ALL OF JACKIE'S KIDS DREAMS

[oftpartitioned]

WHAT: Dreams! all the dreams
WHO: Donna Noble, Shirogane Naoto, Johanna Mason, Poland, Victor Mancha, Shimizu Raikou, Eridan Ampora, Lau
WHEN: Anytime during the dream plot!
NOTE: PLEASE RESPOND TO WHICHEVER DREAM YOURE INTERESTED IN. Try and specify who you're replying to. None of these dreams take place at the same time/place/etc.


DONNA

Public transit has never bee this roomy! These Chiswick buses must be bigger on the inside. At the front of the bus, where the driver ought to be, is just a telescope aimed at the stars.

Donna smiles from the midsection of the too large bus, and older man seated beside her. Their expressions are friendly, the table between them is littered with sweets and snacks, it's a friendly enough dream!

But approach the telescope and you'll get zapped to a different dream entirely. But the longer you're on the same bus there's a really loud, obnoxious buzzing, a pounding headache just behind your eyes.

"It's okay," Donna deals another round of cards between her and Wilf. "I don't mind if you get off at the next stop!"
--




NAOTO

NAOTO AS DETECTIVE CONAN
KANJI AS KAITO KID
COME JOIN THEM!!

--





VICTOR


You've been to enough embarrassing high school dreams, but this one looks particularly harmless. You wake up in the morning, read an encouraging note left y your mom (if you can read Spanish that is). Ride the bus to school, kick ass in math class, narrowly avoid being seen by any of the preppy frescos. Lunch with Jorge, same old superhero chat. The pain and humiliation of gym class.

Is this really what the killer cyborg dreams about? That boring normal L.A life you left behind?? Oh well, at least the weather's nice.

Victor chances you back a glance, as if he knew you were tagging along the whole day but was too embarrassed to draw attention to it.

"This is pretty boring, huh? Sorry."
--





JOHANNA


It's not necessary a forest- the sun's too hot for that. All the tree cover can't shield you from its glare, the thrum of humidity against your skull. You can't necessarily tell if it's the heat waves emanating from the roots, or if those long, spiny vines are really moving like long spider limbs.

An axe imbeds itself in the tree just over your shoulder- whoever threw it missed, knew they could get past you and get their weapon back. Isn't afraid, is at home in this forest of death, doesn't think of being back in the Games as the nightmare others might.

"Oh," Johanna steps over a low slung vine (it definitely moved just now, right!) on her way towards you. "What are you doing here?" She looks more at home this way, shoulders burned red, sweat and blood outlining her wide-set eyes.
--




POLAND


Take your pick! Have a fancy tea party with Poland and the lovely aristocratic ladies, or maybe a celebratory drinking round with the Hussars, flushed with victory.

Or you can just ride a pony though the sweeping and unvanquished landscape of the Commonwealth! Everything is bright and colored with pastels and big ass grins from Poland. Don't expect any bullying, complaining or sass. Poland's got better shit to do than be fussy in a dream!

Seriously, don't ruin this for him, jerk!!
--





ERIDAN


You're on the beach and you've definitely gone swimming before, right. Duh. Of course you have, the ocean is nothing to be afraid of. Yet it still looks pretty fucking daunting, black and inky just beyond your shaky, wading footsteps.

Feferi is just at the edge of your eyesight, bobbing up and down in the water like the fish she's so fond of, as natural as wave.

Eridan glares at you around the rim of his glasses, hands shoved in his pockets. No he will not fuckin go further in, thank you vvery much. you can try and reason with him, if you like.

Is that a giant flying seahorse over there? Trolls are weird.
--





RAIKOU


You're in the Shimizu compound, a sprawling dojo with wooden walkways, traditional rooms and tranquil gardens. High stone walls shield the compound from the outside world, the surface world you can participate in but never change. You have this a feeling things would be better if you could get out there, but good luck. Every sliding door you open reveals more plain rooms with more doors. Scaling the walls only put you back in the courtyard.

The entire compound is empty except for Raikou, seated at the edge of a walkway in a comfortable dudekata, resigned to his fate.

"I figured it out a while ago," he stifles a yawn, tired even in sleep. "'You can't run away from where you'd from, what you did'." He nods to the blood pair of swords imbedded in the garden that lies between the two of you. "Something like that."
--




LAU


Seriously, don't go here. You won't find him anyway.

Comments

[reanimated]

"Not actually sure how I got here, mate," Nathan admits. He wouldn't leave even if he knew how — well, maybe. But not right away. Dreams have a tendency to warp and shift, and something nags at him to stick around. Something exciting's bound to happen. Robots dreaming of electric sheep and all that, he heard a cute girl in a library say it once. Course, she slapped him when she caught him peering up her skirt, but that has nothing to do with anything at the moment.

He lets the superhero thing slide — frankly, that argument gets tired right quick. Nathan slings an arm over Victor's shoulders and shakes the boy. "Come on, surely you've got some mental dreams about rescuing old bints from burning buildings!"

[notvictorious]

Victor squirms under Nathan's arm. It's weird enough having other people in your dreams- it's not so bad when it's a girl you know, but Nathan? Nathan passing judgements on his dreams is a little much.

"I don't know," he tries to shrug the contact away. "They're just dreams. It doesn't matter anyway." Nathan's grip is surprisingly resilient and OH LOOK we're almost home. Victor shoots the other boy a sullen glare from the end of the driveway.

"Look, there's gotta be someway you can like, get out of here right? Do us both a favor." The front door to the Mancha house is open just a crack.

[reanimated]

Nathan scoffs right in his friends face. It's only when he shoves his hands in his pockets that he realises: he's in his jumpsuit. Fucking orange piece of shit. "What, and go back to my dreams? No thanks, man. They get old sometimes." He cocks his head, briefly considers the other people he could visit, but the darkness beyond the door is too intriguing.

"Nahhh, sounds to me like you're hiding something in there!" He pushes past Victor to the door, grinning over his shoulder. "You know, the more you say no, the longer I'm going to stay." Surprisingly candid with a couple extra layers of truth, but it's a dream, he can't exactly control the shit he says.

[notvictorious]

Ugggh. Victor races after Nathan as quickly as he can manage, because there's that awful dream feeling you get when you know something's lurking beyond the door but you just can't get your voice to scream STOP-

But there's nothing lurking. Just a woman behind the cutting board on the counter, blinking back at the arguing voices that emanate from the foyer. She looks too young to have a sixteen year old, but tired enough to have easily been a single mother with a fair share of her own burdens. The family resemblance is definitely there, glaringly apparent in both their surprised faces.

"Mom?" Victor can't figure out why he sounds so surprised- who else was he expecting. He tugs off one shoe, then the next. It's amazing how much detail there is with some parts of the dream, when the next moment they've crossed the hallway and are in the kitchen. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"Ah, they were overstaffed, so I was cut for the night," she replies, clicking her tongue against the back of her teeth in a worried fashion. "But I thought we could have dinner together." Marianella glances skeptically around her son to the other boy, suspiciously clan in some sort of jumpsuit.

And even if they're speaking spanish, somehow Nathan can translate it perfectly.

[reanimated]

Everything get a little fuzzy when Mummy Robocop talks. He can understand it, but it's like trying to listen to someone underwater. And when Nathan tries to respond to her, or acknowledge her at all, his body won't let him. Like opening your mouth only to find that no sound escapes, no matter how hard you try. (Granted, he doesn't try very hard on this one.) He manages a wave, then cocks his head back to Victor.

"So let me get this straight." There's little difference between the way Nathan ribs his friends and his enemies, but in dreams he's less sharp with his words. "You cook for the whole lot of us practically every night, and now you're dreaming about dinner? Honestly, man. I'm beginning to think you've got a bright future as a live-in nanny."

[notvictorious]

At least Nathan's not swearing so much in front of mom, Victor reasons. There's definitely something strange about this, even if he can't immediately place it. There's something about this that means it's not just dinner, this isn't any old day with mom. But his head thoughts are all blurred with the overwhelming desire to hold onto this woman and never let her out of his sight again.

"Shut up," he grimaces back at Nathan when his mom laughs too easily at something that wasn't even a joke.

"Fine, he can stay for dinner, but you'll have to help." Somehow when she says so it isn't a suggestion but an order. Marianella pats the side of Victor's face, going back to working on a different meal than the one she had previously been preparing.

"You need to get out of here," Victor turns to face Nathan and speaks in hushed tones, completely contrary to whatever scenario the dream was just setting up. Mom Mancha hums absently in the background.

that awkward moment when you can't remember your best friend's last name

[reanimated]

Oh, leave it to a super cyborg to turn a nice family dinner into a moment out of a shite spy movie. "You're really suspicious," Nathan hisses back. He gives a quick glance over Victor's shoulder and another too-wide grin, too-friendly wave at Marianella.

Just as quickly, he switches back to glowering at Victor. "What, are you going to ceremonially explode yourself over enchiladas? I don't get it, man. You need to calm down."

He straightens up and claps a hand forcefully on the cyborg's shoulder, turning him around toward his mum. "Would you act normal for once? Christ." Nathan raises his voice again and says far too loudly, "You have a lovely home, Mrs..."

Shit.

He snaps his fingers a few times at Victor, searching for their surname.

[notvictorious]

None of pleased about his sudden panic attack being waved off like he's the spaz, Victor's in no hurry to throw Nathan any help. He gapes at the other man beside him, face twisted between you're-a-complete-ass and wait-what's Nathan's-last name?

Marianella stops mid food preparation to watch the other boy sweat it out, hoping to come up with some feasibly hispanic sounding last names. Eventually putting him out of his misery, she speaks up.

"Mancha. But it's not Mrs anything," she goes back to cooking (a new dish this time), adding "Never married."

Victor sways a little at Nathan's side because that's wrong, really wrong, this is falling apart.

"Nathan, get out of here." And this time the cyborg doesn't bother to whisper it.

[reanimated]

"Ahh, so close, I was going to say Rivera!" Nathan throws a didn't-I-handle-that-well grin at Victor, but it doesn't last long. Victor might be freaking out, but even Nathan can't deny that there's a certain chill in the air that wasn't there before.

Curiosity tends to win out over, you know, that weird instinct most people have to stay alive. No wonder he got the power he did. Nathan doesn't move, but he does look mildly concerned for once. "What's going on? If you're going to explode, at least give a bloke a fair warning."

[notvictorious]

It would be so easily to just pretend like nothing was actually happening, like there wasn't this tightness in his chest every time mom's eyes glanced over at him. It would be a lot easier to point out Mancha and Rivera are no where NEAR similar, but they had bigger shit on their plate right now.

"I'm not- exploding, what the hell, Nathan," he grumbles, pushing off the other boy's weird over-concern.

"Watch your mouth, young man," Marinella orders, and when she points at the boys for emphasis, she does so with the gigantic fucking knife she's holding. "I didn't raise you to speak like that."

"Didn't raise me at all," Victor mumbles in serious word vomit fashion. This dream is spiraling out of control like it always does, so why can't Nathan take a freaking hint?? Marianella turns to face the both of them completely, knuckles white around the knife handle, face twisted in an expression of anger that seems stretched and lopsided under the woman's skin.

"Nathan," Victor starts desperately, but has a hard time speaking or breathing as his mother lurches towards them.

[reanimated]

"Hey hey hey!" It's Nathan's turn to spaz now, because when he jumps in front of Victor it's less heroic and more epileptic. Like he can't control his movements and that just happens to be the direction he was thrown in. He holds up both hands, as if that'll stop the mental lady with the knife.

Something's definitely up. Nathan has little faith in what he's about to say, which is perhaps why he can say it at all and not choke on his own fear. "Calm down! It was an honest mistake, I never remember anyone's name— and honestly, you won't let him say hell? I'd love for you to meet my mum, she'd— well, she'd probably tell you to put down that knife which is CLEARLY WHAT YOU SHOULD DO SHIT SHIT SHIT!" The last words run together as she picks up her speed toward them. Nathan stumbles backward and turns over his shoulder. "Run, idiot!" he barks, despite the fact that he's sure both of them are rooted to the spot.

[notvictorious]

Running is definitely something you should do when a crazy woman comes at your with a knife. That is the completely logical reaction any person should have, even one that's half machine or whatever the ratio is. Even still, Victor can't move fast enough, or move so much at all, and he's halfway through a sentence to Nathan (saying what, he can't remember) when the knife embeds itself nicely into his chest.

Marianella looks between the two boys as innocent as sin, regardless of his fingers still tensed around the knife lodged in her son. Another logical reaction would be to fall, or start bleeding or screaming or ANYTHING at this point, but Victor still stays frozen, staring down at the knife in his chest.

"Mom?" he asks, as if the identity of the attacker is really the issue here!!

[reanimated]

For fuck's sake, Robocop.

No blood. No sparks. Nathan yelps anyway — he finds very little surprising about his own death in dreams, but this is the first time he's witnessed it happening to anyone else.

If Nathan acts before thinking while awake, his rashness is tenfold in dreams. Before he can draw a breath to say anything, he hauls of and hits Marianella in the face. Was that a flicker of his pathetic dad just then? Focus. Nathan clutches at his hand (still not a great fighter, even in dreams).

This would be the time for a witty quip, if he could find it in him to speak. Instead, he shoots a wild look to Victor and steps back a few paces. Get out, time to get the fuck out, but he can't find doors or windows, can't see any defining features of the house anymore. Just Victor, Marianella, and a blur of color.

Well. This is considerably less boring!

[notvictorious]

Okay, punching someone who just stabbed your best friend is a totally logical response. Victor knows this even without computer parts in his hardwiring. But somehow when the person your best friend punches is your mom, that's where Victor's motherboard functions go a little haywire.

"What the FUCK-" He turns on Nathan and shoves the other boy hard against- well, where a wall should have been. Everything is getting pretty blurred and the motion he just made sends a huge jolt of pain from the stab wound.

Victor doubles forward, clutching at the knife (do not pull it out, you will bleed out in a second, oh fuck did she get you in the fucking heart).

"Ow, ow, ow," he hisses, none too impressively, though his image is the last thing he's worried about at the moment.

Marinella closes the distance between herself and her son again a second time. Now that Nathan's struck her, her face seems even more off balance, like a mask that's being worn slightly skewed. The force of Nathan;s punch split the woman's lip, but just like with Victor there's no blood, but a funny glean of metal underneath the broken skin. Victor has this point only halfway noticed before Marianella takes the knife hilt and twists.

Somewhere between Victor's screaming hopefully Nathan picks up on the discreet message of SAVE ME RIGHT THE FUCK NOW SORRY I PUSHED YOU BUT HELP ME.

[reanimated]

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, ROBOCOP.

Nathan reels backward. It didn't feel like a particularly rough push, but with everything quickly careening out of control it doesn't matter. He picks himself up in time to see Marianella's face— wait...

Too late, she's back to the knife and Nathan's on his feet. "Oi!" The fury across his face echoes one of Curtis' many alternate futures (that Nathan technically doesn't remember ever happening). Don't fuck with someone Nathan cares about, and definitely don't try to kill them. Or succeed. This time his movements are less spastic, and he gives Marianella a hard shove away from Victor. "Piss off, psycho robo-bitch!" Then, almost casually to Victor: "Wasn't your dad the robot?"

[notvictorious]

Victor sends a look back to Nathan, expression clouded with ow that knife fucking hurt and general confusion. His reactions and movements are pretty slowed by the fucking knife in his chest but, hesitantly, he manages a dull nod.

"She's.. not," he mumbles and struggles to stand up straight, failing pretty spectacularly at that and struggling to right himself with a hand on Nathan's shoulder. "My mom's not a r-" Oh shit, Marianella's coming back! And given this is a fucking kitchen, she's armed herself with a new knife.

Victor gives Nathan one more shove, only this time it's less angry and more with the intention of getting him out of harm's way. Doing so upturns Victor's already tenuous sense of balance and Victor falls to an ungainly heap on the floor. Landing on the goddamn knife only serves to make a painful moment hurt a million times more, so Victor hauls the knife from his chest- because this is a dream, maybe he won't bleed into his lungs and die in minutes- and flings the weapon across the floor, clattering to a stop near Nathan. Marinella stands over the two boys with- oh goddamnit, that's a fucking meat cleaver.

Victor's not sure if it's fear or actually dying that's making it hard to breathe. It's jsut a dream, right? So wake up, wake up, wakeupwakeupwakeup!!

[reanimated]

Why would you shove an immortal out of harm's way? Idiot robot, best friend.

Staple-gunning a prick's hand isn't the same as stabbing someone, but Nathan figures it's pretty much the same principal and picks up the knife. Before he really knows what he's doing, he's on his feet. "You can't kill me," Nathan sneers.

But Marianella can certainly try. Nathan's wiry and jumpy, and that's about all he has going for him. "Oi, this is your dream," he shouts as he evades a slice perilously close to his neck. "Can't you make me win?"

As if either of them have control over the situation. Marianella manages to corner him, and then there's that lovely familiar sensation of something stabbing him in the stomach. "Not again," Nathan groans, flippant about death even in dreams. But he does manage one flash of brilliance — while he's got Marianella in close quarters, he manages to get her in the arm. More metal, more sparks. "That's not natural," the immortal rasps as blood trickles from his mouth.

[notvictorious]

Okay, Nathan with a knife is easily one of the scarier aspect of this dream. Right, Victor keeps reminding himself, face against the floor. It's just a dream. If you just force yourself to wake up, everything will be okay. He's deep into that idea when the warm puddle of blood creeps around his necks, cause Victor to start majorly. Okay, definite panic attack, he realizes, trying to sit up and slipping in his own blood. His hands clutch at the gaping hole in his chest (where are the sparks!! Where's the metal!! Why is this happening??) when Marianella slips the knife in Nathan's stomach.

Ultron said once that Victor didn't need to breathe, that he could get by without any of those pathetic human functions. But at that moment Victor feels as if breathing is a huge obstacle, as if finding air to scream a ton of Spanish expletives at the thing that just stabbed his best friend was the most important function he could manage.

With difficulty, Victor struggles to his feet. If she'd stabbed you in the heart, you'd be dead, he knows this. But he can taste blood at the back of his throat, which means a long, suffocating death is waiting for him instead. Doesn't matter. Gotta help Nathan. A stab to the stomach is dangerous and painful but if they get away, if they get to a hospital- The idea that Nathan is immortal and therefore doesn't need medical treatment never occurs to Victor. Hey, if he's not a robot and mom is, what's the use assuming any of the normal rules apply!

"Stop," he blearily directs at.. okay well, at this point it could be either of them. Victor smears blood across the counter he's lurching against tot get between Marinella and Nathan. It's not a very heroic rescue- Victor's eyes are half closed, his face is white as a sheet and uh there's a shit done of blood as he is bleeding out from a stab wound to the chest but- Damnit! He's gonna get between this thing and his best friend if it kills him.

He puts a hand on Nathans shoulder with a crooked smile. "Thanks," he mutters, weakly trying to push Nathan in the direction of the door, away from this fucked up woman-bot and out of this nightmare. "Thanks, but you gotta- wake up."

[reanimated]

Superstitious morons believe that if you die in your dreams, you'll die in real life. Nathan spits on that notion — he's done enough dying in both to know it just isn't true. But he's still working on that whole shadow thing, not sacrificing people just because he's immortal. So despite everything, that irrational fear takes hold. Victor is probably going to die. Even if he can repair himself, it's a dream, maybe the rules don't work the same way— "Fucking idiot," Nathan growls. "Are you mentally deficient? You've got to wake up."

He grabs Victor's arm with one blood-slick hand and tries to drag him along to the door. A mistake, as they're both unsteady on their feet to say the least.

"Wake up," he repeats, voice growing weaker. "I was only joking about having superhero dreams, alright, this isn't the time to do hero shit."

Nathan knows he's got one foot in the grave and it's just a matter of falling the rest of the way in at this point. He's familiar enough with the process to know he's not got much time. Maybe he'll be stuck in an endless loop unless Victor wakes up first — swear to god, if he comes back to life in this dream and has to fight robo-bitch again, he's never going to sleep again. "Wake. The fuck. Up." All Nathan knows for certain is that he's going to get very, very drunk after all this is over, and Robocop better tag along.

[notvictorious]

It's getting hard to follow what Nathan's saying, because it feels like his processes are all going to sleep, like a force shut down happening just behind his ears. Victor nods vaguely, casting a confused look around the room, as if he's never seen his childhood home before.

He follows the trail of blood he left behind them to his mother, standing picture perfect at the kitchen counter that seems so far away. She's cutting bell papers with the knife she used to stab him. Somehow watching it cut through them makes Victor's chest wound ache.

And then he wakes up.

Yeah, definitely getting drunk after this.