applesaucedream | Far Side of the Aurora Borealis

Far Side of the Aurora Borealis

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.]

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Julian has always been fascinated by dreams. He had kept a journal when he was younger, trying to keep track of his dreams and figuring out if they meant anything. It was all in fun, though he doesn't have time to do much of that anymore. But this dream is vivid, yet surreal. He doesn't feel like he is dreaming, but simultaneously knows without a doubt time he is. He is fully dressed, wearing his usual Starfleet issued uniform and where...? "It's a library," Julian says slowly as his gaze slides over his surroundings, dim though they are. Old books, lined on the shelves, and he leans in close to glance over their titles, run his fingers over the bindings carefully. Where is the medical section? These volumes look unfamiliar, the authors, the titles, and it could be quite the chance to explore and read and study... that wouldn't be a waste of a dream, would it? Not if that's what he wanted to do in his dream.

He is fairly sure, at least, that this is a dream after all. Or at least, he hopes it is. There have been times when he thought he was dreaming, and instead was trapped inside his own mind as someone used his body, or in a game, or dying, or..."Calm yourself. It is a dream. Not one like we've ever had before, but a dream nonetheless," Julian thinks to himself before the anxiety can fully set in. Except that it isn't he himself speaking, in his own head. The soothing voice is soft and near his ear, external, and distinctly female. That is somehow himself and not himself, his thoughts but not his thoughts. He turns his head to find a small fennec fox curled around his shoulders, and wonders how he had missed the weight of her, the soft, warm fur against his neck, this entire time.

"You..." he begins. "You are me. A part of me." He doesn't know how, but despite his immediate confusion, even a hint of fear, he understands somewhere deep within a place he cannot reach that this... creature? Animal? Spirit? is part of him. Shouldn't be too hard to believe. This is a dream and dreams are meant to be strange and wonderful and even frightening. He puts a hand against his chest, as if sensing that somehow, a part of him that used to be only his own, inside himself, is now not missing, but different somehow.

"Yes. I think so, anyway. I am Agamede," she says with him somehow already knowing, and as Julian lifts a hand to touch her fur, he feels a jolt within him confirming that she is his and he is hers and somehow they Are. He hears other voices somewhere, in this strange library where a part of him has come alive, and knows he isn't alone here. "No need to be frightened. It's only a dream, after all," she whispers, fur against his neck, as if she knows what he is thinking. No, because she knows what he is thinking.

"True," Julian says. A dream where he can somehow talk with his subconscious mind in the shape of an animal and explore a deserted but not deserted library. It is a dream, so why not accept it? He feels secure with Agamede near him. Any hesitation or fear seeps away and instead he lets an excited curiosity take its place. It is his natural state. "Let's see what this is all about then. As long as we're only dreaming."

Edited 2014-03-30 05:30 (UTC)

Gus and Cosmia have taken to exploring their surroundings, avoiding people for the most part. It's come to their attention, gradually, that this is another of these "shared dream" experiences, the concept of which still rubs Gus entirely the wrong way, but there is simply nothing to be done. So they wander, keeping to themselves, keeping quiet. Their latest point of exploration is a grand old library.

"Perhaps we should look for Cecil," suggests Cosmia softly.

Gus tilts his head slightly, considering it. "I don't want to push him too quickly," he says. "One of his friends just came through. I'll have to be more careful with her around."

"He's still lonely," she reminds him. "You can still get through to him."

"Hush." Gus spots a young man examining the bookshelves, a small fox curled around his shoulders. He's wearing a strange uniform - vaguely familiar, maybe, but in a way that Gus is entirely willing to brush off.

He stands apart, watching the man for a moment, before he decides to approach. The last man he encountered was a bit of a wreck, but this one seems a little more put-together. He makes up his mind to be straight-forward, at least at first.

"Excuse me," he says, gently, not wanting to startle. "This might sound odd, but... do you know where we are?"

Julian pulls out a book from the shelf, fingers carefully pulling one thin translucent page away from the other, running fingers over text, then pulling out another. "Someone's coming," Agamede whispers in his ear, startling him slightly still when he hears her soft familiar-yet-unfamiliar voice in his ear. He turns to find a stranger (he supposes it would be, though often dreams are populated by familiar faces, aren't they? Wouldn't Garak be fascinated by this place, all this Earth literature and scholarly texts in one place! Enough fodder for millions of lunch-time converstions), who also has a small animal on his shoulder, some sort of lizard or chameleon, Julian isn't sure. Agamede leans forward as Julian steps away from the bookcase, a book still held loosely in one hand, fingers keeping his page, and she sniffs slightly at the creature on the stranger's shoulder.

"Well," Julian says with a wry smile, "I suppose the first answer that comes is in my mind, since this is a dream and that's where dreams take place." Julian had somewhat hoped that the dream people would know where he was, but apparently this one was as lost as he was. "But here here seems to be Oxford. Like the one in England, on Earth. I visited there a few times, but it didn't look like this. I've never heard of the Jordon College Campus, I'm fairly sure there isn't... wasn't one. This place is like the Oxford I've seen, read about, but it's different somehow." He lifts the book and flips it open to the inside of the front cover, showing the ornate bookplate that proclaims that this text belongs to Oxford College, with a card stamped with names of supposed scholars who have taken this text out of the library with them.

"I'm sorry," Julian adds, holding out a hand to the man to shake. "I'm being rude, I tend to babble on. It's just that this is a very strange dream, and it's all a bit unnerving. My name is Julian. Doctor Julian Bashir. This is Agamede," he adds after a hesitation.

Edited 2014-03-30 16:14 (UTC)

Gus smiles, charmed by this man's so-called babbling. It isn't unintelligent - in fact he seems quite lucid, and helpfully knowledgeable about his surroundings. The reference to Earth, as though it's not a given, is quite another matter, but Gus decides to let that slide for now.

"Gustavo Fring." He steps forward, taking the hand and giving it a firm shake. "Gus. And... Cosmia." He wonders if the animal manifestation seems strange to Julian as well. But there is a slightly more pressing topic of discussion at hand.

"And I... hate to be the one to tell you," says Gus - hating it not just because it's an awkward thing to tell someone, but also because it's absurd and he resisted believing it until the very last - "but this is not so much your dream as it is our dream. Yours, mine... whoever else you might encounter. It is a shared... experience."

He gives a little put-upon sigh. "Believe me, unnerving does not even begin to cover it."

"Gus, it is a pleasure to meet you, as strange a this all is!" Julian says, returning the hand-shake. "Cosmia, you too," he adds with a nod to the chameleon, not sure if he is supposed to address someone else's animal or not, or if there are even rules, and hopes he hasn't offended Gus or his companion by speaking to him/her/it. He does have a bad habit of breaking rules without knowing it. What a strange, bizzare, fascinating place this is.

"A... shared dream?" Julian repeats, his voice dubious but also alight with curiosity at the notion. "I don't see how that is possible. I have never heard of such a thing happening before. Is it like a psychic link between people while they sleep? Is there technology involved, or are we truly sleeping? Imagine the possibilities of such a thing! To network, share information and cultures and knowledge between worlds, quadrants, galaxies without even travel!" He trails off, and then laughs, realizing he is getting carried away again, afraid he will see that oft familiar look he sees on his friends' and comrades' when he carries on with theories or whatnot. O'Brien would have shaken him by now.

"I'm afraid I'm not sure I believe that, but please don't take offense. It isn't you I don't believe, it is just this is all so very impossible! But... if I *am* dreaming, then anything is possible though, right? And I should take it in stride! So how did you come to this conclusion, have you been here before? In this dream? Are you a world much like this?"

"Excuse him," Agamede adds to Cosmia with what is possibly as close to an eyeroll as a fennec fox can manage. "Julian, give the man a chance to breath before you drown him in questions. He is not research on some distant planet." "Apologies again,." Julian adds with a smile, genuine and slightly embarrassed, but not as if he is sorry for being curious. It is his dream afterall... maybe.

Gus just stands there a moment, letting Julian's scientist-in-a-candy-store act spool out in front of him, not entirely sure what to say.

"I... can't exactly blame you," he says eventually, neatly sidestepping all the references to galaxies and distant planets yet again. "I didn't believe it myself. But it is, unfortunately, the case. But I don't know how it all works."

Cosmia gives him a nudge. Tell him about Cecil.

"The first time this happened to me, I met and befriended a man, who told me we were both dreaming, though I can't say I believed him then," says Gus. "It felt just as real as this. But I did wake up. And then I met him, in the real world. And we both remembered each other." He lifts an eyebrow, wondering if Julian will continue to doubt. He's not quite devoted to convincing anyone of such nonsense, but he doesn't like the idea of being shrugged off as a product of someone else's subconscious, either. "It was hard to contest it then."

"Really? I can imagine that would be so. That's... how extraordinary," breaths Julian, looking around him again as if for the first time now that he is aware than this place may be more than something created within his own mind and memory, that others are somehow seeing and experiencing it too.

"Is it really so strange, so hard to believe?" Agamede whispers softly near his ear, pressing him. And no, it really isn't, is it?. If he hadn't been (still isn't?) so sure he was sleeping and dreaming, it wouldn't have been much stranger than some of the things he has experienced since joining Starfleet. He has been pulled into parallel universes and dimensions, traveled to the far ends of the universe through alien wormholes, had people take over his consciousness and control his body... would it be so impossible to imagine that somehow he has fallen into a dream world experienced by others, elsewhere? Hardly.

"I see no reason not to take your word for it," Julian muses, then smiles at Gus. "Well then, Mr. Fring, I am not sure if our... 'real worlds' coincide, but if I am fortunate enough to meet you again in it, I would be glad. Thank you for letting me go on. I am, I'm afraid, a doctor and scientist at heart. I like to know how things work, especially when I am thrown into them without my knowledge. But since I cannot, I suppose I should... enjoy it. Is it usually... safe in these dream spaces? Do you know if we can leave the confines of this library? I'm afraid I just...arrived, if that is the correct term, not long before you found me."

Gus gives him a wan smile, still finding his effusiveness a little hard to swallow, but at least he's going along with the explanation now.

"I am not much of an expert, I'm afraid," he says, "but there is a great deal to see here. These landscapes can be... quite sizable." He gestures to Cosmia. "We found ourselves first in a courtyard. There are quite a few buildings, all of which are presumably open, if you should like to look around."

"Of course," Julian says, with a smile. "Sorry. I suppose you're as much a stranger here as I am. I'm sorry I've asked you so many questions! First arriving here out of nowhere in my sleep, the arrival of... some part of me, in animal form, it's all very... well, there aren't many words to describe this experience." He wonders, briefly, if the dream world has boundaries, or if it is a dream world at all. Perhaps it is a real world, somewhere anyway. Or the shadow of a real world.

Julian flips open the book to look at the card in the front again, running his fingers over the names, grounding himself in this place, then replaces the book carefully on the shelf in it's place, almost regretfully. "Oxford, indeed. You're welcome to walk with me, if you please, though I won't begrudge you if you have your own exploring to do, or your friend to meet," he says to Gus. He wonders if fresh air would do him good, but is anxious that if he strays too far from where he arrived, he won't find his way back again. Though Gus, it seems, had been through this once before, and woken up. You know, if this all is real.

Gus considers him. The man is decidedly strange, though not impossible to talk to. And certainly not very hard to look at.

Cosmia makes a little sound noise in her throat, something impossible to hear or to parse to anyone but Gus - the auditory equivalent of a subtle eye-roll. He gives her a light brush with his finger and says, "I would be happy to walk with you for a bit, Julian. Thank you."

"The pleasure is mine," Julian replies, sounding very much as if he means it. He is, in fact, quite genuinely happy to have company in this strange place. He sets Agamede on the floor and peers out one of the nearby windows of the library, overlooking a stately, green campus. "I imagine only a night will pass back in my quarters while I sleep. How long do we stay here, in this time? A day? A week?" This question is more to himself than to Gus, and he shakes his head.

"I was thinking outdoors. The courtyard and quad looks so cheery from here, and it's not as if I have much of a chance to spend outdoors... normally," he adds, wondering if perhaps this isn't a dream, he should be following first contact rules and possibly shouldn't have been talking about space so much. Too late now, anyhow, and Gus hasn't seemed overly bothered. Then again, Gus seems to have a calm demeanor in general. "As amazing as this old library is, and truly I could spend eons reading all these volumes, I think some fresh air might do me some good. If I can find my way out." Agamede picks a direction and begins to trot forward in what Julian hopes is towards a door.

"Shouldn't be too difficult," says Gus, scrutinizing the young man as he follows at a leisurely pace. "I'm afraid I don't really know how the dreams work - or how much time typically passes," he goes on. "I doubt the system is very rigid. Time and reality are... regrettably inconsistent here, in my limited experience." He frowns thoughtfully, the various inconsistencies of Julian's conversation starting to add up. "Forgive me, are you... Did you arrive in Manhattan, as the rest did?"

Julian pauses to look around a corner, then shakes his head and continues onwards in what he hopes is a logical direction for an exit to somewhere. He frowns, confused at the question.

"Manhattan... New York?" he asks, realizing that it sound ridiculous as soon as it comes out of his mouth. There aren't really that many other Manhattans he can think of, at least that Gus would be asking about. While Julian was never really a very good student of history, he figures that at best Gus is from another time of Earth than he is, possibly 20-22nd century. They all blended together, really, he was awful at history... "No, I'm afraid I haven't been there, at least not recently. I visited once, as a student. Arrived as did the rest of whom?" he adds as an afterthought, curiously.

Edited 2014-03-31 20:47 (UTC)

Gus isn't sure what to say to that. He had thought the dreams were only subject to Rift-comers, not open season for anyone. Is it even worth getting to know this man?

Or could there be some other explanation - that he doesn't remember, or that he hasn't arrived yet?

"Everyone I've encountered in these dreams has been from Manhattan," he says blandly, deciding to avoid mentioning the Rift just now. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to assume."

The man obviously doesn't sound like a New Yorker, with his sharp English accent, and he seems almost like he doesn't reside on Earth at all. Gus isn't sure how many questions he should bother asking, and so he doesn't say any more just yet.

"Ah," says Cosmia after a moment. "Looks like we've found an exit."

"That is strange," Julian says carefully. "And you certainly had every right to assume. Seems unlikely that I would be here at all, but somehow I have been arrived despite it all... or somehow been misplaced. I hope I was meant to come here, not trespassing. Though whose dream we have all fallen into,, I wouldn't know," he adds, with only a slight hint of worry.

Agamede runs forward a bit when Cosmia speaks, and a flash of something flits across Julian's face. It isn't pain, exactly, almost a realization. She hasn't gone far from him yet, but after a few more feet of scampering towards the exit, he puts a hand to his chest and says, "Wait, Agamede. Would be nice if there was a rulebook on all this," he mumbles softly. The feeling is unexplainable at the moment, but not something he feels like experimenting with again. Are dreams supposed to be painful? Julian pushes open the door, letting in a stream of outside air, smelling of grass recently cut.

"After you," he says to Gus, as he scoops Agamede back up in his arms.

"Are you all right?" asks Gus, frowning. Julian's wince was quick and transient, but Gus is something of a trained eye at this sort of thing.

He steps out onto the lawn and offers a hand to Julian's elbow, a casual, courteous gesture.

"I... yes. I think so," Julian admits, attempting not to think too hard about any of this. It is all a bit much. "It hurt. Not in a way I could really describe, but I think perhaps she can't go very far from me. At least not without some sort of... pain. We seem to be attached, not in a way I can see or understand. I don't know, she hadn't gone far enough yet I think, I don't think anyway, but I knew immediately I didn't want to find out what happened if she went farther." He reaches up with one hand to entwine his fingers into her fur, and Agamede snuggles in against his neck deeply. "We don't have whatever she and Cosmia are in my world."

He let's Gus help him by the elbow, though the feeling has all but faded except the memory of it. There's nothing so bad about a handsome man showing you kindness, after all, right? "Thank you, Gus. Ah! This is much better," he adds, taking a deep breath and looking up at the trees, clearly either the end of spring or beginning of summer, he'd judge. Warm, green... it feels more real than any dream he has ever experienced. "Wherever we are, it is quite lovely."

Edited 2014-04-01 13:52 (UTC)

"Nor mine," says Gus softly, making a mental note not to let himself become separated from Cosmia for any reason. He smiles as Julian brightens, visibly enjoying the environment. A little too picturesque for Gus's taste, but it is certainly pleasant.

"You said you were a Doctor?" he asks. "What sort, if I may ask?"

Gus always likes to know what sort of scientist he's working with. Julian might prove useful to him, if he does in fact come through the Rift.

"Of the medical sort," Julian says, "I'm a chief medical officer, so in truth I have to be more like a jack of all trades in medicine. Research and pathology, but also general practioner, surgeon, and field medicine." Julian runs his hands over the tree bark as they walk, more absent-mindedly than actually observing or noting anything. Just to ground himself that this is as real as the library, the breeze and smell of growing things, the small insects buzzing and the sound of his feet on the paved pathways. Strange that it is daytime here, but he supposes it is daytime somewhere at any given time.

"Perhaps not very interesting, I'm afraid. I wanted to be a tennis player when I was young, that would have made for good conversation, though I certainly love medicine now. What about you? What do you do in your real world? Manhattan?"

"I don't think medicine is uninteresting at all," says Gus, surprised at Julian's dismissive attitude. Tennis, on the other hand... but it would be impolite to say so. "It's very important work you're doing. Perhaps the most important." A medical doctor is not the sort Gus might necessarily be looking for, but it also never hurts to know one.

He anticipates Julian's reciprocal question without having prepared an answer. His real world is certainly not Manhattan, but he has no plans to divulge anything about his life in New Mexico.

"To be honest, I haven't been in Manhattan very long," he says. "I've always been a businessman, of different kinds. I'm at a bit of a crossroads right now."

"Oh!" Really? Forgive me, then, for assuming," Julian says with a surprised but very pleased smile. It's not as if all his friends and acquaintances weren't interested in medicine and science, but there are quite the few that tell him he *really* should stop talking about this or that, or get out of the lab for a few days. "Perhaps with those I know in my world, it is less my field and more my tongue that won't still that is the problem," he adds with a grin.

"Starting over in a new place is always difficult, at least in my own experience, though worth the risk sometimes," Julian allows with a nod. "But hopefully in a place like Manhattan, you will opportunities soon. You strike me as an extremely intelligent and capable person. I'd wish you the best of luck, though I'm not sure if wishing someone luck from a dreamscape will do much at the moment." He's not sure Gus seems like the type of man who really believes much in luck, but one can be wrong about such things.

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Far Side of the Aurora Borealis

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Somehow didn't get a notification on this, sorry!

no worries, it happens! :)

Re: no worries, it happens! :)

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this stuff makes me late for work, but do I really care...?