Never Lie, Never Sin, Tell Us What A Mess We're In [Open to Multiple]

[all_the_gifts]

Melanie stares at the door to her cell. There is something different about it today. She's having a little trouble placing it, but she knows there's something off. It's concerning. She has been so clear about what ROMAC needs to do to keep everyone else safe from her, and the suspicion that they're messing up somehow makes her very, very nervous.

It's the locks, she realizes after a few moments of intense scrutiny. That is what's wrong. There are supposed to be five, but she only counts four. That can't be right. Melanie approaches the door with a little frown on her face, her fingertips hovering a few inches from the metal, wary of the shock she'll get if she actually touches it. Her hand flits from lock to lock like a hummingbird. Now there are six. How are there six? She counts again, baffled to find that the number has halved itself to three.

She tries to count again, but this time, there are none.

Now she does reach out to touch the door, she can't help it - she can't believe it. They can't have taken the locks away. They're important. Hasn't she made it clear how incredibly important it is that they keep her in here?

The door does not shock her. Instead, it swings open beneath her hand, smooth and silent.

Melanie presses her lips together, her mouth a thin, disapproving line. She doesn't like the thought of leaving her room, but someone has to be told about this so they can get it fixed. Keeping her movements slow and even, as if she's trying to sneak past a group of hungries, Melanie carefully steps out into the hall to look for help.

Comments

[interndana]

As far as dreams go, wandering the halls at work seems entirely mundane compared to some of the things Dana's seen. She isn't too concerned, the tile floors have a familiar pattern, even if the hallway is darker than it should be and the color of the paint is slightly off. She turns at a junction, and oh, no, this isn't the kitchen, this is someplace else.

She frowns, looking down the hall for any sign of something familiar. Perhaps she ended up on the wrong floor? Anxiety starts to creep in; Dana doesn't want to get lost here, she doesn't want to be lost ever again. She's just about to turn around and look for an elevator, or a floor map, when she catches sight of movement further down the hall. Oh thank goodness, she's not alone.

Dana hurries walks calmly like a not-lost person toward the other dreamer.

"Excuse me," she calls, trying to catch sight of whoever's there. "Do you know where I am?"

[all_the_gifts]

And here's another one - but it's a woman this time. Now that Melanie's getting used to this whole dreaming thing, she's a bit less surprised and a lot less worried at meeting another person. So she stills, letting the woman catch up to her.

"It's okay," she says, looking up at the woman. She reminds her, a little, of Aziraphale. They both have such nice, fluffy hair. "We're dreaming. It's not real."

[interndana]

Oh, it's a little girl. And she knows it's a dream at least, that bypasses a lot of potential confusion.

"Thank you," says Dana with a smile. "I've been in dreams like this before. I was only wondering because I thought this was where I work, but it doesn't quite seem right." She wonders for a moment if it's too much a breach of protocol to mention where she works, but dreams, what's the harm. "If...if this is ROMAC, I don't think this is a part of the building I'm familiar with."

She crouches down to be more on the girl's level, it's only polite. "My name's Dana," she says, tilting her head a little. "Is this your dream?"

[all_the_gifts]

"It is ROMAC!" Melanie says, pleasantly surprised to learn that the woman works there. She's never seen her before, but ROMAC is in a big building, so that isn't so surprising. "We're downstairs. I don't think too many people are allowed down here." But, this being a dream, it hardly matters.

"I'm Melanie." It doesn't occur to her that she should be anything but forthcoming with someone who works for ROMAC, or that what goes on in the basement might not technically be any of Dana's business. "And… I think so. I've never had a dream like this before." It's so nice to not have to be extra careful with what she says. "Normally, I don't dream at all."

[interndana]

"Hmm, I probably don't have access to the basement." Dana wonders just how far down the levels even go. "The most important things I have to do are usually fixing paper jams. Or getting lunch." Being an intern here has so far been a lot less life-threatening than back home, and if Dana's perfectly honest with herself, it's almost kind of boring, not dealing with supernatural horrors every day.¹

She wonders why Melanie is down here, though. "Are you familiar with this level at all?" she asks slowly, trying out phrasing in her head before she speaks. "Does one of your parents work here, or..." there is another possibility, of course, she's heard of this circumstance in passing but never actually encountered anyone subject to more restricted living conditions. "Um, did the Rift do something bad to you?"


¹ This is not to say that Dana feels as though she were owed mountains of bones, but you have to admit that the idea of Rift monitoring and management holds a little more promise of adventure than the reality of wrangling the Keurig.

[all_the_gifts]

Melanie hesitates for a beat, then shakes her head. "I don't have parents, and the rift didn't do anything to me." Except bring her here, which is arguably damage enough. She might have enjoyed the chance to see what the world was like before the Breakdown if she wasn't carrying the seeds of another Breakdown inside of her. "I'm the one who's dangerous."

"But I don't want to hurt anyone!" she hastens to add, taking a little step back. "And I don't think I could in a dream like this. It wouldn't be real, Aziraphale said." That's all assuming the dream stays pleasant, of course. She already knows how real the bad parts can feel.