Better to Receive than to Give [open to all]

[applesaucemod]

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.]

Comments

Delsin Rowe | InFamous: Second Son

[banksywannabe]

There's very little ceremony to how Delsin makes his entrance. One second there's a very neatly wrapped box sitting there still as can be, the next it's spewing smoke while its lid is soaring across the room, smouldering slightly thanks to its explosive ejection. Delsin alights on the edge of the box, or at least tries to. The fact that it's cardboard and not some sturdier structure like he was expecting means him coming down on it from a ten-foot leap into the air only serves to knock it over on its side. All told he recovers pretty well, rolling when he hits the ground to minimize the impact in such a way that he winds up back on his feet at the end, looking like he totally meant to do that.

One of the flashier escapes of the night accomplished, Delsin takes a moment to draw the smoke coming off the remains of his now upturned box into himself and take in his surroundings.

"Hhhuh," he says, because honestly that's all he can really think to say on the matter just now.

[justshutupraz]

"If you kept that up, you probably would have burned everything down you know." Really Lili isn't any better, her own box is a charred remain in a distant corner. Not that she's going to admit to that, nope. "But, I guess you get a 8.5 for being a flashy nerd."

[banksywannabe]

What was that Lili he can't hear you over how cool all of this is. Delsin turns in place a few times, taking in the sheer scale and grandeur of the room. It almost reminds him of when Eugene had first pulled him into that game of his, but more Norman Rockwell and a lot less lava and fucked up angels. Or - not Norman Rockwell, Delsin's pretty sure he tended towards summer Americana and the odd social commentary but some kind of idyllic Christmas postcard.

Look, all he knows is that massive tree is calling his name. First it's probably a good idea to see if he can work what this place is, though.

"Hey," he says, finally turning to the girl trying to talk to him. "Do you know where we are?"

[donttouchanything]

Reggie is awake. He's been awake for a bit now and has started to investigate the room at large after escaping his wrapping paper cocoon. He's pretty sure he's high as a kite at the moment, but has no idea how. Fetch, maybe? The bioterrorist - conduit - had been some kind of junkie.

He's made it over to the enormous plate of cookies and is considering tasting one to see if it's real or just a facsimile when a very familiar sound shortly accompanied by a burning box lid catches his attention.

"Delsin." Reggie turns and marches back over, spotting his brother among the wreckage of his the present he'd destroyed.

"Hey! Think you could keep the fire on the down-low next to the sap-covered tree, hot shot?" Chiding Delsin for not thinking things through is the natural reaction here. It grounds Reggie, at the very least. There is very little else keeping him tethered at the moment because they seem to have entered "Honey I Shrunk the Kids: Christmas Edition."

[banksywannabe]

"Hey, if I'd known waking up in a dark box with no way out was some kind of Christmas in September surprise and not, oh, I don't know, a DUP ambush, I would've asked to be let out nicely instead." His token effort to sound angry for effect is significantly undermined by how distracted he is by his surroundings. "So do you know what this is, o high and mighty keeper of the peace?"

Because Delsin's pretty sure he didn't see anything about any stadium-sized art features about commercialism or whatever in any of the local papers. He's tempted to blame Eugene, since he's the only conduit he knows of with the power to make this sort of thing, but he doesn't really seem like the holiday spirit all year-round kind of guy. Delsin doesn't even necessarily know if he's actually Christian at all, come to think of it.

[donttouchanything]

"Acid trip? You're the one with the weird friends," Reggie shoots back. But there's no bite in his tone. He holds off from uttering the three most troubling words he can - 'I don't know' - in favor of taking another look around. Could it be the DUP? Augustine does concrete not... this. And his brief view of her on the television and in the village does not lend itself to a woman overflowing with the spirit of Christmas.

He knows Eugene has his angels, but this... this seems like much more than a weird video game, and wouldn't the kid have turned up already to shout fire and brimstone?

"It's more than just us here." Reggie gestures to the wide expanse of presents under the tree. "I think some of these people are... conduits." He uses the 'right' word, the one he knows won't sour Delsin, and that he's coming to realize might be more accurate before you know a person. "If it was the DUP, they wouldn't have brought me." Accomplice to Delsin or not, he's pretty sure they'd want to separate him from Delsin, rather than letting him find his little brother like this. The DUP would also know better about how to hold someone.