The Icebound Clocktower and Other Noise Inspired Stories

The Spatial Layer

Evil Charm, Oblivion, Babble Noise

The hotel lobby has taken a sinister shade to it, a barrage of surreal and colorful tints leaving trails behind chattering, oblivious people and hovering around objects. The sounds of the waking world come in through a film of distortion, heard faintly over the hum of the augmented atmosphere. It's like looking at the world through a new lens. Shadows that leech toward small children, furry creatures with clacking nails that scuttle among the luggage, and strange looking figures that skirt between visitors and taking odd things. Pens, charms, loose change... their faces are rarely seen.

Few things seem malicious in nature; they ignore the other, more human figures sticking out in the crowd. Some crackle with electricity and have clothes colored by the night sky and everything beyond, sparkling with distant stars, and some has a more somber tone to them. Some sulk, skin near pearly white or an unappealing grey, sporting wounds or ordinary but damaged clothes. Some emit light, there's a variety of enchanting colors, and some are cloaked in shadow. They segregate themselves from one another, and the tension in the air is strong enough to taste.

In spite of the current eerie calm, a seasoned traveler knows that they are safer swimming in a sea of sharks. They do it for the liberation, the power and freedom, the ability to go... well, everywhere. Had they the time, they could travel through it when they entered the next layer... but to sleep for a day... and to be so far from home...

It's all a matter of getting back before something else takes their place.

Farther into their side of things, the air is alive with the whispers and soft growls of the locals and the travelers. Rarely does the latter approach the former. Both possess a dangerous supply of power, and the support of the rest of their kind.

Elder travelers keep a watchful eye on the children, both the ones awake and unaware and the few stumbling through their assumed lucid dream. The latter is likely to cause a fuss with an Other...

Suddenly, like a small earthquake, a shock crackles through the Layer. Someone is being woken up... and the rest is the looming stampede.

A traveler gets five minutes of time before their physical body is fair game... A child looks up. Suddenly this strange dream has gotten scary...

An older one whisks them up and shoves through the crowd to get upstairs, just as a nearby Creature takes a swipe at them, tearing the child's shirt. The lobby is plunged into nightmarish chaos. Ghosts, Creatures, Lost Travelers... all against the ones trying to get the child back safely. Not all Travelers help. Some are frightened, it's a big risk getting on the receiving end of an Other attack and they're inclined to run, and some simply don't understand what is happening. They're crying, ear-splitting howling, snarling, and urgent shouting as the mad dash to the hotel room ensues. Thankfully young children never Travel far... 

And they make it. Shaking, babbling, and sobbing, but they made it. A few of both sides stay and watch him look for wounds he feels but doesn't have, and the one that took them and ran slumps against the bed in relief. Reluctantly, slowly, the Layer returns to its normal state...