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

[alphatar]

A little slide would bring Mako to where Korra's at. As for what she's holding, well that little white ball of fur is licking her laughing face.

"LOOK! It's a baby polar bear dog!"

She held the little thing out for Mako to inspect, it's black nose sniffing curiously at him. He was wearing her clothes, so they probably smelled the same to her.

"I think she's all alone."

[browbeater]

That wasn't what he was expecting. He steps back from the polarbeardog, and looks around. How could she be sure it was alone? "What if its mom is coming back with food, though..." It seemed way too risky to him. That was asking to be eaten up for sure.

Even if it was cute.

[alphatar]

"Come on, its mom wouldn’t just leave her here like this. And she’s really happy see us, just look at her." Bringing the small pup to her, Korra hugged her. The warmth of her fur was nice against her bare arms.

"I don’t wa-"

Her words were cut off when there was a hoarse roar from the entrance of the cave. A giant polar bear dog, blood spotted its white fur and its muzzle. Korra gasped and clutched the little polar bear dog to her as it gave a little bark. After the loud echo traveled down the cave, the giant creature collapsed onto the snow and its breathing was labored, ragged.

Nervously, Korra looked at Mako and held out the baby pup for him to take. "Don’t her go, okay? I have to see if I can heal her mom." Even though getting near it was dangerous, Korra wasn’t about to try and help it.

[browbeater]

He balked at being handed the puppy, "Hey, don't give it to me!" Even though it was kind of too late to stop her. He just stared at the dog. You're cute, but dangerous, you know, he tries to tell the puppycub with his stare. But it wasn't very effective.

In that moment, he started to follow the girl-- she was dumb for trying to heal the mama dog when they had its cub in their hands (and he was dumber for following her), but she might need help if that thing had enough energy in it left to attack her, and while he thought she'd deserve it, he knew he'd be mad at himself for just ignoring her.

[alphatar]

When Korra got to the mother, the creature didn’t even try to lift its head and Korra knelt down next to her. She grabbed handfuls of snow and it changed into bright, glowing water. Not enough for the wounds that were all over her. When she placed the water on her muzzle where the wound was, the breathing had stopped entirely and it was completely still.

Korra looked over her shoulder at Mako, the little pup in his hands, and then at Mako again. She tried to stop the frown pulling her lips downward, failing horribly.

[browbeater]

Mako looked at the pup, and then back at her at the same time. It was kind of sad, but his response to sadness was to try and not think about it. Once he was sure the mother was gone, he slowly approached, letting the pup run forward. Maybe it wasn't the most tactful of things to say, what he was thinking, but it was probably the truth.

"She would have mauled the hell out of us anyway," he says, as though that's a bright side. Well, it probably was a bright side, but he had a feeling it wouldn't work on this kid.

[alphatar]

After the little puppy cub sniffed the dead animal, Korra scooped up into her arms, her head down looking at, and walked over to Mako. When she looked up at him her lip was wobbling from left to right and the frown she had was practically pulling the tears from her eyes.

"But she's all alone now." and then she just cried the way most any child would have done. Horrible, gross, unabashed crying.

[browbeater]

Oh god. What did you do with crying like that? He stood there awkwardly for a moment, because he didn't know this girl (he thought), and here she was, crying hard. He could sympathize, but it wasn't in him to comfort some random kid who probably still had her parents and still had some sort of support network.

He finally placed his hand on her head. "It's not that bad. She's not alone right now, you know, so you don't have to cry about that." While true, it was a little insensitive to the reasons that she was crying: a dead parent, a poor animal alone, most kids would naturally cry over something like that.

But not Mako.

But she deserved something, for helping him stay warm by giving him her jacket and mittens, so he couldn't just stand there and do nothing. Besides, he wanted to cheer her up, as weird as that was to him, it made total sense at the time.

[alphatar]

Korra nodded, her forehead rubbing against his hand as she did so and she clutched the tiny polar bear dog to her. It gave a bark and licked her face. Stopping oneself was crying was difficult, but for a child it was near impossible. All she could do was just sob and try to not think about the dead animal behind her.

“W-we should go.” She said, her voice warbling as she forced the words out. “It’s starting to get cold.”

[browbeater]

"Do you want your gloves back...?" Mako takes them off and offers them back to her. She definitely looked cold, and he felt a little bad for taking all her cold weather gear. He was a firebender! He could at least turn himself into a miniature heater if he really needed to warm himself up.

"The puppy will help you stay warm, too. I'm a firebender, so it's okay. I can warm myself up, and maybe start a fire. I've never tried to do something like that out here, but it can't be that hard, you know?"

[alphatar]

She shook her head, managing to level her voice out a bit. “No, she’s keeping my hands warm.” Korra rubbed the back of the pup and then looked at Mako. “I like firebending.” It was her favorite element to use.

She gave a wave of her arm, her hand motioning to waterbend and the snow compacted in on itself and a soft, white stairway formed. Another wave of her hand and the top of the stairs opened to the outside.

“If we can avoid the guards, maybe we can go home for the day.”

[browbeater]

"Why do you keep mentioning guards?" Mako asked with a shrug, before putting the mittens back on.

He liked firebending too, but he doesn't think anything of the comment for now. He's just hoping that she feels better soon, though he kind of doubted it by the tone of her voice.

[alphatar]

Keeping the pup clutched to her, Korra made her way up until just the top of her head was poking above the snow covered ground and she made a sweep of the area.

“Okay, we’re safe.” She continued up and waited for Mako. “Because, the guards from the compound are going to come looking for me soon.” She looked at him as if that was obvious, though she was still sniffling.

“But if we can get home, we’ll be safe. My mom and dad’ll let me stay. They always do when I get out.”

[browbeater]

"What compound? Why do you live on a compound?" Mako asked, each question slightly more incredulous than the last. He hadn't heard of any compound, or any guards so the questions were pretty much circling around in his head. He climbed up the snow after her, taking a look around.

Now, he wasn't sure if there were guards. Were they like the police? How hard were they to avoid? Probably kind of hard in a snowy place like this. They really stood out against the snow, if it was calm out.

"How far away are your mom and dad?"

[alphatar]

“Not far, we’ll be there in no time!” Taking up a hurried pace, Korra walked quickly through the snow and looked behind occasionally to make sure she didn’t lose Mako. Were it the real South Pole, it would have taken longer to get there, but the dream accommodated Korra and her home came into view.

“I live at the compound because I’m the Avatar, I have to train there.” She said matter-of-factly. “But it gets boring sometimes, so I sneak out sometimes.” She opened the door and turned around, still holding the small pup that was happily wagging its small tail and barking intermittently.

“That’s a silly question Mako.” When she said his name, the young girl looked at him curiously at first, then cautiously. He never said his name to her.