In Dreams, Across The Island, Saturday Early Morning

[endsthegame]

It was the second night full of troubles; at strike of midnight, in the dreams of those asleep, the living candle appeared anew. Its big black eyes were fully open now, and its flame seemed more like a crown. It stared straight through each person it touched. And it spoke.

"These are the shadows of things that have been. That they are what they are, do not blame me!"

It flickered out. What followed was a brief, stolen image of a dark creature shrouded by a cloak with a Santa hat. Though the dreamers could not see, a thick mist rose up over the waters, muddling the causeway; blocking not all passage, but some.

With it came something else: first stolen whisps of feeling, passed 'round in small portions. But it built as the sun made its journey, and when it rose again above the island, a blanket of shared feeling and ghastly connection fell over the island as sure as the mist had.

Luke's, Saturday

[vdistinctive]

Eliot's dreams last night hadn't been anywhere near as awful as they'd been the night before, just the usual anxieties about ferret!Parker getting trampled or Hardison deciding he couldn't be with a man he didn't trust, a "damn killer", and leaving. Eliot had a blissful few moments after waking of imagining that yesterday had been a one day thing -- and then he'd seen his mother's dead body draped over the couch, just like she'd been when he was fifteen.

After that -- and a listen to the radio to catch up on all the other crap that had gone down yesterday -- he grabbed Val (who Parker was having apparently a glorious time riding around like a little ferret cavalry officer) and his sword, gave Hardison strict orders not to get himself stuck in another coffin while Eliot was gone -- or, you know, ever -- and then headed for the diner to make sure the place was secure and his staff hadn't gotten themselves killed.

A wave of terror hit him as he entered, making him balk for a moment, but he was pretty used to pushing that down and he drew his sword, keeping Val and Parker behind him as he entered -- to find his staff cowering behind the lunch counter while an extraordinarily large spider climbed up on one of the booths.

Anger immediately overrode the terror and Eliot noticed the kitchen staff slowly standing up behind the counter as he stalked towards the spider, dodged a swipe of one of its legs, and ran it through, pinning it to the table until the death spasms stopped.

"Alright," he growled. "Which one of you idiots let that damn thing in?"

Today's specials
Take shelter in the freezer with the polar bears

Luke's was open. Ish.

Streets of Fandom, Sometime Saturday Afternoon

[seeks_truth]

It had not been an easy set of days. Cassandra had handled them with her usual aplomb: stoicness interspersed with bouts of rage whenever the magic ferreted up something or another from her childhood.

Until last night, it had been largely meaningless. Scraps. Minor frustrations. The small insults that had always pushed her to do better.

Around noon, however, it had broken out its worst; and now she was barreling down the street, fighting a confusing mixture of feelings in the back of her head so that she might focus on-- "ANTHONY! MAKER!"

The spirits of the blood mages had passed through this street. None of their henchmen would stand in her way... as the legion of fading spiders behind her would show. She would find them.

[[ open! ]]

The Park, Saturday evening

[trigons_child]

Raven's brothers hadn't returned to torment her dreams the night before, but she had seen something, some strange image of the human Santa Claus, though his face had been skull-like instead of normal. Ordinarily she might have just brushed it off, but Fandom being Fandom, she knew better.

And on top of that, her shielding didn't seem to be working as well as it should, and the resulting emotional turmoil was both giving her a splitting headache and making her unable to think straight. The children seemed strangely unaffected, but the presence of other people nearby in the hotel was driving her almost mad. She asked Tilda to watch over the younger children for a short time while she went out to try to find some place to meditate and center herself and hopefully get her shielding back in working order.

As she approached the park, a feeling of dread scraped down her spine. She could feel them before she saw them. Her brothers, the other six of Trigon's Deadly Sins. Though she hoped it was just a dream again, she made an abrupt turn to go back the direction from which she'd come. But Wrath was there, blocking her path, and he grabbed her arm and flung her to the ground before she could evade him. The six of them quickly surrounded her.

"Hey, sis," Lust said. "It's okay. We're not here to hurt you. You know that. We're here because we're family, and you belong with us."

"You are not my family and I do not belong with you," Raven said, pushing herself up, bracing for an attack.

Envy snickered. "Told you we were going to have to do this the hard way," he said.

Then it was like the dream/memory again, with the six of them focusing their power on her, darkness crawling over her, seeking to claim her soul, and Raven screamed.


[For she who knows who she is to start, but open to anyone else who wants to play with Raven's stupid brothers. If you want a particular sin to target you, poke me on email or twitter!]