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[daggercubed]

[Set before the Imperial Dinner, after Vax gets back from the Dream Width. DOIN' THE TIME WARP.]

Have any of you ever disappeared before? I think I must have been in the Dream Width. I woke up on an airship.

It looks like it has more than I thought could happen out there. I've gotten some new memories of things back home.

Comments

[mythmaker]

Vax’ildan, are you alright?

I've never heard of that happening. Did someone kidnap you and put you there?

[daggercubed]

I'm all right.

I have no fucking clue how I got there. When I woke up... it's like it was a dream, but I could remember home. Except, it was things that happened after I left.

[mythmaker]

Is there anything you need? You say you're well, but I can't help but worry.

What do you mean? Do you mean that you saw what life back home is like without you, or were you there as well?

[daggercubed]

Sorry. I don't mean to worry you. I need... I don't know, really.

I was there, too. I saw life like it'd been... like I never left. Like time kept moving.

It was disconcerting.

[mythmaker]

It's fine. You don't need to apologize to me. I wish I had more help to offer you.

It sounds scary when you put it like that. Do you think it was just a vision, or do you think it was more than that?

[daggercubed]

It's all right. I appreciate listening, yeah?

I'm not sure what it was. I've got theories, but... there's no proof it happened. I should have picked up some new scars, though, and I don't have them.

[mythmaker]

I'm always happy to listen, though I'm even happier you're fine.

But that's not too strange, is it? It's not as if you really left and got hurt, right? What are your theories?

[daggercubed]

...Yeah. And... shit I saw there, I don't know.

I think it might be real. What really happened. Dreams, they tend to not have a lot of logic to them, yeah?

This did.

[littlemhigan]

how long?

it happened to me. i lost a week.

[daggercubed]

I think I lost about a week.

It felt like only a couple of days tho.

[littlemhigan]

sounds like it was the same thing that happened to me. shiro and hunk vanished a week a piece as well.

your name didn't change on the network and that seems to be in line with what happened to us as well.

[ And then, the texting switches to private. ]

are you okay?

[daggercubed]

Shit. Did they? I'll need to compare notes.

[He switches it to private too.]

Not really.

I went back to find out a friend died. We -- Vox Machina -- found his corpse.

Private forever

[littlemhigan]

oh.

im sorry.

if he was a friend of yours he must have gone down fighting regardless of what sent him on his way. you and yours dont strike me as the type to face death lying down.

[daggercubed]

It's... rough shit yeah.

He went down fighting. Tibs wasn't a weakling. But it was more than he could handle. A giant fucking dragon that breathed ice.

Killed him and most of his city.

[littlemhigan]

a whole city...

[ It's not hard to imagine Ishgard in flames. It had come so close so many times. ]

seems like dragons arent to be trifled with regardless of where theyre from.

[daggercubed]

...Yeah. One of them destroyed the village I grew up in.

These things... they don't fuck around, yeah?

You deal with them too?

[Text]

[findingbeasts]

Not here no. And it never happened to me in the world I was in before.

But several individuals I knew disappeared or fell asleep for extended periods before returning with new memories.

Apparently it's something that extends to all worlds and not just a particular one.

[daggercubed]

Hell.

It's some comfort, I suppose. Knowing it's not unique to me.

Still, it's fucking spooky.

text;

[spaceforged]

...yes. It happened pretty recently. I've got new memories too. Are they taking time to settle or...?

text

[daggercubed]

Shit. You, too?

Yeah. It's like... shit that hadn't happened yet, but I remember it. Same with you?

text

[spaceforged]

Yeah. Me too. It happened right after we brought the new arrivals to the center.

...It's something like that.

[He switches the filter to private.]

It's taking some time to sort it all out. People didn't know if I would be back or not but I got all their messages and my name stayed active on the linkshell. It was the same for Hunk.

There isn't a gap between when I went outside and waking up in the Dream width again.

text forever

[daggercubed]

Shit.

[Yeah, he's glad for that.]

Yeah. I heard and worried but... fuck, I don't know what I could have done.

It was like no time passed at all for you, between waking up?

[spaceforged]

None at all. Apparently, they couldn't even locate my signal until a week and some days later. ...I take it that's the same for you?

yuck sorry, end of week and weekend got crazy busy

[daggercubed]

It was. It was like I vanished. Like some of the others did, yeah?

Except I came back.

No worries stuff came up here too

[spaceforged]

Yeah.

So the question is, what took us and why? I have a few things to check to be sure but I'm positive we were not in this reality. Hunk and I are psychically bound to our ships. His threw up a barrier like it does when there is no pilot for it. Black created a stronger bond with its remaining acceptable match.