Audio | Llama 4

[wisdominshadows]

An idle question: is there anyone on the train who receives visions of our missions and comes from a world with advanced technology?

I am curious whether that perspective would lend itself to a better idea of what we will be facing. I could see computers, row upon row of them... but if that vision had more information to give, I cannot interpret it.

[A pause, then continuing]

One other matter: I saw a memory of a garden gone for years, just at the end. Not a place someone from another world would know. On our last mission, many of us found ourselves trapped in image and memory.

...I think something of the sort might happen again.

Comments

audio

[forceshadowed]

[ Jaisyn’s not sure if it’s a vision, or a nightmare. Because it hits a little too close to something she’s actually experienced that she’s been curling up in her bunk all morning.

Yet it didn’t feel entirely like Myrkr. ]

I’m new here, and I’m not really sure, but I might’ve seen something.

[wisdominshadows]

Visions aren't uncommon a few days before a mission, usually depicting something related to the problem at hand. What that might be can vary. Sometimes mine have been similar to others', but they often emphasize different things.

If you had the gift of prophecy before you arrived, I think it very likely that what you saw was real.

[forceshadowed]

Well, if that's the case...

I saw a dark corridor. Dimly lit, eerily quiet. But there's... something in the dark. A creature. [ She shudders, reminded of the monsters in Myrkr, of that mission that this vision reminds her so much of. ] And it's on the hunt.

[wisdominshadows]

Are you on Team Purple, by any chance?

[Because there's no overlap with her's there, but it sounds exactly identical to what Casper's been saying.]

So not a wholly technological mission. A corridor could be in a building, I suppose, but still....

[forceshadowed]

Yeah, I'm Purple, though I just got on the last stop. Did the others also have...?

Some worlds may have technological centers but also forests and caves. You saw a garden, right?

Audio

[helborn]

I do. I got one, too... if you can maybe draw a picture of what you saw, maybe I can help interpret it?

In mine... it was a dark street or some kind of corridor. Low lighting, echoing footsteps. There was some sort of presence... a predator. I heard a growl.

I knew something was hunting me, but before I could do anything else, I woke up.

[wisdominshadows]

I can certainly do that. Whether it will be of help... I'm not sure. I simply don't know enough about computers.

[She is going to have to change that.]

That's... a disturbing image. And not one that easily connects with mine, either.

[At least the ones last time reinforced each other to some degree. There's a pause as she thinks it over.]

I doubt the train would choose to take us to a place for one monster or wild animal, no matter how difficult to catch.

[helborn]

It could be different things in the same place. Not every mission is as focused on one thing as the last one was, right?

[wisdominshadows]

A fair point. Or the full picture could just be difficult to see at first glance.

[A small hum comes through over the network.]

Perhaps I should just be grateful that these don't seem as spectacularly dire as last month's.

[helborn]

Yeah. Beasts I can deal with... those demons were a tougher one on one fight. And in a city there's a lot of ways to turn things to your advantage.

... Especially if you can climb and they can't.

video

[so_dark_a_road]

Evidently we had the same vision, Zelda. I also saw a large room full of blinking lights and whirring machines, rows of computers. I started to walk along the rows, but two steps later I was suddenly somewhere else.

I saw my castle in the Pass of Aglon in East Belariand, as though I were walking along the road that led up to the front gate. And then it was gone, and I woke in my room on the train and heard the announcement that this is Llama Day Four.

I'm guessing you're right, that this coming mission might have something to do with being trapped or absorbed in image and memory, as I've been told happened on the last mission.

[wisdominshadows]

It does match. [Hmmm...] Some sort of defense mechanism, perhaps?

[so_dark_a_road]

That would make sense. A world that can distract unwelcome visitors by causing them to fall into memory space and have a hard time getting back out. It seems a very clever defense.

[wisdominshadows]

Not one I like seeing so often.

[She's very good at mental defenses, for the most part- the Triforce of Wisdom has to be good for something, after all. But there's something profoundly violating about even the prospect of having her memory used against her.]

[so_dark_a_road]

I can't blame you for that! I wouldn't like it either.

[ He as well thinks that's outrageous, using people's memory against them.]

Audio

[wizard_redfive]

Not yet.

[Dair had yet to receive any visions of missions, even with her wizardry. Then again, such visions were rare back home, her guidance showing up more often as a feeling, an instinct. Nita, on the other hand, was more prone to the gift of prophecy.]

And here I thought I had avoided the illusory nonsense.

Thanks for the heads up.

[wisdominshadows]

Be careful before you say things like that, Dairine. The train is nothing if not quick to provide more nonsense.

[Dairine might be the luckier one on that front. Visions are good at providing just enough information to either frustrate or make you trip over your own attempts to prevent things.]

It's no trouble. I just wish I had happier news.

[wizard_redfive]

Oh no, how could I forget! First rule of Paradisa: don't give the castle ideas.

[Said in a half joking tone. Dair trusts the Voidtrecker slightly more than Cair Paradisa, but the nonsense is still plenty.]

Happy news is hard to come by right before a mission. Other than the promise of stretching our legs a bit.

[wisdominshadows]

Until one's legs and throat seize up from the running and the screaming.

[They will all get through their myriad kidnappings though sheer quantity of denial and bad jokes about terrible circumstances.]

I don't know what serious help this will provide, but I suppose the warning is appreciated.

[wizard_redfive]

If your legs seize up from just a little running, we'll need to set up more training courses in the gym.

[Joking makes the harder parts of errantry much more bearable.]

It give us heads up not to trust everything we see. That's help enough.

[Audio]

[ayao]

I do not envy you your gift, my lady. [To see the past or the future... He shudders.] The train does not want us to forget, it seems, or become too comfortable in our new existence.

[wisdominshadows]

The train, I'm afraid, denies responsibility for this particular feature of our journeys. It believes these to be a side-effect of the void itself.

[Which is certainly interesting, particularly since the dreams seem to respond to which team the seer is on, but Zelda has no particular reason to disbelieve the train on this point.]

I'm all right, truly; these are not as much terrible as frustrating. Enough detail to point one to something specific, not enough to explain what is important.

[ayao]

I do forget about the void. [As much as possible because it frightens him. At least he can see and touch the train!]

Does it not disturb you that you have a connection with something as mysterious as the void? Then again, you seem accustomed to visions. Have you experienced them in your world too?

[wisdominshadows]

It is a gift, they say. The sight of Goddess Hylia, the mark of her blessing upon her children.

[Whether Zelda herself feels that it’s a gift, judging from her tone of voice, is a considerably more ambiguous matter.]

I’ve seen what is to come for half my life, now. It is... it is never truly comfortable, but I am used to the experience.

[ayao]

Your Goddess... Is she kind? [Or is she the sort that would drop horrid visions on a poor woman unexpectedly?]

I know of my future now and I can agree with you: it isn't comfortable. I'm not even sure if knowing means I can change anything.