Collab between Arc and Captn. Blu
Location: Dream Place
Shadow Captain, Armored Sara, Glowing Alicia, Luro^7
The burning bottle broke through one of the large windows of the winter garden, and shattered itself back. The oil inside caught fire from the lit rag, and turned into a fireball that engulfed large portion of the top floor greenhouse. The man at the fountain waited for a short while, examining the fruits of his labor, before turning around and running away from the dream.
"No. It is real, aktually," the Pathfinder answered to the Luro Ensemble. "Dere's no misteri. Just… some family business, I tink. It is baset on reaal events that happent, and the trauma the dreamer livet through kchas been enkapsulated in the dreeem. It is… more eazy to coeksist wit as such toghts in your hed," he said. "I think," he quickly added. "Beter to see tem only ven asleep."
The fires worked quickly on the mansion, and almost unnaturally soon the structure was on fire whole. Flames were punching through the roof, which would soon collapse down onto the winter garden, the falling rubble destroying what plant life the conflagration left behind. Windows were exploding outside, throwing shards of glass like shrapnels to shatter against the stone fountain, or stick into the fresh, fluffy snow. A circle of melted snow was spreading from the houses' foundations.
The front doors were thrown open, and a man, his features covered in burn scars, stumbled outside into the cold, followed by smoke and fire. The man was holding a short messer-style sword, and the iron was so hot, it seemed to fuse with his hand. With one swift motion, he stabbed himself into the chest and fell dead into the snow, his blood slowly staining it into a shade of crimson. The pooling blood would soon reach the nearest Luro's boots, and would start freezing around it.
The Pathfinder turned away from the scene. The man seemed very off by what has just happened, and made great effort to hide it. "Anyway. Ve best be off. Not a ting you kame to see, is it?" He faced the gut-wrenchingly vertiginous impossibly long street, and started walking. "Just… let's get out of heere, yes?"
No matter how far it seemed for them to walk, the small plaza behind them was always the same distance when they looked back, but the Pathfinder repeatedly told them they were making a headway. Eventually, the street would seamlessly transfer into a spacious square full of murky fog. The location proved to be a spacious church of some sort, after the Pathfinder walked into a peg, and his cursing came back with a distant echo. A realization dawned on his face.
He explained, in a very hushed tone, that some sort of parasite stalked this house of god, an invader into the dreamer's mind and body. A someone else's problem, something they simply had no business being involved in. "Unless any of you want to now how it feels to have your tonkue pulled out through your ears and nostrils at the seeme time, that is." he continued. "I don't."
Perhaps through sheer sense of poor luck, or perhaps because something started to gnaw at the back of her mind, Sara would feel compelled to look back, towards the direction from which they seemingly entered the cathedral. The tug at her would get stronger as she'd start to turn herself, until she stood with the back to the rest of her friends and the Pathfinder, who was leading them out of this bad place.
The Eye was there. Just millimeters from her, but still as insanely large as when she saw it at the bottom of the Undersea. It was not injecting itself into her memory this time, no, the thing was the stalker in the mist of this dream, it was here with them. And it was looking for something new to take control of. The tug and gnaw on her psyche suddenly grew in intensity to madness-inducing levels. What previously felt like annoying buzz inside her head was now logic-deafening blare, an impossibly strong mental gale that tried to blow away her itself, to make space for whatever the nightmare wanted to do with her soul. Somewhere in the back of her existence, the primitive vestiges of her personality were still desperately refusing to let go, like a wounded dying animal that refused to accept the inevitable reality.
Flee, she said to herself. Run, she whined desperately like a hurt puppy.
His experience in navigating the dreams helped him find a way out quickly, a doorway behind the altar that led to another amusing experience. This time, they were thrown onto a small balcony inside an impossibly tall clocktower. The structure seemed to stretch forever above them, and was a bottomless pit below, cogs and gears whirling all around them in neverending mechanical cacophony. "Ah," the Pathfinder said. "Someone's havink a vertiko dream. Bad stuff." He turned to face them. "Uhm. I may should have eksplained this. We… need to go trough the unpleaszant dreams. Less kompany. Noone wants to skedaddle in bad dreams. Anyway…" He turned to face the bannister of the balcony, and leaned over, looking below. "Knoving vertiko dreams, well… ve have to go up. Through the mekanism, use it as platforms, I tink. There vill be some klosure up top."
All of it was a little hard to comprehend, going in and out of dreams that weren't there own, just to get to some unclear destination. However the captain pushed forward, keeping her crew close and accounted for. It was easy to tell that they were all confused, as they all should have been, so she gave quiet reassurances every once in awhile. And every once in awhile, she'd nod to Pathfinder to show she was listening. During their trip, the captain had to count and recount the number of crew members she had. "You keep multiplying and I'm not going to remember any of your names." Of course she was talking to the Luros. Grant it, it only made the captain further question Luro's (the 'real one') sanity. If that were even possible.
There weren't any questions she had about the dreams they went into but the moment they stopped to clarify about 'vertigo dreams', she looked up at the cogs and gears in the tower. "Well?" Runali looked back at her crew and pointed to the top. "Up we go." She glanced at Sara and the multiple Luro's as she lead the way up, getting a head start. "First one to the top has to buy drinks when we get outta here." It was moreso to get them to quicken the pace. "And if Alicia wins, well, she gets to pick your poison." Again, more incentive to get them to move forward in the unknown space.
Fortunately, there were no tricks to this dream, it was just to climb up. And if they so happened to miss their step, they'd just fall and have to catch up again. Being some form of a shadow, the captain thought it would be relatively easy to make it to the top. That was until one mishap of her physical form disappearing as she tried to reach out for a slow turning gear.
A large stable platform was suspended on chains above them, and all the platforms and cogs and spinning things they could grab seemed to lead them there. The platform was just s thick plate of steel, with chains bolted in the corners. This made for a relatively rickety construction that swayed like a ship on high ocean when someone tried to climb aboard it. In the center stood a simple doorway, seemingly leading nowhere. The Pathfinder opened it. From both sides of the door, it appeared to be leading somewhere outside, into a clearing in the middle of a pine forest. "Nice place, for a kchange," the Pathfinder murmured and strolled through, getting his boots once more soiled in earth and mud.
And Alicia Tashigi? The Maiden of Misery made it safely out of the snake infested swamp. The sudden shock of transferring from the embattled swamp to the serenely cold and quiet city, shrouded in holiday spirit was a slight shock on her adrenalin-infused, primed nerves, but her discipline, experience and training allowed her to quickly adjust, both in body and soul. A lot of things have happened in the last few moments, and the warrioress felt she would have to spend some time meditating on them to properly digest all that already took place.
Pathfinder's cryptic explanation of the nature of this dream did resonate strongly in her. Some painful things could not be held in conscious memory too strongly, for they would harm and cut and distract, but could not be simply cast away, as the first scar they caused was something integral to their self. She said nothing as the man ran out of the building and killed himself, sparing himself the pain and misery.
No. Not a thing they came to see. She followed Pathfinder as he led them out of the dream.
The dreamscape cathedral was an impressive sight, but for something constructed in un-reality, the craftsmanship was simple at best, and stood as architecturally significant as a pile of rocks to some of the finer elegant and eloquent constructions of the Yula-Fei royal architects. This place was a cell to whatever deity it worshipped, and would prove unremarkable in every way, if only Sara didn't fall like a sack of potatoes as they were ready to leave the dream, her armour rusted and the filigree email peeling. She held vanguard as the Luros carried her away, and left the dream as last.
The clockwork tower was a simple challenge, compared to the other dreamscape grotesqueries. Agility, constitution and timing were the kings here, all of which Alicia held in abundance. The clockwork danced, and Alicia simply had to fall in line, and dance better than the machine. An easy task for a fighter of the Tashigi pedigree. Soon enough, she found herself passing through the final portal, and standing at the serene meadow.
It was warm summer here. The forest and the grassy clearing smelled of a distant, forgotten summer, fragrant with hard to define sweetness. Forest birds could be heard chirping, and insects were buzzing around them, working the many bright coloured wildflowers that made the meadow their home. In the center of the meadow was a portal, standing amid ruins of what used to be a tiny chapel to some unknown deity. The flagstones of the road leading through the forest to this place were long overgrown, and the bricks of the structures were being slowly ripped apart by advancing roots.
"So," the Pathfinder started. "We're safe noe. This iz the gate to the place you're lookin' foe. Kan't follow you through, I fear. I don have a korporeal body to use as an ankor to this side, sadly. Long, and… unfortunate story, I tink. Not one fit for this place. But if you don't want teo go yet, and I think all of us kould use a small break, we can talk, if you have kvuestions."
~~~===~~~
Arc, Zillia, Ray and Jack
Location: Café "De Brogglio", The Wailing Gophers Plaza
The Navigator nodded after reading Zilla's note. "Yeah, yeah… look, have you ever closed your eyes, went for a nap, and had a dream? A full fledged, dreamy story going on, spanning hours, feeling like a whole lifetime? And then you woke up and realized you were napping for fifteen minutes, at best?" He helped himself for some of the remaining liquor. "Time is… wonky when asleep, yes? It bends and ebbs as the dream sees fit. I would not be too surprised if we arrive just in time to see one of the wonders of the universe, Luro waking up in a puddle of water. The King has no control over the dreamscape, that is the domain of the soul, and he has none. His… power, or domination, is over the corporeal. He lays claim to all the drowned sailors, but only the bodies. He has no power over the souls leaving the perished." He drank some of the sweet alcohol to moisten his throat. "Anyway, that is the base of his feud with Davy Jones, I believe. Davy wants souls, yes? But those are not useful just as they are, they need something to ride, something to act through. So Davy also grabs the odd body or two. The King is simply anxious to finally enact some sort of revenge on the Flying Dutchman. He does have all the time in the world, but that cannot be said about his temper."
"As for the Red Science… let's just say that everyone will be better off if that ship lays at the bottom of the deepest sea. It is a… potent force, but it has its own will. Actually, let me start elsewhere."
"This place, this… city, it feeds off on ambition. It whispers to you it can give you whatever you need, for a small price. A fair deal. A fix for your life, and another bone on the necklace for this place. That's how the Auction House came here. It used to be a tomb of some forgotten monarch, whose son feared he'd never step over the shadow of his father. So he sold the resting place of his father for a shiny new crown. What use he had for a resting place of a man who only reminded him daily of his own perceived inadequacy? Funny thing is, it is said he was not a bad leader, even before this incident. The notion he would be simply seen as lesser to his old man, well, that was all in his head. Suffice to say, this place learned it could seek people with… deficiencies, perceived or real, and feed off them. That's why you often find so many things from Brass Cape here, actually. Cape is ambition, and this place can sate that, easily."
"Anyway, the Red Science was left here by a traveller from a far off land. Zorakizona though it would control it, as it saw itself as its rightful owner, being sold to the place by the traveller, but it proved too strong. Now the force it resides in the mountains to the south. The red lightning on the horizon is the Red Science, fighting with something that could actually match its power. That's why you are not supposed to look at those red flashes, and why is there that asinine high wall. The sailors on Precious had their souls blown away by the Red Science when the ship's main engine was started, and whatever animates their bodies is just something in service of Red Science, mimicking a real human being. The ONW agents think that they can pull the same trick twice, and fashion new minds for the bodies of the crew from the Earth. They would then control the crew, and could still use the dreadnought powered by Red Science."
While Arcadius was unloading information onto the group, Ray sat with his chin on his knuckles, taking a sip of his drink every now and again. He didn't have much to comment about in regards to what was being told, and he wasn't sure he fully understood it all. He understood it, at least surface level, and that was fine for now. Being in such unfamiliar territory made gave him a more one track mind about the situation. The talk about Red Science and seemed like something of interest, but maybe for later.
As the chatter continued, it became a slight buzz in the background as Ray stared at his drink. That odd feeling that he had gotten the moment they had gotten to the UnderSea hadn't gone away. Ignoring it didn't seem to help either. It almost felt like a part of him had been missing- more like taken away. But it had to have been all the talk of soul searching and being so similar a situation where they had died once before. Maybe it was just him rememberingbeing with Davy and that pestering spirit he encountered before.
Ray hadn't realised his grip had tightened around the cup he was using, so he slowly let it go, more surprised he hadn't frozen it solid, something that normally happened when he was lost in spiraling thoughts.
'Probably just tired from everything going on…' "I think, it's probably best if we get some rest considering our… busy schedule tomorrow."
"Aye," the Navigator agreed. "That we do. Currently, the plan is to sneak ourselves into the Exceptional Feast held the evening before the auction, at the Auction House. For that we'll need a set of suitably expensive clothes. We'll visit the seamstress tomorrow morning for taking measures. She's being paid extra to have them done overnight. After that, we'll have the rest of the day to take measure of the place, and to obtain what tools we will need for the work. And for our escape. The steamer is ready to leave at a moment's notice, so if anything goes bad from now on, we will regroup there. We can use it to escape out of the city."
"Now, if you do not mind, I'll head to our rooms upstairs. Been a long… well, not really sure if you can refer to it as a day here, with no Sun, but there is certain cycle to the glimmer in the ceiling, and the locals accept that as a substitute to counting days. I bid you all a good night, such as it can be found here. Try to not dream too deeply. The threshold into that place is thin here, as you all probably surmised already, and we are too pressed in time to allow ourselves any distraction."
~~~=== Next day, "Pin and Needle" Tailor's, Highwater Street===~~~
The door of the small workshop opened, the motion accompanied by a merry jingle of the above-door mounted bell. Arcadius stepped through, walked down the short stone stairs that led to the street, walked around a corner to a narrow side street, calmly leaned against a wall and let out a shriek that would not put shame on a wounded animal ten times his size. The seamstress was, no doubt a skilled and experienced at her craft, but seemed to to think
others were there to suffer for her craft, as far as putting measurement pins went. In her case, through the fabric and into the skin. A ping of pain against his skin at the back of his neck told him she forgot one there, possibly as a farewell gesture. Or a branding. Carefully removing it, he noticed a shade of crimson red at the tip of the pin. "I hate this place," he said to the brick wall.
"Me too, but what can you do?" answered the wall.
The Navigator emerged from the side street with an expression of a doe that has chased to last inch of its life by greyhounds with chainsaws for teeth. He would wait outside for the others to emerge from the shop, wondering if he was the only one to get the acupuncture experience, of if the mistress seamstress was capable of mercy and amiability. A food cart rolled past, selling fried bits of kelp with spicy sauce. Arcadius bought enough for everyone.
Whatever was the status of the rest of his friends that emerged from the shop, he'd offer them a greasy paper bag with the kelp, until they were all outside. "Alright, I guess that was the easy part of today, that would be the one that did not require any thinking. Now, let's go see the auction house, shall we?"
The Auction House was terraced pyramid, half in height of the great brick wall that protected the city from the Red Science glare from the south. The ziggurat used to be a house for the dead body of a king, but that was long in the past. Now, an impressive entrance was excavated into the monumental stair that led from the street to the tip of the building, allowing guests to skip the climb and enter the main foyer directly. Outside, the building was surrounded by haphazard collection of building from all over the history of the world, in some places directly leaning against the pyramid, in some places keeping distance and creating small plazas, like it was in front of the main entrance.
The navigator would lead them inside as well, as far as they'd be allowed when the Auction was not being held. The foyer was made from expensive, polished marble; the pillars, the floors, the benches and the teller pegs, everything build to show how
exactly wealthy and fat has this institution grew by servicing the ambition and desire. On one end, the hallway was open to the city, on the other it ended with two double winged door on a balcony overlooking the hall, with small winding stairs leading up to the balcony. The door were reinforced with heavy steel sheet, and seemed to be opened by a set of several keys, judging by the amount of holes.
"Well, here we are," the Navigator said in a hushed tone. "This is where the Exceptional Fest will be held. Everything here will be replaced with tables full of only the most decadent delicacies, surrounded by all the people who mean something."
He looked around. "So… how will we rob this place?"
