Zafflebrod's College and Preparatory School for the Magically Inclined

[Slii Arhem]

A Dream That Night

A door, painted deep green with an unreadable sign hanging on it. It stands ajar only slightly, a hair of light sneaking out razor thin and straight as an arrow to divide the hall diagonally. Beyond, a single nightlight illuminates the room as a man crouches next to Merissa's tiny bed, pulling a small green stool to sit on as he watches over her.

She's young, a frail and slight little girl with all four arms resting over her chest atop the covers. Though it's not obvious at first, from the way her eyelids flutter she's trying unsuccessfully to pretend they're closed, and that she's asleep as her father removes his gloves and reaches out to gently stroke the back of one of her hands.

"Why don't you ever stay?" The murmur is far from sad, but routine and curious. She's just asking for the sake of it and wondering what he'll say this time.

He turns to Tabitha, his face an unrecognizable blur, and she gets the distinct feeling that the answer must come from her.

[Lost_Deep]

A Dream That Night

I chose the exact wrong moment to enter this dream, Tabitha decides. She tried to be nice, used the door, and didn't expect this. In retrospect, she should have, but she didn't.

Tabitha herself looks different than normal: Smaller hips and a slightly more developed chest, with jeans and a T-shirt that hugs her form. It's a bright color, red at the moment, but it changes when no one is looking. Peculiarly, over her clothes is a large zipper down her front, running the length of her torso. Overall, she's a bit of a contrast to the otherwise dark atmosphere.

Okay. First step of meeting a friend in a dream: get them into lucidity. "Because it's only a dream."

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

"Nothing's ever only a dream Tabby." Merissa says after she blinks the haze of imagination from her eyes and sits upright, her father disappears into mist.

"Nothing's ever only anything. Everything's always in the middle of all the various onions of history, layers of events piling up and peeling back, extending outwards from a hundred million centers to collide with each other and form each and every thing in every moment that passes, and then those form more. It's a cascading chain of continuity, and I read all that in an extremely dull book one day, but I'd never remember it if I was awake." She says this all cheerfully, tilting her adorable little head to the side with a perfectly manic grin.

"If they had gotten the guy that they pulled that quote from to write the rest of the book, do you suppose it would have been less dull? Maybe more of it would have stuck with me, maybe I would have done better on my report on potentiality, and maybe if I knew more the whole thing would be less interesting to me. It's funny to me that my lack of understanding chaos theory drove me to this point, but if I had better resources then there'd still really be nothing I could do about it. We all just make things happen and have things happen at us, or not." There was a definite downside to entering Merissa's dream so early into her sleep cycle. All the things on her mind that she'll never remember in the morning have transferred into a stream of consciousness that only slows down occasionally, never stopping until she can slip deeper into her slumber.

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

"Hey, in my experience if you want to kick someone into lucid dreaming, you have to be straightforward. Plus, when has understanding chaos theory helped anyone? Really, I find a lot of philosophy dull since it doesn't seem terribly applicable to real life. Hey, the philosophy department here has an 'applied philosophy' class, right? Is that actually helpful?" Tabitha decides against trying to ask Merissa to shape up so soon. Tabby has been asleep for a bit now, getting ready to dreamwalk, and really has no way to know how long Merissa's been dreaming, but figures that Merissa will likely sort herself out in time.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

"Sure it does, that's the group that's trying to reverse the philosophical process, so instead of coming up with truths about reality, they come up with just anything they can think of and try to force it to be true for as long as they can. I had to interview one of them for my report, and he told me that one time, they nearly got Up to be Cheese for an entire tenth of a second in the lab." Merissa gets up out of bed, stretching her arms up over her head languidly as she stretches taller and ages before Tabitha's eyes to her normal state.

"You're impatient to get to the good stuff, right? It's all outside, there's nothing in here except me and my thoughts. S'how it always begins, not that I'll ever know that when I'm awake." When she mentions her thoughts, she subtly slides in front of the dresser, putting herself between it and Tabitha. Some invasions of privacy she's willing to actively defend against.

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha doesn't even try to look into the dresser. "You know, I'm surprised that you look so similar in your dreams to how you do in real life. Everyone I've ever walked to, including myself, hasn't ever looked like what they really look like." Forgot to mention, in addition to the changes mentioned earlier, this Tabitha has neither glasses or wings. "It's a small sample size, true, but still."

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

"Maybe you'll find out why! I didn't really think of it, after all, how long do you really look down at yourself in a dream? I've got no other sample size to work with either, unlike you." Merissa, after some psychiotherapy training, got both used to and fond of her four arms and adapted them into her self-image.

"Plus, like I keep mentioning, I never remember these when I wake up. Hard to think about something when it never comes to mind."

[Arkhosia]

Dorm Hall

Charlotte can be found here, holding a clear purple gem that is utterly transparent but just gives a purple tinge in her hand upwards, examining it. It's the same gem usually around her neck, and it is certainly different looking than usual due to it's newfound translucency.
Charlotte is currently clad in a seafoam green t shirt and black skirt, a red scarf wrapped around her neck, sitting against a wall and open for interaction.

Charlotte is currently still here

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha nods, and then realizes something. "Hey, I have perfect memory, and you seem to have a better memory right now. Or at least you remember different things? If there's anything you want awake-you to remember, or know, you could tell me and I could pass it on?"

[OrchestraHc]

Dorm Hall

Charlotte can be found here, holding a clear purple gem that is utterly transparent but just gives a purple tinge in her hand upwards, examining it. It's the same gem usually around her neck, and it is certainly different looking than usual due to it's newfound translucency.
Charlotte is currently clad in a seafoam green t shirt and black skirt, a red scarf wrapped around her neck, sitting against a wall and open for interaction.

Peter Terwiliger, a brawny, tan, farmboy of a teenager, is currently tromping along through the hall. Most pertinent about him at the moment is that dozens of feathers and metal washers are adhering to his skin. He doesn't seem deterred though. In fact he seems proud of himself. In his hands are a bucket of washers and a sack feathers, so it's not hard to guess where the ones on his face and body came from.

He seems to be adapting to the magic school lifestyle.

[Arkhosia]

Peter Terwiliger, a brawny, tan, farmboy of a teenager, is currently tromping along through the hall. Most pertinent about him at the moment is that dozens of feathers and metal washers are adhering to his skin. He doesn't seem deterred though. In fact he seems proud of himself. In his hands are a bucket of washers and a sack feathers, so it's not hard to guess where the ones on his face and body came from.

He seems to be adapting to the magic school lifestyle.

Charlotte waves to him in greeting.
Spell gone wrong?

[OrchestraHc]

"Spell gone right!" Peter answers excitedly, setting the bag and bucket down. "The professor asked us to make a feather and a coin drop at the same speed. So I..." he pulls a washer and a feather . As he pulls them closer together there is a sparkle of purple electricity and the two objects stick together as if magnetically attracted. He then drops the attached objects and watches as they hit the ground. He stands proudly at the result.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha nods, and then realizes something. "Hey, I have perfect memory, and you seem to have a better memory right now. Or at least you remember different things? If there's anything you want awake-you to remember, or know, you could tell me and I could pass it on?"

That Night - A Dream

Merissa shakes her head with a giggle and a knowing grin, "Tabby, if I was meant to remember them, why would I forget? This me dies every morning when I wake up, why should I bother making it easier for the one who gets to keep going without me?"

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

"Lots of things happen that aren't meant to," Tabitha counters, "Especially in the body and mind. And if you know something that will help, why hold it back? How could holding it back help you?"

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

"Maybe that's what you're here to find out? Anyway, I can't tell me anything, so whatever you tell me is up to you. But in order to find something to say, you're going to have to take the first step."

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha raises and eyebrow, and then turns to open the door.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha raises and eyebrow, and then turns to open the door.

That Night - A Dream

Sand. Blinding white sand stretched out in every direction. Every visible direction where every direction is visible.

Sand above, below, within and without extending out as far as sight allows and in as deep as her very core.

Everything is sand, she is sand, she is everything. She can see everything, but she can only look at herself.

Every grain an eye looking at every eye packed in tight around it. All of it packed with pressure. Pressure hitherto unimaginable, but too real to comprehend anything but. She is crushing herself with it, with the force of her sheer, endless mass. And yet it's not endless. As the force settles on a direction that can only be described in this white, unfathomable void as "downwards" the sand, the her, the everything begins to grind against itself en masse, causing what should be searing pain, but is dulled by the unreality of the sensation. Falling guided, compressed to a point, twisting and turning into a whirlpool of granules all passing through a single point barely large enough to fit one.

Heat, burning, melting, boiling, evaporating into tightly held balls of gas, then energy as the matter transcends its need for form. Filling the lower chamber of the hourglass of eternity with the fused remains of the entire mass from the upper over the course of a single instant that lasts forever.

A hall, a door. A little girl asking her father a familiar question. "Why don't you ever stay?" Only the father isn't there. Tabitha sees again with two eyes, the door to the true dream behind her. Whether the dream that happened to Merissa back there affected Tabitha as much as it did Merissa is difficult to say, but even if it did, there is a very high likelihood that Tabby won't be able to think back on it with any clarity as it attempts to ward itself off from the rest of her mind.

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

Oh, no. She remembers it well. Whatever bizarre link to dreams she has, mixed with her new, perfect memory means that not a single detail escapes her. What's worse? She doesn't seem to be affected or hurt by it.

That was different. Probably a good thing that Merissa doesn't remember that part, she can't get away from it like I can.

Tabitha will continue down the hall, looking for whatever's next.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

A snake, wrapped around the world from pole to pole, hidden beneath the seas. Its tail in its mouth gnawing at the scales to find purchase on them and slowly taking more of itself into its gullet, straining the deep undersea gulleys that its belly writhes across in pain. Cracking the world like an egg, venting steam as magma and seawater mix and finally devouring itself as the globe splits in twain. But there is no rebirth as the serpent vanishes, burned to ash and bone by its journey through the yolk of its mighty task, only the end of the egg and the infertile, molten hot core within.

And a little girl staring at Tabitha from her bed, as Tabby stands in the doorway. "Why don't you ever stay?"

[Hattish Thing]

Gates:

A figure stands here, looking over the gate and towards the large school ahead of him. The man, or rather, the mature looking twenty-year old, is strong looking and handsome, clad in what appears to be a cross between a robe and an armored coat. The beautiful garment is dyed a magnificent red, and surprisingly detailed patterns of thread meant to resemble fire stitch the expensive looking article of clothing together. The colors are extravagant, and the man seems to have a regal look about him. A suitcase is held in his clutch, and he looks a bit nervous. He'd never been to a school like this, and it was just a tad intimidating to him. His hood is back, revealing a somewhat angular face, suggesting that some sort of elvish blood somewhere in the family. The beginnings of a goatee grow upon his chin, and his eyebrows seem thinner than most. Perhaps they'd been singed off sometime recent? He waits by the gate, wondering when someone might come out to let him in, adjusting his dark colored scarf as he curiously ponders his fate.

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha frowns. "Because it's only a dream," but she sounds less sure this time. It is a dream, she knows that, but there's something more to it. It doesn't seem right to call it 'only a dream'.

Or does it? Dreams could be quite connected to what was going on beneath the surface of the mind. Or they could be entirely random. Best not to make assumptions, Tabitha decides, but instead to tread carefully and be watchful.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha frowns. "Because it's only a dream," but she sounds less sure this time. It is a dream, she knows that, but there's something more to it. It doesn't seem right to call it 'only a dream'.

Or does it? Dreams could be quite connected to what was going on beneath the surface of the mind. Or they could be entirely random. Best not to make assumptions, Tabitha decides, but instead to tread carefully and be watchful.

That Night - A Dream

"We were through that part already. Try again, or go away again if you can't figure it out yet." Merissa's younger mind representation singsongs as she pulls down her covers, revealing nothing but shadows beneath as her hands and head float out from the nothing.

"Nothing is just anything, so can anything be only nothing? Come on Tabby, you're smart in school, figure it out. Or maybe you can try again tomorrow night, I'm sure there'll be some different ones then. But if they're different, will they be any better? And even if they are, would that help you understand?"

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

"Then why ask me? Is it supposed to be some kind of test? How am I supposed to know that there's even an answer. I don't have any reason to believe there is an answer yet. The question is as if asked to your father, and I don't know a thing about him yet. And I've been here all of twice, so you're not asking me based on my previous experience. You're asking me something based on your experience, so expecting an answer from me isn't sound."

She's trying not to sound annoyed. She's failing a little.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

"You gave the same answer twice because you thought I was just a programmed question, and I'm asking you because if you don't find out for yourself, you'll never know what this is. But if you have to have it spelled out a bit more, why do you walk through that door, looking for something else? What drives you besides what I've said to you? There, is that easier to puzzle out?" Merissa's shadowy duplicate pulls the covers back up, and even without seeing Tabitha is aware that she's more real with them covering her.

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

"I'm curious, and I'm worried about you," Tabitha says simply. "There's something unusual here. Maybe even wrong. I can't prove anything, dreams aren't always connected to how people think, but I can't help the feeling that something should be done."

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

Merissa peers intently, "Wouldn't that encroach on what you said about potentially permanently changing the person who's dream you're in? That's some dangerous thinking Tabby. Did you stop to think that if there's something wrong, I wouldn't be so cavalier about it? I'm Merissa, your friend, but there's rules here and there's things you can't just be told. You have to come up with your own explanation or it won't make sense. I ask me the same question I'm asking you, and because she can't remember yet, she doesn't have her answer. You can remember, so it's on you."

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

Tabitha frowns slightly. "I'll give you a point about the damage and all, I've been too worried and didn't think about that yet. At the same time, your question still doesn't make sense to me." That may just be something that I'll have to get used to if I'm going to dreamwalk here, Tabitha thinks to herself.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

"It's not meant to be simple, yeah? It's one of those philosophical things. Why do you really do this, what's the true reason, that sort of thing. What's waiting out there that can't be found here, except for an annoyingly perceptive introspective aspect of a friend who can't shut up because of her stream of consciousness?" Another intense gaze follows, but is softened by a grin.

"You've already got a leg up on the waking me, since you can remember the question and don't have to start fresh every time. But if you keep staying here, the question won't make sense anymore, so you'd better get going."

[Lost_Deep]

That Night - A Dream

"The question needs to start making sense first," Tabitha counters, but does move on. Gah, she was always less-than-great with philosophy; all those thought experiments were interesting for about five minutes each, but after that they just stop mattering.

[Slii Arhem]

That Night - A Dream

Perhaps it was something smiling on her, or perhaps it was simply the next dream in the order, if there is an order.

But as Tabitha steps back through the door, she espies a familiar face. It's unclear why he's familiar, or how she knows this, but the figure standing in a silk tunic and long white cloth pants is Merissa's father. His face is well defined and chiseled, and he stands atop a dune looking out over the city in the distance. He stands astride it with easy balance, and a dull rumbling makes its way into Tabitha's head as she watches him askance.

It's not long before the realization of what the rumbling is can hit her. The dune is moving, growing, and picking up speed as it approaches the city. Already, it's half as tall as the tallest tower and wide enough to engulf the entire length of the outer walls. More like a churning sandstorm than a wall as the air it slips between breaks apart the shifting mass, it begins to rustle, then howl, then scream with destructive purpose as it overtakes the city in a swift bite.

And still, standing on a single grain of sand at the apex of the storm's might, stand Damien Miles. Stands the conductor of this grinding orchestra of inevitable destruction.

A room, dark, with an expectant woman... child? Peering at her, "Well? Why do you go?"