| ...an insomniac's dreams | ||
|---|---|---|
| |
Hidden Cave(#1216R) Hidden at the base of the cliff is a small narrow passage way leading deep into the mountain. The path is only wide enough for one person to squeeze their way down the corridor. After what seems like hours you find the path widening until you discover yourself standing in a large area. The walls are somehow polished as if contsructed from some strange equipment. The ground seems to change here too. What was rocky, soil over solid stone is suddenly something seemingly tiled. In fact, tiles have been carved and polished from the floor itself! Onminous shadows and varrying shapes seems to stand out in the darkness, even with a lantern the room remains completly black leaving only your imagination to decide the surroundings. Upon inspection, a small dim light can be seen against the rear wall. The light, not bright enough to serve any logical purpose, seems to do nothing but draw attention to the swtich mounted in the wall beside it. Upon pulling the switch the room suddenly changes. The seemingly living darkness abruptly pulls away revealing the room to be a gallery of sorts. The walls are painted with elaborate designs depicting strange cityscapes and alien worlds. Spaced out evenly about the room are several highly detailed statues carved after people in strange clothing. Most peculuar is the one at the back of the room. As a part of the rear wall itself are the carvings of two comical figures, like twin cartoon bakers with little chefs hats. Their faces have been marked and disfigured with strange skulls and arrows. The Duo looks quite mad. Between them is what appears to be the shape of a bunny. A stone nail protrudes it's chest making it seem to be pinned to the wall. The wall itself has been painted with vines and viens, each ending in an eye, claw, or set of teeth. What kind of maniac would build such a thing? Ahhhhhh...another glorious night. Okay, well, it's another night, and the moon isn't full and it's slightly cloudy, but it's still night time, which is all Vashtearnia truly cares about as she comes walking into the cave, suckling at one of her index fingers the remaining blood she took from a former pack of wolves that were running around in the forest. She can't remember how long it's been since Johnny's been gone, but she knows it's been awhile. "I miss the tavern, even if those silly humans were always there." She looks down at the vines and roses around her and whacks at them, causing them all to rustle and writhe for a few moments before growing still, "All your fault." She says to them, before turning to look around Johnny's cave. She's quite used too it here now, and her eyes linger upon the picture that he -went- through when she last saw him...perhaps he came back after that though, "I might of been out, and he might of left. Wouldn't that be amusing. Oh, hello Vashtearnia, where've you been? In the cave. Um, I've been around for a week now. Hmf." From the shadows of one of the statues near the door a pair of white eyes open and peer out weakly. "...huh? ...no... Has it been a week?" Pushing himself away and into plain sight stands the form of Johnny C. The shadows around him burning off slowly as he steps into view. His body still seems slighly broken, but for the most part he seems more tired than sore. Holding a hand to his head he forces a smirk. "I think I've worked out why I can't sleep..." Vashtearnia's head snaps over towards Johnny as his voice echo's about the cave. A smile plays over her lips, and she even lets her fangs show, if only for a moment, as she moves over to where he stands. Her eyes play over his form, noting the still beaten up shape he seems to be in, "Still tired? I can help with that, you're not the only one with voices in your head, I just don't lose sleep over mine." She says and steps closer to him, resting her hands on her hips, "Why can't you sleep?" She asks next, genuinely wanting to know the answer now. Johnny raises an eyebrow and shakes his head. Casting a slight glances around the room he sighs, "I think I'm dreaming. I mean, I think I'm asleep already. I know it's stupid... but it would explain alot. I've just been sleeping so long my dreams have taken on a life of their own." With a sigh he wobbles over and leans against the statue he was hiding beside. "I guess this means I shouldn't try to wake up, huh?" With fatigue getting the better of him, it's hard to tell if he's being sarcastic or not. Perhaps he's serious... Vashtearnia stays silent as you speak, watching you move over and rest on the statue. Her hands move from her hips to fold loosely across her stomach, just above the roses which rustle ever so slightly. "No, if you woke up then you'd disappear from here." She says in an amused tone, shifting her voice to be a bit more deep, imitating yours, "I'll just pinch myself here, ow! The pain!" She then shifts back to her own, "Oh my, are you okay my dearest love?" "Of course! I'm awake now, which means you're a dream fantasy of mine!" "How perfect! Let us marry!" "At once!" She then emits a light laugh, very light, and reaches up to push some of her hair back behind her shoulder, "Really though, I need to break my habit of mocking everything, at least with you. I can truly try to block the voices, I've been feeding well lately." Johnny smirks at the conversation and shakes his head again, "Nah. I can manage. I just need to do something about the fatigue. Voices and insomnia are something I've gotten pretty used to." Yawning he glances at the slight blood stain on Vashtearnia's fingertips and asks, "So, got bored I see? I didn't mean to be gone so long. Something came up..." Vashtearnia nods her head at what you say, looking over to the cave entrance from whence she came, then down to her fingers which she begins to suckle at idly again, "I get bored easily, but I talk to myself so it balances." She says with a fanged smile, she doesn't mind showing her fangs off to you at least, "You can come and go as you please, it's not my home, afterall." She says in an amused tone, then moves over closer towards you, her eyes staring towards your own, deep, perfect eyes that just seem to call out to your own to look towards them, "NNY. I'll hypnotize you if you'd like, force you to sleep." She offers, sounding sincere, not a tone she uses very often. Johnny stares blankly. Something about the offer unnerves him. "Um... no thanks. I likes me brains." Blinking at his own words he turns his head to the side and mouths his own words to himself. With a shrug he stares up at the roof of the cave. "You know what I should do? I should find something caffinated. Some cherry soda or something. That'd perk me up." Chuckling as his mind replays events in his head. "Oh the stories I could ramble on about that.... heh..." Again he stops himself and blinks. "Weird..." Vashtearnia's eyes half lid as she looks away from him. She then steps back, reaching up to push her hair back behind her shoulders. She must be out of practice, but well, she doesn't have her heart in hypnotizim right now anyway. Besides, it wastes blood. "Cherry soda?" She wonders, having never heard of it herself, but then, it would seem Johnny is certainly not from around here, so she lets it all slide. Mostly. "What is?" She ponders in an almost distracted tone, the roses about her rustling softly. Johnny glaces at Vashtearnia suspiciously. "Wait. What do you mean what is cherry soda? You've served it to me before!" Wincing he holds a hand to his head and wobbles. "Ugh... somethings not right. ...maybe I -am- dreaming." Taking a few steps away he turns and stares at one of the paintings on the wall as if expecting something to jump out of it. His thoughts race as he tries to put things together but his weary mind won't allow him to do so. "Guh.... now I just need a random visit from Terry right now just to break what's left of my mind." Slowly a smirk plays over his face and he looks around. Seeing nothing new his smirk fades and he sighs, "Damn. Worth a try..." Vashtearnia blinks her eyes once, something she rarely does as there's no real need for her to moisten her eyes, they stay that way without her blinking. "I..mm." She thinks back to the Tavern, "Oh yes, hmf. I'm usually thinking to myself, so I don't pay attention to what I'm serving or the customers, except to make fun of them." She gives an amused smile, then looks around as you -try- to summon this Terry person. "What seems to be wrong, NNY?" She wonders, starting to get conceerned, he's the first person she's ever actually -liked- much less talked to without lieing constantly while doing so, it would be unfortunate if he suddenly..well, whatever happens to be happening. Turning slowly towards Vashtearnia again he makes himself smile, "Eh... it's nothing. I think my mind's just playing tricks on me." Rubbing his eyes he yawns again and then slightly guestures around the room. "So, I know you wanted to talk about things. Feel free. Not many visitors make it down here, so I expect that sort of thing... If nothing else you might manage to get my brain working again..." Vashtearnia grows silent for awhile, moving over to lean against the wall while looking up at the picture you traveled into. Finding it not comfortable, she succumbs to her lazyness and sits down on the air, her telekenesis holding her up and letting her body rest even if her mind has to maintain it, but it really is an easy thing to do. That's better. She looks towards you, tons of snide mocking comments coming to her, but she uses her willpower and bites them back, "I seem to be falling in love with you, I'd be more subtle about it, but I tried that last time and you seemed to get confused and not get me." She smiles, her fangs showing. Johnny takes a deeeep breath and slumps against the nearest thing which at the moment happens to be the same wall only a few steps away. "Yeah, it's a subject I tend to avoid so it throws me off when people bring it up." Looking downwards he rubs his eyes with one eye and ponders back to events centuries before. "The last time I really opened up to anyone, I tried to kill her. Probably would have too if she hadn't ended up kicking my ass... After that I pretty much made it a vow not to let myself grow attched to someone like that again. Not that it's set in stone, but it's something you should know..." Vashtearnia listens to what you have to say, raising an eyebrow about trying to kill the person. "Well, they...I...hm, you were almost killed because of me already, doesn't that count for something?" She says with a light and somewhat dark laugh as she floats over to be closer to you as she speaks, "The real answer I wanted you to give me, NNY, was wether or not you cared about me. See, I'm not a silly human or even some of the idiotic Mystics who will go after something they won't ever get because of how they feel." Johnny looks up and blinks as Vashtearnia comes closer. With an almost childish frown he quietly mutters, "I really couldn't tell you if I did or not. Right now, I don't even have a grasp on what's real and what I've imagined." With a little more confidence in his voice he continues, "But that should be coming to an end soon. I've seen to it. One way or another I'm going to bring my friends here. I'm going to banish the things inside me. I'm going to have a purpose again. When that happens, I'll have a answer for you. Until then, I don't know..." Vashtearnia looks off to the side and takes a moment to take in a breath and sigh it out, "At least you're not lieing to me and being all noble. I hate that. People should always just say what's on their minds." Hypocrite. She looks back to you and laces her hands behind her head, "Okay. How can I help, then? I can do a lot of things, and as long as I have a generally constant source of blood I won't lose control of these." She says, eyeing her vines and roses with some obvious distaste upon her features. Johnny's eyebrow raises now, "Yeah, that's something I've had questions about. What's the deal with the flowers anyways? You don't seem like you like them too much. You couldn't have been born with them. So what is it? Someone curse you or something?" Snickering he adds, "Swallow some seeds as a kid or something?" Vashtearnia's mouth grows tight and she looks to you, but she gets a smile on her face at the joke. She closes her eyes and unlaces her hands, crossing them across her stomach instead. Silence echos in the cave for a long while before she opens her eyes once more, "That is a song I don't like to sing, but I'll tell it to you, some of it. Some of it has to be in song, but I'm not that close to you yet." She says with a slightly mischevious smile, before looking to the roses about her, "A curse, an addition. I don't know what to call them, or maybe her is a better word." She looks back towards you, looking hesitant at continuing. Johnny's eyes widen as his snickering ceases. With a more serious tone he shrugs, "It's alright. If you don't feel comfortable don't say it. We all have our dirty little secrets. Some are just a bit more concealed than others." As he speaks his eyes glance over at the large carving in the wall at the end of the room, but only slightly as if making things obvious would wake the dead... Vashtearnia taps her fingernails upon her stomach, making a dull thudthuding sound. She stares at you for a long moment, she's trained herself to try and read peoples reactions to figure out what they're really feeling, since it seems most people enjoy lieing and such to make other people feel better, or else worse, humans are so messed up. "I want to tell you, just not yet. Only, just, it's not me when they're out. And they only get out if I take too much blood." She scoffs, "Which is a curse, since I'm never truly full. I'd rather not be, though, it'd only...well..." She shrugs, smiling once more, "...secrets in the songs, someday I'll sing it all for you, maybe after you finish with your troubles I'll tell you mine." Johnny nods confidently and smirks, "It's a deal then..." Immediatly changing the subject.... well, deliberatly changing the subject, he walks over to one of the statues and taps on it. A tall well-built man with a thick jacket and long hair. "This, is Terry. He taught me that not everyone needed to die to teach them the value of life, and that not every fight had to end with blood." Smirking at Vashtearnia's reaction he moves onto the next statue, a mystic obviously from the feline ears and tail. "This would be Samantha. That's what started all this. Sammy here is Terry's daughter. She's the reason I'm here, dream or not, and I've promised I'd find her and watch over her for him..." Vashtearnia looks over to the statue of Terry, having a look over it. She's examined each statue, and wasn't sure if they were real people or some weird representation, now she knows. She raises an eyebrow at the thing Terry taught him. "Value of life, hm?" She comments dryly, her value of life isn't that high, since just about everything around her has blood, which she sees as, well, food. She moves on to Sammy, "Mf. A mystic and a human had a child, did they?" She then realizes NNY is -technically- a human, but can you really call him that? He's immortal and all, nah, he's not human, justification. There. Johnny begins to laugh, "Well, I dunno if a Mystic would be the right choice of words, but close enough... Shocked me too when I found out. But you gotta remember that there are more worlds than this one, something else that took me a long time to accept. I met him on one world, and her on another. I was banished here by a goddess who wanted to blaim me and Sammy for the state of things she was responsible for. Now all my friends are scattered. Sammy was supposed to come here, but in all the years I've sat on the cliff waiting she's never shown up... once I can find her, finding the rest should be easy..." Vashtearnia looks pointedly over towards the painting as you mention other worlds. That's an odd concept to grasp, different times, okay, because she's seen things that she knew were destroyed suddenly be in existence again like new (The church for instance) But other worlds...well, she'll let it lie for now and just take this on faith, it's not like NNY's a liar anyway. "Not everyone would pass under your cliff, maybe she's in another part of the land and had no reason to come to this part?" She suggests. Johnny reaches under his shirt and pulls out a small ringing hanging from a dirty piece of cord. Glowing a greenish yellow, he stares at it and frowns, "Nope! Not unless Cale screwed it up. This thing's supposed to tell me where she is and it's never turned purple before. I've been all over this world and I've been in various parts of the timeline up till I... um... yeah, it's never changed color. It just goes from greenish to yellowish.... it never settles on one or another." Vashtearnia looks to the ring, thankfully, she's never met or heard of the Cale here, otherwise she might wonder why he would of made you anything without other intents for it in mind. She nods her head, "Magic, is it? Impressive." She says, eyeing the ring closely, Johnny seems to have more than a few friends, doesn't he? And yet he lives here all alone in his cave with only statues of them...must be why he wants to find them all. She'd get tired of talking to their statues too eventually. Johnny stares at it a moment longer before shrugging and putting it away. "Yeah, Cale's pretty cool. I used to think he was some pycho pervert for awhile, but luckily I found out I was wrong. One day I'll have to take you to meet him." With a thoughtful look on his face he glances over at the painting on the wall and hmmm's slightly. "Actualy, I wonder if he might know a trick to me getting over this fatigue..." Trailing off as he ponders the costs to his body to make such a voyage so soon his eyes gloss over slightly and with a painful blink he rubs his eyes. "Owwww... sometimes I envy you..." | |
Enable comment auto-refresher