From the Left, Calpurnia, One Serves from the Left! [Open]

[applesaucemod]

Tonight, the dreamers will find themselves at a dinner party. It is an elegant dinner party, for the most elegant people in all of New York. That seems to be the general idea, at least, going by the upscale interior, immaculate table settings, mood lighting, and the small fact that the dreamers are all dressed to the nines. There's even an open bar! Look, they've had worse dreams. It's hard to complain. If anything, they ought to be thankful. That's the reason for the season, after all.

Which isn't to say they'll have nothing to complain about. It won't take the dreamers very long to realize that their thoughts and actions are accompanied by a steady stream of mild, audible narration. It politely cuts out whenever they speak, but if they fall silent, it picks up again. The mystery speakers' voices vary from dreamer to dreamer, but all of them are generally pleasant and inoffensive to the ear. They don't seem inclined towards arguing with their assignees - in fact, they don't even seem to notice when they're being addressed. Are they even conscious? It's not clear. What is clear is that they just. won't. stop.

The good news is that the dreamers won't be subjected to everyone's personal narration at once. The only disembodied voice they'll be able to hear with complete consistency is their own. However, they will find that if they engage in conversation with someone else, they'll start to pick up on their partner's narration, as well.

It probably won't be awkward at all.



[OOC: the usual dream party rules apply. Characters do not have to be apped to the game to play, and dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the player's discretion. For the sake of clarity, audible narration will be enclosed in colons as opposed to quotation marks :a-like so: - this will keep it from getting muddled with the dialogue or confused with the non-audible narrative phrases you'd typically use in a tag.]

Comments

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel arrives dressed in a tux that's a little old fashioned, but he feels comfortable in it. :The dreams aren't unknown to dump dangerous situations into pleasant environments, but it's hard for Gabriel to imagine anything deadly creeping out from behind the mood lighting.:

Gabriel looks up suddenly, then around him. The voice was probably female, soft-spoken and clear, but nonetheless odd to hear aloud.

"Yeah, Stranger than Fiction was a pretty good movie, but it wasn't that good." He waits a moment for the voice to reply or say something else, but it doesn't.

He walks up the the dining table and reaches out a hand to turn a silver fork over in his hand at the same time that he reaches out with his mind. :These dreams have become something of a magical space to him since he saw Seth here. Now, he can't help but reach out for the TARDIS in hope of seeing her again.:

He frowns and sets the fork back down.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny doesn't even notice Gabe as he brushes past the table, still trying to find a place to stash himself - it's his helpful accompanying voiceover that brings his attention to his tailcoated boyfriend, and brings him more or less crashing to a halt.

:There's Gabriel, looking amazingly fucking handsome, and Johnny almost moves right past him. He needs to slow down. Stop and notice. That's never ended miserably, right? The Devil's in the details, all that. Or the angel, as it were. Gabriel is the safety net he's never been allowed to have, and still he almost keeps moving. Still all he wants is to run.:

Johnny looks at Gabe, wondering if he can hear this. He averts his eyes, focusing idly on Gabriel's high-waisted trousers, his perfectly shined shoes.

:Well,: amends the voice, :not all he wants.:

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel turns when he senses Johnny, and for a few moments his grief about the TARDIS is masked by other more attractive thoughts. Johnny is staring right back, so at least the surprise is mutual. :The world of his experience has felt muted and fragmented lately, like his life is the emotional equivalent of watching a cable channel when you don't have cable. In the midst of his grief and indecision, Johnny is an exception - something solid that he can get a fix on. Right now, he matters more than anything else Gabriel has left.:

"Hey, kiddo. Lookin' good." He smiles fondly and takes a step forward, then reaches out a hand to run down the length of Johnny's tie. "You have a new voice inside your head too, or is that just me?"

[johnny_truant]

"Uh." Oh shit, oh shit. It doesn't seem like Gabe heard any of his disembodied bullshit, but Johnny definitely heard that. It hurts to hear all that, to know Gabriel is hurting so much, and hinging his happiness on Johnny - who, if his narration is just as audible, can only make this worse. He should escape. Gabe's hand is on his tie.

"They're not really-" he starts babbling, not quick enough.

:Johnny feels an immediate burst of guilt upon realizing he is carrying such a weight. Gabriel needs him, has so much invested in him, and here he is wanting to run. Needing to, because dreams never go well, and he has an astronomically bad feeling about this one. He doesn't run, instead stammering a few weak syllables and reaching out for Gabriel's hand.:

"Shit," he mutters, his hand almost flinching back.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel's hand stills when the second voice cuts in, and he's left staring at Johnny's face reacting to his interior world being laid out in the open. Still, it's not anything that he can't read just as easily from the look on his face.

"Yeah, okay. Not as interior as I thought."

:This might be a very Not Good situation for both of them, and there may be more than a few things that he hopes his narration doesn't feel like talking about, but he's not ready to call it quits for the night just yet. Johnny always looks good to him, but Johnny in this suit is a novelty that he doesn't want to just throw away.:

Gabriel huffs out a laugh, then takes Johnny's hand between his own. "This starts taking a turn and I'll wake you up, okay?"

[johnny_truant]

Johnny ducks his head down, covering his ears half-heartedly and moaning as Gabe's narration starts to dance around topics that are probably better left undisturbed. He can't know for certain what it's referring to, if it's even something he knows about, but he doesn't want to find out, not like this.

He smiles weakly when Gabe takes his hand and promises to wake him. "Okay," he says, thoroughly prepared for that to be that.

:The prospect of being awakened is both desirable and daunting. What if he should trade this dream for something worse? Is he so ready to surrender his consciousness to the whims of his angelic boyfriend if things should get a little too personal? Wouldn't it be better to just-:

"Shut up!" he snaps, a little louder than is called for. The narration gives out, mercifully, and he covers his face.

"I don't- I just want to..." He heaves a sigh and rolls his shoulders back, facing Gabriel once again.

:Self-doubt is of secondary importance when Gabriel is here and looking like this. Johnny can think of a few ways they could better spend their time than standing by the table grappling awkwardly with unusual conversational mores.:

"Jesus." Johnny shakes his head. "This is already too fucking meta."