applesaucedream | Falling [Open to Multiple]

Current Music: January 28th - 29th, 2013

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Falling [Open to Multiple]

The last time Daine so thoroughly exhausted herself was during the siege at Pirate's Swoop, so it's no great surprise that in her dream, that's where she wakes. She sits up on the cot they've set up for her in the stables, where the ponies could keep an eye on her. Her head swims, and she grips the edge of the cot until the sensation passes.

A familiar gray nose enters her field of vision, and Daine smiles as Cloud, her pony, sniffs her over. "I'm fine," she reassures the mare, reaching up to give her neck a pat.

You're no such thing, Cloud replies tartly. You've drained yourself again. I won't always be there to lend you strength when you need it.

"Good thing you're here now, then." Daine steadies herself against the pony as she rises to her feet, ignoring Cloud's irritated snort. "Where's Numair?"

It's trouble enough to keep an eye on you, let alone the stork-man.

Daine sighs. "Fine. I'll find him myself."

She makes it to the stable doors before the scene begins to disintegrate around her. Daine whirls about to look for Cloud, but the stable is gone, replaced by nothingness. Within moments, nothing remains but the planks below her feet - and then they, too, crumble away. Daine drops into the Dreaming with a cry of dismay, not knowing where she'll land.

[OOC: Daine's taking a two-day nap after the events in this thread, giving her enough time to drop into the minds of a good number of people. Go nuts!]

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"Why?" Andrew's actually a bit alarmed. "Did something happen? That isn't something wildmages just...do, is it?"

He leans in close to look at her, as if he can give her dream-self a physical exam and work it out that way.

"Well, yes." Daine hesitates, considering what she can tell him without giving Yuri's secret away. "I sort of got captured by Romac. They weren't after me, they were going for a friend of mine, so I took mouse shape and hitched along so I could break him out the next morning. I wasn't hurt or anything." Well, she was a little, but not badly enough for it to be worth mentioning. "But using that much magic wore me out. Something similar happened a few years ago, but after I slept for a couple of days I was all right."

"You what?!" Andrew grabs hold of Daine's arm, really alarmed now. "If I'd known, I would have helped," he says, frustrated and more than a little worried at the thought of one of his friends going into danger alone -- or with this mystery friend of hers.

Kitten lets out a soft cheep when Andrew takes Daine's arm, and Daine winces - not because he's hurting her, but because she regrets alarming him. She couldn't think of any way to soften 'captured by Romac,' unfortunately.

"It's all right, we got away easily enough." Daine smiles a bit cheekily. "They didn't even know I was there until I turned into a bison in the middle of a hallway." She doubts it would be so easy a second time, but she has no intention of getting captured by them again.

Andrew runs his free hand down his face, pausing to rub his eyes. "They don't know it was you, do they?" he asks, still concerned. As long as one stays invisible, he doesn't think of Romac as being all that dangerous. Being captured, though, becoming known -- that could ruin a person's stay in the city.

"I don't think so," Daine replies. Now that she thinks about it, though... "Well. Topher and Luke are the only two with Romac who know a little of what I can do. But Luke's just a boy; I don't think they'd even tell him about the breakout, let alone ask him if he has any ideas about it." She's counting on that, actually; she's not sure Luke would be able to lie if they asked him outright if he knew any shapeshifters.

"Topher... I don't know about him." She frowns, a bit worried, now. "He's known about me for a while and never tried to find me or anything, but that was before I broke out."

"I don't know either of them," admits Andrew. For a moment he thinks he'll start walking again, head for the bookdrop -- but there's no need, is there? Already, the labyrinth is getting less dense, the space around them slowly growing more open and navigable.

"Do I know this friend of yours?" he asks, wondering if he has another friend to worry about.

"His name is Yuri. Tall, a few years older than me...?" Daine shrugs. "He's around the base a lot; he lives there, too." Granted, she's not about to tell Andrew why Romac captured him, but that doesn't really matter, anyway.

Handy sniffs and shakes his head. "Nope. I think I've heard the name, but I can't say I know him." And maybe he ought to spend a bit more time around the base, keep closer tabs on these rebels. If they're going getting themselves and his friends captured, they need someone keeping an eye on them.

"Yuri's the one who found me when I first arrived," she says. It doesn't change the fact that Andrew doesn't know him, but it might help explain why she risked Romac to help him. "Anyway, I think the whole mess with Romac was harder on him than me." She frowns, wishing she'd done a better job of keeping him safe when he was a bear. Maybe if she'd taken polar bear shape right away, or held him in the hallway until help arrived...

Kitten lets out a worried croon and pats Daine's arm. "I'm sure he'll be all right, too," Daine says bracingly. She's just not sure she'll be allowed anywhere near him when he's in bear shape again.

"What happened?" If Daine was hoping to avoid probing questions, she confided in the wrong person. Andrew reaches out to take her hand. "Should I be looking for him in my dreams as well?" he asks, only half joking.

Daine shakes her head, mustering up a faint smile for Andrew's benefit. He's trying to help, and she can't begrudge him that, but she can well imagine how Yuri would feel if he suddenly had Andrew asking him pointed questions about what had happened.

Trouble is, she's not about to tell him what actually did happen, either. Nor does she want to lie to him, or leave him thinking she doesn't trust him.

"I'm sorry," she says, giving his hand a squeeze. "I'd like to explain it, but I can't. Not without telling you things I have no business giving away."

Andrew frowns, brow furrowing. Being told he can't know just makes him want to know more -- though at least she's being upfront about why she's not telling him. That at least means one less mystery to solve. "And if I ask Yuri?" he asks almost cautiously.

The smile slips from Daine's face, and she unconsciously tightens her grip on his hand. "Please don't. He'll just be upset that you asked, and he won't tell you anything, anyway." And he wouldn't just be upset with Andrew, either; he'd be upset with her for spurring Andrew on, whether she intended to or not.

That just makes his brow furrow more deeply. "Alright," he concedes. Yuri equals off-limits. He'll have to keep his ears open and try to find out in some less intrusive way.

"Thank you," Daine says gratefully, letting out the breath she'd been holding. She doesn't like keeping secrets from Andrew, but this one isn't hers to tell. If she wanted to give him a hint, she could advise him to keep an eye on the news... but she's probably been asleep for long enough by now that if he was going to hear about it, he would have.

And that's assuming Romac didn't find some way to keep it all out of the news. It might not have been that difficult; no one died, after all, and she'd done a well enough job keeping him away from everyone. Honestly, she doesn't much like the thought of it being in the news, either, but it troubles her to realize that she and Romac were on the same page, or that her actions might have made their job easier.

Pulling in a breath, Daine readjusts her grip on Kitten and looks around at the opening maze. "Now what?"

"Now," starts Andrew before he really has an answer, sucking in a breath and holding it for a moment as he looks around. "...Now we decide what we want to dream about," he suggests, unsure if that's really how it works. "Or we wake up. Dunno how long I've been out."

"I'm not sure waking up would be a good idea for me, yet," Daine says with a pensive frown. "D'you remember what day it was when you went to bed? When I fell asleep, it was the 28th, I think." Never mind that 'fell asleep' is a bit too gentle a term for what actually happened, if her memory serves.

Something else occurs to her, and Daine visibly starts. "Oh! It's my birthday, isn't it?" She's not sure whether to be amused that she so nearly forgot about it, dismayed that she's sleeping through it, or depressed that she's spending it away from everyone from home. A quiet chirrup reminds her that Kitten's here with her, at least, and Daine attempts a wobbly smile for the dragon. "I'd fair forgotten, with everything else that was going on."

"The..." Andrew pauses for a second, calling it up. "Twenty-eighth? That sounds right. Evening of, if that makes a difference. Where are you sleeping?"

He starts in turn, feeling the corners of his mouth draw down. Birthdays...birthdays were not so important on Gallifrey. They're important to humans, though, and he knows how much stock some of them put in the concept ~~and how much Donna enjoyed her birthdays~~. "Sorry," he winces. "You should've told me -- we can have a party when you wake up." Though he doesn't know who would come other than himself and James.

"The base," Daine replies, realizing as the words leave her mouth that that's all she can say with any certainty. Last she remembered, she'd been in her room, but they might have moved her. "I'm not sure just where, though," she says with a little frown before admitting, "I fell asleep in my room before I could tell anyone I was all right - anyone human, that is. They might've put me in the medical bay or something." How embarrassing. If they did move her, she hopes they let her friends come along. At least they seem to be leaving her be, if she's been allowed to sleep through the day without being woken.

The party suggestion makes her blush, and she flaps her hand dismissively, embarrassed for an entirely different reason, now. Setting aside the question of whether she wants to celebrate her (first?) birthday stuck in another realm (and she's not so sure it's a milestone that merits celebration of any sort, let alone a party), she definitely doesn't want any of her new friends to trouble themselves on her account.

"It's all right," she lies, wincing a little at Kitten's indignant squawk. "It's not worth fussing over," she adds, directing her comment mostly toward the dragon.

"I can check on you," Andrew offers. "If you're not in the medical bay, it might not be a bad idea for someone to keep an eye on you." Because unlike Time Lords, humans generally can't go into a healing coma and go for days without food without ill effects. He doesn't say so, though.

Squinting at her, Handrew comes to a decision. "We're having a party," he says firmly.

Daine perks a little at the suggestion. "Would you?" It's not that she distrusts the rebels, but it would be nice to have someone looking out for her who both knows what's going on and can tell as much to any other two-leggers with questions. "I'll probably wake up sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening, if it's anything like last time." And she'll probably be thirsty, ravenous, and barely able to stand at first, but the lattermost will pass quickly enough, and the hunger and thirst will be easy to fix.

His party announcement is greeted with a bit less enthusiasm by Daine, though Kitten chortles her appreciation for the idea. Sighing heavily, the girl insists, "It isn't needful." She can't quite keep the corners of her mouth from quirking upwards, though.

Whether the rebels will believe Andrew is up for debate. Enough of them are aware of the Dreaming that they should recognize it as plausible, though, and he hasn't done anything to make them distrust him especially (unlike that Peter person, apparently).

"Kitten agrees," grins Andrew. "We'll get you a cake and everything. Do you do birthday cakes in your world? Candles, presents, all that stuff?"

Daine raises an eyebrow at her traitorous dragon, though Kitten doesn't look the least bit abashed, then gives a resigned shrug. "We do little gifts," she reluctantly admits, though she's quick to add, "you don't have to get me anything, mind."

As for 'all that stuff'... she's not sure what that even means. Her last few birthdays had been marked with little gifts given throughout the day, but not much else. Chores still needed to be done, after all, and she wouldn't have wanted her friends to drop everything on her account even if it hadn't been impractical for them to do so.

"I'm not sure what a birthday cake is," she says with another shrug, "or how folk normally celebrate birthdays here."

"Well," says Andrew, about to explain birthday cakes in excruciating detail. He thinks better of it -- Daine ought to get some surprise out of this, oughtn't she? -- and swallows his words. "Well, you'll have to find out when you eat one, won't you?"

As for presents, he's not sure what to even get someone like Daine. A party, perhaps, though that seems like cheating. "And we'll sing one of the blandest songs in human history at you; it'll be great."

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