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Description
Ookamiza woke with a start, head in his arms over a desk. A familiar voice rang through a television just to his right, and when he looked he spotted the familiar Bolt bouncing around and announcing something about… points and teams? Oh. Right. The tournament. He was back on the grounds which… meant he hadn’t made it home. Shiranui would be worried… That thought coiled through Ookamiza like a frozen tentacle, and he sat up straight and wracked his brain for what the hell had happened to him and how he’d gotten back here.

What happened to the red hall? Shaking the sleep from himself, Ookamiza straightened, stretching his arms up over his head with a yawn. What a strange dream--
Wait. Dream?
His exhausted thoughts spiraled around each other. “...I was asleep?” he mused, quietly. Asleep, and woke in his Avatar form.
Whatever was going on, it couldn’t be good. Hauling himself to his feet, he turned away from the television and its live broadcast of the event. What a strange evening… Exhaustion still clung to him like a second skin…
“You look half dead.” A familiar voice caught his ear, a low growl. He turned towards the back corner, and twitched his ears at the fox-like stygian there. ‘Yocury’ stared back, golden eyes tired. “Never seen another stygian as exhausted as you.” he said, tone dry. Ookamiza stared at that scarred face, his own brow tight with his scowl. Yocury’s eye seemed even more sunken in than it had at the Aetheneum--and there, on his back, was that damned white-and-red Treatling again, snoozing away like an overgrown house cat.
“What’s it to you?” he asked. Yocury just snorted and turned to guard his Treat friend.
“Just an observation.” his growling voice soothed Ookamiza, strangely. There was no hostility there. “You were asleep. I… didn’t want anyone to take advantage.”
A lie. Ookamiza caught that one easily. The fox-nightmare was worried about the Treat, not Ookamiza. And yet after everything he’d chosen to stay with Ookamiza of all stygians? He was about to ask about it when the tv turned itself off and a… pressure settled at the back of Ookamiza’s skull. From the way Yocury’s ear suddenly swiveled backwards like he’d heard something behind him. What… was that? Exhaustion crashed over Ookamiza, and the strength in his legs melted into jelly.
“You… hear that?” Yocury asked, the scarred side of his face scrunching with the strain. The humming… buzzing? pressure amplified and strengthened and Ookamiza lowered himself, kneeling on the ground, clutching at his head as the world dimmed and darkened. Sleep threatened to take hold once more. He couldn’t reply. A thump told him it was pointless to try. The fox was already unconscious.
The pressure increased, a blinding, physical pain in Ookamiza’s skull. His world went dark.

==

The buzzing relented. Slowly, and Ookamiza groaned as he forced himself to his feet. Every step echoed strangely around him. His entire being felt like lead, but that strange sleepiness was no longer clawing at his back. Looking around, he decided he was very much Alone once again.
Clearly, he would not be getting back to his lover any time soon. Damn it.
With a sigh he took in the room. It… looked like a waiting room, with the only exit being a long hallway. Yocury and that little Treat were nowhere to be found. Neither, he realized, was Awhina. Definitely alone then. Maybe his Familiar was telling his lover about the strange going-ons of the Tournament, maybe he was just too weak to hold her existence steady.
Either way, he had only one way to go, and staying still seemed like a terrible idea. If it was anything like the red hallway, he wanted to stay moving.

The hallway didn’t stretch into infinity like the red one had seemed to. In fact, it seemed like a perfectly mundane office building, like the one he’d sometimes reported to before the City of Songs had been half destroyed. There was even the incessant humming buzz of fluorescent lights from the back of his skull. The signs were strange though, written in a text he could only call ‘shorthand’, but none he recognized. Even the office plants looked slightly off. Shaking himself of the strange feeling, he reached another small room, a branch in the hallway. The strange text immediately caught his eye, reading as clearly to him as if it had been Imprinted into his head.
“Staff Room”, “Containment Windows”, “Specimen Room”. A chill crawled up his spine and a hiss instinctively left Ookamiza’s mouth. Maybe not an office building, then.
He pushed into the specimen room without a second thought.
Immediately his skull pulsed with pain, and he pressed the heel of his palm into his temple, squinting at the tall tubes of objects that were painfully familiar. Two potions, but when he tried to recall their names his ears rang. There were so many wires and cords and as he stared at what looked like a bar of some sort of metal he recalled with a painful vividity the sensation of eyes on him, of a shadowy figure reaching for him.

He jerked himself out of the specimen room, panting to calm himself, his back pressed against the door to the containment windows. His throat felt tight. That ringing buzzing was back--not the fluorescents, no, something far more sinister. Something was coming. He dove into the containment room and flinched when the door slammed behind him. Scampering down the new hallway, he almost didn’t see what was inside the ‘windows’. He bumped face first into one as tall as him, and froze. There, behind glass probably as thick as his arm, was what he could only assume was aether. Pure, raw, aether. He gulped, a rock settling in his gut. The flame-like entity flitted about the chamber, and he glanced at the sign marking it.

“SPECIMEN 016324-ABX-3
WARNING: This specimen is unstable due to Nightmare starvation. Do not initiate direct contact.”

He didn’t read the rest. Couldn’t. His eyes remained glued to ‘Nightmare starvation’.
Shapes. This thing was like the Shapes. A strange numb feeling swallowed his fear. Now he walked to the next unit, hands shaking, and yet he felt nothing at all. No fear. No dread. No relief.
A book. Something about Nightmare Poisoning. An empty room. A frantic alert. He stared through the signs rather than at them. His breath came too shallow. What was all of this?
Again he remembered the figures in the windows of the red hall.
The last window. A plant. A… small sprout, he assumed, but the thought caused that awful static scream through his entire being. The sign said something about Nightmare Poisoning again.

Why? He didn’t understand. What was Nightmare Poisoning? That numb feeling continued. The buzzing screaming pressure faded, and he turned back towards the main hall. He… had to go back out, didn’t he?
Dread trickled through the numbness as he reached for the door. It clicked open, such a small sound and yet he recoiled. But there, the door was open. He could step out.
He did so, the door clicked shut.
The world began screaming around him. A pulse of urgency, the need to Move, rocketted through Ookamiza’s being. He didn’t even look. He heard the footsteps. Familiar and haunting.

Footsteps approaching. Silhouettes. Eyes watching him. His own scream.

He turned, he broke into a run, ignoring the staff room. He was too weak here, he couldn’t fight whatever was chasing him. The world around him turned harsh and red, the end of the hallway seemed to bleed with red light and static. The footsteps came closer and closer, steady and unhurried, catching up even as he sprinted. Ookamiza’s head throbbed with static pressure. Every sprinted step felt like he was running through jello, the exit never getting closer.

If he could just reach the exit.
If he could just
An emblem burned itself into his eyes. Into his brain. A hand touched his back, grabbing.

He opened his mouth, to cry for help, call for his lover, to scream--
And all he hears is static.

Description
Ookamiza woke with a start, head in his arms over a desk. A familiar voice rang through a television just to his right, and when he looked he spotted the familiar Bolt bouncing around and announcing something about… points and teams? Oh. Right. The tournament. He was back on the grounds which… meant he hadn’t made it home. Shiranui would be worried… That thought coiled through Ookamiza like a frozen tentacle, and he sat up straight and wracked his brain for what the hell had happened to him and how he’d gotten back here.

What happened to the red hall? Shaking the sleep from himself, Ookamiza straightened, stretching his arms up over his head with a yawn. What a strange dream--
Wait. Dream?
His exhausted thoughts spiraled around each other. “...I was asleep?” he mused, quietly. Asleep, and woke in his Avatar form.
Whatever was going on, it couldn’t be good. Hauling himself to his feet, he turned away from the television and its live broadcast of the event. What a strange evening… Exhaustion still clung to him like a second skin…
“You look half dead.” A familiar voice caught his ear, a low growl. He turned towards the back corner, and twitched his ears at the fox-like stygian there. ‘Yocury’ stared back, golden eyes tired. “Never seen another stygian as exhausted as you.” he said, tone dry. Ookamiza stared at that scarred face, his own brow tight with his scowl. Yocury’s eye seemed even more sunken in than it had at the Aetheneum--and there, on his back, was that damned white-and-red Treatling again, snoozing away like an overgrown house cat.
“What’s it to you?” he asked. Yocury just snorted and turned to guard his Treat friend.
“Just an observation.” his growling voice soothed Ookamiza, strangely. There was no hostility there. “You were asleep. I… didn’t want anyone to take advantage.”
A lie. Ookamiza caught that one easily. The fox-nightmare was worried about the Treat, not Ookamiza. And yet after everything he’d chosen to stay with Ookamiza of all stygians? He was about to ask about it when the tv turned itself off and a… pressure settled at the back of Ookamiza’s skull. From the way Yocury’s ear suddenly swiveled backwards like he’d heard something behind him. What… was that? Exhaustion crashed over Ookamiza, and the strength in his legs melted into jelly.
“You… hear that?” Yocury asked, the scarred side of his face scrunching with the strain. The humming… buzzing? pressure amplified and strengthened and Ookamiza lowered himself, kneeling on the ground, clutching at his head as the world dimmed and darkened. Sleep threatened to take hold once more. He couldn’t reply. A thump told him it was pointless to try. The fox was already unconscious.
The pressure increased, a blinding, physical pain in Ookamiza’s skull. His world went dark.

==

The buzzing relented. Slowly, and Ookamiza groaned as he forced himself to his feet. Every step echoed strangely around him. His entire being felt like lead, but that strange sleepiness was no longer clawing at his back. Looking around, he decided he was very much Alone once again.
Clearly, he would not be getting back to his lover any time soon. Damn it.
With a sigh he took in the room. It… looked like a waiting room, with the only exit being a long hallway. Yocury and that little Treat were nowhere to be found. Neither, he realized, was Awhina. Definitely alone then. Maybe his Familiar was telling his lover about the strange going-ons of the Tournament, maybe he was just too weak to hold her existence steady.
Either way, he had only one way to go, and staying still seemed like a terrible idea. If it was anything like the red hallway, he wanted to stay moving.

The hallway didn’t stretch into infinity like the red one had seemed to. In fact, it seemed like a perfectly mundane office building, like the one he’d sometimes reported to before the City of Songs had been half destroyed. There was even the incessant humming buzz of fluorescent lights from the back of his skull. The signs were strange though, written in a text he could only call ‘shorthand’, but none he recognized. Even the office plants looked slightly off. Shaking himself of the strange feeling, he reached another small room, a branch in the hallway. The strange text immediately caught his eye, reading as clearly to him as if it had been Imprinted into his head.
“Staff Room”, “Containment Windows”, “Specimen Room”. A chill crawled up his spine and a hiss instinctively left Ookamiza’s mouth. Maybe not an office building, then.
He pushed into the specimen room without a second thought.
Immediately his skull pulsed with pain, and he pressed the heel of his palm into his temple, squinting at the tall tubes of objects that were painfully familiar. Two potions, but when he tried to recall their names his ears rang. There were so many wires and cords and as he stared at what looked like a bar of some sort of metal he recalled with a painful vividity the sensation of eyes on him, of a shadowy figure reaching for him.

He jerked himself out of the specimen room, panting to calm himself, his back pressed against the door to the containment windows. His throat felt tight. That ringing buzzing was back--not the fluorescents, no, something far more sinister. Something was coming. He dove into the containment room and flinched when the door slammed behind him. Scampering down the new hallway, he almost didn’t see what was inside the ‘windows’. He bumped face first into one as tall as him, and froze. There, behind glass probably as thick as his arm, was what he could only assume was aether. Pure, raw, aether. He gulped, a rock settling in his gut. The flame-like entity flitted about the chamber, and he glanced at the sign marking it.

“SPECIMEN 016324-ABX-3
WARNING: This specimen is unstable due to Nightmare starvation. Do not initiate direct contact.”

He didn’t read the rest. Couldn’t. His eyes remained glued to ‘Nightmare starvation’.
Shapes. This thing was like the Shapes. A strange numb feeling swallowed his fear. Now he walked to the next unit, hands shaking, and yet he felt nothing at all. No fear. No dread. No relief.
A book. Something about Nightmare Poisoning. An empty room. A frantic alert. He stared through the signs rather than at them. His breath came too shallow. What was all of this?
Again he remembered the figures in the windows of the red hall.
The last window. A plant. A… small sprout, he assumed, but the thought caused that awful static scream through his entire being. The sign said something about Nightmare Poisoning again.

Why? He didn’t understand. What was Nightmare Poisoning? That numb feeling continued. The buzzing screaming pressure faded, and he turned back towards the main hall. He… had to go back out, didn’t he?
Dread trickled through the numbness as he reached for the door. It clicked open, such a small sound and yet he recoiled. But there, the door was open. He could step out.
He did so, the door clicked shut.
The world began screaming around him. A pulse of urgency, the need to Move, rocketted through Ookamiza’s being. He didn’t even look. He heard the footsteps. Familiar and haunting.

Footsteps approaching. Silhouettes. Eyes watching him. His own scream.

He turned, he broke into a run, ignoring the staff room. He was too weak here, he couldn’t fight whatever was chasing him. The world around him turned harsh and red, the end of the hallway seemed to bleed with red light and static. The footsteps came closer and closer, steady and unhurried, catching up even as he sprinted. Ookamiza’s head throbbed with static pressure. Every sprinted step felt like he was running through jello, the exit never getting closer.

If he could just reach the exit.
If he could just
An emblem burned itself into his eyes. Into his brain. A hand touched his back, grabbing.

He opened his mouth, to cry for help, call for his lover, to scream--
And all he hears is static.