Across Paradox Space (NES/DCstuck OOC)

[ParamountKeymaster]

A land of trees stretched forth, filling the air with the lush aroma of blooming flowers and fresh fruit. Beneath and within the trees rested a community of wooden hives, with those in the canopy connected by a network of crossing trestles. A thick fog blanketed the land, transforming anything too distant into a mere smudge against the grey.

And in the center of it all, a troll was lying on the ground.

She appeared to be sleeping, eyes closed tightly and fanged mouth pursed in a sort of nervous grimace. Her short, flipped hair gave way to pointed, tufted horns, and her clothes were the typical black and grey of troll attire, save for her bright red shoes. Her black hoodie was unzipped to reveal her sign, a green eye shape with a vertical line through it. However, this wasn't an olive or jade green... It was a brighter shade. A more... lime green.

She opened her eyes. Her irises faintly reflected the green of her sign. Even stranger, while her left eye appeared ordinary, her left eye was split in two down the middle.

"Wha...?"

Leukae sat up, rubbing her head as she cautiously scanned the familiar environment of LOMAC. Immediately, she started asking herself what she was doing out here. Why had she passed out? What had she been doing prior?

OH GOD, HAD ANYONE SEEN HER WITH HER HOODIE UNDONE?!

In a fit of panic, Leukae quickly zipped up her hoodie, hiding her lime green symbol beneath an identical grey one. She followed this up by pulling a card safe out of her sylladex, effortlessly hacking its code to retrieve her red sunglasses, which she promptly adorned to hide her lime irises.

She told herself she shouldn't worry about it. Alternia was gone. She wouldn't be in any imminent danger if the others knew her blood color. But... she wasn't ready. She wasn't ready to revel to her friends, old and new, that she was supposed to be dead.

Once she felt ready for it, Leukae sprung to her feet and took a good look around, hoping to retrace her steps. How many days had it been since her entry? Did she somehow loose consciousness during a strife? Was she on some sort of mission pertaining to her planetary quest? ...Did Orcana send her on another fool's errand? She certainly wouldn't have put it past her server. Just what in the world was she doing out-

"HEYOOOOO!!!"

"CRIPES!!!"

Leukae jumped and whipped around, looking up to discover the source of the sudden voice hanging by their legs from a trestle. It took a moment to make out who it was through the fog and her own alarm, but once she deciphered it, her first reaction was annoyance. Her second was amusement.

"Xiphas! What're you doing?!"

"Oh, y'know," the upside-down surfer dude calmly responded. "Just hangin' around."

"Booooo." Leukae smirked at her client's typical sense of humor. Or lack thereof. "Get down from there, ya crazy clownfish."

"HEH. Clownfish. Girl, you punny," Xiphas chuckled as he righted himself and jumped down to her level and approached.

From out of the fog came a seadweller troll with upright, curved horns, messy hair, and fuchsia irises, dressed in a black shirt with his fuchsia sign, that of a downward-pointed fish with a horizontal line through it, black shorts with a smiley face on the left leg, an unbuttoned fuchsia vest, and black sandals. He tossed a ripe grapefruit in his hand as he smiled at the planet's occupant. "So what're you up to in these parts, Leuk?"

Leukae blinked, a gesture not readily apparent behind her shades. "Um... I, uh... I'm not too sure, honestly. I feel like I was in the middle of something, but I... guess I passed out and forgot."

"Oh. Bummer." Xiphas shot her a sympathetic grin as he started peeling his grapefruit. "Well, that has a tendency to happen, I suppose. To be completely honest, I've been... feeling the same way. I just woke up on LOSAS a while ago, not sure what to do. All I know is that I felt compelled to meet you here, like were supposed to go on some kinda adventure together."

"Huh..." Leukae tapped her chin and pondered. Something wasn't right here. Half of her felt like she was in the middle of something important, while the other half felt like she had already done it and moved on. It all added up to one serious case of deja vu. "Yeah, I get what you're saying. M-Maybe we should walk around a bit, see if anything jogs our memory."

"Sounds like a plan!" Xiphas chimed before taking off into the mist. "AWEIGH we go!!!"

Leukae had to snicker at just how corny the heir was. Dorky as always, that matesprit of hers.

Wait... Matesprit? Since when??

After brushing off that... odd, out of nowhere thought process, Leukae chased after Xiphas, dashing right behind him with a cheery smile until they reached a clearing. The thought of a break in the dense fog didn't strike her as particularly strange.

What she did find strange was what they found on the other side.

What they found was a beach. The forest of citrus trees transitioned awkwardly into a sandy coastline, beyond which was an ocean with particularly massive waves and a cloudy sky that seemed to blend the mist of her land with the thunderous backdrop of a cheesy, scary b-movie.

So basically, it looked as if LOMAC had fused with LOSAS.

"Uh..." Xiphas stared vacantly at the familiar landmarks of his world. "Okay, that doesn't seem right."

"No, no it doesn't..." Leukae mumbled as she slowly started to come to a new conclusion. "Xiphas...?"

"What?"

"I'm... starting to wonder if any of this is reel."

"HEH. 'Reel.' I love you." Xiphas was immediately taken aback by his own choice of words. "Wait, what?"

"Exactly." With an astonishing amount of confidence, Leukae removed her sunglasses and looked up at her partner. "Whatever this is... I don't think we're actually back in the Medium. I don't know about you, but this all feels too... dreamlike to me."

Xiphas tilted his head. He was starting to feel it too. "Yyyyyeah... Dream..."

[ryocker]

A white, squiggly creature soon marched into plain view, looking around as though it were lost. The weird creature's body was a light grey, with squiggling lines appearing as it moved. It looked like a sketch book creature that lept off the page...

It soon turned to the pair of trolls, tensing instantly. The most notable thing about this sketchy creature was... how long its arms were. Or were its legs short?

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Well, whatever's going on, I guess there's no sense in stopping until we get to the bottom of- What the...??" Leukae went rigid as she stared down at the sketch creature, thoroughly confused by its presence and appearance.

Likewise, Xiphas cast a vacant gaze at the... thing, eyes hollow, mouth agape, almost looking stoned to some degree. "Uhhhhh..."

"Is... that... something normal on your world?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Is it... a memory of something?"

"Sure as shell ain't MY memory. Heh..."

Leukae tilted her head, her expression slowly turning more analytical as she slipped her shades back on. If there was one thing she was absolutely certain of at that point, it was that this had to be a dream. "I suppose we'll just have to figure out what it is, then."

[ryocker]

It released a warbled scream of surprise, darting it's way through the sandy reaches and behind a batch of rocks. A tiny slew of foot prints were left in its wake, its fingers making a rail of sorts to compliment.

Actually following the creature led to a strange collection of rocks- they all looked like the same formation over and over...

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Ha!" Just as Leukae had predicted, the creature scampered away, prompting her to chase after it.

Xiphas followed suit, albeit with a considerable amount of confusion. "Whoa! Leuk, what're we doing?"

"There's gotta be someone else here!" Leukae responded. "Someone who has a connection with that thing! Maybe they can tell us what's going on!"

"Er... Okay, if you say so! You're the mage!"

The duo raced along the shoreline until they reached some rocks, looking out ahead to see that the rocks were starting to take on a repetitive pattern. Come to think of it, they noticed that the sky was starting to clear in the distance, the fog and storms lifting to reveal an entirely new landscape of greenery and red sand.

"Huh..." Leukae studied the new terrain with fascination while her royal accomplice just squinted at it. "Interesting. Is this... Eponah's planet?"

Xiphas scratched behind his gills. "Nah, doesn't look like LOTAL. At least... not how I remember it."

"Well then... where are we?"

"I'unno."

[ryocker]

The little creature scampered to someone with a book, the person in question looking up and smiling.

"Well well!" he called out, standing up from his position. He looked nothing like a troll. His skin was too pale, his hair was too red...

And his eyes were pure white, his smile big and jovial. "Been a while since I got any guests! Nice to meet you both. Call me Ryan."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Oh! Uh..." Leukae had to do a double-take. The humans were here too? How? Just what was this strange universal dreamscape, and how was she supposed to know how much of it was in her head?

Moreover... who was this guy?

"Heya!" Xiphas called out as he waved to Ryan. He then leaned over and whispered to Leukae, "Which one is he again?"

"I don't know."

"Is he from Summer Snow?"

"I don't think so." Leukae screwed up her face slightly as she studied this human. "I don't think I've ever seen him before."

Xiphas blinked and finally lowered his arm. "Huh." Then, without hesitation, he dashed ahead to fully acquaint himself with Ryan while Leukae stayed rooted where she was. "Nice to meet you too, dude! Don't suppose you could tell us where exactly we are, could ya? My matesprit and I have just been kinda... FLOUNDERING around out here. HEH."

Leukae's subsequent facepalm was painfully audible.

[ryocker]

The sketchy critter hid behind his leg as he walked closer. "Floundering? Pff, been a while since I heard a fish pun..." he chuckled. "My name's Ryan, by the way. As for where we are..."

"Some would call this place the gathering of dreamers and the deceased. Specifically, the Dream Bubbles. I would know, I've been here for a long time."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Dream... bubbles?" Xiphas looked over his shoulder at Leukae, very clearly confused.

Leukae tilted her head back at Xiphas and slowly started to walk towards him and Ryan. "Wait... so... this is a place where people go when they're sleeping or... dead? But... if we're asleep, why didn't we wake up on Derse as usual?"

"That is assuming we are sleeping," Xiphas mused. "And not the kind you do with the fishes, 'cause I'm pretty tang sure I haven't done anything lately that would result in death."

"Yeah... same..." The more she thought about it, the more it started to come back to her. "I'm almost certain I fell asleep on the meteor. Nothing out of the ordinary..."

[DMis]

"Not @ll believe they @re sleeping with the fishes when they @ctually @re, @s you so eloquently put it," a winged troll offered. Oddly his eyes still held some semblance of color. The gray irises were just starting to fill with the same teal tone that graced his wings. "Forgive my rudeness. I @am Dz@neb N@g@nd."

[ryocker]

Ryan looked up. "Heya D," he offered to the other troll. "What he says is true, though generally... If you don't wake up on derse or skaia, it either means your dream self is dead, or... you are."

He scratched his head. Though it wasn't described before, the young man was wearing a weird type of robing- not a God Tier uniform, but more like some kind of sage's cloak. He didn't seem very young, despite his look.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Wait, what-?!

"Oh... well..." Xiphas rubbed his head, certainly unnerved by what these newcomers were telling him but doing his best to remain optimistic regardless. "I'm, uh... I'm Xiphas."

Leukae, meanwhile, froze and fell silent as she stared into the distance, lost in a wave of questions and concerns. There were other trolls here? Who was this guy? He wasn't on the team! And... just what were he and Ryan trying to tell them? Were she and Xiphas dead? Were their dream selves dead? How were they supposed to know? What could have happened to warrant such results?

It took her a moment to snap herself out of her train of thought and realize she was the only one who hadn't introduced herself. "What...? Oh, sorry. Leukae."

She would have to get a read on these guys first. Once she gauged how they would react to her, perhaps she could remove her glasses and find out more about them.

As she finished her slow walk up to the guys, she cautiously asked, "So if we're here, indicating that either one or both of the bodies we each control has died beyond our knowledge, how exactly are we supposed to figure out the cause behind either scenario?"

[DMis]

Dzaneb sighed. "It is either in a locked away memory or might have just happened. I tiered which in turn burned both bodies. And given how I remember my session, it is nice to see that others made it out," he offered.

His wings twitched a bit as he moved a bit. Sure the pair weren't from his session but they were fellow Alternians nonetheless.

[ryocker]

Ryan nodded. "Ususally it's as easy as looking back on a memory, and stepping forward from there. The Dream Bubbles are more than able to help move that process along for you."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Xiphas blinked and tilted his head. "So what? We just... retrace our steps? Figure out the last thing we did before we woke up here?"

"Guess that makes as much sense as anything else..." Leukae murmured before pushing her sunglasses up and closing her eyes.

For a moment, Xiphas just stared at her as she silently reminisced. He would've done the same, but he opted to wait and see if Leukae could figure something out first. In the meantime, he looked up at Dzaneb and asked, "So... you were from a different session, you say?"

Part of the amalgamated forest faded away around Leukae, revealing a grey, stone cold room stocked with manuals, bits and pieces of computer hardware, various alchemized hatchets, pictures of some human superhero in an iron suit, and a red recuperacoon.