The days if anything had proved eventful for Diamond as she sat in the calm offerings of lotus position upon her bed. Given the hour it was a time of comfort and dressing down.

Comfort of course to Esme would always be wisps of silk, delicate lace, mouthwatering lingerie. At the moment however she had chosen something a bit more tasteful in the choice of a white nightie with white lace playing a peek a boo pattern along her thighs and cleaveage.

Sapphires were closed even as the pale of her hair glistened in a diamond sheen in the filtering moonlight through her open window. Only then when she felt the center of her spirit would her hands reach out to touch upon the folders spread out before her near akin to the lay out of tarot cards.

The files, each and every one of them were thin at the moment. Only carrying the original application of those that were official members of the Avengers, applicants, or well... those associated with the Avengers in some form or fashion.

Being a telepath was just an added bonus to what Esme had a natural gift for.

"Let's see what we can find..."

A soft whisper of breath as she offered her mind out in a subtle projection of her presence on the astral plane. The dreamers and the night walkers... the restless and the comforted all would be found and made note of.

She did not pry.

Yet if she was welcomed into that nocturne landscape perhaps she would find a glimpse of history, a bit of secrets, visions of the past and present, hopes and desires in the minds of the sleeping or even the aware.

Diamond's ability was a gentle caress of power, a gentle breeze seeking entry to the windows of the soul. Perhaps just a back stage visitor to watch the revelations of the mind to be unfolded or for the more daring... to join Diamond on the astral plane of the nocturne landscape to interact with the Diamond in a far different, unusual, and sometimes exotic way.

A smile would only touch her lips as she eased into a near dream-like trance as the first would answer her call...

If he perceived this as an intrusion, he did not let that show, not even in his mind. Instead, his gaze moved down to regard the woman.

"If harm you do not wish, then welcome are you, here."

His attention returned to the landscape and skyline, a feeling of loss leaking from him like a faint scent. A sight he'd never see again, outside his mind.

"Home, it was. No longer. Return, I cannot. But memories, have I, always."

Images flashed. His 'recruitment'. The changes they'd wrought. The pain, the endless cycles of it. The tasks they'd set before him.

But all in the past, and there it could stay.

I am still inside here
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could have been any other way
But I just don't know, I don't know,
What else I can do?
Nine Inch Nails-'Every Day is Exactly the Same'


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In her private chambers the telepath sat back on her bed, fingertips drifting out along the files. It had been an exhausting evening but she couldn't stop. Not now, but then sometimes the gifts were near something she was enslaved to. Her fingers drifted till pausing as a hum of energy crawled against her skin, beckoning that mind touch, that connection. Her lips parted as she spoke into the empty room his name. Calling like a beckon. "Vincent."

He had been sitting on his couch, spending a quiet night by himself, with only a sporting event recorded from the other day as his company. Otherwise, his penthouse was almost eerily quiet. As he watched the game, he could've sworn he heard his name. It took him a minute before he realized that someone was trying to telepathically contact him. Surprising, since most people were smart enough to not try and get into his mind. Focusing and furrowing his brow, he responded. "It's been a while since someone tried to contact me this way. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty."

"Rust is something that was to be expected I imagine. It was your time to be contacted." The landscape of his mind near became a replica of his room in the penthouse. The astral projection of Esme's form reposed casually in a chair, legs crossed as she formally settled before him in that dress that spoke of business, wealth, and class. The diamond strands of her hair trained into a smooth,slick bun.

As he watched the mindscape form, he noticed her attire and shifted his clothes into something a little more serious. A suit that he'd wear on a public speaking engagement, or a merger meeting. "I realize this is all in our minds, but do you care for a drink?"

"That would be lovely thank you. By the way you did not have to change for my sake... I could accomodate to anything that is present in your mind... usually I only find that which is more... comfortable for those I am in the mind of." A book had found its way in her lap, he perhaps would be familiar with the cover for was it not just the closed tome of his life? Unrevealed and not yet unlocked for her delving.

He summoned up a glass of chardonnay, aged 7 years, for the both of them. reaching out to hand one to her. "I chose to change because it seemed like you were here for a specific purpose, based upon your look. And I felt a more businesslike approach would be best." looking down, he noticed the book and slowly nodded. "I take it this is some sort of psych evaluation that Wolv wants doen on all us prospective Avengers members?"

"Thank you." The glass was taken and set to the table after an appreciative taste. Sapphires locked on him before she nodded in agreement. "Yes, there's not much that the mind can hide. Thoughts and memories, secrets and desires can be willed into revelation if one knows how to find the answers. There is not much that can be shielded from a telepath. Then again we have our limits. You must understand this is not meant as an invasion of your mind but merely to make certain that you are an appropriate and fitting choice for the program."

Sitting down, he took a sip and thought on this for a moment. "I should warn you. Due to a number of experiments I've been involved in, it can be easy to get lost in my mind. It's a dangerous, and sometimes not so nice place. A lot of static, and easy to get lost on a tangent. But I'll try to be a good employee and help guide you through what you want to know."

"It's not what I want to know, it's what you want to show me." Plain and simple.Blunt and to the point Diamond ever would be. "If I ask direct questions I am going to get direct answers... and that has nothing to do with learning of one." A lean forward then as her eyes took him in. "I'll let you in on a little secret. You're not the only one that has a mind that is nothing more then tightly woven webs and barbed wire."

A little smirk on his lips as he leaned back, relaxing slightly. "I prefer to term mine as structured random chaos."

"Only within Chaos can there be Calm." A quiet laugh. "I believe in the Soul Project, they considered my mind... a field mine." She rose smoothly then lifting the book of his life from her lap. Fingers curling to its bindings before her touch drew from its binding to leave the tome to strike the floor in a heavy resonation. "Pick a chapter and let's begin. Take me through that labyrinth and we'll see if I can find my way home."


"Let's start with the topic at hand. Why did I choose to sign up for this gig?" He let his mind do the writing and basically, the short of the story was that he had been getting bored with life. It had lacked some of the zest and fun that he had enjoyed in his early days here as of late. That, and he still considered himself to be a decent person, even though he was capable, and had comitted, some terrible things in the past.

"Bad things then. What could you possibly have done that was so wicked?" She was still standing there as the book had opened itself, pages moving as if brushed by a caressing breeze. The buttons of her suit jacket undone and the jacket soon to be discarded to the chair leaving her in the lace shell and the skirt. Her heels were kicked off as she paced barefoot on the carpet as if following those lines of his thoughts. "How could one with the power and money and any woman he wanted, become bored?"

He gave her a little look. As if she wasn't aware of what could be done by someone with a large amount of power. "I once went undercover on an assignment. Ended up getting replaced by an evil version of myself. Who decided, for the fun of it, to kill the class I was teaching. As for being bored, it's best summed up like this. When one can do everything, why should he do anything?" Eyes following her as she walked. he wondered, at this rate, how much longer would it take her to be wearing nothing.

A hint of a smile perhaps to his thoughts. "I heard that and trust me... intimacy in mind ties is something uncomparable to anything else." Oh yes she knew well that his thoughts lingered there to a state of undress. "An entire class...hmm." She knelt to the carpet then, fingers brushing along the pages of his life.

Don't spill a drop dear
Let me kiss the curse away
Yourself in my mouth
Will you leave me with your taste?
Wolf Moon- Type O Negative
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Focus and time alone seemed to center her awareness of everything around her. The telepath herself was perched on one of the tables, eyes closed and her palms upturned upon her knees. All of it could be felt and sensed like lingering memories of power and strength, blood and conquest. She breathed out sharply. Loose cotton pants worn and a white vest, her hair left unbound and sweat dappled leaving the diamond strands to seem claimed by crystal drops.It was obvious she had been training more then just her mind but moments before, she had pushed herself too much, perhaps she needed it.

Drifting back he watched the exhaust fans expel dust and nastier substances where they spun their cadence across the room, eyes shutting to allow him into the twisting paths of Nod where Orpheus the lesser god of dreams waited. Perhaps this night would hold more appealing sights than before now.

A pause, an exhale of breath and her fingers curled. The files, the folders were not there and yet her mind drifted, drawn to him again. She had not meant for this, she had not meant to go to him in such a way. It was the purpose of meditation and calm. There was a restless disturbance between them, something quiet and untamed that had her fingers physically reaching out even as her mind sought him.

It was a brush of energy before perhaps the gatekeeper of dreams himself gave her safe passage to his mind. In the shadow dark of that dreamscape she was left kneeling, the work out attire exchanged for flowing cloth of a dress, near sheer in the claiming brush of hips and neckline.

It was not he who met her intrusion but a great black wolf, much too large to be anything natural. Eyes with an ageless intelligence regard her calmly fron a sitting position before a great gateway with many overlapping runes and symbols to bar entrance into this innermost place of safety.

"So you are to be the Gate Keeper then?" A hushed murmur, she looked down at her own form, the proud silver torque at her throat with its cracked scrawl of onyx. Such would be the same design of wristlets and the bands that claimed her upper arms. Her eyes watched the wolf, lingering on him as she slowly rose to her feet. There were no weapons for her hands to possess, she was nothing more then the Maiden left.

"Merely the protector assigned to the crownless one." The great animal rose then as a chill wind blew into the sacred space. Closer inspection on a few of the runes possibly appear a combination of Norse and Celtic. "What do you wish here?"

Those sapphires moved over the runes, the feeling of the power that burned in them something constant, ancient and powerful. Despite the practical nature of a business woman to claim power, in this moment she had nothing but wonder. Her steps brought her to the wolf before she dropped to her knees before him "To know of you."

"Me? You are not here for the man? My king? The Beast King?" The words were calm as ever where it watched her not as a maiden or as a mortal but as an insect in a jar. Possibly something to be dissected in order to see what made it function.

"To know the Beast is to know the Man. To accept the King is to in turn accept the Wolf." Mortal. Once perhaps. She could only inwardly scoff at that. Nothing more then Soul. A close of eyes, a palm leaving her knee to extend outward to the wolf.

A growl then as the hand came close. "We are not one and the same. He is not I, nor I a part of him. I guard him as I did before him. You wish to know the Man, and yet you come to him here, rather than in the waking world where it is more proper."

She dropped her hand at that growl, his words leaving those sapphires to glitter fiercely. "This is not my choice! I have been with him as much in the waking world as the dream world. Goddess knows that the dream scape is a far easier place to find comfort in."

"Comfort for who?" Possibly a pointed question but the words broke off as he quirked an ear to the door with another deep growl. This one of disgust. Rising he moved to the door and inhaled heavily to release icy breath across the black surface making the runes flash once, twice, three times in succession before opening into a twisting path of stone and tree. "Go, you have been granted passage."

"Does it matter." A hushed murmur as she rose to her feet when that entrance had been granted. A bow of head in honor to the Wolf. Fingers trailed along his fur in a brief caress before drawn away. She paused before the gate, taking in this vision of twisted stone and tree. She didn't speak the words that lingered in her soul that would answer well the Wolf. Drawing in a shaky breath she stepped through that gate.

To it, everything but others like it were mortal. Ignoring the presence the door slammed shut behind her casting the pathway into twilight where a brilliance shown at the end as if beconing her forward. No voices came to call or other sounds just the light and the pathway before expanding to a ridge above a great mesa where they lay the ruins to an ancient and fell keep.

Barefoot she found herself, weaponless and unguarded. It was close to feeling vulnerable and naked, exposed in the elements. Her eyes lifted as the twilight fell around her. A hand eased down to lift the dress, quiet steps bringing her closer to the light. It felt like death... the end of the road. It left her heart in a quickening. Jezabelle was more associated to these feelings, even Jessamyn...but Esme no. Brilliance she would radiate with, glistening with its touch as she stepped through to find the ruins and the mesa.

Arms crossed over his chest idly while watching the structure below great portions lifting and turning in the midst of reconfiguration as if it were a great sandcastle and he the child with tools and time. Back to the pathway raven waves flitted with the ever changing wind bringing the new scent to his notice. "You're a brave one..." came a jovial replay.

"A brave one or perhaps a fool." A wry response as she stepped towards him, a near ethereal grace to bring her to his side as
she looked out and over the ruins that were rebuilding themselves before her eyes.

"Perhaps a bit of both. Courageous and Foolhardy is a very narrow walkway with pits on either side." Dark ambers turned to regard her then as the new vantage point would show great golems and elementals doing all of the work, lifting and changing what they worked with. Perhaps all types were present for this undertaking.

"There are worse things I could be, Beast." Still she knew the risks as the sapphire of her eyes met the amber of his own. Midnight Suns to know sapphire skies. Her hand reached out and took his own. There was a quiet solace there.

"Truly Beauty." His only replay as a great parapette and adjoining turrette lifted skyward with a heavy rumble where it settled on sturdy foundations. "So what brings you to my dreams, or do you just want me to be able to say I dream of you?" Another smirk as she
took his hand warmth to her moderate chill.

"It would be pleasing to me to know if you did dream of me, but I do not come for such selfish things." There was such soft truth in those words as her thumb ran over his knuckles, diamond cool she would be in that physical contact. Ice to the Fire warmth of him. "If you wished me to see you dreaming of me...I do not think this would be as you pictured it." Smiling around the words.

"You're right. Too much light and not enough candles, perhaps a woodland clearing." Teasing snicker as he looked to her. "Seriously though, why here? Afraid to ask more questions in the waking world?" He paid close attention to her words and the subtle inflections she liked to slip passed him before turning back to the scene ahead.

(Note- Prism's File may contain some adult/mature themes and images)


Sometimes the curiosity can kill the soul but leave the pain
And every ounce of innocence is left inside the brain
And through the looking glass we see she's faithfully returned
But now off with her head I fear is everyones concern
You see theres no real ending
Its only the beginning
Come out and play
-Shinedown 'Her Name is Alice-


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She had been dozing,the naked line of her body seeming melted and sleek in its pressing claim against that of the Beast when the visions came to her in a full speed kalediscope swirl of colors and delusions.

Her fingers curled against Sylus' arms as the telempath's mind caught her like she was being pulled through an open door. She had warned Prism to ward and keep caution of her thoughts but such seemed to go unheeded as in the midnight hour she was pulled into Lani's mind.

Darkness and Shadows gave way to an explosion of color, brilliant and startling...a mind trip of the senses and the emotions.

"What the..."

A glance down as she looked at her feet, and saw a rabbit rushing past in swift hops. Its ears twitched as if a beckon to follow her....it was wearing glasses and had a startling resemblance to Minister Ravenlock. It almost brought a spurt of laughter as she continued on that path to follow the white rabbit.

Her eyes closed and when she opened them again she found herself dressed in nothing more save for a white lace bra with blue bows, a white frilly skirt that barely covered her...assets... sleek white garters and the matching garter the outfit complete with white mary janes and white peek a boo near translucent panties.

The smile could only give a knowing twist as she began to move through that Rose Garden to find the one known as Prism... better known as Lani.

"So follow me down, I?ll show you around..."

Oh such a knowing look and a wicked gleam to her eyes as she entered the dreams of Lani to find herself in nothing more then a adult version of Wonderland...and Esme...but Alice left to fall through the looking glass to the strange delights and wicked visions of Lani's mind.

"I don't understand this ... what I WANT you to see business." Lani shook her head, still convinced that Esme had just somehow wandered into her dream.

A moment later two twins strolled by, only they were not short and round. They were tall, muscular and wearing blue speedo bathingsuits. They waved to Lani before their hands linked again and they disappeared into the thicket of pink and purple branches. In their wake, two drab, grey uniforms were left hanging from the brambles.

A bemused look. "How...orderly." A pause as she moved towards the branches and brambles, plucking at one of the uniforms. "Tell me did you pick the blue or the red pill?" A tilt of head back before she was bending over as one of the badges fell from the uniform and she reached for it. A flash of the bloomers tucked in the peek a boo fashion beneath that skirt.

"I didn't take the pills." Lani replied, watching Esme. "They said I had an innate ability to soothe. Little did they know." She revealed, sitting herself in one of the mismatched chairs. "They just misunderstood. Different doesn't mean crazy."

"So often they misunderstand. Or make the wrong choice. Decisions always fall in the wrong hands." Absent that response as she reached into one of those branches as she straightened, cupping something in her hands.

Palms spilled open to reveal a perfect red rose that bled to the white of a padded room in an asylum before Esme herself gasped out in surprise as it became glass and tendrils of blood in her hands. She dropped the once rose with a faint frown at Esme. "This is a Savage Garden you hold."

"It's my garden." Lani said protectively. "No approval needed." She watched the rose shatter in Esme's hands. "If you're looking for an explanation, call it an overactive imagination, if it makes you feel better."

"Mm we all can become a victim to that I fear." Absently as a bloodied thumb was popped into her mouth, the glass knicked flesh licked at."

A curious look as the Diamond moved closer to the Prism, it all made far more sense in the nature of a looking glass flawed. The bloodied fingertips stroked across Lani's jaw, leaving a ruby trail like colors of desire and longing. "What else creeps through that overactive imagination?"

"Lions and tigers and bears." Lani responded, reaching a hand up to wipe at the blood on her jaw. She stared at the pale woman in front of her, not sure what to make of the intruder. "What lurks in your imagination?" Almost a challenge.

"Death and Desire, Wolves and Roses, A Forest Clearing and a Promise.... and broken wings." Absently like an afterthought the last before a dismissive shrug.

A brush of lips warm and light against the woman's own before she turned away, spinning in a cirlce that sent that skirt flouncing out, a look back. "So where else shall we go then?"

Where else indeed. Silghtly taken aback at the intimate gesture, Lani rose from her chair and began walking. The crazy jester costume melted away to be replaced by a haphazard semblance of a red dress, hanging off one shoulder and tied about her narrow waist with a scrap of white material.

Long, brown hair wound like snakes about her head before being held up by a small tiara. "There's a game of croquet ahead. Or I could finally get some sleep." Lani's steps stopped, her telltale converse sneakers peaking out from the hem of the dress. "Your choice, dream invader."

"Off with her head hmm? Croquet is always such an interesting bit. So very...British." A hushed laugh like a secret of thought as she followed after, the Lolita Alice dress kept in place without a ripple or a flaw.

Lani resumed her walking, heading through the trail, fading from the vivid unnatrual colors to a world near void of all color, save for green and red. White and red squares dominated the lawn, spectators encircling the human chess board.

A knight was swinging out toward a dragon, both disappearing in a puff of smoke before the knight reappeared in the spot the dragon used to inhabit. Lani didn't bother to look but kept on walking.

Plucking gentle steps led her past the chessboard of humanity's forging, a side glance with a curious consideration of all exposed to her as she took it all in. A glance back to Lani's back as she followed after the woman.

A white rabbit hopped past, yelling something about time for medicine, disappearing himself among the shrubs as Lani stepped onto a small bridge, crossing a river of maroon liquid, bubbling past underneath their feet. Another trail ahead and Lani's steps quickened as if she was excited by the prospect of a game.

The tiny path opened into a large field, filled with people of all shapes, sizes, colors and some who were not quite 'whole' according to society's terms. The hatter and the fairy were waving excitedly, each holding croquet mallets out. One for Lani and one for Esme.

A glance down to the offered mallets as she blinked in surprise at the way they appeared like twisted gnarled trees and syringes. "Be a good girl and take your medicine." She shook her head then, near dropping the mallet A more reassured grip of fingers against it as she steeled her will against was that a memory or a mimic? Esme wasn't sure. "Why croquet?"


"They don't bite." Lani replied, glancing toward Esme . "You only see what you want. There is no right or wrong." A small groundhog skipped over and Lani dropped down to scratch him under the chin. "Hey there Harold! Are you going to play?"

The animal nodded happily before curling into a ball. Lani lifted her mallet, swinging toward the groundhog, her hit not only sending him rolling but creating a loud squeak. The bottom of the mallet looked more like a child's squeak toy now.

"Harold likes it." She answered Esme's question as the little animal rolled through one of the rings before he uncurled and began to dance happily.

"Mm yes he seems to enjoy the pain." A distant murmur as she glanced to the woman once more, not quite seeing Lani at that moment but another. Crystal curls and soft blue moon eyes. Jessamyn. A blink and it was Lani again.

"It doesn't hurt." Lani assured her. "I would not subject any of them to pain." Lani shot Esme a look bordering on anger again. "They've had more than enough." As if on cue, the small dancing groundhog turned into a dwarf, the young man wearing the drab grey uniform of the hospital. "Different is not bad."

Lani dropped her mallet to walk toward the dwarf, dropping down again as she spoke quietly to the man. As she fell silent, he turned, disappearing into the ring of spectators, the grey pants and shirt left behind on the grass. "I think it's time you go."

Lani stood again to address Esme. The spectators almost seemed to blink in and out, like a television set during a storm, between the mismatched motley crew they were now and a somber, grey uniformed mass.

"Oh is that so? It's your choice now? How do you know you ever had and held the control here?" Emotions and thoughts rippled and raced tearing into that dreamscape, black and savage lines to marr the colorful world to show the grey torment beyond. "It's all a facade."

"I do not control anyone.They are free to do what they please. Come and go as they want. There are numerous places for them to choose."

Lani watched as a zebra, striped in fuschia and blue strode up. There was a hawaiin lei hanging from his neck, his ears dangling numerous earrings. "No white rabbit, I'm afraid. He'll show you the way."

"Mm...well I suppose this is as great a question and option as any." Dry, the wry mirth of her amusement fell away to uncertainty as she saw beyond the bright colors of that zebra to the melancholy gray beneath.

She followed after him regardless with one look back to Prism. The woman nothing more then a shattered vision of light sparkling amongst the cracking edges of her own dreamscape. Those colors splintering and breaking into the grey truth beyond.

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Esme snapped awake finding herself surrounded by shattered pieces of glass roses, chess board papyrus and a screaming song of a fairy in her head.

She blinked to clear away the haunting haze of the dream from her mind as she looked down to the glistening skein before her.

A blank skein that when lifted to moonlight began to cast a replica of the dreamer's chaos she had been a witness...and maybe... a victim to.

Strange world that Prism would live in... she had to wonder...if she'd get lost in the woman's mind again. A disturbing and fascinating notion all at once...


http://www.focusonstyle.com/var/fos/storage/images/focusonstyle.com/blog/printemps-paris-alice-in-wonderland-store-windows-salute-fashion-and-whimsy/62417-1-eng-US/Printemps-Paris-Alice-in-Wonderland-store-windows-salute-fashion-and-whimsy_feature_article_horizontal.jpg

(Thanks to Lani's player for the crazy live RP that made these posts come to life )