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]

Yuri's about to comment that droughts and bad harvests happen all the time without the overthrow of emperors or anyone (sane) taking credit for it, but talking statues are a different matter. He sniffs, thinking about it. Do they help people? he asks. It seems to him it's a bit rotten to only show up when it's time to throw people down for not worshiping.

[wildmage_daine]

"The gods? Of course," Daine says, brow furrowed. "Getting rid of Ozorne helped plenty of people."

And here's the pond. Daine walks to the end of the dock and plops down, rolling up the cuffs of her breeches. "What's strange is being in a realm where the gods - or god, whatever - don't seem to do anything."

[stronglikebear]

He works in mysterious ways, shrugs Yuri -- or he tries to, but mostly he just makes himself stumble on his front feet. While Daine does whatever with her pants, Yuri crouches down and dips a paw in the water, unsurprised to find that it's a comfortable temperature -- or at least, that it's comfortable through his fur.

[wildmage_daine]

That's a nice way of saying he doesn't work at all, as far as Daine is concerned, but she doesn't want to openly scorn the gods of this realm. If they are real, they're awfully elusive... but given that there's at least one angel wandering around, perhaps it'd be prudent to keep an open mind.

Still. "Wish my gods were here. They'd do something about this rift business."

Once she has her breeches secured above her knees, she lowers her feet off the edge of the dock and dangles them in the water. Ahhh... the temperature's perfect, and she swirls her legs around a bit before looking back over her shoulder at Yuri. "Are you going all the way in?"

[stronglikebear]

Hey, maybe the rift will drag one of them through, jokes Yuri. The idea of gods like hers -- who frankly sound a little petty, if they spend so much time meddling -- is still weird to him. By now he's got half an arm dipped into the water, and when he looks up at her he grins. It looks a lot like his earlier grimace, but hopefully she'll get the right idea from it.

Aren't you? he asks, right before rolling off the dock and into the water.

[wildmage_daine]

And sploosh. Daine grimaces a little as pond water sloshes over the dock and soaks into her breeches. Lovely.

"What, in these?" She gestures to her outfit, then leans back, bracing her hands against the sun-warmed (if newly dampened) wooden planks. If Yuri was actually a grizzly bear, she wouldn't be shy about stripping to her underthings and diving in, but as it is... no. "I'd rather not spend the rest of the afternoon in sopping clothes."

[stronglikebear]

He surfaces after a moment and paddles to the end of the dock. Look to me like you already will, he points out, sloshing more water at her just by dint of his efforts to tread water.

[wildmage_daine]

"Damp isn't so bad as sodden," she replies, tsking at him when he sends more water her way. "And you're not helping!" Daine kicks at the surface of the pond, splashing him right back.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri turns his face away and shuts his eyes against the water. A moment later, though, he's throwing two sopping wet paws up on the dock and laboriously pulling himself back out. Not so incidentally, that'll put her right next to a dripping wet bear. They'll dry, he promises, wondering if she's realized yet that he's going to push her in.

[wildmage_daine]

She knows he's up to something, she just guesses wrong as to what it is. Pulling her legs out of the water, she hastily clambers to her feet. "So help me, Yuri, if you shake yourself off..." she starts in a warning tone.

[stronglikebear]

That's a really good idea, he says, brightening. But I won't, I promise. I'll just do...this!

He doesn't want to hurt her, so he can't exactly tackle her. He can, however, angle himself to try to stop her escaping back up the dock, and use his size to just lean against her a bit until she falls in.

[wildmage_daine]

"What...?" she takes a step back in an attempt to avoid a faceful of wet bear, and consequently ends up teetering at the edge of the dock. He's still pushing towards her, though, and she finally realizes what he's been driving at. "Oh, no no no!" she cries, making a last-ditch effort to grab his fur and save herself (though honestly, she'd have gotten about as wet even if she'd succeeded in getting ahold of him). But it's too late, and she tumbles back into the pond with a shriek.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri, laughing, resists the urge to cannonball in after her. Ears perked, he crouches at the edge of the dock, nose nearly poking the water as he waits for her to bob up again.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine comes to rest on the weedy bottom with a gentle bump. She's a confident enough swimmer even in her human shape that she's in no particular rush to resurface... and a spiteful part of her doesn't mind if Yuri starts to worry a little. He knows she's stuck being human - does he know she can swim, too? What if she couldn't, hmm?

So, as long as she's down here, might as well take stock. She brushes her hair out of her face and looks around as best she can with her stubbornly human vision. A few fish are darting curiously around her, but as far as she can tell, she and Yuri are the only mammals in the immediate vicinity. She thinks she can hear a few turtles farther off, but all things considered, the pond feels rather empty. Strange, that.

Deciding that she's been down long enough for Yuri to start feeling a bit nervous, Daine impishly releases the air still in her lungs before kicking herself back up to the surface.

[stronglikebear]

...Daine? Okay, it's been a while now. Yuri hops up, paces a few steps, then crouches down again and pokes his face into the water. Opening his eyes underwater doesn't help much -- he can see her shape at the bottom, but he can't make out details. Pulling his head back out, he grunts worriedly, glances around for help, and then jams his head in the water again. Daine, are you alri--

Her bubbles collide with his face, startling him into rearing back out of the water again.

[wildmage_daine]

Once Daine's scraped a few wayward curls out of her face, she takes in Yuri's startled expression and smirks up at him. "I can swim," she reassures him, treading water. "Not that you knew that before you shoved me in." Rolling onto her back, she lazily kicks away from the dock. At least her clothes are lightweight enough that they don't drag on her too much.

[stronglikebear]

He puts his ears back, a little annoyed at her for worrying him. I would've come in after you, he says, scooping a pawful of water at her.

[wildmage_daine]

Hey, she's a little annoyed with him for shoving her into the pond in the first place. Now, they're even.

Daine wrinkles her nose as Yuri splashes her, then kicks some water back at him. She has her doubts regarding the sort of 'rescue' he'd be capable of, especially when all he has to work with are those giant paddy paws and a mouthful of teeth. "My hero," she deadpans. Then, "Are you coming in, or not?" Because if he's shoved her in just so he can sit on the dock and sulk at her, that's just silly.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri clambers back to his feet and paces a step or two back. But I'll get wet, he mock-complains, before lumbering forward and leaping off the end of the dock.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine has just enough time to shut her eyes before he hits the surface, so at least she's braced for the splash - and the resulting wave that rolls over her. Once the water has settled a little, she wipes her face with one hand and opens her eyes. "You were wet to begin with," she points out, swimming a bit closer to him.

[stronglikebear]

He spins on the spot to see how far he went, and is only a little disappointed to find that he barely got any air at all. Dog-paddling further out (and closer to Daine), he asks, Isn't this better than sitting on a dock?

[wildmage_daine]

"I suppose," she replies with an overblown parody of reluctance. True, it would be better if she could shift, but it's not so bad as is. It's being out of the water that won't be pleasant, and she lifts an arm up so she can sigh at her poor, sodden shirt sleeve. She doesn't suppose she'll be lucky enough to find a towel anywhere.

[stronglikebear]

The damage is done, Yuri points out, having the decency to feel a little bad about it. Maybe he'll actually apologize when it comes time to deal with her not having any dry clothes.

[wildmage_daine]

"Well," Daine says, swimming over to him until she can lean against his shoulders, "I think this means you owe me a ride around the pond."

[stronglikebear]

He treads water, trying to be careful to keep his paws away from her. Turning his head to look at Daine causes him to paddle slowly in a circle. I'm not a horse, he points out.