2020-06-03 - Door Into Thunder

Almost familiar, those scents. Not in a good way, at this point. After that last brutal Dream, the sight of wide-open plains is enough to have him looking around uneasily, as if in search of Marines or monsters.

Joe's not in good shape. There's a wound at his temple held closed by butterfly fasteners - not a big one, but a line of red. Bruising on his throat....and he's got the pallor of someone in pain. But he's standing before the door in jeans and t-shirt and boots, eyes wide. A glance down at his hip, as if he half expects himself to be armed with a pair of six shot revolvers. But no....that's another Dream entirely.

Another look around betrays no obvious sanctuary or shelter, not even a buffalo wallow to cut the wind. It's the door or nothing, it seems.

Lyric finds herself nearer the door with every menacing growl of the thunder from the massive and intimidating cell threatening to unleash. "Whatever is inside may be better than what looks like may happen out here!" It is spoken to anyone nearby her. The sky just draws her gaze but not more so than the door. Or the handle of the door. The fact she is in a Dream isn't as surprising as who she seems to be with. That sailor from the bar that one day when he showed up in town. "I'm Lyric," she tells him quietly. Just for future reference.

On the other side of the Veil it's a perfectly pleasant evening, weatherwise at the very least. The scents and sounds of here instead aren't particularly familiar to Vyv, but they're also not his most immediate focus, which is the fact that here is not there. He's not quite so well-put-together as usual at this precise moment, with no jacket or tie and his vest and a fair portion of the shirt unbuttoned, and the glance around that takes in the new surroundings is disbelieving. "Really?" he asks upward, as though the sky itself might bear responsibility for all this, "Now?"

Never anything for it, though, so he gives a frustrated huff of a breath, running a hand through his somewhat tousled hair and leaving it still somewhat tousled, but at least it looks that way a lot in any case. "Good evening," he greets the others, resigned, and focuses on Lyric in particular a moment as he refastens various buttons, "Oh, hello again, Ms. Bates." The door is eyed, then the storm. "Is it trying to herd us in, do you think?"

Grant appears looking like he'd been napping recently. His hair's uncombed and he's mid-point brushing his teeth, blinking around and rubbing an eye. He looks behind him as if to check the bathroom door to figure out if he went out the right one or not. He blinks and checks again. Huh. Looking over to Vyv he murmurs around the toothbrush, "Your door broke..." Both eyebrows arching up both handsreach out signing Lyric's name. Well tehre's someone he's happy to see. And- he eyes get huge flagging Vyv and pointing to Joseph signing Space man!!! there is a salute that follows. Eyeing the cyclone he asks still around the toothbrush still brushing. "We stuck in teh sink?"

The storm continues its inexorable approach. Lightning leaps to the ground, sending a small pulse through the landscape under their feet...and up into them. Their teeth ache, the hair on their arms and the backs of their necks stands on end.

Another lightning strike lands right next to them. This gives everyone present a chance to marvel at how a lightning strike is, in fact, an explosion, complete with blast shockwave. The door swings open, and they're unceremoniously shoved through.

On the other side, a watery, dark expanse, ringed by huge, dark, jagged mountains, the sky a pale, featureless gray. They're standing in maybe four inches of water that's heavy with minerals; whatever is beneath their feet is solid and flat. Ahead, a water spout, swirling in place up into the sky.

"I dunno 'bout you, but I don't fancy gettin' caught out here with that comin' in like a high-ballin' freight," Joe says, indicating the oncoming supercell with a lazy nod of his head. "I don't think that thing'll take us anywhere so nice as Oz." A glance over at her. "I'm Joe. Pleasedameetcha, wish it was under better circumstances."

Grant gets a grin. "Hey there," he says, and Vyv gets a little salute in greeting, two fingertips touched to his unwounded temple. "I'mma head in." Like he just means to go into the house from where he's been sitting on the porch.

The choice is taken from him, and he's reduced to a few stumbling, sloshing steps, peering around again. Shelter? Somewhere to go? The water spout's to be avoided - they may be somewhat less virulent than earthbound twisters, but they're no joke.

Being dumped through the door doesn't bother Lyric a whole lot, she seems to take it all in stride fairly well. "At least the storm is outside. Cause the water an' all." She waves to Vyv and gives him a cheerful smile, then one to Grant as well. "Hey guys." Then Joe, "Nice to meet ya too," Happy to see familiar faces. It's then she notices the waterspout and sloshes a step backwards, "Why is there one of those inside?" Not exactly sure what they are called, but she knows it isn't good. "Let's go look for somethin."

"No, doesn't seem precisely ideal," Vyv agrees regarding being caught in the storm, adding, "Vyv Vydal. How do you do." Now everyone's been introduced, right? His brows lift at Grant's signing, and he gives Joe another look, as though spaceman-ness might be a visible feature, but any further thought on such matters is cut off quite effectively by nearly getting struck by lightning and entirely being shoved through that door.

And then they're ankle-deep in heavy water, which he stares down at for a moment, jaw tightening. This situation does not in any way bode well for the future of these shoes. Or trousers. Both of which he liked. "Sometimes," he remarks to no one in particular, "I really hate this place." His gaze lifts to look around this particular manifestation of it, and his brow furrows. "What is this? It feels like we're inside something, but that doesn't generally come with sky and water spouts." And bloody ankle-deep water.

Both eyebrows skyrocket. Easily excitable he jumps and lands with all the grace of a 1950's cartoon housewife yelling eek! The number of times people have likely said smooth move, bro is uncountable. If there is one thing the skater's familiar with it's break falling, and remembering to take the toothbrush out of his mouth so he doesn't impale his head. Standing up he murmurs, hands signing because his volume may or may not be questionable, "It looked like it was in some sort of fucked up funky aquarium." Then... oh. "Uhhhh we may want to shut the water off. I can try my hand at it." There's a pause and he adds, "Also my dad says that Isiah Thomas said that water and electricity don't mix, so might want to find something to stand on."

"Those aren't real mountains. I don't know what they are, but.....I don't know what this place is." It's not making any kind of sense that Joe can parse. He doesn't look alarmed, though. Not yet.

The glimpse of the labyrinth makes him shake his head. "I think that's the only way out of this. We're being herded, so far." A flick of a look to Grant. "You see somethin' to stand on?" He's already sloshing forward to the beginning of the first circuit. A true labyrinth isn't a maze. You can't get lost. Though this one doesn't look as if it has a Goblin King at the center.

A sound can be heard, a sort of screeching batty sound but hopefully not so intimidating! It's a large bat but Lyric quickly says, "Don't hurt him! He's my friend!" It lands nearby her but sniffs around. She nuzzles him briefly, watching him after and his fear. "If you're scared you can go, I don't want you to get hurt." Assuming he can understand her or something. "Maybe we need to go to the water tornado. We gotta follow the path though, I bet." A nod to Joe cause she seems to echo his thoughts. "Well, let's go, I'll follow you," she tells Joe, flashing a smile towards Grant and Vyv, keeping her bat near even though he's big enough to carry her if she wanted.

Vyv offers Grant a hand up when he's fallen, though if anyone here doesn't need one in that situation, it's probably the skater. "Well, if it's filling the place, it's at least not doing it at any notable speed," he remarks, and follows Joe's gaze toward the not-mountains. Hmm. Huge screeching bat is a little distracting, however, and he takes a half-step back before it's clear this is a, uh, friendly bat. Apparently. He looks slightly dubious, but... all right. Attention back to the spout, noting the briefly visible labyrinth, and he sighs. "Yes, it probably is. And yes, I'm fairly sure we are." But he too starts that way, all the same, reaching out with his mind to feel for the entrance and the form of the things.

Grant is drawn not by the sound, but the shadows. Hands come up to protect his hair but lower as fast looking at the bat. "Lyr, why would I wreck a bat? Bats are boss. Suuuup Batty." Notably: that's bad ass. Bat ass? It's cool.

The labyrinthine path leaves him curious, turning his head to Vyv and taking the hand to peel himself off the ground. V's in some soggy hell, Bax? Hell he's about as bothered as some crazy fox romping around in it. The word here is fascination: There is curiosity illuminating his expression.

He helpfully informs Old days out East mazes and labyrinths were teaching tools and defense things. There's definitely... something around. " Because no one asked for story time he occupies the space with words and what he finds entertaining, "hey're not a place of getting lost, it's a path to walk to learn. Or was. The one in Greece is said to have a Minotaur, but other philosophers suggest it might be inner struggles. Hence: Man with a head like a bull. Stubbornness." Maybe not at all helpful but he offers, hands singing with, "Maybe this place wants us to learn something?"

This is just not Joe's week. He bumps into the unseen walls, more than once. And then that creature appears, and he's left bewildered. Squinting at it like an American tourist confronted with a local's cheerful patter. "It wants us to....go deal with the waterspout?" He turns back to confer with the others. Do they speak Whale? His is apparently rusty. .....maybe he should've tried talking to the Xeno King, when he met him.

"Oh no. We gotta find the book and break it. It's probably in the water tornado. The book broke their world. I hadda help break a different one. We can go find it." Again Lyric nuzzles her bat and smiles, "You can go for now until I call you back. Go be safe." Certainly she's protective of him. Probably the others bumping the walls alerted her to them, so she manages to get through without scuffing herself. Back to the whale, she smiles, talking back. "Is the book in the water tornado?"

Vyv stalks through the water like an indignant cat; if he had that sort of ears, they'd definitely be back. The thump here or there into the invisible walls does absolutely nothing to allay the general air of indignation, though arguably also catlike, he refuses to acknowledge the collisions beyond rectifying them and continuing on. Nothing To See Here. Move Along.

He stops short when the seadragon rises before Grant, staring at it a moment, then glancing to the purple-haired young man, and then back, brow furrowed as the song goes on. And then the others are translating the song, and for a moment he looks from one to another of them as though they were the ones speaking some weird language. "We have to break a book," he echoes, flatly. "Which is in the waterspout. Most books, I would expect that would be plenty to destroy it."

Grant presses hands to knees. and starts signing back and forth with some pok pok pok sounds. Yeah he does enough drugs to talk to fish. "Yeah there's... definitely something up. Ummmm Gonna ask him if he can ask some of the old buds for help or just say hey. Meantime? I'm thinking big big bathtub plug." He pauses as the story of the book comes back and he looks to, well, Vyv and Lyric. "Can we call the library and tell them we have one to return? Or we want to try to make a bad movie based on it. Usually ruins books."

"C'mon. Whatever our buddy there wants, we've gotta get in there before that ash hits," Joe urges. Then he's reaching over to try and lift Lyric up onto the path again. "Or we gonna get pulped."

Caught and momentarily distracted by those shapes. "Looks like it's got the locals all freaked out." That said, he's caught by the fact that they aren't walking on anything solid. "The hell?"

"It's better than sayin' that we gotta kill the book AND the water tornado." Which is really her suspicion! Lyric manages to avoid the walls, but the other beings in the water catch her attention and she loses all illusion of there being a floor beneath her feet. Falling straight in the water without expecting it, she sinks until she realizes she needs to swim!

It's Joe reaching for her that brings Lyric back out of the water and she takes the hand to let him pull her out, but there's nowhere to stand! So, doing what she can do she lets him carry her. If he will. Since he seemed to be managing fine on the floor. "Thank you.." she tells him, spitting out water and wiping it from her nose and eyes. Gross.

Okay, everything else about the situation notwithstanding, Grant's suggestion for how to ruin a book does make Vyv laugh, a quick exhalation of a thing with a flicker of a smile, there and gone again. Likely would have been the case even if it didn't coincide with that ominous rumble and Lyric dropping into the water below. He leans over to help try to draw her out as well, though if there's indeed any carrying to do, he's more than happy to let Joe be the one to do it.

The floor they're on gets a fleeting look of cartoon-Coyote-like realisation, but then a crisp decision of, "We've been walking on this thus far, therefore we manifestly are able to walk on this, and I intend to continue doing so." Logic. "You're right, though. We ought to hurry." And that's also what he intends to do.

Grant has the added benefit in these situations of art mimicking his perceived reality half the time. Is this just real life? Is this just fantasy? Is this... the Veil! Stoner logic prevails that you cannot fail at something until it doesn't work the third time. THey are walking on water and that means... they can run on it too. Good. Planting his feet he helpfully tells Lyric. "Walk feet flat. Try not to point your toes or you create a slipstream effect. You got this. Maestros can do anything. We just have to... know what we wanna do." He looks behind his shoulder to Vyv and flashes a grin, "Faster this is over, faster you are back in your living room. Race you guys. Last one to climb the top is a flounder."

"What is this? The Book of Raziel?" Joe wonders. He's just guessing, by his puzzled tone. But he doesn't hesitate to lead the way, sloshing on up to lay tattooed hands on it. Even though that is clearly a terrible idea.

But he's always been beset with curiosity....and better him than them, surely?

Managing to get to her feet and taking Grant at is words, Lyric beams to the others, but by now she's soaking wet. She runs with them, the less time on the invisible floor the better. "Canticles of Earth and Dynamism?" Reading the book before walking over with Joe and splaying her own pale, unmarked hands across the book and offering him a grin. She looks a little like a drowned rat so it comes across goofy looking. "Well, here goes!" Taking a breath she lowers them till they are touching it. What's the worst that could happen?

Vyv does not particularly like running. Running is something one does to avoid getting killed or gaining weight from dealing with pastry all day. Both suboptimal. But one could argue this qualifies under 'not getting killed', so run he does. And when they arrive at the center, he slows, walking the rest of the way to the book. "'Canticles of Earth and Dynamism'?" he reads, creating a two-member chorus with Lyric, "...Earth and dynamism and ominous rumbling says earthquakes, to me." He's lived in California. Stopping by the book, he studies it a moment, the moment of that pulse, and the voice leaves him looking faintly unsettled. Almost in defiance, he reaches out to run a finger lightly along the edge of one of those pages, letting his mind assess from it what he can.

Grant dashes up there like he's living a Miyazaki film. If he's dying it'll be doing something he loves. This is not changing. The weather effects are new though. He wasn't imagining those. Huh. "Canticles of... this like some sort of bondage thing or they arresting someone?" He mumbles something to himself and as the voice creeps in he reaches up and shuts his hearing aides off. Yeah, because expanding one's senses is a great idea right now. Everyone seems to be on page with this... literally.

His eyes are wide, blank, his face has the blind slackness of a saint in ecstasy. The pilot doesn't make a sound as he crumples to his knees in a parody of reverence, and then slews sideways. He's not dead, he's not bleeding, he's still breathing. But for the moment, his mind is blasted clean, blank as a new page.

Uh-oh! Lyric realizes about the time she touches the book that she had made a mistake in doing so. Her eyes wide, she looks towards Joe, then the other two and closes her eyes from the golden halo as she tries to concentrate on ignoring the pain. There's a soft sound of dismay as she opens them again and finds two of the others hurting, dazed. She kneels down, but she's certainly no healer, "Are you okay?" But the book, it needed destroyed, so she focuses on it solely with her magics, intent to destroy it or tear it apart.

Oh. Yes. This was a bad idea. Vyv grits his teeth against the pain as he stubbornly fights off the pull, and he doesn't close his eyes; if this is going to be like this he's going to at least take away all the information he can. When it releases them, he takes an involuntary step back, rubbing the hand that had been touching it. "A black hole?" he asks no one, but contemplation along that line is broken off by the state of the other men after being thrown free.

"Bax?" he asks the skater tentatively, taking a look long enough to at least be certain of breathing before he growls and whirls on the book. His hands lift as though taking hold of one side of a cover and roughly ripping out handfuls of pages from within. After the first yank it's oddly rhythmic for what he's doing, and in fact there's a shift of one waterlogged foot along with is, as if to some kind of beat. "Moving art," he says shortly, "and I think it may not like a beat." Don't ask him why. Even if he knows, he's busy actively wanting it dead right now.

Grant tackles the book like he does all things: Head first and without question. The skater is rocketed through time and space windmill-mars cycling at light speed. His breath is sucked so deep into his chest his chest feels like it's going to explode. He wanted to go to space. Weirdly, like Joe, and for entirely different reasons, there is some peace in the manifestation of some Zen nihilism; all sparkling colours, and dust exploding like a shimmer throught out time. And he was bad enough knowing what day it was before.

Spat back out he hits, shoulder first and flup flup flup rollsuntil his limbs are played on the wet surface with more more grace than a mosquito that's met a windshield mid-transit. He lays there like a dead fish with his consciousness thrown back into some physical form; body heavy again going from ethereal and infinite to solid and terribly... heavy and so utterly slow. So slow it's taking effort to breathe. but he does. Head ringing and eyes wild and wide frozen open as if they might see one more glimpse of everything and nothing at once.

Yeah he's no help to the cause right now short of everyone needing a paperweight.

He loves books. He's even made a few himself. But this one....no. It's like a black hole in its own right. He gets up like an old, old man, but he gets up, nonetheless. And then he's there, with them, lending his resurgent Glimmer to the battle. As if in vengeance for the hard schooling he just got.

With an eye to the books and her own knowledge of the veil and adding to it her love for all things music, Lyric starts tapping her leg, ricking out a slow sort of beat... then she;'s singing. YES! Singing! Weirdo musicians!

"Books are burning in the main square
And I saw there, the fire eating the text
Books are burning in the still air
And you know where they burn books, people are next

I believe the printed word should be forgiven
Doesn't matter what it said
Wisdom hotline from the dead back to the living
Key to the larder for your heart and your head,

Books are burning in our own town
Watch us turn 'round and cast our glances elsewhere
Books are burning in the playground
Smell of burnt book is not unlike human hair

Well, I believe the printed word is more than sacred
Beyond the gauge of good or bad
The human right to let your soul fly free and naked
Above the violence of the fearful and sad

The church of matches
Anoints in ignorance with gasoline
The church of matches
Grows fat by breathing in the smoke of dreams, it's quite obscene

Books are burning, more each day now
And I pray now, you boys will tire of these games
Books are burning, I hope somehow
This will allow, a phoenix up from the flames."

While she's singing, she adds her glimmer to it, watching as the crack forms from Vyv and taking the clues from him as she completes the entire thing a little quicker than the original.

Vyv loves books too... but not this book. When Lyric starts to sing, he glances her way, and intentionally or not his own beat shifts enough to match hers. He continues to mentally tear and rip at the pages, ruthless movements that would surely get him banned from any library. At the moment he might say it was worth it, by the look he gives the book when that 'no' hits their... ears? Minds? Whatever it is, it's what he wants to hear.

Grant rolls to his head to the side, and unfurls his fingers, palm facing the sky and lets his glimmer manifest as will. Still riding the high he extends out, a lashing of forces pulling back on the pages like confetti. IT's a hard fought win. If there's words from the book it's lost in an echoing cacophony it already put there so while his head is spinning the meaning's become lost and the surface of the water under the thrum a giant speaker.

Ow~!*

All he can think of is the end of 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' in Fantasia - the mouse on the book, whirling down the vortex of light. Joe doesn't reach for the shards - he's already ruined one tattoo in the last week or so, and he doesn't really want more traces of whatever this is. The embodiment of a black hole's mind, perhaps....or they're on their way down to sunken R'lyeh.

The song ends, the powers are all combined for the whirlpool effect again and Lyric is drawn down and down and down. The shards fly dangerously around them before she reaches out a hand to try and catch one. She can't seem to get one, but one finds her arm and slices clean and fairly deep. There's a soft whimper and she covers the cut with her other hand, closing it to ytu and stop the bleeding before it starts. She's really not successful, but she slows it some.

There's a flash of triumph as the book goes dark, but Vyv's eyes widen as they're sucked down into that whirlpool. He does attempt to fight it for a moment, but where would he go back to? Instead he tries to avoid the shards, most definitely not reaching out to give them any access to his hands. He needs those.

Grant reaches out with his rock grabbing hand (Not a...well it works for a euphemism too arguably). This is like that damn time in Baba Yaga's camp: He winds up back down in a puddle with one hand stinging bitterly. Somewhere, somehow, -ow ow ow- he's blaming her. Until them? There's a hiss of pain and he holds on and... valiantly tries to not throw up. He can't hear, very literally, but for his pulse in his ears and croaks, "Heeeey,,, lil water dragons dudes... did the thing... catch maybe? Net? Pleasekthanks..." Eyes find Vyv, then Joe and Lyric. Cooool, cool, cool. "Yo if we goin out? Super hero landing everyone!!" He doesn't even know if he's audible or not. Well... fuck. nothing to do but ride it out.