Nightmares and Dreamscapes

[Tsemara]

Intro:
Long ago, superstition, magic, and monsters ruled. Wizards created great kings. Demons preyed upon the weak. There was proof to the stories that mothers told their frightened children. And none were safe within the shadows.

All things, great and small, were created by the power of one’s mind. The creators were a part of another plane of existence. They were called, the Dreamers.

As time progressed, such things disappeared as imagination died. Science took the place of magic. The wilds were conquered by progress. Demonic monsters became little more than fanciful stories. And tales of great adventures were replaced by mind numbing activities, such as television, or video games. For a time, it seemed that the Dreamers were erased from existence.

There were some that held onto the old ways, but were locked away, or destroyed. Were-beasts, vampires, ghosts, demons, elves, fairies, all warriors of a forgotten time struggle to make due in a mindless world. Fear keeps them from emerging into the modern world. Fear of being caught, being seen. Until now.

A war is brewing as the Dreamers attempt to return from the brink of annihilation. A group of Dreamers, they that call themselves 'Nightmares' believe it is time to make themselves known to the world, by any means necessary. Unexplained disappearances, gruesome murders, and sightings of creatures that were thought to be legends are becoming more common as time passes.

Some Dreamers continue to hide away, in hopes that the situation will resolve itself. Other fight against their darker counterparts. While attempting to stay out of the public eye, they too use their abilities in the waking world to keep the peace.

Rules:
1 – Follow Midorea's rules. I shouldn't have to tell you that.

2 – No Godmodding! Keep your hands to yourself and your own character(s). If they decide that your character just punched them in the face, that's entirely up to them. On the flip side, you cannot dodge everything!

3 – This role play is rated PG-13 for violence, swearing and other violence related stuff. You have every right to be a total jerk if you want to be. If you want to have a relationship with another character, I'm not stopping you. But keep it clean. Seriously.

4 - Follow the role play writing style. Third person, past tense. Please, try to be somewhat literate, and as close to being grammatically correct as you can. I understand that English is not everyone's first language, so I'm not going to be a crazy Grammar Nazi. However, i dnt wanna c ppl typing lik this. Mkay?

5- Only three characters are allowed per person, max. This is to prevent having too many characters and not enough actions for all of them. You can, however, kill one of your character or make it disappear if you don't want it anymore, but only if I agreed to it (means you need to contact me for that).

6 - I can add new rules at any time. Don't give me a reason to. Please.

Intro and Rules / Player Types / Abilities / Characters / Current Setting / Reserved

[Tsemara]

Player Types:
There are three major powers in this particular role play.

Norms: The normal people. Muggles. Mundies. They are unable to access their Dreamscape abilities in the Waking World, if they even know they exist in the first place. Most go about life unaware that there is a war in the verge of breaking. They have the options of taking either side in
the battle, or staying out of the mess completely. However, there are some that have seen Dreamers, good and otherwise, in action and seek to destroy any others they come across.

Dreamers: Dreamers have the ability to use powers they possess in the Dreamscape in the Waking World. They live with Norms with a minimal amount of difficulty. Most take special care not to use their talents in public, unless no other option remains. They may not necessarily be saints, but they're less likely to cause trouble for other people.

Nightmares: The darker halves of the Dreamers. These fellows seem to be the bad guys, but may not be so. They have a tendency to use their powers for their own good, or profit. They believe that they have hidden long enough, and that they deserve respect from those who cannot access their Dreaming powers. Their antics range from being creepy to outright bloody murder. Okay, yeah, they're pretty darn awful most of the time.

Intro and Rules / Player Types / Abilities / Characters / Current Setting / Reserved

[Tsemara]

Abilities:
Dreams are limited only by the Dreamer's imagination. These are the most common abilities. However, there may be more that have yet to be made public.

Gravity Defiance/Flight: There are a lot of people that fly or otherwise ignore gravity in their dreams. This includes wall climbing, ceiling walkers, and people that walk on air.

Shape Changing: This one seems to be almost as common as flying. Most people have one extra shape, usually an animal they are fond of. In others, the end result is simply a changing of genders. There are a small amount of individuals that have chimera-like abilities, meshing different species together to create a new animal altogether.

Physical Enhancement: Not to be confused with shape changing, this power covers things like abnormal speed, super strength, crazy amounts of stamina/endurance and the occasional ability to jump long distances.

Weapon Calling: Depending on the situation, people find themselves able to pull weapons out of Dreamspace. For the most part, this ability has been limited to melee weapons.

Chi: Call it what you will. With the rising popularity of Japanese cartoons, comics, games, etc., there have been a rising number of people using their spiritual energies to create everything from shields, to small bombs. A small amount of Chi users have been know to speed up the healing process as well.

Elemental: Some people have had the ability to control the world around them with simple gestures. Most elementalists are limited to one maybe two elements. This power became more common when Avatar: The Last Airbender and Ookami came out.

Telekinesis: The ability to move things without touching them. Simple and yet still capable of causing quite a bit of damage with the right, or is that wrong(?), mind.

Illusions: Sometimes called Glamour, this is the ability to make something appear to be something it isn't. This is a difficult ability to master. Even the slightly break in concentration wil revert the transformed item back to it's original form.

The powers that be had ranked a Dreamers aptitude with their powers as follows:
Initiate: You had the basic idea on how to use said power but you sucked at it. You might as well not have this power due to how bad you are at it. But practive makes perfect, right?
Apprentice: You could reliably harness the ability, but the slightest distraction to your focus would break your connection to the Dreamscape and the power would stop until you focused on it again.
Adept: You could maintain the ability with minimal amount of difficulty. You might run into a problem or two once in a while when using this ability.
Master: It's as easy and as natural as breathing. You had complete control of the ability and are badass with it.

Unlike the Dreamscape, using any ability in the Waking World will affect the Dreamer physically or mentally, depending on what they are doing. The more difficult the power or more effort put into it, the user will tire faster than if they did something simple. Overuse or going beyond what they are capable of handling will eventually kill the Dreamer, as their body cannot withstand the strain. Mind over matter can only go so far.

If you have any suggestions, or know of others, feel free to suggest them via PMing me or posting in the OOC thread.

Intro and Rules / Player Types / Abilities / Characters / Current Setting / Reserved

[Tsemara]

Characters:
NPCs:
These characters are public to all players and up for grabs if they are not currently in use.

None thus far.

Player Characters:
These people are property of their creators, so leave them alone.

Toni Wolverton ~ Tsemara
Tomas Learmount ~ Keylaleigh
Malphas Wood ~ Keylaleigh
Reverend Alistair Shaw ~ BonesTheHeretic
Stella McKnight ~ Maeve
Rebecca Ophelia Cooper ~ nightbug08
Trent Malcoms ~ Tsemara

Building a character
As of right now. I am limiting the amount of abilities a Dreamer may have to three. This is to keep, ahem, people like me from seeming like godmodders. There will be strict limitations to some of the abilities and how many people have them. I don't want to see people pulling BFGs out of their pockets or armoured tanks out of their hair. Not everyone knows how to fly. And seriously. No one can blow people up with a thought. That's just not fair for other players. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me, or post in the OOC thread. I won't bite.

Please PM me your application and wait for it to be approved before posting. Once that happens you're good to go.

[Tsemara]

Current Setting
It's late spring, early summer, in the early 21st century. The busy season has not yet started in a quiet mountain lodge, located in a dense forest. There are a couple hundred rooms and a number of scattered campsites available for travelers. The nights are comfortable not too warm, but not too cool either. A river runs besides one of the campgrounds providing ample fishing for enthusiasts. There is evidence, audible and otherwise, of thriving animal communities, but they tend to shy away from humans.

Like many wilderness based parks, a number of disappearances have been noted at the location. Most have been written off as lost hikers or hunting accidents. Others are so mysterious that random occult hunters have been noted to frequent the grounds.

Intro and Rules / Player Types / Abilities / Characters / Current Setting / Reserved

[Tsemara]

Reserved
In case I need an extra space to put stuff.

Intro and Rules / Player Types / Abilities / Characters / Current Setting / Reserved

[Tsemara]

Toni looked over the papers in her hands. She had finally paid for her campsite, after what seemed like ages of waiting in line with the rest of her classmates. She though preregistering for a campsite would have negated some of the hastle but it couldn't be helped if a tree decided to fall in the middle of where you were going to place your tent. Go figure.

According to the map, the site she had eventually agreed on was further out than her first. Not that it really mattered to her. It was closer to the river, for the inconvenience of losing her original site. She'd need to lug her stuff a bit further fron her car, but it would be worth it. Heck, I probably could knock another tree down if it means I could get a better site than this one, she pondered as she looked over her map. She didn't want to knock down a tree for so selfish a reason, though. Besides, she probably wasn't strong enough, even in dragon form.

Her heavy boots sounded as she walked down the wood floored coridoor, back to the car lot. She needed to get her site set up if she wanted to get any exploring done before sundown. Not that she couldn't go on an adventure in the evening, but a hot meal was better when cooked when you could see whet the deuce you were doing. She paused once in a while to look at the artwork or stare out a window at shadows that might have been animals.

[Keylaleigh]

Tomas was finally done her work for the day, and she was spending the last hours before the sun set by rosining her bow and tuning her fiddle. She had spent the last few days working on a new song, and she was ready to test it out. She sat down on a rickety old rocking chair that creaked under her weight. Yes, it was old, but it was her chair and had been since she was a little girl. It would have to be replaced eventually, but she would wait until it finally cracked.

She started running the bow across the fiddle strings as she rested the end of it on her chin. Then she started to play a slow and hopeful piece that rang through the trees. She loved the mountains at this time of day. It was always so serene and quiet compared to the constant activity of her days. The busy season hadn't started yet, but the owners wanted everything fixed up before it did.

[Tsemara]

Toni had finished setting up her tent and getting her gear in order in enough time to go on a small hike. She made a sandwich for a light dinner and set out into the trees. When she was far enough away from the site, she changed her pace. Instead of walking slowly on two legs, she began to trot on four. She had considered putting on her collar, but left it in her pocket. There was no reason for a shaggy maned gray wolf to be sporting a collar out here.

She was in the middle of adventuring in the woods when she heard something that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the sounds. She pricked an ear in the direction it came from. It wasn't an unpleasent sound. As a matter of fact, it was fairly nice. If someone was into that kind of music. Thankfully, she was. She decided to go check it out. If anything she could spook the heck out of whomever was playing by lurking about.

Myth followed the music until she was lead back to the lodge. Out on the porch was someone that she had seen earlier. One of the workers, the Dreamer assumed. The gray wolf sat just on the edge of the clearing, attentive to the younger womans' playing. She wondered, as she listened, how long it would take for the fiddler to realize she was being watched. And what would she do when she found who was watching.

[Keylaleigh]

Tomas finished her tune and was preparing to play another one when she realized that there was something watching her. Squinting, she saw the outline of a wolf. "Alright, Tom. Don't panic." she murmured to herself as she looked at it. Wolves did live around this area, but they usually didn't come this close to the campsites. "Just walk away slowly and it most likely won't realize you're there." she packed her fiddle, trying not to make too many sudden moves.

What was a wolf doing all the way out here? She made a mental note to ask the park rangers about it. It wasn't making any sort of movement, though. It was perfectly still, watching her pack her fiddle. Maybe it was listening to the music... she shook that idea off immediately. That was just silly. Most animals that she knew about didn't really care about her music. Or if they did, they didn't really pay any attention.

[Tsemara]

Took you long enough, Myth thought wryly. At least she didn't scream. But she doesn't look all that happy to see you, now does she, Toni? She stood up and stretched, as if she were the most natural thing in the world. She clearly wasn't, but the gesture amused her all the same. She watched the woman put her things away, slightly saddened by the fact that she was no longer going to play.

She turned to walk away. Before she left, however, she looked over at the woman and wagged her tail as if to say 'thank you', before walking into the trees. She wasn't about to freak the woman out by saying anything out loud. That would just get her into trouble. The Dreamer stopped to see what the norm would do next, after she was far enough in the trees that the woman couldn't see her anymore.

[Keylaleigh]

((Last post before I go to bed. It's pretty late around here))
Tom watched as the wolf walked off and sighed. It lost interest in whatever was around. "Note to self- ask Rangers about wolves." she said to herself as she sat down again. She didn't pull out her fiddle again, though. She just quietly watched as the sun set over the trees.

As she sat, she thought about the wolf. Maybe it actually was listening to the music. It seemed to walk away when she stopped playing. She yawned and stretched, rolling her neck as she leaned back in her chair. It groaned louder in protest to the movement, but she ignored it. She then rose and went inside. It was almost dinnertime, and she didn't want to get left with the pieces of chicken that nobody else wanted.

[Tsemara]

Myth watched the woman, amused. The fiddler was incredibly calm for someone that had just seen a “wolf”. When the norm went inside, the Dreamer figured that it was a good a time as any to return to her tent. She needed to return to the lodge bright and early in the morning for a lecture. The walk back was nice, if not on the dark side. She made sure she returned to her normal shape before entering the campgrounds. There was no need to cause a panic this early in the trip. She snuggled into her sleeping bag and attempted to ignore the call of adventure as she fell asleep.

The next morning, Toni ended up skipping breakfast to keep from being late for her class. If anything, she could get something to eat at the lodge, after the lecture. As she has assumed, the talk was boring and outrageously monotonous. The Dreamer ended up staring out the window for a majority of the time. By the time her lesson was over, her notebook had more doodles of monsters and landscapes than actual notes. The latter weren't very legible either. To most people anyway.

She made her way to the public dining area and sat at a quiet table by the window. The other tables hadn't been set up or already had people sitting at them. Her breakfast of ham and eggs accompanied by cocoa was a delightful deviation from the cold instant oatmeal she would have had if she hadn't overslept. She stared at the morning sky, thinking of flying and wondering if she should do that some time in that day. She'd need to be a hawk, of course. But the thought of fooling around as a dragon, even as an “angel” made her grin.

(Don't worry about it. And on a side note this took me four times to get posted. The internet kept eating my reply! Bajeebus.)

[Keylaleigh]

Tomas woke up the next morning and got dressed. She started living at the lodge when she applied to work there because she had to be constantly on-call. She gave all the guests that walked by a cheerful "Good morning!" as she made her way to the supply closet to pick up the vaccuum. The couple who ran the establishment liked having the place as clean as they possibly could, and she did her best to keep it that way. Starting at the lobby, she turned on the vaccuum and started picking up any dust that may have settled on the carpeted floor.

As she started her chores for the day, she couldn't help but think about the wolf from yesterday. She planned on stopping by the ranger's outpost during her lunch break to ask them about it today, but for some reason she doubted that they would have any information about it. Something about that wolf didn't seem, well, wolf-like. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was up. Something she had a feeling she'd have to investigate on her own, because nobody would believe her if she mentioned it.

She had heard the stories before- people vanishing in the woods while hiking or out hunting in the areas permitted for that. Most people wrote them off as accidents, but she always had a feeling that something happened deep in the woods. Could this strange wolf be part of it? "I'll start on that after my work is done." she made a note to herself.
She then returned to her vaccuuming, looking up at the celing to see how many lightbulbs needed to be replaced.

[Tsemara]

Toni's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a vacuum. She looked away from the windows to find the culprit. It took her a moments to find the creator of that obnoxious sound Well, what do you know? It was the fiddler from the night before. She grinned in spite of herself. The woman looked slightly confused. Though she had a fairly good guess as to why. In hindsight, the Dreamer figured she could have been a bit more discreet but where was the fun in that? She left a tip on the table and decided to head back to camp. As she left, she needed to walk past the fiddler. I'll start on that after my work is done She heard the lodge worker say as she approached. Don't worry about it. It's none of your business.

“Good morning.” Toni greeted, trying not to act like some stuck up tourist. She didn't like it when people were blatantly rude to workers. “I have to admit, you do a pretty good job of keeping this place clean, by yourself. I figure it gets difficult when the place is packed, or do the owners hire temps during that time?”