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

[sadpoem]

[Is it hard to tell what Sunny is thinking?

[Good. Maybe these two can get along, then.]

Never heard of him.

[a_cute_batata]

Ah.

[Luz wasn't sure she believed that, but she was sure not going to get any answers at the moment].

So what's.,,the deal here? Why are we in a junkyard? And why the knife?

[sadpoem]

I'm looking for something. [He flips the knife casually in his hand - flip, flip, flip. He doesn't particularly look like he's looking for anything.

[He glances down at the ground from where he's sitting. It's a long way down...]

[a_cute_batata]

No kidding. What's that?

[Was that like a fidget thing for him, with the knife? Repetitive movement? She could see the appeal, now that she thought about it].

Need help coming down?

[sadpoem]

[When did he start standing on the edge like that? Hm...]

A mixtape.

[a_cute_batata]

A whatnow?

Huh. I didn't know you were a rapper...

[Clearly they both have a different idea of what a mixtape was].

[sadpoem]

[Omori...feels happy. He giggles.

[He wanders away from the edge of the shipping container, using a nearby ladder to drop to Luz's location. There's a bit of a spring in his step now.]

A Special Mixtape. A tape with songs. All mixed up.

[a_cute_batata]

[Oh, good, he had a ladder. Luz half expected him to float down, given their circumstances, but a ladder was good].

Right. I forget about tapes. By the time I was born people had moved on to CDs, and even that's considered old since you can just stream most kinds of music.

So what do you got on that mixtape?

[sadpoem]

[Omori shrugs.]

It's not mine.

[a_cute_batata]

No? Huh.

Why do you want it then?

[sadpoem]

[Omori sighs, then poses dramatically with his knife over his chest. He closes his eyes, solemn.]

To heal a broken heart...

[a_cute_batata]

[Huh. That was not an answer she was expecting. That just brought more questions].

How would it do that?

[sadpoem]

Space Ex-Boyfriend is sad. [Does that help? No? He's not the most talkative guy.]

[a_cute_batata]

[No. That did not help. That made Luz more confused. Also, was there actually a tape player in Somnius? She had to look into that].

And...the ex boyfriend is HERE? Or is this a memory?

[sadpoem]

[Omori's expression tightens into something slightly impatient. Luz seemed to have been playing along before, but now she's being annoying again.]

He's back home. We're helping him.

[Omori reaches for her hand. Let's just look for this dang mixtape.]

[a_cute_batata]

[She just wished she understood what the HECK was happening here, because she stumbled into something she was trying to feel out. Looks like it was being spelled out, at least].

You know, might as well. I don't think I've seen a real tape since I was a kid anyway.

[sadpoem]

[Omori doesn't respond; simply pulls Luz along to one of the open storage containers - it becomes clear that they're actually dumpsters, and they're full of junk and gunk.

[Omori looks to Luz.]

Dig in.

[a_cute_batata]

[Containers. Huh. And it was just full of junk.

Luckily, this was not something that bothered Luz too much, as she was the type of girl that would jump into a junk pile to find something she was looking for, or just to find something interesting in general].

Ugh, banana peel and...don't want to think about what THAT was...ramen container...

[sadpoem]

[Omori "helps" by standing behind Luz and peering into the dumpster with no stronger eyes than she has. He checks for sparkles...]

Not here.

[He gestures down the path to another dumpster where he thinks he's caught a twinkle.]

[a_cute_batata]

Huh. Ok.

[Luz shrugged, moving on to the next one, the one by the kid this time].

Ooh, shiny. Do we just jump in then?

[sadpoem]

[Omori nods, holding up three fingers. He counts them down one at a time. 3...2...1...

[If Luz jumps right away, she might not notice, but he...does not, indeed, follow. Let someone else do the dirty work, for once!]

[a_cute_batata]

[Which is just Luz's luck, really. Most people would have at least backed away a little bit when managing to wrench the top of the container off, but Luz was already rooting through the trash, curious about what was so shiny.

It might have been wise to hold back a little, but it was Luz. She just didn't do that].

lmk if I need to change emotion fuckery haha

[sadpoem]

[It becomes clear quite quickly what's sparkling - a sparkler, of course! And it seems to be lit...burning...in a pile of garbage. Does anybody have a fire extinguisher? Regardless, looking upon the sparkler will make both dreamers feel...oddly happy!]

Nope, I can work with this!

[a_cute_batata]

[Huh. What was this doing here? Luz knew she should have been wondering why something like this would be in the trash in the first place (and lit?). Strangely, she was actually pretty pleased she found it, enough so that she didn't care that it wasn't what she was looking for].

Cool beans! New shiny thing acquired! But we should probably still keep looking for that mix tape.

[How they would play it was beyond her, but now she was all in on finding out its contents]!

[sadpoem]

[Omori has a smile on his face; it doesn't look quite right - comes off eerie and out of place. He's still standing at the edge of the dumpster as flames begin to light in the trash. He observes them for a little too long before deciding to warn Luz. He points with his knife at the growing inferno.]

Fire.