Seven: Dreams Go On - In Dreams

Seven: Dreams Go On - In Dreams
Date of Scene:	18 January 2014
Location:	The Dream Realm
Synopsis:	Seith's curse comes to bear. Cinderella falls asleep. As do many of our other heroes. This is the story of those who fell to the curse.
Thanks to:	Pumpkinhead
Cast of Characters:	Will Sherman, Avira, Deelel, Seith, Isaac Hanlon, Cinderella
Tinyplot:	Seven

---

Seith has posed:
The Castle of Dreams. A place that contains much hope, despite the dark omen that has set on it. Dozens upon dozens of carriages, horses, and even Chocobos are parked in the plaza, housing adventurers, soldiers, and whoever might not wish to show their face to the public.

But they are slowly but surely all emptying out, as these people make their way into the castle in preparation for what is to come. Cinderella is loved by many, for her humble origin having worked her way up to becoming a princess. And the Shadow Lords are despised by many others.

Truly, there are so many reasons to be prepared and ready for what is to come.

Massive fires are lit around the castle to illuminate the place. Patrols are marching left and right. Everyone is waiting for it. The fall of night. The onset of the curse.

Up in the highest tower, a thick pack of knights and trusted adventurers are prepared around Cinderella's room. Within, the princess holds her prince's hand.

Time continues to tick by, until finally one of the far away town bells rings loudly. And when it finally hits its final and ninth chime of the hour - things begin. The clouds darken, hardly allowing the light of the moon to come through anymore. And amidst the castle, some of those who were already there collapse on the ground right where they are.

Along with Cinderella, many people just fell to the curse, being forced into the realm of sleep. Their bodies just laying there in the castle. Asleep. But where are the enemies? Where are those who would try to take Cinderella's now sleeping body?

The answer comes in the form of a massive swarm of yellow eyes at the front of the castle. Heartless. Hundreds of them, moving upon the castle.

Or is that merely a diversion?

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Dropping into a distant dream....
Dropping...
Dropping...
Dropping...



Down...

When conciousness returns, you find yourselves in what appears to be a city. Sort of. It's hazy, incomplete. The buildings are as akin to shadows. Blocks of concrete gradually filling in the shadow shapes, shadows that have form, width, depth. A tower in the distance, the only object fully realized, stands tall--its height impossible--raising towards the heavens, foreboding and dark.

Shadow-shapes move throughout the city. They are nonhostile. Most of them don't even seem to notice the interlopers into the dream world. Some have little small patches of flesh or clothing along their body, never a full outfit, never a full body.

Black liquid--some might recognize as The Blot--shimmers along the streets, pulsing and oozing along the gound. Shapes form from the inky blackness, some inhuman in form, and crawl out from the floor.

A bright moon shines in the sky, providing illumination.

One shadow is nearby, sitting down and eating two sandwiches. Will will recognize one as his sandwich. He will recognize the other as his BACKUP sandwich.

Welcome to Vesperdream City!

Will Sherman has posed:
In this dream...

Will is the star, it is him.

/BUT NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO STEAL HIS SANDWHICH!/

Nobody.

A bellowing rage of furrious porportions is heard...

And a Giant object falls on said heartless. It is a Gargoyle.

On it is Will, who upon killing the heartless, makes four sandwhiches happen.

Lucky+++++!

Avira has posed:
Avira was prepared. She believed, snidely, that with such advance warning there was no possible way they would succeed. Especially given how specific Seith had been as far as what exactly was going to happen. The VALKYRI leader has taken precautions-purchased awakening potions, readied herself with a number of other remedies, sharpened up the Spine.

She waits in Cinderella's room, her weapon already drawn, but with the point resting against the floor and her hands atop the pelvic bone hilt. She remains relaxed, mind turning over the Dispell cantrip she's been working on learning. A spell that should prevent her from falling to Seith's gravity magic yet again. She also would have invested in a Ribbon but that particular accessory, in its form in the World of Ruin, was prohibitedly expensive.

Perhaps it would have helped. Avira believed her willpower would be enough to resist this magic. She was wrong. Her eyes droop and her muscles relax. Before she realizes what has happened, she hits the ground in a heap.

Within moments, she 'awakes' with a start, her eyes wide. "Damn! That shouldn't have happened! Cinderella...!" she looks around quickly to check for the Princess, fearing how long she might have been asleep. She just as quickly notices that she's definitely not in the Princess's room. "Oh <GOOSEHONK>."

She notices the Blot ink and swears again. Yet...as Will rides by on a gargoyle eating sandwiches, she can't help but blink.

"Why...why does this feel so...familiar?"

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Will Sherman summons a gargoyle with the power of imagination and sends it flying towards the Shadow eating his sandwiches. The Gargoyle flies right at the Shadow but then spontaneously turns into a singing Gargoyle and starts a dance number right before hitting the Shadow.

Lucky+++++!

The Shadow being looks up. At some point one of Will's extra sandwiches has appeared into the Shadow's mouth. It stands up and runs off.

Cinderella has posed:
Despite all their efforts, the curse succeeds. This in itself is not a defeat. She will not see it that way.

Cinderella raises her head from where she lay on the ground, blinking slowly as she tries to figure out where she is. She'd fallen asleep, surely? The curse had swept her away. Where was she now? The princess gets to her feet, looking around at the people who had gone under the spell with her. "Oh, dear. Where are we? Is everyone alright?" she asks.

The Heartless give her pause, her hands smoothing her dress nervously. Strangely however, they do not seem to approach them. How odd! As Will goes by, Cinderella's blue eyes widen slightly. "Oh my, this must be some kind of dream..."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"Because it's home," Isaac says, apparently unfazed.

The Digital Sorcerer -- some would say Sourcerer, and then get kicked out of the club -- sits on a planter on the sidewalk, devoid of actual plants. Dark shapes pass him without noticing. He himself is starkly outlined, wreathed in a silvery aura that looks delicate as gossamer. His hands are planted on his knees, drumming his fingers against his legs.

Ten fingers, in fact. Fleshy ones. Huh.

"Must be the Blot. This stuff..." He glances down at the gunk in the streets. "...kind of telling."

There's a slight pause.

"This is totally a dream, by the way," Isaac asides. "Don't die. It might stick."

Seith has posed:
Amongst those who were cursed, is the very man who casted the curse. As such, this man has a certain interest in seeing the curse be destroyed himself. Not the Grimoire though - certainly not destroying the Grimoire. It has history and importance.

To further ensure that the curse would have its full effect, he even brought the book. He then proceeded to hide himself in some badass black carriage in the courtyard of the castle and prepared for the sleeping curse that would inevitably come.

Imagine his surprise when he doesn't find a _proper_ realm of dreams, but something far different. A place far different. Seith appears from out of nowhere into the dream, standing upon the floor, gazing around. He's surprised to find a _Shadow_ of all things here. It must be a projection of dreams, rather than an actual Heartless. They're not known to really move around here - except for the Nightmares.

Of course, this also puts him in the middle of a group of people who would probably like to call themselves heroes.

This can only end well.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will lands next to Isaac.

"Damn. He got my sandwhich anyway.." he kicks a rock. "Uh..'

"...The curse did take effect, but why is the Blot here..?" A pause...

"Ha! It did work. Ha ha ha, you suck." he laughs at Seith.

"Look at where that stupid magic crap got you, in your own spell. Now.." a pause, "Okay, this is still bad. We're trapped in a dream with elemental evil itself." A pause..

"We're screwed, aren't we?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel was at the Castle, she knew what was coming, what she did not expect was to fall into a sleep, cycle, there. Deelel falls to the ground and several little things she does out of habit to better fit in, stop. There is no sign of breathing, or anything else her eyes are closed and for all the world she's a corpse.

In the dream world she comes too again as she looks up at the strange city for a moment she sees Isaac a friend whom she's not seen in some time.

"A dream wait what how is this? I didn't hook up to a pod to go into sleep mode."

Deelel pinches herself, nope she felt it and she's not waking up.

"I guess we do have a lot in coming and Princess keep with us, we'll do what we can to protect you."

Deelel looks about for a moment whistling at the city She looks to Avira for a moment seeing her friend is all right but then she looks to Isaac.

"Your home...?"

She quiets a bit she was so lucky, her entire world was intact, the Flynn OS was whole and no one elses world she felt guilty about this. All her friends had lost all of most of theirs. She had to find a way for lack of a better term find a way system restore their homes someday somehow.

"We better stick together Will."

She looks at Seith for a moment and tilts her head a bit.

"So you got out of the crystal I see."

Seith has posed:
Seith calmly brushes off his cloak and stares at Will as he decides to pipe up. "If you hadn't decided to mess with the spell, I would not have been here. Nor your, nor any of your friends - might I add." The elven Shadow Lord then glances up at the massive building once more.

"But you are right. You people are right out 'screwed'." Seith is being rediculously calm about this situation outwardly. "And it was not a mere 'spell'. Don't be so plebian. It was a proper Curse. It has quite the interesting little escape clause too. Pity though - that I will not give that particular part away to your kind."

What he finds far more interesting though, is that some of those here seem to... know what this place is? Or some elements of it. He doesn't /recall/ knowing of this place. "Is this one of your crappy little fallen worlds or something?"

Will Sherman has posed:
"Uh, Seith. Lets level here."

"You're increadibly screwed too. This is the Blot. Capital B." he rolls his eyes.

Avira has posed:
"Isaac..." It's hard not to notice him. With that silvery outline of his reminding her a whole lot of the same effect she herself would undertake in battle occasionally. "This is your home? So we're in /that/ city again? A dream version of..."

She trails off, her eyes going wide. "But this can't be...we stopped the Dreaming. We stopped that stupid plan and...and then..." her jaw goes slack. "...then we all parted ways...and we had to band together again to stop the darkness...and we did...and then those things from space..."

Instinctively, she grasps for something around her throat. It's a something that actually happens to be there right now-a pair of goggles with yellow lenses. Her fingers tighten around the accessory and tears gather at the corners of her green eyes. "I remember. I was robbed. I was robbed of so much awesome."

Her hand falls away from the set of yellow-lensed goggles and without warning she seems to explode in rage. "IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN! C'mon everyone, let's sackbeat this elf until he spits out this escape clause!"

Cinderella has posed:
Cinderella glances over toward Isaac as he appears. "Oh, hello. You know this place?" she asks, then looks does at the yucky stuff in the streets. It's almost like the sludge she'd had to clean out of the chimney for her step-mother. "...and you know what this stuff is?"

At the advice not to die, Cinderella nods. "We will find out way out of this. If we are here, there must be a reason for it," she advised calmly.

Her eyes widen once more as Seith appears, gasping. "You!" she says, stepping back on reflex. "You...fell under your own Curse?" she asks, shaking her head. She looks to Deelel, smiling kindly at the offer to protect her. "Thank you, I will do my best to protect you all as well. You must not give up hope! We will find a way out of this...Curse," she says, leveling her gaze back at Seith.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
The Shadows aren't Heartless, though it's understandable they might come off that way--rather, Seith is correct. They are some kind of dream projection. The Shadow--escapes to eat sandwiches. It is about Will's size. The gargoyle cuddles up to Seith and sings to him about how he's gotta have faith in himself in order to find true love. It seems totally oblivious to everybody's desire to beat the crap out of Seith.

The Master of this realm seems to have not immediately noticed the presence of interlopers. This gives you a little more time to harass Seith.

Hooray! Harassing Seith!

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"/We're/ not screwed," Isaac corrects, still hanging out on the planter. "Well, that depends on how much you like the paint thinner fixer-upper," he replies, glancing at Will. "It might be kind of gross for a while." He looks out at the Tower, a frown growing on his face. He doesn't like it. Some people will know why.

Isaac stands up, brushing his coat off. He looks at Seith. "Yeah. Mine. Welcome to Vespertine City." He spreads his arms. Isaac relishes in the feeling of having both limbs made of flesh and blood, at least for a little while. He starts walking, striding casually down the side of the street. "Watch out for the Nightmares. They like to hang people with little coils of shadow and make it really hard to speak."

He turns back to Cinderella, sketching a slight bow. "Yes, m'lady, I do. Like I said, this is my home world -- or, a dream copy of it. The Blot was trapped inside it. When it fell, he was released. It makes sense, recreating it here," he says, ponderingly, "if he's been using dreams again. So." Isaac claps his hands. "Ground rules."

"First, don't touch the black stuff," Isaac says, pointing at the goop running through the streets. "It'll get in your head and mess with your mind. Second, don't make any deals with anything that pops up here. If you fell asleep, you're probably right here with us, and that's the only people you should trust, even curse-guy over there. Third..."

Isaac reaches into his coat and pulls out his tablet. The display glows balefully. He adjusts his glasses with his other hand. "...don't die. It might stick. This /bears repeating/. Now -- how do we get out?"

Will Sherman has posed:
"Okay, well, I wanted to do this nicely...but you see, doing this threatens both of us." Will says, and he doesn't say it in a way that means him and Seith.

Something dramatically changes about Will, his eyes sharper, his mana goes through the roof...infact it's hard to tell if he even has a limit at all. Power that is simply beyond mortal hands flows through his body suddenly as two people with the same exact purpose come together.

"You're going to tell us, or we're going to make you tell us." Will says, his voice modulating between his normal voice...and a different voice, a darker voice...

A voice of power, not unlike Malificent herself. "The timer is on, and we need to get out of here now...because, little man, it will eat you too. It will eat your eyes, for breakfast."

Seith has posed:
When the Gargoyle decides to huddle up to Seith and sing to him about faith in true love, the man steps away. "Ugh, get away from me you foul figment of imagination. Shoo! None of this true love stuff. I tried it, and it only ends with a broken heart in the end." He pulls on his cloak, trying to ensure that the Gargoyle isn't standing on it, and steps away from the creature.

This puts him right in front of Avira. "You... do remember that last time right? How you got your ass handed to ~ oh never mind. You so called 'heroes' never remember. You just keep coming back for more."

And who the F* is this Blot guy? It would appear that Isaac explains at least a little bit about things. Some guy's city - released some great dream related evil? The little explaination is appreciated, that much is certain. Perhaps he should do a recruitment-ad for this guy or something.

If he's really 'all that' anyhow.

Still, it pisses him off that the heroes are giving this thing more credit than him. It's really quite annoying.

"Yes yes. I fell under my own curse." Seith repeats for Cinderella. "Or rather, idiot over there." He points at Will. "Tried to stop the curse, and just /got more people cursed/. You can 'thank' him later." The elf eyerolls. Snobbily.

And more threats come his way. "Oh stop." Seith's eye twitches. "If you kill me - apparently it sticks. It also means you'll never have your answer. Don't be such a petulant child. And while I may know how to break it - that doesn't mean /you/ wake up if I use the clause." Although the curse was never made for more than one person. Seith is just guessing at what would happen.

"I could leave you behind here on your own. So perhaps you ought to be a little nicer."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "Blot? If your being this serious Will this is pretty bad isn't it?"

the Program looks about at the memory of a world that once was for a moment before she turns to the rest of the party and she shrugs.

"Avira? You have been here before?" She pauses at her friend for a moment before Cinderella gets her attention.

"Thank you and we have to, I think I'm experiencing things programs were never intended to...then again I seem to do that a lot."

She keeps her 2wits about her as she notices the thing that' stolen the sandwich from Will. Isaac then starts to give them information on what's going on.

"Thank you for the warnings Isaac."

She falls into formation and is making sure to not end up in any of the goop.

Cinderella has posed:
Cinderells holds up the skirts of her ballgown, stepping a little further from the black sludge. Really, why is she wearing a ballgown? If this is a dream, surely she could wear something else? Something that wouldn't get in her way so much? It doesn't take much effort to remember the sort of clothes she'd used to work in. It was not so very long ago, really. Cinderella thinks it, and changes, the blue ballgown disappearing to be replaced with a more practical brown dress and white apron. Servents clothes. "I understand, sir...?" she says to Isaac. Most others, she knows their names.

Cinderella gasps again in surprise as the lad, Will was he name, suddenly...changes. He speaks with two voices, and and is quite frankly, terrifying. Cinderella moves closer to Deelel and Isaac, her eyes on Will. "Oh dear...is that supposed to happen?" she asks quietly.

So much bickering. She is certainly not pleased with Seith either, but she does not think this is going to get them anywhere. "Please stop this fighting. We seem to be in this together! It may take all of us to escape this," she remarks.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"My name is Isaac," he says. "Isaac Hanlon. I'm a professional wizard. It's nice to meet you." He smiles Cinderella's way. He's got a kind sort of smile. Reassuring.

Then, he turns back to Will and Seith. He chops a hand through the air between them. "Hey, cut it out. He's right. If he made the curse, he has the best chance to bring us out of this. Don't you think we should save the antagonism and gratuitous punching for the Blot?" He looks back into the city, thinking. "Alright... we need to know if anything's coming."

Isaac turns to Deelel. "Dee, you're pretty nimble; can you get some height, take a look around? I'm afraid it'll pick up on me if I cast anything before we're spotted." Isaac is subtle, but you can only work so much sorcery in the presence of an eldritch evil before it knows your scent.

Avira has posed:
"I remember a lot of things." Avira narrows her eyes at Seith. "I remember this city...this Vespertine." She looks over at Isaac, "Because I went there with him, if only for a little while." If only to see his world end. That moment was devistating. It was a testament to Isaac's willpower to keep going after enduring all of that. Of course in that moment they also seemed to have unleashed the Blot.

"But this is a dream. And I've been in dreams before. I've been in /shared/ dreams before." she looks pointedly at Seith, "And there is something I remembered about that. In those, you had some kind of control over your surroundings."

Avira holds out her hand and closes her fingers up into a fist. "Which means..." she opens her hand, revealing a yellow gem sitting in her open palm. "We can make your day very, very bad, Seith. And we won't even have to kill you to do that. So I suggest you start talking or I'm going to summon a friend."

Her hard gaze softens. "I also remember some other things but those aren't important to anyone else besides me right now." Her hand closes around the gem and she shoves it into one of her pockets.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
The gargoyle is pushed away from Seith. Normally this would only encourage the gargoyle--in the real world that is--here he just hops off for a few feet before fading away.

The other Shadow from before appears, now sandwichless (It didn't last long it seems). It hops excitedly and points towards Will, then--points towards Isaac--then points towards Seith. It notices Cinderella a moment later and peers at her. It doesn't try to eat her though. Cinderella is not a sandwich.

"A dream is a wish your heart makes. Isn't that correct, Cinderella?" A familiar voice whispers, but--nonetheless--manages to carry through the dream world. A figure steps out into view along the street. He looks something like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PhantomBlot.gif

In short it's even smaller than when our heroes last met him. To Seith this might make him seem not dangerous at all to begin with. The Phantom Blot gazes between our heroes. Unlike the picture, he has put on some working overalls.

"You are not supposed to be here yet." He says. "We are still under...renovations." He snaps his fingers, as if expecting something to happen.

When it doesn't, his eyes narrow and he says, "This is no mere sleep... You are cursed." He looks towards Will. "Yet Fate shouldn't have let you come here in such a fashion. Hmm... Perhaps you ARE supposed to be here early or perhaps...this is one of those instances where Fate was Fated to not be Fate."

He drums his fingers across his cheek. He finds this all very curious.

A second shadowy figure emerges behind the Blot. This one is about Mercade's size.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will grunts... but he backs off, but his flare of power doesn't go away.

He does grin cheesily at Cinderella though...

"I'm still mostly me. Don't worry. It's a long story I'll explain when we're not trapped in hell." He says, shrugging. He doesn't shake Seith's hand, that guy can go right to...here.

"This is not the place I need to be..." He mutters, and doesn't go looking around. He's just as much as a beacon for the Blot as Isaac is...he looks at the wizard worried.

"How you holdin' up?" he asks his friend. This can't be easy for him.

Deelel has posed:
It's time Pakour it up, it seems as she listens to Isaac for a moment longer

"Agreed, we can deal with our own issues later. Isaac I'll go check it out."

Boing away she goes trying to scramble up a building with surprising skill to get a better view of things. She is still able to hear Avira and think she needs to ask her about this later, she's had dreams herself. Never had Deelel shared a dream with another program let alone users.

She tires to think about it as someone else appears he does not like to think about whom it a she gets to her perch, she notices the problem below and can more than hear them. She's got a view it's on her disc and she's scrambling back down with a leap from pretty high up, a light chute deploys and she glides in for a landing.

"There goes that plan, I take it that's him, Isaac?"

Seith has posed:
"Yes yes, you've been in shared dreams before. How cute." Seith mumbles at Avira. "But you're not in your own dream anymore. Remember, the one I invaded a while ago?" The man moves his hand towards his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Just... just never mind."

He makes a dismissive motion and steps away from her. Only to be distracted by the Shadow acting oddly. "Hrrm?" He makes an inquisitive sound. And then finally, Phantom Blots himself. Indeed, he doesn't really seem like that big of a deal. Kind of adorable more than anything else.

"Ah yes. That'd be my curse. Though I don't think that their presence had much to do with 'Fate'." Seith points out. Seith turns about and takes a few steps towards the black... thing. "So you are the 'Blot' that these people keep raving about?"

Seith is probably a bit too dismissive for his own good. But he has a very good reason to feel so self-asured within the realm of a dream. He's not just posturing for the sake of posturing.

Avira has posed:
Even in spite of her past experience with Isaac's memories, this form of the Blot was...undeniably...

...not all that threatening-looking to Avira. If she didn't know any better she'd continue to be more worried about Seith than the Blot here. "Seith you really ought to stop talking. You're going to aggro it and then we'll have to actually /protect/ you. And that would be really terrible."

Cinderella has posed:
Cinderella curtsies to Isaac. "It is very nice to meet you Isaac Hanlon. Oh! A wizard!" she says, smile appearing. A wizard is always a wonderful person to have around. Almost as good as a fairy godmother! She's heard many good things about wizards.

She turns then toward the shadow, as it turns into the Blot creature, her smile slipping as it speaks to her. "Yes, that's right," she replies, not losing hope over a little quip meant to demoralize her. "We will not let our dreams by darkened by you," she adds, resolute.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will just stares at Seith.

He just caughts. "Hi, I'm the supplied fate." he says, rolling his eyes. "Like, for being so smart, you're really dumb." he shrugs.

"I litterally am a god of fate. Like, fate and luck. Litterally. That's my deal, how did you think I could do that to your curse? Really?!" he rolls his eyes.

"Okay wait, Blot, maybe we should...wait till your ready? This was sort of an accident. Lets just go out."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Wow, Isaac thinks. Are all Princesses around here totally adorable?

Isaac exchanges a look with Will. He shrugs a shoulder. "Time heals all wounds, right?" he replies quietly. It's a hollow sort of response. Will knows just how false that saying is. "I'll be alright. Can't go losing it at a time like this." It's too bad, he thinks, that it's always times like this.

He rolls his shoulder, the one with the arm that should be mechanical. Isaac glances up when Deelel goes up and then has to come back down; the Blot has an interesting sense of timing. "Blot," he greets, with a small nod. He feels like he should be courteous, since it doesn't cost him anything and gives them a little more time to get out of here. He glances at Avira, giving her a look that says, 'be ready.'

Isaac's eyes scan back and forth, checking out the scenery. He focuses on the Blot again. "Nice place you've got here."

Pumpkinhead has posed:
"I would love to help you out," The Blot says. "But I am no sorcerer. I can make you a world to live in, but I cannot open your eyes. I thought irony had been lost on me ages ago, but it seems even after all this time..." He pauses, glancing over to Isaac. "Why thank you. It was my prison, but I grew fond of it." He glances towards Will. Accident? "There are no accidents with you." He says. He looks towards his Dreams, he seems to be pondering. He passes by Cinderella as he approaches Seith.

"You won't? Actually...yes, perhaps that IS why you are here. Fighting in the dream world is not like fighting in reality but you cannot abandon this world simply to save the true worlds out there. You will find they are far more connected than you realize."

He stops to take a good look at Seith. The others are warning Seith about him.

"This is my original form. I was born this way. Of course, the world then was far unkinder to darkness than it is these days. Yes.... there is some reason to you being as confident as you are right now..."

He raises his hand. In it is one of Seith's gems from his band that he wears on his hand. He examines the gem and taps it lightly twice before tossing it back to Seith, raising his other hand--

--revealing a dream copy of the grimoire which he rifles through, stepping away from Seith, his back towards him, as he studies it.

"The rules here are different. You will have to learn them. Would you like to see my true body, Shadowlord?"

He snaps his fingers a few more times, more shadowforms start rippling out of the ground. These ones are wearing heavy armor, even helmets, and carrying the 'shadows' of keyblades--not actual keyblades, of course, but more like--the memory of a keyblade not fully realized.

"Defeat these keyblade masters." The Blot says, the shadowforms raising their weapons to the sky. "In reality, you would not be able to. But here...perhaps you can."

The shadowforms charge towards Isaac, Will, and Avira in particular. There's one for each of them.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will takes a step back...

"Oh...boy that isn't good." he says, and then stops backing up. He steels himself...he can't run away. He sighs...sorry girls, he can't keep his promise. He has to fight, he can't leave his friends like this...he can't let a brilliant light fade out here. He looks back up at the keyblade weilders, or rather their memories. He tries to look...it's risky, but he doesn't have a choice...

And then he comes in, suddenly coming in aiming a quick punch towards the ones that comes at him, aiming to try and unravel the fate first. He goes as hard and quick as he can, aiming to try and quickly disburse it, or at least cause it to think twice.

He breaths heavily...he's terrified, absolutely terrified.

Seith has posed:
Seith has heard Will's rant about Fate before. And Seith will not refuse that the youth has a unique power. But Seith has certain issues with the word 'Fate'. And the inevitability there-of. What he observed, was merely a force of strange sorcery messing with a Grimoire's spell.

Seith allows Blot to approach, and doesn't even flinch as the creature raises his hand and removes one of the useless little aesthetic gems. The man patiently waits for what follows next - and is suddenly revealed a mock Grimoire.

Interesting.

"The rules are always different within the realm of dreams." Seith answers the creature. He doesn't even seem shocked that the creature knows him to be a Shadow Lord - though it does confuse him a little. He eyes the book for a little moment longer. He wonders if the contents of that Mock Grimoire would even add up to what is within the true book.

It's a thought he doesn't get to think about too long. A distraction comes in the form of Shadowformed 'keyblade masters'. Fake ones at that. But the very _presence_ of that form betrays something about Blot in his mind. He glances back at the creature, and then turns around.

"Well, on you go, 'heroes'. I don't particularly feel like bothering with this bunch." Or rather, he would prefer not to get hurt for right now. And he has a pretty good reason for it too.

Or perhaps some of that Topsy Turvy day is still sticking? No... no, that part was the exact opposite of who Seith is.

Cinderella has posed:
Cinderella very simply does not know how to fight. Knowing how to fight is simply not something someone of her background learns to do. Not like this. Cinderella has no choice but to let these people fight for her, scared and so very concerned for them.

This is a dream though, isn't it? This dream may not be the wish her heart made, but that does not mean her heart is powerless here! She's seen things now like she'd never seen before, people wielding light and hope as a weapon against darkness. If they could do it, so could she!

"I won't just let you hurt them. You underestimate the power of their hearts!" she says, as light begins to shine from around her, casting her in an aura of brilliance. "I'll help protect them..." she says, then wills the light to extend over those fighting, to give them strength and protect them from the shadowy monsters.

Avira has posed:
Avira reaches down to stick her hand in her pocket, clutching it around the yellow gem she produced earlier. Seeing Isaac's look, she gives him a curt nod. No words need to be passed between them. She understands.

"...Haha, this. This isn't the first time." 'I can't fight those, I'm not a Keybearer...I don't have a pure heart, I don't got some special prophecy or destiny on my side.'

"That didn't stop me before. And it won't stop me now!" she tears her hand out of her pocket and throws her gem into the air. The stone shatters with a crack of lightning and a large serpentine form appears hovering over her. Quetzalcoatl immediately dives forward and drives its head into the charging keyblade wielder shadow form. Avira's not far behind, leading with a wave of ice.

"Things have turned out better this time anyway." Avira mutters to herself. "This time there are friends to help."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel taking a stand here. She looks to Will for a moment and she's not sure what to say. She looks back at Isaac and then to Blot she's kinda unnerved by him just being here and she is clearly nervous about him.

When Blot asks about true body, she's just horrified there's likely some thing like LEXXUS's true form. Oh look more things are coming for them she looks at the shadows, with mockeries of Keyblades she frowns a bit more for a moment. Some other memories surface to see them perverted even just in image.

"Few can stand against many, I seen it."

Deelel's leaping into the enemy ranks now and moving to fight she's a creature of the grid, even though they dreams their dreams tend to be orderly compare to human dreams thankfully past experiences has left her able to experience more than she might have otherwise, she's not paralysed by this strange place. She's already making use of her disc well her memory of her disc, it doesn't make sense some time to her.

"I'll right them...regardless I will not let them have their way like I stood against LEXUS... he once would let me go if I'd just let him taken the Flynn OS for himself... I told him I?d die first."

She nearly did.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
The Phantom Blot says, "Of course, of course..." He also may just be assuming Seith is a Shadowlord because everybody seems to hate him. It's not exactly a perfect metric but it's a reasonable one. Phantom Blot moves and talks more like Maximilien than he does a dark lord, but much like Max he seems to be willing to teach with methods that threaten one's lifes. He peruses through the Mock Grimoire, however illusionary it may be is unclear at the time being.

The Keyblade masters aren't REALLY Keyblade masters. They are, effectively, just solid feeling illusions. Looking into their past reveals basically nothing. They don't have pasts. These aren't the actual keyblade lords. Striking at their fates DOES work but maybe not for the reason Will thinks. It doesn't entirely disrupt the creature, but it does stun him for a moment, allowing him to possibly get a combo going up. The Blot does not try to eat Will's eyes so that's a plus too. He's got other things on his mind, and more control than before.

He nods absently to Cinderella's words, not really listening.

Avira's keyblade wielder presses triangle and jumps on top of Quetzalcoatl, sliding down it, his body gathering the electricity, before sliding forward foot first for Avira's body. The people present do not ask Blot for his final form, so he doesn't reveal it.

"What was it that my old friend used to say, sorcery loves rules and irony and loopholes. Am I wrong? But it has to fit the theme, hmm...." Pageflip, pageflip.

Deelel intercepts the Keyblade Wielder going for Isaac, swooping around with her dream disc but the master spams Guard to block the strikes, even if it does arrest its forward motion.

"You're fighting like you're in the real world." The Blot says. "Here, I'll force the matter."

He snaps his fingers. A building uproots itself and flings itself for Cinderella!

Avira has posed:
Quetzalcoatl makes a noise indicating that it is miffed. He does not give rides to just anyone out there. Summon gem ownership is usually involved. Mysterious dream Keyblade master is not the owner.

The original plan had been for the winged snake to headbutt the keyblade wielder into the air where Avira would leap up and air combo his butt for a few moments. This, evidently, does not work out as intended and Avira is left with a face full of foot instead that spikes her back down onto the ground. She lands on her back only to flip herself back up shorly afterwards. While Avira recovers, Quetzalcoatl snakes after the keyblade wielder and, once close enough, seems to make a physically impossible whiplash of a turn that swats the end of its tail at him.

"Hey come back here!" Avira taunts. "Or are you afraid of Kickassia!?"

Seith has posed:
"That sounds about right." Seith calls back to the Blot. Indeed, sorcery loves many of those things. Especially when it came to curses and the like. The man continues to observe as the various heroes try to protect themselves and eachother by... typical means.

"They're not exactly fast learners." Seith comments, trying to key Blot in on the fact that his particular method might not exactly work well. And then the creature has to go and 'force' the matter. By flinging a giant building at Cinderella.

Normally, in a dream, this would not be an issue. But this is no standard dream. And as Isaac pointed out - if you die in the dream, you might very well die in real life.

Seith brushes a hand over his cloak and takes a step forwards. "I can't take the chance of you offing that woman, I'm afraid." He observes the massive building, while stepping forward slowly. Its approach is slow, but the thing is large enough that they'd have no real proper way of avoiding getting hit by it! With one hand he touches Cinderella's shoulder (is his hand sizzling?), and quickly lets go again as he moves out in front of her.

The sorcerer then thrusts his other hand forwards, revealing an enormous sorcerous tennis-racket. The racket slaps at the building, causing it to literally explode into tons of bricks. But it doesn't stop there. The bricks then then quickly begin to swirl around and gather, clicking and clacking on the ground a good distance before them, rapidly forming into the shape of...

A massive Seith statue.

Just how much of a snob is this man.

"There, that looks better."

Will Sherman has posed:
Will hears the words...

Will has a lot of self control because LOKI just wants to do something...

"No...NO. Bad. No eating his eyes." he says to himself...while Seith makes a giant statue to himself...hmmm...that's...

That gives him an idea.

Will suddenly leaps to the statue...

And using his DREAM SUPER HERO POWERS, attempts to lift the statue, and...

Suddenly the statue and Will are gone.

Only to drop in on his Keyblade Nightmare Lord al la Jojo's bizzare adventure...

The statue landing on the guy, and Will making Crotch Choping motions.

Cinderella has posed:
They are fighting by the rules of the real world! Surely, there must be another way. They are trying to play by old rules, when maybe...maybe the rules of this place are theirs to bend!

All thought leaves her head when a building come flying toward her. An entire building! Cinderella's breath leaves her.

She remembers what Isaac the Wizard told her though. Don't die here, it could stick. Cinderella's heart flares with power. All she needs to do, is be somewhere else. Hopefully, this works.

Before Cinderella can attempt her plan, Seith is there, moving her behind him, and pulling out a gigantic magic tennis racket with which to smash the building away from her. The woman's eyes widen as she looks to Seith. "...well, I would just going to sort of turn it to bubbles, but that works as well..."

Cinderella turns on Blot then, placing her hands on her hips. "You stop this!" she says, then imagines the book in his hand turning to flower petals. She imagines it quite hard. If Seith can do something like that, then it must be possible to change the world around them with their will.

All you had to do was believe, right?

Cinderella is very good at believing.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac takes a step back when the false Keyblade Masters charge in. Deelel keeps him from getting immediately eviscerated, which he appreciates. "You seem to be an entity," don't say monster, "who appreciates themes," Isaac says. "Maybe your prison rubbed off on you? We were big on themes, back then. It was kind of a thing."

The wizard glances at Cinderella. He shouldn't stay too close; her granted protection and the necessity of keeping her safe aside, they're bee-lining for each of them. If he stays close, she might be caught in the crossfire. "Keep back and keep safe," he warns. Isaac casts a quick look at Seith. "You too. Work on a way out, would you?"

Isaac puts finger to touch-screen. He makes a few tweaks. The buildings nearby ripple, a wave of cyan light passing over their exteriors. They seem to solidify. "I'm pretty fond of theme /songs/, myself," he calls, just as the noise kicks in.

BGM CHANGE: http://youtu.be/AX8mwQauhRA

"/Way/ better," he says. "Okay. Now." He glances at Deelel. She gives him an idea. "Dee, keep it off of me. I need a minute."

"So. What're dreams about?" he asks. "Illusion and possibility, right? Desire, maybe? This --" Isaac gestures grandly, at the city, even filled with the filth that is the Blot. "-- is home. It's all I could want. Even with /you/ here. It's not like you were ever anywhere else. You were always at the heart of it, and everything kind of... fit. You made the rules then, too, but we just didn't understand how."

"But now," he utters, clenching his right hand into a fist, "we do." He lifts it up, looking at his fingers. He's trembling. He slips his tablet back into his pocket, taking hold of his jacket at the shoulder with his left hand. "/I/ do."

Isaac looks at the Blot's back. "So. Blot." Isaac speaks through gritted teeth. He grasps and pulls, and pulls hard. His sleeve tears. He peels it off, revealing straight lines and harsh angles, gleaming metal where there should be flesh. Used to be flesh. He peels down to his hand, taking that with it. It's a rough, painful-looking process.

"What," he pants, "always messes up an ideal dream-world?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is locked in combat with the wilder going for Isaac an moves to intercept it, she's a program it's how she is. She's got more flex room but she's still what she is, she'd not think out side the box that far. Well on her own if she's shown it? Something goes click in her head she pauses dropping her fist into the ground sending a ripple like a wave down the street like a shock wave.

"Thanks for the idea!"

She calls out to the Blot, as she keeps fighting.

"You want some of them, defrag bait? Then come get it..."

"You call that art?!"

Did Seith just throw down an artist challenge at Deelel? Yes, yes he just did that with the statue. Oh she's going to start turning thin the street as she ripples a to start to look like the highway of the grid a little bit.

"I'll keep it busy!"

the then throws her self at the hopefully off balance shadow.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
The Phantom Blot looks up, and then towards the new statue that Seith has made, he looks at it, and then he snaps his finger, making the nose a couple inches larger before turning back to his book. He doesn't seem troubled at all, not even when Will decides to fight dreams with surrealism which works, as one might expect, really well. The statue crashes down upon the keyblade wielder, he raises his blade to try and cut it in half but it hits the wrong and he smooshes down into shadow nothingness. One would expect an actual keyblade wielder in actual keyblade world would probably be much tougher.

Avira has her Quetzacoatl bash the keyblade wielder in an 'impossible' manner that he seems unprepared for--after all, it's impossible. He goes flying, crashing to the ground. He doesn't dissipitate just yet, but that seriously hurt.

"Don't underestimate them." The Blot says. "Learning quickly is oft another name for learning nothing." He turns a page and then--Cinderella starts turning the book into flower petals. This doesn't immediately work, but Cinderella does find that there's some progress being made. The coloring is turning pink. The Blot considers, then allows it, setting the book to the side. He doesn't want to enter a battle of dreams against one of THE Princesses after all.

"I always enjoyed your taste in music." The Blot says, his eyes grinning, but it fades quickly once he sees that Isaac starts describing dreams. He's getting an idea of what Isaac is going on about.

"Isaac." He says. "Isaac, don't do this. This world is still new. It is not complete yet. This is your world. All you have to do is let it reform. You can return home."

He steps away from Isaac. The Blot along the ground starts surging, gurgling. Isaac has got the Blot all concerned now. But how?

Deelel tries to make the dream world like the grid. It RESISTS--but not completely. The path changes, partly grid-like partly dream like. This seems antithetical to the world and the area starts glitching out, in a sense. The Shadow Will suddenly has a sandwhich lodged in its skull, Shadow Mercade is wearing a hat--an Engie Cap. Deelel tackles into her opponent, sending it into the grid space and it seems to howl before dissipitating into nothingness.

Maybe that's why The Blot is nervous.

"Stop!" He demands of Isaac. "This is /your/ world! Your world is going to disappear!"

Will Sherman has posed:
Will drops down, aiming to flank Isaac.

He looks at the man, and then back at the Blot.

"It's his decision, isn't it? Why don't you let him decide." He says, towards the Blot. Will trusts Isaac, no matter what, Will will always trust Isaac. They were friends, and that's all it mattered. It didn't matter that there was another Will, that he tried to use them to fill the holes in his own heart...but in a sense, isn't that what people do? The bonds of friendship weren't any less real, reguardless of the motives.

"You won't stop him, and I'll make sure of that.." he says, ready to defend Isaac...even if it means having to touch the Blot again.

He was ready to go to hell and back for his friends, any of them...

Cinderella has posed:
Cinderella looks to the Wizard, nodding to him as she tries to get back away from the main fighting, watching Isaac with a frown that grows more and more troubled as he reveals his arm to be unlike anything she has ever seen. Cinderella's world is not one of technology like this, and she hasn't really ventured outside of it. She raises a hand to her mouth to cover her horror-not for Isaac, but for the pain he must have suffered. They keep saying this is his world.

And now, Blot look nervous.

From behind Isaac, Cinderella speaks. "Wizard Hanlon...tell me what I should do. I don't know how to fight like your friends, and I don't really know what is going on...but I want to help you. Let me lend my dreams and help us escape this place," she says, holding her ground against the terror that abounds.

Avira has posed:
Reaching into her pocket, Avira pulls out the summon gem she had used earlier. In a flash, Quetzalcoatl disappears.

"I see what you meant earlier, Isaac." Avira sounds kind of sad, "It's definitely trying to get itself into your head. I won't bother telling you what to do because I know you'll follow your heart. And whatever that tuns out to be, I'm okay with that. I guess I don't understand anything about this Dreaming stuff anymore. It's not the same as before."

She walks over to the fallen keyblade master sprawled on the ground and crouches next to him. "Hey." she says quietly, staring the shadow keyblade wielder down for a long moment.

The hand that isn't wrapped around her Spine lifts forward, Within it is a plastic baggie containing a nice-looking BLT.
"Sandwich?" she offers to her fallen foe.

Seith has posed:
"No, I don't think it's quite time for that yet." Seith points out. "I can't be sure, but I feel like time here and there is about the same. And you are surely aware of what is happening 'out there', even if you are 'not aware' of what is going on out there."

Read as: 'take a guess'.

Of course, people have to go and ruin his statue. But he kind of ignores Will in that regards - as well as Deelel. In fact, it takes him a moment to realize that she is talking to him.

"We have more time." Seith continues to point out, and then glances at Blot. Such a strange creature. But he still hasn't figured out why they fear him so much. What must have happened between these people and this creature?

Blot's further outburst in regards to Isaac actually surprises him. Why does it care so much about this dream world? Couldn't it 'easily' rebuild it, if it was truly so powerful? The Shadowlord turns fully to face the Blot with confusion in his eyes.

"This is but a dream. While the real world and this world may be connected, there is one constant. This world will ever remain the inferior of the two. If this world disappears, it doesn't matter. From what I understand - 'his' world already has been destroyed and fallen into darkness."

He doesn't really care what happens to the rest of the heroes. But there's a kind of... sorcerous curtesy that gets extended amongst... well... sorcerers!

Deelel has posed:
Deelel notices one shadow is crushed thanks to Will's antics, not bad, not bad at all she keeps hold of her disc, mostly out of habit in the strange world of living dreams? Is a place no basic has ever gone before. It also just about confirms her thoughts about reality, one layer after another of worlds inside each other like those Russian dolls. User space, this dream space, data space? How many other layers to reality are there? Likely more than she'll ever be able to understand or know.

She has to agree she likes Isaac?s taste in music but as Isaac is about to do something to ruin things. Is this world even real?

She's not making progress in much in the way she want to alter the dream. However it's starting to glitch out, this is glitch out and this might be of use! She has tackled the shadow mercade and sens him into the glitching out grid space. She's going to stop trying to meddle with that, she's got the idea something isn't right here.

Is her presence making Blot nervous or is it more Isaac? It's more Isaac it has to be, right, it has to be Isaac, right. Is this really his world? It's just a mockery so far as she can or is it something else? She trusts Isaac

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
They believe.

Whether it's through mere courtesy or honest faith, they believe. That's what he needs. He glances between Will and Deelel, defending him if it means to the last. He smiles. It turns sad when he regards Avira. She's seen it, too. "...thanks, guys. I guess I..." His voice trails off. What needs to be said? He's been here. He's already done this song and dance. It's happened twice, and he's not going to let it happen again.

Neither are they.

"Exactly what you're doing, Princess," Isaac says, facing Cinderella. "Just..." He spreads his arms, letting go of the scraps of illusion. His right arm is now clearly mechanical, a cold, lifeless reminder of what has come to pass. It moves all the same. Deelel may find the aesthetic oddly familiar, though. "...believe. Please?"

He turns back.

"No. This time, I know it," Isaac says, his voice strong. He raises up his right arm again, looking at the metal fingers on his hand. He closes them into a fist once more. This time, it's right. He looks to Deelel and the scrap of Grid, and then back to the Blot. He bares his teeth, stretching his arm. Light springs up on it, Program-lines from the Grid, colored denoting a hacker-program, and... something else. A strange hue, like his magic, maybe?

He slams his foot into the ground. He draws back his arm, and he swings. "I know this world is all fake!!"

Isaac's machine-fist slams into a building across the street, despite being too short to apparently reach it. The air cracks and shatters like glass, breaking apart alongside a surge of sorcerous power. There's blackness behind it, blank darkness that resolves into the corner of a structure glowing with neon light.

Deelel, as it turns out, had the right idea. She just didn't have enough oomph. Fortunately, making a sorcerer angry is an /excellent/ source of oomph.

Isaac is very, very angry.

He turns around, swinging again, The other side of the block, behind the Blot, collapses into pieces of a broken mirror. Isaac roars while he swings, shouting defiance. "I lost my place in the world a long time ago!" He swings again, striking the ground. The earth shakes, the effect spreading like wildfire. The Blot recoils from him and his fury. He can't say for how long. It has to end. He lifts his hand, slowly rising.

"Dreams end with acceptance. Facing reality." He turns away from the Blot. He takes a step back, away from the building he's standing from. He looks at it. The glass doors. The red carpets. The familiar, comfortable interior. The words, standing boldly out.

'TWILIGHT DETECTIVE AGENCY.'

Vespertine City.

Home.

"And the reality that I /don't/ have anywhere I belong --" Isaac draws his arm back one more time. He tightens his fist, and clenches his teeth as he does it. He fights back tears. "-- is --"

He brings his hand forward. One last surge follows. One last shout. One last ending. Him, again, on the precipice of darkness and despair, as it was before... and once more, with people who will help him see it through.

"-- /where I truly belong/!!"

Cinderella has posed:
Cinderella faces the Wizard, nodding, summoning a smile. "Of course Wizard Hanlon," she replies.

The belief of a Princess of Heart is not to be trifled with.

Nor is an angry sorcerer, a god of fate, warrior woman and...and whatever it is Deelel is! Brave. Brave and good. That's what matters.

Cinderella close her eyes and /believes/ light shining from her in glittering waves.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Avira offers the keyblade 'master' a ... a BLT. This doesn't seem like something that should work.

It does. The shadow being takes the sandwich and nods to Avira in thanks. Maybe, even to the Blot, these memories of his were people who would take a sandwich offered and be polite about it.

Speaking of, Deelel just totally takes out poor Mercade Shadow. Out he goes. A Program, the Blot thinks, how did a Program get in here? The curse must have truly been powerful...Deelel probably COULD do a lot more damage, but it looks like she's electing not to.

Isaac Hanlon, however, can sometimes be a bit reckless. Will doesn't have to touch the Blot to help this time. Just supporting Isaac seems to be doing plenty. Proving that bonds stronger than anything can be formed--even now--in a dream...what is more powerful than that? Normally a dream world might resist such as Isaac's work here, but the collective unconciousness in the area is veering towards Isaac. What he makes up for a lack of experience in this realm, he makes up for in power and conviction.

Building after building collapses into mirror-like shards. The earth shakes. More and more of the Blot is revealed as the illusion preventing Seith from seeing who the Blot TRULY is dissipitates, piece by piece.

The Blot watches his dream world be destroyed. Not with power, or the ability to kick ass, but with the willingness to wake. His body is shaking. Isaac isn't the only one angry here.

"ISAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC!!" The Blot screams even as the Twilight Detective Agency is OBLITERATED with a single punch, revealing a deep, black, inky mold.

The Blot changes, his form twisting, growing, splotching, becoming more and more oozy--but thicker, thicker than her shadow ever appeared. As thick as a galaxy might be.

The body raises, stretches out, the arms thicken and bulk up. The ground underneath Seith bursts open, filth surging from underneath him like a fire hydrant had just exploded underneath him. Black ooze threatens to cover and engulf him, drown him. He can hear the whispers already, each wrinkle trying to get into HIS dreams, clawing inside--for domination.

"I AM THE CRAWLING CHAOS." The Blot bellows. "AND YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR!" He swings the arm down, "YOU DO NOT HAVE THE PAINTBRUSH, YOU WILL NEVER DESTROY ME! YOU HAVE SETBACK MONTHS OF DREAMING, THAT IS ALL!"</span>

The world starts spazzing out, bits and pieces move into places they shouldn't be. The Blot does not attack, but soon even the moon shatters and everyone might find them clinging to the debris that remains, struggling to not tumble into The Blot that is the Phantom. His size is unfathomable.

"This won't wake you. Tumble deeper into a dream you will never wake from...I will grant you your last desire!"

And then, without any more fanfare, The Blot vanishes. As does everything else. You are now in Oblivion. You are free falling.

Isaac's themesong continues to play though so it's not all a wash. The grimoire, now fully bright pink, tumbles down with you.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will smiles...

Oh and...uh...

And things go to double hell, he starts backing up, away from the disappearing landscape.

"Uh...Got any bright ideas Isaac?!" He says, Will was afraid, very afraid...

He still believes in his friend, but it doesn't make him any less afraid.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel notices the aesthetic of what Isaac is doing, she has faith in she always has and it's not just because he's a user, he's proven to her that she can trust him like she trusts the mysterious Sarah-42 who gave her life. She sees what he's doing with her own manipulations glitching it out? he can only wonder what Isaac is going to do with what he's doing.

Hearing part of where Isaac states he has no where to go no where he truly belongs, there's something she can understand. A Program has a function a place, Isaac is with out one even as a user. She'd say he has a place with them but would it ease his pain? She's not sure if would she watches. She believes in Isaac he somehow keeps going with no place he feels is home a man bereft of a world entirely. She can only watch now, she can only watch and have faith in Isaac she has never seen anything like this, she has never seen anything it.

"I am from a world of Order, I can accept the chaos of the user world but you... have no plac...."

She trails off as they fall into the Darkness along with everyone else, however she can still hear Isaac's song playing and there's a book falling with them.

"That book..."

She points to it she's afraid, fear is a natural thing even for Programs. She is she's facing the what is the other side of the coin of her own world in the crawling chaos aka the Blot, well was. He's gone for now... She's however falling now with the others perhaps into the darkness it self, perhaps the place that one int he painting is trapped as Ang said? Are they about to join her?

Cinderella has posed:
When Cinderella opens her eyes, she is quite impressed. The world is exploding around her, but it is as if they stand in a bubble, protected by their belief as reality dissintigrates around them. It's as if the buildings have been turned into one of wooden blocks and cards, knocked aside with the casual destructive energy of a small child, flying through the air with abandon. What a sight it is.

Ah, but the world is disappearing, and they are still in it! "Wizard Hanlon!?" she implores, then looks to Seith!? Any ship in a storm, right?

Avira has posed:
SANDWICHALITY

Avira doesn't attack the shade any further, leaving it to its sandwich and devices. Interrupting someone while they were eating was the height of rudeness after all. Instead, she focuses on Isaac and his struggle. In a way, Avira could understand but she also acknowledged that what Isaac had undergone was far her own yearning for Brooklyn. She could hear it in his words for his city, the anger vibrating throughout his body. Yes. Wake. That was their ultimate purpose here all along, wasn't it?

They had to awaken. Leaving the keyblade weilder, Avira joins Isaac's side, reaching out a hand to grasp the one that had been turned into metal by Garland's actions months ago. She will not be detered by the cold, unyielding metal. She will cling tightly as the crawling chaos devours the dreaming world. She'll freefall with Isaac, her free hand reaching out for others to grasp onto in case they all wanted to fall together.

Seith has posed:
"You are not mistaken, Isaac." Seith suddenly speaks up, after the younger sorcerer has finished changing the world around them, and made his rather emotional speech. "Your world still exists, and with it, your place. You see, for as long as a world's inhabitants still exists after a world has fallen, a 'part' of that world continues to live on. You might say... you are a person whose' place is indeed everywhere. You belong everywhere. For you always carry the world with you." He taps his chest, before he begins to move away from the Blot.

He knows something is going to happen after all of this. And he starts to see the truth of the world around them. The truth of the Blot, that has been hiding its true appearance. Indeed, nobody had asked it then to show its true identity. But Seith has learned to recognize certain entities.

Certain dangers.

The Crawling Chaos. "So you are that world's..." Seith mumbles, stepping back further, bringing his hand back to his staff that he keeps on his back. It would appear that he's finally starting to take this whole situation serious. He doesn't know what Blot means with the Paintbrush or anything like that. But for all the anger it is showing right now - those 'new months of dreaming' are worth more than it is admitting.

But more-so. How come that they broke months of dreaming within a mere few moments? What is that power? Is it the Princess of Heart's power somehow? Coarsing through the 'others'?

Then suddenly, the filth blasts up from beneath him. Automatically reacting, a purple shield rapidly forms around him, but some of the black goo indeed fed through - touching the man. There's this sudden twinge - a pull and whisper that tries to claw at his mind. At his dream.

"No, you will /not/ be allowed access to /that/." Seith's eyes widen in surprise. Those dreams are not for others' to see. A grimoire and its rules, that is just a means to an ends for this job. But his dreams?

A sudden surge of darkness in the form of purple lightning pulses out from Seith, tearing the bits of filth off, leaving the man shiver for yet but a moment... before they all begin to fall into darkness. Or rather. Oblivion. Truly, the Phantom's size is immense.

Perhaps - if not possible to be allied with - an enemy for all?

For now, it appears they are now all trapped far deeper into the realm of Dreams than he'd prefer to be. He could draw them from this place... but it'd require breaking the Curse. But was it time already? Should they have succeeded yet? Is this the perfect time?

In this cursed state, he can not gaze beyond this realm. But what's worse, it looks like Deelel is about to find out the truth - as they reach for (or point at ) the copied Grimoire.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
The world breaks, and shatters. The Blot appears in its full glory.

Isaac probably should have thought this through instead of acting all rashly and stuff. Maybe next time, right?

...right?

"Maybe you should work on that," Isaac calls back, over what he thinks is rushing wind. There's no wind here, though; he's perceiving it because he's falling. "The part where you shout your mortal weakness, I mean!!"

The Blot vanishes. Isaac feels a sudden weight off his chest, as if something gripping his heart had finally let go. Or maybe as if something heavy had literally been removed from it. He flails for a couple of seconds, and then remembers something key.

"Oh, right. I can just kinda do..." Isaac waggles his fingers.

The entire group's fall slows, and stops. The last few inches are a little rough; it's like being dropped suddenly onto something solid, or maybe more like a particularly dense pillow. "Nobody move. I've gotta..." He looks around. He spots the Grimoire. Isaac gestures at it offhandedly, his usual gravity-manipulating telekinesis kicking in. He pulls it in closer, propelling it to Deelel. She's closest.

Isaac looks up and around at the nothingness. He takes a breath, and a ball of light appears. It takes a lot of effort to do even that. This is not his home turf, and he's about expended. "Does... does anyone have a hat? Or... maybe a disk?" He looks to Deelel.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will hands up his hat.

"Did you really ask if I had a hat?" he says, and Will gives the last thing his wife gave him without any hesitation to Isaac.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Will's backup BACKUP sandwich tumbles out of his hat as he gives it to Isaac.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will grabs the Sandwhich, with his free hand.

He eats it, dramatically.

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Umi made this one. Even after having been on Will's head most of the day, it tastes wonderful. Extra Love is the secret behind it.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will will hug Umi and show her more Hobo secrets after he gets back.

Will gains all positive status effects.
Will is no longer afraid.
Will activates love.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac takes the hat. "Sorry, I... I'm kind of... not all there right now." He seems exhausted. There's good reason for it. He looks at the hat, bouncing it upside-down in his hand. He clears his throat and holds his hand over it, making elaborate gestures. He runs his finger around the broad rim, murmuring. Will might recognize the spell he uses to get basically everywhere.

The interior of the hat begins to shimmer like the surface of a rippling pond. It looks more solid than anything else here, and it's definitely a portal. "Okay. I think I just... connected us back to the real world. I think. I dunno if we'll just wake up, or if it'll wake us up /and/ teleport our bodies somewhere, but..."

Isaac looks back up. He glances between the collected forces of mostly good. He kneels down on solid nothing. "Everybody into the hat."

Cinderella has posed:
Cinderella puts a hand on Isaac's shoulder. "Its alright Wizard Hanlon, we're here. Thank you," she says.

Then, she looks at the hat. After everything else she's seen in this dream, this is likely the most ridiculous.

She gets in the hat.

Seith has posed:
There's a problem to Isaac's solution. This isn't just a mere spell. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Seith mentions just before Cinderella tries to get into the hat. And...

Just comes out on the other side.

"Huh. I expected the hat to get fried or something." The man rubs his chin in slight confusion, before adding;

"Sorry - but... this isn't just your regular old sorcerous spell here, Isaac. This is a Curse - driven by a powerful Grimoire. That's not going to work."

Seith comes in closer towards the group, appreciating the slow-down. "Your friend has the Grimoire. Let them figure it out." At least he's not trying to nuke the thing.

Cinderella has posed:
And so, Cinderella had a lovely trip through a hat. "...Oh, dear. That did not work at all," she comments, frowning gently.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"Super hat," Isaac replies. He holds it back up. "Ah, well. Worth a shot." He sits down. Then, he wipes the sweat from his brow with his hand with skin on it.

"Hey. Dee. You got anything?" He gestures at the Grimoire. "Maybe? Hopefully?"

Cinderella has posed:
"If you don't, pass it to me, perhaps I could figure out something?" she'd turned it pink, anyway.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is looking over the Grimoire for a moment, she's been reading it for a while. She peers at it for a moment longer as she reds some of the text over again to make sure of what's up with it even as they keep falling.

"It was worth a shot but it says here I think... Love Thine Enemy? Is what I think it's saying here..."

Will Sherman has posed:
"Love thy.." Will says, looking at his hat...he frowns. Worth a shot.

He looks at Seith...

And then he runs RIGHT at Seith, ducking and gives him a tight hug. "I love you, you psychopathic douche."

Pumpkinhead has posed:
Oblivion HURKS at the image of Will and Seith hugging and then

HORRRRRRRK out you go!

Light starts to fill your sight or, you know, whatever is going on in the other window. Wakey wakey Times Awastey!

Seith has posed:
Seith slowly raises a hand to his forehead when Deelel reads out the passage. Indeed, it'd seem that the Blot copied the right Grimoire. Though the sorcerer truly wonders... how the hell it /managed/ doing that. "Your little Program friend is correct. That is indeed the curse-breaking clause." One can see him straining - clearly a bit annoyed.

And then Will decides to give the armored elf a hug. "Ugh... did it have to be /you/ of all of them? Well, I guess it's only right, since you're the one who got the rest of them _into this mess_, you idiot." Seith groans, before patting Will's head and then giving him a hug with the other hand.

And indeed, POOF. Only with more white lights and razzle-dazzle!

But no jazzhands.

Will Sherman has posed:
"Yeah, but I stopped your plan." Will says.

"PS your magic sucks, and you are a butt."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
YOU HAD BETTER BELIEVE

THAT ISAAC

PROVIDES

THE JAZZ HANDS!!!

yeeeeaaaaaah~

He's also really glad not to be in Oblivion anymore, wherever he is. Trust him.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does not like being in reality's recycle bin at all her heself and she's starting to wake up. Or is that boot up?

Avira has posed:
Avira awakens with a start with someone scraming Maira's name. "Huh what fffff-" she scrambles for her radio. Never a moment to wait apparently. "I think you meant to say that Isaac was /awesome/, Will."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel mutters as she wakes up.

"Hello, world."

She tries to clear the cob webs from her mind. She seems a bit worn out from the entire ordeal.

"What was that place...?"