6090/BlackSleep (Pied Piper) Coming to a Head

BlackSleep (Pied Piper) Coming to a Head
Date of Scene:	05 January 2019
Location:	New York City / Dream Plane
Synopsis:	The mystics gather together to go face the demon behind the #BlackSleep
Cast of Characters:	Doctor Strange, Loki, Lucky Day, Magik, Nina the Conjuror, Raven, Wiccan
Tinyplot:	Pied Piper

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Doctor Strange has posed:
The dawn of the final day.

The total number of victims has risen drastically to a staggering 7 Billion plus. The people that aren't asleep have dubbed this the end of days and surely humanity is doomed. However, there is a single resistance. Mages across the globe have gathered to fight back against this seemingly hopeless force.

We find our heroes in the Sanctum Sanctorum, a Greenwich village abode with access to all of the mystic points across the globe, a hub for the assault that the mystics have planned. They will have to face the foe almost unseen and unknown with a handful of people who even know the beast behind this attack, and also find a way to awaken those that slumber.

Let us see how they hope to achieve in this dire time.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom has been using a lot of ritual magic to find a way to help his just GOOD friend the Piper ..who he doesnt actually know is the piper but calls the piper because....well, why not? He has had terrible luck, even for him, at stopping the progress of this thing even if he has vague ideas that his video has fed 'crap' to the piper in some way, but its like sticking his finger in a dam made of Jello. Having used a lot of active luck, divination rituals and his more informative contacts he has at last ended up here. He has no idea where here is, but he pretended he knew what he was doing and remarkably no one stopped him. The cheese villain montebank and wax black mustache and top hat does make him look vaguely magicianny and he does have magical power. Still, he has not yet begun trying to convince these people that the Piper (or whatever you shold call it) is their friend and that they should embrace it. He has no idea where he is but is keeping his mouth shut, looking generically concerned and like he belongs here. His vaguely succeeding at this.

Jessica Drew (1028) has posed:
Wiccan may have stayed awake at 'Leon's' suggestion using a combination of caffeine, Red Bull, and magic. He will no doubt be crashing for at least a day once they succeed...or if they don't, he'll still get to sleep. Win-Win? He's in his 'uniform' and is fidgeting, thanks to the stimulants. He also has a spiral notebook of the notes that he took from his observation of the sleepers in his apartment and whatever he was able to see that might tie them together...or to the whole Sleeping issue.

It's a lot of stuff and he's not entirely certain what to do with it.

Magik has posed:
Oddly, Illyana seems rested despite everything going on. Most folks have used Wiccan's method of coping. Stimulants such as caffeine to keep their systems wired so keep the danger at bay. Illyana? She simply would go home to Limbo. There, she could rest easy. Well, as easy as anyone can ever rest in Limbo, but at least she had no fear of falling asleep and never waking from it.

She stood off to the side wearing a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt. Her jacket had been hung on a rack near the door since she wasn't going to be needing it. In fact, she likely would be dressed very differently once they made their moves.

NIna (7385) has posed:
Nina is here. She woke up to people falling asleep interestingly enough and has barely had any opportunity to even say hi to any of these people. No time for such pleasantries. Shit is happening. She had to go and get involved. Now she stands to teh side with a coffee in hand, having already informed people of what she found and what she thinks needs to be done, she is waiting for a desicion to be made. After all, she's not the Sorcerer Supreme at the moment. No, that title apparently gets passed around like candy today. Sip. No comment. Shifting eyes.

Raven has posed:
Leaving the Sanctum has become more and more difficult since Raven put out the call. It is, at least in part, for everyone's safety: As a minor extradimensional space, the Sanctum is a little safer than just being out on the street. It's not as if anyone is trapped there... But research is important, and for the past while, visitation has been somewhat more permanent.

Eventually, however, some level of preparations have been finished- not for the travel. That much is easy enough. More, it's the matter of gathering everone who is capable of combating this threat in any fashion. To those assembled, by a degree of force or not, Raven speaks. "Almost everyone on the planet is asleep. Human or not, magi or not. They are being gathered up as slaves and a source of power for a being that resides in its own plane. There, it will be akin to a god. Not much more can be said. On this scale, waking the sleepers is not possible. Therefore, I must ask all of you: Who here wants to kill a demon?"

Her voice, for once, projects- throughout the whole of the Sanctum, actually... Even though she isn't raising her voice.

Loki has posed:
'Larkin', a teen-something young-looking mage that has been around the Sanctum for years off and on, is seated slouched in a chair within the Sanctum, since it is now 'hurry up and wait'. He has been active, despite the appearance of relaxation, channeling, creating connections to a broad variety of groups that are ready to lend them power.The number of them is, perhaps, startling: Magi Larkin knows a very vast number of mages and magical people, it appears.

"I can bring the group to the dimension when we're prepared; though I'd still prefer to act to sever the ties to broad swatches of sleepers as a distraction, maybe. If he's pulling power, we'll want to cut off those batteries, to help the big fighters fight. I might be able to do that from the dimension-side."

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom scratches his head, "Well, I normally dont hold anything against demons per se. I mean, they aren't all evil, even though as a general rule they are. If you mean killing a demon to fuel a spell to meet our good friend behind all the sleeping sickness," and in Tom's case he really means GOOD FRIEND because the guy clearly has their own interest. The world is in such a hurry and really everyone could use a good extended nap, possibly forever but think of the avoided stress about not having to worry about when you wake up? Such a considerate guy/gal/supernatural entitity. A low level emnity which might cause slightly good luck for everyone present since he was REALLY suspicious the people here had it out for his friend that he hadnt met yet but he was playing his cards near his guady white shirted vest at this point. "Sure?"

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
Someone new and unexpected arrives at the Sanctum, someone that perhaps of all present, only Raven would have a clue who she was. Most others? Doubtful. After all, Jessica Jones herself knows this is a terribad idea. One of the worst ever, and she still doesn't understand how Wong convinced her to take part in this lunacy. At least she determined to do it on the down low, daring to show up in a garment she swore never to don again. The negative talisman in the form of the Jewel costume, wig and all (https://bit.ly/2FdqdY7). It's not because she had a change of heart, it's because she's scared. Not of failure, but of success. The last thing she needs is her name plastered in the media as someone who helped, because than Alias Investigations would collapse from all the calls.

When she arrives at the Sanctum, she waves a blue gloved hand at everyone else, as she no doubt would find her way to the rest if the Sanctum wouldn't bring her there all on its own. "So...I go by Jewel, don't ask, stripper name, I know. What is important is I got this," and she holds out an artifact, that at least Raven might recognize as the Scalpel of Strange, "Wong tells me this thing can cut holes in realities, don't look at me, his words. And well, open portals to where apparently I choose to go...so if it helps in anyway, I'd be glad to lend a hand. It's what I'm here for."

Wiccan has posed:
Wiccan gives Larkin a longer look and tilts his head some, but then glances around as if looking for someone else. Well, this'll be interesting. At the mention of killing a demon he looks to his notebook and shrugs, "Go home..." is said to it and it disappears. So much for that. "I've never...uhm..." there's another look at Larkin, "Maybe I can help with your stuff too? That way there will be two of us severing them and maybe he can't go after both at once?" So even if one is taken down the other is still able to act. "I've never killed anything that big before..."

Magik has posed:
"I don't generally have a problem with most demons but this one does need to be brought down a few notches," Illyana says with her slight Russian accent. As for transportation, she sees others have it well in hand so doesn't offer her services. "Since I can only wake sleepers one at a time, I don't think that will be enough to distract from our attack. However, if we need mayhem and insanity," she says, a darkness seeming to settle around her as she smiles. It isn't a nice smile. "I do have an army of my own demons we can draw into that realm to help with that task. "

Loki has posed:
"The Scalpel? I'm familiar. I worked with Dr. Strange some on artifacts in the library here," Larkin asks, surprised, and gets out of his chair to approach 'Jewel'. "Well, I like the name Jewel," he offers to her, friendly, a little shy. "Can I look at the artifact, please? I know where we're going, so using that would be extremely helpful, to augment our travel," he asks, with a warm, hopeful smile to the 'Jewel' character.

"Let me use that, and we'll get going immediately. No more time to waste, really, is there?" asks the mage. He extends a hand towards Jewel, with a nervous but confident nod. "Or if you like, we can channel together; I have the destination."

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
Jewel eyes Illyana as she so casually mentions not having problems with demons, but doesn't speak out of turn, she knows she's in a very rare company she's not very likely to ever find herself around again. If only she hadn't listened to Wong...

"Thanks," Jewel says to Larkin, though for some reason, the rather jovial smile on her lips almost seems feigned. But it could be a side effect of cheerleading in high school, they teach those fake gleaming smiles rather well to the point it becomes second nature. "Well...I don't want to disappoint Wong, he did let me have this artifact, I assume he didn't want me to give it away on a whim, right?" She looks towards Raven as if for reassurance she's being right on that matter. She doesn't know Raven very well, aside from the one encounter with the Hand, but she does know she's the current Sorcerer Supreme. So, sounds kinda impressive. She then offers in retrospect, "why don't you tell me where to go and I can use it?"

Then again, magic isn't her forte, so she does peek at Raven once more, before asking, "should I let him have it?" She has no clue who this Larkin guy is, just like she has no clue who most of these Magical Mystery Tour All Stars are, so maybe her hunch is wrong and she should relinquish the artifact Wong gave her? She figures Raven would give good advice.

She does eventually reach for her sash and takes out the artifact from it, before giving her other hand to Larkin, "sounds like a fair deal, let's do it together."

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom says, "So, I'm sure that we all can potentially cut off the source of energey he is draining from people, but I think that before we do, have we all considered the virtues of abject surrender? I mean, look, we're all stressed, and if we nap, we might end up in some magical dreamland so wonderful we can't tell the difference between reality and heaven. I mean SURE if you scan the mind of people that are involved, there is a feeling of horror and in my case if I sleep I'm likely to wake up the last person awake on earth and that would slowly make me mental and the like but really, surrender is an option. I'll go with you guys to help you see that the demon or piper or Wonka or whatever we're fighting is just some guy who is probably misunderstood and we can all be friends and everyone will eventually wake up from a nice nap and be glad from the relief of stress. Oh, I wandered in here from the street after using luck spells to find the best way to help our friend the Sleep..King? Sleep Meister? Anyway, lets go visit him so I can say hi. Oh, my name is Tom by the way, pleased to meet you."

The luck magic would definitely spike the more annoyed people were at Tom."

Wiccan has posed:
Wiccan just blinks rapidly at Tom when he suggests surrender. "Are you serious? I mean...are you -serious-? Life may not be amazing for everyone but...I, for one, would rather live it than be stuck in some dream-world. Dreams are awesome and great, but so is having a life." He looks around to the others to see what their reaction might be. "Are we going to continue to discuss our plans here so that this guy...Tom...can tell his buddy?"

Mages are weird.

Magik has posed:
"If they are buddies, Tom will make good bait," Illyana points out quietly. That swell of power when Tom talks is familiar, reminding her of something. She'd sensed it in the past. It didn't keep her from frowning in his direction though. She draws on her own power, summoning the Soulsword to her hand and the silver armor that went with it, covering her entire body. Her eyes went solid white as a pair of horns appeared on her head and a devil like tail flicked behind her. "We can put his body up on a pike to draw out the demon." Probably not the most heroic of suggestions yet, she seems she might be serious.

Raven has posed:
Raven stands stoically at the top of the stairs. The assembled mages represent now all that there is left to save the world, and Raven has to lead them in some fashion. She never asked for this, but it's here now. Her cloak is wrapped around her front, fully, and she takes a moment or two to look over the individuals present.

"Jewel, go ahead and hand that over." she states, gesturing from within her cloak at Larkin. "When we arrive, we will need your strength. Those of us that have methods of severing the ties, do so as much as you can. The idea is to keep its attention split up as much as possible. The less it can focus, the less it can do." she offers, "Those of us that are more inclined to fight, fight. We need to subdue it. Perhaps, even kill it. When you're all ready... We move."

Loki has posed:
Larkin sighs a little, lifts his other hand to rub his eyes some. He then stops entirely to stare at Tom. "Right, so, /you're/ not coming," he says a little darkly to the extremely bizarre Tom. "'Not it' for babysitting him," he adds, somewhat aside to Wiccan, but it is not quiet enough for Tom to not hear what he said. He doesn't really care if Tom glowers at him for this, but the insanity bubbling out of Tom is not fine with Larkin right now.

"The world's going to fall asleep, and everyone will slowly die. No dreams at all; he's consuming them. Unless you're a necromancer and want to own the world of the dead that will happen here, it's not a good party," says the mage, in a very good imitation of somebody that is righteous.

Larkin looks to Jessica next, frustrated, "Fine, it's one of multiple dream dimensions. I can take us there with or without the relic. Can we please work together? Unbelievable, you humans," the mage vents, finally standing up, and throwing his arms open, hands bending as he draws in power from the mage centers he set up. Power surges, in an amount that should be unrealistic, towards the master mage. "I'm opening it. Add your relic if you can trust me enough to help. Without stabbing me with it, please. It'd distract me."

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
"Oh. My. God." Jewel says as her gaze shifts to Tom, "is anyone else listening to this fucking idiot?" Wow, talk about a clash with one's image. The costume and beaming smile earlier would have suggested a happy go lucky Barbie type hero, but she sure doesn't talk like that when met with something she doesn't like. "Listen," she snaps rather sharply at Tom, "I have experience with mind fuckers, and let me tell you, having your mind fucked, is not a fun experience. So either hit your head real hard against the wall until you fix it, or waltz on out of here, because we're going to beat that son of a bitch, not help him!" Then Illyana talks, and Jewel turns to look at her, oddly at first, then considering her suggestion, then looking back at Tom, before endorsing it full on, "blonde makes sense to me." Naturally, she thinks Illyana is joking. Or is she?

Then comes Raven's decision, and Larkin might be surprised, but Jewel does actually hand him the artifact, "I guess you would use it better than I would...just give it back when you're done, or you'll be in for a surprise." She winks at Larkin, not stating just what the surprise might be.

Doctor Strange has posed:
The portal opens up and suddenly, everyone in the room is in a white space. Or what seems like a white space before the atmospheric difference settles and the world of the dream-scape is revealed to be something a little more... horrific. The Mystic Party is finds themselves standing on what seems to be an incredibly small globe. A planet the size of a small hill. With the skies on fire if fire was burning in red and black and had countless planets within throwing distance with moss and algae covered land bridges connecting many of them. Gravity works, or the idea of it works. There is a laughter filling everyone's ears.

"Aaaaahahahahhaah."

"Finally... you usually show up at the first sign of trouble on your worl- Wait. Who are you?" Demands the bassy booming voice with the odd hint of tin like alto tones mixed in. Then it clicks for the pale being with hay like inky black hair. "You are the sorcerers of earth. The plane is as good as mine!" The nightmarish Nightmare says, his long boney fingers wrap around the reigns of the black horse he is riding on. "Aaaaahahahahah!" He laughs before pointing his fingers at the group and laughing further.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom is, for a split second nonplussyed at the really gross and bizarre looking guy. This guy seems almost famliliar in a life that didn't exist except Tom recalls easily defeating and humiliating his rather poorly done plans. "Aha Nightmare, we meet again, perhaps you remember me?" He poses with a flair as if he were an actual hero with actual normal luck powers who might single handedly stop this threat to earth and then go stop for a sandwich afterwards. Its in that moment, manifesting his old precursed nature that you might understand why three cosmic powers would take a century or two to work together to create a personalized curse.

That doesn't last long. Tom pulls a foam finger you really dont want to think about where he was keeping it and smiles, "I AM YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN! YOU ARE SO GREAT! Seriously, helping people rest so much I really feel like we're in good hands, why, with any luck any effort to cut off your power from these people will fail miserably." The surge of magic would definitely be palpable then; not on the scale of magic of Loki or Raven at their most powerful but brutally strong..and of course doing exactly the opposite of what Tom said. It would be like wind in their sails if trying to cut off his power. But Tom focuses his whole love and affection for night mare, "Seriously, you are SO cool. Do you have like...a youtube channel or something?

Wiccan has posed:
Wiccan doesn't get much more time to react when they find themselves on the DreamPlane. "Hey...I think I saw this..." he offers to no one in particular. He -was- studying the sleepers though, as he said he would! Wiccan's magic may be confidence-related but it's not insignificant. There's a blink at Nightmare and then a blink at Tom before he moves in to murmur, probably to Jessica, "Man, I wish Jack Frost was here."

Ahh, Millenials.

He then creates a triangle of his hands and closes his eyes, murmuring, "Findthewebfindthewebfindtheweb..." even if it means calling attention to himself first.

Magik has posed:
As they arrive in the dream realm, Illyana takes a moment to scan the area before she focuses on the demon they are facing. She can't really do much for the sleepers so she has to stick with what she knows. She reaches out with her mutant power, seeing if she will be able to draw a stepping disc to this world to draw her minions from Limbo. She doesn't try to bring anything through yet. It's just a matter of if the disc will work.

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
It's almost instantenous the teleportation with the aide of the Scalpel of Strange, and Jewel is caught a bit off guard. She experienced a lot, but never such lofty magic. Then there's this psychedellic hallucination of a world they get to, DreamPlane or whatever, and the menacing form of Nightmare. But then Tom approaches him, and gives his whole pledge of allegiance, and Jewel actually giggles as she takes flight, keeping off ground, "I'm sorry," she calls out at Nightmare, "but...is your name actually, Nightmare?" The giggling turns to full on laughter, "dude, you seriously need to reconsider." Not much Jessica can do when magic is involved, but hey, maybe a distraction would do?
,br>

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom says, "I want you all to consider the virtue of effortless surrender. This guy, Nightmare is clearly a superior being. There is likely to be a lot of pain involved and frankly I think we're all just really outclassed. With any luck, we get our ass kicked if it comes to combat and that's the BEST situation. I mean, he could kick our asses AND humiliate us and that would just suck. Now, I now how some people" he glares at Jessica, "might inconsiderately compare you to the bear in River Bottom Nightmare band but I think that you are far more noble than that. I mean look at your wardrobe, that's stylin man. And that hair? Straight up Edgelord. And I want to point out that you can't spell edge lord with out LORD."

Loki has posed:
Everyone is wonderfully distracting. Even the Tom person, that Larkin still is tempted to turn into a small dog, is being semi useful, and gets to stay human for now. Larkin is... somewhere. Maybe. He's either left them all to Nightmare, or didn't teleport himself to join them.

In truth, he's there, hidden, but he's faded into the background do his own quick checks, and to use his own magic to see what magic Nightmare is running. Charging in stupidly? Never.

Larkin's a scapel, not a sword.

Raven has posed:
Hubris. Raven loves Hubris. This has been, at least in part, her plan. The being known as Nightmare is underestimating them- That is important. Raven's execution is as quick as it is powerful. Rising above the others during Nightmare's laugh, she calls out. "Go now! Move!" In the meantime, following that, Raven begins to spread her wings.

It is painful. It is difficult. Even so, it is taxing enough that the cloak around her shoulders changes its form from the deep purple-blue back to the familiar red and gold of the Sorcerer Supreme. The collar heightens, and its magical energies flow through her- amplifying the magic she's casting.

Raven has deduced that a change of venues might be necesssary. A whole planet? Perhaps more? Not comfortable, not plausible. But one demon, temporarily, and a group of sorcerers? Those, those she might be able to take into her soul self. All she needs is the time... And probably to catch Nightmare with his pants down.

Doctor Strange has posed:
Nightmare's yellow eyes look down slowly from his incredible height at Tom and with a click of his tongue behind his teeth, the entity rolls his eyes at Tom, "Then join the rest of the sheep and give yourself to me." The god says, turning his attention away from Tom rapidly to focus on the potential threats.

Wiccan's web search is easy enough, and to the young wizard it becomes clear, the entire sky, the whole fire effect is from the power and minds Nightmare is siphoning. They are in his house. Not even his house. They are in his realm. He is lord, and king, and god in this place. With all the extra souls and power he's controlling, he is unquestioned in this place.

Illyana's disc would work as it always has. She's a mutant and very few things would keep her from being able to use what is granted to her genetically. There is that feeling that everything is working just as it should for the X-man.

Nightmare's gaze snaps to the flying Jewel next and he unclenches his fist and points at the woman and he's had enough and with a point of a single finger a bolt of pure magic energy is sent flying through the air to blast into Jessica's chest. "SILENCE FOOLS!" The elder god demands as he aims his fingers at everyone in a sweeping blast of potent magics. This might not be something easily won with force. While above, for the moment, Raven isn't noticed nor is Larkin. He's busy with the human Jessica, and the few before him.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom says, "YOU GOT IT BOSS!" He salutes enthusiastically, "You're THE BEST!" and he sits down to go to sleep, even making moderately cute zzzzzzzzzzzzz noises until he is hit by a blast of powerful magics. Because if any blast is flying anywhere, he is likely to get hit with it. "OWWWWW!" His hair is on fire and he immediately stands and begins to run back and forth, "I'm fine, really, I will go to sleep in just a second really....OW!" He tries putting his head out in the liquid shadows that line the area but eventually takes off his hat and stomps on it while only light embers light his hair. Small little sparks light around his body as if he might randomly combust at any moment and he smiles, "Still working on that sleep thing boss. Also AMAZING fireworks. Seriously that was the best. You're THE BEST!"

Wiccan has posed:
Wiccan's eyes and hands begin to glow with bluish energy as he opens his eyes to look at the web...the sky...full of the connected sleepers. That is a -lot- to sever. He has no idea how they're supposed to sever this many, but he's going to at least try. "Disp--" he startsto chant when he's hit with that blast of power that sends him bacwards a few dozen feet.

"Ow."

At least he's not broken...yet. Sore and disrupted, but not yet broken. A few more hits of that, though, might change that state.

He tries to lift himself off of the ground this time to try and focus on the web again...keeping his distance for the moment. He's not there to attack the demon.

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
"Holy...." Jewel takes a quick dive to avoid being hit by the powerful bolt of magical energy that flies her way, she doesn't want to taste whatever that thing is. Sadly, her flight is a bit subpar, as the sudden descent almost brings her to crush into the surface, before she takes a swooping arc upwards, "Larkin!?" She calls out, "I'd like my scalpel back...I have an idea..." and as she looks for Larkin, she wants to keep distracting from the real powerful individuals in the room, the magic users, so she casually calls out at Nightmare, "wow! Look at you, big cosmic doof with a stupid name using his might to hurt a defenseless woman. Real impressive stuff, jerkwad." Sure, Jessica doesn't generally considers herself defenseless, but in these stakes? She may well be.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom says, "You should literally just like...distinitigrate me for having the mere audacity to not fall asleep instantly. Guy like you is amazing. I remember in this other stupid totally not real life where I wasn't cursed or anything like I completely humiliated Nightmare after he tried this cartoonish plan to invade all the nightmares of the world by giving nightmares and I stopped it by giving the nightmares nightmares nightmares which sounds stupid because it TOTALLY is, that guy was a jerk and neve rexisted and you are not some incompetent cartoonish HACK who comes up with crappy plans, no...geez look at me, going to sleep RIGHT now..." he lies down and starts snoring. He does pop up and says ,"also with any luck we will all continue to be impressed by your dress style...seriously...amazing." Which might or might not cause a wardrobe malfunction before being atomized."

Magik has posed:
As the blast comes their way, Illyana places the Soulsword in front of her. It disrupts magic so should keep her from being hit. When she sees the others have not fared as well, she frowns a bit.

Stepping discs begin to appear and through them come a veritable horde of demons. All sizes and shapes. They charge forward, putting themselves between the heroes and the villain. They gibber and growl as they rush forward to try and attack Nightmare.

The purpose of this is simple: Distraction. She turns to Wiccan and the others. "We have to sever his link to the power source. Otherwise, we are going to get no where. My sword is able to do it." She hopes. "Not sure if I can just stab the fires though. I guess it's worth a try."

She draws her power. "I'm going to teleport up there and hit the power source with my sword. It won't hurt people but it should break spells and with them all linked together. Maybe." And with that, a stepping disc claims her. She appears a moment later in the air and swings her sword toward the fiery skies as she begins to fall.

Loki has posed:
No Larkin available, there isn't one anywhere here. But the scalpel does return to her hand, she'll feel the grip of it materialize into her grasp, though Larkin has kept it invisible! And also amplified, by the magic that Larkin has placed into and through it. It should cut open something very very sizable, now. Hopefully Jessica uses it well.

Larkin's doing something else otherwise, and doesn't require the now-empowered scalpel for it. He's working from behind and a side, starting to draw in his own pressure, towards his own ends.

To Raven, a brief offer of mental magic is sent, telepathically: <Larkin here. I will augment if you are moving him to another dimension.>

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
With the Scalpel of Strange materializing in her hand, Jewel turns to point it theatrically at Nightmare, "oh, now you are done for...this is a powerful artifact, it's been granted the ability to cut the bullshit, and since you got loads of it...I'm assuming it'll do a world of damage." Does Jewel now what she's doing? Nope. Is she working of some great inspired plan? Nope. Did she hear what Illyana just said and intends to try and see what opening various portals to Disneyland and Never Never Land and whatever made up location she could think of might do to the fires that Illyana indentified as Nightmare's power source? Hell yeah she'll give it a go, which is why she soars directly towards those flames, slicing and dicing the air about her in her path, opening all sort of portals to all sorts of places, meaning to be the real demon that brings about pandemonium.

Raven has posed:
Raven's influence spreads. She need not fit herself over the entire plane. The shadow spreads from her, consuming the land as it travels, accelerating and reaching forth. It travels in the shape of a great black bird, extending from her person. The others she lets fight- Tom she ignores, in fact, she is electing to leave him here. In truth, everything right now is pain.

The distraction is working- and Raven seeks to sever all the ties at once if she can- by bringing Nightmare not just out of his own realm, but into -hers.- He may be the God here, but in her own soul-self, Raven controls the vertical, and the horizontal. Rapidly, the black shape of the bird extends towards Nightmare himself. If it reaches him, if it can engulf him, Raven seeks to rip him off of his seat of power.

Contacting her is difficult, as her mind is spread rather thin. Still, though, she manages a response. "Where I am taking him, you cannot augment. Fight. Distract. I need -time.-"

Doctor Strange has posed:
Nightmare eyes Tom once more but scoffs and then laughs at the man as he sits down. "You are a strange one and I have no idea why these idiots brought you, but it's fine by me!" The god says as he runs a hand through his disgusting hair and then pats his horse on the side of its neck before he opens his fist and aims it towards Wiccan once more, "Stay down boy." He snarls.

That snarl then aims at Jessica and his eyes begin to glow a haunting greenish color before another bolt is blasted from his eyes at the flying heroine. But it misses as the god turns his attention back to Tom and snarls, his nose scrunching tightly as he bars his teeth. He then tugs at the reigns of his horse and tries to force the creature into trampling the oddity that is Tom.

The demons give Nightmare a bit of surprise. "Satannish?!" He says looking around left and right with a sense of worry in his eyes but it fades when the demons rush him and he snaps his hands out with a wide arc of electrical magic sprays across the demons rushing Nightmare. "Come on! I am no trivial enitity with which to sharpen your skills!" He says, calling the heroes novices. When he looks up and yelps! "NO!" As he reaches out and up towards Illy and summons gravity to yank her down but misses as she's gone somewhere else with another disc. "THOSE ARE MINE!" Nightmare cries and suddenly he looks much more serious. The portals themselves and Illy's attack have all begun to sever ties to the victims he's claimed.

The god stops when the bird like shadow approaches him and he lifts his hand from his horse and screams his denial, pushing the very force of Raven to a halt as he fights with his own realm against the intruders. And yet, those souls cut by Jessica and Illyana have begun to have an effect, Raven feels the smallest hint of a give and yet...

Jessica herself may have undone everything. He looks to his left and sees it. Nightmare sees his ultimate goal. "Yes..." He whispers, his other hand dropping the reigns and he begins to reach for it. His claws snap open as he feels his long forgotten home.

Disneyland.
California.
Earth.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom finally decides to obey his good friend and smart pall nightmare so he takes out an herbal concoction that he been planning for some time as a means of investigating the situation so he literally puts himself to sleep magically, sending his own essence, voluntarily into the stream of souls powering his friend.

Like one magical turd in the punch bowl, Tom's voluntary addition of his power into Nightmare's mix can't be doing good things for the God as he reaches his final destination, still snoring as the horse kicks him into the wall as he slides down like a wet pancake.

Loki has posed:
With a quick move, drawing in the power he'd held, Larkin acts quickly. With an item he'd hoped to not have to use, but, well. Invisibly he moves quickly, and casts, using the relic buried deep in a pocket, preparing the spell.

He waits, waits for Nightmare to start to close on that portal, to where his hubris might just carry him right at it, and with a surge of power, Larkin throws open a massive, different portal gate in front of it.

This new gate to the burning place where Ragnarok happened. A door to a world that does not exist anymore, severed from all things. A collapsed twist of destruction, where dreams can go to die.

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
When Jewel sees that Nightmare is actually very much keen on the portal opened to Disneyland, she looks utterly confused. She has no clues about any desires Nightmare might have had in reaching the Earth, her first conclusion is far different, "are you kidding me? Even cosmic gods want to go to Disneyland that bad? No wonder they make billions!" She shakes her head, and then starts opening portals to Disney in Tokyo and France as well, hell, throw in the one in Orlando too, "which will you choose? They all have different unique attractions!" Jewel taunts, not realizing it's not at all about Disney.

Raven has posed:
Raven defies the demon as best she can.

Jewel is taunting, and it is distracting Nightmare. Loki- not that she knows it is Loki- is doing his best to divert. Illyana is fighting. Raven is... Well, she's about to try and tip the scales. There are parts of her that she denies every day. There are parts of her that she does her best to act as if do not exist... Today is not the kind of day where she can limit herself in this fashion.

There is a darkness within her- she taps it every day, to do the magic that she does. Now, she's breaking open the walls. She's letting herself pour forth. To call Nightmare back from the distraction- hopefully too late- Raven cries out, echoing above the din of the magic being cast: "Nightmare! I am Raven, daughter of Trigon, and you threaten my world." Four glowing red eyes now shine from beneath the hood of the transmuted cloak of levitation. Raven is a conduit for her father's power- and that great demon consumes entire universes by presence alone. As such, Raven is tapping as much as she can of that horrible might to force herself outwards, to engulf everyone present, and bring them into her soul-self. To deny Nightmare his own portal and Jewel's as well.

Everything must- no, everything -will- be swallowed by the Raven.

Doctor Strange has posed:
Nightmare was reaching for Disneyland when a new portal appeared and much closer to him than the one he was reaching for. The split in reality takes nightmare's fingers with it and the beast cries out in pain, drawing its hand back with a snark while looking back up at the screaming Raven. "No! NO!" He cries out, unable to do anything else with all the dreamers being severed from his resources. His powers are dwindling and he's pulled into the soul-self of Raven.

Just like that, the skies return to a much more muted and alien yellowish color with a weird oily rainbowish sheen to it all and yet, there's still that odd feeling that this place is not welcome to the heroes being there.

Jessica Jones (245) has posed:
As she feels herself getting sucked towards Raven, Jewel winces and struggles, trying to fly in the opposite direction, before eventually slicing a portal between herself and Raven, leading back to the Sanctum, "I'll be checking out, thanks!"

Bravely, Jewel departs the field of battle. Which is like bravely running away, except, she's done all she could, so...call it a draw?

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom wakes up. Speaking of Disney, he wakes up with the whole rest of the world. HOORAY! "Well that was a learning experience for everyone...." he floats up, spinning in space towards Rachel's soul realm well within earshot of Loki, "I think that through the power of friendship we all came together to make the earth a better place. You're all very welcome.

Loki has posed:
No longer invisible, Larkin appears nearby. He closes the portal he made distractedly. "I don't think you should keep that," he observes in a grumpy tone to Jessica, of the scalpel, and gestures a hand laterally to strip off the blessing he'd put on it just before she starts slicing again. Bleh.

Larkin doesn't leave right away, he scans the sky, and starts to try to trace what caused this to begin with, brewing some scrying magic....

Larkin pauses, then, and looks at Tom. And without another word flips a transformative spell at him, to stop the nonsense.

What form? A little corgi.

Doctor Strange has posed:
”CURSE YOU!" A voice echoes through out the dimension and the sound of galloping hoofs can be heard, as Nightmare reborn searches through his virgin landscape to find those that wronged him.

Loki would find very little actually helped the previous incarnation, as he just grown powerful due to the lack of checks and balances that the mystic world keeps upon itself. When the predator is removed, the prey grows fat and damages the land.