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 is officially Not A Fan of this particular dream, Modomnoc's comforting presence aside. The darkness is a moot point, and she's figured out the mood manipulation, so she has that going for her. But an intellectual awareness that there's nothing to be afraid of (probably) doesn't stop her from jumping at every snapped twig and theatrically overwrought moan of the wind through the trees. Which means that in addition to feeling thoroughly creeped out, she's also furious with herself for feeling creeped out.

Not a winning combination.

Topher's call gives her a hell of a start, and she darts behind a tree without even thinking, like an idiot. Ugh, this dream is the frigging worst.

"Was that Topher?" Modomnoc mutters in her ear.

"Oh gods, I hope so," Sunshine replies before stepping toward their mystery guest with what is almost certainly undue caution. If it is Topher, maybe he can use his dream whammy powers to make this less of a tragic embarrassment. "Topher?" she hazards, fingers metaphorically crossed.

[brink]

"Heeeey, Sunshine!" he calls happily back, identifying her from a combination of her voice and the familiarity of her mind. He hasn't seen her in the dreaming in ages, respecting her wishes at not blundering into her private dreams or nightmares. Although it's not so terribly long since he's seen her in person, since he still comes by every now and then for some baked goods and a little bit of actual face to face socialising. It's probably done him some good, actually, not that you could tell the difference here - in the dreaming he radiates and cheerfulness much more than he's done in the waking world in a very, very long time.

She comes into sight soon enough, though he can't see her animal companion. Perhaps she doesn't have one? "You okay?" he asks, because he can feel the nervousness coming off her. He extends his shield against the dream's mood influence to include her as well, so that her emotions can return to being her own, rather than being unfairly affected by the setting.

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine and Modomnoc let out a twin, sarcastic, "Ha!" in response to Topher's query, because of course they're not okay, that seems to be the entire carthaginian point. But then he works some of that dream magic he's got going on, and that pervasive paranoid certainty that there's something large and be-taloned and drooling just behind her melts away. So much better.

"Thank you," Sunshine says with considerable feeling as she steps up to Topher and his little monkey thing. He's looking atypically clean-cut and cheerful compared to how he usually looks in the waking world, but a close match for how he appeared in the first dream they shared. So maybe this is his dream persona. Whatever. He could look like the worst kind of hype-head and she'd still be glad to see him. "Some frigging construct, huh?" she says, waving an arm at the surrounding woodland. Her bee crawls out onto her shoulder and waggles his antennae at the tiny primate.

[brink]

Topher blinks at the second voice, taking a moment to realise where it's coming from. Well, that's a tiny little companion. Not very impressive size, but bees are nice, important animals, so she's got that going for her.

"It's not the most attractive or charming place for a get-together," Topher answers, glancing around, as if there's anything interesting to look at. Meanwhile, Phonea carefully leans forward and reaches out, holding onto Topher's sweater with one arm for balance, as if going to poke the little bee, but then stopping short. "Want me to brighten it up a little?" he offers.

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine eases back a little when the monkey starts reaching toward her - gods, it's like the secondary theme of the evening is spirit animals who can't keep themselves to themselves - but it's Modomnoc that has its interest, and he obligingly crosses the little distance and lands on the monkey's outstretched arm. "Modomnoc," he says. "You?"

Sunshine keeps half an eye on Dom (does Topher know the whole no-touching rule?), but she can't help but look a bit desperate at the thought of him brightening the place up. "Could you?" she asks with guarded hope. "Because that would be awesome."

[brink]

"Phonea," she answers, obviously pleased at bee's friendliness. She keeps her arm lifted, as a sort of perch, to keep him nicely in line of sight. Topher smiles a little at the two of them. He doesn't know about the no-touching rule, but then he's not about to go poking a little bee either.

At her approval of his suggestion, he looks around thoughtfully. He can't properly transform the entire setting or anything, the dream is much too fixed for that, but he can spruce it up a little bit. Which he does by adding quite a few autumny lanterns, giving the area a much more cozy glow, and putting a pillow-filled bench swing in a nearby tree. It's still dark, still full of dead leaves, and the fog lurks at a distance, but now it seems a lot less threatening. "Better?"

[rae_of_sun]

Modomnoc's hardly little by typical bee standards - he's about as long as Sunshine's thumb, and takes up most of Phonea's forearm - but that probably makes him a less enticing prospect as far as any potential poking goes. And at least he doesn't weigh much, so Phonea shouldn't find him difficult to support.

Sunshine looks around the improved clearing with an appreciative smile. It's not as dramatic a shift as she was expecting, but it's still a hell of a lot nicer than it was before Topher got to it, so she's not about to complain. "Nice," she says. Hey, there's even a place to sit that isn't damp and leaf-strewn; what a luxury. And there's enough light for Dom to actually see where in the hell he's going.

She heads for the swing, Modomnoc launching himself off of Phonea's arm to follow her. "So, were you here for the last one with these guys?" she asks as she flops onto the cushioned seat. Her bee lands on her outstretched palm, and she clarifies, "The whole talking spirit animal thing." Dom lets out a faintly condescending snort.

[brink]

Definitely not with the touching, then. Bees are lovely, spiders are lovely, lots of insect and insect-like creatures are lovely, useful, important creatures. That doesn't mean Topher wants to pet or poke them. But that goes many if not most mammals and other animals as well. He is simply not much of an animal person. Which was fine, living and working at the Dollhouse, because it was never an issue. Animals were a very much random element in their controlled environment, and therefore unwanted. But living in New York, it was a different matter. Still, he'd gotten pretty used to it while he was out and about a lot, but now it seems he's gotten un-used to it again. However, talking animals with human intelligence? Whole different ballgame.

"I wasn't, no", he answers, following along after them and taking up a seat next to Sunshine, relaxing back and putting his arms on the back of the swing, Phonea climbing off his shoulder to find a comfortable seat on a pillow. He's a lot less nervous about physical proximity here than in the waking world, especially with Sunshine who he's become rather comfortable with.

"But I heard about it, so I wasn't that surprised by this one turning up," he says, nodding at Phonea, who gives him an unimpressed look at being referred to as 'this one'.

[rae_of_sun]

Yeah, the sudden increased comfort with physical proximity hasn't exactly escaped Sunshine's notice. Jury's still out on whether she finds it a little off-putting in a 'who are you and what have you done with the real Topher' sort of way, or whether it's just nice to see him not acting like a small, twitchy forest creature. Maybe this is the real Topher. Gods. Better get off that train of thought, or she's just going to be depressed all over this new and improved clearing he's conjured up.

"Well," she says, shifting her focus to Modomnoc, who has crawled up onto her wrist like a fuzzy golden corsage, "the general rules seem to be 'don't touch someone else's animal' and 'don't get separated from yours by more than a couple yards.'"

"It's… not comfortable," Dom supplies. Which is intentionally vague, but also technically accurate.