... were it not that I have bad dreams

[youandyoualone]

Since we returned to Harrogate, some seven Jaunts ago, I have upon occasion been subject to disquieting nightmares of possible futures--as I believe some others of us have as well. I had another such dream this last night.

In this dream, I stood watching a black river slowly ice over and I knew, I knew that when the ice stretched from bank to bank, the palpable sense of wrongness I felt at the advent of the ice would become irreversible. There were shapes frozen under that ice and those who surrounded me had forked tongues; they were hissing threats at one another. When I tried to warn them of the ice, they turned away.

Comments

[failgoyle]

Maybe...maybe you could...lay off the ice cream before bed...?

[Yes yes this is just a food-induced nightmare yes that's fine.]

[youandyoualone]

I had not been eating ice cream.

[failgoyle]

But have you been eating anything else weird? Or anything right before bed?

[canbebrave]

Oh, look, something awful is going to happen. I wonder whatever could have caused this? [sauce levels? over 9000. Then she abruptly realizes who she's talking to, and backpedals immediately.]

Pardon me. Perhaps it won't be awful. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[youandyoualone]

I would like to think these dreams are, in their own way, warnings to us. So mayhap it is only the possibility of something awful happening.

We should still watch for ice.

[canbebrave]

After what's been done, I have no doubt it will. Now Winter is Coming.

[capital_asset]

[Raidou would honestly prefer not to talk to Delaunay at all right now, even over the network, but this is too important.]

I also had one of these. In my dream, I saw nine robed figures performing a high-wire act on a spiderweb. Instead of poles for balances, they had treasure chests chained to their ankles, and below them an army met in battle, with enough spears raised high that a fall from the web would be fatal. I knew I had the keys to the chests, but only one of the figures had the poise to stay balanced should the weight on them change, and I couldn't be sure which one it was.

[youandyoualone]

Numbers in dreams such as these are significant, are they not? Mayhap we should watch for things which come in nines.

[Meanwhile, Delaunay has no clue he's pissed off Raidou so badly.]

[capital_asset]

Probably.

[And Raidou's not about to tell him so over the network.]

[breakaleginhalf]

There's actually a pretty famous, super old story in my-slash-our world - like, medieval old - but I dunno how popular it is in Japan.

Uh, Dante's Inferno. It basically codified the idea of there being nine circles of Hell in the western-Catholic idea of the place.

I don't... really know if that helps, but recurring numbers cannot be a coincidence right now. [not with Fortune heading this round]

[capital_asset]

...So it's possible we'll end up... Purgatory-adjacent.

[youandyoualone]

Interesting. I do not think there is its equivalent in my world, but then we do not have your Catholics, merely Yeshuites.

And that does not truly help, no.

[awondrousplace]

Bloody Dante.

Did you ever read the entire thing? The further up you go, the more utterly inane and boring the prose gets. Heaven is an utter snoozefest.

[otomechapilot]

...the Devil card's picture has people chained to a treasure chest. Same man and woman as the Lovers, actually.

If this is Purgatory, that might be why. Devil is out of the game, right?

[capital_asset]

Yes - Devil's match was the second Harrogate Jaunt, which Strength won.

[noonesblessing]

Yeah, definitely should have stayed in the dungeon.

Unless it's somehow a good thing hell freezes over.

[changeitall]

Don't be ridiculous, this has nothing to do with getting you out of there.

[MOST LIKELY NOT. Besides Ice Queen talking here if she'll even be herself for the jaunt.]

[noonesblessing]

Hey, my Semblance works how it works.

[youandyoualone]

I would personally rather be subject to the trouble of the Jaunt than hide away in my mind's prison, but each to their own.

[desperate_times_right]

Sounds like you got the “hissing threats at one another” part right, at least.

[youandyoualone]

[Dryly.] So it seems I have.

[reallymean]

Are these dreams of potential futures always distinct from less supernatural nightmares? There were shadows frozen beneath the ice before the ball.

[And the Travelers have been bickering and hissing at each other even more than usual since the close of the previous Jaunt.]

[youandyoualone]

Yes. There is a something to them that gives them more weight than an ordinary nightmare.

[protect_and_serve]

I've heard the idiom enough to know it is meant to indicate the impossible.

So, we should either be on the lookout for impossible things; or if we see that particular feat threatened, find something more plausible to use in whatever warnings we may give the Host.

[youandyoualone]

I suppose this would give us time to dream up alternative phrases.