Tender Lumplings Everywhere, Life's No Fun Without A Good Scare [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

The woods are dark and deep, but not particularly lovely. If anything, they feel dangerous, as if something terrible might come lurching out from behind any given tree and tear into the nearest warm body. What that terrible thing might be is anyone's guess. A cat with hands? Slenderman? Stegosaurus? Actual cannibal Shia LaBeouf? All of the above in a horrible mob? It's anyone's guess. But every dreamer will be absolutely convinced that there is something unspeakable out there, and that it's after them.

The dreamers have two things on their side. The first is that there is actually nothing dangerous lurking in these woods (with the possible exception of other dreamers). The pervasive terror the dreamers are feeling is just that: a rift-given feeling, nothing more and nothing less. That snapping twig or rustle in the undergrowth is almost certainly just a squirrel or something else equally harmless.

The second is that no dreamer is alone. They all will be reunited with - or introduced to - their dæmons, a source of comfort in this dark, intimidating wilderness. However frightened the dreamers might be, at least they have someone with them who definitely doesn't want them dead.

[OOC: as ever, any and all are welcome! You don't have to be in the game to join the fun. Dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the players' discretion. And the party only stops when you want it to; feel free to backtag forever.]

Comments

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine shrugs, belatedly embarrassed. Bee knows how that turned out, which is just as well as far as increasing the impact of current reassurances goes, but… well, that episode in the elevator wasn't exactly something she looks back on with pride.

"Yeah, we're sheer," says her bee. Modomnoc stays on Simonides's head as Sunshine and Bee resume walking. It's closest to the light, and it allows him to continue reassuring the shy little guy, either by thrumming his wings or combing a foreleg through his fur.

The glow of the knife seems to be helping Bee, for all that it makes Sunshine a bit nervous. On the bright side (ha), she can devote more attention to the surrounding trees instead of keeping it on the path before them. There's plenty of movement of the wind-tossed branches variety, but she's not seeing anything else. That's good, right?

"So," she says eventually, because silence is making her more nervous than talking did, "what kind of animal is Simonides, anyway?"

[apidae]

"He's a little anteater!" says Bee excitedly. "I forget exactly what this kind is called. They're so cute!" She smiles down at Simonides, who is still shyly enjoying Modomnoc's attention.

"I wonder what determines their shape?" she says. "You... you said you've met Modomnoc before?" She frowns, a little confused by the question for reasons difficult to pin down. Something's not right here, but she's not sure what.

[rae_of_sun]

An anteater. Okay, yeah, now that Bee mentions it, Sunshine can see it. He's just a lot smaller than she would've expected an anteater to be.

"I… yeah," Sunshine says, brow furrowing. It feels like she's had Dom around forever, but that's not true. It was only one other time, one other…

"Oh, for - Shiva wept," Sunshine mutters, coming to a sudden halt. Modomnoc leaves Simonides, buzzing back to Sunshine before Bee can put any real distance between them. "This is a dream," Sunshine explains, rolling her eyes.

[apidae]

Bee blinks, then bursts into a relieved laugh. Simonides curls closer to her, a little wary of the sound even with this new revelation, but Bee can't help herself.

"I should have realized!" she says. "I was so busy being afraid, and getting to know Simonides, I didn't realize - I can't sense patterns like I usually can in dreams, that usually makes it so easy to tell. Gosh!"

Her giggling finally dies down, and she covers her mouth with her hand, a little sheepish. "Well, that's a relief," she says, though she's still not entirely comforted.