The Dreamlands

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

Khannie gets grabbed!

Hopefully Mary gets grabbed, too!

And Khannie snags Agate from behind, doing her best to yank her away from the rock-pile. She isn't one hundred percent sure what the deal with these rocks is but she IS pretty sure that it isn't planning to do anything great. She'll try giving Agate a bit of a shake to get her to, "C'mon snap out of it."

Then Sirius brings up a really valid point!

Or at least it WOULD be if-

"They aren't down here," Khannie says, doing her best to keep the acid out of her tone. "Didn't you see my disguise get wrecked as soon as we got yanked into the Dreamlands? My shadow spirits couldn't follow me here and without 'em my illusions haven't got any substance."

Oh.

Apparently she couldn't have yanked Agate with her shadow magic.

Sounds like they're just going to have to make the best of a bad situation.

With the current crisis (maybe?) resolved our heroes will have a moment to assess the situation they're in now. Our heroes are surrounded by an aspen forest, the leaves shivering in the soft rain falling everywhere. It smells fresh and clean with a hint of floral perfume from the wildflowers popping out everywhere. Behind them there's no trace of the road; it has completely vanished. The rock-pile is nearby, still softly calling to anyone who looks at it to lay down for a nap. A small stream gurgles off to one side, rolling around moss covered stones and deeper into the forest. A large circle of bright red and white mushrooms is visible nearby, a large green caterpillar sitting on one of the caps. Under the tangled roots of a nearby tree something with beady eyes and a huge nose is peering out at our heroes.

[bc56]

Springtime
Mary does not get grabbed. She's several steps behind everyone else already. But she's following after them, it should be fine, right? They're not leaving her eyesight.
Nothing's going to spirit her away because she's not touching her friends, right? Right?

[Keeper]

Springtime

"Hm. Maybe it made your fairy stuff stronger, then? Sorry. I'll just have to claw the heck out of anything that tries to mess with you straight then." Sirius nods. It's not that he LIKES when Khannie is more helpless than usual. It's just that he gets to do his job in a much more straightforward manner when she isn't more powerful than him.

[Earl of Purple]

Springtime

Agate's grabbed, and shaken! Her immediate response is perhaps not one Khannie was expecting- she turns quickly, trying to shake Khannie off and raising her right hand which is once again holding her harmonica pistol. "Don't touch me!"

After that snarl, however, she blinks and shakes her head, lowering the gun which disappears again when Khannie and Sirius blink. "Sorry, Khannie. I was... almost dreaming, and thought you were someone else." Someone who poured water in her bed. "What happened with that rock? It... asked for help, and I don't remember much since."

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

Clearly Sirius just needs to get better at evolving. That's a quick way to get stronger!

Honestly what he does is more like mega evolution, by Khannie's reckoning.

Anyway!

She jumps a bit when Agate whirls around with the gun, already primed to go misty to let the projectile pass right through her.

But.

It doesn't quite come to that. Agate calms down and Khannie lets out a breath.

"It's okay. I think the rocks were doing some kinda hypnosis thing and you walked off the road. Which just disappeared," the kumiho huffs. Then she offers Sirius a grin. "You can do a good job of protecting me in here. I bet your metal armor will wreck anything that messes with us. But now we've just gotta stick together and find some stairs out."

Khannie's attention is mostly focused on Sirius and Agate right now. IS Mary still there?

[bc56]

Springtime
Where is Mary?
She was right behind them.
But now there's a conspicuous absence of a demon princess amidst the spring rains.

[Keeper]

Springtime

"Mary threw the rock away when they all started speaking. They might have been a trap. I dunno."
Sirius only did a casual internet search on fairies before they went to the play. He doesn't have a working knowledge of this crazy place!

[Earl of Purple]

Springtime

Given Agate's a magical girl, her gun is inherently magical, and incorporeality might not be as protective as it should be. "Ah, sorry for screwing up. Wait, where's Mary got to? Ah, shit." Agate looks around and frowns as she notices the demon princess missing.

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

Ah swearwords is right.

"But she was right- UGH. This stupid place," Khannie growls, kicking a nearby tree.

This results in a fusillade of alder cones getting shot at her, causing her to protect her head with her arms whilst trying to escape.

"Don't kick my tree you stinky fox!" yells the tree. Turns out there's a dryad sicking out of the tree a bit higher up, glaring down at the kumiho and her friends.

This place is very confusing.

Meanwhile!

Mary's friends are nowhere to be seen.

She's standing in a tiny little clearing surrounded by a alder trees and gurgling streams on all sides. The rain falls freely here, a full spring shower rather than a light drizzle. Under her feet are countless cheerful yellow flowers smiling up at her. Literally. There are probably pixies involved somehow. To the west the streams seem to flow strongly downhill, growing more rocky as they go. To the east a large mound has been raised, topped with a big red and white mushroom the size of a car. To the south there comes the distant sound of reedy music playing. To the north is a totally normal doe eating mouthfuls of buttercups.

[bc56]

Springtime
"What the Home?" Mary looks around. She's... somewhere? The other girls and Sirius are nowhere to be seen. "Hello? Where'd you guys go?" What's with the smiling flowers? Mary heads north. "Did you see anyone else pass this way, deer?" Mary asks the deer. She doesn't expect an answer. "Where's the road?" That question isn't addressed to anyone, she's just surprised. She only just barely stepped off it, it should be right there!

[Keeper]

Springtime

"Stop calling my partner stinky!" Sirius yells back, though he doesn't return fire because setting trees on fire would be an escalation of the situation that would probably not be great. Grumpy tree-people aren't evil-doers. Just rude.

"We can try to look for her. But...how do we know what to do? This place is crazy. We might have to find out own ways out."
Sirius squints out into the mist. All he knows for sure: there will be fairies.

[Earl of Purple]

Springtime

"If you don't want my fox to kick your tree, don't put your tree where my fox can kick it. Woody bint." Agate doesn't stay to yell at the dryad longer, though. She doesn't want to lose Khannie as well as Mary, since Khannie at least theoretically knows her way out.

Unless dryads are scared of guns, anyway. Then maybe Agate can get out on her own.

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

Mary is definitely somewhere.

The stag lifts up his head from the pool of water lilies, water flowing down his antlers in torrents. Then the massive waterfall cascading over the cliff face replies to Mary with the sound of thundering cataracts and swirling mist.

You are here alone, child.

Oh.

Mary is alone.

The trees just keep getting taller and taller as the sunlight keeps getting further and further away. There's something wrong here. Something is not right.

Meanwhile!

Khannie, Sirius, and Agate are NOT alone. They have, unfortunately, a not happy dryad keeping them company.

"Yeah that's right! You better run!" the surly tree spirit yells after them.

Apparently alder dryads are really rude.

"Definitely crazy," Khannie grumbles. "It's like stumbling around in a dream. We've gotta, I dunno, figure out how to dream ourselves to wherever Mary is? Or maybe imagine ourselves there?"

Hmm.

Magical Girl magic runs on imagination. Maybe if Agate sang a song about it?

[bc56]

Springtime
"Uh... what?" That was a doe and a patch of buttercups a second ago.
And now someone is yelling at Mary and everything is getting bigger. Or maybe Mary is getting smaller. "I know I'm alone! I want to find my friends and then go home!" she protests to the giant thundering voice.
Sure, she's terrified, but Mary's not the type to let her fear control her.

[Keeper]

Springtime

"I don't know if I CAN dream, Khannie." Sirius admits, looking around.
Digimon can definitely sleep, but can they dream? Maybe Sirius does and he just doesn't remember. He can't say. He has dreams but not that kind.
He looks at Agate, hoping she has a solution.

[Earl of Purple]

Springtime

"The way to get out of a dream usually is to wake up. Shocks or pain does it." Whilst she's speaking, Agate's holding her pistol again, though behind her back where it's not immediately visible.

She holds the harmonica pistol steady and shoots into the ground, a sharp gunshot to hopefully startle Sirius or Khannie into waking up.

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

Mary is at home.

There are shapes here, vague and indistinct, that surely must be her family. Nearby is a toxic runoff pool with an enormous toad lurking in it, Mary's art sinking into the mire. If only she had remembered to brush her teeth maybe this wouldn't have happened. The boat is already leaving the harbor to sail across the bay of swirling paint and Mary needs to hurry if she's going to catch it.

But there's a tree planted in the middle of the boat. It has to be watered before the boat will move. But the only thing nearby is paint.

The rain falls and falls and falls.

Meanwhile!

"Well we've gotta think of, ah!" Khannie starts at the sound of a musical gunshot.

The bullet punches a hole in the world.

It's as if everything around them were nothing but a matte painting and our heroes were wandering around in it. The gun just shot a hole through the canvas and revealed what's under it; a network of gossamer strands and moonbeams. Of countless dreaming minds. Peering through the hole our heroes will be able to see into the dreams of everything dreaming.

Like gazing into a vast constellation of stars, each star playing out surreal visions.

[bc56]

Springtime
She's... home? But the mud and the running paint and the frogs and...
Yes, good. The memories hurt so much. It's where we belong.
Quiet, you! We want to survive this!
Mary runs towards the shadowy form of her mother. "Mum, help! Maria, she..." She's breaking loose. Or seems like it. Her nature is seeping into the dream.

[Keeper]

Springtime

Sirius starts in surprise and looks around but sees no attackers. He’s a little slow on the uptake that the shot was from Agate.
”What was that for?” he asks her. He glances at the hole but his digital brain simply cannot process what he’s looking at. It makes his head spin so he looks away rather quickly.

[Earl of Purple]

Springtime

"Loud noises wake people up. This is a dream, right? Loud noises usually wake me up. But I'm a bit of a light sleeper." Agate can see what lies beneath the world, and kneels to get a better look, pushing at the sides of the hole to widen it. "Do you reckon this could be a way out?" Agate's relying more on what Khannie knows, here. She's out of her depth a little.

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

Khannie can, just at a glance, tell that what Sirius is seeing below the surface is really messing with him. "Just imagine it's a computer network or something?" she offers.

Honestly she's got no idea whether that'll work or not but it's worth a try, right?

"I dunno, maybe?" she replies to Agate's question. "I think we're looking at people's dreams? Maybe we could ride one of those out?"

Agate, rather specifically, will likely notice something. While this whole place feels deeply unreal, she'll begin picking up on a very specific sort of unreality from the constellation of dreams spreading out before them. The sort of unreality she probably associates with a Witch. It isn't much to go on, but it's definitely suspicious.

Meanwhile!

The rain keeps pouring around Mary, soaking her to the skin. As she runs toward the vague figure it gets further and further away, no standing afar off on the other side of the lake. The water is so shallow here and filled with oysters, they're climbing up the striped poles sticking out of the water and the smell of peppermint is so intense. Mary hasn't watered the tree yet so there's no way to get the boat to move.

How will she get across the lake?

You are alone, child, croaks the big fat toad.

[bc56]

Dreamlands
"Mum, come back! Don't... *Sniff!* don't leave me..."
Mary climbs into the boat. "Please, work!"
"We are alone, child."
She sniffles again and starts to cry. "No... I don't want to be alone again." She grasps the tree for support, her tears dampening its bark. "Please... help..."

[Keeper]

Springtime

"Um. Okay. But I don't know if that's...hm." Sirius would say he doesn't think they should gamble on that but also they don't seem to have any options at all in this place that aren't gambling on something turning out well.
"Can we just hope it works like that?"

[Earl of Purple]

Springtime

"There's a film, Inception I think, and... I watched half of that with my dads a couple nights ago. It's about dreams. I think... mucking around with those is dangerous. But I didn't see all of it, I fell asleep." And Inception logic might not be Dreamlands logic. Not least because they're physically present in these dreams and not just hacking into people's sleeping brains, or however Inception works. Earl watched it a long while ago, and can't quite remember. "It might get us out, it might also be dangerous. It... feels witchy. Like a Labyrinth." Agate keeps looking into the constellation of dreams, the magazine pushed through her pistol one place to reload the chamber.

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

Experimentally, Khannie pulls off one of her shoes and tosses it into the yawning abyss of stars below them.

It goes tumbling off into the darkness and DONK!s off one of the filaments of light connecting one dream to another.

Oh.

Huh.

All of those are a lot closer and a lot smaller than they look? The expanse seems like it's really messing with perspective.

"Well, it didn't disintegrate my shoe or turn it into an orange or anything. So it might be safe? This sure seems like a way forward and I dunno if works like that even matters. This place is all a big dream sorta thing so why would it work in any way that's consistent?" Khannie reasons as she begins climbing down into the hole. Each of the 'dreams' is no bigger than a grapefruit and they're all connected to each other by glowing strands. It's rather akin to climbing through a playground dome.

The witchy feeling sure SEEMS like it's coming from a particular dream, the distortion around it making it stand out from the others.

Meanwhile!

Mary waters the tree.

While she's embracing it, her eyes closed, she suddenly feels a lurching sensation. The boat has crossed the lake and her tree is planted on a hill. She is not alone. There are other trees here. She can feel their roots touching hers. The springtime rain is crisp and refreshing and springtime sun is invigorating. In the distance is darkness and despondence and aloneness, like a great horrid toad squatting atop a rock. She can stay here with the other trees and be safe and together, part of the forest under the watchful eye of She Who Dances in the Springtime Rain-
-or she can be alone and face the horrors of the Witch clawing to get out all by herself with no one to help her.

Surely it would be safe to accept the Name of a tree and be one with the Enchanted Forest? There's no one coming for her. No one who will-

There's a thump as something real plops through the smeared colors and sensations of the dream.

Is that one of Khannie's shoes?

[bc56]

Springtime
Mary doesn't want to face the Witch. She'd do everything in her power to not face her dark reflection. The forest is safe. Big Mama Buttercup, her mother, will protect her. Maryigold can have peace from the nightmare. She rests peacefully among the trees.

Thump!

What was that sound?

[Keeper]

Springtime

"I don't know if this is a great idea but we don't have anything better."

Of course Sirius is a quadruped and can barely process the sights in front of him so he will climb into the hole last as he really really is not going to be good at climbing. It's a lot of manipulating his claws in ways they aren't designed for and holding stuff in his teeth. He hopes the people will be ok if he accidentally gnaws their dreams a little.

[Earl of Purple]

Springtime

Agate's willing to help Sirius if he needs it, though she's not done a lot of climbing before either and the fact she's denser than a human means she's going to be struggling a little anyway. "You see the distortion around that dream over there, Khannie?" Agate points at the witchy dream. "Keep away from that one, it's the one that feels like a witch. If it's a witch we need to find it and kill it in the waking world. I think its Labyrinth would be stronger here, less reality to warp to the witch's delusion." Her pistol has disappeared once more.

[Rebonack]

[Springtime]

What you're seeing here is a oneironic metaphor, Sirius. It's a bit questionable how someone can chew on a metaphor but the Dreamlands are really weird. Especially right now, since the interactions between Agate's Magical Girl magic. Anyway! Khannie will likewise help the others descend (ascend? the concept of down seems really wonky in here) through the gossamer tangle.

"That's the one my shoe just fell into," the kumiho says, eyeing the dream in question. It's hard to make out any details, but she's doing her best. "Wait, I think I recognize that ugly toad on the sailboat. That's kinda like the familiars Mary was churning out when she was a Witch."

She glances back at the others, concern clear on her foxy face.

"I know she's had nightmares where she's had to face down Maria again. Maybe she got pulled into a bad dream?" the kumiho guesses. It FEELS like a not terrible guess, she thinks.

"What have we here?"

Whoop. That would be the voice of a spider the size of a dumptruck deftly navigating the tangle of strands. It sports an upside down human face, long black hair hanging from the scalp, and human hands at the ends of its pedipalps. Judging from the aura of sheer terror it exudes this is probably some kind of mare. A very large, very unpleasant mare. A manifestation of primordial fear.

"A kumiho, a strange child, and a machine spirit have stumbled into my dusty web. Why, I can't say this has ever happened before."

Meanwhile!

The shoe sits, alone and discarded, in the grass.

It's familiar. Hasn't Marigold seen it before?

Oh!

That kumiho! When she wears the Mask of that human girl she has shoes like those. Is she around somewhere? There's a problem, though. Thinking about her friend. Her friend is connected to Maria, somehow. And Maria is terrifying. Just thinking about the kumiho brings the smeared paint bubbling in pits of sludge and the scent of smog and brick dust creeping closer to the peaceful grove of trees.

[bc56]

Springtime
Marigold cautiously emerges from her glade to examine the shoe. "Wowee, a shoe! Hello shoe. Where did you come from?" she turns it over in her hands. "Teehee, you look like one of my friends' shoes. You'd like her, she's smart and brave and she..." Marigold's head aches. "No, no, don't think about that!" she covers her cervine ears with her hands. "Happy thoughts, Happy thoughts. Sunshine and dancing and fresh spring rain! Hugs from Mama!" Marigold halfheartedly prances in a circle around her tree, vainly hoping it will drive the encroaching darkness away.

Obviously it doesn't quite work. Marigold's attention turns back to the shoe. "What do I do with you, shoe?"

Oh, what a sorry state we're in. We're lucky I'm here or we'd be drugged with bubbly deer-girl essence for the rest of eternity. But I can fix us.

"I could wear you, but my feet aren't the right shape. And there's only one of you. I need four!" Marigold holds up one of her front hooves to the shoe. Clearly its not her size.

Great. You can't hear me.

"I could use you as a birdhouse?" Marigold holds up the shoe to the trunk of her tree. Maybe a small bird could fit inside?

Oh for the love of... Stop messing about and find where the shoe came from! LOOK UP!

On some subconscious urge, Marigold looks up in the direction the shoe came from.