Information on times this event will be run and links for how to get to Beta here.
Previews written by Arcanaville (Arcana on Titan)
Part One: The Immortal Game
![[Image: 8207300032_27457492d0_z.jpg]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8205/8207300032_27457492d0_z.jpg)
"You're insane. And coming from me, that's saying something."
The shadowy landscape, if you could call it that, made The Dream Doctor look even more mysterious, but Mender Silos had seen too much to be moved by such trivialities. But he made a mental note of it anyway, as he always did. Such theatricality could always be useful one day. Assuming there would be more days.
"I Must Concur With The Mender, As Much As It Pains Me To Do So. What You Propose Is Madness."
The voice of Prometheus sounded even more imposing than it normally was - no, not sounded. It *felt* more imposing. It didn't so much sound like it was coming from all directions, it sounded like it was always coming from the direction one focused on. It was always coming *directly at you*. Whether Prometheus intended to intimidate, this was one audience that would not be cowed.
"It is the only way."
The Dream Doctor had proposed this meeting, and its location. They were in Ouroboros, or at least a version of it. This was actually the piece of Ouroboros that lay within Dreamspace, a place where few could navigate and even fewer could locate this nexus of time, space, and consciousness. Prometheus would be able to meet here and Silos, The Doctor grudgingly conceded, would also have the means to find this place with only minor assistance. If his plan were to have any chance to succeed, The Dream Doctor would need help, and unfortunately these two were the best suited.
That did not mean they would be the most cooperative.
"My Guidance Has Led The Incarnates To Defeat Cole, It Will Lead Them To Defeat The Coming Storm."
"Your 'guidance' has brought humanity to the brink of defeat. I have seen this."
"How?" Mender Silos, the man once known as Lord Nemesis, the Great Manipulator and Schemer, spoke a little too soon. In the company of ordinary men, this would have gone unnoticed.
"So you know." The Dream Doctor was no ordinary man.
"What Do You Believe You Know" Prometheus said, although it did not sound like a question. It sounded like Prometheus almost challenged them to say something he could not dismiss as trivial.
The Dream Doctor ignored the implication. "The Battalion has begun preparing for their arrival. They have set the noose."
Prometheus glared, but did not speak. Mender Silos sensed Prometheus did not understand, and could not resist lording knowledge over the ordinarily inscrutable being. "I have tried to see what effect Cole's defeat has had upon the Coming Storm. However, not even my abilities allow me to see more than a few months ahead in time."
The Dream Doctor continued "They are aware of you, Prometheus. They are aware of your machinations. They are not concerned about your attempts to put up any resistance. They care only your interference could cost them their prize. They have surrounded Primal Earth in all directions with a barrier."
"Not just in space, but in time as well," Silos added.
"In space, in time, across dimensions. We are in the center of a bubble that traps us here. And the bubble is shrinking. The Battalion are herding us, ensuring we do not escape their grasp, so that all of the potential of the Wellspring is theirs to consume."
"It Matters Not. The Incarnates Will Prevail, The Battalion Will Be Defeated, And All Will Return To The Path I Have Laid Out."
"No, it won't. The defeat of Cole has weakened the Wellspring. The energy he once commanded has been dissipated."
"It Will Be Returned To The Well."
"Eventually, but not soon enough. When the Battalion arrives, the Incarnates will not have the strength to repel them."
"How do you know this?" Silos had already guessed, but he had to be sure.
"As I said, I have seen it."
"If We Are Corralled As You Claim, How Can You Have Seen Our Fate."
"The Battalion are conquerors, they are seekers and wielders of power, they are ravagers and consumers and destroyers" the Dream Doctor explained. But they are not dreamers. They have no power here. At least not yet. Dreamspace is still open to me, and through it I have seen the dreams of what is to come. The Battalion come, and the Incarnates fight, but in the end they are swept away. They fall heroically, but they fall nonetheless. In every version of every possible timeline, they fall."
"You're still crazy." Silos said, although it sounded less like he meant it, and more like he was trying to convince himself.
"We can still save our reality."
"By destroying it?"
"Again, I Must Concur With The Mender. You Propose Destroying Us To Save Us."
The plan the Dream Doctor had proposed to them was so shocking that at first neither Prometheus nor Silos could comment, probably the first and last time such an event would ever occur in all the multiverse. After Emperor Cole was defeated, The Dream Doctor set his mind upon a quandary. Cole was no longer a champion of the Well. His energy had been released back to the Well, where it could be tapped by the Incarnates who would attempt to defend his world. But it nagged upon him: what if instead of standing and fighting Cole had tried to escape? What if he had fled? Could he have stolen that energy and taken it with him? Perhaps the Wellspring would not allow him to do that. But still it puzzled him. The Wellspring did not control all incarnate power: it wasn't sentient in that respect. It was a concentration of potential and consciousness, but it wasn't an individual entity in that sense. It did not Dream. What if all the Incarnates fled Primal Earth? Would that deny their power to the Battalion? Could that be a way to at least slow them down? And why had none before our world tried that before?
And that's when he discovered it. Only one such as he could truly find it, although a Mender such as Silos would eventually detect it indirectly. The Barrier. The Battalion ensured no amount of potential escaped their rampage by surrounding it, encasing it in an ever contracting container. The human mind struggled to conceptualize what was happening. There would be no escape. Every trajectory would be blocked. Except one.
Dreamspace was still free of the Battalion's touch. Wells do not dream. The Battalion, beings empowered by countless Wellsprings of potential, use their power to make thought into reality. They hunger, they aspire, but they do not dream. They were so far removed from what they once were they could not even conceive of dreaming. And because of that, their power did not extend to Dreamspace.
And that's when The Dream Doctor conceived of The Plan. The Battalion had done most of the work. They had created a barrier from which all Incarnate potential could not escape out. The Dream Doctor would take that, and convert it into a barrier of Dreaming. It would be an impassable moat of Dreamspace through which nothing from the outside could enter without first entering Dreamspace. And that was anathema to the Battalion. His world would be saved.
The problem, of course, was the cost.
"Destroying is a strong word. I propose ... transformation."
"As grass is transformed within a cow."
"Don't be crude Silos. We will take the *potential* of the Well and use it to *actualize* our world within a protective shield."
"We'll be destroying reality and spitting it back out again."
"Do you have a better idea, Last Deceiver?"
Silos almost winced. The Dream Doctor knew more of Lord Nemesis' future and Mender Silos' past than he let on, if he knew of that epithet and the circumstances surrounding it. And in truth, Silos did not have a better plan.
"And how about you, 'Keeper' of the Flame?" The Dream Doctor was playing all his cards now, for there would not be another hand to play. He stressed the first word of that title, to prove he knew that which Prometheus had kept secret for so long. The Dream Doctor spent months learning all he could about these two "men" and the task ahead. He knew he could not really threaten either of them, but among such beings as they, knowledge was power. He needed to prove he was willing to play this out to the end.
"Suppose we agree to this. I assume you have a way to make it actually happen."
"I have the basics. But I need two things, which is why you are here. I will need someone with the ability to control Incarnate power. That is why you are here, Prometheus."
"And as for me?"
"You, Silos, I wish I could do without. But I need something only you can provide."
"And that is?"
The Dream Doctor smirked, and for the first time since the meeting began he looked right into the eyes of Silos. "I need a Nemesis plot."
...
Previews written by Arcanaville (Arcana on Titan)
Part One: The Immortal Game
"You're insane. And coming from me, that's saying something."
The shadowy landscape, if you could call it that, made The Dream Doctor look even more mysterious, but Mender Silos had seen too much to be moved by such trivialities. But he made a mental note of it anyway, as he always did. Such theatricality could always be useful one day. Assuming there would be more days.
"I Must Concur With The Mender, As Much As It Pains Me To Do So. What You Propose Is Madness."
The voice of Prometheus sounded even more imposing than it normally was - no, not sounded. It *felt* more imposing. It didn't so much sound like it was coming from all directions, it sounded like it was always coming from the direction one focused on. It was always coming *directly at you*. Whether Prometheus intended to intimidate, this was one audience that would not be cowed.
"It is the only way."
The Dream Doctor had proposed this meeting, and its location. They were in Ouroboros, or at least a version of it. This was actually the piece of Ouroboros that lay within Dreamspace, a place where few could navigate and even fewer could locate this nexus of time, space, and consciousness. Prometheus would be able to meet here and Silos, The Doctor grudgingly conceded, would also have the means to find this place with only minor assistance. If his plan were to have any chance to succeed, The Dream Doctor would need help, and unfortunately these two were the best suited.
That did not mean they would be the most cooperative.
"My Guidance Has Led The Incarnates To Defeat Cole, It Will Lead Them To Defeat The Coming Storm."
"Your 'guidance' has brought humanity to the brink of defeat. I have seen this."
"How?" Mender Silos, the man once known as Lord Nemesis, the Great Manipulator and Schemer, spoke a little too soon. In the company of ordinary men, this would have gone unnoticed.
"So you know." The Dream Doctor was no ordinary man.
"What Do You Believe You Know" Prometheus said, although it did not sound like a question. It sounded like Prometheus almost challenged them to say something he could not dismiss as trivial.
The Dream Doctor ignored the implication. "The Battalion has begun preparing for their arrival. They have set the noose."
Prometheus glared, but did not speak. Mender Silos sensed Prometheus did not understand, and could not resist lording knowledge over the ordinarily inscrutable being. "I have tried to see what effect Cole's defeat has had upon the Coming Storm. However, not even my abilities allow me to see more than a few months ahead in time."
The Dream Doctor continued "They are aware of you, Prometheus. They are aware of your machinations. They are not concerned about your attempts to put up any resistance. They care only your interference could cost them their prize. They have surrounded Primal Earth in all directions with a barrier."
"Not just in space, but in time as well," Silos added.
"In space, in time, across dimensions. We are in the center of a bubble that traps us here. And the bubble is shrinking. The Battalion are herding us, ensuring we do not escape their grasp, so that all of the potential of the Wellspring is theirs to consume."
"It Matters Not. The Incarnates Will Prevail, The Battalion Will Be Defeated, And All Will Return To The Path I Have Laid Out."
"No, it won't. The defeat of Cole has weakened the Wellspring. The energy he once commanded has been dissipated."
"It Will Be Returned To The Well."
"Eventually, but not soon enough. When the Battalion arrives, the Incarnates will not have the strength to repel them."
"How do you know this?" Silos had already guessed, but he had to be sure.
"As I said, I have seen it."
"If We Are Corralled As You Claim, How Can You Have Seen Our Fate."
"The Battalion are conquerors, they are seekers and wielders of power, they are ravagers and consumers and destroyers" the Dream Doctor explained. But they are not dreamers. They have no power here. At least not yet. Dreamspace is still open to me, and through it I have seen the dreams of what is to come. The Battalion come, and the Incarnates fight, but in the end they are swept away. They fall heroically, but they fall nonetheless. In every version of every possible timeline, they fall."
"You're still crazy." Silos said, although it sounded less like he meant it, and more like he was trying to convince himself.
"We can still save our reality."
"By destroying it?"
"Again, I Must Concur With The Mender. You Propose Destroying Us To Save Us."
The plan the Dream Doctor had proposed to them was so shocking that at first neither Prometheus nor Silos could comment, probably the first and last time such an event would ever occur in all the multiverse. After Emperor Cole was defeated, The Dream Doctor set his mind upon a quandary. Cole was no longer a champion of the Well. His energy had been released back to the Well, where it could be tapped by the Incarnates who would attempt to defend his world. But it nagged upon him: what if instead of standing and fighting Cole had tried to escape? What if he had fled? Could he have stolen that energy and taken it with him? Perhaps the Wellspring would not allow him to do that. But still it puzzled him. The Wellspring did not control all incarnate power: it wasn't sentient in that respect. It was a concentration of potential and consciousness, but it wasn't an individual entity in that sense. It did not Dream. What if all the Incarnates fled Primal Earth? Would that deny their power to the Battalion? Could that be a way to at least slow them down? And why had none before our world tried that before?
And that's when he discovered it. Only one such as he could truly find it, although a Mender such as Silos would eventually detect it indirectly. The Barrier. The Battalion ensured no amount of potential escaped their rampage by surrounding it, encasing it in an ever contracting container. The human mind struggled to conceptualize what was happening. There would be no escape. Every trajectory would be blocked. Except one.
Dreamspace was still free of the Battalion's touch. Wells do not dream. The Battalion, beings empowered by countless Wellsprings of potential, use their power to make thought into reality. They hunger, they aspire, but they do not dream. They were so far removed from what they once were they could not even conceive of dreaming. And because of that, their power did not extend to Dreamspace.
And that's when The Dream Doctor conceived of The Plan. The Battalion had done most of the work. They had created a barrier from which all Incarnate potential could not escape out. The Dream Doctor would take that, and convert it into a barrier of Dreaming. It would be an impassable moat of Dreamspace through which nothing from the outside could enter without first entering Dreamspace. And that was anathema to the Battalion. His world would be saved.
The problem, of course, was the cost.
"Destroying is a strong word. I propose ... transformation."
"As grass is transformed within a cow."
"Don't be crude Silos. We will take the *potential* of the Well and use it to *actualize* our world within a protective shield."
"We'll be destroying reality and spitting it back out again."
"Do you have a better idea, Last Deceiver?"
Silos almost winced. The Dream Doctor knew more of Lord Nemesis' future and Mender Silos' past than he let on, if he knew of that epithet and the circumstances surrounding it. And in truth, Silos did not have a better plan.
"And how about you, 'Keeper' of the Flame?" The Dream Doctor was playing all his cards now, for there would not be another hand to play. He stressed the first word of that title, to prove he knew that which Prometheus had kept secret for so long. The Dream Doctor spent months learning all he could about these two "men" and the task ahead. He knew he could not really threaten either of them, but among such beings as they, knowledge was power. He needed to prove he was willing to play this out to the end.
"Suppose we agree to this. I assume you have a way to make it actually happen."
"I have the basics. But I need two things, which is why you are here. I will need someone with the ability to control Incarnate power. That is why you are here, Prometheus."
"And as for me?"
"You, Silos, I wish I could do without. But I need something only you can provide."
"And that is?"
The Dream Doctor smirked, and for the first time since the meeting began he looked right into the eyes of Silos. "I need a Nemesis plot."
...