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

[wildmage_daine]

It understands. It doesn't like it. It's not happy. But it understands the bargain she's forcing it to take, and beneath its impotent rage, it's willing. Daine thinks, distant and rueful, that it'd be short work to remove the improvised spears from its body if it would just let her. But it wouldn't. She's got a good enough sense of this beastie to know that letting it live is all the mercy it can stomach - and probably all the mercy it deserves.

She doesn't release it, though; not yet. Not until she hears Coromotto's tense whisper: "They're ashore."

Go. Daine punctuates the order with a sharp magical prod, and the the beast retreats with a furious roar and a wild flailing of tentacles. A wave of seawater and sand swamps her and her wolf. They both come up gasping, but Daine can feel the beast's retreat. Once she's scraped her hair out of her eyes, they confirm it. The water's still troubled, but the creature is out of sight, its presence in her mind fading fast.

Ugh.

Daine gets to her feet, and she and Coromotto slog to shore. They pause once they're on the sand, him to shake himself off and her to wring out her curls. Then they approach Johnny and the woman and their respective animals. "Are you all right?" Daine asks, rubbing her forehead.

[driftseeker]

Mako does not say anything, simply supports Johnny with one arm while treading water furiously with the other. Hitoshi circles around them anxiously, unwilling to touch Johnny again but equally unwilling to venture more than a few feet from them.

"Hurry," he urges.

She kicks out, steering the three of them slowly but inevitably toward the shore despite the troubled waters lapping at their chins, and eventually her feet touch sand. They are away. They are ashore.

No sooner has she dragged herself and Johnny from the water, clothes sodden and heavy and her hair clinging to her face, then a fresh wave breaks out and floods nearly to her waist before fading back into the sea's regular, gentle rhythm.

Mako drops onto all fours, trembling with exhaustion, but soon turns to sit upright and swipe the hair from her face. Johnny seems rattled, but he looks like he will live. They will both live. They survived.

She breathes out, slow and bracing, and watches their unexpected rescuers come to shore with them.

"I think so," she offers, shooting Johnny a questioning look despite herself. He only looked unhurt at first glance, and it had him for longer. She looks back at the girl. "Thank you."

[johnny_truant]

Johnny allows himself to be dragged, Nova alternately clinging on and paddling awkwardly, until finally they're pulled back ashore - the wave that comes over him next wakes him back up, is he drowning again, fuck, fuck, what's happening - but it's just recoil, it recedes, and the monster is gone, Daine's coming toward them, he's okay. He's alive.

How extremely novel.

He rolls onto his side, curling up, coughing out a stream of water and shuddering uncontrollably. Nova looks like a drowned rat, but he's glad to see her okay, and she presses close to him again, burrowing into his waterlogged shirt.

He hoists himself up partway, looks up at Daine, standing there against the sun.

"Daine," he murmurs in quiet awe. "What did you-" He breaks off to cough more, his body convulsing - he's still worn and weathered but he's starting to come back to himself now that he's sitting in the sun at least, relatively unmolested. "That was amazing. How did you do that?"

Without waiting for an answer he looks back to Mako, reaches out and braces a hand on her shoulder. "You," he says, "are fucking crazy. Thank you."

And that comes from the bottom of his heart.

[wildmage_daine]

"You're welcome." Daine sits down on the sand, Coromotto flopping beside her. "And I bargained with it," she adds flatly. She doesn't want to think about it too hard. It hadn't been fair - it hadn't let her be fair - and now she feels as if she needs a bath for reasons that have nothing to do with her soaking in the ocean.

As Coromotto stretches his head to sniff in the general direction of Johnny's rabbit, Daine turns her focus to the woman. "It was a nasty piece of work," she says with a pensive - and rather impressed - frown. "Have you fought things like it before?"

[driftseeker]

Johnny looks as if he may have swallowed half the ocean if his ragged coughing is any indication, but he is alive, and so is his rabbit. Mako does not know what may have happened had the rabbit not lived, but upon glancing at Hitoshi and imagining what might happen should anything happen to him - the hollowness in her heart leads her to believe she may guess.

She thinks that what Johnny has just said is intended to be a compliment. It reminds her of Raleigh and that wild, informal edge he lends to everything he says and does. Her mouth pulls upward in a faint, perplexed smile, but the girl's question catches her attention before she can respond.

"I have," she admits, eyes downcast. Johnny said that he has never seen a kaiju, let alone had to deal with one up close, and she thinks for this girl it may be the same. "Though not quite like that. They are usually bigger."

[johnny_truant]

"Bargained with it," he echoes quietly, dubious, mostly to himself. Mako's response is more prevalent, and he turns back to her sharply. "Bigger?" Here he'd been operating under the assumption that this was one of her kaiju, but apparently not, apparently it was just some fuckin thing? a little present from the rift? Wow, awesome.

"How do you even fight them, then?" he asks, eyes wide. Wait, wait, missing a step. Basic interaction, right. "Uh - um, this is Daine. Daine, this is Mako. And... friends." He looks from wolf to otter in mild curiosity. He's feeling sort of punchy, having actually survived severe dream peril for the first time in a while.

[wildmage_daine]

"Coromotto," says her wolf, damp tail thumping the sand a few times in a weary but friendly enough wag as he looks from the rabbit to the otter and back.

"Mako." Daine nods politely. "We've met before. I was a bird at the time, though. I think I startled you." 'Startled' is a mild term for it, but after watching the other woman attempt to fend off a kraken with nothing but a branch and a great deal of courage, it'd sound fair silly to say she'd frightened her.

"I've never had to send off a kraken before," she continues, "but I did call one, once. It was bigger than that," she adds with a nod towards the monster-free waters, "but I think it was a bit more sensible." She leans forward, intrigued. "How did you fight your monsters? Do you have magic in your realm?"

[driftseeker]

"You were...a bird," she repeats with a polite, uncertain disbelief. She seems so sincere about it, but it sounds like something absurd. How does one become a bird? The suggestion of 'magic' does not help, though Mako begins to recall that earlier, other dream. It had been tame compared to this one.

"I'm you," Hitoshi says, nudging her gently. "A lot is possible, especially in dreams." Mako looks down at him and frowns. She supposes that is true. But there is so much context that falls beyond her level of insight, and it does not help that Johnny and this other person, Daine, already have a familiarity that suggests they know each other.

"We have jaegers." Johnny had said they have never encountered real kaiju before; it is doubtful the word will have much meaning to them. So she explains further: "Great war machines, driven by two pilots. Rangers."

[johnny_truant]

"She's a bird a lot of the time," says Johnny, like no big. Not really a good sign, probably, that Mako's popped up in more than one of these, and so close together. Not a good sign for her, anyway.

"So like... giant robots," he says slowly. "You fly a giant robot that fights aliens."

Is he literally talked to an anime character right now? He supposes weirder shit has happened.