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

[watchesthebeans]

Once again, the world has confirmed that Borrowers are 100% right to be afraid of everything. Aglet huddles behind the nightstand in a dingy hotel room, trembling as he calls on all his skill at silencing his breathing and pretending he's not there. It seems like hours before he hears the sounds of the monster he'd seen on the other side of the room moving away. He's pretty sure it didn't see him, since it didn't try to move the nightstand, but he waits a long time before he carefully and quietly shuffles over to where he can peek out.

[bagropa]

From his vantage point just behind the nightstand, Aglet may or may not hear a brief but loud clatter from the hallway outside the room, followed by the quiet twang of a quantum bow after the monster picks its way out of the room to hunt the noise, which is closely accompanied by what could perhaps be described as the whoomph and squeal of a velociraptor whose chest has been imploded by a techno arrow.

Croach steps over the tail of the creature to enter the room, another arrow nocked, but he senses no additional immediate danger. He can, however, sense pheromones indicative of fear, although their intensity (or lack thereof) makes it difficult to assess if the being excreting them has already left or was already found. Still, he knows that Sparks Nevada would not leave any being without aid.

"You are safe presently," he announces to the room, voice rising at the end. Then, "Please note that the pitch of my speech does not indicate uncertainty regarding your current safety, but rather of your presence."

[watchesthebeans]

Footsteps send Aglet scuttling back into hiding, though they don't sound the same as before. And what was that noise that came through the door? It almost sounded like a fight, but he can't imagine any encounter with a monster like that would be so brief and involve only the one scream. He holds still again, listening as something -- something else? -- enters the room. When it speaks and turns out to be a person, he lets out a tiny sigh of relief. Even if it is a Bean, anything is better than something with all those teeth and claws.

He can stay here, he thinks, and probably hide, but this place doesn't have any hidden passages he knows about and there could be more of whatever that thing was. Cautiously, Aglet creeps to the end of the nightstand again and pokes his head out to look around. What he sees makes him take his first audible (if still mousey) gasp. It's blue! The Bean is blue!

[bagropa]

Croach drops to one knee to look under the Earthen bed, attempting to ascertain the source of the inhalation. There is nothing beneath - nothing living, anyway. Is there a hidden youngling, perhaps? He remains crouched, returning his bow and arrow to their holster. "I am here to assist you," he assures the room, adopting a tone which he intends to give comfort. "Are you unharmed?"

[watchesthebeans]

Aglet takes a deep breath, thinking of the monster and of how it might return if he hides until this blue Bean is gone. He's afraid of strangers -- at least, giant strangers -- but he's more afraid of growling things with pointed teeth and wicked claws. Choosing the lesser of two terrors, he finally takes a tentative step out from behind the nightstand and gives a little cough. "I'm here," he says, watching to see how the Bean reacts before he decides whether to bolt for his hidey hole again.

[bagropa]

"Bagropa!" Croach's brow rises considerably, antennae perking up from their previously lowered position. The last issue he anticipated encountering in this place was a rogue science device. Which this being has clearly been shrunk by. Was the creature he killed also changed in size? Perhaps from an approximate height of one and a half Earth feet?

Croach lowers himself to sit in the style of the denizens of G'loot Praktaw, so as to appear less intimidatingly tall to the small being. "I am Croach the Tracker, of G'loot Praktaw." Croach reduces the volume of his speech in deference to the size of the being (and, y'know, on account of maybe dinosaurs being nearby). "I detected your presence with five of my twenty-eight senses, which allowed me to track you where the creature could not. I am..." He considers for a moment. "Relieved, that you are sound."

[watchesthebeans]

With the reactions he's gotten every time he's met a Bean, one would almost think maybe Aunt Euphony taught him wrong about them being paranoid, Borrower-stomping behemoths. Almost. Not really, though.

"I'm Aglet Bottlerack," he introduces himself in turn, not recognizing a single word of what the Bean said about himself. "What was that thing? And what do you mean, twenty eight?"

[bagropa]

Croach nods gravely. "I did not recognize the creature, but by its teeth and claws I judged it to be what you humans call a 'carnivore'. Had it discovered you, it would have shredded your flesh and devoured you. Or... simply eaten you whole."

He tilts his head, antennae twitching with curiosity and something approaching pleasure. Of the numerous comments to make regarding Croach's presence, few humans find his senses the most noteworthy of mention. The small human may be in shock, however. "... I also possess twenty-eight distinct senses, significantly more the mere five found in humans."

[watchesthebeans]

Aglet lets out a sound that might be described as a soft meep, having imagined the latter scenario himself. Thinking about the creature deliberately tearing him apart first is worse only because the mental image has more blood in it. "Oh," he says quietly, feeling suddenly inadequate. Or maybe not so suddenly. "I'm -- I'm not a human? But I guess I only have five anyway."

[bagropa]

"It is an... adequate amount for any being to possess," Croach reassures Aglet, though he's more concerned with the claim that Aglet is not human. Will every being he encounters be something other than human? Are there no humans left on Earth? "Are you not a human who, though normally of average human size, has been reduced in mass and volume by a science device?"

[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?"