It's a Waste of Time, Chasing in the Dark

[applesaucemod]

Tonight, the dreamers will find themselves in a forest. Or an office. Or a suburban living room. Or a castle tower. Or a grocery store. The dream is a patchwork of assorted settings, each one blurring inelegantly into the next, most of them only claiming half an acre or so. The hodgepodge makes for quite a sight.

Or it would, if the dreamers could see anything. Natural light is in short supply. In fact, there isn't any light at all, not even a faint twinkle of starlight; you might as well be deep inside a cave. No matter how good their eyes might be, the dreamers won't be able to see their own hands in front of their faces - not unless they can fashion some sort of light source out of whatever they might manage to find. The dream isn't inclined to make things easy; any appliances or electrical light sources the dreamers stumble over won't be plugged in, and any walls, however solid they might seem, won't contain any wiring. A small fire might be the best bet - presuming you can find any means of lighting one.

But there's good news. Each of the dreamers will find themselves with a second set of dubiously useful eyes, because they'll be joined - again, or for the first time - by their dæmons. Granted, said dæmons won't have much more luck seeing in the total darkness than anyone else, but at least no one will have to feel alone.

Just… move carefully. You wouldn't want to trip over someone else's dæmon by mistake. Imagine how awkward that would be.

[ooc: y'all know the drill. Characters don't have to be apped or in the game to show up, and dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the player's discretion. This particular dream isn't a power nerf - a character with the ability to create light could still do so - but the range will be extremely localized, as if the darkness is a solid thing that doesn't want to be pushed back.]

Comments

[biscuit_powered]

At first she doesn't understand. Her eyes are open -- she thinks they're open, though there's not even any difference when she tries to close them -- but she can't see anything. It's like she's been cast out into the void, except there's still solid ground under her feet, and that's definitely a solid...thing...she just tripped over. Solid wood chips gouging into her palms, too, when she hits the ground.

"...Ow," she says. Then she quiets at a rustling sound, alert and tense. Was she attacked? Has she truly been blinded? That's going to be a real bitch in a world without healing mages.

Then something big and feathery lands on her, and in another world that would be cause for shrieking and the unleashing of spells, but for some reason the contact is cause for instant calm. "Yhohm," she breathes in relief. "Hang on, I'm getting up."

"It's going to be a real bitch if we've been blinded," huffs Yhohm, ruffling his feathers and shifting his weight here and there to end up perched on her shoulder once she's standing.

Asmodia rolls that shoulder in a shrug. "Yeah, but if I can see you, I'm pretty sure that means it's just a dream. Come on, let's find someone to be blind with."

She'll just be feeling her way through the playground now. In the dark, because it doesn't occur to her that light would work when her tiefling darkvision doesn't. Her shins are going to be very badly bruised in short order.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine and Coromotto have been wandering for some time through the assorted scenery. Her dæmon can't see anything, and neither can she, despite the assorted eyes she'd tried on. At a loss, she'd finally taken bat shape and settled herself between Coromotto's ears. She can direct him easily enough from there.

It isn't until they get near a complicated jumble of structures that both their ears pick up someone moving around, and hushed voices.

"Hullo?" Coromotto tries as Daine swivels her ears towards the others. After a few squeaks, she realizes she recognizes this one. Not many two-leggers have horns sprouting out of their heads.

Asmodia! she calls out. It's Daine. After a beat, she adds, Hang on, we'll come to you. We can... sort of make our way. Bear left a little, she adds to her wolf, guiding him around a swingset and some sort of climbing thing until they're within a few feet of Asmodia and her bird. Are you okay?

[biscuit_powered]

"If you can see me?" asks Yhohm with a croaking laugh, and Asmodia has to let out a snort of her own at her choice of words. Their amusement is cut off by a nearby voice, both turning uselessly to face it...ish.

"Daine?" Asmodia frowns, head tilted. Why did that voice not sound like a voice? "Well, I'm blind," she says lightly. Yhohm caws, and she adds, "Yhohm's blind, too. You?"

[wildmage_daine]

"Neither of us can see," Coromotto confirms. "We're not sure why. But Daine's in bat shape, so she can see with her ears."

I'm not sure if we're blind, or if it's just too dark, Daine muses from atop her wolf's head. I tried shifting my eyes all sorts of ways, but if there's no light, it wouldn't matter what shape I tried. She trundles in a little circle, ears swiveling as she examines the landscape. After a few moments, she concludes, I don't see anything that looks like a lamp, and it doesn't feel like the sun's out. The moon could be out, she supposes, or it could be cloudy. Odd's bobs, what a bother.

[biscuit_powered]

Bat shape. Gods, Daine is the only normal person in this whole place and it's so refreshing, even if she is a druid.

"If it was just dark, I'd be able to see perfectly fine," replies Asmodia. "Consolation prize for losing the genetic lottery."

Yhohm clacks his beak next to her ear suddenly. "But not if it isn't natural darkness!" he exclaims. "She's right; if there's no light at all it doesn't matter how good your eyes are. Try making a light!"

"...I'm going to feel really stupid if this works," admits Asmodia. She mutters something under her breath, and then light suddenly comes spilling forth from a ring on one of her fingers.

[wildmage_daine]

Can Asmodia do that? Daine isn't entire clear on how her magic works. A moment later, she has her answer, and she squints her beady eyes against the sudden glow coming from Asmodia's ring.

"Oh!" Coromotto says, blinking. "That's better."

"Much," Daine agrees, once she's hopped off of his head and resumed human shape. She can take bat shape again if she needs to, but now that there's enough light to see by, it seems a bit silly for her to just keep sitting on her wolf's head like an absurd little hat. "And now we know we're not really blind, so that's something." Nodding at Asmodia's ring, she adds, "That's fair useful."

[biscuit_powered]

Asmodia squints against the light herself, Yhohm turning his head and squeezing his eyes shut for a few moments. She catches sight of Daine changing, though, and of her...wolf. Impressive, even if she's not sure what the shapes of their animals are supposed to prove.

"I guess it is," she admits, lifting her hand to put the illumination higher. Maybe it would have been easier to put the spell on her shirt, but if the light becomes a target for something hiding in the darkness, the ring will be a lot easier to ditch. "I've never really -- you know. Used it much. Not a lot of point when you can see in the dark."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine nods in complete understanding. She used to be a little jealous of folk who had the Gift, even if it was only enough to call light or fire. Of course, part of the reason for that was how much her Ma wanted her to have it, but she could see the use of it, too. Now that she's got shape changing figured out, though, there's never been any need to worry about making more light. It's always been enough to just work with what she had (which, in most circumstances, has been a fair sight more than the 'nothing' this dream has given them).

"How long can you keep it up?" she asks. "Maybe we can find some kindling and get a fire going." She's not sure how much work it really is, keeping her ring lit up like that. At least a fire can take care of itself, so long as you have enough wood to keep it going.

[biscuit_powered]

"A few hours?" shrugs Asmodia. "Once I cast it, it just kind of stays that way for a while unless I make it stop."

It doesn't occur to her that it might require particular effort to sustain this spell. Most spells don't really need anything from their caster after the initial work of making them happen. "I can't really split it, though, so we'd need a fire if you didn't want to hang around with me."

[wildmage_daine]

"Huh," Coromotto says softly.

"Sounds different from how the Gift works," Daine adds by way of explanation. "But I suppose that makes sense." Wild magic might translate across universes, but then again, so do animals. Maybe Asmodia's magic is less like the Gift and more like the sort of magic immortals can do.

Her wolf stretches, then gives Yhohm a curious look. "We don't mind. There's not much here, just... stuff. Exploring might be more trouble than its worth. I'm Coromotto, by the way."

[biscuit_powered]

"There are lots of different kinds of magic," replies Asmodia, unbothered. "Even people who can do the same things do them in different ways."

Yhohm cocks his head, leaning down to peer at Coromotto. "Yhohm," he says, sounding pleased about it, though by now Asmodia barely scoffs at it. "And exploring is never more trouble than it's worth."

[wildmage_daine]

"We could look for others," Coromotto points out, tail waving idly.

Daine winces, not because she doesn't like the idea, but because she's a bit embarrassed it didn't occur to her, first. "That's true. Unless they've got magic or matches or something, they're either stuck wherever the dream put them, or stumbling around in the dark." Either way, they can't be having much fun. Some of them might even be hurt, considering what a senseless jumble this dream seems to be.

[biscuit_powered]

It occurred to her wolf, didn't it? That's about the same as it occurring to Daine, as far as this pair can tell. "Gods, think of the pranks we could pull," says Asmodia. "If I hide the ring and you use your bat-powers to find them, they'd never see us coming."

"Or keep the ring on and go invisible," suggests Yhohm. "Ghost light. Freak them right out."

Yes, finding other people is a fabulous idea.

[wildmage_daine]

Coromotto lets out a sound that might have been a laugh if he hadn't turned it into a cough, instead, and Daine's hard-pressed not to follow suit. It hadn't occurred to her to turn her advantage to mischief. The combined tasks of looking for other people and keeping her wolf from bumbling into anything had been work enough. Admittedly, she hadn't given much thought as to what she'd do when she found someone else - except try to make sure they were all right - but 'prank them' probably wouldn't have entered her head.

"You don't think folk have enough to worry about without us causing them mischief?" she asks, raising her eyebrows.

[biscuit_powered]

"It's only a dream," counters Asmodia. She's accustomed enough to this kind of nay-saying; she'd half expect it from a druid anyhow.

"And it's only a prank," adds Yhohm.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine sighs. Coromotto flicks his ears back pensively.

"I suppose you could argue that a ghost light would be better than no light at all," he points out, his tone deliberately casual.

Daine plants her hands on her hips, looking down at her wolf in exasperation. "Whose side are you on?"

Coromotto blinks up at her innocuously. "I just think light would be nicer than darkness, that's all."

[biscuit_powered]

"I could definitely argue that," agrees Asmodia with a grin. "In fact, I think I would argue that."

"Don't tell us you've never used your</> powers for a laugh," Yhohm chimes in.