033 ~ [Action/Written]

[distressedude]

[ Late Night - House One ]
[It's late at night when the usually peaceful House One will find itself rudely awoken by a scream.]

[Although it wasn't uncommon for Ion to have nightmares, usually he woke up with little more than a gasp. Sometimes he cried out, but never loud enough to disturb the rest of the house. But with the departure of a number of friends from Luceti, it seemed as though whatever control Ion had been holding onto since the draft had disappeared, and the added stress caused the nightmares to return tenfold.]

[Tonight was worse than usual. The scream was followed by a loud crash, like the sound of something being thrown against the wall.]

[The door is unlocked.]

--

[ Action - Written ]
[Following a very unrestful night, Ion will be trying his best to have a normal day, knowing that taking a nap would only make it more difficult to fall asleep that night. So he starts off his day as he would any other, beginning with a morning jog around the village with Colonel. Of course, given how tired he already is, it probably looks more like Colonel is just dragging him around. And at some point, Colonel is going to notice Ion's fatigue and force him to take a break in the most mature fashion possible.]

[After finally getting Colonel back home, he spends a little time in the library reading, but inevitably that proves to be too relaxing an activity and he winds up falling asleep, book still open. He won't be sleeping too deeply though, and just the sound of someone walking past him will probably startle him back into being awake. Though unless you want to see him fall out of his chair, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to walk up behind him.]

[Once he's back at House One, he spends the rest of the evening relaxing. But even though he's yawning and clearly tired, the light in his room stays on, and Ion won't be going to sleep just yet. And even after it seems like he finally has, sometime around midnight, a written message pops up over the network.]

I realize it's rather late, but does anyone have any experience in dealing with nightmares? Or perhaps, a method of how to prevent them from happening?

Comments

[written]

[raavatars]

[ Korra's definitely had some experience with nightmares! But she doesn't know this person at all so she tries (very badly) to be vague. ]

Depends on what the nightmares are about. Sometimes they don't stop until you face what's causing them.

[written]

[distressedude]

Face what's causing them? What do you mean?

[written]

[raavatars]

Like if you're really nervous about something coming up, trying to make yourself more prepared for it. Or if you're afraid of something, trying to really figure out what's so scary about it and then what you can do from there to make it less.

Just some examples, I guess. [ Totally. ]

[written]

[distressedude]

[Afraid of something... that's certainly one way of putting it.]

In that case, I suppose I'm already halfway there. Though I'm not sure what I could do to make the thing that I'm afraid of seem less frightening.

[Action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Jade is already awake when he hears the scream and the crash. He's immediately on alert. This is unusual even for Ion, and he can't help but run several probabilities through his head. He doubts that Arietta could have gotten in, or that she would knowingly harm Ion in any way, but he's not ready to rule out any possibility at this point.

He opens the door swiftly and quietly and enters like a ghost, quickly glancing towards Ion to assess his current state.]

[Action]

[distressedude]

[The sight awaiting Jade when he opens the door won't be a familiar one. The room is dark, but the light from the hallway shows a lamp broken and shattered on the ground near the door, and nowhere near where it could have simply fallen. But while a scream in the middle of the night usually meant a kidnapping, that wasn't the case tonight.]

[On the bed sat Ion, eyes wide and staring towards Jade, almost as though sometimes menacing were situated just above his head. He doesn't really seem to see Jade at all, and his face is so pale it looks almost white in the faint light. He starts shaking his head and shrinking away, bringing up his hands as though to try to shield himself.]

N-No, please... please, s-stay back!!

[Action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Jade's eyes immediately narrow in on Ion, only briefly glancing upwards to ensure that there was nothing else in the room. Whatever was happening, it seemed to be immensely disturbing.]

Ion. What's wrong? [He speaks quickly and sharply; he won't step closer to Ion for the time being, however.] This is Jade.

[Action]

[distressedude]

I said stay back!

[Ion doesn't raise his voice often. For him to do so now, his whole body shaking in fear while he's nearly hyperventilating, can really only mean one of two things: either there's some horrible new experiment going on, or he's suddenly hallucinating.]

[He continues shrinking back, nearly stumbling out of bed as he tries to distance himself from Jade. He bumps his desk and scatters a few books along the floor but doesn't even seem to realize it. If he's not careful, he could fall and hurt himself here.]

[But Ion doesn't see any of that. The only thing he sees right now is an endless row of corpses and the approaching figure of the cultist responsible, no doubt coming to add Ion to the pile.]

written:

[shenevermisses]

What kind of nightmares? I have a lot of them myself, so maybe I can help. Not so much stopping them but how to do deal with them.

written: //filtered 20%

[distressedude]

[There's a pause as he puts up a small filter. He was already sharing more than he might normally by talking about this over the network at all, but after last night, he hardly wanted to bother his housemates again by waking them up. A filter gave some semblance of privacy.]

They're mostly just memories of the draft that occurred a few months ago. Or at least, I think they're memories. I don't always remember them very well the next day.

Usually they're just a little upsetting after I wake up, but I didn't wake up properly from the last one I had. And I almost hurt a good friend of mine because of it.

written: //filtered 20%

[shenevermisses]

What do you want? In the dreams, I mean. Is there anything you can remember really wanting?

Like... to get away?

written: //filtered 20%

[distressedude]

"To get away" sounds right. Or perhaps for whatever it is chasing me to leave.

They're not always the same. I feel as though I've had ones before that didn't necessarily involve being chased, but instead felt like some sort of [...] presence. Like I was being watched.

[action]

[silversnowfall]

[Truth be told, late night screams and shouts are par for the course now in this house. So it isn't the scream that rouses Nephry, although she's awake enough to worry for the one screaming, thinking it a painful nightmare. The crash gets her moving, she's on her feet before the rest of her wakes up, squinting in the darkness and listening to her memory for the source of the sound.

Ion's room, of course. It was loud because it was so nearby. She doesn't bother to put on a robe, thinking he's been kidnapped and hoping he hasn't. When she goes into the hall to cross it, his door is closed and looks undisturbed.

But he screamed and something fell - did the scream really happen first? Maybe he was trying to call for help? Nephry opens the door without a knock.]

Ion, are you in here?

[action]

[distressedude]

[Ion is in the room all right, and even in the dim light it's clear he's the only one in the room. The window is open, but overall looks undisturbed. But the same can't very well be said for Ion.]

[His eyes are open wide, but don't seem to be focused on anything in particular. In fact, he seems to be staring at a spot right over Nephry's head, even though there's nothing there, and is cowering in a way she's probably never seen him do before. His face is pale as a sheet, and his voice sounds tearfully frightened.]

S-Stay away! Please, don't do this!

[action]

[silversnowfall]

Don't do this?

[Don't come in? No, that can't be it; he doesn't see her, he isn't awake. It's disorienting and ill-advised to wake a sleeping person in this state. There's a chance he thinks she's part of the dream...]

All right. I'll stay over here, where you can see me. [Though it isn't her he sees, she's sure of it. Maybe her words can break through into the dream somehow.]

[action]

[distressedude]

[It seems to help, to a certain degree, that she isn't getting any closer. But it's not really helping him be less afraid, as he still stumbles back until he's off of his bed, his hands up as if to shield him from something.]

[It's just toying with him. He can see the look in the cultist's eyes as it smirks, watching from afar as he cowers farther and farther away, trapped between the piles of bodies--]

[He hits the wall. And then shrinks away from it, almost as though it was painful to touch. He wraps his arms tightly around his chest and sinks down to the floor, silently pleading "No" as he shakes his head. His eyes, unblinking, are still focused on some unknown entity wherever Nephry is standing.]

[written]

[halfnflipped]

[... Well. That's certainly something she'd had some experience with herself.]

Some people have different methods, and it doesn't always work for other people. What all have you tried?

[written]

[distressedude]

I've tried napping throughout the day, but that only made me tired. I've also tried going to bed only when I'm too tired to stay awake any longer, but that didn't have much effect.

The only thing that has worked is having someone sleeping with me to wake me up if I'm having a nightmare, but I can't exactly do that every night. [Since he and Kohan live in different houses, and Colonel spent most nights in Tear's room.]

[written]

[halfnflipped]

I can definitely say that last one works best. Especially if they can cuddle with you after they wake you up. [Her girlfriend, miracle worker. But like Ion, Teddie can't exactly do that every night either, not with the rule Billie's parents have enforced.]

Have you tried meditating before you sleep? It's supposed to clear the mind and relax you. I'm not much of a fan of it, but my girlfriend does it a lot.

tags in two weeks late with starbucks (also, let me know if you need a different starter!)

[lastfonmasterguardian]

[Anise hadn't really been sleeping well for the last few weeks, and tonight was a special kind of awful, so she'd decided to head to the kitchen, to see if it would calm her down. But, before she could make it to the stairs, she heard an awful scream from Ion's room.]

[It didn't take her any time to change course and start dashing towards Ion's room. Maybe it was because she was so tired from not sleeping well the last few weeks, but she didn't even think that it might be a nightmare. Kidnappers, murderers, Malnosso sneaking into the house, whatever it was that was making Ion scream like that, it had to be bad and she had to save him before it got worse.]

Ion!

[She bursts through the door without thinking, trying to get a good look at the situation. Whatever it was that was trying to attack Ion, it'd have to answer to her.]

/kyaaa

[distressedude]

[Unfortunately, Anise can't very well answer to herself. The moment Anise opens the door, a loud crash rings out from beside her, as a lamp suddenly collides with the wall. And as it clatters to the ground, the source is revealed to be Ion himself, kneeling on his bed and all but cowering in fear... his eyes fixed directly on Anise.]

[Chances are she's never seen Ion like this before. His skin is ghastly pale in the dim light, with a sheen of cold-sweat drenching his face. With wide eyes, he starts shaking his head, his voice coming out with a sense of panic he's never used before.]

No... no, please, s-stay away from me!

[lastfonmasterguardian]

[The sound of the lamp crashing to the floor puts her on edge, but after taking a good look around the room, it's clear that Ion's the only one here. It takes her a minute, but she finally gathers herself enough to realize that there probably wasn't anybody but Ion in here, and he'd had a really bad nightmare.]

[But it doesn't make her feel any better. She's never seen Ion like this before, and somebody breaking in would probably be less terrifying. She remembered how bad Ion looked at the draft, but this was way worse.]

[There's a part of her that feels like she should just leave because this was how she'd expected Ion to react to her when she saw him the first time. But, they'd moved past that, she hoped, and there was no way she was leaving Ion alone when he felt this terrible. She'll crouch down, so that she's eye-level with Ion, and slowly start to move forward, making her voice as soothing and comforting as she can.]

Hey, it's just me, okay? It's just Anise. I'm here, so there's no reason to be afraid, okay?

[stilldontgotit]

Sure. You get put through the wringer the way I have, and you're bound to have a few bad dreams.

[Or a lot.]

I've read that what you eat can have a pretty huge effect on your dreams. Think the trick is to avoid late night snacks.

[He taps his pen on the corner of the page. But is that really the right solution?]

If you're looking for something more immediate, though, I might be able to help. Depends on how you feel about brightly colored bats.

[distressedude]

I don't think my eating habits have changed at all since they started... [Aside from maybe eating less than usual from stress, but that was more a result of the nightmares than a cause.]

[That next comment tho.]

"Brightly colored bats"?

[stilldontgotit]

Yep. Brightly colored bats that eat nightmares. I've been thinking of lending Sonar out to people who could use his help, but I guess that depends on how good you are with animals and how many sweets you've got stashed in the house.

[The thing about Dream Eaters is they have crazy sweet tooths. No cookie, cupcake, or candy bar is safe!]