Ardent Ascent

[Avidro]

Spoiler: Introduction and Rules

This is a companion choose-your-own-adventure thread that runs parallel to the events of Umbra Rumble, starting at the end of Umbra Rumble IV onward. Spoilers for the plot of Umbra Rumble may be found in this thread; proceed at your own risk.

At the same time, however, as befitting a choose-your-own-adventure story, you the participant shall have a voice in how the plot of this adventure unfolds, and by extension, you may influence the future plot of Umbra Rumble as well.

To play, simply read the most recent narrative post in this thread and post what you would like to happen next. Readers of Homestuck should be very familiar with this interactive story format. There are no requirements to post commands for the current player character; anyone may participate, but not every command submitted by a reader will be incorporated into the story as it unfolds. As DM, it is up to my discretion as to which commands will be chosen to advance the plot.

You are now the Deimon Master.

You find yourself standing in a circular room, which you hazily recall as the base floor of a monolithic obsidian tower that you found jutting from the ocean deeps within your own subconscious mind.

With the aid of a unicornshape deimon of Caprice named the Tantabus, you gained lucidity enough within your dreamscape to magically traverse the ocean floor, and courage enough to gain entry to this forbidding spire.

By some obscure yet irrefutable dream logic, you know in your bones that you must ascend this tower in order to regain consciousness. Your bones are also painfully aware that this will be an arduous climb, to say the least.

In fact, you're certain you can't do it alone.

But you're certainly going to try.

What will you do?​

 

[TheJLT]

Spoiler: My thoughts

Hmmm, I've never done anything like this, so I'm just going to experiment.
I hope that this isn't too tedious or complicated.
I also hope that I haven't misunderstood what commands are.
Eh, he can erase my contributions if I'm stupid.

Spoiler: <mistaken assumption of the deffinition of command> Please ignore

"Ouch."
He rubs each of his bones before looking at the floor expectantly.
"If everything is as it should be, then a test of will and courage shouldn't be too hard, right?"
In order to test the mechanics of the tower, the Deimon Master tentatively places one foot on the first step of the tower.
As his foot comes into contact with the step, the step begins to smile at him.
The Deimon Master realizes the exact mechanics of the first step, and by extension, the tower, just as it begins to speak to him.
"What is the hardest question that you have come across in your journey."
Firming up his resolve, the Deimon Master ignores the question and closes the mouth of the face on the step.
As he does this the face evaporates into two distinctly differently colored gaseous substances which clump into different spheres and begin to orbit him.
Being a dream, he knows exactly what the gasses do.
The red gas will, once absorbed, causes him to lose control over the dream space and can possibly reset the dream if too much is absorbed.
"Absorbing this is the opposite of what I want to do. I have to find a way to be rid of it." He thinks.
The blue gas appears to slightly raise his lucidity, allowing him to gain partial control over the dream space in exchange for everything slightly losing it's corporeality.
Frowning, he looks around and wonders why they are orbiting him.
"Eh, we can figure that out later." The Deimon Master mutters aloud.
Deciding to do what he wants to do next, he does it.

 

[Jimothy]

>Retrieve arm from cloak.

 

[TheJLT]

>Retrieve arm from cloak.

I SEE NOW!!! Sorry for my incorrect interpretation of a command.

 

[Avidro]

I SEE NOW!!!

You see before you a circular room made of smooth stone: slate gray and polished on the floor and on the spiral staircase that rises up from the center of the room, and dull red from floor to ceiling around the perimeter wall. From the floor to about a meter high on that same wall, three trails of termites march in three orderly lines. The top and bottom trails march clockwise at the same pace and spacing, while the middle trail marches the opposite direction, also at the same pace and spacing. Gazing too long at the termite trails, you would get the impression that the room itself is slowly rotating, except the fixed golden termite-shaped wall sconces above them make it clear that it's just an optical illusion created by their marching patterns. The wall sconces themselves seem to radiate ribbon-like pulses of red energy that slowly undulate across the wall from the base of one sconce to another; this is the main source of light in the room, apart from a similar lavender-colored glow emitted from a beeshape deimon buzzing and hovering in midair just before the first step of the spiral staircase, its eerie, deimonic white bug eyes at a level with your own -- and its glowing purple stinger, as well.

Aside from all that, you notice some purple-tinged embossed ant carvings on either side of the spiral staircase, their position, spacing, and angles giving the impression of one column of ants marching upward just below the top of each step, and another column of ants marching downward just above the bottom of each step. This pattern appears to be present on both sides of the staircase, based on what you can see from your current angle of view.

>Retrieve arm from cloak.

As you wish.​

 

[TheJLT]

(seeing as how I'm unable to complete this alone)
Collect as many termites as possible.
Then Place the illusory termites on the ant carvings going upward.
Use cloak, hands, and deimon to help with this task.

 

[TheJLT]

Spoiler

Is the requirement for advancement "at least two people must comment".

Ascend steps on the left side of the stairs.
Ensure that cloak is flapping in the self created wind.

 

[Marken]

seeing as how this is your subconscious, try to float.

 

[TheJLT]

seeing as how this is your subconscious, try to float.

NO! you must have CONFIDENCE!!! BELIEVE in yourself!!! FLOAT!!!!!!!!

 

[Jimothy]

>Catch the bee, using your cloak as a net.

 

[Jimothy]

>Assess ability to summon deimons.

 

[Avidro]

Ascend steps on the left side of the stairs.
Ensure that cloak is flapping in the self created wind.

Bad idea, it would seem!!​

seeing as how this is your subconscious, try to float.

NO! you must have CONFIDENCE!!! BELIEVE in yourself!!! FLOAT!!!!!!!!

BEE?! LEAVE!
...

Oh, turns out you can float. Nice.

That beeshape deimon clearly means bzz-ness, though.
What to do...?​

>Catch the bee, using your cloak as a net.

Your cloak? But you LIKE this cloak!

...It's surprisingly easy to clasp!

As you ponder that idea, however, you get the unmistakable sense that you're forgetting something important about your cloak. Try as you might, you just can't grasp it. Must be something about these weird dream mechanics. Maybe there's a way to remember...​

 

[TheJLT]

Spoiler: a lot

View attachment 5747
Bad idea, it would seem!!



View attachment 5748
BEE?! LEAVE!
...



View attachment 5749
Oh, turns out you can float. Nice.

That beeshape deimon clearly means bzz-ness, though.
What to do...?


Your cloak? But you LIKE this cloak!

View attachment 5750

...It's surprisingly easy to clasp!

As you ponder that idea, however, you get the unmistakable sense that you're forgetting something important about your cloak. Try as you might, you just can't grasp it. Must be something about these weird dream mechanics. Maybe there's a way to remember...​

(Since I cannot remember) Ask bee if it knows a method of ascending the tower and if it knows what I'm supposed to remember. (All while trying to remember what I'm supposed to. Maybe even missing out on what was communicated to me.)

 

[Jimothy]

> [S ] Remember

 

[TheJLT]

> [S ] Remember

I like to think of it as:
[1] Peel the floor. (safe)
[2] Command the bee. (dangerous)
>[3] Remember. (insane)
[4] Find a good diet. (impossible)

 

[TheJLT]

Oh yes, temporarily flee from the bee. Perhaps since my dream powers are working, [CREATE (fake, less amazing{but I would still look stunning in it}) cloak with which I shall use to apprehend the bee(created with my MIND)!]

 

[Marken]

> alternatively, CREATE staff to apprehend the beeimon.

 

[TheJLT]

>Even better, Create awesome wizard hat and a wizard cane staff. Since I'm the Deimon Master, Canes are the best.

 

[Avidro]

Oh yes, temporarily flee from the bee. Perhaps since my dream powers are working, [CREATE (fake, less amazing{but I would still look stunning in it}) cloak with which I shall use to apprehend the bee(created with my MIND)!]

> alternatively, CREATE staff to apprehend the beeimon.

>Even better, Create awesome wizard hat and a wizard cane staff. Since I'm the Deimon Master, Canes are the best.

>Assess ability to summon deimons.

Ah yes, you vaguely remember being a conjurer of sorts, back in the waking world.
If you can float, should be simple enough to conjure, right?

...Nothing happened.
Maybe that's something else you need to remember.

How come you can float and not conjure, though? Weird.
You don't remember being able to float while awake...

Or do you?
​

> [S ] Remember

Your own words come back to you...

Spoiler: You've unlocked a memory!

Ah yes... the rise and fall of the Penn Visla Sky Arena.
Truly, a masterwork of Corporeal craftsmanship.
Somehow, you were able to magically levitate that gargantuan mass of marble a mile high.

Now you remember. Your boots. The Boots of Behemoth.
If a marble arena of that size can be held aloft by their magic, and if they can hold at bay the very ocean you walked through to get to this tower...
Certainly, floating your own dream self should be no trouble for them.

Well, you're still afloat in midair, unable to conjure or summon, apparently.
What will you do now?​

 

[TheJLT]

Ah yes, you vaguely remember being a conjurer of sorts, back in the waking world.
If you can float, should be simple enough to conjure, right?

View attachment 5753

...Nothing happened.
Maybe that's something else you need to remember.

How come you can float and not conjure, though? Weird.
You don't remember being able to float while awake...

Or do you?



Your own words come back to you...

Spoiler: You've unlocked a memory!

Ah yes... the rise and fall of the Penn Visla Sky Arena.
Truly, a masterwork of Corporeal craftsmanship.
Somehow, you were able to magically levitate that gargantuan mass of marble a mile high.

View attachment 5785

Now you remember. Your boots. The Boots of Behemoth.
If a marble arena of that size can be held aloft by their magic, and if they can hold at bay the very ocean you walked through to get to this tower...
Certainly, floating your own dream self should be no trouble for them.

Well, you're still afloat in midair, unable to conjure or summon, apparently.
What will you do now?​

I uuh, see. Interesting.
>Super kick. (off the ground, into the air, around the bee, as fast as a slowly accelerating bullet.... because apparently the ocean has nothing on these boots.)

Spoiler: thinks

I believe he was making a metaphor.
You?! I've never met before!
Shut up back there.

>Also try to remember if my cloak has magic powers.