[BiTPR2] Hell Episode: Like a Bat

[Rater202]

"What separates a fake dream from a real dream? Who makes your real dreams?"

"A fake dream's a dream someone puts in your head. A real dream was already in your head."

[Frozen_Feet]

The girl lifts up her left index finger and taps her own head. "Nothing's 'already in your head'. Everything in there was put there by some event filtering through your senses. What you have described is not the difference between real and fake dreams, but that of intentional and non-intentional dreams."

The girl reaches to gently touch Sarah's forehead. "So. Do you normally intent your dreams? When you close your eyes and lay your head down to sleep, do you decide what you will dream of?"

[Rater202]

"I think you deliberately misunderstood what I was trying to say. Let me say it again: a real dream is made up of thoughts and feelings you already had. A fake dream is something someone outside manufactured and then put in your head."

[Frozen_Feet]

"Oh, I didn't misunderstand. The distinction you're making exists. But it's not about what is real and what is fake. A dream intentionally put in your head is no less and no more real than a dream put there by coincidences of existence. So I ask you again: do you intent your dreams? Do you choose what dreams you see? "

[Rater202]

"No."

"Most people can't and the ones that can have to be taught how."

[Frozen_Feet]

A happy smile spreads on the girl's face and she claps her hands together in excitement. "Correct! You are correct!"

She lifts up a finger. "When you say 'this is my dream' or something like that, you are speaking as if dreams are your property. But that is a trick of language. You do not possess your dreams. They possess you. In the past, people mistook nightmares and sleep paralysis for genuine demons and evil spirits, such as Incubi and Succubi. They were more right than anyone would care to admit."

She lifts up a second finger. "But it is possible to free yourself from their possession. The first step towards that is realizing you are in a dream, which is something you have already achieved. By nature of this realization, you become lucid, and the reality within a dream becomes malleable."

She lifts up a third finger. "This can happen naturally. Indeed, this is how people figured out it is possible to control dreams to begin with. You did not decide to see this dream. But from here on, you can decide where it goes. And most importantly..."

She lifts up a fourth finger. "... you can decide to end it. Lucid dreaming exists on the very edge of sleep and consciousness. It is a liminal state where two worlds shade into and overlap each other. By willing it hard enough, you can wake up!"

[Rater202]

"Then since none of this is real, I should be waking up right now!"

Sarah snaps her fingers.

[Frozen_Feet]

The girl beams with joy. "You listened to me! I'm so proud of you!"

She rushes to hug Sarah. For a moment, her visage is replaced by Svetlana's, but whether she ever manages to hug Sarah is left unknown, for at that moment, Sarah wakes up.

Sarah find her eyes open groggily. It looks like she lost consciousness and fell on her back. A thin layer of soot covers her.

Her Burden and his sword lie silently on the ground not far from her. Are they asleep or lifeless? It's hard to tell at a distance.

The blindfolded woman is slumped on the ground before Sarah, in a position resembling kneeling. Two of her shadowy arms are grasping her head while two others are pulling her hair. "N-no! D-don't wake u-up! Go ba-back! It was su-such a ple-pleasant d-dream! We h-had f-friends! There w-was sun! We co-could've pl-played beach vo-volley t-together..."

Her blindfold is getting wet where her eyes would be. She is crying underneath. She sways from side to side, her head bending down, as she wails in despair. "P-please! I-it w-was be-beautifull! L-let's go b-back. L-let's go back into the d-dream. Please... I d-don't want to be here... p-please..."

[Rater202]

"You can't live in Dreams..."

***

More things become clear in Sarah's mind.

A little human girl with silver hair. She's maybe seven or eight at this point.

And she loves to read. She'll read almost anything, but her favorite is an omnibus collection of Superhero stories from the Golden Age

And her favorite Superhero is Alan Scott: The Golden Age Green Lantern.

Sarah's flashback changes.

She's a year or two older.

Huddling in her basement.

Starring at a pool of blood that's leaking from what used to be her mother.

A monster that looked like the offspring of a gorilla and a tiger shaved bald, painted blue, and made to wear a goat's skull for a mask had killed Momma and eaten her ghost. It'd look right at Sarah after, and said "not worth it" before floating up out through the house.

"An' ah shall shed mah light o'er dark evil... for the dark thin's cannot stand the light... the light of... the green lantern..."

The Oath. The motto of her favorite superhero. The new one was catchier, but the Golden Age one was her favorite. Sarah said it over and over again. Hoping for some hero to come and rescue her and make everything okay again.

A day later some tourists came through, saw the carnage, and called the state police. Sarah and the other survivors--some kids she didn't know that well, one might have been a cousin--were taken into foster care(mortal police don't believe it when children say that ghost monsters ate everyone, obviously) and Sarah ended up in Foster Care, which went poorly, ran away, which went more poorly, got taken in by what seemed like a real-life superhero, which went so poorly that it took years before Sarah could trust anyone ever again.

And all through this, no heroes came to help her. No one could save the day and making everything right again.

***

"Trust me, nobody knows better than me how pretending things are okay doesn't help.."

[Frozen_Feet]

The woman curls up in a ball on the ground, reduced to a sobbing wreck. "D-dreams...so-somebody... give... g-give m-me... your d-dreams..."

Sarah can hear someone sharpen their knives again. Unseen, but still stalking, the unrepentant sinners have come attracted by weakness as surely as sharks are attracted by blood. Malicious eyes size up Sarah, waiting to see if she'll leave, so they can tear Burden and the crying woman into pieces.

[Rater202]

"Aegis of the Deathknight"

Sarah summons her now hollowfied Armor ones more. She looks back to where the sound of Sharpening knives is coming, raises her hand, and allows her reiryoku to become dense as it gathers and swirls in her hand.

"Cero."

Let's see how the vultures deal with that.

[Frozen_Feet]

There's a massive boom as Sarah's attack hits the terrain. It cuts a long groove on the ground and sends millions of shards of obsidian flying all around, along with droplets of lava. It's hard to say if she hit anything, because anyone hiding there was either disintegrated, blasted away or buries under debris.

For the time, she can continue her journey unpestered by these people.

[Rater202]

She picks Stumpy back up and looks to the dreamer.

"You can get up and come with me or you can keep crying and let the vultures get you when they come back. I don't care which."

And then, onward and downward.

[Frozen_Feet]

Sarah drags her Burden with her and leaves the sobbing woman behind.

An indeterminate time later, the terrain begins sloping up. Streams of yellow lava flow past Sarah. Ahead is a third shrine. Or... is there? It is black in a way that makes it look like a shadow, or a silhouette. Depending on angle of view, different parts of it blend into one another and become indistinct, causing it to apparently change shape.

It is also very large, or maybe it is growing in size as Sarah approaches it. By the time Sarah reaches its gate, it is the size of a five story pagoda.

Standing on its tip on the ground before the gate is, in stark contrast, a sword of purest white. At first, it looks like the sword is propping up some scarecrow-like thing, but at a closer look, this seems to not be the case. There is someone there, sitting on the rock and holding the sword upright by its handle. They are wearing worn black leather coat, washed-out jeans and dusty boots... but it is impossible to see who it is inside those clothes. It is like there is a physical presence, but no real person.

"I congratulate you for coming this far. You are Sarah Smith, correct?" The voice seems to come from all around Sarah... as if it is an illusion, a trick of sound and echoing terrain, causing her own footprints to create something resembling speech.

"I am the final obstacle on the path you have chosen. It has the power to dispell all illusions. Can you tell me its name?"

[Rater202]

Sarah thinks on it, long and hard...

"...Truth?"

[Frozen_Feet]

"Correct."

The no-body stands up and lifts its sword, pointing the gleaming white blade at Sarah. "I challenge you to a game of Twenty Questions. I will ask, you will answer. Answer only with a 'yes' , or a 'no'. Speak to the best of your ability. Do not lie. Do not do anything else that would violate spirit of the game. This blade will cut through any falsehood."

"Do you understand these rules?"

[Rater202]

Yes.

At this point, Sarah's pretty sure she doesn't have a choice and that they're already playing the game.

[Frozen_Feet]

Maybe that is what her opponent wants her to think. Maybe it is even necessary for her to think that way.

"Do you know why you are in Hell?"

[Rater202]

Sarah thinks on it...

Someone... Someone said something... However long again... Theft? No... No, not that... Nothing wrong she did... some injustice, related to protevcting herself?

Yeah. That feels right.

"Yes."

[Frozen_Feet]

"Did you kill someone?"

[Rater202]

"Yes," Sarah answers.

[Frozen_Feet]

"Did you mourn for them?"

[Rater202]

"Did you mourn for them?"

"No."ten chars

[Frozen_Feet]

"Is there anyone in the other five worlds of suffering who would mourn for you?"

[Rater202]

"Is there anyone in the other five worlds of suffering who would mourn for you?"

''...Yes.''

[Frozen_Feet]

"If you can escape, will you go to them?"

[Rater202]

"Yes."

Anyone listening will hear the unsaid "you are incredibly stupid for wasting a question on an obvious answer" in Sarah's response.

[Frozen_Feet]

"Will you truly let them in your life then?"

[Rater202]

Sarah takes her time answering.

Her memory's still fuzzy...

...And then, then it all comes back to her...

"...Yes."

honestly, if she ever makes it back to Svetlana--to Mom--she'd basically have to at this point.

[Frozen_Feet]

"Did you have a happy childhood?"