(A-Dive) They See Me Scrollin They Hatin

[Star]

Mar 2020

(Astral Dive) Beyond the Obelisk

Apr 2020

(Astral Dive) Tomb of the Exarch

May 2020

(A-Dive) They See Me Scrollin They Hatin

Jun 2020

Trading Lives

Mar 2021

(Astral Dive II) The Staircase

Apr 2021

(Astral Dive II) Saurian Dream

Continued from (Astral Dive) Tomb of the Exarch...

Sure, it nagged. Pandora's a bitch, though. Just ask David Mills.

What's in the box?

What's in the boooox?

WHAT'S IN THE BOOOOOOOOX?!

Pop quiz, hotshot: You're an Exarch. What do you put in your tomb with you? Probably not a Hello Kitty plushie. Probably something unimaginable because you don't know what you don't know. Up the stairs and across the beach settles the pulse. Dream tomb of the Exarch was definitely breaking the 'Have An Exit Strategy'/'Know All The Exits' rule.

And, sure. Scrolls are literally the least sexy loot ever. Even a tablet at least looks impressive.

"Sure, yeah. We can peek?" A long finger pointed across the dream-scape to where the Sanctum might be. "Peek and stash them at the theatre here? Or at the Circle here? Like, yeah. I don't think they go out with us. There's probably a spell for that, but I don't know it. But I don't think they'll... disappear."

[Briar Rose]

yes!

Happily scadadling after Star she hops, bounces, and vibrates. Nothing bad happened. Not an earthquake, not a cave in, not a random rolling boulder. Their faces still might melt off, but. Eh. Gotta live.

"Totally the Theatre. I mean." she gives a weird smile not smile, "Come on." a shrug. "But, yeah. I wanna take a good look first. Like. I mean. Come on!" eyes alight, she bounces from foot to foot. "So. Both of us take a peak at a different scroll, or, do a one at a time thing, or?"

Wait was this, B-Ro learning about plans and teamwork? Maybe.

[Star]

"Oh, uh. Definitely one at a time."

Someone needs to be able to carry someone if the scrolls melt brains. This could totally be the No Sith Translations Allowed edition. Dollars to donuts says they're probably just Ozymandias --the poem, not the booty call-- manifestos or incomprehensible spells.

But poisoning the well is a thing, yo.

"How about we skip on over and you can go first since you're the Curious George?"

Because ladies first.

4 successes to sliiiide over to the Santum

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-05-19 16:14:56	Star rolls 10 to Astral Movement (10 Again)	1, 10, 10, 3, 6, 6, 1, 3, 7, 10, 8, 5, 1	4 successes

[Briar Rose]

"I'd say something about your altruism but I am curious."

She tries to follow, and it takes her longer, but she moves. Eventually. She's totally distracted by her scrolls, yup. that's the truth. honest.

"I mean, aren't you?" she asks, but then frown. He's probably not. Guardian and everything. It's sort of amazing that they managed to nab even the scrolls.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-05-20 11:52:05	Briar Rose rolls 5 to Astral Moooove (Resolve 3 + Gnosis 2) (10 Again)	6, 2, 3, 7, 3	failure

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-05-20 11:52:22	Briar Rose rolls 4 to Astral Moooove (Resolve 3 + Gnosis 2-1retry) (10 Again)	5, 10, 1, 9, 2	2 successes

[Yumyumcrow]

The journey to the city proper seems to take an age. An aeon drifting slowly down through layers of mist as they pass multiple Dream Realms that hover over the state capital. Sacramento is a significant city and draws Dreams to it, as much as it generates Realms conjured by the Sleeper population. Nothing like the major metropoli of the world, of course, but enough to be noticeable.

Enough to cause some consternation for a distracted Briar Rose.

The streets of the city are a chiarascuro kaleidoscope. Buildings are present yet seemingly without substance. They glow and shiver like poorly constructed holograms. Sometimes a lone figure of a particularly deep - or lost - dreamer pops into view, and then vanishes.

@Star and Briar Rose reach their destination. Quick Clarification: You heading for the Circle or for the Theatre?

[Star]

See? She's learning. Nothing like a three headed hound from hell for motivation. Holy three layer cake. This is the wasteland of Sleeping minds. On the one hand: Veil intact. On the other: whoah, boring. Consider it commentary on sheeple. Tawdry. Uninspired. Banal.

"Of course I am. I'm a Guardian, aren't I?"

Illusion. Delusion. One from without and the other from within. It's an easy one to fall into. But here's the thing. People don't wake up saying 'Hide all the things'. Or those that do? Hopefully the end up as Mystagogues. A Guardian? Their curiosity took them too far. They saw something. Maybe it was Nietzsche's reflection. Maybe it was something else. That's when fear tempered curiosity.

Like a smoker that quits. They'll always still want a cigarette. Plus plus when they're drinking or just cruising down a long, empty stretch of road.

"Alrighty. Give one a look-see. Let me know if there's any weirdness -- they may need to, like, be activated or something."

Theatre!

[Briar Rose]

Queue a confused look. It's impressive in it's confusion. It's all in the brows. Maybe a bit in the lips.

"Those things don't sound like that go together." Guardians were the no fun police, everyone knew that.

As they travelled to the Theatre, Briar Rose can't help but gaze and long, and oooh. She was going to Do Something. This needed to be seen even if it wasn't the Exarch's Tomb, it was still. Y'know. Striking. Deserving of a tribute.

Nodding, she picks the one that was in the crook of her elbow. Moving it around, and boy aren't these things big. She chuckles and refrains from the obligatory that's what she said.

She drums her fingers and unrolls the scroll. Her mind envisioning butter whites, and golden rune work, but considering the source, she was also, not, expecting the whites and golds, but maybe something black. Something Stygian.

[Yumyumcrow]

The Theatre is their Sanctum. Thier sanctuary.

At a distance the building is about as solid as any of the other structures here in the astral: glowing; fuzzy edged; off centre. A few Dream Realms hover close overhead, drawn by their dreams. Okay, maybe not the one on the left - it looks glowering and morose and much too dark. That one's probably been attracted by Campanella.

The Astral recognises their connection. The theatre becomes The Theatre, Their Theatre - some solid, maybe even more... glowy?
Briar Rose picks a scroll and unfurls it. The object is... more or less... what she was expecting: runes of power glow white with mana, seemingly more solid than the parchment they are written on.

But it is not a Rote.

Rather, the text has been Imbued so it may never be lost to the churn of dream. The text is a curious hodgepodge of curious calculations, alignment, experimental notes and even Names. The Thyrsus is looking at an extensive series of ritual notes for contact Supernal Entities*

see Summon Supernal Being (Summoners, p73 and following)

[Star]

"Uh oh. Your Apostasy is showing."

It's all good. Sometimes it seemed like half the Guardians didn't know what Guardians did. Don't go in backwards. That's the real problem. See which shoe fits, don't try to shove a foot into one just because. Like books and covers. To thine own self be true, yadda yadda. This is where Wisdom begins.

Sometimes it begins in an abandoned theatre. Look at that. Like some comfy old shoes. It may not be real, but it's familiar.

"So? Still know your name? Count to ten backwards? Haven't been reprogrammed by a Cenobite?"

[Briar Rose]

She rolls her eyes. "Might be," she says, if he didn't want to elaborate, then she didn't want to hear it.

She looks, and looks and. Well. She a little disappointed. She was psyching herself up for brain implosions.

"Nah. I'm me." rolling out the scroll more, "Look, it's all mana and math." a smirk. "Interesting but not immediately deadly, but it could be. Looks like a ritual phone number." she says dumbing it way down, and offering Star a look see, while reaching for another scroll. Were they all the same, but for different things?