Event | Landfall | Dreaming

[ironwood]

Characters: Any and every!
Date: August 10th - 31, 2013
Location: The realm of Dreaming as accessed via Sinbrilee
Situation: Dreaming is but one of the three realms and here characters are subject to their fanciful thoughts.
Warnings/Rating: Please place content warnings in subject headers!

Sinbrilee | Dreaming | Death

Life. Dreaming. Death. Three realms overlaid upon one another and yet each distinctly their own. They dwell in Life and do so live upon the back of the great turtle as those of Sinbrilee did upon the shell of his sister. However, there stand numerous arches of marble throughout the ruined city that are inlaid with runes beyond understanding. Those that live and breathe which step through those whose runes glow with faint, iridescent light tread instead into the realm of Dreaming.

Here, there exists no single defining characteristic beyond the visitor's imagination. The landscape sculpts to their individual thoughts, the events to their dreams. From a drab gray nothing to the most brilliant of displays, the senses perceive all that they wish to perceive for all that nothing here truly exists. This far from Tu Vishan, the ability to shape their surroundings is all they have, for Sinbrilee's Dreaming does not have the energy to sustain powers, only the bodies of those that dwell here.

Should two parties near, then the Mesh begins. Dreams, you see, not only can be shared, but they strive to be. These visions sculpted into reality reach out for one another and blend. They begin an exchange akin to a linking of the minds, within which one visitor can learn the other's deepest thoughts. Their limitation is but compatibility, for two minds that cannot flow upon the same current cannot hold the Mesh.

Happiness or loss, the landscape and events play out memories and fancies with a most convincing air. The mood rises and falls with the tide of the visitor's mind, detached as they are from the soothing influence of a great turtle's mind. Nothing here, however, is real; 'constructs' simply fade if taken through the archways and even the greatest scientific minds or tools will reveal nothing of its source. This is an ancient magic of an ancient realm, long practised in concealing itself from any prying.

Note: Due to the fluid and highly individual nature of Dreaming, no official subheaders will be provided in the comments of this post. Feel free to post and thread however you like, so long as the rules of Dreaming are adhered to.

Comments

[sophos]

I.

Anyone remotely familiar with Mount Olympus in any incarnation will probably recognize being there. It shows signs of being in the midst of reconstruction, with temples and buildings in various states of repair or completion. It fits right in with the motif of Sinbrilee itself, but there's something hopeful and promising about it all.

Standing tall and vaguely proud near the center of it all is the forty foot tall original Athena Parthenos, and Annabeth herself is sitting at its feet, hovered over a mess of papers and temple designs and sketchbooks. This is her Olympus, the plans of which she was placed in charge of. In her line of sight is a library, giant and finished and if you know anything about Annabeth at all, it's easy to see her influence and personality in its design. In the distance, even though it can't be seen at all, is the sound of the ocean.

II.

It's a cavern. A dark, heavy cavern, clearly underground, the pressure and intensity of which mimics the Death plane, but isn't quite. The floor is made of spiderwebs, woven together tight, but it's also littered with dark holes that open into an endless darkness. They're mostly avoidable, if you're aware of your surroundings.

The Athena Parthenos also exists here, but this one is covered in spiderwebs and its presence is much more looming and shadowed. Moving all over it, and around the entirety of the cavern, are hundreds of tiny spiders, whispering and calling out for their mother.

Annabeth is covered in webs and dirt and grime, with a bubble wrap cast around her ankle, and she's screaming. There's a line of web wrapped around the same broken ankle, and it's yanking her, pulling her back for a giant gaping hole in the ground. Her hands scrape at the ground, and she cries out for help, but it's futile. She goes over the edge, alone, managing to grab onto a jutted out ledge roughly fifteen feet from the top. The web is pulling her straight down, where the only thing that awaits her is darkness - a creeping, cold darkness, heavy with hatred and a foreboding sense of horror. A bodiless, hissing voice crawls up from the pit, "No escape. I go to Tartarus, and you will come, too."

She chokes out a sob, fingers shaking, knowing it's only a matter of time before she can't hold on anymore, before she falls. "Percy," is the only hoarse cry she can muster; he's not here, he doesn't have her hand, he couldn't catch her, and she's going to fall alone into only her death.

[ooc; doop doop, feel free to stumble upon this as annabeth is going over the edge of the crevice!]

[fatedchaos]

Vanessa has been in a lot of terribly dark places. Nefandus is still a reminder in the back of her mind, the presence of every evil that could exist. So when she walks into this place, she wonders if she's there again. If this has always been a dream. Or maybe it's Death again.

Oh, God, there are so many spiders. She makes a slight panicked noise when one scurries over her shoe, and she doesn't hesitate to squish it. That's pretty satisfying at least.

And then she hears that voice, and it's like cold fingers dragging up her spine. The cry comes next, and Vanessa is keenly aware that it's Annabeth. What is this place? Where are they?

She doesn't hesitate. She runs and wishes she could feel her body explode into a million pieces, because that'd be so much easier than trying to make her way over spider webs and spiders and just everything else about this place.

"Annabeth!" Vanessa leans over the edge.

[sophos]

If there's any voice she hears calling out for her, it shouldn't be Vanessa's. She definitely shouldn't be seeing her friend's face peering down at her either. Annabeth's eyes widen in surprise as she clings to the ledge; how, how is she here?

The weight and pull on her leg almost too much to handle, and she chokes with the feeling. She tries to swing up her other hand, but her body is being tugged in two different directions, and the angle makes it difficult. She's so tired, she always is every time this happens, and the look she shoots up at Vanessa shifts into something defeatist, acceptance over the fact that she can't get back up. "Don't!" she sobs out, her voice cracking. "You'll fall in, too!"

[fatedchaos]

Whatever's down there, Vanessa doesn't want to know what it is. Even if this is a dream, she doesn't want to know. Because the worst part is, it feels familiar. It feels like part of her should know it, be in there.

She narrows her eyes at Annabeth before scoffing. "Well, that's just stupid. I'm not going to just leave you here!" Except without any powers, she's not exactly sure how she's supposed to help. Even if there was rope around - there's never any rope around when you need it - whatever's tugging at her friend's leg would make that pointless.

"Hold on, okay? I'm... I'm going to come down there."

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Good thing she's not afraid of heights, the one comforting thought she has as she climbs down.

[sophos]

Watching Vanessa start to climb down triggers both a sense of adrenaline and panic in Annabeth, and she scrambles even harder to swing her other hand up. "Vanessa, stop! Please."

Instead of concluding that she needs to fall alone, it brings an awareness that she hadn't, not in reality. And she can't let Vanessa do it either, no matter how terrifying the idea is.

She manages to grab the ledge with both hands at last, but she can't pull herself up more. Not when she's already this weak and Arachne is still tugging her, the long line of web around her ankle disappearing straight down.

The voice hisses from the pit, laughing: "Let go, you stupid girl. Or will you drag yet another person with you?"

[fatedchaos]

"It's kind of too late now! I'm already climbing down." She's not even that far from the top, but she's not going to just sit there and watch her friend fall.

She isn't used to climbing, though, and it feels like it's taking forever. Just one hand at a time, nails digging into the cliff. "Annabeth, seriously. This is like the worst dream ever. You and I... We need to talk."

If she talks, she can keep Annabeth busy, she hopes. Focused on her rather than her nightmare. Nevermind the shakiness in Vanessa's voice, the fear and slight tremor of uncertainty. Just keep talking, keep climbing, reach her.

[sophos]

For a moment, she considers it. Letting go. But there's a part of Annabeth that's still so utterly terrified of falling alone that she can't. Except Vanessa's talking again, and she likes the sound of that better than Arachne.

"It's not - " a dream, is the implication, but she pauses. Because - because Vanessa wasn't there. Percy was. And she probably is dreaming. Or having a nightmare, which has been pretty standard lately. She looks up at Vanessa, considering, even as her hands shake with effort and her voice is hoarse. But the presence of her friend is so jarringly different than normal that it makes her think.

Not enough though. "Climb back up! Vanessa, you don't - you can't save me," and for a moment, she tries to pull herself back up. Because she can't let Vanessa get any lower, she can't let her or anyone else get sucked into Tartarus, too. That's the part overwhelming her most right now.

She needs the ledge to be bigger. She needs the cliff to be easier to climb. But it's not, wasn't that the point? Arachne tugs on her ankle again, and she cries out, both in the pain and in fear. Why hadn't she just cut it?

I.

[backwordscompatible]

[She might have never actually been to Mount Olympus, but if she had? Zatanna was pretty sure it would have looked something like this.]

[Minus the familiar blonde face sitting in the center of it all, hovering over...were those blueprints?]

You know, Annabeth, you are quite possibly the only person I know who might actually try to rebuild Rome in a Day.

[...okay, so technically she was Greek. It was the point of the joke that counted.]

[sophos]

[She can tell someone's there before Zatanna speaks up, and Annabeth looks up with a grin when she hears her friend.]

I'm sure I could, if I really wanted to. [Not really but her pride is at stake.] But I don't actually have a time limit.

[backwordscompatible]

I have faith.

[She crouched down beside the blonde, eyes glossing over the array of images and numbers for half a second before nearly going cross-eyed.]

I also have no idea what any of this means. Are you trying to redesign Geometry itself, or what?

[sophos]

[She bites back a laugh, her grin deepening a bit.]

They're blueprints, mostly. I'm redesigning Olympus.

[backwordscompatible]

...isn't the whole point of ancient wherever that it's supposed to be outdated? Otherwise it wouldn't be ancient.

[sophos]

Not Olympus. It moves with the gods. [She looks around out at it.] I mean, it's still clearly Hellenistic, and I guess technically still ancient, but it's usually in top shape. It was wrecked, though, less than a year ago. I'm fixing it.

2

[iguanasolution]

Oh no you don't was the first thought Frank had when he crossed to Annabeth's dream realm. They had all been through this already, and that time Frank had been too caught up, too far away to do anything to save them. Annabeth 'Secure it!' had yelled Annabeth and that had been it, Percy and Annabeth had fallen to the darkness under them and leaving all of them behind.

Not this time. This time Frank reaches for her, catching her hand and pulling as he firmly closes his eyes letting a grunt of effort. He does't even say anything, he just keeps trying to pull her up. He isn't letting her go, whatever it happens.

He wouldn't do that to Percy.

[sophos]

Someone grabs at her hand, and it's such a different trajectory from the usual in her dreams that it genuinely startles her. Even more so when she opens her eyes to see Frank holding on, pulling at her desperately.

Annabeth chokes a little, the weight of the web still around her ankle. It fights against the way Frank tugs at her, which is strong enough that if she hadn't been being pulled down from the other direction, he could probably have done it.

But so could have Percy. It's that thought that punches her in the gut.

"Frank. Frank, you can't. I didn't cut it."

[iguanasolution]

"I can't let you down. I can't."

He knows what Annabeth meant, he had been there the first time. He knows what awaits her on the other side of that pitch black void, who awaits Annabeth and pulls her down and down to literal hell. Percy also knew, and he wouldn't let her go, so they both- they both-

"This isn't real. This isn't happening. So I'm not letting you go until we find a way to cross the gates back."

[sophos]

It is real, it did happen - just not like this. And something he says draws in her attention. "Gates. What gates?"

She tries to think back - what was happening before all this started again? Crossing the gates. If it's not happening, then what it is? She clutches at Frank's hand, tries to pull herself up, too, but she can't shake the feeling of the web around her ankle and her own damn pride. But she has to try.

The hissing voice from the pit laughs, then speaks, "The goddess would have preferred the Son of Poseidon to match, but the Son of Mars should be more than acceptable!"

[iguanasolution]

"Ignore her, Annabeth" He hisses out, trying to speak over the creepy voice- it's hard enough to get people to focus when they are in their own dream. "Focus on me, okay? Focus on my voice and we'll get you out.

Do you remember how you got here?"

[sophos]

Annabeth doesn't want Arachne to get anyone, not Percy nor Frank nor herself, but she stares up at Frank anyway. He helped her come up with the idea to defeat the spider in the first place. Maybe he can help her get out of this now. So she tries, she tries to focus on him and how different from normal this usually is.

She'd been looking at something, just before this.

"I - there was an archway. And then I was here."

[onefouroneseven]

The thing about dreams that aren't her's is that while Soranik knows the rules of her universe, the dreamer doesn't - not subconsciously anyway. And while the ring had been stripped of its power, Soranik found the landscape just a tad too familiar for her own liking. But any unease she might have felt at finding herself in a place like the Vega System vanished the moment the screaming started - Soranik trying to make her way to the source.

Because she knows that voice - brushes of the spiders that attempt to climb over her and avoid the pitfalls while wishing for nothing more than her ring to spread light. They were Lanterns, were they not? What good were they if they couldn't help?

"Annabeth!"

Calling out once she's caught sight of the girl, picking her way as fast as possible towards her.

[sophos]

She hears the voice and it's familiar, just not one that's supposed to be here. It's a change to her usual dreamscape, just nothing visible. Annabeth slides on her stomach across the floor, Arachne pulling at her from the pit, but she scrambles desperately and tries to dig her fingers into the floor in an attempt to slow it down. She can feel her feet at the edge, and there's a surge of panic.

"S-Soranik!" Her voice is faintly confused at the other woman's presence, but there's a shred of hope in it, because she hasn't quite gone over the edge yet. And she knows once that happens, that's it.

So long as Soranik's attempts don't pull her over, too.

[onefouroneseven]

Soranik puts on a burst of speed - glad for the fact that even though the rings could make them exceptionally lazy none of them are in the habit of letting themselves go physically. It's not the same as if her ring worked, but it's enough that when she launches herself in Annabeth's direction it carries her far enough for her hand to wrap around Annabeth's wrist.

Even if the fall winds her and her free hand struggles to find purchase to keep them both from being pulled over.

"Annabeth, listen to me - this isn't real."

They're on the back of a giant turtle, a dead turtle, but one all the same.

[sophos]

She feels Soranik's hand wrap around her wrist, and she can't help the way her own hand tries to shift and hold on, to make it easier on them both. Her feet slide over the edge, but Soranik manages to hold on enough to stop her from falling completely over the edge.

A hissing voice laughs up from the pit. "Continue to drag people with you, Daughter of Athena. There is no one to blame but yourself."

Annabeth flinches with it, screwing her eyes shut. "It's real enough," she mutters. She knows it's not exactly what happened, but she can't stop seeing it. There's a tug on her ankle, shifting the two of them a little further towards the pit, but still not enough to drag them in.

[onefouroneseven]

The voice takes Soranik by surprise - eyes widening before they narrow again. There are questions that have to be asked but they can wait until she's convinced Annabeth that they are not being dragged over the edge of -- whatever it was.

"Maybe, but not here." Sora struggles to keep her grip on Annabeth that won't leave it impossible for her to get a grip on the surface they're being pulled across. "And I have never know you to simply accept what things are on the surface."

She knows Annabeth is better than that - always asking questions and trying to find out all she can about everything.

[sophos]

It's true. It's completely true, because Annabeth will always, always analyse, and she sees things through a rationale not everyone else does. She just hadn't begun to here yet, overwhelmed by it as she always was.

"I have to accept it." She has, more or less, accepted the inevitability of the fall into Tartarus, but maybe not all sides of it. But there's something about both the atmosphere and Soranik's existence that casts a small shadow of doubt over the current situation; makes it occur to her that perhaps this really isn't real, and maybe it can be altered. "Don't let me go," she chokes out, because despite everything, she can't handle the idea of falling alone. And if she can keep this much - if she can keep from falling in the pit, maybe it'll be different this time. She pulls at Soranik, but in an attempt to pull herself away from the edge, and not anything near enough to accidentally tug her closer.