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

403 (cw drug mention)

[pressuremakespearls]

[To Peeta, after the explosion, this is all one long morphling dream sequence in whatever hospital bed he must be recovering in. Waking up in a garden, falling asleep again in the long, soft grass, and now he's here, looking at a small pale boy with black hair and eyes holding a knife.

He takes one step back, his eyes on the knife.]

you literally rolled my favorite game location congratulations

[sadpoem]

[The scene is thus: they're underwater, but feel no need to breathe, nor must they swim to stay afloat. Gravity seems to be working just as it does on land, in fact. They can see the Underwater Highway from here, taxi cabs zipping along, a jungle of seaweed and strange looking "fish" framing them on the other side of the road. Omori stands outside of the famed Last Resort Casino, which looks not unlike a roadside attraction shaped like a giant shipwreck.

[And, yes, there is the knife, which he flips idly in his hand, adeptly catching it on the handle each time. Omori tilts his head as Peeta steps back. The flipping never ceases.]

Catfish got your tongue?

lucky meeeee!

[pressuremakespearls]

[This place is very colourful and whimsical. Everything looks weird and surreal, but also cute. This boy, however, is devoid of colour, and Peeta can't exactly read him. The flipping of the knife could be casual, or menacing, or both. He's not sure what to say.]

Hi.

[He speaks hesitantly, definitely not winning any charisma awards today.]

[sadpoem]

[Both is good.]

Looking for work?

[pressuremakespearls]

Work?

[Huh? He can hardly wrap his mind around the question. Right now he's working on finding out what's real or not real.]

No, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on.

[sadpoem]

[Flip, flip, flip. Omori catches the knife and uses it to point at the building behind him.]

Work hard or win big.

[He reaches for Peeta's hand.]

Let's play.

[pressuremakespearls]

[It must be a dream, because what the boy says makes no sense, and yet Peeta blindly goes along with it, taking the stranger's hand. They're going into this weird boat, apparently.]

Who are you?

[sadpoem]

[A simple answer:] Omori.

[And, sure enough, once Omori has Peeta's hand, they head toward Last Resort.]

Who are you?

[pressuremakespearls]

Peeta. [Equally simple. It's a dream. Does it matter?

He just keeps looking around at the strange scenery.]

[sadpoem]

[It's awfully odd - water that you can breathe, fish that look like bunnies, and, as they enter, large anthropomorphic crocodiles in finely tailored suits.

[Omori swings their hands as they walk.]

Peeta, Peeta, pumpkin eat-a. [Omori glances up at his friend, bobbing his head back and forth a bit, as if there's a tune only he can hear. There is music playing in the casino, however.]

You'll help me, right?

[pressuremakespearls]

[The crocodiles startle Peeta, but they don't seem to be aggressive. Quite refined, really. He smiles a little at the odd phrase, some kind of song maybe, looking down at Omori. He's off-putting, but also cute. He's a kid.]

What d'you need help with, Omori?

[sadpoem]

My friend is missing. [How sad. How tragic.] Maybe he got a job.

[pressuremakespearls]

Do you think he's working in this... [He looks around. What is this exactly?] place?

[sadpoem]

[Omori nods. He flips the knife adeptly in his hand and catches it.] Sign away your soul. [He chomps at the air with his teeth.]

[pressuremakespearls]

Wh--

[His eyes widen slightly at that chomp.]

They signed away their soul here? We'd better find them.

[sadpoem]

[Omori shrugs, casual as anything.] Maybe.

[But, he agrees; so, with that, he takes Peeta through the bottom floor of the casino, knife flip-flip-flipping steadily away. He brings them to an elevator, pausing once inside.]

Key? [Peeta didn't have it before, but he should find - in his hand, maybe his pocket - a key card.]

[pressuremakespearls]

[ A key? He searches his pockets, and magically, there is a card in there. He hands it to Omori, getting steadily more uneasy with the silence between them and the knife flipping. ]

[sadpoem]

[Omori takes the key, swiping it with little ceremony.

[The elevator shifts and rattles with a loud, metallic sound; Omori stumbles, the knife precariously poised as he does so.

[Odd...

[This isn't...usually where things start to go badly...

[To Peeta:] That's new.

[pressuremakespearls]

[Peeta braces against the side of the elevator as it screeches. That seems not good, and what's worse is that Omori is surprised by it. He hasn't been surprised by anything else in the dream, no matter how strange.]

Is that bad?

[sadpoem]

[Omori looks to the floor as the elevator rattles again.]

It's a long way down.

[Reassuring!

[A glance at Peeta:]

Afraid of heights?

[pressuremakespearls]

[NOT reassuring! His grip on Omori's hand tightens, as if that's going to help if they're falling to their deaths.]

I am right now.

[sadpoem]

Why?

You'll just die.

forgot cw for suicidal stuff

[pressuremakespearls]

[Just die? Sure, he'd been begging to die recently, but that was different, and he thought it would be mostly painless-

He stammers, unable to form any kind of answer to that.]

cw: uhhh suicide baiting?

[sadpoem]

Are you afraid to die?

[Lights flicker. The elevator goes dark. Are they falling? It's hard to tell.]

You might like it.

[pressuremakespearls]

Sort of- I don't know.

[That's a complicated question.]

Like it? How?