Exile on Main Street

[Dracos]

Dracos shrugs, Pocketing the two small things and wrapping the mess of claymore's up in a bundle, he goes and tosses them in the back of the car.  He then goes on to get something ready for dinner.

Dracos

[Brian]

The day passes easily enough, everyone finding something to do in the old place, even if a run down old NES isn't that exciting.  A crate of cheaply pirated movies provides entertainment, assuming you liked early nineties and late eighties films.  The library provides an alternate escape if it doesn't, and the music room is always there, too.

   Eventually, of course, you go to sleep.

   Bjorn:  You dream of running through a three dimensional maze of glass.  You can see someone chasing you, and the glass is like your sword -- completely invisible.  But this maze has stairs, walls, doors ... even glass tables and chairs that you simply can't see.  Whoever's chasing you isn't much better off, but it's an awkward run, no matter how you look at it....

   Dracos:  You dream of a verdant forest, a lone man striding among the trees as though part of them, leaves growing from his hair, and out of his mouth.  The Green Man does not see your dream-self, but instead seems focused on reaching a destination just out of your sight ... and he vanishes behind a tree....

   Huitzil:  You dream of a tournament for Lord of the Rings.  You're doing quite well, honestly, and you've got a good hand.  Your opponent is someone you've never seen before, the pudgy, ignorable type of person who loses more often than not.  You really want to win this tournament, as the prize is your old life back.  When you look at the table, you realize you've just played the Bjorn Christianson card, and he's in moderate danger.  The only allies you can send to him are the Ginrai, Paul Durant, Philip Bloom, and Nathan Shuker cards.  Your Shade card was just killed.  Even if you manage to use all of the cards you have left, there's no guarantee that you're going to win.  Your opponent holds a mirror up, saying something you can't understand, and you wake up before seeing your own face.  You get the idea, however, that if you had seen it, you would have been someone else....

   Ginrai:  You dream of home, and your family.  You stand outside a window, looking out at a street, looking up towards another window, with your family inside.  "You can never come back to this," someone tells you.  "Not unless you resolve the contest...."

   Rez:  You dream of a plain of muted white.  Around you is a marsh, though you can't see for more than ten meters before everything is obscured by the fog.

   The wolf you saw before limps up to you, more beaten and wounded then before.  "I'm sorry," it says, before vanishing.

   Walking through the mists, you realize you're searching for Ayame, but all that's left is old memories....  You find Rasputin, though.

   He's the old wizard, beard, staff, and all.  Next to him is William Flint.  They seem not to see you, and also be much more substantial than the surroundings.  In the memory, the two of them run across the foggy marsh, reaching Ayame all too quickly.  She is as you remember her from the temple in your dream, all that time ago.  Her hair is blonde, but stuck through with twigs, and her face is smudged with dirt.  Her clothes are torn and dirty, as though she's been running for a long time.

   By contrast, both Flint and Rasputin seem as though they just stepped out of a party, clean, unmarked, and everything in place.

   Rasputin raises a staff to strike at Ayame, though you can't tell what words are passing between them.  The wolf leaps between Ayame and the wizard, teeth bared.

   The wizard's staff sends the wolf flying, blood flecking the white mist, and staining the bog with bright red patches.  A sudden fire consumes Flint, and he vanishes, causing Rasputin to flicker, as though some of his strength faded.  He looks surprised, but undeterred, sending multicolored streams of light from his staff at Ayame, which the wolf again intercepts.

   The wolf slumps, unable to move anymore, but unwilling to give up.  Rasputin raises his staff to deliver the final strike to the wolf, but his blow is stopped by a new arrival.  Clad in shimmering gold-and-silver cloth, this visitor is cloaked in a blur you can't see completely through in this dream-memory.  A flashing halberd strikes the wizard, severing his staff, and a strike with the same plunges through his heart.

   Rasputin's eyes widen, and he mouths something, but again, there is no sound.  The visitor, wearing a helm, though still shielded by the obscuring blur, says, "You should never have been involved this deeply," to you, and vanishes.

   When your dream-vision clears, you see Ayame.  She's not visibly wounded, but at the same time, you can tell she's at the limits of her life.  The wolf watches, healed very slightly from the encounter with Rasputin, but still not well....

   Ayame closes her eyes, stills, and in a cloud of light, is replaced with a small, black-haired child, looking perhaps six years old.  The wolf hangs its head, and the child cries, until she sees you, whereupon she vanishes, eyes wide in surprise....

   Everyone:  ...and then you wake up.  You have the vague idea that your dream had significance, and that the others had some part in it ... but don't know how to put that into words, and as you stay awake, the memory of the dream stays with you ... but the idea that the others are significant to it does not.

[Dracos]

Dracos awakens and heads out back to well, meditate a bit.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Rez drags himself off the couch, where he'd crashed AGAIN, this time surprisingly awake . . . for that time of morning.

That was . . . fuck.  Ceran?

Shaking himself awake, he goes for his laptop and checks his email.

[Rezantis]

Not too long later, Rez can be heard to smack himself in the forehead (with a solid thwack) and mumble something about forgetful morons.

[Dracos]

Dracos follows the noise, "Somethin' up Rez?"

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"EVERQUEST?!"

[Dracos]

"Everquest?"  Dracos raises an eyebrow.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Um,"  Rez is trying desperately not to burst out laughing, "You know how Ayame evidently had some money to be getting equipment and safe houses for us?"

[Dracos]

"What she invested in Everquest and took over the companies earnings?"

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Not quite.  You know how there's a big market on E-Bay for everquest characters and items?"

[Dracos]

"Yeah, Korea's been mining it for a decade now... She got in on it?"

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Seems that way, yep."

[Dracos]

"I see.  Heh.  How'd you find this out?"

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Ayame . . . sort of died, and created another in her place?  Kind of.  I'm not sure I understand it, exactly, but . . ."

Rez sighs.

"I had a dream, last night, and it seemed pretty real . . . I saw what happened to her.  But anyway.  She's someone else, now."