Here and There

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A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

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[epitomeofscience:]

None of what Jack said was familiar, from the name of the city (he assumed), to the country, to the language she delved into. Gloucester snorted a laugh even though he had no idea what she was saying. The prosody of the tongue was similar to Nordish, but the words themselves were still too foreign to assign any meaning to. “Sure thing,” he replied, nodding in an emphatic way to let her know that he had no idea what she’d said.

Her sudden change in subject, following what could have been construed as almost playful banter (he got the impression that she wasn’t often one for humour), made him think that she was joking and he laughed for a moment before realizing she’d been serious. The dream was so lucid and seemingly real that he kept forgetting that it was a dream at all. Could they fly? He’d flown in dreams before, mostly when he was a child, but with the ground feeling so solid beneath his feet now, it was difficult to imagine simply lifting off of it so easily. It was far easier, on the other hand, to imagine plummeting to his death.

Unfortunately, Jack wasn’t waiting around for his answer and Gloucester looked over at her only to find her already scaling a tree, with the expressed purpose of launching herself from the top of it. “Wait!” he called up to her. “Are you sure this is–”

–safe, he was going to say. He trailed off the question unfinished, however. He felt stupid asking it. He felt stupid for being afraid when this mysterious dream-walker seemed so at ease with this whole bizarre situation. The idea of flying was certainly appealing, but in the back of his mind, Gloucester didn’t truly believe he could do it and he wondered if that doubt would send him straight down to the ground if he tried. It was one thing to stand weightlessly on top of the snow, it was another to soar like a bird through the sky. The worst consequence of the former was a wet pair of feet, not horrible dream death.

“Can you die in dreams?” he asked Jack, reluctantly grabbing hold of the lower branches on the tree and starting to climb up after her. “There are people who say that if you die in your dream, you’ll die in real life, too. Is that true?” It seemed to him that Jack would know better than most, considering how knowledgeable she seemed to be about all things dream.

He’d always been an active person and growing up in the countryside had meant that he’d done his fair share of tree-climbing as a child, so he was pretty good at it. Still, he quickly realized that much of the ease that he was experiencing with this particular climb wasn’t due to his own talents, but rather the tree itself. Its branches seemed to warp almost imperceptibly to make room for his hands and feet, forming itself into a natural ladder for him to climb. “Thanks,” he murmured to it. He hoped that the dreamscape would be as helpful when he reached the top of the tree.

Jack gave a small smile when Gloucester laughed at her suggestion. He sincerely believed she was joking. It was likely that he’d forgotten they were even in a dream. It was always difficult for dreamers, the idea flickering in and out of their minds as everything they experienced felt so real around them. “I’m very sure,” she called back down, responding to his unfinished question before continuing her climb to the top.

Luckily, the man was quick to catch on that she was being very serious, and even began climbing after her as she ascended the tree. This would be the easier way, if only he could manage to fly. It didn’t always work if the dreamer didn’t think they could do it.

Glancing back down at him as he asked his questions, Jack pondered how to answer. “If you die in this dream, you will simply wake in real life,” she told him. “However, I might die in real life if you die in this dream, so it would probably be best to avoid that. Who knows how long it would take me to find you and convince you to help me find a way out again if you woke up now. My body would wither away in my own world.” Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to let the man know that her life was banking on him remaining asleep, but she needed him to understand the dangers that came with this idea. He had to fly.

It was also the reason she was trying to get them there faster. Who knew when something or someone might wake Gloucester from his sleep, trapping her in this broken man’s mind. Who knew what sort of landscape she’d be left in if he woke to the cell once more. It would reflect what he was feeling, and she knew that prisoners rarely felt anything positive.

As she reached the top of the tree she looked out over the landscape, willing the other trees to rustle their branches and shuffle to the side so they might be able to see better. “Well,” she asked him as he approached, “Does it look close? Which way should we fly?” She thought she saw a village tucked away at the bottom of the mountain, but she didn’t know whether it was his or not.

“Do you think you can fly?” She asked as well, turning to get a good look at him. She wanted Gloucester to be confident in the idea before they leapt from the tree. She was sure that she could simply step away from the top branch and the wind would carry her, but she wasn’t so sure the man thought the same. It was a difficult idea to wrap your head around the first time.

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

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epitomeofscience:

Denken laughed, enjoying Jae’s answer more for the slightly flustered way it was given than the information that was provided. That was interesting, too, of course, and he filed it away for later perusal. He didn’t think he’d really ever have much use for it if he managed to get home soon, but he liked to learn new things. Earth, Canada, Matchedash. He sang the words as they made their way across the wintery field. He was tempted to add the name that crossed Jae’s mind into his spur-of-the-moment lyrics – Zander – but before he did, Adina was coming to a halt.

Denken looked around when the blue-eyed woman announced that they’d reached their destination. It didn’t look any different from any other spot in the field. Then again, it wasn’t this world in which Adina was trying to situate them. Denken eyed her thoughtfully. He was good at thinking on multiple levels and in complex ways – it sort of came with the territory – but he was often impressed with humans, and mortals in general, when they proved themselves to be as clever as Adina was now. She was following a map not only through memory, but between the space of entire worlds. Denken’s serious expression broke into another smile and he clapped her heartily on the back.

“Brilliant!” he cheered, but she was paying him no mind, her attention on Jae. He supposed that she was eager to get the boy away from here and the temptation of home. Kind as she was – and her protective feelings towards Jae truly felt genuine – she was still as much his jailor as his friend. Denken’s smile vanished like a light going off and for a moment he contemplated striking out and pulling Jae away from Adina’s grasp. He could get him away from here, he was sure of it. Jae had said his home was near.

But where would that leave Denken? Adina wouldn’t help him if he betrayed her and freeing Jae would surely be considered an act of betrayal. Even if he traveled back through the Neather, he would only be stuck in the orange-skied world again. Two sides of a world-coin and neither of them his home. No, if he wanted to get home, he had to play by their rules.

He hated playing by rules.

Grinding his sharp teeth, he followed the humans through the grey of the Neather and back into the other world, where the orange of the sky cast them all in a warm hue, especially noticeable after the time spent in the place called Earth. Denken wrinkled his nose, looking around.

It did look like a familiar spot. For a moment he sorted through his recent memories and determined the direction he’d come from when he’d heard the unique sound of Jae’s thoughts. He pointed down the street. “It was this way,” he told them, then took off in a smooth stride in the indicated direction.

After a few minutes, he reached the spot he first remembered appearing in. The air here did feel… different, but he didn’t spot an obvious tear in the fabric of the universe, as he’d been hoping would be the case. He pouted, annoyed. “Would it have been too much to ask for a door or something?” he grumbled.

Luckily, Denken also seemed to remember the spot that they had arrived and quickly started to lead the way to where he had come through. Adina glanced over at Jae, giving him an unreadable look, before following after the god.

He quirked a brow and followed after the group, wondering what Adina was thinking. Was she feeling bad for dragging him home, giving him a glimpse of what he had and then taking it away again? Perhaps he was only projecting his own thoughts onto her. He wanted her to feel guilty, he wanted her to acknowledge what she’d taken away from him, but he doubted anyone here ever would. This was their home, after all, no matter how messy it was, and they believed that he was better off here than with his family.

They followed Denken only a short way, Jae distracted by his thoughts so much that he nearly ran into Adina as she came to a stop. Looking up, he found Denken glancing around as though searching for something.

“There was a door last time,” Adina commented as she joined him in looking around. There was a frown on her face, as though she was contemplating the air, and then she stepped into the Neather for a second. Jae watched her go with curiosity, a little disappointed that he hadn’t been invited along this time.

Looking back to the god, he decided to let his curiosity carry the conversation. “Can you sense that this is where you came through?” he asked curiously. “How … do you know? I mean --- what does it feel like?” There were all sorts of new sensations that Jae had experienced since coming to this strange land, but he knew it wasn’t the same experience as some. As far as he could tell, there were people who could feel and understand the physics of this world in a way that was so intuitive that he didn’t expect he would ever understand those feelings. This world just simply didn’t make sense, and though he could accept that, it did make being here feel almost impossible.

“Do you think that you’ll be able to get home from here?” Jae asked. He was surprised to feel disappointment wash over him. It wasn’t as though he had known Denken long enough to become friends, but he liked the god. Denken had seemed to be more on his side than anyone here so far, open and honest whether it was good or bad, and Jae could appreciate an attitude like that when he usually felt like everyone was hiding something from him.

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A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

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epitomeofscience:

“English…” Gloucester mused, trying the word out. He’d never heard of a language called that. Perhaps that was simply the strange magic of dreams, however, preventing their words from being lost in translation. After all, there was little that wasn’t possible in a dream. This one alone was proof of that.

Their conversation fell briefly into silence as they made their way through the snow. It wasn’t too deep, but it was enough to slow their progress as they trudged through the woods. Gloucester didn’t give it much thought; even after a few years in Frettchen, the snow was something to which he still felt accustomed.

That was, until Jack turned to him, hand held out. Gloucester stared at her in incomprehension for a moment before realizing that she had somehow suddenly become several inches taller. He looked down at her feet. She was no longer standing ankle-deep in snow, but instead stood atop it, as if she weighed nothing. The snow had no real crust on it that would support the weight of a human, so he could only assume that this was more dream impossibility of which she was taking advantage.

Taking her hand, he let Jack pull him out of the snow and up onto the surface of it. Whether it was magic or simply the weirdness of dreams, the trick worked and he took a few steps forward, now striding over the snow as if it were solid ground. “Oh, that’s weird,” he muttered. But really, after everything else this dream had thrown at him, it was just about the most normal thing to happen.

Jack was apparently still dwelling on the mystery of their languages, as she turned back to their previous conversation with more questions. Gloucester shook his head, not in annoyance, but rather in answer. “I’m speaking Frettchennian. Or, well, I assume I am? Now I’m not so sure, what with all this dream nonsense. Maybe I am speaking your English and just not realizing it.” He shrugged. Trying to search for logic in all this made his head hurt.

“As for Frettchen,” he went on, stepping over a snow-covered log that was lying across their path. “It’s not in the Nordlands. It is a country. Well, sort of. It’s a city-state. Self-governing. Sort of like the South Cities… but I guess you wouldn’t know about them.” He frowned. It felt weird trying to explain things that everyone in the Lower Lands knew.

“What about where you’re from?” he asked. “What country do they speak English in? Do you speak French there, too, then?” Now that they were out of the prison and walking through the wilds of his childhood homeland, he was feeling a lot more at ease with this bizarre situation. Curiosity simmered in his mind. Could Jack really be from a whole different world? Maybe she was from beyond the northern mountains or the sea to the west, from a land so different that it seemed like a new world.

Or maybe she was truly from somewhere impossible and far away, where walking through other people’s dreams was an everyday occurrence and magic was at your fingertips. All considered, he was more willing to believe that than he ever would have thought.

“It’s more likely that you’re speaking your own language and the dream is translating,” Jack told him with a shrug. At least, that’s what she believed. She doubted either of them, even with dreams and magic, would be able to suddenly start speaking the other’s language without having any knowledge of it.

As Gloucester tried to explain his country, Jack furrowed her brows. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to her, she’d never understood politics. Which was ironic, she supposed, considering she now ran an entire city, but she had friends who understood more and relied on them when she could to help her through the more complicated business. Such as city-states.

Which, now that she thought about it, sounded a lot like her own home. Was that what they were? In all of the chaos of war and rebuilding, Altsoba hadn’t really claimed itself to be much of anything. Just the remains of a city that had once been great and colourful.

“I’m from Altsoba. It’s … in Canada, I suppose. English is a pretty common language in many countries, actually, though there are plenty who speak French in my country as well,” she explained. “Je parle Francais, mais pas couramment.” She smiled and shrugged, leaving him to decide what she had said.

Looking ahead, she wondered how much further they had to walk. They were stumbling over wood and under tree branches, this was no way to travel, especially when they had so many options. Pausing, she glanced up at the grey sky above and pondered it for a moment.

“Maybe we should fly,” she suggested. “How much further is it? It’s difficult to get off the ground in a dream, but if we climbed this tree and flew from there, we might arrive faster.” Even if Gloucester knew how much further it was, who knew how far it would actually be. Dreams had a funny way of twisting the path and making it stranger and longer than it had to be. Luckily, gravity could be manipulated if you pushed hard enough in a dream, and Jack knew they would have better luck above than below.

Without waiting for a proper answer, she started climbing the tree. She moved with ease, the branches of the tree warping to work with her as she climbed. When she was about half-way up, she glanced down to make sure that Gloucester was following after her. She doubted she would be able to get out of this maze of a mind without his help.

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

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epitomeofscience:

To Denken’s mild surprise (little about humans surprised him more than mildly anymore), Adina answered Jae’s question before he had a chance to. He narrowed his eyes at her thoughtfully as she went into more detail. She had said something about someone else – ‘the boss’, she’d called her – going to the human world he knew. There was a story there, but he was only getting hard-to-read bits and pieces of it from Adina’s thoughts. Her mind was difficult to read and that story was one the woman only knew second-hand. Something about doors in the Neather and walking in dreams.

“I wouldn’t call the magic strange,” he said with a shrug that moved through his body like a wave. “No more so than any human magic.” The magic in the world he knew was woven into the very fabric of its existence, most of its power untapped by the handful of humans capable of wielding it. Especially in the Lower Lands, where much of the magical arts of old had been forgotten, most of the magic in the air went unnoticed and unused for all but cheap parlour tricks and soothsaying. That said, it had its dangers and he’d met enough sorcerers and witches to be wary of the humans who knew how to turn it into a weapon.

Jae spoke up, voice light even as his thoughts were heavy, but he was quickly told off (albeit fairly gently) by Adina. Denken clicked his tongue at her disapprovingly. “Magic is relative,” he told her sternly. “What is to one might not be to another.” He held his frown in place for a moment longer, then cracked it back into a wide grin. “Of course, sometimes not. Sometimes magic is exactly that. Yet your world takes thought and makes it real. In the human world I know, only powerful sorcerers could manage conjuring like that. It’s fair to think of it as magic.”

He wasn’t sure why he was taking the time to defend Jae on this point. Then again, Denken rarely bothered to worry about why he did anything. It was much more fun and interesting to take life moment by moment, acting on the whims of his own thoughts and those of the beings around him. He was a creature of the present, the now, and dwelling on why he did the things he did or said the things he said was boring.

“So what is this land called, then?” he asked Jae, giving his shoulders a friendly squeeze. “This is close to your home, right?” It was a prominent thought in the boy’s head, along with homesickness and worry and flames. “Is there a town around or are you a little hermit?” He poked Jae in the tummy lightly with his free hand and laughed.

Denken came to his defense, disapproving of the way Adina had shot down his idea of magic. Magic was relative? That was something Jae had never thought of before. To him, magic was magic, no matter how much people protested that it wasn’t, but he supposed something could still be magic to him without seeming to be magic to someone else.

Then again, only a short while ago he thought magic was only a thing for fairytales and movies. It was nothing but a fantasy. Now that it was real, he wondered about all of the times he’d wished it were real when he was kid. It didn’t seem nearly as fun when he felt so completely lost in a world he didn’t understand.

Jae raised his brows quickly followed by a small yelp as Denken poked his stomach. It was difficult to remember that he was in the presence of a mind-reader, so it was a surprise when Denken knew things that he had yet to share.

“Oh --- um --- my town is not far from here,” he said once he had recovered from being poked. “We call this … Earth? Or are you talking about the country? That’s Canada. Or … do you mean the town? Because that’s Matchedash.” There were many ways Jae could interpret Denken’s question, but he doubted the God would hold meaning to any answer he gave. To him, they would all just be names rather than places. Rather than home. Jae glanced back again in the direction of his small town and wondered what people might be doing or thinking. Would his best friend, Zander, be wondering where he was? Did he think he was dead?

It was too difficult to think of questions like that, especially as trapped as he felt in that moment, so he looked forward once more, trying to stray from those thoughts and feelings.

Adina, let out a soft noise and stopped in her tracks, looking side to side as though searching for something. “I think we’re here,” she said, nodding resolutely. “Come on, then.” Her instructions were gentle but there was something in her voice that led Jae to believe that she was trying to distract him. She was probably worried that he might bolt at any second, which was fair considering that’s exactly what he felt like doing.

Taking her hand once more, he let her lead him back into the Neather, not bothering to give his world a second glance in fear of the homesickness that would wash over him if he did. When they arrived back in Altsoba, Jae recognized the spot. “Yeah, it was around here,” he said, looking over at the shop that he’d been lounging outside of. “Do you remember where you came in from here?” he asked Denken.

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A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

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epitomeofscience:

Gloucester watched as Jack closed her eyes and waited for something to happen. Would she simply vanish? Or would a door appear, like the one she’d tried to have him conjure before? It was a pretty boggling thing to try and imagine, someone creating a door to escape from your mind, but he was finding it best to just go with the flow here and not try too hard to apply logic to anything that was happening.

It’s a dream, he reminded himself. Dreams never make sense. Especially when they’re invaded by actual real people who claim that your brain is keeping them prisoner. Gods above, he felt like he was going to have a headache when he woke up.

Unfortunately, it seemed like they were still doing something wrong. A window appeared in the trunk of a nearby tree, but it wasn’t big enough for a human to climb through, nor did the view through it look like a different place than where they were. Gloucester offered Jack an apologetic look. She didn’t seem to be angry at least. If anything, her mood was improving and when she spoke it was to make hopeful suggestions, not to grumble about their lack of success in getting her home.

“Right, okay,” he agreed. She was the one who had some experience with all this madness, so it made sense to continue following her lead. He looked around, trying to situate them. He knew they were in the Nordlands, but did he know the specific place?

After a moment’s contemplation, he realized that he did indeed. A familiar outcropping of rock caught his eye. He remembered climbing that as a child. Yes, that was it! They were in a spot in the woods a short walk from his parents’ home. “This way,” he said, and started off in the direction beyond the rocks.

To his surprise, it was Jack who started up a conversation as they walked. She didn’t strike him as an overly conversational person. Then again, she was lost in someone else’s sleeping brain, so she could probably do with some distraction. Gloucester raised his eyebrows at the coat she’d conjured out of thin air, but knew better than to question it. Instead, he turned his thoughts to her questions.

“French?” he repeated, brows drawing together. “Dunno. Never heard of it. Lalune means night in Nordish. Because we’re always in the shadow of the mountains or something like that.” He shrugged. He’d never given much thought to the name of his village. “Is this French a language in your world, then?”

Which raised another question. “Wait… what language are you speaking right now?” It seemed strange that they would be from different worlds and have the same language. Was this some sort of trick of the dream, translating them for each other?

Jack raised her eyebrows in surprised when Gloucester said she’d never heard of French before. How was it that they were speaking the same language, and yet they weren’t the same. At least here she could explain it through the power of dreams, which were powerful indeed. However, she’d wondered the same thing when she’d met Dornan and they hadn’t been in a dream. Magic, she supposed.

An easy explanation for everything, isn’t it? She thought derisively, not bothering to voice her thoughts.

Nordish wasn’t a language that she’d ever heard of, but she figured it must have some similarities to French, since lalune had a very similar translation. “Strange,” she thought aloud, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

At his question, she turned her head to look at him. “I’m speaking English right now. You also sound like you’re speaking English to me, though if you don’t have French here, I suppose I can’t expect you to have English as well. I wonder if the languages are the same or if the dream is translating for us.” It was very possible that the dream was just giving them a helping hand. There had been times when she’d spoken complete gibberish in her dreams with other people, and still they had understood each other.

She winced as her foot took a sloppy plunge into the snow beneath her feet and she pulled it away to find water filling the hole she had made. They must be in a swamp or on a shallow lake. Though she didn’t quite feel the cold, she couldn’t say it was a completely comfortable sensation.

Taking a second, she focused her steps and lifted herself on top of the snow, walking across it lightly now instead of trudging through it with heavy foot falls. “Give me your hand,” she told Gloucester, holding out her hand for him to take. It would be faster for them to walk on top of the snow instead of through it. Less tiring as well.

Not that it made much sense to have a tiring dream, but it still happened and Jack planned on avoiding it. “I’ve never heard of this Nordish. Is it the language you’re speaking right now? Is Frettchen in this … country? Was it a country? She was a little confused with the geography here and whether they were in the same spot they had been in moments before. If not the same town, then perhaps the same country.

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

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epitomeofscience:

Denken took Adina’s offered hand, first planting a gentlemanly kiss on the back of it before letting it fall to his side, their fingers interlaced. “Right then,” he said brightly. His annoyance from moments before had vanished from his voice. “Onwards!”

The hazy world shifted around them again, but when it reformed, it wasn’t Jae’s apartment that surrounded them. Instead, they stepped into a snowy field. Denken looked around, a little surprised, even though Jae’s thoughts had warned him that something special was about to happen. The field was empty, save for them, and the air carried the crisp silence of winter in the countryside. On the distant edges, the dark trees of a forest rose up like a natural wall. The most noteworthy feature of the place was overhead, however: a wide sky, greyed with clouds but unmistakably blue. He could almost believe they were somewhere in the Nordlands or beyond the mountains at the northern boundaries of the Lower Lands.

But they weren’t. This place felt nowhere as strange as the orange-skied world built of thought, but it wasn’t the human world he knew either. It was like arriving at someone’s house for the first time, where the furniture and features were recognizable, but the smell was unfamiliar. This might look like the world he knew, but it wasn’t.

Jae’s thoughts were pulling at his attention. This wasn’t home to Denken, but it was for the skinny young man. His lonely thoughts fit here, not sticking out like they had in the other place. It was here that Jae had been plucked from. Adina was speaking, but Denken’s focus was on the silent Jae. He might not be saying anything aloud, but his thoughts called out with a desperation that pulled at Denken’s heartstrings in a way humans rarely could.

But if Jae pulled anything now, if he tried to run, then Adina would surely think of nothing but him and Denken’s mission to get home would be sidelined. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to know how the woman’s priorities were arranged. This had to go smoothly if he wanted to get home anytime soon.

And so he flung his arm around Jae’s shoulders in a friendly grasp that was nonetheless well-suited to become very strong indeed, should the lad think of making a dash for it. “Well, this is more like it! Blue sky up above – well, past the clouds of course – and the smell of reality in the air! Isn’t it grand? Lead on, Adina darling!”

As they started off across the field, he rolled his head on his shoulders, conjuring a scarf as he did so. It was more for idle showing off than because of the cold air, to which he was quite immune. The long piece of fabric was bright yellow, with a pattern of simple orange flowers woven into it.

Jae jumped as an arm was draped over his shoulder and he turned to look at Denken as the god started pulling him in the direction that Adina was leading them. He eyed the man curiously, wondering if he had read his thoughts. The grip on his shoulder was firm as if worried he might try to run.

A long sigh escaped him as he cast a final glance back towards the road and moved forward. Even if he did try to run, he doubted he would get far with both Denken and Adina on his tail. His legs made for long strides, but he didn’t have the skills of a god or someone who seemed to be trained in martial arts of some sort.

With disappointment hanging heavily in his chest, he decided to try and distract himself from thinking about his parents and his home. “Your home, does it look much like this?” he asked Denken.

“Yes,” Adina answered, a few steps ahead of them but apparently still listening to any conversation they might be having. “From what I’ve heard, Denken’s world is very much like this one. It’s apparently almost like a combination of our two worlds, though. They have their own kind of strange magic, isn’t that right?” she asked, turning a curious gaze towards the god.

Jae also turned a questioning look towards the god, interested to know more about this other world that was apparently so similar to his own. He almost wished that he had been dragged into that one. There would have been less culture shock and perhaps he would have been able to enjoy himself a little more.

Or maybe not, he thought, considering the whole reason he was in this position in the first place was because someone had tried to burn him alive. It was difficult to enjoy himself when he didn’t even know if his parents were alright.

“Strange magic … like … stranger than the magic in Altsoba? Unlikely,” he piped up, trying to lighten his own mood.

Adina shot him a flat look. “It’s not really magic, not to us. And anyway, it’s the entire world, not just Altsoba.” Jae only blinked back. Altsoba was all he knew in the other world, so it felt like the entire world to him

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A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

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epitomeofscience:

It all felt so real. More real by far than the church-turned-prison. Which was noteworthy, because Gloucester had previously thought that had felt very real indeed. He wondered for a moment if he’d actually woken up, but only a brief consideration laid this thought to rest. He was still stepping through a doorway he’d just conjured with his mind and travelling hundreds of kilometres in the span of a few strides. Definitely still dreaming.

It didn’t stop him from stepping through anyway. The snow crunched under his feet (bare no more, he noticed vaguely, but rather wearing the sturdy boots that everyone wore up north in the winters) and he hugged his arms around himself as the wind blew cold around him. Thinking felt easier and in a moment he had a coat around his shoulders, keeping the chill at bay.

“The Nordlands,” he told Jack, when she asked where they were. “Near Lalune, where I’m from. Home.” A smile broke across his face, feeling wonderful and alien all at once. It felt like a long time since he’d properly smiled. He took a moment to simply stand, eyes closed and face tipped towards the sky, taking in the sensation of the fresh air on his face and the smell of winter in his nose.

After a minute he turned back to Jack, who had followed him through the doorway. Over her shoulder, the room they’d left behind was still visible through the open door. Gloucester had no intentions of ever going back into it. Nor did he feel like he needed to. “I feel better out here,” he told Jack. “Clearer. Like I’ve… I dunno, had a really good night’s rest or something. I guess that’s a pretty ironic way of thinking of it, considering we’re asleep right now.”

Boy, was that strange when you said it aloud. Or, well, what seemed like aloud. He supposed that if he was actually asleep, then he probably wasn’t saying any of this really. Unless he was talking in his sleep.

It was all a lot to try and take in and he decided he’d simply rather not sweat the details. They only marred the joy he felt at being home, even if it was only in the conjuring of his own dreaming imagination.

The Nordlands. It almost had a familiar ring to it and it looked so much like her own home that it was uncanny. Gloucester seemed happier here, too. He was significantly more relaxed now that they were out in the open air, she had a feeling that they were heading in the right direction.

Closing her eyes for a minute, she imagined another door, trying to bring her way home to life once more. After a moment, she opened her eyes again and found only a window in a nearby tree with murky skies like the ones above on the other side. “I think we’re close,” she told Gloucester. “But it’s a good sign that your head is clearer. You’re shedding all of the bad stuff, so now we just need to focus on the good. Why don’t we head to that home of yours?” She knew she was asking to invade his privacy, but she didn’t particularly care. If his home was her way home, she would do her best to make sure they got there no matter what. “It might be a lot to ask, but it’s not like you know me anyway. Hell, I’m from a different universe, the things I learn about you matter less than life.” There would be no way to use the information against him, no way that she could hang it over his head. She would be gone, no threat, no worry.

It was a comforting thought, in fact, as it went both ways. Dreams were always fuzzy the next morning, she doubted that he would even remember her in a few days. Anything that he discovered about her would no longer matter.

Unless someone else climbs into his vulnerable mind.

Jack frowned, it was always the trouble with dream walking. People could sneak into the minds of the unsuspecting and steal secrets that they didn’t even realize they were sharing. It was extremely unlikely that any of her enemies would find this one head amidst a few universes full of them, but she could never be too careful. It was too much of a chance.

“Come on then, let’s get heading out. This chill is getting to me.” Summoning a coat from the air, she draped it over her shoulders, hugging it close to keep out the cold breeze that was rustling her hair. “You said you were from the village Lalune? Is that … is that the same thing as the French? Meaning the moon?” She was curious about the languages, whether they were similar to her own, or whether they were different.

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

“Killjoy,” grumbled Denken, but he didn’t make any more attempts at punching a hole in space. If he were to consider the potential consequences – something he was actually capable of doing, a fact that would surely shock many – he knew that Adina’s argument made sense. He didn’t really want to risk destroying a whole world, no matter how bizarre it was. Nor did he want to damage the Neather, which seemed to be the likeliest key to his return home.

Not that he was pleased to hear what her alternative was. “Uuuuuuuughhhh!” he groaned, throwing his head back like a teenager lamenting some new chore. “But that’s so faaaaaaaaar! We walked for aaaaaaaaaages!” The idea of wandering through this boring Neather place or trying to retrace his steps when he hadn’t been paying much attention in the first place was an annoying one.

Luckily, Jae seemed to have a better recollection as to where they had been. Or rather, where he had first encountered him. It would be a little ways off from where he’d first found himself, as he had been wandering a bit before encountering Jae, but at least it was a start. Sighing hugely again, Denken nonetheless nodded. It was better than doing nothing.

“Alright, let’s find that spot, then. I’ll see if I can sniff things out from there.” As if to turn the metaphor more literal, he let go of Jae’s hand and temporarily shifted into the form of a large, shaggy dog. He snuffled about for a moment, wagged his tail and then changed back. “Whew, this place smells weird!”

Carrying on as if the brief transformation was nothing of note, he looked from Jae to Adina. “So should we travel to the spot here in the Neather or go back to the solid world? I would just fly us there, but that’d take a lot of energy on my part and I don’t wanna be too tired to go through the doorway when we find it.”

If we find it, he thought. Thinking negatively like that would do none of them any good, though. He was an optimistic being by nature. While he saw all the terrible things in the minds of sentient creatures, he saw all of the good, too, and all of the creativity and potential. That was what he liked to focus on.

Adina was rolling her eyes at Denken’s complaints and Jae chuckled lightly. It was a fair distance, but it wouldn’t take too long to get there with Adina as their guide. She knew the city inside and out, she would take them along the quickest route.

His amusement turned to indignation before he remembered that they were in the Neather version of his apartment, not the real version. Perhaps the Neather did smell weird to someone with a keen nose. Jae took a small sniff himself, trying to figure out what exactly Denken was smelling. There was a slight scent of ozone in the air that was stronger than normal, but there really wasn’t anything that he might consider as bizarre.

Adina was shaking her head at the both of them to which Jae offered an apologetic shrug. “Neither,” she answered Denken’s question and Jae already knew where they were heading. His heart skipped a beat for a moment. Home. They hardly ever let him go home, the most he’d seen of it was a vast, empty field where the city stood on the other side. “Follow me,” she told them, holding out her hands for them to take.

Jae took one and she waited for Denken to take the other before walking forward, the world rippling like a disturbed pond, the field coming into the view all around, snow covering the ground and the trees lining the distant forest bare. They stepped through the Neither and the world grew more vivid, less like it had a hazy filter over it.

Adina let go of them both once they were through and pointed towards a spot a fair distance away. “If we travel that way, we’ll be there as the crow flies, skipping around all the twists and turns. Less likely to be run down by a bike this way.” She started to lead the way and Jae nearly started following but found himself giving pause.

He glanced behind him, to where a fence lined an old dirt road. He would never be able to make it that far without being noticed, but if he didn’t go now, what chance would he get? He wanted to go home. The grey sky above, blue covered by clouds, was tugging at his heart, begging him to stay.

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

To Gloucester’s relief, Jack didn’t seem horrified to learn that she was in the presence of an apparent felon. In fact, she didn’t seem to care at all one way or the other. She simply used the information to inform her understanding of the problem, in a smooth, no-nonsense way that led him to believe that this was the sort of way she approached most problems. She didn’t seem to be any older than he was himself, yet she projected an unshakable air of leadership. He wondered where she was from and realized that in all the confusion, he hadn’t actually asked her all that much about herself personally.

The problem was that it didn’t seem like the right time. As curious as he was to know who she was and where she’d come from, with her strange seemingly magical abilities, he didn’t think he could very well demand that they put their current problems on hold for a Q&A session.

Still, the thought of them succeeding and her disappearing from his sleeping mind forever without him ever knowing her story was one that didn’t sit well with him. He was a naturally curious person and he suspected that the mystery would haunt him for the rest of his life.

“Freeing my mind…” Gloucester repeated slowly, not feeling much comforted by the advice. It sounded like the sort of thing that was a lot simpler said than done. It was all well and good to tell him to do that, but how? Just imagine himself free?

Apparently. Jack went on to tell him to essentially do just that: envision a time or place when he felt the most free. He resisted the urge to send her a doubtful look. She was being honest and he appreciated that. She’d said that she wasn’t sure what exactly to do and, in his opinion, that was better than simply lying and telling him she was certain when she wasn’t. And anyway, it was worth a try.

“Alright, let’s see…” He closed his eyes, trying to think of something that fit. Thinking of Jeb clearly wasn’t working. Maybe it was still too close, tainted by whatever had happened to him. He dug deeper into his memories, reaching farther back in time. Home. Not the apartment in Frettchen, but the mountains and forests of the Nordlands where he’d grown up. Instead of thinking of a specific person and hoping to access their mind, he envisioned the sights of home, tried to realize the smells and the sounds and the feelings of his childhood.

When he opened his eyes, another door stood before him. This time there was no scene visible behind it. The door was not in the middle of the room as the other one had been, but rather set into the stone of the wall. Gloucester took a deep breath, feeling trepidation prickle up his spine, and moved to stand in front of the door.

“Let’s see…” he murmured again, and twisted the handle.

The door swung open. A gust of wind washed over Gloucester, ruffling his hair and filling his nose with the scent of pines and snow. Home.

Despite her rocky explanation, Gloucester seemed to understand what she was talking about. He was at least willing to try, for which she was grateful since she wasn’t sure what she was going to do if he simply decided that there was no way to escape the prison he had created in his mind as a mirror to his real life.

She waited quietly as he closed his eyes once more, watching their surroundings to see if anything changed. It took a minute, but slowly, a door started to twist its way into existence, fading in as though it was coming from a faraway place. Jack knew that a large part of being a good dream walker was being able to lead someone through their dreams rather than taking control. It wasn’t something she was skilled at, she liked to practice control in all things, but if she wanted to get out of here, she had a feeling she was going to have to exercise some patience.

So, she waited until Gloucester had opened his eyes and stepped towards the door himself to follow. The door opened rather cheerfully to his touch, as though he barely needed to exert energy to open it. This was promising indeed.

Jack peered over Gloucester’s shoulder, looking into the icy forest that lay in front of them. It wasn’t unlike the forests around her own home in the Other, bringing back memories of a very different kind for herself. Stepping through the door, she heard the crunch of snow beneath her feet as she glanced up to the murky skies above, a cool breeze rustling her hair. This was far more detailed and solid than the church had been, more of a memory than a creation of the mind.

“Where is this?” she found herself asking. This looked so similar to some of the places she had visited when she had been a child, she thought she must have accidentally found someone from the Other.

But he said he was from Frettchen.

Their cities hadn’t looked so different from the ones she had known there too, so she supposed it stood to reason that the countryside was also similar. Just another world in this odd universe that was more of a twisted image of one that she’d known before. The more she discovered, the more intrigued she became. It was fascinating.

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

The resurgence of disagreement did nothing to sway Denken from his cheeriness, nor was he moved to rescind his invitation to Jae. He was starting to get the impression that the boy was a prisoner here, even if it was for his own protection. Denken’s presence, fleeting as he intended it to be, was unlikely to change Jae’s circumstances much, so he might as well get him as much freedom as he could while he had the chance. At the very least, it would give the poor lad some enjoyment. And something to dwell on as he tried to figure out the mysteries of this place he was stuck in.

He laughed delightedly when Adina relented, taking hold of Jae’s proffered hand and swinging his arm cheerfully, like a child looking forward to going out on a picnic. “Don’t worry, Mother!” he joked. “We’ll be good, we promise!”

At the invitation, he stepped forward confidently, shifting through the veil of reality into the Neather, tugging Jae along with him. Once more he found himself in the strange, quiet place, the shadow between worlds. Jae was still beside him, the touch of his hand making them feel like the only solid things around. Adina had followed them, as well. The three of them stood, looking around for some sign of the next step to take.

Denken hated to admit when he didn’t know what to do, but at this point, it was wasting time not to. “So what’s the dealio?” he asked. “Do we just swan about looking for holes? Or doors?” He shaded his eyes like a sailor searching the horizon from the crow’s nest of a ship. What would a door to the Void between worlds look like? Would it be more like a tear in the fabric of reality? Some sort of run in the transdimensional nylons of the universe? He’d been so discombobulated when he’d tumbled out of the Void that he hadn’t noticed what it was that he’d tumbled through.

He glanced sideways at Adina, even as he began to move forward. “How exactly does space work here? In your jolly orange world, we wandered a fair bit from where I first appeared. Do we need to go back to that spot or is the Neather sort of everywhere?” This could take a while. He wasn’t even completely sure where he’d appeared or if he could find his way back to it even if he could remember.

“Maybe I should just try punching through,” he mused, jabbing his free hand forward through the air, fingers balled in a fist. He imagined punching a hole straight through into the Void and though he thought he could feel a resistance against his knuckles, no such tear appeared. He pouted, feeling like a novice. It wasn’t a sensation he was accustomed to and definitely not one he was fond of.

Jae was startled at first, but couldn’t help a small laugh as Denken began swinging his arms as he pulled him toward the Neather. Perhaps toward wasn’t the right word, Jae didn’t think the Neather was in front of them as much as it was all around them. It was more like being pulled into the sky.

Once they were in the Neather, Adina’s attitude towards them turned professional once more. She lost the tone of disapproval and let her expression fall into one of contemplation as Denken asked his questions. Jae took the opportunity to get a good look at the Neather. He had never spent a great amount of time here, normally using it as passage from one place to another, but now he wanted to investigate. If this was his key home, he wanted to learn as much as he could before they tried to shut him up once more.

“No!” Adina gave a shout, startling Jae out of his contemplation. She was cringing as Denken punched at the air. “The last thing we need is more tears between worlds. We don’t understand the Neather and we don’t know what that could do to our world. You could create a black hole for all we know,” she chastised, shaking her head and looking relieved that nothing had happened.

Gesturing, she led them through the murky air towards the terrace, glancing out over the city. “I think our best bet would be to find the place you came through. When we found the door before it looked … different. Clear and in a place that it shouldn’t have been. If you can remember where you came through, we can look around there and we might be able to find it. Point to about where you came through and I can get us close to there at the very least.”

Jae looked out over the city, trying to remember where it was that he had first seen Denken. “We were by the edges,” he spoke up, pointing towards the crumbled buildings on the north-end of the city. “I was sitting at one of the cafes over there taking pictures when I saw him. I don’t know if that’s where you came through, but I know that’s where we met each other,” he explained, turning to the god with a quirk of his brow.

Denken had just been walking through the street then, he hadn’t appeared out of nowhere. Or, at least, it hadn’t looked like he had, but then, it was sometimes difficult to see the extraordinary in this world.

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

Jack had seemed to restrain her impatience a little better, seeming sympathetic to Gloucester’s confusion and frustration, but before he could really appreciate the change in tone, her question made him realize what the real cause for it was. He stared at her in surprise. She thought Jeb was dead? What?

Thinking back over what he’d said about his boyfriend, he supposed he hadn’t been very clear about things. Entrenched in the distinct feeling of loss that swamped him when he thought of Jeb, he’d been speaking in the past tense. He wasn’t sure what had happened or where he was now, but there was one thing he was somehow completely certain of, and that was that Jeb Thaly was alive. It was so unexpected that someone might think differently that he couldn’t hold in a scoffing laugh. “Jeb’s not dead. That’s– He’s not dead. He’s just… Nothing happened to him.”

Something happened to me.

“I think–” he started uncertainly, turning his eyes to the door and the vision beyond it. “I think I went away… I can’t– can’t remember…”

He was trying. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that this was somehow the case. “I was a security agent,” he went on, talking more to himself than Jack at this point. “For the High Minister. But… but something went wrong. I was… Was I arrested?” How could a thought seem so wrong and right at the same time? As soon as he said it aloud he was sure that was what had happened, but he didn’t feel like he’d done anything wrong. He didn’t remember doing anything wrong. “I don’t know why. It sounds crazy, I know.”

He looked back over at Jack, partly in apology and partly in defence. “I think I’m in prison,” he told her. “But I don’t think I know why. I can’t remember or they never told me or… or something.”

It did sound crazy. How was he ever going to get this woman to believe a story as flimsy as that, even if it was the truth?

Maybe she wouldn’t even care, as long as she was able to get home. “That must be why you’re stuck, right?” he said quickly. “Because my– my brain is mirroring real life or something. I’m in prison, so then in my dream, we’re stuck just the same way. So how do we get past it…” As he considered the problem, the door and the bedroom scene beyond it melted away into nothing. He didn’t think that escape would be through a door like that now. “Maybe if I imagine a door to freedom…” he mused. “Then you could take it out of this place.”

He glanced over at Jack. “D’you think that would work?”

Not dead. Huh. Jack’s brows furrowed as she listened to Gloucester stammer through his story. It didn’t seem as though he had a clear idea of what had happened, just that he knew something had happened.

And that he had been arrested.

Bingo. That was their problem, glaringly obvious now that the man said it out loud. Gloucester was trapped in his mind just as he was trapped in a prison, unable to feel free even in his own thoughts. It happened to hospital patients as well, which made surgeries that required another dream walker a difficult task, but there were trained professionals who knew how to navigate a trapped mind.

Only, she wasn’t one of those trained professionals.

“I don’t think it matters so much why you were arrested,” she said, though she admitted she was intrigued. Intrigued, but not worried. Gloucester could kill her in a dream, and if he couldn’t remember there being a reason for his arrest, then perhaps he had been another victim of ruthless politics. During the war, she had seen more than a few innocent people wind up in prisons.

Jack tapped her chin at his questions. “Well, being in prison is certainly the problem. It’s not … uncommon for dreams to mimic real life, especially in intense situations. The only problem is that I’ve never had to do this before. I think …” She thought she had read about it somewhere. It wasn’t often that she read about the techniques that came with her abilities. She had never followed any of the same rules that everyone else did, so it had always felt pointless. “I think I learned somewhere that it’s a matter of freeing your mind, separating it from the body. I’m not … er … sure how to do that exactly.”

Chewing her lip, she stared at the spot where the bed had disappeared, now replaced with the plain white walls and concrete floor. It looked like a lonely place. “What about … if you thought about times when you felt free? That door, it was connected to that memory. You locked yourself out of that part of your memories for some reason, so maybe if you can access them properly again, you can free your mind?” That sounded right, at least, and Jack had learned to trust her gut instincts when it came to things like these. “When do you remember feeling the freest? Try and bring up another memory and create another door to it.”

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

Denken made a face as Adina laid out the potential roadblocks that still remained in his path. It wasn’t exactly surprising that Adina wouldn’t know exactly what to do, though. After all, if she had known how to travel between dimensions, he would have been home by now. Not to mention, people in this strange world would be using that power all of the time, wouldn’t they? So that, at least, was a problem he’d been expecting.

What was a surprise was Jae being the one to ask the best questions. It wasn’t unexpected because he’d thought Jae to be dim – the lad was bright and pensive – but it was clear that he still didn’t know a lot about this world. Denken wouldn’t have needed to be a mind-reader to know that.

Perhaps that was what gave Jae the advantage here, though. As a fellow outsider, perhaps he was able to approach the problem from a more distanced position than Adina could. After all, for Adina, this was probably a lot like trying to explain breathing or something that came equally naturally to her. Or maybe Jae was just a good problem-solver.

Denken frowned (or rather, allowed his wide smile to dim slightly) and scratched the back of his head. “Weeeellll… I was going through the Void before I ended up here. It’s what I always travel through when I’m heading to and fro between the human world and the Maze. I guess you could say it’s sort of like your Neather. Just more swirly and loud.”

In appearance and general atmosphere, the Void between worlds and the Neather had little in common. Where the Void was all chaotic colour, movement and noise, the Neather was muted in seemingly all senses of the word. From his limited experience with the place, it had the same sort of purpose, though. And maybe that was the key.

“I don’t remember going through any door,” he went on, grimacing as he confessed. “I sort of – hah – tripped, actually.” His grin spread again and he shrugged cheerily. “I wasn’t really paying attention. I suppose there’s no harm in poking around the Neather to see if I can find the tear I fell through, though. And hey, even if I can’t, I’ll just imagine the Void and make a door to it!”

He didn’t have a lot of basis for this confidence, but didn’t allow himself to care about that at the moment. Instead he winked at Jae. “Wanna come explore the Neather with me?” he asked him. “See if we can find ourselves some Void-holes? Ergh, that sounds sort of gross actually. Let’s do it!”

Swirly and loud sounded nothing like how Jae would describe the Neather. The Neather was quiet and dim, like stepping underwater. Hell, his hair even seemed to be a bit lighter on his head, like he was floating in nothing, the air between worlds. It was a confusing place, but it wasn’t vibrant in any way. It was almost peaceful, in fact.

It was odd to think that someone might be able to trip in the Neather and wind up in an entirely different world, but Jae supposed that made some degree of sense. It was a bit of a frightening thought, actually. He was just getting used to the idea of one new world, if he wound up in another by accident, he might lose his mind entirely.

When the question was directed his way, Jae was surprised at first. He wasn’t allowed to travel through the Neather very often, even with surveillance. The only times he was ever allowed, in fact, was if he was in trouble or if he accidentally slipped through the cracks between worlds. Now that he was thinking about it, however, he realized that he would love a chance to explore the Neather properly. If he was ever going to make it home, he was going to have to learn how to navigate the plain, and he’d never be able to do that without practice.

“I don’t think---” Adina had started, but Jae cut her off quickly.

“That would be awesome, yeah,” he said excitedly, holding out his hand for the god to take and ignoring the harsh glance that his bodyguard shot him.

“This really isn’t a good idea.”

Jae shrugged, turning to her finally. “He’s a god, it’s not like the sightless are going to be able to do much to hurt me with him around.”

This didn’t seem to make her feel better, but she didn’t try to argue further. Instead, she let out a huff and gave a nod. “Fine, I’m done arguing with you today. But if you’re going, then I’m going as well. He may be a god, but he doesn’t know how to look out for you.” While she said this, she gave Denken a hard look. Jae knew that Adina didn’t fully trust him, and he couldn’t say that he blamed her, but he was feeling cooped up and adventurous today. There was very little she could say to stop him.

Allowing her stare to soften, she waved her hand in a resigned gesture. “Alright then, god, lead the way. Let’s see if we can get you home before you cause me any more trouble.”

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

Concentrating on the vision in his head, Gloucester hadn’t heard Jack move and it was only the distance of her voice that let him know that she had walked a little ways away. From the sounds of it, he’d at least managed to create something. Jack sounded more tentative than pleased, though, so it must not have been what she was hoping for. Gloucester wished he could answer her question one way or the other. Was it a door to Jeb’s mind or was it merely a door to what he imagined was Jeb?

“This is really complicated,” he muttered, mostly to himself. Though he still felt like whatever he’d managed to conjure would surely vanish at the first waver of his concentration, he followed Jack’s advice and opened his eyes.

There was indeed a door now standing in the middle of the room. Jack stood in front of it, looking grouchy in the sort of weary way that Gloucester was starting to suspect might just be her default expression, and beyond it he could see a scene he immediately recognized as the memory he’d been thinking of. Colour rose in his face. He hadn’t meant to make the intimate (luckily not too much so!) scene visible to Jack as well! “Oh, um, sorry about that,” he told Jack. He wasn’t sure if he was apologizing in response to what she was saying or for the personal scene he’d accidentally displayed for both of them to see. Both, he supposed.

Getting up from the pew, he moved to stand beside Jack in front of the door, rather determinedly avoiding looking at what lay beyond it. He tried the handle. It was as locked fr him as it had been for Jack. “Easier said than done,” he sighed. It sounded simple enough: open himself up to this part of his mind. Give himself the key to unlock the door. But how in the world was he actually supposed to do that?

He tried imagining a key appearing in his hand, tried to feel the weight of it, the shape of it between his fingers. Nothing happened. Next he tried to focus more on Jeb, tried telling himself that this door led to the real Jeb, that he could just open it, that he wanted to and so it would be, but when he tried the doorknob again, it was to find that it was still firmly locked. He growled in frustration.

“Look, I’m trying, but I don’t know what the hell I’m doing!” he told Jack, swiping a hand through his hair. “I’m not closed off to Jeb! I don’t know why I would be! We were happy together! Life was good! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but considering I didn’t know any of this was even possible until you showed up, I’m guessing it could be a lot of things!”

He’d raised his voice over the course of his tirade and he snapped his mouth shut, feeling a twinge of guilt for shouting at her. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I just don’t know how to do any of this. Do I envision a key? Do I try to clear my mind? Do I focus on a happy memory? What do you do when you’re trying to access someone else’s mind?”

It was clear from the tint of his cheeks that Gloucester was embarrassed to see his thoughts projected in front of them. Jack wasn’t bothered and didn’t see the point in offering reassurance that would likely go nowhere. They didn’t have time to ponder his embarrassment, she needed to get out of there.

Frustration rushed through her when he revealed that he was also unable to open the door. This was his mind, if anyone was going to have the keys, it was him.

It wasn’t until he started voicing his own frustrations that Jack clued into something. Were. Past tense. Something had happened between him and the man, something that had separated them in some way. Jack didn’t want to think about it, nor did she want to ask, but if his partner was dead, then there was certainly no way to get to his mind. Perhaps in his misery, Gloucester had gone insane and forgotten that his partner had died? She still had no idea what was going on, but it was her best guess.

“Don’t be sorry, this is … tricky.” She pondered how to broach the subject. “Look, I’ve explained it the best way I can. It’s not --- I’m not a good teacher. I don’t know how to do any of these things, I just do them.” It was second nature to her, she’d been able to do these things her entire life. No one had ever been around to teach her how to walk through worlds, she had simply always been able to. She didn’t know how to teach something that she felt was natural.

Chewing her lip, she moved to look around the door, glancing at the bed once more. “I --- I think whatever is stopping you has more to do with what happened between you two then your ability to dream walk. Why … I hate to ask, but why do you talk about him like he’s dead? You realize that we wouldn’t be able to enter the mind of someone who has died, right? That’s not how this works.”

Maybe that was it. Maybe Gloucester was trying to get to someone who he had lost, hoping that perhaps he could still access his soul even if his body wasn’t around. Jack felt a pang of sadness at that thought. If that were a possibility, she would have done that long ago.

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

Adina’s explanation didn’t really add anything that the book hadn’t already told Denken, but he nodded along anyway, pleased that she wasn’t yelling anymore. Human voices were weak things, but they could still be gratingly loud when they wanted to be.

She took his hand and Denken let her, sensing the change in the air an instant before it shifted around them. It felt very similar to when he entered the Void between worlds, which he took as an encouraging sign, though it looked quite different. In place of the swirling chaos of the Void, with its storm of colours and sensation, this in-between place was calm and quiet, more like a shadow behind the world they’d just been in. Denken looked around curiously. It was quiet, profoundly so. The only thoughts to be heard were his own and those of Adina and while it was peaceful, it also felt lonely. Even more than the odd thought-driven world they’d just stepped out of, this place made him miss the human world he knew.

Adina’s thoughts were easier to read in this place, but they were mostly consisting of worry, confusion and lingering anger, so Denken paid them little mind. She was honest in her desire to help him, even if it was only to get rid of him, and her concern for Jae was based in genuine caring for the lad. There were secrets whispering through her mind, too, but Denken left them alone.

It was all over in a matter of seconds, the air shifting around them once more. Thoughts, distant and overlapping, filled Denken’s head again and the world solidified back into Jae’s apartment, the young man himself jumping in surprise as Adina spoke. They weren’t standing where they’d been when they’d gone into what the book had called the Neather, instead now standing close to the balcony.

Denken grinned widely. “Definitely!” he said cheerfully. “Nothing like a little world-traversing to clear the mind. Not to mention the sinuses.” Letting go of Adina’s hand, he interlaced his fingers and stretched his hands out in front of him, cracking his knuckles. “I think I’ve got the feeling for it now. Let’s see…”

He was now convinced the phasing wasn’t all that different from his usual method of transportation. That hadn’t worked when he’d tried it earlier, however, so some tweaking was definitely in order. The key, he reckoned, lay with the Neather. Perhaps it was simply that this place, for whatever reason, required that extra step, that extra door to step through. Rather than picturing the Void or the easy act of moving from one place to another instantaneously, Denken imagined the world he and Adina had so briefly walked through. He conjured the eerie peacefulness of it in his thoughts and imagined stepping into it. When one was the Personification of Thought, imagination had an awful lot of power.

He stepped forward and found himself again in the shadowy Neather. He took a couple of strides forward, grinned in victory and stepped back into the orange-skied world. He was now standing several feet closer to Jae. “Oooh,” he said, still smiling widely. “That tingles!” Giving an exaggerated shudder, he looked over his shoulder at Adina. “So! How do I go from there to my world? The book said something about doors?”

Denken was looking rather cheerful as they reappeared - not that he ever looked upset, but Jae had a feeling that Adina’s demonstration had been helpful to getting him home. This was confirmed a moment later when the god easily slipped back into the Neather on his own, disappearing for the briefest of moments before reappearing a moment later a few steps closer. Jae couldn’t help but take a step back when Denken popped back into existence in front of him. It wasn’t the first time someone had done that to him, but it was always a little unnerving.

Adina stepped forward at the question directed her way, tapping her finger to her chin. “Well, see, that’s the thing, we don’t normally travel to any other worlds than the two mirrors. When the boss went to yours … it was different. It wasn’t our world, it was a new dimension. I’m not really sure how to create a door to another dimension.”

This did indeed sound like a problem. Jae nodded along as though he understood any of what was being said, looking between the two. Not that long ago, he hadn’t even known that other worlds or dimensions existed, so it baffled him that any of this could be possible.

Continuing on, Adina moved to where the book was still placed on the counter, open to the page about phasing. “Phasing doors are physical, and sometimes door to other places appear in the Neather, but most people can’t create those. The Neather isn’t so easily manipulated. If you truly are a god, however, this might be a little different for you. There’s just ---” Her brows furrowed as she thought a moment.

About what, Jae wasn’t sure, but he let her think as he turned to Denken himself. “What were you doing or thinking about before you wound up here?” he asked the god. “Where were you? I know a lot of this travel is based on thought and imagination, maybe you can create a door through that?” It seemed the logical solution to him, but then, he was in a world where logic didn’t seem to have a place.

“That --- hmmm --- that’s not a terrible idea,” Adina agreed, looking up from the pages. “Maybe you can get back that way. Maybe it’s similar to dream walking for you? In dreams we can create doors by thinking about a specific place or person and trying to conjure a door, maybe you can manipulate the Neather the same way we can manipulate dreams. Or perhaps you accidentally created a door on your way here and it’s simply a matter of finding it, wherever it might be in the Neather.”

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

Gloucester bristled, but held his tongue on the biting retort that he was tempted to offer when Jack brushed aside his question with a scoff, as if what he’d suggested was not only preposterous, but laughable. It looked an awful lot like magic to him, no matter what she said, and she didn’t have to be snide about it! How the devil was he supposed to know how this worked?

Nor did he like being told that his mind was fragile. She was treating him like he was some broken thing and he didn’t appreciate it. In the back of his mind, a little voice worried over whether she was right. The beautiful cathedral had degraded into cold bare walls and a concrete floor. He shivered a little, pulling his feet up onto the pew with him and wrapping his arms around his knees as he listened to what Jack was saying. She wasn’t scoffing anymore at least. None of it sounded very encouraging, but he supposed it was better than sitting here, the both of them stuck in his head.

Maybe he would simply wake up on his own, he thought. What would happen to Jack then? Would she wake up wherever her body was, freed of the apparent prison that was his mind? Or would she still be stuck in his head, a little voice whispering that wasn’t his own? He definitely didn’t like that idea.

More determined than ever to sort this out, he nodded in understanding at her instructions, even though it still sounded overwhelmingly impossible to him. Thinking of someone he cared a lot about sounded simple enough, but what did it really mean? If it worked, would Jack escape from his head and into that person’s? Would that put them in danger?

She’s just trying to find someone saner than you are, he told himself. Then she can go home. Gloucester was pretty sure Jack wasn’t intending on hurting anyone. She was short-tempered and stronger than she looked, but she didn’t strike him as malicious.

So who to think of? He had friends, but few that he felt close enough with to imagine building a door between their minds. His parents came to mind, but in the end, there was one name in his thoughts. Jeb.

“Right,” he muttered, shifting his legs to sit cross-legged on the pew. He stared at the floor in front of him, trying to think of his boyfriend and what his mind would be like. Uncertainty washed through him and he felt silly, like he was a little kid playing make-believe. Shut up, he told himself. Focus.

He imagined the closeness he felt when they lay in bed at night, Jeb’s body warm against his back, his sleeping breath even and light against the back of his neck. Drawing his hands through the air, he tried to hold onto the memory while also imagining drawing a door. He kept his eyes closed, picturing it in his mind. A thick door, sturdy and strong like Jeb was, rich wood carved with delicate details and accented in silver.

“Is that doing anything?” he asked aloud, afraid that if he opened his eyes, the connection he was trying to build might be lost.

Gloucester, it would seem, was not a man of many words. He seemed to be contemplating his situation for a moment as she spoke, before crossing his legs resolutely and closing his eyes. Jack watched and waited, hoping that a door would appear before her eyes any second.

Something did happen while he thought. It was a flicker at first, out of the corner of her eye, but as she turned a scene began to twist and present itself. A bed appeared where the altar should be, a couple huddled together, looking content and warm. His thoughts, she supposed, being projected throughout his mind. He was trying to find his way into the mind of his partner.

Taking a few steps towards the bed, feeling a little as though she was intruding upon something she shouldn’t, she had to halt in her steps when a creaking began and the floor split, a door emerging from the crack, creating a barrier between her and the scene.

“I’m not sure,” Jack told Gloucester when he asked whether it had worked. “There’s a door … but it’s difficult to say whether it’s a door to another mind or one to another part of yours.” She tried the knob hesitantly, twisting it in her grip but feeling resistance. Locked.

She turned back to Gloucester. “Whatever it is, it’s locked. You should open your eyes. I think you’re probably the only one who has a key to this door.” Gesturing for him to come forward and try the door, Jack took a step back, peering around it to see if the bed was still there. It was, with the two figures sleeping soundly. She could only be grateful that they were sleeping and not being more intimate, then she would truly feel as though she were intruding.

As Gloucester approached, she directed her attention towards him once more. “Doors in dreams remain locked as long as you’ve closed yourself off to whatever’s on the other side, so you’re the one who has to unlock it. Whatever it is you’re trying to shut yourself off from … just try not to?” Unfortunately, this was the best advice she could give. She had a hard enough time dealing with her own psyche, she really had no idea where to start with someone else’s. It was especially difficult when she didn’t understand what was happening in the first place, and why he had closed himself off to the world around him.

[epitomeofscience]

Under an Orange Sky || Denken & Jae

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

Denken yawned widely as Jae and Adina argued, not best pleased about being ignored. When he did put the effort into interacting with humans in this more manifested way, rather than simply whispering in their ears and painting ideas in their minds, he liked to be the centre of attention. To simply be talked over like this, as if he were one of them, was cause for indignation.

He resisted acting on his annoyance, however difficult it was. Loath as he was to admit it, he was most likely stuck here without these people’s help and his powers were frustratingly inconsistent compared to how they normally were. He made himself feel a bit better by eating what ought to have been an impossibly large mouthful of chips and wandered over to the fishtank to toss a couple in for Goat. The octopus showed little interest in the chips, but the fox-headed fish flocked around them, whittling them down to nothing with their sharp little teeth.

He turned away from the fishtank when Adina aimed her ire his way. Denken adopted a falsely hurt expression, then ate another large handful of chips, as if to counter Adina’s claim that the snack’s existence ought not be possible. Though he wouldn’t admit it, he was more genuinely hurt by her opinion that it was better for everyone if he wasn’t there. It was true, more likely than not, of course, and he’d existed for far too long to have a thin skin, but he still didn’t like the feeling of being unwanted. It was merely an itch of discomfort at the back of his mind, though, and easy to ignore.

“Righty-o!” he said, tossing the bowls of chips and dip aside. The food vanished mid-air. “Let’s get phased!”

He sauntered over to the counter, where he’d left the book earlier. It was impossible to miss the tension in the room, but he was happy to pay it no mind. Annoyance and its resulting tension were feelings that he was more than a little accustomed to. Picking up the book, he flipped through it again, before refocusing on Adina. “Well, I think ‘show, don’t tell’ is the best way to go. What do you say? Fancy giving us a demonstration?”

What he didn’t say was how fretful he was about what might happen if he tried this strange magic and it went wrong. There was a thrill to be found in that uncertainty, to be sure, but at the end of the day, he did want to be able to find his way home. He didn’t want to get stuck in the Void between worlds, of which he now knew there were more than previously realized.

He masked these worries with ease, grinning at Adina expectantly. He’d read what the book had to say on the art of this Phasing business and he grasped the concept of it, but he wanted to hear how she would explain it and, if possible, see for himself how it was done before he actually tried his own hand at it.

Adina looked appropriately unnerved when Denken shoveled an impossible amount of chips into his mouth, looking a little as though his entire face was being split open from the effort. Jae couldn’t help but smile at this. Adina was so used to the bizarre that this new strand of strange was baffling her, while Jae was far too used to being surprised by the world around him at this point. He knew better than to question the logistics of it all and he had to take it all in stride or he would lose his mind.

His grin grew wider as Adina opened her mouth in protest when the chips were tossed in the air, only to disappear before they could rain down on the carpet. She folded her arms across her chest, looking rather displeased by the conversation at hand.

It wasn’t often that Jae saw this side of his bodyguard. Usually, Adina was calm and collected, keeping her cool and speaking softly but sternly to him when he needed it. Then again, he didn’t often bring terror to the streets below, nor did he talk back to her in quite the same way as he had been in the last hour or so. It was difficult to rein in his anger and annoyance at his predicament now, though, and it was obviously affecting their relationship.

Luckily, Adina seemed to realize she was being harsh, her anger most likely eased by Denken’s cooperation as he opened the book on phasing and asked for a demonstration. Jae watched as she took a deep breath and composed herself. “Thank you,” she told him evenly.

Jae knew what to expect as Adina took a step forward. She flickered into non-existence before his eyes, only to appear a moment later in front of Denken, her finger hovering over the book. “The book explains it probably better than I could. But … Phasing is … Well, you step into the in-between world, travel to where you want to go, and then re-enter the world at that point. This in-between also acts as a bridge between worlds, which is why I think that you can find your way back to yours through this.” Shrugging, Adina offered Denken a slightly apologetic look. “I know it’s not the most helpful explanation, but I’m not sure how to describe it so that you understand. The most I could do is show you, but you’d have to know how to do it on your own to get back to your world.”

Taking Denken’s hand, Adina stepped forward and pulled him along behind her. They both disappeared this time, and Jae watched with mild jealousy. He had only ever been a tag-along for phasing, and he desperately wished he knew how to do it. Maybe he could return home if he knew how to phase.

“Hopefully that was a bit more helpful.”

Jae jumped at the sound of Adina’s voice behind him, turning on the spot to find her and Denken standing by the door of the balcony.

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

A Wrong Turn || Jack & Gloucester

[thehereandtherecrowd-blog]

epitomeofscience:

‘It’s quite simple if you can wrap your head around the idea,’ Jack had said, but Gloucester was pretty sure this wasn’t a very fair assessment. She was still talking about entering other people’s heads, as if it were as easy as entering a room.

Though, he supposed the point she was making was that it wasn’t that easy. Just possible. And that alone was the hard thing to believe. If he could wrap his head around that, as she put it, he supposed that it would be a simple matter to believe anything else she said about how she did it. There didn’t seem to be much sense in arguing with her about the possibility of what she was saying, in any case. It might not be reasonable, but it was the only explanation he had for how she was there.

“So it’s like… it’s magic?” he asked. It felt like a silly question to pose. In part because, well, magic wasn’t real. It would be nice if it was, but it wasn’t. End of. It was something that filled stories for children and the colourful novels for imaginative adults. And yet, the question also felt dumb because what else could the answer be? It wasn’t like she could say ‘science’ as she waved her hands around and formed windows out of empty air. That couldn’t have a scientific explanation.

It didn’t really matter, as she paid him no mind, focused entirely on her task. Gloucester didn’t press her for more information at the moment, too intrigued by what she was doing. The window that appeared looked almost like a drawing come to life, sketched by the shaky hand of some invisible artist. On the other side of it was a scene far different from the one surrounding them. It looked like somewhere in Frettchen, a peaceful winter scene. Was it winter now? The last time he could remember being outside, the leaves had been changing, autumn in full swing. How long had it been now? Two weeks? A month? More?

A question to ponder later. Preferably when he was actually awake. “Hey!” he said indignantly, affronted by her annoyance. “You’re the intruder. Don’t get mad at me because you’re having trouble breaking back out again.” His fists were clenched in anger, fingernails biting into his palms, and it took effort to make himself relax. This was confusing enough without being scolded like a child by some stranger who’d pushed her way into his dream.

“Look,” he said, as calmly as he could. “Just… just tell me what you need me to do to help you get out of here. Do I need to… to relax or something? Try and clear my head? Or should I be trying to make something like that?” He gestured down at the strange window. “You said it’s not supposed to be a window, so should I be picturing a door or something?”

He tried to imagine a door appearing in the wall across the nave from them. He imagined it carving itself out of the blank stone, but nothing appeared. “Is it like a spell?” he asked. “How do you do it?”

Jack growled at his indignation, but she didn’t argue any further. He was, technically, correct. She had been the one who had wandered in and invaded his thoughts uninvited. It had been a complete accident, but then again, she supposed she couldn’t blame the man for her own mistakes.

Heaving a heavy sigh, she watched her breath fog the glass of the window as she pondered his questions. “It’s not magic,” she clarified with a snort. “It’s mind over matter in the most literal sense.” She took another minute to ponder the situation.

The problem was this man, there was something wrong with him. Not only was she trapped in his mind, but so was he. At the very least, he seemed to want to help her escape just as much as she wanted to escape, but she had a feeling it was going to be a more difficult task than usual. The scenery all around them was changing as he became more aware of the situation. Everything felt darker and colder, an eerie sensation like the walls were closing in around her despite them staying put for the moment. This wasn’t a pleasant mind to be trapped in.

“You could try making a door,” she started hesitantly, wondering if that would work. Possibly, since it was his own mind he felt trapped in, then he was the only one who had the key to escape. “This is dangerous, though,” she continued. “Your mind is fragile, especially like this. If we push too far, who knows what kind of damage we could create. I’m not a dream worker, I don’t know how to fix things, but maybe if we tread carefully, you’ll be alright.” Dream workers were in short supply in her city, though they were desperately needed.

Back in Altsoba, there were many people who felt trapped in their own nightmares, and dream workers helped them escape by working through their dreams and helping them control them. Jack had only experienced it once, but she had hated the invasion of her privacy and had never gone back. She was no dream worker, with demons of her own, but she might just have to become one to help herself escape this mind.

“This is more complicated than I ever intended,” she admitted with a sigh, moving back to sit next to Gloucester. “You can give the door a shot, even if you make a door to anyone else’s mind that might be easier to skip through. Just imagine someone you’re close to, who you know really well, and then imagine a door to that place. I also find sticking my hand in the air helps to center my thoughts and energy … if that doesn’t work, I think I’m going to have to ask you what exactly is going on, since it’s not normal to be trapped in your own head.”