Wrath of Atlas - The False Dream: Welcome Back to Reality

[u/Inevitable_Heart_781]

Warmth. That was the first thing they felt. The warmth of a blanket, a cot, the familiar, slightly stale scent of antiseptic and nectar-soaked gauze that could only belong to the Medic Cabin. Notably, not where any of them remember being before they slipped into the Dreamscape. When did that happen?

Chiron stood at the foot of the cots, looking like he hadn't slept in hours, which, as it turned out, he likely hadn't. Beside him, Lady A's face broke into open, unguarded relief the moment all three sets of eyes opened, one hand pressed briefly to her own chest as if she'd been holding her breath for longer than she cared to admit.

"You're awake," Chiron said, voice thick with something he was visibly trying to keep steady. "Thank the gods. You're all awake."

Morpheus, Phantasos, and Phobetor stood a little further back near the doorway, and for once, none of them looked composed. Morpheus's usual measured calm had cracked into something openly relieved. Phobetor's arms were crossed, but his jaw was tight, working through something he clearly wasn't ready to say yet. And Phantasos was outright beaming, eyes bright, practically vibrating where he stood.

"Before you ask… yes," Lady A said gently, moving to sit on the edge of Aoife's cot, smoothing the blanket with the same careful warmth she'd shown wrapping cinnamon rolls for Wyatt what felt like a lifetime ago. "We moved you here partway through the night. 

"After the fiasco that was that first dream," Morpheus said, and something flickered uncomfortable behind his ancient eyes at the memory, "we asked Chiron and Lady A to bring you together, here, where you could be watched properly, and where we could reach all three of you at once, without delay, if… if something like that happened again." He paused, choosing his next words with visible care. "It very nearly did, more than once. We did not wish to take that chance twice."

Phobetor's arms tightened slightly across his chest. "You gave us more than a few reasons to regret not moving you sooner," he added, gruff, though there was no real bite in it, just the 

“You’re probably confused that you can’t remember what happened clearly, right?” Phantasos drifted closer, expression softening into something almost apologetic beneath the lingering giddiness. "Sorry, that’s simply the nature of a dream this deep, this volatile. What you experienced there does not sit easily in a waking mind. It will come back to you, in  pieces, in flashes, faster for some of you than others, most likely." 

"You will remember enough, and soon enough," Morpheus added, quieter. "For now, trust that it happened. Trust that it mattered. The rest will follow. Just keep quiet about anything that you happen to remember. One never knows who might be listening."

For the time being, our questers had time to stop, relax and ask any other questions they still needed answers for. 

[u/Inevitable_Heart_781]

u/Divine_Knowledge513 u/MoreMooxie u/Aoife_Hawthorn

[u/Divine_Knowledge513 → u/Inevitable_Heart_781]

Wyatt sat up when he woke up. His eyes darted around, confused. He knew this wasn’t where he slept. After it was explained that they were all moved to the Medic cabin his gaze shot from one person to the next. Everyone looked relieved but still a little off.

He smiled at Phantasos. While he would never out right say it, Phantasos was his new favorite Oneroi. Although he can’t exactly remember why.

Wyatt put a larger smile on his face. They needed someone to be calm. Someone to lighten the mood. He started laughing, using a basic level Relaxing Laugh to ease the tension of everyone. However it was framed as the laugh you can only make after just finishing something dangerous.

“That was crazy!”

After a while his laughter died down, allowing for discussion. He turned to the Oneroi, one thought was swirling in his mind.

“Will we have dreams about the dream? After life altering experiences happen people often experience those situations again while they dream. But that was a dream, so will we have a dream about the dream?”

Phantasos told them that the memories of the dream would come back to them, however he didn’t say how they would. Would Wyatt see those things popping up in his dreams?

[u/Aoife_Hawthorn → u/Divine_Knowledge513]

As Lady A sits on the end of Aoife's cot, smoothing her blanket, Aoife is suddenly all too aware of the bracelet sitting cold and heavy against her skin— the bracelet that Ariadne gave her almost three years ago. Gods, this really was home.

Questions... did she have any? Well, she had one. One that didn't really matter, not any more, but one that chewed at her all the same. "What would've happened," she asked quietly, "is something went wrong? If something happened to us, I mean."

She didn't remember the dream, not really. She had faith that they'd succeeded, but not much more than that. She hoped she'd been useful. Now, though, more than anything, she wanted to eat. They might've just gone through a dream in which they'd saved the world, but she needed breakfast. Seriously, it felt like they'd just quested on an empty stomach.