This is My Island in the Sun [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

The Rift wouldn't say it's sorry for the fit it threw the other day, because the Rift never needs to apologize. It is (mostly) perfect, and all of its decisions are well reasoned and just. Obviously. But perhaps it has fallen into a bit of a post-tantrum sulk, because this dream is milder than one might expect. In fact, it's downright nice.

The dreamers will find themselves in an archipelago of small islands - most only a few acres in size - connected by narrow strips of sand or pebbles. The surrounding waters are calm. Little waves lap against the shorelines, and no rising tide will cut the islands off from one another. The islands themselves seem to have been lifted from every climate zone on Earth and several from beyond. Some are tropical, some colder and home to hardy conifers, some mossy and boulder-strewn, some covered in multicolored sand and odd, coral-like trees.

Most of the islands boast some kind of manmade or otherwise non-native structure, be it as small as a bench or as large as a pavilion, though there are no houses or shops to be seen. It's more like parkland, just civilized enough for a nice picnic. Some of the islands even have little grills, and a sufficiently motivated dreamer might be able to rustle up some hot dog or burger fixings if they poke around a bit.

And they'll have an extra pair of eyes to help with their searching, because their beloved dæmons have returned… again. Or perhaps they're being introduced for the first time. Regardless, it's the bi-annual dæmon dream party!

Comments

[apidae]

"Simon!" she squeaks happily, holding him up to her cheek. Simonides balls up nervously, his tail curling around her wrist. All that excitement over him! Bee smiles and softens a little.

"We're okay, see?" She gives him a little kiss on the head. "Everything's fine. Somewhere bright and warm and not scary at all this time. Look!"

He does peek out, seeing the ocean lapping against the sand, shady palm trees behind them - he settles a little more comfortably on her shoulders.

"We're dreaming?" he says meekly.

She nods, absently stroking under his chin with a finger. She senses the melancholy in the question, that when she wakes up they'll be separated again, but she puts on a brave face for both of them. "Best make the most of it then, hadn't we," she says, and sets out to circle the beach, looking for other people or a way to one of the other islands. There are so many of them, and they're all so different! Simonides might want to hide in her hair, but she's going to explore.

[fucking_ebay]

Peter's still in search of somewhere cooler and shadier than the scorching hot desert isle on which he arrived. Slogging across wet sand under direct sunlight isn't the most pleasant thing, but the air seems cooler already as he and Cascia approach an island with a lot more to offer in the way of palm trees. He can make out a figure in the glaring light, and pauses to shade his eyes with both hands, swaying slightly in place as he tries to make out who it might be.

"I think it's Bee," he says to the goat standing with her hooves sunk deep in the sand beside him.

"BEE!" yells Cascia without warning, and Peter startles and swats at her.

[apidae]

Bee jumps half a mile at the sudden call of her name, and Simonides scrambles up to perch frantically on her shoulder as she turns, smiling and relaxing immediately.

"Peter!" She waves and hurries on over. "Hi! You've got a goat!" She can't help but point this out, because she's an adorable little goat, even though Peter must certainly be aware of this. "What's your name?" she asks the goat with a broad grin.

[fucking_ebay]

"Oh, for --" Peter shoots a glare at Cascia, who looks entirely too pleased with herself. "Ever think I might just want some alone time?"

"With me? I'm flattered, Petey, but I don't swing that way." Cascia leaves Peter sputtering. To Bee as she trots forward with Peter in reluctant tow she replies, "Cascia, and who's your friend?"

"Mix-up at the office," grumbles Peter, who's still really not impressed by his soul taking the form of a farm animal. "And you've got a -- a --" He squints at what he first took to be some kind of rodent. "What is that, anyway?"

[apidae]

"This is Simonides," says Bee, holding him close. "He's a golden anteater I think - or a pygmy anteater? I'm not sure if there's a difference."

Simonides' tail curls close around her wrist and she smiles and strokes his head briefly.

"He's very shy," she says, looking back up at Peter, then down at Cascia. "Funny, isn't it, how they're sort of like us but sort of not?"

[fucking_ebay]

"Sort of," agrees Peter, if it can be called an agreement. Cascia just snorts in response to the stink-eye he's giving her -- as though it's her fault he's got an overinflated ego telling him his daemon should be a tiger. "You never struck me as all that shy," he points out.

[apidae]

"You never struck me as the type to just run on up to someone," she counters with a sly, pointed glance at Cascia. She shifts Simonides to the crook of her elbow gently, trying to acclimate him a little.

"It took me a lot of work to learn how not to be this shy all the time," she says softly. "It's still part of me. I need to take breaks from people. But I really like people, and I like being around them, so it was important that I taught myself how. You know?"

But she likes that Simonides represents her as she is inside. It's important to her to know that part, value and cherish it, never forget that it's there. It'd be too easy otherwise to get lost trying to keep up with everyone around her.

[fucking_ebay]

Peter renews his scowling at the goat -- stop making him look like he likes people, Cascia. He decides to forgo the confession that he has nearly the opposite problem.

"He has the opposite problem," says Cascia. "Wants to be around people all the time -- imagine how well that works out for him."

"Could you fucking not?!" snaps Peter.

[apidae]

Bee giggles at the two of them - she can't help it, they're so funny, fighting like that. She knows well enough how much he's at odds with himself inside, so it only makes sense to see it played out like this, and that's a little troubling, but at least it's under pleasant conditions.

"Well, we can hang out now!" she says brightly. "Want to wander around? Go wading, maybe?" She can't imagine Peter is much of an outdoorsman, but it isn't the real outdoors, anyway.

[fucking_ebay]

Wading ranks right up there with mini golf and sushi on Peter's list of things he doesn't do. "What, kick off my shoes and...and wade?" he asks.

"That's generally what wading is, yeah," says Cascia. "You won't melt. Probably."

"...Yeah, fine," agrees Peter, really trying to sound reluctant. It's just that it's a dream and he doesn't have anything better to do, it's not that he's losing his edge or giving up on his image.

[apidae]

"Good!" Bee turns at once and practically bounds toward the water. She's never seen the ocean before, much less been in it, and she's rather looking forward to it, even if it is a fake one.

With no shoes to kick off, she wades right in, squeaking a little at how cold it is - standing in the sun, though, it's easy to warm right up. The sand is soft beneath her feet.

"It's nice!" she says, twisting back to look at them. Simonides is perched tightly on her shoulder, neither confirming nor denying.

[fucking_ebay]

Peter lingers at the edge of the water while Cascia goes stalking right into the shallows to join Bee, lifting one foot after another out of the chilly water. He doesn't have a whole lot of choice in whether or not he follows where his goat goes, or at least that's a handy excuse for him to shuck off his boots and pull up the cuffs of trousers that were never meant to be rolled up for wading. Even in his dreams he doesn't dress for the outdoors. He steps in and finds himself imitating her squeak.

"You, Bee, are a liar," he informs her as Cascia snickers.

[apidae]

She grins up at him. "Sorry," she says sheepishly. "It's not so bad, though." Certainly not as bad as that dream where they'd been trapped in the tunnel filling with water - well, she doesn't want to think about that for a variety of reasons.

She turns back to peer down at the sand through the water, bending down to dip her hands in and picking up a little shell. She hands it to Peter without a word. This will probably confuse him, and she doesn't really have a reason for it either. It just seems like the thing to do.

[singthesong]

"Oh, it's Bee!"

The voice comes from a brightly colored parrot flapping around above. The Balladeer is following a few feet behind her, and lifts a hand to wave. So it is! Beth, though, isn't quite content to wait for him, and starts to fly faster towards Bee and her daemon, whatever he is. Some kind of weird ferret? "Hi!" she calls out. "Isn't this dream - "

She jerks back with a sudden pained squawk, as if pulled by an invisible force, and spirals down to land ungracefully in the sand. At the same time, the Balladeer breaks into a run towards them.

[apidae]

Bee grins to see the beautiful parrot swooping toward her, pursued by the Balladeer. "Hi!" she returns with a big wave, then, "Oh-" and an alarmed gasp when the bird plummets and the Balladeer breaks into a run. She hurries to meet them, wanting to tend to the bird but not wanting to touch, either. She remembers Sunshine's warning against that.

"Are you okay?" she cries, dropping down to her knees. "What happened?" Simonides uncurls a little and drops down, shuffling nervously through the sand to nose at the parrot, which, Bee thinks distantly, is very brave of him indeed.

[singthesong]

"I don't know!" The sand is soft, and Beth was able to flap around enough not to injure herself in landing, but she's still wailing in distress. It only stops when the Balladeer slides ungracefully on his knees in next to her, gathering her up and holding her to his chest.

"What was that?" he gasps. That run was hardly enough to wind him, but he feels like he's been punched in the chest. He's only starting to feel better now that they're together. "Don't do that again."

"I'm sorry." Beth snuggles against him for a moment, contrite. Then she wriggles free and drops to his knee, leaning out towards Simonides. "Well, anyway! Hello! I'm Beth!"

The Balladeer flashes Bee an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I don't...really know what that was."

[apidae]

Bee watches them attentively, wondering - did they get too far apart? Could they all be limited like that? She wouldn't know - she's never put Simonides down, he always wants to be held.

"Gosh," she says, a little bewildered by Beth's quick recovery. "Well I'm glad everyone's okay."

"H-hi," says Simonides quietly, which surprises Bee a little - usually he doesn't seem to talk to anyone unless coaxed into it. Maybe it's just that they both feel extra comfortable around the Balladeer.

[singthesong]

They're both still aching a bit, right behind their collarbones, but they haven't gotten where they are now by letting on when they aren't feeling stable and confident. It isn't even a conversation that has to happen; pretending is a reflex. Beth is still plenty close to the Balladeer's knee now anyway. They're fine. It's time to just move along from that little display, which was frankly embarrassing.

Simonides is much more interesting than feeling sorry for themselves. "What are you?" Beth asks, leaning in and tilting her head from side to side to look at him. "I'm some kind of parrot. We don't know what exactly."

"I don't think we know what's going on in general," the Balladeer confides. "Do you know what daemons are? She says she's one."

[apidae]

"I-!" Simonides buries his face beneath his little hooked claws before answering sheepishly, "I'm a very small anteater."

"Pygmy anteater," Bee says gently, smiling down at him. She looks up at the Balladeer in confusion. "I... I don't know. Is that what they're called?"

Simonides makes a very small shrug.

"I suppose it just makes the most sense that you'd know," says Bee with a little grin at Beth.

[singthesong]

"She said she was the Balladeer's daemon, when I asked her name," he confides, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. That's not something he would get into with most people, but he won't need to launch into any weird explanations with Bee. Bee knows why his name is what it is; she ought to understand why he trusts Beth to have named herself accurately, if not exactly to her own liking. That's probably just how she'd be designated in a script, if they had one.

Beth flicks a wing and ignores all that talk. Her name is Beth now, like a proper daemon would have. She said so. "I didn't know there were any anteaters besides the big black ones. You're cute!" That's normal to say, yeah?

[apidae]

"That's so funny," she says curiously. "I wonder what that means. There must be some reason for that." She smiles at Beth and the compliment to Simonides. "Isn't he?" Perhaps it's vain to say so. She can't tell.

"I don't LIKE being cute," he confesses, and Bee's a little stunned to hear it. This is maybe the most he's said out loud at one time. "People look at me more."

"Oh," she says, frowning in sympathy. "I know. But we're okay with that, right? At least from friends."

"From friends," he echoes, peeking out at Beth and the Balladeer.

[singthesong]

"Oh!" There's more than a note of surprise and uncertainty in Beth's voice. She likes people looking at her; it hadn't occurred to her that Simonides may not. "Well - there you go, then! You stick with me, and they can look at me instead." She was practically made for that. She's bright and loud and, very importantly for the two of them, knows how to put on a show.

The Balladeer isn't exactly clear on the relationship between human and daemon, but he feels like that was an exchange he maybe should not have witnessed. Still, it's nice to hear them called friends. He relaxes into a more comfortable sitting position and smiles at Bee. "So, how've you been?" As hectic as New York has gotten lately, his tone is a little more concerned than normal.

[apidae]

"Okay," says Simonides sheepishly, peering at Beth with big dark eyes.

"We've been okay," says Bee, the 'we' coming naturally enough that she doesn't even notice. "Trying to keep my head down like usual. Just keeping the bees." She smiles softly up at him. She knows he's been a little troubled recently, though she hasn't heard much from him lately. "Are you okay?"

[singthesong]

If the Balladeer noticed the "we", he doesn't comment. He just sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "Well. We were living right above ROMAC's headquarters." So obviously, that was not fun. "I've been trying to lie low since then. I...ran a little afoul of some of their officers on my out," he admits with a bit of a wince. It was intentional, of course, but it doesn't entirely sit right with him.

Beth sees his uncertainty and hisses a little, puffing up her feathers. "They deserved it."

[apidae]

"Oh!" She claps a hand over her mouth, looking mortified. "That's right, I - I forgot!" She flushes, embarrassed, and Simonides curls in comfortingly. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I don't really know what happened with all that, just heard about it through the grapevine, and I forgot you were actually living there, oh lord." She passes her hand over her forehead, resolving not to beat herself up too much about it. "I'm sure they did," she says to Beth, looking back up at him quickly. She is no stranger to using her power against people, and she knows how mixed up one can feel after the fact. "I'm sure you only did what you had to."

She reaches out and sets her hand on his arm. "Listen, I don't really know what all that was about, but I know that rifties stick together, so if you ever have trouble, let me know. I'm tougher than I look." This with a reassuring grin.