applesaucedream | Better to Receive than to Give [open to all]

Somewhere in the cosmos, there is something bright, and young, and playful. Somewhere, this being watches over their little flock and does their best to make those people safe and happy. Somewhere, that godling and their flock celebrate the winter holidays in the happiest of dreams.

And somewhere closer at hand, a sleeping giant stirs.

The bright tapestry of dream threads gathered by Zephyr is suddenly yanked hard enough to pull it from its temporary mooring. Something entirely unlike the little godling reels in the dreamers so neatly gathered and packaged up for it, bringing its own toys back to their proper place and taking all the others it can with them. Unsatisfied, it reaches out again and again, dragging in dreamers from all across the multiverse. It will snare them, all of them, and then it will possess them completely.

Perhaps it's fitting that when the stolen dreamers arrive in this new shared mindscape, they'll find they've been designated the Rift's Christmas gifts to itself. Each might awaken inside a dark box, or cocooned in…is that tissue paper? When they claw their way out they'll be greeted by the sight of an enormous evergreen tree laden with twinkling lights and kitschy knickknacks looming overhead. Beyond the shadow of the tree the rest of the world -- that is, the living room -- is just as large. Or is it that the dreamers have just become very small? Giant packages wrapped in bright paper form an obstacle course, but the wooden floor of the room is wide open between the tree and the hearth where an enormous plate of cookies and glass of milk await a cataclysmic Santa Claus.

All in all, things are fairly normal as far as the rift's dream gatherings go…at least on the surface. The more telepathically sensitive among the dreamers may notice an undercurrent of something darker, more urgent, and more possessive than normal. The rift isn't just sampling the wares of other worlds tonight; this time it means to play for keeps.

[OOC: This is the second part of our crossover with

wethelost! Part one can be found here. Usual dream party rules apply: all players and characters are welcome regardless of whether they are currently in the game, and characters may remember or forget the events of the dream party at the discretion of their players.

For reference, characters of average human height are roughly four inches tall according to the scale of their current surroundings. There is an entire giant house beyond the living room; characters will find a kitchen and dining room on the same floor, a staircase outside the door of the living room that leads up to a second floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom, and another staircase off the kitchen that goes to an unfinished basement. Feel free to add details as needed!

This event takes place on evening of August 8th/morning of August 9th in Applesauce time, and December 31 in WtL time.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah." At this point he's more or less resigned to it. The Rift has flung him into enough uncomfortable dream scenarios for him to accept that it probably finds him offensive on some level, like one scientific aberration is enough for Manhattan. "Well, bag. Gift bag, just kinda tipped it over."

He reaches out to tentatively lay one hand against the box where the shred of paper was torn away.

"Weird," he mutters, which is fairly redundant because when isn't it weird? This is the Rift. Weird is normal. Weird is baseline. "Isn't it August in Manhattan? Why's it all - Christmas?"

Christmas? Daine repeats, briefly mystified before remembering where she's heard that term before. Oh. This is Christmas? I think I'd just missed it when I first arrived. She looks around, taking in her surroundings with a fresh eye. I assume it's not normally this… big, she hazards.

"Ah. No," he answers, drawing out the word inquisitively. "No, not typically. In my experience it's very normal-sized." And less terrifying, usually.

"I take it, ah, I take it that's not a thing in your universe?"

Daine shakes her head, a somewhat odd gesture in this shape, and it belatedly occurs to her that she doesn't strictly need to be in a shape at all, at least not while she's just talking to Daniel. Hang on, I'm changing back, she says, figuring it's fair to give him some warning before she resumes two-legger shape. She has to tug her hair out of the collar of the sweater the rift saw fit to give her, and she spares a moment to frown down at the patterned snowflake design before looking back up at Daniel.

"We celebrate midwinter, which is about the same time," she explains, "but we don't do… this." She gestures to the tree, liberally festooned with lights and baubles.

Seeing her transform is mildly less alarming than it was the first time, at least because this time around Daniel knows enough about it to understand what's happening when it happens. The sweater is new, though. The Rift? The Rift. Probably. It seems the sort of thing the Rift would do.

"Yeah, it's, erm. Traditional. In some households." Including this massively oversized one, apparently. Unless they all happen to simply be miniscule? Comparative measurements can be incredibly exhausting. "Trees, ornaments, presents underneath, the whole nine yards."

And that expression is turning out to be uncomfortably applicable, isn't it? Daniel eyes the tree with a puzzled frown. It certainly looks to be the genuine article, just positioned very much at the rightmost tail end of the tree size bell curve.

"Wonder who this place belongs to?" And now that he's said it, Daniel kind of wants to stop wondering.

The mention of 'presents' has Daine furrowing her brow. Gifts are exchanged at midwinter, too, but not in fancy boxes. More to the point, the gifts exchanged aren't people. "Is that what we're supposed to be?" she asks in growing indignation. "Gifts?" She's not a thing to be traded, thanks ever so. "For who?"

She turns to look across the massive room. "We've got giants in my realm, but nothing so big as whoever lives here."

Excellent questions and shared sentiments all around. Daniel isn't comfortable with the idea that the Rift - at least, he's assuming - views them all as commodities, possessions, things it can stack into neat little piles like trophies.

"Unless it's just that we're all really small," he offers, which isn't that much more comforting a hypothesis. Shoulders hunching, he voices the other, even less pleasant theory in a faintly disgusted tone: "Maybe that's how the Rift sees us. We're its things."

Daine curls her lip in wolfish derision. It wouldn't really surprise her if the rift thought of them as things, not even so highly regarded as pets. She'd almost rather be shrunk, even if it does mean having to deal with an incredibly huge two-legger (or several incredibly huge two-leggers).

She turns away from the tree, giving the vast expanse of floor beyond a thoughtful look. If there really is an entire house out there, it would take ages to explore on foot - especially if they hit any stairs. In a shape, though, she might be able to get around quickly enough. Kestrel, maybe, or falcon.

"I'm going to see just how big this place is," she decides, "and if there's anyone out there. If I take some kind of bird shape, I should be able to get around quickly without being spotted." Turning back to Daniel, she adds, "So long as you don't stray too far from this tree, I should be able to spot you easily enough when I get back. I can let you know what I find."

He nods, rubbing at his chin with one hand. It'd be helpful to know the odds and ends of this place, and flying would be more efficient than trying to climb any of the higher surfaces, particularly when one is roughly four inches tall in comparison to everything else.

"Sounds like a good plan." He scans the sea of boxes pensively, noting how some of them look to be wriggling rather tellingly. "I'll stick around here, maybe try to get anyone else out who needs it."

There, they've got a decent plan of action. Granted, it's only outlined as far as steps one through two but that's a good starting point, Daniel feels.

Daine nods, and a moment later, there's a peregrine falcon crouched on the floor and ruffling her feathers into order. She makes a short flight up to the top of the box she's already defaced, then offers a deliberately optimistic, See you soon. Probably. It depends on quite a few things, like not running across anyone, not getting caught, and not having an unexpected thermal from a heating vent sending her splatting into the ceiling or somesuch. Ugh, the air currents in here are probably going to be a mess compared to what she's used to.

Well, she'll cross that bridge when she comes to it. Without further ado, Daine takes off into what passes, here, for the sky.

Better to Receive than to Give [open to all]

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