The Fortress of Many Turnings [open]

[applesaucemod]

Welcome to Caerdroia. Though at first glance this world seems calm, even idyllic, closer inspection will reveal a startling lack of linearity. A doorway in one place can suddenly lead to another entirely, the locals going about their business seem totally unaware of your presence, and you may find reminders of home that are less than welcome -- and less than safe.

The countryside seems almost designed to set one at one's ease. Gentle, rolling hills overlook a town in the near distance, and herds of friendly cows cluster here and there (with unknown intent).

The Garden of Curiosities is a walled-off park. Inside, streams and paths wind through beautiful landscaping, and animals can be found on the loose everywhere. For the most part, these creatures are friendly (or at least indifferent) toward visitors, though their appearance might perturb. One might see an animal one has never encountered before, or one might find the garden inhabited by creatures from one's own world that are somehow changed, whether in size, color, or behavior. And, of course, one might find something rather more predatory has taken up residence….

The town hall never seems to be in the same place twice. Finding your way through the streets to any one particular building is an exercise in frustration, as the town seems to shift and change whenever part of it is out of your sight. The hall itself isn't much better once you get inside; stairwells have a habit of appearing on the ceiling, hallways turn into dead ends while your back is turned, and floors are liable to open up into fathomless pits.

The Labyrinth is where many journeys seem destined to end. The way out is, more often than not, the way in. Try to leave one part of Caerdroia, and the doorway might very well open into the labyrinth. And, like any good labyrinth, this one is home to a Minotaur. And, like any good Minotaur, this one would be more than happy to tear you to pieces.

[OOC: Once again, the shared dream is open to all characters, including those not currently in the game and those belonging to players who are not currently members. Once again, too, players are free to choose whether their characters see the dream for what it is, whether they are forced to abide by its rules, and whether they will remember this in the morning.]

Comments

[wildmage_daine]

Hey, she's been to the TARDIS's zoo, remember? And she sort of got a glimpse of Gallifrey that one time. She knows what's what.

"Of course not," she says with as much dignity as she can muster. Because yes, a few months ago, she wouldn't have given any thought to animals on other planets. Her own realm's native creatures - and the newly arrived immortals - had been more than enough to keep her occupied.

"Some of the immortals are a bit tricky to talk to," she admits, not quite sure if that means she'll have an easier time with alien creatures, or a harder time. "Like the griffins. Numair had to shield me before I could sort out what they were saying."

[bluesuit_handy]

"The ones that make you tell the truth?" asks Andrew, recalling something he thinks Daine told him at some point. He's a little wary of bruising her dignity after the falling out they had in another dream, though he would be surprised if he's crossed a line this time. Friends rib each other, right? "But if this is from my memories, they might all speak high Gallifreyan. Then you'd really be in trouble."

[wildmage_daine]

"They don't make you," Daine feels obliged to correct him, because the griffins had been so insistent about that. "You just can't tell lies when you're around them. They had loud voices - like bells," she adds, tapping her forehead with her free hand.

The comment about them speaking Gallifreyan is, to Daine's mind, almost too silly to be worth a response. It's not as if the animals she talks to are speaking English, after all. "Just as well I'll have you to translate, then," she says, biting back a grin.

[bluesuit_handy]

Handrew snorts as if dismissing her point as semantics, but in truth he files it away. He still isn't entirely easy at the thought of meeting one of her griffins, but there is a difference there. "Ah," he says, not suppressing his grin at all, "But I can't speak to animals -- you'd have to translate for me first."

[wildmage_daine]

She's glad he's just kidding. If he really had to translate both ways, she thinks, they wouldn't get anywhere. "It's not as if the animals I normally talk to are really speaking English," she points out. "Maybe if they were speaking Gallifreyan, I'd still be able to understand them because they're animals."

[bluesuit_handy]

Because of the logistics of it, or just because Andrew is not the type to buckle down and be an efficient translator?

"Are they speaking any sort of codified language?" he asks, suddenly more attentive. "Or is it...not feelings, I don't imagine, but...not...language." Frowning at his inability to communicate the experience of communicating mind to mind sans symbols corresponding to verbal language, he waits for her reply.

[wildmage_daine]

Both of those things, yes.

"It's language," Daine says, "and it sounds like English to me, but the People don't really speak English. Elsewise they wouldn't need me to translate when other two-leggers are talking, and they do." Granted, some animals are able to pick up a few words, but not enough to really converse with regular humans.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Do they all speak the same language? Predators and prey and all?"

Eating people who can speak back to you isn't exactly unheard of in the cosmos, but it's not exactly something Andrew wants to imagine happening all over Earth every single day.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine nods, understanding the implication. "They can, but they usually don't - not predators and prey. It wouldn't even occur to them to try and chat with someone they're trying to eat - or that's trying to eat them."

That's under normal circumstances, of course. She well remembers how unnerved she felt when Brokefang had taken the initiative to talk to some of the prey animals in Dunlath. It'd been a good idea - just not the sort of idea he would have ever had without her influence.

[bluesuit_handy]

"No. No, I imagine it wouldn't." Handy could ask more: whether predators view prey as being lesser than themselves and therefore deserving it, whether prey simply accept that it's no good to beg -- but something tells him that those are the wrong questions. There is, as always when a human thinks about animals, the danger of projecting.

[wildmage_daine]

"Sometimes they'll play nice for my sake," Daine offers. It's true enough, and a more comfortable example than 'sometimes they'll cooperate if two-leggers are giving them a hard enough time.' "Like Cloud, my pony, and the Long Lake Pack. They aren't exactly best friends, but they're polite with each other because they're all with me."

She'd made sure of that. Even when she'd forgotten herself, she'd remembered that Cloud was family, and made sure the wolves had let the pony alone.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Your wolf friends, you mean? How d'you even introduce a pony to a pack of wolves, say, 'Hey, this is Cloud, please don't eat her?' Seems like it'd be a foreign concept, to say the least." Thinking, he adds, "Do any of them ever seem inclined to eat you?"

[wildmage_daine]

Daine hesitates. The first question calls up unpleasant memories of when she first ran with the Pack, and the second some more recent - but no more pleasant - memories of being pursued though the park by an unstable werebear. Telling herself that Yuri isn't really an animal, so it doesn't count, she fixates on the second question as less awkward to answer.

"I've spoken to some crocodiles, once, who said they'd be happy to eat any two-leggers who came their way. But no animals have tried to eat me." She tries for a smile. "A couple years ago, a sea lion bowled me over. He didn't realize who I was - thought I was a rival male. He was very nice once he realized his mistake, though, and invited me to visit his stretch of the beach and see all of his pups."

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew chuckles, imagining it. "Seems you've got a lot of clout in the animal world." From the way the dogs have always acted around her, he's under the impression animals tend to like Daine automatically. There's more to that than just being able to talk to them, he's sure of that.

Something else has been on his mind for a while, though. He gives her a pensive look, then decides to finally just ask.

"Daine, do you remember the last time we met up in a dream?"

[wildmage_daine]

Daine gives a bashful little shrug. Most animals do like her - or at least afford her more respect (and less fear) than they would any other two-legger. Rats being the notable exception. They aren't all necessarily friendly, though. About the kindest words she could get out of the griffin was that her voice didn't hurt its ears.

Her brow furrows at Andrew's question, and she thinks back. "The one where there was a pony version of you?" she guesses. She's pretty sure that's the last one they all shared, as she doesn't tend to forget the big ones - or even the smaller one she and Andrew had shared before.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Nno-o," replies Andrew slowly. He's been a little afraid of this. How can he get answers if she doesn't remember what happened? "There's been one since then. Hotel, older sort of place, fancy. You don't remember?"

[wildmage_daine]

"No," Daine says, frowning up at him. "And I usually do remember." It's odd, and a little troubling - mostly because of Andrew's expression. "What happened?" she asks, not entirely sure she wants to know.

[bluesuit_handy]

"They had a little garden patio thingy by the bar? I ran into you out there." He frowns. He didn't want to have to say it. "You were sort of running about on all fours."

[wildmage_daine]

What?

She stops in her tracks, struggling to keep her expression neutral (and probably doing a poor job of it). No. She can't have been. She doesn't - that doesn't happen anymore.

It would explain why you don't remember, some part of her supplies, and she gives her head a mutinous little shake. It's wrong. He must be wrong.

"Maybe it was someone else," she says, aware that it's a lame excuse. Suddenly inspired, she adds, "Or some trick of the rift." That one actually makes more sense than it doesn't.

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew winces; that's worse than one of his excuses. The second one is at least a little better.

"The entire shared dream is a trick of the rift," he points out. He hesitates a moment before he adds, "I don't think it was just you. I met a man named Topher in that dream and quite frankly, he was almost entirely incoherent. Raving. Sad, really. Then I met him in the waking world, ooh, yesterday, and he was fine." Except for the part where he passed out on the kitchen floor and still can't be roused. Andrew winces again and decides not to share that bit.

[wildmage_daine]

She doesn't have any particular reason to like Topher, but the news that he was out of sorts in a dream makes for a large tally in favor of rift trickery. "Then it must have been some kind of illusion or something," she says firmly. "I've met Topher in the dreams before, and he can change how he looks and sounds a-purpose." And he wouldn't have chosen to come across as a madman, surely.

[bluesuit_handy]

Too late, Daine; Andrew caught your initial reaction when he first revealed what you'd been up to. He tuts softly and shakes his head. "It was a shared dream," he says, heading off that argument before it can even occur to her to try it. "I ran into other people, and they were their usual selves."

He studies her for a few seconds, debating how to wheedle information out of her. "Did it sound familiar?" he asks gently.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine presses her lips together. She didn't want Andrew to ever find out about what happened to her before, and having it revealed in a supposedly shared dream she doesn't even remember just makes it worse.

Goddess, what else was she doing in this dream, then? Did she try to hurt him? She can't imagine she was inclined to trust him at all; she hadn't trusted anyone outside the Pack and Cloud at the time.

"It was a long time ago," she finally says, folding her arms. Three entire years, Andrew; that's ages. She can't help adding, with no small amount of resentment, "You shouldn't've seen it."

[bluesuit_handy]

Considering that's longer than he's been alive, he might still allow it to pass if he knew that's how long she means. He gives her hand a squeeze, because it's that or let it go and stuff his own hands in his pockets. "I didn't choose to," he points out, wanting that resentment at least aimed away from him.

WHOOPS STILL AWAKE

[wildmage_daine]

Sure, he's being nice about it, now, but she hasn't forgotten the way he spoke about Topher all of ten seconds ago. Raving, he'd said. Sad, really. If he knew everything that had happened back in Snowsdale, what sort of things would he say about her?

Her face flushes, and she tugs her hand free. "Is that supposed to help?" she asks tersely, her eyes beginning to sting. Wonderful. Crying would just make this so much better. Thoroughly mortified, now, she ducks her head, hiding behind her curls.