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DragonHeir

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  1. DragonHeir
    “Because you aren’t here. I don’t know whether this place is real and you’re imaginary, or this is a vision and you’re real, but you are not here for real. To feel yourself being imagined breaks you, but this is different. I believe we are always being imagined, but this place is different - to be in the mind, in possibilities, is far worse than being in a story. In the end, we do slowly fade away, but here, the time your actions matter for lasts mere moments.” She knew, in the back of her mind, that even this conversation was snapping back, reiterating points in versions and leaving off on forgotten statements. Hopefully the Beyonder was real, and could remember the conversation even as the imagined scene didn’t. He looked, tears running down his cheeks, none of the enthusiasm and bizarre friendliness from before.
  2. DragonHeir
    Puzzle turned to the voice, then reverted to the direction she had been before, watching another contestant win, running - too slow - towards the prize. She tried again, once again snapping back to a projection of the future: her “father”, Rebus, smiling with a blade in his chest, dead and yet victorious over his own enemies as they tore themselves apart. The third time, she - with mental effort - reached a projection of the future after what had just happened, and was able to turn around and speak. “It is. No matter your power, no matter your skill, or foresight, anyone trapped in this place has no way to act. Scenarios, possibilities, actions play out, and yet it has no meaning. Victory is snatched away, over and over, while failure, death, and stagnation slowly wear you down. Yes, this is what any sane being with the foresight to understand should fear.” Cole crumpled to the ground, knowing he was too late. There was no escape, no way to fix his mistakes. The Spirits were gone, his only hope to put out the fire out of reach. He’d failed, and even Madness was not there to provide an escape.
  3. DragonHeir
    “They come to you, yes - not instantly as a Plotblade would, but distances do not matter to the magic I have placed in them.” The ends were indeed sharp - not to the point of cutting all, but they seemed as though they could be imbedded with the edge. Rebus waited. He’d known this would happen. The best way to lie to someone, to manipulate them into doing your will, was to tell the truth. “Use your new tools well. Farewell.” The dreamsmith beckoned to one of the two doors into the cave - the one they had entered through.
  4. DragonHeir
    “It is my pleasure.” He didn’t notice, and Heir figured that would be reverted in time. Hmmm - I’m guessing it’s because Tam was mentioned, and Rebus was never referred to by pronouns in that post. Rebus imprinted a post into Bat’s mind. “I don’t lie. But you don’t need to believe me - just know that if I’ve told the truth and you do nothing, I am not the one at fault. You killed her, in a way, and if you wish, you may ignore me and your chance to maybe bring her back.” “They were talking to someone in lab coat, and then they disappeared.” Jack had been introduced to them briefly - or, now he had had this happen. Retcons were a useful thing.
  5. DragonHeir
    “Use Involvement well. I have not made a weapon for second visitors, but if you return I may make an exception. There is not a lot to do here, you know.” Sagerian followed. I guess that happens when I have a genderflipped clone of him… “Do you remember what I told you, about needing to stay important? While you were here, Tam had nobody to talk to and hence ceased to exist. I had hoped there’d be proof I was right, but not like this.” “It is my honor. You can stay - I would love the company - but I expect you have things to do.”
  6. DragonHeir
    The dreamsmith smiled, picking up the tongs again. He pulled a glowing strand from Cricket as well, this one much larger than Rose’s. It also had more texture, a light-dampening filament weaving through it. Just as he had done with Rose, the dreamsmith placed the strand on his anvil and began to flatten it. “As I said, a masterwork needs three things. Material is the first; I can use more of your soul, since your unique state will prevent any harmful effects as you replenish what I have taken.” He began to cut the flat, glowing plate into several pieces, shaping them into armor plates - fusing them into cylinders of various sizes. “Next comes the form. As I said, this is very important. Should I taken the very same materials and shape them into something else, your tool would be very different.” He began to cool the armor, using a wooded rod soaked in water to shape the contours and pouring on more water to turn the piece of soul to metal. “Finally, a masterwork needs a name. I shall call your armor Sanctuary - it shall teleport much as you can, to protect yourself and others. Ordinary armor must have seams so it can be removed, but Sanctuary can teleport around you. It shall be light and strong, as well - though should you break it, reforging the metal will require a master smith skilled in magic; any other may mend a crack, but it shall thereafter be vulnerable until it is truly repaired.” The last piece of the armor was cooled, and Cricket could feel it in his mind, the same way he felt his ability to form portals. “We just left the castle,” Jack noted. What Haly said, and there are some giant bugs who are holding two people captive, and several crazy people trying to figure out why one of them sees hallucination orbs. “The feeling will pass - I’ve known especially large projects to leave people in bed for days, but I have been careful to use only what is needed. You will not need to command Involvement - it shall know when it is needed. I can give you a board to mount them on now, though anything you did not bring will not be able to leave this place.” Sagerian looked pleasantly surprised. “Thank you, sir.” “I do. Tam is gone. I would consider her dead. I’m sorry.” Rebus did look sad, though not very - more a disappointment of wasted time than any true grief.
  7. DragonHeir
    The dreamsmith picked up tongs that passed through her chest, fuzzing. He pulled out a glowing strand, tinged black at the edges. She could feel where it was, like a limb, but when he placed it on an anvil and began to hit it with a hammer, she didn’t feel anything. “A masterwork of my caliber requires three things. Firstly, the material; this pieced your soul. I have taken the least I can - you will need strength in the coming days, I suspect.” He separated the strand into several pieces, hammering it over a wedge in the anvil. “Secondly, the form.” He hammered each piece into a small disk, one side of it cooling into a metal that looked much like Nullite. “The form flows into function, and is the most important for determining use.” He finished the last disk, and arranged them in a circle. “Lastly, a true masterwork needs a name. This is Involvement.” The disks jumped into the air, hovering. “You are important to many events - these disks can know the way towards something important. They fly faster and longer when your destination is important, akin to one of the arts of Narrators, though they also may be used to lift objects and people. A board to place them on will be useful to you, so you may stand on them, but I have made these to be placed on any vehicle or object, though there is a limit to how much they can lift.” “Not especially. My friends know me - they want to hear of the world beyond our city.” “I can get many places, and Xanther does work with me. But I have bad news.”
  8. DragonHeir
    “Ah, that was the other strange thing about you. I’ve never worked on a Plotblade…” He paused. “I suppose you don’t want it damaged. But I can make you armor - draw upon your capacity as a teleporter, perhaps.” Ooh, that’s a good idea. The dreamsmith turned back to Rose. “I believe I know what to make for you. You have importance in your soul, and I can use it.” “Me? I’m looking to write for my memoir.” The room lightened a little, revealing Rebus’s silhouette, facing away from him in a chair that had not been there before. He spun around, a sorrowful look on his face.
  9. DragonHeir
    @Hoid Slayer
  10. DragonHeir
    Ah. Sagerian thought the man looked a little familiar. “Hello. I’m Sagerian, and you are?” Having had an idea, Rebus crept back into the room with Bat as a near-invisible cloud of utility fog. Once he was in position, he shut off all the lights at once. “Yes. I can do that.” Hmmm… whip sword? The Dreamsmith nodded. “Few people ask for protection. You are wiser than most.”
  11. DragonHeir
    The Dreamsmith briefly placed his goggles over his eyes. “Yes, I can see that. It shouldn’t be a problem - in fact, it may improve the weapon I create. Do you have a specific request?”
  12. DragonHeir
    “You have come to the right place. I am one of the best smiths there are.” The Dreamsmith’s room brightened, revealing every material and tool Cricket could think of, from rocks to aerogel, from crude hammers to CNC machines. “I can make you a weapon, not from these materials, but from something you can take back with you; a piece of your very soul.”
  13. DragonHeir
    A man, with an aviator-goggle adorned top hat, looked up from stoking a furnace. He smiled, his jaw reflecting the firelight. “Welcome; congratulations on completely your trial. I am the Dreamsmith.”
  14. DragonHeir
    Will turned to him. “Get me other files - any experiment relating to healing or memory, please.”
  15. DragonHeir
    Will’s paper had dozens of ideas, written in deliberately-hard-to-read handwriting. He didn’t have any illusions as to the organization’s willingness to get rid of him as soon as he wasn’t useful.
  16. DragonHeir
    Now, mostly. Jack’s here, though I’ll have to hammer out my plot as we go. Jack looked puzzled. “Sir? Are you alright?” Rebus hadn’t been using Narration to teleport, but in order to end up somewhere dark and open enough to spin around dramatically he’d had to move around some utility fog before he could be teleported there. “Hello, Xanther. I do not need you, though I would not object to a conversation.” The Dreamsmith’s cave had light, now, an ajar door letting firelight through, leaving a streak of brightness on the floor.
  17. DragonHeir
    He took some paper from the desk, and began jotting down memory and healing-related propositions.
  18. DragonHeir
    By manage affairs, I mostly mean occasionally bothering people on Rebus’s behalf (though he’d probably do that anyway) so people don’t forget him. Rebus materialized somewhere nearby to Bat, and searched out a shadowy room. Sagerian stood at the ruined entrance to the Eternal Mountains, holding his book and wondering what had happened.
  19. DragonHeir
    That was odd, though not unhelpful. Perhaps that mechanism could be investigated further to get the memory manipulation off the ground. That was odd, though unhelpful.
  20. DragonHeir
    The man sounded nice. Will searched for his real name, and whether or not he had to relearn walking and language after he regenerated. @Spark of Hope
  21. DragonHeir
    Yeah, you’re right. Camp is not for several weeks - but yeah, now that Symbol has been brainwashed Rebus would pick Nemesis to manage his affairs. Do you want Rebus, Sagerian, or a character you give me to interact with Bat?
  22. DragonHeir
    Will checked to see if the man followed conservation of energy (because who knew, with this place), then flipped to the part on him, rather than the experiment.
  23. DragonHeir
    “Indeed.”
  24. DragonHeir
    Will found that interesting, reading up on the mechanism and the required duration. The memory part was a problem, but perhaps…
  25. DragonHeir
    Tam is dead, plot-wise. She’s suffered the very fate Rebus has spent all this effort trying to avoid. Alright, that works. I think it was the Brave Adventurer (the new one, I guess?), or maybe the Great Wizard - if the former, that’s NameIess, but the latter might be Xino? I’ll be less likely to have a lot of time during the summer, given that I’ll be at camp for much of it - I think if you bring your phone you get an hour every couple of days to call home and stuff, and that’s it.
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