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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:10 pm
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There was a time when Kaleb had liked grey, rainy days. It always put a damper on activity, leaving people to their indoor tasks with the sound of raindrops pattering peacefully on the roof overhead. A pleasant time to curl up in a blanket with a book.
Since his recent change in dreaming habits though, Kaleb always felt a little uncomfortable when the sky was dark and overcast. He put the sudden emergence of unsettling nightmares down to stress, having to move to a new place and live for the first time on his own, compounded with new classes and so many new people. No doubt it was fuelled by the doubtful knowledge that magic existed in this town.
Tonight he was doomed to another bout of wandering through that unnerving environment, soaked to the bone and wary of any lurking shadows. He was scared of what he might encounter this time, but at least it was only a dream, right? A remarkably lucid one maybe, but still just a dream.
Blade Kuroda Feel free to toss in any details about tonight's scenic location, Kaleb is still quite unfamiliar with most of the town!
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:24 pm
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Other Ashdown was as drab as always. Gloomy skies that poured out a never ending stream of rain from them. The town itself seemed rather abandoned, as usual. Shun found himself sulking among the shadows, trying to keep a fairly low profile lest he attracted the attention of something unwanted. He was practicing a little bit more magic as well, while he had the chance. Slowly but surely, he was getting more of a hang of it.
If only that were enough. He needed to learn, one way or another, though.
Nearby, he heard some light footsteps upon the pavement. With a tilt of his head, he went to check out just who it was. It could be another visitor, or a potential foe, so he was silent as he moved around the corner of some old home. The shadows cast by the building seemed to grow, creeping towards the lone figure nearby.
He didn't recognize him, though he appeared young.
"Lost?" he called out, sticking to the shadow of the house for the time being.
Total: 177
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 11:34 am
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Kaleb was aware of the shadows as he quickly walked down the street, and kept just ahead of them without breaking into a run. That was one thing he had learned about these dreams, even though there was no real light to cast dark shadows, they existed anyway. Sometimes deeper than you would expect, or more sharply edged than should have been possible in the drab atmosphere. He didn't want to get near them.
Plenty of suspicious shadows, and no people. At least none he had encountered during the creepy dreams, so when he heard a male voice call out in his direction, he jumped visibly. The voice was clear, unlike the whispers or murmurs that seemed to drift through the gloomy, deserted town.
"No, I think... Maybe," He replied, glancing nervously around for the source of the voice and quickening his pace. Meeting anything was usually an unsettling experience, and he would rather keep going than stand still and wait.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 4:06 pm
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This time when Kaleb turned in the direction of the voice he spotted the source, a stern looking man with a scar on his face. It was not a man who radiated reassurance or welcoming, but under such dark circumstances Kaleb might not have trusted the guy if he did. It seemed more real this way, more believable.
"No, I've had this dream before, a couple times at least," the freckled teen replied. His eyes darted down towards the ground where the shadow kept on creeping, and took another couple steps away from it. While it was usually hard to hold a conversation with another person, the distraction at least took his mind off his daytime insecurities.
"I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go though. Other than away from this," Kaleb added quickly, gesturing at the shadow that maintained it's creeping advance.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 4:47 pm
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"In theory? It's not something I'd like to test right now..." Kaleb said, taking another step. The stranger's words were probably meant to be both a reassurance and a warning, but the implications were pretty bad. Having these dreams was bad enough, not getting enough rest and falling asleep during the day was interrupting his studies, but what would happen to him if he did end up here while awake?
A part of him was still skeptical though. Although a lot of people took dreams very seriously, interpreting them as messages from the innermost self or even as a sort of fortune telling depending on the believer. But there was more evidence to suggest the brain was just stringing together a story out of randomly firing neurons. The nightmares could be stress related, and neurons that fired frequently could become more sensitive to firing, thus explaining the recurring nature of the rainy Ashdown imagery.
"I'm not sure I could convince that to do me any favours," Kaleb finally added, gesturing to the shadow still advancing slowly towards him.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2017 5:27 pm
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"Ferrets aren't... so bad." Kaleb admitted, his distraction reaching a peak as he looked around the street for anything that might help him deal with the creeping darkness. Finally a flash of determination crossed his freckled face, and he veered away from the centre of the road to take refuge under a large, unkempt oak by the sidewalk. He firmly planted his feet in the long, wet grass, and for a minute seemed to brace for something awful to happen.
Yet nothing happened. The shadows that had followed him curiously across the pavement simply disappeared into the dark equivalent cast by the tree. And despite his nervous imaginings, nothing emerged to eat him alive or anything. He was left standing under the oak completely unharmed, directly across the street from the stranger.
"Sorry," Kaleb apologized, although for what he couldn't say. Now that he was no longer worrying about the shadows, the full awkwardness of his social skills had started to kick in. Dream or not, it felt real enough. "I suppose I just have to get used to this."
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