[IC] Lost in Dreams (Chandra)

[ericthered]

Tereza strains to move the dream, but feels her headache build directly with the effort of doing so, and stops trying. They reappear in glass cage with people pointing and looking on the outside. Tereza's head is swimming. Chandra is still feeling vertigo, but its a lot better.

Illios clears out the dream with waves of fire while the two girls recover.

OCC: Both of the serendipity uses are pretty recent. But neither were in the current arc. I'm going to let both of you have have one and burn tereza's, because she has the most to loose.

[Rocket Man]

Chandra visibly recoils as the fire washes out the dream. "NO!!!" Every muscle tense, her mind goes back to burning trees, burning homes, burning people. What conscious control she still has is devoted to controlling her breathing and bringing down her heart rate.

[ericthered]

Chandra uses every ounce of her not inconsiderable will to stay in control of the dream. The center around her stays free of fire, but the edges fill with recognizable buildings. Recognizable people.

Illios switches away from fire, surrounding the dreamers with a moat full of water, and changing the choking smoke into moist fog.

Illios [arabic]: "Do all of you have trouble with nightmares!"

[Rocket Man]

Chandra hears the question in the man's voice, but the words remain elusive. However, as the water and the fog roll in, she allows herself to breathe again, feeling her pajamas (well, her memory of Gopal's pajamas) become cool and even a little clammy.

"Thank you, sir," she says in relieved tones, first in English and then in Hindi. "Forgive my unseemly behavior. Childhood memories can be the most powerful and the least amenable to any sort of reason."

She looks around to see if anything about their current location looks familiar, either from her books or her experience.

[Poonbahbah]

To Illios, [Arabic] "No we don't all have nightmares. Then again maybe all planeswalkers or whatever you want to call me, us, do. She thanked you by the way."

To Chandra, [English] "Illios is going to change the dream to show you his home okay? I want you to just sort of focus on picturing us there. I'm having trouble bringing you along and I'm hoping that it will help if you picture where I want us to go too."

Back to Illios, [Arabic] "Could you help me make your palace and the desert surrounding it please? I'm hoping if I can get her to picture it clearly it'll help us all get there."

[ericthered]

The scene is surprizingly empty. Illios seems to have turned the dream into featureless space with a floor visible only nearby.

Then Illios conjures up an image of the outside of the palace. The building is large and either brightly painted or the stone showing through has been polished to a sheen. The sky fills with stars. A dry warm breeze blows. Tereza recognizes that its not just like the palace, its very close to being the palace. There isn't anyone in the palace though.

[Rocket Man]

Chandra absorbs the images around her, trying to rebuild them in her mind. As she does, she can't help thinking that this is her third glimpse of a new world -- maybe her fourth if the dream they just left reflects something real.

And what of Haley's world? How different is it from anything I've experienced? It can't be too dissimilar or we would barely have understood each other, never mind blending in at the Academy -- right? And Tereza ... is she from the Prague of my own world or from yet another that I have yet to see?

So many questions. To find answers, she must find control. And that means focusing on what's before her now, however strange it might be.

[Poonbahbah]

Tereza will do her best to add people, guards, family, friends, workers, etc..., and mention the lack to Illios.

[ericthered]

Illios: "You want everyone? We can do that. You just asked for the palace. I suppose I'm not used to seeing everyone at the palace. I'm used to seeing them while they sleep."

The Palace ripples as chandra tries to assume control, trying to maintain the image with out changing it. Such effort is not conducive to sleep. The dream begins shifting, and Illios wisks him and tereza away to a different dream.

Chandra wakes up in the academy. Her clothes are still on. Tereza's lay empty at her side.

Tereza and Illios enter a dream where africans are speaking what sounds like chineese and wearing eskimo clothing. The dreamer is obvious, if having one of those totally bizarre dreams.

Illios: "She's awake. That was close."

[Rocket Man]

Chandra looks at the empty set of clothing next to her in frustration. So close! Carefully, she places it back in its dresser while checking the time. Is there enough time to sleep or meditate once more?

If so, she stretches out one more time (throwing away the useless tape) trying to envision a world ... but not the world of Tereza's friend. Instead, Chandra tries to picture a world that looks a lot like her own, but where magic like Haley's is routine. She's really unsure of the details -- would there be dragons? Flying carpets? -- but hopes that even a little bit of residual dream energy might be left to carry her up and out.

(And this is where I am using Serendipity, and Luck if it's still available -- to dream her way out of the Academy regardless of which world she actually hits, whether it's Merlin, Johnson's Rome, or something else entirely, before anyone else comes into the room by any means.)