[open to all] Room full of people in your head

[applesaucemod]

The rift has gotten bored, and has decided it's time to bring people together for another dream party.

This time, when you find yourself within the dream, you'll be somewhere familiar. Perhaps somewhere you feel safe or at home, some place you miss, or were particularly happy at some point in your life. It might not be the same place every time you come back here, though.

There will also be a door where there didn't use to be one, even if there's no wall to surround it. If you go through this door, you will find yourself in endless simple corridor, lined with unmarked doors. And if you go through them, you'll pay a visit to someone else's room.


[There will monthly Dreaming party post like this. Same procedure as last time. Non-members welcome to tag in!]

Comments

[fucking_ebay]

Peter tenses, expecting her to do something to him to ruin his look. When she doesn't -- when, in fact, she picks on Gabriel and Gabriel alone, he begins to have misgivings and to check himself over again. Bitchin' coat? No, still fine. Jewelry, still good. Leather pants, still badass. "What did you do?" he asks plaintively accusingly.

He's so busy looking for damage that he doesn't notice butterflies are alighting in his hair until they've already gone and done it. He flinches when one crawls partway down onto his forehead and lifts a hand as if to bat it away.

[theoldgirl]

Aww Gabriel, what a spoilsport. She raises her eyebrows in a not very serious expression of disapproval, but still allows him to direct the butterflies. The shimmering crown is a nice touch, anyway.

She doesn't like Peter's tone though and he receives a more genuinely haughty look. "I did not do anything to you." The butterfly on his forehead takes off before he can bat at it, only to land on his finger. Before he can move that, it relocates to the tip of his nose, then evades him by flying back into his hair, and so on. It's almost as if it can see slightly into the future or something.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel watches, amused, as the butterfly flutters from place to place around Peter's head. He can tell that this is the TARDIS's work, but doesn't feel the need to let Peter in on the joke yet. "I think you made a friend, Peter."

[fucking_ebay]

Peter reflexively shakes his hand a moment too late to dislodge the butterfly. His efforts to swat it get more serious when it lands on his nose (and alarms him -- what human likes insects on his face?), but it evades him again. And again. And...again. He finally stops trying when it lands in his hair again, but rolls his eyes up to give it an annoyed look before --

Hang on. The long hair framing his face and dangling in his peripheral vision has been bothering him for a while, but with all the distractions, he couldn't think why. The butterfly escapes to his shoulder just before he tears the wig off and looks at it in horror. "Which one of you did this?!" he demands angrily.

[theoldgirl]

Tsk tsk, Peter, no need to get so angry. It's all in good fun. While the TARDIS wouldn't be so forward and rude with her powers, and really does have to disapprove a little bit, it's hardly anything but a harmless prank.

She turns an expectant look on Gabriel, waiting for him to confess. Or maybe just waiting to see if he's going to pull another trick she can be secretly amused by. He really is a terrible influence.

[has_a_horn]

Sorry, no trick this time. Just good old fashioned lying. Gabriel sighs and looks from the TARDIS to Peter, as if she's forcing him to give Peter some bad news. "Don't get your panties in a bunch. Neither of us did it." He scratches the side of his face consideringly. "I don't think it was the room, so it must have been you. Pretty interesting really. When I mentioned pastel blue, you changed. Must have done it without thinking, so I didn't really want to say anything."

He spares a glance to the TARDIS. "I bet the TARDIS here thought you'd agreed to her terms." He flips a hand mirror around that hadn't been there before, showing Peter his full transformation. "I could switch it back? But I think it's a good look for you."

[fucking_ebay]

Peter can't remember the last time he blushed. He's a man who thinks nothing of parading about in his pants in front of guests of any age or gender, who has made a career of being completely un-self-consciously flamboyant, and who lacks almost any brain-mouth filter (and who has not bothered in a long time to regret anything he spouts off).

Now as he sees his image in the mirror, he blushes. It's not even the look -- he's had worse looks, though none so...pastel). It's the fact that he apparently did this, that he has so little control over even his own appearance that he'd do this to himself. "Fuck!" he says, reaching up to grab at his hair, as if that will help.

[theoldgirl]

Gabriel really should know better than to resort to blatant lying in front of her. Not that she cares for Peter's sake, so she might have let it slide, if he hadn't tried to drag her into it too.

"That isn't what I thought at all," she states, not sounding particularly offended, but all of Gabriel's butterflies take off in search for more appealing perches. Then she changes Peter's hair back to normal, only sparing him a glance to comment "Oh, it seems you changed it again. Well done," before raising a challenging eyebrow at Gabriel.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel rolls his eyes at the TARDIS, a bit of a smile still on his lips. He hadn't even thought about the TARDIS not approving of him lying. She seemed to be enjoying their little joke well enough. "I'll try to read your mind better next time."

He grins at the TARDIS before turning back to Peter. "Feeling better, kiddo?"

[fucking_ebay]

Peter grabs the mirror, needing to see for himself before he can trust that the TARDIS is right. He didn't feel like he'd changed it back. He hadn't felt like he'd changed it in the first place, though, and now he's really unsure whether he's shifting his appearance without knowing it or if they're having him on.

"I don't feel any different," he replies warily. Given the fact that he's never run into Gabriel and not subsequently been humiliated, it's hard for even him to completely miss the pattern.

[theoldgirl]

How terribly incorrigible Gabriel is being, but she doesn't feel like being peeved at him for long. She's sure she's made her point about lying, anyway.

Instead, she turns to Peter and replies, "Perhaps you would if you stopped being quite so high-strung and allowed yourself to enjoy my room." With a pointed look, she extends the porch swing so there's room for them all on it. "I have never met a human who didn't find it very relaxing."

[has_a_horn]

When the TARDIS extends the porch swing, he pats Peter on the shoulder as he pushes through to get to the bench. He claims the center of the bench, pats his knees and raises his eyebrows in expectation. "Come on, Peter, take a knee."

[fucking_ebay]

"You've just met one," grumbles Peter, who is bound and determined not to enjoy himself. "Do I look like I'm a big fan of sunshine and butterflies? And I'm not high strung." And he did notice that she said 'human,' not 'person,' which is not a thing likely to help him relax. By now, at least, he's given up on seducing her.

[theoldgirl]

"That is one novelty I could have done without," she snipes back, still mostly tolerant of him rather than honestly hostile, but it probably won't take much more for him to get himself kicked out.

She turns to Gabriel to complain, "I don't think he is going to be agreeable at all," meaning Gabriel brought him in, so that's his responsibility.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel leans into her space a little to look her in the eye. "Be nice. He's not agreeable, but he is entertaining." Because yes, he is kind of the mediating force here. Then he turns to Peter, giving him the same treatment. "You too. We're in her dream, you be nice."

He props his arms up behind both of them on the back of the bench. There. Solved, right?

[fucking_ebay]

"I don't think he has any reason to be agreeable," Peter shoots back at the both of them. He's really getting fed up with being pushed around by whatever Gabriel really is -- and whatever the TARDIS is. What kind of name is 'the TARDIS'?

He settles on the swing anyway, though he slouches and crosses his arms and very firmly refuses to appreciate the scenery. He's still embarrassed about his hair, and worried they're making fun of him somehow, and hacked off at Gabriel for walking in on his childhood memories.

[theoldgirl]

The TARDIS huffs at Gabriel but acquiesces easily, deciding he was being diplomatic enough. She settles back into her seat, ignoring Peter's griping completely, and takes advantage of Gabriel's arm as a headrest.

A couple of butterflies are just fluttering over to try and land on the two men again when suddenly all of them, including the ones resting on the TARDIS, scatter in a panic. The TARDIS herself starts upright along with them, a look of dismay on her face, gaze distant. For a moment the entire room seems to go dark, to be replaced by a flickering image of obsidian surfaces, before going back to the way it was.

[has_a_horn]

The moment that the butterflies scatter, Gabriel's gaze shifts swiftly to look at the TARDIS. He's sensing a lot of unexpected pain and fear. The flickering scenery only serves to cement that something is wrong here.

He shifts forward on the bench and, dropping one hand to his lap and placing the other to her shoulder. "What was that?"

[fucking_ebay]

Peter's eying the butterflies and resigning himself to the fact that he's going to be decorated with them again (and alright, that black and red one might kind of work for him -- that is, if he liked butterflies). He starts when the mood suddenly shifts, the iota of relaxation he'd allowed himself replaced with tense watchfulness. "The fuck?" he asks, also looking to the TARDIS.

[theoldgirl]

The TARDIS continues to stare at nothing in horror for another moment before squeezing her eyes shut and forcing her focus back on her visitors (well, mostly Gabriel, Peter is really just background noise). She takes a deep breath and turns to look at Gabriel, her expression a little more collected but still haunted, and it's clear whatever she experienced is still going on.

"The Doctor is... having a nightmare," she manages, and tries to rein in the distress and pain she's feeling through her pilot when she realizes Gabriel must be sensing some of it. Nobody but her ought to see this.

[has_a_horn]

"Hey," he says, "Just a nightmare, right? He'll be fine." And urg, yes, he'd really rather not be feeling The Doctor's emotions right now. He distances himself from them a little bit, sending out a calming vibe in response. He doesn't think to shield Peter from it, so it will probably hit him a little harder than it will the TARDIS.

Meanwhile, he wonders if this is just something that's happening in this room in particular, or if the Doctor's emotions effect her wherever she is. "Want to check out of here? I've got a karaoke bar, Peter's got a room with dinosaur bedsheets. You've got choices."

[fucking_ebay]

The Doctor? That fucker is involved in this somehow? Peter opens his mouth to ask just what the Doctor has to do with it and how the TARDIS knows. What comes out instead is a sigh, the breath whooshing out of him. It doesn't matter, he decides, not realizing it's odd he's suddenly lost interest in arguing.

Even so, he can't let the offer of his dinosaur bedsheets go unprotested. "My room," he says in an insistent (but less strident than before) tone, "is off-limits."

[theoldgirl]

Gabriel's calming influence does help to ease the tension in her a little, but there's something he said that doesn't seem right and she frowns, trying to concentrate without getting overwhelmed by the Doctor's nightmare again. "No, it isn't just... It's here, in the shared dreaming." Should you be able to have nightmares here, while you're lucid? Something about that is worrying, but she's too emotionally involved to put her finger on it just now. "But... Andrew is with him. He'll help." She hopes.

Finally Peter's grousing gets through to her too and she looks at them both in confusion. "Why should we go to another room?"

[has_a_horn]

"If the problem is your connection, it might be better to go someplace less connected." Okay, so he's stretching a little here, but he doesn't quite understand how the whole thing with the TARDIS and the Doctor works. This room might as well be her mind, so that makes it more connected, right?

[fucking_ebay]

"I didn't suggest it," replies Peter in the closest facsimile of innocence he can muster, holding up his hands. He slouches back into his seat, listening unworriedly to the discussion going on beside him. "Who's Andrew?" he asks in mild curiosity.