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

[postictal]

Tim nods warily. "Yeah. Think it's this week's theme." He doesn't bother to try to sound anything but bitterly sardonic as he says it. He hasn't forgotten the last dream, and all the old, buried memories that came rushing back with it. He's choosing to blame the Rift for that one. The Rift, and his own twisted fucking head. It always comes from him.

"I'm Zero," says the raven softly, tipping her head to one side. She watches the deer with the same sort of caution, but there's something in her stance that also radiates, oddly, concern. Like, for the deer? Or for Jay?

Fuck if Tim knows. That just doesn't make any sense.

"Yeah, so." He shrugs, stuffs his hands into his pockets. "I'm a raven, you're a deer. Congratulations."

[deadeyedchild]

Zero. Well that makes him feel better about Omit's name, he supposes.

"Yeah, I guess," he says vaguely. "Um. Do you wanna get out of the woods?"

It's not really a question. He knows where they'd both rather be, which is anywhere but. He starts to walk, Omit staying close, which is awkward, such a big animal floating beside him like a dog. Jay finds he doesn't mind. After their weird close call he'd rather Omit stayed within arm's reach.

"You been okay?" asks Omit abruptly, looking over at Tim and Zero. Jay's gut twists. Why's he asking that?

[postictal]

Tim snorts again. Like Jay needs an answer to that, and it turns out he doesn't. They start walking nearly in synchrony, picking a direction that will hopefully be the fastest way out. Tim's had enough of fucking trees for a lifetime, thanks.

The question catches Tim off guard, and he looks at the deer uncertainly.

"Uh," he says slowly, glancing at Zero helplessly, but she contributes nothing. He looks back at Omit. "I guess? I mean, you're," he breaks off, looking the deer up and down with a puzzled frown, "you're Jay, right? That's basically what this is?"

That's not really an answer at all, and he knows it. And based on the soft click of Zero's beak, weirdly reminiscent of a tsk of disapproval, she knows it too. Makes sense.

[deadeyedchild]

This whole exchange makes Jay deeply uncomfortable for reasons he can't quite parse. Like it just shouldn't be happening. But he doesn't interrupt, just keeps an eye on Omit, who in turn eyes Tim for a moment before answering.

"I'm Omit," he says. "I mean yeah, I'm Jay too."

Well. All right. Awkward. Jay looks ahead, chewing his lip.

"I don't get what that has to do with you being okay," says Omit.

Even more awkward. Fabulous. Jay suppresses a groan with great effort. Omit looks at him blankly, as if to say What?

[postictal]

Zero makes a faint, strangled noise that sounds suspiciously like a poorly suppressed laugh. Tim's too busy staring at Omit with a steadily darkening frown to glare at her, though he feels like he would.

"I'm fine," he says slowly, then transfers his skeptical look to Jay. "So this is your inner 'you' or something." A corner of his mouth twitches. "Can't say I'm surprised."

[deadeyedchild]

"Why?" says Jay only a shade defensively, glancing at Tim and his snickering bird. He's not really surprised either - not about the deer or the raven - though he'd be hard pressed to pin down exactly why himself. "Cause my inner me wants to know if you're doing okay? I'm sure we can, y'know, dig deeper."

Not that that's a suggestion. Omit keeps his mouth shut, graciously.

[postictal]

"No, it's just." Tim bites the inside of his cheek, opening a hand helplessly. "Inner you is just - really up front about it. Kinda fits." And, because he can't quite leave it at that, he adds for good measure - "Mr. 'Documentary on Hotels'."

[deadeyedchild]

Jay blinks, caught completely off guard by that embarrassing throwback and briefly, very briefly considering increased defensiveness, but he ends up laughing instead. It's weak and weird-sounding, like dry leaves, but it's definitely a laugh.

"You got me there," he admits. Is that a good thing? Seems like it might be. Especially after all the fucking deception and betrayal they've been through, everything that happened to them, all that Tim said when they last really had it out - being up front is kind of a good thing.

"Yours is quiet," he notes, fairly uselessly, glancing at her. "I guess that fits you."

[postictal]

He fights back a grin with a little less success. It's weird feeling so relaxed about something in front of Jay of all people, particularly in such a bizarre fucking dream, but maybe they need it. They haven't had a lot to laugh about for a really long time.

"Yes, because it's usually so hard to shut Tim up, him being such a big talker and all," Zero deadpans, and this time Tim really does smirk in earnest. He thinks he likes her.

[deadeyedchild]

Jay chuckles at Zero's Tim-like snark, digging his hands into his pockets. Well, this is... weirdly nice.

They break through the forest's edge in a few more steps and Jay stops short at the sight of the ocean.

"Holy shit," he murmurs.

[postictal]

"Yeah." Tim echoes the sentiment quietly, digging hands into his pockets. He remembers being here or - somewhere like here, but he's not sure how or with who. Dreams are funny like that. "Basically my reaction too."

He shoots a glance at Jay, sidelong and vaguely curious. With all the shit between them, they only once or twice discussed anything of their lives from before. Sitting in his apartment, Jay had said, doing nothing. Tim's life had been choked in white walls and paperwork and a thinly concealed terror of things that weren't there but always were, all along - but he'd never wondered about whether Jay had ever gone out of state, when that had never been a luxury for Tim.

"Ever been?" he asks, jerking his chin at the foam-tipped waves.

[deadeyedchild]

"I..." Jay narrows his eyes, trying to remember. "Maybe once, when I was a little kid. I don't... really remember, now." He doesn't remember most of that stuff. Anything that came before. It's all kind of a haze.

He takes a few steps closer, and Omit follows beside him, gazing up and down the line of the beach. Jay looks up at his huge antlers, then back at Tim and Zero.

"I wonder why yours is a girl," he says thoughtfully.

[postictal]

Tim's not surprised. There are still those horrible gaps in his own history, and he can't imagine that dying and getting resurrected to a year earlier in a world apart has done Jay's memory any favors.

"I dunno." He shrugs unhelpfully. It's an interesting question, but it's not like he knows the science of it. Zero caarks and cocks her head, eyeing Jay with one bright, black eye.

"Maybe you should be asking why yours is a guy," she says pointedly. "There was the other woman - hers was a 'he'."

"Oh. Bee, right." Those memories are odd and distant in the way dreams are, but he can still remember Simonides. Tim regards Omit, baffled. It feels like there should be a rhyme or reason to this, but there's no pattern. "That's a little weird."

[deadeyedchild]

"Really?" Jay frowns, perplexed. "Maybe it's random, then."

"Who's Bee?" wonders Omit, dipping his hoof unconcernedly in the water. Jay falls into step beside him, unwilling to let hardly any distance grow after that first traumatic experience, and eventually kicks off his shoes to follow. He really, really needs a nice dream, just a relaxing time. He barely remembers the last one. Blotted it out of his memory as best he could. But the memory doesn't matter when the feeling is still there. Tim needs it too, he's sure.

[postictal]

Like Tim's got an answer to that. It's just harmless speculation, really, but who knows how this whole animal-soul thing works.

"Some other rifty." Tim doesn't meet his eyes, just turns to look out over the water. The openness of the space unnerves him - endless water, constantly changing, stretching out.

He was drowned, once.

Woah.

No.

Wrong time to be having those thoughts.

"Ran into her on my way to the clinic. Said she could, uh, sense that I came through or something." He doesn't want to look at the water, but he can't not. It's vast and rippling and unknowable. Zero wings over the lapping waves and flutters past his head, wingtips brushing his cheek in sympathy. His voice is level, betraying nothing. "Didn't really chat for long enough to see what else she knew."