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

[apidae]

"O-oh." Bee tilts her head, thoroughly confused, in fact. She's not sure what to make of his moment of apparent thought, but perhaps he's some sort of telepath? Doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility. She's much more curious about the nature of this friend of his. "She's a ship? What kind of ship?"

[eighth]

"The kind that travels in time and space. Well, usually. We're a bit landlocked at the moment," he answers with a frown. It's very troubling, actually. Not necessarily that he's forced to actually remain in the same place (though that is sure to get tedious soon enough), but the amount of pain it has been causing her. It's not the first time, and it surely won't be the last, so he has no doubt they'll get out of it, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant.

[apidae]

"You're a time traveller?" Bee's mouth actually drops open. She's so thrilled by this information that it takes her a solid moment to notice he's gotten a little melancholy.

"I - I'm sorry. That must be hard." She reaches out and lays a hand on his arm, squeezing gently. "I can't even imagine, after being able to go just... anywhere. Really anywhere. That must be incredible. And then being stuck here."

She frowns. She's only thought about coming through the Rift as a nice thing, in that she rather likes it here. But she's only human. It must be a trial for greater, freer beings, feeling so trapped.

That line of thought leads her quickly to a question she is rather excited to ask.

"Are you... you're not human, then?" she ventures.

[eighth]

The Doctor smiles warmly at her sympathy, and also at her excitement. He doesn't want to dwell on it, not when he has such lovely company. If he could, he would definitely enjoy taking Bee for a trip or two somewhere.

"I'm a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey," he answers, awaiting follow-up questions with a smile.

[apidae]

Don't squeal. Don't squeal.

"Gosh!" she says, just shy of squealing. "You're an alien? I've been hoping to meet an alien!"

She sits back, taking him in more fully. "But you look so human! Are you a lot like humans or can you look different? I-"

She covers her mouth, feeling self-conscious and shy. "I have a lot of questions."

[eighth]

The Doctor laughs at her excitement. He wishes more people were like her, so overjoyed at discovering the different and unknown.

"You look Gallifreyan, actually," he counters, as always. They came first! Not that Rassilon's xenophobia making the dominant species all take this same basic form is really something to be proud of, but nonetheless.

"I'm not a shapeshifter," he answers. Well, maybe technically. But not in the way she's imagining. "Go on," he encourages. If she touches on something he doesn't want to talk about, he'll just evade it or change the subject, but it's very hard to deny her her excitement.

[apidae]

"Oh!" She hadn't even though of that. Humans came from his people? Or... only in his universe? Perhaps he wouldn't know something like that.

"Well, I..." She takes a moment to think. She wants to know everything, music and culture and food, what is life like for an alien? But she'd better just start with the basics. "Do you know a lot about humans? Is this your first time coming to Earth?"

[eighth]

"Oh no, I love this planet," he answers with a grin. "In fact I've spent several lifetimes here. I probably know a lot more about it than you do, to be honest - well, the version in my universe. This one's a little different, not a lot, but a little. Though it's quite possibly you outstrip me on bee knowledge." Unlikely, but, you know, possible. But he definitely doesn't want to make her feel inferior.

[apidae]

"I doubt that!" she says, giving him a playful little jab. She's never one to resist acknowledging her own limitations, especially not in the face of someone so much older and better travelled. "You probably know all about bees - and space bees. I have never met a space bee. Hey, do you know a Lucy? Lucy Cole? She said she's seen space bees."

[eighth]

For a moment his hearts give a jump, but then he's disappointed, and he shakes his head. "I was just traveling with a Lucie Miller, but no Cole, no. Although we do have space bees. Could be she's from the same universe as me," he answers. Although plenty of universes have space bees. This one might too, he hasn't checked.

[apidae]

"Huh." Bee frowns thoughtfully, sorry at having given false hope, though at least he doesn't seem too broken up over it. "What's the TARDIS like? She's... a ship with a personality? Does she talk? Can I meet her?"

[eighth]

The Doctor cheers up immediately again at that. "Oh, I'm sure you'll get to meet her at some point. She has a body too, in addition to the ship part, so yes, she talks. She's about your size, actually."

[apidae]

"My size?" Bee laughs at the idea. "Seems funny for a ship to be so small, even if it is just a... piece. How big is she really - I mean, the ship part?" She hesitates. That almost seems like an impolite question, but... for a ship? This is entirely unfamiliar conversational territory. "Is it all right to ask?" she says a bit shyly.

[eighth]

"Well, the body is primarily just part of how she interfaces with the world. And I don't see why not," he answers. Well, if she was fishing for secret information about the TARDIS inner workings, but she clearly isn't. He's really just delighting in her excitement. "She's dimensionally transcendental, so the outside is the size of a police telephone box, but the inside is practically endless."

[apidae]

Her eyes go wide at that, trying to picture endless space fitting into a phone booth. "Like Mary Poppins' bag?" is all she can think to say. "That's amazing! I can't wait to see!" She takes a moment to drink more cocoa, still eyeing him excitedly over the rim. "Do all Gall- Gallifreyans? Do they all have ships like that?"

[eighth]

He laughs at her comparison and nods. He'd always suspected Mary Poppins was inspired by some Time Lady or other who'd interfered.

"No. For one thing, you have to be a Time Lord. And they're a pretty dull lot, with strict rules of non-interference. You're not supposed to go bouncing around the time stream like her and I do."

[apidae]

"Really?" She sips more cocoa, and angles her body toward him, eager for what sounds like a good story. "So you and she, you're... sort of rebels, are you?"

[eighth]

"Well, the term is renegade," he answers with a bright grin. "But honestly, I still think 'adventurer' is much more accurate. We know when to interfere and when not to."

Well, you know, mostly. There have been a few mishaps. But he doesn't like to dwell too long on them. Just try to do better next time.

"But we're talking far too much about me now. What about you? Where do you come from?" He sips his cocoa with raised eyebrows.

[apidae]

"But I like hearing about you," she faux-complains with a laugh. "You've done so much more than me. What's to tell?"

Even so, she acquieses easily enough. It's only fair. "Alabama," she says. "Just a little town. My mama was a doctor too, actually." She smiles. Not the same kind, obviously, but, just so. "A pediatrician. She was my teacher, too. And my granddaddy taught me to explore." She has the urge to sit cross-legged, but that won't do on a stool, so after a moment she pushes her cup aside and hoists herself up onto the table itself, pulling her legs under her. Much better. Now she's taller than him.

"He was an apiarist," she says proudly. "And mama loved Emily Dickinson. You know, she wrote so many poems about bees? That's where my name comes from."

[eighth]

The Doctor leans his elbows on the table, listening with interest, nodding and smiling occasionally. He quite likes her grandfather too already - it's important, to know how to explore.

"Of course. She read me 'To Make A Prairie' before she published it." Is he showing off again? Whoops. Oh well. "It's a good name," he adds.

[apidae]

For a moment, Bee thinks he might be joking. But why would he? He's a time traveller, after all, and what would she do with that ability? Certainly chum around with literary heroes, that's what.

"She read to you?" She stares, completely stunned. "That's - that's amazing! What was she like?"

[eighth]

"Very solitary," he answers thoughtfully. "That was one of the few times I met her. We mostly wrote letters. She declined traveling with me, unfortunately. You know, I'm sure I still have some of those letters, though..." He seems too lost in thought to notice her excitement at the moment.

[apidae]

She nods, rapt even as his attention wanders. Of course she's solitary. How wonderful, though, to have even a brief encounter with someone like that. And there must be more, countless more, that he's met.

"You asked her to travel with you?" she says curiously. Seems strange, plucking a great poet right out of her time. Hadn't she more poetry to write?

[eighth]

"Yes, but she didn't fancy it. Not everyone does. You'd think when someone offers you all of time and space, you'd take them up on it, but." He gives a shrug and sips more of his cocoa. Nearing the end of it now. "Bill Shakespeare though, there's a boy who loved traveling. And Mary Shelley, she came along for a few trips, too."

[apidae]

She's so delighted now that she actually snorts a little when she giggles. She covers her mouth shyly and says, "Now you're just showing off." Well, at least she noticed eventually, right?

She picks up her cocoa and focuses on it for a moment. "I can see not wanting to do it, though," she says after a moment. "Sounds... overwhelming."

She doesn't add that it also sounds wonderful. Not fair to add it, really, when he can't do it right now.