Day 3 | Afternoon | The Third Dream

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Aah."

Kiran carefully moved, looking around and feeling for a promising stone.

[Kannon]

A deja vu. Hadn't they been looking for sharp stones lately, in the dream? What were those dreams really? Or rather, what was the intention behind them?

[Laila Bridger]

"Mngh 'mm gnhd."

Laila lay quite still. But her eyes fluttered open.

The last set of fevered visions was fading, fading rapidly, but...

Remain Human.

[Kannon]

[Both of you can take the chosen phrase as a new statement replacing one you have or one you have recently lost.]

[Kiran Alsahar]

[Kiran will replace their current Will Statement with Make the Path.]

That's right, they were. Ailar already gave visions. A super dose of it was gonna hit them hard. Through the medium of Dubcan and not one of them for some reason. Odd.

They started chewing through their own gagas their hand felt something. They tossed it as well as they could, feeling the wires bite in aggressively as they did.

[Kannon]

[Hard Resilience to bite through the gag.]

"Got it. Nice shot. Hope Marek won't show up with the meds before I finish. If he does, sorry to be asking, but distract him."

[Kiran Alsahar]

A few moments of chewing and Kiran sucked in a breath. "Got it. Easier without the gag."

Resilience Hard to try and chew through gag: 2eA+3eD 2 successes, 3 threat

[Kannon]

[Threat into Strain]

"No kidding. It's going to be a garden walk once we get rid of the bonds."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Thank fuck for that. I'm ready to eat something delicious and go swimming." They mused and a smile at the ceiling at the thought.

[Laila Bridger]

Laila made short work of her gag, but spoke very softly at first.

"People use this shit for fun? Anyone else aware and okay?"

[Laila will replace the recently-shed "I do not mind dying but I refuse to be beaten" Statement with "Remain Human"]
---
Resilience hard to chew through gag: 3eD+2eP+1eA+2eB 2 successes, 3 advantage

[Kannon]

"Are you asking me out?" Duncan hid the pain from what shigawire was doing to his body with casual flirtatiousness.

Xard and Yoll were not replying. "Oh hey Laila, you sound nicer than whe you are on drugs. Yeah, can anyone see how the doc is doing?"

[Laila Bridger]

"On it".

She started a sort of slither toward one of the others, her speed hampered by a desire to not re-open the wounds she'd given herself trying to headbutt their tormentor.

[Kiran Alsahar]

"People use this shit for fun? Anyone else aware and okay?"

"No idea. We sure don't, even at a normal concentration." Kiran grumped.

"Are you asking me out?" Duncan hid the pain from what shigawire was doing to his body with casual flirtatiousness.

Xard and Yoll were not replying. "Oh hey Laila, you sound nicer than whe you are on drugs. Yeah, can anyone see how the doc is doing?"

Kiran made an effort to angle up as much as they could to look around. Unfortunately, it made their wrists brace to balance and they grit their teeth as they replied, "You're certainly welcome to come with if you want. I know some great spots in freshwater or ocean. There's nothing like unexpectedly spotting a whale, though." They could hear the pain, and chose to be a distraction from it instead of drawing attention to it.

[Kannon]

"On it".

She started a sort of slither toward one of the others, her speed hampered by a desire to not re-open the wounds she'd given herself trying to headbutt their tormentor.

Laila had to give up quickly unless she resigned herself to having her limbs cut off at wrists and ankles.

Kiran had more luck, they caught at least a part of Vim's body with her darkvision, but it was unmoving. Nor even twitching or undulating. He was either in deep stupor, or dead. He'd been here before them and if they extrapolated their hypermigraine, haze, vertigo and grogginess, they could fathom how brain could just jump off the carousel at some point and not want any lucidity any more.

Thra Yoll and the other Muadh within the reach of their gaze, however, were more apparently dead, their faces hardly contorted, but eyes empty and unmoving. They were where they all would be soon...

"Swimming with whales, that's a date I... haven't... had... yet." Duncan said through gritting teeth and with arrested breath. He was wounding himself to weaken shigawire enough for it to snap on the edge of the rock, using some harder bones of his body as support. If he survived this, Yueh could probably patch him up. Then, first small success came, and his chest was free... "Hey, I can breathe. Hands now."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Vim's unresponsive," they murmured. "I can't tell if stupor or dead from here. People's brains just give up on this concentration at some point."

"Sure. Pit barbecue and swimming while we wait. Sounds pretty good," they agreed as they listened to the sounds of pain. They sought out another rock with their hands, seeing if the wire was sharp enough to sharpen it.

[Laila Bridger]

"So how is it we're here, then? Only ones moving? Some of the local Muadh came in when we did."

Internally, Laila's absolute and utter loathing for their captors couldn't actually get much more intense, but the fact that the gentle people who'd agreed to help them were apparently worse off didn't do her mood any favors.

[Kannon]

And then, they started hearing footsteps.

"Play possum." Duncan hissed. "Ain't ready."

Two voices, conversing.

"You think those Atreides fuckers will try something?"

"I mean, they got the spinehound with no casualties and evacced before we could track'em down. Marek is on edge, prepping his worst for their attempt. Why he ordered us to do the drugging."

"Jolly I am here and not anywhere near him. His odour makes me retch. Are you really ok with having a Tleilaxu for a boss?"

"What's your gripe. Solaris don't stink. Think it's worse than asteroid mining? I'll get myself a house on Balut after this, with sexy slaves and all."

"Eh. You think Londine is in it for the money too?"

"Hell if I know. His chief administrator does all the middlemanship with Marek. But why not. Ailar profits must be over the roof now, with those new strains tested with a little help of our honour-bound friends."

"Ahaha. Honour-bound. Good one. So how to dose this shit?"

"Marek said to light some smoke here, to keep them docile for now. He trusts no-one with his lab and his syringes."

"What a relief. I wouldn't touch any of that myself. All this Tleilaxu bioshit scares me."

[Kiran Alsahar]

Kiran lay still, eyes closed, knowing holding their breath wouldn't do any good with how long the ailar would hang in the air.

[Laila Bridger]

Here we fucking go again.

[Kannon]

One of the shadows at the far end of the cave stopped in the natural doorway.

"They look docile enough to me. Dead or stoned."

"Let's just light this up and be done with it."

"Yeah."

Soon, a bit of light filled the room as the brazier they'd dragged from the corner was lit with barra piled inside.

"It'll waft itself up, there's some exit into mountains up there. But let's put the seal on anyway. I'd rather have semuta."

"Plenty of opportunity for that on Balut, man!"

"Can't fucking wait!"

[One last chance to have a thought or a firm fact-memorising before drifting away into The Last Dream.]