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

[bluesuit_handy]

"What, go looking for dinosaurs in the deepest darkest jungle? Who do you think I am? Of course I want to go explore!"

Edgar, he's decided to himself, has a Good Attitude.

[edgar_sawtelle]

Edgar answers with an even wider grin and, giving Gertie a small wave, makes his way back down the tree to where Almondine is patiently waiting. Edgar gives her head a rub, signing with his other hand, /We're going to go look for dinosaurs!/ She doesn't seem as excited as he is, but willing nonetheless as she rises to her feet and wags her tail at him.

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew reaches out to try to pat Gertie on the nose, but the dinosaur turns to look at something behind him/her/it and goes out of reach with just that little head motion. Andrew lets out a sigh/scoff, then turns to follow Edgar down the tree.

"It looked like there was a path that way," he says, gesturing. "Probably a game trail."

[edgar_sawtelle]

Giving Almondine's ears a final ruffle, Edgar straightens and gives Andrew an "after you" gesture.

[bluesuit_handy]

It's rough going through the jungle, and Andrew keeps having to glance back at Edgar to make sure he's alright -- he can hear the teen crashing through the undergrowth after him, but obviously there's no actual communication. After only a couple minutes, though, he stumbles out into an open area...sort of.

"...Make that a paved game trail," he says thoughtfully, kicking a fragment of pavement churned up by the growth of jungle plants.

[edgar_sawtelle]

Though the vegetation is unfamiliar here (wherever "here" is), plodding along behind Andrew isn't all that different to exploring the woods back home and Edgar lets his mind wander under those trees while his feet lead him through the jungle. He's brought abruptly back to the present when their little party emerges on a road.

Edgar glances first the left, then to the right, following the path of the pavement, which curves out of sight about a hundred meters away to the left, and disappears over a rise about the same to their right. The road bears clear signs of neglect: the edges are crumbling away, giving it the appearance of a shakily drawn line, and Edgar can see buckles and cracks in the surface. A few feet to the other side of the pavement, the jungle takes over again.

Coming to a stop beside Andrew, Edgar lays a hand on his arm. Should we follow the road or keep going straight?

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew puzzles over the question for a few moments as he squints in first one direction and then the other along the road. Why there's a road in a land of dinosaurs he doesn't know; somehow he'd thought they were in the actual prehistoric era on Earth. Well, scratch that theory.

"Something the size of Gertie might still use this as a path," he points out. "If nothing else, it might lead us to something that'll tell us why there is a road." Not as exciting as dinosaurs, maybe, but he's genuinely curious about it.

[edgar_sawtelle]

That makes sense. Edgar finds his own curiosity piqued; dinosaur and road don't mix.

He gives the road another left-to-right survey and suggests, Left, then?

[bluesuit_handy]

With a squint and a wiggly shrug that turns into a nod, Andrew turns and starts striding in the direction indicated. "Left it is!" he chirps cheerfully. "Come along, we'll be there in no time -- wherever there is."