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

[i_jones]

Ianto is wandering down the beach - and wandering, and wandering, because it seems to be quite a long beach, and he was hoping to find maybe a dock or something, a place to sit. Some sign of humanity. No luck, until he ducks through a small path between a tall rock and the cliff face and espies Cecil, looking perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the ocean. Ianto trudges closer with minor difficulty through the sand.

"Hard to say where the sky ends and the sea begins," he comments, nodding out to the fog that obscures the distant horizon.

[ceciiil]

Oh, hello Ianto. "I know! I'm used to that problem, with the void and the sky, but the ocean, that's new." Things sure are different here. For instance, there hadn't even been a notification in his breadbox about an upcoming shared dreaming. Maybe it had gotten lost on the way? "How often are these shared dreams scheduled for, anyway?"

[i_jones]

"Too often," Ianto answers vaguely, because he can't very well say he doesn't know - not that there's anything to know, he just doesn't like admitting there's something he doesn't know. Though now that Cecil's mentioned it, he wonders if there is actually a schedule. Some way to predict it with rift monitoring equipment, maybe. He'll keep an eye on that.

"Is this... a thing you have? In Night Vale? Shared dreaming, I mean. Not." He gives the sand a little kick with his shoe.

[ceciiil]

Oh Ianto, so hilarious, of course you didn't mean sand or the ocean. Cecil doesn't take offense at the question--he'd said it was a small, out-of-the-way town, Ianto probably doesn't mean to make his home sound so provincial. "Usually just the standard once a year, except by special dispensation or court order. You know how it is. Always the night before something important, so you spend the day tired, getting repeatedly lost in your thoughts or the thoughts of others. I'd almost rather have jury duty." But only almost. Only if his seat is out of the splatter radius. "I'm not so sure about this enforced honesty thing though, I have to say." It just seems a little less than prudent, for a shared dream.

[i_jones]

Well most little desert towns in America - assuming Cecil is from America - aren't surrounded by an ocean, but Ianto's learning to maybe keep an open mind when it comes to Night Vale and Cecil. Or just tune him out completely and nod. He hasn't settled on an approach. So he's kind of a bit not really listening after 'standard' and only catches 'enforced honesty' a few seconds after Cecil has finished.

"Enforced honesty," he repeats slowly, voice rising slightly at the end, because he's not actually sure if he wants Cecil to clarify or not.

[ceciiil]

Ianto seems a bit distracted, but maybe that's normal for his dreaming style? It's hard to know these things. What's even the point of saying someone said something 'as if in a dream' when they're actually in a dream?

"Oh, yeah. This dream has some kind of honesty geis on it," Cecil offers helpfully. It's not the easiest thing in the world to spot, especially in a dreamscape you're not used to? But he's had a lot of experience with this kind of thing. "Hmmmm, or is it a geis? I guess there'd have to be some kind of punitive measure in place for attempted dishonesty, for it to be." Cecil looks disappointed, and also like he's having some difficulty remembering the specifics of geis operation. It's a feeling not entirely unlike 'frustrated origami novice' only purely organic.

[i_jones]

Pardon his blank staring, but Ianto just... where to start? How does Cecil - that's not even a - why in God's name would a dream have that?

"Er, I don't," he begins, and then hesitates. He doesn't really feel compelled to spill his deepest darkest secrets to Cecil. Not to doubt his expert opinion or anything. "How do you," no, he doesn't want to know. Ianto takes a deep, centering breath, feeling the illusory salt in the air coat his lungs. "Cecil," he tries again gently, "in my experience, these are just dreams. Unnecessarily public and frequently disturbing, but just... dreams."

[ceciiil]

Cecil frowns, greatly perturbed, and checks again, squinting a bit either with the effort of checking vague metaphysical truth mandates or due to the wind off the sea. Nope, still unnaturally truthy, for reasons he can't ascertain and isn't inclined to really question. But clearly Ianto hadn't intended to mislead him...because obviously, he couldn't even if he wanted to. "Well, maybe it's not an all-the-time thing. But it's definitely a right-now thing. Maybe the ocean's doing it." He gives the ocean a distrustful look.