Field Trip [for Schon]

[smartass_captain]

It's not often that Jim shows up in the Nexus in uniform anymore. Since it's become his getaway form work, it always seemed more prudent to just wear his everyday clothes. He's in Starfleet golds today though, kicked back in an overstuffed chair in a quiet corner of the forum, doing 'paperwork' on his PADD.

There's a nearly empty cup of coffee next to him. Maybe he's waiting for someone. Or maybe he just got tired of being bothered in his quarters. It's hard to tell, with Jim.

Comments

[smartass_captain]

"Schon?" Jim turns quickly, all business at the breathless tone of the thin man's voice. Something's buzzing right in Jim's ear and it's making everything tingle. Like his brain fell asleep or something and it's making his vision swim.

What are you?

Several of the Watchers have taken note of the intrusion, most notably the feyman with the two faces. They do not stir from their Dream, for the forest is the dream.

You do not Sleep. You do not Dream. Why are you here?

"Schon?!" Jim's voice sounds far away now, unimportant in the presence of something so great and knowing.

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Schön lifts a hand, hopefully quelling Jim for the moment. "I am a visitor, a traveler. I come from another dream, and I intend no harm--only the pleasure of a visit. Whom do I have the honor of addressing?"

[smartass_captain]

Jim may as well be millions of miles away by now. The Forest has crowded around Schon, formless figures seemingly on all sides of him. No eyes, but Watching.

Always. Watching.

If the captain is saying anything by now, it is drowned out. A buzz on the wind, nothing more. He is nothing. A shell. He does not Dream. He cannot Hear, cannot See.

Traveler? Curious...you have a Dream-Shell yet. You are bound to the Dream. Never resting, never waking. Yet you can Hear. Curious. We are Watchers keepers of the Dream Place.

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

"I've learned to keep a foot in both worlds," Schön admits, "but I was born of the Dream. I hope I am not intruding unwelcome upon your assembly?"

Hush, Jim, dreamed-ups are talking.

[smartass_captain]

Forget about the Jim-Shell, Schon. He is nothing. Unimportant. Insignificant. Meaningless.

Born of the Dream. Not our Dream, but a dream. Curious. And you sought out another?

The forest itself has lost shape and form, and Schon may find himself wearing his True Skin if he regards himself. He is in a world of shifting planes and twinkling lights. Welcomed to the Collective Unconscious.

We do not get Travelers. You are the first. You wish to join the Dream? Is that why you come?

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Schön is quite comfortable in his own skin, whichever skin it might be. Not that the mortals can see it, but he's always wearing his True Skin, just beneath the surface. "I come to visit the Dream; to hear your stories, and share my own, that our dreams might know one another fondly. Everyone grows lonely, soon or late, and reaches out."

[smartass_captain]

There is nothing outside of the Dream. Reaching out is meaningless. But you have come. Curious.

The watchers share images with Schon. Ideas and history from their to his mind. An ancient race, isolated and peaceful. A dying star that killed their world. A sacrifice made to preserve what was, to keep the memory of their home for all time.

They feel no regret for what once was. They only cherish what they have created. They protect it from harm. Anything that trespasses is destroyed. Schon is not an anything. He is a Dreamer. He is the First who can Hear. Who can See. Here Schon is welcome to Dream with them. To create an endless beauty in theirhis envisioning.

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Oh, how tempting, to sculpt a world's worth of dream as he envisions. Arcadia built anew, the Tuatha de Danaan recast as the Tuatha de Schön. But he is descended from divinity, and if he has learned anything from his time in the Nexus, it is that everything comes at a cost.

"Your songs are beautiful, are glorious. I will remember them always, but I cannot join your eternal choir. I must return to the other place, from which I come. But if you like, I can visit again, and again."

[smartass_captain]

What Other Place? Sleep. Dream. There is nothing for you out there.

Indeed, it is difficult to even remember how long he has been here. How he arrived. Hasn't he always been here? Before was destroyed. Destroyed with the shells. Now there is only sleep and the Eternal Dream.

Your Dreams will make the whole even more splendid.

----


"Godfucking dammit let me...go!" Let's visit the magical forest, Jim. It'll be awesome. It's so pretty. Look at how cute the flowers are. Now Schon's been lifted twenty some goddamned feet into the air by branches while fucking tree roots are trying to choke the life out of Jim and get some protein into their diets.

This is why Jim doesn't trust cute things. Or anything, for that matter.

"Schon you better still be alive up there! Wake up you bastard!"

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

The wonder has begun to pall. The simple, singlemindedness of the choir strikes a chilling chord in Schön's heart. Bedlam. Lost ones. This choir has been locked away in their own dream, for how long? His cane is still to hand, and that hand tightens on it. No, not a cane, a staff of ebony, shod in silver and capped with the Eye of Night.

"No. You will not take my dreams, and you will not take me. I offered you fair trade, and you answer me with theft. Is your choir a shackled one, to hold together for so long? If not, then do not dare to shackle me."

[smartass_captain]

Okay, okay this looks bad. Jim scrambles with the tree roots while trying to keep Schon in sight above him. Scientific testing has proven that phaser fire does not work on trees. It has also proven to make them angrier.

The phaser does make a decent blunt instrument to beat away grabby roots, but you know, one of the trees limbs would work better.

"I'm coming man, hold on! Wake up okay?!" When he's able to wriggle free he's going to start climbing as fast as his arms will take him to try to get Schon back.

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

"Hear me, dream choir. I am the Traveler, the Finder, I am the Way Between, the Seeker and the Son of the Eye of Night. Bind me at your peril, for I will bring you no wonders unwilling. Force me and I shall bring you only nightmares."

[smartass_captain]

Bind you? But you can Hear. Surely you want to Dream, don't you? Why waste your gifts with the dream-shells who are blind, deaf, and alltogether useless?

There is an uncertainty in their answer, as though they cannot understand Schon's anger at this turn of events. He should be grateful, being accepted into their choir. Certainly a better fate than the one he entered their domain with, clearly.



----------

Jim has never been so thrilled to hear someone spouting crazy things he doesn't begin to understand. If Schon is talking, that means he's awake. If he's awake, that means he's still alive. And if he's alive, then Jim climbing up after him has a purpose other than assuaging his own grief.

"Stop threatening the trees and let's get out of here! Thank fuck you're alright." A block boot is hooked around a branch as Jim begins hauling himself up closer to where Schon is.

"You hurt?!"

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

"They Dream, as well," Schön points out, "and I teach them to Hear. They interest me, and I would see what they will become." He considers for a moment whether to add anything, before pointing out, "they could join you in song one day." He's still gripping tightly to his staff, however. If they don't seem persuaded, it will be time to insist upon his freedom.

He can't hear Jim, or he would answer him.

[smartass_captain]

You would waste your gifts teaching the dream-shells? Tragic. Unfortunate. A Dreamer who cannot be saved from his own delusions. The choir seems to grow quieter, and the forest begins to become perceivable, little by little.

They are fuel for the Dreamers, not worthy of the gifts. Go back to the shells if you wish, but do not bring them back unless they are an offering. That's not ominous at all. If that's how they feel about telepathically challenged, what does that mean they did to Jim?

Dropped him about twenty feet as soon as they began to relinquish their hold on Schon is what. Grabby roots still kind of want to drag him back with them, but they're almost waiting to see if Schon will notice.

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Tragic? Unfortunate? He thinks much the same of them. "Find your feet, Captain," Schön advises tersely as awareness of the physical world returns. "We need to be going."

To the Choir, he offers one last warning: "your fire will consume itself, your Dream will stagnate and wither. I pronounce no curse, merely a prediction. You have wrought your own withering end, and I will weep for you. Good-bye."

Turning, with a vise-like grip on his cane, the thin man stalks out of the wood.

[smartass_captain]

"Oh yeah. Ssssure." Everything sucks. Jim is pretty sure he hates just about everything right now. He kicks at the roots still tentatively trying to grab at him and scrambles to his feet so he can follow Schön out of the woods.

At least that pounding headache from all the super loud telepathy he can't parse will fade as they exit the forest. The bumps and bruises he'll just have to get creative when he goes back to the ship.

"...That...was not part of th'plan, by the way."

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

"No," Schön agrees, setting a brisk pace, "I rather imagined it was not. You need to remove your people from this world, Captain, and ban any others from visiting it. The inhabitants consider you a nuisance at best, and food at worst. They will also seek to ensnare anyone capable of perceiving them, to join their choir. Has anyone slept while on the surface?"

[smartass_captain]

"I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking." Jim wasn't the one going all ga-ga over the stupid talking head screaming treeple. Actually he's still not quite back on balance after having to have his head vibrated by...whatever that was. Telepathy or whatnot.

Schön doesn't even seem a bit out of place for being hypnotized or whatever it was. This trip sucks. He doesn't even reply to Schön's question until he's stumbled for the third time and just stays seated at the top of the hill a fair distance outside of the forest.

To hell with it. Trees can't walk, and Jim doesn't feel like his head's going to pop anymore.

"I know--about the whole, eating people thing. They were trying while you were having a tea party in the branches or whatever. No one's slept planet side, no worries there. And, considering this place fucking sucks, there's no worry on me filing this planet under 'Fuck That Noise'."

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Schön stops when Jim does, turning to stare back at the forest and leaning more heavily on his cane than he had during the walk; now that the desperation of the situation is over, he's feeling the toll of it.

"Their world died," he explains, "long ago. They hid themselves, and slept, and this--all of this that you see--is the barest echo of the dream they share. They have been too long in isolation, too long in dreams; they have lost touch with the waking world, and see you who cannot hear them as empty shells."

[smartass_captain]

"Wait..." Jim makes a face. Clenches his fist in the grass he's sitting in. "So...all of this? Sky, grass, flowers....everything? Is...not? Real?" Jim can't deal with this right now. Imaginary grass and psychic trees.

"...That explains why nothing lives here anymore I guess." Jim scrubs a hand over his face and sighs. Flops back onto the grass and stares up at the sky. "....They didn't fuck you up in the head too bad? You weren't answering for a long ass time. I was worried they'd done something to you."

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

"Reality is not always quite so solid as you believe it to be, Captain. Sometimes, someone else's belief is the stronger."

"They were extending an invitation, but I have seen the product of such lives before. I am..." He pauses, examining himself in a moment of self-reflection and smoothing down some of the snags and small tears in his suit. At last, he concludes, "unbroken."

[smartass_captain]

"That's good." Jim sighs again and man he is tired after fighting off a forest of NO. "Let's blow this joint and take our picnic to the Parklands. Hardly a getaway vacation, for you, but considerably less mind rapey and nommy."

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

"Mm. Yes." He sighs, donning his hat (where was it this whole time?) before nodding agreement. "Let us be off, then. I don't wish to seem an ungrateful guest, but I fear this planet has lost its charm."

[smartass_captain]

"You weren't the one getting groped by trees, buddy." Jim shudders and gets up, more sure of his footing and ready to be rid of this place.

"Still, sorry for dragging you all the way out here for this. My epic space adventures are usually..." Beat.

Jim, seriously?

"...Actually I don't know what else I was expecting, this is exactly how my missions go." Jim sighs and shakes his head.