<span style="font-size: 85%; line-height: 116%;"><a class="postlink" href="https://creativefreedomrpg.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&amp;t=42074">Link to the OOC</a></span><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><div style="text-align: center;">Dreams are curious things.</div><br/><div style="text-align: center;">They are bizarre and impossible worlds, sculpted within a slumbering mind. Yet they are so difficult to tell apart from the real world until awakening.</div><br/><div style="text-align: center;">Would it not be wonderful if you were aware? If you could rule such a universe?</div></span><br/><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 175%; line-height: 116%;"><div style="text-align: center;">Doppelgänger</div></span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Prologue:</span><br/><br/>The three of them were standing at the top of the Fortress walls, looking out into the Void. Right now, the land immediately ahead of them was a sprawling plain, calm and quiet. Of course, there was no telling when that would change; for all they knew it could be rows of metal spikes or an ocean in a few minutes. That was the kind of world they were all trapped in now. It was a manifestation of a dreamland: chaotic, unpredictable, and extremely dangerous.<br/><br/>Matthew* turned and prodded the girl beside him impatiently. “Hey come on, hurry up will you? What is it?” he asked. The girl only glared at him with an annoyed expression on her face, before turning her view back to the horizon.<br/><br/>“Shut it, kid,” spoke another girl, this one with long blonde hair, and a more intimidating stance than the first. “Let her concentrate.”<br/><br/>Matt only rolled his eyes at her orders, and crossed his arms. “It’s getting cold. I bet this whole place’ll be frozen over in an hour,” he continued to complain, hopping around to emphasise his discontent. “Hey Celine I ain’t a kid, you know? Stop calling me that.”<br/><br/>Celine* snorted in response. “I will when you stop acting like one,” she said.<br/><br/>Matt opened his mouth to retaliate, but was cut off when the first girl took in a sharp breath. Celine looked over. “Got something Jess?”<br/><br/>The girl nodded, pointing her finger off into the distance. “Lucids, over there!” she informed them. “Newly aware, I think. Probably still unconscious.”<br/><br/>“Ooh, newbies?” Matt’s mood change was instant and irritatingly apparent. “Been a while since we got some new ones. How many?”<br/><br/>Jessica* shook her head and closed her eyes. “I don’t know,” she said. “They’re a good distance out, it’s hard to tell.”<br/><br/>Celine glanced down at her makeshift ‘watch’, a mechanism that was haphazardly designed to keep track of the Void’s cycles. There was still a good six hours before the next silent hour, so they had some time. “Jess, you go ahead and let everyone know,” she said, looking back up. The girl nodded in acknowledgement, hurrying away from the two of them. “Matt, you come with me.”<br/><br/>At this point it was a race. There was no telling how long the newbies would last out in the Void.