brink: (Serious | Upset | This secret we have)
Topher Brink ([personal profile] brink) wrote in [community profile] applesaucedream2014-02-01 02:48 am

Hijacked dream party

Tonight's dream party is, unconventionally enough, not organised by the rift, but by Topher!

Thing is, he was sort of supposed to only pull in a few very specific, targeted people, and all of a sudden, this whole lot comes pouring in. See, he's working with someone with the power of ability amplification, making Topher's dream abilities obscenely powerful for tonight, and he's not quite used to it.

The dreamers will find themselves in an old mansion at nighttime. Lots and lots of rooms; several bedrooms and bathrooms of various sizes, studies, library, sitting rooms, kitchen, dining rooms, games/billiards room, even secret passageways... There's a fire roaring in every grate, everything is warmly lit, with lots of dark corners to sneak off to, comfortable couches, plenty of drinks tables. There's also a pervasive feeling that you're safe, that you can relax. That whispered secrets in the dark will be kept. And everyone will feel much less compelled to judge or mock upon hearing those secrets. A night for confessions. All of a sudden, it's hard to resist opening up...

Of course, the dreamers don't know there's someone listening in, seeing everything that goes on, sometimes even manipulating things to go the way he wants. Certain people with psychic/telepathic/dream abilities may eventually cotton on, though. But it'll take a while. But the secrets you tell in the meantime may not remain secrets for that long. Especially if those secrets are useful to certain other important players in the city, quite apart from the two factions our rifties have become familiar with.

[Mod note: Usual dream party rules apply. All players and characters are welcome, current members or no. Characters will remember or forget all dream events at players' discretion. Bear in mind that any events or information shared in this dream will be available to Topher, and, by extension, probably his bosses, such as Beatrice.]
theoldgirl: (side)

[personal profile] theoldgirl 2014-02-02 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Bluntness is the opposite of a problem with the TARDIS, she much prefers it to the circumlocution most humans are prone to. But somehow that still isn't a question she was expecting, and she visibly struggles with trying to figure out how to answer it. Where to even start? Simply brushing it off doesn't occur to her for some reason, even though she doesn't know the girl and hasn't felt at all forthcoming about the matter so far.

"I am... avoiding people," she finally admits reluctantly. "I have recently experienced... a loss, and the inanity of most other relationships grates me. I will not make the mistake of expecting corporeal reality to provide me with happiness again." She's still looking down at her plate, but her expression and voice have taken on a bitter edge as she went on. "It was easier when I wasn't involved." Or so she thought, because it hasn't gotten any easier at all.
rae_of_sun: (welp)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-02-02 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Sunshine might be gaping a little, but gods and frigging angels, who do you have to lose before you give up on corporeal reality? That is a hell of a lot to just… dismiss. (And what does that even leave her with? Incorporeal reality?)

"I'm… sorry," Sunshine says, because that seems like the best thing to start with. Maybe she can't comprehend the TARDIS's grief (she definitely can't, in fact - she's lost her whole universe, but even that hasn't pushed her to the point of becoming a shut-in), but that doesn't make it less genuine. And she does know what it's like to have your life take such a turn for the carthaginian awful that death starts to look like not just an inevitability, but an acceptable one.

It was easier when she wasn't involved, too.

So it's with a perhaps surprising amount of wry sympathy that she asks, "How's that working out for you?"
theoldgirl: (looking down)

[personal profile] theoldgirl 2014-02-03 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Sunshine's sympathy doesn't really register with the TARDIS, but her question seems too astute to bother refusing to answer. "I'm terribly lonely," she admits at length, speaking softly without meeting her eyes. "And as good as blind, in this universe. There isn't anything for me to see outside of this point in time and space so fraught with misery, nothing to give me... perspective, a respite."

It's not like this is the first time in her long life that she's suffering, that she lost something so dear to her, that she was stranded or cut off from the Doctor. But she could always take solace in the flow of Time, could observe the beauty in the turn of the universe and rest assured in its inviolable perfection and order. Not so here.
rae_of_sun: (lemme splain you a thing)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-02-04 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
This would normally be the part where Sunshine regrets asking, but she's finding herself willing to listen to the TARDIS's woes without any private mental chorus of oh gods get me out of here. Maybe it's because she's getting such a strong Yolande vibe from her. The TARDIS's shadows, bearing and speech patterns are all close enough to her landlady's, so add that to her (albeit temporary) appreciation of Sunshine's carrot cake, and you get one baker who's inclined to like the TARDIS right off the bat.

So, okay, she's trying not to judge. But since she doesn't know she's talking to a space-and-time-ship, this is all sounding like the kind of desperately overwrought metaphor she associates with books like Immortal Death. Sunshine's having a hard time coming up with a delicate way to point out the pretty obvious link between avoiding people and loneliness (or between navel-gazing and a lack of perspective, for that matter).

"Well… and no disrespect," Sunshine adds, raising her hands in humble appeasement, "but it kind of sounds like you need to get out more."
theoldgirl: (arguing)

[personal profile] theoldgirl 2014-02-04 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
It's not like she was expecting the girl to understand; humans never do, and certainly not random strangers. But her answer is so frustratingly simple and useless that she can't help glancing up with an edge of disdain to her expression.

"What makes you think you know what I need? I'm not human, what this universe has done and is doing to me is not going to be soothed by inconsequential conversation and food. This lack of understanding is exactly why I have given up trying to converse with linear beings." She doesn't really mean to attack Sunshine, but opening up about something so difficult and painful only to be reminded of how futile it is to try and find comfort is making her rather irritable.
rae_of_sun: (argumentative)

[personal profile] rae_of_sun 2014-02-04 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
See, this is why Sunshine doesn't sit around and listen to other people talk about their feelings. No one really wants practical advice, they just want to mope with an audience. Which, by the way, is so un-Yolande that a significant portion of her good will evaporates.

"Fine," she says, stepping back. Part of her wonders what the hell brand of 'not human' the TARDIS is, but the larger part just wants out of this conversation. "Continue being a recluse and - and alienating people. I'm sure that will do wonders for your loneliness." Ugh. Sunshine wipes her hands on her apron as if she can rid herself of the last five minutes that way, then turns to leave.