Planeside 2

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

Between the gnawing and the twisting the wood gives way with a snap. Thankfully Will and a swarm of drakes are holding onto it, otherwise it probably would have crashed to the sooty ground pretty hard.

As soon as the limbless, rune-etch tree is broken the vaguely incandescent glow on the bars of the cage quickly fades.

"Hey, it worked," Drake says, doing his best to curb his enthusiasm. Several drakes pull the door on the cage open, thankfully avoiding any incineration this time around. "We need to hurry, though. I spotted something else moving around in the Glade. I think the owner might be back."

It sure is handy to have a bunch of little parts of yourself scattered all over the place to keep an eye on things, isn't it?

As soon as the door is open the child-!

-just sits there, shaking like a leaf.

"If he finds me out of my cage he'll punish me," the poor kid whimpers.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will moves forward, close to the kid.

No kid can stay upset about anything when they have a bunny to hug.
"Hey, we'll be fine. We just need to get out of here before he sees us, okay? If he does, we'll just run for it. You'll never have to see him again after today either way." he promises gently to the poor kid.

[Recaiden]

[A Dream of China]

Jon Pertwee sounds remarkably like Frederick, but his mannerisms are the acidic third Doctor without question

Well, what are you waiting for? In you go, double-quick!

Keiko gives Cleo's hand a squeeze and then dives in through the police-box door!

"One doesn't just jump into a box without invitation!"

But clearly they have that now, and Cleo hops in after her.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

The child stiffens at the touch, though thankfully he relaxes. Sometimes people in positions like this really flip out at physical contact.

"Do you know the way out?" Drake asks, the little luna moth flittering down to land on Will's shoulder.

The child, being a child, reaches out and boops said moth-drake on the snoot. Said moth-drake goes somewhat cross eyed when a giant (from his perspective at least) finger prods him in the nose.

"There's a door that the monster uses," the child says. "It's that way."

He points.

Drake scowls.

"Of course that's the direction the monster is coming from."

Neat.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will breaks into a wide smile, as an exact copy of him steps out from where he's standing.
"Don't worry. They won't see you. I'll make sure of that. Let's go." he says steadily. The two will split up so one of them isn't with the other group as they head out.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

Drake blinks at the bunny clone.

"Oh... Huh. That's neat," he chatters, several drakes flashing a toothy grin. "I can relate to the 'lots of me' idea."

Between Drake's eyes in the sky telling them where and when to hide, it should be relatively easy for our heroes to make themselves sparse so that the monster spots only Will's clone.

And boy does he ever.

The monster is awful.

It looks like someone crossed a bear with a human and an owl. A horrible amalgam of matted fur and feathers with massive bronze talons and a baleful burning gaze. As soon as its eyes fall on Will's clone, the beast drops to all fours with a piercing cry and charges him! Probably with the intent of flaying him alive. Will shouldn't let it do that to him if he can help it.

With the owlbearman horror distracted, the feathery child points our heroes to an archway made of bronze-coated bones woven together. It's their way out!

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Will's copy gives a manic grin that just for a moment reflects his nature, and dives into the earth, popping up behind the creature. "Come on, doc, you ain't even tryin'!" he taunts with his best Bugs impression.
No self-respective talking rabbit goes without being able to do a Bugs impression.

The real Will smiles a bit less frightening as the plan comes together, and tries to lead everyone to the portal.

[Rebonack]

[The Hedge]

Knock three times.

May I please come in?

Knock three times.

May I please come in?

Knock three times.

May I please come in?

And with a groan of creaking wood, the Threshold opens to the Waking World.

The child quickly slips through, shortly followed by the colorful flight of pixie drakes.

And last of all will likely be Will.

Meanwhile!

With a howl of rage the rampaging bugbear drips one of the molten metal oozing stones out of the earth and hurls it at the puca!

That just isn't very nice.

[Deathkeeper]

The Hedge

Of course Will follows the others. It's not like he's going to be doing anything else!

The copy, however, does something else. It sidesteps the throw, still grinning widely. Only after the portal swings shut behind his real self does he give a salute and dive into the ground and vanish.
"See ya around!"

[Cyber Punk]

((Will PM you when I finish typing the desc, which to be honest isn't much.))

The woman glares at the vampire as he speaks, as if offended by the suggestion of dropping her weapon. Shortly after Ezra finishes talking however, she slowly lowers her staff to the ground.

'Yes, I was responsible,' she replies, crouching down as the expression on her face softens - with her eyes downcast, she looks less angry and more worried. 'I made a monster. It's bent on destroying the land, and I'm trying to get rid of it. Except...'

The druid sits on the burnt grass beneath her. 'This monster, it's far more powerful than any animal I've ever met. I can't seem to do anything to it, beyond giving it a few scratches, and yet it's able to cause so much destruction. I'm not sure what to do now...

[Lornesse Forest]

Ezra steps up to the lady slowly, so as to reduce the likelihood of being seen as a threat. "Calm down, darling. Start from the beginning. What happened? How did you make this monster, and what is it, exactly?" He asks, taking a seat once he's closed the gap by half.

[goto124]

[Lornesse Forest]

The druid appears to be in deep thought, not speaking up until Ezra has sat down.

'Merilwen... a fellow druid... we protected the forest together,' she starts off. 'But one day, we met a particularly vicious pack of wolves... she didn't make it.'

She briefly remains silent.

'I was so upset, I tried to revive her. Called upon all the magic I could muster... but things went wrong. As it turned out, her soul is already gone. But my magic made an opening... an evil spirit saw the opportunity, and took over her body instead. The monster created, it's essentially a dead body filled with evil energies, bent on rampaging the forest.'

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

"One doesn't just jump into a box without invitation!"

But clearly they have that now, and Cleo hops in after her.

Inside, however, is not the Tardis.

Keiko is standing on a grassy field of unreasonably green grass, marveling at the neon pink clouds in a flood-fill blue sky.

Decidedly not in Kansas anymore.

She turns back as Cleo arrives, not at all surprised that the door they entered through is nowhere to bee seen.

So: Sun Ce was my "high priest", Matthew Sullivan. Cao Pi was my "paladin", Lewis Davidson. I'm pretty sure that was Lewis' dream, because he was way too confident and Matthew...

she coughs and her ears fold briefly

His dreams about me are far more... explicit.

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

"But not crushed under a house either."

Cleo lifts her staff up to the clouds and twirls it around to bring one down. They're just made of cotton candy, after all. And nods.

"I thought so. He did things, set himself up differently from us. Sun was just along for the ride, a caricature of Matthew."

Her mouth pinches in an expression that can't decide whether it's supposed to be a frown or not, and a blush starts to color her cheeks.

"Well, what do people dream about?"

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Keiko nods, taking the question as a rhetorical statement.

Yeah, dreams can be weird... and that's not accounting for nightmares. One serious downside to being mortal again... I get to re-live Tenjin breaking into my room at least once a week.

She looks at the clouds

So... we're obviously not in Lewis' dream anymore. But where do you end up after you hop through the door?

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

As the question was meant.
Cleo was going to take a bite of the cloud, but instead decides that Keiko needs a hug and a sad sympathetic look.

"A place in-between, in no one's dreams. But still a dream, one that matters. There are orderings here that can answer questions, if you know how to ask them. But somewhere is what we want, the passage deeper down. To the Dreamworld of the Nexus, the other land made from all our mortal imaginations."

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Huh.

Keiko looks around curiously

So... we're looking for yet another door.

There's a lot of technicolor Easter decoration style candy and fluff around the immediate vicinity.

But this looks like Carousel Court without the ponies... or their little houses... or much of anything, really.

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

Cleo nods.

"It doesn't have to be a door door. You see that pastel rabbit over there?"

She puts a finger to her mouth to indicate quiet and points.

"Say it jumps down a hole; that could be it."

There's precedent for these things.

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Keiko peers at the rabbit, then sniffs a few times, then whispers as quietly as she can manage

It's one of those weird, dry, marshmallow fluff rabbits... just like the little chicks. Peeps! Yeah, that's what they're called. Nasty things, can't stand them.

She takes a step forward, and there is a crunch. She looks down to find that she's accidentally stepped in a nest of Crème Eggs.

Oh, gross!

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

"What? No, they're delicious!"

Cleo looks down at the candied landscape and has to laugh.

"Not so fun when they're chocolate, huh?"

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Keiko has the unmistakable look of someone who would really like to scream right now.

Eeeew.... so gross... it's gone up between my toe-pads. Uh...uh...uh.... wah...

She closes her eyes and wipes her foot on the sugar-grass... it doesn't help.

You do know that foxes don't really care for sweet as a flavor, right? Instinctively, that indicates meat that's too far gone even for us to eat safely.

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

Cleo snaps her fingers, and after a brief tingly burning sensation, the candied goop should be gone from Keiko's foot.

"I knew you didn't like it. I guess I never understood what the equivalent would be."

She wrinkles up her nose in disgust and starts carefully picking her way through the sugar-grass towards the rabbit.

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Keiko grins mischeviously, contemplating describing the effects of eating bad meat, but deciding that's just too awful. Instead, she stalks through the grass after Cleo.

Thanks for the assist, Cleo! So... anything to keep in mind?

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

"More like things to keep out of mind."

Cleo shakes her head minutely and purses her lips. They've gotten to the grueling and unpleasant stage of the adventure.

"Remember that you're you."

And she leaps towards the marshmallow rabbit, becoming a dragon as she does, hoping to catch the candy critter in her front claws.

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Keiko tilts her head and blinks, then her eyes go wide, then return to normal with a grin

Oh, ok: So just like when I was being killed every day in the Jade Emperor's little place of "righteous punishment" for four thousand years: gotchya.

She licks her lips, and her tails all fluff out... but Cleo pounces first! The marshmallow-fluff rabbit hasn't got a chance, and Cleo catches it easily... it is deep pastel green, coated in sugar, soft, and sticky, and... surprisingly warm.

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

"Maybe. Can't say I know what they was like."

Cleo would smile, but there's more important things. Dragons, given that she just made them up, like sweet things a great deal, so she goes to take a large bite out of the rabbit-candy. Starting with the ears, of course.

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Keiko is just as glad for her mate to not feed her part of the kill right now. Instead, she scouts around: trying to find the rabbit-hole the marshmallow thing must use.

Instead, her foot hooks onto a basket handle buried mostly in the ground and she trips. This drags the basket up out of the loose earth that covered it... and Keiko screams her head off, backing away crab-style as fast as she can go.

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

"What?!"

Cleo drops what's left of the delicious, not-for-foxes prey and hurries over to help Keikoe back up. Eyes dart around here and there, trying to figure see what ti was. If Keiko just stepped in another batch of candy...
well, Cleo would laugh about that. It would be a good time.

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

No... the dark side of Easter was just unearthed: there's a dead body in the basket.

WHAT THE HELL!

Keiko was ready to deal with all sorts of assaults on herself... but human sacrifice was not on her radar. The candy and fluff here was hiding a darker truth, just as in history. Easter just changed to...

Keiko freezes

I hear a dark voice... we need to leave, now.

[Recaiden]

[Somewhere]

"A dark voice? Keiko, there's nothing there. Nothing here at all."

Right? Cleo taps a foot on the ominous, holiday-swapping ground, and real green grass and clover sprouts up below and around her, spreading further and further out. She asks the plants to find the way for her. Sure, they can't look very well, but they're pretty numerous little blades of greenery.

[Fenric]

[Somewhere]

Another marshmallow rabbit pops its head up out of a rabbit-hole, too curious to resist looking at all the commotion.

Keiko is really sure that someone is talking to her, even though the dead person is quite dead and motionless, and looks about ready to cry.

The plants have yet to find anything useful, though that is likely a moot point now.