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

Current Music: February 10th, 2013

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

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!]

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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."

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?"

"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?

"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.

"Our connection is not a problem," she replies a little sharply, before realizing she's just overwrought and taking a shuddering breath to restrain her emotions. Gabriel is only trying to help. More calmly she explains, "The Doctor is sleeping in his bed; it wouldn't matter where my mind goes. And it's... yes, it's over now." She gives a relieved sigh and returns the Doctor's reassuring nudge with an expression of gladness.

With a glance to Peter she says, "Andrew is a friend," not feeling like going into it any more than that. She unclenches her hands and sits back a little, trying to relax, and then looks at Gabriel again. "Perhaps it would be nice to take a look at your room, though. I'm tired of maintaining this projection." She's just not content anymore, so all the sunshine and butterflies are a chore now. Besides, Gabriel is always good at distractions.

Gabriel's eyes widen a little when the TARDIS snaps at him, but he otherwise shows no sign of surprise. He should have known that the TARDIS might take what he said as some sort of insult, but he shrugs it off. Soon enough she's asking him to show off his own room, and he's perfectly willing to oblige.

"I live to serve." He squeezes the TARDIS's shoulder and bounces up from the bench, turning to offer both of his hands out. "Come on, then."

Peter chuckles -- it's about time one of them saw how irritating the other is being. The one little snap the TARDIS takes at Gabriel fails to blossom into a proper argument, though. At least there's no more talk of his dinosaur sheets.

"We're not doing karaoke," he reminds Gabriel, clambering to his feet without looking for or accepting any assistance.

The TARDIS has no qualms about letting Gabriel help her, especially now that the two men have set the bench swinging and it's kind of difficult to get her feet stable on the ground with her short legs. So she happily takes his hand and lets him pull her up.

Peter seems determined to be a grouch about the other room too before they've even gotten there, and she asks irritably, "What do you suggest we do, then?"

"No karaoke required. Come on." He squeezes the TARDIS's hand and goes to exit the room without waiting for either of them. They don't have any reason not to follow him, right?

Anyway, he wants to make it back to his room before they get there so that he can swiftly change out any unexpected changes in scenery. It had been awkward enough having Peter intrude on a bit of his past. He doesn't want someone who can actually put the pieces together to get a look as well.

When he opens the door, it's still the small stone room, but he doesn't take any time looking it over. As he steps in, a horizon spreads out and forms a sea-scape, calm, peaceful, and warm. Not far away, a boardwalk complete with an old wooden roller coaster and carnival games is in full swing. The smell of something sweet drifts across to them as he turns back to let the others in.

He throws an arm out extravagantly, introducing the new environment. "Better?" Look, this isn't really a question. It is obviously better.

Peter gives the TARDIS a thoughtful look. He knows what he'd suggest doing right now if he were spending time with Lucy, but somehow he doubts his overtures would be well-received.

Oh, hell, who is he kidding? "I can think of a few options," he says with a lascivious little chuckle. "Nothing I'd want to do in a karaoke bar -- unless you're into that; I hear exhibitionism has its perks."

The environment which Gabriel reveals after rabbiting off ahead has in its favor the fact that it is not a karaoke bar. The fact that it is also not a steamy bedroom would be a strike against it were it not for the fact that Peter isn't gagging for it hard enough to want to involve Gabriel in his sexual escapades. The human pauses after stepping through the doorway, squinting against the sunlight and looking painfully out of place in his long leather coat. "...It's not karaoke," he says in grudging semi-approval.

The TARDIS is just going to frown disapprovingly at whatever Peter's suggesting, not interested enough to ask for clarification. She doubts she'd agree with his idea of something nice to do anyway. Does this human even enjoy anything at all or does he just complain? The Doctor had a companion or two like that; she never liked them.

Gabriel's room comes as a welcome distraction and she steps into the pleasant atmosphere gladly, taking in the warm sunshine and the salty ocean air mixing with something sweet from the carnival. "This is very well done," she praises Gabriel with all the authority of her years of creating environments, because she's getting the impression that he's had far more to do with this than the room.

Gabriel preens at the TARDIS's compliment, smiling and straightening his posture a bit. "What else do you expect?" He flicks a hand to close the door behind them after they enter, more interested in showing off than whatever lies back out in the corridor.

He walks backwards towards the boardwalk, facing the pair. He can see that the TARDIS is willing to explore here, but he'd love to get Peter excited too. "Shall we check out the boardwalk? Peter?"

Once again, Peter's reminded that he has reason to be jealous of Gabriel's abilities -- and that this acquaintance of his (how is it he keeps hanging out with Gabriel, anyway?) isn't even human. Peter can't even stop himself from having nightmares, and here Gabriel can do this. Apparently. Scents and all, it's convincing enough to confuse his senses and pull up memories of similar places, giving Peter a twinge of nostalgia despite himself. Of course, back then he hadn't had time or money for the attractions, too busy performing and making the most of other people's summer holidays. He and his act hadn't quite fit in with this atmosphere back then, either.

"Huh?" He realizes belatedly that he's been staring at the boardwalk, and that Gabriel has just asked him a question.

After a glance at Peter's lack of a reaction, the TARDIS walks ahead to catch up with Gabriel. "Perhaps Peter doesn't feel like coming along," she speculates haughtily. Not like it would be a great loss.

When she reaches Gabriel she pats his arm as if to say that yes, he is definitely very impressive, and then walks on towards the closest booth, which is conveniently offering cotton candy. It's been ages since she's had this, even in imaginary form.

Aw, TARDIS, don't be so harsh. Peter...well, he doesn't mean well, most of the time, but he tries. Gabriel lets her go and turns back to Peter, beckoning him forward. He wonders if, because of his humanity, the dreaming is effecting Peter in some way that Gabriel isn't noticing himself, or if this is just some odd emotional response to a carnival.

"Come on, Peter, I'll get you some cotton candy and win you an enormous stuffed animal."

Brought back to the present, Peter bristles at the departing TARDIS's words. Maybe he doesn't feel like coming along and being harangued by two whatever-they-ares.

"If you did it right, the games are all rigged," he points out sullenly. He comes forward, though, telling himself he's sticking around to spite the TARDIS at this point, since it's fairly clear she doesn't like him. Well, he can work with people not liking him; it's not like it's anything new. It just confuses the hell out of him that Gabriel keeps wanting him around when Peter's made it perfectly clear that he doesn't like Gabriel and is never going to be civil to him. The fact that Peter finds himself willing to spend time with Gabriel really hasn't helped to clear things up for him.

He frowns to himself, lowering his voice to ask Gabriel, "What is she?"

The TARDIS keeps walking to investigate the cotton candy booth, briefly wondering if this projection is so accurate that it requires currency, but that would be silly. She glances back to see if the others are coming, which they apparently both are. Why is Gabriel so invested in keeping Peter around? He's entertaining, he'd said, but even when they were messing with the human it was mostly Gabriel being amusing, not Peter himself. All he can seem to do on his own is grumble.

She shakes her head to herself, deciding to ask Gabriel later, just in case she's being inadvertently rude to him by being so displeased with his friend. In which case he obviously needs to find better friends. It's not like the Doctor's attachment to his humans inspires her to be friendly to them when she has reason to dislike them.

He has a feeling that Peter less wants to know what she is, and more how much of a threat she is, so he answers, "Powerful, but kind." He turns and taps him on the chest, smiling. "Which makes you lucky. Though, I am a terrible influence, you should probably watch out for that. If I manage to corrupt her, all bets are off." His smiles shifts into a smirk and he turns back to follow the TARDIS to the cotton candy stand. Is Peter getting the boy-with-a-crush vibe from Gabriel yet? Because he totally should be.

Over his shoulder, he calls back, "Come on!"

If Gabriel had told him the full truth, Peter likely wouldn't have believed him. As it is, he still isn't satisfied with that answer. 'Powerful, but kind' could mean almost anything, and he only has Gabriel's word that the second half of it is true. Still, considering the worst she's done is sic her butterflies on him, maybe he has reason to hope she won't turn around and tear his throat out at some point.

"You'd've done it by now," he says, stalking along after Gabriel like some sort of ungainly black bird. Truth be told, he'd sort of like to poke around a carnival and not have to worry about working the crowd. He's just still not sure about the company he's keeping, or about what it'll do to his image.

The object of their conversation has reached the stand and is observing the vendor drawing cotton candy from the machine and handing it out to some children. When she notices Gabriel coming closer, she turns to him with a smile that quickly shifts into a smirk. "Are you going to get me more candy, or do I have to do everything myself?"

"I create an entire carnival for you and you can't order your own cotton candy?" He rolls his eyes, but heads toward the counter anyway, patting her shoulder happily as he goes. He makes it easily through the small group of kids to the counter and returns with three fluffy pink sticks of cotton candy.

"Ladies." He presents a stick to one to each of them with a flourish before pulling a large piece off of his own and shoving it into his mouth. It's sticky and almost too sweet and dissolves instantly on the tongue. A perfect illusion, as far as he's concerned.

As an afterthought, he decides that some of the stalls further down should sell a wider variety of candy. Why not?

"Oh, fuck you," replies Peter, though he takes the stick anyway. "You're the one who showed up to that last dream with a giant pair of tits."

He bites into the candy and is a little surprised at the taste and texture after not having had any in over a decade. He wonders if real candy floss is really like this, then tells himself he doesn't care.

In contrast to Peter, the TARDIS gracefully bows her head when she receives her candy to match Gabriel's flourish. She plucks a bit of the sticky substance off the stick and stuffs it in her mouth, quite obviously enjoying the taste and texture. She doesn't think she could ever really reach his skill for creating food and drink like this; her specialty is environments and objects, she just doesn't have the first-hand experience required for so accurately stimulating physical senses (or the mental equivalent of them, anyway).

Even the most convincing illusion doesn't make her miss Peter's remark though. She isn't really surprised, since she's changed appearances in the shared dreaming before too, but it does make her curious. Her gaze shifts to Gabriel with raised eyebrows, while she delicately picks more cotton candy. "I wonder what the purpose of that could have been."

Edited 2013-05-20 15:11 (UTC)

"I was illustrating the elasticity of dreams," he says archly before shoving another piece of cotton candy into his mouth. There had also been the part about proving himself as Loki, but he's not sure he'd like the TARDIS's reaction to that particular name.

He nods away from the cotton candy booth and starts walking down the boardwalk. "Oh, and I was trying to get him to lick my neck. Totally worked, by the way."

A lesser (or is it greater?) man might be embarrassed that he'd opened himself up to Gabriel sharing that particular revelation, might even try to backpedal and deny it. Peter, on the other hand, stops shoving cotton candy in his mouth just long enough to justify himself with, "He had great knockers at the time. Face could've used a bit of work, though." Which is a lie, but he needs to get his digs in and pretend Gabriel hadn't given him the most confusing dream-boner of all time.

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