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

[((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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mal_contented

Oh she was absolutely going to try to circle in front of the fleeing figure. Usually people running from her had good reason, and usually that reason was exactly why she needed to find and stop them.

She wouldn't allow anything to hurt Auradon, and whatever was going on here could still be a threat.

From:

elvendryad

There was enough room for her to land in the courtyard, though she'd probably hit something with her wings if she wasn't careful; it wasn't exactly made for landings. Plenty of roses, too, and thus plenty of thorns to scratch her up... but that seemed to be the actual biggest danger, simple plants that were entirely avoidable as long as she even half tried.

And it would take the other figure a moment to reach the courtyard, even after she'd beaten him there. He actually wasn't in a hurry, interestingly enough. Perhaps he hadn't seen her as a threat? When he was finally coming back into view, he'd slowed even further as he stepped out more from the trees, looking her over.

She'd seen him before, though, hadn't she? That brown wooden face, so easy to mistake for a carved mask, and solidly black eyes... that dark platemail-looking exoskeletal -- was it exoskeletal, really, his armor a connected part of him, or was it removable? -- body of his... He had no visible weaponry at all, no obvious pockets or belts, nothing in his hands... and that expression as he took the sight of her dragon form in....

He showed no fear.

Curiosity, sure, as he took another absent step forward, tilting his head a little... and of all things, a faint hint of a smile seemed to be growing there.

He took yet another step forward, not actually entering the courtyard yet... and lifted his right hand up toward her, open, palm up, as though offering to take hers.

He said something, an odd word that was half-translated as a greeting of some kind by whatever dream-logic was at work here. It wasn't in English... it sounded more like... well, who knew. Something else, at any rate. It wasn't of any of the more common languages she might've heard yet....

Was he mad, approaching her like so? Maybe, who knew? But it was at least pretty clear that he'd decided to try making this meeting a friendly one, now that he'd seen her looking like this.

From:

mal_contented

She did recognize him, and that oddly made her annoyed. Of course, annoyed was better than angry or defensive at the moment. She landed as far from him as she could in the courtyard, shedding the dragon from as she dropped, landing in a swirl of smoke on more or less human seeming feet. She was in a long black and purple gown, because of course she was, and she was still smoking a bit as if on fire from within. She crossed her arms.

"You're that other Pinocchio, aren't you? Yell or whatever."

From:

elvendryad

The hint of a smile faded a little at her apparent rejection of his attempt to greet her, but she was talking to him; that had to count for something, right?

"Chell," he said, giving a nod... she wasn't too far off! So surely she must have heard of him... from someone who knew him somehow? That list was rather short, he was certain....

But there was something in what she'd said which he simply couldn't make sense of. "...What's a Pinocchio?"

From:

mal_contented

"My reality's version of you. What are you doing here?"

From:

elvendryad

Her reality's--? He blinked and set that aside; that sounded like confusion he wasn't up to dealing with just then. "I was asleep in a forest. And... now it's here." He turned a little, looking over the bit of it that stood there at the side of the castle, then looked back to her, seeming amused. "I think... that joyful brother led it here." The translation didn't feel quite right, in how he'd referred to whoever that was, but it couldn't have been too far off, either.

Given that he seemed entirely unbothered by how the trees had moved so far -- and that one of them was actually repositioning itself a few yards away, pushing a little rock out from under its roots before it grabbed back onto the ground again -- what he'd claimed might even have been entirely accurate. Maybe someone had actually coaxed the forest into relocating itself.

"And you?"

From:

mal_contented

"A... joyful... brother.... led a castle... here? Is that supposed to make sense or are you just throwing random words at the wall to see what burns?"

From:

elvendryad

His little smile was clouded under confusion again when she mixed those metaphors at the end; he was just as lost by that as she seemed to be by his explanation. "You asked... A brother came. He led the forest somewhere. Now we're here." In his mind, at least, it was pretty simple, straightforward.

He stepped forward a little more, looking up at the castle behind her, still taking his time. He was curious, sure, but there was no hurry. "Is this your home?"

If she were to look off to the side a little, she'd probably see more of the trees moving around more obviously, one of the little saplings trying to climb up into one of the raised beds for one of those darker rosebushes. A larger tree crept up behind it, one of its lower branches leaning downward, an interception that was so very, very common to so many parents, but played out in slow motion among these plants: no, baby, stay out of that area, it's not a play place.

From:

mal_contented

"Led the forest...." her head hurt. "Whatever the Dalmatians is going on here I hate it and would like to wake up please."

Yeah, that wasn't common to any parents she saw growing up, so she mostly just added it to the weirdness of this - she hopes it is a - dream.

From:

elvendryad

He needed a second or two to try to parse that. He was trying, he really was, but he was from a time before spinning wheels had caught on in France, or the Welsh had come up with their own longbows... and her wording was simply not working for him, apparently as much as his wasn't working for her.

"You... hate..." He was trying anyway; what was Dalmatians, and what did it have to do with any of this? What exactly was she protesting? "...The trees...?" At least it was clear enough that neither of them had an advantage over the other in this conversation.

From:

mal_contented

"Look just... did Mallia send you to give me this headache or what? I knew she had to actually be evil," muttered.

From:

elvendryad

He actually looked hurt at that. "I haven't done anything to you!"

Another of the odd trees was wandering closer toward him, a small one, only about waist high... he didn't see it yet. It would be easy enough for Mal to miss spotting it too, given everything.

From:

mal_contented

"Then where did this headache come from?" She snapped. There was an odd moment where her dark half glared as her light half... winced.

From:

elvendryad

"Not from me," he said. A brief pause, and his tone softened: "But I can try to heal it...?"

He held out his right hand a bit, some very faint glow starting along its inside.

From:

mal_contented

"What....? You're a... Oh just what we need. Look, start from the beginning and try and speak sensibly, kay?"

From:

elvendryad

He sighed, taking his hand back, offer apparently refused. She confused him so much!

"I was asleep in my forest. And one of my family came. A brother. He was very happy...." He was hesitant, apparently having some difficulty in remembering. A little pause, and he turned to look back to the bigger trees near him, behind him. "Show us the brother that came?"

The ents didn't seem to react to this request visibly themselves... but only a couple yards away, what could only have been an illusion cleared up into a form: a man that looked like he was used to smiling, with light blond hair, the ice blue of his eyes bigger than a human's were... and if Mal looked, she'd be able to spot that slight point to his ears as they helped hold his hair back out of his face. He wore browns and greens, and held a staff, a long twisted thing, a pretty one with a bit of a blub in the top of it, where the twist's lengths were held apart from one another just enough to reveal something shiny within it, something that glowed softly in the color of his hair. Definitely some kind of magic staff... but who this was wasn't clear yet. He wasn't dressed in a flashy sort of way... he didn't look all that old. But he was rather obviously of the same apparent species as someone else she'd met, and seen others of their kind in her memories, too....

As if she needed confirmation of which world Chell was from? But that's about what it amounted to.

"He came, and asked the trees to get up, and follow him. And we-- They--" He paused, looking down... that little tree had snuck up behind him and was trying to climb up onto his foot. He reached down and picked it up gently, letting it grab onto his left hand, its short little roots wrapping around his fingers, and looked back to her to continue, as though this were normal. "They followed him from where they had been, for a very long time, to... your castle? ....I think?" He nodded to the dark structure behind her, glancing back to her again. This was hers, wasn't it?

"It's very pretty. ....It suits you...." He looked back to the castle again... well, he wasn't wrong that it matched at least half of how she currently looked better than not....

From:

mal_contented

She gave a rude snort. "This is not any of the castles I've ever lived in, thanks." the word thanks had probably never sounded so rude.

"I came here to investigate it. If it isn't mine and isn't yours... who is it and what is it doing here?"

From:

elvendryad

....Well. He looked between her and the castle again, unsure what to say for a moment. It wasn't hers...?

He turned to crouch and set the tiny tree back down near the bigger ones, and then stood again to walk right in through the courtyard toward the large doorway within. He didn't seem to be hesitating any, no wariness in his stance yet, just curiosity, head tilting higher as he went from looking over the lower stained glass windows to the upper ones while he stepped through the wide paths.

Behind him, the image of that blond elf wavered and disappeared into a puff of black shadow which dissipated swiftly. Mal had seen that sort of thing happen before as well, hadn't she? Not that it would add anything here; she already knew Chell was from Mallia's world....

"This is probably the castle that the brother led us to. ...I think...? He... was thinking something about one that was dark, and shining, but... I don't remember it being covered in roses." A little more of a confused frown as he looked back down, eyeing the door, heading for it. Was she going to go with him? Because if she let him, he'd take the lead.

From:

mal_contented

"Ugh. I can pretty much guess whose castle it is, and me? I'm going the other way." She rolled the eye on the dark side. The light side eye looked unsure and almost pained as she turned away.

From:

elvendryad

He paused at that, and turned to look back to her again. "Whose is it?"

"You should come join the party," came a voice from the castle... sort of. It was someone standing between Chell and the door, closer to the door... but he hadn't stepped out of it while they weren't looking, had he? It had happened too quickly, and there hadn't been any sound of it, or time for it... but the door was standing open now, the hallway lit up behind him. It certainly looked like the same blond elf that the trees had just shown them, down to him holding the same clearly-magic staff... but he was dressed slightly differently. It looked as though he'd simply changed his clothes... but why would that have happened? ...Unless he were here now, maybe?

Chell looked back at that, eyes a little wider, not expecting him to be there. Well, this wasn't his doing this time, it was clear....

"You came this far; why not?" He looked between Mal and Chell, addressing them both.

From:

mal_contented

"She's proof. And I'm the mistake. I'll see myself out." She shook her head.

From:

elvendryad

"The more the merrier! Please, we've far more than we could eat ourselves. And we'd love to hear your stories as well...."

"Who are you?" That might have gotten Mal's attention: something in Chell's tone wasn't as relaxed as he'd been so far.

....Not that this elf seemed to pick up on, anyhow. "A winemaker," he said cheerfully. "Co-host of this reunion. Tree-wrangler! Oh, how about--"

"No." The wooden knight took a step backward, away from him. "You're not that brother." He glanced back to Mal. "Something isn't right, here."

"Who else would I be?" He looked more amused -- and confused -- than anything.

The trees stirred again, shifting their roots to stand, readying to move as Chell took another step back....

From:

mal_contented

She stiffened. Torn. Part of her felt obligated to turn and help. The other part of her wanted to get as far from here as she could.

From:

elvendryad

"You're not him! I can't feel you!"

"....What?" Well, that had the elf baffled.

"Something isn't right." Chell took another step back again, turning his attention to the castle itself, looking up at that tower and then back down over it. "What is going on here?"