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

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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.]

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Dustin's coping mechanisms tend to be more aggressive than others, so Daniel's compliance and relatively competent answers earn him some points. The short scientist's ire is instead directed at an indiscriminate point on the wall, a glare and a frustrated growl pulling his mouth into a sneer.

"Yes, I've heard about the Rift," he hisses. "Goddammit, I knew Zephyr didn't have control over this. Little idiot always overextends themselves--going to get killed one day. Dumbass."

Dustin pauses in his personal rant to drag a hand down his face and regain his composure. He needs more information--before things get too far out of his control, as if they aren't already. He realizes, suddenly, that he's talking to a man who seems to have made it his job to tear newcomers out of boxes. Dustin's attention snaps back to him with an alarmingly sharp glare.

"What have you heard from the others that have arrived tonight? Within the past two weeks? Anything out of the ordinary?"

The frown deepens as Daniel's concern spikes, for this new person and for everyone else in general. He frankly doesn't have the fullest grasp of what Zephyr is, exactly. As far as he can tell, they're something of a kinder Rift equivalent, and now the Rift's done something - unfortunate to those in their care. Because of course it has. Because that's what it does.

This guy's response falls a sigma or so from the mean, if only due to his immediate reaction being something more akin to resigned, structured frustration rather than the standard fare of fear and panic and quiet acceptance. 'Anything out of the ordinary' prompts a sardonic, faintly sympathetic smile.

"Possible you don't know, but 'out of the ordinary' basically is our ordinary," Daniel replies with a tentative shrug. "The Rift pulls other consciousnesses, outside consciousnesses, into these communal dreams sometimes. Nothing I know of pertaining to Zephyr or, or anything in that general realm until recently." Should he be calling that a realm? Daniel is going to categorize that as a 'realm'. That sounds like a 'realm' of some kind. "I've never seen anything of this scale before. But, ah, well, I haven't been here too long. Not even a month." The smile slips into something a shade more mournful. Keeping track of all the contemporaneous goings-on in dreams is always a bit of a struggle when they're still in progress.

Edited 2014-12-31 07:51 (UTC)

Dustin rolls his eyes. Daniel becomes the unfortunate subject of his frustration; he is being helpful, yes, and sounds reasonably competent in comparison to the usual fare, but there's not a lot that can be done to calm Dustin's temper when he's on a mission, as he is currently. "'Out of the ordinary' is everyone's ordinary," he snaps irritably. "You know what I meant. Our of your definition of 'ordinary.'"

There's another brief pause as Dustin returns to massaging his temples. Information. Guiding questions. Calm down and get it.

"Does the Rift usually gather dreamers in groups from specific universes?" That seems like a good place to start. Dustin can only hope that Daniel's been around long enough to notice that.

The eyebrows simply slide upward as this other man becomes continuously more aggravated, but Daniel simply watches patiently as he loops back around from criticizing terminology to his former insistent questioning. The disorientation of ending up in a box in a dream in another universe is something that Daniel, unbelievably, has some experience with.

"Not that I know of," he answers. "Usually they're pretty scattered. Here, uh." And the hand comes out politely. "Daniel Jackson." With just enough tentative expectation for a name in return, and a faint, hopefully friendly smile.

Dustin stares at Daniel's hand. He does not do polite and he certainly doesn't do friendly. He does, however, recognize that Daniel's been giving him what information he's asked for with little to no fuss, which is more than he would expect with most people. More out of recognition of his cooperation than actual formalities, Dustin eventually accepts the gesture with his real hand.

"Dustin." There, that's over with. "Same with the times in which people arrive? Or is there a pattern to these events?"

Okay, so a notable lack of enthusiasm for physical contact. Daniel takes note. Dustin wants information, not displays of one's hypothetically legendary interpersonal expertise. He's sympathetic to the man's plight, as he is with anyone else who's been unceremoniously dragged here by the moody aberration in spacetime - assuming it has moods, which is an entirely new and not completely relevant conundrum Daniel doesn't think he should be breaching right now.

Unfortunately, this simply serves to remind Daniel that he is somewhat lacking in Rift-based information, simply because it's incredibly difficult to actually know anything about what it is.

"You mean physically, in Manhattan?" The friendly neutrality dissolves into a frown as Daniel chews on his lower lip and tries to phrase this in the clearest possible way. "Well we - sometimes people arrive in waves. It's almost always individualized though, people showing up one at a time or in unrelated ways. No pattern that I know of, or if there is it's not one we've figured out yet." As far as he can tell. "Occasionally a few people who share the same universe will get pulled in but I've, ah, never seen huge groups like this."

"That's what I was afraid of." Dustin frowns deeply and shoves his hands into his pockets (perhaps to reject the fact that he's just shaken someone's hand, but more likely just out of disgust for the situation in general). "I knew something was wrong when I ran into so many dreamers caught by the Rift. An entity that is characterized by how aggressively it contains the creatures it captures wouldn't let their minds be borrowed so easily. Zephyr must have overextended themselves."

A beat. The cogs are clearly turning in Dustin's head, and based on the heavily crinkling of his brow, the longer this goes the more concerned he's making himself.

"...Zephyr could have been taken with the rest of us." He raises an eyebrow. Dustin is indecisive about whether or not this possibility is a good thing. "They might be our only way out."

"That's assuming it's an entity at all, really." He folds his arms across his chest, head to one side as he considers it. "It's possible and as of right now it's looking more likely since, uh. Well. It feels wrong, you know?" It's an entirely unproven thesis, based solely on the sour gut feeling Daniel's getting from the entire dream, very unlike what's stemmed from the construction of dreams in the past.

Again he brings up Zephyr, and again that brings up its own questions. Dustin's demeanor hasn't exactly struck Daniel as friendly but he's not exactly uncooperative, more cooperative and just very hassled about it. "Zephyr is, I'm guessing - someone or something a bit like the Rift?" He's reaching, but he hasn't really gotten a lot of clarification on that point.

Dustin's raised eyebrow creeps higher. 'It feels wrong' is indeed a very vague explanation for such a complicated situation, and one that Dustin would have immediately discarded as irrational and, ultimately, quite stupid, if not for the fact that he's feeling the same way. The scruffy genius is no telepath, but he's had enough training from one to know what a dream should feel like--an awareness that's given him an interesting outlook on the past month's uninvited dreamwalking activities--and he knows this is no normal dream. Fuck if he knows what kind of dream it's supposed to be, but. Damn. It's weird. Skeptical expression aside, Dustin eventually gives a reluctant nod.

"In the sense that they can pull people from across universes, yes," he says, voice wavering and weary. "They're a definite entity--a child from a species of entities that seem to live off of the universes they maintain. They form a sort of..." Dustin makes several distracted gestures as he wonders whether or not he should go into more detail. Considering that Daniel has some 'sense' of what the environment is like here, it probably wouldn't hurt. "...symbiotic relationship with the universe itself, and the creatures they bring in to populate it. We can affect aspects of Zephyr and our surroundings, to some extent, and conversely, their condition can drastically affect the condition of the universe." He flashes a pointed frown. Daniel understands the implications there, yes? The universe-ending ones? Those are important.

Edited 2015-01-20 16:46 (UTC)

Does he understand the implications? Oh, absolutely. But his knee-jerk reaction -

"God, that's fascinating." He actually brightens up at that. "You mean there's an actual, intrinsic relationship between the entity and those in their care? Like a, a symbiotic cosmic bond." Daniel almost grins a little. "That's incredible. But, wait, okay."

He's pulling himself back into the fundamental issue here, that being if Zephyr doesn't have their residents, ~~THEN WHO'S FLYING THE PLANE?~~ what sort of effect might that have on a broader, pandimensional scale? Those - are not good implications.

"So it's pretty, incredibly vital we find a way to get everyone from your universe," he reasons, "back to their universe. For the health and benefit of everyone involved, basically. Right?"

Edited 2015-01-20 16:54 (UTC)

"Isn't it?" For a moment Dustin's brow rises in genuine interest. It's not often that he comes into contact with someone who is invested in the gritty details of he theories, and even less often that the someone is actually willing to talk to him about it. Maybe, if they weren't all in horrible danger, this would be something Dustin would take advantage of.

Ah, right. Dustin gets back down to business. "Essentially. Granted, Zephyr has let people go before--presumably when they find a more suitable location than the one they've created."

There's another pause as Dustin once again considers if this information is relevant. It isn't. But when is he going to find another opportunity to talk about this shit with someone who will listen? Fuck it, Daniel's getting the whole thing. Dustin leans forward slightly.

"Zephyr only appears capable of taking sentients that have undergone interdimensional travel. Specifically, that they've been removed from their universe of origin and don't have a means of easily getting back. Which would imply that the people who leave are able to return to their original universe, or some reasonable replacement. In a year's worth of research I've only noticed one significant deviation from the mean. It's very unusual." Okay, okay, enough of that. Dustin rather awkwardly clears his throat. "--So actual loss of residents might not be such a bad thing, if the Rift could be counted as a 'new universe' to preside in. What's more troubling is if Zephyr themselves gets involved. If we lose Zephyr, we lose the universe."

Edited 2015-01-27 18:56 (UTC)

Yeah, okay. That sounds definitively bad.

"Not sure you'd want the Rift as an alternative, to be honest," Daniel admits, scratching the back of his neck with a partial shrug. "It's not - bad, not terrible, I mean, I've been in worse," like actual literal hell for one, but he's not going there, "but it's not really your ideal. The Rift - doesn't care, not like a god or anything. We don't know what it is, just that it affects space, time, and spacetime, and might possibly be sentient. And it likes dumping us in Manhattan."

And it's just as well that Daniel's getting better at recognizing the contemporaneous time-steams of dreams, everything splitting off and reorganizing under a cohesive whole, because his eyes blink shut and he considers for a moment, then frowns.

"Umm. This, this 'Zephyr.' They're not, like - green, all covered in fur, writes stuff down?"

Dustin shakes his head. "Whether or not it's a preferable alternative isn't the point," he says, running a quick hand through his hair. "The point is, it's pulled us here without our permission, likely without Zephyr's permission, and..."

He trails off, looking more than a little alarmed. It seems that Daniel's description has taken a bit to properly click.

"I would say that's accurate, yes," Dustin murmurs. He shoots Daniel a sharp, narrowed stare. "Where did you see them?"

"Uhh." Right, well. Time to explain, if that's even possible. "I think I - it was just now, actually. Or, er, it's kind of difficult to, uh." Daniel scratches the back of his neck, expression settling somewhere between sheepish and baffled. "Dreams and time having a kind of a, a complicated relationship makes that bit hard to, well. I think I've seen them, just not, not specifically here and not specifically now. More like simultaneously." It's not like Daniel has a terribly great grasp of it himself. Don't look at him, he's just the intergalactic archaeologist with mortality issues.

"It was a window, I'm pretty sure." He scans the room, trying to pick up a nagging sensation that he's been there before or something, but it's so poorly defined that he doesn't get much luck. "Or - it is a window? Will be? Tenses." Daniel shrugs, mouth twisting up in a what can you do? grimace. "Either way, I think they need our help getting inside."

Dustin decides early into this stammered explanation that he needs to settle down for the long haul. He huffs, folds his arms and shifts onto his good leg, and for all the growing impatience creeping into his thin frown, Dustin manages to keep his mouth shut. This is important and Daniel is helping, as much as he can, and that's more than Dustin can expect from most people. He deserves this attention.

In the end, Dustin is glad he didn't cut Daniel off. "Omnipresent dream awareness," he murmurs and nods, slowly. "Interesting...yes, I think I understand. You developed this while you were--?"

Ah, now he's doing it, too. Dustin shakes his head and refocuses with a sharp chop of his hands. "--Never mind. Zephyr needs to get inside. Right." He sweeps his eyes over the surrounding walls. A few windows, very high up, a door outside, some other adjoining rooms...all of them are either very high up or too large to manipulate directly. Dustin hums as he mulls over his options. "A sturdy lever could...yes. Yes, that's doable." Then his attention is back on Daniel. "I'll search for some suitable tools for the task. You can find me if you get more information?"

Edited 2015-02-25 19:37 (UTC)

Awareness is a good word for it, though Daniel has no real idea of how he would define it otherwise. Or at all, really. He can only assume it's some byproduct of the Rift, possibly infusing its dreamers with some heightened sense of understanding about how its metaphysical labyrinths of dreams work. He finds it easier to blame most things on the Rift, in any case.

"I can try," Daniel offers with a cautious shrug. "Mostly I've just been trying to get everyone out. Maybe if enough of us pitch in we can get a door or a window open or something."

It's a bit of a long shot, especially if the house is firmly entrenched in the dream's parameters. But while breaking those parameters might be unthinkable, stretching them might not be. It's worth a shot.

That's a chance Dustin is willing to take, because he sure as hell doesn't plan on staying here. He's invested too much in the Meadous to even consider leaving it now. The Rift isn't going to get in the way of that.

"That's the idea," Dustin says with a curt nod. His eyes drift to the open hall leading to what appears to be a kitchen. Most useful tools will be in there, he figures. "Inform them of the situation, ask them where they came from and what they're capable of, gather more information and we'll regroup. Simple."

He doesn't wait for confirmation or argument--Dustin has decided, at this point, that wasting more time when Zephyr could be in immediate danger is not a good idea. Abruptly he turns and starts stiffly limping away.

Daniel mirrors the nod cautiously, eyebrows lifting in faint bemusement as the other man raps out a firm set of orders before abruptly turning and cutting a clear path away. He considers what he's going to carefully categorize as a 'forceful suggestion', decides it's as good a plan as any, and resumes his former task of liberating anyone he can find from their packages.

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Better to Receive than to Give [open to all]

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sorry for the wait! university and I stopped cooperating for a bit

man am I feeling that feel. it's all good!

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