(PrP TDoEW) Dreaming of Ethan Walsh

[James Turner]

John watched the dream unfold, he was manifested but he still walked along like he was a passenger in the dream. His head moved to and fro taking in the details of the dream, watching what had transpired with fascination even as Ram seemed to shatter the illusion of the dream and then apologize.


John was an Oneiromancer but he was an empath first, eyes looking over at Ram as he apologized. Dream Poison was good to look for if he'd been bit, Cassandra's dreams had seemed clean so he didn't have much a reason to suspect Ram's would be infested. He was beginning to wonder if this was more to help him through his grief. He could easily find out by digging deeper into the dream and while he was not pledge bound he wasn't prone to violating another's boundaries without permission either. Either way the man still needed his help and he'd meant it when he said he was there to help, whatever help that turned out to be.


The shift in color had caught his attention, the bugs had mentioned something about memory. Was the color the memory? If the illusion of the dream is cinema is the memory hidden backstage? He looked around, shifting slightly as he moved a little closer to investigate. Not saying anything yet as Sera called the shots, his little curiosity couldn't help but be satisfied though.

John wants to investigate, what would be appropriate to roll in this situation?

[Ram]

To investigate would be a Dream Riding roll: Wits+Empathy-2Intensity
If you have occult at or higher you can receive a bonus of +2.
However, it does mean making changes to see how the dream reacts. Though they can be small and almost unnoticeable, this can risk disrupting the dream if you score over two successes on the roll (requiring a willpower to be spent to keep the dream from collapsing).
You are also free to self-impose penalties if you're worried about getting to good of a roll.

[Gerrit]

Gerrit followed the dream with interest - some details are not the way he remembered them. Cassandra hadn't been that persuasive, had she? Then again, a lot of this patrol was blurred by the red haze of his Ogre blood yearning for violence.. Gerrit kept quiet. If Ram remembered it like this, maybe he'd play other aspects down too.

Then the attack happened, and this time Seraphina and Circe had become targets as well! Although they were perfectly capable of handling themselves, Gerrit couldn't help but feel his blood boil again. Reasoning was no use then and there - action was necessary and Ram lead by shining example. Why didn't he do what he was made to do?

The Stonebones rejected that thought so thoroughly that even his dream-double shook his head. Reason might have been misplaced then, but it's why they were here now. He let his avatar act the scene out and took in the scene. Yes, this was it. He addressed the camera.

"This is where we lost him. I.. don't remember Ethan being with us beyond this point. What about you-" He was just about to ask Cassandra, but remembered her comatose condition beyond the attack just in time. Those memories would come on their own soon enough. "Ram?"

[Cassandra Reeding]

Cassandra makes a very confused face at what unfolds. A... dress? I wasn't wearing a dress. Much less something that elegant. And I was terrified. Does he really remember me being that confident? Again, it feels weird.

And then she winces, watching herself be attacked and she lets out a gasp as she feels the pain. She can hear her own screech in her mind, feel the dread, memories of how she actually felt flooding her mind. Everything is out of whack though. Everything here is wrong and it is going wrong.

Circe is taking out a gun and going ballistic on the swarm, leaving her ears ringing and she just kind of wants to scream.

Breathe. She has to remind herself to breathe. Focus. But still, that feeling of being stung lingers and there is a certain amount of dread that fills her again, knowing what came next for her. The nightmares. Helplessly running in the dark, through the endless halls of her mind to find a way out. She didn't know that she ever would.

She keeps her eyes out generally, too worried about disrupting the dream to delve in too far.

Perception 2 successes

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-14 23:54:43	Cassandra Reeding rolls 4 to Perception (wits 2 + composure 2) (10 Again)	8, 8, 1, 2	2 successes

[Ram]

Ram still looks worried and a little reluctant but with a sigh gives a nod before turning back to the scene with a yell.

“Get off you fuckers,” he screams as the insects begin to retreat. His voice and mantle mix oddly with Circe’s gunfire. The Summer queen’s bullets cut through more shimmering wings and bits of tree trunks exploded showering the area with splinters and killing even more.

They hadn’t had an attack that covered an area in the past. In the cream, they had an expert in the art of spray and pray. The swarm… was dead.

Ram is still breathing heavily and the Hedge with him. The world really. There was a swirl of emotions passing through the dream of undirected anger and instinct.

Things blurred along the edges. The environment of the Thorns seemed unreal. Distant. It twisted into shapes by something deep inside, barely clinging to reality.

The actors portraying Gerrit, Cassandra, and Ethan started taking on more roles. Their features melding with other distant memories that a tide moving in and out with that feeling of rage

The group finds themselves, now in a fuzzy mix of the Hedge and what feels like a World War 1 movie. The path is also a muddy trench. The autumn sounds are also distant echoes of bombings. And the travelers are now also soldiers in a war that doesn’t have an end.

“We’ve got a mission. Let’s go,” Ram muttered to his injured companions. They had to keep moving.

Ram glanced briefly out of character at Gerrit’s question “I, uhm,” he cleared his throat “I kinda assumed you guys were all still following at this point,” he said uncomfortably before turning back with a slight grunt.

Sera

Sera makes some small alterations and watches to see how the dream takes them. Yet, even as the dream descends into a half reality, it isn’t because it is being corrupted to prepare the way for Them. Odd as it is, this isn’t the result of dream poison.

Cassandra

Cassandra can feel in the memory a vague pulling. It was trying to drag her further into the battlescape. Nothing physical but on her mind. No Ram’s mind. This wasn’t her memory.

[Circe]

"Dead bugs, oh ho ho ho." Okay, she needed to get full auto something. That was kinda fun. What were we doing again? Oh right, they are supposed to investigate this thing. Circe moves around the dream freely. Scanning with the barrel of the gun pointed at the blank areas where nobody is. A fitting act for what she'd have done but also a good search pattern.


Circe wasn't doing it because it was what all the cool looking soldiers did in movies and games. Certainly not.

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-16 06:14:32	Circe rolls 9 to Perception (10 Again, WillPower)	6, 1, 1, 8, 10, 7, 7, 2, 6, 8	3 successes

As her own aside Circe comments, "So take folks and ya forget they were taken? I'm gonna get the biggest can of Raid ever."

[Seraphina]

Listening to Gerrit, she nods to the camera. Intent on nod disrupting the Dream anymore than she already was.

So something happened when the bugs attacked. It either scared Ethan, or something more sinister happened. Manifesting as she did limited her a bit. Not a whole lot, but enough that she needed to be careful. Too much and she risks the Dream dissolving and losing any clues.

With Rams powerful scream, the bugs go away. Either from his voice…or Circe’s gun. But with them gone, they could essentially take a breath. Regroup thoughts, and look more closely at the situation.

As the Dream shifts and blurs, she watches, sapphires looking for anything out of place. But without seeing any Poison, she was a bit stumped. If poison wasn’t affecting Ram’s memories of the event, what was? Or was anything?

Looking to the camera, as instructed, “Does anyone remember Ethan after the bugs attacked?” breaking the 4^th wall so to speak. Did the bugs carry a poison that allowed Ethan to wander off and die somewhere? Or was the chaos of the bugs a chance for one of the Freeholds own to be taken? Was the memory tainted by something else?

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-16 09:41:44	Seraphina rolls 5 to Analyzing the Dream(Wits+Empathy-Dream Int) (10 Again)	6, 3, 3, 6, 10, 7	1 success

[James Turner]

John could feel it, see it, his hand reaching out to start touching where the bugs had been to investigate his cautious nature winning out over his curiosity this time but the itch didn't go away it still scratched at the back of his head begging to be itched. He stayed like that, perfectly frozen in the moment as he more felt than saw the edges of the dream bleed. He looked around, his head almost spinning from the sudden shift.


He looked around as quickly as he could trying to process all the new information, all the new actors in the play. His eyes shifting to Ram, looking at him. His heart racing as he could hear the gunfire, feel the spray of dirt across his face as all those shouts turned into a low thrum as his heart beat in his chest and he had to take a shakey step forward before taking another to follow along in a daze.


Was this a connected trauma? Was this, is this...? His heart still racing in his chest having to clear his throat before he could shift to break character properly. "Ram, um, are you sure you want us to see this?" He didn't know if there was another way but through but it was the decent thing to at least ask if it was that personal. John wanted to help, not accidentally invade Ram's subconscious.


He gave a look to Sera and raised an eyebrow. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but it certainly hadn't been this. He did his best to communicate quietly not wanting to break the dream flow that much if he could help it. Sera was Doctor here and John was here to protect and since Sonnie wasn't there he guess it fell to him. He took an uncomfortable breath, not wanting to be in the middle of things if something happened but she'd already been attacked once. So he took a position up closer to her, eyes open for threats to intercept if he had to. "Need my assistance with anything Doc?" He said trying to stay in character with the new theme of the dream. God, please don't let me be a Private, I might as well be wearing a red shirt at that point.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-16 14:33:15	James Turner rolls 7 to Perception (Wits + Comp) (10 Again)	6, 2, 1, 4, 1, 8, 6	1 success

John's playing meatshield for Sera to intercept threats to her if that's kosher.

[Gerrit]

Gerrit watched helplessly as the dream changed. This lead them farther away from the memory of that day, was this helpful at all? He turned to look at John and Sera, then he remembered that they couldn't see him like that. Considering their surroundings he didn't want his double to break focus, either. He answered Seraphina's question though, by talking to the camera. "I don't. I couldn't even tell you if he ran off or just.. you know, disappeared."

Seems like they had to follow this one through, or else the experienced Oneiromancers would intervene. For now, he and dream-Gerrit followed Ram's marching orders. He suspected that violence was a common theme for Ogres, but this was so much worse than what he had to endure. Is this a memory of Ram's durance? Remarkable, how soft-hearted and caring the Render was. Still, did he know where Ethan got left behind, were they trying to piece the puzzle together with what his subconsciousness provided them with?

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-16 15:09:38	Gerrit rolls 5 to investigate (Int 3 + Invest 2) (10 Again)	5, 5, 4, 1, 10, 9	2 successes

I didn't do a Empathy roll because the primer says you could use this to learn about the dreamer (over several nights) or see what kind of dream this is - I wanted to see if there is rhyme or reason to the surroundings but will happily roll something else instead.

[Cassandra Reeding]

Cassandra is watching and she is confused. The scene is shifting, clearly something in Ram's subconscious is pulling in a different direction, but also... Gerrit isn't wrong. Ethan really did just vanish to her recollection. She had been awake for a little while after the attack, but even still, did that matter with the way things are going?

What the heck are we doing now? She looks to the others, trying to see what they are doing. With a sigh, she speaks through her character like Gerrit and says, "This is the point where Ethan just vanished. The poison from the insects causes sleep. They stung me here and within a few hours, I fell into a nightmare. I couldn't wake for hours after that." I didn't know if I would even wake. I could feel my Keeper taunting me, poking at me to ask him for help. It makes her sick thinking about it.

The things that are happening here are new though, something else pulling from Ram's mind, so she does opt to keep looking around in case anything else odd begins to happen. She wants to be prepared.

Perception 1 success

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-17 02:34:29	Cassandra Reeding rolls 4 to Perception (wits 2 + composure 2) (10 Again)	8, 1, 2, 2	1 success