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Post by Jules on Jan 7, 2009 7:52:52 GMT -5
It started later in the afternoon, and at first it was only a few. But even the few Nightmares and Dreams complaining about being unable to enter the human psyche was bewildering. She set them down in the waiting room, unsure of what to do with them. They seemed to calm down just being in a hospital, thinking it was someone else's problem now.
But the ten or so beings in her lobby were not the end of it. By that night, people were lining the hallways and it was hard to walk without stepping on someone. She had to see what was wrong for herself.
It wasn't impossible for her, she snuck into the mind of a homeless man and showed him a life full of money, his family, him looking twenty years younger. The joy this dream caused him would leave a bitter taste in his mouth when he woke up, but there was nothing Camilla could do to dull this, it had taken so much just to change the odd Dream he'd already been having.
It was exhausting, but the extra Joy she culled wasn't enough for a third of the Dreams in her hospital, and she couldn't even begin to deal with the Nightmares.
Camilla went back four, five times and barely had enough energy to poof back to the lobby desk. But when she did, the Dreams took notice and Sunshine and Pacquette helped her dole out what she'd collected fairly and evenly, leaving only Nightmares.
They blurred in her vision---she was pretty close to passing out, but she could still read the fear and worry there as the Dreams filtered out, many to probably return tomorrow, when hunger would strike again. The thought of it made tears spring to her eyes. Camilla had done the most immediate thing she could think of, to avoid a mob attack, but she was still completely bewildered as to what was going on. And she needed a Nightmare's help.
She leaned over the desk, breathing deeply, willing herself to stay upright when the first Nightmare complained.
"How come we don't get the same treatment!?"
Choruses of agreement filled the air, some stood and suddenly looked more threatening than Camilla was prepared to deal with. She didn't even reply, worried that if she opened her mouth all that would come out was her lunch.
When her head abated the pounding a bit and she was pretty sure she wasn't going to empty her stomach, she lifted her head off the desk and looked around. It seemed she had passed out, if only for a few moments, because the Nightmares had mobilized. They were scared, and now furious that the Dreams had gotten treated before them. She could understand, but this felt dangerously close to the mob she'd been trying to avoid.
"Look!" She yelled, but her voice wavered. She was too tired for this, "I'm a Dream. I was able to make it through, and all I could bring back was Joy. If I could bring Fear, I would've. We'll find someone, if you all just want to calm down---"
"CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN? I can't eat! I'm starved..." Murmurs of agreement.
"Dear Morpheus." She whispered, thinking frantically. But she couldn't help the sour thought that if that Nightmare man thought he was starving now, he should wait. This didn't seem like it was going to go away in a matter of days.
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Post by redtopaz on Jan 7, 2009 8:04:30 GMT -5
Nex had talked his way into taking the night shift for the week, leaving Sunshine and Pacquette to deal with the day patients. It left more time for him to work on his 'bottled sun' idea which, as one might guess, required copious amounts of time spent in the daylight hours to work.
So, consequentially, Nex was taken unawares when he pedaled up the hospital to find a line of Nightmares, and a few Dreams, winding it's way out into the street.
Pushing past the masses, and receiving several elbows in the side for his efforts, Nex made his way to the front desk. Camilla looked as harried as the waiting patients. There seemed to be some kind of an altercation going on between Camilla and a few Nightmares. Nex immediately jumped to his bosses rescue.
"Excuse me, please! Stand back, there. We'll see you one at a time!" he said, raising his usually mellow voice. "What's going on?" he whispered to Camilla when the Nightmares had backed off for a moment.
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Post by Jules on Jan 7, 2009 8:10:28 GMT -5
"Nex..." She breathed, relieved. He wasn't a Nightmare, but he was a Marelock and that might diffuse some tension. Camilla made a mental note to find a few purely Nightmare employees to avoid disasters like this.
"They can't...slip into the human psyche. They can't get Fear. Dreams were here early, I fed them, but it was hard for me to get into the mind too. They Nightmares are mad that I fed the Dreams and not them, but I couldn't." Camilla was beginning to sound upset, "I would've if I could've! But I'm a Dream! I can't collect fear."
Fortunately, for now, the presence of someone else had calmed the would-be mob. Camilla looked around the desk for a piece of paper and she took a postal pen out of the pen-pot, but then paused. She had to kick off her heels, she felt like she was going to teeter over. And she had no idea who to write to...the king. He might not offer immediate help, but he had to know. She wrote out a note with as much information as she knew, wrote URGENT in big bold letters on top, and addressed it to King Jack, sending it on it's way.
"Do you know any Nightmares that'd be willing to help?"
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Post by Miss Jack on Jan 7, 2009 20:49:38 GMT -5
A letter appeared almost immediately after Camilla sent hers, the letters hastily scrawled:
"I know-- Alexander and Armand told me what was happening this morning. I'm glad you can break through. Everyone's starting to panic. I should have thought people would come to the hospital-- I'll send someone. --Jack"
And by someone, he sent Alexander and Vince, who were the main powerhouses on hand. The two of them pushed through the opening entrance, looking slightly harried themselves from the days events, and it didn't help that they were at the back, trying to work their way to the front. When one Nightmare threw a particularly hearty elbow at Vince's chest, the mummy lost what little control he'd maintained on his temper and threw the offending Nightmare into the wall.
In the resulting quiet, Vince snarled, "You idiots--" And before another outburst could erupt, he raised his voice (a commanding force, honed into perfection bossing L.O.S. around all day long), "Shut up and sit down-- you'll be helped as soon as we're able and Morpheus help you should you stand up before your name is called. If anyone has a problem with that, they can deal with me personally."
Shockingly, no one wanted an intimate encounter with the mummy.
"Good," he said nastily, and stalked to the front desk, Alexander trailing behind him, trying to fight a grin. When they reached the desk, Vince strolled right by, motioning for Camilla and whoever-her-assistant-was to follow him into another room.
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Post by redtopaz on Jan 7, 2009 21:46:52 GMT -5
There was a moment where Nex managed to display, in rapid succession, shock, bemusement, panic, and worry across his expressive, boyish face.
"Really? I-" he stuttered to a stop. When was the last time he'd fed? Yesterday? He had noticed his window had been shorter, but he'd had no trouble gathering emotion. "I hadn't noticed," he said stupidly.
He opened his mouth to reply to her inquiry about any Nightmares he might have known, when she pulled out a notepad, scribbled on it and sent it on its way. It was almost immediately replaced by a second note scrawled on thick paper.
Almost immediately, a large, intimidating mummy appeared, accompanied by a skinny young Nightmare sporting a shock of untidy black hair on the top of his head. Nex just stared blankly as the mummy shouted and glared the crowd into submission. It was much more effective than what Nex had managed to do.
Following the Nightmares instructions without much thought, Nex drifted after Camilla into a side room, the two strange Nightmares coming in after them. Nex stared, curiosity nagging at him to ask...
"Who are you?"
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Post by Jules on Jan 7, 2009 21:53:58 GMT -5
Camilla was filled with relief when Vince and Alex walked through her doors. She greeted them and then turned a reproachful eye to the mummy. "Please refrain from tossing my patients around. They're supposed to feel safe here." She led the three men into her office, walked around her desk and collapsed in her chair, laying her head down on the desk.
"I fed the people I could, Dreams. I wasn't thinking about...prejudice." She was so tired, she just wanted to sleep, not deal with this huge mess. "Oh, Alex." She pulled a fat jar out of her pocket. "I thought Nellie might need some." Without lifting her head from the desk, she slid it over the wood surface towards him.
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Post by Miss Jack on Jan 7, 2009 22:11:42 GMT -5
Alexander tried not to appear too relieved. He hadn't outright wanted to remind a clearly exhausted Camilla that he needed to find a way to get joy for Nellie, and was all the more glad she'd thought of it herself.
"Here," Vince said, pulling out several thick jars of fear and setting them on the table. "This is what we have so far. I didn't want to pull it out in front of all those hungry Nightmares. It's not going to be nearly enough." He sighed and rubbed his brow. They'd been at it all morning-- all of them, testing to see how far they could go, how much fear they could acquire. He, Jack and Alexander had made several trips between the three of them, storing up fear. "I'll go again," he said after a moment.
"Alexander," Alexander said to Nex, since it appeared Vince was going to ignore the question. "And this is Vince. He's happy to meet you." Turning to the mummy, he continued, "I'll go too."
"Can you?" Vince asked doubtfully.
Alexander lifted his chin stiffly. "If you can, I can."
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Post by redtopaz on Jan 7, 2009 22:23:16 GMT -5
Nex doubted Vince was pleased to meet him. In fact, it looked as if the mummy hadn't even registered his presence. Like he was an old chair or something...
"Wait! Do we know why the humans aren't sleeping normally?" he asked, clearly confused. "I've had no problem feeding..."
He turned horrified eyes on Camilla. It finally sunk in. All those Nightmares and Dreams were going to starve. He wanted to ask what he could do to help, but he was feeling rather small at the moment. He didn't quite have the same macho muster that the other two men did.
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Post by Jules on Jan 7, 2009 22:33:00 GMT -5
"Wait." She dragged herself upright with immense effort and pulled out a few vials. She touched one to her skin and then handed one each to Vince and Alex. The moment it had touched her skin, Camilla had visibly brightened. She still felt tired, but no pain accompanied it. She handed one each to Alex and Vince.
"Made by Mary, as you know, they'll help us work past our capacity. But don't abuse them, you'll kill yourselves." She touched the thick jars of fear reverently. "Thank you." She knew how much it had taken out of her to provide for that crowd of Dreams. She could imagine the effort that had gone into collecting this.
She wanted to cry when she considered the enormity of this issue. She had some hope set aside for her three favorite fugitives as well. She looked a Nex curiously, "Maybe it has something to do with you being a Marelock?"
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Post by Miss Jack on Jan 7, 2009 23:03:45 GMT -5
Vince's eyes narrowed as they locked on Nex. He didn't have any trouble feeding? This was a new development in the pending crisis.
Alexander bobbed on the balls of his feet, eager to go now that the weight of exhaustion and heavy limbs had abated. "We'll be back in an hour, maybe less. Distribute the fear that you can and tell everyone else more is on the way. And thanks.... for this." He glanced at the jar of joy he held in his hands.
Dragging his eyes away from Nex, Vince nodded and then together, they left.
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Post by redtopaz on Jan 11, 2009 7:05:03 GMT -5
Nex turned to Camilla with wide, frightened green eyes.
"When did people start coming in? How are we going to take care of all of them...?" His voiced wavered with his concern and he, at that moment, seemed and felt very young indeed.
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Post by Jules on Jan 12, 2009 22:40:17 GMT -5
Camilla regarded Nex for a moment in silence. She was tired and therefore it was harder for her to formulate a coherent answer quickly.
"They've been coming in all day, and we fed all the Dreams, although I'm sure there's more out there now. We will take care of all of them even if it kills me." She'd meant it as an expression, but she paused a moment. She could not single-handedly feed all the Dreams of Morpheus, even Camilla was able to realize the desperate need for help. As soon as Alexander and Vince came back, and the hostile situation was diffused and she stored up some Joy for Nex to hand out she would go out and find other willing Dreams who were able to break through. There had to be some. They were the Dreams afterall, and there certainly seemed to be plenty of Nightmares willing to help out.
"Let's start calling names." She sighed.
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Post by redtopaz on Jan 21, 2009 1:45:12 GMT -5
Nex nodded and grabbed a clipboard, ready to take down names.
"I'll get started, then," he said, eager to do anything he could to help. "Maybe there's a spell for artificial fear..." he mused as he wandered out the door.
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Post by Jules on Jan 21, 2009 7:56:23 GMT -5
As the Nightmares started filtering into her office one by one, Camilla fed them and then attempted to explain what she could. She stuck to what she knew for sure (not much) and what was being done to help. People tended to exaggerate in the retelling, so she attempted to stick to bare-bone facts.
Once in a while, the Nightmare would get angry, yell and shout but it wasn't like Camilla was responsible, and she repeated reassurances until they calmed down and by the time they were out of fear they were still not out of Nightmares and more Dreams had come in. She knew it wasn't healthy, but she kept herself infected with the painkiller. She couldn't afford to collapse now.
When Nex came back into her office, she was feeling panicked. "I have to go get more Joy. If Vince and Alex come back before I do, tell them where I've gone. Do you think you can manage for a bit? I'll be as quick as I can."
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