aefenglom | 02 [video]: trials and tribulations

There were ghosts! And there was a bottomless pit of fire under the Parliament building, but I think that was probably a dream thing? [America is like 80% sure there isn't a real bottomless pit under there.]

A pit of fire...?

[ Sounds worrying, to say the least. ]

Even if it might just be a symbolic vision in a dream, was there anything that, um, stood out about it?

It was under the bell that fell out of the tower. I couldn't really figure out how to move the bell without collapsing everything but I was able to get a look underneath after I moved some other stuff that was on fire in there.

I see.

To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a pit of fire under Parliament currently, or anything that might cause that, but I haven’t been there much myself. Were you able to pick up whether the fire was of magical or mundane origins, by any chance?

I don't know. I'm pretty sure there was probably something used to make the fire worse, though, 'cause it was still burning like crazy. Or something in the basement was super flammable, but when you see a government building up in flames like that, you gotta assume arson, right? [At least that's what America's thoughts immediately pop over to.]

That’s the first thing that would come to mind for me, too. There are usually safeguards that would keep that kind of thing from happening in the first place.

... I hate to ask, but were there any bodies...?

I didn't see any. There were those ghosts in the other parts of the city, though.

Those shadow-like things?

Yeah. They definitely seemed like ghosts, right?

I couldn't say for sure since I've never seen ghosts before, but I wonder if that sort of phenomenon's known to exist in Aefenglom, or if that was just the dream. Some pretty unrealistic stuff happens in them, so we can't really take what we see for granted...

[ugh.

yeah, he really hates remembering it. but he does like yako, so, point for her.]

Um~... The infirmary, it was... totally destroyed, and there was a lot of the Cwyld around... But looking at the Coven, it seems like something blew up inside..? I think.

[he. really, really does not like remembering it, but yako doesn't need to know by how much. even if it's fairly evident in his body language, how he holds himself a little and rubs idly at his forearm.]

Katsuragi-san, Miss Nessie-san and Mhairi-san... I mean, everyone was there, but I remember them best. They weren't in the others, right?

No, they weren’t.

Nobody is talking much about it, but it seems like the other Witches who were there do remember the dream clearly ... and I don’t know what it means. The two dreams we had before this ended up being tied to reality in some way, like the forest and the cave.

[but it was soo ooo oooo baaaaad yako, there was destruction everywhere but especially in his wooorkplaaaaace.......... terrifying.]

I wouldn't talk about either if you didn't ask, you know~. I get shivers just remembering it. We have patients who're infected pretty badly in the basement, but I don't think they're in that sort of danger? And from what I've read on the Cwyld, it would've definitely been a witch's fault, and--

[breathe, young tori. inhale and exhale.]

I'm scared! I don't want it to mean anything!

[ She really wishes she had more reassurance for Tori, but that's hard to give when she's pretty convinced that the dream's an ill omen in some fashion.

Still, she can probably at least tell him to breathe. ]

It's all right. It was a pretty scary dream. But, I think it could have been trying to tell us something, like the other dreams did. When I told Miss Nessie some of the things I saw in the dream, she said the Coven and Parliament would be holding a summons this month to talk about it with everyone, so it would be useful to try to consolidate what we do know.

A lot of the people who were from Aefenglom were also in the dream, right? Were your patients there, too?

The fire pit under the Parliament. All their documents were burning way too fast for the fire to have only come from there.

[ as well as what it tasted like . . . ]

. . . And there was witch blood, a lot of it. All around the wall, the Coven and the Parliament itself.

[ Witch blood ... she’s not going to ask how Eren could identify it, putting it down to Monster Powers. ]

Did it look like there were explosions? The boats out in the harbor seemed like they’d exploded from the inside.

I suppose it doesn’t matter much in a dream, but could you tell if the blood was fairly recent?

Every detail matters.

[ yako

you need to ask the important questions. to the explosion, he nods to affirm. ]

Some spots were still wet. [ pause . . . ] It did the opposite of what it usually does, though. I got riled when I tasted it.

[ THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH LIZARDS LICKING FLOORS ]

[ eren nO.......... she had a reasonably good suspicion the answer was going to be That and it sounds exactly as bad as she thought it would, so give her a moment to pause and brace herself before she answers. ]

You mean you went feral from tasting witch blood? [ She sure hopes he doesn't know the opposite effect from first-hand experience. ]

I don't know if I've ever heard that happen, but, um, if they were infected with something...

It wasn’t going feral. [ he didn’t . . . lose his mind or anything. ] It was just . . . Irritable.

I see ... I'm glad that didn't happen, even if it was just a dream. That wouldn't have been pleasant to experience.

[ Her tone seems subdued, at the end of that. ]

It still isn’t a good sign. [ all these are . . . premonitions still, aren’t they? ] Did you find anything?

Edited 2019-07-11 16:56 (UTC)

There was a mechanism under the city that looked ... broken. I didn't take a closer look, but I believe it was some kind of magitech? I don't know much about the city's workings, so I'm not sure what it was for.

Maybe it’s a good idea to start asking.

[ he says this for himself, too— he’ll be sure to mention it around. there’s one more thing, though, and eren starts. ]

I asked one of the elder monsters who were in the dream, and she said she didn’t find anything either, not even traces of those who disappeared. She just heard a laugh.

A laugh...?

[ That’s information Yako turns over in her mind, puzzled, trying to fit it into what she knows. ]

Did she happen to say where she was when she heard it?

In the city. She was looking for her family.

I see ...

... Have you heard anything about how the Monsters in the city are viewing the dream?

They’re angry. But they know as much of what’s going on as we do.

Everything was in ruin, except for the Mirror House. I couldn't find a way in, however... it was overgrown, with every entrance blocked.

[It sounds... annoyed.]

Overgrown...? That’s strange.

You wouldn’t happen to recognize the plants, would you?

I remember a few things. The Mirror House was whole, but we went inside, and most of the mirrors were shattered...

[His, included. Once he'd recovered from the dream's effects, he went back, and checked - his was still whole in the waking world.]

And! There was a maze around the city, one that only activated when you tried to return. I got stuck in a labyrinth... and found a minotaur skeleton, a dead one.

[As most skeletons are.]

I touched it to check on it, and... I think I got its Cwyld spots, I don't remember much after that.

[ Yeah, that distinction between living and dead skeletons doesn't usually tend to be necessary ... ]

I didn't run into that maze, although that might be because I didn't try to turn back [ Though it's only her voice, Yako's frown is almost audible. ]

You were infected by the Cwyld ... but in the same places as the minotaur was? [ She's just making sure she understands this correctly. ]

That's the long and short of it.

I touched a clean spot on its shoulder, but I guess it was close enough. The shadows leaked up my arms, and all through me, in a pattern like the minotaur's skeleton...

[After that, he got hungry and angry, and... things go very vague indeed.]

The maze seemed a lot like those tunnels in the first dream. If you didn't go there, it didn't go to you... But if you did, and tried to return... it locked you in.

I don’t know very much about how the Cwyld works, but that doesn’t sound normal at all. It sounds more like some kind of curse or magic gone wrong.

Do you mean the tunnels that showed memories of the past?

Edited 2019-07-09 16:16 (UTC)

That's probably what it is. There's a lot of magic gone wrong around here...

But no, I mean the tunnels in the cave. Super way down, with the quiet waterfalls. They kept moving so you couldn't climb back up... Thank goodness it was only like that in the dream.

I have to say, I'm grateful for that ... though I didn't have a chance to explore so deeply in the dream myself, that doesn't sound pleasant.

[ And if he's telling her about it, well, he's obviously experienced it himself. ]

Well, they were only caves. In real life there were enormous biting spiders! In the dream, it was nothing but twisting tunnels burying you in the mountain, unable to escape... It wasn't too bad, if you had company.

[In a way, it felt just like home.]

[ The grimace in Yako's voice is practically audible. ]

Yeah ... I almost ran into one of those.

It's strange, since it seemed like the witches were pretty confident that the cave was safe.

Astonishingly confident, for the amount of danger. The dangers must be really good at hiding...

And, I guess, there's a lot the witches don't know, yet.

[They know way more than him about the world, and their magic, and all of that. He's not dismissing them entirely. But it's enough to worry him about what they'll be able to figure out about returning people to life - or their homes.]

Or there's something that was actively working to block them.

[ Her voice is slightly worried. One might assume everyone would be united against a big common threat, but ... there's no way to be sure of that. There had been people willing to help Sicks extinguish the whole human race, after all, even if that seemed to be against their own interest. The Cwyld might seem a freak magic occurrence, but is there the possibility of a conscious will directing it, encouraging it to grow?

She wonders. ]

Miss Nessie said they'd be calling a meeting to address some of these things more openly. It doesn't seem like a lot of people want to talk about it.

And who can blame them? It's pretty scary stuff...

[Bad enough to be growing claws (and maybe more), after all those warnings that monsters have tremendous - and sometimes unthinkingly violent - tempers. He likes himself, and doesn't want to change all that much. But the bright side of waking up here was being on the surface of a whole world, able to see the sky and go exploring if he so likes. If this world is even more dangerous than the one he's come from... If the Cwyld was hiding on purpose, or if someone's helping it hide...? Brr.]

If there's nothing we can do about it, why spend time worrying... when we could find things to smile about, instead? Sometimes that's all you can do.

[He talks like he's quoting someone, echoing sentiments from back home. Their kind of monsters have had generations of a certain learned helplessness from being so utterly sealed within the caves. Some aggressively optimistic sorts - like Undyne - take a more proactive approach to things, but quiet forced smiles are the norm in Snowdin.]

[ Papyrus's words have a ring of truth to them, but at the same time... ]

That's just circular logic though, isn't it? [ Yako answers, voice firm, but friendly. ]

Perhaps it's true that there's not much we can do about it now ... but I think it's wrong to accept it's always going to be that way, or that 'not much' is the same as 'nothing.' [ Her voice is kind, even taking a stance against Papyrus's own, or at least the words of whoever he'd heard such a thing from in the first place. ]

Finding something to smile about isn't a bad thing. But isn't it more important to ask why we want to keep smiling in the first place?

I, but, that doesn't... I don't mean...

[Papyrus trails off in a flustered stammer, frowning unseen. Something about that hits close to heart, in a way that's hard to describe.]

Does that really sound that... hopeless??

[That's not his brand at all, and what a terrible thought, that maybe he's just doing a busier smilier version of what he's trying to avoid.]

[ Papyrus's stammering is enough to clue Yako in that she's said something mildly rude, and she snaps out of it with a guilty look, flushing. ]

Ah, well, I didn't mean it that way...! [ But, well, what did she mean after all. ] What I just meant to say is ... People see things differently. Everyone must have their own ideas about what the best way to approach any of this is. And those ideas aren't right and wrong, but they're driven by what that person believes.

The city was almost completely destroyed and overgrown, with smears of Cwyld everywhere. I found no bodies, and no trace of bones anywhere. Nearby the Coven and the Parliament were traces of witch's blood, a lot of it. Under the Parliament was fire, and it was still burning despite everything looking like it happened a long time ago. I've seen the ghosts too, of people fighting or running from something.

[A pause. He sounds surprisingly collected, just like soldier reporting the situation.]

Harbor became a ship graveyard, a lot of them having traces of fire as well as external damages. At least several were the ones we've all seen set sail during the earlier celebration. There were skeletons onboard, many wearing recognizable trinkets. Some had traces of fire, but for most there was no signs of damage on the bones. It means they died either of hypothermia or drowning.

I've seen Leviathan there. It's been infected by Cwyld, but not yet gone and able to communicate. It gave up hope on being healed, and said that Cwyld came from the land in blood.

Most of this corroborates the things that some others have mentioned and some of what I saw, as well. So a lot of details stayed consistent between different dreamers...

This is the first time I’ve heard of Leviathan, though. Do you mean that dragon-like creature swimming in the ocean? You were able to speak to it directly?

[ In contrast to his professional tone, she’s more expressive, growing thoughtful and audibly intrigued by turns. She’s clearly interested in whatever he has to say, ]

Did it say whose blood?

02 [video]: trials and tribulations

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gagtag aside, i love this and i've been trying to match it, but perfectionism struck

oops i meant to tag this back for days but the gagtag distracted me...

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