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]

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."

[stronglikebear]

And then you'll be sure I'm a weirdo if this turns out to just be my dream, he says cheerfully.

[wildmage_daine]

"And if it's just mine, you'll have no idea why I'm accusing you of pushing me into a pond," comes the playful reply as she resumes leaning her head against his shoulder.

[stronglikebear]

Oh, I dunno, sounds like something you might just say, chuckles Yuri.

[wildmage_daine]

"Well," she 'explains' with as much gravity as she can muster, "in my realm, we say you've pushed someone into a pond when they slight you by not sending you a text first thing in the morning. But I can see how the Tortallan slang might confuse you." Here, have a pitying pat on the shoulder.

[stronglikebear]

He huffs at her in amusement again. Mom always did say I needed to learn to mind my manners -- you must be awfully frustrated with me if I've been breaching Tortallan etiquette all this time by not checking in every morning.