voidtreckerexpress

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Breach!

Day twenty of the month of Domino starts as a perfectly normal day on the Voidtrecker express. Passengers work on chores, or play games, bicker and read. The usual ways of relieving the slight tedium that come with being stuck on a train. Even a train that is hurtling through the void.

It is about mid morning when the whole train tilts, suddenly as if it has been hit. It is enough to knock passengers over if they don’t catch themselves quick enough. For those in the games car there is a loud bang as something hits the window. A small black object is stuck in the window for a moment before it dislodges and disappears as quickly as it appears.

The window doesn’t smash but cracks appear around the impact site. Almost immediately sirens begin going off. "Breach. Breach. Warning. Breach."

Hopefully passengers will remember what they are to do in the event of such an incident. For anyone in the kitchen they will see that the oven, water and other appliances switch off. Doors begin closing around the train, in an attempt to seal carriages.

Those in the games carriage won’t see much of that, they will barely have time to register what has happened before they feel dizzy and sleepy, falling to the ground where they are. This spreads throughout the train, the further away a passenger is from the games car the longer they will have before they succumb but within fifteen minutes everyone on the train will be sleeping. Even including those who usually do not sleep or even those who cannot sleep.

Because this is no ordinary sleep.

For some passengers they will sleep the whole day and night, solidly and dreamlessly. But for others, for most, their sleep is anything but peaceful.

They will dream, strange, wonderful or terrible dreams and walk those dreams with their fellow passengers. Tumbling from one to another with no sense of where one ends and the other begins they will dream the whole day and night, though it will likely feel much longer and perhaps much shorter.

Their dreams may come from themselves, they may come from their fellow passengers and there are a few dreams that all may find themselves dreaming.

Infestation

The train is filled with dralite. They are everywhere, in every carriage. Flying through doors, in your bed. This dream takes the form of a stress dream, every time you think you have emptied a space of dralite there are more.

They aren’t aggressive creatures, just annoying and the ever shifting dream means that every time you remove one from hugging your head another appears. The train shifts and warps, carriages muddling as you move through it trying to contain all of the creatures.

A Distant Light

It is a dark night, though there are stars in the sky. In the distance there is a bonfire lighting up the area. Around it there are figures, they are too far away to make out any features but in the flickering light you can see they wear hoodies in the colours you know well by now.

There is the sound of singing and laughter and you want to approach. But no matter how long you walk the fire is always in the distance, never getting closer. You feel a great longing to be at the fire, but it is out of reach.

Flying

Flying is such a universal dream and so it is not surprising many of your dreams will incorporate this. You fly, over mountain, across rivers and seas, through forests and through the debths of space itself.

But most often you fly through the void, the ever shifting void around you, diving through colours that swirl and dance around you.

Dream well Void warriors!

(OOC: The plotting and information post is here. Characters will wake up on day 21 and there will be an ooc mod post detailing that on the 10th February.)

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"Good!" Maybe it had been a warning dream, and they just had to make sure it never came true!

"Yes let's go somewhere else, where there are no cars!"

That seemed best! That way Madoka wouldn't get all hurt like that. Because that had been dreadful! He wanted to cry just thinking about it.

"Um, okay.."

Madoka hums as she turns, trying to think of where is best to go then. Probably not along the road, since Romeo seems so worried about it. So instead she turns to the grassy field behind them - probably a local park? - and starts heading in that direction.

If Romeo gives a last glance at the road, he may see something odd though. The cat crosses the road like before, safely arriving at the other side - but without Madoka chasing this time. There's even the sudden speeding sound out of nowhere, but rather than the same car speeding by, the entire Voidtrecker Express is somehow moving past, breaking up the road as it goes.

It's an incredibly loud sound, but Madoka seems 100% oblivious to it. When she glances around at Romeo - once the train is already gone - she looks as if she has no idea what's keeping the other.

"Um, are you coming..? We can go here! Maybe the ice cream stall will be around, that'd be nice."

Romeo's mouth dropped open as he saw the whole train go past, wrecking the road. Stranger still that Madoka hadn't seemed to notice at all.

"Um..." He glanced back at the road but the Voidtrecker Express was gone now. The cat was safe. Madoka was safe. He punched the air. He had to keep his spirits up!

"I like ice cream." He nodded, still looking confused.

To Madoka there's still something strange about Romeo - with him looking so confused yet.. trying to be energetic? - but it's not strange enough to actually be able to ask him about without feeling like she's being impolite. So she just lets it be for now, instead offering him a smile as they start heading into the park. The beautiful, carless park.

Except cars are apparently not the only danger here. As they start heading that way instead - probably discussing what flavour of ice cream to get - suddenly something seems to come flying out of nowhere really hard, hitting Madoka straight in the head.

It's only obvious that it was a baseball that hit her when it rolls across the ground after bouncing off Madoka.

But Madoka herself is collapsing to the ground after it only a moment later.

"Madoka!" Where had that ball come from? He crouched down at Madoka's side as she fell to the ground. Getting hit with balls was no fun, he had gotten hit in the face with a ball before and it had hurt a lot!

"Are you okay Madoka?" He reached to try and help her sit up. Who was careless enough to throw balls around?

"Romeo..?"

Once again Madoka feels a little too easy to move, as if she weighs almost nothing. But this time she's not dead like when the car hit her, since she does mumble his name and slightly opens her eyes to look at him.

"I.. I feel.. weird.." If Romeo looks at her a moment, he might realise why that could be. For some reason the back of Madoka's head, exactly where the ball hit her, is cracked. In a way that looks really strange, if not impossible on a human - like her head is a cracked eggshell.

He is happy to hear her say her name but his eyes widen in horror when he sees her head. He doesn't know a lot about being a doctor but he knows peoples heads are not meant to look like that!

"Madoka! We got to get you to a doctor!" He still had no idea where one was but he holds her tight. They had to find someone who could help! But who?

"Help! Who threw that ball? Can you help us?"

No matter how much he calls out, it's as if there's no one around. Or no one can hear him. Or people can hear him, but they're just ignoring him. Either way, no one shows up.

.. no human, that is. Although Madoka's eyes have closed and she seems unresponsive once more, there's something slowly walking towards Romeo. It's.. kind of like a cat, yet not quite. But whatever it is, it seems to be able to actually see and hear Romeo, since it stops right next to where he's sitting with Madoka and stares up at him.

"Hm?" Rather than the creature opening its mouth to talk, Romeo will be able to hear it in his head. "Do you want to help her?"

He doesn't get why they can't see Madoka. Is it because he is with her? He shouts a few more times, trying to carry Madoka.

But then there was a... cat? It can see him and he's not surprised at that, animals and small children could see shinki easier than anyone else.

He's not even surprised to hear it talk, even if it talking in his head is a bit weird.

"Yes! I need help! She's very hurt!"

"I can help you save her."

Is that a weird thing for some random vaguely cat-like creature to say? Maybe. But this situation in general isn't very normal, now is it.

"All you have to do is make a contract with me, and then you can have that wish granted."

"You can!" Romeo doesn't actually seem too surprised to get such an offer of help from a cat-like creature. After all cats are smart. Chikusa's cats sometimes were the only things helping him when he got broken so having a cat offer aid when Madoka was hurt wasn't all that strange.

And wishes were like prayers. So this cat was like a god! "Okay! I'll make a contract! That's like a vow right! What do you need me to vow? Can you really help her? Please!"

Well, this is probably the easiest day Kyubey has ever had. It's hard to tell with how the "cat"'s expression hardly changes, but it almost seems oddly pleased.

"Of course she can be helped. Anything is possible with a wish. All you have to do is make your wish out loud, and then it'll be granted and you'll become a magical... boy, I suppose."

He just had to make his wish outloud? That sounded very easy! Then he would be a magical boy? Would that mean he could help Madoka?

He's a bit confused but Madoka's injured so there's not much time. "Okay! I wish Madoka was all better and she doesn't get hurt anymore ever!"

Is that technically two wishes? Hopefully not, because they are both important!

At first it seems to work. Romeo may feel something like a burst of magic coursing through him, and a moment later Madoka's strange wound seems to heal up right in front of his eyes, and yet another moment later the girl even slowly starts to open her eyes.

But then suddenly it all stops, as if the magic hit a snag. Maybe it's the nature of the strange dream, or maybe it's since Romeo is not fully a regular human considering the whole shinki deal, but it doesn't seem to quite work as intended. Rather than turning into a magical boy, he'll find himself slowly turning into an ayakashi.

Romeo grins as he sees Madoka's wound start to heal, feeling the magic course through him. Madoka would be alright and the magic was working. He could feel something happening, he was beginning to change, magic rippling all through him. He still has no idea what a magical boy is but he knows it is to help Madoka, so whatever happens it will be fine...

He feels when it changes, when the magic dancing over him turns into pain. He's been blighted before and he recognises the feeling, but there are no ayakashi here, he hasn't touched any blight.

His limps begin to twist and change and he knows. He may not have ever seen someone turn into an ayakashi before, but instinctively he knows what is happening. Eyes go wide with horror as understanding hit him.

Had he been bad? He only sort of understood what it meant for a shinki to turn into an ayakashi but he knew it happened when a shinki was bad, when a shinki did bad things and hurt their god. He knew when a shinki got blight like this it hurt their god. He doesn't know what he has done wrong, he was just trying to help Madoka but he had done something so bad that it hurt Elfnein?

He screamed in pain and fear as his skin bubbled and blistered, twisting him beyond recognition, eyes opening in his skin, wings ripping out of him, turning him from shinki to monster. Despair rushed into him, feeding off his guilt for hurting Elfnein, fear turned to terror, a wish to do anything to protect Madoka and his friends twisted and turned into a desire to destroy. He tried to hold on, to fight back. "Run away"" It might not quite be heard in his screaming, but he sent the words with the last of his thoughts at Madoka.

The scream turned into a roar as the last of him was swept away, turning him from boy to monster.

Maybe it would have been better for Madoka to have remained unconscious. But alas, Romeo's wish was for her to get all better again, so after a moment or two the girl slowly starts to stir, and then slowly opens her eyes...

... only to be greeted by this terrible sight. It would have been concerning enough if she knew what was happening, but she has no idea. She doesn't know that Romeo made a contract, or what's happening to him. All she can see is her friend slowly changing right in front of her, and she shrieks in horror as she sits up on her knees, the girl's facial expression completely horrified by Romeo's screams of pain, his body wraping, turning into a completely unrecognizable monster.

The thought telling her to run away echoes in her head, but she can't. How could she? Even if he's looking like that now, it's.. it's still Romeo! How could she run away? "R.. Romeo, h-hold on..! I'll find a way to h-help you..!"

But before Madoka can say anything else, there's suddenly the sound of multiple gunshots. Magical bullets pierce Romeo's monster form over and over, until the dream slowly starts to fade into darkness.

The last thing that might still register with him, monster or otherwise, is the muffled sound of another girl's voice, and then another shriek from Madoka: "No..! No, Romeo..!"

Then the dream is gone.

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Breach!

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cw head injury

cw head injury

cw head injury

cw head injury

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cw: body horror.

cw: body horror, magical gun violence