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

[lonelyghost]

"Yes," murmurs Cole as the torch becomes easier to see, only when Steven gets close. He moves closer still, still slowly, cupping his hands around Near as if to protect, even though she knows just as well as he does - they are in no danger.

Steven feels very curious. Young but old, happy but sad, both bright and shadowed. The kindness, though, the compassion - that is strong enough that Cole feels almost a kinship with him.

Most importantly, though he is at least partly a child, he is not afraid, not of the deep darkness that surrounds them, not of Cole. Dark is frightening - there are bad things hiding in the dark, bad memories of pain and hunger. But Steven has faced fear before.

"I'm here," says Cole again, reaching out toward the torch so the glow catches his hand. "Have you dreamed like this before?" Cole remembers the dream where he met Daine, but it was so different.

[cheeseburger_backpack]

Steven's beginning to wonder if they should light another torch to make themselves brighter, but that's when Cole's hand appears out of the darkness. "Oh!" he says, grinning up at him. "No, this is our first time dreaming like this. The Balladeer explained it, though."

"Do you want a torch?" Allirea asks, tail waving. "We made a bunch of them in case anyone else needed one." It had seemed likely.

"Or we made some fires, if you want to come sit by them." Steven lifts his hand from Allirea's side so he can gesture back over his shoulder. "They're just back thataway." He likes the idea of getting a bunch of people together to sit around the fire, but if anyone would rather not, at least they can leave them with something.

[lonelyghost]

He is so young, but he has done so much work to help, simply because he wishes to. Cole likes that, likes him. He is gentle and kind.

"Thank you, Steve, Allirea," he murmurs.

Near flaps softly around his hands, avoiding the torch, and does not speak. She thinks, perhaps, she should not be seen - like the parts of Cole that do not fit. She does not know what she is anymore than he does. It is difficult, he thinks.

"Sitting would be nice," he says after a moment.