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.

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[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.

[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]

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.

[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....

[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.

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[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.

[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.

[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.

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[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.

[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?

[wisdominshadows]

One other purple so far. The rest... I don't know who else on the team has them at the moment.

[Glorfindel, one of Purple's former leaders, had Seen things, but he's gone as well. Pity.]

I did, but it must have been taken from my own mind. That was my garden- I used to play there every day as a child.

[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.]

[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.

[wisdominshadows]

Always a good advantage to have on your side, height.

Very well, then. I'm not sure whether I can be of much help, but I wish you happy hunting should it be needed.

[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.]

[helborn]

Don't forget to call if you need help on your end too, okay? As competent as people here are, we can all use the help sometimes.

[wisdominshadows]

I thought not. And...

[Sighing]

I don't know. I just have a bad feeling about this becoming more common.

Perhaps it's nothing.

[so_dark_a_road]

"I'd be inclined to trust your premonitions, Zelda. If you have a bad feeling about this becoming more common, then maybe there's a good reason for your feeling.

[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.

[wisdominshadows]

[He can't see it, but there's a rueful smile upon her face as she replies]

I am grateful for your faith, but to be honest this is a point on which I would rather be wrong.