2019-06-28 - Dream Sanctuary

Summary:

Isis steps into a Bat infested dream only to be taught a lesson

Log Info:

Storyteller: {$storyteller}
Date: 28 June 2019
Location: {$location}

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Theme Song

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isis-marikbruce-wayne

It's a cool Autumn evening in New York. On Staten Island, the premier of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was on the marquis, and the among the movie-goers leaving the theatre is a young family.

The father is tall and handsome, bedecked with a mustache and classical features. He's dressed in a suit and tie, as if he had just come off work. The mother is a beauty. Fair skinned and dark haired, she's dressed from an evening out, a new set of pearls around her neck that she can't help but to touch and roll her fingers over.

Between the two is a boy of no more than eight. He's dressed similarly to his father, brand new pennies in his loafers as he walks, trying his best to avoid the want to stomp in a water puddle from a recent rain, but doesn't want to soil his parents. "Are we heading home?" he asks, his voice warm, exuberant, he's had an exciting evening.

"Not yet, Bruce." comes the father's voice. "There's an ice cream shop a block over. Alfred will be meeting us there."

Bruce's eyes light up with delight, and he grins. "We should hurry then!"

With that, they're going to cut down an alley between the two blocks to make the trip quicker instead of circling around. The alley is only barely illuminated, with lights from above casting a yellowish glow. There's a truck parked in the alley, otherwise, there's a few dumpsters, and Bruce pauses at it, a fearful look in his eyes.

"It'll be okay." Thomas says, and squeezes his son's hand. "We're all together."


Isis needs to feed on dreams or she'll sicken. She normally do this by tasting fragments of many dreams. Thanks to her feline nature though she sometimes gets curious - and likes to nose around in the dreams that she finds.

Something Nick and Piotr try to encourage her not to do.

Tonight, this dream calls to her. It has dark edges that seem that ripple and roil. Something that intrigues a mischievous feline.

Slipping into the dream is easy and Isis watches as the scene unfolds. Curious.


With Isis watching from above, she will see the trio as they enter the alley. Walking down it, they're talking about the movie, and the boy is practicing his swashbuckling Indiana Jones moves ahead of his parents when he bumps into a pair of legs. Stumbling back, he looks upwards, and he can't make out the face. From this angle, Isis can't make out the face either.

The man pulls a gun on the couple. "Pretty pearls, lady. Gimmie. With your purse and your wallet." The boy steps back, his eyes wide in shock and fear. The man reaches for the pearls to grab the necklace - and that's when the father reacts to try to defend the wife, that's when the first gunshot is fired. It echoes through the alleyway as pearls break and spill in the alleyway.


Isis can't make out the face, but that's often not unusual. Her perspectives are shaped by the dreamer - what they see and remember.

This isn't a nice dream. The feline-like mutants nose wrinkles. She'd been raised in a cell, devoid of tender human contact but she knows that this is not pleasant.

With a thought, Isis is beside the boy. It's no guarantee that he will see her but she should be able to change the Dream. It's a press of her will against the sleeping mind, trying to find a memory less painful.

The Dream starts to buckle and warp… It might not change, though it often does.


She's trying to find a pleasant memory, any would do.

And that's when she finds pushback. A hard pushback. This isn't a normal sleeping mind. It's one that's honed, and there's a certain steeliness to it that she may not have ever experienced before.

Instead of finding a more pleasant memory, Isis finds herself back in the alley, her hands on the very pearls she was watching the woman clutching just a moment ago. The man that was reaching for them is no longer just a man - but a Bat.

The dark form is unreadable, his eyes narrowed slits of white iris as he stares down at Isis / Martha.

"Who are you?" comes the growled demand from the creature.


Isis hisses as she's drawn into the dream. It doesn't happen but when it does its always unpleasant. There's a moment of panic that might well bleed over - had that AIM Dreamer managed to trap her?

Nick will be pissed if they have.

No. That doesn't seem right… This is another mind. Strong and honed. The feel of pearls under her fingers is so real that the feline-like mutant is momentarily disoriented.

"Who are you?" she responds when she recovers. Martha's eyes are a piercing blue/grey, slitted like a cats. "I am Isis."


"You're in /my/ mind, you should know who I am." comes the response.

He is /not/ happy that his mind's been invaded. If Isis had let the dream play out, she may have had a better chance. But now? As she asks the question, the figure pulls forward from the shadows.

But the shadows cling to him, wrapping around him as the humanoid bat looms over the young woman. "I am someone who doesn't appreciate having his mind invaded. You are the one that stepped in where you were not wanted, Isis."


"Not in your mind. In your dream." Isis mutters sullenly. There's clearly a difference to her. "You should learn to protect your dreams if you're going to get pissy." Slowly she straightens as he looms over her.

She's relatively tall and still he seems to tower over her. Not that she let's it seem he's intimidating her. He totally is though.

Taking in the clothing, the symbology, Isis let's out a sigh. I saw your dream, it looked interesting so I looked. Saw the boy being scared and thought I would try to make the dream a nice one. But if I had to guess, you're the goddamn Batman."

She tries to morph the dream again, to get it to a place she can leave. He's got her trapped for the moment - something she's not impressed about - but Isis is quick and clever.


"You're right. I should."

And apparently, there's no time like the present. While Isis has raw talent on her side, and her abilities, Bruce still has that iron control of his mind in even the dreamscape. To him, there is no difference.

To him, that child that was him, cannot have that memory warped. Or changed. It is what made him. As Isis tries to change things, the Bat descends on Isis, wrapping her in shadows and she may feel like there's a thousand little claws pulling at her, not attacking, just tugs to make her forget that child in the alleyway.

When the shadows pull away, she'll find herself in a cave. It's dark and deep, and she can see the light at the end - which is a good thing, because from the other end of the tunnel there comes the screams of thousands of bats as they swarm towards the woman to try to finish driving her from his mind.


Isis has training on her side too. She was forged to be a weapon, to step into people's dreams and attack them.

"Hey. Stop that." As the shadow descends the feline-like mutant hits back with a blast of empathy. It's like a 10 ton truck the way it impacts. She tries to be clever. The batman is angry so using a similar emotion isn't going to help.

It's love that she hits with. And acceptance.

And the dream changes. "Oh very good…" She murmurs. The Bats swirl around her, squeaking their fury, wings making an almost thunderous sound. "I was trying to leave you silly man." Isis growls in a very feline way. "And I was just trying to give you a nice dream not take anything." Isis curls into a ball to avoid getting hurt.

He's not going to get rid of just yet though. There's another empathic burst and a push on the dream. The Bats start to shimmer and morph. One or two change into flowers that drop to the ground. The others…


The emphatic wave smashes into the dream, threatening to change the cave and the landscape. There is some faint showing of some crystaline growth and flowers around Isis' feet. She seems to be gaining a foothold in Bruce's dream. But then the Bat decides that he's not going to have anything to do with that.

The dream shifts, changes, and they are at 15000 feet and diving fast. The Batwing's instrument panels scream and are lit up with various master warnings and cautions. A massive purple and magenta hand - that of a Sentinel - sweeps dangerously close to the plane as it rolls over, the whole plane rattling and shaking and threatening to fall apart as it plummets.

The landscape of Brooklyn and Turtle Bay spins uncontrollably beneath them, filling the cockpit canopy as it plummets. It's the Blitz. The day the UN nearly fell. The day that changed everything.

Batman's hands are tight on the controls, and then there's an explosion from behind him, and he - and Isis - are pierced through the back by a piece of shrapnel. There's a growl of pain from the masked man - but will Isis react the same?

The 'EJECT' handle is so close to her. All she has to do is pull - and she will be free of the Bat - and his nightmares.


Isis knows better than to take control in dreams for granted. At least the AIM Dreamer doesn't seem to be around, right?

She's not surprised that the goddamn Batman has been able to change the dream again. She is surprised as to the content. "Are you doing this to scare me? Or is it just you get rocks off? Because if it's to scare me…."

She screams as the shrapnel hits her "… I have seen worse." Has she really.

"You must stop this." There's a push on the Dream and it starts to change. Batman is strong, but so is Isis and she's experienced.

No, she's not leaving him.


"It is a lesson, Isis." So neither.

She shifts the scene again, trying to peel back his memories, trying to find someplace to make a foothold. And yet he continues to fight. Does he thrive off the pain? Does he just want everyone to think he's angry all the time. Or is he honestly just trying to protect something else.

They're in a field. Debris is all around them. The smell of smoke is acidic in the air. Isis is on her knees, and she feels a weight in her lap. When she looks down, she'll find that she's cradling a cold body. Dressed in bright reds, yellows, and greens, if she's paid attention to the news, she'll recognize Robin.

And he's dead. The body's barely warm, and cooling by the touch. "What do you want, Isis? What are you looking for? If you're looking for something pleasant - you will not find it here."


"I know what lessons are. I spent sixteen years living with a collar around me neck, performing my masters as they forced me." When they'd finally found, Isis had been little more than animal who attacked whoever and whatever she was told.

The feline-like mutant lets out a yowl as the dream shifts but not where she was hoping. "I'm just trying to help. To make up for the horrible things that I did…" Robin? She barely recognises him - her exposure to the heroes was non-existent till she'd been in the Institute and even then, the healing of her mind had been ever so slow.

"Who who is this … Rrrobin, yes?" the yodel of pain that comes from her is almost heartbreaking. Or at least, it might be, if you weren't the goddamn batman.

"I'm looking for nothing…" the tanned female sobs, curling around the barely warm and holding it. The landscape about her starts to shift … Just around her, not the whole dream.

From the group and figure emerges and grows to over 7 foot tall. All metal in a red and yellow costume, it cuts an imposing figure. Colossus. Batman might think the woman has summoned a champion to fight for her.

He doesn't do, he pulls the feline-mutant back against him, and strokes between her ears as he croons a russian lullabye.

"I only wanted to help." Sobs the cat-girl.


"You want to make up for what you did? Don't go into people's dreams without permission." Batman growls, his voice grave as he does the shift this time, moving them to a rooftop above Staten Island.

As the metal Colossus shows up to try to calm Isis, the figure narrows his eyes, barely white slits among all the shadows that his severe figure cuts. "They are a place of sanctuary, not for play. Ask. Don't take."

It's only polite. And with that, she'll feel the wrench as in the waking world, Bruce Wayne has become aware enough to lurch himself awake and pull himself up in his bed, giving Isis just the briefest glimpse of the stately surroundings and the shapely figure sleeping next to him.


Isis is more than aware of the danger of dreams and she'd only meant to peek. To sample it so she could survive. "It's not sanctuary if you're always in pain." She mutters as the metal colossus mimics the actions the real one had about three years ago.

She blinks though as the millionaires wrenches himself to wakefulness. A gasp on intense pain coming from her as she wakes herself, disoriented, in her own bed. Her heart beating so fast and so hard.

Being torn from a dream isn't fun.

She's going to lay here, for just a little bit and recover. Then she's going to find a werewolf to curl up with. But later.

Will she follow it through? Or has she forgotten about it? That's such a good question.

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