Sweeter than the First Time [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

Hello, dreamers of Manhattan. The Rift knows that things have been kind of rough, lately. The last dream didn't go as well as it had hoped. Consider this an apology of sorts, and a hearkening back to the good times you've shared.

It's a grand old (and potentially familiar) cabin house that the dreamers will find themselves wandering. The furniture is plentiful and comfortable, the floors are strewn with cushions and blankets, and there are cheerful fires burning in the grates. It seems a little odd that the house still manages to be on the chilly side despite looking so warm, yet it is.

Oh, well. You'll just have to find another dreamer or two and spoon up and fall asleep like little baby cats get cozy. It shouldn't be difficult; most of the dreamers (excepting those with strong telepathic defenses or deeply ingrained cuddle-averse personalities) will find themselves feeling friendlier than usual, along with an almost overwhelming desire to snuggle up to someone. How convenient that the house seems designed for that very purpose!

And if some of the cushions are Hello Kitty themed, well, that's just coincidence.


[OOC: Standard dream party rules apply. Characters will be affected by the dream-whammy to whatever degree makes the most sense for them, and will remember or forget the events of the dream at the player's discretion. Backtag into infinity.]

Comments

[peacefulexplorer]

The first example Daniel's mind flies to is the bit with the cats and the wrapping paper and all the associated terror besides, but that, unfortunately, doesn't really count as the most recent.

Like a sledgehammer the memory hits him all over again and his stretching abruptly shrinks, his eyes dropping, downcast. It's warm and pleasant by the fireplace, surrounded by books and blankets and Seth, but ice creeps into his veins regardless, Daniel being made to relive things he never wanted to relive.

Daniel swallows hard, suddenly wishing very hard that he hadn't brought it up. He hadn't been thinking.

"Just," he says, and the word comes out a little too pained so he swallows, breathes, and starts over. "Just a, um. Bad dream. Bad memories."

That's close enough.

[powerdealer]

Daniel's demeanour changes so rapidly it would be impossible for Seth not to notice. He seems to crumple, and despite being both taller and broader than Seth, he suddenly doesn't seem it.

Seth knows that Daniel has just as many unpleasant memories as Seth does, if not more. Even just the ones Seth knows about would be enough to cause this sort of reaction, and Daniel probably has plenty more where that came from. It's not particularly important which one it is, unless Daniel wants to talk about it.

Daniel sounds so upset that Seth feels completely justified in lifting his arm and putting it around Daniel's shoulders, giving him a little squeeze of support. He has no idea what to say, but he wants Daniel to know that Seth is there for him, like Daniel has been for him. Only a couple days ago had Daniel been holding Seth like this while he was going through a bad time, though the circumstances were pretty different.

He remains quiet for a little while in case Daniel wants to elaborate, vent some of his worries, but it doesn't seem like he wants to. Which is also fine.

"We're hopeless, huh?" he says finally, voice soft. "Rift finally gives us a setting like this, and neither of us even manages to reliably take advantage of it."

[peacefulexplorer]

The gentle pressure around his shoulders is welcome, even if Daniel can't lift his gaze from the seam on the blanket Seth pulled over both of them, toying with a loose thread that seems to have sprang up specifically so he could fiddle with it.

"We really are," he says in a stumbling attempt to jar himself back into the formerly warm atmosphere they'd been sharing before. The smile he tries to form quickly flutters and fades. "Well, hey. It's what happens when you take us someplace nice for once."

[bluesuit_handy]

"No," says Andrew more sharply, alert enough to be irrationally irritated for no apparent reason wary of the weirdo with his hands in the fire. "I don't. Which begs the question of how you know me -- and of course I haven't left Manhattan; I can't leave Manhattan. I can't even leave the bloody basement most days."

He frowns deeply and disapprovingly. "You'll burn yourself doing that."

[wildmage_daine]

Oh, she understands his nervousness, now. It was fair strange the first few times it happened to her, too. Daine gives him a sleepy blink of reassurance. You'll get used to it. Most folk do. It's happened often enough to me that I can almost always tell it's a dream right away. See? It'll get easier!

She considers Tim a moment, tail still wagging, then asks, Would it help if I was fluffier? I can be very fluffy.

[andhiswife]

"I could use help with my phone," Greta admits, obliviously, as she uncurls herself from around Iman. No more moping. But she's in no particular hurry to get up, either, so she shifts to sit more alongside Iman, leaning against her and tucking a companionable arm through hers. "Speaking of things that might as well be magic." And it's so little, and delicate; honestly, she'd be much more willing to mess around with it if it wasn't so breakable.

"What about your world?" she asks, turning to look at her. "Is it very different?" Iman seems to have adjusted well, but that could just be due to time.

[all_the_gifts]

Melanie hesitates a moment, then lets out a soft sigh. Castor seems nice, and she doesn't want to frighten him, but lying to him wouldn't be fair. It's important that people understand the threat she might pose for them. "I'm not safe," she clarifies. "I might hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone," she adds hurriedly, "but that's why I have to be very careful about who I see - and where." Being in the flat is best, though visiting with Bee on the roof is nice, too. There's no question of her venturing farther afield than that, though.

[postictal]

Unfortunately, this isn't really something Tim wants to get used to. Or, well, maybe he wouldn't mind it. Maybe it's not half bad. But he shouldn't get used to it and if it means more people will come creeping into his awareness, the likelihood of anything ending well just sort of plummets.

He goes back to petting the sort-of-dog cautiously, but her next words prompt another confused look.

"What do you mean by that?" In Tim's experience, dogs don't usually sprout copious amounts of additional fur spontaneously?

[all_the_gifts]

There's something oddly reassuring about the way Rashad takes the information in stride. He doesn't even press for details. She probably shouldn't find this reassuring at all, but if he's not human, maybe he doesn't need to know she's a hungry child. Maybe she can just let him think she's the sort of not-human that doesn't involve wanting to eat people.

"I think so," she says, shifting a bit closer to him. "What kind of secret?" She's more accustomed to pragmatic honesty than secrecy, but then again, she's rarely found herself in possession of secrets worth keeping. For someone else, though, she thinks she could do it.

[all_the_gifts]

She isn't making sense. It's like she's speaking in riddles, which Melanie normally likes, except this one is about her. It's not even a very hard riddle - she knows perfectly well where the hunger is coming from - but this woman got the color wrong. It's not green.

"You can hear the cordyceps?" Melanie asks, wrinkling her nose.

[powerdealer]

Seth keeps his arm draped around Daniel, wishing he could make things better but unsure how, except distracting him and making sure he doesn't get lost in his own bad memories - like Seth himself has a tendency to do. Daniel generally comes across as a lot more put-together and stable and solid than Seth is, so when Daniel actually does show vulnerability, Seth immediately becomes very protective.

"I think it's the 'for once' that's the problem," Seth answers, nodding. It's easier to pull himself out of his own melancholic thoughts when he's making the effort for Daniel rather than for himself. "If the Rift gave us stuff like this more regularly, we'd be more used to dealing with it."

[peacefulexplorer]

He makes another staggering effort to haul himself back into the now, away from the memory of the invasive, disturbing, personal dream, or nightmare, that he doesn't want to think about. His second try for a smile is no less weak but this time it stays.

"No kidding." He tilts his head at the bookcase and scans the titles thoughtfully, almost forcing his pattern of memory to adhere to the associations that spring from those instead of his previous dream experience. "Pretty sure that's even some of my home library mixed in there." Which in any other context might be seen as disturbing but here Daniel can only find oddly grounding. Familiar. The thought of his old office comes with its usual pang of homesickness, but he makes a valiant effort to tamp that down as well. Isn't Daniel just a bundle of cheer tonight.

[powerdealer]

Seth moves his gaze from Daniel up to the bookcase, squinting at the titles. Most of them sound ridiculously complicated or unbearably boring. Or rather, the kind of stuff he'd have to get into through someone like Daniel for it to sound interesting. Seth likes the idea of books and learning, but is limited in what he feels like he can absorb or understand on his own, especially through reading. Which helps explain why his school career was so disastrous.

"Well, the general assumption is that the Rift draws on our memories and thoughts to create these settings, even when creating places that seem new to us," he answers, jumping on the new subject easily. "The other books might be from someone else's mind."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Mm, that makes sense, actually." Relieved at the somewhat ungainly shift in subject, Daniel quickly latches onto it regardless. "Instead of creating an entire new environment, why not just make sort of a, a collage from everyone else's memories so it ends up a mix of 'new' and 'familiar'?"

It'd be creative, almost, if it wasn't so distantly unnerving. Comforting, in a way, to have those fragments of home buried in dreams, but not something Daniel wants to think at any great length. The Rift has already shown itself capable of rifling through his memories to stir up some truly terrible spots in his past and he's not keen on dwelling.

[noteasybeingblue]

The strange human terms of differentiation matter little to a god. Illyria tilts to one side the dream construction of her shell's head. There's such a frightful discordance between the child's words and the voices of tiny whispering things within.

"I hear the calls of all the green," she murmurs. What a strange thing. "Even those that live in your shell."

Slowly, her shell drops into a crouch to make herself even with the child's eye level.

"What are you?"

[all_the_gifts]

There's 'green' again, which makes Melanie think of plants, but that's a completely different kingdom. "Grey," she corrects, watching the stranger with wary bewilderment. "It's grey, not green."

It's also a silly thing to focus on when this person is insisting she can hear it. Melanie being able to hear it is bad enough; she doesn't like the thought of other people listening in. Knowing she's dangerous is one thing - that's important. Knowing just how badly the cordyceps wants her to tear into them is something else entirely. No one should have to hear that. If Bee or Daniel could, they'd never speak to her again. Which would probably be better for them, but she still hates the thought of it.

"I'm a..." she's not going to say 'hungry child,' "... a symbiote." Is this an introduction? "What are you?" she echoes uncertainly.

[noteasybeingblue]

"I am Illyria." But she has come to understand that name has so little meaning here, in a universe where she is not known and never was. Intolerable, yet the immutable fact she must accept. She is not the all-powerful being that once wielded the incalculable power of millions. She says it evenly, with the scant trace of regret for the loss of all that she was prior. "I am a god."

Perhaps the child sees variegation in the spectrum of its own tiny plant-things, but Illyria sees only the things that are beneath her and can voice their protest, and the things that are beneath her and cannot.

"A God-King from before your time, or anyone's, when the world was in its first form." Illyria watched that cosmic embryo come into being and claimed a section of its surface rock for her own. But despite her long and untold years, she has not met before now a - symbiote. "But I know not of your kind. They did not exist in the world I walked."

[boneshaker]

Castor tilts his head at her, confused and concerned. "What would make you hurt me?" he says. If she doesn't want to but she's afraid she might - there must be something that forces her. He doesn't like the way that sounds.

At least she seems safe in this dream, so he tentatively holds out a hand to her, inviting her to take it. There's couches and cushions everywhere, surely they can find someplace better to talk.

[etherthief]

Iman smiles and pats her arm. "I can help with that," she says, perhaps a bit overconfidently. She is definitively not a teacher. But she's enthusiastic!

"It's pretty similar, actually," she says. "Same city, even. I actually... came through on purpose." She grins, a little embarassed. "If you can believe that."

[imashinyboy]

'Wicked.' Vince bobs his head in understanding, and throws in a cheeky little wink that he hopes says, Vince Noir's always the right company.

'It's weird, this place,' he says thoughtfully, looking around the room at the placidly cuddling dreamers. 'S like there was a big old party, yeah, just before we got here, and now everyone's just crashed out.'

It doesn't smell like there's been a party, though; there's no empty bottles or dog-ends or roaches in evidence, and everyone's pretty much dressed. It's just like they all decided together that lying around in puddles and cuddling like baby monkeys was a better option that staying upright.

He lets himself be led through into the next room, which turns out to be... not a bedroom exactly, more in the same theme as the rest of the house, but it does contain a bed, a big round thing all kitted out in fluffy white pillows.

'Aw, genius! Is that what I think it is?'

Iman's hold on his scarf isn't tight enough that Vince can't slip it. So he does, and proceeds to throw himself bodily onto the bed, which, just as he'd thought, sloshes under him, sending him half tumbling back, spine bending and arse in the air and positively cackling.

'You ever shagged on one'a these? I bet it's impossible; I bet it's only, like, rock stars who've got enough rhythm to manage it without gettin' themselves thrown off the bed in the middle of things, endin' up all black and blue and seasick.'

The galloping ripples of the waterbed settle down until Vince is just bobbing in the middle, pink-cheeked and grinning, with only the faintest hint of retrospective embarrassment at his enthusiasm.

[has_a_horn]

Hey, a Seth! Gabriel is wandering around as well, but he's taking a little more initiative on getting a cuddle buddy. When he spots Seth, he hooks his elbow and tugs him toward the first open room. "Heyyyy, aren't you cold? Come 'ere."

There's a fire going in the room and Gabriel lets go of Seth to grab a blanket and plop himself down in front of it.

[powerdealer]

Seth should really be getting used to this by now. It isn't that frequent for him to be ambushed by Gabriel, but mostly because they don't see each other that often - at least, when you take into consideration the fact they live in the same house. But then most of the time he does see Gabe, it starts with him being ambushed. He doesn't mind though, given the general cosiness of the dream and Gabe's cheer.

"Nice to see you too," he answers with amusement, allowing himself to be pulled along and following Gabe's example in getting himself a blanket and taking a seat. There's a large selection of pillows too, plenty to sit on or lean against.

[erratic_hematic]

A young man wanders into the party a little uncertain on his feet. He doesn't seem to know anyone here, and it's awfully cold. He might have asked for a fire to be started, but it seems that's already been taken care of.

There does seem to be a library, thank God. He wanders in and looks over the shelves while he waits for the fire to warm up the room.

[powerdealer]

"The fucked up thing is the idea that someone else could stumble on something that's not just familiar to you, but also personal," he points out, leaning back a little and considering. Having random books from his personal library might not be so bad for Daniel, but what if he had something like a diary that ended up in here and someone could read it.

"That, um, that actually happened with me and Johnny," he adds, suddenly remembering another dream. "There was this one room in a dream that was just filled with all these pages from a book he wrote. A very, um.. Well, private book, I guess. I accidentally read some of it."

...He's not sure if the direction of this conversation is actually helping anything.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Johnny wrote a book?" That's Daniel's first takeaway, the second being: well, shit. So Seth's been tossed into one of his more haphazard, morally reprehensible memories before, but the unfortunate bit is that wasn't even the worst possible memory the Rift could have chosen, as he now knows too well. And he doesn't want Seth - or anyone, really - rifling around in the more private sections of Daniel's past. Particularly if they involve Ascension.

Daniel's tensed up again despite the general calm air of the dream, rubbing one hand over his chin in pensive agitation.

"Honestly, wish there was a way to safeguard against this kind of thing," he mutters, and pulls off his glasses briefly to scrub said hand over his eyes. "My brain's really not one that should be exposed to the masses, especially when we've got, y'know, Satan running about." And especially considering the unnerving amount of interest Lucifer had displayed in Daniel's head, rife with memories of another plane. Crap.