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]

Daine lets out a quiet snort at the suggestion. Even if the president wanted her help, she can't say she owes much in the way of fealty to someone who approved Romac and their methods.

Looking down at her pants, she sighs and begins half-heartedly trying to squeeze at least a little of the surplus water out of the fabric. It's a lost cause, but at least the subject shift is a welcome distraction.

"They'd like that," Daine says with a nod. Of course, they wouldn't appreciate being tossed back out into the cold if no one adopts them. It won't come to that, she decides. Surely there's work they could do for the rebels, enough to justify their presence. They could help guard the place, or catch rats, or something.

Climbing to her feet, Daine gives each of her feet a little shake. It doesn't do much for her overall dampness, and the light breeze that had been pleasant ten minutes ago is a bit chilling, now. She shivers and heads back up the dock, looking for a sunny spot that's out of the wind.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri can think of more than a few rebels who might object to the base being full of formerly stray dogs, rat catchers or no. Of course, there are plenty others who would welcome the animals -- some might even want to buy/adopt them from Daine. He stays behind on the end of the dock, watching Daine go, and waits until he thinks she's out of range before giving himself a good, full-bodied shake and lumbering to catch up.

Where are you going to keep them? he asks belatedly. I mean, maybe we could get you a second room or something, but there's not a whole lot of free space.

[wildmage_daine]

Wrapping her arms around herself, Daine pokes around behind a shrub that turns out to be too thin to block much of the breeze. "I don't know," she says with a shrug. Her room certainly isn't big enough, especially now that Aly's here. "But there must be someplace they could stay. They wouldn't even need a proper room; an empty corridor would do as well."

[stronglikebear]

If you moved out into an apartment... Yuri trails off, not sure how open she'll be to that idea. It's not so much that he wants her out of the base (okay, he kind of does, but only a little). It wouldn't be huge, but it'd be more than a room.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine flops down behind the inadequate shrubbery with a frustrated huff. She doesn't really want to move out of the base; her friends are there, and getting an apartment feels too much like settling in. If she has no intention of spending any more time here than she must, why get comfortable?

Then again, the practicalities of having a bigger place are getting harder to overlook. She could take in more strays, and Aly would be more comfortable. And if she's not going to be allowed anywhere near Yuri as a bear anymore...

Hugging her knees to her chest, she says, "I suppose I should." But she's not happy or enthusiastic about it.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri's going to be surprised when he learns she's sharing that tiny room with Aly. He thinks he doesn't mind cramped spaces, but even he would think twice about sharing a room in the base with another person.

Plopping down beside her (not in a position to block the breeze -- if he realized why she picked this spot, he might arrange himself differently), he gives a little shrug. You don't have to. But if she did, she would be far away enough she couldn't hear him, right?

[wildmage_daine]

It hasn't been too bad, though it also hasn't been too long. They're both out and about for much of the day, so it's only during the night that they really have to share that little space. Aly had insisted she didn't mind the close quarters, and Daine likes having her niece close by. The disappointment of waking up in her room at the base is eased a little by the comfort of having someone from home there with her.

It's a selfish arrangement that won't work in the long run. Daine knows that much. It's just that she doesn't like to admit, even to herself, that it might be prudent to start thinking with the long run in mind - especially now that Aly's here. It'd be a fine thing for her to insist that they'll be home soon for Aly's benefit and then turn around and get an apartment.

Nor would moving out of the base do much good during the full moon. It's not as if being out of earshot would change what Yuri was going through or enable her to just forget about him.

Not knowing what to say, Daine just shrugs moodily and hugs her knees a bit tighter. She's going to start shivering in earnest in a minute, but unless a change of clothing falls out of the sky, there's not much she can do about it except wait it out.

[stronglikebear]

But surely she could just pretend nothing was happening if she was out of earshot. People do it back home every month!

Yuri sinks into silence as well, not sure how to read her reticence. He doesn't want to push her too hard when they're more or less getting along (there haven't been any major outbursts on either side, at least). He's not so obtuse, though, that he doesn't eventually notice her shivering.

Are you cold?

[wildmage_daine]

"A bit," she admits with a shrug. And it's his fault, but not so entirely that she feels like rubbing it in. The environment is as much to blame; it could be warmer, or less windy. "I don't think this place was designed with two-legger comfort in mind, elsewise there'd be towels or something." She supposes there are animals that might like playing with (or under) blankets, but she hasn't seen any around.

[stronglikebear]

I'm sorry. I didn't really think about it. Even though it was pretty obvious Daine preferred to stay dry. He slouches down to lay beside her, letting out a big sigh. You could -- I mean, if you're really cold, I'm pretty warm, so you could, I dunno. Lean against me.

[wildmage_daine]

She's chilly enough by this point that she doesn't need much convincing. "It's all right," she says as she uncurls herself and moves to the leeward side of bear mountain. "I mean, it's not as if you designed this place - or stuck me in my human shape." And she's far more bitter about that than she is about the wet, honestly.

Sitting down behind his shoulder takes care of the breeze, at least, and while his fur is still a bit damp, it's warmer than her clothes. "Thanks," she says, leaning back against his side with a sigh of relief.

[stronglikebear]

Least I could do, he replies humbly, resting his head on the ground and turning big brown eyes up at her. At least he can be of some use, maybe make up for getting her wet in the first place. He wishes they could just hang out like this (or okay, maybe not exactly like this) without all the were-stuff getting in the way.

What do you think this place is, anyway? he asks. It's not Manhattan.

[wildmage_daine]

It's probably just as well that Daine's used to Yuri's bear shape, otherwise she'd have a harder time resisting the urge to reach over and scritch behind his ears. "It's not Tortall," she says with certainty, tucking her hands beneath her arms to help warm them faster (and to keep them from doling out any ear-scritches of their own accord; she's not used to being this close to his bear shape, after all, and old habits, etc.). "Beyond that, though..." she trails off with a shrug. She's no expert in other realms. "Could we be somewhere else in New York?" Seems doubtful, but she's never left the island.

[stronglikebear]

Not in the city. You've seen Central Park, that's the closest thing the city has to something like this. I guess we could be upstate or something, but it seems kind of weird for the rift to do that.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine frowns thoughtfully. The rift isn't exactly in the habit of making sense, but this does seem a good deal stranger than the usual. Why would it muck about with wild magic and transport everyone off the island? It ought to be one or the other, not both.

Vague memories of other large rifty gatherings begin to resurface. "Dream?" she guesses.

[stronglikebear]

Yuri furrows his brow at her, surprised at the suggestion...and surprised he didn't think of it sooner. Yeah, he says after a moment. Yeah, it could be, couldn't it?

[wildmage_daine]

"Makes more sense than this being real," Daine says. "I suppose the rift could do this sort of thing in reality, but it'd be simpler to make it a dream than to actually turn a bunch of folk into animals and move us all to..." she gestures vaguely at their surroundings, "wherever this is meant to be."

[stronglikebear]

Paradise? he suggests, batting his eyelashes at her. That would probably work better if he were human. Also, possibly if he were a woman. I don't share my dreams much, he admits. I know some other people get sucked into that stuff more often.

[wildmage_daine]

That startles a laugh out of her - both because of the silliness of the suggestion and the bizarre sight of a bear batting his eyelashes at her. "Oh, that must be it," she agrees once she's managed to stop giggling. "We should've figured that much as soon as we saw the ball pit."

Of course, given that she has no control over her wild magic in this particular dream, it doesn't occur to her that she could do anything about the state of her clothes, either. Wriggling into a more comfortable position against his side, she adds, "I've done it a fair few times, I s'pose - that's if all the dreams I've had with other rifties in them were really shared and not just normal dreams, though." Because surely it must still be possible to dream about folk without them actually showing up in your head, right?

[stronglikebear]

Score! Yuri huffs happily back at her, more or less approximating a laugh.

Makes it kind of hard when you're not sure if someone in your dream is real or not, he comments. He's had a couple dreams involving Daine, actually...and he's not going to share that information for fear she really was in his head. He doesn't think she was, but it's easier to live with the assumption that she wasn't.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine hums in agreement, her smile fading as she leans her head back against his shoulder. "They can't all be shared," she says, though she doesn't sound entirely certain of herself. She's had dreams involving Yuri, too, but it's normal to dream about the people you know without... what, summoning them into your head?

Her heart gives one near-painful thump as it occurs to her that this one might not be shared, either. After all, isn't this the sort of thing she might dream up, with the two-leggers she knows turned into animals? And Yuri being sensible and in control of himself while in bear shape - Mithros knows she's had that one before. It hadn't occurred to her that Yuri might have been experiencing the same dream last time, but now that it has... she wants him to really be here, wherever 'here' is, if it means he'll get to feel what it's like to be in bear shape and still be himself.

"What about this one?" she asks, frowning and lifting her head. "Is this real?"

[stronglikebear]

Oh God, don't ask me that. This is looking like it's going to turn into a really bad philosophical discussion. I'm here. At least, I'm pretty sure I'm here. But now that you brought it up, how am I supposed to know you're really here?

This is why we don't ask these questions, Daine.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine opens her mouth to say that of course she's here - why would anyone else dream about everyone turning into animals? - but then again, dreams are strange enough that it might not be as convincing an argument as she thinks it is. "I'm sure I'm here," she says instead. "But I s'pose we can only take each other's word for it that we're both here, at least for now." Because she can't think of any way to prove it that wouldn't involve some way of confirming things after they're both awake, presuming they both remember this in the morning.

[stronglikebear]

And to be fair, Daine's the only person Yuri's actually encountered in this dream so far. For all he knows, there aren't really other people in animal form at all. If they're supposing that this is a shared dream, though, it follows that she's right and there are others here.

I'll text you when I wake up, he offers.

[wildmage_daine]

"All right," she says, cheered by the prospect of having proof in the morning. "And I'll text you, if I wake up, first."