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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx So, who's next!!






Time was drawing in, and with the last kill now dismembered and strewn around the room Gretel felt satisfied. Nightmares fed on the fear of dreamers, and to some extent she herself fed on the fear of the nightmares... If you could call it fear that is. Arik was the same in some ways, feeding on the violence and hatred that seeped from Gretel as she carried out her work.

Their battles were ones of the mind where they literally tried to out gun their opponent, play them at their own game of terror and devote themselves to reversing the tables. Such was Gretel. If she could have been a nightmare she would gladly have joined their ranks, but that was in the beginning, now she found even greater pleasure in the challenge of braking the will of killers and fear bringers.

Arik slid down from the crumbling walls to soak in any traces of violence that Gretel was still emitting and joined her in the streets, leaving the scattered nightmare to rot where it lay.
"A fine feassst... But there isss more to come! I picked up a trassste of a more 'filling' meal not too far away, though it will be more difficult to ensssnare..." The serpent said carefully as he watched Gretel wipe some remains from her hands. Saying a kill could be a challenge was precarious, Gretel liked a challenge, but if Arik worded it wrong she could take it as him calling her weak, not strong enough to handle it.
"Ohh? You know... this DID just feel like an appetizer... Do you know what we'll be up against?" Gretel replied as she turned around, her sclera were blackened with the intake of the tainted meal, something Arik was used to seeing, it had been worse before and had passed into her veins after an exceedingly good night of fun.
"It isss a litttle far for me to sssee clearly. I have a feeling of fleeing, a desssperate run from danger. Not unusssual from nightmaresss..." Arik slithered as he righted himself to his full height. Gretel smiled, she liked a good chase... Though it all depended on who was doing the chasing. Her eyes cleared, the blackness dissipating like smoke into her body. She was ready for anything, hyped up on the drug like substance that was now beating around in her blood. A lot of nightmares did chasing though, whether this was to edge someone off cliffs, stalk them quietly out of the shadows as their prey darted timidly around an old building, it was all the same...
"Well then. We have no time to waste haha! Let's get to the main course. I feel as if you were left eating my scraps their anyway." She stated in a buzz and jumped onto Ariks back. He was just about to move to another area when, out of the corner of his eye he spotted the discarded corpse move. The thing was reforming? no, it was still alive was all, missing it's limbs and almost all of its bodily fluids and skin, yet it was still hanging on... as he started to shimmered out of existence, He reached forwards with a massive muscle bound arm dragging the body with him to their next battle ground.
Gretel laughed as she shut here eyes and slipped into the dreams, it was a good idea, maybe a snack before the fight? Maybe it could be used to unnerve their opponent... who knew what Arik had in mind.



As the pestilent presence of the emerald Knight filled the surrounding woodland area that they had ended up in spread out, some of the more immediate plants shriveled, bugs dropped to the ground as the lightly poisonous effects tarnished their tiny bodies.
Gretel had a look around, though there wasn't much to see other than trees. Arik had seemingly chose to keep himself distant for now though knowing him he would definitely make an appearance when the opportunity for food appeared.
"Tch... Trying to be flashy again, eh? Whatever..." Gretel muttered as she began to walk through the shaded undergrowth, the less impressive plants shying back from her feet as she took a new step, as if they knew that one touch could bring death. It wasn't that they would be poisoned from her touch, she was merely commanding them to evade her so that she could traverse the forest floor quicker, though if they disobeyed then death was probably their fate anyway so it was for their best interests to do as she said.

There was little in the way of evidence of a nightmare being here though, the forest had already began to right its self after the intrusion of the beast. All that was left was a slight trail in the broken ground...
Gretel took the opportunity, following it through the branches and roots to what would hopefully be a fun highlight to the night.

The Fall cackled. As its master scratched its head, the laughter gradually swelled and filled the room. It spilled out into Etherea without and echoed in the empty, dark air surrounding the castle. Small nightmares, little twisted things with vague forms and clumsy movements, stopped and trembled. Even fear itself could fear the laughter of a powerful nightmare.

"My master, thy desire is my greatest pleasure! Fear will fall on Earth as a boulder doth crush a beetle! Thou willst tread upon the backs of those who tremble!" With these words the Nightmare stood up straight. Still laughing, it sort of twisted on the spot, and vanished in a wreath of dark smoke.

---

"In other news today, reports from the National Park Service in several states along the Rocky Mountains indicate an alarmingly sharp increase in the number of accidents in the past few days. Climbers have been reported falling from mountain paths and cliffsides in unusually high numbers since Tuesday, and authorities are posting notices for hikers and rock climbers to take extreme caution. Any particular causes for the rise in accidents are unknown, but the Park Service says it may be a variety of factors. Terrorist activity has been ruled out as unlikely, but authorities say it is possible that human activity is behind the accidents. Again, they urge extreme caution to anyone venturing into the mountains in the next few weeks. Today in the state senate...."

"What do you think this means? I just got off the phone, it was another report of an avalanche, this one just two miles from the last one! Eleven in a day in the park? It's unheard of! We've already got two dead bodies and eight missing ones...."
"Hey, here's the fax from the USGS.... Oh man. Look at that! Jesus, this is getting heavy. That seismic activity is crazy!"
"Yeah. Damn..... Damn! I gotta admit, I'm gettin' a little freaked out here. What does this mean? A new volcano about to blow our feet out from under us? Another Mt. St. Helens? Or is this a sign of the Big One?"
"Don't talk like that man, we gotta keep our heads! We need to get warnings out, shut the entrances, get people out of here! It's getting too dangerous!"
"But what if this is that supervolcano the scientists keep going on about? Damn, there's the phone again. If this is another avalanche I'm gonna lose it...."

"Are you sure this is the right way? We should have been there a half hour ago. These mountain roads are making me sick."
"Mooooom, she's touching me again!"
"Am not! He's trying to take my book! I'm not done with it!"
"Both of you pipe down, and stop bothering each other, please! Honey, I know where I'm going, will you just trust me, okay? See look, there's the bridge. Just another couple of miles past that. Relax, okay?"
"Alright.... hey, do you feel that? It's like the bridge is swaying...."
"That's normal hun, big bridges like this will sway just a little in the wind, you know, they build 'em that way so they don't break with the wind, just flex a little. Like a tree, they sway but don't - whoa!"
"Aaahhhh! Daddddyyyyyy!"
"Hold tight honey, we're going to AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH--"

((Oh come ON people!!! Me and Cobalt throw you all a HUGE bone after nearly months of puttering around and this is the response we get?!? Wtf!?))

((I didn't expect anyone to do anything about it just yet. I wanted you guys to at least hear about it on the news, make references, maybe get suspicious. Hell, there's even a few other nightmares running around that could be interacted with if you guys tried. Or even more character development! We hardly know much about the characters themselves other than what you guys have already put in their profiles.

There's a world of options here, it just needs exploring.))

((No, I agree 100% Seraph. We need to do something to get people involved in the story again. Normally I'd suggest a time skip or some kind of new plot device, but me and Cobalt have already supplied that. No, we just need to get PEOPLE involved again. How we do that though, I'm not sure.))

~Mizu~

The Drowning Nightmare

Whats wrong? You can't breathe?

Oh that's right, you're drowning. Have fun!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxit's time for some recon...

The forest was bleak, Gretel had been following the same footprints for hours without any other sight... It was looking like a dead end. The trail petered out, and there was little in the way of anything else in the area.

"Arik I have nothing here... The plants are keeping quiet too, whatever it was that was here isn't bothering them enough. Come on let's shed. Not that you showed you a** this time anyway, might as well be talking to myself." she said to her familiar wherever he was. she couldn't see him, but she could feel him and that was enough.

Arik just laughed lightly as his presence disappeared. Gretel felt that enough was enough too, she couldn't be bothered searching futilely through the undergrowth for any slightness that was left of the trail, whatever was here had moved on too long ago for her to find.

Her body flitted out and her eyes closed as she exited the area...



Sitting in front of the TV, Gretel switched from one channel to the next, news, poker, basketball, some corny film... a nature program... That would do nicely.

She got herself comfy in her slippers and sipped her tea as a bear chased down what looked like a deer, maybe an elk she wasn't sure, the she was out like a light.... Old people and their sleeping patterns...

Her eyes sprung into the wastes again... Why was it always the wastes? and as she materialised into existence, she sat down on a near by rock. the place was dead, as usual. Was this her realm? for controlling the realm of earth, there wasn't much of a variety here to control. Thinking about it a bit, some plants sprung from the earth she controlled, and being one with the earth the plants were also under her control... that was better, some more plants to fill the voids, a rainforest would be good, LOTS of plants!

After a few seconds (or minutes, might have been hours), there were towering trees all around, nothing but trees vines and bushes as far as she could see. That was better.
"Well... Might as well be social or something, ******** all to do here now..." She said aloud as she shimmered out again from the lone circle of wasteland that was left inside the new tropical paradise, as if a hole had been punched through a green canvas.

shimmering back into view Gretel found herself inside large town. It was distorted as usual, a skyscraper next to a row of picket fenced houses next to a bunker like underground hideaway. It wasn't unusual to find a city like this every now and again, where each dreamer added to the buildings like stitching a patch into a blanket, other times you'd find a particularly strong dreamer create a full town that others flowed into and took advantage of, either way this was fine.

she hopped off her rock that seemed to have come with her from the wastes and started walking down the street. Everyone was odd looking, this place really WAS a fantasy land, so she didn't stand out too much, OK maybe just a little, but not enough that she got avoided like usual. And as the few dreamers turned into crowds she felt herself melt into them as she made her way towards the middle of town where all the action happened.

~Mizu~

The Drowning Nightmare

Whats wrong? You can't breathe?

Oh that's right, you're drowning. Have fun!