• PM To Join • Is it the Shore or the Sea? Pt. 1

[Leeson Andaris]

Arc 718, 26th of Ymiden

Would a wall still be considered a wall if it had no end?

Not to say that the wall in question didn’t have corners, necessarily. But those corners bent and bent again, folded into each other, to form a box. But it was continuous. It was unending.

Is that still a wall?

At what point does a wall become a prison?

How many hallways and avenues must this wall develop before it becomes a hell?

And how long has Leeson been here?

Steps echoed in the aforementioned hallways endlessly. Leeson had been walking for his entire life, only now realizing that becoming tired was an option.

“Hello?” He yelled out, vaguely remembering other people who were at one point trapped in this place with him. Three others, in fact. He remembered quite clearly, now that he began focusing on their memories.

One got out.

Two apparently never had.

And now the only one left walking through the stone nightmare in which Leeson found himself, brick laid atop brick, was Leeson.

And it was lonely, now.

Brick after brick.

Leeson after Leeson.

With only new bricks in the same twisting, folded wall to be found, and seemingly only found by the same Leeson.

I can get out, he thought. I can leave.

Others had.

But not Leeson.

His footsteps grew louder. Or, maybe not louder. Maybe more frequent. As if, perhaps, he had gained two extra feet.

Confused, Leeson stopped, looking down at his legs, counting them meticulously. After a while of counting, Leeson had surmised that he only possessed the same two legs, but noticed something else.

Those other set of footsteps had yet to cease.

[Rynata]

Rynata never got lost. It simply never happened, and yet as she stepped away from the familiar marketplace in Almund, unfamiliar houses crowded around the street to wall her in. Coming to a halt, she looked over her shoulder uncertainly. Hadn’t she just been on the street back toward the docks? Perhaps her daydreaming had caused her to take the wrong turn. Doubling back, Rynata tried to reach the main street once more, but the alley continued to darken and grow quieter.

Alright, then.

Pausing in the middle of the path, Rynata tilted her head slightly, as if listening for something. If she could just figure out the closest direction of the sea, from there she could find the docks and make her way back to her ship.

Nothing.

The ever present tug toward the waves had simply vanished. She might as well have been listening for rain in a parched desert. Sticking a hand in her vest pocket, Rynata went to find her compass. As a present from her family, she always had it with her. At this point, even a cardinal direction would do. However, as she gazed into the familiar face of a navigator’s best friend, she had to squint in confusion. The lettering along the needles was all wrong. Useless runes and out of order numbers.

There was nothing for it but to keep going. Some time ago, the buildings had melted into one long wall. With nobody around and no doors to knock on for help, Rynata could only hope this strange street led out somewhere. Even the sky above had grown silent and starless.

Up ahead she heard the only sound she had in a while. An uncertain greeting echoing down the street. Someone was probably just as lost as she was. Picking up her pace, Rynata rounded the corner, following the steps slightly ahead of her own.

[Leeson Andaris]

And there it was.

Or, there something was. Leeson couldn’t much make it out, whatever it may be.

As the steps Leeson heard from further away became closer, that wall straightened itself. It contorted as it did previously, but this time to unfold into a straight line.

Where once it had contained, now, it seemed, it would guide.

Leeson stood motionless, embarrassed to admit he was still making sure he hadn’t sprouted any additional legs. But when he looked up, he could see the light at the end of the tunnel he now found himself in. He began walking towards the other end, acutely aware of the fact that, as it seemed, his footsteps were still not the only to be heard, that something on the other end was walking towards him as he was walking towards it.

As he continued, however, that sound morphed from the per-clump, pa-clomp it usually was, to more of a muddied, muted psh-gonk, psst-glump.

It was then that Leeson could feel the water in his socks.

The wall that wrapped itself in a square corridor around Leeson seemed to begin crying tears of salt water, which, due to the length of this particular corridor, began to fill rather quickly.

And so, Leeson moved faster.

And the water rose higher.

And faster, yet, Leeson moved.

Those tears began to flirt with his hips.

Leeson began to sprint.

And that is when the water reached his sternum.

But then, Leeson stopped, staring at the light so far back, and noticing something he hadn’t seen before.

Immediately, he dunked his head under, only to see a silhouette take up considerable portions of that light.

As Leeson approached still, driven by curiosity and by the overwhelming desire to escape, he found himself able to breathe, oddly enough.

And then, in a moment, he reached the subject of his curiosity.

The walls were dry. As if no water had existed here. But Leeson remained.

And so did the silhouette.

Except she wasn’t much of a silhouette anymore.

She had taken form in front of him. Or, partially. Leeson, no matter how hard he focused, could not discern any details regarding her appearance. All he could tell was that she was there, and that she was a significant amount shorter than him.

And that Leeson was terrified of her.

But in the most intimate of ways.

“Hello?” He asked again.

[Rynata]

It wasn’t just the matching pair of footsteps Rynata heard now. There was the distinct sound of water echoing further up the corridor and she thought that she had at last reached the bay. However, though the sound of the waves seemed slightly off, she wouldn’t see the seawater seeping back into the walls of the passageway. Instead, Rynata arrived to find a lone figure stranded in the corridor ahead of her.

The man seemed out of place in this claustrophobic backstreet. He seemed lost, not threatening, in the way he looked about the enclosed space. This was all very well since Rynata hadn’t had any wishes to run into some smuggler or black market dealer. The stranger’s expression did seem a little taut but that probably had to do with wandering through the dark street alone. Approaching her, the man uttered the same greeting in the voice she had heard from before. Rynata thought it sounded more like a question than a salutation, but she supposed one couldn’t be too careful on these streets.

“Hello,” she returned simply, looking up at the man. “Can I help you?”

“You speak,” he noted, more to himself than anyone else. “How long have you been here?”

Raising a brow but choosing not to comment, Rynata looked over her shoulder as if she could discern the distance she had wandered. “Uhm, yes. If you mean this street,” she nodded at the walls, “not long, I think. Do you happen to know the way back to the main road?”

“I-... Hold on, I’m still reacting to this. I’m...You haven’t been here for…” He stopped, presumably to collect his thoughts. “Forever?”

“Forever? No, I-” Rynata’s voice went up a pitch at that strange question. How could someone be stuck in a street forever? Unless of course he meant.... “Oh, I don’t live here. I’m just in town for business. Are you alright?”

“In town f-... What? There’s no… I think I’m confused.”

Stopping to take a proper look at the stranger, Rynata found it was actually too dim to see his expression. Perhaps he really was unwell.

“Why don’t you come with me? We can find the main street together, yes?” she offered.

“Wait… Okay wait. I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I’m truly sorry, but if we found a way out of here, we wouldn’t be the first, and…” He said, becoming giddy. “I think I know how to do it now.”

“Alright… Do you want to lead the way?” Rynata asked tentatively, thinking it best to entertain the stranger.

“Well it doesn’t really… Okay.” He said.

In one, big, dramatic motion, he put both of his hands on Rynata’s shoulders.

“Ready?” He asked.

Starting a little as the man grabbed her shoulders, Rynata tried to back away, looking at the stranger quizzically. He didn’t seem threatening even now, but his behavior was certainly strange.

“Just… I think I need you for this, it’s fine. Celeste got out and she had Xander, but Quincy and Peake just… They were like me, right? Cause I was… Okay. Listen. Just for a second. Please. So we can leave.”

Rynata nodded, planning to get the man to the nearest clinic as soon as possible. She had of course never heard of the names that the man rambled out, but he seemed almost desperate.

“Are you ready?” He said, keeping his hands on her shoulders.

“I suppose?”

And then it changed.

[Leeson Andaris]

Those walls, for the first time Leeson could remember, melted away. Folded into itself, brick by brick, until no trace of that prison remained.

What was left was a beach. Well, as close to a beach as a beach could get. The middle of the picture, however, if it were to be viewed from a distanced point of view, was separated down the middle, like a folded sheet of paper. Leeson on one side, and the stranger on the other.

Leeson fell onto the sand, overjoyed, spreading out his legs, feeling it in his toes. It felt exactly like soil. But his energy was too much for him to immediately contain, and he ran directly into the ocean, finding its temperature to be a comfortable lukewarm and fresh, and the foam on its waves to be starkly similar to bathing soap. It felt like a bath.

Leeson laughed and felt happy unabashedly, yelling out his contentment as he splashed in the liquid freedom this figure had so graciously bestowed upon him. After a long while, he let his body float up to the surface of the water, and glanced at the stranger. She looked feminine but… For some reason, the details he saw in her face and her form could never quite stick into his memory.

But he knew one thing.

That she was beautiful.

And so he spent as much time as he could transfixed on the face of his savior, hoping and wishing he could remember her details, but knowing he wouldn’t.

[Rynata]

Rynata didn’t know exactly what she had expected when the stranger proposed that they find a way out, but it certainly wasn’t this. The high walls which had gotten her so thoroughly turned around crumpled away into nothing and left the two of them standing by the ocean.

The sound and smell was what hit her immediately. She didn’t understand how the wall had managed to block out the salty air or the sound of waves washing up against the sand, and yet there it was. Looking to the distance, she could see the familiar outline of the outcropping that led to Port Diablo. Funny. She didn’t recall there being a neighborhood here, but this must be magic. One of her friends had the ability to vanish and reappear in another place in seconds. Perhaps the stranger was the master of some illusion or teleportation magic. This wouldn’t be the first time.

Turning to the sound of the stranger’s laugh, Rynata watched him frolic about the beach and venture further into the waves. It was strange, but from the first calls he had made back in the street to the cries of joy he made while kicking about in the water, the sound of his voice was the only thing that seemed to reach her clearly. Back between the walls, it had been too dark to see his features. Now the setting sun was too bright, shining into her eyes every time she attempted to look at the man’s face.

“Well, this was unexpected. But I suppose, thank you, for getting us out of there,” she said, a smile of her own playing on her features as she listened to the laughter echoing on the deserted beach. Though she couldn’t see, she thought the stranger was smiling, and that made her happy as well.

She walked right to the edge of the waves and blinked a little. The water on her side was foamy, while the water the stranger was in looked...soapy?

[Leeson Andaris]

“I have no idea what you said,” Leeson responded, unable to shake the grin from his face, his joy only intensified by watching the girl descend into the water with him. “You were a little too far away,” he said, as soon as they were of shorter distance.

He swam to her, his body remaining in the water as he reached the shoreline, keeping a polite distance, staying on his side of the fold.

“I’m sorry if I scared you at all earlier,” he said.

Rynata smiled and shook her head. “I said thank you, for getting us out. And it’s alright. You seemed to be a little confused. I hope you’re alright now?”

“I should be thanking you, are you kidding?” Leeson laughed. “The only reason I’m okay is because you showed up from nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. It was nothing short of a miracle.”

“Well...I was just walking…” Rynata said a little sheepishly, unsure of what to do with the barrage of gratitude.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“What do you see when you look at me?”

Rynata’s heart sank a little as he said that. How did he know she couldn’t see him properly?

“Well, I see someone who’s going to have trouble getting home unless he’s brought a change of clothing,” she said to distract herself. “But yes. I’m afraid I can’t see you well.”

Leeson laughed. “Okay so I’m not the only one, that’s good news.”

“Oh, you as well?” Rynata asked, surprised and a little relieved she wasn’t somehow being impolite.

“Well… I can see a little bit. If I focus. But if I take my eyes off of you, I lose it.”
“Now that I think about it, this is not your doing? I thought it might have been magic, since I can see everything else just fine.”

“Magic? Nono. Magic’s illegal in Andaris. Or, it was last I checked.”

“Andaris?” Rynata looked blankly at what she could see of the stranger. “But this is Scalvoris.”

“I can tell you honestly that I’ve literally never heard of Scalvoris.”

“Tell me, how did you get here?” Rynata asked, worried for the stranger’s well being. Had he been kidnapped to the island?

“I’ve been here for as long as I could remember. Not the beach, but… Yknow. Andaris. I love your eyes, by the way.”

“Back where the walls were?” Rynata raised a hand to her head and massaged her temples. She had thought he was a little strange back in the street, but now there seemed to be more to it. “Let’s try- Oh. Thank you.” She’d gotten compliments before, but the off hand manner in which it was said caught her off guard, leaving her flustered. “You...have a nice smile, I think. It’s too bright to see, but you must get told a lot that it’s infectious.”

Dropping down to the sand, Rynata furiously sketched the outline of Scalvoris, trying to recover. What was this?

Clearing her throat she pointed to where she remembered distant Andaris to be depicted on maps. “This is where we are now. And over there is Andaris, I believe.”

Leeson looked down, and looked back up at the girl. “I cannot see any of this. Just… Wait. Focus on me for a second. I wanna know that the same thing is happening with both of us,”

“I- alright.” Rynata straightened up and did her best to look into the stranger’s face, eyes thinned against the lights stabbing into them. Then she thought of a better idea. Looking down into the waves, though distorted by the movement of the water, she could see some of his features. “I can see a the features of a young man. Dark, curly hair. The rest is somewhat hard to focus past the light. What about me,” Rynata asked curiously. “You said you could see my eyes, yes?”

“I can, yeah. Although…” Leeson said, shifting himself up to his knees to face her. “The color has changed once or twice, I think, so I don’t know how reliable I am.”

“You’re right, yes, they do that,” Rynata nodded encouragingly. “Have you heard of Biqaj eyes?”

“Oh! Biqaj!” Leeson said. “Me speak Rakahi very very good all time.” He continued, beaming. “But anyway, yeah. I can see your eyes, and some other features.”

Rynata burst out laughing at the man’s sudden attempted use of Rakahi, and quickly tried to stifle it behind her hand. Largely unsuccessful, she ended up simply shaking in silent laughter.

“I’m glad to meet a fellow speaker,” she said when she had regained control, her voice still tremulous.

“What?” Leeson asked, in response to her laughter. Although he was also stifling a smile. It was good to see her happy. “Was Rakahi of goodmans not well? Yesterday cheese?”

“No, you speak it charmingly well,” Rynata said, breaking off into another fit of giggles. “It was just unexpected. You know what they say. Unexpected things are always the most humorous.”

She hadn’t laughed like that in a while and now her sides were starting to ache. Yesterday cheese.

Leeson looked at her and he chortled. Then he chuckled. Soon he was laughing with her, now realizing what he had said.

He laughed so hard he fell backwards. And he was happy.

And he looked at her, with a smile on his face, fully comfortable in a place unknown.

And he saw her.

And he woke up.

[Oberan]

Review Rewards

Yesterday

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge:

Review Requesting: Gucci isn't a viable Knowledge

Magic: No magic exp

Other: N/A


Cheese

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge:

Socialization: Sharing a joke
Socialization: Working out misunderstandings
Socialization: Agreeing to another’s request

Magic: No magic exp

Other: N/A

Notes:
Googledoc dialogue is the superior kind of dialogue, and if you disagree, then you just haven't realized yet that you actually agree.

In all seriousness though, I do prefer googledoc dialogue. It usually flows more naturally than it does during 'normal' pbp, and feels more like an actual conversation. Not to mention that, like IRL, if you googledoc together, your PCs can actually interrupt each other, change the subject, etc.

Perhaps there was a bit of a wrinkle in the flow here and there, but I felt the dialogue was pretty good all around. I quite loved the setting of the dream and how it changed, it reminded me a little of Inception. The little touches also really helped make it come alive as a dream. The inability to see each other clearly, the inability to remember how the other looks, etc. Well done!

Your review request is here.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns in regards to this review, feel free to PM.