Falling [Open to Multiple]

[wildmage_daine]

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!]

Comments

[bluesuit_handy]

"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."

[wildmage_daine]

"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."

[bluesuit_handy]

"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.

[wildmage_daine]

"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.

[bluesuit_handy]

"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.

[wildmage_daine]

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.

[bluesuit_handy]

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?"

[wildmage_daine]

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."

[bluesuit_handy]

"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."

[wildmage_daine]

Kitten gives an approving whistle and looks up at Daine with a smile (the dragon equivalent of one, anyway). Birthdays might not be as much of a production at home as they seem to be here, but Kit's pleased that Daine's won't be overlooked or ignored, and glad that her mama has made friends in this new realm.

Daine wouldn't know what to get Andrew, either, if the roles were reversed. The only thing she knows he'd like from her is a demonstration of her magic, since he's so clearly fascinated by it, but that hardly qualifies as a gift. Still, that might be a good thing to do at the party, presuming it's just the three of them (and she has no intention of telling anyone else about it if it's going to make them all feel obliged to fuss over her). It'd make her feel a bit less self-conscious if she's giving back in some way.

Andrew's last comment earns him a surprised laugh. "I s'pose it'd be rude of me to say no to that," she says with a wry smile.

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew is absolutely planning on telling everyone he knows who knows Daine about the party. Of course, that probably still won't make for all that many guests, since they have a surprisingly small overlap of friends and acquaintances. Still, he can surely drum up enough people to make it a proper party.

"It's a tradition!" he beams. He'd share it with her right now, but it really ought to be a surprise -- she ought to have more than one person singing out of key at her the first time she hears it, and it ought to be for her birthday, not just a warmup. "A tradition less than a hundred years old right now, but a tradition."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine shakes her head in amusement. It's fair strange to hear someone talk of a tradition that's less than a hundred years old as if that cheapens it, somehow, but if he has over 900 years of memories in his head, it makes a sort of sense. "Seems odd that the blandest song in human history would also become a tradition," she observes, arching an eyebrow at him.

[bluesuit_handy]

"It's easy to remember," Andrew informs her, tapping his nose. "And the Hill sisters had a good publicist, got it spread all over the place so children sang it in school all the time."

A tradition that young is, in Andrew's mind, barely a tradition at all. He has the advantage, however, of knowing just how far that little song will one day go.