[CHQ] A Story Just For You

Wind Rider · August 15, 2017

Heading into the "mansion", Mina laid the bodies down, taking heed not to look at her body while she did. Things just weren't adding up with what was going on and things got even weirder when Jacques showed up. "What is happening here? Who are those bodies? Why didn't you stay in your room? You should all be asleep now instead of going around this mansion this late. The dream exploration should have been underway now, but why are you lurking around like this?

If you all were only interested in creating trouble in this realm rather than helping the young mistress, then I would implore you all to leave now, or else." And he looked ready for a fight. But why was he here? He didn't get sent in here too did he? And why was he suggested that they were messing around? All this dream stuff was starting to give Mina a headache.

"This isn't right, damnit. The butler's right in a way, something's wrong. This is that little girl's dream, isn't it? This butler should only know what she knows, so why does he know about our quest? Why does the butler know about putting us to sleep and then having put us into a bedroom? That's something that happened after we fell asleep so even we wouldn't know that, so why?

There was that scene earlier too, with the carriage outside. The girl shouldn't have known how we arrived at the mansion so how was she able to recreate it in her dream?"

Mina nodded. "Again, I hate to agree with you but you're right, things aren't right... If this dream is from the girl's own mind then how is she dreaming all this? We need figure this out now, and Jacques... Dream Jacques... Or whoever you are, better let us do what we came here to do or else!" As much as she didn't want to fight, they would have to come to blows if necessary.

Maeriberii Haan · August 15, 2017

Jacques' stance noticeably went more lax as he listened to what Ro had to say. His expression was still quite stern and suspicious, but he was seemingly starting to question some things too. He still wasn't really accepting the explanation, but he himself had nothing to explain about the bodies they were carrying. Auburn's words were more concerning though.

An impossibility.

Something was off. Whatever was going on, something was definitely off the moment the four of these members of Cherry Heart entered this mansion. He wasn't sure yet about what, however. Making sense of any of this was difficult. Perhaps he could ask about it to the dream mage later? But first, he still had to make sure these visitors really meant no harm.

"Listen...I know you probably don't want to hear this, but you aren't real. You're part of your lady's subconscious. We're trying to help her...so if you know of any strange goings on in the mansion, it's in her best interest that you tell us! She's in great peril in the real world."

"Again, I hate to agree with you but you're right, things aren't right... If this dream is from the girl's own mind then how is she dreaming all this? We need figure this out now, and Jacques... Dream Jacques... Or whoever you are, better let us do what we came here to do or else!"

"Strangeness? Truth to be told, what is happening now with the four of you is quite strange in itself. If you so desire to, perhaps you can inspect the rooms of this mansion to see if anything strange is going on.

Is this a dream as you said? Truthfully, I have no idea. I am simply here for serving the master of this establishment, ever since I was young. If you truly act in the interest of the young mistress' health and safety, then I shall not obstruct you."

Jacques relented finally, and he returned his knives back to their sheathes. Clapping his hands, four doors opened behind him, seemingly by unknown means. A glimpse on these doors from their position would reveal a part of what was inside.

A flower garden, a library, a dining hall, and lastly, a dreary-looking dungeon room. Not much else could be seen from their current location. Something at the back of their thought would make them feel that once they entered a room, they would be unable to leave it. Visiting the other rooms seemed to still be a possibility too, but there must be a reason for why Jacques opened these four rooms specifically.

In the meantime, the sound of the mansion's big clock hitting the change of hour would be heard throughout the place, and with it, servants would start roaming the area, going through doors and the corridors in a seeming hurry. None of them would have any recognizable faces. The fluffy creature that was waiting below the painting huffed slightly as it continued to watch the four, seemingly showing unease as it waited for their decision.

And then, slowly but surely, the distortions started to happen once more in the hallway, with Jacques seemingly completely ignoring them. Or perhaps, he's unable to perceive them instead?

Astolfo · August 21, 2017

Thankfully for the Cherry Heart members, the words of Ro and the others seemed to at least partially soothe Jacque’s temper. The hesitation was clear, the butler still mentally reeling from the shock of the concept he was just part of a dream world. Stepping in, Dmitri and Mina drove in the final nail. Relenting, the butler sheathed his knives and stating he would no longer stop them. With a clap of the man’s hands, four doors opened behind the man.

The first two doors on the from the right of the hallway swung open, in addition to the first and fourth doors on the other side. Peeking in revealed the four contained a flower garden, a library, the mess hall, and what appeared to be a hideous dungeon - a stark contrast to the rich beauty around them. Nothing else was visible from their current standing position. A quick glance at Jacques showed he didn't seem to be in any rush to open any of the other four doors. Ro tilted his head, pondering.

A sudden gong rang out through the air, breaking his concentration. Just as suddenly, servants with blurred faces began to scurry out from god-knows-where, running around for their presumably important dream duties. Shortly after, the same sort of distortions from before began to reappear. Red flags began to trigger in Ro’s mind. Somehow, none of the dream people, including Jacques himself seemed to notice. There was most definitely something wrong.

Ro wasn't in a rush to go through a door either though, for the first time in his life. A peculiar feeling settled within his body, and for some inexplicable reason, he felt that traveling through a door would prevent viewing any other rooms. That wouldn't be suitable, given they had no idea how to meet up with each other again. And there was not a snowball’s chance in hell he was going to ask the shady-as-hell dream mage.

Ro turned to whisper to his teammates.

”I don't know if it's just me, but I'm getting the feeling if we go through a door, we won't be able to get back out. Now if this wasn't a dream world we still don't understand, splitting up would be a marginally less stupid idea. But it is, and we might not find each other again if we do that.

I'm going to run down to the end of the hall and open the other four doors starting from the back, so we can see all eight before making a decision.”

Ro started to run in a direction past Jacques before the butler could change his mind. Hopefully, the man would not stop him. If he successfully made it down the hall, he would run towards the fourth door on the right, to start opening from the back and then make his way back to the front.

(Assuming he made it past Jacques and the butler was fine with it and didn't chase him or such…)

As Ro bolted down the hallway, he squinted his eyes. There was a vaguely familiar form. Skidding to a stop, he pointed angrily at Myrdain’s animal form.

”What the hell are you doing here geezer? Bugger off if you aren't going to help and are just going to sit and watch. Go and get some popcorn or something.”

Looking up, there was a massive painting, far more grandiose - Ro guessed. The reason he couldn't be sure was that besides the much fancier and larger frame size, the entire painting was obscured by a smoke-like substance. Trying to brush it aside yielded no results. Shrugging, Ro turned back to face the last door. Swinging it open with one hand, he began to charge back down the hallway without taking a second look, flipping open all of the remaining closed doors as he made it back down to where the rest of his frien- guild members were. (This is assuming Jacques doesn't try and stop him for doing so.)

Rejoining them, he turned to motion at the now eight open doors, thumbing at them.

”Let’s go take a look.”

He debated whether to mention seeing Myrdain’s animal thing. Realizing he was still the only one who doubted Myrdain, he sighed. No point, they'd just go rush to meet him, and it's not like he could stop them from seeing the suspicious geezer once they went down the hall. He muttered to himself quietly.

”I swear to god I will so say ‘I told you so’ later when that piece of sheet reveals his true colors.”

mitchermitcher · August 21, 2017

Dream World/Auburn

After seeing Ro argue with the beast avatar of Myrdain far off in the corridor and then return whilst opening the remaining doors in his path, Auburn had to ask, "You, what did you talk about with the creature over there? And did you examine the painting?"

With all the doors now open, Auburn took a look at each of them. The four new doors revealed respectively, a trophy room, the same bedroom they originally woke up in, a kitchen room and finally, the room they met and were briefed in by Myrdain. Aside from the bedroom none of them seemed immediately suspicious. Maybe the last room revealed. On the other hand, whenever he had something he needed to know Auburn had always referred to the library room back in the Peachfield mansion. He had no idea if the library here would be as useful, seeing it was but a reconstruction in a dream world.

However, with the gradual reappearance of the distortions Auburn felt the impetus required to make a decision. "I shall go in here. There could be something interesting within." He stood in front of the relevant door, announced to the other three, and walked in.

Wind Rider · August 22, 2017

Mina breathed a sigh of relief when Jacques calmed down to an extent, this thankfully didn't come to blows. She looked on as, with the clap of his hands, four doors appeared behind the butler. Three of them looked inviting, save for the one leading to a dark and gloomy dungeon.

”I don't know if it's just me, but I'm getting the feeling if we go through a door, we won't be able to get back out. Now if this wasn't a dream world we still don't understand, splitting up would be a marginally less stupid idea. But it is, and we might not find each other again if we do that.

I'm going to run down to the end of the hall and open the other four doors starting from the back, so we can see all eight before making a decision.”

Good idea, they really needed to know there other choices, granted Jacques might stop him but it didn't seem he was going to. After a quick run, he came back. ”Let’s go take a look.”

Mina nodded and looked at the doors along with Auburn. "I shall go in here. There could be something interesting within." Mina watched as Auburn entered his door and kept eyeing the others. The garden seemed the most inviting, which may meant that it could be the most dangerous.

"Eh... What the heck, I'm always up for an adventure, I'm heading to the garden." she said to the others as she entered the door.

Mr. Hyde · August 22, 2017

The pale imitation of Jacques had seemingly realized the situation. They were here to save his lady, and that was all that mattered to a servant. Dmitri gave a sigh of relief. Usually shattering one's psyche, and telling them they're an illusion, doesn't always yield such great results. With the butler now calm, he clapped his hands. As he did, four doors appeared behind him. Either the butler could do this in the real world, or the Dream Jacques had come to terms with his powers in this realm. Whichever was the case, the team had to choose now which doors they would investigate. A bedroom, a kitchen, a garden, and library.

”Let’s go take a look.” Ro gave sentiment, seeming not to want to tear the team up to investigate. Though it was the safest way to go about things in this situation, surely it was not the most time efficient, and time was surely of the essence. However, the shadowy creatures had once again appeared, unseen by Jacques. There was no time to check the doors all the way at the end of the hallway! Ro's idea was now a totally lost cause. The other members seemed to deem the idea so as well, and proceeded to choose doors to head into.

"Well I know exactly where I'm heade-"

"I shall go in here. There could be something interesting within."

Auburn totally tomb boned him by walking into the Library.

"I've...never read a book in a dream before..." Dmitri clutched the front of his shirt, a look of defeat crossed his face. "And now...surely...I never will." Instead, he decided to choose the kitchen. He turned to Ro, the only remaining member in the present room. "Be warned, I'm quite the foul cook!"

Astolfo · August 23, 2017

At Auburn’s question, Ro spat on the carpet.

“Just some disgusting sack of sheet that needs to learn to bugger off. And the painting is as foggy as a senile old man’s vision. There’s some sort of magic obscuring it, but I can’t interact with it at all.”

However, even with Ro’s warning they should perhaps stick together, Auburn seemed to have other thoughts. Walking ahead into the library before Ro could stop him, the horned kid facepalmed. It wasn’t worth chasing that brat. Mina-brat followed suit similarly, going through the door into the garden. Ro turned to look towards Dmitri as a last bastion of rational thought, but even he too left, going for the kitchen. Groaning, he looked towards the ceiling, unsure of what to do next. It was a toss between confronting the rabbity crapsack of a vessel Myrdain was using and going straight to the bedroom where the princess had been.

As he walked down the hall towards the painting since the bedroom door was towards the end anyways, he glanced at the animal out of the side of its eye. Upon reaching the door, Ro spun around, punting the animal all the way down the hallway as brutally as he could. Spitting on the ground where it had been sitting, Ro entered the bedroom, slamming the door shut loudly before he realized the girl was there. He paused, wondering if it had woken her up, but then mentally berated himself. If something as simple as that would’ve woken her up, this mystery would have been much shorter and probably ended long ago anyways.

Striding over proudly, he peered down at the sleeping form. Just as in real life, the girl was sleeping in here too. Lightly grasping her shoulder, he shook her gently, tapping on her face with his other hand.

“Wake up, girlie. Your Prince Charming is here to save the day.”

He reeled back. Her body was warm. Were dream beings even supposed to be warm? He paused. Thinking back, their own bodies had been warmish as well, but he supposed that wasn’t a really good comparison considering everything in this world was screwed up anyways. What was he even supposed to make out of this situation? No one seemed to remember they had their dream bodies, which were currently left behind with Jacques after the butler had volunteered. Was that even a smart idea? Who knows.

However, the bigger issue was the girl was still fully unconscious. Ro’s ears perked up at an unusual sound. Tweaking his ears, he heard a faint mumbling. Leaning right up against the girl’s mouth, he tried to get a better grasp of what she was saying.

"How could... you... I hope you burn... for what you've done... I expected.... better from you.... of all people..."

Ro’s face contorted in surprise. Even besides the words itself which seemed both, one, far more vulgar than befitting of a princess-like girl like her, and two, showed disappointment towards someone for doing something terrible supposedly, there was a stranger issue. Her voice was far more aged than it would be for a young girl like her. Rather than a small pre-teenager, it sounded like a full grown twenty-year old adult woman.

“What the actual hell?”

Something was unusual though. He didn’t notice it at first, but after sticking closer to her, he could definitely hear that her breathing was ragged, as if she was in a nightmare in this world as well. In addition to that, her temperature was slowly fluctuating between the normal warmth level and a feverish high. The smell of sweat was hanging like a sickening pestilence in the air, her overall appearance terrible. Ro ground his teeth. Although he didn’t have any hard proof it was Myrdain’s fault, it was continually seeming like it was more and moreso the truth. Pausing, he berated himself. Of course if he built evidence around a supposed theorem, they’d fall together. That was a well-known fallacy. He sighed. No matter how much he hated Myrdain, he still had no hard proof.

Finding a small handkerchief, he conjured up a chemical from his fingertips to soak it slightly. It was of similar properties to water, but remained cool longer. Laying it on her forehead, Ro took the time alone to observe her a bit more closely. Despite her current pale and worn-down look, it was undeniable for her age, she was a beauty. Looking around the room, the loving - and spoiling - lavishments of the parents were obvious, her room fancy and adorned with all sorts of expensive goods. He clucked his tongue slightly. Although he couldn’t remember why, somewhere within his twisted, black, black heart, he felt a strange pang. An unusual, alien sensation. For some inexplicable reason, his chest felt sore as he took in the surroundings.

“I wonder… when I was… young like this… did I have parents that loved me so...”

He muttered to himself. The strange world and environment was making him feel strange, indecipherable feelings, and he decided he quite didn’t like them. He was about to spit as usual, but after a second thought, he decided to simply swallow instead. For some reason, defiling this room - which felt more like a holy sanctity - left a bad taste in his mouth.

“What is it with me today...”

Maeriberii Haan · August 24, 2017

"Murr...murr..."

The fluffy critter seemed to be quite irritated by Ro's actions, and seemingly was going to be following him back to the group and do something, but it seemed to decide that it wasn't a good idea. Meanwhile, Jacques, while not really appreciating how Ro opened all the other doors, settled with looking over the bodies that the guild members were carrying. If they really would cause any issue with the mansion, he would know. The Cherry Heart members themselves seemed to be following their own paths, deciding to split up and explore the rooms one by one.

Auburn was the first to choose, and he went into the Library. The moment he entered the room, the door behind him shut itself, preventing him to go out. At first glance, nothing seemed to be off with this library, but if Auburn took a good look at what's inside of the room before he approached and entered it, he would notice that the room suddenly became far larger and ornate - something befitting a grand library of a nation, rather than the collections of a local landlord.

It was completely devoid of other humans for the time being, but walking around it would make it clear that someone had seemingly used it recently. On a table nearby, there were a half-finished cup of tea, and Auburn would be able to feel that it's still kind of warm if he touched it. If Auburn personally checked the individual books on the library, he would notice that he could actually read most of them - none of the books were obscured by weird blurs, and furthermore, Auburn would be able to see the complete information within them. Most of them were detailing about the history of Arbolia, the study and theories of magic, and the strange creatures lurking around the land. He would also see that around half of the books were written in a strange glyph, but it was clear enough for him to take note of any of them should he desire to.

After a while of exploring the library, there would be the sound of commotion outside, and Auburn would be able to see what was going on from the large decorated window on the spacious room. He would see that the outside made it seem like he was in a grand city which he would have never seen before except in story books, and he would see a parade of armored individuals on horses, slowly advancing through the city while being cheered by the crowd. One of them would definitely looked like a king to him, although the individual's face was obscured with a helmet.

At that moment however, several knocks on the door to the library would be heard, followed by an unfamiliar female voice.

"Sir, are you there? You promised that you'll teach me about the history of the dragons, right?"

Auburn would find that he could open the door now, and what he would see was a blonde-haired girl in a white dress. Her visage depicted her innocence, yet behind it was a completely firm determination. Seeing that Auburn was not the person she was waiting for, she entered the room anyway and locked the door behind her, walking around the library as she searched for a book.

"I don't know who you are, but I'd rather not call the guards to this place. Why don't we have a chat then? It's a beautiful afternoon, we can watch the sunset together from here in the meantime."

Mina would find herself in a peculiar garden. It would seem as if she had gotten out of the mansion and was walking through a strange grassfield for a while until she would see a run-down cathedral that had been overtaken by wild flowers, Going inside would make her find out the beds of roses growing freely on the cathedral floor, leaving little room for Auburn to walk around inside.

On the altar however, a figure had been waiting for her. Clad in full plate armor, with two blades sheathed on their waist - one was clearly a large broadsword, and the other looked a lot more delicate and thin comparatively. The figure was kneeling as if they were praying to something, before they got up and turned around to see Mina, revealing the female voice from inside of the armor.

"Hm...? Oh. I thought someone followed me into this place, but you are merely a wraith and aberration not part of this place.

Why are you here, little one? It is not often for a beastkin to be around this place. Right. I understand what was happening now. He really was messing around again.

Young one. Mina, leave this place at once, before-"

Her voice was cut before she could finish speaking, and the distortion of the realm had swallowed everything that Mina could see, leaving her in complete pitch-black darkness for a few moments before the world regained its colors. She would find herself now in the flower garden that she would notice as the one she passed through earlier while being greeted by Jacques before entering the mansion. She could see Jacques had been on standby nearby, and soon after the sound of the horse wagon became clear.

And then there were roars, and a dark shadowy figure tackled the wagon again before it could reach Jacques - in an almost exact recreation of the scene Mina saw earlier. The butler was clearly surprised to see that happen.

Setting its sight on her, the beast roared before it lunged towards her.

Dmitri, who chose the kitchen, would find that it was brimming with people. Cooks preparing for many different dishes, servants going left and right to get ingredients or to move the finished cookings away and preparing them, The scale of what was going on made it was clear that a feast was coming. Some of the cooks would notice his presence and treated him as one of the servants, pushing him to help them with the kitchen.

In the meantime however, he would notice a small figure moving around rapidly in the midst of the ruckus. And soon, he would hear complaints about prepared dishes suddenly getting damaged or went missing.

"Oh and Jacques, please get Felice here. it's time for the young mistress to get changed. Wait, what did you say? The spell was a failure? W-what are those bodies? You're saying this realm is actually just a dream? Why are you talking this nonsense?

Wait, why are you saying that I shouldn't go here for now-

Oh, hello there Ro."

As Ro reminiscenced before the unconscious young girl, Myrdain opened the door just as he was bickering with Jacques about something. He was carrying a jug of tea on his hand which he almost dropped as he saw Ro, but he managed to control his surprise for the moment as he returned to the young girl's side.

"My my, so you actually returned to this place. And you brought those bodies too here for some reasons. What's with that look? Did you find any leads regarding the distortions happening inside of this dream?

Don't mind Jacques or the other servants. It was clear that you have been succcessfully inserted into this dream. So just continue on and leave this place, alright? The young mistress would need to take a bath and change her clothing."

It was then that Ro would see the young girl turn around to see Myrdain. The girl opened her eyes, and Ro would see her golden eyes staring at the dream mage.

"Where is Papa? Where is Jacques? You said they would be here today, right? Its my birthday soon, I don't even hear anyone talking about it lately.

And...where is Myr-"

Before she could finish, a hand came out from the girl's mouth and grasped at Ro's neck. It would be too sudden for Ro to be able to act on it, and he would be struggling to release himself from the sudden strangulation until something rammed the hand with enough force for it to release its grasp on Ro's neck.

At that time, Ro would see that it was the fluffy animal that had been everpresent through their time inside of the dream. WIth a fierce look, it stared at both the girl and Myrdain. Seeing the sight, Myrdain didn't seem to change his expression from the usual jolly one he had, but as he spoke, a female voice came out instead of the one Ro would expect.

"Oh look, seems like that pathetic scum is still trying his best to escape from my grasp. I really should have melted his mind into the girl so he couldn't run away, but that wouldn't be fun.

If it's not for this familiar of his, I would have been able to show him this exquisite story made from the blood of his last attempt for freedom. Ah well, I'll figure out something later."

The room would soon collapse into nothingness, and Ro would find itself and the familiar inside of a small and dark room inside of a dungeon. The wooden door before him was locked, and he could hear rumbling of strange creatures on the distance. Meanwhile, Myrdain and the little girl were nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps it would be best to find a way out of this as soon as he could so he could tell what he saw to the others.

Astolfo · August 28, 2017

Ro

Ro’s mental reflections were cut short as he heard a quite, sickeningly familiar voice behind him. He spun around angrily.

“Why the hell are you- no, what the hell are you doing here in your human form? This is the dream world, where the funk is that rabbit soccerb-

Wait… you know this is a dream? Then why and how are you in your human form? Aren’t you the anchor for us? I’m not telling you sheet, and I don’t trust you either after what I had just heard the girl mumble in her sleep. Like hell I’d leave her alone with you.”

Before either could continue further though, the girl behind Ro suddenly awoke, revealing golden, beautiful eyes. She began to ask questions, and revealed that the date today had been her birthday. Her words were suddenly interrupted as a hand snaked out lightning fast from the girl’s mouth, clutching Ro’s throat with an iron grasp. Choking in surprise, he squirmed, kicking his legs, but to no avail. The hold was unbreakable. Just as he was about to resort to using chemicals, a sudden force broke the brutal grasp. Falling to the ground, Ro coughed, rasping as he tried to breathe back in what he had just lost.

To his surprise it was… the fluffy animal? The hell? How was both that and the human Myrdain here? What was even going on? But if glares could kill, the animal would have impaled both the girl and the human Myrdain multiple times over. Ro looked between the three figures, confused, until the human dream mage form began to speak. However, a strange female voice rang out instead of the warm male voice Ro had heard all thee times.

"Oh look, seems like that pathetic scum is still trying his best to escape from my grasp. I really should have melted his mind into the girl so he couldn't run away, but that wouldn't be fun.

If it's not for this familiar of his, I would have been able to show him this exquisite story made from the blood of his last attempt for freedom. Ah well, I'll figure out something later."

What? Wait, so… Myrdain was actually innocent? Before he could have a chance to apologize for not realizing that a third malefactor might have been the true cause, the room disintegrated aroound Ro. Falling through the darkness, he slammed into the floor of a cramped and pungent dungeon cell. As he tried to get up, he realized there was barely enough room to stand let alone reach out. The wooden door in front him was sturdy and locked, and beyond, the ominous rumblings of what seemed to be the shadow monsters from earlier was audible.

Staying here wouldn’t do. Nor would drawing the attention of any other potential unwelcome dungeon guests. Gritting his teeth, Ro pulled back his sleeves and pressed his palms firmly against the wooden surface, opposite of the lock and handle region. As he chanted mysterious words that rang with power out loud, imbuing his hands and hair with an unnatural green fire, the hissing of smoke and acid could be heard. As the air began to fill with a terrible scent, Ro realized the other issue. It would be a race between his air supply in this limited cell and what he could get through the barred slits, and the time it would take to burn through this. Taking in a deep breath of air, he put his mind to work. To fall here would be an absolute disgrace.

A few minutes later, an explosively loud sound rang out as the wooden door fell to the floor. With it, Ro collapsed on the remains, as he desperately wheezed and breathed. The oxygen supply had grown dangerously low, even for him. His vision was blackening slightly, and he simply laid on the door for a few minutes as he restored his body to a healthier state.

Slowly standing back up, he looked around. The rest of the dungeon looked just as predictably stank, dark, and damp as he expected after being in one of the cells himself. Finding the exit within a few minutes, Ro slowly crept out and looked around. Wouldn’t do to be seen by the enemy immediately again.

Depending on what he’d see, his next course of plans would change as well.

mitchermitcher · August 29, 2017

Dream World/Auburn

"Ah..." Unconsciously Auburn felt relieved at the scent of paper filling the room that seemed much larger on the inside than out. Of course, this being a dream the illogical architecture was nothing unexpected but on the other hand, despite the lack of coherency to the sequence of backgrounds the group've shuffled through to now, the places Auburn and company have witnessed all resembled their real life counterparts to the smallest details. Perhaps this too was an accurate representation of the library of the girl's family? It may not be a library within the mansion in real life but, well either way there was little point pondering over it. Moreso than anything else, Auburn was a veteran of libraries, and it's been so long after all, he eagerly began exploring the gigantic room. Any thought of contacting Myrdain for help was forgotten.

Firstly, Auburn tried a sip of the coffee in the cup on a table and found it warm. "How should I describe this flavor...?" It was a dream so the detail might not matter much, Auburn placed the cup down and made a note of it in the back of his mind. Next he went straight to the books. The bookshelves. Strangely enough the books were legible and not only that, they had coherent content. He ignored the history books and made to search for ones detailing magic of any kind, but particularly of dream craft. It was a little unlikely but he thought if he found one, he'd look up the contents and see if it'd explain the bizarreness of this dream, including why he'd be able to read books in such detail in someone else's dreams. He also made sure to check any of the books open on the library tables for hints.

The commotion outside awoke him from his reading spree however. He walked over to the window to look outside, and as expected he saw something he did not expect. As expected of dreams.

He saw a crowd and a parade he did not recognize outside. Nothing about this scene was familiar. "Oi, oi, no matter how you cut it this is just getting too elaborate."

Just before he thought to go out there himself to check with the dream becoming so detailed he forgot it was one, a new character appeared. A knock on the door prompted Auburn to walk over anyway and open the door to see a well-dressed girl expecting someone else.

"What are you now?" He blurted out on instinct, the dream was overwhelming him to the point of ready acceptance to any turn of events that could occur. The girl ignored his inquiry and made her way in comfortably, before addressing him in a strangely unnatural way. There was an unnatural acceptance to the girl's words that made him doubt she was real, strangely enough. Auburn felt hesitant. Could he actually interact with this...illusion of a girl?

"How about some coffee?" He figured basic courtesy wouldn't hurt and retreated from sight to begin brewing some with his potions kit. As for the cup...He reused the one he drank from earlier. He finished the remaining amount by himself first, then poured a hefty amount of mocha into it. He wasn't fond of bitter stuff himself. Auburn served it to the girl.

"How shall I begin this...?" Auburn thought hard on what to ask first. The girl had an air of nobility to her, she didn't feel difficult to approach, but the dream situation made it difficult for Auburn to know what his priorities are. "Who were you expecting here?"

"Where is this place? This building. This city."

And finally, "Who are you?"

Mr. Hyde · August 30, 2017

As Dmitri entered the kitchen, he almost instantaneously realized all of the commotion and hubbub that was happening, when prior to stepping in he hadn't even seen a trace of this business. Chef's and servants of all kinds hustled about the utensils and ingredients, making sure that everything was spick and span, free from any erroneous natures of the said things. It was much less troublesome than those shadowy creatures in here, but being thrown into this situations was much like one of the large lobsters being thrown into the boiling water. He was going dizzy from all of the noise and busybodying. He was even getting pushed around by some of the staff, themselves presuming that Geo was himself one of the common workers. Dmitri nervously shuffled below the crowd, making sure to avoid the traffic.

However, being so low to the ground, he spotted something small running among the sea of legs. It was odd and seemed out of place. Had an ingredient gotten loose?

"Where are my carrots?!" One chef cried out.

"This bed has gotten moist! Who's spilling water over here?" Another cried out. These problems seemed to be common trifles for the busy kitchen, but something about that small thing from before had piqued his interest. He followed the trail of stolen foods and wet tile to see if he could find the neerdowell.

Maeriberii Haan · September 1, 2017

The dungeon Ro was in seemed to be quite empty at first, but past the first few cells, he would be able to see lines and lines of prisoners in various conditions. Some were clearly mere peasants imprisoned for thievery and other crimes of similar nature, some looked quite grizzled and intimidating, and even some of them had a certain air of dignity you wouldn't find from common folks. Even then, they were busy minding their own business and not paying attention to Ro yet.

The fluffy beast followed Ro's steps and touched him once, sending him the imagery of the painting in the middle of the hallway earlier. Soon however, Ro would realize that despite him seemmingly following the path towards what seemingly to be an exit, he ended up somehow entering a deeper level of the dungeon. The room seemingly became more damp air-wise, and soon Ro would start finding guards in full knight armor patroling the dungeon. The fluffy beast started to look worried as they passed the area, and after a while of walking Ro would find himself with 3 guards patroling the corridors, circling the area. And on the other side, he might be able to notice the sole room at the end of the corridor, and that there were certainly someone in it.

____________________
|X| |

| ______ G ____ |

|   |           | |       |   |
|   |           | |       |   |
|      __________      G   |

| G | | |

| | | |

| |
| |R| |

He would be able to assume that the knights would be leagues ahead of the shadow he faced earlier, although it still was possible to defeat if he could figure out more about them.

"My my, that is a lot of questions. You really aren't from around here, aren't you? Trespassing here would be a serious crime if you get caught, you know?

Well, might as well answer your question. It'd be better than calling the guards here.

This is the beautiful city of Taxus, capital of the glorious kingdom of Fraxinus. Weird that you don't have any ideas about it, since you look human and this is the only human kingdoms around. Or were you from afar, from the lands untouched by the lights of civilization?

A-ah, I got carried away. Well, I was expecting my mentor, Myrdain. That man's quite hopeless, you know? It's not everyday someone that young ends up being such an esteemed magus, but in exchange, he's hopeless when it comes to people, especially girls. Always finding reasons to avoid me even when he's supposed to groom me, what a pitiful man.

Oh, right. I suppose I should also introduce myself. I am Ierne, the king of this realm. Well...actually not really. I am the heir apparent, but my uncle is the one leading the kingdom as its regent right now, until I'm ready of course."

The girl then sat across of Auburn, carrying a few heavy history books with her. Auburn perhaps would recognize one of them from his times in his own library, but he would then realize that the copy of the book he knew(if he recognized it) was a part of the oldest book collection he knew, yet the girl had a copy that was still completely fresh and prim. The girl looked at the content of the cup afterwards, and giggled a bit before finishing it in one gulp. Auburn should be able to tell about the oddity of someone this important acting as improperly like that.

"I prefer tea, but this is better than nothing. Well, since you're not my mentor and I don't like dragons that much, perhaps we can talk more about something more interesting.

Like, perhaps the great cataclysm from three centuries ago?"

If he looked more carefully, Dmitri would be able to see that the animal was a yellow and white cat, holding into a sizable amount of meat that seemed to be a bit too much for it to eat alone. The kitchen was chaotic, but Dmitri managed to follow it by carefully examining its trail. It would lead to the back of the area, where the cat seemingly found a way to slip through the window. The backdoor was strangely not locked, and if Dmitri went through there, he would see a disheveled-looking girl that were seemingly going to indulge herself with the meat the cat brought to her before Dmitri appeared. The blonde-haired girl looked at him with a panicked expression.

"A-ahh, so I've been caught again. Does this mean I'll be sent into the dungeon again, sir?"

She was definitely looking scared, but she didn't try running away. As soon as she said it she was busy eating the meat while keeping her eye contact with Dmitri.

"So when are you going to arrest me?"

Wind Rider · September 1, 2017

Mina couldn't believe her eyes, she had seemingly gone from a spacious mansion to a large garden of flowers, the mansion wasn't even in sight anymore. What was in sight was an unusual cathedral in the center of the garden. "Curious..."

Mina wandered into the cathedral, how could this all be a little girl's dream, it just didn't seem possible. Further in, Mina ran into a knight, praying beside an altar, they didn't seem hostile but Mina had her hand close to her whip just in case.

"Hm...? Oh. I thought someone followed me into this place, but you are merely a wraith and aberration not part of this place.

Why are you here, little one? It is not often for a beastkin to be around this place. Right. I understand what was happening now. He really was messing around again.

Young one. Mina, leave this place at once, before-" she didn't get to finish her sentence as everything around the knight distorted and turned to pitch black darkness.

"Wait! What do you mean? How do you even know my name?!" Mina's questions could not be heard as it seemed like she was the only one there again. A few moments passed and the world around her brightened up again, revealing another familiar scene, the carriage ride to the mansion, only it was actually close to the mansion gates where Jacques was standing.

And just like the last time, a shadow creature attacked the carriage, only this time it had noticed Mina and made a break for her. "What the!?" In a blind panic to stop the creature, Mina quickly grabbed and fired her rifle at the creature.

mitchermitcher · September 5, 2017

Dream World/Auburn

"Yes, that... Hmph, wait. Let me ponder on a bit." Auburn got up to brew another cup, for both himself and the person in front of him. Slowly he was beginning to make sense of what was going on, but he didn't like where it was going and what this setting in the dream implied, for either the girl he's supposed to save, the princess here or Myrdain herself.

There were roughly speaking, two possibilities here. Either this is still the girl's dream he was still experiencing, or it was Myrdain's. Whoever the dream's owner was, they were at least much older than he initially thought. There was no explaining that book in the girl's possession otherwise. What Auburn was currently experiencing is the memory of an individual from eras before his own. Thousands of years earlier. This was a different Fraxinus than the current day kingdom he knew of. A brand new copy of an ancient forgotten tome in the Peachfield's vast library added validity to this dream. Either Myrdain was a mage from that long ago, or the client was in truth, the king-to-be princess he was now interacting with. And Auburn was either replacing Myrdain in his own memory, or he was being inserted into the girl's memories and is interacting with an iteration of the girl herself. Then again, Auburn supposed the only difference was whether he was interacting with the girl's or Myrdain's memories of the girl. Of course, if he had to decide who was more likely to be the immortal relic from the past it'd be the magician, but he wasn't completely sure anymore...

Whilst lost in thought he withdrew a cup-shaped flask from his toolkit, it'll have to do. He didn't see any other cups around the coffee table. He saw some tea leaves from the corner of his eye, but he was a coffee person. They will both drink coffee. "Unfortunately we're out of tea leaves!"

A minute later and he returned to the table, and handed a cup of coffee over. As a formality, he'd first have to establish some form of identity, even if indeed the girl was quite accepting of him. It was of course a farce, and the girl likely knew it. "...As you can perhaps tell, I am a traveler from afar, from a land unknown to this nation at this time." Which was technically true. " Myrdain happens to be...an acquaintance of mine," Also technically true, "and he was supposed to receive me here, but evidently he's nowhere to be found."

:And of course, before I forget. I am..." Somewhere within, Auburn scrambled his head for an alias. "Chestnut. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. "

"Well anyway, no matter. The Cataclysm it is." In his excitement to find out about such an important historical event, particularly within the field of magical history, the boy had perhaps forgotten entirely just who he was addressing in such an equal manner. "I'm only familiar with the barest of details. Takes longer than a few centuries for news of this to reach where I lived. Tell me all about it and I'll tell you what I know too. I'm very interested."

Perhaps the hint to learning magic wasn't buried in guesswork and magical theory that has yet to develop, it might be found in the past. And he was going to extract everything he could from this memory fragment, his client can come later.

[spoiler=OOC]Naturally, if told, Auburn will also tell the girl everything that consists of common knowledge regarding the cataclysm, except how it historically affected Fraxinus or the rest of Arbolia. Doesn't seem wise to bring in future knowledge of that sort of stuff. If it's purely technical knowledge regarding the Cataclysm and magic, Auburn reasons it's likely to be fine somehow.

Mr. Hyde · September 8, 2017

Dmitri soon realized that he was tracing the path of some sort of cat with a piece of meat in it's mouth. Surely no one would suspect someone working here to follow a thief that was harboring too much food for itself? He followed the cat until he reached the back of the kitchen, the cat slipping through some open window. Next to the window was a door. Turning the knob, he found it unlocked. Lucky him. He pushed through the door to find himself in some sort of strange room, where a beautiful girl would be seen with the meat and cat in hand. Lucky him. She looked to panic, but Dmitri raised his empty hands to show he wasn't a threat.

"A-ahh, so I've been caught again. Does this mean I'll be sent into the dungeon again, sir? So when are you going to arrest me?"

Sir definitely had a nice ring to it, it made the thoughts in Geo's head run wild with fantasy. She didn't even try to run. It didn't seem she was a threat, nor did she mean anyone any harm. Just a harmless street urchin trying to find her next meal. He shook his head.

"I'm no police officer, ma'am. You're safe from the dungeon for now." He put up a finger to scold the woman. "Didn't your parent's ever teach you not to steal? It turns into quite the slippery slope. You should learn to work for your meals instead of trying to get something from others so devilishly!" Look at him, he was lecturing a figment of the maiden's dream within her dream. He sighed, but his stomach growled. "Uhm...you wouldn't mind sharing would you?" He was such a hypocrite.

Astolfo · September 8, 2017

Ro

As Ro had walked past the other cells, he noticed prisoners of all sorts within. Rich, poor, young, old, male, female, and more. None of them seemed to particularly care about or even recognize he was there though. Heading towards the exit, the fluffy beast from before had scurried up from behind, tapping against him lightly. Ro’s vision changed, showing an image of the painting from the middle of the hallway from earlier. However, just as quickly as it came, it disappeared once more. For some reason, it was clear this time, free of the earlier magical fog. Unfortunately, the images shown still meant absolutely nothing whatsoever to Ro. Glancing critically at the fluffy animal at his feet, he sighed.

As he went towards what seemed to be the exit, he somehow ended up back in an apparently deeper part of the dungeon. Looking around wildly in surprise, he groaned. The air here was colder and damper both, leading to an extremely unpleasant feeling to even just stand in. To make matters even worse, listening for a few seconds revealed three distinct set of clanking, heavy footsteps. Heavy armor.

The footsteps from the left were approaching closer while the other two sets were a bit farther off. Running towards the right, Ro just barely managed to duck behind the wall. A fully armor-clad knight wielding a shield and a long spear and had a short sword strapped to his belt walked into the area he had just been, but then started walking towards his new hiding spot. For some reason, the spear felt utterly disgusting. Just plain wrong. Even the sight made Ro wanted to puke, which confused him, because it seemed like an ordinary spear.

Running around the next corner to avoid the knight from before, Ro plowed straight into a second knight, falling over backwards.

“Uh… don’t mind me, just got lost on my way to the bathro-”

Before he could finish his excuse, the knight charged at him ridiculously fast. If it weren’t for the fact he’d get impaled if he didn’t turn tail that split second, the sight of a full-clad armored tank running like a sprinter would have almost been amusing. Running towards the far right, Ro slid around the corner, but even so, the knight’s thrust and the spear’s long reach had managed to graze his arm, leaving a small gash. However, despite the relatively small wound, the pain was almost enough to white out his vision momentarily. Gritting his teeth, he just barely held back a scream, then tasting a thick, tar-like blood fill his mouth.

“Ah… bit my tongue… again.”

Staring at the wound, it bubbled and festered, leaving a horrible, burning, eroding feeling. Clutching his arm, Ro ran down. It was the first time he had felt true pain like this in centuries. The wound was eating away at his very existe-

“Gah, those funking mongrels got a hold of anti-magic toothpicks!”

The guard from before was coming around the corner. With his current strength, not even considering his disabled arm, he couldn’t find them in pure strength regardless. He’d have to play dirty, and he’d only get one shot at this.

As the guard spun around the corner, Ro thrust up his palms towards the general direction of the knight’s head. From them, a large cloud of incredibly corrosive acid gas blasted out. Crying out, the knight dropped to his knees, clutching at his helmet and coughing violently. Snatching the spear and shield away, Ro went for the knight that was just around the back corner. Baiting out the spear thrust, Ro punched the shield forward to completely break the spear through it. As the blade grazed against the underside of his arm, Ro couldn’t help but shout out violently in distress. Twisting the shield away, he snapped the remaining handle within the knight’s hand and sent it flying.

The knight immediately reached for their short sword, but Ro wasn’t about to let him have a break. With his other arm, he swung the spear towards the knight’s head. The moment the knight moved out of the way to avoid the trajectory, he dropped to the floor, swinging around backwards and hook-kicked the knight in the back of their knees. As they fell, Ro bashed the remnants of the shield into their face to slam their helmet against the floor.

The nerves screamed out as the jolt struck the injured arm, causing more blood to drip and the intense burning of the anti-magic properties to feel even worse. Almost collapsing from the pain, Ro leaned against the wall for support as his vision hazed slightly. The last and third knight was running towards his general direction, but out of the corner of his eye, Ro noticed an unusual room.

It sat in the very corner of the room all by itself, barred by a steel cage door. The form of someone’s body was visible inside, and from what he could tell, it seemed to be alive, but he wasn’t sure yet. Looking behind him, Ro counted his chances. The only exit was the one he had entered in from, and the knights sure as hell wouldn’t let him out. The remaining bet was to go for the prison.

Charging for it, Ro prepared his badly injured hands with a corrosive substance, similar to the one he used to disable the first knight. Pressing his hands against the cage and starting to slowly melt the steel columns, he called out.

“Name yourself dumbass! I’m in a helluva lotta trouble right now because I ended up taking a look around, so you better help me out!”

Maeriberii Haan · September 10, 2017

The rifle fire damaged the shadowed creature enough for it to slow down temporarily. The wound on its head was visible to Mina, and it oozed quite a strange black liquid from the gunshot hole. Jacques were nowhere to be seen at first, but he would soon be visible near the carriage for a moment, before he suddenly appeared on Mina's side again.

"I see, I see. Even though her hold on this dream had weakened, but she still could sic her pet here, huh?"

The beast would soon shoot out several black projectiles towards Jacques and Mina, but the butler blocked them off by using his knife to break the projectiles.

"It seems that you wouldn't be able to leave this place without defeating this creature first. Why am I fighting on your side? I am just a mental construct of a certain someone, you see, and I'd like to remove this abberation out of this place too.

This is a more vague part of Myrdain's mind since he only could perceive this part using his familiar. It might be best if we remove the abberation first before I tell you more about this."

The wounded beast roared in the meantime, before rushing towards Mina and Jacques again while firing its projectiles to all side. As it hit the ground and the building, the part where it hit visibly eroded, turning into holes in this reality.

"Coffee? It's definitely a rarity over here. You really came from afar, aren't you?"

" Myrdain happens to be...an acquaintance of mine, and he was supposed to receive me here, but evidently he's nowhere to be found."

"It's not too surprising. I'll apologize in his behalf for this messup."

"And of course, before I forget. I am..." Ierne watched with amusement as Auburn struggled to think about something. "Chestnut. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. "

Ierne took a sip from the coffee, and visibly recoiled from its taste for a moment. While it was seemingly because she disliked it, with how she tried it a few times afterwards made it clear that she was just unfamiliar with the taste.

"Well anyway, no matter. The Cataclysm it is. I'm only familiar with the barest of details. Takes longer than a few centuries for news of this to reach where I lived. Tell me all about it and I'll tell you what I know too. I'm very interested."

Ierne raised her eyebrow for a moment in confusion, before dismissed whatever issue she had with his words and started her lecture excitedly.

"As a starting point, you are aware of the fact that the Cataclysm is a cyclic event in this Arbolia that were supposed to happen after a few millenias passing, right? I need to make sure you're aware of the common knowledge first before continuing.

It was quite a terrifying event. The mana concentration in one of the vital point in the continent reached a critical mass, which triggered a sweeping catastrophe everywhere. Large continents splitting apart into pieces, kingdoms being erased off the map, many races and species went extinct. Even humanity itself barely survived.

That much is what people commonly knew. However, there's a mistake there. The event was far from natural. Cataclysm simply is the end result of said critical mass concentration of mana, and if it's repeated, the same thing could happen once more. A conflict between two powerful mage guilds was the primary cause. One side attempted to perform a Lost Magic to overturn the conflict once and for all, but it backfired horribly perhaps due to the chaos. It's actually quite silly, to think about it. One of the side was almost completely wiped out, while a big chunk of the other side survived and formed the Yggdrasil of today. The wave of magic itself sweeped throughout the land, creating foul creatures and mutants everywhere to rise and terrorize the survivors.

So, what was that Lost Magic anyway? The name was Apotheosis - the act of miracle that would turn mere man into a god. Who knows how did it actually work and whatnot - it's not like the user were alive now, and Myrdain's explanations had a lot of holes in it. Though to think such an incredibly absurd magic existed, isn't it intriguing? Lost Magics were lost for a reason, but don't you think rediscovering them would be quite a big leap forward for us humans?"

Realizing that perhaps she was getting a bit too excited, Ierne stopped herself and walked away from her seat. She stood by the window, watching over the city outside with a wistful look for a few moments.

"As a traveler, you'd know this already, but even this island hasn't actually recovered from the Cataclysm yet. If it's not for the effort of our best mages to make some parts of the land habitable and fertile enough, none of this would've been possible. This city, this kingdom, and even me right now standing before you.

If one of the Lost Magic can cause this much damage, don't you think it could fix as much damage as it caused too? Not like Myrdain ever cared. All that knowledge and capability he had, and he couldn't even mention Lost Magic without cowering in fear. Meanwhile I'm just a little girl that couldn't even perform magic like everyone else, but that didn't stop me from continuing my research on it.

Anyway, are you bored listening to me droning on and on like this? Perhaps you'd fancy a walk around the city, Chestnut? Don't worry, if I'm not in my official outfit, nobody would guess who I am. I've been doing this for quite a while after all."

"Didn't your parent's ever teach you not to steal? It turns into quite the slippery slope. You should learn to work for your meals instead of trying to get something from others so devilishly!"

The girl seemed to be almost going to say something as a mix of anger and sadness became apparent on her expression, but in the end she kept it to herself as she weakly nodded to Dmitri's words. However, the next sentence he said ended up giving him a sharp glare from the girl.

"Uhm...you wouldn't mind sharing would you?"

"Can't you work for it yourself, mister? You're wearing a better clothing than me already."

Still, in the end after glaring at him for a while, the girl relented and gave half the meat to Dmitri. It'd taste terrible as it's quite unclean and was barely cooked, but that's what he asked from the girl. After eating a share of her food, the girl let out a sigh as she turned to face Dmitri.

"Actually, I'm in this small room because someone told me to stay here for a while since he'll get some food from me. But since he hadn't come after a few hour, I decided to have Cath get me some food since I hadn't eaten anything since this morning. Do you think you can sneak me out, mister? I don't want to get caught by those people in the kitchen, and I also wanted to see myself where that person I'm waiting for had been doing."

While the door towards the hallway of the mansion that Dmitri entered from earlier would be locked, as he was already in a dream perhaps that door would lead somewhere else instead now. Getting the girl out without being noticed would be the biggest issue however.

“Name yourself dumbass! I’m in a helluva lotta trouble right now because I ended up taking a look around, so you better help me out!”

"Who...who is it?"

A little girl's voice came out of the room as Ro managed to break through the steel bars. As Ro entered the room, the form of the person inside would become very clear to him. It was that of the girl that the group originally came to help save her from her nightmares. She was in a terrible state right now. She was only wearing a dirty and disheveled prisoner garb that looked more like a sack than clothing, and from the expression of dread on her face that she had in her face when she saw Ro, her mind perhaps weren't really in a good condition either.

The knights that he attacked earlier would soon seemingly completely recovered before rushing to reach Ro as he's in that dead end. If Ro made contact and attempt to move the girl however, both would be transported back into the hallway, with the bodies they left behind conspicuously absent, and the doors on either side all being locked. The paintings on the hallway had changed however, now depicting many different figures, but quite a few of them portrayed Myrdain, and there was also a beautiful-looking blonde-haired woman that appeared even more often in these pictures. Said woman was also the one depicted in the largest painting at the end of the hallway. Fully in armor, something about her gave off a charismatic aura that even Ro in his long lifetime hadn't ever experienced before. Myrdain's familiar soon would run towards the painting and waited for him there, but not long after, Ro would hear a ruckus going on outside of the mansion. Perhaps he could check it out first, or would going to the painting be more important right now since Myrdain had been pushing him to do so for a while?

mitchermitcher · September 13, 2017

Dream World/Auburn

"Yes, yes, of course." Auburn made sure to nod whenever the girl in front of him brought up something she thought was common knowledge, but inside his head he was very much astonished at what he's learning seemingly at the drop of a hat. The words Ierne spoke overturned the very common sense he thought he knew. Two old guilds, the lost magic Apotheosis, Yggdrasil, he made a mental note of everything here, especially about the lost magic the girl was alluding to. Auburn's never even heard of any magic of such caliber.

He stood up and accompanied the royal heir to where she stood, overlooking the scene beyond the window. "How does Myrdain know all this? I can't imagine what you just told me would be something easily researched. When you say he sounded afraid, it's almost like he experienced the Cataclysm first hand."

Should this be Myrdain's memory he was experiencing (although the level of interactability made him doubt that conclusion), he must be terribly old and close to being immortal. And even if it wasn't Myrdain, clearly it was someone's memories at least.

"Anyway, are you bored listening to me droning on and on like this?" The girl eventually turned to address him. And offered him a walk.

"Doesn't seem proper for someone so important to be walking around, but I'll take you up on that offer." He began to follow the girl as they headed towards the exit, but then stepped forward to reach the door handle before she would. If nothing else he still remembered his manners as a Peachfield male, even if they don't often surface.For the royal successor in front of him however, Auburn felt he could trust her.

In that short exchange, he almost forgot entirely that she was just part of a dream he was interacting with. And especially her declaration, that she could do no magic, that immediately made him trust her. "Shall we then, Miss Ierne?" He pushed the door open.

Astolfo · September 19, 2017

Ro

In response to Ro shouting out towards the interior of the cell, a surprisingly young and feminine voice drifted back out. Finally breaking through the steel bars and tumbling inside, he immediately recognized the owner. It was the girl that they had been contracted to save. However, unlike the appearance back in the real world, the girl here was disheveled and dirty. Ro tried to reach out to touch her, but she recoiled immediately.

Behind him, the sound of the knights he had sent dreaming started to emerge once more. They were returning to reality, and they did not sound pleased. Charging straight for the cell Ro and the girl was in, he leapt towards her desperately, grabbing onto her before she could protest.

“You’re coming with me, brat!”

Tumbling through the air, he landed…. Back in the hallway they started? But… the bodies of themselves were now missing, and all the previously opened doors were now sealed tightly shut. Additionally, the paintings had changed, depicting people of all sorts. However, the most immediately striking artwork was the one at the end of the hallway. From his distance, what he could see was that within its frame, a beautiful, blonde-haired female knight looked out. She had appeared in other paints as well, but none were as large or as magnificent as this one. Ro glanced at the girl. She had apparently come along with him. Her earlier fright had reduced slightly in this new environment, but it was clear she was still apprehensive of Ro. He sighed.

“Oi, brat. What’s your name?”

The girl glanced away, refusing to answer. Shaking her harder, Ro repeated his question with more force.

“Mira… It’s Mira.”

“Mirry, is it? Or Mary? Something like that? I’m Ro. I’m going to be taking you along with me because you’re the one I was hired to help.”

An unusual feeling like none other he had ever experienced before slowly crept over Ro as he shifted his gaze back to the elegant woman in the painting.. What was this feeling? Belief? Trust? Whatever it was, it felt sickly for someone with a heart as twisted as Ro’s. The woman seemed completely infamiliar, but something about her looks drew him towards her - and not just in the physical sense. Out of the corner of his eye, Ro could see the small furry white animal from before scamper across the hall to the painting.

Just as he was about to head over, he could hear an unusually loud and annoying ruckus from somewhere outside the mansion. It was probably his teammates. Ignoring it, he made his way over to the painting. Tugging on the girl’s arm, she resisted at first, but then eventually followed him down the hall. Once they got there, Ro glared critically towards the familiar, gesturing widely.

“So, Bunny, what’s the deal with this girl here beside me? And what about that lady there in the painting? What’s she got to do with anything? What’s this strange feeling that’s emanating from her appearance? Who is this? What the hell has been going on? I want to know what’s going on, and don’t cut any corners or I’ll turn you into stew.”

Mr. Hyde · September 20, 2017

The girl reluctantly gave Dmitri a piece of the meat that she had stolen. Now they were bandits together. The meat tasted of rebellion...and was slightly under-cooked. However, it was enough to satiate him. E. Coli probably couldn't affect you in dream world anyways.

"Actually, I'm in this small room because someone told me to stay here for a while since he'll get some food from me. But since he hadn't come after a few hour, I decided to have Cath get me some food since I hadn't eaten anything since this morning. Do you think you can sneak me out, mister? I don't want to get caught by those people in the kitchen, and I also wanted to see myself where that person I'm waiting for had been doing."

Dmitri nodded.

"I can do my best, little lady." He scratched his chin, thinking of how he was going to do such a thing. Seeing how busy that room was, it would clearly be of note that the staff could only focus on their own individual task at hand. As long as nothing fishy caught their eye, they would most likely continue about their work without noticing Dmitri and the girl. Sadly, dressed as poorly as she was, she would stick out like the sorest of thumbs. That's when Dmitri remembered what she had said before. He was dressed nicer than her, as his attire was always quite formal. He started to unbutton his top most layers, and dropped them into the girl's hands. All he wore now was his collared shirt. "Put those on. When we go out into the kitchen, grab a tray with some food on it. That should get us out of here."

As soon as she was done, Dmitri would open the door and usher the girl to stay close behind him. Noticing a couple of trays full of horderves, Dmitri would go to pick up one of them, and hand the other to the girl. Hopefully, they could sneak out without a problem.

Wind Rider · September 21, 2017

Mina was astonished to see the creature still up after taking a direct shot, especially since it left a complete hole in the creature. She was about to duck out of the way from the projectiles that the creature was spitting out before dream Jacques, or whoever he was, blocked all the shots skillfully with his knife.

"It seems that you wouldn't be able to leave this place without defeating this creature first. Why am I fighting on your side? I am just a mental construct of a certain someone, you see, and I'd like to remove this abberation out of this place too.

This is a more vague part of Myrdain's mind since he only could perceive this part using his familiar. It might be best if we remove the abberation first before I tell you more about this."

Ok it's confirmed... Dream Jacques. And thankfully he was on her side. Mina took the time to charge up some more energy into her rifle. "Ok... After this I need answers... Until then, I'm gonna fill this thing with a few more holes." She took aim at the creature and fired at it, while making sure not to get hit by the thing's projectiles. From how the environment was reacting to the shots, she really didn't want to see what they would do to her.

Maeriberii Haan · September 29, 2017

Library

"Doesn't seem proper for someone so important to be walking around, but I'll take you up on that offer."

"Pardon my manners. I am still not used to this position I'm in."

"Shall we then, Miss Ierne?"

"My pleasure, Mr. Chesnut."

Walking outside through the streets, the scenery was quite a lot different than when Auburn last seen it. It was already in the afternoon, with the sun near setting already, and no traces of the earlier parade of knights, nor the crowd, were able to be seen. Along the way Ierne made sure to point out the names of the buildings and their recent condition to Auburn. The baker house that were so close to the palace had been rebuilt more than five times already, and people believed that it was cursed. The guard tower had crumbled recently due to a freak lightning bolt people suspected to be a magic attack. The paved roads costed quite a lot, but it was due to the insistence of the previous king to live out the aesthetics of the pre-Cataclysm world that the city was completely paved. Passing through a gangway where a few homeless kids slept on the distance, Ierne looked at them wistfully before turning to Auburn.

"Glorious as this kingdom is, it is quite pitiable that many people still live in this sort of condition. It is my wish, as the future king, that I could at least bring some blessing for these people. I wanted to be a king that still could understand her people.

Of course, Myrdain laughed at me saying that. Never saw him laughing as fakely as that though, so I bet he does acknowledge that I'm right."

Ierne took a breath before continuing to walk until she noticed something on the distance. Once that happened, she took Auburn's hand and dragged her to that place. It was a restaurant, the aesthetics on the place were out of place compared to the rest of buildings, but a look into the interior would make it obvious that it was foreign. Perhaps from another continent? She got herself and Auburn a seat, and waited until she could order something.

"You know, we've talked quite a lot with each other lately. I'm still quite unsure about everything about my position now, but for once, can we stop about me? I'd like to hear more about you, Myrdain.

...Ah, pardon me, Mr. Chestnut. I mean, can we talk more about you now instead?"

"Put those on. When we go out into the kitchen, grab a tray with some food on it. That should get us out of here."

The girl nodded and silently put Dmitri's clothing into herself before following Dmitri's order to grab a tray and leaving the room, pretending to be one of the servants. She happily ate the food Dmitri passed on her, full of a joyful expression as if she hadn't ever tasted something like that before. With this guise, the two would manage to get out of the kitchen in the middle of the chaos, and they soon would find themselves on a large hallway.

"Follow me, mister. I know where that person is usually in so we shoud check the place first."

Walking around for a bit would make it clear for Dmitri that he was currently inside of a large palace complex. A lot of servants passed the two, some ignoring them, but some other gave a passing, accusory glance on the girl as if they're suspecting her for something, but the girl seemed to ignore them. The hallway the girl led him was dangerously close towards the probable direction of the royal bedchamber, but the girl took him to a corridor people seemed to rarely pass before then, which led to a dead end.

The girl approached the wall and pressed the wall on several positions until a loud click could be heard, and the wall turned around to reveal a secret passageway behind it. It led to another hallway not dissimilar to the previous one, but something felt off as Dmitri passed through it.

"Don't worry much about this place. That person often invites me here to play with him and he told me quite a lot of nice stories too. He's really nice but..."

Her words were cut but the sound of struggling and roars from the other end of the corridor. She would rush towards the end, and the sight there would reveal a man in white lying on the floor, surrounded by a few shadows not dissimilar to the ones Dmitri had seen on the countryside vista. The man was still alive, apparently, and weakly attempted to nudge his head towards Dmitri's direction.

"A...ah...my plan goes well, I'm glad. Thank you for coming here, Dmitri. I'm sorry for involving Cherry Heart into my mess-up, but...I can't let her have her way with that family, nor with my mind."

"Ok... After this I need answers... Until then, I'm gonna fill this thing with a few more holes."

The shadow creature roared, and fired more of its tendrils towards Mina. Being the agile beastkin that she was, she dodged those tendrils that were fired, and the angered creature rushed closely afterwards in an attempt to maul the girl. However, it only gave Mina a chance to unload her ammunition on it, repeatedly blasting holes into its head and body, and in the end, it finally was able to be put down. Its large body fell to the ground with a thud, the black ichor oozing all around. It might be a bad idea to touch it. Undisturbed by this sight, Dream!Jacques extended his hand to Mina and guided her towards the caravan on the distance.

"Alright, let me tell you what happened. I was unsure for a while, but an event somewhere else that happened recently in this dream allowed me to gain awareness of the situation. I was quite mortified when you four brought those bodies to the hallway, but after examining them and getting some hints, I understand it now.

The four of you had an accident on your way here. I'm not sure whether it caused any severe wound in real life, but even then all of you managed to be knocked unconscious within the range of the invader that caused all this distortions and shadow creatures. For the sake of safety, it would be best to not integrate yourself with any copies of yourself in this dream, still. But I trust that your physical body would be in a decent enough care right now for you to not worry about it.

The invader is somewhere in this mentalscape. As much as she attempted to control it, Master's strong feelings managed to keep her from taking full control.

I wish you luck, Mina."

With that said, Mina would find herself sucked into a vortex as the courtyard scene dissolved around her, and returning herself to the hallway. She would be able to see Ro at this time.

“So, Bunny, what’s the deal with this girl here beside me? And what about that lady there in the painting? What’s she got to do with anything? What’s this strange feeling that’s emanating from her appearance? Who is this? What the hell has been going on? I want to know what’s going on, and don’t cut any corners or I’ll turn you into stew.”

The bunny pointed towards the painting, asking Ro to touch it, forcing him to if he thought it was a good idea not to touch it. Touching it would lead Ro to an empty room behind the painting along with the girl, and the familiar before him would then suddenly turn to Myrdain, a ghastly projection of the mage.

"I am sorry for leading you blindly around this place so far, Ro. I am glad you managed to rescue Mira's mind from that dungeon. She shouldn't have been involved in this in the first place...

So I think I owe you an explanation, didn't I? Right now, an invader had been attempting to steal my mind and body, and as much as I can resist, I am left depowered while she reigned over the innocents dragged into this mess, like the little girl there. The one placing the request was my familiar, and for it to be picked by a talented new guild such as Cherry Heart is quite a blessing.

My plan was to fight her influence in my mind and give you four an easier time going around and chasing her, but it was somewhat derailed when she caught wind of this plan due to my carelessness and orchestrated for you four to be involved in a small accident enough to trap you all within her thrall. The only place she couldn't touch is this place, because of how special it was to me, but even then, she managed to get ahold of parts of me so I couldn't oppose her fully.

So, that is my wish. Please, seek her out and with your friends, please expel her. Leave the girl's protection to me. That witch wouldn't be able to harm her daughter here."

As the Myrdain projection turned to the fluffy creature again, it guided Ro outside of the painting, where the doors from earlier had all been opened again (except the ones that they had entered. Mina would be able to notice this too.) However, the distortions soon happened again, and the servants going around the doors were replaced by the shadow creatures from earlier, slowly increasing in number as the witch seemingly gained more control of the mental scape.

Before Ro left, the fluffy creature looked at him once more and sent a message into his mind directly this time.

"As for the lady in this painting...there would be too much that I could say about her, but she was my king, and she was the only one that mattered to me. My curse, even until now.

I'm not sure whether you'd recognize her or not, considering your age, Ro. However, perhaps the possibility there was someone else I could talk about her more made me tell you this. Call me sentimental or whatever. From then to now, I'm quite the hopeless wizard anyway."

Astolfo · October 5, 2017

Ro

The bunny familiar pointed a paw towards the large painting, requesting he touch it. Ro peered at the familiar curiously, but as it pushed him, he relented.

“Alright, alright, I’ll touch i-”

The moment Ro’s fingers brushed across the surface, the world around him changed once more. This time, he was in what seemed to be an empty room behind the painting. The girl was there as well, but interestingly enough, the familiar had changed into a ghostly form of Myrdain’s human appearance. The dream mage started with an apology which Ro brushed off.

“Mira, is it?”

Ro listened attentively, absorbing and rearranging the pieces in his own mental world.

“So if I’m right… then the Myrdain earlier today was not you, but the invader?

So how do you propose we even get rid of this witch? And wait, hold up, HELL! Did you just say… daughter? So you’re telling me, you got possessed by this girl’s mom, but for some reason she doesn’t care about hurting her own daughter?

For that matter, where even is the mom’s original body?”

After the questions had been answered, the familiar led Ro back outside the painting, returning to his animal form. The girl had stayed behind. They were back in the hall, and all the doors had been opened - with one difference. The doors they had entered were now closed. Servants began to twist and distort, becoming replaced with the shadowy forms Ro and his guildmates had seen earlier.

So this is what the witch’s world is like…

Right before he left though, the animal familiar once more interrupted his thoughts.

"As for the lady in this painting...there would be too much that I could say about her, but she was my king, and she was the only one that mattered to me. My curse, even until now.

I'm not sure whether you'd recognize her or not, considering your age, Ro. However, perhaps the possibility there was someone else I could talk about her more made me tell you this. Call me sentimental or whatever. From then to now, I'm quite the hopeless wizard anyway."

Wait a second! King? Curse? My age? Wait how do you even…? What?! Wizard?!! And stop being so sappy, gramps! This whole expedition is cutting into my lotus time anyways, and I don’t like this place one bit.

I’m just here because I agreed to help out and one of the only things I remember about my past is that I’m not someone who goes back on their word. And that’s not something you’re going to make me break.

Hold on a second though! Something… it seems… familiar… It’s too vague, I can’t grasp it firmly enough to recall… But… I know this from somewhere! Gaah!

Ro froze. Within the space of just a few seconds, the familiar once more managed to create more questions than he had answered. But there was no time to ask them all.

“I have SO many questions right now but… who the hell are you, really?”

"Me? I am simply a cursed soul, wandering the earth so I could tell people the story of my king. Not that it's a wise thing to do."

With this answer, it only served to create even more questions while answering nothing. But there was no time left, and the two separated ways once more. With the answer left ringing in his head while other questions overflowed his mind, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar figure, Minnie-or-something-other. It was one of his guildmates. From the looks of it, she seemed to be mostly fine, if only a bit roughed up. Not much worse or better than he himself was, with a gash to the shoulder and just a bit of dirt and soot on him. He raised an eyebrow slightly. Walking over, he made a small wave with his right hand.

“Oi, girlie, Minnie-something, how were things on your end? I had some… pretty interesting things on my side that answered some questions but… now I’m just left with even more than I started with, gah.”

Wind Rider · October 6, 2017

"Alright, let me tell you what happened. I was unsure for a while, but an event somewhere else that happened recently in this dream allowed me to gain awareness of the situation. I was quite mortified when you four brought those bodies to the hallway, but after examining them and getting some hints, I understand it now.

The four of you had an accident on your way here. I'm not sure whether it caused any severe wound in real life, but even then all of you managed to be knocked unconscious within the range of the invader that caused all this distortions and shadow creatures. For the sake of safety, it would be best to not integrate yourself with any copies of yourself in this dream, still. But I trust that your physical body would be in a decent enough care right now for you to not worry about it."

So the initial meet up with Myrdain was just as much of a dream as everything else, and the group was knocked out before even arriving at the mansion. Mina couldn't help but feel confused, this dream magic stuff was starting to irritate her.

The invader is somewhere in this mentalscape. As much as she attempted to control it, Master's strong feelings managed to keep her from taking full control.

I wish you luck, Mina."

Well the girl was holding up from the sounds of things, but this was all too weird still. "Hang on, I still have..." Before she could even finish her sentence, the area dissolved again and she found herself in the hallway again. "... Questions..." She sighed and turned to see that Ro was there too, great...

“Oi, girlie, Minnie-something, how were things on your end? I had some… pretty interesting things on my side that answered some questions but… now I’m just left with even more than I started with, gah.” Mina could feel a frown forming on her face but she turned around so she wasn't facing him.

"Ok... One, it's Mina... Get that through your thick head... And two, I didn't have a very enlightening search for answers either..." She turned back to him with a more calm expression. "Hopefully the others had better luck than either of us..." Her eyes lit up. "I did learn something... Though it may not be as important... Everything past the carriage ride seems to have been part of the dream... I can't remember a point where something could have happened... But now we have to be very cautious... And no looking at images of yourself... We both know what that can do..."

Mr. Hyde · October 12, 2017

The two of them had both made it out of the kitchen, thanks to Dmitri's brilliance of course. He could hear the nibbling of food behind him, which would've blown their cover had anyone paid the slightest attention to them. Gladly they didn't.

"Follow me, mister. I know where that person is usually in so we shoud check the place first." The girl spoke. It was then that they were lead into a much bigger complex than the kitchen before. They traversed it for a while longer, until the girl stopped next to a wall. The girl approached the wall and pressed the wall on several positions until a loud click could be heard, and the wall turned around to reveal a secret passageway behind it. It led to another hallway not dissimilar to the previous one, but something felt off as Dmitri passed through it.

"Don't worry much about this place. That person often invites me here to play with him and he told me quite a lot of nice stories too. He's really nice but..."

"Can we not play the pronoun game? I'm investigating a serious matter...I need details girl." He sighed, pushing up his glasses.

Their words were cut but the sound of struggling and roars from the other end of the corridor. The girl ran towards the back, and the sight there would reveal a man in white lying on the floor, surrounded by a few shadows not dissimilar to the ones Dmitri had seen on the countryside vista. The man was still alive, apparently, and weakly attempted to nudge his head towards Dmitri's direction. Dmitri was automatically put himself on guard, and entered a very defensive stance. This man...was he in control of the apparitions in this dream.

"A...ah...my plan goes well, I'm glad. Thank you for coming here, Dmitri. I'm sorry for involving Cherry Heart into my mess-up, but...I can't let her have her way with that family, nor with my mind." The pronoun game again, huh?

"What plan? How do you know my name? Who are you? What are those shadowy creatures that seem to like you..." It was all so much for Dmitri to take in in one moment that his head started to swirl. He frazzled his hair in frustration, waiting for an answer to all of his reasonable questions.

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