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

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.]

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Can Asmodia do that? Daine isn't entire clear on how her magic works. A moment later, she has her answer, and she squints her beady eyes against the sudden glow coming from Asmodia's ring.

"Oh!" Coromotto says, blinking. "That's better."

"Much," Daine agrees, once she's hopped off of his head and resumed human shape. She can take bat shape again if she needs to, but now that there's enough light to see by, it seems a bit silly for her to just keep sitting on her wolf's head like an absurd little hat. "And now we know we're not really blind, so that's something." Nodding at Asmodia's ring, she adds, "That's fair useful."

Asmodia squints against the light herself, Yhohm turning his head and squeezing his eyes shut for a few moments. She catches sight of Daine changing, though, and of her...wolf. Impressive, even if she's not sure what the shapes of their animals are supposed to prove.

"I guess it is," she admits, lifting her hand to put the illumination higher. Maybe it would have been easier to put the spell on her shirt, but if the light becomes a target for something hiding in the darkness, the ring will be a lot easier to ditch. "I've never really -- you know. Used it much. Not a lot of point when you can see in the dark."

Daine nods in complete understanding. She used to be a little jealous of folk who had the Gift, even if it was only enough to call light or fire. Of course, part of the reason for that was how much her Ma wanted her to have it, but she could see the use of it, too. Now that she's got shape changing figured out, though, there's never been any need to worry about making more light. It's always been enough to just work with what she had (which, in most circumstances, has been a fair sight more than the 'nothing' this dream has given them).

"How long can you keep it up?" she asks. "Maybe we can find some kindling and get a fire going." She's not sure how much work it really is, keeping her ring lit up like that. At least a fire can take care of itself, so long as you have enough wood to keep it going.

"A few hours?" shrugs Asmodia. "Once I cast it, it just kind of stays that way for a while unless I make it stop."

It doesn't occur to her that it might require particular effort to sustain this spell. Most spells don't really need anything from their caster after the initial work of making them happen. "I can't really split it, though, so we'd need a fire if you didn't want to hang around with me."

"Huh," Coromotto says softly.

"Sounds different from how the Gift works," Daine adds by way of explanation. "But I suppose that makes sense." Wild magic might translate across universes, but then again, so do animals. Maybe Asmodia's magic is less like the Gift and more like the sort of magic immortals can do.

Her wolf stretches, then gives Yhohm a curious look. "We don't mind. There's not much here, just... stuff. Exploring might be more trouble than its worth. I'm Coromotto, by the way."

"There are lots of different kinds of magic," replies Asmodia, unbothered. "Even people who can do the same things do them in different ways."

Yhohm cocks his head, leaning down to peer at Coromotto. "Yhohm," he says, sounding pleased about it, though by now Asmodia barely scoffs at it. "And exploring is never more trouble than it's worth."

"We could look for others," Coromotto points out, tail waving idly.

Daine winces, not because she doesn't like the idea, but because she's a bit embarrassed it didn't occur to her, first. "That's true. Unless they've got magic or matches or something, they're either stuck wherever the dream put them, or stumbling around in the dark." Either way, they can't be having much fun. Some of them might even be hurt, considering what a senseless jumble this dream seems to be.

It occurred to her wolf, didn't it? That's about the same as it occurring to Daine, as far as this pair can tell. "Gods, think of the pranks we could pull," says Asmodia. "If I hide the ring and you use your bat-powers to find them, they'd never see us coming."

"Or keep the ring on and go invisible," suggests Yhohm. "Ghost light. Freak them right out."

Yes, finding other people is a fabulous idea.

Coromotto lets out a sound that might have been a laugh if he hadn't turned it into a cough, instead, and Daine's hard-pressed not to follow suit. It hadn't occurred to her to turn her advantage to mischief. The combined tasks of looking for other people and keeping her wolf from bumbling into anything had been work enough. Admittedly, she hadn't given much thought as to what she'd do when she found someone else - except try to make sure they were all right - but 'prank them' probably wouldn't have entered her head.

"You don't think folk have enough to worry about without us causing them mischief?" she asks, raising her eyebrows.

"It's only a dream," counters Asmodia. She's accustomed enough to this kind of nay-saying; she'd half expect it from a druid anyhow.

"And it's only a prank," adds Yhohm.

Daine sighs. Coromotto flicks his ears back pensively.

"I suppose you could argue that a ghost light would be better than no light at all," he points out, his tone deliberately casual.

Daine plants her hands on her hips, looking down at her wolf in exasperation. "Whose side are you on?"

Coromotto blinks up at her innocuously. "I just think light would be nicer than darkness, that's all."

"I could definitely argue that," agrees Asmodia with a grin. "In fact, I think I would argue that."

"Don't tell us you've never used your</> powers for a laugh," Yhohm chimes in.

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

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