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

[fucking_ebay]

Talking about angelic languages might actually help Peter out at the moment, but it doesn't occur to him that Daniel might have an interest -- or that he'll even have any idea what Peter was just saying. He thinks it probably just sounded like some kind of weirdo chant or voice exercise, which is fine by Peter.

He's got his eyes unfocused as he imagines their destination, but he snaps back to attention long enough to look at Daniel and roll his eyes. Then he's tightening his grip, and then there's a signature clap of fire and displaced air and the two of them appear an unhappy three inches above the sill. Fortunately that's three inches on their own scale, not the scale of the house, but Peter still lets out a yelp and nearly teleports again before his feet hit the sill and he's too busy stumbling to keep his footing.

[peacefulexplorer]

For an awful split second Daniel can feel himself falling - oh god oh god it didn't work - but his feet land on a solid surface and he steadies himself on the pane, even if his toes slip a little too closely to the edge for him to be entirely comfortable with Peter's aim.

Speaking of which.

"Woah, hey." One of Daniel's hands leaps out steadyingly when Peter looks like he's about to go sliding off himself which would just be really not pleasant. "Hey. Easy, there. You good?"

[fucking_ebay]

The snark goes out of Peter at least for the moment as he clutches Daniel's arm in a death grip and takes two big, emphatic steps away from the edge. He's shaking again and he'd be embarrassed at his display of fear and at his failure to land them in the right place after all that posturing if he weren't so overwhelmingly relieved that he's not currently falling to the floor far below. "Goddamn," he says shakily. "That wasn't the best idea."

[peacefulexplorer]

Peter's unexpected latching onto Daniel's arm nearly sends him overbalancing, though thankfully Peter clears the edge enough to prevent any incredibly unpleasant repercussions. Like, say, tipping over.

"You're okay," he says reassuringly, noting how thoroughly unsettled Peter looks. "We're all good here. We just gotta, uh." He frowns quizzically at the window, the glass that's far too thick to break given their diminutive sizes. But Daniel's not about to call this trip a bust, not after what Peter's done to get them here. There's a latch, though it might take some joint effort to actually get it open between the two of them.

"There might be a way out here," he says, deliberately pitching his voice hopefully, more hopeful than he honestly feels about this. He's not entirely convinced Peter has the wrong notion about this being a bad idea; it almost definitely is. "If we can get the latch open, we could get out of the house and away from, well." The edge. The height. Et cetera. Daniel's concentrating very hard on not observing that dizzyingly steep drop.

[fucking_ebay]

It's been a long time since Peter fucked up a jump, and maybe it just reminded him that he used to try not to do it in dreams for fear he'd wake up to find he'd done it for real. He finally steadies himself (and remembers himself) enough to let go of Daniel, straightening to stand on his own and adjust his clothes with an air not entirely dissimilar to a cat that just fell off a countertop grooming itself.

"Or we could just teleport out," he suggests, eying the window dubiously. It's huge and the glass is thick and all he can see outside is snow. Now that he's up here, he's not so sure he wants out, though at least leaving the house might break the dream and allow them to wake up. Or they could dream about freezing to death.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Or - we could do that, yeah," Daniel concedes lamely, supinating a hand. "I mean, there's always the possibility it won't work, if this structure is that, you know, established as a fundamental part of the dream." Wouldn't be the first time, after all.

He's also starting to note, rather worriedly, that it's a bit chilly outside, and shoots Peter a nervous look. "If you're willing to try, then um, then I'm on board. But, uh," and eying the thick drifts of snow outside, he adds, "I wouldn't blame you if you'd rather not."

[fucking_ebay]

"...We could try the latch," suggests Peter as though it's a new idea he's just had, remembering how much it had hurt (it isn't fair that dreams here can hurt) when the last dream they'd shared hadn't allowed him to teleport out of the shackles. He thinks to himself, too, that at least if they open the window and it's deathly cold outside, they have a better chance of getting back in than if they hop down to the ground and he loses Daniel in the snow.