I'll See You in My Dreams [WIDE-OPEN PARTY THREAD]

[applesaucemod]

Sometimes the rift only gives the denizens of Manhattan strange dreams. Sometimes, two people will find themselves together in the Dreaming. And other times? Other times, the Dreaming takes hold of dozens of people at once, throwing them all together into one shared mental space while they sleep.

Tonight is one of those nights -- what's more, the rift has outdone itself this time, telepathic tendrils reaching out through the rift into other universes to pull in even those who haven't been physically transported to this world...yet. You might meet a stranger from another world, or you might run into your next-door neighbor. You might notice right away that this isn't the waking world and that you are not alone, or you may drift through blissfully unaware that anything is out of the ordinary. You might not even remember this in the morning at all.

And that's probably going to be fortunate for at least a few people, because what you will notice is the overwhelming desire to get cozy with someone. It's chilly in this big house where you've found yourself, but luckily for you, there are beds, beanbags, and blankets galore, all of them just perfect for getting cuddly with your new friends. Consider yourself lucky that dream-world cameras can't upload photos to the real-world internet.


[It's a Dreaming party, and everyone is welcome! Tag a friend, tag a stranger, whatever! Everyone who's been pulled in will be feeling unusually friendly and cuddly, so get a-snuggling. Some characters (particularly those with strong telepathic defenses) may not be as strongly affected as others; the extent of the Dreaming's effect on each character is up to the mun's discretion.

Also, when we say everyone, we mean everyone. Non-members are welcome to tag into this post, so feel free to voice-test new characters here, and to invite friends who aren't in the game to come do some meeting and greeting. If you've come upon this post and aren't a member of this game, you are welcome to tag into this post.

For those who are familiar with the brbG parties, this is basically like that. Post a tag with your character's arrival and await replies. Time is bendy in here, so each character can have multiple replies/threads. Have fun!]

Comments

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy rolls her eyes, though she's too cheerful to let him really hit a nerve. "Or they wanted the best future for their daughter. Look how that turned out," she answers, raising her bottle in a toast and taking a drink.

[fucking_ebay]

"What, they didn't have a course on avoiding alien wankers?" Sensitivity, thy name is Peter Vincent. He toasts and drinks some more beer -- it's nice how his bottle doesn't seem to be getting any closer to empty. "They never teach the really useful stuff, do they?"

[essentiallyharmless]

Even though half the bottle went over Lucy. Though you couldn't tell anymore. And if she wanted sensitivity, she wouldn't be talking to Peter.

"I meant to take How To Avoid The Apocalypse 101, but they were full up," Lucy answers, trying to think up course names. "And I failed How To Know When You're Dating An Immortal, Time-Traveling, Telepathic Alien Bent On World Domination And Mind Rewriting." Yep, she's over-sharing again.

[fucking_ebay]

"They didn't offer How to Survive a Vampire Attack until I was in secondary," muses Peter. "Much too fucking late to be covering that material, thanks. Got to get it in early."

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy pauses, taken aback by Peter actually returning her oversharing. And while what he's saying comes as a bit of a surprise, it does make perfect sense, when she considers it.

She doesn't want to interrupt, in case he wants to share more, but she feels a surprising amount of sympathy for him. So she reaches over to wrap an arm around him, snuggling a bit closer to sort of comfort him.

This would've gone so differently if it happened in real life.

[fucking_ebay]

Peter rests his head against hers. So strange to be cuddling up with someone. He finds he likes it more than he would have expected. So relaxing. Eyes sliding shut, he adds ambiguously, "I think he was fucking with me."

[essentiallyharmless]

Very relaxing, and there's something about this dream that just seems to remove the majority of her/their self-consciousness. "Who?" she asks quietly, confused now, but hoping the question won't remind him that he's actually sharing.

[fucking_ebay]

"The vampire." That seems like it should be self explanatory. "Hiding in the closet? Give me a fucking break, that'd never work."

Especially now that he knows what type of vampire it was. That had been one of the ways he'd reassured himself that it hadn't been real, though -- because if it had been real, he wouldn't have survived.

[essentiallyharmless]

"Why would he do that?" she asks. Lucy doesn't actually know what happened to Peter's parents yet. It doesn't make sense to her that a vampire would just let a victim/witness go.

[fucking_ebay]

"To fuck with me," reiterates Peter, skirting the question. It's hard enough to face the fact that the worst day of his life was just a game for the creature, without putting it all into words.

[essentiallyharmless]

"It took someone else?" she asks carefully, sensing that might be something he's avoiding. She doesn't want to push her luck, but she doesn't want the opportunity slip by either.

[fucking_ebay]

"What do you think?" And there, he appears to have hit his limit. Peter opens his eyes, shifting to press a little less closely against her. Part of him still wants to go on and just tell her everything, but another part of him is arguing that it's none of her business.

[essentiallyharmless]

That's a yes, then. But who? Family? Siblings, parents? Friend? Girlfriend? She's not going to push the subject. The specifics aren't really important.

She just wants to let him know that she would actually be there to listen if he wants to share, but she's not sure how. When he shifts, so does she, but rather than move away from him, she moves up a bit and puts her hand on his cheek, turning his face towards him, and she kisses him. Not the rushed, messy, sexual kisses they've shared so far, but just a sweet, gentle one.

[fucking_ebay]

He shifts as if to pull away from her hand, but ultimately lets her -- and it's not what he expects, not at all. Peter's not sure what to do with this, actually, but he's not objecting. Not really.

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy's not sure what she's doing with this herself, really. Reaching out? It's been a long time since she was emotionally intimate with anyone. But she doesn't really expect Peter to deal with that very well, so there are limits to how open and trusting she can be.

And she's definitely not going to discuss it. Unless Peter wants to, but she doubts that. Instead she just rests her head on his chest again, ending up just as snuggled up as before inside their cocoon.

[fucking_ebay]

Wasn't he going to pull away and give her the cold shoulder a moment ago? Instead, he seems to be putting an arm around her and setting his chin on her head.

He's caught on by now that this isn't the real world. His real world doesn't have a house like this, and in the real world Lucy wouldn't have just kissed him like that -- they'd be fucking or they'd be arguing right now. And he wants to say it -- having admitted it to Charley and having killed Jerry, it's been worse to go back to pretending.

"It killed my parents," he says softly, admitting it to what he thinks is only his own sleeping mind. "I was nine."

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy's honestly not sure what this is. She's assumed it's another one of those intergalactic parties with the Doctor. It certainly held some similarities. Yet it doesn't feel quite right, and she's not sure why Peter would be here. She does actually think this has at least some ties to reality, however, even if she hasn't been considering it a lot.

Hearing Peter tell her breaks her heart a little though. Which is impressive, since she'd been starting to think she didn't have much of a heart left to break. Numb and careless and snarky worked rather well for her.

"I'm sorry..." she answers quietly, the sadness evident in her voice. If nothing else, Lucy had at least had a fairly happy childhood. It wasn't until a few years ago that things went wrong.

[fucking_ebay]

That's...different. He hasn't actually told anyone about that (other than Brewster) since he was ten or eleven and he finally got it into his head that no one was going to listen. He's spent a long time trying not to think about it, or about who he might have been otherwise.

"So am I," he admits, feeling a little hollow...but a little relieved. He can't imagine telling this to the real Lucy -- she doesn't strike him as all that sympathetic, for all her prying and her attempts to coax more information out of him. It's a bit pathetic, isn't it, that he has to turn to a dream for this.

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy is unsure what to do to comfort him that she isn't already doing. She just remains close to him, listening to his heartbeat, waiting for him to continue, but he doesn't. She considers sharing something with him in return, to return his trust.

"...My husband murdered my big brother," she admits quietly after a few more moments, her voice a bit raspy. "Right in front of me. Because I tried to take my own life..." Not many people know about that. It hadn't been for show, it had been personal and private. A lesson, a promise, to tell her to behave, or else. Most of the stuff she's shared with Peter, she's not so bothered if anyone knows. It's things she's distanced herself from, made herself cold. But this one still hurts.

Never mind that in all likelihood, he's still safe back in her universe. It never happened to him. But she remembers, and she never saw him again after that, being put in isolation, then coming here. She'll never see any of her family again, neither of her two brothers, nor her parents. This might be a blessing, given the state of her, but she still misses them if she lets herself think about it.

[fucking_ebay]

Peter takes in a sharp breath. She said abusive, but he didn't (doesn't?) think it was like that. He wishes briefly that they could talk like this for real -- but he'll just have to make the best of whatever this is.

Realizing he should offer some words of comfort, he gives her a little squeeze. "I'm sorry," he says, knowing it isn't adequate. For him, though -- well, it's not like he's normally the supportive type at all. "My girlfriend was killed a few months ago," he adds, since apparently they're sharing all their worst memories. "Vampire. Minion of the same vampire, actually."

[essentiallyharmless]

"Stop trying to one-up me," she answers with a smile, though it's a very weak one, and a bad joke. It's difficult to remain completely sincere over time, but given the fact she's close to tears over both their fates, it's not an unkind joke.

"I guess it's not so strange you didn't want to talk about her," she adds, sympathetically. It's a very long way from snarking about how unsurprising it was for him to be single. "What happened?"

[fucking_ebay]

"What, you don't want to hear about the shitty time I had in foster care?" chuckles Peter, finishing off his beer. Maybe he'll decide it's full again later. He sniffs in a breath, considering. "She went to answer the door," he replies. "It was posing as a deliveryman, and I'd said it could come up." Thus the invitation. Thus Ginger's death being 100% his fault.

[essentiallyharmless]

Not even a single 1% of blame given to the actual vampire, huh? And she wouldn't mind listening to Peter talking more about his childhood. Now she understands why he was snippy about her privileged upbringing, too.

She doesn't put up with his whining, but she has no problem with him sharing things that actually affects him on an emotional level - not just how annoyed he is about living in a dump.

"What about the vampire?" she asks. Since apparently it came to visit Peter, who is clearly still alive.

[fucking_ebay]

Oh, it was also 100% the vampire's fault. And he's pretty sure it's at least a little bit the fault of every magical creature ever. That's part of the reason it's so unreasonable for the rebels to expect him to live like he has been, aside from the pittance they expect him to live on.

What about living in a shithole apartment with sparklepires for neighbors doesn't affect him on an emotional level?

"Dead now," he shrugs. "Charley killed it -- Charley was the one who brought it to my doorstep, actually. Didn't mean to. We killed the parent, too, later."

[essentiallyharmless]

Granted, she has more sympathy for his hatred of non-humanoids now. She's just become so used to it herself.

"That's good," she answers with a nod. She has nothing against dead vampires. Also, she has slightly more respect for Peter, knowing he has fought vampires and lived - and not just by hiding.

"And if you really to tell me about your shitty time in foster care, I would listen," she adds with a smile. "And I could tell you what it's like to be married to the dictator of Earth, and then being in prison for a year and a half without a trial."