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

[stronglikebear]

As a kid, Yuri used to think how cool it would be if being a were meant you could choose when to transform. Nowadays, it's hard for him to imagine ever wanting to be the bear.

What's a stormwing? he asks, eager enough to distract himself from his own lack of control over his situation. He sits back on his haunches and bats a nearby ball while he waits to hear.

[wildmage_daine]

Andrew had used another term for them, and after a moment, she recalls it. "You might know them as harpies. They've got the faces and chests of a human, but the rest of them is bird-shaped, with feathers made of metal." She nudges a ball in Yuri's direction. "They like to hang around battlefields and desecrate the dead."

[stronglikebear]

Yuri grimaces, not realizing it looks a bit like a snarl. Those are real in your world? Ugh. I guess there are worse things I could turn into. He reaches out and bats the ball back before it has a chance to stop rolling.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine stops the ball with her foot before kicking it back. "Funny thing is, they aren't all that bad. There's one named Rikash, who..." she trails off, shaking her head and letting out a bewildered huff of laughter. "I don't know. He's... hard to describe. But he's not as awful as you might expect."

[stronglikebear]

Sounds like you really like the guy, laughs Yuri, trying the back of his paw this time when he hits it back.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine snorts. "I wouldn't go that far. Nice for a stormwing still isn't very nice. And then there's the smell." Talk about defying description. She has to step sideways to nab the ball this time, and feints once before kicking it back.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri leans in the direction he expects the ball to go, completely falling for her feint. Let me guess, he says, getting halfway up to get the ball and kick it off in the wrong direction by accident, rotting garbage? Sorry.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine wrinkles her nose. "Try rotting everything. And feces, just for fun." She waves off the apology as she trots to the wayward ball and sends it back over. "It's terrible even to human noses; I can't imagine what it'd be like for you."

[stronglikebear]

And there's the return of the toothy grimace. At least I'll know if he shows up, he says, though privately he really, really hopes he never meets a stormwing. He catches the ball under one forepaw before giving it a return kick.

[wildmage_daine]

"Oh, if a stormwing shows up, everyone will know." Daine suppresses a shudder. She thought her realm wasn't ready to deal with immortals, but New York would fare worse under the kind of onslaught Tortall has been experiencing.

Deciding to shake things up, she wedges her toe under the ball and lobs it into the air, sending it arcing towards him.

"Though it probably wouldn't just be one," she adds as an afterthought. "They travel in flocks."

[stronglikebear]

Human reflexes tell Yuri to reach up and catch the ball in the air. Bear physiology causes him to slap it instead, hard, and send it flying at the ground in front of Daine.

Are they dangerous, or just gross?

[wildmage_daine]

Daine skips back a pace so the ball doesn't hit her shins, then kicks it back - along the ground, this time. "Both. I think, once upon a time, they just hung around battlefields like vultures. But they can fight, too, and that's what they've been doing for the mages that brought them through the barrier."

[stronglikebear]

What barrier? Yuri pounces on the ball, both forepaws landing triumphantly on top of it. His ears go back and he groans when he lifts them again to find that he's crushed it flat. Crap.

[wildmage_daine]

"The one between the mortal realm and the divine realms. It was put in place some centuries ago to keep the immortals out, but now mages are letting them back in so they can harry us."

Daine has to bite back a grin at the plastic ball's cruel fate. "It's all right. I'm sure we can find something else to do; there's all sorts of stuff here."

[stronglikebear]

Why would the mages want to do that? Yuri can't quite get over the loss of the ball, and forlornly flips it over with a claw. It's smashed beyond repair, though, and he finally sighs and pushes it away. Walking over to her, he bumps Daine gently with his head. Like what?

[wildmage_daine]

Daine curls her lip distastefully. "So they could cripple Tortall without ever having outright war declared." At least Ozorne's out of the picture, and Carthak's no longer a threat, but there are still enough immortals running around the place to keep the country busy.

She's both surprised and pleased by the head-bump, which she takes as a sign that Yuri's finally accepting the idea of being relatively harmless in that shape. "I don't know," she says, reaching up to pat his shoulder. "We could wander around until we see something interesting."

[stronglikebear]

He feels like he's learning bad habits by doing this -- by interacting as if he's still a person, or a friendly dog, or even just a bear that doesn't currently feel like eating her. Sure, he agrees. Maybe they've got a pool or something.

He takes up a slow pace, going only a few steps before checking to make sure she's coming with him. But why do they want to hurt Tortall?

[wildmage_daine]

Does it really count as bad habits if he doesn't intend to let her - or anyone - near him over the full moon in the future? For her part, Daine intends to make the most of this opportunity to interact with bear-Yuri without danger (or much danger, anyway).

"There's a pond not too far off," she supplies, walking at a fairly brisk pace to keep up with his longer bear strides. "Edgar and I found it a little while ago."

As far as the motives of their attackers, Daine isn't so certain there's any excuse for what they did. "Their crops failed, and they decided they'd rather steal food than pay for it - that's the raiders, anyway." Tearing up the barrier had just been an extreme but effective distraction, far as she can tell.

[stronglikebear]

Seriously? They wanted to steal some food, so they sicced a bunch of harpies on the rest of you? Daine, what is this world you come from. Yuri tries to keep it to an easygoing stroll, but it seems his size sets him up to roll along at a faster pace than a human regardless. He just trusts she'll correct him if he's going the wrong way.

Edgar's your friend with the dog, isn't he?

[wildmage_daine]

Daine lifts her shoulders in a shrug. She can't say she's a fan of how the immortals were brought back into her realm - or some of the species that came through in the greatest numbers - but they hadn't always been locked away. Part of her wonders if they're meant to live in her realm. Maybe shutting them away in the first place was a mistake.

Yuri's headed in the right direction, so Daine focuses on keeping up. She doesn't quite have to jog, but it's close.

"Yes. He actually is a dog right now." Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned him, given his role in Yuri's breakout... but they are still friends and there's no shame in that.

[stronglikebear]

Do people always go to that kind of extreme in your world? asks Yuri, still incredulous about it. It just seems so...petty. And also really really dangerous.

He snorts in surprise and amusement. I'll try not to eat him if I see him.

[wildmage_daine]

"No," Daine replies, frowning. "I expect Carthak wanted the raiders and immortals to do the dirty work, and then swoop in once Tortall was too weakened to put up much of a fight. It's an expanding empire - or it was, anyway."

She arches her eyebrow at him as they wade through the patch of tall grass bordering the pond. "At least you could see Edgar. Some folk here are downright titchy."

[stronglikebear]

And Carthak's...another country near you guys?

He gives her a confused look in return, not catching her meaning for several seconds. Titchy? It dawns on him, and he pauses in his walking. You mean small? How small? Like I'm-going-to-step-on-them small?

[wildmage_daine]

"Yes. They're just across the Great Inland Sea, which isn't very wide. It's a bit like..." she pauses as she tries to come up with a comparison that would mean something to him, "that one great lake you have in America - the long oval one that pokes down farther than the rest? The sea between our countries is about as wide as that, I think."

Daine comes to a halt when he does, a bit confused until she realizes he hadn't known what 'titchy' meant. "Well, there's a fellow named Peter who's turned into a very tiny bat, but I'm sure you'd hear him well before you could actually hurt him. Everyone else I've seen ought to be spry enough to get out of your way, though." Giving his shoulder a reassuring pat, she adds, "And as long as I'm keeping you company, I'll help watch out for people."

[stronglikebear]

Yuri nods to show he understands, but refrains from revealing he doesn't know the names of all the Great Lakes. Close neighbors, then, close enough that maybe it isn't so surprising they're at each other's throats, given the kind of period Daine seems to be from. He refrains from saying that, too.

I hope you're right, he says, reluctantly starting again, this time eying the ground as he goes. But they didn't invade?