Once upon a dream... (4th Wall Event/TDM Combo platter)

[missrecalled_mods]

[((OOC note: This fourth wall is open to any character who would be game legal. If a character who posted here reserves or apps in September, these threads can be considered game canon as long as all involved agree. If a character doesn't app, for those in game already... wow that was a weird dream. Wait, what did you dream about again?))]


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For Jordan, still comatose after the magical mishap that had resulted in the first Misrecalled being summoned, it began with a dream. A dream so strong, that it had her stirring fitfully even in her current state; and eventually caused her to release an uncontrolled burst of magic.

For everyone else, unaware of what was coming, it began with falling asleep. Whether or not someone was tired before hand, whether they even could sleep, they simply fell asleep - or a reasonable facsimile - wherever they happened to be. Maybe they remembered falling asleep, maybe they didn't. But either way they suddenly found themselves in... a very strange place.

First all there was that they could see was a vast featureless plain in shining gold and silken draperies. But that was only a glimpse, for just by existing in this space, each dreamer warps it. Changes it. Not all at once, but bits, constantly changing between them and whomever they encounter. Each person brings with them bits of three places... where they had been last, a familiar place from memory, and whatever place they call home. But this is constantly changing and shifting, more so the more dreamers are present in any space. Before long, Bits of different landscapes, different environments, even different weather conditions will cover the landscape like some crazy patchwork quilt. Here a bit of a sunny, idyllic garden, there a section of shadowy, graffiti covered slum. To one side, a chunk of charming cobblestone streets under sunset tinged skies, to the other, a forest of towering trees, some of which seem to be moving. And glimpsed through the gaps between some of the odd terrain sections, some remainder of the poorly defined golden space, hung with colorful draperies could still be seen.

And the ground itself was not immune to the changes. While the ground on which they stood might seem stable enough, if someone walked more than a few paces in any direction, that could change. Solid ground could become shifting sand. Or water. Or a wall might suddenly appear to block their path. Doors might lead to places they definitely shouldn't or open to the edge of a sheer cliff. And if the complete lack of logic to the landscape wasn't enough of an indication that this was some sort of dream, then the unreadable signs would clinch it. Because any signs - or indeed, anything with writing on it that they didn't have on their person when they arrived - was covered with nothing but unreadable gibberish.

And it got even more surreal when a dreamer spotted anyone else in the dreamspace, or even looked at their own reflection - for each person appears in the dream in whatever way they see themselves. So someone with low self confidence might be short, someone with a huge ego might tower. If someone sees themselves as a horrible criminal who needs to repent, they might be in prison togs. If the change is dramatic enough people who know each other well might still fail to recognize each other within the dreaming.

Now normally such a bizarre dream might have been put down to stress, a meal that disagreed with them, or maybe indulging in some sort of illicit substance, but this clearly was no ordinary dream, if for no other reason than that in this dream, they weren't alone. The other people they encounter are not just figments of their imagination, and they too change the shared dream space.

Those already either on the Isle or in the kingdom of Auradon proper would find themselves all thrown together in the bizarre dreamworld. And that would have been strange enough. But more than the current populations of Auradon and the Isle could be found in this place. Maybe the faces where familiar. Maybe they weren't. But they definitely hadn't turned up in the physical world that was home to Ben and Mal. Yet anyway.

Given the extremely variable geography, exploring the area might be dangerous. At least as dangerous as anything in a dream could be. But investigating might help them find a way back to the physical world faster, for those who realize they are dreaming. Or they could just stand around and talk or complain about the latest bit of magical weirdness to happen to them and hope they woke up soon. Or they could go with it and enjoy the weird. It was their dream, after all. They could pretty much do what they liked. Or at least try to. Either way, they seemed stuck there for the present, for better or worse.

Comments

[mal_contented]

Before the song could fully wind down, the light side of Mal flared. Her hand spasmed and the mic fell, but the hand on her light side caught it.

"We both know evil is the easier path..." a slightly softer version of her own voice said. "But can we make the harder choice?" And without waiting for a reply she started singing. The song was different, but she sung it differently. Where the last was a celebration of freedom, this was all but shouted musically from the heart. A challenge released into the dreamscape as magical glittering water surrounded the stage, a bright blue sky opening over them, the scent of strawberries in the air. Was she challenging herself or Morgana? Or both? Hard to tell. But she gave what had once been a song of her lost younger self the power it had lacked before. She gave the song more of a rock edge so that in the end... it was almost twin to the last song. And yet it ended on.. a pause. Not an actual end, but what felt more like a held breath, like something being weighted and measured.

Mal was once again caught almost evenly between her two halves, and two very different eyes watched Morgana, as though she might hold a much needed answer.

[lovebites_sodoi]

A real performer knew how to roll with the punches and improvise. So when the song suddenly seemed to change at the last minute, there was only a flicker of hesitation before Morgana's strings followed suit. What had been an epic jam session had suddenly turned into a therapy session for a complete stranger.

The spotlight's heat suddenly felt ten times as hot. Where had this come from? She was there to entertain, to be heard, not to help -

Except. Well. Hadn't that been the whole reason she picked up a guitar in the first place, when she was even younger than this kid? To help others be heard, the way rock had helped her find her voice?

She knew nothing about Mal - not even the girl's name - and now was expected to give answers Morgana herself was questioning. Since this was a dream, maybe it was her subconscious being less "sub" and more trying to whack her upside the head. Somewhere she could sense Darkwing being adorably smug about this turn of events.

Maybe it was time for the age-old adage that all entertainers knew, one that applied to real life just as often as it did the stage. No matter what choices you made, life would still move on - it was how you move that made the difference. In other words...

The Show Must Go On.

[mal_contented]

An answer to the question posed by that song surged within Mal. Both halves pulsing stronger, more vibrant as water splashed onto the stage. The song hadn't been hers alone, but those she love gave their power to her voice as she started to sing.

At the start it had been an answer to the question, by the middle it was memory and warmth and love and by the end...? At the end, one hand was on the mic - the dark one. The other hand, the light side, was held out to Morgana.

[lovebites_sodoi]

Aw caskets, this was getting all kinds of mushy. Now she was rather glad the "audience" was as fake as dreams tend to be - she wasn't sure she could handle it if actual people saw this level of fluff. How do bird people blush? Cartoon logic.

Still, she was a good enough sport not to run away (though she doubted she could get very far with chained ankles) and with a playful roll of her eyes after the song came to a close, she clasped the light hand - in order to force both of them for an overly dramatic theater bow.

"Always leave them wanting more."

[mal_contented]

"Do you?" she asked, grinning a bit. She hopped up to sit on a desk that appeared when she did. She blinked and looked down at it. "Okay that was way weird." Half the desk was well polished and new looking wood, perfect except for a small carving that looked almost like a spiky heart made of dragons. The other half was almost more splinter than surface, tagged up with spray paint. Sitting on it looked dangerous and foolhardy. Mal didn't seem bothered by it though, she actually ran her nails over the scarred surface, idly carving something into one of the small spans of flatish surface.

[lovebites_sodoi]

"You say as if anything that's happened in the past couple of minutes was not weird." Morgana replied with a bit of playful dryness. The spotlights appeared to dim a little, now what the performance was over, but there was still enough light for them to see one another.

"Speaking of, I don't suppose you have any clue to what landed us this gig? The last time I was in a situation like this, the mastermind behind it would never have let me have this much fun."

[mal_contented]

"Probably some of the magic that's been messing us up this whole time. Guessing you're on the Isle then? You don't look like any of the villains I know, but the chains are kind of a dead give away." She dangled the cuffs she'd lifted.

[lovebites_sodoi]

"Isle?" Finally, a lead... even if she had no idea what that answer even meant. "Last I checked, my home away from home was a city, Saint Canard. What Isle are you talking about, and why would me being a villain have to do with it?"

Not that she was denying being one. It was rather obvious, after all.

[mal_contented]

"Huh. so you're not part of this whole nonsense. So why the Dalmatians are you here?" she asked, frowning a bit as she considered that.

[lovebites_sodoi]

Morgana gave a huge shrug. How would she know?

"Your guess is as good as mine. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary before I came here. My latest gig got cancelled-"

Translation : Her latest scheme got foiled by Darkwing.

"So I went back to my hang-out to rehearse-"

Translation: Retreated to the hide-out to lament their loss and come up with a new scheme.

"Worked on a few new songs, and then I went to sleep in my coff-bed. Went to sleep in my normal mortal bed."

Translation: ... She wasn't going to say coffin. Shush.

"And the next thing I know, I'm wandering in this place full of familiar sights without any familiar faces."

[mal_contented]

"Yeah... former villain here. You can say coffin. If that's where you were going? I doubt you were about to sleep in an allergy attack."

Some days she still wondered about the former part. But fewer and fewer days as time went on. She blamed both Ben and Sylvando, really. Though Evie and Jay and Carlos should take some of that blame too.

[lovebites_sodoi]

There was a hint of blush on Morgana's cheeks, but she tried to pretend it wasn't there. "The point is," she continued without acknowledging the embarrassment, "That I had no say in appearing here, but you seem to have a starting point. Something about an Isle and its magic? Since you were surprised, I'm assuming it doesn't normally go past its own borders in incidents like this."

[mal_contented]

"Actually, kinda the opposite of that. Alright. Super speed history lesson cause I am bored of telling it. Twenty years ago, King Beast and Queen Belle rounded up every villain, including the ones who had been dead, healed them up and dumped them on the Isle Of The Lost. A magical barrier went up keeping them all from their powers and left them to their own devices. blah blah blah, fast forwarding to the interesting part. You know, the part where me and my friends enter the picture. Ben's folks, King Beast and Queen Belle, yes them again. They decided they wanted to retire and sixteen is plenty old enough for Ben to become king. So for Ben's first official act, a week before he became king officially, he tried an experiment. Four of us from the Isle, kids of the worst of the worst villains. Bring us to Auradon, the mainland where they have magic and clean water and. food without mold and all that, and see if we could become goody goodie good guys. For the record? Should not have worked. Like at all."

She shook her head. "Our folks only agreed to send us because they had an evil scheme. And they needed us out there to pull it off. And you know what? We almost did. This close to grabbing the magic wand, the crown, everything. Had Ben been... well.... even a little less Ben, we would have. But he stopped us, convinced us we could stay on Auradon if we just gave back the wand. Convinced us that despite everything, we wanted to. So we chose good. Trounced my mom, foiled the villain’s plans, tea and cake all around. A year or two of jumping from crisis to crisis and then one day Genie's daughter granted some stupid wish, and she and Merlin tried to fix it at the same time.. next thing we know, most of Auradon and the Isle are empty. Poof. Almost no people. But slowly people have been reappearing. Both sides, Auradon and Isle. My guess given the people in Auradon is that the old rules are in play. Clearly evil goes to the Isle, clearly good goes to Auradon. And me... I just went where I'd been last. Which was Auradon as it turns out."

[lovebites_sodoi]

During the lengthy explanation, Morgana slid her guitar onto her back, freeing her arms - granted, right now just to cross them. This whole affair raised a million and a half questions, but she had a feeling none of them were really relevant right now. Best to follow Mal's line and cut to the chase.

"So, for whatever reason, I'm stuck in a villain rehabilitation center? Cute." What a pain. "And since you haven't told me a way to get back to where I belong, my next guess is you don't know of one." Not that she blamed Mal for it. "Which means I'm trapped here until who knows when..."

[mal_contented]

"That was what I thought, but you don't recall being on the Isle. And this... isn't Isle or Auradon. So what I want to know is how the Dalmatians you got dragged into whatever the hall this is."

Yes, she said hall. And Dalmatians.

Also Morgana wasn't the only one with crossed arms now.

[lovebites_sodoi]

Maybe this girl was a dog-person. Who knows?

"The only thing I know for certain is that this is a dream - as I've had experience in dream-walking." A one-armed shrug, no biggie. "Robbery attempt, long story. And that time, the only way to wake up was by finding the doorway out, which wasn't easy as the man behind the plan could hide it wherever he pleased... Or by waking up. Which hopefully the rest of my band will do if I'm out long enough... They can't very well do a gig without me."

Or could they? Best not to think about it.

"Until then, or we find yet another option, it appears this duet is going to take a while... we might as well introduce ourselves, unless 'hey you' is your preferred nickname."

A hint of a playful smirk. If she had to be stuck here, at least the company was pleasant.

"Morgana McCawber - lead vocalist, guitarist, and song-writer for Morgana And The Ghoulies." She was positive Mal had never heard of her, but it never hurt to spread out the brand.

[mal_contented]

"I've been called worse. But I go by Mal generally. And if you think we could find a way out, then let's do that. A door you said?" she said, hopping off the desk. "Let's go find it. No offense, you seem a lot more interesting then a lot of the people generally in Auradon, but if you're not trapped here. I wanna get you back where you're supposed to be."

[lovebites_sodoi]

Another well-earned chuckle. Morgana began to walk, reluctant to leave any stage but knowing it was for the best.

"None taken. Best compliment I've heard in a while... as for the door, another part of the problem is that it looks like a completely normal wooden door. That way, to the outside world, no one thinks anything suspicious is going on. So we're going to have to do some breaking and entering whenever we find one - but I suspect you don't exactly have an issue with that."

[mal_contented]

"No issue, also no need. I have lock picks. And, if it works here, magic. And since this doesn't seem to be the Isle, it should even work." Her dark side smirked a bit. Her light side smiled more gently.

[lovebites_sodoi]

Which brought up another annoying issue - Morgana lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers. "Which reminds me... my own magic seems to be on the fritz. I can't cast a single spell. No lightning, no teleportation, no outfit changes..." Sigh - the stage diva lamented that the last one was the worst to lose!

[mal_contented]

"What. not even a basic hair spell?" she sounded horrified as well.

[lovebites_sodoi]

To demonstrate, Morgana snapped her fingers... nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

"Whatever brought me here might be interfering with my magic connection... I should be fine once I get out of here, but like I said, until then, I'll be relying on you." Which was a lot to ask of a stranger.

[mal_contented]

"Ugh. Happened to me a while back. I can spell you for now if you need it."

[lovebites_sodoi]

"Appreciated, but for now, I'll stick with this classic." She flicked her high-popped collar, still rather proud of her villain ensemble. "Sometimes you just can't beat the original. Save the fireworks for end of the program. And if a lack of magic is the worst of my problems tonight, then this really isn't so bad... I've got my guitar, I've got my voice, and that's all I need."

[mal_contented]

Mal chuckled. "I'm all for constant reinvention. Keep them on their toes. But gotta say, once this is all fixed, I may have to see if there is a way to track you down for a truly wicked jam session."