70. [DREAM/DREAM/DREAM/DREAM]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[So while the rest of Johto alternately panics, cries, or rushes around trying to capture as many of the soulstealing insects as possible, there are dozens of souls floating around in that dream limbo, drifting in and out of each other's slumbering thoughts and visions. Whether it's nightmarish flashbacks or just those dreams where you're at school taking a really hard test, and then Dracula shows up, and then everybody's naked ... anything is possible when it comes to what people see in their sleep.]

[But what appears in the darkness in this particular spot in the spaceless, shifting mass of dreaming souls... is a door.]

[It's old, and covered with boards and bolts, rusted near-through in some places. The lock is broken-- mangled and half-melted and wrenched out of the keyhole. The only thing on it that doesn't look ancient is a scrap of torn notebook-paper that's taped up on it at roughly eye-level. It reads only a single phrase:]</sub>

Fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh.

<sub>[More importantly, though... the door is ajar. Through the gap come the scents of rust and metal-- and something organic, fleshy-- and a low, deep hum of industrial machinery. It's not a door that anyone in their right mind would want to go through. ... But for anyone who may have stumbled this far into the dreams of their fellow lost souls, either in flight from some other nightmare or just pure, wandering curiosity... there's just no other place to go but through the door.]




[Go on. Open it. After all.... it's only a dream.]</sub>

[ooc: SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG, GUYS. Thanks for being patient! If you commented on that planning post, there's something spooky planned for your character to do here so please feel free to tag or not tag as it pleases you!]

~*~

[ooc: This is the IC post for what was announced over here! Even if you didn't comment there, feel free to participate! I'm still happy to whip up Silent Hill scenarios for folks!]

Comments

[foolishwren]

_{[She grins wider at the boasting-- she can't exactly fault him. If she could blow shit up like that? She'd be showing it off at every opportunity. Oh, you need something from the fridge? Here, let me get that for y-- KABOOM.]}

It's way over on the other side, across the park-- here, I'll show you.

_{[She starts to walk-- as quickly as she can with the sore leg, anyway. ... Which is probably frustratingly slow for Ironhide, unfortunately.]}

It just-- needs to be blown up. Urgently. _{[Because she hates it.]}

[show_my_cannons]

[He watches her start to go, before he grunts, and lowers a hand in front of her, to stop her from getting any further away. They'll never get anywhere if he has to limp after her.]

[His hand flattens against the ground.]

Even with this hip, I would be faster than you are. Get up.

[If he sounds snappish about it, it's only because he's... slightly embarrassed to be offering. This is not something Ironhide generally does. Bumblebee, sure. Optimus, definitely. Not him.]

[foolishwren]

_{[She startles backwards slightly when his hand is suddenly lowered, then looks up, a little confused for a second or two. ... Then realization dawns on her face and she mumbles an "Oh." before, not entirely without trepidation, she steps up onto the offered palm.]}

Right, heh... you can probably like, take five steps and just GET there...

_{[She is going to just totally chill and ride a giant robot. This is either the weirdest or the best dream ever.]}

[show_my_cannons]

[Once she's there, he doesn't waste any time in hauling her up to one shoulder. If he needs his hands for anything, or his cannons, she'll be safer up there. And not... incinerated by cannon fire.]

Hmnf. I wish.

[He heads off -- that way! And maybe he would get there in five steps, if every other step wasn't punctuated with a limp.]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Yeah, Heather's pretty happy about being non-incinerated. Life is generally better when one is something other than a pile of ash. Piles of ash don't get to have any fun.]

[When he lifts her to his shoulder, she can't help but let out a startled (and sort of giddy) "Whoa!" It's like riding one of those elevators that go up so fast that you almost feel like you left your guts behind on the ground floor for a moment. Except it's not an elevator, it's something's hand. And that is insane.]

[Once up there, she carefully steps onto his shoulder, bracing her boots on the slick metal and thanking whatever company manufactured these boots that they've got good grips. All the same, she grabs onto whatever hold is most convenient, just to be safe... she's not a fan of falling from this height.]</sub>

Okay, so its-- uh-- a little to the right-- there.

That old-looking mansion. Think you can hit that?

_{[She's pointing, of course, at her old pal the Borley Haunted Mansion. Because oh would she like to see that place reduced to a smoking crater.]}

[show_my_cannons]

[There's a good few crests on his head, in case she needs something non-mobile to hold onto. His audio receptors cycle every so often, his facial expressions twitch his faceplates around... Yeah, that's probably the best place to put a hand you didn't want to be crushed by accident. Barring that, there's probably a good scar or two on his shoulder itself to hold onto.]

[He swings around to face the indicated building... and just... stares. Is she serious? Can he hit that? That's like asking if a human can breathe air.]

... Can I? Hmnf. What do I look like? An automated turret?

[And, once again, Ironhide prepares to take out a building. It's going to need more firepower than just the shack, but he certainly has it in him. Lifting his arms, he glances at her with his good optic. This close up, the damage to the other is particularly nasty-looking... she could probably even see the half-melted shutters twitching.]

You should get down. Climb down a couple plates.

[There's a few good ridges in his back she could use. And... of course, more scars.]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Although she doesn't say anything, she can't help but sort of... wince sympathetically at the sight of the torn metal gracing that eye. Could things not made of flesh and blood feel pain? She never really thought they could, but... then again, she'd never met something made of metal that had conversations and used sarcasm and talked of war and torture and dead comrades before...]

[But the suggestion snaps her back to attention.]</sub>

Right! Uh--

_{[Okay, now to find footholds-- fortunately, looked like there were plenty. Somewhat stiffly, she starts to shakily make her way down, bracing her feet against the ridges and feeling sort of like a spider must feel when it's climbing up a human being. ... She just hopes he's not the type to SWAT. Because that could get UGLY.]}

[show_my_cannons]

[Oh, it hurt. It still sort of hurt. But he's become adept at ignoring the pain of old injuries. He sort of had to, given the circumstances surrounding the war.]

[He turns his head to watch her, waiting until she's safely ducked down behind his broad back, before turning his attention back to the building. He can feel her clambering around. There's an urge to shake his shoulders, but he firmly squashes it down.]

[Then. He sets himself. Checks his targeting sights...]

[And opens fire.]

[The recoil from each shot shakes his big frame, but his aim doesn't waver. Ironhide's been doing this long enough to know exactly how much each shot is going to offset his sight, and compensates accordingly. Rounds chamber, fire, and reload in a smooth succession, until the building begins to collapse in on itself in a pile of fire and rubble.]

[Through it all, the old Autobot just grins.]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[And thus was the fall of the Borley Haunted Mansion.]

[Even under orders to stay down, she can't help but peek just a little over the autobot's massive shoulder-- because dammit, if that godforsaken building is gonna go down in flames, she wants to be able to see it.]

[And when she does, it's exactly as satisfying as she thought it would be. With a grin big enough to match Ironhide's, she sloooowly creeps back up into her previous spot.]</sub>

You? Are officially my hero.

You would not believe how long I have wanted to do that.

[show_my_cannons]

[He watches the building fall with a neutral expression. He might feel more if he knew what that place was, but it hardly mattered, now. As she climbs, he glances back at her again, trying to focus his scarred optic on her.]

Why? What was that place?

[There's no sense in reprimanding her. The danger has passed. She's perfectly safe up there, now.]

[foolishwren]

Only the most annoying place ever to exist in any world, anywhere. ... Ever. ... In history.

_{[... Not to mention one that she still had nightmares about, even now... though she wouldn't admit that. But between the mocking voice, and that ringing red light that crept around corners like poison gas...]}

I've died there more times than I can count.

_{[.... wait, 'died'. What.]}

[show_my_cannons]

... Huh. If you say so. Not in the mood to argue.

[Then he blinks, swinging his head around to stare fully at her. It's a long, silent stare. Like he's trying to figure out just what he heard her say.]

[He must have heard wrong.]

What...?

[foolishwren]

_{[At first she just sort of stares right back at him, owl-eyed. ... And then she realizes what she just said. Whooooops.]}

UH-- ...

_{[It's easy to forget to police your language in your own dreams.]}

I mean, you know... in dreams.

... Nightmares.

Whatever.

You get the idea.

_{[Although that still begged the question of why anybody would dream of dying in a place they merely deemed 'annoying', but...]}

[show_my_cannons]

[Ironhide just keeps staring at her, his expression blank. It doesn't really look as if he's buying that.]

[... then again. He is standing in the middle of a psychotic amusement park, after being turned into a human and told he's going to be dog-fighting strange creatures that hide in balls and transform periodically. So what does he know?]

So now what? We just stand around, blowing things up?

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Yeeeah, she'll just... um... not be talking about that anymore. Yep.]

[However, it's his next statement that makes her pause thoughtfully. Then, ever so slowly, she turns her head to look back up at him with a grin that's as wide as it is mischievous.]</sub>

... Wanna kick over a rollercoaster?

[show_my_cannons]

[Oh, we'll discuss this, young lady. Just not now.]

[Ironhide scowls, considering this carefully. He lifts one of his cannons, examining it. There's still a few rounds left before he'll have to make more. The other one just needs a few hours or so in the sun and be fine...]

How big is it?

[Ironhide, are you seriously considering this.]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[DARNIT.]

[Her grin only grows before she points off to the spindly-looking structures off at the edge of the park. They're huge, but honestly look like a decent TAP could send them all crumbling into piles of tracks and stilts... like a house of cards.]

[Her face says it all: oh my god PRETTY PLEASE?!]</sub>

[show_my_cannons]

[He follows her pointing finger, gauging the distance with another scowl. Well. Not too far away. And it's not as if he has anything better to do right now, anyway.]

[Ironhide shrugs his other shoulder, and starts limping off in the appropriate direction. Smashing things is sort of cathartic, after all. And since they started, he hasn't been thinking of the other place he was -- seeing the body. Seeing the wrecked colony.]

[He'll get there. But he'll go his own, limp-stomp speed, dammit.]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[YESSSSSS.]

[This is like getting to go spend the day with the cool relative who lets you break stuff when at home you're not allowed to do anything. She clambers back all the way into her previous position, bracing a hand against a ridge on the side of his head for balance.]

[She's somewhat tempted to say 'I DIED OVER THERE TOO' but is smart enough to bite it back. Instead, she asks something that's been bugging her ever since he showed up.]</sub>

So how'd you get in here, anyway? Since I guess we're like... in my head right now. And you are way too complicated-looking to be a figment of my imagination. I'm not this creative.

[show_my_cannons]

[He's a little busy picking his way over the rusty grates to pay her position much attention. Not that he's unaware of it.]

[He glances at her, though, and snorts.]

I walked.

[Because in Ironhide's worldview, that's all there is to it. He walked in here. Except...]

There was a door. Some kind of foolish warning on it. I broke it.

[foolishwren]

_{[She can't help but snort at the bluntness.]}

A warning, huh...

_{[It rings some old bells... but honestly she'd rather not dwell on that. Point is, he's HERE.]}

I guess that makes sense... I guess you're pretty much set, but... for most people, this place isn't safe.

[show_my_cannons]

Yeah. A warning. About blood and flesh. [He snorts, waving a hand dismissively at himself.]

No reason to get worried.

[Stomp stomp stomp -- they're approaching the structure now, and he eyes it, critically.]

Why? Humans allergic to a little rust?

[foolishwren]

_{[When she replies, there's an oddly serious undercurrent running through her voice... dark.]}

There's worse things than rust here.

_{[... Because that explains a lot, Heather. But she seems to be dropping the topic there for the moment, because THEY ARE NEXT TO THE ROLLERCOASTER FUCK YES.]}

Awesome, I hate this thing. Can you like... punch it? I bet the whole friggin' thing will fall down if you punch it.

[show_my_cannons]

Yeah. Like trash cans.

[He catches that seriousness. And because she doesn't elaborate... he keeps on with his dry sort of sarcasm. Maybe that'll get a better answer.]

I could... Hmn.

[He falls quiet, looking the structure up and down. He could punch it. Or he could tear it down. He puts a hand on one of the support beams, wrapping heavy fingers around it.]

[foolishwren]

_{[She snorts back.]}

Trash cans don't crawl on top of you and then suck your face clean off of your skull.

<sub>[Heather is very rarely straight-up with the details of the things she's seen-- why mention them at all in Johto? But in this case... well. They're HERE.]

[She tightens her hold in anticipation as he grabs the rollercoaster. 8) omg omg do it.]</sub>