applesaucemod: (Default)
The Big Applesauce Moderators ([personal profile] applesaucemod) wrote in [community profile] applesaucedream2013-08-30 07:33 pm

The Fortress of Many Turnings [open]

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.]
bluesuit_handy: (.interested | gargle)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-10 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
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: (WELP)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-10 04:58 am (UTC)(link)
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: (.blank | listening)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-10 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
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: (listening - curls)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-10 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
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."
Edited 2013-09-10 05:17 (UTC)
bluesuit_handy: (.sad | wistful smile)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-10 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
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.
wildmage_daine: (nervous)

WHOOPS STILL AWAKE

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-10 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
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.
Edited 2013-09-10 23:14 (UTC)
bluesuit_handy: (.worried | wibble face)

*FAILS AT TAGGING*

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-11 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
It was sad -- is he not allowed to be sad now?

"It was," he admits, shoving his hands in his pockets after all. "I'm sorry. I didn't tell anyone about it, if that helps." He'd just been concerned -- alright, so he'd been curious as well. Just now, though, prying for answers doesn't seem like the best idea despite this apparently being something that's happened before.
wildmage_daine: (haaair)

It's okay, I was across the street all evening, anyway.

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-11 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
It's one thing to know that you're not mad, and quite another to deal with other people thinking you might be.

The last time she dealt with the possibility of telling this story, she'd all but been under orders from the Badger. It had been needful. Now, though, she doesn't have the Badger's guidance... and she's wondering if Andrew really needs to know everything. All he saw was her running about like a wolf, right? She can explain that without getting into what really caused it. Probably.

Daine sniffs. "I was thirteen. Didn't know anything about my magic - didn't even know that I had any. But it was there, and it was all tangled up with the rest of me." She taps her forehead for emphasis. "It made it hard to - to remember just who I was, when I got too close to the People." A massive oversimplification, but he's probably in no position to notice it. "It doesn't happen anymore, because Numair put up a wall in my mind between me and my magic."

So hey, that answers your question about what's in Daine's head, Andrew! Be distracted by it!
bluesuit_handy: (.surprised | mild surprise)

<3

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-12 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
"A wall?" Andrew is suddenly all ears. Nonnative psychic structures placed in a mind on a permanent basis by a second party -- that can be a bit sinister, though if Daine's perception is the truth it's been beneficial in her case. "But you can still use your magic," he points out. "Still access it. Unless there was more before?"

Congratulations, he's distracted...by the need to ask other invasive questions.
wildmage_daine: (Default)

Re: <3

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-12 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
Daine nods, relieved. It's easier to field invasive questions that aren't about the most painful parts of her past. "If I look inside myself, my magic is like a well full of copper fire," she explains, "and at the bottom of the well, there's a column of white light - that's me, or what makes me myself. The magic used to be sort of... reaching into the white light, and some of the white was bleeding out into the magic." Have some weird, illustrative hand gestures. "The wall goes between the two and keeps 'em separate. I can still call my magic up whenever I want, though, and there's as much as there ever was."
bluesuit_handy: (.thinking | concerned)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-12 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
Andrew touches the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth and slowly nods. It's all just imagery imposed by the mind to represent that which can't be entirely represented, but it does at least give shape to the concept. It would be fascinating to look for himself, but even if he were telepathically capable it would be more than a bit rude to do outside an emergency.

"But the magic is in your mind?" he asks. "Is it actually part of you, or is it more like an non-organic symbiote?"
wildmage_daine: (listening - learning)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-12 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
Thank all the gods that Numair has already taught her what 'symbiote' means. She shakes her head. "It's part of me; I've had it my whole life. It's not just in my mind, I don't think. It's in all of me." Pity he can't see it the way Numair can. "I can see when other folk have it, and it looks like a glow - usually around their hands." But other folk don't have as much of it as she does. Daine's brimming with it.
Edited 2013-09-12 04:03 (UTC)
bluesuit_handy: (.smile | lopsided)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-12 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
An energy-based symbiote would be an oddity, and symbiote might not actually be the word. Andrew smiles and unstuffs a hand from a pocket to reach out tentatively for one of hers. "Have I got it?" he asks, wiggling his fingers. He knows (or expects) the answer is no.
wildmage_daine: (pleased)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-12 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
She doesn't think so, either, but to be fair, she's never given him a proper look. Canting her head a little, she takes in a deep breath and gives him a brief once-over. It's no great surprise when she sees nary a glimmer of copper fire, and she gives him a rueful smile. "Sorry, but no."

That sad message delivered, she takes his hand once more. "There is a boy at the base who has some, though," she adds, pleased that it's the sort of thing that exists in other realms besides her own. "Edgar. Have you met him? He's about my age, and he always has his dog, Almondine, with him, and he can talk to her about as well as I can, just using his hands." It all comes out in a breathless rush, but she can't help her enthusiasm. She likes Edgar and Almondine, and they're a nice, safe topic.
bluesuit_handy: (.smile | home on the TARDIS)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-12 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
"Maybe James does," he decides, neither surprised nor disappointed. If he did have it, though, at least he'd have a subject willing to be scanned. He doubts asking Daine to let him poke and prod at her psyche to discover the means behind her magic would go over well.

His grin grows and he silently congratulates himself on getting Daine off the subject of being angry with him. "I haven't," he admits. "Haven't been around the base much at all since we got the flat, though. Is he from your world?"
wildmage_daine: (mischievous)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-12 04:34 am (UTC)(link)
"I could check next time I see him," Daine says, not really expecting to come up with anything on James, either. She can't imagine anyone with wild magic not doing something more involved than simply owning a few dogs, though she supposes James is still technically rather young. And it might be harder to realize what you've got if you're not around animals as much as folk are in her realm.

She shakes her head in response to Andrew's question. "He's from Wisconsin. His family breeds dogs that are especially clever. They know what they're doing, too; Almondine's the cleverest dog I've ever met."
bluesuit_handy: (.thinking | hand on mouth)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-12 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
James is still quite new to being organic, too, and there's the question of whether androids can have magic at all.

"Wisconsin? Really?" Well, that just raises all new questions. Andrew moves to start walking again, meaning to get her to the menagerie still. "Have you met anyone else who's got it -- from this universe?" Because for all he knows, magic is as normal for Edgar as it is for Daine, Wisconsin and all.
wildmage_daine: (neutral - curls)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-12 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Daine purses her lips in thought, then shakes her head again. "I haven't met anyone," she says. Of course, she hasn't exactly been scanning the crowds of two-leggers for those tell-tale glimmers of copper, either. She'd thought it was weird the way that New Yorkers could ignore just about anything, but now she can understand why they are that way. There are just too many people in the dratted city to be paying them all attention; you'd go mad if you tried. "But I haven't really been looking," she admits. "Not unless I had a reason to think there might be something to see."
bluesuit_handy: (.interested | sincere)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-12 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Handrew nods. "I'm wondering if it's truly universal," he explains. "Well, inter-universal. Pan-universal." There, he's found a term that satisfies him. He'd also like to have the TARDIS scan both Daine and Edgar -- and possibly Almondine -- but the point right now is not to annoy Daine.

He turns his head to glance at the gaping distance before them, only to find that the wall of the garden is suddenly looming just ten feet away. Breaking into a grin, he says, "We're here."
wildmage_daine: (happy face)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-12 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
"It could be," Daine says with a nod. "I wouldn't be surprised if animals all have it, anyway, never mind what realm they're from. I'm not sure if every universe has two-leggers with wild magic, though." After all, the reason she has so much is because her da's a god. If other realms don't have gods like hers, they'd have to have some other way for wild magic to make that jump into two-leggers... elsewise, no wild mages.

She blinks in surprise at the wall's sudden appearance, but then her face quickly splits into a grin. "I s'pose we'll soon find out if alien creatures have wild magic."
bluesuit_handy: (.interested | gargle)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-16 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh!" Andrew looks at Daine with new understanding. "So the animals themselves have it." He's been thinking of it the wrong way, he realizes, and rearranges his understanding of the matter accordingly. "I thought it was all something you did."
wildmage_daine: (perky)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-16 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
Daine blinks, not realizing she hadn't explained that part. Or had she? Well, if she did, it's been some time. "It's something I can do because me and the People have the same sort of magic," she confirms. "But most folk with magic have the Gift, and that doesn't apply to animals."

And speaking of animals, Daine is just going to head along the wall in search of an entrance, tugging Andrew along after her.
bluesuit_handy: (.smile | home on the TARDIS)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-16 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Shared interface," murmurs Andrew thoughtfully. It's a crude metaphor, but it jogs his mind into a new viewpoint effectively enough. He trods after her, content for the moment to be led. It's not as though he has anywhere else to go. "It's like having the same operating system," he tells her brightly, though he ought to know better.
wildmage_daine: (neutral - humoring you)

[personal profile] wildmage_daine 2013-09-16 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
Fortunately for Andrew, Daine's distracted enough by the strange sensation of new and unfamiliar creatures' minds brushing against her own to not be put off by his nattering. She does give him a brief, exasperated glance, though. It's not his need to make comparisons to things he's more familiar with that really irks her so much as the fact that he's always comparing her magic to things she knows nothing about, so she can't correct him if he's misunderstood.

"I wouldn't know," she says simply. And therefore, neither would he, is heavily implied.

A door appears before her mood has a chance to really sour, though, and her face splits into an eager smile as she heads inside.
bluesuit_handy: (.sad | wistful smile)

[personal profile] bluesuit_handy 2013-09-18 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
But making analogies is what Andrews do best! "Or like you're one of those computers that runs both side by side," he adds, not to be deterred. Maybe if she'd let him teach her all about computer science, she'd know what he was talking about and agree with him. Of course, he'd no doubt get bored with teaching her after ten minutes and run off after something else.

He glances up at the sign near the door -- "Garden of Curiosities, that was it!" -- and looks at Daine with an ambivalent look. He's glad she's happy, but he doesn't think she realizes just how dangerous all of this may well be.

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