[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

[bluesuit_handy]

"Well," Andrew considers this, "Usually. Sometimes. There's a bit of projection that goes on there as well, really. Suppose there's Watership Down, but of course it's all guesswork."

He gives Daine an earnest sort of look. "It's a story about rabbits."

[wildmage_daine]

A documentary might be interesting. "It'd be weird, not being able to hear them," she muses to herself. "In my head, I mean." It wouldn't be entirely alien to her - she's closed herself off before, usually in menageries - but it would still be strange.

"Watership Down?" she repeats, unable to make any sense of the title. Rabbits, in her experience, have little to do with water or ships. "Is it like Redwall?" she asks, brow furrowed.

[has_a_horn]

"Same anthropomorphized animal idea. Watership Down is less out-there, but it's still a big allegory for human things. And infinitely more traumatizing. I don't recommend it." What? It's a depressing book.

[bluesuit_handy]

"It's not like Redwall," protests Andrew, not liking Gabriel's assessment of the book. Then he pauses, looking troubled, and asks Daine plaintively, "What's wrong with Redwall?"

[wildmage_daine]

"But how do ships come into it?" she asks, still a bit suspicious of the title. She's also a bit wary of Gabriel's take on the book, if only because she's more inclined to trust Andrew's judgment than his when it comes to what she might enjoy. Andrew knows her better, after all. Plus, she's still just generally irked with the angel.

Andrew's question flusters her a little; she hadn't meant to upset him. "It's not - there's nothing wrong with it. But it's a bit like this." She gestures pointedly towards the television. "The animals are just two-leggers, wearing clothes and using weapons and cooking and such."

Kitten squirms a little, alerting Daine to the fact that her hand had stilled. Biting back a sigh, she resumes tickling the dragon's belly.

[has_a_horn]

"Watership Down is a place," Gabriel provides. "Pretty, actually. Lots of grass and flowers. Downland. A down is a hill...good land for waskily wabbits."

He pauses for a moment, watching the movie. "The place probably didn't start off as Watership. Language changes. Might have been 'worship down' or something, originally."

He shrugs and shifts his glance down to look at the little dragon, and reaches his hand out to mimick Daine's movements. He really hasn't learned his lesson yet.

[bluesuit_handy]

"That's English for you," chuckles Andrew. "Borrowing and changing so much that even humans can see how nonsensical it is. And I don't think you'd like Robin Hood, in that case."

[wildmage_daine]

"Huh." Daine digests the new information, trying to remember if they have anything similar in Tortall - maybe they do, and they just call it something else - and is consequently too distracted to see what Gabriel's doing and warn him against it.

Kitten had her eyes shut, but she opens them when she feels someone besides Daine touching her. When she sees that it's Gabriel and not Andrew, her scales flash scarlet. She darts her head forward like a snake and sinks her sharp, silver teeth into Gabriel's hand.

"Kitten!" Daine gasps, and the dragon releases her hold with an angry screech. The girl grabs the dragon around the middle and holds her at arm's length to keep her from going after Gabriel again, then looks over her shoulder with wide eyes. "Sorry! Are you okay?"

[has_a_horn]

"Ah, fuck." Gabriel stumbles back from the couch, surprised by the bite. It only takes him a moment, though, to remember that this is a dream space. He removes the wound from his hand and holds it up to Daine. "No harm done."

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew had started feeling a little inclined to try petting Kitten, since both she and Daine seemed to be enjoying it so much. Any such inclination vanished, though, the instant the little dragon buries her teeth in the other man's hand. Andrew startles away along with Gabriel, though he doesn't go far due to remaining on the couch. The video on the television screen flickers, replaced just long enough by the image of a man being attacked by what appears to be a giant crab for them to hear a scream. Then, in response to a sharp look from Andrew, it goes black and silent.

"Sorry," he says, turning his attention back to his companions, looking to make sure Gabriel and Kitten remain separated -- and that the dragon's not about to bite him as well. "Sorry."

[wildmage_daine]

"I should've warned you not to touch her," Daine says, though to be fair, she already sort of did warn him not to touch her. To Andrew, she adds, "She doesn't normally bite folk, it's just that Gabriel was doing illusions earlier, and Kit doesn't like them. I'm sure she wouldn't bite you."

She could add that Kitten probably would have showed more restraint if Daine hadn't been irked with Gabriel as well, but given that Gabriel's in the room and all, she doesn't. Kitten lets out a pointed chk! from her perch on Daine's knee. It doesn't have any impact on their surroundings, but it probably gets the dragon's point across.

[has_a_horn]

"What has she got against illusions?" Gabriel doesn't lean back against the center of the couch, choosing to walk over and perch on the arm near Andrew instead. He'd missed the brief change of programing on the TV, but he knows Andrew had been shocked as well. He tips his head towards him. 'Sorry 'bout that."

[bluesuit_handy]

"Isn't a dream all illusions?" asks Andrew curiously. He's still a good bit wary of Kitten now that he's seen she's willing to use those teeth of hers on other sapient creatures. "It's fine," he tells Gabriel a little too quickly, not sure if either of them saw what his mind put on the screen a moment ago.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine was too preoccupied with wrangling Kitten to notice the television, and she's rather inclined to ignore Andrew's question, as well, if only because it's a bit too philosophical for her.

Gabriel's question is one she can answer, though putting it politely might be a bit trickier. It doesn't help that Kitten has no such concerns about displaying good manners; she glares resentfully at Gabriel and snorts.

"Enough," Daine says sternly before turning to the others. "She doesn't hate all illusions as a rule, but she doesn't like it when folk use them to lie or hide things from her." Which, in Daine's opinion, is a fair complaint. She's a little surprised that Gabriel even had to ask.

[has_a_horn]

"I wasn't hiding anything." There's a lie. "I'd just changed it to something more interesting." Perhaps true, certainly more entertaining, for him.

[bluesuit_handy]

While Andrew doesn't particularly enjoy being ignored, he's just as happy not to have to explain the whole macra thing. He looks at Gabriel in interest. "You changed your room, I take it?"

[wildmage_daine]

"Of course you were," Daine says as Kitten lets out an indignant squawk. Unlike the dragon, Daine is more baffled by his denial than upset by it. She doesn't much care what his original room looked like or why he felt the need to cover it with something else, but it's a bit silly of him to act as if he wasn't hiding anything when he obviously was. "He did," she adds for Andrew's benefit.

[has_a_horn]

"Technically hiding, I guess?" He shrugs and frowns down at the squawking animal. "I wasn't changing it maliciously. A karaoke bar is way more entertaining than what was there before."

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew's face lights up. "Oo, karaoke!" he exclaims. "It's been ages since I've sung karaoke. Never seem to get round to going."

Vapid as his response may seem, he is paying attention. It's not terribly surprising that other dreamers might have something to hide, and he tucks away this tidbit about Gabriel in the back of his mind. Well, and he really does think karaoke sounds like fun.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine's momentarily flummoxed by the idea that anyone could have found that bar situation to be pleasant; the memory is enough to leave her looking as if she's tasted something nasty. Recovering herself, she echoes Gabriel's shrug. "Well, Kitten didn't like it."

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel smiles at Andrew's reaction and swings a foot forward to tap him on the leg. "I'll have to take you sometime. I don't think Daine's coming, though." He raises his eyebrows at Daine. "I saw she didn't like it, so I changed it to something she would. I don't see what the problem is."

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew grins. "James'd -- hmm. Not sure if James'd love it, actually." Because inviting Andrew more or less means automatically inviting James, whether one is aware of it or not. Andrew tells himself to ask James later if he'd like to try singing karaoke.

He turns his eyes to watch Daine and Kitten even as he finishes speaking, trying to gauge how seriously they're taking what seems to have been a personal offense unto the baby dragon. He still doesn't entirely trust Gabriel, but the TARDIS's endorsement has helped him be willing to at least try to give the man (alien? extradimensional being?) the benefit of the doubt.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine wrinkles her nose at the prospect of karaoke; she's definitely not coming.

Kitten lets out a stream of angry chattering in Gabriel's direction, and even if Daine could translate it, she probably wouldn't want to. "I guess you didn't make a good first impression," she says. Truth be told, Kitten's indignation is stronger than Daine would have expected, even counting her own annoyance with Gabriel (and Kit's awareness of Daine's irritation). Is there something else about him that's putting the dragon off? She can't ask her about it now, unfortunately, so she runs a soothing hand down the dragon's side. "You've made your point, Kit," she says quietly. The dragon looks at her for a moment, as if to gauge whether that's really true, then reluctantly settles down (though not before shooting the angel another dirty look).