Universal Remote [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

Here's an interesting scene: the dreamers of Manhattan are on a pirate ship. Or perhaps they're standing in a busy ER, wearing scrubs and holding a scalpel they may or may not know how to use. Or perhaps they've found themselves in the middle of a world cup championship game, or an old-fashioned highway robbery, or an interstellar dogfight, or a dramatic, 'unscripted' showdown between arguably attractive people they've never seen before in their lives.

Whatever the situation, rest assured: it probably won't last long.

Maybe the Rift is bored. That might explain why the dream keeps changing, as if someone were idly flicking through the channels and switching up the genre. The poor dreamers are just along for the ride, the only constant amidst a shifting array of scenery, clothing, and overall mood. Perhaps, if things are sufficiently interesting, the dream might settle a little to see how things play out. But given the Rift's definition of 'interesting,' that might not be a good thing for whoever is providing the entertainment.

[OOC: the usual dream party rules apply. All are welcome, regardless of whether they're in the game or not. Dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the players' discretion. Dreamers' clothes may change to reflect whatever scene they're in, but their memories and personalities will remain intact... though the overall mood of the setting might influence their mood, as well. Feel free to throw NPCs into whatever scene you find yourself in, with bonus points added if said characters treat the dreamers as if they're established parts of the 'canon.']

Comments

[absentconstellation]

If this particular cat were inclined to answer questions directly or to arguing, he would inform her that he does not count as 'people' since he is neither people-like nor truly one of the Beast People. Being as he isn't inclined towards either of those things, he instead twitches his whiskers forward in a sort of cat smile. Behind him his tail switches back and forth, a show of some amiable interest.

"I am a cat."

[andhiswife]

Oh, hilarious. Greta's still a little too wary to blatantly roll her eyes or anything, but her exasperation isn't exactly veiled. "Cats don't speak. Not normal ones, anyway."

It probably doesn't help that the only other talking cats she's encountered are Rift-related, but even back home, it wasn't unheard of for animals to speak their minds. None of them had ever done so to her, though.

"Some sort of magic, then?" she hazards. That, too, is something she has some experience with.

[absentconstellation]

His ears flick back and forth, considering. He decides she can handle the truth, probably.

"I am also a constellation."

[andhiswife]

"... Oh." Well, if angels exist, she supposes a constellation - or the story behind one - could be just as real. It's startling, but it doesn't beggar belief. Few things do, anymore.

That would make it old, wouldn't it? Most of the stories about the constellations back home go back for generations, handed down since who knows when. She can't recall any cat-shaped ones, though, and she'd like to think she'd remember a tale of a talking cat with violet eyes who ended up in the stars.

How do you talk to a constellation? She has the sudden, slightly absurd urge to get up and curtsy. "I've never met a constellation before," she says instead, which is no less absurd.

[absentconstellation]

That's the really terrible thing about being a constellation: all of those things were true, all at once. It was a terribly abstract life he led, and most of it he wasn't in the sky for.

"Most mortals have not," he says agreeably.

[andhiswife]

Greta swallows the slightly hysterical urge to laugh. No, she'd suppose most people wouldn't have sat down for tea with a mythical arrangement of stars. You wouldn't guess as much from the the cat's behavior, though; he's acting as if this sort of thing happens every day.

What else would a constellation do with its time? Just... float about in the sky, looking down at people? Sounds a bit tiresome. Maybe it's so calm because being sucked into a dream is better entertainment than it usually gets.

"Most, but not all," she guesses, peering at the cat's fur and noticing, for the first time, it's celestial shimmer. It's a little dizzying if she pays too much attention to it. "I suppose being stuck in the sky would make it hard to socialize." Then, "Are you normally stuck in the sky?"

[absentconstellation]

"I am not normally stuck anywhere I do not choose to be." Not even when he takes a mortal shape (which is always, pretty much) is he ever really trapped. As a constellation he can walk from realm to realm with little more than a thought. The only reason he ever gets into trouble is because he has to follow certain rules, just like any other immortal.

"Which is what makes this place so interesting."

[andhiswife]

"That's one word for it," Greta mutters. She can't help wondering just how much traveling the cat's used to. There are certainly others in Manhattan who are accustomed to wandering much farther afield than the Woods, or the next village over. None of them, to her knowledge, find being trapped on a comparatively small island 'interesting.' It chafes, even for her.

And, she thinks with a pang of bitterness and lingering sorrow, it's not as if she has anyplace else to go.

"The dreams aren't so hard to escape," she says with a flippancy that belies how awful her own deliberate waking was. "You just have to die."