The View From Here

[Brian]

When everyone shakes their heads clear of blackness and confusion, they're all scattered around a small valley, carpeted in thick, soft grass.  The vale's sides rise to hills, above which hang cotton-candy clouds on a field of stark blue.  Above that, the sky is black, stars and planets spinning around lazily.

Kyle is standing in his armor, with his handguns.  The little girl also looks like Sailor Pluto, though after a second that outfit wavers, and she looks like herself, only dressed in a grecian tunic and sandals.

Everyone else looks as they did when they were in the trailer.

At the far end of the valley there's a robed figure, sitting atop a boulder next to a heap of smaller rocks.  His hood is down, but his face is gaunt, and heavily shadowed.  He looks a little surprised to see other people here, but not very alarmed.  He doesn't rise, or reach for the staff leaning against the base of the boulder he's perched on.

Daniel's senses say that this gaunt, pale-faced man is not an immediate threat.

Sterling looks around for a moment, and then says, "Well.  This is new."

[Halbarad]

Tim looks around for a few minutes, to see if he can spot anything familiar - it DOES remind him of the times he's met Pandora, but only in the sense that everything here seems almost too real.

[Ebiris]

"Okay, so we're... physically 'here'," Daniel gestures at the ground, "Not just comatose and waiting to be killed?"

Best to get that clarified before asking about the other resident of this place.

[Brian]

"Yes," Kyle says, looking at the newcomer oddly.  "This is the horizon of eternity.  The boundry where Dream leaves reality.  I ... don't know who that is."

"He is not of the Brotherhood of Morpheus," the little girl says suddenly, in flawless English.

Kyle frowns at that, and rubs his chin thoughtfully.

[Halbarad]

Tim decides to take the direct approach. "Er... excuse me, sir, but who are you?"

[Brian]

"I am called Charrel," he answers, not really rising.  "Who are you?"

[Halbarad]

"I'm Tim," Tim replies. "Sorry to be so abrupt, it's just been a really trying day. Are we intruding here?"

[Brian]

"Most likely not," he replies.

[Halbarad]

Tim relaxes a bit at that. "Can you tell us anything about where we are? We're kind of new here, at least most of us are."

[Ebiris]

Daniel coughs, glancing at Kyle and the as yet unnamed girl.

[Brian]

"No one I know," Kyle says quietly, shrugging.  "This is just the concept of a place.  I thought it would be empty."

Charrel raises an eyebrow.  "It's not good for people who don't know what they're doing to go places they aren't familiar with," he says, smirking.  "You stand at the boundry of the Dream and the point where reality ends.  Beyond those stars," he explains, pointing upwards, "is the Enemy.  Beyond that ... you're in the Dream.  You'll learn the rest, I imagine.  Being a Dreamer, I'm sure that Alan will look for you."  He practically spits that name.

[Halbarad]

"O...kay," Tim replies. Not much to go on, but at least a bit more than before. "Um... thank you." He gives the man a quick nod before heading back to rejoin the others.

"So where do we go from here? Kyle, you probably know the most about this place - what are we supposed to do here? Just wait for a while until the soldiers leave and then go back, or are we staying for longer than that?"

[Brian]

Charrel grunts in reply, and vanishes in an explosion of flame.  His boulder goes with him, and the topmost rocks from the nearby pile tumble off the heap and land on the ground.

"Well, getting out is trickier than getting back in," Kyle says.  "We'll need time to set that up.  I think we should look for Pandora.  And then the Brotherhood of Morpheus."

[Halbarad]

"Sounds good to me. How do we find her, though? Do we walk, or is there another way to get from here to where she is?"

[Brian]

"There are other ways, but we're going to need to walk.  Otherwise, we'll all get separated," Kyle says.  "If you can, try to imagine something convenient for moving a lot of people really fast.  Me and Phae are working pretty hard right now just to make sure we all remain in the same paradigm."