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

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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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well that's...wow, that's actually useful." He can already think of a situation or three where a power like that would have been exceptionally helpful, mostly with the preventing of suffering or having to watch his friends suffer in dreams. That would have been nice.

The confirmation that Topher won't go rifling through anyone's subconscious mind is a welcome thing to hear, though Daniel has no idea if that will even matter in his own case, seeing as Topher has evidently been getting extended glimpses into his life for some time. He trusts the man's assertion, however. He's been given no reason not to, and Topher's marked lack of hostility feels like a good verification that he means well.

"If only I could be so lucky." Daniel finally sits beside him. Now that he knows the dream isn't actively going to harm him, there's little reason to remain standing and tensed to run at any minute. He closes one hand in a fist and concentrates for a moment to demonstrate. It opens with a small pile of staples on his palm, which he shakes his head at in mild disgust.

Topher looks curiously down at Daniel's hand, then blinks a bit at the pile of staplers.

"Well, that's... anti-climactic," he says honestly. "Can you make other things?" Because otherwise it is a bit useless, yeah. Then again, based on evidence, does Daniel really need a superpower? Doesn't he already kind of have one? Maybe the Rift just figured he was awesome enough as he is.

"It's pretty much limited to office supplies," he replies as he pockets the staples ruefully. "Those were supposed to be paperclips, but I'm still working out the details of how it, um. Works." So far his understanding of the power is little more than the general rule of how the bigger and more complex the object, the more concentration and accuracy required in the visualization prior to materialization. So far Daniel hasn't purposefully managed anything more impressive than a ballpoint pen.

"Control of a dreamspace sounds much more helpful." He shakes his head, gnawing on his lip. "These dreams are, well. They can get pretty intense, and I'm still hammering out a definitive way to separate reality from the Dreaming. Getting better at that, at least."

Well... Office supplies. Suppose it could be worse. It's not actively working against Daniel, at least, even if it's not overly impressive or useful. But a little bit useful is better than a little bit or a lot harmful.

"Yeah, the Rift loves messing with us. But like you said, one does get better at it with practice, if you have the aptitude for it. It often varies how easy it is to tell, though. Some Rift-given dreams make it so difficult even I have trouble telling for a moment." That had been some pretty impressive telepathic trickery. Which had annoyed, impressed, frightened and delighted Topher, all at the same time. "You can also control the dreamspace yourself, to a certain extent, with practice, though that also depends on the dream. This one isn't very friendly to being changed, for example. And it's often easier to change how you yourself appear in the dream, like changing your clothes. And sometimes you change the dream without even noticing, like if you assume something is there, then it might suddenly be."

"So one of these days I might be able to imagine myself a P-90," Daniel mutters, one hand automatically dropping to the place where his sidearm would be if the dream had been nice enough to provide him with one. Self-defense seems to be a mixed bag based on what the dream decides to throw at him, but over the years he's found the heft of even a potentially useless firearm to be an uncomfortably reassuring familiarity. He glances sideways at Topher in sharpened interest.

"What about waking yourself up? Is that, can one learn to do that with, with practice?"

Because Daniel would like to be able to wake up in a way that doesn't entail the shock of watching a friend die. That would be nice.

"Well, I mean you can do that even without Rift interference. It's probably harder with shared dreams than just regular ones, though. But, yeah, probably?" he answers, with a half shrug. It came to him so naturally, it was difficult not to do, really, if he wanted to. Then it suddenly became an issue of trying not to suddenly fall asleep or wake up upon wanting to do so, but actually be able to resist the instinct.

"What's a P-90?" he asks, and then creates one in his hand, letting Daniel's imagination fill it out. This is probably one of the easiest ways to manipulate a dream, especially when he's in someone's head. Just prompt something, facilitate the change, and let their minds fill it out.

Of course, the moment he realises what he has in his hand, he reacts with distaste, jumping a little. "Ew, one of those, no thanks," he says, disapproving, and with that it disappears again. There are very, very few circumstances where Topher will willingly use a gun, and things have to be pretty desperate and intense for that to happen. Usually he just tries to avoid the situations where it would be even slightly necessary.

Daniel hums an acknowledgement to the answer, dissatisfied. He's yet to find a way to forcefully wake himself up that hasn't been unpleasant in some way, so he makes it a private goal of his to work out a concrete method.

He opens his mouth to answer the question but Topher gives him absolutely no time to explain. He just goes ahead and manifests what appears to be a very accurate, very functional dream representation of the weapon in his hands.

"Hey," he says sharply, but it vanishes before he can get any further. A distant part of him can't help but commend Topher's apparent no-guns policy, but his eyes still flick up in mild suspicious discomfort. "How did you - were you in my head to make that?"

"Nah," he answers casually. "Like I said, your mind can influence the dreamspace too, I just made it possible, gave it a little nudge. It doesn't take getting in your head, I just sort of... had you make one for me, basically. Of course, if you hadn't been listening to me, and you'd been thinking very clearly about a pineapple at the time, I'd have suddenly had a pineapple in my hand. Which I suppose would've been nice, actually..."

You know what? He's just going to make a bowl of nicely sliced up pineapple bits with powdered sugar on and start eating. Good idea. "Want some?"

"I'm good, thanks."

Aliyah's head jerks up, intrigued by the sharp new scent, but soon drops with a huff of disinterest.

The ability to alter dreams is still an intriguing possibility to him, even if Topher seems to be solidly anti-guns. Daniel understands that, to an extent. He's moved past the point where he was the same way but it's affirming, almost, to run into someone with that policy. Affirming, with just enough regret over how Daniel can no longer afford to be the same.

"Are there limits?" he asks, ever curious, "I mean, to what you can materialize from someone's head? In, in function or size or anything like that?" He imagines there must be, but Topher did apparently create a lamppost and bench with very little effort, so Daniel has no idea what those limits would be.

"Mmmm, size and complexity?" he answers. "Also depending on the strength of the dream, whether it's Rift controlled or just belonging to someone else's mind. In my own dreams, I have more or less total control, although sometimes of course, deliberate intention conflicts with instinct."

Topher usually wouldn't go on about this to someone who is technically a total stranger - it's generally a bad call to give someone all the details of your powers and their limitations and possible uses, before you actually know what that person might do with that information. Topher feels like he does know with Daniel though, and trusts him not to go blabbing about it or using it against him. Familiarity breeds trust, and all though, although Topher has gotten intimately familiar with why that is sometimes a very bad thing. Repeatedly. Not that he's really learnt from it.

"In a regular person's dream, I can do a lot, like change setting and also mood and emotions of the dream, or show them things, and, yeah, you know. Sometimes I pop by just to stop someone from having a nightmare. I mean, it's tricky to try to control someone's dream, but I never really have reason to do that. Introducing them to stuff they're not familiar with is also a bit of effort. Mostly it's just simplest to nudge them in the right direction and let their mind fill in the rest, you know?" he goes, shrugging a bit. "With people who have like massive brainpower or telepathic abilities or dream powers of their own, I can really only do stuff if they let me. But then they're nicely in control themselves, so there's no reason for me to go poking, really. And then of course there's the huge parties, dozens if not sometimes hundreds of minds coming together in the same event, like this one. Here I can only really influence my immediate surroundings, and often with a lot of caveats. I couldn't make Phonea go away even if I wanted to, for example, because she's one of the core elements of the dream."

"So the Rift sets these pre-established 'rules' for the group dreams where everyone's drawn in," Daniel summarizes with a nod, "and since you're in the unique position to access and manipulate the dream on multiple levels, you can tell what these rules are and how to work for or against them."

It's a power that he wouldn't have thought could hold much weight but here, where dreams are vivid and sometimes harvest their circumstances from the dreamers' real lives and involve group consciousnesses, Daniel can see why that would be incredibly useful.

Especially in terms of the nightmares.

He hesitates before asking his next question.

"Do you, uh," he presses on tentatively, "would you be able to maybe...well, only if I ask him, not without his permission or anything, but would you maybe be able to help a friend of mine? He has these uh, nightmares. Really, really bad ones." And semi-regularly if his reactions to them are any hint.

"Exactly," Topher answers, making fingerguns at Daniel. Succinctly put. Topher doesn't really do succinct. Or at least not without using made up language and or completely losing whoever he's talking to. He needs to go the long way to actually bring people along, although he's pretty sure Daniel could keep up better than most.

At the request, he straightens up a little bit. "Oh, yeah, sure. Probably," he answers. Doesn't take much convincing for him to agree to do Daniel a favour, and it's something Topher spends a lot of time doing anyway. "Who is he, what's his name?"

That prompts a longer pause. Topher has been friendly and agreeable and Daniel...well, all right, he likes him. But he also knows Seth isn't exactly eager to broadcast his name on all channels, for very understandable reasons even if he's still a little dark on the details. And it isn't really Daniel's decision to make. He wishes quite abruptly he hadn't brought it up, at least not before actively consulting Seth. It's his mind, after all.

"I'll have to get back to you on that." He winces as he says it, restrained and apologetic. "Sorry. He's um, in a bit of a tight spot right now in terms of, well, everything. But, uh. Is there a way I can contact you once we wake up?"

Topher shrugs in reply to Daniel's apology. Topher knows very well the challenge of keeping a low profile, and he appreciates Daniel's loyalty in not doing or saying anything with his friend's permission. Even though Topher's very curious now.

"Give me your number and I can text you?" Topher suggests. He'd just give Daniel his number, but chances that Topher will remember something from the Dreaming is infinitely higher. "And, when you're dreaming, if you like, really want me to come find you, chances are I will notice. Especially if you have telepathic powers. But I don't think you do, do you?" he asks, frowning suddenly, like he's trying to figure it out. There was all that Ancient stuff of course, but...

"Nothing so overt," Daniel admits with a smile and relays his number, grateful for Topher's willingness to go along with it. No questions asked, probably in full understanding of the complicated relations between ROMAC and the rebels and everything that Daniel's only just starting to get a handle on. "Just office supplies. And some, um, sensory stuff. Telepathy's a bit out of my range."

As far as he can tell, anyway. He's only just starting to adapt to the fact that some stuff got left behind in his brain post-Ascension and can make his synapses fire off without much warning. He's not sure if this is natural - as natural as it can be, anyway - or something exacerbated by the Rift or if it's unique to him or if it's just the collaborative efforts of all of the above. It's so poorly defined that Daniel doubts he'll have a significant grasp on it anytime soon.

Topher repeats the number a few times in his head to make sure it sticks. And hey, he as Daniel Jackson's number now. He could like, call him up at any time. Topher's a hero to his younger self at this point. One day, one day, they will get some Star Trek up in here, and his life will be made.

"So, how have you been faring so far? What have you been up to since you arrived in Manhattan?" he asks curiously. Since, you know, so far they've gotten very distracted by simply nerding together. Which is fun and all, but he'd like to make sure Daniel is already and that he's not immediately going around getting involved with all the wrong people and getting himself in terrible trouble. Because that is of course exactly the thing Daniel would do, and Topher knows it well. He'd like to steer him a little away from that. And by the sound of Daniel already being familiar with literal Satan, it sounds like he kind of needs it.

"Just, you know," he says with an equivocal hand gesture, "adapting. To all of it. Might be used to some, uh, pretty strange things from before but aliens aren't exactly the same material as the angel-and-devil fare that's getting to be kind of a common thing here. Had some interesting dreams as well as some...less interesting dreams." He pulls a faint face. Hyper-realistic nightmares, no thanks. He just hopes the Rift stays out of his head when it goes about concocting its nightmare material, though he knows, sickeningly, that it's only a matter of time before it takes something out of his own life and builds him a little tortuous nighttime scenario in the confines of his head, possibly even drawing an unrelated third party in. It's a statistical probability.

"Found a place to stay," he continues. "Met Satan. Well, harassed Satan. Didn't know he was Satan at the time, just that he was something, something else but still, bad move on my part, I'll give you that. What about you?"

"Oh, I've been giving Satan a wiiide berth," Topher answers with a somewhat nervous smile. It's probably a good thing he doesn't go out much anymore. And he hopes he can manage to avoid Lucifer well enough that he never becomes even remotely interested in Topher. That would be preferable. It has definitely crossed his mind that if he'd arrived during winter, there is a very good chance Topher would be dead by now, since he spent an awful lot of time exactly where Lucifer decided to massacre a bunch of people. He's just glad no one he knows got killed.

"Clearly, most of my friends didn't get the memo! Friend of mine picked a fight with him just to provide a distraction, nearly got himself beaten to death. So, you know, please stop hrrassing Satan. It's bad for your health," Topher advises. He's not sure he can really call the Doctor his friend at this point, seeing as it's a brand new one and they haven't really met, but, well, it counts, right? At the very least, he's the friend of a friend.

"I didn't know," Daniel repeats, the good-natured high edge of insistence pitching his voice up slightly. "I didn't get that memo either. And I was lost. Long day, and no one would give me directions, and before I know it I've run into this other rifty and we're both at Wilmot's and there's Satan just there, I guess, getting drunk. Or trying to. I don't know if that's actually possible. Anyway, he didn't freeze my internal organs solid so I'm calling that little encounter a win."

He still doesn't know how he missed the arrival of something so big other than he must have simply been so distracted over the adjustment period of living next to a multidimensional wavelength that sucks things through and dumps them out on the other side, including but not limited to, apparently, the Devil.

"That's what they all say," Topher replies with a small grin, at Daniel's insistence he didn't know. He is very glad to hear that Daniel didn't get his internal organs frozen solid, though. That... would have been bad. And it also would've gotten Lucifer banned from Wilmot's, because not even the devil himself will stop Beatrice from enforcing her anti-aggression policy, of that Topher is pretty sure.

"So, you've discovered Wilmot's by now. Where are you staying?" he asks curiously. Because Topher's got some tips about certain places to avoid, but of course he doesn't know that several people have already gotten there before him.

"Pretty sure it's the rebel apartments? Friend's letting me stay in hers while she relocates. Even if I'm - undecided on the organizational policies."

Undecided is an understatement. Daniel already has reached a decision of sorts, and that is that he is going to avoid picking sides for as long as possible. He's doing his best to stay neutral in this conflict, at least until he has more information on what each group represents and to what lengths they're willing to go to maintain their respective, equally nebulous agendas.

Topher looks dubious at the mention of the rebel apartments, but then relaxes again at the elaboration. "Good," he answers with an approving nod. "Neither of the organisations are altogether trustworthy. Sort of honourable intentions on both sides, I suppose, but... Don't get involved lightly. Trust me."

"That's good to know." One eyebrow cants upward, a cautious acknowledgment. "I've heard they're both less than scrupulous so. Trying to avoid political involvement until I have a broader understanding."

It doesn't help that both sides are equally secretive about motivations and methods, which just leads Daniel to suspect that some serious moral degradation is at work in dark places they don't want people to have access to. The wisest thing to do would be to simply stay out of it, but Daniel lacks the kind of tactical wisdom that keeps people out of trouble; he's genuinely interested in dissecting ROMAC and the Rebels' intentions, "honorable" or not.

Topher nods approvingly again. Some actual caution involved here, that's nice to know. "I mean, they both have decent, well-meaning people working for them, and they do do a lot of good too, it's just... Shady underbelly and all that. Abuse of power here and there. People in it to win it. Best to be careful. Kind of dangerous to be too useful to them, you know?"

There may be a slight implication that Topher knows this perhaps a little too well. Topher doesn't have that kind of tactical wisdom either, not even slightly. Far too curious. But at least he has a self-preservation instinct that stops him from running headfirst at obvious danger.

Such seems to be the case with all faceless organizations. Even Rift-oriented ones aren't an exception. Briefly, Daniel can't help but wonder what kind of run-ins Topher might have had with either party to know this, but then again it could be common knowledge. As common as knowledge about these sorts of things gets, anyhow.

"If it's any consolation I doubt there's much I could offer them," he says with a noncommittal shrug. "Unless someone up the chain of authority happens to be a fan of Egyptology."

A tiny, cold thought occurs to him regarding his fairly open attitude toward his...resurrective tendencies, specifically Ascension. Daniel quietly resolves to be a little more selective over to whom he dispenses that sort of information in the future. His status as "he who formerly existed on a higher plane" has gotten him in trouble before and there's no guarantee it won't again. Especially here.

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

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