InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "And I recall his yellow cat!"

Logan Nagamori (dreammaster) wrote in nosuchplace,
@ 2009-04-25 06:10:00

Entry tags:

irei arakaki, logan nagamori

December 25, 2007
Who: Logan and Irei
When: Late Night
Where: Dreamscape
What: The Nightmare ~~Before~~ on Christmas

Christmas was a rather subdue event between the Nagamori siblings. Mitsuko had found a fake plant in the storage unit. It didn't in any way resemble a Christmas tree... More like it belonged in an office. But Logan had made ornaments and Mitsuko had hung some of her jewelry to give a Christmas look. It had been the nice start to what Logan hoped would become a tradition-- Decorating the tree with his sister.

They'd exchanged gifts. Logan had made Mitsuko a carved box to hold her various accessories. Mitsuko had given Logan a new set of brushes, some clothes which were much nicer than he was used to and (what made him blush profusely) several men's magazines, with women in various states of undress. He couldn't say he wasn't grateful for the present, but he would die rather than admit it out loud.

While they had stopped by their various friend's homes to wish them Merry Christmas, most of the day was spent together in their cottage. Mitsuko had taught Logan a number of card games, regaling him of her time in Las Vegas, which it sounded like she'd enjoyed a great deal. Logan was never quite sure how to respond to his sister's crazy stories, but he was just happy to have family to be around on the holiday.

But Christmas was nearly over now. Mitsuko had gone to bed and Logan was lying back in his bed, willing to sleep to come to him. It was still difficult to fall asleep sometimes, knowing he would end up not in his own dreamworld but someone else's. Not only did he feel like he was invading someone's privacy, but he felt deprived of his own nocturnal thoughts, trapped in someone else's.

But sleep eventually came. Logan closed his eyes and drifted into slumber. When his unconscious dreamself regained focus, he felt surrounded by uneasiness. But there was something familiar about it.

"Do I know you?" Logan found himself asking to the conscious he was now in. He didn't expect an answer, but he felt the need to ask it all the same. He already didn't like it here.

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

(Post a new comment)

iseedeadpeople
2009-04-26 08:52 pm UTC (link)

Irei had gotten home from the unexpected meeting with Aveira rather late. After getting a glass of water and taking one of the sleeping aids he had gotten on his trip, he had gone to his room and shed the big coat and pulled off his gloves and shoes. Living in the western world had gotten him out of the habit of taking his shoes off at the door, but he would still take them off before walking around his own room. He looked up and raised an eyebrow at his bed. Sascha and the dogs were all crowded on the mattress asleep. Good thing he had a big bed.

He sighed. At least the dogs were on top of the bedding, not under it. Really, he should know better. Sascha did this type of thing around every major western holiday. Irei took off his clothes and slipped into some sweat pants he used as pj bottoms and pulled on a worn black t-shirt. Irei looked up and noticed the black cat, he had named her Miyako*, was sleeping in the makeshift bed he had made for her on top of his bookshelf. He grabbed his book on necromancy that Sascha had had fixed for his birthday last October before climbing into his side of the bed.

Lighting a match, Irei lit a candle sitting on his bedside table and opened the book. Some of the things written in the book were complete nonsense, he believed. While there were descriptions of certain monsters and beings with limited information about abilities, there were also stories about monsters that ate the dead, body and soul. That made Irei wonder about some of the authors of this book. Why add fiction to something like this? It was strange.

Eventually his eyelids began to droop. It had been a long while since he had gotten any real sleep. He had hoped that the pills would help knock him out quicker without the aid of alcohol or sex. He leaned over, blew out the candle and laid down on his pillow. He had to nudge Sascha's arm away so he could get in a comfortable spot, and then he slowly drifted away into the REM state.

Do I know you?

He heard a voice.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

A child appeared behind Logan in the space that had been empty, but was now a hall of what seemed to be a hospital. The place was bright white and certainly had the look of being sterilized. The child was some where in between the ages of 7 and 10. His hair was past his ears and tangled and he wore an over sized gray shirt. He had a very pretty little face, if he hadn't been scowling, but the most striking feature in the little Asian boy was the blue color of his eyes.

"They'll lock you away if you are caught wandering the hallways." Then the child narrowed his eyes at the older boy. "You aren't one of the figments of my imagination are you? If you are, I'll ignore you until you go away."

*means "beautiful night child"

(Reply to this) (Thread)

dreammaster
2009-04-27 07:18 am UTC (link)

He didn't look at all like the man Logan knew in Elysium, except for the vividly blue gaze that bore into Logan. But that didn't matter. When Logan knew someone, when he had a connection with them in the real world, it was easier to recognize them in dreams. The visage their psyche presented was not how he recognized them. It was their feelings. "Irei-san..." He whispered softly.

Logan seemed to have a knack for entering dreams where the dreamer saw themselves as a child. He had done so with Hayate and now Irei. Maybe they wanted to ease themselves with the innocence of childhood. Logan wasn't sure. He didn't have his own dreams to compare them to.

"It's all right," Logan said quietly to the slip of a boy. "I can go where ever I want." It was true. In dreams, he was no encumbered by much, save for a dreamer with a strong will. But maybe if he could make Irei believe he was in control, he could keep the reigns on this dream. He was already feeling a great deal of uneasiness, the cold sterility of the hospital chilling him to the bone. "And if I'm not supposed to be wandering the hallways, why are you?" He tilted his head to the side. He'd never spoken so freely to Irei in real life. He'd never spoke to him at all, not directly at least.

He stood in front of the boy, waiting for him to do something. He wasn't really sure what to expect from this dream, from Irei's mind. But he was curious. Mitsuko seemed to be very fond of him and Logan wanted to know what to expect from that.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

iseedeadpeople
2009-05-16 03:21 pm UTC (link)

The child’s eyes grew cold at the mention of the word irei. “Don’t call me that! That’s not my name! Why do people keep calling me that? My name is Shinsuke!” The child version of Irei looked as if he was about to cry.

“I’ve been here for years. The doctors never find me anymore. Nobody even bothers to look for me. Not even him.” The child looked to the left of them where a set of doors appeared. There seemed to be nothing remarkable about the doors, and they just looked liked they might lead into what might be a patient’s room, if this was in fact a hospital. “He acts like I don’t exist anymore.”

Suddenly the door opened and Shinsuke turned and walked over to it in his bare feet. He peeked inside the door where instead of a room, the door opened up into a vast dark desert. The sky was a combination of dark purple and black, with huge black monoliths rising up against the background. The sand seemed to glitter despite the lack of light. It looked as if a surrealist painter’s work had come to life within the dreaming.

Also out in the wastes were motionless figures that resembled humans, but not quite. The figures were translucent even in the darkness and they remained still over a mound of sand. Suddenly there was another Irei, this one looking more like the one Logan knew in reality. Even for the familiarity, there was something different about him. He was followed by child-like monsters that only came up to his elbows. He then started to dig in the sand, moving the dirt and grit that covered what were apparently corpses. It was a shallow grave, and the monsters fell on the corpse and started to devour it. The other Irei bent down as well and ate a piece of the desert preserved flesh and the motionless figure that had marked the place, disappeared.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dreammaster
2009-05-18 04:36 pm UTC (link)

Logan's eyes grew wide at the sight of Irei becoming upset. He knew it was him. It was the man he knew in Elysium that his sister was so fond of. But the child version did not want to admit that. "Sorry," Logan said softly. "I mistook you for someone else. Shinsuke-san... All right." He gave the boy a small smile. "It's a good name."

He listened intently to the young boy, trying to understand the rather cryptic speech. Understanding what was meant in dreams was difficult. It was almost like coming into a movie halfway through. Logan was thrown into places he'd never been, with people he didn't know, but he was expected to get what was going on. So he just listened.

There was a sinking feeling in his stomach as the doors opened. Nightmares were always unsetting. They caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up and goosebumps to form on his flesh. He never understood why he seemed to be attracted to them. But maybe it made sense. His own mind was so unsettled, he naturally gravitated towards such visions. That didn't make it any easier.

Logan shook his head furiously. He didn't want to deal with this. He didn't want to see it. Yet he was riveted. He couldn't look away for the terrifying sight.

"Irei-san... Please..." Logan begged softly. "It doesn't have to be this way." His eyes grew wide as the preserved bodies were revealed. The cannibalistic scene caused Logan's stomach to lurch. He turned his head to throw up. In the back of his mind, he knew his real body had experienced that. His sleeping form had convulsed and thrown up what was left of Christmas dinner next to his bed. But still, he couldn't wake up. He was trapped within Irei's nightmare.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

iseedeadpeople
2009-05-19 04:51 pm UTC (link)

The adult-monster version of Irei looked up from the grisly feast and noticed Logan for the first time. He face twitched into a smile as he ignored the boy's pleading. The images of Irei's past and the readings from his necromancy book seemed to thread together in the nightmare, creating a sort of broken narrative.

"Be careful, those monsters might decide to eat you instead."

"Why even bother trying to talk to a monster? He won't listen to you." The younger version of Irei, Shinsuke had changed and grown up a little. He looked still a little younger than Logan, but his hair had grown out, looking almost like a girl's. He was thin and pretty with smooth white skin, but he already had the cynical smile of an adult. "Maybe it's just what I'll become. This place is really messed up, you know."

Young Irei reached up and touched his hair. "Normally they don't allow patients to grow their hair out. Afraid that they will choke on it. I guess they don't think that way with me. So why am I still here?" He rubbed the strands of hair in between his fingers.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dreammaster
2009-05-22 07:36 pm UTC (link)

Logan was a little lost on what to do. He was so much worse at dealing with nightmares, at manipulating the dreamscape. With a man like Irei-- where the dark feelings were so deep seeded in his psyche-- it was even more difficult. Dreams were meant to be a way to deal with things the conscious mind couldn't deal with. Logan had no idea of the psychological ramifications of him changing those dreams were.

"If you hurt me, my sister will kick you ass," Logan said, voice trembling slightly. He looked to the younger version of Irei to the demonic one. "Do you remember her?" He tried to appeal to Irei's more recent memory. "You hang out with her a lot. In fact, sometimes I think you guys are..." He trailed off, uncertain how to finish and unsure it was even working in the first place.

"It doesn't have to be like this," Logan whispered. "I can make it better here. You just have to let me. Will you let me?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

iseedeadpeople
2009-05-23 02:26 pm UTC (link)

"Hurt you?" The younger version of Irei raised his eyebrow at the teenager. "Why would I hurt you?" He let go of his hair and motioned out into the dark desert scene. "He would hurt you. Those things would kill you the minute you stepped out on to the sand. That's why I stay here."

The dream self of Irei seemed not to notice or recognize Logan's description of Mitsuko. The dream itself was focused inwardly, and on events that had occurred in Irei's life in a more exaggerated surreal fashion. A the white walls of the hospital were a stark contrast to the murky darkness that lay beyond the doors.

"Not to say there aren't horrors in the hospital." He leaned against a wall and shut his eyes. "Bad things can happen behind closed doors when people don't bother to watch."

In that moment the lights of the hospital went off, leaving the two boy in darkness. It was such a complete darkness that it was impossible to see ones own hand in front of their face; although, it could not impact hearing. Creaking sounds like that of a metal bed beat a rhythm in the darkness as pathetic sniffles and whimpers accompanied it.

"How could you change the past?" The familiar sound of Irei's normal voice speaking in English cut through the darkness toward Logan and the background noises stopped. "As soon as you are gone it will return."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dreammaster
2009-07-14 04:49 am UTC (link)

Logan felt like he might be sick. He knew that people held dark things in their minds, terrible things, but Irei's mind was darker than most. While it was all metophorical, there was a strange sense of reality. There was a darkness in his life Logan hadn't truly known about before. And it scared him. Even Hayate's dreams had not been this disturbing.

"You know, I really don't think I like the idea of my sister being in love with you," Logan said to Irei-- any Irei-- it didn't matter. He didn't know if Mitsuko was actually in love with Irei. Actually, considering how she acted when she was with Loki, she probably wasn't in love with Irei. But it was the only way he knew to state it. There was definitely more than friendship and 'friends with benefits' wasn't a concept Logan really knew about.

Logan shook his head. He wanted to get out of the dark, wanted to be somewhere familiar again. "Even if this is the past, it's not actually happening again. It's an echo. A distortion of what happened before. And I can change that. But you have to let me."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

iseedeadpeople
2009-07-27 03:54 pm UTC (link)

Irei's mind did tend to be a dark place. His past had left a marked impression on him. Even Sascha with his telepathy tended to keep his talent to himself if Irei were having especially dark thoughts, not because he was frightened of what he would find there, but because he was respectful of Irei's privacy. At least in his mind anyways.

"Oh I doubt very seriously she's in love with me. She's too smart for that." Irei hoped that was the case with Mitsuko. Coming off a relationship like she had with Loki and falling for someone like himself wasn't healthy. He made a great rebound guy though. No feelings hurt when they go their separate ways. He appeared in front of Logan and he appeared to be wearing the darkness of his mind around his body like a cloak. It seemed to almost swirl around him as if it were a living thing.

"You can't change the past so what does it really matter? Even if you do change it, whatever you turn it into will be false, and as soon as you are gone it will return. Things that happen in the mind are only temporary anyways. Do whatever you want. I don't care." Irei turned away from the form of the boy that seemed to be residing in his mind.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dreammaster
2009-07-31 01:26 am UTC (link)

Logan hadn't meant to end up in Irei's dream. In fact, he very much would have liked to stay out of them. For the most part, Logan liked to stay out of the dreams of people he knew. Dreams were private, instinctual. Things that should not be shared with other people. They could be easily misunderstood, as the dreamer was not entirely aware of what was going on. But here he was, inside of Irei's innermost thoughts. It made him far more unsure of the necromancer than he already was.

"I've never known love to be particularly smart," Logan whispered, thinking of his own crushes on Kaiya and Chris. He didn't know if Mitsuko was in love with Irei-- and desperately hoped she wasn't-- but love was rarely logical. "And even if she doesn't, she cares for you. I can see that much."

Irei's next words caused Logan's stomach to clench. No, you couldn't change the past. His own thoughts about the past-- his past-- slipped into the dark dreamscape. Logan had no dreams of his own, but his thoughts could impress upon the dream he was in. And his thoughts were of bodies. A beautiful redheaded woman, covered in blood and debris-- his mother. An older Japanese man, bruised and perfectly still-- his father. Two women, mutilated and hanging-- Kaiya and Faye.

Logan grit his teeth, but could not fully turn away from the bodies his subconscious has produced. "Sometimes a lie is the only thing that can keep you going."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

iseedeadpeople
2009-08-08 06:54 am UTC (link)

"You are a child. You do not know much about anything yet." Within the dreaming, Irei was done looking at the young Logan. His words and thoughts were a lot less calculated within his mind as he lacked the buffer of his body to give him any sort of pause. It was almost like a stream of consciousness.

"That is why I do not love anyone. Makes things less...stupid."

Irei looked at the bodies Logan made appear within the dreaming and smiled slightly as he spoke to Logan without looking at the boy. "Probably not the best place to bring the dead bodies of those you loved. The monsters will eat their souls, you know. One day I will become like them. Necromancy is a dark burden to bear. If you can't control it most end up going insane, or killing themselves."

He walked among the bodies as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He knelt down and looked at the man who must have been Logan and Mitsuko's father. "You better leave before the reappear. Otherwise they will eat you too."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

~FIN~

dreammaster
2009-08-13 10:15 pm UTC (link)

Logan was at a loss for what to say to this dream-Irei. He was feeling insulted and confused. The only thing he was really certain of was that he didn't much care for Irei. He knew he shouldn't judge people by their dreams, but it was hard when he knew of his sister's feelings for the man. She was the only family Logan had left and he needed to hold onto her. If Irei was dangerous-- as his dream seemed to indicate-- Logan didn't want him anywhere near his sister.

Maybe it was because of the demons in his mind-- the ones Irei thought would devour those he cared about-- that made him want to keep everyone at bay. Logan knew those feelings. Not wanting anyone to get to close, for fear of losing them. But unlike Irei, Logan still craved closeness. It overwhelmed any fear. It seemed Irei had none of that.

"This has been very enlightening, Irei." Logan bowed slightly. "Thank you for... Teaching me something."

As Logan felt himself fading back into reality, he focused on the lesson Irei had taught him: To keep that Necromancer away from his sister.

(Reply to this) (Parent)