Quantum of Nightmares

    It is a dark night. The wind is bitter and a frosty fog hangs in the air. Light does little but cast blobs of useless gray, revealing nothign of one's surroundings.

    It is a night to stay inside.

    But there is at least one who does not stay in doors, despite the approach of midnight. Wake moves like a deeper shadow, barely even disturbing the air as she passes. Only when she reaches the Dome of Stars does she cast back a dark hood. Upon her hair, the frost swiftly takes hold and shimmers in the fitful light of lanterns that illuminate the threshold of the dome.

    A hand normally so very steady reaches out tremulously to slide a key into the door and with a smooth click, unlocks it. Stowing the key away in her cloak, Wakes hand rests on the great ring upon the door, the cold metal like white fire on her palm as she hesitates.

Make that two. It doesn't matter if it's chilly and foggy, the night is when certain folks are at there best. It comes with the territory of being a creature of darkness and perveyer of mystical things.

Or whatever it was that Kauchemar had been gazing upon in the bitter skies above with that look in her eyes that she's viewing something not in the physical realm.

Until a familiar presence passes nearby, barely noticable as it is. Kauchemar moves from her watching position, though it's less follow and more catching up with her speedy gait, because she's got a good idea of where she is going to find the passing presence near the Dome. "Kind of a cold night to be out alone, you know."

    Wake's hand grows steady at the sound of the familiar voice and smoothly the door is drawn open. Before she replies, she gestures for Kauchemar to step inside. When they enter, the door is drawn shut behind them.

    The great expanse inside the dome is lit with several lanterns, but the light only draws more attention to the sweeping shadows above, here and there pierced by a flickering star on the distant ceiling.

    "I am never alone, my dear," Wake says at last. "The darkest of nights cannot dispel the ghosts of memories. Some good, some more difficult."

    There's a slight change to her voice this evening. She remains confident, her posture ever bit the Baroness she is, but there's a tenderness that has never been revealed before.

Kauchemar follows inside, her head tilting a bit once the door is shut and Wake continues. She deals with people a lot herself, and the subtle differences don't go unnoticed. "Ah yes, the playground of ones own mind. The greatest of strengths... and the greatest of foes at the same time. Getting lost in its dark little corners can haunt more than any real ghost is capable of."

    "True indeed, my dear. And though we wrap ourselves in confidence and certitude in the righteousness of our cause,we all submit to the justice of the back corners of our minds every time we sleep."

    Without explanation, Wake leads the way across the floor of the dome and down a hallway. A short while later, she thrusts open a door and leads the way into what must be some kind of meeting room, though with only a simple table and a few chairs, the grandeur is somewhat lost. There is a fire place, however, and Wake lights it with a flick of fire from her fingertips.

    "I come here when I wish some space to simply breathe. There are some spectral visitors that I would rather not overburden my beloved with, and as of late, they have been visiting me with strange frequency."

    A breath and she draws out a chair, "Please, join me. It isn't much, but it's at least warm. Or will be, shortly."

"If anyone knows, my dear Wake..." It's the Nightmare that likes to toy with people's anxieties to make them mess up in a fight. "Even the beloved need their time to their own."

Kauchemar snaps her own fingers, and a few will-o-wisps appear to drift lazily in the air above them. It provides a little more warmth and light without breaking up the ambience of the mood. Which is turning out to be a fairly somer one so far. "Some burdens only we ourselves can deal with, no matter how those we gather close adore us."

    "Ghosts are a strange thing, aren't they? When we are children, we imagine them and wish they would leave us be. In our passing years we create them, and even embrace them, never wishing them to go away. Memory, after all, is all that can prove our existance to ourselves. Whether it be our own, that of others, or the memories captured in ones and zeroes on a computer."

    The wisps cast strange shadows on Wake's face, and the lattice of ice on her hair melts into sparkling dew. She regards Kauchemar for a time, simply meeting her friend's eyes.

    "I would risk a guess.. that you rather enjoy ghost stories."

Kauchemar claims herself a seat. Though in doing so turns the chair around to straddle it and lean with crossed arms upon the back. Her tail flicks off to the side, as does her mane as she gives her head a light shake to jostle stray locks from her face. "After all, what is a song but a memory with it's own soundtrack." A somber chuckle follows. "You already know me so well, Wake."

    "I think it is a good thing that you have opened yourself to me," replies Wake. "And now.. now it is time for me to start opening up as well. If this is all an eleaborate trap to draw out my darkest secrets, well, eventually we all must crack."

    The Baroness settles into a more comfortable pose. She almost looks like a normal person. Almost. But the ramrod straight posture cannot be utterly undone.

    "In the dream before this one, I lived in a city named Seoul. It was surrounded by mountains, so this is not so different, I suppose. I worked for the agency at the time. If this dream ever ends, perhaps I shall again? But Seoul was in the past, my first assignment, dealing with North Korea. My job was to identify.. contacts and help them work with us. Generally in the pursuit of freedom for their people."

Kauchemar chuckles softly. "True... but rest assure, I usually keep my probing for the enemy. And people that don't want to speak of their own accord."

Witty chitchat aside her attention is on Wake as she reaccounts. "Ah. Aaaaaah. Well, that certainly explains some of your skill at the more... subtle approaches. Finding the little cracks they tried to hide from the rest of the world."

    "I was quite good at it. I could speak the language, which, sadly, we can't do here. I rather miss it. Auto translate kinda took that away. I don't like this.. sterile language."

    Wake shakes her head, driving off the distraction. "So the rules of my role were simple. Keep your assets organized, educated, and safe. Care about them, but not too much. You never know what will happen out of sight, and North Korea was extremely dangerous for this work. Which is why it was so serious that I... violated protocol."

    "Kim was younger than me by a fair margin, ambitious, smart, she had a great future. She had an amazing smile, too. And.. you can no doubt guess what happened next?"

    Wake laughs softly at herself, then sighs. "When you are taught to go unseen and your secrets are kept from everyone, rules... don't mean as much."

Kauchemar nods a bit. So much about Wake and her skills, skills clearly not just based in what this world enables, makes sense now. Some people chose classes, races, even genders to be something different from what they were before.

Okay she can't comment on that last one as much. It's a weird spot... But otherwise, there were those like the two of them, that took to what they knew in a new form rather than discard it.

Kauchemar ahas softly. "Oh, the forbidden trap -- mixing of business and pleasure."

    "I was no James Bond, but perhaps I acted like one. The relationship was all whispers and precious moments. Very brief, but.. some things swiftly take root, and not to a shallow degree, either, I might add."

    Wake closes her eyes, wrapping herself in memories for a time. "There was a scent there, the woods.. and her, of course. But time was short, and I was needed in Shanghai. Shanghai'd, as it were.."

"And not just a relationship but... Well I imagine they wouldn't be too keen on it being 'that kind' of relationship, considering the location." Followed by a soft bemused snort. "Beat me to the pun. Like catching a slow boat to China."

    "So very true. I imagine it was a mix of excitement, fear, hope.. a cauldron of emotions," admits Wake. "But it was real enough. You can imagine I couldn't keep in touch. Her new handler would have gotten very suspicious. Or perhaps not. Thomas was nothing like me. Not careful enough. Not by a long shot."

    Wake is surprised that the bitterness and anger has worn away so much that she can speak without a hint of it anymore. "His lack of care had consequences. Before he was demoted, his lack of discretion led to Kim being detected by the RGB." Which is North Korean Intelligence. Which obviously ends.. poorly.

    "I was keeping track as much as I could, so I learned rather swiftly of what was going on. That Kim was.. lost."

Yep, it pretty much goes where Kauchemar was expecting it to.

"I get the idea," she replies with understanding. "You don't need to go into more detail than that. A sad thing... Not that there was much you could do by that point, without.... farther endangering yourself."

    "When the RGB gets you, you don't get away," replies Wake. Her tone is softer still, and she lets out a gentle sigh. "I.. hope that she was able to make the hard choice and save herself pain."

    The Baroness lowers her eyes and for a time, simply falls silent. The sound of the fire crackling makes the seconds draw out longer. In reality, it's not quite a full minute.

    "I changed considerably after that. I had my ghosts, and they were with me at all times. Even now. The ghost of Kim and the ghost of.. myself. As I was. Which is why I'm here tonight. The ghosts visit at strange hours, and on nights as dark as this, they have great power to disturb me."

Kauchemar laces her fingers together and rests her chin atop. "And so you've made this little corner away from the rest of the Castle a private hideaway for you and your demons... and your fiance doesn't have to be concerned about them. For now, at least."

    "Tae knows all about them," replies Wake. "In the years after that, the Flash of Death struck, my dear. And my ghosts then included my mother.. and shortly after that, my father. I became the Ice Queen. I was given a new assignment.. to stop the assets of others. And I was incredibly good at it. And terrifying."

    Wake laughs gently at herself. "Out of concern, I was pulled from Shanghai and dropped in Tokyo. My superiors felt that I was becoming mentally unstable. They were wrong, of course. About the 'becoming' part, anyway. It was at this time that I met Tae in a little K-Pop club. It was, as they say, love at first sight. More than that, for me. Like being brought back to life."

"My father was also a victim of the Flash," Kauchemar replies. "Survived, but in a severely limited mental capacity. Migraines easily set off into full seizures from overstimulation. Could no longer work, obviously. My older sister stayed in the States when the rest of us moved back to Japan, so my mother and younger sister had to take care of him. I..."

There's a pause, and the nightmare snorts out a sigh. "I left, not wanting to be a burden. Didn't want my music or such to accidentally set off an episode. And made my life in the nightlife of Tokyo clubs, combining Eastern and Western styles." A pause. "... and knowing were to find new tracks even when the net was locked down for the most part." Ahem. She's never directly admitted to musical piracy, but the implications are there. The trade practically required it at the time.

"Mom eventually took dad out of the city. Out to smaller towns away from what might worsen his condition. I'm pretty sure Hina went to stay with Himari for much the same reason I left home when they did." She gives a shake of her head. "Haven't spoke much to them since. I don't even know if they played the American version or not."

    Wake smiles as Kauchemar shares her story. Nodding at the mention of the Flash. "It's amazing how we went from having computers with viruses to having.. ourselves infected by them. And tragic. I'm sorry for what happened to your father. We should have been able to stop things like that, but.. we couldn't provide the protection the world needed."

    The Baroness reaches out a hand, offering it to her friend. Despite the cold, her hands are quite warm.

    "I imagine they are safe in the dream that came before. At least, it is to be hoped. Certainly safer than we are in an unwarded outpost in the mountains of this strange place. Do you often think of what they are doing out there?"

"Mayhaps it is why some strive to protect this one. For however long we are here."

Kauchemar unfolds her hands to reach over and put hers atop the one offered by her friend. "My sisters are a large part of who I became. It's a shame we fell out of touch, but the state things were, being halfway across the world does that."

    "If we ever get out of this, perhaps you'll find them waiting. And likely worried sick." Wake isn't sure that there is an out, but she isn't certain there isn't, either. "I imagine my brother will scold me to no end for putting my brain in a computer after what happened to our parents. I don't think I can win that argument."

    She shrugs it off easily enough, though. "I'll let him lecture me for hours, though. I won't even say a word in my defense." A brief pause. "Well, eventually I will, I suppose."

"Probably much the same from my sisters. Parents probably don't even know I'm 'gone'... and that's probably for the best. Don't need more stress on top of taking care of father."

After a moment of quiet consideration Kauchemar shifts to stand from her chair, returning it to it's place at the table. "I shall leave you and your ghosts to have your time Wake. But you know how to call if you ever need me... Even if it is just to talk about things you don't wish to burden Tae with."

    "I appreciate that, Kauchemar," replies Wake. "I will take a few hours here, and then go back to my beloved. I come here to be still, to understand how I am hurting. I go back when I am ready be whole again."

    "I hope to speak with you soon, my dear friend. Thank you for listening, and for sharing with me. I fear I must ask that you not share this with others. Who I was could be.. troublesome here. Sweet dreams."