dreams...in...SPAAAAAACE!

[applesaucemod]

It's Wednesday night, and the rift has once again pushed and pulled the dreamers of Manhattan and beyond, gathering them together for its own mysterious purposes.

Why, for instance, have the dreamers been placed in an office building? And why, for that matter, is everyone weightless? Everything is weightless, for that matter, which might make maneuvering a little difficult with all those floating tables, chairs, and office supplies floating about. There's nothing stopping anyone from leaving the building and exploring the parking lot and green spaces nearby, but is a wide open space really where one wants to be right now?

[Mod note: Usual dream party rules apply. All players and characters are welcome, current members or no. Characters will remember or forget all dream events at players' discretion.]

Comments

[bluesuit_handy]

"I'm in Manhattan," he replies. He has to relent, though; if he's cryptic and enigmatic she'll likely lose patience and stop helping -- or stop pretending to help and letting him ask questions, more like. "It's a dream," he clarifies. "A shared one, happens fairly regularly next to the rift."

[heysoulsister]

She frowns at his explanation - because shared dreams, seriously? She's spent most of her life exploring just what she and Aiden can do, and dream invasion isn't on the list.

Before she can say anything though, there's a thrum of surprise from Aiden, and she turns her head sharply. He's actually found someone. A tiny someone. In a wall safe.

"Seriously?" she says aloud, kicking herself off the wall and into a large office that would probably look impressive if the gravity was still on. As it is, it's a mess, and she has to push herself through an asteroid belt of leather-bound books to get to the large painting hanging in front of the safe. It still has a tenuous grip on the nail it's resting on, but it's easy for Jodie to lift it off the wall and sending it floating across the office. With one hand, she clings to the safe's handle to steady herself; with the other, she cautiously raps on the thick metal door.

"Can you hear me?" she asks, shutting her eyes. Now, she can see what Aiden sees: a very tiny Andrew sitting on a small, cloth sack.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Seriously --" starts Andrew, thinking she's questioning his explanation. He knows it'll sound barmy to anyone who hasn't had dealings with the rift -- might, indeed, doubt the existence of the rift. Before he can go on pontificating about how ordinary an occurrence it is compared to being sucked in from another universe, though, she's off like a bloodhound on the scent. By the time he maneuvers his way into the office, she's taking a picture off the wall and -- is that a safe?

"What?" he asks, hanging in the doorway and looking confused.

The little Andrew, for his part, hears a muffled sound and looks up. He can't make out what it was, and turning his head does him no good in the pitch black of the box in which he found himself. Where has the Master put him, he wonders -- and how's he going to get out before he goes mad?

[heysoulsister]

"We found him," Jodie says, too surprised by the tiny Andrew's existence to watch her pronouns. "He's in here."

She studies the safe for a moment, considering how best to go about things. Despite the fancy wall mounting, the style isn't very modern, just a standard rotary combination lock. If it was just her, she'd probably try and work out the combination, but considering the anti-grav and the circumstances...

"Stay in the doorway," she says to the larger Andrew as she pushes herself over to the window and braces herself by pressing her palms against the frame on each side. It's better if they're both well out of the way before Aiden gets going.

[bluesuit_handy]

"In the safe? What's he doing in there?" asks Andrew, missing it for the moment. She might be including Andrew in that 'we,' though some part of his brain files it away as an awkward way for her to phrase it when he has no part in the discovery.

He frowns, but doesn't come in. "I can get it open --" he starts to say, not understanding why she's leaving the safe and doesn't want him in there. He moves like he's thinking of pushing himself inside the room, though he looks at her with a puzzled look on his face and hesitates.

[heysoulsister]

"Just stay out of the way," she says. She can't hold out a hand without losing her place in the window; all she can do is hope he listens to her. To Aiden, she adds, Okay, get him out of there.

The first loud thunk doesn't produce any visible results; Aiden struck the safe from below, loosening the pin. The second blow comes from within, and the door flies off its hinges and rockets across the room in a straight line, scattering books and winging a potted plant. Jodie's eyes widen as it hits the far wall and comes flying back, and she hurriedly pushes herself away from the wall so she can intercept it before it can collide with the rest of the safe - or its contents. She grabs hold of the door and is sent spinning towards the wall at a good clip - but before she can strike it, the air around her ripples and distorts. When she does hit the wall beside the safe, it's with a surprisingly gentle bounce. The distortion vanishes, and Jodie floats slowly back toward the middle of the office, still clutching the safe's door.

"… I think my way was quicker," she offers, looking a bit sheepish.

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew's way would have been safer -- which is a bit mind-boggling, really. He shoves his way into the room when he sees the door go flying, seeing what it's going to do even before it bounces and not wanting to see the little Andrew smashed even in a dream. He doesn't know what kind of effect that would have in a shared rift dream, and he doesn't want to find out. He goes careening into the room, and is lucky that he gets his trajectory wrong and it's Jodie who reaches it instead. Andrew stares in amazement, and bonks against the far wall because he's not paying attention.

The other Andrew stares as well, floating slowly out of the safe after the commotion knocked him out of place. "What?!" he asks.

[heysoulsister]

Jodie turns her focus to the little Andrew as she slowly bumps her way through a cluster of books. She's still reflexively clutching the door, and now she's having a difficult time not giggling. He's so tiny.

She coughs, sobers, and says, "I'm Jodie. You okay?" She's confident that Aiden didn't hurt him, but… he's just so small, even a light jostle might be rough on him.

[bluesuit_handy]

"But -- but how? Where?" The little Andrew is having a hard time taking in the change of location. The Master locked him in a box...but that's not the Master. Not unless he's regenerated, and --

"Andrew!" The bigger Andrew recovers from his shock enough to call out, a swell of emotion making his eyes damp. He's not dead -- where the little Andrew really is he doesn't know, but he's not dead! Andrew flails in midair, reaching for any handhold he can to try to claw his way over to the other.

[heysoulsister]

Oh, good. Better for them to focus on each other instead of what Aiden just did.

It occurs to her that now would be an excellent time to make a break for it, but she's having a difficult time tearing her eyes away from the bizarre reunion happening before her. Aiden, however, is less enthralled, and she feels a brief chill as her trajectory changes. She's still floating slowly, but now she's backing toward the door.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Andrew!" the titchy one shouts back. Aiden's -- or as the Andrew who saw it assumes, Jodie's -- display of power is forgotten in the moment as the human-sized man finally makes his way over and scoops up his tiny doppelganger. "Where have you been?" he demands.

"How did you get in the Master's TARDIS?" asks the other in return. They've apparently forgotten they have an audience, departing or no.

[heysoulsister]

When she hits the doorway, Jodie impulsively reaches out to grab the frame and stop herself floating out into the hall. There's a disapproving grumble from Aiden, but both Andrews are so thoroughly ignoring her that she's having a hard time seeing them as a threat. She slowly pushes the safe door to one side and then releases it, leaving it to float more or less in one place, and continues to quietly observe the two Andrews' interaction.

[bluesuit_handy]

"What." The bigger Andrew stares at his little counterpart, voice dropping an octave with the question.

The little one squirms uncomfortably. "What?" he echoes. "Listen, we won't have much time -- he can't have gone far, he never goes far --"

"We're not there," says the bigger one, cutting him off abruptly. "This is a dream, Andrew, and you need to tell me where he's got you and you need to do it before either of us wakes up."

"You -- but -- oh!" That finally seems to get across to the little guy as he looks around the room, comprehension dawning. Not a trap of the Master's, then. Not a malfunction of his TARDIS. A dream, exactly like he's been trying to break into to tell someone where he is, exactly like he managed weeks ago only to relay the information to a Doctor in another universe rather than anyone who could actually help him. "He caught me in the Ramble," he explains. "When he carried me to his TARDIS, it was in th--"

A look of surprise and confusion crosses the tiny Andrew's face, and then, quite suddenly, the bigger Andrew's hands close on thin air as the tiny figure vanishes. "Andrew?!" yelps the bigger Andrew, opening his hands to find nothing there. "Andrew!"

[heysoulsister]

"Shit," Jodie breathes as the smaller one abruptly blinks out of existence. That's the sort of behavior she associates with entities, but the little Andrew hadn't looked like one from Aiden's perspective. He'd just looked like a normal person, but scaled down.

Where is he? she thinks, and Aiden drops his disapproving act for long enough to search the immediate area - the offices to each side, and the ones above and below. No tiny Andrew. What in the hell?

"He's gone," she says aloud, staring at the larger one. "He's just… gone."

[bluesuit_handy]

The remaining Andrew draws in a ragged breath, then lets it out in a sigh as he runs his fingers through his hair. "Woken up," he explains. "Or pulled out of this dream, at any rate -- I don't think the Master can do that, but staying here might not be the best idea. At least I know he's alive, and at least he told me where he was. Sort of."