• Closed • River Wars

[Pepper]

51 of Ymiden, 718
Emea

It was the time before dawn. The sky was a soft charcoal, but a few birds had already figured out the night was done. The boy walked through the thigh high reeds with bare feet. They softly rustled with his passage. He had a wicker basket in a hand, and a fishing pole at the other shoulder. There was nary a breeze as he reached the bend in the Zynx river, a break’s distance from his farm. A young willow tree leaned partly over the river, and the current wasn’t too swift. This wasn’t one of the more popular fishing spots - and that was the point. He wouldn’t be disturbed here. The boy knew there was a good chance of catching something if he made sure to arrive at dawn, when it was still nice and cool.

The light gradually filled in the land, subtly, stealthily. The sun hadn’t yet risen, and the boy stepped in to the water. The basket and the pole were left on the bank, forgotten props. For the boy would hunt fish the old fashioned way, as a creature of water himself.

As soon as he submerged himself, ripples alone marked the spot where he’d stood, instead a strange creature, perhaps the boy’s imagination of what a mer would look like, entered the river currents with a splash. It had a human half, like many of the mer, but the other half looked more like a snake than any water creature. A brilliant, eye searing mix of purple, gold and scarlet ran all over his body. With a loud yell, the boy dived in deeper.

Pepper stood unseen, perhaps hidden by a screen of reeds, and watched this transformation with an open mouth. She’d never imagined herself as someone.. (something?) else. I’m gonna try that next time! She sent to Miret. “Should I follow?” she mused out aloud. “How do I even do that?”

The boy submerged and emerged from the water between bits, each time re-appearing above the water with no fish and too much frustration. One time, he appeared with a huge slippery creature that seemed to be more snake than fish, with skin that gleamed in the morning sun. He struggled to hold on to it, grabbing it by the middle and trying to tug it back to the shore, but the creature was too big and too much for him. It smacked him on the head with its thick tail, and he released his grip, The creature slipped back into the water, it's fleeing from disappearing among the reeds.

The boy sighed.

“Need some help?” Pepper called out, wading a few feet into the current, so the boy could see her. “That’s a cool form!” She hurried to assure him, hoping he’d not disappear back into the water in a panic.

The boy made an immediate movement as if to dive, but paused at Pepper’s praise. He was much younger than Pepper, perhaps as old as Dan had been when he died. It was his dream, and he ought to have been able to subdue river sharks if he’d had a mind to, but clearly he wasn’t lucid, and thus the limited result. “Who are you? Will you tell ma about me?”

[Pepper]

51 of Ymiden, 718
Emea

“No! I wouldn’t do that. I’m Pepper, I was just passing by.” Pepper hurried to assure the young boy. He nodded back cautiously. “What’s your name?”

“Ro. I am hungry. Mum said she’d cook me fish if I got some, I can eat the small ones.. But catching is hard.”

“Hmmm.. How about getting some clams first? They can’t escape anyway.” Pepper suggested. They taste good too, I’m sure your ma can make something tasty from those. And if you are very lucky, you might find a river pearl.”

“A river pearl?” he said, tilting his head quizzically. He was young, maybe a little younger than her, even though they were of similar height. His hair was red one moment, black another, and blonde even as he leaned down to smack at a leech that had latched onto his leg. “What’s that?”

“Well some clams have a small pearl inside, have you seen a pearl? It’s like a very pretty, small, marble, but much much prettier. And you can sell it for nels if it’s a really pretty one.” Pepper mimed the size with her fingers. “Bigger clams have pearls sometimes.. In any case, clam chowder is great” Pepper grinned. “Want to see if there are any clam beds about here at the bottom?”

“Sure!”

Pepper handed him a knife with a sturdy wide blade. “Use this for pulling them away from the riverbed. They may be stuck fast. Do you know which ones are safe to eat?” Pepper hoped so, for she didn’t have much experience with various varieties either. This dream was turning out to be strangely focused on a waking world skill.

“Oh yes! I know which ones to get!” Ro took the knife and dived back. Pepper watched the surface as the ripples smoothened. Ro’s dream was much about real life skills, but even so, the bit about turning into that creature was new. Pepper smiled to herself, perhaps the boy indulged in daydreams of how much easier fishing would be this way, or he may have listened to stories.. In any case, she had something new she’d try in the safety and control of her own dreamscape now.

Until she heard that dreaded voice from the other side of the bank.

“Oi!” A sound that could only be Fiona, one-time invader of her dreams, probable psychopath if her own dream was anything to go by, and major jerk. “Oi, can you pick your own dream to hang out in?”

She couldn’t see her or what she was doing, but from the way her voice seemed to reach from afar, it was clear she was nowhere near the water. She couldn’t be frightened of it, could she? Fiona’s dreamscape, which Pepper visited, was an endless sea of black water.

[Pepper]

51 of Ymiden, 718
Emea

“That goes for you too! Go back to your own dreams!” Pepper called back in the direction the sound came from. Not like I chose to come here. She grumbled to herself. It was all chance.

“No, fuck you!”

Typical. The day Pepper said something, and Fiona agreed, she’d know someone was masquerading as Fiona. Not that she thought herself a special recipient of such treatment.

“Fine. We’ll share this one. Are you spying here?” She called out again. “And can you come closer? Are we gonna yell everything now?” A part of her mind had kept track of how long Ro had been underwater, hadn’t it been somewhat long now?

“Land good, water bad. Buzz off.”

That was unexpected. Fiona avoiding something! Pepper felt like teasing her, but thankfully better sense prevailed. She didn’t want to be choked or worse again. “Good land nearby too. Not telling you to stand in water!”

“My disbelief is palpable. Have you passed my message?”

“Nothing is palpable from here. Stop hiding and come near.” She got an idea, given Fiona’s paranoia, she might be amenable to it, “What if there are other lurkers? You want to have this conversation where everyone can hear?”

Fiona was silent after that, and the boy emerged once more.

“I almost got it this time. The big one!” He said excitedly.

Pepper turned to Ro, ignoring Fiona for the time being. “That’s great!” She waded closer, the water now swirling around her hips. “How big was it? Here.. Give me the smaller ones, I’ll put them in your basket.”

He handed them over.

“How is Noah?” That too-distant voice rang out again.

“Who is that?” Ro asked, digging in the reeds for what she assumed was a fleeing fish. He didn’t seem too concerned about a second visitor; the luxuries of being non-lucid, she supposed. “What’s a Noah?”

“He’s a friend..” Pepper was relieved Ro was taking it so calmly. To Fiona she called out, “He’s fine. He didn’t believe me though about the message.” She waded towards the bank, putting the fistful of clams in Ro’s basket. “Then when I mentioned your name, he denied knowing anyone by that name, and changed the topic.” She was no longer yelling. Fiona could come closer if she wanted to listen. “Well I told him the message, I’m not sure how much he believes me though.”

Turning to Ro, she motioned to the water, “Go! Let’s see how big that one is!”

“Ro, shut the fuck up. A grown up and a Pep are talking.”

A pep. And this was Ro’s dream. Fiona had no sense of boundaries did she. “Ro don’t mind her, she doesn’t like sharing attention. Go find your clam.”

“Yes, go find your clam, Ro.” Fiona said scathingly. “You did use my name, yes?”

Thankfully Ro shrugged and dived back, he might very well have woken up instead. Typical dreams rarely lasted longer than a quarter of a break anyway.

[Zip]

“I did. He definitely recognised the name, I think… But he said he know doesn’t anyone named Fiona, and it is just a stupid dream, and that I shouldn’t pay attention to crazy dreams anyway.”

“And did you blurt out everything else like the dolt you aspire to be?”

“I’m not as stupid as you seem to think I am-”

The chuckle was very distant and yet somehow much, much closer to Pepper’s ears than any other word Fiona had said.

“-Did you come here looking for me? You aren’t interested in Ro for sure..” Pepper looked around again, hoping to see the woman. “You done imitating a ghost yet?”

“Just popped through the wrong, dull door. And I’m not a water buffalo, Pep. I’m quite well where I am.”

“Well you could just go out the same door then?” Pepper’s voice couldn’t help but be faintly hopeful. “Leave us water buffaloes here?”

“I do what I want, Pep.”

Well, that was unlikely to have worked anyway. Pepper moved back into the water, and within trills Ro surfaced, flashed her a small smile, and disappeared under the water again.

“I see the problem.” Fiona said, as if on cue. “You didn’t tell him you’re a Walker. I’m surprised. I expected you to be ecstatic given a prime opportunity to blurt the only thing special about you to your very special friend.”

Oh lord. Not again. Trying to have a conversation with Fiona was like trying to cuddle a hedgehog. Which spat venom. And had some vile form of disease that made it hate everything. And probably craved rotten flesh instead of whatever nice things hedgehogs ate. Had she spent a single moment of her life trying to be nice?

Of course, attempting said conversation with this venomous, flesh-eating, rabies-afflicted hedgehog was proof of Pepper’s own craziness.

“I have no interest in bragging about anything. I wouldn’t have told you if you hadn’t figured it out anyway.”

This was a very difficult conversation to sustain. It was incredibly rude to Ro too, having a conversation between themselves while ignoring their host. She decided to try sending once to Fiona like she’d to Miret. It might very well work, given that this was a dream, and they were both dreamwalkers. Ro was empty handed. He wasn’t speaking either. Just swimming in huge circles, creating eddies all around. Perhaps he was no longer aware of the intruders in his dream?

“I have barely let my family know about it this Ashan, after years of being marked. What makes Noah so special that I’d blurt it out to him without any real need to?”

“Weren’t you the one going on about ‘not lying to him’? Or is an omission of truth suddenly an acceptable thing in your precious, naive little fuck of world?”

“Noah isn’t being very truthful by that measure either I think.”

“His integrity isn’t under attack here; yours is.”

Well at least the communication worked. She’d not heard the last reply with her ears, but with her mind… although she couldn’t be sure whether it was the product of her prowess or the dream accommodating her. “Anyway my morals are my own business. You can worry about your own.” She decided to poke the hedgehog, just to be a bit perverse. “Or is this you being caring about me?”

“I care what Noah thinks when you disappear one day because you think your goddess cares for you beyond the service you can provide her. Your inability to see your own personal self-sabotage, your rejection of what was basically a gift, and your inevitable death by way of a nameless horror beyond the veil who will see you only as food is none of my concern, Pep. I-”

The dream shifted. A tremor ripped through the entire river and, a moment later, Fiona appeared in in the air above them, suspended for a moment… right before the dream remembered what gravity should be like. She fell like a stone and flailed like a fish dropped by a gull.

The large shadow around her that got increasingly larger every micro-trill told Pepper she was about to land directly onto her.

[Zip]

Pepper ran, towards land rather than the river. It was an instinctive decision made by the primal part of her brain. Even if she knew swimming, against an unknown foe, and there was sure to be one, somewhere, if Fiona had been dropped like this without her approval, land tended to have lesser surprises. She needed to put some distance between her and the falling Fiona. Once she judged she was far away, she turned and wondered if Fiona needed help, it wasn’t her dream so she wasn’t sure how much she could change in this.

It was good that Fiona would land in water, but was it deep enough for the height she was falling from? Pepper tried her best to imagine the river as deep, the current stable. And she waited, one eye around her, she’d noticed the shivering of the dream, but she didn’t know what it meant, except something bad.

A splash announced Fiona’s descent into the river, followed by a very angry, very spluttered sound that was undeniably a series of slurs. The sound attracted Ro, who looked up from his hunt for fish, asking, “Who are you?”

And then the water around them… rose as if the world had been tipped the other way, surging upwards with all the strength of a waterfall turned over. Fish of all shapes and sizes were tugged upwards with them, trapped in the air and dragged up with the water, flailing around uselessly. A curtain of water was soon formed.

From behind that curtain, four blue eyes gleamed at a height that suggested that whatever they belonged to was at least the size of a carriage.

“Are you okay?” Pepper called, backing a few feet further. Which animal or creature had four eyes? Was it perhaps a water creature?

“Who are you, people?” Ro asked again, panic in his voice. He stood frozen in the water, transfixed by the gleaming eyes. “What’s happening?”

And then it occured to Pepper: he’s lucid.

How? Why? But the questions would have to wait. “We’re friends. Get out of the water, “ Pepper extended a hand towards him, praying he wouldn’t panic further. “You know me, we were fishing for clams.. I’m Pepper..” Perhaps a remembrance of his dream would still cling on and the familiarity might help with those crucial bits of trust that could prove to be very precious indeed.

She didn’t know whether her words got to him, but he half-ran, half-swam towards her all the same, the knife still clenched forgotten in one hand. A little distance away, Pepper saw Fiona swimming away from the creature as well in the opposite direction, her strokes far more measured than the panicked frenzy that was Ro. She ducked her head in and out, in and out, making quick progress to the opposite bank.

[Zip]

The creature’s eyes turned towards Ro and a huge, webbed claw broke the curtain of water and swiped at the fleeing Ro. It fell short of him by mere inches. There was no wild flailing from the claw as it missed its mark; it slammed down into the riverbed with a loud splash, and dragged itself back behind the curtain.

Shit. There were just a few feet to go, and Pepper bounded towards Ro, calling out, “Faster Ro, you are almost there!” She fumbled at herself, her clothes, for anything that she could use to fend off that foot, but she’d never even played at combat. Her dream self wore her habitual clothes, and trusty bag was unlikely to hold any weapon either.. She’d tried imagining another knife, though she’d hardly know how to use it well, but nothing happened, and there wasn’t time to waste with such efforts anyway. She ended up hastily picking some river smoothened rocks. She could at least throw something if nothing else.

In the distance, Fiona’s swift swim gave way to shallow water, and she assumed a weird, difficult waddle as she tried to traverse the watery, muddy thigh-high terrain with all the grace of a crab forced to walk forward. Pepper didn’t need to look at her face to know she was scowling. Honestly, Pepper wasn’t looking at Fiona that much, just enough looks to make sure she’d made it out. she was hardly in as much danger as Ro, and herself. The creature had ignored the other bank till that point, and Fiona was mean enough that the monster probably thought her kin.

Pepper scowled. Trust Fiona to bring mayhem along, whether any was needed or not. She probably sat in the ‘door’ and let something bad in.

Ro stumbled to solid land and Pepper pulled him along roughly. Thankfully he had his normal legs now. “Run. Is there a place to hide? You know the area?” Pepper fired the question as they crashed through the reeds, away from the water.

“What’s happening?” Ro continued to mumble, as if in shock. “What’s happening?”

“It’s the stormlands. You know there are strange and vicious things here. Stop thinking about that!” Pepper didn’t want him to notice this was a dream, it wouldn’t serve any purpose. Better the familiar, however scary. She was in a strange position where she was the one giving orders, and the experience wasn’t fun at all, it was scary to have to think for two. Gentling her voice a bit, though it took effort, she was barely holding back her own panic, she said, “Ro, this is like a bandit raid, you know everyone needs to think sharp, move fast, and stay calm. I know you can do this. Your ma would have taught you well.” They were still moving, though not making quite as much sound as they had through the nearly dry reeds.

The curtain of water moved, slowly and inexorably, and the creature moved with it.

[Doran Cooney]

Pepper Farrow

Knowledges
Dreamwalking : Changing your own form is possible
Dreamwalking : Dreams have ‘doors’ that you can enter through
Dreamwalking : sending in a dream rather than talking can work. Needs more research
Research : formulating a hypothesis, testing it out
Psychology : Helping keep another calm and focused
Leadership : Giving clear orders
Leadership : Only enough information to allow the other to work
Leadership : providing encouragement

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 15

Fiona Zippomaria O'Connor

Knowledges
Negotiation: Shifting the goalposts
Running: The difficulties of running in thigh-high waters
Running: Running on the uneven mud of a riverbed
Swimming: Breaststroke
Swimming: Proper breathing technique
Swimming: Proper form
Swimming: Sprint swimming
Swimming: Swimming across a river

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 15

---

Well. I laughed out loud several time. The elongated hedgehog joke got me and the crab walking forward was too much haha. I really enjoy Pepper and Zip's weird banter - Pepper is so ridiculously with the flow, no matter what Zip throws, and it's so fun to watch her come up with something new to try to get to her stumble. I will say I'm looking forward to the next thread more so than this one, but there was a lot of quality humor in this I enjoyed immensely haha. Bring on part two!!

Please edit your grade request, thank you!

Code: Select all

[center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=7932[/img]Doran Cooney[/center]