Inbox - Isle of Avalon

[thepattern]

username: silver.rose

✉ ☏

Comments

March event overflow - Dust

[thepattern]

[ » from here ]

[ Dust may have had success leaping over problems in the past, but it won't serve him well this time. As soon as both feet lift off the ground, the pattern considers that the same as stepping off the path, and the blue flames reach up to consume Dust's body.

It's all over in a moment, as his molecules combust and his body is torn asunder. Perhaps it's painful. Perhaps it's the single most painful thing one can ever experience. Corwin wouldn't know. He's never been dumb enough to step off of the pattern. In any case, Dust is lucky that this dream pattern is not the real thing, and that it is gracious enough to give him a second chance. The smoke and, well, dust from his disassembled body drifts back to the start of the pattern as though carried on a breeze, and reassembles itself into a whole form.

Corwin, whose eyes had gone wide the moment Dust jumped, breathes a silent sigh of relief and leans back once more in his tree limb perch. ]

Lucky you! You get a mulligan. Remember this time, you can't step off the pattern. That includes jumping.

[mithrarin]

[Second most painful. Lava was the first. And Dust doesn't care much about pain anyway -- he's gritting his teeth out of frustration and anger, not pain.]

What kind of a nonsensical rule is that? If I run too fast and both my feet leave the ground, does it count that?!

[thepattern]

[ Interested in seeing how this will play out, Corwin slides down from his perch in the tree, and begins to walk at a leisurely pace, circling the edge of the pattern. ]

The matter is intent. The pattern will know if you are trying to run, or trying to jump. And besides, once you get far enough in, the resistance will be so great that it will take all of your willpower just to lift one foot at a time, let alone run.

[mithrarin]

[Heh. Dust's been through worse. Physical resistance is nothing compared to some of the stuff in his mind he has to shrug off. Still...]

So no jumping. Nice of the rules to be perfectly clear before going in.

[thepattern]

[ Corwin laughs and offers an exaggerated bow. ]

My apologies, dear traveler. I forget that the intricacies of the pattern are not common knowledge throughout all of Shadow.

[ Never mind that no one without the blood of Amber would ever be able to walk a real pattern. ]

[mithrarin]

[Dust shakes his head, turning back to frown at the quasi-maze he hasn't yet stepped into again.] I'm not blaming you. It just doesn't make sense. Why make a challenge that has such arbitrary rules, and not explain them somehow?