Just as Ari begins her walk, Jon arrives and sees her take her first step.
Quiet as mouse, Jon moves up behind Jade.  He sees Lance and frowns, but does not say anything.

He sends his positive thoughts to Ari.

Jade raises one arm straight up, "You can do it Ariadne !"

She smiles to her cousin watching Ariadne taking her first step on the Pattern.

Jade looks to Jon, "I was worried you wouldn't make it, now if only Ballad and Janessa could be here."

Trent’s sure she shouldn’t expect to find gray men, huh? Ballad gives him a noncommittal we’ll see lift of her shoulders; she is teasing him, of course. And he’s off on his own world, and Ballad’s got worlds to see, so though she gives the guard a sluice-of-a-look, amused and pleased, she says no more; she’d already fare-welled him!

The trip down the rest of the dark, dark tunnels is a thoughtful one. Ballad, coming down here makes her consider her own (first) walk; how exhausted, how soul-weary, she was after the second; she almost calls her father to be here, because she thinks some representative of the old generation should be here and she feels rather solemn about rite of passage rituals.

But lo, before her reckless heart has decided her, there is the door and it is open and the light from the pattern casts (all manner of) shadows. Ballad isn't one of them: she's a bright maiden, see, practically seems to eat darkness like any star—but that’s her fairy blood, the moonlight burning there. Both metaphor, and not-metaphor.

As a shower of sparks begin to spray at Ariadne’s heel and the irrevocable pull of the Pattern takes hold, Ballad hails her other cousins, all two three: "If we aren't well-met by patternlight. Hallo! Did she hear good advice before she began?"

aka, you guys went over the deal, right? Ballad, she's not going to say anything that might distract Ariadne now! Or look away from her cousin's fair shape, cutting towards her birthright.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:46, Fri 12 Nov 2021.

Jade skips over and hugs Ballad, "You made it !" Ariadne just started and got the best advise I think she can get. Where have you been ? I thought you might have been kidnapped you have been absent so long."

  Lance stands, arms crossed and silent as Ariadne begins her walk.  He has a stoic look about him, his mouth neither smiling nor frowning, his eyes hidden by the sun glasses.

  He hears Ballad enter and greet everyone, spares a glance back and a nod at the question about whether Ari had been advised well.  He had given her the best advice he could.  Told her about the sparks, the veils, and about staying on the line, staying focused, and not stopping.

  In that glance he saw her, radiant as ever, and he felt a pang.  He knew that he would never be whole, but it was just something he would have to learn to live with.  In that same glance he saw Jon with his scowl.

  Lance swiveled his head back, nibbled at his lower lip as he watched Ari.  The Ray-bans worked pretty well at allowing him to see Ari more clearly as they muted the effect of the sparks.  They were there mainly to keep his eyes from being seen by the others though.

  He watched Ari with an intensity, his own muscles tense as he remembered how difficult her task at hand was.  He thought about how Corwin had described walking it in his own account, how he had described Dara's walk complete with shape-shifted forms.

  The big, blonde man also half expected to hear the soft note of a blade being drawn from a sheath behind him.  He hadn't forgotten about Jon, and the face he had been making had said enough.  Maybe he'd try something, maybe not.  Maybe he had convinced the others that cousin Lance was a cancer that needed to be cut out.  After all, they had spent most of their time together.  Maybe that was why they had been so insistent in him being here, away from guards, away from any quick escape...Lance pushed the thought away.  While his cousins hadn't seen Jon's outburst, they were stronger than to be so easily swayed and convinced by his greasy-slick car salesman veneer.  No, whatever was between himself and Jon was just that.  Jon might try to find a way or a reason to try to kill Lance, and he might have walked into a trap, but damnit, he had given his word to Ari and Jade, and he said what he said.

It's a bit colder, this close to the pattern... There was a sort of humid chill down here already, like perhaps 76 Fahrenheit, but right next to the Pattern it's more like 73...

Then Ariadne set her foot on the Pattern... Suddenly it felt like 68...

Her foot was outlined by small blue-white sparks.

She kept walking, slowly but steadily...

There was a crackle, and she felt her hair beginning to rise a bit... She took another
step, watching the line in front of and under her feet...

Then the thing began to curve, abruptly, back upon itself. She took ten more paces, and a certain resistance seemed to arise. It was as if a partly-opaque black barrier had grown up before her, of some substance which pushed back upon her with each effort that she made to pass forward.

"It's the First Veil," called someone. "Push past it and it'll get somewhat easier again...!"

Each raising and lowering of her feet suddenly required a terrible effort, and it felt as though sparks were shooting forth from her hair...

(Roll a STR check, please...)

As the green-haired princess pounces Ballad, Ballad offers Jade a lopsided smile, the suggestion of a dimple. Returns the hug, too, one-armed, and—tender—catches one of Jade’s green curls and flicks it away from Jade’s face.

“Come now,” she says, with an air of expansive grace. “If I were kidnapped, one of you fine fellows would've rescued me, no? But today isn't for my star; story hour, later, after all surprises are done. Is the party ready?” This last, low: just for Jade.

She'll hook her arm through Jade's and wander them closer to Jon and Lance (who, we presume, aren't standing easily next to one another), keeping her eyes on the figure walking the Pattern. She offers Jon a nod, an assessing look, to measure how he's feeling, you see, on the precipice of walking the thing. A nod for Lance, too, grave, and she wants to say something about a certain gift though that'll wait until after. Still, she glances his way and--

Waaaaait a second. Waitwaitwait. Wait. Stop. STOP. Nooooo, stop. Is Lance somehow, improbably, impossibly more soul-piercingly beautiful than he was the last time she saw him? When he, like Ariadne and Jade, was already beyond the most beautiful? No. Did she just forget how beautiful he was? Perhaps she forgot. Perhaps the power of his beauty somehow pushed to the side by other feelings. But: golden apples of the West, he's breathtaking. Ballad? Ballad's a sensualist. Aw, man. Ballad stares for a beat at the tense, Rayban-wearing blonde. Good lord. Credit where credit's due, she only stares for a beat, because Ariadne's walking.

Passing the first Veil now.

OOC: GM, if you want us to yell stuff, let us know in the OOC. :P I'm sure me, Lance, or Jade (the cousins who've walked the Pattern) would be happy to helpfully shout stuff out for your posts! Unless Ari's just hearing some auto-Pattern stuff.

Ariadne was, despite all the preparation and pep talks she'd had, feeling unprepared for the feel and look of the Pattern's magic exploding as she started her walking.  She almost stopped, as startled as she was.  But falling back on the lessons, she pushed forward.  Ariadne sort of heard some encouragement being shouted to her, but it was mostly a buzz in her head, which was having trouble concentrating.

But she pushed forward.

OOC:
19:08, Today: Ariadne rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,2.  strength .

Yes. Yes he is.



No.



(OOC: Tempting, but I think it would just slow things down even further. The way I pulled it, any of you might have said it, so whatever.)



Ariadne concentrates on the glowing path... she walks it, breathing heavily...

(Ariadne takes 1 damage... It's not like normal damage... more like emotional/stamina damage, special for this situation. The next time you use the REST move, you'll get back double the health. You don't want to make your HP drop to zero, though...)


Suddenly the pressure eases. The Veil had parted before her, as abruptly as it had occurred. She had passed through the First Veil, but it cost her a little...

She is well into the Pattern now, and the sparks flash continually about her feet, reaching to the height of her knees. She no longer knows which direction she faces, nor precisely where her cousins stand. The currents sweep through her, and it seems her eyeballs are shaking in their sockets... Then comes a pins-and-needles feeling in her cheeks and a coldness on the back of her neck-- she clenches her teeth to keep them from chattering.


She takes six more rapid steps, reaching the end of an arc and coming to the start of a straight line...

She sets her foot upon it, and with each step that she takes, another barrier begins to rise against her...

"It's the Second Veil..." calls a cousin from somewhere...

Oh for pity's sake, so that was why they called it the First Veil, was there was another one...

(Roll a Con check, please...)

Ariadne felt more tired and stressed than she'd felt in any time in her life.  Was this normal?  Was this the way it was supposed to be?  Or was something terribly wrong?
She tried to remember all the advice she'd gotten from her relatives, even her father,  though his advice,  though carefully researched,  was more second hand than anything.
But it was hard to concentrate.   All she could do was push on.  Push on....

OOC:  18:45, Today: Ariadne rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,3.  Con save


*sighs*  ive almostnever had luck with the 2d6 format, and i suppose I shouldn't be surprised now

(09:49, Today: The GM rolled 6 using 2d3 with rolls of 3,3.  Ow.

Ariadne takes 6 new special damage.)

Ariadne is already getting worn out... but she's got to keep going...

(Try Con again...)

Ariadne winced in pain, almost stumbling.   The pain was immense, worse than anything she'd ever experienced.   Nothing from any of her movie stunts, her most rigorous workouts, and even the few bar fights she'd been in,  compared to the pain ripping through her body.

She had to finish.  Her family was counting on her.

OOC:  17:29, Today: Ariadne rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,5.  Constitution

Jade glanced to Lance and Ballad as the others who has also walked the Pattern before.
Her eyes then went back to Ariadne as she gripped her parasol so tight her already pale knuckles went ivory.

"YOU CAN DO IT, JUST KEEP MOVING !"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:38, Sun 14 Nov 2021.

  Lance didn't say anything.  Distractions could be fatal, and he knew how difficult it was to get through the barriers.  He did, however, move closer to the starting point just in case Ari faltered or got stuck.  Knowing that he had completed it once before while still wounded and in an emotionally wrecked state gave him the confidence that he could walk it again.  He didn't want to walk it again, but if Ariadne needed his help he'd be there for her and do it.  He had made that promise.

  He watched.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:47, Mon 15 Nov 2021.

Jon tenses, but says nothing. He puts a hand on Jade's shoulder and gives her a reassuring squeeze as she calls out.
"She'll make it. I have no doubt." he whispers to Jade.  His voice low and confident.

Jade is tense as if she is prepared to sprint out to help her cousin. Jon can feel that in her shoulder but she nods very slightly seeing Lance move closer to the Patterns beginning.

She had to have faith in her cousin after all she had succeeded and Ariadne was undeniably physically her superior.

Ballad is curious rather than tense; bright-eyed, intrigued. Until there’s a flinch in all of her cousins, as if they’d all fling themselves on the burning lines after: Then Ballad wonders whether she’ll need to somehow keep them all from piling on, each caught by the pattern’s test, none able to push faster or quicker than any other one. Though her hand doesn’t twitch, she is conscious of her hunting-slash-drinking horn; she is conscious, too, of her self-assurance.

Ballad cups her hands around her mouth and, encouragingly, calls: "Not far now, Ariadne! The whole wide wonder of everything awaits!"

There. She'd done it. Enough to keep moving forward, anyway.

(Ariadne takes one more point of special tiredness damage.)

There was a right-angle turn, then another, then another.

Ariadne, princess of Amber, she thought to herself.

Another curve began, and it is as though Ariadne were walking in glue as she moved slowly along it.

One more step, two, three, four... she raised her electric footwear, over and over, and sets each down again...

Her head throbs and her heart feels as though it were fibrillating to pieces.

Amber!

The name of the land, and the city, and the castle, from whence the royal family rules over possibly-infinite Shadows, because they're just shadows of Amber...

Amber, which spoke to something deep inside her soul... and she hadn't even seen any of the other worlds it ruled yet, as such, hadn't seen any of the other apparently-infinite Shadows yet, but she could feel it all calling to her... She could barely remember what the castle looked like from the outside... What the city looked like, the land... She wished, now, that she had had even more time to come to understand Amber before walking this shimmering electric-blue yellow-brick-road...

Ten more paces, then a swirling filigree of shadowy fire confronts her... she essays it, her sweat chilling her as it springs from every pore...

It's tricky, so devilish tricky, and it seems that the air of the room suddenly moves in great currents which threaten to sweep her from the path of the Pattern. She struggles on, resisting them...

She dares not raise her eyes from the places of light that lie immediately before her, to see how far she has come, how far she has yet to go...

The breezes subside... She tries to focus on anything, her whole life, which seemed, Hollywood and all, so empty and meaningless compared what she was doing now, and especially compared to everything she could do if she could just finish this...

Her mother had made it through the Pattern. Ballad and Lance had done it. Therefore, surely, she, Ariadne, could manage it, no matter what the resistance...

She emerges from the filigree and marches along a long, grand curve, feeling the forces that shape the universe fall upon her and beat her into their image...

Unnatural fears rise like black clouds, and then vanish, gone again, burned away by the Pattern-- only to return, moments later, their strength redoubled.

She walks the Pattern, and she remembers all, all her days upon the Shadow Earth, all her dreams, all the places of that Shadow, so few of them special and dear to her, it now feels...

She walks three more curves, a straight line, and a series of sharp arcs, and she shouted inside her own head.

Ariadne. Ariadne, daughter of Deirdre. Ariadne, princess of Amber. Ariadne, princess of Shadows.

Ten tight arcs which left her dizzy, then another short arc, a straight line, and...

Oh.

A Final Veil.

Is that Ballad shouting "Not far now...!" ...or is it just inside her own head?

It is agony to move. Everything tries to beat her aside. The air is cold, then it feels boiling. It seems that it constantly pushes against her. She struggles, putting one foot before the other. The sparks reach as high as her waist, then her elbows, then her shoulders. They are into her eyes...

They are all about her. She can just barely see the Pattern itself.

(Willpower check, please...)

Ariadne wanted to be done with this.   She'd had fantasies,  when she'd first considered walking the Pattern,  of enjoying the walk, studying the experience, so she could mentor others in this walk, the way others had helped her.
But now, she just wanted to finish, and forget it ever happened

OOC: 17:44, Today: Ariadne rolled 4 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 2,3.  Will save

Glancing to Lance and Ballad Jade moves ever bit as close as Lance did to the Patterns start working out in her head if she could make it to Ariadne seeing her cousin having such great difficulty.

Jon moves up with Jade and then places a hand on her shoulder.  He leans in and whispers "There is no way for any of us to get to her in time. She will do this, but she will have to do it on her own. I have faith in Ari." he gives her a reassuring squeeze.

  Lance watched, tense as a coiled spring through his polarized glasses.  Ariadne had made it through the first two veils, but not easily.  Now she was struggling with the third, and he knew what a bitch that could be.  He had made it through, just barely.  Ari could do it too, but she didn't have the same safety net that he had had.  When Lance had walked it, he at least had the safety net of his mother, ready to pull him off it if need be.  Ari had only her cousins, all less experienced with the thing.

  As long as Ari kept her feet she was still in the game.  If she fell though and seemed unable to get back up, he would move to help her.  He knew that there was a matter of pride involved in walking the Pattern, and he didn't want to interfere unless his cousin really, truly needed it.

  Outwardly, the only signs of what was going through his head was the clenching of his jaw and the clenching of his fists.

  Push Ari, push!!  Don't let it stop you!!  You got this!! he thought, as though he could lend her aid by a mere act of will.

(10:49, Today: The GM rolled 2 using 1d3 ((2)).

Ariadne loses 2 more special tiredness damage...

Try Willpower a second time, please...)

Ari pushed on,  feeling like something is breaking inside her

OOC: 18:02, Today: Ariadne rolled 1 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 1,1.  Will save


   Wow....the 2d6 format Really doesn't like me.
I feel like i couldn't fail this badly if i had did a swan dive onto the Pattern

  "Shit!"  snarls Lance.  Ari wasn't looking well out there.  Worse than  not well, actually.  While the last thing he wanted to do in this world was setting foot on that fiery blue line ever again, Ariadne seemed like she was struggling, and it seemed to be going rapidly downhill.

  He suddenly knew what it was like.  When he was nine the orphanage had taken a field trip to Jones Beach.  Most of the kids weren't swimmers, nor were the nuns and everyone had been told to not go out further into the surf than the top of their bathing suit bottoms.  The surf had picked up a bit though, and while trying to retrieve a frisbee, Lance had inadvertently gotten out above his belly button.  A wave had knocked him off his feet, and the outrushing water swept him seaward.  In an instant he was under the waves.  Fortunately, one of the lifeguards had been paying close attention to the group and she had dove in and rescued him.

  Now he suddenly knew what that must have felt like for her.  Watching, hoping for the best, yet knowing that tragedy could come in the blink of an eye.  Today, Lance was here in exactly that role...lifeguard...and he was watching his cousin getting pulled under into the deep water.

  He would need time to reach her, and he dared not wait until he saw flames because by then it might be too late.  Whether she pulled herself out of this or not, Lance needed to get there to be able to help her if she did wind up needing it.  She might get mad at him for not waiting longer, but if she wound up needing help at least she'd still be alive to be mad.

  Lance squared his shoulders and stepped onto the line.

  I said what I said....I'm here for you, cousin.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:47, Sun 21 Nov 2021.