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[damien-dw.livejournal.com]

Wednesday, September 17th, early morning,
Silk road heading towards the bridge

The dreamlands have come to us. At least that's what it looks like. Things are even crazier than they were when everyone's wishes were coming true. It feels like a huge bubble of dreamstuff is expanding out from the center of town.  Or maybe that's just my waking mind trying to make sense of what's going on. I tried the wings again and this time they came. I put them away as soon as I got to the Sacred Whore.  work is the last thing on my mind right now. i'm thinking maybe I should try to find Noma. Or maybe Nanse-kam.  Though last time something happenedwith dreams it was our help that Nanshe needed.

Pull the compass out from my pocket. It's already spinning.  I look at it and then an idea comes to me; since I don't know who I should find and it's made of dreamstuff maybe I should just ask if to find me whoever will be the most help in this situation? Why not? It might be the best way to deal with this.

I fix that idea in my head and the compass spins one more time and then settles pointing out at the bridge. Okay then. Time to go find some help.


[open to Zann]

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[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

I mean, nothing's weird about the music, right? It's in my ears while I'm working on the Carousel, and I'm humming along with it when I grab coffee, and I'm just heading over to the showers when I see Jay and wave to him and he gives me the oddest look.

"Are you the one doing that?" he says, and I kind of blink at him, rock back on my heels a little and I'm about to say doing what? when I realize the calliope music is still playing and we're nowhere near my baby.

"I think so?" I say after a second. I take a step to one side, spin in place, spread my arms, and the music skips along, the notes falling around me like bright brass...

And when I bring my hands down, the cog's in them, clean and bright as if it's just been minted.

So I left Jay to the showers, and I'm heading in to towards town, 'cause I remember where I found this, and it seems like the best place to go. And it's a fast trip, because the music's running along with me, and everything's going bright and fast and shining, and I know the figure on the bridge, I'm sure I do...

"Hey, honey," I say, drawing up. "I am having the weirdest day."

[damien-dw.livejournal.com]

The compass points me down the street all the way to the bridge and I start to cross over it wondering if the effects will stop on the other side. Guess not, as I am greeted by a cheerful girl accompanied by her own cheerful source less music. She seems familiar though I can't quite remember her name...

Hey, honey, I am having the weirdest day. She says, as we meet in the middle of the bridge. I smile back at her, "Like waking up inside a dream, right?"

And just like in a nightmare, something cold and wet grabs my ankle and yanks me towards the river. I spread my arms and wings out to try to keep my balance. There's a pale, dripping shape rising behind Zann. "Behind you!" I call out to her.

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

"Like waking up inside a dream, right?" and I laugh a little, because that's exactly right.

"A bit," I say, "like a daydream, you know?"

And then he's yanked back and he's yelling something--"Behind you!" I think, but I'm just a bit busy staring at the wings, because when the hell did he get wings, that seems like a rather important question, it really really does.

But I pull myself together, and turn around, and it's that girl from the Hallowe'en party, the one who was asking about sex, and I'm just starting to back away when she steps forward and puts her arms around me, and she's cold, cold and dripping and seeping, and she starts to drag me to the edge of the bridge.

[damien-dw.livejournal.com]

I kick out and twist my foot free. Then swoop over to help Zann get free of the girl who grabbed her. Should have realized that maybe it wasn't a real person as I end up flying straight into the rising cloud of her hair; (so much hair!) and end up being brought down by getting tangled up in it.

Still, I do manage to stop her from going over the edge.(and taking Zann with her) And now I know that she's made from dreamstuff. She's somebody's nightmare. Which means that I can do more to hurt her than she can do to hurt me.

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

There's a sound like canvas tearing, whipping free in a high wind, and then Damien's there and we've all three of us stopped moving back to the river, which all things considered is a very big plus for me right now, because this lady seems distinctly unfriendly. I pull my knees up and drop down, although I can't tell if I pull free of her arms or if I just fall through them, and if things weren't what they are, now's the time I'd probably try a two-part plan which consisted of popping her knee in entirely the wrong direction and then running like hell.

But she's water, how the hell am I supposed to fight water? And I dig my fingers into the boards and pull myself away from the edge, from her skirts, from the cold drag of her. It's not easy, but then again I've had a lot of practice hauling my own weight around. I kick as I manage to get clear, and hope she'll splash.

[damien-dw.livejournal.com]

Since this is someone else's nightmare rather than mine, I don't find it as hard as it might have been to reach out with hands and will to turn the girl figure into a puddle of water. She was water all along. I just changed the shape that water took.

Though I'm glad to see that Zann gets clear of her before she falls in on herself and starts dripping off the bridge. "Are you okay?" I ask as I get carefully to my feet. The water has soaked my clothes and I can feel a couple of places that are going be bruises soon.

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

...oh, hey, she does splash. That's actually really kind of a relief, and startles a laugh out of me as I finish pulling myself clear. Soaked from the thighs down, but I have had worse run-ins with townies.

"Are you okay?" Damien says, getting up.

"Oh, yeah, fine," I say, pulling myself together and then dropping up to my feet. Bruises, sure, but I've had worse. "So, that makes it seems like a really good idea to get away from the river. Are you going away from town or back into it?"

[damien-dw.livejournal.com]

Zann says she's fine and the easy, graceful way she moves tells me that's no lie. Then she points out that maybe we should get off the bridge and asks me which way I'm going.

"Um...I was following my compass..." I start only then remembering I was holding it when we got attacked. I don't remember dropping it and a quick look down fails to show its location to me. A moment of panic goes through me. I can't have just lost it! Then I think to reach into my pocket. It's there.

So I pull it out only to notice the needle is pointing the other way now. "Townwards, I think. Which way're you going?"

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

"I was gonna go looking for you, or someone at the Abbey; maybe drop in and see Wanda, you know?" I say as we move up towards Excolo proper. "I mean, I woke up this morning and I was hearing music, and it's still going, see? And I found this," and I hold up the cog. "We made the bird out of this, didn't we?" looking at the compass he's holding up. "The one that helped pull her free, before." I blink at him for a second and then grin. "So, uhm, I gotta ask... the wings?"

[damien-dw.livejournal.com]

Makes me feel sorta happy to hear I was one of the people on her list of folks to go looking for. And it certainly doesn't surprise me that she knows Wanda.

I nod and agree when she holds up the cog and and says that she thinks it's the same one we made that bird out of. It sure looks the same, at least it does to me. Her next question, is the one that comes as a surprise, after all she did just see a guy sprout wings and then vanish them. So, uhm, I gotta ask... the wings?

I blush. "Kind of a reflex thing. I have them a lot when I'm in- when I'm dreaming."

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

"Kind of a reflex thing. I have them a lot when I'm in- when I'm dreaming." I wonder for a second what he was going to say, but you gotta figure it was something like in my dreams, and he;s not really in his dreams right now, so that's probably it, and I nod.

"Okay, then," I say. "So," continuing down towards the road to the Tavern, "Do you know where we're going?" I think about it for a second and then add "Or what's happening? We didn't have water-girls trying to drown anyone out at the Carnival, I am just saying."

[damien-dw.livejournal.com]

Since I'm not entirely sure about where exactly we're going, I mean I can guess that the needle is pointing into town and maybe to the abbey, but I'm not sure enough of that to say so; instead I try to answer the second question.

"Glad to hear that. I think something or someone has opened a door or something between the dream and waking worlds and stuff is coming through. Do you want to look for that? The place where stuff is coming through. I was looking for someone to help or to talk to about this, but maybe those people would already be looking for the place where dreamstuff is coming from?" I give Zann a sideways look to se what she thinks of the idea.

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

"Hang on," I say, holding up a finger, because maybe I'm more okay with some things than I would be on a normal sort of day, but it still is not the kind of thing I would ever expect anyone to say. "...okay. Yes. I don't know who you were planning to talk to, honey, but really, I can see anyone who's interested in seeing or patching up the breakdown going to go take a look at it." I grin at him. "Alright, so let's go? (http://estdeus-innobis.livejournal.com/469279.html) And you can tell me anything you know about who might have done it along the way."