And the Boats Drift On [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

The water is calm, and the night sky is filled with stars. The only light is natural: a patchy, bioluminescent glow coming from the water below, and the bright swath of the Milky Way above. It's not much, but it's more than enough to see by.

The dreamers will find themselves sitting in their own little rowboats, each stocked with two oars, a length of rope, some cushions, and a little picnic basket full of snacks. There is no visible shoreline, but it won't take the dreamers long to realize theirs are not the only boats in this shallow sea. Anything stirring in the water, be it fish or paddle, causes phosphorescent plankton to glow a bright blue, so there isn't really anywhere to hide.

Feel free to paddle around and visit the other dreamers, perhaps tying your boats together and sharing your snacks in an impromptu picnic. Or you could go for a swim - the bioluminescence makes it difficult to see the bottom, but it's not too terribly deep, so the risk of drowning is all but nonexistent. This setting, unlike the last one, isn't actively out to kill you. Or you could simply lie back and look at the stars.



[ooc: Same drill as always, folks. All are welcome, regardless of whether or not your character is in the game. Characters may remember or forget dream shenanigans at the player's discretion.]

Comments

[johnny_truant]

Johnny blinks, then presses his palm to his face. "Christ," he mutters. "I forgot there was a third one. Why the heck do you guys all have the same damn face?"

He looks up again, re-assessing this Andrew person. What an awkward way to meet someone, but at least he seems nice. He wishes it was the Doctor, if only so he could reassure Charley and everyone else, but... oh well. "I did think you were Peter, for a second," he admits. "Glad you're not. That guy hates me." He sighs heavily and settles back in the boat.

It's hard to keep these damn things alligned, he's thinking, when he spots the rope. "Oh, hey. Do you mind if I...?" He holds it up, not wanting to go forward without permission. "Just, you know. For now."

[bluesuit_handy]

"He probably hates everyone," shrugs Andrew, who has heard nothing but bad thing. He gives the rope a perplexed look for a moment, mind jumping to the wild conclusion that Johnny wants to tie him up -- but no. No, that's just a recent memory creeping in. "Oh!" he says, getting it. "Lash away, wouldn't want to drift off. I'm a duplicate, and Peter's probably just a case of spatial genetic multiplicity."

Don't ask questions if you don't want answers, Johnny.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny snorts in agreement about Peter and sets about awkwardly stringing the boats together. He blinks and throws Andrew a dubious glance at the actual answer to his rhetorical question.

"Uh, oh," he says. "Okay then." He'll take your word for it.

Boats tied together semi-successfully, he sits back. He starts going through the picnic basket, which he also just noticed. Having established that this is not either the guy who wants to punch him or the guy everyone's actually looking for, he's left at rather an awkward impasse, wondering what to talk about. But he's tied their boats together now, so small talk is going to have to happen.

"So," he says. "How long have you been in New York?"

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew hesitates. He manages to forget the answer to that question a surprising amount of the time, so when he does think about it it hits him harder than maybe it should. "Half a year now," he admits. "You? Long enough to meet the Doctor, I take it. Did you say you were there when he disappeared?"

[johnny_truant]

"Half a year?" Johnny can't recall if he's ever met anyone who's been around that long. "Christ. I'm sorry. I, uh, just showed up at the beginning of May. Still sort of learning how it all works."

He hesitates, not sure he wants to talk about the Doctor's disappearance, or mostly everything that followed. "I ran into him in an elevator in a Barnes and Noble," he says bluntly. It's not unridiculous. "The elevator got stuck and then he just vanished. Right in front of me."

He doesn't want to mention Zagreus, or at least who he'd thought was Zagreus, or the whole incident re-introducing him to Charley. Ugh. "That's all I know, really." Not technically a lie.

Time to change the subject, if he can swing it. "You want a sandwich?" he offers, holding up one of several from the basket.

[bluesuit_handy]

"So we leave the same way we came...." muses Andrew, not exactly pleased at the revelation. It doesn't sound like the Doctor meant to depart this universe, though he'd sort of known that from the TARDIS not being aware of where he'd got to. It means, though, that any one of them could simply vanish at any moment, and of course his thoughts immediately go to James.

"Hmm?" It seems Johnny has trundled right along to the next topic of conversation without him. This, at least, is a happier topic. "What's it got on it?" he asks, as if it matters. It might. The food aversion has died down in the last week or two, but he remembers his reaction to red meat too well.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny hesitates at the little murmured thought. He's not going to follow up on it, but... leave. Like going back through the Rift. Is that what happened? Then who are they even looking for?

"Uh..." He peers at the sandwich. "Looks like... chicken salad maybe?" He investigates the others. "There's... ham and swiss... this one looks like avocado and something. Cucumber. Oh hey... there's beer, too." He holds up a bottle with a half-smile. Getting drunk in a dream can't be as fun as the real thing but it might be worth it.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Avocado," decides Andrew immediately, holding out a hand for it. He could normally take or leave avocado, but vegetables generally sit better. It's only a dream and only dream food, but isn't aversion all in the mind anyhow?

...Can babies suffer fetal alcohol syndrome from imaginary beer? It's a ridiculous thought, and he dismisses it instantly only to shake his head at the bottle anyhow. "Let me see what I've got in mine," he says, hoping for a thermos of tea and discovering one as he opens his own basket. The Dreaming, it seems, is cooperating tonight. "Tea?" he offers.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny hands over the sandwich and takes chicken salad for himself. "Suuure," he says hesitantly, tucking the beer away, for later maybe.

"Can I ask you something?" he says between bites; then asks anyway. "Are you with one of the factions?" Anticipating that this might be a tense question, he raises his hand placatingly. "I'm unaffiliated. Just... curious, I guess." Gabe doesn't put any stock in either group - none of the people he's gotten to know seem to have anything to do with them. Andrew's been here for longer than anyone he's met, so, seems as good a time as any to learn a few things, if he can.

[bluesuit_handy]

Party successfully ruined. Enjoy your tea, Johnny.

Andrew glances up as he's digging out some mugs. This is the second new acquaintance in not so great an amount of time to jump to wary questions about alliance, though nowadays he's inclined to agree with those who have managed to remain unaffiliated. "With is a strong word," he says, pouring a mug and handing it over. "Let's just say I'm fairly well acquainted with the rebels."

[johnny_truant]

"Okay," says Johnny hesitantly. He sips the tea and gives a satisfied little hum. "I mean, nobody even reached out to me. I would have been homeless if I hadn't met Jodie."

Oh. Whoops, that slipped out. He'd taken to actively not mentioning Jodie, knowing her desire for secrecy, but... Well, just saying her name isn't anything, right?

He waves a hand. "Just a friend of mine," he says. "So... are the rebels not worth it, or what?"

[bluesuit_handy]

"I met someone they'd been keeping prisoner in order to force him to use his powers," says Andrew, explaining things plainly for once in his life. He doesn't feel like he's in great personal danger from them, but he's no longer in the habit of pointing homeless rifties their way. Speaking of homeless rifties....

"I know a Jodie," he adds thoughtfully.

[johnny_truant]

Well that doesn't sound good. Gabriel had never been so specific, just airing a generalized distaste. Johnny frowns and sips his tea contemplatively. When Anderw makes his addendum he perks up in surprise.

"Really?" he says. "Another rifty? Is there..."

Ooookay, hold up boy. Better not mention Aiden just yet, in case it's not the same Jodie. Or in case it is, and she doesn't want this guy to know about Aiden.

He clears his throat awkwardly. "Is she like... shortish, long brown hair? White girl?" How do you even describe white people? Johnny shrugs haplessly.

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew tilts his head back, giving Johnny a thoughtful look as he tongues the roof of his mouth. The description is accurate, but sparse, and he goes through roughly the same thought process as Johnny. His Jodie is quite easily identifiable, but if they are talking about her she (and Aiden) likely won't appreciate him revealing that she's tethered to an incorporeal entity.

"She is," he says. "Rifty, hasn't joined a faction?"

[johnny_truant]

"Yeah!" says Johnny, sitting up straighter, now reasonably sure they're talking about the same person. "Yeah, she was my first friend here. I met her when she came through and we kind of shacked up in a hotel together for a while. They - uh, she -" Great, good job Johnny. God. He clears his throat. "She saved my life a couple times."

He presses forward, eager to cover that weird pronoun slipup. "Have you seen her recently? Is she okay?"

[bluesuit_handy]

They. He caught that slip, Johnny. Andrew suppresses a grin and decides not to show his hand. "Did she now? She seems to do that fairly often, then."

He gives Johnny a thoughtful look. "She was alright when I saw her," he replies. "I take it you parted ways."

[johnny_truant]

"Yeah," says Johnny. "I mean... just out of necessity. Couldn't keep living in a hotel. I know she got out of there but I don't know where she moved to. We're... sort of bad at keeping in touch." Something he really wants to get better about. As prickly and odd as she is, Johnny really likes Jodie, and Aiden too, he supposes. It's hard not to feel fondness for someone who's done what she has for him. He doubts he's as important to her.

The rest of what Andrew's told him catches up to him then. "So what, did she save you too?" he asks, only half-joking.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Would you believe me if I told you she did?" grins Andrew. He leans back and takes a bite out of his sandwich. "I'm not sure if it's a hobby of hers or if it's only people she's met in dreams. Being crushed under an air conditioner would've been a terribly embarrassing way to die, so I've got to give her credit for stopping it."

[johnny_truant]

What? Johnny almost laughs outright, barely manages to hold it in. "An air conditioner," he repeats dubiously. "Holy shit. She's a superhero." He grins. He's reasonably certain it was Aiden who saved Andrew, but does Andrew know about Aiden? It's killing him and he can't figure out how to ask without giving the game away.

"You met her in one of these dreams?" he asks, picking up from there instead.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Originally," confirms Andrew, growing cautious again. The dream in which he met her is not one to be shared. All the same, perhaps he now has an oblique way to ask the question that's been bothering him since they got on the topic of Jodie. "Met a good friend of hers that time, too; it was a regular sleepover. Dunno if she'll've introduced you yet; I get the impression he doesn't get out much."

Not exactly an accurate way to describe it, but maybe Johnny will get his meaning...if he should get his meaning.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny peers at him for a moment. That is... oblique as hell, but the awkward way he phrased it makes it impossible to interpret as anything other than code.

"So... Aiden," he says after a minute. "You know about Aiden. Right?"

[bluesuit_handy]

Well, either Johnny was going to get it or he was going to think Andrew was just an awkward bunny. A grin breaks out across his face at not having to be the first one to come out and say it. "And so do you," he confirms. "Here I thought they were keeping it a secret."

[johnny_truant]

"They do," says Johnny wryly, relieved that they can talk more openly now. He decides he'd still rather not reveal he can see Aiden just yet - Jodie seems to find that so unnerving, maybe she doesn't want people to know it's even possible. "Except Aiden kind of beat the shit out of me when I first met them." He chuckles, remembering it with fondness now that it's so long ago, and Aiden's saved his life a few times since. "They'd just arrived so they were all stressed out, and... I just wandered out in the middle of the park at night... not the best approach. He's just so protective."

He leans back and counts on his fingers. "So Jodie saved me from him, and then they both saved me later from this tweaked out mugger, and then..." Less humor this time. The other two were more in the "rogue air conditioning" department of life-saving. The most noteworthy occasion, not so much.

Hesitant, he continues, "The first time I had one of these shared dreams, I had no idea what was going on really, and Zagreus... you ever crossed paths with him?" For Andrew's sake, Johnny hopes not. "He yanked me out of the... like, the shared space, and trapped me in his... lair, I guess? I don't really know how dream shit works, but yeah. He tortured me and probably would have killed me eventually if Aiden hadn't gotten into my head and pulled me out."

He's grown a little more grim and sober-voiced throughout his. He sips his tea. "They're good friends to have."

[bluesuit_handy]

So Aiden isn't always the sweet little entity that saved Andrew from a falling appliance. Andrew tries not to be prejudiced against differently corporeal beings, but he's perhaps less surprised than he'd like to admit. Still, attacking Johnny doesn't cancel out everything else Aiden's done, right?

Andrew sobers, sitting up and giving Johnny an intense, disturbed look at the first mention of Zagreus. "I know him," he says darkly. "Bollocks. I should have done something about him a long time ago."

Not that he can, really. The TARDIS and the Doctor haven't been able to wipe him out, so what hope does a meta-crisis have? "Sorry," he says. "I didn't think he could even access the dreaming, much less...has he come after you again?"

[johnny_truant]

Johnny suppresses a sigh. It seems everyone knows about this guy, but no one can stop him.

"From what I understand he basically lives here," he says. "This is like his domain, or something. And yeah, he has. Does. Frequently." He looks down, fiddling with his teacup. He doesn't like to go all sob story on people with this, but... he almost can't help it, either. It's so hard to forget him, what he feels like - Zagreus has made sure of that. "Most nights."

He glances up and forces a weak grin. "I'm one of his favorite toys," he says with the air of a joke, but it comes out a little sick-sounding.