(14:52, Today: The GM rolled 4 using 1d4 ((4)).

Jon takes 4 new special Tiredness damage (but he succeeds in passing the Second Veil.))

Jon's mind is abruptly stripped of distraction. Even Time goes away and leaves him alone. There is only this pastless, nameless thing he is become, striving with its entire being against the inertia of all its days-- an equation so finely balanced that Jon should be frozen here in mid-stride forever, save that this cancellation of masses and forces leaves the will unimpaired, purifies it in a way, so that the process of progress seems to transcend the physical striving...

Another step, and another, and he is through, feeling ages older but moving again... he knows that he is approaching that Grand Curve... It feels very different from magical spells and rituals back at home...

The universe seems to wheel about him. Each step here makes him feel as if he is fading and then coming back into focus, being broken down and reassembled, scattered and gathered, dying and reviving...

Outward. Onward.

Three more curves then, followed by a straight line. He pushes ahead. Dizzy, almost nauseated. Soaking wet. A series of arcs. Turn. Turn. Turn again...

He knew that he was coming up to the Final Veil when the sparks rose to become a cage of lightnings and his feet began to drag again.  The stillness and the terrible pushing...

(Willpower check, please...)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 21:12, Wed 24 Nov 2021.

Jade bounced on her heels watching pensively.

"Just one more veil." She didn't try to distract him since he was doing well.

17:03, Today: Jon rolled 7 using 2d6 ((5,2)).
Special Damage: +4 from the second veil.
Total Damage: +5

Jon's pace slows, becoming nearly imperceptible as his mind, body and soul and repeatedly torn apart and put back together.  Jon starts to get lost in the nothingness and being part of everything.  The insignificance of the self of even being.  Tempted to to surrender and become nothing.  But then a memory, a new one, the Memory of Jade in the Garden, her beauty, my joy....Jon lets loose a primary scream "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" and at the last moment, he collects his will and focuses his mind, his desire HIS promise.  Another memory, again recent of the promise to...to...and it starts to fade again, he starts to fade.  Jon yells "JADE!!" That was the key, his word, his bond to the Sea Princess.  And with that piece, the rest floods back.  The last 10 days, the connections, the joys and disappointments.  Followed by his past in the Faewyld.  Jon piece by piece, he re-forges himself.

He grips the parasol tighter, his knuckles white, "Jade is right, you are alive, sentient, but your mind is beyond our comprehension almost maddening so.  But you will not break me!  You will not make be break my word nor forget those I care about!  Jade, Mom, Dad, Ballad, Ari, Janessa, Lance, Queen Vialle.  I will not fail them, not now and not ever!  I am Jonathan Bishop Hawk, Ranger of the Faewyld, Son of Eric, Prince of Amber.  And you will not shape me, you will be shaped!" and with everything he has Jon focuses his will upon the pattern.

  Lance focuses his thoughts, envisions where he wants to go.  He had seen Ari through as promised, been there for her walk.  He had fulfilled what he had promised to do, and there was no point in hanging around to watch Jon finish.

"Please, transport me to my room." he asked the Pattern.  True, he could have made his life easier and had it take him directly to Fiona in the desert, but then Flora would worry if he didn't touch base with her first.  He still needed to pack a few things, and who knows, he might even have a conversation or two before departing.  Right now though, he wanted to rest, not be the fifth wheel on the cart again, nor go celebrating anything, nor have another argument with Jon.  He already had a blazing headache from that damned third veil.

Ariadne looked at Lance with mild surprise.  She knew that he and Jon weren't exactly chummy at the moment,  for whatever testosterone poisoned reasons made sense to them at the time,  but she'd been hoping he'd stick around a bit longer.
Still, if she was feeling like death warmed over after her highly anticipated,  meticulously prepared for walk on the Pattern,  she could only imagine how worn out he was from his impromptu leap of faith.

Before Lance left, Ari spoke to him.
"Thank you again,  my friend.   I'll see you soon "

There's a prismatic shimmer, and Lance is back in his own room in the castle.

---

(18:04, Today: The GM rolled 2 using 2d3 ((1,1)).

Jon takes 2 more special Tiredness damage... but he makes it through the Final Veil.)

He made it, shaking, and only a single short arc remained. Those final three steps were, though, from a certain point of view, at least, the worst. It was as if, having gotten to know him this well, the Pattern was reluctant to release him. Jon fought it, his ankles as sore as at any race's end. Two steps... Three...

Done. Standing still, next to Ariadne. Panting and shuddering. But...

Peace. Gone the static. Gone the sparks.

This certainly proved, in perhaps the only way that really mattered, that he was his father's son...

Jade was blushing in the blue glow of the Pattern.

Ariadne wraps Jon in a fierce hug as he emerges into the center of the family..

Special Damage: +2 from the 3rd Veil.
Total Damage: +7 Damage


Jon returns to the hug "Congratulations Ari.  You did it.  I am proud of you."  he then frowns. "I see Lance still doesn't want to talk" *sigh* and shakes his head. "I will not let that ruin our accomplishment."

He smiles, rest his arms on Ari's shoulders, partly as congrats and partly for support. "So where do you want to go?"

Jade will wave at the two from the far edge of the pattern.

Ari chuckled wryly
"Lance risked life and limb to help me, so if he needs to have some alone time, i won't hold it against him.   In the meantime,  if we're the last ones needing to walk, let's celebrate!"

She looked over at her family on the other side of the Pattern.
"Hey, everyone!  I think we're gonna zap and magic our way upstairs, cause i need a bath!  But let's all meet in the main dining room!  Drinks are on me!!"

"Great idea, you shouldn't have to walk up all those stairs after that."

Looks to Ballad with a brilliant smile, "Let's get that party started."

Jade was brimming with energy her nervousness at her cousins walks now released.

Ariadne nodded to Jade and Ballad, then smiled at Jon again
"If there are no last minute requests,  cousin,  i think I'll use this Pattern magic everyone keeps talking about and 'whoosh' to my room.  I feel like I've just run a marathon while carrying a piano on my back. "

If Jon had nothing to add, Ariadne would picture her room, her mother's former room, right in the middle of the sumptuous bedroom.

*Nods* "Well, I will see you at the party later.  Again Congratulations! Ari."

In the end, this is highly entertaining! An event of true drama and revelations! Ballad is on the edge of her metaphorical seat for most of the walk. Her expressions reveal her thoughts, but she's not center stage, so we will suffice to say sometimes her eyes dance and sometimes they're sharp, always they're intent.

Ariadne at the center gets wild cheering, of a most poetical nature. Lance at the center gets courteous applause, her mouth somewhat ironic. Jon at the center gets applause, too, a couple of cheers. A wave before Ariadne disappears. For Jon: "We've a surprise for you, Jon-o! Don't break any hearts!"

And she turns to Jade, smoulder-flash of a smile, here's a luminous edge as she reflects Jade's happy smile. She winds her arm through Jade's, bumps her hip. "Yes, let's! I expected fewer surprises! The Pattern's such a soul-scour. Race up the stairs?"

"A race it is !" Jade smiled brightly and raced up the stairs silently cursing her choice of clothing.

She was happily competitive with Ballad.

The race is on! Ballad likes the game of it, too, up up up! Once it's obvious that Jade's skirt is giving her, Ballad, too much of an advantage, she'll obligingly hop on one foot instead holding the other and wink: "Now the most epic of all races." Naturally hopping up a million stairs is tiring, and Ballad, who isn't in peak shape at the moment, is breathing quite heavily by the end.

OOC: Whither now, people? Do we need a new location thread?
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:32, Tue 07 Dec 2021.

By the end of it Jade was laughing and quite relieved of all the stress of seeing her three cousins walk the Pattern. She hugged Ballad at the top of the stairs still laughing.

"Your so fun Ballad, I needed this." Jade was also breathing a bit hard while racing up the stairs was not as hard as walking the Pattern by any stretch it was still a feat while racing her energetic cousin.

Ballad accepts and returns the hug, but follows it by dramatically swooning against the floor and weakly holding up her hands. "You'll need to drag me to our next destination, I'm afraid, or else I'll sleep here for a spell. Such is the spoils of victory."

"I can't have you sleeping on the cavern floor. Come on let me carry you to your room." Jade helped Ballad up and to her room. Smiling the whole time.

"You will be awake before the other sleepy heads, I am sure."

Jon watches from the center of the pattern as the others leave in a race and smiles.  Torn between what he planned and what is now reality.  He ponders.  ~Do I go home as I planned or stay here?~ he closes his eyes in a semi-meditative state, banishing the weariness for now and thinks the problem through.  Griping the parasol, he comes to a decision.

Opening his eyes, he focus his thoughts and whispers take me to Jade.
In a flash he beside Jade and Ballad as they arrive at Ballad's room, the transport draining him of the small reserve he gained that he nearly collapses, but steadies himself with her parasol.

He gives Ballad a smile. "Thank you for being there.  It meant a lot to me." He turns to Jade and gives her a partial bow "My Lady, as promised, here is your Parasol fresh from the journey to the center.  I pray that it was imbued as you hoped." he stands up and offers the parasol with a big smile on his face, one that touches his eyes, even through his weariness.

Jade almost falls backwards when Jon appears. She accepts the Parasol with a smile.

"I didn't expect you to, wait you wanted to appear in Ballads room ?" Jade looked confused a moment.

Ballad does not stand up, dead weight Ballad, ridiculous Ballad, Ballad the jester, the mischief-maker, the clown: she lets Jade drag her, carry her, haul her, all the way to her room, occasionally casting her a lopsided smile, flash of dimple, etc.

When Jon appears, suddenly, and Jade puts to him what she puts to him, Ballad chuckles. It's a low sound, and throaty, all silver and smoke: "That wouldn't have been my guess, Princess o' the Sea. How are you, Jon-o? Solid?"

Ariadne had only known about the existence of "real magic" for about a week or so now.  But she was adapting, she thought, fairly quickly.  Admittedly, she hadn't actually seen a whole lot of it yet, she had to qualify.   There were a few "magically" lit torches here and there, and certainly stories everyone seemed to tell about "adventures in other worlds" and whatnot.
But, to be brutally honest, in many aspects, Amber felt more like a high end, very expensively done, Renn Faire, than a place of actual fundamental magic.
The Pattern, though, was something else entirely.   Still, of course, there felt like there was room for plausible deniability.   Sparks and little shocks went up her legs and seemingly into her soul when she walked it, and she felt like the very life essence was being leeched from her body with every step, but that could, conceivably, be from some kind of electrical field, carefully calibrated.  It was a bit of a stretch, as explanations went, but it still kind of fit the facts.
Reaching the center of the Pattern, Ariadne felt a sense of accomplishment that surpassed anything she'd ever done before in her life.  Sure, it felt more like she'd run a gauntlet of tazers and exposed wiring, rather than a Fundamental Power of the Universe, but it was still damned impressive.

But now...what to do?   She'd been told, by various people throughout the castle, that once One reached the Center of the Pattern, One go simply...wish...to go, well, anywhere.
Literally anywhere.
She could go to the Amber kitchens, or she could go back to Boston, to her father's house.  To her LA apartment.
To that cool hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Boston's Chinatown, Tung Chow's, where she'd had her first crush.  To her old classroom back in Catholic School, Sister Mary Of Constipation, as she and her friends had called it.  Wow, she was tempted by that, she had to admit.  To magically appear in front of a Catholic Catechism class, and watch nuns' heads explode.
And that was just the tip of the proverbial, magical iceberg.  She could also go to any world, any place she could picture, or even imagine.
She could go to a world of futuristic spaceships, or one where the Old Wild West was alive and well, or a world where donuts and bacon grew on trees.  Heck, she could go to that world where the Teletubbies lived.
It was a mind boggling idea.
And one that she hadn't really given a lot of thought to, because, frankly, she wasn't entirely positive she'd have survived the experience, especially since she knew so little about what to expect.

Now, though, she was in the center of the Pattern, and could go anywhere.

Honestly, she just wanted to go to her room, for a nap and a bath, and a change of clothes.
And not necessarily in that order.

She thought about her mother's room, where she was staying.  The large, luxurious bed, with ornate wardrobe with its secrets, the expensive and fancy drapes and bedspread.
And she thought about it, VERY hard.

It was like falling, in a way.  Like she was being pulled through reality, stepping through a doorway, all the while standing still.  Like that spot in front of her bed was being brought to her, rather than her being sent there.
It was a giddy feeling.  Empowering.  Intoxicating.  If she didn't think that the Pattern was such a death trap, she'd love to do that again sometime.

Then, she was there.  In her mother's room.  Ari blinked her eyes, looking around.
"Um...hello?"
She wasn't sure why she spoke out loud.  It was as if she wasn't entirely positive that what she was seeing in front of her eyes was actually real, and speaking would knock down the illusion, showing her cousins and the Pattern still there.
Reaching out, she felt the soft, thick bed spread, the one that kept her so warm in this drafty castle.  Ari squeezed it tight, gasping in relief, as if the blanket was some kind of lifeline that allowed her to know that what she'd just endured had really happened.

It had really happened.  She'd walked the Pattern.

Though, frankly, at the moment she felt like the Pattern had "walked her".   Chuckling to herself, she started stripping off her clothing and gear, getting ready to wash a marathon's worth of sweat from her body.
Ariadne paused, and, with a wry curiosity, pulled her cell phone out of her carrying case, and tried turning it on.   She wasn't really expecting anything from her phone, something that had been essentially a paper weight for the last few days, but she was curious.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:52, Wed 08 Dec 2021.