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

[heysoulsister]

Sadie hums in agreement - honestly, if one's going to go possessing creatures, one should really choose something less enticing to hunters on safari. After observing the ghost's hesitation at the offer of gin, she smoothly steps in. "I'll take some gin, darling," she says, offering her glass.

As Frank tops her off, she gives Johnny a look of faint bewilderment. Has he forgotten their introductions already? He only had one drink. "We're the Doyles, darling - the Park Avenue Doyles." Surely he's heard of them, even if he is from a rather different socioeconomic stratum.

---

Jodie can feel Aiden's bewilderment at the offer of a drink. It bleeds into her own bewilderment at this whole fucking situation. "Yeah, we got your names," she says with strained patience. "We just don't get why you're riding around on a triceratops with rifles and booze." After a beat, inspiration strikes. "Is this your dream?" It has to be someone's, right? And unlike her and Johnny, the Doyles seem right at home.

[johnny_truant]

"Hmm... our dream?" Frank takes a full minute to consider the strange question. "No... no, can't say that it is. At least I don't believe so. Sadie, we're not dreaming, are we? That wouldn't seem right. I'm definitely feeling this liquor, and I never feel my liquor in dreams. That's what makes dreams so overrated. Dreams." He shakes his head. "As for the rest of it, well... why not??"

Honestly, he can't imagine why anyone wouldn't just jump at the chance to roam the countryside on the back of a triceratops with rifles, booze, and the best companion a man ever had.

---

Johnny pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. "So, in your estimation, showing up in a jungle populated heavily by dinosaurs is just run of the mill," he says. "Do you remember getting here? Do you have ANY idea where-"

He stops. Something, for some reason - maybe it was the vodka - has slipped into place. He turns, slowly, eyeing the treeline. He turns again, even slower, eyeing the distant fence.

"Oh," he says. "Oh, Jodie. Oh holy shit. I just figured it out. I know where we are."

[sadie_doyle]

Sadie takes a full minute to consider her drink, and only then turns her attention to the question. "Dreaming?" she echoes with a dubious little frown. This doesn't feel like a dream to her, either, but then again, she's never been in the habit of lucid dreaming. Or lucidity of any stripe, really. "Usually we just black out," she muses.

Dream or not, though, she is of a similar mind to her husband: why shouldn't they enjoy themselves? Besides, their idea of run of the mill is a good deal broader than most. "Well, live dinosaurs are a bit unusual," she concedes. "The last one we met was a ghost - but no less charming for that," she adds in deference to Aiden.

It's a pity these young people are being so grim about it all, but that's nothing a little liquor can't fix. Jodie seems a bit averse (and Aiden a bit incapable, the poor thing - no wonder he's grumpy), but Johnny downed his first glass like a champion, so she thinks it only natural that she offer him another. "Let me pour you another, dear," she says, approaching him with vodka in hand.

---

Jodie is straight-up gaping at Sadie when Johnny has his little revelation, and she shuts her mouth and turns toward him. "Wait, seriously? You know where we are?"

[johnny_truant]

Johnny takes the drink as offered, stares at it, then at Jodie, with a grim, tight-mouthed expression.

This is so absurd that he can't believe he's about to say it. But he remembers the layout stupidly well. And with a bit of alcohol running in his veins, he is 90% sure.

"Jurassic Park," he says, and knocks it back.

[heysoulsister]

"I was going to guess Costa Rica," Sadie comments as she refills her own glass. Giving their surroundings a proper gander, she adds, "Dominican Republic, perhaps. Ooh! Or Hawaii!! Or, ooh! The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden!"

---

Jodie interrupts Sadie's listing before she can build up a full head of steam. "What, like the book?" she asks, frowning at Johnny. It's not that she disbelieves him - right now, she's willing to grasp at any and every explanation on offer for what the hell is going on - but first this is a dream, and now it's a dream about a work of fiction?

[johnny_truant]

"Like..... like the movie." Johnny frowns at her. "The book? Really?"

Granted, neither one makes any sense to him. And in Jurassic Park none of the dinosaurs had any feathers. But what the hell else would it be? Anyway it makes him feel better having an actual explanation for the mayhem, even if it is a ridiculous explanation.

---

"What's so Jurassic about it?" wonders Frank with a glance around. "Seems more Cretaceous to me."

[sadie_doyle]

Jodie gives a small, defensive shrug. "Yeah. I like to read." And it was a hell of a lot easier to arrange for new books to be brought in to the lab than it was to arrange for a field trip to a movie theater. Well, she'd been too young to see it in the theater. Even when she was old enough that she probably could've handled it on video, Nathan wasn't keen on letting her watch anything that might freak her - and by extension, Aiden - out.

---

Sadie hums thoughtfully. "Yes, I agree with that assessment, darling. We were riding on a triceratops, after all." After a pensive sip of her drink, she adds, "'Jurassic Park' does have a ring to it… though not as nice a ring as this." She toasts Frank, then lets out a pleased (and boozy) little laugh.

[frank_doyle]

"I'll drink to that!" agrees Frank; and how. "Time for another! Join us, won't you children?"

---

Johnny has never seen anyone drink this much in one sitting in his life. Not even Lude - Lude certainly liked to party, but he didn't do it so cheerfully. Johnny's not sure what to do around insatiably happy drunks.

"We, uh, we should probably... go," he says, glancing at Jodie for backup. "We have a lot of, you know......... irons... in the fire."

This is truly a Jodie quality untruth. And yet, he can't think of a single reasonable explanation for needing to go anywhere on this horrible, stupid, wrath-of-god island.

"We should keep moving," he says finally, deciding that will have to do.

[heysoulsister]

Jodie gives Johnny a level, unimpressed glare. For someone who criticizes her lying skills (or lack thereof), he's not proving himself to be much more adept. Not that there are that many decent excuses to be made here, anyway.

"Yeah," she says, following his dubious lead. Glancing at the Doyle's mode of transport, she adds, "We were gonna try and make it through that fence, so…" it's a safe bet that dinosaur won't fit.

---

It's not a very elegant attempt to extricate themselves from the conversation, and Sadie isn't so drunk that a more subtle attempt would have gone unnoticed. She is drunk enough not to begrudge them, though. It's all well and good, meeting new people, but at the end of the day, Frank is all the company she needs.

"Well, the best of luck to you!" she says, lifting her glass. "And do try to avoid being devoured." Pity they don't have a gun, and she frowns thoughtfully. "What do you think, darling - could we spare one of the rifles?"

[johnny_truant]

"I don't see why not!" says Frank brightly, and without any warning he tosses his rifle to Johnny, who barely manages, with much fumbling, to catch it without setting it off. "And a merry journey to you both!" He raises his glass, drinks, pours, and then turns his full attention to Sadie as though Jodie and Johnny have already left. "It occurs to me, my dear, to wonder how we plan to transport this felled tyrannosaur, even with the assistance of our faithful cabbie!"

---

Johnny stares at the gun, then, slowly, at Jodie. He hands it over with no hesitation.

"Welp," he says, which about sums it up, and sets off toward the 10,000 volt carrying fence.

[heysoulsister]

"Thanks," Jodie says. That was easier than she thought it was going to be. She takes the gun as Sadie suggests obtaining 'additional cabbies,' and then hurries after Johnny.

She waits until they're well out of earshot before saying, "So, that was weird," and risking a glance back. Neither of the Doyles seem to be watching their departure; rather, they're both standing between the dead T-rex and the triceratops, glancing between the two and making the occasional critical gesture. She turns away, shaking her head.

[johnny_truant]

"Yes, it was," says Johnny, and though he's still shaken with residual incredulity from the whole encounter, the absurdity of it catches up with him and he can't help but smile, sort of, a thin, faint imitation of the expression, like his face doesn't remember how. After a moment he adds, "A step up from my last dream adventure, though, I gotta say."

He even manages a laugh. It might be the vodka, but it feels kind of nice regardless.

[heysoulsister]

She's not entirely sure how to respond to that. That whole fucked-up thing with Zagreus makes her want to wince... but then he follows it up with the most genuine laugh she's ever heard him produce, and it's kind of hard not to smile in response to that.

"Just about anything would be," she says with cautious good humor. She's not sure if she should really be joking about it, even though he just did. Sobering a little, she adds, "And if you see that Zagreus asshole, be sure to point him out. I have pretty good aim."

[johnny_truant]

This remark kind of surprises him. He's not sure why. Just that it seems surprisingly charitable, or something.

"Heh." He nods, digs his hands into his pockets as he shuffles along behind her. "Okay."

[heysoulsister]

Aiden hums in agreement. Unlike Jodie, he has a more intimate familiarity with what Zagreus was doing to Johnny in that nightmarescape. And he didn't like it. Besides, if anyone is going to fuck Johnny up, it's going to be him, thank you very much.

She'd known the fence was tall, but she's still surprised at how high it looms above them when they finally reach it. "Shit," she says as she tilts her head back, impressed. There's no way the juice is still flowing, but unless they find a gap to crawl through, they're in for a hell of a climb.

[johnny_truant]

"What if... we just follow it somewhere?" Johnny scans the horizon in both directions. "It's gotta lead to a structure eventually. If I remember the movie right." He squints into the distance. "Can Aiden get high enough to see anything?"

[heysoulsister]

Jodie shrugs. Aiden could reach the top of the fence, but so could she. And she'd much rather deal with the strain of a climb than the strain of Aiden pushing it. It's not a climb is going to leave her too disoriented to run if more goddamn dinosaurs show up.

"I'm going to climb it," she announces before pulling herself up onto the concrete barrier at the base of the fence. There's no hum of a current, and she's not surprised when a cautious poke doesn't result in her getting electrocuted (or woken up). Well, then. She starts to pull herself up.

[johnny_truant]

"O-oh, okay." Johnny watches her, feeling fairly useless. "Well, uh, good luck with that. Don't, uh, don't fall."

Yup. He kicks at a patch of dirt.

[heysoulsister]

"Wasn't planning on it," she says as she nears the top the fence. Even if she did, though, Aiden would save her - all the more reason for her to climb the fence herself instead of having Aiden do all the recon.

She grabs the topmost wire, pulls herself up, and hooks an arm over it as she looks around. There's a hell of a view from up here; including a veritable shitton of dinosaurs. Most of them look like herbivores, which is some comfort. She looks both ways down the fence line and mostly just sees jungle, but to the north, there's a promising break in the trees. "I think there's something that way," she calls down to Johnny, pointing. "Hang on; I'm coming back down."

Ready, Aiden? she asks. His hum of resigned confirmation makes her smile, and then she jumps. Aiden curls around her, and the shockwave of his protective sphere hits the ground before she does. Jodie straightens, grinning, and says, "It should be a short walk."

[johnny_truant]

"Wah!" Johnny staggers back as Jodie floats back down. "Whoa. Whoa. Jesus. That was cool."

Recovered, not wanting to look like a TOTAL idiot, he strikes off in the indicated direction. "What kinda something was it? Like a promising something, or a we'll-settle-for-anything something?"

[heysoulsister]

"Quicker than climbing," she says with a shrug. And every minute they spend out in the open is a risk, between the dinosaurs and the other dreamers.

As for the buildings she saw… "Maybe promising? It looked pretty sturdy from up there, but god only knows what kind of shape it's really in. I think it's a maintenance building or something, so it's… probably pretty well fortified." As compared to the more touristy spots.

[johnny_truant]

"Sounds good enough." And it probably will be. As long as it's not crawling with angry prehistoric monsters it'll probably be fine.

"So you really never saw this movie?" he says after several moments of awkward silence and walking.

[heysoulsister]

Jodie lets out a faint huff of amusement. "Well, when you grow up with an entity who tends to freak out and attack people when you're upset, they don't let you watch movies that might upset you." Of course, they hadn't seemed to mind her reading above her age level, so by the time she was old enough for the movie to be an option, she'd already finished the book years before and moved on.

[johnny_truant]

"Huh. Makes sense." And it does, for a second. "Wait. They? Who's they?" As much time as they've spent around each other, they haven't talked much about their respective pasts. "Did your parents know about it?"

[heysoulsister]

… Great. How in the fuck is she supposed to answer that? Aiden lets out a faint, irritable grumble, and Jodie presses her lips together for a few moments.

"Yeah," she finally says, her voice devoid of any humor. "They did." Emphasis on the past-tense.