A World of Dust and Souls

Back in the room, team Sunset went about to their individual bunks. Tyson had made an effort to put a "Do not disturb" sign on their door, and considering the bombs that he put on said door, he was planning on enforcing that sign. The night went around, and everyone went to sleep. Not everyone dreamed.

***

Sterling

For sterling, the second he closed his eyes he found himself standing in the floor of a colliseum. He could hear the crowd in the distance, but there was nothing but black. From the darkness, a single knight appeared.



"YoU aRe PoTeNtIaL?" it scoffed, "pAtHeTiC."

***

Sienna

It was a broken guarden. The plants wilting, the sun smoldering ahead. Yet in the center of it all, a snake.



"Order? What a small thing you are."

***

Nisha

Sand, endless sand as far as the eye can see. The night sky stretched on, but there was no stars.

What the hell is this?

Nisha stood there in the ocean of sand, turning around for any sign of something other than sand. It was in vain. She hunched forward and hugged herself, taking small steps forward.

Well, anything would look small from that height. Sienna took a step back, automatically reaching with her Semblance for any of the plants nearby that could be restored to life - and thus used to defend herself if the serpent attacked. If any of them would respond to her command they would be more useful than using the seeds she carried.

Sterling unsheathed his sword. "allow me to show you why I was chosen."

Nisha

The desert stretched on forever. Every step only put the dones behind her, and the horizon remained forever out of reach. Minutes stretched out to hours, hours turned into something else.

She couldn't tell how long it had been.

The night was cold.

There are no stars in the sky, and it looked down as if to ask.

"What's the point of going on? There's nothing there, so why go on?"

Sienna

There was nothing.

An infinite mass of water, deep, cold and unforgiving. The only thing that was alive was the thing in front of her. It grinned, as well as a behemoth like it could grin.

"You reach for help? Even now, you waste your time looking for something else to do the fighting for you?"

It sounded... disappointed.


Sterling

There's a gruff, broken sound that Sterling recognized as a laugh.

"ChOsEn? YoU aRe NoThInG WiThOuT yOuR sOuL."

He points, and Sterling realizes that there's nothing in his hands. No sword, nothing. Just him and his hands.

A single step brought his attention to the knight. It lowered its sword, a black mass of disgusting steel pointed straight at his heart.

"TeLl Me, WhErE iS yOuR fAmIlY? WhEn YoU NeEd ThEm, WhErE aRe ThEy?"

"That has to be the stupidest way I've ever heard anyone try and describe my Semblance." Sienna was annoyed, both by the insult and the fact that apparently all of her seeds were gone as well. That was rather frustrating.

The thought keeps echoing in her head. "Why continue? Why go on? Nothing. Just give up." Replaying over in her mind that her body was the only thing determined to keep moving straight. No particular direction in mind but just walking forward.

Sienna

The serpent stretched down, snout mere feet away from the girl. It looked ready to snap her up in its jaw hissing, it's massive touch flicking at Sienna's hair.

"How would you like me to sssspeak of it?"

Nisha

The next step she took, the sand turned to grass. Dunes of sand transformed to flowing grasslands. The night sky was blasted away to a calm orange of a new morning.

On the top of a distant hill, a woman held something in her hand.



She looked up from her orb and stared down at Nisha with a blank expression.

"Well, since you asked, how about respectfully?" Sienna said, backing away. Personal space being important and all.

For a second, the serpant didn't say a thing.

Then, it grinned.

"Very well then. I shall treat it with the respect that it deserves."

It opened its maw and swallowed her whole.

Next thing she knew, she was back in her room, the sound of Tyson snoring into the night being the only noise.

Sienna opened her eyes then sat bolt upright in bed, looking around the room as her heart pounded. Dark, no giant snakes, just as she'd left it...and her Semblance reported the presence of several plants all around the room, which was a welcome contrast to whatever that dream had been. Among them the bonsai on her bedside table, which had grown out rather sharply...maybe she'd done that on accident while half asleep or something. Sighing, she waved a hand at it, willing it to return to its previous, more orderly size and shape.

Sterling clenches his fist.

"My family is with me. They are the reason I have the power i have, I am never alone. "

Almost in unison with the warmth of the new scene, she looked around in awe. Her arms relaxing to her side as the feeling of tranquility overpowered her former feelings of despair. She looks at the woman ahead and moved over to the woman, hesitant to call out.
"H-hello?"

Sterling

The knight stood there, staring at the prince. Then, a rumble in his armor.

Laughter.

A sick polluted sound that wasn't, could never be human. Yet it felt like one. It had an aura. It stood like a swordsman, but not like the one that Sterling recognized. The knight favored his backfoot, holding his sword at his hip, ready to unsheath it in a blinding motion.

"Memories will not change the opponent before you," it said, it's voice changed. Deeper, wiser, "You must strike them down so that others might taste the title that you hold."

And behind the haze, a single red eye gleamed behind the visor.

"Remember the eye, the style, and know, that you couldn't save your family."

The knight twisted, then he moved. No, moved implied motion from one point to another. Instead, one instant the knight was at the end of the collosium, then he was in front of Sterling. His blade came out of his sheath, it went straight for his neck.

Then Sterling woke up in his room, a cold sweat running down his neck.

Nisha

The woman turned. But she didn't smile. Because she couldn't. Her skin was too smooth, her eyes to glossy and as she moved her hands, her joints caught in some unseen trap before moving again.

"Hello," she said, her lips still as stone.

Good feeling fading. More unsettling Nisha felt as her feet froze in place. She didn't know what else to say that she only managed to say shakingly, "H-hello"

The thing tilted it's head.

"Why do you repeat yourself?"

Sterling wipes the sweat from his brow and gets up, walking over to the sink and splashes cold water on his face.

"You're awake too, huh?" Sienna said, quietly as possible so as not to wake Nisha or Tyson up.

"Yep, just... just a bad dream, how about you?"

"...Same, actually..." Sienna said with a wince, rather ashamed to admit she'd been woken up by a dream. An exceptionally vivid, lifelike dream but come on.

"What was yours about? Mine was a doozy."

"I dreamed I got eaten by some giant monster - I don't think it was a Grimm. For one thing it could talk, which was unfortunate because it was also really rude." Sienna said. It sounded really dumb, now that she said it, but dreams were weird like that so she did her best to get over it.

"Huh... I was fighting in an arena and getting mocked, and then killed, by a knight looking... thing." Sterling's also sounded dumb but hey whatever. Sterling takes a deep breath.

"hey Sienna... do you think that this whole, 'god" thing... do you think they may have been wrong? "

There was a pause as she considered the question. "Maybe?" Sienna shrugged. "Who do you mean when you say 'they' are wrong?"

"These... well Gods I guess. like when I talked with the goddess of potential. What I saw back at the church... I saw something I had never seen in myself before. I'm afraid that... I'm afraid that I won't be able to make the right decisions to fulfill my potential." Sterling paused after what he just said. 'that... didn't make sense did it?"