The Tropical Vacation of Your Dreams

[applesaucemod]

The communal dreams of Manhattan have been downright pleasant lately, haven't they? Here's another sunny day for dreamers to enjoy in their sleep, though of course the tropical climate may prove just a little uncomfortable for northerners. The verdant jungle has its own sort of charm, though, teeming as it is with all sorts of exotic animals.

Make that very exotic animals.

Those who arrive close by any of the old buildings or fences will see that it's been a long time since the humans that made them disappeared. Everything here was once sleek, shiny, and state of the art. Now formerly electric fences stand bent and torn, automated SUVs sit rusting on their tracks or lie smashed to pieces where they were thrown by some enormous creature, and the jungle slowly works to reclaim a mildewy hotel and visitors' center.

Whether one finds oneself in the formless jungle that was once paddocks, in the aviary that would have housed a luxury resort, or even in the halls of what should by all rights be the most heavily fortified hotel in the world, one is always in danger here. The barriers that once separated human from dinosaur have long since fallen. Here dinosaurs have eked out a new ecosystem, the carnivores not particularly bothered about eating herbivores from entirely different epochs…or, for that matter, the funny little hairless apes that have appeared here on occasion. Here one is always in danger of running afoul of hungry tyrannosaurs, stampeding triceratops, or cunning deinonychus velociraptors (they're totally velociraptors, yup). Enjoy the eye-searing venom of that strangely undersized dilophosaurus, by the way, as well as the toxic bite of the swarms of compsognathus. Or maybe the dreamers will luck out, and the worst they'll encounter is an indifferent, bumbling brachiosaurus or an unassuming microceratops. Who here is ever that lucky, though?

Welcome to Jurassic Park.



[Mod note: Same drill as always. All players and characters are welcome, current members or no. Characters will remember or forget any and all dream events at players' discretion. Death in the dream does not result in real death.]

Comments

[insatiamy]

"Nooo," she answers slowly, confused by this conversation. She's also confused whether he means 'you don't know where we are?' or 'you don't know where Charley is?' She adds, "But that doesn't really answer my question."

[frank_doyle]

"Why, you SCOUNDREL!" Frank takes a swing at the ghost, which is perhaps a bit silly, as his fist passes directly through and the force of his momentum sends him careening to the grassy floor. Already he can see the ghost whisping toward Sadie. "You stay away from my wife and our booze!!" he says with a shaking fist. "I'll have you exorcised directly for your impudence!" He gets to his feet and staggers toward Jodie.

---

"Aiden..." says Johnny warningly. "Aiden maybe... don't..." He's not keen to piss off the people with the guns and the pet dinosaur... especially since they've pretty much proven themselves to be complete idiots.

"Jodie he's not listening to me," he says tersely, as well as irritably, but it doesn't matter because the male drunk idiot is on his feet and moving. "Hey! Hey! Sit down!"

Johnny is not good at crowd control.

[heysoulsister]

Sadie lets out a gasp of indignation as the spectre begins to tug insistently at her bag of liquor. "Exorcise him quickly, Frank! He's going for the gin!" She digs in her impractically high heels, refusing to give up the bag. "My sincerest apologies, shoes, but sacrifices must - be - made!" she cries as her heels sink into the turf.

Despite her determination to hold out until her husband dispatches the ghost once and for all, she only has to maintain her vice-like grip on the canvas handles for a moment before the spirit releases the bag and rushes back over to the ornery young woman to whom he's so literally and metaphorically attached. Sadie almost overbalances, but is saved from a tumble by the considerate efforts of their cabby, who gently nudges her upright until she can tug her shoes loose. "Thank you, kind cabby," she says to the triceratops before shouting, "Frank, it's coming your way!"

---

Jodie hands her drink back over to Johnny. "For fuck's sakes!" she shouts to the group at large. As dreams go, this isn't just stupid, it's embarrassing. She steps back as Frank approaches, not really wanting to tangle with him - more because she'd rather not be forced to knock over a plastered socialite than because she's worried he'll actually be able to do anything to her bond with Aiden. Aiden, however, seems to view the man as an actual threat - enough of one that he abandons the booze bag and curls back around her like a shield before Frank can even get within arm's length.

"Can we all just stop?" Jodie calls from within the shimmery bubble, her voice slightly muffled but no less exasperated for that.

[watchesthebeans]

Blink blink. "No? I'm a Borrower. I was always this size -- except I guess I was smaller when I was a baby." And just think how tiny Borrower babies must be. Just think of it, Croach. "Do you know where we are?"

[fucking_ebay]

"Fuck," says Peter again, letting out the tiniest of sighs. He shouldn't be upset, he tells himself. It's good she hasn't been pulled through -- unless she has and just hasn't woken up yet. He wouldn't know where to look for her if that happened, though.

No, it's good she's still back home with her dweeb boyfriend. He shouldn't wish that a high schooler would be subjected to the things he's been subjected to. "It answers mine. You're dreaming, Amy. This is a dream."

[stronglikebear]

Hearing his name, Yuri stops and squints upward. It doesn't take him long to spot Aly among the foliage -- she's not exactly making an effort to stay out of (his) sight -- and he waves back up at her. "Thank god," he says. "Do you know where we are?"

[johnny_truant]

Frank ducks, but Aiden swoops right over him to curl protectively around Jodie. Frank straightens back up, studying the field thoughtfully.

"Is the booze all right, darling?" he calls over his shoulder. "Hmm." He taps his finger experimentally against the shimmering wall, and chuckles as it ripples pleasantly. "I say, Sadie, darling, I think we've got it all wrong! It looks to me like this ghost is trying to protect its lady companion! From the likes of us! Hah!" He turns to Johnny, shaking his head. "We must have given you a right scare!"

---

"Jesus. Okay, shut up for a second." Johnny rubs his hand across his face. "It's not a ghost. It's... we don't know what it is. That's not important. His name is Aiden and yes, he is protecting us. Well, Jodie. That's Jodie. I'm Johnny." He's not inclined to offer his hand for a shake, though at least he seems to have the socialites' full attention now.

"Aiden was in the t-rex when you shot it. Which..." Actually, he can't say he's sorry to have the t-rex gone, now that he stops to think about it. "Uh, yeah, good... good job on that one. Except for the... shooting it with Aiden inside... thing."

He shoots a look at Jodie, as if to say anything else to add? Although Aiden is still covering her with his bubble, he seems to be shaking his head nonetheless.

Whatever, Aiden. Johnny makes a mental note to tell Jodie that it's fuck's sake, not multiple sakes. Right? That seems to make a lot more sense. But this is not that moment.

[bluesuit_handy]

By the time Edgar joins him, Andrew has successfully sundered another small branch from the unfortunate tree. He holds out one hand to steady the boy, and offers the branch with the other. "Don't worry, he's friendly -- but let go if he pulls, yeah? Try it!"

[edgar_sawtelle]

Still a little in awe of the fact that he's about to feed a dinosaur, Edgar takes the proffered branch and holds it out. The brachiosaurus takes the branch from him with a gentleness surprising for something so large, and Edgar lets go as told when he feels a tug.

This is amazing.

[insatiamy]

"Is this going to be some weird 'in your dreams' joke?" she asks, giving him a skeptical look. She's a bit lost now, to be honest. His line of conversation doesn't seem to make much sense, and she has no idea what he's upset about.

[fucking_ebay]

Alright, for just a second Peter can't help it -- he lets out a short, soft laugh. "You said it, not me. So -- what? You just fell asleep in Vegas and woke up here, presumably -- probably the least consequence anyone's ever seen for doing that -- and I'm still there? You didn't notice me duck out into another dimension?"

[insatiamy]

"Alright, seriously. What's with the 'other dimension' crap? We just saw you a couple days ago. Remember?" she asks, getting annoyed and impatient at not understanding what's going on. "Charley's birthday? You threw a big party? Ring any bells?"

[fucking_ebay]

"No," says Peter, taken aback. "I don't."

And that kind of freaks him out. He was expecting her to name some event that happened before he was lifted from his nice penthouse and deposited in Manhattan, but he doesn't remember ever throwing Charley a birthday party. Unless.... "How drunk was I, scale of one to ten?"

[insatiamy]

She frowns. "Five, six?" she answers with a shrug. "Not drunk enough to forget the entire night," she adds, figuring that's what he was getting at. "...You really don't remember?"

[fucking_ebay]

While they didn't establish what a one would be, five or six sounds pretty well within the normal. Peter gives her a troubled frown. "No. I really don't. I haven't been there in half a bloody year, and I don't remember throwing a party for Charley."

[insatiamy]

For Amy, one is sober. Or only very mildly drunk, as Peter is extremely rarely completely sober.

"Wait, so... I've somehow ended up god knows where, you're talking crazytalk at me, so obviously you're right in that this must be a dream," she says, walking past him to go out the door and get a better look of the place. "So I don't really feel all that inclined to figure out what the hell you're talking about."

[fucking_ebay]

Getting sober would involve having a hangover. Fuck that.

"It's a shared dream," he points out impatiently. "It happens all the time here." But no, he wouldn't believe it either if their positions were reversed. Fat lot of good it's done him figuring out it's a dream this time.

Outside, some large creature in the distance lets out a resounding bellow.

[insatiamy]

"Uh-huh," she answers, totally and utterly convinced, obviously. Perhaps if she had actually also had the experience of falling through a rift in space and time, she'd be more easily convinced, but not right now.

She jumps a little at the sound, turning towards the direction it came from. "The hell is that?"

[fucking_ebay]

Peter rubs a hand over his face in frustration, knowing exactly how it sounds. Hell, for all he knows this isn't a shared dream and he's just imagining she's here. He looks up sharply at the sound, though, and takes a little step to peer out through the open door.

"I don't know," he says slowly. "But I don't think I want to meet it."

[insatiamy]

Amy is tempted to agree, but she's also curious. And if it's a dream, it's not like it's dangerous. Of course, it could still hurt, but...

"So... My where are we question seems kind of important now," she points out, stepping forward towards the sound rather than backwards.

[fucking_ebay]

"In a godforsaken jungle, obviously," replies Peter, despairing as he realizes she's going to investigate. He winces, looking behind him and deeper into the building, where he presumes safety lies, but there's nothing for it. He mutters something under his breath -- he'll deny it's a prayer if she asks -- and follows her out the door.

Whatever made the noise doesn't do it again immediately. There's another sound, though, closer by, as a pair of creatures emerge from the foliage perhaps fifty meters away. They're not coming toward Amy and Peter, and don't even seem to notice they're there as the dinosaurs amble along.

"...Fuck," says Peter in surprise.

[sadie_doyle]

There had been a few clinks of the alarming variety when the ghost released the bag, but a careful check of its contents reassures Sadie that everything is as it should be: intact and ready for consumption. "Yes, darling!" she calls back. "Everything's fine!" Enormously relieved, she wanders over to join her husband in observing the barrier, though she refrains from poking it. No sense in goading the apparition into attacking their liquor supply once again.

"Ooh," Sadie coos in response to Frank's observations. "A ghost who hangs around to guard the living? I would watch that TV show!" She almost feels a sort of kinship with Aiden; heaven knows she'd do anything to protect her darling Frank from harm. "You've nothing to fear from us; we're here to help. And drink." She's already produced two more glasses from her bag of miracles, and she passes one to Frank.

---

Jodie's not sure how helpful they've been (even shooting the T-rex has robbed them of a bodyguard who isn't three sheets to the wind), but this isn't the time for an argument. Now that the Doyles are no longer on the offensive, Aiden's willing to begrudgingly take down the barrier at Jodie's silent prompting.

"It's okay," she insists, to all parties but particularly to Aiden. "He's an entity - that's what we call him - and he's always been with me. It's…" she lets out a humorless huff of air at the term she's about to use, "… normal. He's just trying to protect me, like Johnny said." After a beat, she adds, "But it hurts like hell when a body that he's possessing gets shot. It hurts both of us. That's why he was… testy."

[bluesuit_handy]

Remembering how this works, Andrew hangs on to Edgar in order to talk to him as much as to make sure he doesn't fall. "Isn't it?" To the dinosar he adds, "Yes, who's a good boy? You'se a good boy! Or girl, maybe, are you a girl? You like those noms, don't you?"

The dinosaur does not seem particularly impressed nor offended by this.

[aly_brighteyes]

"Dreaming or going mad, I suspect," Aly says blithely, playing silly at the question.

"Why else would there be giant lizards chasing after us?"

[edgar_sawtelle]

Grinning widely, Edgar cuts Andrew a look from the corner of his eye. He can't fault him for his enthusiasm, though. After all, they're hand-feeding a dinosaur from a tree unlike any he's ever seen before on -- there's a thought.

Do you know where we are?