05-12-2018, 10:58 PM
Luci is walking hand in hand with the Black Man, and then there is a familiar voice, and then she is gone.
***
Luci feels the sun on her face, she feels her body gently floating atop the water, and for the first time in a very long time she feels no pain.
The color begins to fill into Luci’s skin again, electric blue and hot pink and neon yellow.
Luci breaks into a warm smile and she lets out a sigh of contentment.
When her eyes open they are alight with a powerful phosphorescent fire, projecting scintillating patterns of neon everywhere she looks. Luci pushes herself up on her hands and lets her her head loll around on her shoulders, taking slow deep breaths as she gazes around the Sage’s astralscape.
The Sage sits calm and still, waiting patiently for the pipe-dream known as Luci to acknowledge him, being careful not to startle her. He does not leer at the naked young woman beside him, but nor does he look away uncomfortably either. Steady clouds of smoke billow from his pipe, and where the sunlight passes through them, they glimmer prismatically.
Luci blinks at her companion, causing a strange strobe effect in the Sage’s clouds. Although his mask hides his face, Luci would know the Sage anywhere.
She smiles coyly for a moment, then uses her trusty magic spraycan to cover herself briefly in a plume of aerosol paint. When the plume fades, Luci is wearing the same faded grey hoodie and torn jeans she is accustomed to, a bright red backpack on her shoulder. She rises and stretches, bouncing slightly on the surface of the ocean, then turns to her rescuer.
“Thanks,” she says simply, her head still craning around, looking for something other than the endless expanse of sea and sky.
The Sage nods, but does not look up. He offers his pipe to Luci, who accepts it gratefully. The Sage does not see what Luci adds to the pipe, but when she inhales the bowl crackles with multicolored sparks, and when she exhales there are sparkles in her cloud.
“So,” says Luci after a moment, not meeting her savior’s eyes. “I wish I could stay but-”
“Are you a vision?” Sage interjects quietly, asking the same question he had when they had first met. Luci just shrugs. “Is it you? Are you real?” he clarifies, turning his head and looking Luci in the eye.
Luci exhales an obnoxiously large cloud, the strange little sparks chasing each other around gleefully.
“Definitely not,” she answers, choking softly on the smoke. “Considering that astral quarks are one one-trillionth the density of Omniquarks, and Omniquarks are constantly slipping in and out of the Omniverse based on a complex probability field, my astral form can truly be said to exist at all. I am less real than a dream, less real that a passing thought, which can at least be detected on some quantum level.”
Behind his mask, the Sage grins.
“It IS you,” he says happily, pulling his pipe back from Luci. “How did you get here?”
Luci raises her eyebrows in a mysterious way, and rattles her trusty magic spraycan.
“Ah,” says the Sage. “Of course, such an experienced oneironaut would have little difficulty navigating back to such a familiar place. But it is one thing to find me; it is quite another to get here. At the great risk of appearing conceited, I would mention that I have rather potent mental defenses.”
Luci looks away for a moment, watching the softly undulating ocean beneath them. As always, the Sage waits patiently.
After several minutes, Luci reaches down the front of her tank-top and pulls on a chain so thin it is quite invisible. She withdraws a sparkling silver key and begins to pass it from knuckle to knuckle.
“Extraordinary,” the Sage says softly.
“It’s my Key,” Luci explains, the neon light of her eyes reflecting off the silver key strangely. “Like you said, it’s one thing to find the Astral coordinates you are seeking; to make a Door. It’s something else to turn that Door into a portal. To do that, you must become truly lucid. You must have your Key.”
The Sage nods sagely, his eyes still fixed on Luci’s Key.
“My friend,” Luci says slowly, meeting Sage’s gaze with her own imploring eyes. “I really gotta get going. I got a long trip ahead if I wanna to see Coruscant again.”
“You could awaken,” the Sage suggests simply. Luci shakes her head.
“Nah, I’ll die,” she says matter of factly. “I might already be dead. If I manifest in Coruscant... I may be healed here, but in another universe I am not.”
The Sage shrugs. “It is not so bad to die, I am told. Quicker and easier than falling asleep. A few ‘days’ later, you will be born anew in the Nexus, and you can enter Coruscant again.”
Luci shakes here head, her rainbow hair leaving a trail of sparkles in the air.
“I’ll never get into The City through the Nexus, I’m a terrorist,” she replies, a hint of pride in her voice.
The Sage nods sagely.
“Then,” he says softly. “Will you stay here, and truly become a dream?”
Luci shakes her head again. Her jaw is tight.
“No,” she says slowly, as if the very words were painful.
The pink and blue lights in her eyes start to fade as a bright highlighter yellow replaces them. Luci voice drops as she gazes out across the ocean.
“There is another way. A void in the Astral Realm, a place where the fabric of reality has been warped so strongly that it has torn.”
Behind his mask, the Sage frowns.
“I can see the path so clearly now,” says Luci, a vapid kind of smile tugging at her lips. “He has shown me. Every footstep I am to take sears with the brightest light. He loves me, you know. He wants me to be with Him forever.”
“Luci…” the Sage says, interjecting sadly.
“I will show you,” the girl says, and she lifts up his mask and kisses the man.
***
The flutes are screeching. Their discordant wailing drowns out all thought, all action.
The Sage floats hundreds of miles above something. It is so large, so disturbing, so inherently against the very concept of reality itself, that Sage’s mind simply blocks it out. It manifests simply as a void, but it’s presence burns in the air like a furnace.
The flutes are overwhelming. There is no pattern, there is no rhythm, yet still the Sage senses something that makes his stomach drop; the flutes are a chorus.
They are the anguished wails of the victims who have succumbed to a cosmic madness. Now they are the heart that pumps pain and insanity through the veins of an eldritch horror.
“Azathoth,” the Sage whispers.
The void flinches. The Sage screams.
***
Luci breaks the kiss with a girlish smile.
They are standing atop a gently undulating ocean underneath a clear blue sky.
“So c’mon,” she insists. “I don’t have much time. We need your Key.”
***
***
Luci feels the sun on her face, she feels her body gently floating atop the water, and for the first time in a very long time she feels no pain.
The color begins to fill into Luci’s skin again, electric blue and hot pink and neon yellow.
Luci breaks into a warm smile and she lets out a sigh of contentment.
When her eyes open they are alight with a powerful phosphorescent fire, projecting scintillating patterns of neon everywhere she looks. Luci pushes herself up on her hands and lets her her head loll around on her shoulders, taking slow deep breaths as she gazes around the Sage’s astralscape.
The Sage sits calm and still, waiting patiently for the pipe-dream known as Luci to acknowledge him, being careful not to startle her. He does not leer at the naked young woman beside him, but nor does he look away uncomfortably either. Steady clouds of smoke billow from his pipe, and where the sunlight passes through them, they glimmer prismatically.
Luci blinks at her companion, causing a strange strobe effect in the Sage’s clouds. Although his mask hides his face, Luci would know the Sage anywhere.
She smiles coyly for a moment, then uses her trusty magic spraycan to cover herself briefly in a plume of aerosol paint. When the plume fades, Luci is wearing the same faded grey hoodie and torn jeans she is accustomed to, a bright red backpack on her shoulder. She rises and stretches, bouncing slightly on the surface of the ocean, then turns to her rescuer.
“Thanks,” she says simply, her head still craning around, looking for something other than the endless expanse of sea and sky.
The Sage nods, but does not look up. He offers his pipe to Luci, who accepts it gratefully. The Sage does not see what Luci adds to the pipe, but when she inhales the bowl crackles with multicolored sparks, and when she exhales there are sparkles in her cloud.
“So,” says Luci after a moment, not meeting her savior’s eyes. “I wish I could stay but-”
“Are you a vision?” Sage interjects quietly, asking the same question he had when they had first met. Luci just shrugs. “Is it you? Are you real?” he clarifies, turning his head and looking Luci in the eye.
Luci exhales an obnoxiously large cloud, the strange little sparks chasing each other around gleefully.
“Definitely not,” she answers, choking softly on the smoke. “Considering that astral quarks are one one-trillionth the density of Omniquarks, and Omniquarks are constantly slipping in and out of the Omniverse based on a complex probability field, my astral form can truly be said to exist at all. I am less real than a dream, less real that a passing thought, which can at least be detected on some quantum level.”
Behind his mask, the Sage grins.
“It IS you,” he says happily, pulling his pipe back from Luci. “How did you get here?”
Luci raises her eyebrows in a mysterious way, and rattles her trusty magic spraycan.
“Ah,” says the Sage. “Of course, such an experienced oneironaut would have little difficulty navigating back to such a familiar place. But it is one thing to find me; it is quite another to get here. At the great risk of appearing conceited, I would mention that I have rather potent mental defenses.”
Luci looks away for a moment, watching the softly undulating ocean beneath them. As always, the Sage waits patiently.
After several minutes, Luci reaches down the front of her tank-top and pulls on a chain so thin it is quite invisible. She withdraws a sparkling silver key and begins to pass it from knuckle to knuckle.
“Extraordinary,” the Sage says softly.
“It’s my Key,” Luci explains, the neon light of her eyes reflecting off the silver key strangely. “Like you said, it’s one thing to find the Astral coordinates you are seeking; to make a Door. It’s something else to turn that Door into a portal. To do that, you must become truly lucid. You must have your Key.”
The Sage nods sagely, his eyes still fixed on Luci’s Key.
“My friend,” Luci says slowly, meeting Sage’s gaze with her own imploring eyes. “I really gotta get going. I got a long trip ahead if I wanna to see Coruscant again.”
“You could awaken,” the Sage suggests simply. Luci shakes her head.
“Nah, I’ll die,” she says matter of factly. “I might already be dead. If I manifest in Coruscant... I may be healed here, but in another universe I am not.”
The Sage shrugs. “It is not so bad to die, I am told. Quicker and easier than falling asleep. A few ‘days’ later, you will be born anew in the Nexus, and you can enter Coruscant again.”
Luci shakes here head, her rainbow hair leaving a trail of sparkles in the air.
“I’ll never get into The City through the Nexus, I’m a terrorist,” she replies, a hint of pride in her voice.
The Sage nods sagely.
“Then,” he says softly. “Will you stay here, and truly become a dream?”
Luci shakes her head again. Her jaw is tight.
“No,” she says slowly, as if the very words were painful.
The pink and blue lights in her eyes start to fade as a bright highlighter yellow replaces them. Luci voice drops as she gazes out across the ocean.
“There is another way. A void in the Astral Realm, a place where the fabric of reality has been warped so strongly that it has torn.”
Behind his mask, the Sage frowns.
“I can see the path so clearly now,” says Luci, a vapid kind of smile tugging at her lips. “He has shown me. Every footstep I am to take sears with the brightest light. He loves me, you know. He wants me to be with Him forever.”
“Luci…” the Sage says, interjecting sadly.
“I will show you,” the girl says, and she lifts up his mask and kisses the man.
***
The flutes are screeching. Their discordant wailing drowns out all thought, all action.
The Sage floats hundreds of miles above something. It is so large, so disturbing, so inherently against the very concept of reality itself, that Sage’s mind simply blocks it out. It manifests simply as a void, but it’s presence burns in the air like a furnace.
The flutes are overwhelming. There is no pattern, there is no rhythm, yet still the Sage senses something that makes his stomach drop; the flutes are a chorus.
They are the anguished wails of the victims who have succumbed to a cosmic madness. Now they are the heart that pumps pain and insanity through the veins of an eldritch horror.
“Azathoth,” the Sage whispers.
The void flinches. The Sage screams.
***
Luci breaks the kiss with a girlish smile.
They are standing atop a gently undulating ocean underneath a clear blue sky.
“So c’mon,” she insists. “I don’t have much time. We need your Key.”
***
![[Image: V4Dvvfy.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/V4Dvvfy.gif)