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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Nov 24, 2021 21:45:19 GMT -8
Lucas reflected on the oath. After recently having someone accidentally break an oath with him, he found himself more critical of wording. The devil was in the details, after all.
"My main concern with the current wording of the Oath is that if someone loses touch with reality, they may not be able to determine that the cause is lost. I wouldn't want to put the group in danger because I lose touch with reality or I become overwhelmed by mundane panicking. When I was in there with Fawkes before, he was desperate and fragile. He tried to get me to agree to an oath that he wouldn't normally ask of me. Whose to say something couldn't happen that would cause one of us to become equally desperate? We need a safe guard in place for that kind of situation that is clearly defined. If there's one thing I've learned recently it's that the Wyrd is far less forgiving than we are and leaving ambiguity can get us into a lot of trouble.
Maybe something like we will make a good faith effort to protect each other and if after all options to rescue are exhausted or not viable, we come to the genuine conclusion that they are a lost cause and trying to help them will result in the rest of the group dying or becoming trapped indefinitely, we are allowed to leave without them?"
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Post by Blaze on Nov 25, 2021 16:08:00 GMT -8
The Torrent arrived soon after being called by Lucas - and what she didn't hear herself was relayed to her on the sidelines by others. With her Mantle and negligible status it was easy to stay out of sight, and since Blaze had nothing to say for now, she simply stayed silent, observing and listening.
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Oren
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written by Hiver
Posts: 242
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Post by Oren on Nov 26, 2021 5:51:42 GMT -8
"I don't know about you..."
The rest of the words were subvocal and more like a rhythmic whisper. "Feeling twenty-two...ooh oooh oo--"
It felt as if his voice was growing warmer. A scintillating echo of the voices he was able to catch on his way in. Oren was starting to get comfortable.
"Oh. It looks like I'm fashionably late. You already started without me. Lucas...Riley, hello dear. I have to say, it's very comforting to have some heat in the room."
"Shall we go to war?"
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Post by Krakenbox on Nov 26, 2021 9:46:38 GMT -8
"Yes, exactly," Cinderella agree to Lucas' assessment. As long as everyone was listening to the expectations, they would be fine, and the Fairest clarifying intent was part of the process.
Blaze and Oren did not, in fact, have a Contract to allow them to enter the Bastion directly. The arrival of Solomon's vassal was expected, and Cinder checked her messages to confirm that Kai had confirmed he was on good terms with Fawkes. It was one less headache to deal with, at least.
"...Do any of you have experience with navigating the Skein?"
With the trio shaking their heads, she asked Blaze about her expertise, and the Elemental explained that she had a general education in occult matters, and used her background in psychology to lend itself to dream interpretation and Bastion assessment. Riley, Blaze, nor Oren had enough knowledge to understand the nuances of dream navigation, nor knew deeply about the Skein other than it was a network and Changelings could brave it in a similar manner to the most wildest parts of the Hedge. Blaze also understood that without Fawkes conscious to consent to her entry, she would not be able to obtain the key to enter the Bastion, and the they would thus need to breach the fortress.
"Okay."
Well, they had sworn a Pledge, so they had to do their best.
"Did any of you bring a means of knocking yourselves out?" They did not, making Cinderella flash a bit with glowing light, but not out of any anger towards the volunteers. She counted off, mumbling under her breath on how much glamour this would cost her if the sand failed. "If you're touching him," she explained, gesturing to Fawkes, "It won't be as difficult to locate his Bastion. It changes every night- the symbol of the Gate can be anything that relates to what he's dreaming. You'll have to navigate the Skein and find it, assess it, and then attempt to breach. With the Pledge, I'll try and see if I can get you guys in from the inside by getting Fawkes' consent and getting him to the Gate, but please don't rely on that."
Oren explained in his usual purple prose that he can track down a target, in which Blaze offered to rope in a clause that forged a dream pledge between herself and the Elemental. One could enter the other's Bastion, and Oren can use his Contract to rapidly guide them to the Gate of Ivory, so they could exit to the Skein and travel together with Oren acting as a guide and Blaze interpreting symbols. Riley was an outlier, who could not swear to a dream pledge to invite someone in or vice-versa. Lucas volunteered to summon a hobgoblin in the Dream, though it was up in the air whether he would choose to breach Riley's Bastion and place the summon there, where he would have to wake himself up and transfer to Fawkes (costing him glamour and time dilation to enter alone), or summon it in Fawkes' Bastion and send it off to exit through the Elemental's Gate of Ivory to seek Riley on the Dream Roads.
Lucas opted to summon from Fawkes' dream.
The last option was going through the Gate of Bone in the Hedge, which Cinderella nixed as far too risky and complicated for the timing. At that point, the other team might as well be doing a separate mission entirely.
She offered a red infinity scarf was the symbolic object for them to swear their Pledge with, gripping the ring as they connected each other's fates.
Tension was high as Blaze, Oren and Riley positioned themselves to obtain a sympathetic connection with their target, which according to Cinderella would theoretically make their trip a little easier. As the Pledge implied, if the travel proved too dangerous, they would wake up rather than get themselves killed on an alien plane. She sprinkled the sand as a Spring blessing passes in the archaic language of boundless dreams.
Once that was settled, she noted when Lucas and Yuan were ready, put a hand on Fawkes' shoulder, and synced her breathing... before vanishing.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Nov 26, 2021 16:30:18 GMT -8
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Oren
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written by Hiver
Posts: 242
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Post by Oren on Nov 27, 2021 6:03:28 GMT -8
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Nov 28, 2021 4:19:08 GMT -8
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Post by Krakenbox on Nov 29, 2021 21:29:30 GMT -8
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Post by Krakenbox on Nov 29, 2021 23:48:32 GMT -8
Lucas immediately knew something was wrong. More so than what he had experienced before, anyway. An overbearing presence tossed his understanding into a mental labyrinth, folding his understanding back into himself as he tried to grasp and mental threads that only tossed him into dizzying riddles that was so much white noise. Something locked on, catching the scent and stalking between the chaotic planes. The stark, searing sun had been muted as if someone had dragged a brush across the landscape and plunged the punishing desert into a sensible dusk. The mirrored ocean had once being dizzying with its flat reflection mixing the earth and sky stirred with white caps and a constant low wind, swirling between the fault lines of a shattered horizon that hurt the mind to stare at too long. Thoughts slid along the cracks, causing nose bleed and tension headaches as a fire bloomed in the threatening migraine as if one's own face was being dragged along the razor's edge. The water sources had been sprayed across the landscape—or perhaps more dunes had been forced to rise from the water? The erratic structures from the storms might have rained chaos across the once-white sand, melting its features into crystalline canyons and alien artifacts of bottled lightning.
Cinderella emerged from black smoke, flushed with the sunrise over the pale bright glow that the waking world had trapped her in. She seemed much older, with a stronger frame to her figure and a regal bearing that held none of the unsure smiles and nervous laughter from her bubbling persona. When the other Fairest requested the door for a Hob, she spun a pool of joy between her hands, handing off the door knob for Lucas to install into the sand.
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Nov 30, 2021 22:26:42 GMT -8
The sensation of stepping into a Bastion was one Yuan hadn't experienced very often. It was being pressed through a fine sieve and stretched like taffy at the same time, as the physical form was rewritten to fit in the Dream. It had always been a last ditch effort to bring back a Changeling whose understanding of Reality had been shattered.
It looked like this time would be no different.
The Grimm manifested in a crisp, pristine two-piece of pliable marble. His hair fell low, well between his shoulder blades and his face was covered in a plethora of living butterflies, wings aflutter and covered in pattern of grinning smiles. They scurried about his face, flew around and crawled back between his lips and under his eyelids. An elegant collar, complete with a broken chain, decorated his slender neck.
The biggest change was his skin. The metallic sheen had dulled and cracks and flaws ran across what was visible of his body. Crystals were attempting to pierce between the gaps, but the Playmate mindlessly kept breaking them off whenever they grew too much.
"Has it always been like this? What's changed?" He looked around, shielding his eyes from the setting sun. Taking stock, he quickly averted his eyes from the horizon when familiar pain ground like sand behind his eyeballs. Since Lucas had been in this mindscape before, Yuan turned to him once he failed to get a sense of direction.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Dec 1, 2021 7:46:51 GMT -8
The glamour of the sands washed over Riley. Then, the waking world faded away as their eyes shut (all three of them, for that matter), fading into the darkness of sleep.
They awoke within their Bastion. They sat up in the isle of a large theater, its paths ways and edges bleeding away like watercolors. Yet, there was a softness to it all, as its amorphous nature bled from theater isle to trees and warm coastal sands.
Their own form was of brilliant red light; their androgynous avatar glowed a bright vermillion. Their body of light held a liquid quality, swirling and swishing with an unseen wind. The third eye upon their forehead sat open, within a fractal space of broken light. Long Fissures crystal spread throughout their body, like a network of spider webs. They softly pulsed as they suckled upon the version illumination. Hanging from their shoulders and descending back in a long train were overlapping wings of gossamer, woven and stitched together with fin silken silver. Despite their brilliant light, the Moth cast a long shadow, dimming the path behind them.
"Right," the avatar of the Darkling spoke without opening their mouth.
Descending down the theater Isle, Riley mounted the stage's stairs, glancing back at the bright lights from the rafters above before looking to where the wood of the stage blended into the warm sand by the sea.
The Ivory Gate sat open and waiting, tucked between the sea-worn stones, draped in Moss. Riley moved to the gate; they were eager and driven. They knew something of importance was within the Skien, something that could speak to what laid behind them in the dark.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 1, 2021 22:44:02 GMT -8
The wooden creature crouched in a flinch, as the sun glinted off the various bones decorating its growth. Lucas appeared to be offering it many, many corpses for this challenge, but it seemed very reluctant to leave the shadows of its Door. When asked to locate Riley, it passively tapped at the glass, feeling the vibrations that rung the bones and hummed through hollowed bark. Again, it clicked and flinched, rattling in a low displeased cacophony as it recognized it was in another Plane, and would have to locate the Gate to put its spinning to proper use.
Cinderella folded her arms, sighing as she scanned the sea with the blazing insight of Oneiromancy, before describing the edge of a horizon and riding the lightning. Skulls churning towards the sky like a mouse checking for the shadow of an owl, it silently crab-walked along the surface of the melted sand to test the water.
Its wide roots acted like a water strider, rolling with the tide as the wildling picked up speed with ease. To the trio's growing concern, cracks started to glimmer and zigzag as the faint outline of a wall appeared to be forming. The hobgoblin shimmied to the ledge of the expanding labyrinth, hopping and going under the waves as the cracks immediately started to flex and shift; threatening to cut through the hob like cheese wire. It was hard to make out as the distance lengthened, but they could guess the walls were being thrown in an erratic pattern that would have been a deadly challenge to sharp minds and twitching reaction. After a few tense seconds, the horizon flexed again, crumbling into the ocean as if a hand had swatted the plane to brush aside the game. At least, that's how the two Fairests described their innate emotional sense of the Bastion.
The bone scavenger had been permitted to leave.
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Dec 6, 2021 19:33:52 GMT -8
Everything was happening as planned, so far. Quietly, Yuan hoped for the safe return of those who had to brave the Skein; there was little else he could do.
What of those who had stepped into the Bastion? His navigating skills seemed useless in this fractures landscape and they didn't have any leads. The Hob had been allowed to leave, yes, but that provided precious little information. Were they expected to simply wait for Riley and the others to arrive? The butterflies spun around his head, concealing his apprehension in a swam of smiles.
According to what little he knew about dreams, this was a mindscape just as much as it was actual terrain. The inner workings of Fawkes mind. If that theory held true, then understanding the flow of emotions would prove just as useful as tracking skills.
Right now, the group needed information to form a plan.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 6, 2021 22:22:13 GMT -8
A brutal sun was wreathed in water vapor, preventing the glass surface from searing their senses. Muted thunder reverberated despite the clouds lacking the threat of a storm, with the melted sand smoothing what once cut and burned. Focusing on the horizon—and apparently the exit—hurt in more ways then one, addling the senses as some of the butterflies fell from cut wings. Something roiled beneath the surface to cause the disturbed ocean, but the titanic weight kept it pinned deep below despite the thrashing.
Everything seemed restrained in some form or another, triggering violent pushback—like the Bastion was fighting something embedded into its fabric. As a Changeling, Yuan could see where everything was smoothed and painted over with something more appealing, but he wasn't exactly an expert to analyzing the unconscious mind. Was Fawkes splitting his personality? The Sunbanisher was a very busy officer; so was this a manifestation of the pressure of his public mask, or was the Playmate simply projecting his own feelings on the matter? His Mantle was spilling onto the landscape, as the seeds started forcing chromatic dandelions to bloom on the unforgiving landscape. Lucas' mist was getting twisted with the refracted nature of the environment as it shone prisms...or it was Cinderella's influence. Doubt gave him pause as he considered that Summer danced around her as dappled sunshine, so it could just be that.
The general vibe the Playmate was getting was the peak of a pressure cooker looking for any solution to relieve the problem.
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Dec 10, 2021 2:25:18 GMT -8
"I'm not familiar with Fawkes," Yuan told Cinder. "Does he repress a lot? That's the feeling that I get from this Bastion." He felt like an imposter, talking about repressed feelings. "Either way, this is a pressure cooker just waiting to blow up."
Still no sign of Riley and the rest. Not good. "We should move. The faster we find him, the faster we can help him." His instincts were telling him they were on a tight schedule.
The Beast managed to pick up a trail, even buried as it was under layers of redecoration. While he directed the group the follow, he kept asking question to Cinderella. "Look at it. Have you seen anything like this before?" He gestured to the washed over landscape and the restrained dangers. Someone was busy redecorating, and the possibility of it being a Fey Title did little to calm his nerves. Even as a butterfly fell to invisible edges. another one crawled out of his ear and flapped its wings. "How can something here cause the wounds you saw on the physical body?" Everything was twisted into a safer version, something more pleasing. Yuan couldn't help to see a reflection of his own situation.
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