View source for Holes/Session 10.5

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Rhu is pulled into the ground with tentacles. He wakes up sprawled on the sand. But it doesn’t feel like sand.

He’s on a beach: the water is black and oily, no real waves, just setting there.

A cat appears from the sea. She later turns into Amadi? No. The cat is separate from other-Amadi who is in the wrong colours. The cat does not look happy.

They sit around for a while, Rhu scratching the cat?

other-Amadi: “The Dreamer must speak.”

other-Amadi: “The cat is dead.” [this is not true]

other-Amadi hands him a stone with a symbol of a tree growing on it.

It’s a shiny stone.

other-Amadi wearing leather and stuff.

There is no beach. Now we are in a room. The cat is not there. other-Amadi has changed clothes: summery type dress. Her dress matches the curtain.

“It’s a mind [who’s mind?] You don’t know? Of course you know. You’ve always known.”

The walls are made of wood. other-Amadi starts dancing in the centre of the room.

“Hazz’ridan of Arista Shei”

The room explodes. Rhu lands on his feet.

Now he’s in a room with Abrear. Chatting, reading comics, talking to each other. Looking at a younger himself. He goes home and meets his dad.

other-Amadi is back.

“This is the Library. You’re looking for something. You won’t find it, of course.”

“[what am I looking for?] You tell me. It’s your dream”

“Can we get back to the beach?” “Hazz —“ she says, and everything kind of fades away.

Blackness. Nothingness. Light coming from nowhere in particular. other-Amadi is dressed in shadows.

“We were talking about Vitoi” “Who?” other-Amadi vanishes.

He cannot feel anything.

“Hazz … ?” he says.

Blackness changes, takes on shiny qualities, gleaming. Tentacles appear. He tries to touch one of the tentacles, feels slightly gloopy — jellyfish like, but black and thick.

Rhu strokes the tentacle. It wraps around his arm slightly. He looks around. Tentacles are everywhere, drifting out of basically nothing.

Rhu prays. Somebody sounding like Hazz’ridan answers.

“Hazz’ridan the Great?” “… does this look like greatness to you?”

“Come closer” “Which way is closer?” [towards the tentacles apparently]

“You are a good little servant.” “… Thanks?”

Cold and enveloping, not warn like Amadi was.

“What am I doing here?” “Dreamer” “Dreaming of what?”

“You know her. She would blind you if you let her? Mrs. Teatime? That is not a name she would use … but yes.”

“So — I am in Mrs. Teatime’s dream?” “No, you are in my dream.” “Why have you brought me here, my lord?” “To see.” “To see what?” “To see.”

The tentacles fade away. Now he’s standing in a vast hall. There is a large throne at the end. Like a throne for a giant. Pillars, door at the other end. The light is mostly just there. There are windows, but they’re opaque and glowing. Light doesn’t seem to be coming from them.

Winged cat is sitting on throne, licking its leg.

The room seems to shift slightly, like he’s seeing a different version of the room. It’s full of spectres, shades. There’s a normal-sized person (elf? human?) standing in front of the throne on the platform, facing the spirits. The cat’s still licking itself.

The spirits are pressing forwards, towards the platform. Near the platform, they stop, and then periodically vanish. Rhu’s hand goes through it. “Hello?” Nothing happens.

The guy before the throne seems realer than the others; sometimes he’ll nod slightly or do things like that.

Rhu sits down and watches the going-ons. The cat licks its other leg.

“Hazz?” Nothing. Rhu prays again. Nothing happens. Rhu chills out for a while, but is interrupted when the cat walks out the door. The guy in front of the throne — completely there, dark gray robes — steps aside as it walks by. His hood is up. Rhu FOLLOWS THE CAT >>>>

 - Guy: probably human, dark grey robes in perfect condition, everything about the guy is precise, in good shape but not muscular, seems to command authority, he’s standing there like he owns the room.
 - Face: fairly not terribly interesting, but probably human. No beard.

Guy watches me leave. Rhu waves at him. Guy raises an eyebrow but waves back. Guy smiles after him.

Outside: everything is really grey, doesn’t look like Sarathi. Lots of stone and dust blowing around. The cat walks through the door, Rhu doesn’t see it on the other side. VANISHED?!?!?!

There are people outside. One person is walking into a lamppost, over and over and over again. Other people seem to be wandering aimlessly. Rhu looks at the Gr. Hall; it looks smaller from the outside. There is a huge tower behind it, impossibly tall.

People: all wearing the same sorts of robes.

Rhu walks up to the man walking into the lamppost. He starts screaming, but Rhu calms him down. Then he comes at Rhu teeth-first, but Rhu dodges. “He’s Lost” a passerby says. “Just Lost.”

“What are you doing here?” “Hazz’ridan sent me. He thought thi would be a good idea.” “I am so sorry.” He also starts laughing. “What’s so funny … ?” He doesn’t answer that.

“This is the city of death”

Sky: similar to the one on the beach. The sky seems further away, though. Everythign is dry and grey, except for the cats. They’re colourful and they stand out, and are larger than domestic cats.

Some buildings look strange, others look vaguely familiar.

Rhu feels perfectly fine, and not tired at all.

“Stories?” “What’s that?” “Stories.” [more insistently]

The cat puts its head right in its face. “Then what?” “Do you want to come with me and find out.” This confuses the sphinx entirely.

He walks back in to the Great Hall, asks the Guy where he can find Hazz’ridan.

Guy explains that finding where a God is oxymoronic. People here are dead, including the spirits. Guy is formal and stuff.

He hears whispers on the radio. He can’t make it out.

He walks out the great hall. Sphinx follows at a distance. “Do you have a name?” “Names” it hisses.

There are shadows that twist around things, light that’s just sort of there, dust everywhere.

He gets completely lost, but he can still see the tower. It looks like there are buildings. They’re not terribly big buildings.

There is an archway, with two sphinxes sitting on top of them. A woman of indeterminate species is looking up at them.

“They’ll do it, you know” “do what?” “they’ll eat you” “huh. Are you sure?”

“How do you know what happened?”

My sphinx has orange eyes.

I’m not really aware of how much time is passing.

The tower changes as you approach it - -at first it was just a nondescript tower that just went up, no real features. Now it has features. Like architecture thingie majiggies. 

There’s another tower wrapped around the first tower, weaving through some of the bits.

He reaches a plaza. The tower is in the middle, with open space all around.

There’s a river that seems to be flowing OUT of the tower from both sides.

The base of the tower is pretty small, with supports coming out.

He finds a place to pitch a tent, and lies there for a short while. When he comes out, the city has changed dramatically — everything is still there, but it’s sandy with sand dunes everywhere, and the buildings are smooth and rounded. The sand feels surprisingly light, like dusk, light and fluffy, but it does feel like normal sand. It is light grey in colour.

A bunch of daemons appear to be fighting a bunch of people. The people are in grey and seem to just be messing with the daemons: most of the people aren’t fighting.

 - “An invasion …” “Who would attack the city of the dead?” “That is a good question.”

It’s a different tower now: like the buildings, smooth and rounded, only taller. There is no other tower wrapped, and no other river. There are now less people, and they’re mostly weaponised and armed and stuff.

The plaza is now circular.

Rhu walks into a building with a sign on the front. The inside is basically empty — it looks like a giant hut. Lots of sand, particularly away from the door. bit bigger than a yurt, but made of stone.

A tiny fish flops out of the sand and sits there. The sphinx eats it.

There are fish flying around the city, trout-sized. They fly in streams, above a particular height (12 feet), never dipping below it.

Rhu prays to Hazz’ridan for guidance. The sphinx comes up to him and says something. Hisses: “Escape”. He opens his eye, he’s back on the beach. The sand is slightly oily and slightly plastic, like something you might stuff a bean bag with.

A tentacle comes out of the ground. The cat hisses, the sphinx hides behind Rhu.

“Now you see …” “I’m afraid I don’t, my Lord.” “You will see.” “I look forward to this.” “There was something to witness, but the city is  … different, and has a mind of its own.”

“Where is this beach?” “This is the Library” “of books?” “Of everything”

“You have come to me. You have seen Kyrule. You have seen Eapherod.”

“Where are my friends?” “Still there.” “Am I dead?” “[Hazz says something about this being his realm … here, there are always ends, but elsewhere the ends aren’t his]” “Aren’t all ends yours?” “They should be. This must be fixed.” “How do we fix this?”

The tentacle is now playing with the cat.

“You will be my champion …”

“There is always an end.” “How do we find it?” “Keep looking. I will guide you.”

“Where should I go next, my lord?” “Back.”

Rhu nods. It all sort of fades away.

And Rhu falls on his face in the vacant lot. There’s a sphinx sitting on his butt.
 - Gravy is standing in a hole that he dug. He has revealed a cone with a door in it. The door contains sand. There are a bunch of bones beside the hole that they pulled out. They look like cat bones. The cat looks like the cat from the beach. The sand appears to be the sand from the wings.
 - Radek stands beside the hole performing a ritual.
 - Griebel is off to the side somewhere.
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