applesaucedream | The Tropical Vacation of Your Dreams

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The Tropical Vacation of Your Dreams

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.]

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Jodie blinks. "Shit. Seriously?" That's… weird. Reassuring, because it's more believable than any other guesses she might make, but weird. She gives her head a little shake to clear it, then reconsiders their options in light of that fact. "Um, yeah. Or else…" she frowns. "I mean… when you die in a dream, you wake up, right?"

"How the hell should I know?!" demands Johnny, his voice strained. "I've died in dreams and KEPT dreaming, and I'm not into getting stuck in a dream again, thank you." He shudders. "Besides, is that really a theory you want to test?"

Edited 2014-02-23 04:32 (UTC)

"Okay!" she says, raising her hands defensively. "Christ, it was just an idea." She probably shouldn't snap at him, given that he's the one who's been through all the weird dream shit lately. Then again, she's apparently the only one of the two of them who spent the last twenty minutes thinking she was actually going to die in the jaws of a fucking dinosaur, so maybe it evens out.

"So we'll look for someplace safe, then," she says, wanting to make sure they're both on the same page. "Someplace we can just hole up until this is over."

He pushes his hand through his hair. "Sorry, sorry," he mutters. "I'm just... I'm just freaking out a little."

He turns away, not wanting to dwell on it, looking around. "Let's stay off the path," he says. "I don't trust the path. Let's go... that way." He sets off into the tree cover, hoping Jodie will just follow him without argument. He does not have the energy for it.

It occurs to him that Aiden might protect them, but he'll also make them pretty noticeable to other dreamers. He hopes Zagreus at least has the sense to be afraid of dinosaurs, if he's here.

Whereas Jodie is freaking out substantially less than she was five minutes ago. That's probably why she follows Johnny without complaint or argument, letting him pick their path through the jungle. Aiden follows at a safe distance, the T-rex moving with somnambulistic simplicity under his control. Well, he's never driven a dinosaur before; it's challenging enough just to keep it moving without also making its movements realistic.

"How long have you been here?" she asks instead, wondering if there's anything specific to this dream that has him on edge (besides the obvious).

"Only just got here," he says. "I want it to be done as soon as possible. I wish I didn't have to dream like this." He sighs heavily. "This is so fucked."

They wander out into a clearing. He doesn't want to be out here, so exposed, but on the horizon, he can see some kind of human made structure. It looks like a massive fence.

"Hey, look at that," he says faintly. "Civilization."

"No arguments here," she mutters as she wades through some ferns. This isn't exactly the sort of dream she'd choose to have, either, if she had any choice in the matter.

She squints at the fence, lifting one hand to shade her eyes. "Maybe," she says dubiously. Fences can run a long way through otherwise unoccupied territory, and if civilization is on the other side of that fence, they're in for a hell of a climb. Assuming they can climb it at all, because it looks like it might be electrified. Still. "Let's check it out," she says.

They only make it halfway to the fence before she hears a faint whoop in the distance. Jodie turns sharply, frowning as some kind of dinosaur crests a hilltop some 200 yards away. "Fuck," she hisses. It's heading right for them.

Atop said dinosaur, Sadie Doyle points triumphantly at a certain possessed T-rex. "Look, Frank! We've found one!"

"Oh shit," whispers Johnny, inching back behind Aiden. "That's, uh... that's a triceratops, right? Those only eat plants, don't they??"

He holds up a hand to shield the sun. Something is not right with the oncoming dinosaur.

"What the fuuu..." He trails off, stunned. "Are there people riding on that?"

---

There are!

"Oh why Sadie, look at that," says Frank. "It looks like that tyrannosaur might be about to devour those two bedraggled young people!"

"Not if we bag it, first!" Sadie says, looking forward to her first regicide of this trip (and fourth career regicide). Raising her voice, she calls, "Hellooooo, bedraggled young people! Never fear that tyrannosaur! The Doyles shall save you!" She punctuates that declaration by knocking back the remains of her drink and passing her glass back to her husband.

"Frank, be a dear and refill my glass?"

---

"What…" Jodie gapes at the oncoming triceratops. There are definitely two people sitting on its back. One of them calls out, but she can't quite make out the words. The tone, however, sounds… confident. And something else -- annoyed? If she could see what the riders were carrying, she might more accurately judge it as 'drunkenly enthusiastic,' but as it is, she's convinced that they're in trouble. Dream notwithstanding, those people are literally riding around on a goddamn dinosaur as if they own the place.

Which makes her and Johnny trespassers.

Aiden steps forward, head lowered towards the threat. The T-rex's jaws open, and a low growl shakes the ground beneath her feet.

"There you are, my love!" Frank hands Sadie a refreshed beverage, and then eyes his own. "And there you are, my other love." He downs it with proud glugging sounds. "Oh my, Sadie, that tyrannosaur is looking suddenly aggressive. We'd better bag it in a hurry."

---

"What should we do?" hisses Johnny, taking a step back from Aiden as he verbalizes the T-rex. The triceratops is getting closer, slow but steady, and he squints. Is that... is that a gun?

"Shiiiit," he whispers. Shit, it's definitely a gun, and it's raised.

"Aiden!" he shouts frantically, but it's too late.

"Right you are, my dearest darling!" Sadie drains the last of her refreshed beverage and passes the glass back to Frank, leaving both her hands free to handle the rifle. Her aim is not particularly steady, but the tyrannosaur is a large target, and her inebriated swaying is cancelled out, to some degree, by the swaying motion of the triceratops. "Bang!" she shouts as she pulls the trigger.

---

There's an explosion of feathers and gore, and a lance of sympathetic agony brings Jodie to her knees. "Fuck!" she groans, curling her arms around herself as the tyrannosaurus falls to the ground. Aiden recoils, rattled by the sudden expulsion from the dinosaur. The triceratops is too far off yet to attack, so he sticks close to Jodie, ready to shield her (and, fine, Johnny) if they fire again.

"Good shot, my dear!" shouts Frank with a triumphant clench of the fist. "Another and you've got him. Here, another!" He sloshily tops off her drink again and they toast merrily with a bright, reverberating CLINK!

---

"Shit, shit, SHIT!" Johnny struggles to catch Jodie as she goes down, but he only succeeds in collapsing alongside her, keeping his arm on her back. "Are you okay? Is... is Aiden..."

Can Aiden die? Can he die like this?

No -- Aiden's still there, shivering away from the reeling dinosaur, lowering back down to them.

"Fuck," he whispers. Jodie's hurt, Aiden's whiplashed, and he's fucking useless. Their ridiculous aggressors are straight up laughing. Not cruelly, not even victoriously, more like... with genuine cheer. He sees something else, too. They're... drinking something. Oh my god. They are not just packing guns, and the guns are not the only things that are loaded.

"You have got to be SHITTING ME," he snaps, and he stands up sharply, stepping in front of Jodie, like a hero, or an idiot.

"STOP," he yells across the closing distance between them. "PUT DOWN THE GUNS AND GET OFF THE TRICERATOPS, YOU DRUNK FUCKING LUNATICS."

Sadie's face crumples into an indignant pout. Why is that ragged youth shouting at them in a manner that is not conveying gratitude? "Why, Frank, it seems as if we've upset them," she cries, so taken aback that she fails to finish off the tyrannosaur or her drink. She peers at the girl, one eye narrowing as she focuses - to the extent than any extremely inebriated person can focus, that is.

"Do you see that, darling?" she asks, gesturing unsteadily with her rifle. "It looks as if the dinosaur has produced a ghost!"

---

"I'm okay," Jodie insists through gritted teeth. "It just… hurts like hell when that happens." She's hoping the implication that this has happened before will reassure him a little, but a moment later, Johnny's on his feet and shouting at the people on the triceratops. Not just shouting, in fact, but accusing them of being drunk, and suddenly some of their previous hollering makes a horrible kind of sense.

"Oh, god." Jodie forces herself back onto her feet, though she can't quite straighten. It still feels like someone's cut out a chunk of her torso and done a shitty job stitching it back up. "Are you fucking serious?"

And then the rifle swings in their direction, and Aiden curls around the both of them, a ripply distortion appearing in the air.

"Odd sort of ghost, isn't it?" Frank shields his eyes from the sun for a moment, peering at the apparition. "Why, now its GHOST seems to be terrorizing the angry youths! Better finish that t-rex off, just in case." He fires off a shot himself this time, and that's that for the tyrannosaur, but the ghost does not fade.

"How peculiar," he says. "Something's keeping that dinosaur spirit tethered to this mortal plane." He clears his throat and raises his voice. "Excuse me, young people!" he calls. "Did you know there's a ghost with you?"

---

When the shot fires again, Johnny hits the ground, dragging Jodie down with him, which isn't necessary, since they weren't aiming for them and Aiden's protecting them anyway.

"They're sloshed," he snaps indignantly. "Jesus Holloway Christ." He struggles back to his feet and pushes through Aiden's shield cover. Aiden bristles palpably at the contact, but Johnny's out of patience. "Let me through, goddammit!"

"What a determined tyrannosaur!" Sadie exclaims, eyes wide. "Even in death, it will not stop devouring those young people! What a pity it couldn't turn its single-minded efforts toward a less harmful activity, like drinking." She glugs down her own beverage as the triceratops continues to lumber steadily toward the downed dinosaur and its vengeful ghost.

---

Jodie winces as they hit the ground again, but the pain is fading, and she's soon back on her feet. As Aiden lets Johnny through the barrier (and he probably should have taken a little more convincing, but this is a dream, so she'll let it slide), Jodie flaps her hand. Just stop, okay? She can barely make out what's happening on the other side of the barrier, and it's not as if it fucking matters if they shoot her. She'll just wake up. There's a sullen murmur from Aiden, but the barrier vanishes, leaving Jodie free to glare at the two plastered socialites approaching on their triceratops.

"Oh my," says Frank in a hushed tone. "Why Sadie, I do believe that ghost is actually attached to the young lady. What have we stumbled upon!"

The boy is approaching them. "Hello there, young man!" he says, and generously offers the bottle of vodka. "Care for a drop? You look much too sober by half."

---

The sad thing is, Johnny actually really wants the vodka.

"Put the guns down first," he says as diplomatically as he knows how (which is not saying too much). "And get down off the dinosaur. And then tell us who you are and what you want."

"They're frightened, the poor dears," Sadie concludes, her indignation rapidly displaced by pity. She slides off the triceratops and staggers a little upon landing, as much because of her high-heeled shoes as her high blood alcohol level. "Well, there's no need for that," she says reassuringly. "I'm Sadie Doyle, and this is my husband, Frank." She gestures to Frank with her glass-bearing hand as she makes a little show of setting the rifle down with the other, propping it up against their obliging cabbie's flank. Then, every inch the gracious hostess, she says, "Do let us make you a drink before we…" and now she gestures vaguely toward Jodie, "exorcise your friend."

---

"Wait, what?" Jodie takes a step back, scowling suspiciously. Did they just say 'exorcise'? The tether hums with Aiden's displeasure, and there's a sudden, marked drop in the ambient temperature. "I don't need an exorcism," she snaps, her breath fogging in the previously hot, humid air.

"Oh dear, she is quite in the throes of it, I'm afraid. We'd best hurry." Frank also lays down his arms, and sets about pouring drinks for all present. "Here you are, dear boy," he says, all but forcing the glass into Johnny's hands. "And another for your ecumenically compromised friend."

---

Johnny takes the drinks, staring at them both, silenced by sheer confusion.

"You..." He downs his drink, and Frank and Sadie both applaud him lightly. "You can... you can see Aiden?"

"Is that its name?" Sadie brandishes her glass in Aiden's direction. "Aiden, I command that you release that short young woman at once! The power of gin compels you!" A moment later, the glass flies violently out of her hand, and Sadie gasps indignantly. "My drink! You're a very naughty ghost!"

---

Jodie folds her arms tightly and shakes her head. "He's not a ghost," she protests, though her heart is pounding in an uncomfortable mix of excitement and fear. What if they could separate her and Aiden, sending him back to the infraworld? Should she really try to stop them?

Of course, that assumes these two drunkasses could actually do it, and Jodie's far from convinced. The fact that they can see Aiden is alarming, but that doesn't translate to being able to do anything to him (as Johnny sort of proves).

"How DARE you! Impudent spectre! Why I oughta!" Frank drops his own glass in solidarity and raises his fists to the impertinent Aiden. "En garde!"

---

"Leave her alone," says Johnny with gritted teeth. "You two need to just ... back up off. You have no idea what you're getting into."

He hesitates, then offers Jodie her drink.

"Careful, my darling!" Sadie cries, though she is deeply thrilled by his display. "We've seen this spirit's callous disregard for our spirits - he's surely willing to hit below the belt, as they say!" A hesitation. "And by belt, I mean bottle!" Again, hesitation. "And by below I mean directly!" She moves with surprising dexterity to their bag of drinks and pulls it toward her in a protective embrace, keeping a wary eye on Aiden all the while.

---

Jodie eyes the drink dubiously for a moment, then figures 'what the hell' and takes it. She swigs, coughs, and then swigs again. "Don't hurt them, Aiden," she says, shaking her head. She's still not entirely sure what the hell this is, but 'a fair fight' it isn't. Aiden lets out a clearly audible growl of frustration at the request, but he does refrain from directly attacking either of the Doyles. Instead, he picks up Frank's discarded glass, pointedly waggles it in front of the man's face for a moment, and then hurls it across the field.

"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.

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.

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.

Edited 2014-02-24 20:01 (UTC)

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."

Edited 2014-02-25 15:25 (UTC)

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