IC: Dream Post

[doesnothappen]

The space you are standing in is cold and grey and very still. There is nothing beneath your feet, nowhere to go. You hang for a long moment, in this place with no place, without direction or a proper sense of time, until the light dims...

...and your feet touch ground. Your eyes are closed. When you open them, you find yourself here.

((OOC warnings/notes))

Comments

Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

The grass curtain falls back into place behind you. You have stepped onto a cool, smooth stone floor. The air is comfortably warm and smells of green growing things and clean salt air. It's quiet except for the soft ragged sound of somebody breathing, close by. It is almost completely dark, here -- too dark to make out the walls or the size of the room. The only light comes from a few dimly glowing coals in a firepit a little way ahead. By their slight flicker you can make out only two things -- one, that there is a large cauldron sitting directly over the firepit, and two, that there is a figure kneeling in front of that cauldron, his face bowed over it, his hands pressed to its sides.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[glorious]

[...slowly approaching.]

Hello?

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

Your foot bumps into something on the floor as you approach. Without looking up, the figure murmurs, "I'm having a bad dream."

It's Mau's voice.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[glorious]

I see...Is there something I can do to help?

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

Again, in identical tones: "I'm having a bad dream."

Re: Under the Deep Water

[glorious]

[...goes over to touch the figure]

Mau?

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

He feels insubstantial, hollow, weightless, and only murmurs the same thing over again.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[glorious]

[...glancing into the cauldron.]

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

There are pictures flickering in it, indistinct:

You see Mau, running through the dark.

A tiny sandbar, crowded with people -- people from Aather, Mau's family, who you'll recognize from the memory of his childhood, people who came to the Nation later, dancing and laughing.

You see the island rise, cupped in hands made of darkness, and great grey wings -- they must be as big as the sky -- closing over everything.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[glorious]

[...reaches down to touch it.]

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

The liquid is thick and sticky and warm -- it clings to your fingers. Suddenly you're as out of breath as if you've been sprinting beyond the edge of your endurance. You're freezing cold. Every inch of your skin stings with it. Panicked fury washes over you like a wave.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[glorious]

[PULLING MY HAND BACK RIGHT NOW]

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

The sensation fades slowly when you withdraw your hand... the room remains unchanged.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[orange_sun]

*approaching him, quiet*

Mau?

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

Are you still casting your own light?

Re: Under the Deep Water

[orange_sun]

*sure is!*

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

Then the umbrella comment lied. You can indeed make out that the room is totally circular; it has a diameter of about twenty feet. There are two doors -- the one you came in from, and an identical one directly across from you. The firepit is in the exact center of the room, and there's an unlit lantern a little to one side of it.

The cauldron over the fire is deep and round bottomed, made of cast iron, and it's full of some dark liquid... sea water? Blood? Tar? It's hard to tell. The firepit itself is a solid ring of smooth, white stone -- the same material as the floor. The walls and ceiling are a shiny silver blue nacre, like the inside of a shell. They are lined with narrow wooden shelves all the way around, covered with a miscellany of objects.

Mau looks up and tries to turn to see you, although he can't turn very far; he keeps his hands pressed to the sides of the cauldron like they're glued to it. He looks exhausted, drawn, and there are tears streaming down his face.

"...Josh..?"

Re: Under the Deep Water

[orange_sun]

*sad bro gets a hug, this is a reflex. not touching the cauldron, though.*

Yeah. It's me.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

He leans into it, still crying soundlessly -- he feels insubstantial, weightless, and his hands stay pressed to the cauldron.

"I'm having a bad dream." His voice is just a murmur, indistinct and so very tired.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[orange_sun]

*some of that aura might be flowing into him, lending him strength*

I got that part. How do I change it?

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

That seems to be working. He looks up at you, and sounds stronger when he speaks again.

"From here, or... where it's happening?"

Re: Under the Deep Water

[orange_sun]

Either way. Both, maybe.

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

Slowly, like he's trying to remember something distant:

"Light helps, here. And... you can change what's in the cauldron, but I don't know the right pieces. Or I can send you..."

Re: Under the Deep Water

[orange_sun]

Let me see what I can do here before you send me anywhere.

*and his aura flares up to brilliance, a spark leaping from it to light the lantern*

Re: Under the Deep Water

[doesnothappen]

The room lights up, bright as day. The lantern light is perfectly steady. You can see everything in the room now -- the items lined up neatly on the shelves, all manner of strange and ordinary thing. Knives, silver fish, hats, teeth, glass stars, musket balls, dried flowers, bowls of liquid and sand, feathers...

And the liquid in the cauldron. It's not just blackness. There are pictures moving in it.