Repercussions

[Vega]

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10th Cylus 717

Ti'niva was up and out early that morning and Vega did what had become a habit; she made hot drinks for each of them in the camp. Usually, however, she'd put Arlo's outside the flaps of his tent and, from her perspective she'd remind him now and then that it was there. From his she was fairly sure that she yelled at him till he took it inside. Not this morning, though. This morning, complete with blankets wrapped around her and appearing just about as dishevelled as she ever managed (and really, it was all just a spectrum), Vega had come and sat in his tent.

Not unannounced or anything, she'd given him a few bits and then sat down, handed him a mug of steaming tea and cupped her own in her hands. The fire was crackling just outside and at least here in one of their tents they were protected against the wind. Vega, it was fair to say, dressed for bed. It got coldest at night and so she wore a lot. Thick socks, thick stockings, trousers and a thick woollen dress and, it seemed, her hat and gloves. Sitting, she pulled her blanket around herself and sipped at the hot tea. "I need to understand it all a bit better, Arlo."

Vega wasn't one to beat around the bush at any given moment and she wasn't starting now. "That dream last night scared me. I don't mind that, when I have a nightmare that happens." She sipped her drink and then looked at him and smiled just a little awkwardly. Her eyes were deep blue like the almost-black of the twilight sky with tiny pinpricks of silver in them. "It's like," she found it hard to put into words, but then she seemed to more or less decide that anything other than 'just how it was' really was unnecessary fuss.

"When you were just an irritating kid that I'd met and that'd be a distant memory in a few trials, I didn't really care and if it helped you, good stuff, jolly good, tally ho and on we go." It might sound a little harsh, but it was what it was for her. "But somehow, despite your awful personal hygiene and dubious habits, you became a friend." Somehow, she seemed a little put out by that and she glared at him as though the fact that he had dared to do that had been a deliberate affront. Once she'd given him the compulsory glare, though, she smiled. "And if we're going to travel together for a bit, which I'd like, I really would, well I need to understand it a bit better."

Which meant, of course, that she had some questions. "Like. Do you see all of my dreams? Did you see the one with the frogs? Or Jim? I can explain the frogs, but Jim you're just gonna have to ignore." If she was concerned about Jim, she didn't seen it. She wasn't, in truth, people had dreams about weird things and she was one of them. "Or like, will I always remember if you're there?"

Cradling her cup in her hands, she looked at him without guile and shrugged. Then she smiled a beaming smile. "Morning, by the way. Did you sleep good?"

[Arlo Creede]

Vega warned him first before she came into his tent. But his answer when he called back was no different than it had been on most of those previous mornings when she'd left the tea outside. "It's too early," he grumbled, rolling over in his bedroll and taking it with him.

Early mornings were the best ones for hunting or fishing or checking on traps. But when he hadn't any of those things planned, it was too early. Still, bleary eyed, he pulled himself upright when she came in, stayed sitting and tugged the bedroll up round his shoulders. A single hand twisted its way out of the fabric in order to take the tea she'd made him.

It was one of the very few times she'd see him without his hat, and his curls were in disarray, falling over his forehead. "Understand what?" After a slow swallow of the tea, he seemed to remember. And apparently she remembered too. "Oh. That," Arlo muttered. "You know, it wasn't really the norm I don't think." Truth told, Arlo wasn't sure how it had happened. He was dreaming, she'd been dreaming, she found a talisman that he'd left behind and somehow their dreams collided. His dream became a nightmare, and then became hers. He was at a loss, how to explain that.

"Feeling's mutual," he said and grinned tiredly. Though whether he was referring to her grooming habits or their friendship, hard to tell. But it was understandable that she'd want to be clearer about what exactly was going on. "No, not all of them. Not nearly all of them I don't think. No frogs, no Jim...Do they go together?"[/i] he asked curiously. "In the same dream?" But not everyone seemed to remember their dreams like she did. Not as often anyway. "I guess it would take knowing which ones I was there for, to know if you're remembering them all."

"And I slept just fine, till you wandered in and woke me," he grumbled, but still smiled as he worked a spare hand out of his bedroll and grabbed a knapsack to rummage around inside it. Eventually his hand emerged clutching a dogeared notebook. "Not everyone remembers their dreams. Some people only remember flashes and vague images or sensations. Others remember vividly when they wake, but not always. But if they don't think on it, then the memory's gone in a bit or two."

But for as long as he could remember, Arlo told her, he had dreamed in vivid detail and always remembered. "I started writing them down in a dream journal. See here?" he said and opened the book for her to see. "When I was little, mostly I just drew pictures. Later I wrote them out better." And as he flipped through the pages she could see the progression. A childlike hand and childlike images, moving to a more mature hand and more prose than picture.

"I wondered early on if there might be messages in my dreams," Arlo told her, and swallowed the last of his tea. And then he asked. "What do you want to know?" Whatever it was she wanted to know, if he had the answers and could give them to her, then he would.

[Vega]

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"Man, your hair is as bad as mine. Except for the fact that you haven't got to live with being a redhead and yours is short. Bit of a theme going on there, isn't there?" Vega gave a grin and watched him as he woke up, or at least did a good approximation of it. She snorted in amusement at his question about Jim and the frogs, both of which were of course completely made up. "Only in the really good dreams. If you ever wander into one with Jim, who you'll know cos he's tall, handsome and oiled and there are frogs hoppin' around? Run, Arlo. Run away whilst you still can." Rolling her eyes, she sipped her tea. Was he really that gullible, she wondered. She thought probably not and waited to see. He made a fair point, though, about having to know which dreams she'd seen him in to know whether it was always him or just her dreaming representation of him.

"I'm glad you slept good." Vega had an unashamed glint of delight in her eyes, "I would have let you sleep longer but your snoring was disturbing Peg. Plus, this was bothering me and I'm rubbish at waiting." The second was certainly true, she was not great at patience. "What's that?" Of the people he described, she was the kind who remembered her dreams very vividly and always had. However, if she didn't think about them when she woke, they slipped away. Looking at his dream journal, though, all teasing fled from Vega and she reached her hand out almost reverently as she touched one of the drawings. "Arlo, what a treasure this is." He probably didn't appreciate it, she thought with a smile.

"That's a really good idea," much as she hated to admit it. "I might start doing that, adding it to my diary every morning? Thank you for showing me that." What did she want to know? That was a good question and meant that she had to really think about what was bothering her, what she felt the need to understand. "Well, all of it, really. I mean. It's a dream, Arlo, but it's real and I don't really understand how that can be. Also, where is it? What happens if one of us dies in it? Is it the same as daydreaming or is it a place?" Vega shrugged and finished her tea with a satisfied noise. "And other stuff. Just.. tell me what's actually involved in this weirdness?"

[Arlo Creede]

"I've grown half an inch since I arrived here," Arlo argued with a drowsy scowl. "You take care. I'll outpace you in no time." Whether he had or he hadn't, knew it, imagined it or made it up, hard to tell. But he was sticking with the assertion nonetheless. Besides, she was unnaturally tall for a woman.

As for the book, he looked on curiously and drank his tea as she leafed through it. "It's nearly full. I've been keeping it since I was little, but it's filled up quicker, ever since Jesine gave me her blessing. It's not that I remember more," he said, searching for the best way to explain what he meant. "It's maybe that some of the things I remember seem more important. As if there's a message there I'm meant to work out or learn from."

So she wanted to know everything. And everything was a lot to know. Arlo didn't know all of himself. "If you dream of dying in a dream or an ordinary nightmare, it's still just a dream. That's all. Just dreaming." There was a difference of course between nightmares and Nightmares, and their impact on the dreamer or dreamwalker. "There's a different sort of nightmare though, brought on by Kielik or his followers, that can cause more harm. Kielik is Jesine's brother, but their motives contradict one another."

"Not all dreamwalkers are follow Jesine," Arlo explained while shrugging the bedroll up around his shoulders. "But all of her followers and favored ones are." Taking back his notebook, he turned to the very last page where he'd drawn a circular, layered picture half an arc ago now. "Look here," he told her. "Think of this place in the center as Idalos. It's reality, where our bodies are anchored. But all around it, surrounding it is Emea."

Pointing out a very thin layer surrounding Idalos, or reality, Arlo said, "is the mindscape. It's where the conscious and subconscious thought of all living things manifest themselves in collective thoughts, ideas and intentions. The next layer is a thin veil between the reality of Idalos and the chaos of Emea. It's a like a shield of sorts, but it's also where dreams happen," he explained.

"Your dreams are influenced by your thoughts and ideas and your imagination, but they're also influenced by the Mindscape where all these collective thoughts and intentions are floating about."

Which explained, Arlo guessed, why some dreams were so strange and confusing. "The untold as I understand it," he said, referring to the next level, "is the main part of Emea and where the Immortal's Domains are. Not even dreamwalkers like myself would dare to trespass on those. But the untold is vast, chaotic, full of entities unknown to Idalos. Multiple, alternate realities."

"A constant battle for supremacy. And then there's what's beyond that," he said with a wave of his hand towards the areas outside the drawing. "Something more outside the untold. But I've not read or learned anything since I've been looking, to be able to say what that is or what's there."

[Vega]

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"Have you really?" grown, that was, "I don't notice you're so far down from me it's hard to tell." Vega grinned at him as he looked all morning-grumpy. "I'm pretty average height you know, for a Biqaj. My cousins are all taller than me." It was true but, the thought of him over taking her was interesting to her. "So, are you really still growing, like? I'm only just twenty arcs old an' I haven't grown for quite a few arcs." She shrugged slightly as she considered that she had been a long-legged and awkward child and things hadn't really changed since she'd become an adult. "I was born too tall for myself. Or just, awkwardly put together I suppose. Don't be too quick to outpace me, Arlo. You'll not be used to it and you'll knock your hat off next time you're walking under a tree. Imagine that."

The reverence with which she held the book silenced her teasing of him and his height and she noddd as she recognised how close to full it was. "Did you meet her?" Vega, to her knowledge, had never an Immortal or even met anyone who had so she asked with some wonder in her currently orange eyes. "That must be... how did you know? Is it personal an' I shouldn't ask? Probably is, isn't it?" Handing him back the book she gave a good natured grin. "Thanks for showing me that. I'll start to keep one. You should think about writing in a list of important stuff happening that trial, too, maybe? So you can see if there's a link between what's happening when you're awake with what you dream of." She shrugged and gestured to out in the camp. "Like, maybe whatever that was last night is more likely to happen when you've been slicing through the carcass of a not pregnant beastie called Bob. Or something you know? Patterns, I suppose."

He spoke about Kielik and Vega considered it, nodding. "He's got power like her, then? That could get messy." Then, for the rest of his explanation she listened and she got it to an extent. "Emea. Mindscape." Vega looked up at him from the pages of the book where he was showing her the diagram and she grinned. "Untold and then outside that too? Collective thoughts? You sound like a right nutter." Didn't mean she didn't believe him, she did but he still sounded like one.

Vega looked at Arlo and pulled a face. "Come on then, you. We said we'd help search for that missing child, so we've got to get out early. It's all as clear as mud, but that's ok. I've got the bottom line. You know what you're doing and as long as you're there, it'll be weird but relatively safe." Grabbing his empty mug she reached over and picked up his hat which she placed, rather unceremoniously and certainly irreverently, atop his head. "And when it isn't safe, we'll fight it. Glad we had this talk, cleared it up. Heave-to, you." Following that wisdom, she'd get herself out of his tent and go finish packing up her things.

[Arlo Creede]

She could deny it all she liked. But Arlo would keep maintaining that she was unnaturally tall for a woman. And in truth, for his age, he was on the tall side and he told her that too. Besides, "I think I've grown a little taller lately." His trousers were a hair shorter than they had been, he knew, and in fact since they'd once been a little too long without his boots on, they were a perfect fit now.

"All elbows and knees. Yeah, I can see it," he said, and grinned a little in spite of the early break, at the implication that she was still mostly elbows and knees. As for patterns and writing things down that might connect his dreams together, it was a good idea and he might just do that. "I met her," he confirmed. "Jesine. And it's not too personal. I don't mind. It started as a dream," Arlo remembered. "But I didn't know it. And it wasn't like any I've had before. It was more vivid, more real. All of it."

He was sitting alone by a fire when a traveler approached, he told her, and the man asked to share it with him. Arlo had cooked a meal and shared it, while the man told him stories and he told some in return. At the end of it, the man thanked him and began to walk away. "But I realized he'd never told me his name so I called out and asked him. And he said it was Cassion, then he turned to walk away. Well I got so excited, wanting to stop him, ask him questions that I leaped up from the fire to catch up. But my feet tangled in my bedroll and I tripped, falling on my face in the snow."

When he looked up, Arlo went on, Cassion was gone but Jesine herself was standing there. "It was her in my dream you see, posing as Cassion. And she told me, that was lucid dreaming. Before she left, she gave me her blessing and told me follow him, follow her. And that she'd be watching. And she left Lyova behind, along with her mark." That was it really, and why he had no qualms about following both the Immortal and Mortalborn at once, he told Vega.

"I guess it all sounds a little mad," he admitted. "But what about the Immortals doesn't?" Clear as mud, she was right. But it was the way of things, no matter how well or how poorly he explained them. But she was also right that there was a child lost in the cold to find, and a worried mother who wanted her back. So with his hat on his head, he pushed her out of the tent, dressed himself in as many layers as he could manage, packed his things to join her outdoors, and then they were gone.

[Inali]

I don't have a fancy review box code, so you lot get this one instead.

Vega
Story: 5/5 - A short thread with lots of interesting information and questioning. Felt like a truly realistic morning chat.
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5
Knowledge:
Arlo: Keeps a dream journal
Arlo: Blessed by Jesine
Jesine: Poses as Cassion
Lyova: Gift from Jesine
Reality: An anchor for the body
Emea: Surrounds reality
Dreams: Often difficult to remember
Dreams: Occur within Emea
Dreams: Influenced by the Mindscape
The Untold: Home of the Immortals’ Domains
The Untold: Dreamwalkers do not trespass within
Beyond the Untold: Unknown to the Dreamwalkers
Etiquette: Timely compliments smooth tensions
Additional Stuff:
Loot: None
Injuries: None
Fame: None
Devotion: None
Magic: These points can’t be used for magic.
Comment: None!
Name: Arlo
Story: 5/5 - I enjoyed Arlo’s cascading description of Reality into Dreams into the Untold into… something Beyond the Untold! The progression was organic and you could tell he really trusted Vega enough finally tell someone about his ‘mad’ blessing story!
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5
Knowledge:
Vega: Distrustful of dreamwalking
Vega: Average height for a Biqaj
Vega: Early riser
Rhetoric: Calming fear with careful explanations

Additional Stuff:
Loot: None
Injuries: None
Fame: +1 (Share a discovery freely- Shared information about Emea, the Unknown, and Jesine)
Devotion: None
Magic: These points can’t be used for magic - or making Arlo taller, sorry!
Comment: Not many knowledges to give you, unfortunately, as you did most of the talking and explaining.