Video; I Feel My Nightmares Watching Me

[ushahin]

[It's a random day of the week and two o'clock in the morning. Therefore, it's time for, as someone once put it, Ushahin's philosopher's hour. The lights are dim and Ushahin is lying flat on his back on one of the beds in his house. The phone is propped up near him. He's got something in his hands, a pale looking stone carving that is mostly hidden by the fingers closed in upon it.

He's been thinking quite a bit since he was brought back from the dead. His double had caused him to reevaluate some of his previous behavior. Perhaps he's treated some of those around him rather poorly. Well, there's nothing but time here, and always a chance to make amends.]

This place is frightfully full of nightmares. I mean that quite literally. I've never met such a group of people where the night terrors come upon them without provocation. Every night, nothing but tossing and turning amongst you all. That used to be my job.

[He sits up, fingers uncovering the rhios stone he has cupped in his palms. There's three figures carved into it. The one on the left is a long-haired man, stern looking, and with lines around his mouth that suggest he's older than the twenty-eights years he is. This is Tanaros, the commander of Satoris' army. There's anger flashing in his eyes that the carver was able to perfectly capture. The middle figure is Ushahin, his broken features captured starkly, with an unfocused, dreamy look in his eyes as he stares out towards whoever is holding the figurine. The one on the right is an older man in his forties, fat and with a long beard, his close-set eyes looking shrewd as if he's ready to make a bargain. Vorax, the last of the three, and the one who kept supplies for Satoris.]

I'm sure you've all grown frightfully tired of them. So I will make you a deal, fellow denizens. Tell me one of your nightmares and I will exchange it for a better dream. That's fair enough, is it not?

Comments

Let's all just wound each other a little. ;_;

[ushahin]

[Ushahin has been thankful for Shadow's presence. They don't talk much when he appears. He's simply there, another piece of weird, spiky furniture in Ushahin's life. What more could he tell him? Words failed to describe what he'd put his friend through. He'd saved him in the end, of course, but the damage had been done.

Then he'd had to undo it all when he came back. Ever since then, Shadow has been living up to his name. So Ushahin merely pats him on the head when he lies down next to him. He already knows well what goes on inside the hedgehog's head when he sleeps. As he once promised, Shadow will always have good dreams when the half-man is around.]

[Video]

[pyralisit]

[As much as Cal dislikes the man, he...can't resist responding, either.]

There's a reason for those, you know.

[ushahin]

[Ah. The angry hara. Now there's a face he didn't expect to see.]

I am well aware of them. I didn't name myself Dreamspinner because it sounded pretty.

video

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha nearly ignores the offer entirely. She's not interested in talking about her dreams, and in the event she's understood his video correctly, she's even less inclined to accept what he has to give.

But not being interested in participating doesn't mean she's not curious at all.

And it's not like she's doing anything better right now.]

You can do something like that? Getting many takers?

[ushahin]

[Now here is one he has not seen before. At least not in the waking world. He shifts the rhios to his strong right hand as he answers.]

Oh yes. It's not difficult to change someone's dreams if one only knows the proper methods. As to your second question, not yet. But I expect there's at least a few desperate or curious enough.

[voice]

[circumitus]

[Rey has plenty of nightmares. Even so, she isn't all too sure about this.]

What do you get out of it?

Re: [voice]

[ushahin]

[There's mock innocence in his voice as he answers.]

Is doing a good deed not reward enough?

[But Rey knows him well enough to know he's as far from innocent as he can get.]

It satisfies my curiosity without intruding on the privacy of others. I'd say that's good enough.

Video

[turingmachine]

"I do not ...require sleep, but I have to admit I am curious as to how you would manage this."

(Technically, ROMs do sleep, but it's not as vital as it is for organics... and recent events have left them less than willing to engage in that particular activity.)

"Are you using magic?"

Re: Video

[ushahin]

No sleep? Is it because you are a robot?

[He's met one or two creatures here who don't require it, but it's always a little bit of a surprise to find another when his abilities are so tuned into the dreams of people.]

Yes, that is what it is called back in my homeland. Here, I have heard the abilities I possess referred to as being psychic.

[Video]

[mismanagement]

And what power do you gain from our nightmares?

[It's asked thoughtfully. Maketh hasn't been able to sleep peacefully for a long time now, not without drinking herself senseless first.]

Re: [Video]

[ushahin]

Knowledge itself is power in the right hands. And power can do anything.

[It's as honest an answer as he's likely to give anyone.]

audio;

[hotspurred]

[The rhythmical sound of controlled breathing and feet striking stone suggests that Henry is in fact out on a very, very early run right now.]

What mean you, "used to be your job"?

[Because that statement invites questions. Not that the whole post doesn't.]

You... sense our nightmares, yet wish to hear the telling of them?

[ushahin]

In my world, I would give people nightmares or sweet dreams, depending upon my mood. I was a literal nightmare, you see. Riding around on a horse through the land while I gave them.

[See? It's funny! Well, funny to Ushahin, at least.]

Not tonight. I am trying not to listen in as much as I once did.

voice.

[bheidh]

Nightmares were your job? You sound quite familiar with this place, then.

[ushahin]

[Ushahin chuckles for a moment.]

Indubitably so. One who is familiar with the spaces that people sleep is at home anywhere.

text

[unfollowing]

you can really do that?

Text

[ushahin]

I can. My powers reach into the waking and sleeping world.

video;

[hasitsthorns]

[ Rose has never been one to sleep well. Between nightmares and now the silence of the house, she finds it increasingly difficult. ]

Pretty sure I deserve my nightmares.

[ Not an apology, exactly. ]

[ushahin]

I don't think so.

[Things should be awkward between them. But Ushahin is so desperate to cling to his friends that he's already forgiven her for what her double did to him.]

[Video]

[elegant_and_proud]

What a fascinating ability.

[She's not eager to have her mind tampered with, even for benevolent purposes, but it's interesting to hear about the things people here can do.]

Are you able to see all of our dreams at will?

[ushahin]

I can and frequently do. It's why I named myself Dreamspinner.

[He slept in a form of lucid dreaming always, slipping in and out of the dreams that made up the minds of the residents of Hadriel.]

[Voice]

[ishotyouuu]

Aww, lookit you bein' the Good Samaritan over here, offerin' to liberate us all from the scary monsters and super creeps.

[Wade might not have encountered Ushahin's doppelganger, but that doesn't mean he trusts this mindfucker any farther than he can throw him. His only consolation is that there's nothing he can do to Wade due to the merc's extensive, recurring brain damage, and nothing he can do to Newt and Hermann either, due to the simple fact that they're no longer here.]

In my experience you can't get something for nothin', though. What do we stand to lose if we decide to take your little offer here?

[Again, it's not like Ushahin could do anything for him, even if he were interested in his offer. Besides, he has his own ways of dealing with his nightmares, the forerunner being the tried and true method of drinking until he didn't dream anymore.]

[ushahin]

Oh, you're still here?

[There's no malice in his question, just a dull sort of surprise. Being unable to sense Wade's mind, there's just a void where it should be, which does make Ushahin tend to forget about his next-door neighbor from time to time. It's the downside of relying on his powers so much.]

You would lose a nightmare and I would gain knowledge. [As to how he might put that knowledge to use in the future, well...Ushahin wouldn't say how he would do so. Maybe he would get bored one night and switch around everyone's dreams simply because he could.]