thecapitol | Once Upon A Dream

Once Upon A Dream - 4th wall

The Tributes will not be warned for when their injections will occur. For those who are known to be compliant and willing to work with the capitol, they may be taken aside and told they are getting a shot or whatever else may convince them. Others may be injected within their sleep (and have been drugged earlier to keep them that way).

If you are not a tribute, your injection comes on your decision, having cashed in your ticket at Hypnogogia for a good rest and stay.

Everyone is ushered to bed at once and everyone will be quick to discover why.

The first effect is a sort of paralysis - not the terrifying inability to move, but a signal to the brain that says why move? Moving is so much effort. It's quickly followed by drowsiness, and then a chill that radiates from the needle into the body, and finally, unconsciousness.

This shared dreaming carries on whenever you sleep for seven total days, with the Expos running during their waking hours. Those with Vistors will meet them within the dream.

Day 1: It starts as a typical day in the tower. You may very well not realise it to be a dream. The only difference is that there are others here, ones who won't be around when you wake. They've been instructed to wait for you. You can show them the whole of the Capitol in this time, if you wish.

Day 2: On this day, the world is... yours. Some of the world will bleed into the mini worlds of others, so long as you have the wish in mind to visit them. Some details about the worlds may be off but it will initially seem as though you've finally returned home.

Day 3: A paradise. Any paradise. Whatever your characters would personally deem as a paradise. Like with day 2, the dream worlds will bleed into one another.

Day 4: On day four, it starts off somewhere inspired by a District. It's been tailored to suit the Capitol of course but

̨̙̟͒̒̔ͬ̄̌̓̓s̋͒ͩ̈́ͯ́̾ͭ͑͘҉̮͈̪̲̼̜̟͡ó͔͔͖̼̂̓̌̓m̰̹ͩ͑̽̆̽̚͟͞e͙̰̬̻̋ͣ͑ͭ̄̌̀ṭ̡͈͔̺̀͂̈́ͯ̎͛̓́́ḣ̍̉͌҉̮̖͔͉̜͉̘͓į̶̥̼͙͒̏́̈n̼̬̼͖͖̳͊͐̈g̷̱͈̦̀ͣ͒̒̅͛ͯ̐̿ ̵̡̻̳̯ͫ̓̃ͭͨg̵͚͚͖̏̒̏ͨ̐̏ͦ͞͡ȏ͚̳͓̱̩̞͚͙ͮ̊̄̐̂͊e͇͇̦̳̦ͥ̽͌̆͂̇͆ͤͅs͙͙̠̝͍̹͔͓͛̽̾͑͂͆ ̠͖̘̥̤̑ͧ͘w̛̰̰̗͕̻̯̰͕̃͌͘r͖̰͚̋o̵̭̺̺̘͈͕͆̐̇̌ͣ͆͗͟n̷̫ͦ̆ͯ̀g̛̥͖͎̺͙͈ͮ̓͐̄̇.

The dream world seems to distort. From the setting, to those in it, for five seconds everything is warped and wrong, caught in an echo chamber. Then it goes dark and silent. From the dark, the nightmares crawl out. The nightmares may have things taken from memory, but most of it is a new and horrible scene where making sense isn't mandatory.

Capitolites are quickly awoken and refunded. They are given a (poor-tasting) drink that will offer them totally dreamless sleep. But they don't have to drink it if they do not wish...

[OOC: This is the day that D13 players will finally be able to participate and on every day following. You are allowed to post for this early.]

Day 5: The Capitol tries again to take back control of the dream, starting out with a fun and cute arena with super-soakers, glitter bombs, and weapons made from foam. It's happy and colorful. But it doesn't last long.

Soon enough, the dream warps again into a nightmare. The arena loses its harmlessness, becoming one that's very much a threat. This may be an arena from memory or something totally new.

Day 6: The Capitol hasn't given up fighting District thirteen's interference but they've taken to a new tactic. In attempt to drive them out, or at least pin some of the blame on thirteen, the sixth round of sleep is set in a bad memory. It can be any memory at all; something in the arena, something offworld, even things around the capitol or area around so long as it could've been caught on camera. Essentially, unless it's a blind spot, it's fair game.

Individuals who are free of or manage to fight through this torment are free to help the dreaming characters as they will-- or make things worse.

Day 7: War. Terrible war. This is what will be heard on the final day. It will echo out over the dream world. And that dream world will reflect the very terrible war spoken of. Is that your friend over there, looking shell-shocked? Is that your family laying there motionless? Who is that in the fray crying out? Could it be the one you love most?

This dream will leave very few survivors and will not last long. Those that do, will hear this: "Know the cost of selfish acts. Consider what you stand for."

[OOC: With this you may consider the fourth wall live! All tributes and any guests, Capitolites, and D13ers who are signed up may tag in here. Alternately, you may make your own logs! If you are tagging in here, you MUST warn with headers for any relevant topics that may upset players.]

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"I'm here because..." He hugs his legs, his eyelids drooping. "I guess because I'm not a very good Avatar."

He gestures towards the devastation. The quietness of death and rot. "All the airbenders are dead except me. All but two Southern waterbenders are dead too. The Fire Lord was in the middle of burning the whole Earth Kingdom when I left. I've been stuck in a world that isn't mine for almost a year, and who knows what else has been destroyed since then? This is what I did."

"You didn't do this," he replies in a firm voice as an arm reaches out to loop around Aang's shoulders and draw him into a loose hug. "You didn't kill the airbenders, Firelord Sozin did. If you hadn't left, you probably would have died with them. Raava can do a lot, but the Avatar State is draining and you were - and still are - a kid. One who had no training in any other element but air when they were wiped out. The waterbenders were destroyed by Sozin's heirs. You had no hand in that. They pushed a war onto the world. The Firelord burning the Earth Kingdom isn't your fault either. That was a choice he and those he led made. A choice you have done everything in your power to stop. And going to another world wasn't your choice either. A blame that can't be placed on your shoulders. So all this? You didn't do it."

He paused for a moment to let that sink in before he continued, "That doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't take responsibility and try to fix it. You are the avatar. But having that responsibility doesn't make the blame yours. Can you understand that?"

Aang leans into the hug, instinctively reaching out and grasping the man's shirt. There's something intimately familiar about the way he smells, the way he talks, and the way he moves. It's familiar and comforting, like a half-remembered lullaby. He listens quietly, letting his eyes drift closed so he can listen without being distracted by the sight of death all around him.

"I was supposed to stop the war before it started. Instead, I ran away. I abandoned the world. How is that not my fault?"

Maybe his past life is right. Maybe he couldn't have done anything if he had still been with the airbenders. But the fact remains that he wasn't there because he ran away, and he was asleep in an iceberg for a hundred years.

"You were twelve. You still are," Wan countered. "I didn't even stand up for myself the way I should have all along until I was eighteen. I was too scared to. I ran away a lot before that."

He starts to rub his younger self's arm in a slow, comforting manner, "It's hard to be brave. That's what makes bravery so important. I can't blame you for acting the way nearly any kid would. I probably would have run away, too. It took a lot less for me to run away from things when I was your age."

There's something deeply comforting about the knowledge that his tendency to run from his problems is shared by past lives. It's not just a failing on his part; it's a characteristic that carries through the rebirth cycle. His past lives were able to have that piece of themselves and still protect the world.

This might be the first time an adult told him that it was natural to have run away. Back home, adults tell him that it's his responsibility to save the world and he failed. Not many of them are compassionate to the pain that kind of responsibility comes with.

"I want to be brave. I want to save the world." Aang takes a deep breath. "But I haven't been able to go back. I'm not sure if they even know how to send people back. And I'm worried that if I fight too much, they might kill me, and the Avatar spirit will never be able to go back to our world to continue the cycle. I hate feeling so helpless."

Wan leans his head against the top of Aang's and takes a deep breath, letting out a big sigh before saying, "I'm sorry. I hate feeling helpless too. And I don't want to see you die, either. I don't want to have to encourage you to take that kind of risk to help others, and I don't want to encourage you not to. That's a choice you're going to have to make for yourself. I know I'd throw myself into that danger, but I've always been pretty reckless. You know I once threw myself off a cliff that sat higher than the clouds? I couldn't even airbend yet."

He laughs, hoping the confession and slight change of topic would improve Aang's mood even if he couldn't give him better advice than he already had. A change of perspective had to be something Aang came to on his own. Wan could only show him the path to it. And maybe a more round-about path would be easier to follow.

"I tried to just throw myself into it. It didn't work." Even in a dream, he's careful not to explicitly say that he fought against the Capitol deliberately. He tried blowing up an arena one time and only succeeded in collapsing the ceiling. The concrete dust in the air killed some people. He's been finding it's a better idea to do things quietly, even if that's hard when all the adults around him are trying to not tell him how they do things quietly. He will still fight; it just requires a lot more waiting than rushing one of the peacekeepers would.

The shift in conversation provokes a smile and a soft laugh of his own. "Really? You didn't even know how to airbend? You're crazy." Although, to be honest, Aang would have probably done the same thing. "Once, I redirected lightning the Gamemakers sent to kill me. I've never done it before and I've never learned how to bend lightning, but this friend I was with was going to try to take the hit himself and I couldn't let that happen. I think I might have given him a little heart attack. He just carried me around the rest of the day so I couldn't possibly get into more trouble."

In retrospect, Bucky's reaction is both touching and funny. The man always goes out of his way to keep Aang safe, even if Aang is reckless and doesn't always follow his advice. "Why did you jump off the cliff?"

"Actually, I wanted to get to the airbenders," he confesses with a sly grin. He knows exactly the kind of reaction his response is going to get and he's waiting for it. "They lived on a flying city and since I couldn't fly, I had to throw myself off something to get there."

"The airbenders?"

Aang immediately perks, looking up at Wan's face with wide, curious, searching eyes and a cautious smile. "What happened when you got there? What were they like? What do you mean that they lived in a flying city? What--"

He pauses, then cocks his head. "When was this?" Which Avatar is this man? Aang has never heard of airbenders literally living on clouds except in old stories. Those old stories also say that airbenders are descended from birds, and Aang's not so sure he should put much stock by that.

"Oh, a while back. Before they built the temples," Wan answers the last question with a wave of his hand, dismissing it's importance. The scenery around them changes with the action, shifting to a different battlefield. One long since overgrown, where giant earth discs stood as crumbling, silent monuments jutting up from the wild grass were the only evidence of the battle that had once waged there.
Wan couldn't get it completely away from a scene of war, but he could at least take it to a point where peace had come again to the land.

"They were good people. Friendly once I was inside the city. But so scared of outsiders that when they saw me for the first time outside the bounds of their home, they ran. Humans didn't do a lot of traveling between cities in my time. But I meant what I said. The city they lived on and in, flew. It floated above the clouds when it wanted to, and hid within them when it decided it needed to. It was really peaceful for most of my short time there."

He pauses before cringing slightly, "I stayed less than a day before I had to leave."

Before the Temples? It must have been a long, long time ago.

Aang doesn't immediately notice that the scenery has shifted, but he feels the atmosphere change, and that prompts him to glance around. A battlefield, one that is fundamentally familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. He wants to ask questions, but those can wait for the questions he already has lined up.

It seems odd to him that an airbender wouldn't be friendly. The Temples are always hospitable to travelers. Then again, things change with time. "It sounds amazing. I wish I could remember." A flying city. It sounds like something only in his dreams.

He gives a little frown, if only because he feels there's a story there. "Why did you have to go so fast?"

Wan pulls his arm away from Aang and leans forward a little, resting his elbows on his knees as he laced his fingers together and used them to prop his chin up. His gaze settles into the distance as though he was watching his past play out in his mind.

"I brought trouble to them. I didn't mean to, I didn't know I had, but I still did it. They were attacked because of actions I took days before I ever encountered them. I defended them, of course, but I couldn't stay. I had to fix the problems caused by the mistake I'd made."

He laughs at himself, a self-depreciating laugh that faded out as quickly as it came, settling into a smile, "I left them after gaining the power of air. And a travel companion. A friend."

More than a friend, but Wan thought it best to leave out the whole 'literal soulmate with the surprisingly aggressive spirit of light and peace that occasionally takes over when Aang gets pissed and wrecks havoc on the world because someone hurt the avatar's feelings and she is not going to take that shit lying down'... thing.

Aang listens intently, because there's something reassuring at the knowledge of a past life's mistakes and successful (and unsuccessful) attempts at fixing them. It reminds him that they were human, just as he is human, and that the Avatar will always make mistakes.

"You mastered airbending after only a day?" Aang asks skeptically, because he takes 'gaining the power of air' as a euphemism for learning airbending techniques.

"Who was your friend?" A while ago, Aang had a near-death experience that involved an exploding turtle-duck egg (or, as the people here call them, grenades) and he had visions. He forgot which Avatar he was and mistook the people around him for old loved ones, people who he'd cared for in other lives. It makes him curious about all the various friends he has made over his many lifetimes, and if any of these friends can really be remembered and still loved after enough reincarnations have gone by.

He has learned about the story of Raava and Vaatu, but he learned it from the Capitol, so he doesn't trust their word on it. The thought of him being part spirit is a strange one and probably Capitolite sensationalism.

"Ah... no," Wan corrects, blinking at Aang in confusion for a moment as he tried to figure out that logic. "It took me a few months to master it. I uh... "

He hesitates, not wanting to admit that he wasn't born a bender. That he was the first Avatar. He didn't want the focus of the conversation to shift too much toward that out of the sheer curiosity Aang had. That curiosity was something he and most of his reincarnations had in common. He knew how powerful it could be, the driving force it could have. He did throw himself off a cliff because of it.

"I mean that I gained the knowledge of how to use the element," he continues, deciding to shift the topic to a different one Aang could identify with. "I had already mastered fire. But after leaving the air nomads with the power of air, I had to gain the power of water and earth and learn to master them in less than a year. There was kind of a really important deadline to meet if I was going to fix my mistake."

It was a toss up if he had not heard the question about his friend, or if he had and purposely ignored it.

Aang narrows his eyes suspiciously. He knows himself, and that means he knows his past lives, and he can tell when he's being given the go around. His respect for his elders prevents him from calling his past life out on it, though. If he's avoiding something, there's probably a good reason for it.

Besides, there's something a little more interesting there than prying anyway. "You had to master all four elements in just a year?" Aang unconsciously mirrors his past life's posture by putting his chin in his hands and propping his arms on his knees. "I wish I could say I didn't know how that feels."

It sounds a lot like his own story. He makes a mistake, the airbenders are hurt because of it, and then he has to learn how to fix it in a year. He's cautious about asking the next question, but... "How did it go? When it was time to fix your mistake?"

He didn't answer right away, his eyes focusing on one of the earth discs as he considers the best way to word his reply. He knew Aang was looking for advice, for hope that things would go well with his own struggle against the Firelord.

Wan takes a deep breath and nods at the earth disc, "I died a failure. Right over there. I lived a very long time, Aang. I died an old man in the middle of the war that created what remains of this battlefield. But while I did defeat the person I set out to defeat, the one that attacked the air nomads, imprisoned him and stopped him from spreading darkness and chaos across the world... I never managed to fix my mistake. And every Avatar that has come after me has had to take up responsibility for my actions and continue to try."

He turns his head to look Aang in the eyes, "Defeating the Firelord will begin to mend the wounds his family has caused, but it won't fix the mistakes of the past. You blame yourself for the death of your people, the entire Air Nomad culture. Defeating Ozai won't bring them back. It won't 'fix' that mistake, even if it were your fault. And it's not."

Wan pauses just to make sure that sets in before going on. "Things will never be the same as they once were. Change is an important part of life. But even though they won't be the same, they can be just as good. Or better. And that's what we have to work toward. That's how we fix our mistakes. All you can do, all any of us can do, is continue to try. To never, never give up. In this life and every life to come."

Had this been a couple years earlier, when Aang first rolled out of the iceberg, he would have been deeply disheartened. There is no fixing what happened. Defeating the Fire Lord is just the beginning of a long and arduous journey, one that may have no end. The Air Nomads are dead, and there's no balancing the world without them.

Now, he just listens. He listens until the end, then nods solemnly. He's learned that things are never so easy as that. There is no such thing as 'fixing' the world. There is only making mistakes and moving forward, trying to mitigate and heal the damage as best as he can.

He'll probably die a failure too. Even if he goes back home, defeats the Fire Lord, and starts rebuilding, there are no Air Nomads and there won't be any left except for any children he has in the future.

"Maybe failing isn't so bad." He meets his past life's gaze evenly. It must have been hard, dying in a battlefield, knowing that you did what you could and still failed. Maybe that's Aang's fate too, beating himself up while he dies in the dirt. "It seems like all my past lives failed at something. Avatar Roku couldn't stop the war. Avatar Kyoshi couldn't make sure the Earth Kingdom stayed peaceful. Avatar Kuruk couldn't protect his fiancee. I'm sure Avatar Yangchen made some mistakes I haven't heard about yet." Yangchen and Kyoshi are constantly fighting for the 'most intimidating past life' position. Kyoshi made a new island and towers over seven feet tall, but Yangchen was so effective at her job that no one dared make any trouble for Kuruk's whole generation because they feared her memory. "The world's still here after ten thousand years of the same failure protecting it lifetime after lifetime, isn't it?"

So maybe it'll still be there after he gets back. Maybe they'll still find a way to limp along long enough to rebuild. After all, the world has done it before.

"I won't give up." He takes a deep breath, then says, with more confidence, "I won't give up. I'll find a way back home. If I can't do it before I die?" Aang gives his past life a small, crooked smile. "Maybe District 4 will have a waterbender baby born there." He doesn't know if the reincarnation cycle will continue, but he has to have faith that it will. There's nothing he can do if it doesn't. The uncertainty just means that he has to be careful to not waste the life he has now on doing something stupid.

Wan stares at Aang for a moment before his smile breaks out into a full-faced grin. He reaches out to pull the boy into a playful hug, "That's the Avatar I know."

When he releases his younger self, he tilts his head thoughtfully, "How did you know it's been nearly ten thousand years since my time? I thought you didn't recognize me."

"I didn't know it was ten thousand years since your time. The Capitol just keeps saying that it's been ten thousand years of the Avatar, so I guess I just started saying that."

Aang narrows his eyes, tilting his head, but he doesn't look surprised. He had suspicions. "You're the first one, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I am. Sorry for avoiding that," He shut his eyes and nodded in apology, shrugging slightly. "I thought it would help you more if you weren't distracted by that. Not many of our lives have need to call on my memories anymore."

Edited 2015-08-20 00:10 (UTC)

"You were right. I would've been asking you too many questions to really listen."

That doesn't mean he can't ask questions now. He hugs his knees, staring at the very first Avatar intently.

"I don't know. I have a lot of questions that I think only you can answer now." He tilts his head and puts his cheek on his knee. "Is the Capitol telling the truth? Am I half spirit?"

Wan tilted his head, frowning in thought, "That depends on how you want to look at it. You're fully human. But you're also fully spirit. You can say that makes you half-spirit and half-human, but it's not strictly true. Raava is a part of us now, but she is also separate from us. We are bonded, not blended. We exist together in harmony and share many of the same thoughts and feelings, but we don't always work together. We can act separately through our shared body. You've seen it before. When the Avatar State took over. Raava acted when you could not."

And he knew that was something of a sore spot for Aang, but it was the truth. When Aang had been too angry or hurt or without the personal knowledge to act on his own behalf, the Avatar State had kicked in. Raava had taken control and did what she felt was needed. To protect the soul she shared eternity with.

"So the answer is... both yes and no. I like to think I'm not complete without her, but I know that if we hadn't joined, I would not be any less of the person I am. She is what gives us our power, though. That part of us that is spirit, is what makes us the Avatar. The Bridge."

Anyone else would have a headache at the philosophical, yes-and-no answer, but Aang grew up around monks of all people. This makes sense and is comfortable for him. Or, well, the way the answer is told is comfortable. The thought that he is blended with a spirit is... while not immediately unpleasant, still requiring a little bit of digestion.

"So... she was the one who froze me in the sea?" He's not sure how to feel about that. On one hand, far be it from him to question a spirit who saved his life, but on the other, couldn't she have thought of a way to save him that didn't involve clocking out of the world for a hundred years? "Is she... Is she behind all the times I've entered the Avatar state? Is she the one who controls it then?"

He's not sure. He always feels not himself when he enters the Avatar state, and yet more himself than he ever can be otherwise. Sometimes he's not entirely sure if he's making the decisions or some other version of him is, and yet at other times he feels like he's calling all the shots, but he tries to push questions like that away because he doesn't want to face the people dead and wounded by him when he enters that state.

The Capitol says over 100,000 Fire Nation people died during the battle of the Northern Water Tribe. The number makes his stomach churn.

"Not all the times, but most of them. And yes, she did freeze you in the sea." His voice remained calm, understanding. Aang's relationship with Raava was not the same as Wan's. Or the same as the other Avatars before Aang. It was rockier. Trust had been strained because of actions taken that didn't sit well with his reincarnation's world view. While that was a strength of reincarnation - having access to so many world views and experiences outside of the life you lived - it was also something of a weakness. It meant that sometimes the bonded souls would disagree and sometimes they would hurt each other.

"You didn't have the knowledge to seek out your past lives for aid in saving yourself yet. Actually, you were running from your past lives when it happened. We couldn't reach you then the way Roku eventually did. Raava could. So she acted to save you as best she was able. Your training should have enabled you to be in control at all times, but you never got it before the ice... The other times, when your anger and pain was too much for you to handle alone, she took over until you could be grounded again."

Wan smiled at Aang, "Katara's love for you has been a blessing."

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Once Upon A Dream - 4th wall

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