If you'd asked Kat what the chances are she'd be learning how to climb cliffs by digging her hands into solid stone and simply pulling herself up a few days earlier. She'd have laughed. Now, it wasn't quite so funny.
*Honestly, it's just kind of dull.* Checking her reserves once again, Kat found them basically full. *Turns out pulverizing a bit of rock isn't even that had. Normally I'd love to enjoy the scenery and appreciate the atmosphere but…*
*There's literally nothing here!* And Kat was right. Due to the current scene she had the choice of looking at dark grey stone, or the endless wind and rain, or perhaps Minor, but she was having her own problems.
Minor's little trick to allow her to climb up worked well, but for some reason she kept falling off the wall, as if her power had been lost. Only for her to stumble slightly and cling to the wall once again.
It took them a rather embarrassingly long time to figure out that it only happened when Minor climbed past Kat. Apparently for some reason Kat needed to be leading the charge, or perhaps Minor's slight bent to reality worked better. They were still trying to figure out the specifics.
"I'm telling you Kat. There is no reason I should have to sit in line with you for my power to work" explained Minor
"Well, the only way to test that is if I let you drop down past me and see if that also causes you to lose grip but I'm certain I don't want to risk that" said Kat
Minor pouted "This could be important though. If I knew why exactly this wasn't working, it might help me in the future"
Kat shrugged "Look, we've been climbing for at least two, maybe three hours. Say you lose traction and fall down. I'll have to dive after you because it will mean you can't climb without my immediate presence.
"Then, we might lose an hour or so of progress, but because this is a dream and we are supposed to be falling, I wouldn't put it past the scenery that we'll be set back even further. Do you really want to risk it Minor? I mean you are the expert here, but I just… it seems like a bad idea" said Kat before spitting out the surprising amount of water that collected in her mouth.
A few minutes of silence passed as Minor considered what Kat was saying, making sure to keep pace with her. After around five minutes she spoke up and said "Look, I just… I don't really encounter things like this often you know?
"I've been here so long that little mysteries like this have kind of been lost to me and I really want to know, but I also admit that it might not be the best time considering we are on the clock…
"But like um… also it might not matter? Like if we are supposed to be falling, maybe we don't actually fall at all, the scene just loops so we fall forever" said Minor, who had no need to remove the extra water.
"If you're thinking like that though, I could argue that to break the scene we need to climb for five hours, and having us fall off wouldn't just set us back a few hundred metres but instead five hours. Oh, and can you let the rain wash of that blood? It's getting a little unsettling" said Kat
"Oh right, forgot about that" said Minor, and the bloodstain vanished. *She could have just removed that? I spent hours staring at the blood endlessly dripping from her forehead and she could just magic it away? I rescind my worry for you Minor I want a refund.*
"But you do bring up a good point. The thing is though… I don't really feel this scene weakening much as we climb" said Minor
"So it is weakening?" asked Kat
"Well, yeah, but that might just be because you're here. I don't really have a baseline for how quickly dream scenes unravel without you, and I very much doubt your presence was planned even if this is a reaction to try and lock us out.
"I at least… somewhat? Have a place in Major's mind so I can't cause disruptions too easily on my own. So, sure we could keep climbing, but I just don't know if it's enough. Plus I can tell your holding back your speed so that we can act together" said Minor
"What are you talking about, I'm going pretty fast" said Kat
Minor stared blankly at Kat "Sure, but I bet you are at full energy, and if you wanted to burn through some more, you'd be able to double your speed"
Kat shrugged "Maybe, but this seems like an endurance thing" said Kat "Though, here is a question, how close to breaking things are we. You said we'd made at least some progress, right?"
"Eh… yeah, but just a bit. So… there are a few factors that go into breaking a scene. The first and major one is obviously how stable it is. This is sort of a measure of how true to the original vision it is.
"So… like, if the scene was an endless wait for food or water, pulling some out of your pocket, even if it's like one biscuit or half a glass of water, that might be enough to shatter the scene even without having myself around to force the issue.
"But, if instead you were trekking through the desert, and it was the slow wearing down of hope, finding a small amount could hardly waver that scene, because you are still trapped in the desert and your food is very finite" said Minor
Kat nodded as Minor continued "So, take the blizzard for example. It was about trapping us in an endless snow storm, so creating a bit of fire, then using that bit to create a campfire, and then telling stories changed the scene enough I could shatter it
"Because the whole point was for us to wander without direction, and we changed it to cosy stories by the fire. It wasn't that we stopped moving that broke it, but that we stopped needing to move. We had found our end to the snowstorm even if it was still going"
*Right, so that means it's more about finding the core idea of a scene and subverting it.* "And you said we weren't really making progress?"
Minor leaned her head to the side slightly "Well, once again, it isn't as though we are making no progress, but um… the other thing is how well put together the scene is, and simple is best. I might need say… 50% destabilisation, or 75% and we have… let's say 10, from 3 hours' worth of work"
Kat frowned "That sounds pretty bad"
Minor nodded "Yeah, but time passes strangely in here sometimes, so we might not be down three real world hours. Could be more, but is likely less to draw out her own torment. That's the sort of brooding Major does"
*Hmm… so we risk losing a bit of progress from 3 hours, to see if we can climb faster… but then if I'm burning energy what are we going to do when the next scene is even worse. Minor said there would be at least 2 more so we've got something worse than this… though I guess I can just rest against the wall…*
*And now that I think about it… I haven't gotten tired at all, not even the slightest bit. Well, there was that time I fainted, and the few times I ran out of energy, but like… I don't feel like I need sleep… hopefully*
"If you want to test this, I'm ok with it" said Kat. *I think I might as well give her the chance. Worst comes to worst we lose a bit of progress, but I'm starting to think we are going about this the wrong way.*
"Ok Kat, climb further" said Minor
Kat shrugged and ascended a few more spots, watching Minor carefully. Once Minor was entirely behind her, nothing seemed to happen. "You still hanging on" asked Kat
Minor nodded "Yup still good. Do you want to go a bit further?"
"Sure" said Kat, making a few more holes in the wall as she pulled herself further up the side of the cliff. Looking down she found Minor still hanging easily against the wall.
"Ok looks like I can be behind. Maybe you should try and climb as high as possible" said Minor.
Kat shrugged, as Minor started to climb up after Kat, however the moment she started to reach higher, she slipped on something. A feat Kat knew was impossible because the rain shouldn't be having an effect on Minor
Nonetheless, the kitsune started to fall backwards away from the wall, and Kat of course jumped after her without hesitation.