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

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.]

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Seth took a little while to get used to Sephronia, but it turns out having a noctural tree cat as companion is pretty damn useful when you're trying to navigate a forest at night. And while he wasn't actually in the previous dæmon dream, he did hear about it, so this isn't too strange. Kind of reassuring, actually. This forest is doing nothing to soothe his usually frayed nerves. And while he is actually aware it's a dream this time, that doesn't actually do much to calm him. It should, but it doesn't.

He's not being the most graceful, pretty useless in this kind of setting. He can see enough to not walk into any trees, and he can mostly make out Sephronia walking in front of him, at least as long as he doesn't look away for too long and she changes direction. So when she stops suddenly, he manages to do the same, looking around and listening, though he doesn't hear anything.

"What?" he asks quietly, while Sephronia is on alert, listening. As much as it's nice to have someone with better senses, it makes him extra nervous that he can't tell when there's obviously something.

"Something's approaching," she answers, and after that they both fall quiet, listening. After a few moments, Seth can hear it too. Multiple animals, it sounds like, moving quickly somewhere close by. Seth instinctively takes a step back, causing a twig to snap under his foot, and the sound of animals suddenly disappears entirely. Crap.

He doesn't want to ask Sephronia what it is, for fear that it will attract whatever it is, but as the seconds drag on, he feels like he needs to do something. It's a dream, he reminds himself, so even if whatever it is can tear him apart, he'll wake up just fine afterwards. Not like he doesn't have equally horrifying nightmares all the time. And, again, it's a dream, and he's got an animal companion, so maybe it's someone else's that they're hearing, and not just some wild beast.

"Uh... Hello?" he says, though particularly loudly. Surely they've been noticed anyway - he doesn't want to attract whatever else might be lurking in the forest.

Daine and Coromotto exchange a glance. It might not be a what they're dealing with, but a who. There's no unpleasant itch of an unfriendly immortal mind against Daine's own, but that's not too surprising. Most unfriendly immortals don't go calling 'hullo's into the woods.

Still, when she and Coromotto approach, it's with caution - and with hackles raised. They spot the little jungle cat's eyeshine, first, and then they see the two-legger standing behind her. If Seth was green and covered in plants, Daine might recognize him, but her first impression is that he's a stranger. Maybe not an enemy, but certainly not a friend.

"Who are you?" Coromotto asks.

Seth can't help but raise his hands a little, in a gesture meaning something like 'we mean no harm', while Sephronia flattens her ears and crouches a little. Seth did not expect to be approach by two unfriendly looking wolves.

It's a bit of a relief when one of them actually speaks. Words mean a certain higher intelligence, not just instinct, and someone who can be reasoned with. Which means a very much lower chance of being ripped to pieces, or having to climb a tree to escape or something.

"Seth," he answers immediately.

"Sephronia," says the cat.

"We're, uh, friendly," Seth adds. He thinks they're being pretty obvious in their lack of aggressive behavior, but it's nice to be straight-forward and have it stated for the record.

The not-wolves relax a little at the non-threatening postures, and further at the introductions. Wait. Does she know a Seth? Daine puzzles it over for a few moments, her mind reluctant to leave the context of the wood. Then Coromotto cants his head to one side and asks, "The one who wants a snake?"

Okay, alright, they are slowly looking less unfriendly, that is good. Though it is very difficult for Seth to really see wolves in a dark forest as friendly, what with how nervous this entire place is making him, but he is trying to remind himself that these are talking wolves, or at least a talking wolf with a friend, so these are not normal circumstances.

The question takes him completely by surprise though. He doesn't recognise the voice. How many people has he told that? Like... maybe three or four people, probably? And most of them know him well enough to recognise him more easily than that.

"Uh, yeah," he answers with a confused frown, lowering his hands a little. But all things considered, there really only one person it could be, he's pretty sure. "Daine?"

"This is Daine," her wolf explains, indicating her with a tilt of his head. "I am Coromotto."

Daine, for her part, lifts her head and wags her tail in as friendly a manner as she can. She can't speak any reassuring words, herself, but at least she can try not to look as if she intends to start biting folk.

"Are you all right?" Coromotto asks, stepping forward to sniff politely at Sephronia. "Does anything follow you?"

Oh, okay, so Daine's a wolf this time. Fair enough. Why not? Can she do this in the waking world too? Because Seth knows about the talking to animals bit, that's why he called on her after all, but is turning into animals a thing she actually does?

Seems she's not actually able to answer that at the moment, though he smiles a little at her behavior. Suddenly she looks a lot more like a friendly dog that a dangerous predator, that is reassuring. And the presence of two wolves on their side seems to make this forest marginally less threatening.

"Nothing we can scent or see," Sephronia answers. Implying, of course, that there well might be something anyway, because there certainly feels like there is.

"We're all right, though," Seth adds.

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

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