Summary:When is a dream not a dream. Koa and Hell Boy are going to be asking themselves that. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's late and most folk are sleeping. Late enough that sleep is deep. Not the fitful dozing that comes as many start to sleep, but the deep, peaceful sort that is populated by Dreams. Or, in some cases nightmares.
For Isis Kurita, dreams are necessary for her survival. She needs to feed from the energy they generate or she'll fade. Tonight, the feline-like mutant has found a bed on the outskirts of M-Town and has just slipped into the dream of one near her. It feels different to the humans around - this dream is demonic, not that she'd know to call it that. What she feels as she starts to explore isn't pleasant. Without thinking, she reaches out … and finds a mind that feels like salt and blood and perhaps a little batter. That mind will feel the touch of her.
It's late and most folk are sleeping. Late enough that sleep is deep. Not the fitful dozing that comes as many start to sleep, but the deep, peaceful sort that is populated by Dreams. Or, in some cases nightmares.
For Isis Marik, dreams are necessary for her survival. She needs to feed from the energy they generate or she'll fade. Tonight, the feline-like mutant has found a bed on the outskirts of M-Town and has just slipped into the dream of one near her. It feels different to the humans around - this dream is demonic, not that she'd know to call it that. What she feels as she starts to explore isn't pleasant. Without thinking, she reaches out … and finds a mind that feels like salt and blood and perhaps a little batter. That mind will feel the touch of her.
Truth be told, Hellboy doesn't sleep much. When he does, he usually induces it, a stupor from overindulging in the kind of magic-infused spirits it takes to put a demon on a bender. Simple truth, he rarely liked what he saw behind his eyes. Often enough it was just visions, things from tales told about him. Things that he didn't believe and wouldn't allow. He didn't like being taunted.
Tonight, he's on a scorched plain, watching an obsidian serpent rise from the crumbling remains of a flame-wrecked castle, eyes like rubies as it writhes into the sky and then lays down before him, offering fealty in exchange for his infernal mercy.
"I hate this shit," Hellboy mutters.
"… the fuck?" That's a voice that comes from beside Hellboy and that probably isn't normal. "I need to lay off the vodka before bed."
There is a man standing next to him. A rather broad, well built man, someone that calls him 'Big Red' a lot at work and gets sent by senior agents to get his signatures on paperwork. Koa Turner. Who is clearly standing there wondering why he's dreaming about this and why Hellboy is here.
Though to be fair, Red may be wondering why HE's here in just a second.
"This is not exactly the creepy hellscape that I THOUGHT would be haunting my nightmares…" Koa says to Hellboy, clearly not really expecting him to respond. It's just a weird vodka-dream, right?
Lucid Dreamers. It's unusual for Isis to find one in the city but two? This bode well for the feline like mutant.
"Try not panic and try not to wake yourselves up, please. It hurts if you do and I haven't disconnected…" Before the two of them, if front of the two SHIELD agents is a woman. It looks like a woman - except for the small catlike ears at the top of her head, the sharp bone structure of her face and the cat-slitted eyes.
"I've not been in a dream like this, either. Where are we?" She's curious but for the moment, she's not taking her eyes off the … men. They are … men, right?
Dream or no dream, Hellboy has a cigar, lighting it with a match struck on the massive Hand of Doom hanging on his side, puffing for a moment before he speaks. "Turner," he says to Koa, then points at Isis, "Don't know you,' he mutters. "Sorry, folks, this is definitely my nightmare. Been here a few times before. That's a primordial Ur-serpent, perverted and twisted by Elder magic to eat the world. Y'know, like they do. I'm supposed to…I dunno, ride it? Eat it? Fuck it? Probably all three. Anyways, this is the part of the dream where I turn my back on my 'destiny' and it gets all bitchy. You got any input before I do that? Because once that part starts, it gets all…splattery."
"The part of the dream where…" Koa's eyes narrow slightly. "I've never had this dream before. Is it, YOUR dream Red? Because if so then I think, beyond any advice I may have, I might wonder why I'm in YOUR dream?"
It seems like a reasonable question and Koa's eyes narrow at the woman. "I don't know you either. Is this your doing? What do you mean you haven't disconnected? Who are you and why do you look like a cat?"
So many questions. But the younger of the two WAND agents does finally add. "Have you considered telling it that you'll only accept your destiny if it shakes your hand? And then letting it twist itself in knots for the rest of the dream?"
Hey it's not a great idea but it's the only one that comes easily to mind.
"I should apologise to you …" Isis murmurs to Koa. "… I went 'walking' and when I found myself here I startled. I connected with your mind, trying to share the dream - quite by accident. I didn't expect both of you to be able to interact. Most can't."
"Oh, I'm Isis." she answers, stretching in a most feline way before she starts to stalk across the landscape - just like a cat would. "And I was born this way." She's not answering the questions in the order they were asked.
"You're Turner …" she says as those blue/grey eyes land on him. "And I don't know you …" that's to Hellboy. She cants her head at the conversation that's ensuing between the men.
"What destiny and have you simply tried to change the dream?"
Behind the ur-serpant seems to start to try and turn itself in knots like Koa just suggested. It's not done that before … ever.
Hellboy peers at the both of them, "The part where I tell it no and then turn its giant demon brains into hamburger helper? That would be the part where I'm changing the dream. When I was a kid, it used to wrap around me and try to crawl in my ears. It doesn't want to be my enemy. It wants to be my friend. Problem is, I'm just a bad-tempered son of a bitch. And I'll pick my own friends, thanks," he says.
"Anyway, beating the shit out of the thing is the fun part. But probably not real safe for you fragile types. Although maybe not, if you're, like…dreamwalkers. Or if you're really Turner, since he knows magic. I think? I dunno. I never read his file."
"He knows a bit about magic." Koa checks down at himself. He's got all of his stuff still. God only knows if it actually works in a dream and it seems like beating the hell - pun intended - of this thing might be kind of cathartic for Red.
"How exactly do you know my name Is- oh wait." Hellboy had already said it when he greeted Koa. She was just paying attention. That… makes some sense. And makes him feel better that his mind isn't really being read.
"So why are we in dream-sykpe then? And yeah Red, if you want to go all Hellboy smash on it be my guest. Worst case scenario, I wake up early after a vivid dream of being suffocated by a flood of elder-snake viscera."
That sounds like a hell of a way to wake up.
"That … " Isis turns to look at the ur-serpant and back to the others again. "… wants to be your friend. Interesting. And you can beat it normally?" It sounds to her like the big red one gets a kick out of it. "I can help, if you like. Give you more of an advantage."
What she means by that is anyones guess.
"He said it." She gestures, her nails catching in the light. They're definitely fingernails. At least for now.
"I … connected us when I startled. It hasn't happened in a long time. But both of you have extremely strong minds. Most people when they dream aren't even aware I'm around."
Which means she was probably trying to sneak into this one … but for what purpose.
"Do you want to beat on it, now?" The serpant she means.
Hellboy lets his craggy, stonelike face break into a slow grin, "Oh yeah," he nods.
He reaches into his coat and draws out his trademark pistol, the Samaritan just as formidable in dream form as it is in the real world. "You can have some scraps if you want, I ain't selfish. But prob'ly better leave the meaty bits t'me. I know where all the weak spots are. I been havin' this dream on and off for sixty years. I better know my way around it by now," he says.
He gives a little salute to Koa and takes a running start, bounding across the scorched plain for several steps before bunching up his legs and leaping into the air, flying up into a high arc to bring the Hand of Doom in a savage blow right across the jaw of the snake.
"EAT DOOM MOTHERFUCKER!"
Koa watches Hellboy go. He considers very much going to help him but… well damn it. The guy looks like he's having a lot of fun which is saying something considering he's watching what appears to be a life or death struggle for the fate of the world. In any case he can't bring himself to horn in on Big Red's action.
"So you connected to our dreams…" He says turning back to Isis. "And didn't expect us to see you. Which means you were going to just slip in unnoticed… for why now?"
"If you want hel—-" Isis fall silent as Big Red jumps, looking between Turner and the big man "You aren't going to help him?" Her head tilts in a very feline way.
"Uh, yes. I did. Connect them. Well. More to the point, I let your mind watch his." She looks extremely guilty when he asks the next question "Um. Well. Sometimes I can't help it but I also need to feed and being in dreams …" she shrugs. She's not sure why she's telling this man this.
"Nah. He's got it handled." Koa says, watching out of the corner of his eye as Hellboy does what can only be described as 'laying waste' to the serpent.
"Feed…" That has Koa folding his arms. "Feed on what exactly?" Because there's a lot of things she could eat and not all of them are good for people to part with. She might be a grazer, or she might be a predator and he just doesn't know…
The change in posture from the Agent, not that she knows he's an Agent, has Isis backing up, sharp claws extending from her fingernails. She gives out a low rumble of warning and stops abruptly.
She is a predator. He can see that. Even if a small one. "The dreams, really. I can take a bit from many times to replenish myself. I … try not to take too much from one…"
"You had a lot to drink before you slept but there's something else about you."
"There's a lot of things in me." Koa says. He doesn't move, his arms remain folded, which is at least no more threatening than it was to begin with. He eyes the woman's claws and wonders if those are real or if they're generated by this dream. She seems to imply that she can affect them. Who knows how.
But a predator then…
"Does it hurt the people you take from?" That's the thing he's most interested in. Does she feed ON people in a way that harms them. Because if so…
"Not just in you. You've … been hurt, I think. I can't tell for certain but there's something there." She doesn't back down and Koa will know that she's not a push over. Her eyes drop to his arms and then back to his eyes. "I haven't hurt you or tried to and I've tried to answer your questions." she finally points out.
If she meant him harm, surely she could have by now.
"Hurt? Noooot really." Those cats eyes almost gleam in the low light of the landscape. "If I take too much dream energy from one, it's like stealing their dream. They feel unrested. I try not to though." Try.
"I … should be getting you back. My time here is limited and you don't want for me to disappear, leaving you here or worse, The Red Guy waking up."
The world shifts around Koa and he finds himself … not in Hell Boys dream with no feline like mutant before him.
When he awakes fully he might wonder if this had just been a dream.