"So, what about you? How were you touched by the Dreaming?"
Banjo's brows raised. He was surprised Mamili hadn't told him anything beyond the fact that he also had powers, apparently.
"Don't much care f'r showin' off, but alright." He stepped forward, and then looking up at the night's sky he paused.
"Uhh... Can you put 'em back. I can tell, those stars aren't where-- it's kind of makin' me nauseous."
Uncle quickly pulled back the veil of Dreaming from the night's sky and left it exactly as was.
"Thanks. The light... wasn't comin' from where it looked like it was comin'. That's better."
He could feel the tiny dapple of starlight across himself like pins and needles upon his flesh. Now at least, it felt right for where the sensation should come from. He nodded to himself, now feeling more comfortable, before he suddenly burst into blackness. A small corona from the starlight of the clear night encircling his body, his breathing halted before quickening. The night's air grew cooler from him upon the breeze's direction. His spine stiffened and musles seized. He re-knit anew.
"Yeah. It was like that." Mamili said.
Okay. So he had talked about it. The older man just wanted to reserve judgement until seeing for himself.
"It's better in the daytime. With the sunlight. But it's still not for nothing. Watch."
Banjo picked up a stone from the dirt, and threw it. The trio were unable to keep sight of its trajectory in the night's sky, regardless how clear it was. But the velocity alone had been impressive, despite Banjo's disappointment in the less than dramatic result.
"Mamili tells me you are something of a-- a-- what is the word. Joker. Jokester."
"Class clown."
"That's it. Clown. Buffoon. Fool..."
"Yup. Those are all certainly synonyms for 'clown'. However hurtful they may be... Is there a point in all of this."
"Perhaps not a point. Perhaps a story or two."
With a wave of his hand, 'Uncle' pulled back the veil of the Dreaming again and froze the very stars in the sky for his own purpose.
The prior shape of the Milky Way, which looked somewaht emu-like from before was turned, twisted and its color and vibrancy spread wide.
"Long ago... in the Dreamtime. Before all of this..." The 'this' was vague in meaning, but left no doubt as to what it meant.
"The birds in all the land had no colour. All were black.
The stars formed scattered flocks of birds, their twinkling wings in formation, sweeping across the sky, ocasionally clustering, and becoming more prominent. He brought to the fore formations of stars forming whole recognizable birds, emus, cassowaries, magpies, galah, rosellas and crows. All plain in color.
"One day Budjil, the great king of the Dreamtime, decided to change all of this..."
Cockatoos, gulls, parrokeets and finally a wedge tailed eagle, which spread its wings wide, and turned it's sharpened beak.
"Bundjil smashed the great rainbow of the sky. Scattering the colours and drenching the birds below."
The star flocks passed under the spread wide rainbow that had been converted from the 'sky emu' Milky Way galaxy, and the twinkling stars changed colours, be they blue, red, orange or green. Birds took new hues, and swept across the vista. The repeated birds had new colourific forms.
"Some birds which had stayed close to the rainbow in the sky... the rosellas, the lorrikeet's took much from the broken rainbow, and sang their songs of joy. Other birds who strayed wide and searched for carrion and other food like the crows and ravens remained black. Even the magpies had new white streaks to kaboodle about."
More star birds took the fore, demonstrating how the broken rainbow had changed their appearance.
"Other birds, took great fear and screeched and screamed with commotion out of fear!"
The spread wings and frightened beak of a white cockatoo with a shock of yellow 'hair' its crest, the pink and silver galah.
"But there was one amongst them who didn't say a word. Didn't make a sound. Goo-Goor-Gaga - the kookaburra, sat in silence, a wry smirk upon his beak until he couldn't keep it in any longer and burst out laughing."
Stars formed a kookaburra, reshaping to allow it to laugh around the beak.
"Still he laughs. From sun up, when he can first see the colours of the birds, until they are washed over in darkness again in the evening."
The stars held the kookaburra in the sky.
![](https://artmob.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/17882-20-Reuben.jpg)
"Right. Ok. Had a laughing animal in it. A mention of the sun..."
Uncle once again raised an arm to the sky.
"Another tale of Goo-Goor-Gaga..."
"Oh, okay... I didn't even put a dollar in, and off he goes..."
"Shhhh." Mamili shushed him.
Uncle smiled broadly and continued. "One day, back in the Dreamtime..."
The stars swept and coalesced, forming two more birds, and emu and a crane of some description.
"...Dinewan the Emu, and Brolga, the beautiful dancing bird... were arguing."
The long necks of the two birds were swinging, beaks snapping, at one another back and forth in a rhythmic formation of stars.
"Their rage got more and more ferocious, until eventually, Brolga got so angry that she ran over to Emu's nest and threw one of her large stone or coal sized eggs and hurled it into the sky--"
One long legged, long necked, long beaked star bird, danced over and picked up one of Dinewan's star-eggs, and with a quick snap of her neck, launched the star orb skyward.
"--the egg went up and up, higher and higher, until it landed on a heap of firewood left in the sky, breaking the egg and it's yellow yolk burst forth into flames. The whole world lit up underneath, to the dazzled amazement of everyone. As back then, they had only ever known semi-darkness and were not used to the brightness."
"A good spirit of the sky, looked upon the Earth and saw how fine it looked when lit up by a great fire in the sky and decided that this was something that should happen every day. Which he has ensured happens every day since."
A star spirit walks across the sky, picking up stars. Stopping at each cluster, bundling more.
"All night the good spirit gathers wood, kindling and grass for the fire. Once the stack is nearly big enough, the good spirit sends out the Morning Star. To signal to all that he is about to light it."
The Good spirit casts out a star, which floats in place in the night's sky. Getting brighter and brighter.
"But the spirit discovered something... That the star alone was not enough to alert people to the fact that the fire was about to be lit. Many slept through, and did not see the Morning Star. So the spirit decided that there must be some kind of sound to accompany the Morning Star, in its duties of alerting everyone to the fire about to be lit."
The Good Spirit is shown to think, as the Morning Star grows, swells and twinkles brightly in the sky.
"Yeah, I think I see where this one's goin'..." Banjo muttered to Mamili.
"Shut. Up. Man." Mamili hissed.
"Then one day, the good spirit overheard the cackling laughter of Goo-Goor-Gaga, the kookaburra..."
The stars once again formed the outline of the kookaburra. They shifted and moved as its beak opened, and the bird laughed.
"In his loud cackle, the good spirit had found the sound he was looking for. Spirit asked, that as the Morning Star faded, and the great fire of the sun was about to be set, if he would laugh his very loudest, and rouse all to see the new day. Goo-Goor-Gaga agreed, and so it is with every new morn and a fresh sun's blaze, that his laughter rings best."
The star-kookaburra hung in the sky, laughing to effect.
Banjo didn't care much for the somberness of the moment.
"OK. Nice. You've got yourself a couple of nice legends there about kookaburras and the sun."
"They are intrinsically linked." Uncle said. "The second tale is not even our tribe's story. I believe it comes from one of the tribes along the Murrumbidgee... maybe the Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri or Nari Nari mobs' legends. In the oral tradition. Thousands of miles apart, bound together by common truth."
Banjo took a pull from his water bottle as he tried to take in what he was being told.
"As with the other legend I told you, of the jabiru and the emu... sometimes the audience is equal part of the message, as the telling."
He closed up his water bottle and turned his sight back to the night's sky, as the star-kookaburra kept laughing to belabour whatever point the elder seemed to be trying to make.
Ever laughing it's name into the morning's fresh dawn.
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![](https://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/27900000/Alex-alex-pettyfer-27913840-500-238.gif)
Location: Haileybury Rendall School, Darwin - Past, The Southern Plateau, Dundas Islands, Pacific Ocean - Present
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Welcome Home #1.094: The Dreaming and Nightmares
Interaction(s): Calliope - @PatientBean, Haven - @Skai, Katja - @Zoldyck, Rory - @Webboysurf, Amma - @Rockette
Previously: Dreaming While Awake
Banjo cackled in the early morning, holding up his enamel camping coffee mug in salute of the winged girl.
He'd just hummed along to AC/DC's 'Shook Me All Night Long' again, as the pair passed. A reference which Haven had caught, but seemed to have soared over Rory's head completely untouched. And he couldn't help but laugh at Haven's recognition of what he was doing.
Banjo hid in the box, peeking out.
Had it seen him? He hoped not, more than he could say with any certainty or conviction.
Darkness swept past, and he struggled to hush his breathing, and any other extraneous sounds. The murmurs of fear, rattling from trembling.
The kinds of things that the darkness would recognise as foreign. Something to attack. Signs of something, where the darkness could reside. Even worse, those signs would be of weakness.
As if that would matter. As if strength had meaning in the oblivion of the darkness.
Banjo closed his eyes and swallowed, and hoped that it wasn't as loud outside of his body as it certainly sounded within it.
He dared open his eyes again to peek out, from the small hidey hole in his box, and inhaled harshly as he caught a glimpse of the darkness making another pass. It had heard!
The darkness started to pour in, through horizontal louvers, that seemed almost designed to catch the flow. Banjo panicked, he'd been seen. He tried to move, but the box restricted him as the darkness poured ever deeper.
It was all happening too quickly now, with no escape. The box formed his mold as the darkness poured forth in a torrent. Taking the space, thick as treacle, but with no real density. It made the atmosphere unbreathable.
It was becoming everthing! He couldn't breathe! He couldn't move! There was no space!
Banjo whimpered. Then he felt it... within the darkness.
A presence. It was alive.
He jerked awake, and cursed himself. The nightmares had come back.
He felt movement before he knew he was awake. She was stirring. And with the realisation that he was aware enough, so he must be awake, he joined her. To whatever capacity he was capable of at this point, at least. He had the pre-coffee stares and a dopey grin on his face. "Good morning love. I noticed you moved around a bit last night. Everything okay?"
How did she..?
He looked at the bedding, and it was clear that he'd moved.
How's she so with it so early in the morn--?
"Had another nightmare... Not anything that could be helped. In fact... I have a theory that when the present gets less 'noisy' you can hear the past a bit clearer. And... well, we knocked every thought, worry, and concern I might have for the present out last night." The dopey grin threatened to turn into something more wry and game, but then fell off, he wasn't awake enough for that yet.
"Want to talk about it?"
He could think of few things worse. He just wanted to put them as far into the rearview mirror as he could get them. They were generally becoming more infreuent. Mostly. At least it seemed that way...
"There's not much that can be done about it. And they don't make much sense to explain. I think it ties back into somethin' from back when I was small though. That stuff I told you about. So yeah, I don't remember anything about then either. Thanks, but."
Maybe its because the Trial thing's on today. Tight suits. Maze. Some of the more tight spaces at times with ARC sessions could sometimes trigger his claustrophobia for a bit as well. Maybe that was it. Anticipatory nightmare. That's a thing, yeah? Isn't it?
He tried not to get too distracted watching her dress, whilst he got himself ready for a new day as well.
He got coffee and sat for a while whilst waiting for Calli to get her food.
Haven and Rory made their own way to breakfast. He dug his tongue deep in his cheek and considered his course of action.
A half dozen different smart arsed comments bounced through his brain, before he decided he wouldn't let them off the hook so easily by actually saying anything, and chose to instead just hum along to AC/DC's 'Shook Me All Night Long' and let them stew in it, waiting for what he'd eventually say.
Haven was scanning the other campers, probably looking for any signs that people had picked up on what they'd been up to.
Which they almost certainly had. Even if they missed the noise, Haven had pretty clearly had a shower since.
Which is why she snapped her head back at him and flushed red after she had passed, her heightened hearing having picked up on what he was doing, with the song she recognised from earlier.
He cackled with laughter and offered a half-hearted salute with his camping mug, as she tried to pass off her reaction and ignore what had just happened.
Calliope returned with her food, and now it was his turn.
He grabbed a mismashed plate of everything and sat back down next to Calli, who's attention was glued to Haven, Rory, Harper and Katja.
Katja had pretty clearly seen better days.
"What's up with those three do you think? I'm picking up weird vibes."
"No idea." Banjo said, trying not to pay them any attention as he drank his coffee. "It'll all come out in the wash, anyway. Early morning, bad sleep. Probably just doesn't want people up in her business." He thought back to how much she glowed when telling him about how she was going to be bunking with Amma. Something had evidently gone very wrong. But it looked like she was in no mood for prying.
"She'll probably talk when she's good and ready."
He'd meant what he said before to Katja, when he'd wished her all the best. His own lack of trust towards the new girl had very little to do with anything actually tangible, and just more an uncomfortable feeling she gave him. If Katja could find happiness there, fantastic.
That didn't seem to be what had happened though, by his estimation.
He kept picking away at his food, but Calli's attention seemed to be held by Katja and the small group. Fascinated.
Nothing good was going to come of it though. And Baxter had her nose deep in it, as was her way. Banjo just stuck to his breakfast.
Their discourse quickly turned explosive, as Katja could take no more and responded to the constant unwanted probing by emphatically destroying a table with her head. Causing Calli to flinch and put her hand out for him.
She kept watching, clearly wanting to intervene, but not quite crossing the threshold, until the situation had the heat taken out of it.
"What the hell..."
"Like I said, she'll talk when she's good and ready."
He finished his coffee and put his cup back down next to his seat.
"I might go let her know I'm here if she needs anythin' in a bit, whenever she's ready, but right now the last thing she'd want is more people in her business."
She'd probably love nothin' more than blowin' off steam in the Trial right now anyway. Mightn't be the worst timing in the world. Just hope there's somethin' in there for her to hit.
At the Trial, Blackjack were milling around waiting for everyone to arrive and for the start time to approach. Banjo took the opportunity to drink deep of the morning sun, whilst he had the space and the direct daylight to do so. He didn't care for doing it in enclosed spaces, for the risk he posed to others, so he made the most of the time before.
Calli stretched to limber up. Probably not the worst idea. Things at breakfast had pretty clearly 'tightened her up'.
She'd kept their work on the interior a secret and had seemed mighty proud of it before. Banjo silently decided he'd actually put some effort in on this. His care factor for this kind of this would generally barely max out at 'mild disinterest, featuring sarcastic mockery of the task at hand', but with Calliope's proud efforts layout, that seemed inappropriate for the time.
With a swipe of his card, he entered in the middle of the pack. As Harper brought up the tail, the entire layout shuddered. The programmed simulation began to shut down in a flash of scrolling, corrupted red code. The area went black, submerging them all in darkness. Banjo's hands began to twitch, and he started to feel that the people around him... did they have to stand so damned close?! Finally, it flared back to life in a blinding flash of white. Winding, sterile halls replaced the stone maze and jungle of the previously programmed simulation.
Hmm... Hardly subtle.
It's the kind of thing he'd do. Well, no. The first 'challenge' would be to slap approximations of the Foundation reps at the assembly in rapid succession like the Three Stooges... but this wouldn't be out of place as a distant second.
The name 'Tiamat' was repeated in hushed whispers, and it became very apparent that this was very wrong.
And that he wasn't the person whoever designed this place was 'playing against'. He recognised the name that was spoken between Firebird and Blackjack. The name for Amma.
He was a bit player here. Which... well, whatever the Hell this was. Probably wasn't the worst thing to be under the circumstances.
"Perfect. It was all going perfectly...."
Oh no... She's spiralling...
Banjo tried to squeeze his way through the group to get to her, but they were grouped together in a quite condensed fashion near the entrance.
"Perfect. It was going to be perfect."
He swam through bodies. He should have been closer from the outset. What was he think--?
"I can't...Banjo..."
He squeezed past the last and dropped to the floor to get down to her level.
“I can’t believe I was ever that weak.” A crisp cold voice penetrated the scene from a nearby hallway. “Really? A panic attack right now? Couldn't handle not being the center of attention could you, Princess.”
These pricks sure are making it difficult to turn the other cheek...
He scowled at the glib crack at the real Calliope when she was down.
...But you've gotta admit, they're easy on the eye.