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]

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.