khuioduan | Video

[Valdis woke in a panic, to emotions not her own and she wondered briefly if this was what X had felt once the shock had worn off. But she didn't make any moves until she was sure of herself again, taking time to pick apart the dream and remove herself from it.

That hadn't been easy. The turmoil of the crew, the black, oily shadows that twisted with their own life. Far too reminiscent of darker things. Had some creature from the Death Plane managed to reach through a breach? And if so, was this some kind of warning? As someone who could not dream without some power at work, she had long since stopped discounting them.

It was still dark outside when she turned on her video stream.]

Has anyone else had strange visions tonight?

[Her voice is steady, more certain than she feels, but Valdis refuses to allow dread to overwhelm her.]

I tried to sketch what I remember, but it's more the feeling of it that I can grasp. A sense of fear and...a black, oiled shadow that seems to move on its own.

[It was that oily shadow that bothered her the most.]

And a name...Nerrin.

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I think I may have as well. Fog that didn't work quite like fog - [She's lived in London for nearly two years, she knows all about fog]

-But also tentacles. Unfamiliar tentacles, anyway. And I wasn't myself, nor was I my other self, but someone completely different.

I thought I was going mad. [Not that she isn't already halfway there.] Mader perhaps.

Does this happen often? Miss Lyn noticed some strange things before as well.

[Fog that didn't work like fog? Valdis wasn't sure what to think about that, or about the sentence that followed. Mad indeed. But it didn't matter, if the girl had seen something strange, it was at least something to go on.]

I'm not sure if it has here, but if three of us had strange visions...did you say tentacles?

[Not tendrils? Not something fluid and moving, but solid and real? Some creature of the death plane perhaps...which wasn't a good thing.]

Yes. They were the fog. Or part of it. I told myself I was dreaming but it didn't feel like any dream I've ever had. More like a hallucination.

If others have seen similar things, what could this possibly mean? Madness isn't catching, I should hope.

Not this quickly at least...

[She hoped.]

What did the fog act like?

Like tentacles - they grabbed me - her - and pulled.

[She rubs her head trying to sort this out. She could barely make sense of her own senses at the best of time, but this had been someone else and it just kept crawling around in her brain that she had, briefly, been someone completely different. And it was becoming increasingly more likely that she hadn't imagined it.]

She was trying to get her bearings, but there weren't any stars. It was all darkness around her and she couldn't tell which way was up.

[It sounds like something had swallowed the person whole, yet it hadn't been an instant death, if a death at all...far too unsettling.]

How did it end?

It let go, and then I woke up. I don't know how it ended for her.

[...If it ended at all.]

I see...

[Hopefully that meant no one died, but she'd need to look into it.]

Are you alright?

I-

[She seems surprised, like she doesn't actually know what to do with that question. After a moment, her answer comes rather brusquely.]

...I'm fine. I'm not the one who was dragged away by vaporous tentacles.

It begs the question though - why are people seeing such things?

[It seemed like inquiring after someone's well being after a traumatizing event was general practice, but perhaps not for everyone.]

I've experienced this kind of thing before...usually there's some sort of catalyst. I just don't know what this one is.

[Again the idea of a warning would come to mind, but who was issuing the warning?]

[Not in her neck of time and space, sadly.]

Might I venture that the catalyst is that strange fog? It seemed sufficiently occult to trigger some kind of connection.

Yes...but I doubt whatever that fog is would send such a vision to us.

[Its sentience was uncertain, but Valdis didn't bet on it having no will of its own.]

Perhaps not deliberately. I can't be sure however - does anyone know how tentacle fog monsters work or what happens when you encounter one?

...Aside from it eating people, of course.

[Silence would be the first thing that met Alice's question, but seeing as she had some sort of answer, it would be wrong to hold back.]

To know how it works, we'd first need some idea of what it even is. There are certain magics that work in a similar way under the right conditions, but I have...not seen them here. And they are not usually as physical in appearance.

Or vice versa. Knowing anything about it at all would be a nice change of pace, let alone something useful.

This... thing didn't seem entirely physical to begin with. Maybe you're on to something? Maybe they're cousins. ...Metaphorically speaking.

I hope they aren't related...

[It would be very bad news if they were. Without a conscious host to contain it, such magic could be beyond destructive.]

But knowing anything will help, that is true.

I have no idea how to go about looking into things like this. Where is one to even start?

There must be some kind of consistency in the dreams at least.

Libraries. Myths and legends of this world from among the various races. Unless this shadow is from another world entirely, there has to be some mention of it.

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