♫ heliodor ♫

[dramatispersonae]

You're in a sumptuous room, with rich brocade in your team colors and fine appointments in copper and marble that should look bright and beautiful -- but everything is dusty and grey, with a furtive, abandoned air. This is a place that's been locked away for a long time. It feels as if it would be sad to linger here for long.

Fortunately (perhaps), after one good look at the room, you catch a brief, pained snatch of melody. Your vision goes dark, and you immediately find your mind somewhere else-- ♫

Comments

♪ instructions ♪

[dramatispersonae]

For the first round, your character will be locked into a vivid waking nightmare (with which they can hopefully identify) for three comments! Your character will know to some extent that it's a dream, as one does sometimes in lucid dreams -- however, this shouldn't prevent the character from being affected by and reacting to the scenario. Our goal is a deeply unpleasant experience rather than outright trauma, so please use your judgment on how much immersion versus a sense of unreality from being in a dream you need to play with to get that outcome!

You can play with characters reacting to the scenario any way you want - have them interact with each other as if they're all going through what's being described together as a group, or have each person interact with it separately, or whatever - as you and your team prefer. (If you’re coming in late, you can just react individually to the scenario comments and then jump in wherever your team is playing! The rest of the game won’t make much sense otherwise.) After your team has finished reacting to each comment, let your gamerunner know that you're done so the next one (and then the next round, when the dream is over) can be unscreened.

Once the nightmare is over, teams will be free to discuss and answer a series of questions.

Teams will be running at their own pace without inter-team interactions, so please pace yourselves accordingly as a group to make sure you don’t run overtime! We’ll be cutting off all teams at the 5-hour mark (9:30 PM PST/12:30 AM EST).

round 1 ♩

[dramatispersonae]

first

[dramatispersonae]

Your teammates -- or the people you care about -- are in retreat, running blindly through a maze from a wave of Darkness, lost and losing precious seconds every time they hit a dead end. You’re set above them somehow -- you’re the only one who can see the maze from above, who knows the way out, and you call out to them: this way, this way! Your chest is burning, your heart tripping double-time with panic and fear.

“We’re running out of time!” one of them calls out to you. “We need to fly out of here, not run into walls! Get down here and lend us your strength!”

Re: first

[semiurge]

I don't remember how!

But how am I floating if I don't remember...?

Re: first

[noeyeinteam]

Isn't there too many too carry at once?

[and I don't even really fly, so that makes this... kind of obvious, and yet ping'd so hard in the TEAM NEEDS ME]

second

[dramatispersonae]

You swoop down to take their hands -- hope buoys you all up and makes you light, and you begin to lift out of the maze, away from the encroaching Darkness. A good thing too, because now you can see that what lies beyond the maze is just as bleak -- sheer cliffs on all sides, with Darkness pooled below.

...this is when you realize how heavy they are, how much you’re struggling to gain height, and how slowly it’s happening. You’re not rising out of the Darkness’s reach fast enough. A huge, cresting wave of it arcs towards you -- it will have you in a moment --

In your panic, their hands slide free of yours.

Re: second

[semiurge]

Wait--

[TRIES TO CLING TO THOSE HANDS]

Re: second

[noeyeinteam]

[no no no no that's not allowed even in dreams. ALL THE TRYING TO GRAB FOR THEM AGAIN, DARKNESS BE DAMNED]

third

[dramatispersonae]

You plunge towards them, reaching, reaching, every muscle straining towards grabbing their hands back -- but you’re not fast enough, and they fall down into the Darkness and the shadows.

You’re cold; stunned, a million thoughts racing through your head. No -- they can’t be -- if you’d stayed with them on the ground, if you hadn’t led them to think they could always count on you, if they’d trusted themselves instead of you a little more . . .

(But you can't walk on the ground, can you? Did you lead them on by being a creature of the air? And, worst of all, the thoughts you can’t quite stop: did you do it to save yourself? Are you lying to yourself when you think this is an accident…? Did they really slip free, or did you thrust them away?)

They were your responsibility, and you didn’t save them. There is no bringing them back.

Re: third

[noeyeinteam]

[no, this just. really pisses him off]

Okay, enough.

Re: third

[semiurge]

[THIS FACE as he stares at the last spot he saw them]

round 2 ♩

[dramatispersonae]

You wake up sitting securely in one of the luxurious abandoned chairs. You're feeling sore and ill, pained from the affereffects of whatever happened -- but it's all the ghost of a reaction, fading slowly.

Firebird's voice floats through the air on another brief melody. She sounds exhausted, as tired and sick as you are.

"So what would you do, if such a thing came to pass? After all of your fears came true?"

discussion

[dramatispersonae]

Re: discussion

[semiurge]

[wipes at his eyes]

That doesn't make sense.

decision

[dramatispersonae]

Re: decision

[semiurge]

We would search for our teams (even if some of us are pessimists and think they're dead), and keep moving forward. The people important to us wouldn't want us to do anything else. As for fear . . . either we don't let it rule us or we use it as a tool, to keep us aware of what we're capable of and a push to keep doing good.

round 3 ♩

[dramatispersonae]

Firebird's voice filters to your ears again.

"I thank you for your thought on this matter so far... what do you think bravery is? How is it different from foolhardiness? When is it the right decision to be brave?"

discussion

[dramatispersonae]

Re: discussion

[semiurge]

Foolhardiness is when you don't have a plan.

decision

[dramatispersonae]

round 4 ♩

[dramatispersonae]

Firebird sighs. Her voice is almost inaudible this time.

"And how do you face your fears while they are happening? If you could... how would you change the dream of fear so that a different future came true?"

discussion

[dramatispersonae]

decision

[dramatispersonae]

result ♮

[dramatispersonae]

...

[dramatispersonae]

The scene begins to play out again on the walls and ceiling around you, a vision rather than something relived — but this time it's different. This time the team moves through the maze with purpose, and your flight over them is fast but not panicked -- a glinting thread of light seems to link you above to them below, holding you all together. The thread flashes brightly just as they reach the exit, blinding you for a moment; when your vision clears the scene is gone.

Something is left on the floor of the room: a long piece of pale plain linen, heliodor and silver thread woven into it in a half-woven, intricate design of intertwined trees and birds, horses and snakes and hounds. It's wrapped around two large copper spools of both types of thread -- you could use them to try and continue the pattern, if you liked, or perhaps do something else entirely.

(To endgame!)