was able to nearly catch up with him faster than Miller could run a couple meters. In the middle of Miller’s thoughts, the man began to ask some questions that Miller barely knew the answers to. “The walls?” he repeated as he twisted his head back to gaze at them once again “It’s come to trap me as it does every night” he spoke as though it was a common knowledge fact, however, he was not so relaxed when he said it. “If I could move faster I would! I don’t know why, this place or that wall back there, something is affecting me and… and… I don’t know why!” he spoke with a bit more lividness in his tone.

Jeremy's left eyebrow shot up. "Every night?" Either this was part of dreamplot or the guy was on the cusp of realizing that he was dreaming. If the latter, a little nudge could send him into lucid dreaming. That could either be extremely dangerous or extremely beneficial. Since Jeremy did not know the guy at all, he was going to err on the side of caution. Some people could be complete sadists if they had the knowledge that none of their actions would have waking repercussions.

He needed to do something, fast, if they were going to avoid being trapped. Either he could let it happen and the dream could be a prison-break sort of deal, or he could nip this entire thing in the bud. As it was, the time for subtlety was over. Jeremy had tried to nudge the guy out of the plotline that seemed set into routine, but that had failed due to some learned helplessness on the guy's part. His mouth tightened and he tried to clear his head. "...What happens after you get trapped?" He paused and added, "What's your name?"

Maybe every night was a bit of an over exaggeration on his part. Though, it was incredibly rare that Miller dreamt of something other than the landscape that lied before him. He definitely wished it was a lot more common as his other dreams are usually better ones with a much more joyful atmosphere. In his dream state he is usually quite confused even when he is aware, he never really has control of what goes on.

The bars that were growing in the west could now be seen rising over the horizon meaning that they were probably quite tall by that point in time. Miller spotted it quickly and instantly knew that if the third wall were to be fully grown before they reached their destination that all hope would be lost and that this night would be as unsuccessful as the last. He attempted to form more of coherent running posture, which did work slightly and he was running faster than earlier, but not by much. The luscious jungle seemed to be closer than it would usually be at this point in his dream which gave him a glimpse of hope.

The man shot him some questions as they continued their slow escape. Miller decided to answer the easier question first. “Mine is Miller” he answered unsure if what he said was the correct grammatical way of saying that phrase. It seemed strange that he would ask that question, but it sort of made sense since Miller didn’t know who he was, although if he was within the realm of his dreams than shouldn’t Miller know who he was or vice-versa. Miller decided not to think hard about it since it is not the most questionable thing in the situation he was going through.

“As for what happens after I get trapped… Usually the walls close in until it becomes a small cramped space and then nothing. Stuck in an open top box for the equivalent of an eternity” he tried to explain the best he could while keeping his strange pace.

Jeremy nodded, his brow creasing in concentration. While being trapped was definitely something he had some kind of experience with (trap dreams were relatively common), he had a feeling that his goal here was supposed to be to break the cycle.

He used his influence as subtly as possible, but the effort still made him break out into a sweat. He said raggedly, "Sounds nasty." He didn't introduce himself since he knew better. Dreamfolk didn't often have names; they were granted importance through their actions and the roles they were placed in.

What he had changed was the distance between them and the jungle. It had been difficult, but he was not really interested in getting trapped (it was unpleasant every single time). He was not having trouble picking up speed, but Miller needed to be the one to get to the jungle now. Leaving at this point might be irresponsible, but Jeremy resolved to do so if there was no other alternative.

"C'mon, Miller," he panted. "We're not getting trapped tonight."

As the west wall ceased its movements in the distance (though give how far away it was it would be difficult to tell really), the wall at the east began to sprout through the solid earth that didn’t even break up when the rods passed through it. With the next wall beginning to build itself up that only left the north and final wall that would determine whether or not Miller’s escape was assured.

Finally, there it was the jungle. The distance between Miller and that thick forest had never been so close in all of his lifetime. It was an easy sprints distance away, an easy sprint for him in the real world that is. In the realms of his mind it seemed like it was a couple miles away comparatively to the speed he was going at. He could almost taste the humidity of the jungle from where he stood there was no way he could let this victory taken away from him.

“Not getting me tonight!” he forced through his teeth. His feet finally began to pick up as he stomped ferociously against the ground with every new step he took. Miller’s strides changed from being sloppily to a more structured form improving his speed drastically. Freedom was so close that Miller would be able to dive straight into the long and thick blades of grass, which he did. The grass engulfed most of his body making him nearly impossible to see unless looking the person was looking down toward him in the immediate area.

Miller was quiet in his bush of grass, he did not celebrate. He had a blank stare on his face that is if one could even see his face since he was face down on the ground. He took this time to ponder and gather his thoughts to repeatedly remind him that he had completed something that took him nearly ten years of failure before he could finally succeed.

He was so sure that his efforts had been in vain that the minute the reached the jungle, he collapsed against a tree in relief. From what he could see of Miller, the feeling was mutual. Miller's final change in pace had been nothing short of astounding, particularly since he'd been so stuck earlier.

Jeremy was in fine enough shape that the exertion had not exhausted him physically, though the additional power use meant that he would not come out of the night well-rested. It was the mental exhaustion that made him twitchy. Now what? The very nature of dreams was unpredictability.

"Good job, man," Jeremy commented to Miller, keeping his eyes on the thing they'd escaped from. "That was some good sprinting there." He waiting a bit before asking, "What are you going to do now?"

He was planning on leaving the boy's dream before he had a chance to wake up- it would be hard enough to explain his presence in the school later without his invasion of another person's personal headspace and quarters. However, Jeremy didn't feel comfortable leaving until he knew the ordeal was truly over.

Miller laid in the mightily tall grass, exhausted as though he had ran a marathon and a half before getting to where he was currently. The forest felt much different than the desert that was only a couple feet away. The gravity against his body didn’t feel like it was attempting to crush his body against the ground. The place was so humid it almost felt like he was breathing in water droplets, which wasn’t entirely a pleasant feeling. The place just felt more realistic than the desert, it felt rewarding for his efforts.

Miller eventually rose from his imprint that he left in the patch of grass and gazed off at the thick jungle that lied ahead. It lacked any sign of other creatures besides the boy and himself. He still kept a sort of blank face still attempting to capture all that he could with his eyes. There were many trees in the vicinity which meant that Miller would probably have to be cautious with his arm. Well that was the immediate thought since in the real world it was easily caught in trees, but here it was uncertain.

The sound of the man’s voice caught his attention briefly. “Yes, I suppose something changed either with me or the world in those last few feet. Either way, I don’t think I would’ve made it without you, so thanks” Miller spoke as he watched the final wall sprout out of the ground a mere two meters away from where he was standing.

As the man asked where he would be going next, Miller gazed at the deep jungle that lied ahead of him. “I have this strange place to explore for the first time in years. You’re welcome to come” he continued smiling with his incredibly wide mouth. His eyes wandered as he finished trying to absorb the entirety of his surroundings.

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. He flinched when the last wall of the prison grew. He wasn't going to admit his hand in this adventure, especially since there was a chance he would later run into Miller at school. "I think it was all you."

He closed his eyes and felt for the amount of time he'd actually spend in the dreaming and made a decision pretty quickly. "I can go with you, but I will eventually have to go on my own path." His bright blue eyes snapped open and he arched a brow. Miller was definitely not out of place in the dreaming with his wide smile and blade-arm.

Exploration should not be a terribly stressful affair, right? He wanted to get some kind of actual rest from the night and that meant hanging out in a relaxing dream atmosphere for a good period of time. "Think there are things lurking in the woods?" he asked. Sometimes the dreamers had a better feel for this than he did. It was their minds, after all.

|| Bleh, short. Sorry, Miller. ||

The mystery man didn’t seem to believe he played a part in Miller’s victory over the growing walls. Miller didn’t quite believe him since every other night was a failure and there was an absence of the man who stood next to him, well as far as he remembers because he only remembered fragments of his dreams instead of the whole endeavour. “Even if that were true, I can’t take all the credit for out running the walls. You stuck by my side instead of racing ahead and leaving me behind. That has to account for something” he said thinking that the man was inspired to say that because of low self-esteem.

Miller paused himself before taking another step into the wilderness that lied ahead of him. He investigated the ground for anything that might be lying in front of him or any possible shifts in the terrain. There was none, which was odd because the entire jungle area seemed to be incredibly flat. Miller had never visited a lively jungle nor had a preference to one, so the oddities around them made a lot of sense. It explained the random palm tree being visible near the entrance to the forest and the incredibly long grass under the shade of the trees.

Miller pulled his bladed arm toward his abdomen and griped the skinned part as he began to move forward to avoid catching his blade on any of the trees. He turned his head as best he could to see the man behind him while the man spoke to him. “Alright…” he slowly answered the man after he said he had to leave soon. Miller was sort of confused by his statement because the place around them was only desert and jungle as far as Miller had ever seen. His real question was where would he go? Perhaps there was more that he hadn’t explored yet, which would make sense, but any place else was hundreds of miles away. Again, however, there were more confusing things in the environment so he didn’t feel the need to question it.

“Well, I’ve never seen too many other living beings here besides you, some scientists, me, and… Somebody else” he hesitated on the last person listed almost to the point he nearly gagged. He quickly scanned the area in front of him, “I don’t think anything lives here, I don’t see anything.” When growing up as an assassin/bounty hunter, animal habitats weren’t exactly focused on with any sort of lesson so Miller didn’t really even know what types of animals lived where besides the dangerous ones for obvious reasons. He squinted his eyes as he tried to look further into the distance. “Oh, wait. I see something… I’m not sure what it is though, it’s covered by too many trees. It’s moving, but it’s not walking and I can see that it’s white” he pointed northwest “over there!”

Jeremy inclined his head. At least he would acknowledge that small part. Even if he only did so to end the conversation. "Fair enough," was his simple reply. He was always leery about being a chatty Cathy in dreams, especially if the plot wasn't readily obvious. This one wasn't as abstract he would need it to be in order to feel safe spouting nonsense.

He moved when Miller did, staying close enough to be able to react to any dangers that threatened both of them, far enough to avoid being accidentally cut by Miller's arm if Miller were to make a sudden move. The forest might have seemed strange to somebody operating from the filter of "normal", but there was nothing present that surprised Jeremy. He noted the palm trees and the grass and figured that Miller must not have come from tropical climes.

The boy listened carefully to Miller's list of living things, catching on the 'somebody else' and wondering what the hesitation had been for. Who was this 'somebody else' and what did he/she mean to Miller? As for the woods being uninhabited- that only added to the unease rapidly blooming in Jeremy's gut. Miller had issues, clearly, but which ones would manifest in his dreams?

The entrapment segment could mean a number of things, the least of which could be stemming from a frustration in his life.

Jeremy stilled when Miller said that he saw something. A white, not-walking-but-moving thing? He whispered, "What do you think? Benign? I can probably get closer by moving through the trees." White? What could it possibly be? He was ready for practically anything, but he wanted to wait for Miller's hypothesis before he moved any closer to the new arrival on the dreamscape.