[open] sweet dreams are made of this. who am i to disagree?

[mollymocked]

characters: MOLLYMAUK (mollymocked) and whoever wants to check up on him!
location: The Invincible, around Beacon
date/time: Right after the Enter Sandman event, but before the ferry
content: Molly wakes up with a splitting headache and a lot of questions
warnings: A lot of mention of eye squick




I. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP

[Molly wakes up from the "dream" with a start, blinking rapidly in the dim light of his room. Oh. Oh. He can see. Instinctively, he reaches up and pats his cheeks to see if there's any trace of the blood and finds nothing. It's as if none of it ever happened. Not unusual for a dream, despite how real it felt.

The longer he keeps his eyes open, reveling in the feel of having vision again, the more that a sharp, intense pain begins to form behind his eyes, forcing him to scrunch his eyes shut and groan. After possibly disturbing Sarissa with his persistent whimpering, he finally forces himself to stand and investigate to the town to see if everyone else is all right.

Anyone coming to check on him might be surprised by him opening the door before you can knock or meet him in the hall on his way out. He looks whole, if not paler lavender than usual, and he's squinting an awful lot from the pain.]


II. MOVING ON

[When Molly reaches to the front door of the Invincible, it's just in time to see a group of people removing a barricade, though the windows are still boarded up and in the process of being taken down. There's not a whole lot of property damage, but the whole place still feels like the aftermath of a warzone- maybe it's the shellshocked faces of everyone wandering around.]

The fuck happened here? [He asks, no one in particular.]

Comments

II

[justcawse]

[Goro just happened to be looking at the state of the Invincible himself when Molly came in. He'd already spoken to Akira once he woke up, but he intended on trying to find Molly and Aziraphale to maybe come to some conclusion of what the hell just happened.]

Turns out while we were "dreaming", spirits attacked here trying to get to us.... Except it appears that we got off lucky.

[It doesn't change how crappy he feels though.]

How are your eyes?

[mollymocked]

You mean because having our insides on our outsides in a dream as opposed to having it actually happen is absolutely an improvement? [Molly winces, a phantom anguish in his gut to match his head. At least he couldn't see the thing that killed them all, but he could hear and smell everything.]

Yeah, I guess that's fair. [He reaches up to touch his eyes, as if assuring himself they are still there.] I've got this awful headache, but aside from that, I can see just fine. You seem to be walking all right, yourself.

[justcawse]

I'm not saying I enjoy being digested by a spirit that looks like a giant insect, but none of our injuries carried over, it seems.

[And there's another phantom pain in his stomach.]

Well... Aside from the random pains....

[Glancing to his feet for a moment with a sigh because looking back to Molly.]

Well... I can't say I've ever drank, but I feel like a drunk man trying to walk sometimes. I'm glad it's not permanent, but the adjustment period is tricky.

[mollymocked]

Mmhmm. [Molly shakes his head, horn jewelry tinkling a bit, which doesn't really help his headache any. Even the tiniest of sounds feel like nails in his eyes, but that isn't going to stop him from having a conversation.]

What was that thing, anyway? Did you recognize it from around here? [God, he hopes not.]

[justcawse]

The spirit that made us it's dinner you mean? I have no idea. I haven't been here for too long.

[That question could probably apply to Robin Hood in retrospect, but considering the topic they're on, he's taking a guess.]

[mollymocked]

Right. That's fair. [Molly's just about forgotten Robin Hood entirely, but the fact that Akechi has to ask for clarification suddenly reminds him.]

And the thing you... Summoned? Was that some kind of cleric thing? I haven't seen anything like that. 'Course I'm more or less only used to Jester's spectral lollipop, so I dunno what other forms a spiritual weapon could take. I suppose they could be... that.

[justcawse]

[He knew it was going to come up eventually.]

It's called a Persona. It's a sort of power manifested from a strong desire to change a persons' fate, in a way. It's an embodiment of what the user feels in justice sort of. It's a little hard to explain and even though I have one, it's not a common power back home.

[Which he finds curious as to how he still has Robin Hood and Loki here when the Metaverse doesn't exist here, but he'll take it without complaining. He was going to need all the help he could get. Just.... not actually asking for help because this is Akechi we're talking about.]

I just wish I was able to do more. [That was the truly frustrating part.]

[mollymocked]

[Molly slow blinks and just... Nods.] We're absolutely going to pretend that means something to me, then. It's magic and it was useful- that's all I need to know.

[And that's all he has to say about that, he supposes.] I don't think a lot could be done. I had two bloody swords and I couldn't even hit them. At least you drove 'em back once. That was nice.

[justcawse]

Basically, it's magic. [He'll agree to that.] Specificially bless and curse based overall.

If that's how things are going to play out, we're going to have to expand our fighting knowledge.... The bless attack worked, but there's no promising that every situation will work the same way.

[That's one thing he took out of all this at least.]

[mollymocked]

Two sorts of spells that... Jester knows very well. Not me. [You can't exactly say "I wish she was here" when getting here means she'd be dead. He'd be sickened if any of the Nein turned up here. They need to stay alive.]

I can charm things and I've got radiance and ice I can put on my swords, but that's about as far as I go.

[justcawse]

[There seems to be a bigger story to that, but it's none of his business.]

What kind of charms do you do? And what would radiance be? [He's curious.]

[mollymocked]

Sometimes I can make people agreeable. It's mostly that one. And the radiance is a bit of like... Holy energy? Sort of like a bless, I guess. I know undead things hate it.

[He pauses.] You know, I've never tried to get an undead vibe off of the spirits. Maybe I should have.

[justcawse]

Ah, I see. That must come in handy sometimes. If nothing else, bless seems to work so far, so I'm sure it would help. I think it's worth a try.

[mollymocked]

Plus if they've got kind of an undead... or fey nature or something and I'm tracking them, they can't surprise me. That could be handy when we start exploring more.

[He cringes.] Granted- yes, that did take a lot of the fun out of further exploration.

[justcawse]

It would be good to expand my abilities as well. If nothing else, it's a learning experience to be sure to be in tip top shape; More aware as well.

I.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[There's a certain non-human old man prowling around the Invincible, watching other people wake up, stretching stiff limbs and growling to himself. He heads upstairs, to check on his own room, but pauses at the room that smells like Molly.

The door opens before he can consider actually opening it himself to check, and he gives an approving rumble. Until he takes in the pained expression and the flinching.]

What happened to you?

[mollymocked]

Would you believe me if I told you I got eaten alive?

[He might not look like it, aside from the paleness and the general malaise, but he feels it, between the headache and the reoccurring pain like he's been recently eviscerated.]

It's been one hell of a fucking night.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Two weeks.

[Stone has heard that much. They were out for a damn long time.]

It wasn't a night. It was a lot of nights. And you were asleep, so I'm pretty sure you weren't actually eaten alive. Are you hurting?

[mollymocked]

What?

[Honestly, it probably was two weeks in that weird dream world, but everything but the trek through the mines is so hazy to him that he wonders if it happened at all. Maybe it was just the mines and those horrible spirits ripping parts of them off.]

Gods... That would explain the mess the town is in. And it sure as fuck felt real- I'm still feeling it.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Shit. Where?

[No wonder he seems all wincy and uncomfortable. Stone closes the distance between them and puts a hand on the side of Molly's head, behind the horn, aiming to turn him this way and that for a look, squinting to try and see that close up.

He'll settle for a good sniff, if he has to. His vision up close is not great.]

[mollymocked]

[There's no visible marks, nothing to even indicate he's been hurt at all. Molly reaches up and places his hands gingerly on Stone's wrists- not to move his hands away, but to steady himself. That shifting his head around gave him a horrible vertigo.]

I had my eyes ripped out of my fucking head, so I've got the worst headache I've ever had.

[scarsolderthanyou]

And I got chewed up by a metal building with teeth. It was a dream. It shouldn't still be bothering you.

[He sticks his nose up against Molly's bangs for a good sniff, but there's nothing, so he lets the poor tiefling go.]

Come downstairs. I'll make you some tea. Tea helps everything.

[mollymocked]

[Molly comes this close to licking his face just to be a total brat while he's that close, but that would require him to be able to think through the migraine.]

No, it shouldn't, but it is. Did we all end up getting eaten in our dreams? [He shakes his head.] Right. Tea. Can't argue with that. We can talk about what bollocks this all it afterwards.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[You know what, Molly. Stone would have not been all that weirded out by a lick.]

I think we mostly died, whether it was by eating or not. But I haven't exactly gone around asking everyone.

[He leads the way back down the stairs, kicking some more bits of dismantled barricade out of the way, despite still having bare feet.]

Sounds like yours was pretty awful, though. I've never dreamed about having my eyes ripped out. But I've never dreamed like that dream, either.

[mollymocked]

That'll be such a wonderful fireside conversation later. "Oi! Which one of you fuckers died while we were all sleeping?"

[Molly rolls his eyes a bit at the thought, and follows carefully, lest he develop vertigo or his legs give out or something.] It felt real. It felt... Like we were all really there. Me, Aziraphale, and that Akechi kid. I've only met Akechi once! I shouldn't be dreaming about him in so much detail.

[scarsolderthanyou]

And I was in a dream with someone I've never met, and someone I've only met spoken with once on the tablet thing and seen around. I'm not sure they were normal dreams. That Eliot person called it dream magic.

[He pushes more things out of Molly's way, turning around the bar towards the kitchen proper.]

cw: drug mention

[mollymocked]

Well, the next time someone casts a spell on me and invades my dreams, I want it to be something a bit more fun. Or at least colorful. I've had better trips on bad drugs.

[He moves lithely through the barricades, stepping over anything that wasn't moved far enough out of his path. At least he has grace on his side.]