[Video] A Nightmare's Curiosity

[phobophage]

[A tortured stasis shrieks from the Vine, accompanied by vague shadowy impressions of a face in the mirror, with red eye glowing. The video quickly cuts out. A while later, it resumes, showing an empty backdrop of the Gardens before cutting out again. Finally, the video returns and stays, showing an oddly monochrome teenager.]

This is so fascinating. This place all feels weird and I can't really grasp things here which's kind of irritating, but it should be interesting learning how here works. I wonder if this is what another Queen's Dream World feels like. Or is that too much of an assumption? But I'd love to learn this Queen's secrets.

And did you enjoy my welcome? I had to work hard to get the Vine to do that. I can't get the mirror to act like a portal which's rather annoying but other than that it just took a little fear to make it cooperate. Oh, would you know anything about this Queen? And if I could build dreams here, I wouldn't do it at her whim, but it's still annoying that I can't seem to do that even when I want to. Has anyone succeeded in building anything here?

Comments

[phobophage]

I inspired a few of their techniques, though Dreamers're clever and inventive enough to come up with most of them on their own. And others've been telling me about this interesting dirt.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

...just to make sure, before we go on: You're making the claim that you're not human, yes?

[phobophage]

I'm Deimonea, a Nightmare. I live in your dreams.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

General "you," or mine personally?

I'm Jessica, a human.

[phobophage]

Now I'm tempted to say yours personally, but I'm sure you'd see through that.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd have the evidence to argue either way, really. I must admit, my personal knowledge of nightmares is pretty limited. Beyond, y'know, having the occasional one.

[phobophage]

I imagine we know different things. But, yes, I'm one of the oldest Dreams in existence.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

You've aged well, I guess.

Should I be prepared for more special effects shows in the future? The sudden noise was kind of startling.

[phobophage]

Those're mild fears not worth the effort I had to go through to do that. I'll find something else.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. [That is most likely sarcasm. You can tell because it's slightly off from her normal tone!]

I guess you've gotten the general rundown from other people already, right?

[phobophage]

Mostly. I do wonder if it's a coincidence that every one who's spoken to me is a woman.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

My impression is that it's not. I'm pretty sure everything here is a girl, although I haven't exactly been turning cats over or anything.

[phobophage]

Perhaps I'll do that, but it's really a minor point. So she's collecting women and girls from other worlds. Such are the whims of Queens.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Where I come from, the worst they usually do is wear ridiculous hats.

[phobophage]

[Deimonea thinks of the dreams featuring queens wearing hats bigger than themselves.]

Really? So it seems those sorts of dreams're more like the Waking World than the ones where they fly and cut off heads. But the Queens of Dreams are nothing like that. They are all dreams itself, and the breaths of their whims remake dreams in an instant.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Well, some of the older queens probably did their share of head-cutting, but no, I don't think any of them have flown. I'm pretty sure that would've come up.

I really hope our queen here isn't a Dream Queen, then. It's bad enough having this place rearrange itself all the time.

[phobophage]

At least there're things you can do with your own severed head. Like use it to play games or carry it around in a basket, or if you get bored of things like that you can sew it back on or something.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

That's not generally an option for most people.

Head contains the brain, which is necessary for all the muscle impulses involved in doing that stuff. Usually all you can do when your head's off is be dead.

[phobophage]

I know the brain makes you think, but are you telling me you can't think without it?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

I'm telling you you can't live without it.

Well, maybe you can, but humans and most animals, no. It's sort of a design flaw, I guess.

[phobophage]

That sounds fragile. It seems I've still much to learn about Dreamers.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a lot of ways to make us die. [Jessica has seen many of them, too!]

Wouldn't it be helpful to your, um, work if you understood us better?

[phobophage]

I understand what makes you afraid, but I don't understand why. I think I've just understood the whys for a great many things more.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Wow, yeah, that would probably be kind of confusing if you didn't know about the whole dying thing.




Although now I'm wondering why I'm trying to help a Nightmare be good at her work. That doesn't seem to be a really rewarding tack to take...

[phobophage]

Oh, I knew about the dying thing, just not the specific causes. After all, Dreamers come and go all the time. And you're doing it because this discussion interests you.