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

[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."