It's Saturday night and you're hallucinating in your sleep!

[applesaucemod]

It's that time again! The rift has caught the good little dreamers of New York (and beyond) in its currents and washed them ashore on a desert island in a dream wonderland. This time, however, quite a noticeable change has come over each of the attendees of this nocturnal party.

All the people who arrive in this shared mindspace will find that they have been transformed into some sort of animal they find familiar or that resembles them. They will find that they can still communicate with one another and that they still have all their mental faculties, but might be a little…well…influenced by the forms they have taken on.

They will also find that they have been deposited in the middle of the largest, most elaborate playground they have ever seen. Climbing equipment and slides of the sort meant for human children are in evidence, but so are cat trees, meadows, tunnels, pools and ponds, aerial obstacle courses, and anything else the mind can imagine, for as far as the eye can see.



[OOC: The usual dream party rules apply: players apply the party's theme (in this case, transformation) to their characters according to their own discretion, and both members and non-members are more than welcome to use this post to try out characters not yet in the game. Usual dreaming rules also apply, in that players can choose whether or not their characters will remember this in the morning. Have at!]

Comments

[wildmage_daine]

Well, one dreamer hasn't been changed into an animal. Technically, she's been changed out of one.

Daine had been soaring on hawk wings before being pulled into this new dreamspace, and she lets out a rather undignified shriek as she's unceremoniously jolted back into her human shape. Fortunately for her, it's a short drop onto a patch of pea gravel. She picks herself up with a few muffled curses and brushes dust off her sleeves while she takes in her new surroundings.

It's some sort of giant playground, from the looks of it, though a good deal of the equipment looks like it's designed for animals, not two-leggers. Quite a few of the People are in evidence, as well, though none of them feel right - she can't hear them the way she ought to be able to.

"Well, this is fair strange," she mutters to herself.

[[ooc: animals tend to like Daine instinctively, so depending on how much your character is influenced by their animal side, they may find themselves drawn her way. She's also capable of influencing an animal's emotions to an extent, but again, that depends on just how much they've gone native.]]

[raisedbycarnies]

Do falcons get drawn to bright, shining things too? Or is that just magpies and other, less than trustworthy birds

Clint's not entirely sure or trustworthy of the whole situation, but can't help watching the girl. It's hard not to flap his wings and just head on over.

[edgar_sawtelle]

Strangely, Edgar smells Daine before he sees her. He hadn't even realized he knew her smell, but in his canine form that's what gets his attention. He glances around and spots her not far away. Grinning, he trots over and sits down in front of her.

Then he stares up at her, amusement in his eyes. Wait until she realizes he's a dog.

[fucking_ebay]

Fucking wonderful, another weird dream. Peter was in the middle of his usual nude magic show, making girls he'd never met appear out of the scenery, and now...

Now he's clinging to an upright post on some kiddie playground, tiny claws digging into cracks in the wood. After a few moments of shock, he starts to climb, feeling an urge to get somewhere high and/or enclosed.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine spies the tiny bat and raises her eyebrows, intrigued. She's never seen one so titchy before, and she slowly approaches the post, not wanting to startle the little creature. Just to be on the safe side, she sends out a little thread of reassurance before quietly saying, "Hullo."

[edgar_sawtelle]

Edgar's running - no, bounding - through tall grass. He feels odd, and it takes him a minute to realize why: he's happy, purely, incandescently happy. It's a state he hasn't experienced in some time, but he gives himself over to it without a pause.

He jumps over a small rivulet of water - a minuscule tributary of some unseen larger body, gurgling away to his right. When he lands on the other side, something feels different about his gait. He stumbles through a few more steps before he stops and sits back on his haunches. The grass is higher than his head, whereas just a minute before it was only to his wais--

Haunches? Edgar jumps up in shock and turns in a circle looking at himself. As he turns, all he can see is the bushy tail of a dog - similar to the Sawtelle dogs - and it takes a minute before the pieces fall into place.

When they do, he sits down again with a startled, doggy oof.

I'm a dog.

[ginormotron]

In his dream, Sam doesn't feel weak for the first time in weeks. He's not dizzy or feverish, there's nothing bursting to get out of his skin. His skin, in fact, is not his skin at all, but in dream-fashion, it doesn't occur to him that this is something odd until quite a while into it. He's padding through high grass, snuffling, basking in the cool green smells, the earth underpaw, the chitinous scent of insects lurking, when he suddenly stops, legs splaying.

There's a dog, jumping in circles, chasing its own tail, and it looks so like Bones, the stray he'd had at Stanford, that it only makes sense to call to him. Sam lifts his voice to shout, but instead of a shout, it comes out a resonant roar-bark. And that's when it occurs to him that this is odd.

He can feel a tail flicking, bristling up, feel not two feet but four, and when he bends his head to lick one foreleg, it's covered in rough black fur. He must be dreaming, he thinks. What a wonderfully, impossibly innocuous dream. His sigh of relief comes out in a canine whuffle, and, feeling buoyed, he decides to trot over to the dog anyway.

((OOC: Sam has turned into a maned wolf. Which is to say, he looks like this.))

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew fell asleep late enough in the night not to have a chance to begin his own dream before he was drawn into the communal one already in progress. The first thing he's aware of is snuffling through some long grass, which soon opens up onto...pea gravel? That's a playground! Lifting and tilting his head in confusion, Andrew steps forward to investigate.

It's then that he realizes he can feel the gravel under his hands as well as his feet and finally looks down at himself to discover long, spotty legs and forepaws. "What?" he asks no one in particular, spinning in place in the attempt to see the rest of him.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri can't get the cage door to latch. Evening is drawing on, he can feel the full moon rising, and no one is there to help him as he desperately tries to lock himself behind bars. He can tug the door shut and get it to look closed, but every time he thinks the lock engages, it just slips open again a moment later.

Scared, he darts out of the cage and tries to yank the silvered door to the room shut. It's stuck wide open, though, and his hands slip off the handle like it's greased. It's too late, he knows it's too late -- and right then and there, nothing holding him back, he feels himself sprout hair and drop to all fours, transformed into his usual monthly grizzly bear self.

Still afraid of what he'll do if he gets out, Yuri tries again to close the door. It disappears, walls dissolving around him to be replaced by wide open spaces and playground equipment. Moaning in dismay, Yuri beelines for the nearest hole in which he can stuff himself, feeling sure he's going to rampage and hurt someone if he doesn't somehow contain himself. It's just too bad that all he can find to get into is a mesh-sided ball pit.

[wildmage_daine]

There's a feeling she recognizes a little too well: Yuri in distress. Daine turns her head in his direction, only catching a glimpse of shaggy, brown fur as he vanishes around a corner. There's a sound of crashing plastic, and a few colorful balls bounce into view. Oh, dear.

Yuri? she calls, jogging around the aforementioned corner. She's treated to the sight of a grizzly bear attempting to burrow into a pit filled with plastic balls. "Yuri?" Daine tries again, aloud this time. He doesn't feel angry so much as terrified, but she still braces herself in case he lashes out.

[tiny_tyrant]

An sleek magpie hovers in an updraft, beady black eyes surveying the scene below. It dives once, rises up, dives again, inspecting all angles before it alights at the top of some sort of metal contraption. After a moment, it flutters and hops down each rung until it's an accessible but safe distance from the ground, to better immerse itself in the curious and utterly Human environment. And it preens, because it's a magpie.

[theoldgirl]

Well, if the dream environment insists on turning everyone into animals, the TARDIS might as well be something she's already tried and enjoyed once before. So a beautiful unicorn wanders the playground, occasionally stopping to nibble on some grass or flowers but they're not as good as if Gabriel had made them and just generally looking for company.

[bluesuit_handy]

A very spotty sort of dog thing comes tearing through the playground, chasing some imaginary animal (or ball). "Hello!" he calls as he zips past, barely even registering he's passed a --

Wait, unicorn? Handy executes a quick 180 and promptly falls over, only to leap back to his feet and dash back to where he left the white not-horse in the dust. "You're a unicorn!" he exclaims needlessly, coming to a stop in front of her and prancing in place. "Oh, but that's brilliant!"

[tiny_tyrant]

"Oh, excellent!" the little English (English-ish) magpie enthuses, hopping from foot to foot to clear the towering blades of grass as it makes its way over. It can sense the power inherent in the majestic beast, naturally, and that is as interesting as anything it can't explain, but it's also a unicorn. And that's neat.

"Is it true," it begins as it comes close, crouching and hopping, disturbing a few dead leaves on the ground - ha! That leaf! Did you see it? It snaps at the leaf and grabs it in its beak, dragging it backward several inches. It tosses its head and snaps its beak again. Leaves are great! What was... oh. "Is it true," it asks again, earnestly, "that your blood will sustain one near to death in a cursed life?" It sounds young.

[watchesthebeans]

Not everyone's entirely unhappy with their transformations. One Aglet Bottlerack stands trembling with a sort of illicit elation, almost afraid to take a step for fear of what (or who) he'll step on, but yearning at the same time to go bounding off in celebration of whatever's happened to him. If anyone's nearby, they might hear him talking to himself in awed tones.

"I'm...I'm huge!"

[has_a_horn]

He knows he's dreaming, so it's a bit of a shock to find himself suddenly out of his human body. In fact, he's not even on land anymore. As he shifts into the shared dreaming, it's on the massive seven foot wingspan of an albatross. These wings are built more for distance than acrobatics, but he has enough experience with this sort of thing to know how to take advantage of what he's got.

With the air rushing past him, he spots a hoop set on a long pole. With a few beats of his wings, he builds up speed and then quickly brings them in, doing a showy barrel roll through the hoop before diving to fly closer to the ground. If there's someone else here, he's betting that they'll be along the ground somewhere rather than in the sky.

[aly_brighteyes]

Even in crow form, Aly's Sight gives her enough clues to guess who it is under those feathers.

A crow is smaller and nimbler than the great seabird he's become. For now, she chooses instead to sit primly on one of the rings and claim it as a perch.

[antitimelord]

Once again, Zagreus wakes to find himself in a tree. Except he hadn't really woken, not this time, nor was what he found in the tree himself at all. Unless he'd always been a displacer beast. He blinks disoriented yellow eyes and experiences a moment of relief that he isn't a moth. The tree is no good though, and he slithers out of his perch, lashing his new tail in vexation. So black as to be almost blue, gaunt and ill-kept, and possessed of a gait fouled by too many limbs, but the tch of disapproval he makes is amusingly mundane.

[theoldgirl]

One moment the TARDIS is comfortably trotting along under some trees, and the next she's bolting to the side a split-second before she even realizes what has her suddenly terrified. But then it sinks in - the unmistakable, hair-raising stink of antitime. And not even so much a stink as thorns against her mind, here in the telepathic current.

No. It can't be. How could it-- she's prancing and throwing her head around, panicking before she can stop herself, and it takes another moment before she spots the form associated with the presence several trees ahead.

[raisedbycarnies]

This...this is weird. Not bad. Clint's dealt with bad. He's dealt with gods, monsters, and Tony Stark's ego. This? is not bad. But sitting on a branch as a common kestrel isn't how he'd been planning to spend his night.

Kestrels aren't even hawks. They're falcons. Clint isn't sure if he's relieved at the lack of irony or annoyed that whatever's playing with his life has missed a prime opportunity.

He really wishes he at least had a bow or something. Even if he doesn't have thumbs.

[antitimelord]

There certainly are a lot of birds around. Surely nobody would miss one if Zagreus ate it. He stalks the kestrel from beneath its tree, unaware of his tail's twitching. How quietly could he climb a tree? Probably not very. Maybe he could talk it down.

[aly_brighteyes]

Aly can't say she's surprised at the form she's taken. It seems the whole world is aware of the Trickster's mark on her, but at least not many of the others here know the god or his sacred creature.

It is, however, painfully difficult not to give in to her new crow's instincts to go after anything shiny.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri ambles by, unaware he might be watched. It's still strange -- really strange -- to be like this and not feel angry and murderous. He sniffs laconically at the playground equipment he passes and, after a quick glance around, turns to try to climb up a stretch of netting.

Zounds!

[spacemanspiff]

Our hero has crashed on a distant planet full of bizarre, alien life forms! Thinking quickly, he crouches behind a large boulder and reaches for his blaster!

... But what's this? His blaster is missing! Even his spacesuit is gone! With a gasp of horror, Spiff realizes that he is no longer human!! He has been transformed into some sort of hideous beast!

IS THIS THE END??

Because reptiles are underappreciated

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy takes quite a while to orient herself once she arrives, given the fact she has suddenly turned into a fairly large white snake. She has no idea why - though if she gave it some thought, it makes some sense. Pale, attractive, calm but definitely still dangerous, and frequently misunderstood or mistreated. But mostly she's thinking about how she suddenly doesn't have limbs. But dream logic keeps her from questioning it too much, and she slowly slithers up a climbing net and perches atop it, tongue flitting out to taste the air.

Daine appreciates reptiles!

[wildmage_daine]

Daine's a little surprised to see a snake, as it's mostly mammals and birds that seem to be running about the place. Who, she wonders, would have taken (or been put in) such a shape? Not that Daine has anything against snakes, but she knows most folk aren't of the same mind as her about them.

She stops by the bottom of the net and peers curiously up at the animal. "Hullo."

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor's turned into a cat, but seeing as it's a Gallifreyan one, it probably won't be all that recognisable to most people here.

He's a fair bit larger than the usual Earth cat, with colouring that looks more like a red panda. Then of course, there's the fact he has wings.

Perhaps it's fitting. Cats were not uncommon pets on Gallifrey, but the winged ones could never be domesticated. Just as playful and friendly, but far too temperamental and independent to belong to anyone.

He has of course immediately taken to going down the slide, then flying back up again, with quite some enthusiasm.

[theoldgirl]

When the TARDIS senses the Doctor joining the communal dreaming, she wanders around for a bit looking for him. She soon spots him on the slide and stops her approach to watch him, letting out an amused whinny.

[theheroheart]

Charley Pollard is not as familiar with the playground equipment as some, but it's not alien or anything to her. The fact that she's a rather lovely siamese cat is, but it's a dream after all, isn't it!

She climbs one of the nearby cat trees and perches on the top platform and surveys the landscape.

"Well," she says to herself, "this is an odd dream. It must be a dream, I don't even think the Doctor could find a place that could turn me into a cat." She washes her whiskers a bit. "Well, I suppose I should enjoy it. It's nice to have a dream where I'm not running."

[bluesuit_handy]

Someone needs to tell Andrew that dogs don't climb. He's been amusing himself by hopping on and off of things and trotting his way through bridges and tunnels and down slides -- and now he's apparently found the land of the cat trees. It's something more of a challenge, but look, someone new to talk to! Surely that's worth climbing the next tree over, just so they can have a good face to face chat.

He at least picks a sprawling tree that isn't entirely vertical. Somewhat awkwardly, he clambers up ladders and platforms too small for him and perches on the larger of the upper parts. "Good morning!" he chirps, tongue lolling out.

[fragmentation]

James is here as well - it's not always he ends up in these parties, given he sleeps fewer hours than most people. But he's glad he didn't miss this one. He's currently a golden retriever, exploring the dream world.

[bluesuit_handy]

A chittering, whining sound emerges from a nearby section of the playground, along with the sounds of something dashing through gravel and over playground equipment. Andrew has taken up running an impromptu obstacle course, hopping on and off stepping stones and other platforms. Darting away into the open for a moment, he turns back and sprints straight at -- and then up -- a metal slide. He makes it halfway up before he loses both traction and momentum and comes sliding down it backwards.

[brink]

Topher is a fainting goat.

Yes, one of those.

He's so far unaware of what type of goat he is, though. For all he knows, he's just a regular goat, wandering around, looking at all the dreamers to see who's turned into what.