applesaucedream | Caught in the Current (open to multiple)

Peter's having a fairly ordinary dream -- that is, he's onstage in front of an audience, doing his old Vegas show in the nude, and none of the fire effects are working. He's not actually bothered by the nudity, which his dreaming mind seems to think is just part of the act, but he keeps getting confused about what part they're on. He hasn't rehearsed in weeks, and he's stumbling through all his lines and illusions.

Around the time the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (TM) melts away to be replaced by Central Park, Peter's remembered that he doesn't live in Vegas anymore, and his befuddled mind is well on its way to working out that he's dreaming. He doesn't get a chance to come to his senses and enjoy his shot at lucid dreaming, though, before something goes terribly wrong. This time as the backdrop melts away, there's nothing to replace it. He feels himself being pulled, drawn away somehow -- and, helpless to resist, his sleeping mind is sent spinning off into the ether of the Dreaming. Flailing at nothing, he's carried away -- until, of course, he collides with another mind and finds himself in another person's dream.

[OOC: Peter's been carried off like a twig in a river -- and he's going to smack into a few ~~rocks~~ other minds before the night's through. He can still be naked for the first one if desired. Have at!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So I'm stuck with you? That's unacceptable. She watches him scoot away without pursuing him, though she can't help wondering if a more solid swat would force him out of her head, since merely startling him hasn't done the trick.

"I'm stuck with you, you mean," he says, giving her a wary look.

No, I don't, Daine sniffs. She, at least, has made an attempt to be polite, unlike Peter. But if neither of them really want him here, at least they're on the same page. She peers at him. What normally wakes you up, when you're dreaming? Falling off a cliff, perhaps? Because that could be arranged.

"The alarm," says Peter flatly. He stands shakily, brushing grass off himself even though somehow none has stuck to or stained his clothing. "...I don't know what happens if I get hurt in someone else's dream," he admits, reluctant to point out his vulnerability but not liking the way she's looking at him.

I see. Daine tilts her head, a little bit tempted to ask if he cares to experiment. But, truth be told, she doesn't really want to hurt him. Aside from the fact that it's no contest with him in human shape and her as a bear, he'd have to do more than merely be unpleasant to provoke her into attacking him in earnest.

Which means she's stuck with him. Daine flops over with a heavy sigh, landing in a snowbank that wasn't there a moment ago.

Maybe I could wake up, she muses, stretching and pushing snow around with her paws.

Peter lets out a breath he's been holding. "You do that," he tells her. "Tell me how it goes."

He looks around for a moment, at something of a loss. With a little shrug, he turns and begins to amble away, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure she isn't following.

Daine rolls onto her chest and listens. If she's dreaming, it means she's really in her room - which means she should have a few friends nearby. Molly? she calls, not sure if she'll be able to hear her... but then she hears a drowsy, Daine? in response.

Her ears prick forward in excitement. Molly. I need you to wake me up.

You're asleep? There's a pause, then a surprised, Yep, you're asleep. Hang on.

In the dream, an image of Molly appears to sniff at Daine. In the waking world, Molly licks Daine's face. Dream-Molly copies the gesture, and Daine has enough time for an amused snort before the dream dissolves.

Though he's visited (and been booted from) two dreams prior to Daine's tonight, this is the first time Peter's been forced out because the host mind has awoken. He's off strolling in the increasingly nondescript grass, thinking maybe he can sort of walk out of her dream if he goes far enough (or at least not have to talk to her while he waits to wake up) when the world begins to dissolve around him, much as it did when he first lost hold of his own dreamscape.

The rushing nothingness sweeps him up before he can even think about whether he wants to let it happen -- as Daine awakes, Peter is carried away in darkness and confusion. He's fortunate, though -- so long as nothing interrupts him along the way, this is the end of it, and waking to his own bed is what awaits him at the other end.

Caught in the Current (open to multiple)

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