TDM #9

[labyrinevents]

Arrival / Enchanted Garden

Whether it be sleep or death, you feel your eyes close, and as your body begins to let go, you see a barn owl that is flying through the darkness, soon sweeping you across the clouded sky. You feel yourself mouth the words, “I wish, I wish..” and utter your deepest and darkest desire.

When you regain consciousness, you’ll find you are in an unfamiliar place with no recognition of how you arrived here. You have the clothes on your back, but nothing else. No weapons and if you had a particular superpower, you’ll notice it is missing. All you have is a satchel with a piece of bread, a vial of water, and a potion. The potion could be red, blue or golden. There are no instructions about these potions other than two words: Drink Me.

Will you drink it or not?

There is a parchment, handwritten in scrawling, jagged lettering that seems a bit... ominous:

“Welcome to my LABYRINTH where your wish, you wish you wish youwishyouwish– Your CONTRACT is SEALED.”

You’re in a garden, surrounded by flowers and plants– most of which you cannot identify. However, there are a few that you can make out: Larkspur and Anemone You’ll soon find out that being around the Larkspur makes you almost overwhelmingly tired, to the point you might even feel sluggish and in desperate need of a comfy place to rest. Why not lie down right in the garden? Or better yet, find someone to snuggle up with and sleep your worries away. The only truly strange part? You don’t seem to dream. At all. Straying too close to the Anemones, meanwhile, grants an entirely different effect. One second you’ll be walking through the garden and then suddenly you’re twenty feet away and facing the wrong direction. Even worse, whatever those flowers have done to you will sometimes make it so you “glitch” through solid objects – your leg might suddenly be lodged in the ground despite it being perfectly solid a moment before, or your arm could be shoved halfway into a wall that… actually, was that wall even there before? Nevermind that. The effects only last for a few minutes at worst, so at least you’re not stuck there forever, right?

Liminal Spaces and Worn Out Faces

Thanks to the combined efforts of dreamers and dragons, Vaeros is asleep. No one knows for how long. The locals aren’t particularly pleased with this turn of events and the village is a mess, but at least the moon is high in the sky again and everything is back to normal… relatively speaking. Things start to change... morph into something more dreamy, more surreal. It's subtle at first but after a few days…

The aftermath of the overgrowth, animal attacks, and the overall chaos of Vaeros' tantrum has left the village a little worse for wear. While most of the damages are cosmetic and could be fixed by the local's efforts alone, maybe a little help would be appreciated? If nothing else, it might help alleviate a little bit of the tension still lingering in the air after the events at the castle.

That, and the locals seem to be acting kind of strange. Leaving them to their own devices might not be the best idea. The Gelfling you are aiding in repairing a half-broken wall has been hammering for what seems like hours and when you look to see what they're doing, they haven't actually made any progress - they're just hitting the same spot over and over again, potentially making the hole even bigger. Did the goblin you just passed have a completely blank face for a moment? Others might walk into things, off of things (Starlight Cliff might be a hazard zone), or suddenly and inexplicably become aggressive toward dreamers, grabbing anything they can get their hands on (kitchenware, vegetables, a goose??) to use as a weapon. It's a very bizarre scene and the villagers don't seem to notice there is anything wrong with the people around them.

It’s not just the locals either. The animals have been acting equally strange. There's a wolf inside the clothing shop trying on suits, a goat standing (or trying to stand) on its hind legs, bleating out random words like a town crier while jingling a bell around its neck to get everyone's attention. Where you should find the local baker, suddenly they're replaced with a deer holding a paddle in its mouth to stir up a batch of brownies.

To top it all off, there's an eerie sense of deja vu no matter where you go or what you do. Didn't you just help that goblin with the wheelbarrow an hour ago? So why is it halfway across town again? You could have sworn you had to go and grab groceries, but your pantry is full like someone already had.

Up is Down, In is Out

Days pass and the oddities continue to make themselves more and more apparent. The sidewalks seem uneven and wobbly at times, threatening to toss people walking across them to the ground or even fling them into the air with a sudden violent ripple. Walking through the forest sees the leaves of the trees melting into green goo that sticks to your clothes, your hair, and your skin - potentially staining them green and leaving you in dire need of a bath. You can always wash off in the lake, of course, but even that is not free of the strangeness occurring in Visium. The water of Lake Omen has turned to lava, at least in color; although there is no heat radiating from it when one approaches. That, and the locals are still fishing in it without issue, save the fact that they keep pulling up fish with tophats on.

Speaking of fish - they're raining from the sky now (tophats or not) in all sorts of different colors, shapes, and sizes. Good news! They're still edible. Bad news, they're probably trying to sell you something.

If you do decide to try the fish or any other meal in town, especially those served by the locals, you'll find that it doesn't taste like much of anything and most certainly doesn't fill you up, at least not at first. Everything is bland and unappealing until left in the presence of dreamers - and the more you share the meal with, the faster the taste returns.

Dream Within a Dream Within a Dream Within a Dream Within

Even with Vaeros asleep, only a small portion of the labyrinth is still accessible. Those that attempt to explore will find sections made up of pillows and cushions, and no matter what time of day it is elsewhere, this portion of the labyrinth seems to be stuck in perpetual twilight. Explorers will also immediately feel drowsy, then lulled to sleep by the quiet singing whispered through the air like a lullaby. Anyone brave enough to try and rescue those poor souls from their impromptu naps would be wise to plug their noses and cover their ears with earmuffs to block out the sound.

At night, dreamers dream. They will be visited by the same melody heard in the labyrinth, though it is distant. They will also hear a woman telling them to spend more time together, to bond and create things together in order to soothe the effects of Vaeros' magic growing wild in his dreams. Dreamers will also have the ability to visit other's dreams, meeting in a dreamy light liminal space that will not feel so real when they awaken.

OOC

Welcome to the labyrinthum TDM! Characters will arrive depowered and with only their clothing, and will be given a satchel with a crystal pendant, a communication device, some water and bread and a magic potion. If they drink the potion, they will manifest an elemental, healing or animal transformation ability.

With the exception of Castle Vaeros, characters are free to go as they please, so feel free to place them in any of the locations available on the map. Yes, this includes the Labyrinth - though characters will not be able to clear the maze.

You can find more information about the game here. Any questions regarding the TDM can go under the comment below.

Comments

[coineater]

He's quiet, unamused and unsure whether he was supposed to be. No, it didn't sound like him...and he shouldn't feel bad about that. Cat's life was hard enough. If anything, he should focus on not being a burden to his sister, or in her absence...those he's started to care about here. But didn't that mean easing their load when he can?

"I told you. She's my friend." Cat exhales, eyes flicking up to watch her for any sort of sign. "If there's any time that's worth helping, that'd be a dream, wouldn't it? Anyway. Only other ones around were angels, and they weren't about to offer."

[fragmentaryblue]

That word again. Friend.

A weightless word in most cases, but here it prickles like a cactus against her skin. Friend, friend, friend... How much truth is there to that? Yes, they agreed to this arrangement, and here his is insisting on it despite her caution against borrowing troubles; and yet... And yet. She can't help her wariness, when each step in this uncharted land feels like it might give way to quicksand, just as suffocating as the dream they shared.

She should be more curious. About this friend, about these angels. Does he have other friends that this might have been about? Is it only her? The thought lags in the cluster of every other thought, and Blue balks at asking it, at revisiting that nightmare from his perspective. Hope sputters feebly in her chest, losing ground. When his gaze flicks up to watch her, hers darts away to settle on the nearby clock in mindful contemplation. Can it really matter so much to him, that he'd be willing to drag this out?

"Dreams come and go... Why would that be the time worth helping? A few hours in the waking world, and they cease to matter beyond that." It's more dismissive than she usually feels about dreams, more dismissive than she seemed when uncurling her thoughts in that now-hazy recollection of a meadow. Dreams matter to her. But not these ones, not today.

"You'll feel the same once you've had coffee and better conversation than this."

[prontissimo]

The otter joke draws a wry grin out of him, though he keeps his attention to the horizon. Alberto knows all too well the kind of mess she means.

Her remark about the 'inner journey' aspect of what they're doing rubs him wrong somehow, like the dream is refusing to know itself. He's still unaware it's a dream at all, so even though the fact of the matter is Luz is right on the money in her assumptions, Alberto's not willing to confront that yet.

"Uhh, no offense, cara, but look around. This is definitely an 'outer journey' kinda deal — since, y'know, we're outside? Jeez. What's with you today, eh?"

As if Luz's questions are the weird things happening here... Oblivious. Another fishing boat suddenly speeds past, its motor making waves that trail behind it. It narrowly cuts off Alberto and Luz's much smaller boat, which rocks to and fro in the wake the speedboat makes. Alberto waves his hands angrily at the other fisherman, calling out to him as loud as he can.

"Ehi! Che c'è in quel cervello bacato?! What's wrong with you, stupido?!"

However, the boat continues rocking, and the waves begin to grow choppier below... When they turn their attention back toward the island, the skies around it now look stormy and dark. Alberto seems undaunted, however, and moves to crank up their own boat's motor to start it up.

[a_cute_batata]

Right, Luz, for this you were probably going to have to be a little more descriptive, huh? It was clear that Alberto was very much caught up in his part here, and for right now, Luz knew she had to help him see it through, wherever this took them.

It likely WAS an inner journey thing, so she was curious to see where this was going to take them. Apparently that also included a boat that nearly crashed into them. Luz angrily shook her fist too, and then her heart takes a dip as she could see that the weather was starting to make a turn.

Dark skies? Choppy water? That was definitely giving her the impression of a storm, and did they really want to get stuck in that?

"Alberto?" Luz said cautiously. "Do you think we should pack it in? The water looks a lot less safe."

[detective_xiaobao]

[Not unfamiliar with the feeling, Fang Duobing trails after his mother and his friend as she makes like a perfect host to lead him further into the manor. There's no sense in disagreeing with her, dream version or not. It'll just give Cat more to gloat about, and the grin that gets tossed his way is bad enough to see. He rolls his eyes at their backs and stifles the prickling discomfort of being talked about where he can hear.]

Oh, it was only some small advice. Our Xiaobao had never had such a close friend before, and he struggled with finding understanding. The martial world is dangerous to travel alone; I was so relieved when he told me he'd made a true friend. He just needed a reminder that those aren't easy to make.

[She emphasizes her point by looking back to Fang Duobing, making eye contact with her son--even as he looks away in something of a sulk. He does remember well enough. But how is that advice supposed to pertain to Cat, someone whose only pleasure seems to be in annoying him? What understanding is he supposed to find there? What about him is true?]

Alright, alright, you've made your point. You don't have to tell him about those things. He's probably only listening because he thinks you might feed him.

[And she probably will, much as he dislikes the idea of Cat living it up in his home. He can't even appreciate what this place means to him, to say nothing of the people who live here.]

[coineater]

"There's no bigger fantasy than being able to help the ones you care about," he grumbles, leaning to rest his arms on the coffee table. If only it were higher, he could lay his head there, too. Instead, he's left to wait and get further and further from sleep, just as she wants. Why does she want it so badly?

If it was real, he can guess as to why pretty easily. Was that confirmation enough?

"You know," Cat tries again, going from negative to curiosity, "I would have thought you'd be all over this. Interpreting dreams, telling me about whose writing it reminds you of. Selling me two stories at once."

Will she really settle for only leaving him with the one?

[fragmentaryblue]

She means to move forward, past all this, and he pulls her back. As if he expects something more of her, as if he means to lead her to something that he knows is there. He won't be deterred from it, it seems, and the thought rolls with discomfort through her.

If he's so sure, then why doesn't he come forward with it? Why doesn't he catch her with it, pierce her with it, like her teeth did with him a month prior. He should be angry, but the gentle prying is worse. It leaves her feeling at the same moment that he must not know, even as he seems so sure there's something to find.

"What story do you want?" she asks, tiredness and wariness creeping in, snaking vine-like around the casual tone she'd previously feigned. "You seem to have something in mind already. You want to help your friend. What is it that you think you can help with?"