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

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!]

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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.

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.

She can definitely See wild magic on him, though it's a constant flame as compared to Daine's blaze. She wonders if they're friends.

"Nevermore, Mr. Bear."

There's something embarrassing about being caught trying to play on equipment meant for children...especially when one is an enormous bear and when 'trying' really is the operative word. Yuri swivels his head (and his ears) to find the origin of the voice he just heard.

"Uh," he says. "Hi."

"Hello." She flicks her wings and glides, rather than flies, over to the see him. The wings she can understand by instinct, but isn't comfortable with them.

Yuri turns and flops over onto the mesh, trying to make it look like he meant to get on there just to lay down all along. "My name's Yuri," he offers. "Have we met?"

"No, but Daine's mentioned a Yuri. I'm Aly." How do crows do it? Aly hops her way over to get a better look at him.

"You know Daine?" He perks his ears up in surprise and tries to lean closer to sniff the air around her. "She's around here somewhere," he offers.

"Quite well, in fact," Aly replies. A shiny rock catches her attention and she tries to pretend it doesn't. Damn her new bird instincts. "We're both from Tortall."

"Really?" Okay, now she has Yuri's full attention. Sure, she already did before now, but the implications of this are big.

"But that's great! Er, I mean -- I guess it's not so great, having to come through the rift. Did you two grow up together?"

"No, I'm a fair bit younger than her. Or I would be if our timelines matched up." Aly gives a wing-shrug that's more a lifting of her shoulder blades rather than her actual shoulders.

"But i do know her. We wrote letters."

"Oh." Well, it's pretty good that Daine even has someone from her world now, let alone someone she already knew -- so it's not like there's any cause to be disappointed. "Did you just get here?"

Never mind that today's the first time he and Daine have spoken since their argument over the rebuilding of the cage. Surely the reason Daine hasn't mentioned Aly is because Aly only just arrived.

"A few days ago. In time, apparently, to wake up as a crow." She twists just so, examining her glossy black feathers.

"Good thing I already like them."

"This doesn't normally happen." Yuri sounds like he's apologizing for the rift's behavior. He doesn't comment on his own shape, hoping she'll assume it's just as unusual for him as a crow is for her.

"I've gathered. The rift is a funny place."

If he won't bring it up, then Aly is happy to keep her observations to herself.

Yuri pauses, scenting the air rather than really eying her. "Where are you staying?" he asks cautiously, meaning to verify that she's with the rebels. A friend of Daine's must be, but....

"Oh. With Daine," Aly replies casually, playing the same game. If he knew where Daine lived, then he'd understand Aly's meaning.

He relaxes slightly, but still doesn't say it directly. "In that little place? You have to be sleeping on top of each other."

"I kept tighter quarters when I was a slave," Aly explains, as if it's not even a point worth fussing on. "So I'll be all right."

That makes him sit up, quite literally. "You were a slave?" asks Yuri, sounding horrified. "That happens in your world?"

It happens in his own world, sure, but not visibly. Not in his country, at least not right out where everyone can see it.

"Was," Aly repeats. "I've been free for longer than I've been a slave now."

And even then, she may as well have been little more than one in name only.

"How'd you get away?" Yuri's imagining some Underground Railroad type of thing here. His mental image of slavery is the brand of slavery from American history.

"I defended the family after an ill-plannned attack," Aly explains, feeling terrible still for the loss of Duke Mequen.

"For that, I was granted my freedom but they'd long had my loyalty."

He...did not expect that. "The family that owned you?" he clarifies. "You like them?"

"They were kind to me." Even as a crow, Aly fixes a sharp eye on him.

"I don't expect it to make sense. But they were."

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