Message 01. Technicolor Animals 101

[unrecovered]

[The video flickers on to show both Wash and North in what looks like one of the hotel rooms. It’s far enough away that it’s obvious they’ve set it up on a flat surface somewhere. Wash is still wearing his helmet; old habits die very hard.]

Hey. Does anyone know anything about these Dream Eater things? We know they can fight and that you can make them from little rainbow pieces; aside from that, I’ve got nothing.

[There’s a squeak from offscreen, and Wash looks over-] Hey, get over here. [-and leans out of the frame.]

[North, meanwhile, has his helmet off, because all things considered, this area’s probably safe and he can let his guard down a bit. ]

Also, do they all carry loose change or something? It’s an odd way of making money.

[He glances over at Wash.]

Everything alright, Wash?

Yeah, fine, just- c’mere!

[There’s more squeaking offscreen, and finally Wash leans back into the frame, pulling his bat into his lap. The bat squeaks piteously, and it’s pretty obvious that one wing is bandaged.]

Is there a vet around here, or someone who knows how to take care of this? [He gestures at the bandage.] I can do this much, but that’s about it.

[Responses will come from both Wash (unrecovered) and North (brodakota).]

Comments

[dork_of_keys]

[Well this is interesting. After getting the Moogle to walk him through the functions of the communicator again and having his Meow Wow laugh at him for his troubles, he thinks Sora sees this post.]

Some healing magic or a potion will help. Didn't the Moogle give you a potion to start with?

[And a pause. Yeah, there are other questions he could answer here, though he does wonder why the Moogles didn't provide this information.]

And to answer the other questions, the friendly Dream Eaters are called Spirits. The hostile ones are Nightmares. The Spirits will work with you and help you fight off the Nightmares. There's not much more to them than that. I don't know why the Nightmares carry munny, but they also have potions and dream fragments sometimes too.

[unrecovered]

If you mean the jar, then yes, it did. It just didn't bother telling me what it was. Not exactly helpful.

I figured out most of that from actually fighting the- Nightmares, I guess. There's got to be more to these things, right? I mean, what do they eat? Do they eat? Are there more than just the four kinds I've seen running around? And how can you make a living, breathing creature- [He reaches behind him into the bag the Moogle gave him, pulling out a figment he'd gotten from a Nightmare fight] -out of these?

[dork_of_keys]

They didn't? That isn't fair. There's other potions, too. Stronger ones and ones that cure poison and stuff like that.

Nightmare eat good dreams and plant bad dreams. Spirits eat Nightmares. At least that's how it was explained to me. The Spirits also eat treats that you can get for them at shops or sometimes the Nightmares even drop those treats along with munny or potions.

[He looks at the figment Wash pulls out. Yeah, he was weirded out the first time too. But it does make sense when one little thing is taken into account.]

We are in the realm of dreams. That usually makes crazy stuff easier to do. And yeah, there's more than the four that have been around town so far.

[unrecovered]

...potions that cure poison. You're telling me these things are poisonous.

...and cannibals. That's even better! They eat cookies and each other. Fantastic.

[You know, as completely insane as this all is, that actually makes a good amount of sense.] Okay, you've got a point. What other ones do I have to look forward to?

[dork_of_keys]

Some of them are.

Um... that's one way to put. And that's how it was explained to me. Master Yen Sid could have meant nightmares as another word for bad dreams, but I guess there really isn't anything to say Spirits Dream Eaters won't eat Nightmare Dream Eaters or the other way around.

[Sora thinks on that a moment. There a lot of Dream Eaters.] There's bird Dream Eaters and fish. There's also cats, bears, dragons, frogs, penguins and beetles. Oh, and dinosaurs!

[unrecovered]

Good to know.

Great. [It's always the cute ones that are secretly terrifying, isn't it. Dream Eaters are weird.]

[There's a very long silence at that one.] ...Dinosaurs. We get to look forward to fighting dinosaurs.

[dork_of_keys]

They pretty useful.

I'm sorry if that's kind of confusing. I don't really know any more about it myself. [Yes, they are weird. The Spirits are helpful, though.]

You can have dinosaurs fighting on your side, too. The T. Rex ones behave like puppies.

[unrecovered]

"Kind of confusing" doesn't even begin to cover it.

[That is a very, very long stare. T. Rexes. There is not enough nope in the world for this.] T. Rexes. We're going to have to fight fucking T. Rexes.

[dork_of_keys]

I didn't think it would.

Yeah. They're kind of rare though and they don't use their fire very often. And the skeleton ones are even rarer.

[unrecovered]

[Given that he's fresh out of Nope, he's now ventured into the land of brainbreak. There's an extremely long pause, and when he speaks, it's slow and disbelieving and just not happy.]

Skeletal. Fucking. T. Rexes.

..........great. That's...great.

hope you don't mind the threadjack

[brodakota]

So, they don't just drop munny.

Why are they carrying those things around?

[dork_of_keys]

No, they don't. And sometimes they'll drop more of one thing than of another. It's kind of random, like sometimes it'll be more munny than anything else and sometimes more items.

... I have no idea. It could be that they like shiny things. The dream bits and munny are kind of shiny. So are the containers the potions come in. [At least, he thinks it's possible.]

[brodakota]

I guess that could make sense. But where are they carrying them? I mean, if they just picked them up, wouldn't we be able to see them.

[North, you're probably over thinking this.]

[dork_of_keys]

Good question.

[Yes, he is over thinking it.]

[brodakota]

I'm guessing you don't really have the answers.

[He's teasing. He doesn't expect Sora to answer his questions.]

[dork_of_keys]

Not as many as I'd like.

[brodakota]

Well, it's probably more than me, if that's a consolation.

I'm still trying to figure this crazy place out.

[unrecovered]

North. There are fire-breathing skeletal T. Rexes here. Obviously we've died and gone to hell. What else is there to figure out?

[There is such a thing as too much information, it turns out.]

[dork_of_keys]

Actually, the skeleton ones use ice. And if you smack 'em around enough, sometimes the head detaches and attacks on its own while the body is still running around.

[Sora's mostly mentioning this stuff because it is helpful to know what you're opponents can do. It hasn't occurred to him yet that it might be too much at once...]

[brodakota]

[Okay, that's definitely new information.]

Wash, calm down. Hell's probably a little bit warmer. Relax for a second.

[He turns back to the communicator.]

Hey, Kid, are you being serious? Because my friend here is a bit gullible and tends to scare easily.

[They're best friends, can't you tell?]

[dork_of_keys]

I wish I could say I was kidding. But they do that, both the Nightmares and the Spirits.

[Whether or not Hell is warmer probably depends on which Hell, but Sora's pretty sure that's a discussion for another time. Also he doesn't really like being called kid, but he can't really be annoyed about it when, obviously, this guy doesn't know his name.]

And my name's Sora.

[It's so obvious.]

[brodakota]

This world just got ten times crazier.

[He sighs. Well, at least it'll be an adventure.]

Right, Sora. Sorry. I'm North Dakota, most people just call me North.

[dork_of_keys]

I don't know if that's overestimating or underestimating, but I guess it is pretty crazy.

[Hey, it might be fun.]

North. Got it. It's nice to meet you.

[unrecovered]

[And this is the point where Wash is beyond the point of words. Skeletal ice-breathing T. Rexes with detachable heads. He just. Cannot process this. At all. Nope.]

[Which gives North time to step in, which is probably a good thing - it's better than Wash making comments about North having no idea how bad hell is that he'd just have to explain later.]

[And then North says that, and actually does a pretty good job of jolting Wash back to his senses.]

I- hey! Just because I don't want to live in fucking Jurassic Park...

[brodakota]

Well we aren't Jurassic Park yet, are we?

We know they're out there and we just have to be ready for if the attack. We'll be fine.

[He shrugs.]

It can't be worse than facing off against Carolina or Maine on a bad day. Or god forbid, Texas.