2021-05-01: What Dreams May Come
- Log: What Dreams May Come
- Cast: Loren Voss, Seraph Boudicca, Lan Lilac, Margaret
- Where: Elw Teleporter Network
- Date: May 01, 2021
- Summary: Boudicca, in the guise of the Beast of Lohgrin, keeps having the same dreams.
==========================<* Elw Teleporter Network *>========================== The Elw Teleporter Network is not a place, per se. It is a liminal space -- of comings and goings. Typically, one experiences it only for a matter of seconds, as flashes of light that shoot through your eyes, and vague eddies of white, blue, and green light. Then, they are taken to the teleporter that they seek to go through. But someone is watching you. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF3M56r7v-I
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Dreaming Together *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
OOC: If you haven't read +dungeon/info, it is strongly suggested you do so
now.
Your dreams this night have been eerie and unsettling. Perhaps that is not
so unusual; perhaps having dreams at all is unsettling. You dream of your
past; you dream of a world turned grey, colorless, and indistinct bursts of
static. And then, you dream of an expanse. You are there, now -- a long,
misty expanse over a grey plain.
You call out -- and are answered. Others are here, too. As you get closer, a
light appears in the distance... and that provides a guide to leave this
place.
The memories of those who came before await.
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It had been a relief, honestly, to return to operations in Spira, and move himself thus away from everything that was going on in Filgaia. Just... what was he supposed to do about all of this? At least this way he can work without getting further emeshed in all of... everything.
Leah had been away from Elam for some time even before the purge order. He's still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it would be better not to ask questions... or be asked questions.
It's been a long day by the time he collapses into his cot at the Macalania outpost. Loren quickly sinks into a deep sleep.
But not, as it happens, a particularly restful one. He tosses and turns throughout, slipping from one uneasy dream to another.
Just as he's arriving for his final exam for his pharmacological certification -- the one where, he realizes, he hasn't attended a single class all semester and has certainly not studied in the slightest -- Loren Voss wakes up with a start.
(Or at least, he thinks he does.)
It's not as if he's still in his bed, after all. Or in anyone's bed. He stands in the middle of a void that blurs into monochrome, that buzzes dizzingly with color when he turns his head.
The world throbs wetly, nearly, and it's as if he can feel its pulse.
His mouth goes dry.
"...Hello?" It seems almost hilarious to even call out into the void, into this place and no-place. Is this a dream? This can't be real, can it?
He reaches into his kit -- it's here, oddly, in the same way he's in his full Gebler captain dress uniform despite it pointedly not being what he was wearing when he went to sleep -- and pulls out a hand-held computer. His gaze flicks down to the screen.
"If this is a dream, it should... have weird readings. Right?"
Never mind that if this is a dream, the computer Loren is holding is also made of dreamstuff.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Dreaming Together.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Let us now belabour again that the Beast of Lohgrin does not, particularly, dream. In meditation she might retreat to consult with Moor Gault, during those periods of rest; but dreaming, dreaming! This is the human condition, and she is not.
And she is not the Beast of Lohgrin, not for years past, and yet...
It is vast and broad, seven feet tall and twice as long, all segmented pieces. They float in concordance, held aloft by wind magic -- or for the less-resonant, by nothing at all -- and hundred-strong they build a puzzle picture of the Black Dragon, in effigy. Iron builds its teeth, its jaws, those long twisting horns and the rounded curves of what suggests wings -- or, perhaps, wing-covers. A saddle rests astride its back, all trimmed in green silk, strapped about broad spinal pieces.
It is -- THE BEAST OF LOHGRIN -- that monstrous protective fixture of the mountainside, and it broaches no wanderlust.
Into the void.
Now there is no upwards curve of velocity but a plain; now it is low enough for mist to gather. Now it is de-ja-vu, that strange feeling of what has come before. Take a step; a footprint defined by raptor-claw imprints, with gaps of nothingness where the gaps float in.
They are the lost. Listen closely. Hello?
"Greetings," is the voice on the wind, for those keen enough to listen. That metal monstrous thing in the mists which says: "Be not afraid." A soothing voice attached to a face in twisted rictus, an eternal-carved snarl which bends nor softens for no man...
It's coming, from the mists.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Dreaming Together.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She's back on her feet again after a few days spent recuperating in a doctor's house, and while Lan may still not know exactly what she ought to be doing, she knows she doesn't want to stay in a town for long - especially not one where Azoth would easily be able to find her again. Because if Azoth can find her, that means other Gebler forces can as well.
Even with Loren's order to bring her back rescinded, Lan knows full well that nobody else is going to take theirs back.
The islands in Aquvy are inviting, at least! She caught a fish for dinner, and if Lan is lucky enough to run into any of the Aquvy Baskar out here she wants to compare some notes (and just generally enjoy the company of people who are similar to her, if not quite the same). But for tonight she's made camp near the beach, her campfire just smoldering embers under a layer of sand by the time she's retired to her tent.
First she dreams of home, of the dappled shade patterns the orchard leaves made under the bright sun over Little Firelight, of the murmur of voices outside of her home in the evening. The feeling of sand between her toes. The last time her mother made her hold still to try on a half-finished shirt.
Little snippets of time flowing together, one into the next... until there are no more. The evening sky turns gray, the earth turns gray, and then there is nothing to see except gray. Gray, and a strange dizziness that threatens her when she turns her head too fast... She's not sure when she reached into her pocket - or if she even has pockets at all - but the paper is in her hand, and she doesn't even have to fold it to know which direction to go.
This is... is a dream, right? It has to be, she reasons. At least she's had some practice wandering around inside the Dreaming, even if it wasn't quite... so flat, last time. Lan walks, and walks, and eventually hears people - or a person, at least, before his voice is joined by another. Lan walks some more, and emerges from the fog as nothing but herself, albeit in her nightclothes. "Oh, hi!"
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Dreaming Together.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret sleeps.
She is having dreams and they aren't the usual fantastic kind. They're memories. Memories that are gray and brown and despairing. Memories of someone without a family getting batted around pinball-like through the garbage levels of the society of Greenwood. The familiar fists in the side of her head and in her stomach...
Margaret expects Rex and Silf now, but that's not going to happen, is it, she thinks. No. Rex is dead. Silf is probably dead too.
...
Did I think something?
Normally that isn't how it goes with these dreams, Margaret thinks, cracking an eye open.
Margaret is different in her dreams. In her dreams she, herself, the Margaret proper, is the same height as she always is but she's floating about seven inches above the ground; an elf-child of the more robust trend of that subsidiary phenotype. But everything else, in proportion and style, is immaculate and perfect. A violet body-hugging dress; eloquent boots, almost greaves, over faintly levatory legs. A long cloak that spreads out behind her in a hemisphere of billowing and perfect fabric.
The perfection almost pours off her, like the smell of perfume oil on a heated plate. She has a weapon, but you can't see it right now.
"Oh thank the goddess," Margaret says, billowing towards the Beast. She looks upon Lan, benignly, and then towards Loren, and she says after a couple of seconds of thought: "I don't know what in heavens' name is going on. If this is a dream, we may be under attack from some obscure source, so ware ye well. Fortunately for you, you have one of history's greatest living sorceresses as well as a Seraph upon your side."
OH NO SHE'S REALLY LIKE THAT
DG: Margaret has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Dreaming Together.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Dreaming Together *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
OOC: If you haven't read +dungeon/info, it is strongly suggested you do so
now.
Your dreams this night have been eerie and unsettling. Perhaps that is not
so unusual; perhaps having dreams at all is unsettling. You dream of your
past; you dream of a world turned grey, colorless, and indistinct bursts of
static. And then, you dream of an expanse. You are there, now -- a long,
misty expanse over a grey plain.
You call out -- and are answered. Others are here, too. As you get closer, a
light appears in the distance... and that provides a guide to leave this
place.
The memories of those who came before await.
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 1 *>=================== ========================< Results - Dreaming Together >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Hello', Loren calls, into the dark and color and shadow and bright.
He hadn't been entirely sure if it would be a better thing to receive an answer or not, in a place as distorted as this. He turns about, seeking an answer from his screen at least as to whether this is another fresh anxious dream or not...
'Greetings', says the voice on the wind, as he comes face to face with the form of a metal beast (Metal Beast?) given life.
"Uh," is the dry cracked sound that escapes his throat as he regards the form before him.
'Be not afraid', is what the creature says back to him.
"...If you're gonna eat me, make it quick," is Loren's flat response as he stares at the being, trying to get some measure of its... its its. His gaze flicks down at the screen again.
Not alive. But vibrant with... energy? "...That's not a legitimate reading," he informs his handheld device, and when he looks up again, he finds they've been joined by another--
"...Why am I dreaming about you?" he says to Margaret. "And why are you dressed like that?"
He's always been a charmer.
But it's the last voice...
It's the last voice that, as he turns (and the universe shudders with him as he turns, as if to echo what lies in his heart), he regards quite differently.
"Why... is..."
He shakes his head as he regards her -- regards Lan. He doesn't quite know if he should try to run away or not even bother.
After all, this is a dream.
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
===========<* CHALLENGE - Ethius Hesiod - Shedding Sentimentality *>============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
"You can't keep the extraneous cosmetic markings."
You find yourself within a chamber of metal, glass, and plastic. The ambient
noise of underlying technology feels overbearing, as if inherently
unpleasant. Your attention is held by a stern-looking older woman bearing
large wings from their back. You recognise their authority, though their
military(?) uniform is unfamiliar. She stands beside a mannequin of a human
male, which contains tattoo-like markings all over its surface... except for
the left arm.
"Its presence impedes the application of several key techniques." She scolds
as re-draws shapes around the figure by her touch, impressing them upon the
left arm. The display is unambiguous in its message: there is no compromise.
"You are to schedule its removal by this evening." As she leaves, you look
over your own left arm to see a tattoo depicting a tree with spiraling
wire-like branches. Mounting sorrow grows within you, though set on a
foundation of determination.
How do you prepare yourself (or otherwise console the others) to shed the
sentimentality that stands between you and what must be a greater cause?
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Suffer=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
A familiar face, a familiar voice. A familiar Beast - though one Lan hasn't seen for a long, long time. It makes sense that she would dream about the dragon-shaped Seraph though, doesn't it. Dreams are meant for the fantastical, the memorable. Lan isn't certain when she last thought about elven sorceresses but those seem pretty fantastic, and absolutely at home in a dreamscape. So that's definitely normal. "Hi, and hello! It's been a while, huh?" she waves at the Beast of Lohgrin. Margaret gets an inquisitive look of her own. ...Did she read a pulp novel recently about magic?
...And of course she'd dream about regrets, as well. "Hi Loren--"
And the moment they all come together, it seems like the world around them reacts - or maybe it was just chance that the dream squirms beneath them, and stretches, and opens wide...
They fall into another time, another place... another person.
Even as Lan steps out of the space occupied by someone - she's seen him before, hasn't she? That's right, he was there fighting Azoth alongside her and that Yulie girl. She thinks his name was Ethius...?
She shakes her head to clear it, rubbing at what must be the imagined sting of fresh ink underneath the skin of her upper arm. "...What is this place?" the shaman gawks once the memory has played out, stepping forward as if she could touch the frozen tableau, fingers stopping just short of the mannequin's arm.
It's one thing to dream of fantastical places, but this... doesn't feel like a dream. It feels more like a memory. "So... is my brain just making things up? But why about him?" Lan frowns, and looks into her oracle paper again. "I only even saw him once."
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Ethius Hesiod - Shedding Sentimentality.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret considers Loren's question.
Then she winks at him and blows a kiss.
A little neon-pink heart flutters forwards to go 'pop' against his cheek. It smells like ylang-ylang.
It lingers.
As they move forwards - through - Margaret seems to be somewhat less... tiny. Maybe the environment is comforting her, or else she's feeling better. She puts one hand on her hip and twists her torso so that her cape gathers with completely unnecessary silken flourish.
"That's some kind of... symbology? This looks like a ruin," Margaret says, "on Filgaia. I know there's a few places where it gets a bit like this on Spira but there's more..."
Margaret reaches for a term, and rests on: "Water? This is very... dry. Oh, look, she has wings."
Margaret does not recognize anyone's authority and so she steps forwards, drawing out a dowser's pendulum with what looks like a kilogram of platonically-shaped quartz in a copper frame and chain. It's probably not actually that large, but she swings it up towards the side of the winged woman's head. "Shoo!"
DG: Margaret has used her Tool Pendulum of Mystery toward her party's challenge, Ethius Hesiod - Shedding Sentimentality.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I do not eat," the Beast of Lohgrin assures that poor beleagured fellow, "be it men or leaves. Thy safety is mine entencioun." The pronunciation of the word is old like oak branches; but it is not so far from 'intention', on examination. "I am called the Beast of Lohgrin; as a name, it suffices."
Margaret marges in, and the Beast inclines its headpieces towards her. "The Goddess hath not forsaken thee," it agrees. "I shall..."
'Oh, hi!'
"..."
Lan is as Lan is, not of the past nor unknown; perhaps it's lucky that Margaret takes over reassuring Loren, because the Beast of Lohgrin is struck silent for those moments. Wind the clock forward: more still has passed, since the mountains.
"Lan," she says, and the word is not so distant, not so regal and iron-hewn. "Quite a while, yes."
She shakes her head-pieces, as if to clear them; they slip and slide over each other, a little, discordant, not entirely in place. "I... I believe this is..."
And they fall.
In the dream there is the impression of that Symbologist, perhaps, though it is an ephremal thing; at once Ethius, and being Ethius. From Ethius she is come, and carefully she navigates about the mannequins, to avoid knocking any about with wing or tail. (It is not so difficult. Perhaps she still remembers the ways.)
"No, this is... oh, I cannot name this," the Beast of Lohgrin says, with hesitation. "What has come, all come together! Though we know not, or cannot know --"
The Beast of Lohgrin is not very good at using her words, written in their frustration. A clawed foot scuffs at the ground, stomp stomp.
Even if she remembers the dreaming, how can she put it to words?
"But this -- I cannot know," she insists, again, looking to Lan's arm with those empty, hollow eyesockets. "This Symbology is unknown to me. That one must leave or cast aside... how measured is their methodology? To keep one's form so calculated..."
Those facsimiles of eyes turn to the mannequin, and her tone grows distant, "... with no freedom of expression..."
The Beast of Lohgrin, metal unyielding, says this: "... it is no easy matter."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Without assistance to render, she cranes her neck back and plucks a bag of hard candies from her saddle-bags, with the practiced nudging of someone quite used to not having proper hands, and presents it to Lan.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Ethius Hesiod - Shedding Sentimentality.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Well, great," Loren says, flatly, to the metal monster. "That's the best news I've heard all day." At least it means he (probably) won't die in this dream. Then again, when you die, don't you wake up?
Then again again, hadn't he overheard one of his classmates talking about how if you die in your dreams, you die in real life? Maybe it's better not to try it out. Wouldn't that be the kicker on the story of his life.
"So your name is... 'Beast'? That's... sure a name."
He's a charmer.
"Just call me Loren," he tells the metallic creature, feeling all the stranger for doing introductions with a metal statue. "And you're a... statue, then?"
Lan calls out to him.
He turns his head away. It's a dream. It's just a dream. He doesn't have to overthink this, since it's just another uneasy dream in a series of strange uneasy dreams he's getting to have tonight. He tells himself this as he regards the readout on the medical computer in his hand.
'Pineapple', says the screen, as he holds it towards the phantasmamorphic void about them.
He just pulls a face. "Can't I have a normal anxious dream," he asks the universe at large.
He gets an answer, in a way, when Margaret, who, he notices, is floating, winks and blows him a kiss. It smells nice.
"Guess not," he says to existence as a whole, his shoulders slouching.
Reality chooses that moment to seemingly lurch. He lets out a holler as he suddenly drops.
It gains some semblence of order, some sense of structure -- but at the cost of feeling, strangely, as if he were...
"...No, this isn't Etrenank," he says, because it's a dream and why not just say it. "The architecture's wrong. But I guess it's kind of like... but why would I make it up?" This whole situation is just strange. "Hey, who's she? I've never seen her before," he remarks, before she -- the winged woman (huh! wings!) that is -- gestures at the mannequin.
Loren chooses that moment to look down at his own arm.
"...When did I get a tattoo? Wait, isn't this Symbology? I don't..."
He's never thought about marking his own skin before, let alone marking it in a way that makes his heart (strangely) ache to consider even peeling it off.
His computer's still in his hand. He turns it towards his own skin, as if attempting to measure his own vitals.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Ethius Hesiod - Shedding Sentimentality.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
===========<* CHALLENGE - Ethius Hesiod - Shedding Sentimentality *>============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
"You can't keep the extraneous cosmetic markings."
You find yourself within a chamber of metal, glass, and plastic. The ambient
noise of underlying technology feels overbearing, as if inherently
unpleasant. Your attention is held by a stern-looking older woman bearing
large wings from their back. You recognise their authority, though their
military(?) uniform is unfamiliar. She stands beside a mannequin of a human
male, which contains tattoo-like markings all over its surface... except for
the left arm.
"Its presence impedes the application of several key techniques." She scolds
as re-draws shapes around the figure by her touch, impressing them upon the
left arm. The display is unambiguous in its message: there is no compromise.
"You are to schedule its removal by this evening." As she leaves, you look
over your own left arm to see a tattoo depicting a tree with spiraling
wire-like branches. Mounting sorrow grows within you, though set on a
foundation of determination.
How do you prepare yourself (or otherwise console the others) to shed the
sentimentality that stands between you and what must be a greater cause?
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Suffer=========================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 2 *>=================== =============< Results - Ethius Hesiod - Shedding Sentimentality >============== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Pendulum of Mystery 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Emergency Supplies 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Hesitate(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"And what happens if you lose a limb?" Lan nods in what must be agreement with the Beast. "Isn't that... well, doesn't that suck for people who depend on their tattoos for magic?" (Lan, losing a limb sucks for everybody.) She reaches out, though, and pats the stomping Beast's shoulder as reassuringly as she can. "I guess if it's just a dream it doesn't need to be explained, right? It can be a mystery."
The candy is accepted with a smile, and Lan wastes no time popping one into her mouth because dream candy is safe candy, and Beast is not a stranger. "Mmmf. Fanks!" She offers some to Loren and Margaret as well, because this is her dream and she doesn't have to acknowledge the heavy things between herself and a, a Dream Loren, and if she's offering candy to him she'd better offer some to the world's most powerful sorceress too. After a moment's thought, she places one in Dream Ethius's hand as well.
Next to her, Margaret's pendulum swings true, shining a beautiful, dream-perfect arc through the air where it smashes through the winged woman's head, scattering her like dust... and the rest of the memory with her, the alien space crumbling into nothingness around them.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
===========<* CHALLENGE - Lord of Calamity - The Consuming Flames *>============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You awake again. You know, in an instant, that it is a dream. The people
that you have journeyed with are here. It is a wooden home, with a style
remniscent of Glenwood and Meribia. Paintings are on the wall, with fine
adornments on the walls and nightstands. However, the heat is most
oppressive.
Flames lick from under the door. There is a reddish glow to the whole of the
room, a terrifying light that presents a simple fact: this house is aflame.
You hear screams from below, a woman and a child. There is a massive, loud
CRASH--
--and the screams cease. You feel your heart shudder, remembered pain and
sorrow swelling. But the desperation to flee is there, and more powerful.
The only way out is a barred window, an iron grate covering it. It is hot to
the touch. But if you can break free... then you may escape.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I am a Seraph," the Beast, inhabiting a statue, informs Loren. And so the dream --
"Humans cannot grow their limbs anew," the Beast of Lohgrin informs Lan, "and so for any man this is a tragedy." A tragedy smashed to pieces by a pendulum, and those pieces lie...
When heat builds, glass cracks; glass shatters. The glass of the window is no more. It has broken, as if crushed by a pendulum. It was not crushed by a pendulum.
The house is on fire.
They are going to die.
Again.
"Again."
The word falls like an ornament expanding with the rise in thermal pressure, shattering on the ground. "Again and again," panic rises in the Beast of Lohgrin's voice, "it repeats unto perpetuity! What horrors have written unto the unconsciousness of humanity?! What horror laid here?!"
It is the horror of woman and child. These are screams which register as high voices, unburdened by weighty throats; rather there is a scratchiness to them, hoarseness of smoke inhalation. It is terror rising to a pitch --
-- until a crash --
-- and silence.
They're dead.
You're dead.
The window is barred.
The bars are iron.
Iron captures heat.
"I remember," says the statue is a Seraph is captured too, "I remember you!"
She remembers the weight of change, of shifting the perception of the heat; the sheer HEAVINESS of the dreamer's knowledge, how difficult it was to fight against the perception of death, death, death.
"This... I will not allow it!"
Once again, once again, she tries to reach out, for a connection made so long in the future, for a thing she does not yet embody, the heat of Moor Gault which is softening hearthfire, to make the oppressive inferno into a gentle warmth.
You might think the second time is easier.
That's not always true.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Bestial Brazier toward her party's challenge, Lord of Calamity - The Consuming Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
That blow worked better than she thought it would, to be frank. Margaret's ego is gratified. Maybe this will be one of the better dreams after all.
But then as they seem to segue, to fade, to transition into a different mode.
Prison.
Fire.
Heat.
Memory.
Margaret closes her eyes for a moment and she takes in a deep breath, head tilting back. She reaches up with her thumb to adjust the lining on her eyes, the lining that hides goggling stares and her real age. What had been a deep blue changes subtly. She does it in the other eye as well.
"Do you want to know the wonderful thing about dreams?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7pBJVAQWYI
"In a dream, you can see anything. Be anything. Do anything. Some say that they're just your mind going over your memories, like a librarian sorting out the books... but I don't think that's true," Margaret says. Her eyes gleam with stars, and so does the space on the inside of her cloak.
"There are many things in this world," Margaret says. "Worlds, really. Beauty. Terror. Glory. Horror. Joy. Sorrow. But each of them stands alone. It is in our dreams that we can forge something new."
The ring on her hand gleams and someone starts to sing on the other side of that wall. A man with a deep bass voice.
"You-- - - - - "
"I am the star-light--" Margaret responds, positively belts.
"Have the power within you--"
"I can achieve-- anything--!"
"Just believe in yourself, and the sea will part before you... stop the rain, turn the tide..."
"Needn't beg the world to reach their hand and help you"
"If you draw on what is deep inside--!!"
Margaret's fingers curl into a loose fist. The stars ran down her face, a little. "-- I won't let you down. Hehn! Come on, then."
Wind starts rolling past the window. Not into the room, more... past. As if the room itself is on some subtle level, moving. Changing.
DG: Margaret has used her Tool Field Grooming Kit toward her party's challenge, Lord of Calamity - The Consuming Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan is informed (very kindly) that humans can't regrow limbs. "Oh, I know, but at least we don't usually depend on them to do magic," she tries to explain, though the point's really kind of moot.
The house is unfamiliar to her too, though thankfully more comfortable than the place they'd just been. She only has Loren's confirmation that it wasn't Etrenank to go on, but it probably wasn't important just where it was, if it was any place real at all. More comfortable, except for the heat. It's hot - hot like afternoon in the Badlands, hot like standing to close to the... the...
fire
The window shatters; the very air itself seems red. And a noise that had seemed like a whistling kettle becomes clearer, stronger-- more desperate. Screaming. This... she doesn't remember this...
There's a crash so loud that Lan winces, and then silence save for the distant sound of flames. Beast roars with desperate defiance, Margaret begins to sing, and Lan turns to check on Loren before raising her hands into a circle.
"O you of endless hope," she manages to choke out, the glow between her fingers solidifying into cannonballs made of starlight that she launches at the bars.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Lord of Calamity - The Consuming Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"A Seraph? So you're like... Spring Breeze. And him."
It may be a confusing point of reference to make, but Ragnell and Lanval are the Seraph encounters (that he knows were Seraph encounters) that stuck out for him.
'Humans cannot grow their limbs anew', says the Beast, and Loren interjects with a, "Well, it depends on how much you've lost--" Lan effectively silences this extremely nerdy interjection by dropping a piece of candy into his hand.
Even in a dream, Loren is not going to refuse candy. Even if -- despite being in a dream -- he pauses a moment before popping the piece into his mouth.
"Huh, not bad," he says, around a mouthful of candy. The medical scanning computer chooses that moment to chime; he glances down at the screen.
'Foreign Loss', it says of him, which is somehow even weirder than it declaring the void was a pineapple. He stares at the screen poleaxed for a moment before looking up again and
And yeah, that woman's head just exploded into dust from getting hit by a pendulum crystal.
"Right, because this is a"
Is what Loren starts to say.
"dream," is what he finishes, finding himself trapped in a house on fire.
Downstairs someone -- two someones -- scream. They're the sort of screams that don't suggest good odds of survival. Grimacing, Loren turns himself about, searching for some sort of way out.
No, the door's no good. He can see the fire on the other side. The windows? The windows-- and they're barred, and,
"What do you mean, again?" he says to the Beast, glancing the once at Lan and then at Margaret as desperation and astonishment do battle for control of the expression on his face.
...He can still smell ylang-ylang.
Right. Focus. This is a dream.
Earth surges ex nihilo, rising in a crush of rock and stone for the bars on the window. Hopefully it's enough.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Lord of Calamity - The Consuming Flames.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
===========<* CHALLENGE - Lord of Calamity - The Consuming Flames *>============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You awake again. You know, in an instant, that it is a dream. The people
that you have journeyed with are here. It is a wooden home, with a style
remniscent of Glenwood and Meribia. Paintings are on the wall, with fine
adornments on the walls and nightstands. However, the heat is most
oppressive.
Flames lick from under the door. There is a reddish glow to the whole of the
room, a terrifying light that presents a simple fact: this house is aflame.
You hear screams from below, a woman and a child. There is a massive, loud
CRASH--
--and the screams cease. You feel your heart shudder, remembered pain and
sorrow swelling. But the desperation to flee is there, and more powerful.
The only way out is a barred window, an iron grate covering it. It is hot to
the touch. But if you can break free... then you may escape.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 3 *>=================== =============< Results - Lord of Calamity - The Consuming Flames >============== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 10 --(20)--> 30 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 18 --(20)--> 38 Fail Field Grooming Kit 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 18 --(12)--> 30 Pass Bestial Brazier 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 10 --(20)--> 30 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(15)--> 55 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The Beast of Lohgrin is, in fact, very much like a spring breeze.
Here is a fact about breezes: they make fire much, much worse.
Dreams are things of wonder and there is endless hope in this changeable world, but...
When something howls at the unconsciousness of humanity so deep that it reoccurs, again and again...
Earth shatters against the iron. It does not break.
Starlight impacts the iron. It does not break.
A dread wind howls, and brings with it the flame.
And it is fire, fire, fire.
"This happened before," says the Beast of Lohgrin, as her nexus of hearthfire shrinks against the pressure of the inferno, "before, and before, and before, it scars deep into the memories of the earth, it screams!"
The dread wind howls and scatters the earth at their feet as it moves past; the starlight shines from the iron. Perhaps it is a tiny pocket of difference, in this overwhelming sorrow. Perhaps it can change, and that earth can lead them to --
DG: Margaret has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>=======================
================<* CHALLENGE - Krelian - Light Up the Skies *>================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
When you come to, you are inside the cockpit of a Gear. Perhaps it is your
own; perhaps it is another. Whatever the case, the Gear that you are inside
has taken to the skies, and the roar of its engine fills your ears. A
brilliant blue sky stretches outside of the main monitor of your Gear, and
below, you can see islands of northern Aquvy -- though with far less
desertification.
In the sky, ahead of you, are dozens and dozens of Solarian Gears. White and
glorious, they streak forward, ahead of two aerial battleships -- and a
crack-/BOOM/ of an airship's cannon thunders past. A cry comes out, from one
of your squadmates:
"Commander Krelian!" the young woman says. "Are we to engage?"
You have little choice. The Solarian Gears sweep into your squadron. Blades
clash; rifles fire. The midair battle is brutal and intense, over skies
familiar and alien at the same time. But carving your way through the
Solarian Gears is the only way forward.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
"This is the memories of the earth?" Margaret answers Boudicca archly even as the power of music and heart and the suggestion of the dream of a train fills the air. "-- The Earth has memories? Literal ones?"
She seems astounded by this. Flame bursts--
-- and Margaret is sitting in a comfortable seat.
She stands up and immediately walks towards the exit only to stop, reeling, when she looks outwards at the frigging SKY! Dozens of enemy Gears, someone is crying out for Commander Krelian. Margaret looks forwards, and wonders to herself: If the theories on Filgaia, the heresies, are true...
Could this be MY memory? Could I have been this Commander Krelian?
The idea is inspiring.
"All units," Margaret says, thunderously.
"This is Commander Margaret Krelian. I do not know what shall befall us this day, but I trust that every lad and lass shall do their duty. I will see you again - one way or another."
Margaret raises her hand and gestures forwards. "Attack!! Take out the ships if you can!!"
The Gear she is in does nothing.
Margaret looks over her shoulder. "... Oh, is it like the motor trucks? Hold on then, silly me." She vaults into the seat just in time for her dream-Gear to take a severe body blow and reel down, possibly on fire, towards the sea.
DG: Margaret has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Krelian - Light Up the Skies.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The heat is intense. Harder, they have to fight harder, why aren't the bars moving? Lan has seen her starfall and Loren's stone Ether lay waste to monsters and machines before - why is a simple metal grate not even budging?! Even heated up by Beast's fire, even warped by the sorceress's song... nothing??
Lan lowers her arms and stares at the unmoving, unbudging window. No, no... That's their only chance! It's so hot, and it smells like smoke. Is this... are they going to die here? She can't, right? She'll wake up and the sun will be beating down on her, or she didn't bury her campfire well enough, or--! Lan backs up slowly, and reaches for Loren's hand. Is it going to be slow? Is it going to hurt?
Is it selfish to be glad that she's not alone?
Beast howls louder than the wind, the wind that sweeps through and whips the flames into a frenzy, engulfing them. Lan opens her mouth to scream, to say anything, and the wind is pulling the floorboards apart and the ground is giving way beneath them and it is flames, flames--
She wakes with a start, a high-pitched yelp escaping her as she scrambles to try to get up, to get away, to... to...
There's a blessed, sudden lack of heat. The air smells different. Stale, like it's been used over and over again, like it had smelled in Etrenank. The light is disorienting, and this-- Lan doesn't know what this is--
Something is digging into her hip. She fishes out her water bottle from between herself and the warm body next to her-- "Loren!!" He's okay. She's okay, they're okay--!
Lan throws her arms around him, hugging tight in that 'oh thank goodness we're alive' kind of way, the bottom lip of her water bottle clattering against a panel. There's a woman talking but Lan doesn't really know what about, until it occurs to her that she's seen something like this once or twice. Isn't this...?
Gwen's Gear doesn't look exactly like this but there are monitors and buttons and things. She looks up at the monitors--
It's at this point that Lan starts making a very high-pitched noise and struggling to escape the cockpit (possibly by shrinking out of existence, if you go by the way she's balled up). To one side, the panel she'd hit with her water bottle blinks ominously.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, Krelian - Light Up the Skies.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"The earth remembers," the Beast of Lohgrin has no tearducts and regardless sounds near sobbing, "it remembers us, and we--!"
Burst, and begin. There was a particular fashion to the words the Beast said, and they go unexplained as she finds herself a Gear, at once inhabiting and seated within.
"It remembers," she says, again, again, "it remembers." A mad oracle amidst the lifeblood of humanity, she screams: "Krelian! Before the fall, before the reckoning! What builds a tyrant but this?!"
She remembers what Fei said; she remembers what Jacqueline said.
She remembers how she handled it.
Lurching forward without elegance, Krelian of Lohgrin's terrible Gear surges out -- in front of the one Lan is panicking inside, to full-body tackle another mechanation away.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Krelian - Light Up the Skies.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It... doesn't work.
Loren is left standing there for what amounts to several heartbeat moments (he can feel the pulse thrumming in his neck, accelerated past a resting pace courtesy of their current situation).
"What do you mean... again," he utters, staring blankly and standing there as if rooted to the spot. "Is this going to keep happening?"
There is a note of panic, right here, in his voice.
The air is too hot, and there is no way out, and, even as he starts to tense, even as he slowly starts to lift his free hand up towards his face, Lan's fingers entwine with his. He glances her way, and even if this is a dream -- he's less sure now as the air scalds his throat -- there is a strange and ugly sense of relief that he's not going alone. He closes his eyes.
And the world changes. He knows he's not there anymore before he even opens his eyes -- after all, he's breathing the cold, dry, recycled air of a Gear's cockpit.
"Where--"
Further commentary will have to wait. Lan has glommed onto him. "What are you-- get off!" he says, struggling like a cat caught in an unwanted embrace.
This isn't his Gear, is the one thought that gets through to him, before Lan bumps into a console and shrieks, shrinking away into a distant corner of the cockpit. He turns, trying to sight her, at least as much as he can while strapped into a seat. "What are you..."
She's huddled into a ball.
"..."
But it's the shot across his nose, more or less, that takes his attention away from her -- out of necessity -- and towards the battle taking place before him. "Shit! ...Did they just... 'Commander Krelian'? I'm not -- wait, those are Solaris Gears! What's... shit!"
Damn it, he doesn't know how this one functions -- it's similar enough that he can make an educated guess and probably not die, but--
"...Oh good, it has Ether circuitry. Okay. I can work with this," he says, fumbling with the device on his wrist a moment. "Come on...!" Through the tuner, he feeds Ether into the Gear, channeling outwards in an array of crystalline missiles.
This better work right. He doesn't want to die in the cockpit of a Gear.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Krelian - Light Up the Skies.
=======================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>=======================
================<* CHALLENGE - Krelian - Light Up the Skies *>================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
When you come to, you are inside the cockpit of a Gear. Perhaps it is your
own; perhaps it is another. Whatever the case, the Gear that you are inside
has taken to the skies, and the roar of its engine fills your ears. A
brilliant blue sky stretches outside of the main monitor of your Gear, and
below, you can see islands of northern Aquvy -- though with far less
desertification.
In the sky, ahead of you, are dozens and dozens of Solarian Gears. White and
glorious, they streak forward, ahead of two aerial battleships -- and a
crack-/BOOM/ of an airship's cannon thunders past. A cry comes out, from one
of your squadmates:
"Commander Krelian!" the young woman says. "Are we to engage?"
You have little choice. The Solarian Gears sweep into your squadron. Blades
clash; rifles fire. The midair battle is brutal and intense, over skies
familiar and alien at the same time. But carving your way through the
Solarian Gears is the only way forward.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
==================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 4 *>================== ==================< Results - Krelian - Light Up the Skies >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Margaret 38 --(13)--> 51 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Boudicca 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Clear Water 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
"This is the memories of the earth?" Margaret answers Boudicca archly even as the power of music and heart and the suggestion of the dream of a train fills the air. "-- The Earth has memories? Literal ones?"
She seems astounded by this. Flame bursts--
-- and Margaret is sitting in a comfortable seat.
She stands up and immediately walks towards the exit only to stop, reeling, when she looks outwards at the frigging SKY! Dozens of enemy Gears, someone is crying out for Commander Krelian. Margaret looks forwards, and wonders to herself: If the theories on Filgaia, the heresies, are true...
Could this be MY memory? Could I have been this Commander Krelian?
The idea is inspiring.
"All units," Margaret says, thunderously.
"This is Commander Margaret Krelian. I do not know what shall befall us this day, but I trust that every lad and lass shall do their duty. I will see you again - one way or another."
Margaret raises her hand and gestures forwards. "Attack!! Take out the ships if you can!!"
The Gear she is in does nothing.
Margaret looks over her shoulder. "... Oh, is it like the motor trucks? Hold on then, silly me." She vaults into the seat just in time for her dream-Gear to take a severe body blow and reel down, possibly on fire, towards the sea.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
INSERT THEME: <<wiki haet link>>
BATTLE RESULT:
Marvelous Margaret Krelian Commander-Type Gear: INSTANT OBLITERATION!
It hits the sea because Margaret has no idea about driving a Gear. She attempted to ride a bicycle once and had to leap clear because she didn't know how to deal with it.
Loquacious Lan Lilac-Type Gear Evacuated by pilot.
Lan is able to get herself free when she finds the cockpit operation lever. Whether this is going to be a good thing in the long run is its own question, but she is free, and tiny, and independent in the skies of opposition to Solaris. She can see her Gear smash into another Gear, which may count as War.
BOUDICCA UNIT 01: TEST TYPE: 13 Enemy Kills
Loren Voss-Custom H*LLI*RTE Type: 3 Enemy Kills, 7 Support Kills
The rampaging Seraph, unleashing the power within her turbulent heart and ably supported by Loren's Ether projections (well past Easy Mode), are able to buy a period long enough for one to feel that perhaps they might just rally up with one big push and win it.
And perhaps they might.
It's hard to say. Their dreams move along, as dreams so often do. But here, at least, they were heroes... ...while fighting Solaris's oppression.
But despite Margaret's dramatization and assumption of the role of 'Krelian,' they were undeniably in opposition to what were recognizably Solaris designs (although Loren might note that either the dream is not a perfect memory, or else that there have been some improvements since this.) What does it mean? Perhaps the enemy simply used the same designs.
It's not a convincing excuse.
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Gabriel - Betrayal *>======================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
"Father."
When you come to, you stand inside of a massive facility. Its steel walls
are purple, with an immense viewport looking down on a fragment of a planet
that floats amidst the stars. At the center of it is a barrier; outside of
the barrier is desolation and ruin, but inside is verdant green, blue
oceans, and white clouds. You look upon this... and bow your head.
The blue-haired woman behind you speaks. "Is it true?" she asks. "Did you...
did you order them to do this? To your world--to our world, father!?"
You turn -- and then realize that she holds a gun. In the logic of the
dream, it matters not. She fires her pistol, but a bullet hurtles for each
of you, to shoot you in the back unless you dodge.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's strange, Loren thinks, when it's all over and done with -- once they're well past the realm of the no-mind of combat, the panic and reflex in turn that drown the ego -- but while those Gears were certainly of Solaris design, they looked... different. As if the ones he's familiar with were several iterations past what he'd been... fighting against...
But this is a dream, he reminds himself. It's a dream, and there's surely no real sense to be found here. Besides, even if he was dreaming he was Krelian, why was he fighting against Solaris?
Considering all that has troubled him of late, it's probably just displacement. That's all.
Lan isn't the only one dreaming about regrets.
The battle comes to its triumphant conclusion; there is some dialogue over the communication link that he doesn't rightly hear and he blinks the once to open his eyes to...
Is this a planet? Is he viewing a planet beneath him? Exhilaration blooms for a moment in his chest, even as someone calls him 'father'.
Even as he realizes, suddenly, that this is not even remotely a 'well' planet.
The woman is upset. He did this?
Loren turns towards her, reminded again that this is a dream, some displacement of what's churning through his psyche when he sees that she holds in her hand a gun. She pulls the trigger, and there is no bullet that comes forth from it but rather--
He realizes, in the logic of the dream, how this gun is meant to work. The bullet always come from behind. Impossibly, improbably, from behind. "Get down!" he shouts, dropping for the floor.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The Beast of Lohgrin explains and goes unheard, Cassandra's wings spreading wide. If only she were master of herself, she could say --
Instead she is a force unto herself, thanks to Loren's help. But she can't save Lan. Once upon a time, Boudicca believed with all her heart that she could save them all... and now it's happening again. No matter her efforts, it's happening again.
Boudicca doesn't dream, and that means the amount of dreams which have turned into nightmares is weighted rather unfairly.
It keeps happening. Again, again, again.
Again.
"If this is your path," she cries to the woman, she turns, "why does it lay upon the dreaming path so heavily?! Is this the end of all determination -- this scarring regret!"
She doesn't get down.
She charges the woman, a terrifying gust of air against the bullet.
"Shall I remember the blade what sinks deep to her heart as this?! Just as the jaws which bite, the way his flesh caved in and birthed a monster from the wounding?!" There may be something familiar in that last description...
... because she's describing something Lan saw, too.
"ANSWER ME!"
Of course, she can't knock her down.
Because it just keeps happening.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan has never been inside a Gear that was doing more than 'carrying a party of three someplace else'. She's never been inside on that was even close to fighting, and the idea of fighting and flying--
Well it's honestly pretty impressive that she didn't throw up on Loren's shoes or something. She's not a very good copilot but at least curling into a ball and trying not to move or breathe or exist isn't nearly as bad as most of the other things she could have done.
So when the Gear vanishes from around her and Lan realizes she's standing upright, it's dizzying in an entirely new way.
TAnd in front of her--
She steps forward, in spite of herself. Beside her, Loren looks similarly dazzled - maybe even moreso. "Is that..." she trails off, because someone behind her is speaking. Father?
Lan never had a father, even before she was born. Her mother came back from her journey to the outside with Lan already in her womb.
What is it like, to have a father?
What is it like, to have to kill one?
Someone shouts, and Beast screams, and Lan sees the gun in the reflection in the glass. Get down, someone yells.
Silver bursts into waking, the ribbon she always wears seeming to come alive, and Lan kicks off of the floor into a gravity-escaping somersault. Her feet threaten to brush the ceiling as she pivots midair and begins the fall back to earth - heel-first towards someone else's daughter.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
These dreams have been surreal to Margaret because almost all of them have wholly lacked context. They were, indeed, ABOVE her reality. And so it is here, as she gazes at -- a planet? She dimly apprehends it as such, and she glances momentarily towards Loren, cupping her chin.
She answers Boudicca if not quite in such terms: "Perhaps if these are 'the memories of the Earth,' we're seeing something important... pre-history, perhaps? There were ruins on Filgaia from old civilizations, I thought, weren't -"
There's a gun. Get down.
Margaret operates on reflex. The ring she was given by her dear old friend in his demise shines to life. She jerks forwards--
Not to dodge--
But to tackle the woman with the gun.
DG: Margaret has used her Tool Ring of the South Sea toward her party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Gabriel - Betrayal *>======================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
"Father."
When you come to, you stand inside of a massive facility. Its steel walls
are purple, with an immense viewport looking down on a fragment of a planet
that floats amidst the stars. At the center of it is a barrier; outside of
the barrier is desolation and ruin, but inside is verdant green, blue
oceans, and white clouds. You look upon this... and bow your head.
The blue-haired woman behind you speaks. "Is it true?" she asks. "Did you...
did you order them to do this? To your world--to our world, father!?"
You turn -- and then realize that she holds a gun. In the logic of the
dream, it matters not. She fires her pistol, but a bullet hurtles for each
of you, to shoot you in the back unless you dodge.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 5 *>=================== ========================< Results - Gabriel - Betrayal >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 35 --(8)--> 43 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 51 --(0)--> 51 Pass Ring of the South Sea 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 35 --(0)--> 35 Pass Breezeruffle Leaves 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 35 --(0)--> 35 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Elw Teleporters - Dreaming!
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - What We Leave Behind *>=====================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You jerk awake sharply in your bed. You have a cold sweat (if you are able)
and you look about, the memories of the dreams lingering -- but for one of
you, a memory comes to you, unbidden. It is an unpleasant memory; a memory
of strife and struggle. But why does it come to mind now?
OOC: One member of your party can submit a +request with text for a
challenge. Please make it have a Challenge Rating of 1 or 2, select from any
of the four Dungeon Abilities, and build an appropriate set of abilities.
Please also provide the text of the card. Include your character's name in
the challenge's title.
Staff reserve the right to edit and make changes as needed.
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren doesn't hit the floor in time. Pain blooms at some point between the shoulder blades; he collapses to the floor soon after, scarce able to breathe.
The others opt to charge her instead, piling onto her bodily and driving a fleeting kick towards somebody else's daughter. She never gets the chance to take another shot.
"Shit," Loren, still laid out on the floor, exhales. He's defiant to the end. Guess I'll find out what happens when you...
He awakens suddenly, jolted into alertness in his cot by a knock at the door. Rolling out of bed, he stumbles over to the door of what passes as a 'room' in the outpost base, realizing as he drags a hand down his face that he's slick with sweat.
"Ugh," he announces to the world, before yanking open the door to the worried face of one of the newbies, shit, what was her name, Junia? "What's going on?"
"Had a few intruders on-site, sir," Junia tells him, fidgeting with a ring on one finger. "Element Kelvena was forced to retreat. Caught her by surprise, I think. They're looking for signs of them now, but Major Flynn wanted me to ask you to be on standby, sir. Just in case."
Isn't this just my luck, Loren thinks distantly. "Understood. I'll contact him shortly."
Damn, he's not even going to get to have time for a shower...
Damn, damn, damn.
And why does something still smell like ylang-ylang?