NIGHTMARE-FUEL. YUM!

i :    𝔞𝔯𝔠𝔥𝔦𝔱𝔢𝔠𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔱𝔶.     ––      somnus.

[somnuis]

this  is  a  private  writing  blog  for  an  original  character,   affiliated  with  an  original  universe  crafted  by  jack  @guardscape.    please read full info + guidelines here.

*   BELA  INGOLD  IS  A  SWEET  GIRL.      she’s  the  kind  you  take  home  to  your  parents.   she  smells  like  flowers  and  that  store  with  the  cute,  kitschy  vintage  plates.    she  loves  you.   she  really  does.

*   SOMNUS  IS  A  DAYDREAMER.     she  aims  to  be  able  to  craft  and  change  reality  to  her  own  advantage,   and  will  use  any  methods  possible  to  gain  full  control.

this  blog  is  mutuals  only  and  plot  oriented.

though  she  can  fit  into  multiple  universes,  i’ll  be  working  towards  a  cohesive  main  verse  with  her,  and  therefore  most  dynamics  will  exist  in  one  timeline    ( unless  otherwise  plotted! )

summary:   the  gist  of  bela  as  a  character  is  that  she  is  hunting  down  dreamscape  guardians  in  order  to  kill  them.   she’s  motivated  by  rage  of  misunderstanding,   by  feeling  the  weight  of  isolation.   as  a  child,  by  way  of  an  unfortunate  natural  inclination  to  daydreaming,  bela  felt  lonely,  and  her  parents,  her  therapists,  assumed  it  to  be  delusion,  or  a  cry  for  attention.     –––     by  late  teenagehood,   she  kills  a  guardian  of  the  dreamscape,   realizing  that  if  she  can’t  beat  the  thing  that  makes  her  daydreams  so  terrifying,   she’ll  help  it.   serving  the  darkness  in  hopes  to  control  it,  bela  adopts  a  new  persona,  killing  guardians.   her  fourth  target  lays  in  new  york,  she  just  has  to  find  him . . . 

[rachelsennott]

BOOKSMART (2019) dir. Olivia Wilde

[somnuis]

Who are you? What are you hiding?

"Me? You think I'm hiding something?" A faux wound, she begs no sympathy with a slowly slinking smile which crawls across the lips with an eery ease given the void they're surrounded by, a setting which would make even the strongest soldier quiver with at least some measure of frightfulness. It's her element, of course: the darkness that bid her towards renown, ownership, a crown of black ichor - a darkness which might be perceived her master, but the lines were blurring these days. She reaches out her hand and snatches into the ether, pulling out a long, glistening sword, bejeweled and heroic.

"I guess I understand the concern. I'm a girl with more than a couple tricks up the ol' sleeve." The sword drops suddenly before she twists her wrist, twirling it with a showman's finesse, before letting it spin another round and letting go, the sword becoming a swath of doves flying nervously towards Goliath. As they reach him, the first few narrowly evade him and fly overhead, while those behind contort, a snapping sound heard as they seem to forcibly transform, dropping to the ground beneath him, a green tint overcoming their eyes, the hue seeping into their feathers. It reminiscent, or should be, a taunting sort of visual (she was never a big fan of referential humor, ostracizes a major portion of your audience, but she thinks he'll get the joke.) "Not a magic fan, huh? My sleight of hand is great, but –– wait until you see the mentalist portion. That always gets 'em."

[somnuis]

who died and made you king of it all?

❝ oh, come on. i think you know.  ❞  her smile's devilish; the girl bela ingold had a smile which settled gently on her lips, a thin line delicately tailored to the occasion, never outstepping its bounds. the creature-girl somnus had no such reservations –– no act to put on aside from one of confidence. ❝ guardians lined up like toy soldiers, one, by one, by one . . . do you feel it, when they die? do you feel the tie sever?  ❞ she pouts, a faux show of sympathy turned sinister by the ever-present shadow of her smile. a sweep of darkness covers her boots, then her shins, working its way up until she stand waist-deep in a void of light. in so wild a display, the boogeyman cometh, she stands with an eerie stillness draped along her form: the thin-line-smile returns, slowly dipping into something altogether devoid of feeling.

❝ question's wrong to begin with, dreamboy. it's not about who died.  ❞  if it were, it'd be a short conversation, maybe only made long by the sheer number of names, but certainly by no sacred secret of somnus' own: ian already knew! ❝ like, i mean, don't get me wrong –– i get it, sarcasm. but your whole king biz might not be as far off as you like to think.  ❞  as she speaks, the dark void surrounding her legs begins to work itself up into the vague shape of a crown resting against her head. the smile returns, in half-hearted style, as she feigns surprise at the crown now sitting there. her expression reads like that of a prom queen who rigged the vote from the jump!

hand extends, held out between the two of them, the other now cradling an armful of black, smokey flowers. all she lacks is a sash.

❝ people die! eh.  ❞  a shrug. no doubt she's enjoying every moment of this nightmare. ❝ not everyday you get a chance to be king.  ❞  at this, her gaze shifts, moving just above's ian's head, where there now rests a crown befit old king henry himself, made entirely of shadowy tendrils of a dark mist. hands reach up from the ground below him, never quite reaching before they dissipate and more appear behind them. a quiet chant calls out from the dark, a whisper of a name, over and over. morpheus. morpheus.

[chvrlesmelton]

DIANA SILVERS Dominic Fike’s “Vampire” Music Video (2020)

[somnuis]

guardscape​,

     the dreamscape is not tangible, ian. it’s never real. the barricade was never going to work, and he knew it — but he felt compelled to stay in place as he heard the other’s voice. it was unlike anything he’d ever prepared for before, in every nightmare he’d seen, nothing was as paralyzing as the monster’s voice. perhaps it was something amplified by the darkness — but it felt too much like its own malevolence to be that. ian grimaces as the shadow moves in front of him, next to him, behind him. the world turns cold.

      ❛ That seems a little one sided, doesn’t it ? ❜ ian asks, his habits never breaking. his fist clenches — trying to keep some sense of control in this realm was easy until now. ❛ If you know everything about me, then why don’t I know anything about you ? It’s just us two in here, Jack. We’ve got time. I can wait. ❜ one breath. two. if you feel like you’re losing yourself, ian, take it slow. you will find your way back. even in the darkest of dreams. his eyes close now, vision blending in with the creature in front of him. the room outlines itself into the blue he knows of the dreamscape, and he lets them open.

❛ Tell me who you are. Tell me why you’re killing these people. ❜

         ❝ God, you seem tense  ––  does your sense of humor suffer when you’re stressed out? ❞    That is, admittedly, a slip of character. Not fatally so, but certainly less mysterious and foreboding than she had originally sought out to be.  THE VOID SPEAKS;   a ringing in her head, not so much a word but a reminder, loud and obnoxious.  She centers herself on the task at hand, bringing a finger to her temple to shut out the noise.

          ❝ Alright, ❞  she says,  tone relenting.    ❝ I can tell you my name.  In the spirit of fairness. ❞   Inch by inch, she’ll allow only the most minute budging.   She takes gentle steps towards him,  wondering at what point he’ll push back  ––  testing the limits of his caution.   ❝ Though I think you know who I am. ❞  She smiles,  again knowing it to be imperceptible to him.  It’s a playful tease;  she continues nearly immediately,   ❝ I’m what the Guardians dream of.   The thing in nightmares. ❞  Cheesy  ––   she’ll allow it.  She’s playing a part,  and it’s good fun.   ❝ I’m the Boogeyman. ❞

          She peers down and scrapes at the floor with her heel,  a blue afterglow following her tracks in such a way that allows her to spell out a word, however fleeting.  

                                            [    S  O  M  N  U  S     ]

[somnuis]

guardscape​,

    ❛ STOP ! ❜ the guardian’s hand reaches out, a blue, transparent barricade emerging in front of the silhouetted other in front of him. after weeks, months, maybe, of chasing them out of nightmares, foiling their disasters, playing catch-up to the corpses left behind —— this was the end. he’d make sure of it.

  ❛ no more irish goodbyes. i’ve been looking for you for longer than you’d been playing around with dreams. you don’t know what’s at stake here. and i don’t even know who you are. so why don’t we just turn around and have a little chat, and then i’ll let both of us go home. sound fair ? and we can excuse your jack the ripper cosplay too. ❜ the barricade slowly starts to fizzle out as he lowers his hand, and allows the intruder the chance to face him.

    ❛ why don’t we start with names ? i’m ian, and it’s my job to protect this realm from the darkness, and whoever you are. alright, now it’s your turn. ❜

@somnuis.

                 𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑠,  she finds herself not comfortable,  but confident,  of her secrecy  &  trickery.  a cockiness which allowed her an advantage,  even when losing,   as she spoke out with a voice far from her own,  distorted at every syllable.  the static which loosely composed her figure moved haphazard with her own cadence,  stretching inwards and out,  nearly reaching towards him.   ❝ My name? Would you like to ask me 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝙸 𝚊𝚖, as well? ❞ 

                  the loveliest thing about dreams is the inability to keep things straight.  one moment she stands in front of him,  the next behind,  body split into spaces and inhabiting corners simultaneously  ––  nightmares visible between the lines.  she was not metaphorically a walking terror,  but had physically taken the form.  she was inhuman,    a leech in the subconscious.  ❝ I know your 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 already, Ian.  I know your job. ❞ 

                   she supposed her smile was lost on him,  being so intangible,  but she hoped it could be heard as she continued,  quiet but firm.    ❝ I know 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔 about you. ❞ 

[kikiyo]

no  matter  how  much  i  desire  to  do  good  and  help  others,   the  truth  is  i  live  off  the  souls  of   the  dead.    [ … ]    good  is  evil,      evil  is  good.     (   ––––    do   re   mi!    why  not  me  …   why  not  me  …   )          by  róisín.

[somnuis]

gen/shin verse tidbits.

originally from mondstadt; nightmares enticed her to wander from her home and into wolvendom, where she found a cave. curious, and as requested by some entity in her dreams, she crawled through the cave, down and down, until she reached the abyss

trained alongside abyss mages, etc. and did not have a vision, but has some handle on abyssal energy. she encountered the same swordswoman who trained childe (known as ajax then ofc) and was also taught by her. there was little overlap of their experiences; bela ended up leaning more on abyss mages, etc.

weapon of choice is a polearm and i would bet she has a falsified cryo vision to cover up any use of abyssal energy, though she avoids it unless necessary

now lives in mondstadt idk what her mission is but it’s not good probably!

likely would hang out w ka/eya and rosaria much too often and she has a weird tense dynamic w childe, though they both keep their secrets 

[somnuis]

now have a main, berserk/high fantasy, arcane, human, and gen/shin im/pact verse up on my page! it’s towards the bottom of the biography :3 if you’d like a starter, specify the verse below w/ a reply and i’ll draft one up probably tomorrow 

[somnuis]

a little bored so shall work on some verse descriptions on my rules/abt pages methinks.

[soulprompts]

more intense vibes (or smth idk they’re just vibes)

emotional? angsty? fighty? yep. check, check, and check again. bon appetit!

“ go. ”

“ stop this. ”

“ let go of me. ”

“ you’re gonna have to make me. ”

“ please don’t do this. ”

“ don’t make me do this. ”

“ you have no idea what i’m capable of. ”

“ don’t you dare. ”

“ i wouldn’t do that if i were you. ”

“ i can’t do this. ”

“ i won’t let you do this. ”

“ i’m not gonna let that happen. ”

“ go! get out of here! run! ”

“ i’m not what you think i am. ”

“ don’t get in my way. ”

“ revenge won’t bring peace for you. ”

“ you always knew this would happen, didn’t you? ”

“ what’s going on in that head of yours? ”

“ you do not turn against your family. ”

“ i will kill you if i have to. ”

“ we need you. ”

“ it’s okay. i got this. ”

“ you were chosen for a reason. ”

“ get up. ”

“ it’s too late. ”

“ you can’t do this. ”

“ i thought i might find you here. ”

“ you’ve never had to fight me. ”

“ it’s over. ”

“ it’s over. we won/lost. ”

“ it’s over. you lost. ”

“ enough! ”

“ you can’t protect any of them. ”

“ stay here! ”

“ give me your hand. ”

“ i can’t help you. ”

“ you can’t help me! ”

“ i can’t do this anymore… ”

[guardscape-m]

DON’T BE AFRAID. / ian goldstein, dream guardian of new york city. an original oc by jack. ( 18+, est. 2017. ) tracking #guardscape.

[somnuis]

𝐬𝐡𝐞’𝐬  𝐧𝐨𝐭  𝔥𝔲𝔪𝔞𝔫  𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞.   she’s  not  loving  anymore.  she’s  not  the girl  i  knew...    i wonder,  sometimes,  if she ever was.        private villain oc affiliated with @guardscape.  by róisín.

[somnuis]

was looking for insp for her be/rserk verse and i just wanna say this is essentially it

[somnuis]

in her berserk verse,  bela serves an apostle which calls themselves  “dream eater”   (their name as a human long lost and buried,   all that’s known is its reputation).   she was plagued by them in her nightmares as a child,  and it sensing her usefulness on account of dark magic she possessed a talent for,  brokered a deal with her:  eventual apostlehood in return for her complete and dedicated servitude.  she didn’t quite understand the weight of this,  but knew it meant she no longer had to be afraid,  and power enticed her even then  ––  this began at the age of six,  and she trained in its ways of dream manipulation,  utilizing her magic for its purposes and needs.  she grew to bring the dream eater sacrifice after sacrifice,  preying on all manner of people.

mirroring her eventual imprisonment and subsequent separation from the void (partially) in my modern canon,  in this canon i think she fails in some major task,  perhaps even to do with the black swordsman,  and for it she suffers a role reversal.  she becomes the hunted;   she manages to sneak her way out from the dream eater’s grasp before he can sacrifice her,  in turn,  but no matter how far she runs she’s still plagued by its interference in her dreams.  she maintains no sympathy for those around her,  only interest in survival.  in fact,  she eventually seeks apostlehood through her own doing  ––  unfortunately,  this means she needs something worth giving up,  which she finds herself very unfortunately lacking.  the only thing which means anything to her is the dream eater itself.  otherwise,  she is absolutely,  utterly alone.

once ascended to apostle,  assuming she makes it that far,  she does end up taking the name  “somnus”.  she devours lives through dreams.

[tvshowfeels]

“I’m you.” 

Legion Chapter 4