The Shavings Off Your Mind are the Only Rent [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

Picture a house. Actually, picture two houses. They're (almost) identical structures that share an uneasy coexistence, tangled together on a quantum level. One of the houses is Good: bright, cheerful, full of comfortable furniture and a pervasive feeling of safety. The other house is Evil: dingy, dilapidated, and haunted by the dreamers' greatest fears.

The good news - and bad news - is that travel from one house to the other is as simple as passing through a door. All a dreamer has to do is walk through a doorway, any doorway, and they'll find themselves in whichever house they weren't in before they crossed the threshold. Perhaps they'll step out of a beautiful library and find themselves in a threatening hallway - or perhaps they'll flee a menacing kitchen and find themselves in a perfectly safe dining room. That is the nature of the houses' entanglement: every door is a portal between the two.

There are, of course, complications. Dreamers in one house can't perceive the other; if you're in the Good house and looking through a doorway, the space beyond will look as nice and inviting as the space you're in now (until you step through that doorway, of course). Dreamers also can't really perceive one another if they're in the same room, but in different houses, though they might see a flash of movement out of the corner of their eye, or think they heard something.

Perhaps the greatest complications are the houses themselves. They have rather strong personalities, and they aren't very fond of one another. Each house will want to keep you if it can (keep you safe, in the case of the Good house, or keep you for itself, in the case of the Evil one). Dreamers may attempt to cross a hall and find the door that looked open and inviting a moment ago is now barred shut, leaving them trapped in the hall - or have doors suddenly close in their faces before they can end up anywhere unpleasant. Still, there's only so much either house can do, and even a locked door can be jimmied open or busted down.

Escape from the houses is possible, but the formal gardens beyond are similarly entangled, with neatly trimmed lawns and expertly plotted flower beds becoming overgrown tangles of nettles and algae-choked reflecting pools. An archway is as good as a door, as far as the gardens are concerned, and there are plenty of arbors and arches over the paths. Of course, dreamers may find that a sound arbor in the Good garden has collapsed in the Evil one… and heaven help anyone who dares to explore the hedge maze.





[ooc: y'all know the drill. ALL characters are welcome, regardless of whether they're in the game. Characters can remember or forget the events of the dream at the players' discretion.

Also, this dream party marks the aforementioned calendar freeze. For the next three weeks, the IG date will sit on July 3rd. Posts dated July 3rd or earlier are allowed and encouraged. The calendar will resume forward motion at a 4:1 ratio on Saturday, July 26th.]

Comments

[thatwasvisual]

She removes the sunglasses - they did their job admirably, but they're no longer necessary - and nuzzles into the cool curve of Adam's neck with a hum of agreement. There might be other sanctuaries out there, but reaching them - if they even exist - would prove a challenge, and she finds herself far less inclined toward experimentation. There's still a faint prickling under her skin; without refreshment, she'd start to have some difficulty repeating this trick a third or fourth time.

"It seems we're stuck here," she says, not terribly upset by the prospect. There are worse rooms in which to be stuck, and far worse company. Her lips quirk into a smile. "Until nightfall, anyway. Then we could leave by the windows." Probably. She hasn't been able to take in the scenery for obvious reasons, so they could be on the tenth floor, but she's not averse to a little climbing.

[spookyaction]

Adam returns the smile, a bit more faintly, as is his wont. He disentangles himself from her and drifts back over to the armchair, angling for the mandolin. Cumbersome to play with his gloves on, but it can't be helped just now.

"Any requests?" he asks, only half-joking.

[thatwasvisual]

Her smile widens as she settles herself in another conveniently placed armchair, drawing her feet up onto the cushion and looping her arms around her knees. "Freebird," she replies, unable to resist the obvious joke.

[spookyaction]

Adam gives her a look of palpable oh please, ugh, that's not funny. "Smartarse," he mumbles under his breath, and then, just to be petulant, he strums out the first few bars of Stairway To Heaven.

[thatwasvisual]

Oh, but his reaction is at least half the fun. Eve laughs aloud at his little sulk - this one, at least, is laughable and not slightly worrisome - and cants her head to one side. "Oh, come on. An original, then."

[spookyaction]

Adam smiles to himself and effortlessly turns the Stairway riff into something new, melodic and strange, as it comes to him. It is a little lighter than his usual fare, he notices it too. Perhaps he is feeling better? Perhaps it's the novelty of being somewhere new, even if it is a bit dangerous. A little danger does them good, now and again. He supposes.