applesaucedream | The Fortress of Many Turnings [open]

Current Music: March 22, 2013

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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.]

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The TARDIS' sudden contact with his mind is a pleasant surprise, as well as a convenient one. He responds by reaching out to her in return and starts working through the maze in her direction. If she hasn't already found Peter herself, then can work their way around to finding him when he reaches her.

That is, if she can stand being around Peter at all. Gabe and the TARDIS haven't really had a chance to talk about how him being friends with Peter works with them remaining on good terms.

Edited 2013-09-14 00:10 (UTC)

The TARDIS is too busy focusing on her contact with Gabriel to take much note of Peter's whining. The angel isn't far, she can tell with her knowledge of the actual labyrinth on Caerdroia, but the dream's warped quality prevents the connection from being more than tenuous, as though they were trying to reach across a great distance, not even enough to communicate telepathically.

It's not unlike the difficulties she had reaching the Doctor, and that's frustrating her to no end. She can hardly split Gabriel in three here to send him directions, after all. Luckily, given the fact that this is only a dream and not the real thing, and Gabriel's ability to receive psychic transmissions, that won't be necessary.

GABRIEL, FIND ME AT THE CENTER OF THE LABYRINTH, she thinks at him, attaching directions in the form of a mathematical equation whose variables change with the structure's current layout and often involves moving in the direction opposite of where one intends to go. She hasn't forgotten his objections regarding the intensity of her prayers, but at least that guarantees it'll reach him. What doesn't occur to her though is that he might not have a whole lot of experience with four-dimensional mathematics.

Belatedly and rather distractedly, she answers Peter's question without really listening to it. "It's Gabriel. I am leading him here." Then, finally, his words sink in and she turns back to look at him with a frown. "Hear what?"

Gabriel! Peter feels a rush of relief -- Gabriel can fix this. Then he feels a rush of annoyance, and tries to squash any positive feelings. This is Gabriel's fault in the first place, and Peter's hardly going to thank him for anything. He looks around again and tries to resist the urge to shuffle closer to the TARDIS, feeling ridiculous for even thinking about ~~hiding behind~~ seeking the assistance of this tiny woman.

"The minotaur!" he hisses, as if that should be obvious.

"Agh!" Gabriel flinches as the TARDIS delivers her too-loud prayer. Just what I needed, he thinks, math at high volume. Still, okay, he can definitely figure this one out. He mastered every language on Earth. He can definitely manage four dimensional mathematics.

He pauses for a moment, thinks on the equation, then doubles back the way he came. He should be there in no time at all.

Oh is that all Peter is worried about? The TARDIS makes no effort not to roll her eyes at him, for a moment having honestly thought he might have something useful to contribute. "The minotaur isn't real," she replies patronizingly. Just because she's willing to try and tolerate Peter's presence that doesn't mean she's in any way interested in helping him deal with his irrational fears.

And as though the dream is out to prove her wrong, there is suddenly audible ominous shuffling and inhuman snorting coming from a few turns down.

Peter scowls, knowing again that she's right and that it doesn't make any difference that she's right. He's spared from admitting so, however, by the sound of the beast itself quite nearby. "Fuck!" he comments, not having been looking for that sort of reprieve. Taking a step back, he puts the TARDIS between himself and the corridor from which the sounds can be heard. "You go right ahead and tell it that," he says tersely.

~~action hero gabe to the rescue?~~

A few turns later, Gabriel gets the hang of the predictive nature of the equation, and he picks up his speed. By the time he gets close to the TARDIS and Peter, however, he can hear the Minotaur, and then Peter cursing...which is to be expected, really.

As he turns the final corner, he sees Peter and the TARDIS...and the Minotaur, standing in his way. He wiggles his fingers in a wave at the pair.

"Peter." He nods to what he can see of Peter from his hiding spot behind the TARDIS, then smirks at the TARDIS herself, "Ariadne. Thanks for the ball of twine." Hearing him, the Minotaur turns around with a huff and a growl. "Minotaur. Hey. Want a sandwich?" It bellows and runs at him. Acting more on instinct than planning, he splits into several copies of himself as he runs down the path toward his friends. One copy gets gored and flickers out of existence along the way, but the rest coalesce back into the original when he reaches the other side.

"This is fun!" A silver blade drops down into his hand and he asks, "Do you think I should reason with it or cut its head off?"

Edited 2013-09-15 00:42 (UTC)

She's glad to see Gabriel, really she is, but now he's just indulging Peter's irrational fears by making a show of attacking the Minotaur, and the dream isn't exactly putting her in a good mood. The appearance of the rather familiar blade surprises her for a moment, but she quickly recovers to peevishly repeat "It isn't real!". Can everyone just stop being ridiculous worrying about the stupid immaterial Minotaur and start worrying about the fact that the rift has created a dream from either her or the Doctor's memories without either of them noticing the mental invasion?

But clearly that isn't going to happen while there's a monster to play with and/or hide behind her from, and she waves a hand dismissively, adding in exasperation, "Cut its head off, by all means."

"It's a fucking minotaur, you can't fucking reason with it!" But at least Gabriel is treating this situation with some of the gravity it deserves. Some; Peter's going to have to ignore the part where Gabe said this is fun.

He wishes right now that he had a weapon on hand, though he can't actually think of anything from his old collection that would work on a minotaur in particular. Even if he could, he doesn't quite realize that he ought to be able to materialize whatever he wants. "Just kill it!" he says decisively.

Gabriel chuckles at both the TARDIS and Peter's reactions before moving toward the beast. As he does, it starts to charge once more, but Gabriel feints to the side and the minotaur follows him. He's swift moving and graceful as he dances around the slower creature, ducking under swinging fists and smiling as he does. It's clear that he's a skilled fighter, still - And that he's showing off a little.

After he's done showing off his agility, he switches his blade's position in his hand, grips it tighter. In just a few quick movements, Gabriel knocks the creature to its knees and slices its head cleanly off of its shoulders. As the body and head thump to the ground behind him, Gabriel grins and walks back over to his friends. He disappears his blade in favor of settling his hands at the TARDIS' waist, then leans in to kiss her hello. "Good to see you."

If the dream itself hasn't already put the TARDIS off of physical expressions of affection, the unnecessary display of violence definitely does, and she takes a step back from Gabriel's touch, not caring that she's nearly treading on Peter's feet in the process. His behavior just now was honestly disgraceful, but she prefers not to linger on the way he'd clearly enjoyed killing the thing. There's already enough other things making her uncomfortable here.

Instead of returning his greeting, she looks up at him sternly. "If you're quite done, could we all just leave? I hate this place." She doesn't really mean to be this abrasive, but she is terribly on edge and she'd hoped Gabriel would help, rather than make it worse.

For a moment as Peter watches Gabriel fight the minotaur, bringing it down apparently without effort, he finds himself wishing Gabe had been there when he and Charley confronted Jerry. Only for a moment, though; killing Jerry had been something he'd needed to do. Bad enough he only assisted without someone as ridiculously powerful as Gabriel stepping in and doing it for them.

"Hey!" he protests, taking a step back when the TARDIS backs up into him, effectively knocking him off a less than pleasant train of thought. Resentful that she won't acknowledge that what Gabriel did was at least a little bit fucking awesome, he still has to agree with at least part of her sentiment. "Could we?" he asks, meaning it less in terms of whether Gabriel's willing than in terms of whether it's possible now.

Gabriel frowns back down at the TARDIS, hurt at the dismissal and not understanding what's got her so upset. He was just having a little fun with the dream and showing off for her a bit. There's no harm in that, is there? ~~Maybe Peter will kiss him instead.~~

When Peter backs up her request, he sighs, and the labyrinth disappears entirely, replaced by a grassy hill with a few cows roaming around. This is still one of the dream settings, he can tell, but the structure of this dream makes it difficult for him to completely replace it. He sighs and looks around at the (much more boring) environment. "Better?" He addresses both of them before tilting his head to the side to address the TARDIS specifically. "Might need some help pulling down these weirdo dimensions if you feel like heading anywhere else."

By leaving she had really meant returning to normal reality, not trading one hated part of Caerdroia for another. So she only gives the new surroundings a dismissive glance before fixing Gabriel with another glowering look. "I don't feel like being here at all," she complains sharply.

But at the same time she's finally realizing that she is being unnecessarily unkind to him. He did try to accommodate her, it's not his fault the dream is so recalcitrant, and she is glad for his company. Taking a calming breath, she tries to rein in her unease and schools her features into something less angry. "You remember the timeless universe I mentioned? This is a memory of it. This world is where I was trapped, held hidden from the Doctor." Though thankfully the dream is incapable of replicating the horrors of the actual Divergent Universe, her senses too rooted in reality to be fooled into thinking there is no Time here.

The moment the TARDIS shows up on the hillside, the cows suddenly take an intense interest in the group. The animals quickly converge on them to investigate, the clear ringing of their bells changing pitch and tone until they sound rather angry and menacing. She isn't doing this consciously, but her mind, her memories are already attuned to the dream and affecting the projection as she had done on the real Caerdroia.

"Much," says Peter with just a hint of gratitude, just as the TARDIS snaps at Gabriel. He looks at her sharply, then takes advantage of the fact that they're no longer in a dark labyrinth full of monsters to step away from her. "Someone piss in your cornflakes?" he mutters, not having any idea what she's referring to. Whatever, it's not like it affects him. Sunshine and dairy cows aren't exactly his thing, but this is a marked improvement nonetheless...until the cows start to mob them.

"What the hell?" he asks as a cow brushes against him and makes him stumble.

Gabriel takes a step back from the TARDIS when she snaps at him.

It shocks him that the TARDIS knows this place, that this is a place picked out of her nightmares specifically. He understands, now, why she'd reacted so harshly. Instinctively, he reaches out to touch her arm, but he drops it immediately after, realizing that she probably doesn't want that sort of comfort right now. "It doesn't feel-" He's about to say that it doesn't feel timeless, but it's just a copy after all.

His further thoughts on the TARDIS's emotional state and the likelihood of dream settings being gleaned from her mind are derailed by the sudden gathering of menacing cows. He holds out his hand to balance Peter as he stumbles. "Uh-" Yeah, he's got nothin.

The TARDIS is just going to steadfastly ignore Peter's unwanted and insolent comment, or else she might end up taking her strained nerves out on him. But that doesn't stop one or two of the cows from expressing a particular dislike against him.

Similarly, she's already getting impatient with Gabriel again for what she can guess he is about to say. Obviously it doesn't need to feel timeless in order to be plenty upsetting anyway. Before she can say as much, though, she's bumped rather harshly in the back and stumbles forward into Gabriel's free arm. She immediately rounds on the offending animal in short-tempered anger and makes it disappear with a glare, but the more irritated she gets, the more cows join the mob seemingly out of nowhere. The ringing of their bells is starting to rise to an uncomfortable volume.

"This isn't what they should be doing!" she finally admits after resentfully trying to thin the growling crowd some more, raising her voice to be heard and pressing close to Gabriel to avoid being trampled. Now there's a note of fear among her indignation. She can't understand why the cow constructs would behave in this way, dream or not, since she isn't actively trying to send any kind of message. Instead she's broadcasting her emotions, but without realizing that she can't do anything to curb it.

Peter doesn't know that the cows are the TARDIS's doing, but he certainly notices when a couple of them deliberately turn on him. One butts him in the stomach, thankfully without much momentum, and another shoulders him aside on the way to gather by the TARDIS.

"Fuck!" squawks Peter as he loses his balance and goes down amongst the cattle. As one is about to plant a hoof on his chest, though, a little spout of flame shoots up between the bovines and Peter reappears at Gabriel's feet, for once ending up nearly where he meant to go.

As Peter falls at his feet, Gabriel hastily reaches a hand down to pull him up. He does what he can to shield him and the TARDIS from the animals surrounding them, but it's a losing battle. He also getting some really weird emotional feedback from the TARDIS.

Then it clicks for him. If this dream has been taken from the TARDIS's memories, it's entirely possible that she's a little more connected to it that she might normally be. He shoves a cow away by its head and it snaps at his hand. In response, he shoves it harder. It falls over, then disappears entirely.

"TARDIS, you're doing this. Could you...y'know...stop?" He concentrates on getting rid of the rest of the malicious cattle, but it's like she's fighting against him at it. He presses a little harder against the constructs and a few of the cows disappear and the rest are, for the moment, pushed to a safe distance.

As the TARDIS is getting more disturbed, so are the cows, biting at their clothes and shoving their massive heads into them. She lets out an undignified yelp when she's painfully poked in the side by a short horn and pushed around bodily, but somehow manages to stay close to Gabriel.

His suggestion is so ridiculous that she stops staring at the cattle to stare at him instead, not quite baffled enough to not also be indignant. "What? I'm not-" But even as she's denying it she's feeling his influence push against her, and then she realizes that's him trying to dismantle the constructs, and that he's right. Her utter dismay at having manipulated the dream against her will and without her knowledge really isn't helping to calm her down, but she manages to withdraw into herself, tamping down on her emotions and her mind until they're only felt by her. Now lacking direction and power, the cows quickly fade under Gabriel's will, though the TARDIS continues to look aghast and vaguely ill.

Peter scrambles to his feet with Gabriel's aid and hides behind the angel in the manliest fashion possible. "Fuck off!" he commands a cow as it pushes into him from behind, planting a hand on its face and pushing on it, his distaste at touching the creature evident on his face. The cow responds by turning its head and biting at his arm with surprising speed, and Peter is forced to yank his arm away and flee, circling around Gabriel and the TARDIS until the offending cow is among those that Gabriel causes to disappear.

"You're doing this?!" he asks, just as the cows start to fade around them. "What the hell?"

"Not consciously, " He tells Peter, knowing that it's true. He keeps up influencing the scene, not wanting to throw the TARDIS off and have the same thing happen again. Being abruptly cut off from sensing her isn't exactly making him feel comforted. Quite the opposite, really.

He brushes some nonexistant dirt off of Peter's jacket in what he hopes is a reassuring gesture before turning to check in with the TARDIS. He has the strange and sudden urge to check her for fever, but that would be ridiculous even if they weren't in a dream. "Are you alright?"

For a moment, the TARDIS looks at Gabriel as though she doesn't know whether to answer his question in the positive or negative. But then she pulls herself together, schools her features into something a little more contained, and nods faintly.

"I'm sorry," she says, addressing both of them equally, too shaken right now to remember her intense dislike of Peter. There's no telling what her powers could do to others if they went unchecked in the telepathic current, so for once he had every right to be scared. "On the real Caerdroia, I used the cow bells to relay part of a message to the Doctor, because I was barred from reaching him directly..." Somehow she feels the need to justify herself, to rationalize what happened to herself as well as to the others. But her explanation is disjointed and non-linear, partly due to her underlying distress, and partly because she can never tell which details of a story might be more important than others.

"The entire world is always the labyrinth; that is why it is so difficult to dismantle its dimensions, because removing one wall simply reveals another. But it was hidden behind projections taken from the minds of the Doctor and his companions. The cows weren't the only thing I influenced..." Recalling the whole thing in detail really isn't helping her composure, or her ability to think linearly. The sound of an incongruous cuckoo clock tower rings across the hills, much closer than the view of the town would suggest.

"I'd like to wake up now." Peter has recovered enough for the TARDIS's failure to criticize him to register. For all that he ends up scared every time he encounters her, there's something about this -- the cows, the maze, everything apparently being the maze -- that sets him on edge in a way that he feels all the more keenly now that there's no an immediately apparent crisis. His comment is partly a command to himself (not that it works), partly him simply informing Gabriel that he's really, really done with this.

"Don't think I can make that happen." Sorry to say. Normally he might be able to, but as it is, he's having to hold off the TARDIS' influence and the strange properties of the dream itself. Reaching into Peter's mind and shoving him into wakefulness might mean loosing his grip on something else.

He's definitely interested in hearing the rest of this story from the TARDIS, but now isn't really the time. Instead of asking, he nods to her. "Maybe you should wake up." It would definitely help, having her not exerting so much influence. "Knowing the dreaming, this place isn't gonna be here the next time around. Take a break." He smiles, "Next time we can explore. Remember, you promised me space tours. I'm definitely holding you to that."

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theoldgirl - 2013-10-04 21:21 (UTC) - Expand

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