Far Side of the Aurora Borealis

[applesaucemod]

Congratulations, dreamers of Manhattan - you get to go to Oxford! It's probably not the Oxford with which any of the dreamers are familiar, though. This one is a bit… different.



The dreamers will find themselves in Jordan College, the oldest and grandest of all the colleges in this version of Oxford, a rambling structure that includes dining halls, libraries, classrooms, chapels, courtyards, a botanical garden, and an extensive network of cellars and tunnels beneath the ground. There are plenty of places to explore!

Sharp-eyed dreamers might notice some subtle architectural quirks. Doors look larger than they'd need to be for solely human use, and every staircase has a little ramp built in - not large enough for a wheelchair, but large enough for, say, a small, scampering animal.

And speaking of - the dreamers are a bit different here, too. Upon arrival, they will realize that they now possess dæmons: physical manifestations of their souls. Be gentle with them; they're undoubtedly confused by being suddenly made manifest. They come with all the side effects and complications inherent with dæmons. They can't travel more than a few yards from their person without it being painful for both parties… and it probably won't take the dreamers long to realize they shouldn't be touching one another's dæmons, what with the shared sensations and all. Still, it's a rare opportunity for the dreamers to chat with their own souls - and the souls of others.

What could possibly go wrong?



[Mod note: you know the drill. All players and characters are welcome, regardless of whether they're current members or not. Characters will remember or forget any and all dream events at players' discretion.]

Comments

[adventuressing]

Charley's far from prudish, but such casual talk of menstruation and breasts is so unexpected that for a moment, her eyes go quite wide, and then she bursts into slightly shocked laughter.

She recalls a deeply embarrassing conversation (at least it had been so at the time; she had been only eighteen) soon after she'd started travelling with the Doctor in which, the TARDIS not being forthcoming, she'd had to ask after something to deal with her 'monthly visitor', as Andrew put it. She'd awkwardly trodden around the subject, and when the Doctor finally understood what she was talking about, he'd started gabbling about hormones and pills, if she didn't want to bother with the hassle of dealing with her period, quite oblivious to her mortification. Eventually she'd snapped at him that if he wasn't going to be helpful, she'd start tearing up the clothes in the wardrobe room for rags. He had, after that, been helpful.

Now, still giggling a little, she casts a glance down at Andrew's skinny chest, trying to imagine him with breasts. The mental image that results is more than a little ridiculous.

'How very peculiar,' she says. 'Remembering being both a man and a woman, I mean. I should think it could get quite unsettling.'

Horatio flutters down from his perch on Farranfore's head, and Charley can tell what he's thinking without him needing to say it, but that's not the same thing. He's male, but he's not a man; he's just some part of her nature that's been expressed, for whatever reason, as a male bird. He cocks his head at Andrew.

'Do you ever-- do the wrong things? If there's bits of you that remember being a woman, I mean. When we disguised ourself as a boy, there was all sorts we had to remember, just about the way men act in public that's different from women.'

[watchesthebeans]

"Maybe yours is," says Aglet defensively. Synechdoche is anything but peculiar. Beautiful, he thinks, that's the word for her. "I feel like I've always known mine."

"That's not what you said earlier," the bird scolds him.

[bluesuit_handy]

By ridiculous surely she means glorious. They weren't just any breasts; he remembers having a really good pair. "I only do the wrong things," he informs her sagely, only for Farranfore to give him a pointed (literally pointed) prod with her cold, wet nose.

"He meant do we act like a girl," she says, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, yes." Andrew flaps his hand at her, 'accidentally' bopping Farranfore on the nose in the process. "Really, humans have got such a lot of nonsense built up around what gender means, don't you think? It's so hard to keep track of what's womanly this century and manly the next."

It shouldn't be that hard given that he's been living in the same time period for several years now, but it's difficult enough for Andrew to follow the rules of how he's supposed to act human without worrying over whether he's acting enough like a man. Probably he mostly is anyhow.

"Where did you go after you left?" he asks, turning the conversation to a topic of more interest to him with all the grace and subtlety of a thrown turnip. "How long has it been for you?"

[modern_alpha]

Biffy laughs and Agnieszka flops into his lap, laughing as well. "It's because he's a bit peculiar himself, love."

[watchesthebeans]

"Most beans are," nods Aglet, taking this as a matter of course. "You can afford to be peculiar."

[modern_alpha]

"Can we?" Biffy asks, pretending to ruminate over the idea. "I know I'm quite particular, particularly when it comes to clothes, but I've never thought of himself as being peculiar."

No peculiar belongs to beings like Lord Akeldama, who can afford to be peculiar enough for a whole household.

[has_a_horn]

"Time travel." he repeats, thinking immediately of the TARDIS. But it'd be silly to think every time traveler here is someone that traveled with her. Right? Venia cocks their head to the side in curiosity, then remembering the little falcon, rights it. "I meant to ask what year you were originally from, but that's some interesting information there."

Venia makes a chittering sound, getting Charley's attention before asking, "What was your ship like?" Gabriel frowns in the griffin's direction, not wanting to suggest that he knows of any sort of time machine. Who knows who this girl is. Who knows what sort of danger she could present to the TARDIS. "Was it...blue?"

"Will you shut up," Gabriel says, before turning back to Charley with a plastered-on smile on his face. "Around nineteen-thirty, maybe?"

[erratic_hematic]

Sighing, Spike follows, standing up and heading for the over-sized door. He looks back, making sure all the rest are close enough not to cause any damage.

The hallway out isn't very long and soon enough they're viewing a large lawn split up by stone pathways and dotted by trees. Spike instinctively pauses before the light starts, and leans against a column there, in the shade. Fausta takes a few more steps than that before turning back to him, brushing up against him, then looking up at him, wondering what's keeping him.

[rae_of_sun]

This is more like it. Sunshine doesn't hesitate, but steps out of the shade and turns her face up into the sunlight. Her bee launches himself off of Fausta's nose and follows. As she watches Modomnoc spiral through the air with his fuzz all aglow, the lingering tension from the dining hall drains out of her. Everything is better in the sunlight.

It takes her a moment to notice they've left Spike and Fausta behind. She turns back to the doorway, absently twisting her hair aside so the light can reach the back of her neck, and furrows her brow at them. "What, did your immunity run out?" she asks. Gods, what if it has? Does it apply to his dog, too? She takes an uncertain step back toward the doorway as Modomnoc alights on a large, stone planter between them - still in the sunlight, but within a yard or two of Fausta, just in case. "Need help?"

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel looks down at the rabbit in surprise, then nods to it. "Yeah, of course."

Instead of trying to get more out of Johnny now about what had happened with Zagreus, he pushes his chair back and stands, then offers his hand. Maybe allowing Johnny some time to process will do him good. "Want to take a walk? This place is almost like Oxford. I'm wondering if the outside matches." He shrugs, "Or anywhere else you want to go. I'm not picky. Just don't say Vegas."

[erratic_hematic]

"No." He answers quickly, then pushes himself away from the doorway. There's a visible moment of hesitation before he steps out into the sun. He squints up into the sky, confirms that he's not sizzling, then walks out to her.

He asks incredulously, "What do you think you could do if it did run out?" Summon a wool blanket perhaps? In his experience, there's not much he can do to work around it.

Fausa trots around in the sun happily before returning to Spike, and shoves her head up under his hand - a comforting gesture for both of them. He scratches her idly behind the ears before she wanders off again in the direction of Modomnoc.

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine tenses a little during that moment of hesitation, wondering if she's going to have to throw herself at Spike to stop him from going up in flames. Even Modomnoc crouches closer to the rough stonework, ready to launch himself toward Fausta (not that either of them really know how the whole sucker sunshade trick would work with sentient animals involved, but it does seem safe to assume that they'd have to be touching, too).

But nobody goes up in smoke, so hey. Now she just has an incredulous vampire to deal with instead of a flaming one. Could be worse.

"I'm a magic handler," she says with an awkward little shrug.

"With an affinity for vampires," Modomnoc adds.

"Counteraffinity," she clarifies, giving her bee a warning look before turning back to Spike. "But yeah, one of my, um… tricks… is keeping the sunlight from doing its… thing." 'Tricks' is really not the best word for it, especially in her universe. When she left, SOF wanted her because she was so good at skegging vampires. If they knew how good she was at saving them… she doesn't even want to think about it.

And that's to say nothing of what would happen if the vampire community (such that there is one) got wind of what she could do. Yeek. But Spike's something of a special case. It's not like he's going to be spilling her secrets to anyone back home, and he doesn't seem to have any real ties to local suckers, either. Still, she feels compelled to add, "Don't spread that one around."

[johnny_truant]

Johnny manages a laugh at Vegas - not a very good laugh, sort of dry and abrupt, but it's something. He shakes his head as if physically dislodging all that would weigh him down, takes Gabe's hand and pulls himself up.

"Okay," he says. "Anywhere, huh?" He's not particularly keen on staying here. All this stuffiness doesn't really agree with him. And he's sort of curious to see what Gabe can do. He doesn't make a habit of thinking of places he'd like to go, since it's never been an option, and now he's hard-pressed to come up with anything. When he does get an idea, he wonders if it's too personal, and he gives Gabe a hesitant sideways glance. "What about... Jaipur?"

[watchesthebeans]

"I'll bet you throw away whole glass bottles," laughs Aglet, who thinks that sort of thing is very peculiar indeed. "Or even clothing if it's got a bit of a tear in it."

"Or bent paper clips!" adds Synechdoche.

as is this one <_<

[theoldgirl]

As much as she's enjoying Cosima's enthusiasm, she hates being reminded of her limitations, of how trapped she is, and her smile fades from her lips. She gives the Unicorn an unreadable look, thinking it should have known better than to offer something she is woefully incapable of providing.

"I don't mind your questions," she says, returning her gaze to the girl. "But I cannot take you on any journeys. I am... stranded." A kind word for her current situation and the trauma she went through trying to escape it, but she doesn't feel like expanding on it. She lowers her eyes back to the Unicorn miserably, who notices the shift in mood and whinnies uncomfortably.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel snaps his fingers and in the next instant, the location has changed. They're sitting in the back of a dimly lit bar. It seems to be underground, evidenced by the small high-set window in the room opposite and the lighting set up along the ceiling.

This room is just big enough for a pool table (on top of which Venia is lying down) and a booth where Gabriel has materialized the rest of the group. The other room has an aged disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and a bar tended by a middle-aged man that seems to be drifting off, despite the out of date music playing over the jukebox.

"Told you it was a dive." Gabe says, sipping from the drink that has appeared with the new environment. "I could show you the city, if you like. Much more impressive."

[johnny_truant]

Johnny blinks around himself in a moment of surprise, then laughs brightly, clapping his hands together. "Fuck, that's awesome," he says, and slides out of the booth. Nova scoots out from underneath the table, and he bends to pick her up again.

"This is a shithole!" she comments.

"I love it," agrees Johnny. "I do want to see the city, though. How far does this extend?"

[modern_alpha]

"Only if the clothing has gone out of season!" Biffy protests, because it's entirely inappropriate to wear out of fashion clothing.

"Are you fond of such things?"

[erratic_hematic]

"Counteraffinity," he repeats, eyebrows raised. That's definitely an interesting little factoid (and one he'll keep in mind if his new-found immunity ever decides to wear out on him).

"So, what, vampires don't go poof around you? Or do you have to do a chant or something?"

[rae_of_sun]

Well, he's already hinted at the sort of magic they have in his universe: the charming, fairy-tale, spellbook kind. She shouldn't be surprised that he thinks there could be chanting involved.

It also occurs to her, far too late, that there's really no way for her to explain how she knows about said skill without also indirectly admitting she's used it. And he knows, now, what most vampires from her universe are like. This could get uncomfortable.

More uncomfortable, that is, because there's plenty of inherent discomfort in admitting, "We'd have to be touching, but that's all. No chanting or… or wand waving." Or whatever else constitutes magic handling in Spikeville.

[has_a_horn]

He shrugs. "As far as you want it to. I went just about everywhere in this city." He sets his drink down, stands and stretches his arms up while Venia hops down off of the pool table. "The palace quarter is closer to the center of the city. If you want to see the pretty stuff, I'll make a shortcut."

He smiles at Johnny's shift in mood, and Venia comes up and headbutts him affectionately, like a cat might. He reaches his hand up, and scratches where feathers meet fur.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny nods distractedly, already heading outside. After what he's been through in his last several dreams, all of this is a thoroughly welcome diversion.

Stepping out into narrow streets, loud crowds and bright sunlight is a bit of a shock. He stops short, holding Nova close to him, waiting for Gabriel to follow.

"Holy shit," he murmurs.

[watchesthebeans]

"Oh, yes!" chirps Synechdoche as Aglet looks puzzled.

"'Goes out of season'?" he repeats, confused.

[erratic_hematic]

"How'd you find out about that," he says, more statement than really asking. He figures that it's probably something that she's always known about rather than a recent;y discovered ability.

Fausta edges further away over the lawn, so Spike tucks his hands into his jacket and follows, allowing her some exploration.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel emerges from the building, Venia striding at his shoulder. The crows around them doesn't seem all that bothered by the appearance of a mythical creature. If anything, they're indifferent to it, and they easily pass through the crowd as they make their way down the narrow street.

"It everything you thought it'd be?"