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

[lottawork]

It is only upon physical confirmation that he has sunk to ground level that Rush accepts dropping to ground level as an adequate course of action, and he braces the heels of both palms against his temples in fluid, soothing reflex.

He has a headache. Possibly. Do headaches exist in empirically unproven spaces. He will have to obtain confirmation on that.

Perhaps he has a headache in his sleep.

"Fuck," says Rush, abrupt, self-evident disgust boiling behind the word. He's asleep despite all his efforts to avoid it, fucking again. And - no one else is talking. No one else is talking because Asadi has been talking but has, presumably, finished, and he has retained none of it. One hand drops away from his head as he stares. "What."

[etherthief]

She grits her teeth, half because poking around in her arm fucking hurts, sending little shockwaves up her arm and down her spine, and half because god damn can he just listen to her for once. "Fuck," she says, slow, as one would to a child, "off. I can tell you don't want to help me, aren't equipped to help me, whatever. You think I haven't seen it before? I've seen it before. I've spent my entire life surrounded by assholes like you."

No, she hasn't. They haven't been as brilliant, for one thing. Rush thinks nothing of himself, and the assholes she's been around have all been egomaniacs to some degree, and Rush isn't that at all - that's why she puts up with him. But right now, now is not the moment for any stray compliments of his character. She's had it. She's done.

"Just get away from me," she snaps, focusing all her attention on the arm she mangled for him, for which she will never receive a fucking thank you. "Go do whatever it is you need to do. I'll be fine."

She will be fine. A scientist is always fine.

[lottawork]

His head drifts to a skewed axis with an involuntary narrowing of eyes. Sitting down, he understands, was a terrible idea, and he rectifies this immediately in a sharpened snap of poor muscular coordination. He has not achieved full control of his limbs yet, fucking apparently, but they stand, however abysmally.

"Good." Rush delivers the word with blunt, honeyed derision. "Do enjoy your mechanical failure."

It is a matter of minutes to clear the area, and leave Asadi to her malfunctioning discord of cybernetics and nervous system glitches.