[LOG] A Musical Nightmare
(Liam's player apologizes for losing the log of the trip into the Dreaming that pre-dated this scene.)
After seeing something interesting in the Dreaming -- and having it yell at them and unceremoniously dump them into random parts of the Dreaming as a protection mechanism -- Liam gets the hot idea to go up to Tir-Na Nog'th and try to get the Dreamers to replay the Dream live and in technicolor. He takes Pascal and Melina Solaris with him.
... and it does! It replays the Dream! It replays some other unbelievably dubious information in musical form. Oberon sings! The Courtiers dance in choreographed steps! And the Vision is Fabulous!
Until it decides that everyone has seen enough and turns into a far more contemporary nightmare and gets extremely violent. These dreams are a bit like Hotel California -- you can check out any time you like but you can never leave.
Liam leads Pascal and Melina up the staircase to Tir as the sun sets, the moon rises, the clouds part, and the city arrives shining in the sky. It feels solid under their feet and it glitters like silver and moonlight. Currently the city is very quiet. It looks very much like Amber up here. Liam says, "I want them to show me the Dream we saw in the Dreaming, Pascal. I don't know if it will work, but maybe, just maybe, we can get the end of it. Then again, we might just get whatever the Dreamers show us, so it's a bit of a crapshoot."
Pascal smiles a bit wryly, sticking close to Melina and Liam, staff in hand. "I'm mostly worried about what they'll do besides try to show us anything," he says.
Melina hms "i've never done this dream stuff. i mean I dream but..."
Liam runs a hand through his hair and says, "The Dream was in the Throne room," he says. "That's where it took place. Maybe if we go there, we can get it to respawn up here. I mean, maybe they'll just read it out of my head and we'll just get what we /saw/."
Pascal nods. "It's nothing too bad, Melina," pascal says quietly. "Just avoid any silver blades." He glances aside to Liam. "Can we get there?"
Melina asks "so we just imagine somewhere and were there or do walk like down below?
Liam nods and says to Pascal, "It's a reflected map of Amber. There's a Palace, and there's a Pattern Chamber, and there's even a Pattern. We want the Throne Room, though. I was in the Pattern Chamber recently, where the Dreamers are cleaning it neurotically. So just like Amber let's... head in that direction." Liam walks through the shadowy dream streets toward where the Palace of Amber /should/ be.
Pascal nods, folloiwng Liam. "I was more worried about the last time I came here," he says quietly. "Things were not so straight forward then."
Melina nods "expecting things to be a certain way anywhere tends to get me into trouble" she remarks as she follows
The City is remarkably like Amber below as they pass through it, perhaps because it is forming itself dream-like to the memories of Liam, Pascal and Melina. Or because they have already passed into the Dream that Tir Na Nog'th is showing them. This is Tir; it is difficult to tell the dreams from the dreamers who view the dreams. It is very quiet as they approach a Palace that seems taller and more grand as they pass through an unguarded entrance to step into an entrance hall draped entirely in the black of mourning. Liam says, as they pass through the door: "This is odd."
Pascal glances at the black of the entry hall. "Not necessarily," he says softly. "It could be a dream of the past? Many died before you and I."
Melina hms 'and some have died recentlt. perhaps it weighs more heavily than my concious mind cares to ralize
Liam looks at the streamers of black and he says, "Come on." Liam leads them through a Long Corridor also draped in black and holding far fewer paintings and tapestries than it does in Amber proper. Instead of feels like walking through a tomb of doom. Light flickers ahead from the Throne Room.
Pascal shivers a bit as he passes through the hallway, glancing up at the dark decorations. A small bit, he picks up the pace, to try and get to the light.
Melina hms 'i feel like I should have a weapon before going in there" she whispers following
Liam steps into the light as well and into the doorway of the Throne Room...
Currently playing on Channel Tir-Na Nog'th is the Dream Pascal and Liam saw in the Dreaming, likely being spooled out of Liam and Pascal's head. Except here it feels very alive and breathing. The light is warm. The walls, usually covered in trophies, are bare. Courtiers are few. A large man sits upon a Throne and a beautiful woman dressed in shimmering silver who looks very much like Princess Deirdre carries a Crown made of spires and stars. She kneels before the Throne and gazes up at the man in awe. He leans forward to take the Crown... and it flickers like a bad scene cut and the woman starts walking to offer the Crown again... and again... and again... the few moment clip plays several times while Liam, Pascal and Melina watch.
Pascal watches quietly through several iterations, before miming lifting something to his own head.
Melina just watches, of course recognizing none of this but seeming afraid to "break" something with speech
Suddenly the scene shifts. The original scene ends quite suddenly to be replaced with the Throne Room in a funerary scene. A huge casket, closed, is here and draped all in black. Several other courtiers stand here, and two dark haired boy who stand far off to the side in a corner, and a nurse carrying a wailing baby. The air feels tense. No one dares speak in here.
Liam turns to Pascal and Melina and says in a whisper: "Maybe we'll see the rest of it now."
Pascal frowns, shaking his head. "It's a different scene," he whispers.
Melina hms "different than what? Liam told me dreams were possible futures maybe this is a different one
Liam puts a finger to his lips as the scene plays out before them in the haziness of a Dream. The man from before, the dream representation of Oberon, charges into the Throne Room trailing a mess of courtiers and, maybe, perhaps, a tall young man who could be a Benedict with, very clearly, two hands. Oberon stands before his Throne and gives the whole room a look over and says, "I never want to see it again! I want nothing to do with her! Take it away!" There's murmuring among the courtiers and someone says something about a Crown of Stars -- it's unclear, they are speaking like they are a Greek Chorus, they might break out in song -- and Oberon starts singing:
"I want nothing to do with her! I want to be free of her! She has died and passed away!"
"She has died and passed away," the Chorus sings.
"And now the Crown! It must be gone! It must be taken into Shadow!", Oberon sings.
"Into Shadow, into Shadow," the courtiers sing. "It must go into Shadow." And they promptly break into a silent dance routine around the casket in the center of the Throne Room.
Pascal watches the scene, wide-eyed, before his eyes slide ever so slowly over to Liam, raising an eyebrow.
Melina looks at liam likewise "i wonder" she remarks softly "how early in their lives people remember things" she motions to the dance "though i doubt that really happened
Liam looks incredibly sheepish and says, "Yeah, well, Pascal. I have no excuse."
Meanwhile, Oberon takes the Crown off a pillow and sings to it. "She was my true love... and now she's gone. Gone for no reason at all! If I cannot have her, no one shall, and her memories will soon be gone! I will replace her, with another, and all trace of her I will erase... but her children, her legacy, they will stay in her place! Take it! Take it! Take it from me!" He places the Crown of Stars on a pillow. "Take it far away! And I shall forget her! But before we do... whose fault is this? This misery?" Oberon's eyes cast around the room. As the Crown is whisked away, so do the others. They start searching. Searching for someone to blame.
Pascal looks around the court slowly before nudging Liam lightly with his elbow. "I'm thinking it's time to go," he murmurs.
Melina looks over at Pascal and says softly "not running this time"
And now the dancers have found someone to blame: Liam, Pascal and Melina. Oberon stands there and points at them and says, "I blame them!" Then he hisses: "Get them." The dancers begin to morph into nightmare creatures made of Chaos, something from another nightmare entirely up here in Amber, a thread of Amber's future, not its past. They are things covered in chitinous armor with spikes and eyes and they start coming for Liam and Pascal and Melina.
Liam, knowing the Dreamers are turning violent, says, "RUN!"
Pascal smiles, takes Melina's hand, and jerks her toward the exit. "Listen to your elders and lets get out of here," he says. "This one isn't a test."
Melina says 'everything is a test" but runs nonetheless
The world has changed drastically as they turn to run. Now it is modern day Amber. Regular Amber. The Amber of Now. And the City is on fire. Buildings are collapsed. Bodies are all over the Palace floors. The Hounds. The Hounds are all dead. The place smells of acid and ozone. Behind them are the Dreamers now turned to Chaos. Liam is trying to get out his trump cards. "RUN! This is NOT the Dreaming! If they grab you in here they WILL hurt you!"
Behind them are the things in the chitinous armor. From far away, someone blows a battle horn.
Pascal nods, running as fast as he can. "Keep up then," he says. "Can you get us out of here any faster?"
Liam is trying not to stop running with Chaos on his heels while pulling out his trump deck. "Run for the stairs! RUN FOR THE STAIRS!" And then Liam is jumped from behind by one of the chitinous creatures. It grabs at his back and then his leg and it's enough to trip him up. But he has the case with his deck in his hand. "PASCAL!"
It only takes a moment before Pascal lets Melina's hand go. "Run," he orders as his military training kicks in. Both hands go to his staff as he brings it to bear on the creature, aiming a debilitating blow at what seems likely to be its face.
Melina looks back a dark frown on her face as she curses under her breath, realizing she can do nothing to aid her cousins in their moment of need and runs swearing the entire way
The thing takes the hit to the face and it makes some sort of noise, but others are boiling out of the Palace at speed. Liam pulls his leg away and he now has a few big bloody gashes. He fumbles around pulls out a card. He starts to stand right as the rest of the Chaos things reach them. "We need to get further away, Pascal!"
One of the things stops and sprouts a mouth. It has rows and rows of teeth.
Pascal nods, grabbing Liam and pulling him along as he dashes after Melina. "Never should have come," he growls. "Melina! Don't slow down! Head for the path down. We'll be there."
Liam leaves a trail of blood on the cobblestones of the streets of bloody Tir-Na Nog'th as he is pulled along by Pascal. He yells toward Melina: "Get out of here! Get away from this Vision!" He has his trump of the Palace out, now.
Melina keeps running but hollers back "Can i get help or something?"
The things are coming. The things are coming. The future is bearing down on them.
Liam says: "We just need to leave! Now!"
A bright flaw, a line, now visible through this vision, mars the sky above Tir-Na Nog'th, but it does not seem to affect the visions of invading Chaos.
Pascal grimaces, looking down at Liam's leg before up to Melina. "Just run if we get out, we'll be safe!"
Liam shows Pascal the trump of Amber and then yells to Melina: "Run down the steps! Meet us in the Palace!"
Melina nods and keeps running "Are your dreams always this dark?" and then runs down the stairs prior to getting an answer
Pascal stares at the card. "I'm coming right back to the mountain for you," he says.
Pascal concentrates upon a Trump, and begins to fade away.
Pascal fades into nothingness, leaving behind a rainbow afterimage.
As you concentrate upon the Trump, the place depicted upon it slowly becomes more real.
Liam appears suddenly.
Liam is bleeding and breathing heavily as he gets through and says, ".... okay. I think I'm done with that for a while."
Pascal growls. "Yes, you are," he agrees, crouching next to Liam to prop him up. "Now... we need to get that looked at."
Liam's leg looks like something with sharp, jagged claws got a chunk of him. "That's sort of new. Usually they just pass through. Either that, or it was part of the alarms on the visions. Like the books and the Dreaming."
Pascal clears his throat. "In any case," he says, "let's get you away from the middle of the street?"
Liam looks around and goes, "Oh. Yes. Good plan. Lead on, Macduff."
Pascal gives Liam an odd look. "I don't know any McDuff," he says. "And I blame you for the song."
After seeing something interesting in the Dreaming -- and having it yell at them and unceremoniously dump them into random parts of the Dreaming as a protection mechanism -- Liam gets the hot idea to go up to Tir-Na Nog'th and try to get the Dreamers to replay the Dream live and in technicolor. He takes Pascal and Melina Solaris with him.
... and it does! It replays the Dream! It replays some other unbelievably dubious information in musical form. Oberon sings! The Courtiers dance in choreographed steps! And the Vision is Fabulous!
Until it decides that everyone has seen enough and turns into a far more contemporary nightmare and gets extremely violent. These dreams are a bit like Hotel California -- you can check out any time you like but you can never leave.
Liam leads Pascal and Melina up the staircase to Tir as the sun sets, the moon rises, the clouds part, and the city arrives shining in the sky. It feels solid under their feet and it glitters like silver and moonlight. Currently the city is very quiet. It looks very much like Amber up here. Liam says, "I want them to show me the Dream we saw in the Dreaming, Pascal. I don't know if it will work, but maybe, just maybe, we can get the end of it. Then again, we might just get whatever the Dreamers show us, so it's a bit of a crapshoot."
Pascal smiles a bit wryly, sticking close to Melina and Liam, staff in hand. "I'm mostly worried about what they'll do besides try to show us anything," he says.
Melina hms "i've never done this dream stuff. i mean I dream but..."
Liam runs a hand through his hair and says, "The Dream was in the Throne room," he says. "That's where it took place. Maybe if we go there, we can get it to respawn up here. I mean, maybe they'll just read it out of my head and we'll just get what we /saw/."
Pascal nods. "It's nothing too bad, Melina," pascal says quietly. "Just avoid any silver blades." He glances aside to Liam. "Can we get there?"
Melina asks "so we just imagine somewhere and were there or do walk like down below?
Liam nods and says to Pascal, "It's a reflected map of Amber. There's a Palace, and there's a Pattern Chamber, and there's even a Pattern. We want the Throne Room, though. I was in the Pattern Chamber recently, where the Dreamers are cleaning it neurotically. So just like Amber let's... head in that direction." Liam walks through the shadowy dream streets toward where the Palace of Amber /should/ be.
Pascal nods, folloiwng Liam. "I was more worried about the last time I came here," he says quietly. "Things were not so straight forward then."
Melina nods "expecting things to be a certain way anywhere tends to get me into trouble" she remarks as she follows
The City is remarkably like Amber below as they pass through it, perhaps because it is forming itself dream-like to the memories of Liam, Pascal and Melina. Or because they have already passed into the Dream that Tir Na Nog'th is showing them. This is Tir; it is difficult to tell the dreams from the dreamers who view the dreams. It is very quiet as they approach a Palace that seems taller and more grand as they pass through an unguarded entrance to step into an entrance hall draped entirely in the black of mourning. Liam says, as they pass through the door: "This is odd."
Pascal glances at the black of the entry hall. "Not necessarily," he says softly. "It could be a dream of the past? Many died before you and I."
Melina hms 'and some have died recentlt. perhaps it weighs more heavily than my concious mind cares to ralize
Liam looks at the streamers of black and he says, "Come on." Liam leads them through a Long Corridor also draped in black and holding far fewer paintings and tapestries than it does in Amber proper. Instead of feels like walking through a tomb of doom. Light flickers ahead from the Throne Room.
Pascal shivers a bit as he passes through the hallway, glancing up at the dark decorations. A small bit, he picks up the pace, to try and get to the light.
Melina hms 'i feel like I should have a weapon before going in there" she whispers following
Liam steps into the light as well and into the doorway of the Throne Room...
Currently playing on Channel Tir-Na Nog'th is the Dream Pascal and Liam saw in the Dreaming, likely being spooled out of Liam and Pascal's head. Except here it feels very alive and breathing. The light is warm. The walls, usually covered in trophies, are bare. Courtiers are few. A large man sits upon a Throne and a beautiful woman dressed in shimmering silver who looks very much like Princess Deirdre carries a Crown made of spires and stars. She kneels before the Throne and gazes up at the man in awe. He leans forward to take the Crown... and it flickers like a bad scene cut and the woman starts walking to offer the Crown again... and again... and again... the few moment clip plays several times while Liam, Pascal and Melina watch.
Pascal watches quietly through several iterations, before miming lifting something to his own head.
Melina just watches, of course recognizing none of this but seeming afraid to "break" something with speech
Suddenly the scene shifts. The original scene ends quite suddenly to be replaced with the Throne Room in a funerary scene. A huge casket, closed, is here and draped all in black. Several other courtiers stand here, and two dark haired boy who stand far off to the side in a corner, and a nurse carrying a wailing baby. The air feels tense. No one dares speak in here.
Liam turns to Pascal and Melina and says in a whisper: "Maybe we'll see the rest of it now."
Pascal frowns, shaking his head. "It's a different scene," he whispers.
Melina hms "different than what? Liam told me dreams were possible futures maybe this is a different one
Liam puts a finger to his lips as the scene plays out before them in the haziness of a Dream. The man from before, the dream representation of Oberon, charges into the Throne Room trailing a mess of courtiers and, maybe, perhaps, a tall young man who could be a Benedict with, very clearly, two hands. Oberon stands before his Throne and gives the whole room a look over and says, "I never want to see it again! I want nothing to do with her! Take it away!" There's murmuring among the courtiers and someone says something about a Crown of Stars -- it's unclear, they are speaking like they are a Greek Chorus, they might break out in song -- and Oberon starts singing:
"I want nothing to do with her! I want to be free of her! She has died and passed away!"
"She has died and passed away," the Chorus sings.
"And now the Crown! It must be gone! It must be taken into Shadow!", Oberon sings.
"Into Shadow, into Shadow," the courtiers sing. "It must go into Shadow." And they promptly break into a silent dance routine around the casket in the center of the Throne Room.
Pascal watches the scene, wide-eyed, before his eyes slide ever so slowly over to Liam, raising an eyebrow.
Melina looks at liam likewise "i wonder" she remarks softly "how early in their lives people remember things" she motions to the dance "though i doubt that really happened
Liam looks incredibly sheepish and says, "Yeah, well, Pascal. I have no excuse."
Meanwhile, Oberon takes the Crown off a pillow and sings to it. "She was my true love... and now she's gone. Gone for no reason at all! If I cannot have her, no one shall, and her memories will soon be gone! I will replace her, with another, and all trace of her I will erase... but her children, her legacy, they will stay in her place! Take it! Take it! Take it from me!" He places the Crown of Stars on a pillow. "Take it far away! And I shall forget her! But before we do... whose fault is this? This misery?" Oberon's eyes cast around the room. As the Crown is whisked away, so do the others. They start searching. Searching for someone to blame.
Pascal looks around the court slowly before nudging Liam lightly with his elbow. "I'm thinking it's time to go," he murmurs.
Melina looks over at Pascal and says softly "not running this time"
And now the dancers have found someone to blame: Liam, Pascal and Melina. Oberon stands there and points at them and says, "I blame them!" Then he hisses: "Get them." The dancers begin to morph into nightmare creatures made of Chaos, something from another nightmare entirely up here in Amber, a thread of Amber's future, not its past. They are things covered in chitinous armor with spikes and eyes and they start coming for Liam and Pascal and Melina.
Liam, knowing the Dreamers are turning violent, says, "RUN!"
Pascal smiles, takes Melina's hand, and jerks her toward the exit. "Listen to your elders and lets get out of here," he says. "This one isn't a test."
Melina says 'everything is a test" but runs nonetheless
The world has changed drastically as they turn to run. Now it is modern day Amber. Regular Amber. The Amber of Now. And the City is on fire. Buildings are collapsed. Bodies are all over the Palace floors. The Hounds. The Hounds are all dead. The place smells of acid and ozone. Behind them are the Dreamers now turned to Chaos. Liam is trying to get out his trump cards. "RUN! This is NOT the Dreaming! If they grab you in here they WILL hurt you!"
Behind them are the things in the chitinous armor. From far away, someone blows a battle horn.
Pascal nods, running as fast as he can. "Keep up then," he says. "Can you get us out of here any faster?"
Liam is trying not to stop running with Chaos on his heels while pulling out his trump deck. "Run for the stairs! RUN FOR THE STAIRS!" And then Liam is jumped from behind by one of the chitinous creatures. It grabs at his back and then his leg and it's enough to trip him up. But he has the case with his deck in his hand. "PASCAL!"
It only takes a moment before Pascal lets Melina's hand go. "Run," he orders as his military training kicks in. Both hands go to his staff as he brings it to bear on the creature, aiming a debilitating blow at what seems likely to be its face.
Melina looks back a dark frown on her face as she curses under her breath, realizing she can do nothing to aid her cousins in their moment of need and runs swearing the entire way
The thing takes the hit to the face and it makes some sort of noise, but others are boiling out of the Palace at speed. Liam pulls his leg away and he now has a few big bloody gashes. He fumbles around pulls out a card. He starts to stand right as the rest of the Chaos things reach them. "We need to get further away, Pascal!"
One of the things stops and sprouts a mouth. It has rows and rows of teeth.
Pascal nods, grabbing Liam and pulling him along as he dashes after Melina. "Never should have come," he growls. "Melina! Don't slow down! Head for the path down. We'll be there."
Liam leaves a trail of blood on the cobblestones of the streets of bloody Tir-Na Nog'th as he is pulled along by Pascal. He yells toward Melina: "Get out of here! Get away from this Vision!" He has his trump of the Palace out, now.
Melina keeps running but hollers back "Can i get help or something?"
The things are coming. The things are coming. The future is bearing down on them.
Liam says: "We just need to leave! Now!"
A bright flaw, a line, now visible through this vision, mars the sky above Tir-Na Nog'th, but it does not seem to affect the visions of invading Chaos.
Pascal grimaces, looking down at Liam's leg before up to Melina. "Just run if we get out, we'll be safe!"
Liam shows Pascal the trump of Amber and then yells to Melina: "Run down the steps! Meet us in the Palace!"
Melina nods and keeps running "Are your dreams always this dark?" and then runs down the stairs prior to getting an answer
Pascal stares at the card. "I'm coming right back to the mountain for you," he says.
Pascal concentrates upon a Trump, and begins to fade away.
Pascal fades into nothingness, leaving behind a rainbow afterimage.
As you concentrate upon the Trump, the place depicted upon it slowly becomes more real.
Liam appears suddenly.
Liam is bleeding and breathing heavily as he gets through and says, ".... okay. I think I'm done with that for a while."
Pascal growls. "Yes, you are," he agrees, crouching next to Liam to prop him up. "Now... we need to get that looked at."
Liam's leg looks like something with sharp, jagged claws got a chunk of him. "That's sort of new. Usually they just pass through. Either that, or it was part of the alarms on the visions. Like the books and the Dreaming."
Pascal clears his throat. "In any case," he says, "let's get you away from the middle of the street?"
Liam looks around and goes, "Oh. Yes. Good plan. Lead on, Macduff."
Pascal gives Liam an odd look. "I don't know any McDuff," he says. "And I blame you for the song."