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

[peacefulexplorer]

Predating. That - is not good. Daniel can't help but wonder if this dream has dug out a remnant of his encyclopaedic knowledge of gods of various origins to fashion a nightmare specifically for him. Though Zagreus did also say no relation, implying there's no a-god-am-I mentality there in the first place. He has a feeling he'd know if that were the case; there tends to be a less subtle approach for everyone involved in that situation.

"Well aren't you?" Daniel fires back, more perplexed than hostile. The entire area feels so deeply unfriendly that he can't imagine anyone not being at least a little on edge here, though he supposes if one has a chimaera on their side the prospect of exploring might not seem as frightening. There's nothing about this man that implies he's as openly unnerved.

He makes a faint, halfhearted wave at the vast expanse of trees that appears to stretch infinitely in every direction. "I think it's this place," he offers tentatively. "I think it's just - I don't think it likes people being here."

Which sounds mildly ridiculous when one puts it out loud, but that's the best way Daniel can explain it. It's not as if sentient forests are the strangest thing he's seen. Case in point - Zagreus has a chimaera, and why draw the line there? It's entirely possible this is some sort of...sapient deciduous loci, maybe, that simply doesn't like strange souls wandering around inside of it.

[antitimelord]

Don't be fooled by the humility, Zagreus can get apotheosize with the best of them, when he's of a mind. And don't be fooled the lack of obvious fear, either. He and the chimaera are on edge, deeply unsettled by their surroundings and the feelings of being watched by something just out of sight. Something that understands what it sees, well enough to offer a knowing wink, well enough to make fools of them both. It's deeply unnerving, wrapped up and given wings by his native paranoia. Showing real fear, he feels with his instinctive understanding for unspoken rules, would set things in downhill motion fast. But the flipside of the coin is that if he follows those rules, things will only stay as foreboding as they are now. None of which does Zagreus feel compelled to voice aloud; he ignores the question completely.

The rest of it, though...far from sounding ridiculous, Zagreus is exactly the kind of person who will accept a sentient and malevolent forest without question. Why not? It practically goes without saying, by now. "Well, why would it? If someone threw a party in your house uninvited, you'd probably feel some resentment too." Did he just empathise with a hypothetically sentient forest? That's the worst thing to happen in this dream so far. Maybe he ought to bring out the imaginary axe. "But you haven't seen anything? You know, aside..." Zagreus waves indiscriminately at himself and the chimaera.

[peacefulexplorer]

As if summoned, the mention of seeing anything reinvigorates the prickle on the back of Daniel's neck that leaves his neck muscles screaming to whip around and investigate what could be watching them. He resists the urge through simple application of a distraction, choosing instead to mull over the question. It is a good question, so simple and matter-of-fact in its core that Daniel probably could have gone hours before considering it. He exchanges a frown with Aliyah, who replies with slow swish of her tail. Daniel assumes he's just earned the snow leopard equivalent of a shrug.

They haven't, he's realized. They haven't seen anything more substantial than mist and tree bark, neither of which have displayed any intent to harm them. It's all been unformed flickers of movement at the ridges of their periphery, menacing shadows stretched outward and thrown by some formless unknown light source - it is so very dark here, and acutely disturbing.

"Nothing," Daniel says, shaking his head slowly. "I haven't - we haven't seen anything. At all." His eyes flick back up to peer intently at Zagreus, sharp and curious. "What d'you think that means? Is it angry at us?"