towerofanimus | [OPEN] standing dumb in the light

WHO: Kanaya Maryam and YOU!
WHERE: Dormitory levels
WHAT: Kanaya wakes up, she is not at all fond of her circumstances. And so the Tower receives a glowing alien girl conspicuously and shiveringly sneaking through the hallway.
HOW: Action

[ thirty seconds of sleep paralysis is a hell of an introduction to a new setting. by the time it's worn off, kanaya has found plenty of time to begin panicking. it doesn't look like any memory she's ever had, so the most reasonable explanation is that it must be someone else's. it's a dream bubble, right? it has to be. that doesn't explain the collar. something is wrong here. who put her in this ugly jumpsuit? who would even make such an ugly outfit?

once she's on her feet, she spares a moment to wonder if she should make the bed before deciding that there are bigger problems at hand, and ends up missing her introduction letters in the process. she elects to sneak out into the hallway instead, only to find it's cold. unreasonably cold, especially in this miserable outfit. her best hope is to keep moving, see if the bubble doesn't change if she does, stopping at each corner to peek around it. you never know what you might encounter in these things. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This place. We're inside a Tower. Currently, there's no way out. Nor is there a way of contacting anything outside the Tower.

And you couldn't just... [ it only now sinks in how dead the other girl's eyes don't look, which takes her by surprise. they had encountered other dreamers before, sure, but they were at least...somewhat identifiable. ] No one has yet attempted simply waking up?

[A sigh.]

If only it were that easy.

[ she shrugs. ] It can be difficult at times, but usually a good jolt will do the trick if any particular bubble isn't as welcoming as you'd hoped.

Bubble?

[She has no idea what this child is talking about.]

Well, dreaming is very peculiar in the Furthest Ring. With the absence of the dreaming planets, one's sleep is under constant threat by the forces which inhabit it. So, my friend negotiated with the Noble Circle to develop a solution, having them blow bubbles to contain the dreaming. ...And I guess the dead also found their way there, as well. Despite my lack of trust for dark gods, it has been effective enough.

[ sorry rosa it is a lot of nonsense. ]

How long have you been here without having this explained previously?

[She give the girl a blank stare before replying.]

I've been here for around three months and I've never heard this sort of explanation. Neither does it match with anything that I know to be possible. It probably isn't back in my world.

[ she frowns and tilts her head to one side. ] Well, the Furthest Ring is not only beyond any world, but most universes, as well. So, it wouldn't strictly be possible in most cases anyway.

But then, you did find yourself here anyway, didn't you? Which in itself is curious, as I thought there were only a limited number of individuals who had any access to them. But it is entirely possible that, knowing how paradox space reproduces itself, more universes than just the two I'm familiar with exist, with their own sessions and their own incipispheres scattered throughout the Ring's edges.

Session? You mean like a game session?

[ her eyes light up with the recognition. good, maybe she isn't going crazy. ]

Yes, precisely that! Had you begun one shortly before your entry here?

[She winces.]

Only one person would call what happened a game

[The words are spat out like she tasted something horrible. She hates what the Witch did to her family.]

[ she recoils a little. okay, so she set her off, try to fix it. ]

I didn't mean to imply that it was pleasant or entertaining. I apologize if I gave that impression.

There is little kindness in a game that annihilates worlds and rends the universes they inhabit to nothingness. That strands you hopelessly at an indefinite end unless you can manufacture your own escape at great cost. But that is...still the essence of its presentation, despite its deeper nature.

[And now she's back to being confused.]

The so-called "game" was nothing like that. It was horrible, but only Rokkenjima was involved.

[ that makes no sense to her, either. ]

I've...never heard of only one player being involved. I'm not sure exactly how that would work.

Rokkenjima was an island. There were definitely more than a few people involved.

Oh.

[ she doesn't really have much to say about that, except: ] ...And the game?

A Witch's Game. Or rather a Witch's crime scene.

[ she's trying to think of ways those two different descriptions can interact, and the only thing she can think of is flarping. maybe that's what she's talking about. ]

Okay. So, what happened?

The Golden Witch...

[She takes a deep breath and steadies herself. It wouldn't do for her to break down at the thought of those horrid images.]

The Golden Witch Beatrice made a pact with my father to give him ten tons of gold. Years later, she would come and reclaim that gold along with everything else he owned, including his family. However, there was one condition. If me or my siblings could find the hidden gold, she would let us go in peace and renounce her claim to our lives. In the end, we did not find it.

[She leaves the rest to the girl's imagination.]

Oh.

[ well what can she possibly say to that? pressing further would be a bad idea, she kind of regrets asking about it in the first place. ]

Well that...definitely sounds like a different game.

As you can see, my world's rules must differ heavily from those of your universe. By that logic, you can't exactly call the Tower a Dream Bubble either.

Maybe, maybe not. It rarely subscribes to common exercises of logic to begin with, and I think it's construction is actually designed to elude any kind of coherence attempted to apply to it.

So I wouldn't be too quick to jump to that conclusion.

[She nods.]

Then just know this is a nightmare of a dream that you will not be waking up from anytime soon. And it is still better than some of the other places that the administrators might send you.

A dream can always be woken from with the sufficient shock, or to pass through its boundaries. The dead may be unable to leave, but it isn't quite the same for the undead.

I'm sure this can't last forever.

...I hope you're right.

(no subject)

glowsferatu - 2012-12-20 17:40 (UTC) - Expand