Two Men in a Boat
Michael
Marshall turns in a little early for a Saturday. The mental exhaustion of having to think completely differently about SANDMAN, URIEL, OZYMANDIAS, and the reality war might be taking a little more out of him than usual. And so, settling into bed at his residence at the Mission, Marshall sleeps, and more quickly than usual slips into REM sleep.
= October, 1967 =
It's another Vietnam dream. Marshall is semi-lucid, it seems, and the dream kicks in in a much more realistically-drawn setting than the more overtly-symbolic dream meant to ferret out the truth about Sophie last month. Marshall stands in a tiny Quonset hut at Lane Army Airfield at Qui Nhơn. With him in this room, gathered around a map of the uplands of Cambodia, are a MACV-SOG Huey pilot, Captain Donald Linn, and the MACV-SOG section's commanding officer, a black ops veteran named Captain [REDACTED]. And in his memory, Marshall cannot for the life of him conjure up the face (it appears as a faintly-glowing blur in the dream, as does his name tag) or name of this man who...
Who commanded the field team for Marshall's mission to the lost city of Indrapura.
Marshall's lucid consciousness slips away and he finds himself fully in these long-locked-away, traumatically-circumscribed memories. Dr. Redgrave, Captain Linn, and Captain [REDACTED] break their final pre-mission huddle and head out to the airfield to meet the grunts, the rest of the MACV-SOG black ops field section, who will be arriving from their barracks via Huey right now and are headed into uplands Cambodia with the CIA officer and the two MACV-SOG officers.
Brant
Seeing no reason not to go along with the dream-memory, Marshall just sort of goes with the flow.
Michael
Roger hops out of the Huey and his boots hit the tarmac at Lane Army Air Field in north-central South Vietnam. Roger and the rest of this hastily-assembled black ops team hustles over to a nearby Quonset where the brass are assembled. A pilot, a MACV-SOG hardass, and a bookish looking civilian type in Army greens. That's what 1967 Roger sees. 1973 Roger sees Marshall in his guru get-up.
Dreaming Marshall sees Roger among the black ops grunts piling out of the two Hueys and knows innately that this is his Roger, as well as the Roger he met for the first time six years ago on this tarmac. He's wearing the survival outfit he was packing for Shasta, while at the same time wearing his jungle fatigues.
Bill
It probably doesn't help with any dissonance that '67 Roger is a cocky SOB marine, but '73 Roger is all over the place emotionally: worried, but angry, frightened but determined. Neither is at all on Marshall's flow.
Michael
"Ladies! Hustle up here double time, di di mau lên!" shouts Captain [REDACTED] doing his best drill sergeant act (and doing a decent job of it for an officer). Roger can also not see or distinguish his facial features or identifying marks. In his hand the Captain has a standard-issue Army fire bucket. "Right now. All identifying insignia! Go in the fire bucket. All nametags and ID! Go in the fire bucket. All dog tags! Yes, in the fire bucket. All personal objects—yes, including that snapshot of your sweetheart you've been beating it to in-country! In the fucking bucket. This mission is strictly on the QT. If you should be terminated in the fire zone, your body will be torched and your bones will not get a parade back home in Bumfuck Missouri. But your family won't care about that when they get your hazard paycheck."
"Dr. White here," the Captain says in a marginally-more subdued voice, gesturing to Marshall, "is your CO for this mission, gentlemen."
One of the saltier Green Berets says, "The Company's calling the shots again, eh sir?" He gets a chuckle out of the other members of the section.
"Our dance card has been punched by a computer in Saigon, ladies, and on the side of that machine is either the letters IBM or CIA, I ain't sure which," the Captain says with a wink, keeping the squad on his side with some more tension-dispelling laughter. "Doctor? You care to tell the boys about the mission real quick?"
Bill
Roger dutifully dumps his dog tags, rank-insignia, and the obvious good-luck items he had dangling around his neck, rifle, and bandoleer. But he asks, "Hey, Captain: smokes are standard issue, we can keep those, right? Playing cards too?" He flashes the deck quickly, but holds-out some of its weirder additions.
Brant
Two questions: in the dream, is Marshall in SANDMAN? Like is he dream-remembering the SANDMAN jungle mission into the heart of darkness? And if so, does Dream Marshall remember the purpose of this mission? I can roll Dreaming or something if need be.
Michael
Roger dutifully dumps his dog tags, rank-insignia, and the obvious good-luck items he had dangling around his neck, rifle, and bandoleer. But he asks, "Hey, Captain: smokes are standard issue, we can keep those, right? Playing cards too?" He flashes the deck quickly, but holds-out some of its weirder additions.
"If you need smokes, grab some of those nasty French ones from the supply shack before we take off. Nothing overtly American on this mission; the Marlboro Man is officially disavowed on this trip." The Captain looks at Roger's playing cards cursorily, then says, "Keep 'em. But keep 'em where I or the doctor can get hold of them and burn 'em if we need to."
Two questions: in the dream, is Marshall in SANDMAN? Like is he dream-remembering the SANDMAN jungle mission into the heart of darkness? And if so, does Dream Marshall remember the purpose of this mission? I can roll Dreaming or something if need be.
At this point, yes, Marshall has been in SANDMAN since 1965. This is indeed the trip to the jungle that marked his nervous collapse and return stateside. It is unfolding pretty much exactly as he vaguely remembers it, but the dream is uncovering memory details that have been locked off to him since his trauma. And this mission was Marshall's idea:
"No Hueys for the rest of this trip except when we need evac once we've crossed back over into South Vietnam. The Captain here will be on standby," Captain [REDACTED] says, indicating Linn. "Radiomen," he indicates the two redundant radiomen on this mission, "you boys are gonna be treated like a couple of Buddhas on this mission. Not gonna let a fly land on your head."
Bill
Roger makes exaggerated motions to put the deck in an obvious outside pocket, nodding at the Captain and "Dr. White". No point in arguing with the brass. Simultaneously Roger is remembering having done that very same thing. Is this the past? The Enemy could have done it, put us here. But no, it's gotta be a simulation. Like GRAIL TABLE. Or... more like that time with the poster? Roger starts humming “What is Hip?”
Michael
(Anyway, I'll leave some space here for Marshall to do his mission briefing. Then we'll take off in two unmarked helis for the Cambodia/South Vietnam border, then to a patrol boat to take us up the temple.)
Brant
“Gentlemen.” He looks at each of them and again at Captain [REDACTED], attempting to see if he can recall any details about him. If he recognizes Roger, he doesn’t betray it. “Thank you for your time and attention. We go north, to a place — a ruin. इन्द्रपुरम्. Indrapura. The royal city of Indra, the daeva lord of the Hindu gods. He is the god of storms and war, who destroyed वृत्र, Vritra, the serpent coiled at the Celestial Mountain who brought drought upon the world. We have intel that the VC has been using the site, aided by an obscure order of Mahayana भिक्षु — bhikkus, holy men — to smuggle supplies and hide certain high priority targets. We believe they are responsible for passing along the intel that resulted in the ambush at Ong Thanh earlier this month. I’m sure you all read about it. We go now in retaliation for the lives we lost there and to retrieve something that was taken from us during that episode. This will be a live fire operation. No prisoners. No survivors. But we must do what we can to preserve the site. It has — historical significance.”
Michael
Marshall's natural NLP puts the men and even the two Captains into a placid, attentive frame of mind, even with all this excess information about historical significance and Hindu mythology, they seem riveted and take it all in.
Brant
Well, naturally they would. This is Marshall’s dream, after all.
Bill
One of the grunts seems less than enthralled. "Hey Doc? You saying we're going to find Charley there? Or somebody else?"
Brant
“Yes, Charlie will be there in some numbers — but they are not suspecting us. We must try to keep it that way.”
Bill
The grunt nods, "Roger, Charley, keep safe."
He makes double finger-guns at the doctor, then winks. "You got yourself an escort. We're plenty subtle. Oorah!"
Michael
"OORAH!"
If Marshall and Roger want to try to get some alone time next to each other on the chopper (where it would be very hard to overhear their conversation, especially if it's Danbe, ahem), I think that can be easily arranged by Mr. Lucid Dreamer over here with a Dreaming-15 roll.
Brant
I'm not sure Marshall knows enough about this whole ... thing to really try lucid dreaming at this point? It's not unusual for the mind to conflate people in the present day for their past selves, so the fact that Marshall knows on an instinctive level that this is both Young Roger and Present Day Roger isn't enough to trigger anything. I definitely want to make some Dreaming rolls but I feel like he needs more prompting before he starts trying to "assert" himself.
Michael
That's cool.
Brant
Basically I feel like Marshall needs a bit more prompting from Roger before he starts thinking, "Hm, that's weird, even for a dream."
Bill
Given the Huey will be loud as hell, I'm not sure we'll be able to speak. Maybe ASL?
But yeah, Roger will do his best to sit right the hell next to the Doc, even if that's usually the brass's place.
But the first thing he does is, he takes the King of Hearts and King of Diamonds out of his deck and puts them together under the band of his helmet, Suicide King on top.
Michael
1967 Marshall knows ASL, and 1973 Marshall knows 1967 Marshall knows ASL, so it shouldn't be too much of a mindfuck, but it will be weird for Marshall to see someone using it in the field like this... of course 1967 Roger is SANDMAN-aligned: "Roger piques SANDMAN's interest after lucky record under fire, impossible escapes, and his unique religious practices. Roger loaned from A-team to SANDMAN VIP escort duties."
Not sure if that means 1967 Roger has ASL but 1973 Roger does and he's here as well.
Bill
I think there's a case 1967 Roger may have had it. Certainly they'd want him to "read" it if on escort duties, and the SANDMAN bigwig going into danger is gonna want his grunt to take orders silently and safely.
So Roger's still not sure if he's actually back in time or there's some butterfly-stomp, dangerous induction zone crap going on that they trained him not to fuck up further. So he's still gonna try to keep communications a little subtle, just in case, until he's sure. He'll tap Marshall on the shoulder, tap his ear like he can't hear, tap the Red Kings, and sign "I dream now. What do you think I dream about?"
Brant
OK, now I’m rolling Dreaming.
>> SUCCESS by 8
Michael
Ooooh, nice. Something is up here. These are memories of October 1967, and this is a dream, AND it's also something more. Roger is aware. He is not a construct in this dream, a figment of Marshall's mere imagination. This is both Marshall's Roger and the young Roger that Marshall first met six years ago. Just as Marshall is currently his dreaming self in California and his waking self, about to march these men to their doom in 1967. As they fly closer to the Cambodian border, Marshall can even feel the subduction zone out there in the jungle. Waiting for him. Waiting for him like it was made for him. And for Roger.
Brant
Marshall’s eyes go wide. Can he use Dreaming to attempt to assert his will upon the dream and change it?
Michael
YES.
Of course... of course... who knows what changes might do to the course of history. And who knows which of the changes Marshall wrought on reality happened all along. But Marshall feels right now he is the Eye of the World, heading to his destiny in the jungle. There is something there that [might be|is] giving him power, power undreamt of, the power to remake reality as if it were just a dream.
Brant
OK. Marshall stares deeply into Roger's eyes. He whispers: "चितिसंकोचात्मा चेतनोऽपि संकुचितविश्वमयः." He is going to try to place them in the patrol gunboat that they found themselves in after the mission in the jungle, when they were the only two survivors, alive and awake.
Michael
WHOA! A fast-forward through the entire traumatic week and a half! Fucking hell!
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 7
Michael
Two survivors float down the Tonlé Sap River in Cambodia, lazily making their way to the South Vietnamese frontier. In the helmet band of the enlisted man, a burnt and warped King of Diamonds. In the hands of the holy man, a single lotus flower.
Brant
Marshall looks around. He seems a little lost. He looks at the lotus in his hand, confusion on his face. He takes a deep, long breath and then says: "Roger. Roger? Is that ... is that you?"
Bill
Roger is just as discombobulated. "I think so, man. But not really 100% sure right now. God's honest truth, I'm really not sure who you are either. But I am fucking glad not to have gone through that again."
"Shit, did the dreamer wake, and we went out like a candle?"
Roger shakes it off, and goes stone cold serious. "Marshall. Where is Charley? Where is Agent Helix?"
Brant
"I — she's with you at Mount Shasta, isn't she? What is going on? This is a dream, right? We didn't — we're not really here are we?"
Bill
"Yes. Jo, Charley, and I are in Shasta. But we're also in... dreams. Jo knows more than me, but we're separated. Marshall: whatever you just did, can you do it again? Can you bring us to Jo?"
Brant
"Well, I — I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, I'll try, but I don't — I don't know how any of this works."
Michael
Dreaming roll again.
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 2
Michael
Marshall thinks, expands his consciousness out further, to the borders of this dream, this reality. No. It's useless. I'm in Cambodia in 1967. Of course I can't just magically take us to Jo's house in San Francisco in the year 2016, Marshall thinks to himself in dream-logic. Wait. How do I know that's where Jo is? Strange stuff, dreams.
Bill
"Papa Legba said that all the Ways in Shasta are Open."
Brant
"She's in San Francisco. In the ... the future? In 2016. I don't — how do I know ... " he trails off. "Can Papa Legba take us there? Take you there?"
Marshall suddenly puts two-and-two together. Can I get another Dreaming roll to locate Charley?
Michael
Sure thing.
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 8
Bill
"The Way is already Open."
Michael
Charley is in Granite Peak in late 1971.
Brant
"Helix is at Granite Peak. 1971. She must be — in training, still?"
Bill
Roger thinks. "When the Way is Open, you just need a spirit to guide you on the path. I... I think. Yes, I know one to guide me to the future. But for GP: I don't know. What do you know about GP?"
Brant
OK, bear with me: I'd like to roll Eidetic Memory to recall what the visitor pass Marshall received the last time he was at Granite Peak looked like, and then roll Dreaming to conjure it in the dream and give it to Roger. Is that possible?
Michael
Let's do a Dreaming roll for this. I've been assessing penalties in my head, just so you know. Also I don't know how much either of you want to go mucking around with causality, but you're both due a Hidden Lore (History B) roll at this point probably.
Brant
Dreaming.
>> SUCCESS by 6
Hidden Lore.
>> SUCCESS by 6
Causality was designed to be mucked around with. What's the worst that could happen?
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 5
Michael
Whoa, wow. Okay, first things first... somehow Marshall in 1967 has an electronic pass in his fatigues pocket. What? Is this Marshall's electronic ID card for the IBM computer banks at IGLOO WHITE? He didn't bring that on this mission, it was an intelligence danger. But there it is. It's a plain white card with a magnetic stripe on the back. It also happens to look like the security passes for Granite Peak circa 1971. Could it work if Roger somehow got there? Dreams are weird that way; sometimes an object can be more than one thing at once.
Bill
Roger is straining at taking this all in, but he tries to go with Marshall's groove. "Marshall, if you can help me, I think I can get to Jo. I am on a raft, lost with you, but I'm also in Mt. Shasta. And once I dreamt I was in the future, a man named Joshua. He went to Berkeley, he knows SF. Can you help me dream I'm in that dream too?"
Michael
Can I interject for a moment?
Brant
(Uh, naturally)
Michael
Just with the nominal results of the Hidden Lore (History B) roll.
Bill
(Oh yeah!)
(Like, are we fucking up history doing all this, I'd like to know.)
Brant
(It's one history, Bill, what could it cost, $10?)
Bill
(Is that 1973 dollars or 2016?)
Michael
So helping Charley is a possibility! But one thing that Roger, at least, is pretty clear on with all this evocation of Papa Legba keeping the Ways open is that there's a price. With the loa, there's always a price. And that price is that you can visit these times in your lifespan thanks to the Testing Center at Shasta but you've got to be bodily present for them. So if Roger had a reason to be at Granite Peak in late 1971 or be in San Francisco around Election Day 2016, he could be present in his own body at either of those times. So again, dream-logic-wise, 1967 Marshall just needs to make sure that he remembers to make sure Roger has a reason to be visiting Granite Peak in [date in late 1971]. Fortunately in the last few months of 1971, the two of you have been URIEL teammates for nearly a year-and-a-half.
Bill
Roger was definitely in GP several times getting his head mucked about with in all kinds of ways, putting in the Renshaw programming, for instance.
Michael
I'm envisioning Marshall sending Roger to Granite Peak at that point in 1971 but for no reason his conscious mind can understand or remember, and at just the right time to effect this possibility of Roger rescuing Charley.
Brant
... could Marshall do the same thing with ... Jocasta? Like, does Lucid Dreamer Marshall think he could send Roger anywhere as long as there's a plausible reason for it?
Michael
If Roger's alive in 2016.
And if he remembers, or if Marshall remembers. 43 years is a long time.
Brant
Hm.
Michael
Also, is Roger cheating the "testing" right now? Hell yes! But I'm assuming none of you have any problem with that.
Brant
Roger is straining at taking this all in, but he tries to go with Marshall's groove. "Marshall, if you can help me, I think I can get to Jo. I am on a raft, lost with you, but I'm also in Mt. Shasta. And once I dreamt I was in the future, a man named Joshua. He went to Berkeley, he knows SF. Can you help me dream I'm in that dream too?"
Marshall bursts out laughing at Roger's question. "This is insane!" He laughs again then sort of sighs. "I think so? I am the Mind That Projects the World. We could send you ... anywhere, I guess, to Jocasta, but there'd be a price. I think you know that price."
Bill
(I don't know that Roger would have made it that far, I just don't. I hope he was there to see Obama, but given his business?)
Michael
Jocasta may need to pray to other deities for aid. One does hope that Charley would still be alive in 2016, though.
Maybe it's a relay race. Roger to Charley, Charley to Jocasta.
Bill
OH. Right. Order.
"I don't know. The future... it was a strange place. We might get even more lost. The price could be high. We know the Peak. This card... it's a sign, maybe. A door in the wall of the maze. Can you help us dream of Granite Peak?"
Brant
"Did the Buddha not say, 'Where you are is where you have been'? Yes, I can help you dream of the Inverted Mountain — of the castle beneath the Earth, humanity's bastion against the Red Kings. Close your eyes, Sergeant Rogelio Bartholome Martinez, Jr. Hear the river ripple. Feel the wind on your skin. Listen to my words as I tell you this story. The story of visiting Granite Peak." Marshall starts describing everything he knows about Granite Peak: from the moment the plane lands, every corridor he's ever seen, every door he's ever walked past, every light fixture he's admired, the color of the toilets, everything, all from his memory. Can I make like a ... Hypnotism roll or something?
Michael
Yeah, wow. This is really amazing. Hypnotism sounds perfect.
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 4
Well, a success, at least!
Bill
Roger is easy to hypnotize. There should be situational bonuses.
But a success!
Brant
Not bad for the first time he's done it in a dream.
Michael
Roger wakes in the golden hallways. He is normal size. So is Charley, who is curled up on her side murmuring to herself about 15 feet away.
Brant
Holy shit! It worked!
Bill
Wow. Roger pulls down his cap if it isn't already. Once the lights have gone off, or if they don't in the old pattern, he'll rush to Charley.
Michael
Roger rushes to Charley's side. A tap, a shake on her shoulder does nothing. She is fully immersed in the Dream.
But maybe the next time the light codes appear Roger can join her there...
By the way, Marshall wakes up suddenly at the Mission after only about an hour or so of sleep.
Bill
Roger sighs. "Merde!". But he thinks about the maze, and the anger comes back. "Well, here we go again." He sits down next to Charley, and like Marshall showed him, he starts to Hypnotize himself. "I am at Granite Peak. I am holding a key card. The doors are grey, the light fixtures yellow and fading..."
Michael
Autohypnosis, yeah. Control where the light codes send you.
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 9
Brant
Marshall launches himself out of bed, tripping over his Halston Men’s limited edition silk robe, landing short of his desk as he grabs for the phone. He scrambles up and dials David. “David! David, get the car ready! I need you to drive me to Mount Shasta!”