ic Uffish Thoughts (IC)

[Mad Scientist]

June 10, 2:45pm.
Claremont Academy

Eileen exited the classroom, holding her textbook and notebook in one hand while hitching her purse up on her shoulder, clearly a little distracted by the juggling act.  Fortunately not so distracted that she trampled the tiny sophomore who she crossed paths with in the hall just outside the doorway.

"Sorry!" the tall blonde girl exclaimed, from nearly a foot higher up due to her boots.  "Didn't mean to nearly run you down."  Perhaps amazingly, she hadn't lost her grip on any of her things -- would wonders never cease?  She took a second look at the other student, and something clicked.

"Hey -- you're, um, Zephyr, right?" she went on with a smile.  "You've got some major mind mojo going on, from what I hear.  Impressive, and probably a little annoying," she observed, her smile turning wry.

"Oh, and I'm Eileen," she introduced herself, managing to free up a hand to hold out in introduction.  "I've only been here a few weeks, still getting used to," she hefted her textbook, cradled in her elbow, "'Energy Theory and Secondary Propagation'.  Or, another way to put it, 'stuff has consequences'."  She snorted -- like a textbook or a class was needed to figure out that.

[shojikitsune]

There had been nothing but silence in the hallway, the click of dress shoes the only thing that would be heard, and then - bedlam. The young, raven-haired Zephyr moved around people subconsciously as the other students began filing out of classes, eyes in a book. Each mind served as a sort of echo of her surroundings, concepts and thoughts giving rise to the environment. "Locker" or "Classroom" conjured overlaying images from the minds around her regarding not just a specific concept, but also locations specific enough to avoid walking into - and emotional responses ranging from boredom to fear. How she saw the world was very different from most people.

She is brought up short by another student exiting a classroom, and some anomaly causes her to look up as the other girl comes into visual focus. And up. And Up. More to the point, the young woman is using *words*. Blinking her wide lavender eyes, the pale, skinny brunette nods. In spite of her somewhat goth-girl appearance (dark purple lipstick looks rather good on someone so pale) smile is warm, as she tilts her head curiously, "Again, my reputation has proceeded me. Nice to meet you." With a curious tilt to her head, she lets out a rather infectious giggle, "There are people laying awake at night trying to come up with the most convoluted textbook titles - maybe they can sell them better that way?" She takes the offered hand, and there's a very tactile *tingle* that the taller blond girl would feel. It fades away in a fraction of a second. Was it ever really there?

"Sorry, I am just getting used to the fact that practically everyone here knows about what I can do, except for myself. It can be annoying, but at least inside the school, people are usually more worried about their upcoming tests than whether or not someone nearby can hear their thoughts. So, what about you? To what quirk of fate do you owe your attendance here? That is," she adds quickly, "if you want to talk about it, I mean."

 

[Mad Scientist]

Eileen's eyebrows went up, and she rubbed her fingers together for a moment after their brief handshake ended -- normally she'd have discounted that sensation as her imagination, but since coming to Claremont she had decided to believe whatever weird thing she encountered until she had good reason to conclude otherwise.

"Oh, I don't think that everyone knows who you are and what you can do," she hastily assured the other girl.  "I'm just nosy, and my brain hangs onto just about every little thing I run across," she explained apologetically, tapping her temple with one forefinger.  She didn't want Zephyr -- unusual name! -- to get the idea she was some kind of creeper.

Even when, y'know, she sorta was, on occasion.

"Hah, try not to get me talking about...well, anything," she admitted cheerfully.  "I got tagged with these magic tattoos," the blonde girl explained, holding up her free hand to display the complex sigil scribed into her wrist.  "They let me go all super, and then I can fly, and shoot blue lasers and the like."  She shrugged off-handedly, her books starting to slip until she managed to grab and steady them.  "I have no idea how or why it all happened, and believe me, it's enough to drive you half-crazy sometimes," she admitted with frustrated exasperation.

[shojikitsune]

 Zephyr blinked, "Ooh, a mystery. You wake up one morning and suddenly, powers. At least it sounds like you didn't get a bad set of powers. You could have, say, gotten the power to play other hero's theme music, or turn into a jello mold." She wrinkled her nose a bit, making a face. "I know something about powers driving you half-crazy. At their worst, mine were like being on a bus; with a capacity of around 8 or 9 billion... and there was no way to get off."

The younger girl shrugs, "In the end, it meant that while my mind didn't short out, it did defend itself, causing some major power instability. Sometimes I was quite blissfully alone in my head, then the next morning I'd need medication because I couldn't tune anything out without being sedated. It seems to have stabilized, though. For now. Honestly, the 'experts' think it was related to me being a 'late bloomer', and the worst should be behind me."

Zephyr takes a deep breath. "OK, sorry for the complaining. Is there somewhere you need to get all those books? Because if I make you stand here and listen to how miserable I was, i might start projecting it." She giggles again, "The whole school will end up wearing black, moping, and writing sad poetry." She pauses, as if thinking, "You said you don't know how or who, but do you know when, why, or any of the other questions related to your powers? Having them dumped on you randomly is random."

Edited June 15, 2015 by shojikitsune
flow

[Mad Scientist]

Eileen shook her head and finally moved away from the doorway, joining the flow of traffic in the hallway.

"No, I've got a spare period now -- I hope I haven't been keeping you from anywhere you need to be," she asked, suddenly worried she'd been imposing on someone too polite to say so.  "Don't worry about venting -- everybody needs to from time to time, and I'm usually good for an ear, or a shoulder," she told the other girl with a careful shrug -- to avoid losing any books until she got to where she could dispose of them.

She thought a moment about the posed question -- heavens knew she herself had thought the whole thing was pretty random, and on more than one occasion too.

"Well, I know when it happened, because my, ah, 'ink' appeared overnight, and I not only lost part of that night, but everybody else relevant's recollection of that night was completely rewritten," she revealed, her mouth twisting in unconscious concern.  "But as for why -- why me, or why I was given them at all..."  She trailed off.

"Well, up until very recently, I'd have said no, no clue at all," she went on finally.  "But since I've gotten here, and had a roommate, I'm told I have some idea, sometimes, right when I wake up.  I don't remember any of this, but my roommate says that sometimes when I wake up, I seem to have been...dreaming, about something, that we think has to do with this.  There's a tall figure, that can't be looked at, and some sort of task, and a promise.  Or a prize.  Or...price, maybe."  She shrugged again, unable to be any clearer.

"I still don't actually remember any of this, which is a little creepy, but it's nice to know that what's going on is, maybe, locked up in here somewhere."  She tapped her temple again -- and then stuttered half a step.

"Hey," she said consideringly, turning wide blue eyes on Zephyr.  "Maybe I just need some...help.  Remembering," she added, a painfully hopeful tone in her voice.

[shojikitsune]

Zephyr ponders, "Well, it's possible but it's got risks. Like those medicine commercials. You know the ones that show happy healthy people having fun while rapidly saying" and her voice shifts, eerily flat, noninflected, and unnaturally fast , "This drug has side effects, most common side effects are bloating, nausea, bad breath and death." Returning to her normal pitch and tone, she continues,  "I usually reserve mind probes for those who 'won't' talk. I've never tried to recover memories from people who can't."

Zephyr can be seen contemplating it, "Since we don't know what will happen, let's at least wait till classes are over. I still have..." Somehow, ominous music plays in the background, and a dark raincloud appears over the young telepath's head (probably an audio/visual illusion)... "P.E. I'll meet you in front of the school if I survive."

"Don't worry, I can still make it to class." She can be heard buttering something about 'true evil' and 'locker room', and zzzzzt.... she's gone, in a yellow and black swirl. It should only be about 40 minutes, give or take, before the younger heroine is available again.

Time advances, and Zephyr takes a seat on the bench outside the front door. She's a little early - happens when you teleport. "Wonder if she'll show? It's kinda risky, after all - stirring around in someone's brain always is."

Edited June 17, 2015 by shojikitsune
flow

[Mad Scientist]

It wasn't more than a couple of minutes before Eileen arrived, striding along unburdened by books but with her nose buried in her phone.  She somehow managed to avoid colliding with anything or anyone in the process, albeit with a couple of near misses.

"Hey!" she exclaimed cheerfully after glancing up, and tucked her phone away for the moment.  "Thanks for doing this," she told the other girl with frank sincerity, plopping down beside her on the bench.  "You have no idea how maddening it is to not know, y'know?  I was thinking about your side effects, and I'm willing to bet that since I'm not fighting you on this, it probably won't be as bad," she pointed out.  "Kinda like the difference between trying to drag someone up a set of stairs, and giving them a steadying hand, right?"

Well -- it probably wasn't accurate to say that she was willing to bet, so much as she was betting.  But really -- all this would be was shining a light on something that was hidden in shadows, right?  And she was all about shining lights these days.

[shojikitsune]

"Those are interesting analogies, true. I exaggerated the side effects, Telepathy itself usually has none." She tilted her head, "You are thinking about a flashlight. Illumination of the penumbra. And even linking your powers thematically to it."

She sighed, and then straightened up, "OK, I'd give you some mumbo-jumbo about 'look into my eyes' but that's just window dressing."

And then her eyes flashed a brilliant yellow color, and Eileen could hear her, inside her head, mostly being silly. "ECHO! ( with actual sound effects - 'echo, echo, echo'...) Ahem... Now, I want to see what you *do* remember, starting with the last thing you are absolutely certain of from that evening."

Meanwhile, as if in a vision, as the scene come into focus, everything stands out in the shimmering yellow light the image of Zephyr begins to produce. Everything begins to take on the surreal clarity of an HDR photograph that a yellow Zephyr and (naturally) blue Eileen can walk around and examine in minute detail.

Edited June 17, 2015 by shojikitsune
color

[Mad Scientist]

GM:

The scene unfolded as Eileen recalled the details, yellow highlights throwing everything into clear relief.  A bedroom, standard issue girl, with the requisite pictures, posters, and souvenirs that were collected as life progressed for a young person.  Eileen was there, in memory as well as her blue psychic self, sprawled in the chair set near the window, dressed in comfy pyjama pants and a baggy t-shirt.  There were two other girls there as well, these two sharing the bed and facing Eileen, one with short dark hair and blue eyes, the other a mid-length muddy auburn with equally muddy hazel eyes.

All three girls were taking turns talking, with much velocity and volume both, and half the time not even taking turns as they jabbered over each other.  They were all clearly having a good time, all unaware that...something...was going to happen.  As to what, exactly, that was yet to be determined.

The digital display of the alarm clock on the bedside table showed 10:42pm.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Mad Scientist

[Mad Scientist]

Eileen's blue-tinted face was a study of wonder and amazement, eyes wide as she looked around.  She had always had excellent recall, and sometimes it was just like she could picture something in her head as it had happened...but this was actually seeing it as it had happened!  Even down to herself being there, despite the fact that she obviously couldn't have actually seen herself there, but --

Ahhh.  She was reflected in the vanity mirror, which means that the psychic rendition of the scene knew how and where she herself had appeared.  So cool!

"This...is...awesome," she exclaimed solemnly, reaching out without thinking to squeeze Zephyr's 'hand', lack of physical presence or no.  "This is a sleepover, at Jessie's place, she has the dark hair," the curvy blonde explained hastily as the trio of memory figments laughed together in the scene.  "I remember I had just noticed the time, and so this is just before...well, this is the last thing I can remember before waking up the next morning."  She sounded a little frustrated, which was probably only to be expected under the circumstances.

[shojikitsune]

Zephyr nodded, and led Eileen into the scene briefly, the reconstruction still had some fuzzy spots. Probably due to things Eileen hadn't seen. All in all it was a really sharp image. "Ok, you have an exceptional memory. That makes any time missing even more peculiar. Now, let's jump ahead, see how the scene changes." She concentrates on the wall clock, knowing that it's presence gives the scene an anchor in time and space. "We are going to bracket the scenes. First, let's bring up your memory of waking up-here." The scene has Eileen looking at herself in the mirror, making a face and dealing with bed-hair. She doesn't seem to have noticed the cerulean tattoos just yet. Eileen and Zephyr both can tell that the discovery is just heartbeats away. The reason this scene was brought up is clear. In the reflection, the reversed bedside clock is visible, reading 8:03 AM. "Now, let's see what happens in between."

The positioning of the scene shifts like liquid. The image flattens to a 2D representation, leaving them standing in a much more 'normal' resolution mental projection of the Claremont front lawn. Around the pair, images open up, snapshots of high resolution, spaced about 20 minutes to a half hour apart. The two memories of time bookend the circle of 3' by 5' images, each set off from the background scene with that familiar crackling yellow/black border that marks Zephyr's power, each one rendered in highest possible detail. Within each block is a clock, wristwatch, cell phone or other time piece used as a reference if possible, and is an educated guess if not. The camera pans around to reveal...

[Mad Scientist]

GM:

...nothing, except for pure, brilliant blue light.  Looking into any of the circles is like looking into a high intensity lamp, making it impossible to make out any details that the scene might have contained, the combined effect from the various snapshots casting a blue glow across the projection of the front lawn,sending long shadows stretching out and away from their feet.

The scenes had opened, true enough, which suggested that there was actually something there for the times selected, but it was just as clearly being concealed from them, either by design or by some artifact of the power itself.  Either way, it was apparently going to take more to pierce this veil than originally hoped -- if it was possible at all.

[Mad Scientist]

Eileen made a disgusted noise, frustrated yet again in her attempt to discover what had happened to her.  And she was so close, this time!

"That's me, that next morning," she agreed, pointing at the final and one of the only two scenes visible.  "Waking up in my room.  My friends didn't remember we had had a sleepover, our parents didn't remember, it was like it didn't happen, for anyone except for me," she groused.  She peered gamely at the blank images encircling them, squinting as she tried to see past the cerulean glare.

"Well, this just sucks," she grumbled, making a face.  "Not that it's your fault," she hastened to assure Zephyr.  "I just can't see anything past that light.  Apparently my mundane eyes just aren't good enough -- that light strips away any sort of concealment or illusion for me when I'm powered up, rather than the other way around," she complained.

[shojikitsune]

Zephyr moves closer to the virtual Eileen and chuckled slightly. "Oh, this is just the beginning. One important difference between an illusion and this - this is real. These are your memories of that night, laid out in chronological order. Of course, we're looking at the surface, and there is far more to see. The fact that a window opened up, even if it is washed out with light, is important. It means there's a memory there. It's not just empty space. Now, we start playing 20 questions. I'll ask the question, you answer it even if you can't. Think hard on it and ride the power to the truth, and the relevant window will be filled in rather than blank. It may even be a new window."

She concentrates, and there's a distinct shift as they are surrounded by the blue light, clearly immersed in the time between the two fixed memories. With a shimmer, the two psychic projections merge into a single green feminine shape, and Eileen is moved to first-person perspective, although it's clear that Zephyr is linked to every sense she has.

"The question posed to the Oracle is: When did you get the tattoos?"

[Mad Scientist]

GM:

There was...resistance.  Quite clearly, whatever was behind the obstruction to Eileen's memories opposed any method of bypassing that obstruction, which was little surprise at this point in the exercise.

Resistance was good, though -- because it wasn't a dead end, a stone wall, or impenetrable barrier.  Resistance meant that the way was hard going, but something could move.

With Eileen focusing her prodigious memory on the question posed and Zephyr providing the mental muscle to try and power through, their gestalt swiftly built up great pressure against that resistance, and Zephyr could feel the resistance beginning to crumble under their combined effort.

Until, abruptly, most of the resistance melted away in a rush, their joined will pushing away much of the blue glow...but not all of it.  They were left viewing fragments of some sort of scene, the most tantalizing view of events they had managed yet, but it was obstructed and still largely obscured by a blue glow.  But now, the glow was in the form of one of the sigils tattooed onto Eileen's wrists, the lines and ornate symbols allowing only small glimpses to be made out between their brilliant forms.

There seemed to be...rock?  And what looked like part of a tree, and what might have been sections of a wall of some kind, and there was definitely full day.

What it definitely wasn't was anyone's bedroom, nor was it anywhere in the western hemisphere between the hours of 10:42 and 8:03am....

[shojikitsune]

Zephyr raises an eyebrow, her expression remaining relatively neutral. "Are you seeing what I am seeing? Ahem...that question was brought to you by the Ministry of Redundancy Ministry." She deadpans.

She flies the gestalt through the scene, looking back at Eileen at the moment her powers were received and examining the blue sky, the rock, the wall and the tree. This is very likely not what either of them had expected. "Eileen, I don't think we're in Kansas any more."

She looks around for the cluster of other blue windows in Eileen's memory, many of which should now be far less blue if they happened after this, and have the same rock, wall and tree in place. Where in the sequence of memory windows are we? Are we even IN the sequence, or did Eileen get her powers long before that night? She doesn't consider the inverse, that Eileen gets her powers in the Future, since she can't see past the memory of Now, ever changing as it is. She could see a vast conical spiral of Future, data still entering Eileen's mind, to unstable for her current powers to examine. No, this bit had already happened. They had the When, but When was this When?

"I'm glad you've kept your mind organized. No ear-worm songs, no randomness, nothing out of order. I may allow myself some jealousy - for all the power of my mind, it's like traipsing around in a haunted house set from a Scooby Doo episode in there." (the theme from the '60's cartoon plays in the background, a common memory the two girls likely share.)

After trying to put this memory in order with the others, and seeing if there's anything unusual about the items in the memory, perhaps she can use that break in the blue light to press further with the next question.

[Mad Scientist]

Still part of the gestalt, Eileen's amazement was clear for Zephyr to feel.

"That was amazing!" she replied, not at all discouraged that the psychic's attempt had only been partially successful.  A start was better than anything else she'd managed so far, and if there was a start, then that meant they could keep moving forward, right?

"If you want ear-worm songs or randomness, they're out there," she went on, unable to resist commenting on the reference.  "You ever seen the original Indiana Jones movie?  I've got that warehouse full of crates -- pretty much anything is in there, if you poke through enough of them."  Her tone was wry, but also pleased -- not many people had ever said about her that she had an orderly mind.

Mind you, she rarely gave the impression that she did.

There seemed to be a number of similarly 'weakened' images now, showing variations on the elements seen thus far.  One also included what looked like part of an old country-style road, or perhaps a path -- it was difficult to tell.  And--

"That...looks like something carved into one of those big standing-stones, doesn't it?" Eileen asked of her currently other half.  More arcane symbols, maybe?  It was difficult to see past the blue.

[shojikitsune]

And now things were starting to come together. This was where things became more interesting, as she linked the common threads in the memories."Fortunately, we don't need the Ark of the Covenant just yet."

She takes a long at the related memories, stepping through them to ensure they are still in order. Apparently, something had pulled Eileen from the slumber party into an altogether different place - but not necessarily time. One advantage of a globe is it can be day in one place and night in another. At least it hadn't been a repressed memory from when Eileen was, say, five or something.

"We can take a closer look at this as well." Objects seen from other angles, like the rocks, trees and road are filled out, brought into a 3-d resolution like the slumber party. Objects Eileen never saw the whole of remain weirdly flat. This sharpens the image of the standing stone, wall, path and the time of day roughly as Zephyr takes a deep breath. "Anyway, let's see what else we can find out."

Zephyr takes particular note of the trail or path, as there may be signs as to where it goes or comes from, a valuable clue that can be sharpened up. this should also give a better indication of how Eileen got to and back from this place.

"The question posed to the Oracle is (and this time both girls can hear the dramatic opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra): Where are you when you get your powers?"

The question seems so tiny....

Edited July 2, 2015 by shojikitsune
flow, colors, spelling, DRAMA!

[Mad Scientist]

GM:

The blue of the sigils still blocking off the memory slices pulsed and dimmed,  pulsed and dimmed again, resisting the psychic probe.  Resisted, but Zephyr could clearly feel the weakening.

And then, under the weight of that tiny question backed by the formidable will of the Oracle, they crumbled, collapsed, and then exploded in a silent wash of brilliant blue, the light for just a moment filling the entire world.

Vision returned in a moment or two, and the scene was something...incredible.  Short green foliage and grey rock stretched out in every direction, the ground rolling gently in shallow waves.  Before was an irregular cliff face, difficult from this position to see just how high it was, but a surging ocean could be seen at some distance out from the edge.  It stretched out to either side until it disappeared from sight, as if this was some literal edge of the world, the point where the land was separated from the waters.

Behind were rolling hills, although without anything to give a specific point of reference or scale they could be a mile off, or five, or fifty.  There was the occasional small copse of trees or outcropping of rock, but no signs of civilization, or in fact any signs that this land had ever been touched by anyone at all.

Except for the road.

Off to the right, the road stretched along the ground like a dark ribbon, not like asphalt or concrete but some hue somewhere in between.  It disappeared into the hills behind, and peeked out in flashes among the dips and rises as it travelled to the sea -- or, at least, toward the cliff.  There was...something, near the cliff's edge, that looked to be where the road might lead, but from here it was difficult to tell what it might be, other than something standing up the surface of the ground.

The sun was, indeed, high in the sky, but it seemed somehow to be a little...too large.  And the sky itself was an odd shade of purplish-pink, not something that was ever found on Earth except for a few fleeting moments during some sunsets.

And, to top things off, the sense of Eileen was...while not gone, per se, was decidedly more diffuse, and difficult to locate.  She was there, but she wasn't right there.

 

[shojikitsune]

Zephyr marveled at the view, and makes a joke to the diffuse but still present Eileen, even feigning a Brooklyn/Flatbrush accent, in an eerie but near spot-on Bugs Bunny voice. "Ya know, I knew we should've taken dat left turn at Al-Be-Quer-Kay." Her mispronunciation is deliberate, as she takes advantage of the sense link to try drawing herself to where Eileen's persona is the strongest.

Once she's gotten a better fix on things, she'll have a closer look around, like at the symbols on the stone. Then, unless there's something relevant there, she'll see if she can shortcut towards the item in the distance that the road seems to lead to by flying in a straight line through the memories and over the back and forth meander of the road. Once she is satisfied that they've broken through the worst of the blue light, then she will admire how all the memories seem to fit.

"Now, I get the feeling we're not completely done here, so I wonder: How did you get here from the slumber party?"

[Mad Scientist]

GM:

Eileen's presence seems...oddly difficult to pin down, and for no reason Zephyr can determine, the sense link isn't showing anything.  Not darkness or anything like that, just...no sensation.  For the purposes of this effort, they've always been inside Eileen's mind, but somehow it now seems even...moreso.  Like every aspect of the landscape is composed of Eileenstuff, and Zephyr gets the impression that's what the sense of Eileen she has is.

Also, her classmate doesn't respond in the slightest to a Loony Toons quote, which for those who know her meant she wasn't aware the quote was made, or she had been dead for two days already.

The stone...doesn't appear to be within the immediate vicinity, to make matters more frustrating.  In fact, the entire 'countryside' seems to be similar, but not identical to the glimpses that had been caught before.  Flying through the landscape doesn't seem to work like it should -- it's difficult to tell if this is actually a memory any more, or something...else.

The fact that her next question did nothing but roll across the grass and rock and disappear into the distant(?) hills seems to confirm that concern.  Whatever was going on here, it had gone off the rails from a theoretically simple question and answer session.

[shojikitsune]

Zephyr comically face palms. "This is worse than Inception. Am I in an Utena anime here? I suspect I've just bored all the way through to your subconscious." Since flying isn't working like it should, she begins to walk briskly along the path towards the distant object, looking for clues. As she walked, she puzzled over the last question she had asked. this was the answer, of that there was no doubt.

Where are you when you get your powers?

If that was the case, then this may be a sort of trance state, or even a fragment of a dream. What if Eileen had been asleep when the tattoos were given to her? Zephyr knew a dozen ways to make someone's mind think it needed sleep, and that was without factoring in magic. With an alien sky overhead, there is no time reference, no way to link this memory to the outside world. If so, there may still be a way. She's had contact with people who were sleeping, even actively dreaming. Can this odd diffused sense of self match that sensation?

In any case, she will need to find the conscious Eileen to ask further questions. Trance, the deep subconscious or sleeping memory means no one to ask the questions of, and no further use of the mind probe until then. At least not verbally.

Zephyr tries to superimpose the image of the tattoo she saw earlier over the scene she is in, seeing if nonverbal telepathic contact can be established. She conjures images that they should share common memories of, like street signs, Eileen's overly long-titled textbook, Daffy Duck and the image of the tattoo. If she doesn't get any sort of response soon, as she heads for the stone, she'll consider breaking the telepathic link and checking on Eileen in the physical world.

[Mad Scientist]

GM:

The suspicion that this might be some sort of dream or subconscious tap seemed to be gaining weight, as attempts to conjure images didn't have any effect; apparently, whatever was really going on here, it had stepped outside the bounds of telepathy as she knew it.

Also, the flowers.

It hadn't been immediately obvious, but by the time Zephyr passed the third bunch of cheerful yellow flowers on her way to meet up with the winding path, she noticed that they weren't...exactly...flowers.  Oh, certainly, they grew on green, leafy stems out of the ground, and they had a nice spread of yellow petals, but the centre of the flowers were faces.  Eileen's face, to be exact, smiling cheerfully but vacuously out of each bloom, like a bad Teletubbies concept.

She was quite near the path now, and saw it was in fact a good-sized track, some fifteen feet wide and paved with brown interlocking stones that, at odd moments, seemed to have a bluish tinge to them.  Looking down toward the coast she could see the road vanishing and reappearing as it dipped and rose through the folds of the landscape; it definitely seemed like it was leading to...whatever the outcropping or structure there might be.

Looking back along the road, up into the hills, she could see what looked like...men.  Well, the outlines of men, or something like men,  clean white stones set large into the hillsides -- hill figures, like what could be found in the UK and other parts of the world.  It was difficult to tell what they proportions were supposed to be; they could be hobbits, they might be giants.  What they were supposed to mean?

Well, that was anyone's guess.

[shojikitsune]

Zephyr pauses for a moment, looking at the hill figures. Something about them seems odd, though not particularly menacing. Then she realizes that it may well be a subconscious pop reference, since they might be, well, giants. "That's stretching it..."

That aside, she will move down the path, noting that the flowers are Eileen, just like the rest of this place. If it was the *memory* of a dream though, Eileen should still be beside her analyzing it. If it was a subconscious area, then it gave her an interesting insight into Eileen's mind. Could someone have given Eileen a drug or something that put her under? Could Eileen somehow have received the powers while in a dream or trance? If so, the beginning and the end of the session might be good places to consider revisiting. She should still be able to see these memories, the slumber party and the following morning. If she can't call them up either, than this is going to be far riskier.

She's going to reserve judgement and merely observe as she closes with the strange object at the far end of the road. Whatever else was going on, it was a clue. Since following the path seemed the logical choice, and she couldn't bypass it, she could, however, fast forward along it. Still, this is abnormal, perhaps she's sprung some sort of arcane trap now - something left behind in case the glare of the mystic light was overcome. She could only hope it wasn't the case, but she watches the path, hill men and the distant object the path seems to lead to in an effort to gauge real progress or to test the theory that she's gone too far. Still, it shouldn't be long before she reaches whatever that odd, distant object is, since it's clearly something important.

"Eileen, Eileen, what a place you have here. Now, if a cartoon taxi pulls alongside me and says 'I'm the Cabbie, *I'LL* Drive," I'll know you can hear me. If not, then I am going to have to start asking the flowers..."

And the journey continues, although with some trepidation given how deep this probe has gone. She will fly her mental image rapidly down the path, hoping to make up some time by not having to move at a walking pace. Maybe the flowers or something will react to her speaking, or even singing.

"Some-where, over the rainbow, way up high....."

 

[Mad Scientist]

GM:

At first, things seemed to be going very well.  Unlike the attempt to fly cross-country, fast-forwarding along the path resulted in a blur of movement, the stones of the path flashing by beneath her as she raced along, wind blowing her hair back from her face.  Clearly, she was making rapid progress!

...unfortunately, upon checking progress based on distant landmarks, it seemed that she wasn't, in fact, actually making any extra progress.  She was definitely getting further from the hills and closer to the coastline, and was covering a lot of terrain in the immediate area, but it was like....

Well, it was like the intervening terrain was expanding to compensate for her speed, like an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon -- she was making great time, but she wasn't making much progress.

No taxi showed up either, unfortunately, but there was something small and blue flitting about in the flowers along the left side of the path, coming up fast now with the pace Zephyr was making....