It's a Waste of Time, Chasing in the Dark

[applesaucemod]

Tonight, the dreamers will find themselves in a forest. Or an office. Or a suburban living room. Or a castle tower. Or a grocery store. The dream is a patchwork of assorted settings, each one blurring inelegantly into the next, most of them only claiming half an acre or so. The hodgepodge makes for quite a sight.

Or it would, if the dreamers could see anything. Natural light is in short supply. In fact, there isn't any light at all, not even a faint twinkle of starlight; you might as well be deep inside a cave. No matter how good their eyes might be, the dreamers won't be able to see their own hands in front of their faces - not unless they can fashion some sort of light source out of whatever they might manage to find. The dream isn't inclined to make things easy; any appliances or electrical light sources the dreamers stumble over won't be plugged in, and any walls, however solid they might seem, won't contain any wiring. A small fire might be the best bet - presuming you can find any means of lighting one.

But there's good news. Each of the dreamers will find themselves with a second set of dubiously useful eyes, because they'll be joined - again, or for the first time - by their dæmons. Granted, said dæmons won't have much more luck seeing in the total darkness than anyone else, but at least no one will have to feel alone.

Just… move carefully. You wouldn't want to trip over someone else's dæmon by mistake. Imagine how awkward that would be.

[ooc: y'all know the drill. Characters don't have to be apped or in the game to show up, and dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the player's discretion. This particular dream isn't a power nerf - a character with the ability to create light could still do so - but the range will be extremely localized, as if the darkness is a solid thing that doesn't want to be pushed back.]

Comments

[andhiswife]

"... Oh, dear," Greta murmurs. This is after several exaggerated blinks and rubbing her eyelids fail to bring a single thing into focus. There's nothing but darkness surrounding her, and she can't even begin to guess whether it's just too dark to see, or if the Rift has seen fit to strike her blind.

She's not sure which is more likely, which might be the most terrifying thing of all.

What if she never gets to see Iman again?

"... Greta?" someone ventures from far too close, and she nearly jumps out of her skin before placing the voice.

"Angus?" she flails an arm towards her dog, slumping a little when her fingers sink into his shaggy fur. "You're here?"

"Yes." There's a rustling crunch of paws on loose shale, and a puff of warm air as he snuffles at her face. "Are you all right?"

Greta slings her arms around his neck, her useless eyes stinging a bit, rocks shifting beneath her as she leans into his reassuringly solid presence. "I don't think so. I can't--I can't see anything."

"Neither can I," he replies, not sounding particularly happy about it. "It's too dark." After a beat, he tucks his nose beneath her chin and adds, "It's just too dark."

Greta sniffs once, then gives Angus a grateful squeeze. At least he's here. That's a comfort. She pats his fur for a few moments until she feels a bit steadier, then asks, "What do we do now?"

"Find Iman and Aqil," comes the immediate reply. "If they're here."

Greta smiles faintly. There doesn't seem to be anything inherently dangerous here, but given how dark it is, it's hard to feel entirely safe, either. Even if there's nothing lurking out there, what's to stop anyone from blundering right into a tree or off the edge of a cliff? Finding Iman and her bird would go a long way towards easing Greta's mind, and hearing Angus echo her sentiments makes her feel a bit less silly for having them.

"Right." She gets to her feet unsteadily, leaning on Angus's shoulder for support. It's not easy keeping her balance on the... rocky beach?... with no horizon to focus on. "I guess we'll just... go slowly?"

Angus leans against her leg. "Slow and steady," he agrees, and they set out.

[james_t]

In the dark, the bottom of his boot skids across a few smooth stones and he flings out an arm searching for a wall, but finds nothing. His first instinct is to ask the computer to bring up the lights, but before he can finish the words, a wet weight hits his thigh, then pushes itself up. Instinctively, Kirk gives it his arm for a way up, and a small familiar otter curls herself around his shoulders as if this is where she has always belonged.

"Ah, so I'm dreaming." he says, a faint smile on his lips that he knows Carina can hear in his voice.

"Good to see you too," she responds. Then, as a dry afterthought, "In a manner of speaking."

There's a soft wind, and Carina was in the water, so they must be in some sort of outdoors. Somewhat like the last time Carina was here. A beach, but this is different. A rough beach, not white sand and tropical. And, obviously, dark. Maybe it's a planet with no moon. But then-

"No stars, either," she says, and Kirk nods, lifting a hand to stroke her fur gently as he makes his way carefully along the beach. Maybe it doesn't matter what this place is. It's a dream, but nonetheless it makes him feel uneasy to hear the push of lazy waves against a shore without stars in the sky. It makes him think of ships lost at sea.

Maybe he can find something to make a fire. He presses forward, a little at a time, and wonders idly if Miss Asadi and her bird will make another appearance.

[andhiswife]

Angus stills abruptly, and Greta does, too, her hand fisting into his fur. They might both be effectively blind, but his ears are better than hers, and he wouldn't have stopped for no reason.

She holds her breath, listening hard. Over the omnipresent sound of the waves, there's a crunch of footsteps that aren't coming from them. It sounds like a single pair of feet - so, someone with an animal small enough to carry, like a bird - and her heart leaps. But Angus is sifting the air suspiciously, and it's a heavier tread than she'd expect from Iman. The Balladeer? No, Angus would know. Someone else, then. A stranger.

It occurs to her that if they both just stayed completely still and silent, whoever this is might pass them by, none the wiser. Then it occurs to her that someone might have pulled the same trick with her and Angus already, and that's enough to make her shiver. Better to just say something. If worst comes to worst, they could head for the waterline. The sound of the waves would mask their splashing, and they could escape that way.

"Hello?" she ventures, doing her level best not to sound frightened. "Is someone out there?"

[james_t]

He hears the footsteps before the voice, and is just about to say something himself when he hears her voice. "Hello? Yes!"

It's not a voice that he recognizes, but at least there's someone else here in the darkness. And...some sort of walking animal, if he's hearing correctly. A dog? Once he gets a little closer, he tries again. "Hello, my name is James Kirk." A nudge from the otter around his shoulders prompts him to introduce her as well. "I've got Carina with me. She's an otter."

"Thank you." says Carina.

"I'm assuming we're in a dream environment. Beyond that, I don't know what to expect yet."

[andhiswife]

At least he sounds friendly, for all that she doesn't know his voice. Greta enjoys a few moments of cautious relief before he introduces himself, and then she realizes with a jolt that she knows his name.

James Kirk. The man left abandoned in Iman's apartment the day she came back. Oh, dear.

Greta can feel her cheeks prickling with embarrassment. She knows it wasn't her fault, exactly; she had no way of knowing he existed before Iman finally mentioned him (after bolting upright in bed in the wee hours, to Greta's considerable alarm). But she can't help feeling responsible for how, er... distracted Iman was. And once she did know Mr. Kirk existed, she probably could have tried a bit harder to make sure he was properly settled, instead of just urging Iman to hurry back every time she stepped out the door.

Has Iman mentioned her to him? Does he know?

For the first time, she's rather glad of the darkness. It's impossible for him to see how red she's gone.

Angus gives her a pointed nudge, and she hastily replies, "I'm Greta, and this is Angus. He's a dog."

"Hullo," Angus offers, shifting his paws so they can all at least hear where he is.

"And you, er..." Greta hesitates, not sure she wants to get into the circumstances of his arrival, but she can't just not mention it. Whether he knows of her or not, she feels as if she owes him an apology. At the very least, she ought to ask how he's doing. "You're the gentleman who arrived with Iman," she says, sounding distinctly awkward.

[james_t]

The name is familiar, but it's only when Greta mentions Iman that he puts two and two together. This is the woman that Iman has been endlessly distracted by since they both arrived in New York. He wishes that he could see her - by how Iman has acted, he's sure that she's beautiful. "Right. Yes, I am. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

[andhiswife]

Oh, and of course he's being a complete gentleman about it. Greta buries her face in her hands for a moment. It's a rather pointless gesture - he can't see her face either way - but it gives her a beat to collect herself and try to come up with something to say.

She lowers her hands, one finding Angus's head. He gives her a light, bolstering sort of nudge. "Likewise," she says, "though I'm sorry about the, er... distraction. Have--you're all right, I take it? Have you found someplace to stay?" He sounds capable, to the extent that anyone can. He certainly doesn't come across as resentful, and he'd have every right to be if he was still bunking on Iman's couch while Iman was with her. Perhaps he's landed a proper apartment.

[etherthief]

She picks her way over stone and occasionally through water, her shoes and the bottom of her skirt now long since soaked.

"This dream is stupid," she hisses.

Aqil's not listening. He never listens. "There's someone up ahead," he says. "You could hear them if you'd stop complaining for a second."

Iman is about to make some kind of affronted response, but he's right - she hears voices, two of them, up ahead. A person and their animal, or two people? Either way. She slogs forward, tripping over herself a few times, before she recognizes Greta's particular cadence.

"Greta!" she practically squeaks, and Aqil heaves an aggrieved sigh. Iman stumbles forward, feeling about, trying to find her or her giant fluffy dog. "Greta, it's me!" she adds uselessly. And then she finds a body, abruptly, by colliding with it. She's pretty sure that's not Greta. "Oh," she says in embarrassment.