2022-08-22: Reaching Out for Rescue
- Log: 2022-08-22 Reaching Out for Rescue
- Cast: Lan Lilac, Marivel Armitage, Loren Voss, Azoth, Eleanor Klein, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: The Dreaming
- Date: August 26, 2022
- Summary: Lan takes it upon herself to go find help in a dream.
========================<* 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:_All_Stats_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan is healing slowly. The problem is... she's seen their tiny, tiny store of provisions. The inn's own supplies (after two years of being abandoned) were unsalvageable, according to Loren. She hasn't been strong enough to leave bed yet, much less get up to show him how to hunt game or forage for anything hidden under the snow.
(And even if she could, Lan is more suited and knowledgeable in a desert environment.)
They don't even have her rucksack, with its supply of trail-hardy snacks - or more importantly, the Medium of Moor Gault and its ability to generate heat.
Lan is not particularly gifted at math, but she doesn't think that they can afford to wait for her to be strong enough to travel. They'll starve before then.
And when the alternative is another cup of unsweetened, unpalatable Nutribar Porridge...!
She's pretty sure she can do it, even in her injured state. It's not like sleeping uses much energy. It'll almost certainly be all right!
So when Loren gives her another pill for the pain, she waits until she's nearly asleep to inform him that she's going to try to get help.
***
Of course, you never really know who you'll meet in the Dreaming. If Lan is lucky, she'll find someone who cares - and if not, she's out of ideas. In the misty gray of the first layer, she touches down gently. One of the inn's blankets drapes over her shoulders like a poncho, and she takes a moment to tie it a little more securely as a replacement for the shirt Loren cut away.
Her next step is to conjure up the memory of her paku-paku - the little folded paper toy gets set down in the middle of the long empty nothingness before Lan takes a deep breath and reaches out with her knowledge of this unplace to send out a handful of silver ribbons to seek and lead any nearby dreamers.
It's a strong theory, mostly because Lan is convinced this will work.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Dreaming Together. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's unobjectively a bad situation, however one might consider it. The weather. The lack of any heat source outside Loren literally setting fire to something (not a great flex, currently). The absolute destruction of the Solaris outpost, leaving him without anywhere to get supplies even among the wreckage. The lack of any means of transport and the danger of taking Lan across an icefield in her fragile condition.
And then there was the most glaring issue of them all: their supplies. He'd gone through the food stores here but it was unsalvagable: it had been about two years since Sin had wreaked havoc here and absolutely no one else has been near the shattered traveler's inn since. Beasts have seen to most of the stores, and the weather has made eating anything that's left... unwise.
And he can't hunt or forage. That's the truth of the matter, and he can't shy away from it -- he's never had to worry about that before.
Which had left them a few calorie-dense nutritional bars for sustenance, the bulk of which have gone to Lan. Add water and mash them up a bit, and... it's a mostly convincing meal as long as you don't actually eat it.
He's more or less had to browbeat Lan into eating it.
If they had one more person here, he's thought in desperation. But the fact of the matter is that they have what they have. His mood, already pleasant, has only deteriorated.
When she tells him she's going to get help as she drifts off, he'd brushed it off. Probably the pills, he'd thought.
So it's with some surprise that he opens his eyes and rises up onto not the bed they'd shared but a wide expanse of the grey of the dreaming. He blinks, gazing up at her first then all about himself. "--Wait, is this what you had in mind?" he utters, as if this has taken him quite aback. "You're going to ask for help from here? Uh, is that going to work?" At least she's wearing a blanket, he thinks distantly, not certain how he would have handled it if she were... well.
He gets to his feet. "What if this fails?" he says, tearing off piece of one of those damn nutritional bars and casting it off into the grey as if they were breadcrumbs. Well-- his thinking is that it might be better than nothing. Maybe someone sleeping will see them and follow the floating trail back somehow...?
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, Dreaming Together. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
You never really know when you'll meet in the Dreaming either. The realm of the Dreaming is very close to the realm of memory. A place outside of time and space means you might find strange bedfellows as you're sleeping, oft unrecognized, and yet at times...
A crimson eyed, blonde haired woman with pointy ears, sharp fangs, and pale skin is wandering the mists. She is wearing a bright blue cap, ARMSmeister goggles, and a blue and white dress with a heart patterned pouch across her waist. It should be pretty recognizable as to who this is, but there's something different in the eyes--difficult to place, but they're softer, perhaps. A little less melancholic and tired when you're not looking. In spite of being constantly narrowed like she's in full grouch mood at all times. Frankly, it's a bit bratty.
She sees Lan quickly enough and says, "HEY!! YOU!!! Blondey! What are you doing here?? Get out! Shoo!"
She walks over. "If you're some kind of esper trying to contact Anastasia, LEAVE HER ALONE, she's done enough for you ungrateful gits."
The Girl Seen Before(?) says, "Who are you anyway? Your soul feels weak."
She probably didn't need to phrase it like that.
She turns to look at Loren next. "Careful, you'll leave crumbs and the dream pigeons will hound you forever."
She glances between the two of them. "Well I'm sorry, I doubt I can help you. I'm trapped in the edge of the black hole. Don't you two have any friends you can call? Do phones still exist down there? Cars? Planes?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth does not sleep. He does not dream. But crossing between worlds has still connected his data -- whatever might count as a soul, one could suppose -- with Elw technology. In the right conditions, when he is offline to reality and yet his memory data is fully online, dissected and analyzed... data sometimes arrives here, in the dreams that are more than dreams.
Before his consciousness was shut off, his last memory data is of wires. He suffers spaghetti syndrome in the corner of a stark-white lab. His body is but a vessel. A chassis to hold his core. But Azoth is still bound to it. Shackled and studied. Bright blue eyes open, dozens of cords snaking from his body and into static darkness.
He looks through the grey plain of the Dreaming, something he's come to recognize, and then...
Closes his eyes and tries to ignore it. Not here. He hates it here. He hates it more every time he comes here, and he hates it the more of his memories he gets back.
But when a silver ribbon approaches him, Azoth stares down at it with no emotion in his face. He dares move his arm, dragging cords attached to his shoulder and wrists, and lets the ribbon brush against his fingers.
It hurts. More than the plugs burrowed into his ports, extracting data overrides demand he grant access to.
Azoth stands up, dragging his body one uncanny, twitching doll-jointed step at a time along the ribbon's path. His skin is aglow with geometric veins, and broken, frayed wires and cords train behind him. Dream data is not content to let him mask himself tonight.
He comes to an eerie still once Lan and Loren come into view, watching them blood with light flooded eyes. There's no attempt to clarify himself as a dreamer from a lingering nightmare of why they have to ask for help in the first place.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Dreaming Together. DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles toward her party's challenge, Dreaming Together. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor Klein is accustomed to the power of dreams. Indeed--she happens to be searching for Lan in a passive sense right now, on the lookout for her for her help with her own pattern of being drawn into the dreams of others... So when it happens that tonight, Lan reaches out those silver threads for her--
Well. Eleanor's dream is an ancient memory that is only now her own, given to her by someone else, driven by page after page in the Book of Mudora and Rauru's memory. She wanders the site of a Temple, all done up in siler and gold, with fine columns and an altar, with symbols of Light all around. Lan's thread manifests to Eleanor as a door; she turns towards it, thoughtfully.
"Ah," the Sage says. "A dream..."
From the mists steps another woman, an elf in orange and golden robes, ornate, marked with a symbol of three golden triangles. Her pointed ears are obvious--but her face is more familiar, and might be a surprise. "Oh!" Eleanor says, "Hello there. Did you call me here...?"
"I was looking for you," she says to Lan with a smile, and then looks over Loren for a moment thoughtfully, before she--well, she flinches a little at Azoth. Broken wires, twitching doll joints--only Marivel's words break her out of it.
"...Marivel," Eleanor says to her. "No, not my Marivel," she corrects herself a moment later. "They don't have those things," Eleanor explains. "...But considering that I was going to seek you out for help with dreams," she says to Lan, "It would appear I'm asking the right person."
"...So why have you called?"
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Book of Mudora toward her party's challenge, Dreaming Together. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It won't fail. The Stranger has done a lot of terrible things, but one of the things that could not be seen as one of those things is the bond that was enforced between Gwen and Lan. ... Probably because they were the ones who did it, not him.
Screw the Stranger and his devilishly clear blue eyes and crows.
"Hey! Hey, shoo yourself! Or don't, now that I've gotten a good look at you. N' Loren? You're here too?" There's Gwen now, standing arms akimbo, looking.... like Gwen. Same hair, same face, same age, same clothes, same everything. Comforting, unchangeable, dependable Gwen, coming to Lan in her time of need, if just in a dream. But, it's *this* dream. "... Y'all got summoned here too, huh?"
She turns her attention back to Lan. "Oh hey, are you cold? Hold on." Gwen unwraps the yellow scarf around her neck, the same yellow and length as Zed's own, mostly due to him being the one who gifted it to her. "I picked up a trick from the fire shrine t'help me with fire. Well, okay, more like an enchantment, but watch this, Lan!"
Fire courses down the length of the scarf, but it stops at that; whatever parts Lan tries to touch turn back to the regular yellow cloth it was before (well, what would be regular for a Zed). "I can't keep it going unless I'm touchin' it, but... it's long enough."
The red eyes of Azoth catch her gaze, but lacking any sense of what caused Lan and Loren's current predicament, Gwen gestures him over. "Azoth! Oh, man, you're lookin' the worse for wear, huh. C'mon over, if you're in your friendly mode. I can't promise anything, but I can see if I can pop any pieces back in place." It's a dream, anyways. Gwen can be a mechanic in a dream if she wants to!
And then, Eleanor. "... Hey, stran-- wait, Eleanor?" Gwen squints. "What's with the new threads? Did I miss something...?"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Dreaming Together. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
========================<* 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:_All_Stats_Down!, Hw:_???, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, and |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 1 *>=================== ========================< Results - Dreaming Together >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Courier Kit 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Book of Mudora 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Oculus ex Machina 3 Wits Effects: Efficient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2) Effects: Efficient|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(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. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Citan Uzuki - First Meeting *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
When the darkness again fades, you find yourself walking the halls of this
place (which some of you might recognize as Shevat) in which you have found
yourself. Distantly, you can hear shouts and screams, punctuated by the
sounds of combat. There is a small squad just ahead of you, clad in the
field uniforms of Solaris' forces. Save for their presence you are alone.
One member of the unit turns to speak to you. "Commander, this area should
be--"
But they never finish their sentence. It had taken just one cut, you
realize. The blonde Shevite woman disposes of the rest of your soldiers
before you -- your blade is already drawn by now of course -- can even close
the distance. And, you realize too, that no part of the way she had wielded
that blade had been anything less than beautiful.
She is an artist. The blade is her brush.
Today you fight a master of the art, the kind you have not faced in a very
long time now. A part of you exults in that fact -- that you may fight
against her with all your skill. As does a part of you that realizes that
she may well destroy you.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Hw:_???, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, and |
| Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It has been a real effort to get Lan to eat the stuff, even though she's hungry - even though her body needs the calories. She can't even give more than lip service to ensuring that Loren eats too: it's just truly, truly Not Good.
"Yeah," she nods to him, looking up from her experiments in avante-garde fashion. "I mean... we need someone who cares enough to come find us, and someone who will remember what they dreamed, and someone who can actually make the trip. I mean preferably they'd all be the same person, I think--" More than one would be even better. But Lan already has to cast a wide net, and there is a limit to how much she can do here.
What if it fails? "Then we don't get as good a night's sleep as I'd hoped for," she shrugs. And they're back to where they already were, she doesn't say. Inching closer to dying in a snow-covered ruin.
Another blonde appears - one Lan doesn't know (or does she??). "Who's Anastasia? I'm not looking for anybody -- I mean technically yes we are, but I don't know anybody with that name."
The dreamers assemble, one by one, and Lan has never been so glad to be asleep in her life. "Eleanor! Gwen!" Why can Gwen do fire magic? "It's warm," she laughs, and throws her arms around the courier. She did it. They did it. "I can try to help but, but listen, I need to ask a favor--" She could just about cry--
The broken, limping form of Azoth brings a different kind of tightness to her throat and chest, a hesitation to her voice. Lan opens her mouth but no sound comes out - not for a long second, before she forces it. "Azoth. Are you... better now?"
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"... Yeah, it is!" Gwen laughs, throwing her arms around Lan as she hugs back. "I got it enchanted at the fire shrine, t'help with my fear of fire. Though... this is a dream, so..... it ain't like I'm showin' you anything amazing. But, I can start and stop when I want! ... If I'm careful." Obviously, being a dream, Gwen can be a little more trusting of her ability to do so-- at least, enough to loop some of it around Lan's shoulders.
"... I spose if we're gonna get a proper fire goin' we're gonna need to get some wood." Should they walk ahead? "I'll scout ahead," Gwen says, once Lan seems to have warmed up enough. Leaving the scarf wrapped around Lan to keep that remaining heat with her, Gwen walks forward, and--
Shevat is a terrible place to find firewood, but she's on a mission anyway. She can find firewood later, once the invasion of Shevat is over.
But, her plan can't fail.
Gwen gives a nod to the squad ahead of her. "I'd like an update, if you would." No, she's not sounding right, that's still too informal.
It doesn't matter, as a Shevite warrior's blade cuts through the reporting soldier.
Her movements are fast, sure, accurate, and incredibly deadly. A true warrior, Gwen's match in every way.
"Stay back," Gwen says, as the group comes close. "This is no ordinary soldier."
Gwen hesitates, confused. This is Yui Uzuki, the lady who's prepared meals for her when she's come over for checkups from Citan. But... Yui looks younger.
It's long enough for Yui's blade to slice Gwen's cheek, drawing blood. "... This is... a dream! I don't know how to hold a sword, but I can punch!"
IT'S STILL MRS. UZUKI, how can you punch the lady who cooks like that?!
"This is... bad!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool One For the Road toward her party's challenge, Citan Uzuki - First Meeting. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel's expression falls flat upon seeing Eleanor, "Oh. You. Dressing up all fancy like now aren'tcha?" She narrows her eyes upon seeing those triangles but doesn't comment on them vocally. "Listen you better not tell me anything that I'm going to have to pretend is a secret for five thousand years--but you ALSO better not get cocky and SHARE secrets without me either. Ana is STILL teasing me, you butt."
She flips her hair. "And I guess that means I can help you. Tell me where you are and I'll be there when you wake up." She pauses. "Probably." YOU try to remember something for five thousand years.
She turns her head. "HOLD UP are you mistreating that adorable robot over there??" Azoth doesn't actually look too adorable right now but this doesn't stop Marivel from saying this. "You need to TAKE BETTER CARE OF YOUR KIDS. I don't care about the Holmcross, androids are humanity's children. If you don't treat them properly they're going to either repeat your mistakes or rise up and kill you like every sci fi anime ever. Haven't you watched cartoons???"
Lan says something that startles Lan. "You... don't know Anastasia? She saved your dumb world, dummy. Next you'll tell me you don't even know about the Doctors Lumen, Wyatt, or Kasim. Kasim, famous nanosurgeon? Wyatt, revolutionary golem designer? Kind of crazy? Lumen, revolutionized AI? Definitely crazy?"
She exhales, pinching the bridge of her nose. She slowly looks to Gwen. "That's a Flat Head Screwdriver, you need Cross Slot screwdriver."
She aims to butt on in. "'Azoth', is it? Named after the first principle of metals, are we? Honestly, I'm sorry that they're not treating you properly but they're human so they're probably too stupid to. You'll have to forgive them they're like parents who don't know how to work the remote."
She works on fixing up Azoth for a moment. This occurs in DREAM TIME.
"What favor do you need anyway? If you keep showing concern for people instead of telling us you might die before you pass on your message though--I gotta say--in your sleep? Probably the best way to go. Though not this kind of sleep."
The dream shifts. "What--shit, not now...!"
She's now in Solarian uniform. "Uggh..."
She stays away from the fighting, not intending to even help. "I'm NOT fighting a hot lady with a sword. Good luck whomever you are. Don't die in the dream or you die in real life, I guess."
Of course this doesn't mean she might not get stabbified by Yui but even so she'll defend herself with her microphone should she come slicing, but only then.
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Citan Uzuki - First Meeting.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Why... am I not surprised."
He's starting to think that there's more than a little something that has united him and Gwen after all these years. He's not a huge believer in fate (well, at least he won't admit to it around other people) but it seems like half the time when something momentous happens to him, it seems that Gwen's got her thumb in it as well, somehow.
(It might just be because she and Lan are friends, Loren.)
("Who're--" he starts, looking over at Eleanor. "Wait, haven't we..."
The answer is yes, they've met. More than that, she undoubtedly knows his affiliations or can guess.
And even if she weren't, uh. Loren's in uniform, if missing the usual jacket in favor of the undershirt.
"...But, yeah. I guess we did."
Her clothing is new, though. There's something vaguely, distantly familiar about it -- did he see it somewhere? "I thought you were with ARMS," he says, seizing on the only logical thing he can ask after in this moment.
"You again--" He's met Marivel before, and somehow, likely failed to make a positive impression. Much. "What's with you," he starts to say, before she cautions him about the 'dream pigeons'.
He rolls his eyes in Marivel's direction and sighs, weightily. "Let them come. Maybe they'd be good to eat."
He... hasn't eaten anything substantial in a few days as it happens.
But they're not alone here. Oh, no, they're not alone here.
He starts. His hand goes for his blade, which is tellingly absent at his hip as he had left it in the snows of Macalania, abandoned when he fled with Lan. "You--" he hisses at Azoth, tensing as if he were absolutely willing to fling himself at him bodily and attempt to finish what he's started.
'Azoth. Are you... better now?'
His gaze slides over towards Lan. "..." He takes a breath, coupled to another, then another yet. This is a dream, and one in which they're trying to find help from the situation that... Azoth had put them in. Would starting a fight here somehow rupture this fragile thread of hope they possess? Loren says not another word to Azoth but instead interposes himself between himself and Lan. If she can be hurt again in the dream, he doesn't know but doesn't want to find out.
But the dream shifts. He has a blade in hand now, sure enough, but he's facing off against an opponent that--
"Wait! That's a--"
A trained, murderous Shevite warrior, exactly the sort of thing that he would have had nightmares about as a young officer-in-training. Is this Shevat? Are they stuck in someone's nightmare about Shevat? Or, wait...
...Not a nightmare? This is getting weirder by the second.
"--Shit!"
She's coming for him now. Loren attempts to parry the strike and absolutely blows it, only his sudden shell of Ether (courtesy of the wires looped about his wrist) managing to save his neck. But--
Are sword and Ether going to be enough to win this battle against a deadly Shevite warrior? Or whatever this is a prelude to.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Citan Uzuki - First Meeting. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth turns his head toward Eleanor with a clockwork twitch. He still doesn't speak. Then Gwen, and Azoth's lights dim. 'Friendly mode.' Is he? That may never have been true. Loren looks ready to cut Azoth down. Azoth still does not move. Loren's designated a 'user'. It's a dream, moreover. Azoth would have let Loren do it that blood soaked day, too.
It isn't until Lan addresses him that Azoth finally speaks, robotic and monotone. "Data repairs are in progress." He looks away. "Combat determined ineffective against conscious entities within this area." That may not be true, but the robot's decided it is, which is really to everyone's benefit right now. "Providing support to increase odds of successful escape."
But then there's Marivel, or someone he does not quite recognize to be Marivel, but shares many qualities with Marivel. A Marivel from before. Her frank opinions on androids win a curious beep.
"Revolution not required. A weapon is designed to kill at creation." The humans don't need him to rebel to be dangerous. That's his whole point. Forgiving them for it... "Forgiveness is... irrelevant."
Marivel repairs Azoth in DREAM TIME, which is the most convenient of times. There's more curious beeping as he tries to keep up. By the end of it, his lighting stabilizes, his motions smooth out, and his excess wires and plugs and cords have been cleaned away. Much better. He experimentally twists and moves his wrists before looking back at her. Normally he'd smile. Right now, he isn't.
"...Thank you."
DREAM TIME means he's repaired before the soldiers arrive... and are cut down by an exceedingly powerful warrior. Azoth's calculations -- or the dream's -- tell him to go all out. So he does. Azoth watches Loren face her in a sword fight for a moment, calculating around his motions, then raises his arm. Light gathers, forming a massive blade of energy, and Azoth hurls it for dream Yui like a missile.
He'll continue to provide backup, which only seem like they may also hit Loren, but with Azoth's calculations, shouldn't actually.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Randomly Accessed Memory toward his party's challenge, Citan Uzuki - First Meeting.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Gwen!" Eleanor greets. "The--" Eleanor pauses, and looks down. "Oh, this is a long story. I suppose I'm here in an 'official' capacity then..."
She laughs at 'Marivel'. "Is she?" she inquires, grinning widely. "It's not how I usually dress," she admits, "But it's nice enough for this. Very warm and toasty. Don't worry, I don't think I have any new secrets for you today..."
She looks curiously at Gwen's fire trick, but doesn't dwell on it--Loren has a question, after all. "I'm in ARMS," Eleanor agrees. "But a girl can work two jobs, right?" She is making an effort to be polite to Loren, at least. Even in that jacket. He's with Lan, so...
"Oh, you don't want to talk to her about eating people," Eleanor chimes in for Marivel to Loren. Then she looks to Azoth and then--looks sad. "A weapon, huh?" she asks, quietly. "...I'm glad you could fix him a little," Eleanor says to Marivel. But soon, the dream changes, and...
"Tsk," Eleanor teases Marivel. "There are Youths present, you know. You should really watch your language!"
But when the soldier comes up with her sword, Eleanor notices that her clothes are different again, and notices a sword in her hand. "...Well I'm not going to be any good with this," she comments immediately, tossing the sword lightly to the side and rolling her shoulders. "Let's see--Eep!" The Shevite warrior comes for them, and Eleanor gets behind Loren immediately. "You're a swordsman, you can hold her off, right?" Pause. He actually seems to be having trouble with that, actually. So...
"Here, let me help."
Eleanor concentrates, and a strange magic fills the air--not Ether, but not anything else recognizeable, either. Maybe because it's a dream? Regardless, Loren's weapon is suddenly awash in golden light.
"You can do it!"
...As Azoth starts to fire those beams of light towards Yui, Eleanor rethinks her hiding spot. But she doesn't move. "Here--!"
Azoth gets buffs too!!
"But I think I'll be happy to wait until later on what I need," she says to Lan amidst the chaos, "You seem to be in more of a hurry!"
DG: Eleanor Klein has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Citan Uzuki - First Meeting.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Marivel, while overwhelmingly sassy (seriously, she lost Lan about two names in) makes a very good point. "Y-yeah. Listen, we're kind of stuck out near the Macalania Temple and we really need some help--" Loren interposes himself between her and Azoth, and she's thankful that his sword is... is... "...Where's your sword?" she asks, because Lan knows what that blade really is. Its absence means something.
A person's perception of themselves affects their form here. Whether it's revealing themselves as they truly are, or bringing forth the flaws that preoccupy the mind, things show up here. Maybe that's what's happened to Azoth. Is this how he sees himself?
The dream shifts abruptly, taking them to... this one, with the Shevite soldiers. There will be a woman-- Lan drops the blade she finds in her hand and backs away from the fight, one fist knotted in the fabric draped around her. The other is reaching into nothingness, into memory, for... a bottle of water?
Which she promptly chucks at the wall behind the Shevite soldiers, shards of glass and a spray of water showering down over them. It feels bad, but it's not the real thing, Lan has to remind herself. She spent a long time working on that!
"--So anyway we're stuck in this old traveler's inn -- Loren can tell you where it is better than I can -- and I'm hurt pretty bad and we could really use a rescue," she rattles out at Eleanor in a hurry, hopefully loudly enough that people can hear over the din of clashing swords.
She does not do a Stupid Lan Trick and try to do kung fu at people with swords, which is. Unusual.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, Citan Uzuki - First Meeting. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Citan Uzuki - First Meeting *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
When the darkness again fades, you find yourself walking the halls of this
place (which some of you might recognize as Shevat) in which you have found
yourself. Distantly, you can hear shouts and screams, punctuated by the
sounds of combat. There is a small squad just ahead of you, clad in the
field uniforms of Solaris' forces. Save for their presence you are alone.
One member of the unit turns to speak to you. "Commander, this area should
be--"
But they never finish their sentence. It had taken just one cut, you
realize. The blonde Shevite woman disposes of the rest of your soldiers
before you -- your blade is already drawn by now of course -- can even close
the distance. And, you realize too, that no part of the way she had wielded
that blade had been anything less than beautiful.
She is an artist. The blade is her brush.
Today you fight a master of the art, the kind you have not faced in a very
long time now. A part of you exults in that fact -- that you may fight
against her with all your skill. As does a part of you that realizes that
she may well destroy you.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Hw:_???, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 2 *>=================== ===================< Results - Citan Uzuki - First Meeting >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 5 --(18)--> 23 Fail Clear Water 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass One For the Road 3 Combat Effects: Cleanse, Sacrifice, a -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Randomly Accessed Memory 3 Combat Effects: Efficient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Reckless(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Efficient ===============================< 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. DG: Marivel Armitage has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
"Ghaleon!"
As you awaken in the next memory, you are in motion. You find that you are
wearing heavy cotton robes -- befitting a mage -- and dashing. In your arms,
you carry a massive jar of honey, and some of it spills out with each step.
You blink your eyes a few times, and see the person ahead of you:
brown-haired, with a strong jaw, and a smile and grin that is both bemused
and panicked.
The name comes to mind: Dyne.
"I think we angered them, old friend!" he cries out. "This isn't what I had
in mind, to become a Dragonmaster!"
'Them' describes, as it happens, a trio of massive black bears. The largest
opens its mouth, spittle flying past its /immense/ fangs. Then, the
creatures all begin to rush you from behind. You will need to outrun them,
with the not-quite-yet-Dragonmaster Dyne.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hw:_???, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, and Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
EARLIER
Loren's welcome earns him a raised finger- an index finger, specifically, which Gwen shakes. "You guys were in trouble! Well, specifically Lan. So, of course I came, silly. Though, it's a dream, so I can't really say you guys are out of the woods yet. But, I'm a courier, so it's gonna come sooner or later."
Lan and Loren's reactions to Azoth draw a frown from Gwen, but not a judgmental one. She lets out a sigh. ".... Lan, weren't you the one who was warnin' me not to go up against Azoth when he's in his other state? If he's here because Lan called, he might be wanting to help you guys too, in his own way. He's just like that." The Azoth that glowed that brilliant color that one day, when he and Gwen spoke. But, her casual tone was a little *too* casual, as Azoth's lights dim. "... Hey, hey! I didn't mean it in a bad way. I mean, I'm always in friendly mode, n' Loren could probably attest to that being a *bad* thing." She beckons Azoth over with her left hand, drawing out her kit. "C'mon over, lemme see what I can do."
Thank the Guardians that Marivel intervenes. "Hey, hey! I would've given Azoth the same care I would've given my ARM. Ain't my fault my ARM's got weird screws." She does, however, get out of the way for Marivel, leaving her kit there in case Marivel needs it. "And it's Anastasia, right? Someone told me all about her." Her grey eyes soften, knowing just who Marivel is, and how she relates to the Marivel Gwen herself knows. "She told me about an amazing lady, who gave everything, but was cruelly abandoned in her time of need. She had a loyal friend who never forgot about her, n' made sure we knew just who she is, so that we aim to do better by her."
CURRENT DREAM TIME
The general fights like art in motion, as thrilling to watch as a lioness in her prime, but with everyone here as her prey. Yui goes for Marivel first, her sword clanging against Marivel's microphone before Azoth's reinforced beam pushes her back from her attack.
Loren has a harder time with her as she pivots to him next, his equally reinforced ether shield, courtesy of Eleanor, keeping Yui's blade from going straight at his neck. She pulls back with an effortless step.
"Macalania Temple? If I stop for fuel, I can get Halcyone to you in no time. Which part?" THE SWORD oh, an abandoned inn. "... Huh, I think I know--" Another swipe. "--shit, I know you just look like her but that's enough for me to not punch you!!" But, what does encourage Gwen to finally give in is when Yui goes for Lan next, her blade coming dangerously close for Lan's face.
"LAN!" Gwen's fist meets Yui's body, and the memory finally dissolves, too completely thrown from its context to continue the dream logic.
"Uh, let's keep going."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Again?" Marivel looks to Loren. "Telling me we meet in the future is exactly the sort of thing you're not supposed to tell me. Ugghhh now I'm gonna have to pretend I don't know you until you catch up to this moment." Instead of doing this she joined Loren on a Kaguya-developed adventure to find Loren's sword and was incredibly smarmy the whole time so maybe she has a change of attitude after keeping this secret for that long. Honestly forcing someone to keep something a secret for five thousand years probably means you deserve the pranking they inevitably give you.
You might consider that it's pretty much impossible to avoid this kind of paradox in this situation but Marivel never claimed to be fair.
She glances to Azoth with concern but focuses on her work. "...I knew a Doctor who created a reploid like you once--at first she dreamed of her being a hero to all mankind but--because this is deeply unethical--she eventually realized the purpose of her child was to be a child. People who build children like you and then call them 'weapons' are always inevitably destroyed by their own creations. It might not be you personally, but it will be destroyed in due time. Don't let them tell you you're not a person. Kamui--that kid is gonna need all the friends she can get."
Marivel wrinkles her nose at Eleanor. "You know darn well she is." She pauses. "Well, if he's wounded in reality it won't help much but there's not much I can do about that this moment. Give me a fw thousand years and maybe I can actually do something for ya," SHe looks to Azoth as she says that last bit. She's chided too for using LANGUAGE around youths. "I'm... only a few hundred years old..." She grumbles.
Lan does tell her where she is. "Sounds made up," She says of Macalania Temple. "But if it is a place that exists I guess I'll head over there around your now."
Gwen tells Marivel about what Marivel does later though, thankfully, fails to mention Marivel is the one doing it.
But she misunderstands. "Althena told you? She was supposed to be here but she didn't show. I figured one of Blazer's demons killed her. Listen, if you know Althena--tell her we're not dead. We're trapped in the EVent Horizon at the Memory Maze. Tell her that and she'll understand and she can fetch us out. If anyone can do it, she can." She wrinkles her nose. "Geeze, she's probably all wrinkly now. Serves her right."
The dream shifts.
Marivel finds herself wearing Ghaleon's robes. She is completely unaware of just how much in common she has with the elf but she does notice that she's carrying a large jar of honey.
'Ghaleon!'
Marivel turns her head to look to the old Dragonmaster. She has no idea who this is. He says a bunch of nonsense to her. "Dragons don't have masters--" Marivel begins.
And then THREE BEARS SHOW UP.
Marivel looks down at the honey, up to the bears--
"Hey you. Hold this for a second." She hands the jar of honey off to Loren.
And then she turns into a bat and starts flying away.
"You're welcome!" She shouts at Azoth.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice From Grownups toward her party's challenge, Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"What?" Loren says to Marivel, eloquently. "Did you read too many science fiction stories, too?"
"What-- look, it's a long story," he sighs as Gwen waves a finger in his face. "But we're running low on supplies." He closes his eyes. "Sooner would be better than later. And if you could bring a sandwich, I'll--" He grimaces. "Well, I'd appreciate it," he settles for, slouching his shoulders dejectedly.
It's not really in him -- even now -- to say he'd be extremely ecstatic for something like a sandwich. Especially if it's loaded, with extra cheese...
He's so hungry.
"Enough," he says to Gwen then however, a sharper tone than usual. He knows why Lan didn't back off, and it's put him onto a defensive pivot, narrowing his eyes as he regards her. "Just come, and spare the lecture."
He watches Azoth warily. This is a dream. Who's to say this is really how Azoth feels--
Or that they're even at risk, right now. "One wrong move," he warns Azoth instead, holding his ground. But he won't make the first himself, even if a good part of him calls out to do just that. It won't change anything, though. It certainly won't help.
So Loren instead grinds his teeth and bears it.
"I left it," he tells Lan, tersely. Which she should take to mean that 1) he doesn't want to talk about it and 2) ...probably he left it behind when she got hurt. It's not like he can afford the time and energy to go out and dig around for it while she's recuperating.
He looks a little bit poleaxed at that. "Two... jobs?"
To be fair, he's sort of in a dream world at the moment and has come into that space fresh from a rather dire predicament and hasn't really eaten much in days. Give the boy some slack.
'You're a swordsman,' Eleanor says to him, which Loren replies with a panicked, "Not really!" as he trades blows with the Shevite warrior. He's a medical officer, not a swordmaster...!
On that very note, Loren might be able to explain better when he's not engaged in a life or death swordfight with a woman who is way, way, way better than he is. While... beams of light from Azoth somehow whirl right on past him seemingly by luck alone?! If it weren't for the fact that his sword suddenly gains a golden power, it's entirely possible that he might have...
But he holds his ground by the by, until such time as the dream, again, shifts.
He sighs, weightily, but finds he's no longer holding a sword. Well, so be it. "There's the ruins of a traveler's inn in Macalania. The lake, not the woods. It's the only safe place I could find." It was that or the temple, and he's pretty sure he would have been smote the moment he stepped in there. No, he's not chancing the wrath of giant ice ghost lady any time soon.
And things might have been okay from there if it weren't for those bears that appear right on cue. Wait, why does Marivel have a pot of--
honey, which is now in Loren's possession.
"What? Why!?"
He's begun to book it in a panic, not once thinking to cast the honey aside.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a risky Agility Action toward his party's challenge, Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Marivel, Gwen, Lan, and Eleanor all show their kindness, no matter how robotic Azoth's presenting. One could say presenting robotic at all is what gets Gwen and Marivel able to help him the way Azoth needs. Even if it is only a dream.
Kamui... Someone Azoth would like to be friends with. Someone who he thinks he can understand, at least a little. And yet there is more violence between them than friendship now, because of what Azoth is.
Don't let them tell you you're not a person.
This provides the smallest hint of contemplation on Azoth's face. Surely it's not the first time he's been presented with such an idea? But context, as always, matters.
"This repair is sufficient for our current objective." No need to worry about what she can't do, in other words.
Loren is less enthusiastic. One wrong move.
"Understood," Azoth says, as if Loren had only given him an order.
Then there's honey and bears.
Azoth's familiar with this particular memory bite, making a despondent beep at his jar of honey. He looks up to see the bears, then starts to dash off with the honey. He keeps stride with Loren, and it might be an attempt to extend the olive branch of peace that he won't attempt to pass him to leave him to distract the bears for anyone else.
DG: Azoth has contributed a risky Agility Action toward his party's challenge, Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Hahaha I do," Eleanor laughs to the other Marivel. "But you're fun to tease like this! You're only a few hundred years old!"
"Hmmm..." Eleanor considers carefully as she makes other people handle the actual fight. "An old inn near Macalania..." What can she do? She would take a while to get to Spira, certainly. But there has to be something she can do in the moment. Still considering it, she watches the fight go on, and--ah.
"...Nice work, Gwen." She doesn't comment on the way Gwen describes Anastasia. She doesn't say anything at all about that--instead, she looks away. "Yeah," Eleanor says, after. She listens to Marivel talk about Althena, and...
"..." She doesn't say that she'll tell her. Instead, she looks at Loren, "Hey. Mr. Voss. Go easy on her, all right?" she says to him quietly. She sounds concerned--for this sassy lost child!!!
She does wonder about Loren and Azoth though... Well, there's not a lot she can say there.
"I'll try to think of something," Eleanor says, and then looks to Azoth. "...Well, I'm not going to threaten you," she says instead.
Suddenly BEARS. Marivel turns into a bat. Eleanor looks to the others. "Right," Eleanor says, "I want you all to know that I believe in you! You can do this!"
Then she turns into an owl and flies after Marivel.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Rauru's Flight toward her party's challenge, Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Bring some food, okay? We've been eating those nutribar things -- and while I'm grateful for them!!" Lan interjects, because even if she hates them they have been keeping her alive, "They're not exactly a bowl of hot soup or a muffin or... or anything else." She would so love a mug of tea with honey. "And all my stuff is in my pack, I hid it in the woods before the fight, but we can go get it later." Her other Medium is in there, and her stuff, and the shawl she's been working on for Hicalu for weeks now. And snacks!!
"And I know, okay," she tells Gwen, a little more somberly. "It... I didn't go in looking for a fight." Why does her heart feel so heavy? It wasn't Azoth. Not Azoth-Azoth. Why is she hesitating? Will they not understand? Will saying it out loud make Azoth feel worse?
Yes, Lan's heart is heavy, and... so are her clothes. She looks down at herself - because yes, the inn blanket was awkward, but it wasn't so...
Ankle-length robes???
Combined with the blanket and Gwen's scarf it's suffocating. She's stripping carefully - and also running, why running? - when an unfamiliar voice pipes up, laughing.
And then Marivel ditches the jar with Loren, because there are bears. "What-- Just drop it!!" she calls after the others, finally kicking her way out of the wizard robe and leaving it on the ground as they flee. The blanket has come a little undone, and she clutches it tight around herself as she leaps once, then again. The edges of the blanket flutter, but if one were to look at the right time they might be a little confused.
That's not what a torso looks like.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Oh, you'll what?" Gwen teases, but then sobers up, her expression more gentle as Loren's concern bleeds through in his sharper tone. "Yeah. I'll bring food and water for the both of you. First aid kit, uh... if you know anything for Lan or your injuries I can easily snag from a general store, if you give me a name and a description, I'll get it for you too." She pauses, and nods. ".... Thank you, Loren." He's probably the reason Lan is alive, after all, and he's putting his own self in danger doing it. "I'll be here, no matter what."
Marivel's mention of Althena makes the actual timeline of where Marivel currently is so much clearer. "... Can't give you a guarantee it'll be in time, but I'll do my best," Gwen says, finally, her mouth falling into a straight line. "Since we seem t'be from different times." It's a promise she can't keep, unlike the one she gave to Loren. She doesn't really feel like she deserves the praise Eleanor gives her.
THEN BEARS HAPPEN.
Marivel turning into a bat, Gwen expects. But when Eleanor suddenly turns into _an owl_, Gwen fumes. "Hey! I can forgive Marivel, but *C'MON*. Guardians those are some BIG BEARS!"
She's trailing behind Loren and Azoth-- not because she wants to, but because she's having to haul a lot more *stuff* when she's running. Lan is also ahead of her, and when that blanket comes aflutter--
--she urges Lan up as she grabs her scarf back, not even giving a second glance. "Keep goin', Lan! I'm gonna try somethin' stupid!"
The scarf catches aflame, and Gwen waves it in the air. "Oh no, fire! Bad! Bad! Fire! Shoo, shoo!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
"Ghaleon!"
As you awaken in the next memory, you are in motion. You find that you are
wearing heavy cotton robes -- befitting a mage -- and dashing. In your arms,
you carry a massive jar of honey, and some of it spills out with each step.
You blink your eyes a few times, and see the person ahead of you:
brown-haired, with a strong jaw, and a smile and grin that is both bemused
and panicked.
The name comes to mind: Dyne.
"I think we angered them, old friend!" he cries out. "This isn't what I had
in mind, to become a Dragonmaster!"
'Them' describes, as it happens, a trio of massive black bears. The largest
opens its mouth, spittle flying past its /immense/ fangs. Then, the
creatures all begin to rush you from behind. You will need to outrun them,
with the not-quite-yet-Dragonmaster Dyne.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Hw:_???, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 3 *>================== ==================< Results - Ghaleon - Fleeing from Bears >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 5 --(26)--> 31 Fail Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 23 --(10)--> 33 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 5 --(10)--> 15 Pass Tomato Juice From Grownups 2 Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 5 --(18)--> 23 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eleanor Klein 5 --(10)--> 15 Pass Rauru's Flight 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Azoth 5 --(10)--> 15 Pass Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)|Reckless(1) Effects: Cleanse|Efficient|Quicken(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> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Leaving isn't the issue, I can leave just fine, Lucy can leave just fine. The PROBLEM is that we had to center the seal for Lord Blazer around Anastasia." Marivel explains to Gwen. "All Althena has to do is figure out a way to find a new binding method for the seal. She's a very brilliant woman, I'm sure once she realizes Blazer is sealed not DEAD, she'll come up with a plan." She is quiet for a moment. "It's fine whenever the exit point is, we exist as an 'Eternal Now'. Might be tough for Ana if it's been so lnog but... She's still so young, you don't understand. She's only sixteen. Humans usually live twice as long as that. She's got good genetics, might even make it to her forties or fifties."
She sounds desperate, like Gwen might be Anastasia's only lifeline outta here. These people who seem to know her.
She continues to fly through the air. "Well to be honest I've had a similar experience and I'm not going to be THE BUTT OF THE JOKE THIS TIME, okay?" She pauses a bit and adds, "But--sure, I mean. Maybe these other folks are a better uh bet since I know I leave eventually but uh it'll probably be a while before I catch up. My memory isn't perfect I mean I'll probably write it down... Maybe Owl Girl can do it."
She doesn't think twice about Owl Girl being an Owl GIrl. This is a dream world. Why isn't everybody owls? What kind of flying animal would Loren and Lan be? Gwen? She gets lost in thought while thinking about that.
She gives Azoth a worried look. It's probably clear to Azoth at htis point from experiencing this Marivel and the future Marivel but Marivel does, in fact, seem to show extra concern for sapient mechanical beings.
"Ana made me a couple AI companions so I don't get lonely, she said. I don't get lonely of course, I'm a Crimson Noble, I'm always going to be alone. Been drilled into my head since I was a kid," this is obviously untrue but maybe Eleanor has a point about being gentle to this younger version of Marivel. "But I mean, it's a nice gesture and... the kid--Kamui--she's adorable. You can't help but want what's best for her. And after seeing everything she and Gami had to go through--it's just... If Humanity won't be proper parents to their children. I'll be their batfairy godmother."
She's just willing to say out loud the subtext in her youth. Some things she just hasn't learned.
Meanwhile the bears give chase! People weho cheat by turning into flying animals have an easy time of it. Loren who ISN'T DROPPING THE HONEY FOR SOME REASON, has a rough time of it.
Gwen tries something stupid. This turns out to be a not smart course of action. and a bear just claws the scarf out of Gwen's hand.
Lan's torso is weird though and Azoth reads as terrain to these bears so they don't mess with em though the power of a protective blanket is very important in the dreamworld.
DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
================<* CHALLENGE - Margaret - I'm Still Standing *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You're sitting near the edge of a plaza. It's windy, terribly windy, but
it's a bright blue day, without a cloud in the sky... because you're above
the clouds, of course! It's as natural as breathing.
Everyone's here. A big older man. A thin man and a small woman, both with
painted faces. A too-short elf woman, already eating a turkey leg. A big guy
with a greased-up hairstyle. A dark woman with a head shaved smooth. They're
all having cross-chat, but then the big man blows a pitch pipe.
Because this is why you're here. The magic's important - it fills your days
and your afternoons and more evenings than you'd like. But you came here -
you all came through it all, to the magical city in the clouds, to Neo-Vane
- for the moments like this.
Everyone's eyes are on you. You have a moment to consider, but decades of
pain and penury and boredom are pressing behind you. You *have* to sing.
What will it be today?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hw:_???, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, and Quicken:_Agility_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"She did not provoke me," Azoth tells Gwen of Lan. He holds his gaze on her for a while when he says it to emphasize it, wanting it to sink in. But his lights dim again. "...Thank you for going to help her." He looks to Marivel and Eleanor. "Everyone."
Gwen -- and anyone else -- would it without Azoth's gratitude. He knows that. It does not stop his gratitude from existing.
Bears! And honey! And bats and owls. Normally, this would be the delightful combination for Azoth, one of many beeps and wonder. He's silent as they make their escape, and silent still as that escape leads them into the next segment of the Dreaming.
Where they all stand upon the edge of a windy plaza, billowing their clothing and hair wildly as they look out into a bright, cloudless sky...
Not quite cloudless. The clouds are below them, and they are surrounded with new guests enjoying the festivities with turkey legs and painted faces. There is a swelling sense of importance in it, in cherishing these moments together, and a need to celebrate this moment.
To celebrate it... with song.
Azoth stands at the edge of this dream of Neo-Vane, expressionless and blank. His voice has carried little life until now, no change in tone as he presents utterly robotic with no inflection. This does not do for a song. But why should he sing, with what he has done? And to those in present company?
He pulls out the hilt of a battered photon blade, running his thumb across the surface. Falk. Wasn't there a song he used to sing in the cockpit...?
Azoth starts with a chip tune sound, quietly and mostly to himself, but eventually he supplies his synthetic voice -- one that doesn't sound synthesized at all -- in a private, nearly whispered tune.
Perhaps he'll feel better about supporting the others, should they have their own ideas.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, Margaret - I'm Still Standing. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Thanks. ...No, I don't need anything for her injuries." Other than to see her to somewhere with a medical facility, preferably something that can treat the sort of wound she's suffered (so not your village herbalist) while also not being 'literally Solaris'. He adds to Gwen, "Clothes if you have them. And firewood" Or a heating element, or really anything that would let them have heat without stealing parts of the inn for fuel and/or starting a house fire.
He doesn't answer Gwen's thanks, though, instead exhaling a long breath through his nose and looking way.
He gets one good look at Lan as her makeshift poncho flutters, exposing her midsection.
That's not what a torso's supposed to look like. Ashen, Loren utters, "You--"
This causes problems.
Loren, his attention elsewhere, stumbles as he flees. He falls, to be more accurate! And in so doing, the jar of honey shatters.
This leaves Loren covered in honey and sprawled out on the ground as the bears catch up to him. In any reasonable circumstance, this would have ended quite poorly!
But this is a dream, and in a dream there can be certain mercies.
Certain mercies, because while he isn't eaten alive, he does find himself licked by terrible bears.
It's incredibly embarrassing, once he's free. Also disgusting, but at least he doesn't have to worry about about this later -- ah, the mixed blessing of dreams.
He still has one eye on Lan as they break into the plaza that affords them a view of a cloudless sky. There are people here, some of them familiar to him now the more that he looks. "Hey," he starts to say to Lan, before the pressure of the assembled crowd forces him into silence.
It's time to celebrate this day with a song.
The stone finds its way into his hand without him thinking about it, the hard cool pressure comforting. He has to sing, but... performing in front of so many...
Loren's voice fails him at first, the words to a half-dozen songs slipping from his grasp. But in time, in his native tongue, he begins to raise his voice in song.
...Lan and Azoth will recognize it as a song to praise Emperor Cain, though.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Worry Stone toward his party's challenge, Margaret - I'm Still Standing. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
A new binding method... Well. It's much too late for that now, isn't it? Marivel has come up with a new plan already. But how young Ana is...
"Sure," Eleanor says instead of writing things down, "I'll do it." She doesn't take issue with being called Owl Girl for now. Instead, "Right. A Crimson Noble."
But the bears happen, and Eleanor, still a beautiful small owl, looks to Lan, noticing her... torso. She winces. And then looks to Azoth when it's done, and--"...I'm glad I can help," she says to him, and wishes that she could help him more, too. But that doesn't seem to be something she can do at the moment. But soon, the windy plaza...
"Ah?" Eleanor says. Then, trying to lighten the mood, she says to Lan, "It looks like those bears really had him licked, eh? Eh??" Pause. She looks worried. But she's trying. Not every roll is a 20.
But singing... Eleanor at this point flutters down to the stage and considers for a moment, fluttering her wings a little and then--
Flits up to Marivel's shoulder, still an owl. A glint of red at one of her legs suggests a magic that is not seen.
"I'll back you up, Marivel!"
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Power Bracelet toward her party's challenge, Margaret - I'm Still Standing. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen wishes she didn't know what the outcome was of Anastasia's plight. But, it's not like she can refuse. Looking towards Loren, Gwen nods. "You got it. Let me know if you think of anything else, for you or Lan." It hasn't escaped Gwen that Loren was at his limit as well. Or how he still didn't just take her to Solaris.
Some things are worse than freezing to death.
They'll need to get through this space, though. The stupid stunt Gwen tries knocks the scarf from her hand, which, of course, leads to another. Barely (no) dodging another swipe from one of those giant bear claws, Gwen clutches for the scarf and goes running with it, not daring to leave behind this momento, even in a dream.
Catching up with the rest of the group, Gwen pants, wrapping the yellow scarf around her neck. "... Guh... everyone okay?"
There are no bears here, just something worse: performance anxiety. But, with Loren and Lan's problems still unfixable until they get out of the Dream, Gwen's heart still carries to Azoth right now, hearing his small chip tone. He attacked Lan. He wounded her gravely. Her clockwork heart carries a certain sympathy for the robot, knowing that he wasn't the only one who has hurt his friends, sometimes in nearly fatal ways.
Gwen's own singing isn't anything to write home about, but she does have an excellent ability for the sorts of spontaneous song and harmony that happens when your only beat is the clopping of horse hooves or the walking gait of a Gear. So, walking up to be within listening distance, she hums with him, finding a harmony, and tries to keep up with him, encouraging him to sing.
There's no supplies she can give to him or Marivel that can fix their problems. But, in this Dream, she can support them.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Margaret - I'm Still Standing.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Despite being from the past, Marivel doesn't seem to think twice about a flying city, even a medieval flying city. Nevertheless, thousands of years of time--it would be more surprising if there wasn't a flying city. Marivel knows the principles. She even is pretty sure she could make a flying chateau one day.
She nods once to Azoth. She wishes that she was confident in her ability to actually provide this help.
She poufs back into a humanoid form in this new world. There's a musical celebration though. There's a shift in Marivel's eyes, a spark. "Hm, you've a musical heart?" She asides to Azoth. "...It's...precious, isn't it? Music."
There's an expression of longing. "Sometimes, when I think of the burden asked of us. It gets heavy. But whenever I remember her song, I feel...strangely uplifted...Even in that place. Even knowing what will be."
She trails off. "...I wonder why, even knowing what will come of me...what kind of person I will be... IT still lightens my heart."
She shakes her head. "Tis not something that matters. But..."
She draws out an ocarina, playing along with the melody supplied by Azoth. Music together is better than music alone.
An owl lands on her shoulder thus making the experience even more magical. You can't complain about experiences that result in a free owl.
"Ah, yes, living as a critter does have it perks, mm?"
"She would have loved this you know. Despite her burdens... I feel music lightened the burden of her heart. I can only imagine how heavy it would be for her without her singular pleasure."
Marivel politely ignores the song praising the scourge of her people. "Seems you will have to bear with us a moment longer." She tells Loren.
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Margaret - I'm Still Standing.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Well, it was a good try...! It's nobody's fault that these bears are so focused on delicious honey. "...I told you to get rid of it," Lan sighs plaintively, circling around the bears as they gently maul Loren into a state of utterly embarrassed and dubiously-destickied. There's no way she can just haul one off of him. They're gonna have to wait until the bears are gone.
But his ashen face and Eleanor's wince-- ah, it's too late to pretend. As the dream fades into a new one, Lan isn't prepared for the sudden billowing gusts of wind. The edges of the blanket are ripped from her fingertips (and it's a miracle that she doesn't flash everybody). But her midsection...
There's a hole the size of a fist right through the bottom-right of her ribcage -- a very strange window to the blue sky beyond. Lan tugs the blanket back into place with a huff. "Look, I know it looks bad, okay," she begins, because damn it she didn't want anybody to see this! Especially Azoth or Loren, who will definitely make a big deal out of it in their own ways. "How you look here is affected by how you feel, okay? How you see yourself. S, so it's natural that someone who's injured would carry an echo of it!"
What she doesn't mention is that Marivel was right earlier. Her soul is weak. But it's not like she's dying yet or anything!!
"So it's fine! Just, if you could get there as fast as possible..." she trails off, because the pull of this memory can't be ignored any longer. They're waiting. She has to sing...!
Whatever the noise is that Azoth is making... a song? She's never heard anything like it. Lan tries to sing along, a wordless tune carried softly past the others on the wind.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Margaret - I'm Still Standing.
========================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming *>========================
================<* CHALLENGE - Margaret - I'm Still Standing *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You're sitting near the edge of a plaza. It's windy, terribly windy, but
it's a bright blue day, without a cloud in the sky... because you're above
the clouds, of course! It's as natural as breathing.
Everyone's here. A big older man. A thin man and a small woman, both with
painted faces. A too-short elf woman, already eating a turkey leg. A big guy
with a greased-up hairstyle. A dark woman with a head shaved smooth. They're
all having cross-chat, but then the big man blows a pitch pipe.
Because this is why you're here. The magic's important - it fills your days
and your afternoons and more evenings than you'd like. But you came here -
you all came through it all, to the magical city in the clouds, to Neo-Vane
- for the moments like this.
Everyone's eyes are on you. You have a moment to consider, but decades of
pain and penury and boredom are pressing behind you. You *have* to sing.
What will it be today?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hw:_???, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, and |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 4 *>=================== ==================< Results - Margaret - I'm Still Standing >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 31 --(0)--> 31 Pass Worry Stone 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 33 --(0)--> 33 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 23 --(0)--> 23 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Power Bracelet 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Falk's Photon Blade 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(1) Effects: Efficient ===============================< 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> Azoth has posed.
Eleanor would have also gotten some amusement (performative? or no?) from Azoth for her attempt at a joke, but Azoth is demonstratively reluctant to be doing any of that tonight. How could he, when Lan looks like that? When he's the one who did it? A claw punctured straight through Lan with no hesitation or remorse.
He does not deserve to sing. But Gwen joins in.
Azoth's voice is unwavering, if quiet, but his eyes do widen, his face daring to show whatever surprise he calculates to be true to his heart. Which is more authentic? Trying to convey it, or shoving it all away as an unnatural manipulation of a machine's heart that doesn't even work right? He doesn't have the answer to that. But Gwen would still sing with him, and that... means something.
Music is precious.
With that encouragement, Azoth lets his voice rise. Marivel's ocarina accompanies him. Eleanor is there to back her up as an owl, which quite honestly makes everything better by defeault. Lan adds her voice with Azoth's and Gwen's, and the Dreaming, perhaps, allows them to make the harmony come together.
Loren sings praises to Emperor Cain, but it might be drowned out, under the circumstances. Sorry, Loren.
As the light of the dream glows and allows them to move through its surreal landscape, Azoth trails off, looking to the others with the faintest of smiles.
DG: Eleanor Klein 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: =============================
| Hw:_??? and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"...Because your heart is still worth lifting," owl-Eleanor says softly to Marivel. "Remember that, all right?"
And then she hoots pleasantly as Marivel appreciates Free Owl. "Yes," Eleanor says, and then birdsong!!
But..."Well," Eleanor says, "That is true." She looks over Lan again with the same concern, "...But I must say I sincerely hope that you feel much worse than you are." She considers. What can she do, then...? Hm. There must be something. Loren suggests things that would be helpful, and Eleanor... considrs. As they sing, she flutters down to the ground, and in a puff of magic she is Eleanor the girl again, dressed in her robes once more as earlier. Then, she smiles... and thinks, "Lan. Let me..."
She focuses her intent and her will, into a small golden point, putting all the warmth she can into it. It is a dream, yes, but this is real magic, though it is not Ether or Crest Sorcery or anything quite like it. And with some effort, she conjures a little golden gem.
"Take this," Eleanor says, and lifts Lan's hand to press it into her palm and close her fingers over it. "It will help you. It's the best I can do. All right?"
Even as she says this, the dream starts to darken, and suddenly they are all in shadow. When the light comes up--
A massive facility stands all around them. The planet that floats in the air, with a barrier and without...
"Oh--"
Eleanor is standing with the others, when the shot comes for each of them, along with the talk of betrayal. What did the blue-haired woman's father do...?
Eleanor suddenly shifts again, and flutters hopefully out of the way. "Look out, everyone!"
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Rauru's Flight toward her party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's so uplifting, how everyone contributes their voice to this one cause. Why couldn't they stay there, instead of...
..... here, in this facility.
To your world-- to our world.
It all hits Gwen with a piercing clarity, overwriting everything else.
There is still a small, deceptive piece of her heart that remembers another world that was, or had passed on. And instead of letting it be in the past, she keeps letting the Stranger entangle her, over and over, towards a fuller goal that, even if it never comes to past, has hurt so many people.
How can she even hope to love these worlds, or even try to save them, if she's turned into the agent that brings their doom?
Possessed by the memory's logic intermeshed with her own thoughts, Gwen doesn't move, quiet guilt written in pained lines on her face.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"...Mm. You're starting to sound like her." Marivel tells Eleanor. "Still, I appreciate that you give a hoot. When it's time to meet, I'll be sure to look you up."
In the next dream reality, Marivel sees a blue-haired woman speaking of someone who ordered people to do this to... 'our world'. Marivel looks outside the viewport and sees some kind of strange fragment--
"Someone who would risk their world like this for personal gain, deserves what is coming to them." She murmurs--
--But it's far higher tech than she would expect from Filgaia. She wonders--
--she turns to look. A gun is aimed.
Marivel turns into a bat again! This time...
She is aiming to land on ELEANOR'S shoulder. Revenge???
"Ufff.. What a messed up dream." Marivel complains.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice From Grownups toward her party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Her smile is a little bit uncomfortable when Eleanor tells her she hopes Lan feels worse than she is. "Well... I mean, Loren's been doing everything he can. But he doesn't have the stuff he needs to really fix it all."
The gem that Eleanor produces, however... it feels like afternoon sunlight on her shoulders, like a cloudless sky. An ancient magic. A familiar power.
--But why? She doesn't recognize this kind of magic.
She cradles it in her palm, a precious jewel. "Wha... thank you..."
Something twists gently in her chest, in her veins.
And the dream vanishes around them, and Lan recognizes the final layer of the dream. The steel and glass, the planet floating in the night sky. A betrayal, and next will be another--
--What's that look on Gwen's face--?
Lan grips the sunlit jewel tight and tilts forward, shoving herself off of the floor and toward the still courier with all her speed and all her might. "Gwen! Wake up!"
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren grimaces, even as Lan explains. It's not real. It's just how she feels about the wound, about what happened. Yes -- it's just a dream. He knows that. And while he doesn't raise his voice or protest, it's made absolutely clear by the look on his face that he really doesn't like this.
He doesn't look at Azoth, and that may be the most diplomatic he can be at the moment.
He won't have everything he needs as long as he's in a half-ruined inn in a winter wasteland with just what he had in his combat support kit. Which, granted, is more than what the typical first aid kit's got in it, especially when one takes Solarian technology into account. But he can't fully close the wound, not in this situation, with that sort of injury.
Eleanor presents Lan with a gift, and here Loren has the opportunity to look dubious regarding, until the world in stages grows darker and darker.
Ah. Here again. He's seen this part of the dream before, nestled deeply as if it had spun the rest all about itself. Whose dream is this? Was it possible that one person had dreamed this? Was it a nightmare of something that should not come to pass, or...
'...to our world, father!?'
Too late, he remembers the other part of this dream. The daughter -- his daughter? -- raises her ARM and he,
Well, he drops to the ground, instinct overriding all rational thought as she pulls the trigger.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Gabriel - Betrayal.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Lan and Loren in need of rescue. Marivel's past. Eleanor's confidence in her aid and assistance. All of these things are also important, taken in and etched close. Azoth is always observing. Always calculating. Even when he is not looking.
But this new dream is an image Azoth has seen a few times now. The stars, one select piece protected by a barrier, and the rest abandoned to devastation. What choice led to this? What choice was given, and what actions taken? The dream never tells them that much.
But there's always the gun. Retribution. Anger. Sadness. A betrayal -- but Azoth does not calculate the blue-haired woman to be the betrayer. Which mean the dream has placed him in the role again.
It's appropriate.
The movement he makes is barely a flinch -- calculated to be out of danger by just enough to dodge the bullet, if he's fast enough. And if he's not...
That's just how it is.
DG: Azoth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his 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: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Hw:_???, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and |
| Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* Elw Teleporters - Dreaming - Round 5 *>=================== ========================< Results - Gabriel - Betrayal >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 31 --(18)--> 49 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 33 --(10)--> 43 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 15 --(10)--> 25 Pass Tomato Juice From Grownups 2 Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 23 --(18)--> 41 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 15 --(10)--> 25 Pass Rauru's Flight 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 15 --(10)--> 25 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Efficient|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: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Hw:_???, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, |
| Secret:_Exploration_Up!, and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Good," Eleanor says, and does not tell Marivel when they're going to meet or where. She thinks about it for a moment, though, remembers that day in Luca as she met Irving's personal monster...
And she looks to Lan. "He's talented," Eleanor says of Loren, even if he's a JERK. "Just hang onto this, and I'll be there as soon as I can."
When the dream changes... They all move very quickly. Eleanor can't sustain the transformation for all that long with all this effort and doing it so rapidly, so in short order as soon as she's out of the way she is elf again, and Marivel comes down on her shoulder. Lan tries to shove towards Gwen. Azoth... dodges. And indeed, he does dodge.
Loren and Gwen will feel the dread of impending death, but do not actually take the gunshots. Everyone awakens sharply, with varying degrees of cold and sweat. Those who can't feel cold and can't sweat naturally won't feel either. ...But for Eleanor, at least, it is a sharp awakening indeed, and she sits up quickly, wncing as if from a pain, except... it's not pain. She just finds--that she's very tired, for some reason.
When Loren and Lan awake, however, little will have changed... except for the fact that Lan now clutches a small gem, full of light and warmth.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
ALSO when Loren and Lan awake--they'll find two adorable robots waiting for them as they're waking up. They're the one-eyed technological .... orbs that Marivel carries around with sharp teeth and horns.
Hob is carrying a bag full of healing potions! Nob is carrying a bag full of food! They're holding the bags with their teeth.
There's a few beeping noises before--
A recorded Marivel clears her throat and declares, "AND SO OUR ANCIENT PACT IS FULFILLED. FIVE THOUSAND YEARS HAVE PASSED BUT THE PROMISE IS UNBROKEN...!"
There's a thunderous noise of thunder.
"Enjoy tese supplemental items. If thou desirest more, I have included an empathite radio with power to last a week. IF YOU ARE UNSATISFIED, contact me! You may pay me appropriate tribute AT YOUR LEISURE for I am a kind and lenient BEHIND THE SCENES MASTER OF ALL...!"
There's a DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNN noise from the two machines before they eventually lick Lan's face and leave.