EVENT #8: MÆRE - IC POST (MAIN EVENT)

[abraxasmods]

Event #8 - Mære

go to the OOC event info and plotting post or the IC faction intervention post.

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Sleep can be a welcome escape from the daily toils of life. No matter one's magical affinity or physical prowess, many succumb to the need eventually. While some find refuge in it, others prefer to avoid sleep for as long as they can, fearing what lurks in the corners. For the latter, perhaps what happens next is just part of their nightly struggle.

Beginning on the night of JUNE 18, characters will be met with unsettling dreams and their worst nightmares. It will build slowly over the course of the following week as manifestations of their deepest fears and regrets make themselves known.

Night Walk

How does it start? Familiar, perhaps: experienced before or a recognizable concoction of events and feelings. Your old home, a town you've visited, a room you met an old friend in, a corridor where you faced off with a great foe, or a mosaic of the different pieces of your life. You don't yet sense danger. It's safe, you think. Or alternatively: you are consumed immediately by an unsettling feeling, finding yourself in a darkened room you don't recognize, falling endlessly, unable to move, already wounded in the middle of nowhere, or the growl of an animal. Whatever the recreated vista, you slowly get the distinct sense that you are not alone.

As you explore your dreamscape, this sense does not leave you. You may find a shadow looming over you, catch something in the corner of your eye, hear a sound far off in the distance. Wherever you turn, you seem to just miss it. Whether this unsettles you or not will vary, but you will remember this come the morning. If you are one of the lucky ones, it all ends here. Strange dreams are nothing unusual. Those happen now and again. But for many others this is just the beginning.

The Entity

If you are among those less fortunate, you will find yourself plunged into the same dream. It may not be the next night. Perhaps it happens later, when you're napping in the afternoon, or a few nights afterwards when you've already forgotten all about it. Regardless, it returns to you. The stage might be different, the details shifted, but the feeling of something watching remains. In your absence, it only seems to have grown. Each time you return to this singular dream world, its presence grows ever stronger. Oppressive, suffocating, you know you are being hunted.

When you finally see it, you know exactly what it is. The Entity that hunts you is born out of your subconscious itself, your deepest fears and traumas given form. A twisted manifestation of unshakeable guilt, a creature or foe you have fought with once before, a person you may have loved so dearly now turned against you - the sight of it chills your blood and you know in your heart that it is here for you.

The Guest

Should fate twist further, you might not be the only one. Instead, you'll find other Summoned with you. They might also be running from a presence of their own or maybe they're merely unlucky enough to have fallen into the path of yours. Whatever it is, they too will bear witness to that which haunts you - or you will see what haunts them, as well. Your respective dreamscapes might meld together, shift and change, or one might take over the other completely.

Though it's likely you won't realize you're trapped inside a dream, that doesn't mean you can't fight back. Gather your courage to face down your fears or try to help those you find yourself in the company of - you might just find your surroundings steadily shifting in your favor. A weapon here, a pathway opening there, a wooden door that transforms into steel. Be careful, though: should your awareness grow that things aren't real, the world will try to consume those thoughts and you within it, twisting things further in an attempt to make you forget that you're dreaming.

The Imprint

Luckily, you do eventually wake - unsettled, damp with sweat, but at least you're safe. It was only a dream, wasn't it? For some, that might be the case. For others, you'll start to hear the sounds of the dream in the waking world, glimpse the shadow of the Entity in a reflection, feel a breath against your neck. Marks or injuries might also follow you into the physical world: dirt staining your palms from where you fell, a cut from where you were struck, dampness in your hair from the rain. These occurrences could be obvious, but they might also be so minor you feel like your mind is playing tricks.

Still - what if it isn't merely a dream? As the week goes on, whether you experience the phenomenon for yourself or not, you'll most certainly hear of it happening to your friends, loved ones, neighbors. Word reaches you of fellow Summoned being stalked from the shadows, waking up with injuries they shouldn't have, possibly even suffering a near-fatal wound in their sleep. Clearly, there's more to this than uneasy visions in the night.

The Factions

While it is each Summoned who is the focus of their Entity's ire, they are not the only ones who seem aware of its movements. The factions will soon approach each Summoned with an offer: work with them to help contain the threat and aid the suffering of you and your friends - but the one thing they cannot explain is how they have come to know about the existence of the Entity.

Will you take the offer and try to convince your fellow Summoned this is a vital path to take? Or will your mistrust of those in power have you not only refusing, but trying to prevent others from making what you believe is a mistake?

The choice is yours, but the decision might impact more than just you this time.

A separate log located here will detail the reaction of the factions and so forth. You can tag in under the specific heading for each faction.

To thread out any arguments or conflict prior to participating, please do so in this event post. The IC Faction Intervention log should be only for those actively participating in the full process.

The Horizon

When dreams are no longer an escape, desperate souls might turn to the Horizon for safety - though they may remember that, previously, the Horizon was not safe at all.

It Follows

At first, the same doesn't seem to hold true. Things are quiet in the Horizon. There is no need for sleep or dreams here. You have full control over what's formed inside your domain. However, it doesn't take long for the remnants of that horrible dream to seep into your sanctuary. A field you grew may start to turn dark, becoming nightmarish corridors. Maybe the tower you placed so carefully begins to crumble, or perhaps the reflection you see of yourself in a lake isn't you at all. You will find that despite your best efforts, your Entity has followed you into Horizon and is corrupting your domain with it.

As menacing as the presence may be, the Entity will not be able to destroy other's domains. Within yours, though, it may twist the design to varying degrees, ruining carefully laid paths, staining blood on your walls, darkening what is most important to you no matter how much you might try to change it back. Conversely, its hold may only be strong enough to be a shadow in the corner of your eye. It all depends on the strength of your nightmares and how deeply its affected your mind.

Nonetheless, the message is clear: dreams are born of your mind and your mind is what the Horizon is formed from.

The Looking Glass

Whether you see the manifestation of your Entity in full or whether your domain is barely affected by its presence, all who enter the Horizon during the course of the week will find that they are once again plagued by a flash of a vision.

This is nothing like the glimpses into another's past, however. There are no headaches, no recognizable faces. This time, the vision will flicker in and out of focus like an old television trying to find the right signal, staticky and not quite clear at first. The flashes are brief, lasting only mere seconds, if that. In fact, at first, one might even mistake it for a trick of the mind. For some, this may be all they see. For others, it may return in another burst the next time they enter the Horizon, becoming clearer each time. It might appear as soon as you step in, or it might take an hour, two.

What you see will not be anything familiar. The scene itself will never change. It is a soundless meteoric picture. You may glimpse heavy winds stirring some sand, but you will not feel it on your skin nor hear the wind. You may see a flicker of the sea, but you will not smell the sea salt nor hear the crashing waves. All in all, this image which appears to you is abstract, strange, and impossible to understand in their absurdity - except for one part: the appearance of a single Arcana sign.

Intriguingly, this sign likely does not match your own. It might not even match anyone you know at all. It is an undeniable fixture, though, appearing emblazoned on the scene somewhere, not always in the same place, but always present: seared into the ground, carved on stone, scrawled on a page.

The six available images are below and each one is labeled with the Arcana sign your character will notice when they glimpse the scene. Choose any image you like, but only one may be selected. Characters do not need to be experiencing nightmares or the Entity to see these images.

As noted, the Arcanum on the image itself does not need to match your character's. At this time, there are no real details on what the Arcanum itself means or why it's appeared, though the possibilities are endless. Everyone in Abraxas possesses one, after all.

If you want to be surprised and assigned an image at random, comment here and we will do so for you!

The Hermit

The Sun

Temperance

Death

The Lovers

The High Priestess

CODE

Comments

At Street Level

[speak_n_spell]

The request did not surprise her, when it came. The Cat’s third floor stays shady and cool in the summer, but Sypha’s taken it to extremes lately. She wakes with purple lips and nailbeds, joints aching. She contained the spillover to her own room for the first two days, but after the third consecutive nightmare-riddled night, she woke to a frozen ewer and a doorknob that wouldn't budge. She wasn't the only one, either, and the proprietor had no trouble linking the unseasonable cold to the resident magician.

She's been asked to find other accommodations, "just until this latest affliction passes". It's frustrating, and unfair, but even worse it's embarrassing. Her control’s never been this shoddy, not even when she was a terrified child being rushed away from rabid villagers. Grumpy, sleep deprived, and unsettled, she retreats to the museum archives to search historic records for any similar past incidents. It can't just be the Summoned. Why is it always just the Summoned?

[godshattering]

It seems only natural to Claude that when in doubt about things that are happening: turn to research. Now's no exception and the thought becomes more and more pressing on his mind the less sleep he gets. Maybe that's what causes him to fixate on it, or maybe it's just the desire to find some way to solve this and feel less helpless in the meantime. At this point, it's as good of a solution as any.

He's just taken a rather large and much-heavier-than-it-looks leatherbound book off a shelf with the intent of dragging it back to one of the large tables meant to make it easier to browse several volumes at once. Though when he turns the corner out of the row of bookcases, Claude's surprised to see someone else there. "Oh--" slips out of him, an automatic startled reaction simply because it had been so quiet he'd assumed he was alone. And, well, he's (kinda, sorta, not really) greeted her so it'd be rude to just walk away now even if she's busy, right?

It's only a bonus that when he glances at what she's reviewing that it's something else an archivist had directed him towards. "I don't suppose you're also reviewing the Free Cities' history? This one-" hefting the book in his hands, "is supposed to cover strange astronomical experiences stretching at least several decades back."

[speak_n_spell]

Not many people peruse these particular archives; the Free Cities are a very foward-thinking place, fixed on the future without much use for deep history. It seems she only ever sees the Summoned here. Sypha glances up, fully expecting to see Jayce, or perhaps Viktor, and finds an unfamiliar man instead.

"Hm?" she blinks a few times, refocusing after hours spent between the pages, "Oh! Yes, actually, this one's to do with the cyclical manifestation of the local household magics." Sypha's eyes wander to the cinderblock of a book in his hands, sharpening with interest at the description.

"I take it you've been experiencing some sleeplessness?"

[godshattering]

"You could say that again." Cheerfully enough in reference to not sleeping, though it's a forced cheer considering the lack of sleep is beginning to wear on him even as someone who doesn't sleep on any set schedule. Might as well make the best of it for now. "I figured if I'm not sleeping, I might as well look for something useful. Not that I know what it'll be yet, but here's hoping."

Though he'd known to look for the book currently in her possession based on the title, and so that description piques his curiosity well past what it already was. "I dunno about where you're from, but the magic here seems to take on different forms than back home. There it was a matter of studying theoretical texts to learn formulas for either healing or attack spells, but here it seems like it's meant to improve things instead of being weapons, if I'm not misreading things."

While speaking Claude draws a little closer but pauses mid-step when he glances back at the woman. "I suppose I assumed you're also one of the Summoned, so apologies if not and I somehow insulted magic here in there somehow."

[hextechhead]

Jayce and Sypha are very much alike because their instincts always seem to bring them to the same place. He did stop off at the library first to ask around, but he found that nothing there really rang true of the situation. It would take too long to read through every history book. He is not awake enough to do that comfortably. He is tired although he's lucky enough that the subject of his nightmare sleeps beside him, so jolting out of it into reassurance makes it easier. But it still haunts him, and his domain keeps being a nightmare when he's in it.

Jayce is no stranger to having no sleep for a few days though, he and Viktor have done it before, but this isn't really about the sleep. It's about what is hunting them in it. He's seen it in day too, he swears he has, but it's always in the corner of his eye, a boy's face, covered in electricity. Since the library won't be usable, he goes straight for the museum archives, wondering if they really are the first to experience any of this in its history.

"Sypha." He smiles, wearily but true, when he spots her, she kind of stands out. He would probably identify her hair alone from a distance now that he knows her. He mostly looks okay, with a little hollowness in his gold-brown eyes being his only real indicator. "You're here for the same reason, I bet."

[speak_n_spell]

For all his other talents, Jayce isn't exactly a lightfooted man. Sypha recognizes his footsteps as they approach, early enough that she's already rubbing at her bleary eyes when he rounds the stacks.

"Beat you to it," she replies with a tired smile of her own. She gestures to the chair across from her and pulls a book from her stack to set down before it. "So far, no luck."

[hextechhead]

Jayce slides into the chair she offers and opens the book without any hesitation. It reminds him a little bit of how he and Viktor can be, how natural it feels sometimes for them to finish each other's thoughts or be in sync with each other. Sypha's easy to be in sync with, despite them only knowing one another a short time.

"I went to the library first, historical section obviously, but it didn't seem like the right angle, I wasn't getting anywhere." History books are facts but the thing is, it would be surprising if this sort of detail made it to an old history book. They're dry and straightforward, this is something unique. Like, say, a museum detail. Or really he's getting desperate.

"The fact is, they might not have anything like this, because there's never been people like us before here." Who can go to the Singularity, who can use its domain.

[speak_n_spell]

"I started with astronomy, but now I'm looking for records of mass hysteria," Sypha admits. It's been a trip through the archives, one that's left her impressed with whoever designed the catalog system, but nothing else to show for it. Maybe Jayce came across something like that in the library? Surely widespread hallucinations would make a fun historical fact!

She presses her fingertips into her eyes, rubbing at the grit in her tear ducts. "Maybe we're asking the wrong questions. It isn't 'why is the Singularity doing this to us', it's 'what traits do we all have that the native people don't'." The medical language to describe the concept doesn't yet exist in her world, so she finds herself grasping for other words in an effort to explain what she means. "It's as if...because they're from here, they're immune, as if it's a sickness?"

[hextechhead]

"No, haven't seen that, it would pop out." Jayce doesn't think the historical records of the Singularity are that much help, although he's read as many of them as he can find. The people here don't exactly understand it, and Free Cities is fairly hostile toward it and all magic to begin with.

"Like they've been inoculated? It's a scientific term for what you said." She lacks the science background, he lacks the magic background, together they may be one whole source of knowledge. "I'm not sure, the thing is that the natives here die if they get near to the Singularity. We're the only people who can approach it, or can experience the Horizon." Which makes them all special but also all subject to the same across the board problems. Like being tortured by cruel nightmares.

"So I'm not sure how they would have built an immunity to something they can't go near, outside of simply being born here." Jayce rubs at his own eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if the Singularity wants us out. It didn't bring us here. You'd think because we are allowed in the Horizon, maybe it doesn't hate us, but that is assuming a lot about a magical entity we don't know." He sighs. "So if it doesn't like us, maybe it wants to mess with us."

[speak_n_spell]

Innoculated. Sypha silently shapes the word and threads it into the memory-tapestry of Speaker tradition. Her world may not have perfected such a thing yet, but she can let history's keepers know to keep an eye out for it.

"You're right, it doesn't quite fit," she props her chin in her hand and juts her lower lip out in thought. "But they are immune to its wider effects, which suggests those are resonating on some level that the people here just don't have access to, for whatever reason."

The possibility of a malevolent sentience behind the Singularity has occurred to her before, but as with so many other elements of this mystery, they don't have enough information to say yea or nay. "You know, most of the self-aware magical entities I've encountered in the past have been...not simple, exactly, or childish, but kind of...stripped down. They don't tend to engage in all the analysis and justifications that people do. They sometimes come across as downright petulant, or fickle! So I wouldn't put aggressive pranks past it."

[hextechhead]

"They can't access the Horizon either, which is a place connected to the Singularity. When we go there for the first time, maybe that is when it happens, it gets into our head as we design our own domain. Sometimes we walk out with new powers." Jayce got an automatic healing ability that he has spent a tireless amount of time training in so he can keep Viktor alive long enough for a cure. That seems kind of too perfect, like it knew somehow what he needed and gave it over.

"The fact it's following us even in the waking world ... doesn't it feel to you like it's trying to escape?" Sometimes that's how it feels to Jayce, although he hasn't had a lot of experience with it so far. He can only think about how it's trailing him in reflections or around dark corners, and he wonders what it's trying to accomplish. The Singularity or maybe something else?

Jayce sighs and puts his arms down on the table, setting his head on top of them. He wakes up to Viktor and that helps, but he still doesn't like being reminded of his worst choice, or any opportunity for Viktor to be reminded of it. It's irrational, to fear his love might be shaken by seeing it over and over again, but Jayce's insecurities have a way of taunting him.

"Maybe it's not malicious. I hate not knowing. I got into science so I could make sense of everything."