A Day Late and a Dollar Short

[applesaucemod]

As far as dreams go, this seems surprisingly...normal. True, the dreamers of Manhattan and beyond will find themselves stranded in the middle of the ocean on a fairly deserted rocky island, but it's nothing so unusual as the labyrinth from last time, and no one appears to have become an animal or reverted to an insane past (or future) version of themself. Besides, well, rocks and grass, there's nothing here but an abandoned lighthouse, the doors and windows broken, and the spare furniture worn by the weather. You can go up the spiral staircase to look at the view, but there's nothing to see but the endless ocean. One might almost think tonight was a night for simple socializing via the telepathic current.

As if anything to do with the rift is ever that simple, you silly bumpkin. How quickly each person realizes what is unusual about tonight's dream will depend in large part on their personality. Some might go the entire night without noticing (except from the distress of others, naturally), but some will find out the instant they open their mouths to converse with another dreamer. You see, each and every dreamer will be completely unable to tell a lie for as long as the dream lasts. The truth might be evaded by omission, but any attempt to say that which is untrue will result in the corresponding truth emerging instead.

Good thing it's just a dream and everyone's going to forget in the morning, right? Right??


[Mod note: As usual, players can choose to have their characters remember or forget anything that happens in the Dreaming. As per usual party rules, both members and non-members are welcome to play any character in this post, regardless of whether that character is currently in the game. Unlike usual, tonight's theme is not optional; all characters will be subject to the enforced truth-telling. Have fun!]

Comments

[erratic_hematic]

"Nah. Unless you're a very strange drug dealer, they wouldn't have all the much effect." He pauses and frowns at himself. That wasn't exactly the kind of information he wanted to reveal. He tries to amend with something like strong constitution, ya know, but instead it comes out as "because I'm a vampire."

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor raises his eyebrows and stares. Well then. If Spike wanted to avoid being judged, this is not the way to go about it.

"You're a vampire?" he repeats. Just, you know, in case he... heard that wrong? Ok, unlikely, but.

[erratic_hematic]

No. "Yes." Okay, now he's seriously frowning. "Cocking hell." He stabilizes his stance as if he's about to fight something rather than just realizing what's happening.

He gives the Doctor a beckoning gesture that might be interpreted as an invitation to fight, but what he says next clarifies what he wants. "Try to lie to me. Anything. What's your favorite colour?"

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor is distracted from the whole vampire(!) thing by Spike's general behavior and sudden question. "What--" But then a little light turns on in his head.

Something that's not his favourite colour. Red. "TARDIS blue."

The Doctor blinks. "Huh." he says after a moment.

[erratic_hematic]

"Yeah, thought so. What's a TARDIS?" Spike is vaguely aware that a program called Doctor Who had existed at some point, but it's really not on his radar enough to know or care what a TARDIS is, so his question is pretty innocent. He's expecting it to be some sort of weird fruit, or an obscure pottery reference or something.

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor opens his mouth but shuts it immediately. He's not entirely sure what would come out. Even if he does tell the truth. Tentatively, he answers "She's a ship." Oh good. Nothing weird got added or anything. Because 'TARDIS blue' was far more specific than it needed to be. He extrapolates that as long as you tell the truth, you go unedited.

[erratic_hematic]

"A ship." Okay. A bit odd, but whatever. "For the record, I don't drink human blood anymore." ...would have really loved to leave off that last word. "If you were worried."

[alwaysalright]

"I was," he admits, not entirely intentionally. Though that's better than nothing, even if he doesn't necessarily know when Spike stopped. He also doesn't know what kind of vampire Spike is.

But hey, maybe he can use the situation. "Do you know of the Time Lords?" he asks. It's highly unlikely Spike's a vampire from his universe if he doesn't.

[erratic_hematic]

"Time Lords?" Spike strikes a thoughtful expression, then shakes his head. "Nah. They a type of demon, then? Like...time manipulating or something?" He's trying to connect the dots here, but he doubt that a time demon would have anything to do with a dream that makes you tell the truth.

Which reminds him. "Knew a bloke that was cursed to tell the truth. Did not like questions." To put it mildly. "I think that's more likely that your...time lords or whatever."

[alwaysalright]

Alright, unlikely to be his kind of vampires, then. Good. He doesn't particularly want deal with any of them again. If Spike really isn't eating people, then the Doctor doesn't need to, well, stop him.

"Never mind," he answers, shaking his head. "They're not exactly demons." He didn't intend to include 'exactly' but, he can't really deny it. "I think it's more likely to just be the rift again. Don't know of anyone who's powerful enough to impose rules like this on an entire dreaming community, who'd actually want to do so."

[erratic_hematic]

"And the rift does want to?" Spike definitely doesn't like the idea of sentient dimensional portals. "Or is this more a random side effect sort of thing?"

[alwaysalright]

"Could be either," the Doctor answers with a shrug. "The rift has shown some.. peculiar tendencies that could be taken for a vindictive sense of humour. Our could be mostly chance. It hasn't talked to me." He was gonna say he hasn't sat down to talk to the rift, but yeah, that is actually untrue. It just didn't answer.