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

[watcher_giles]

Giles reaches the tree base at about the same time that Daine climbs onto reservoir. He gives her an encouraging nod and watches with interest as she disappears beneath the lip. He expects silence while she performs her magic, and there is quiet for a few minutes. The sudden cry ringing out from inside the reservoir startles him as a result.

He leans against the reservoir, standing on tiptoe in a vain attempt to see inside. "Daine? Are you all right?"

Even as he searches for a way to hoist himself up, he ears catch the sound of claws and bark and Daine emerges, wet and frantic, clinging to the tree trunk. "Daine! What happened? Are you okay, do you need help?"

[peacefulexplorer]

Okay, so the search for water is successful. Hopefully this means they'll get a better grasp of what, exactly, is going on with this too-large house and its too-small guests, and for a minute he and Giles can do little more than stand there, Giles watching Daine disappear over the ridge of the tree's plastic base with apparent intrigue and Daniel with his arms folded in mild, tenuous apprehension.

They both unfurl in tandem when they hear the yowl.

Well that's not good.

"Daine?" he calls sharply, bracing both hands against the lip of the thing, ramping anxiety stiffening in the taut line of his shoulders but there's no way he can just cram himself down there after her. For one he wouldn't even fit, for another that's a terrible idea, for yet another Daniel's more likely to end up needing help himself than giving it because that's generally how things go with him, and he mercifully clips that train of thought off when the top of Daine's head crawls into view, smaller and sleeker from the water streaming off. She looks fine, physically, and she's clawing herself up the tree like the motor-functionally adept cat-shape she is, but she's yowling and not forming mental words and Daniel knows enough about feline body language to know that wide eyes and flattened ears and agitated cries are not good.

"Daine," he says again, pointlessly, and strains one arm up and across as far as he can, which isn't far considering how small he is relative to everything else, but he doesn't know what else to do.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine turns her head to look at Daniel and Giles, distantly registering their worry. Far more of interest to her still-reeling mind is Daniel's arm, not long enough to reach her, but long enough to make the jump easier. So jump she does, claws snagging his shirt sleeve as she starts to slide right off of his arm. Too big, she's too big for this, but she doesn't have the presence of mind to shrink herself into anything else. She just clings onto his arm with all four paws, hoping he'll be able to pull her in before she falls (and that she isn't scratching him up too badly).

No mice, she manages, trembling in some combination of cold and shock. No People. Something else.