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

[has_a_horn]

"You've got a deal." He definitely doesn't want the rats to start thinking they've got a new meal in him, so he's eager to accept her offer.

Gabriel keeps pressing forward until he reaches a lemon tree that's overgrown, spread out, and subsequently died, creating a thorny barrier to the door. The first thing he tries is simply getting rid of it, but the dream or maybe the house itself isn't allowing him to do that.

He sighs and materializes a long blade instead. As he hacks a path through the dead limbs of the tree, a few more rats scurry out. He pushes through. The blade is gone before he reaches the door. It's locked, but one solid blow with his shoulder opens it up. Beyond seems to be a sitting room that's far too nice to be connected to this conservatory, but he doesn't care at the moment. He just wants out. "Come on."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine follows Gabriel along, sticking a bit closer than she might otherwise so there's a smaller rat-free area to maintain. Their numbers keep increasing, to the point where it looks rather like the parting of the Red Sea as they finally make their way up to the door. For the most part, she keeps her mouth shut and her jaw clenched with the effort of holding them all back, though at one point their incessant chatter gets galling enough that she mutters, "Oh, shut it," under her breath, shortly followed by a chorus of furious squeaks and a widening in the ratless gap around them.

She steps through the doorway with a sigh of relief as the rat's voices abruptly vanish from her mind as if a switch has been flicked. A glance back over her shoulder reveals a shut door that appears to lead to the lovely conservatory she'd wanted to explore before, and she sighs before turning back to the sitting room. "Well, then," she says, folding her arms and giving Gabriel a wary look. "You're back?"

[has_a_horn]

"I'm alive,." That's about all he's sure of at the moment. Being back would probably involve things like going back to his apartment and acknowledging what he'd tried to do instead of hiding away in the TARDIS until further notice.

He peers back through the glass door and, for a moment, he sees the TARDIS, with his back turned to him. She disappears in the next moment, and he turns back to the sitting room. Of course. They've been separated by a common space, and the way the place seems to work means they won't be able to reunite without either a crowbar taken to the dream itself or some serious puzzle solving.

He doesn't have the energy for either. He plops himself down in one of the plush chairs and lays his head back. He's not going to do any exploring, but he'll wait here in the dreaming in case the TARDIS needs his help.

[wildmage_daine]

And that's… what, unusual? Unexpected? She didn't think dying was an option for angels; they'd always seemed a bit more akin to her realm's gods than other kinds of immortals (that is, the sort that live forever only if no one kills them).

Daine frowns, confusion mingling with concern. She might not be happy with the angel, but the implications of what little he's said are still worrisome. What would it take for Gabriel's life to be in danger? "Was it Romac again?" she asks, her tone a bit gentler than it was before.

[has_a_horn]

"Don't you watch the news?" He would have assumed that everyone would have seen the footage by now of him bloody and unconscious with his wings on full display. He's the oddity of the week, and he really doesn't look forward to the possibility of people recognizing him as the 'Bethesda fallen angel' or whatever the news is calling him now.

"No. It was the rift."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine lifts her shoulders in a little, bird-like shrug. She doesn't have a television, though there are some in the base's common areas. Most of the news she cares about comes from the People or rebel higher-ups, and most of the news that comes on the television, she figures, wouldn't much apply to her.

"What happened?" she asks, brow furrowed. She doesn't stop to consider that the question might be insensitive; mostly, she's just concerned that if the rift decided to do something awful to Gabriel, it might do the same thing to anyone.

[has_a_horn]

"I-" He what? The truth is he tried to kill himself and the rift chewed on him for a week for the attempt, but he doesn't really want to tell Daine that. "I tried to go home. And the rift made sure I wouldn't try it that way again. Kept me in there for a week before it spit me back out."

[wildmage_daine]

That's not what she'd expected to hear, and while she's still upset on Scout's behalf, she can't help but feel a stab of sympathy. Just about everyone wants to get home, and if anyone here is powerful enough to pull it off, it's Gabriel. Can she really fault him for trying?

Perhaps not. But she can fault him for how he treated his dog, and she does.

"I'm sorry." She hesitates, then perches on another cushy armchair near Gabriel's. "Scout didn't understand," she adds. "You could've told me, so I could've explained it to him."

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel nearly winces at the mention of Scout. He misses the little dog so much that he's been thinking of asking Seth to bring him by, or else just get back to the flat soon. Replaying how he'd left Scout, he can see how Scout wouldn't have understood what was happening, but hearing it still hurts.

Gabriel closes his eyes and sighs. "Daine, I would have taken him with me if I thought I'd make it through alive."

[wildmage_daine]

It takes a moment for that to sink in, and then Daine stiffens. "… You expected to die?" Unspoken, but still hanging in the air, is the question of why he'd take on the rift if he presumed he'd come off worst.

[has_a_horn]

He lets her question hang unanswered for a few moments before he lifts his head and opens his eyes again. He could pull this away from the truth easily, but he doesn't particularly want to. He's not sure if it's more self-destruction or a need to confess, but when he meets her eyes it's with an air of defiance, his jaw clenched tightly and his brow slightly furrowed.

He swallows and looks away. "I meant to die. Didn't exactly turn out as planned."

[wildmage_daine]

So first he'd meant to go home, and now he's saying he'd meant to die? Daine gapes at him, at a loss. She hadn't even realized dying was an option for him, but if she had, she still wouldn't have expected him to - to try for it.

Goddess. She isn't happy with Gabriel, but that doesn't translate to wanting him dead.

"… Why?" she asks, stricken.

[has_a_horn]

"Does it matter?" He rubs a hand roughly across the top of his thigh. He doesn't want to be talking about this. He doesn't want to explain why. There are both too many reasons and not enough, and none of them are going to sound like valid reasons to Daine. "I thought you would have been glad to see the back of me."

[wildmage_daine]

"Of course it matters, if you're planning on trying it again," she says sharply, before she can even think about stopping herself. She's not sure she ought to stop herself. "Do you really think I'd want you dead? That's not something I'd wish on folk just for upsetting me."

[has_a_horn]

This time, he does wince. "I won't be trying it again." Not that way, at least. The rift has proven that it's not going to do the dirty work for him. If he ever does go through with it, it'll have to be much more personal.

[wildmage_daine]

"Good," she says, though she doesn't sound the least bit mollified. "It was bad enough trying to convince Scout your disappearance wasn't all his fault."

She feels a cold ball of fury coiling in her stomach, for what he's done to Scout, and for what he's done to so many others. "Do you ever think about how the things you do affect other people?"

[has_a_horn]

God, Scout. If he'd died like he was supposed to, the best option would have been what he did. Maybe he should have said something different to him, or tried longer to make Scout understand that none of it was his fault.

"Good question." He tips his head to the side, away from Daine, looking towards the empty conservatory. Maybe Daine is right. What if hurting people is just part of who he is? What if it's unavoidable? He's tried to do what's best, but people he promised to protect still get hurt, and he makes too many mistakes to be forgiven.

"Not really," he answers, and wishes, selfishly, that the TARDIS would walk through the door.

[wildmage_daine]

Should she be surprised that he's not taking her seriously? It's not as if he did last time she had a bone to pick with him.

"Well, you should try it sometime." Daine folds her arms and slouches in her chair. "You might find yourself hurting folk less often."

[has_a_horn]

"Yeah." Gabriel closes his eyes again, fairly sure that he should be arguing or cracking jokes or something. Briefly he considers asking if Daine might bring Scout by the TARDIS, but he doubts that she would do anything for him now.

Sitting here is pointless, he decides. If the TARDIS needs him, he'll hear here if he's asleep or awake. "See ya later, Daine." He doesn't move to open his eyes or stand up. He's simply there one moment and in the next he's left the Dreaming.