OPT-OUT EVENT LOG: DREAM A LITTLE DREAM

[asgardmods]

Who: EVERYONE that stayed in Asgard
What: the Dream a Little Dream mingle log
When: Day 515 ( Sept. 25/26 )
Where: all across the city!
Rating: PG-13. Anything higher than that should be taken to a private log, please!

Day 515 ( Sept. 25/26 )

Progress through the ice blockade will be slow and narrow, as they can't possibly hope to clear the entirety of the forest that has been buried under Thiazi's black ice. Now that they know the source of her magic's corruption, it might not come as a great surprise when cracking open the ice unleashes a strange burst of magic.

At the halfway point between Utgard and Asgard, a pulse of energy will move through the entire city, immediately putting every mortal it touches to sleep. This part of the curse is mandatory and your character must fall asleep; the dream effects of it are not mandatory, and can be played with at your discretion. During this first wave, Travellers will be granted a brief dream - that does not belong to them. They will see, from the dreamer's point of view, every hope and goal and aspiration that the dreamer wishes to complete before the end of days. Whether it's simply confessing their love to an old friend or saving their home planet or perfecting an Asgardian pie, your character will see someone else's ideal resolution before Ragnarok. More on plotting this below!

Upon waking, the Travellers will be plagued with the indistinct whispering of several voices overlapping one another and a slight headache. Both symptoms will gradually increase over time until it reaches incapacitating pain and nausea. The only way to assuage the symptoms is to find the owner of the dream and either maintain physical contact for an hour or discuss the subject of the dream until a full confession has been made. After that, the symptoms will fade and the Travellers will be free to carry on with their day.

There will be other pulses of magic at random throughout the day; these are not mandatory and you can feel free to have your character experience as many or as few dreams as you wish. All dream-sharing will cease by the end of the day, as the blockade progresses past that centre-point of magic.

[ OOC NOTES: This is the mingle log for the Dream a Little Dream opt-out event! Random pairings have already been sent out, but you guys can still feel free to plot with each and pair up anywhere you like. Please remember that these dreams are meant to be positive; details can be found here. Please put [OPEN/CLOSED] along with the time and location in the title of your comment. Let us know if you have any questions! ]

Comments

[tonsofpun]

Going quiet, Ellie grips the material of Riley's shirt to have something to do with her hand.

"What happened?"

[everysecond]

"You had a really nice home with him. You were just...home." Obviously, she wasn't there in that dream. It bothers her that the dream wouldn't include her and yet it also doesn't. It makes sense that it wouldn't.

"It was a nice place. I liked that it could be a home for you live in."

[tonsofpun]

Ellie can't explain why it feels like a betrayal, but it does. She wants to live, wants to do more than scrape and survive and fight for every breath. She wants to have the room to breathe, to smile, the same as she does in Asgard.

In Asgard.

The question, as the final battle comes closer, becomes even more important. It is understood that at the end of this, they will leave. They will return to their worlds.

Riley won't.

They both know why Ellie has to go back. She's fought for every mile of that journey, every footstep, but the one thing that could distract her is right here, pressed close to her side and breathing against her skin.

"It felt like here."

[everysecond]

"I kinda got that actually. I was pretty happy for you."

She really wants Ellie to have that too. In the end she knows she can't have that with her and this is something that she's accepted but she just wants Ellie to have that with someone. If Joel is it then Joel it is. Whether or not she gets along with the guy doesn't matter for that. If nothing else, he'll have her girl's back.

"It looked nice."

[tonsofpun]

Ellie is silent again. This time it's for a while. Then, she rolls onto her back, stares up at the fan and weighs her words.

"Riley?"

She doesn't look away, can't look at her when she says this, because it's so unbelievably selfish, but it's the truth and she can't ignore it.

"Are we ever gonna talk about it?"

[everysecond]

Talk about it. Riley knows what she wants to talk about but she doesn't want to talk about that because there isn't anything to be done about it. One day this will all end and Ellie will only have Joel and she'll be dead and...

It makes her feel sick sometimes. Hell, she still has nightmares about turning and ripping Ellie and...

Wow, this is hard to think about just in her own head. Fuck.

"What's there to talk about?"

[tonsofpun]

How I'd stay if you asked me to.

Ellie shuts her eyes, has to remind herself to breathe normally.

"... how I'm never just gonna walk away from you."

The bite enters her words, the implication that it hurts that Riley would ever think she would. She hadn't, back in that old mall. They both knew what it took to drive her back to the Fireflies, what it took to convince her to leave.

[everysecond]

She hesitates then and falls quiet. It would be so easy to just ask Ellie to stay with her. Like what Ellie did with her.

Don't go...

She doesn't want her to leave her and she doesn't want to hold her back either. Her girl deserves to have this chance to find happiness. To be free of everything. If Joel is what gives her that then... Fuck, Joel. He's going to think she's trying to steal Ellie away from him. That's not at all what she intends to do. But...

"You have your hero mission, remember?"

[tonsofpun]

"So did you."

It feels like a hollow protest. Riley's dream was nothing like what fell into her lap, nothing like what she's responsible for now.

"You left everything for me, you gave up everything to keep me alive, and I-"

Ellie trails off, both wanting to hold her breath and scream. Instead she sinks her teeth into her lip. Ellie has never complained about the journey, about the danger, about what she's been through. It's never been about what's easier. It's about what feels right.

"I'm supposed to just take that and leave?"

[everysecond]

She actually lets out a hollow laugh. Ellie giving up everything for her. It's not that Riley doesn't want this but she doesn't want to be that fucking selfish. Stealing her from the world just feels like a fucking bitch move and like it might turn her into something terrible.

But...it's Ellie.

"Fuck."

With a deep breath, she figures out what she's supposed to say.

"Can I hear all the details about what you saw about me? Please?"

[tonsofpun]

It's hard to breathe around that knot in the back of her throat, the weight settled down on her heart like a cold brick. Ellie never likes to fight with anybody, and it's made harder because she knows that Riley understands. She feels exactly the same way, but she'd never tell her to stay, no matter how much it would hurt to let her go.

Maybe that's the difference between them.

Ellie lets out a hollow laugh, and carefully doesn't move, doesn't blink. She has to calm down or she'll do something stupid, like tear up. They keep coming back to that old mall, but now the situation is completely reversed, as far as Ellie is concerned.

Guilt didn't make Riley cross a city full of soldiers. But guilt sure as hell played a part in getting Ellie to fight her way across a country full of clickers, hunters and cannibals.

"... we were in the shop. I was picking up stuff I'd need, and you were there with me. Not... in your body."

Quietly, Ellie goes on to explain the dream in as much detail as she can, leaving nothing out.

[everysecond]

Riley listens to everything in complete silence. Yeah, that sounds like a dream she'd have and she's had thoughts like that before, especially after getting close to Bunny and him saying she could be a Guardian. It had sounded so...so cool. Ellie had been so right about that.

She lets out a sigh and rolls around to rest on her side with her head resting on Ellie's stomach, facing toward her. Smiling a bit, she closes her eyes while she figures out what she even wants to say.

"Wouldn't that be cool? If I really was there watching over you like that?"

[tonsofpun]

She's a little heavy, but Ellie's core muscles have gotten much stronger lately, and with just a little tightening, it's not uncomfortable. She reaches down and tugs her bun lightly, a hint of playfulness in all the heavy talk.

"I'm not totally convinced you aren't. It sounds exactly like the kind of thing you'd be cut out for."

[everysecond]

"You know it. And then I'd have your back still."

Opening her eyes, she smiles at her. Ellie's the only one allowed to touch her hair and she damn well plans to keep it that way. Everyone else can just get lost.

"Want me to let it down?"

[tonsofpun]

Riley is trying to distract her, and fuck her, it's working. She hides a smile and tugs her bun again, running her thumb over it.

"Yeah, sure."

Slowly, she begins to relax, tugs playfully on Riley's ear, tweaks her nose. She doesn't like it when they're too somber for too long -- it makes her think of the first night they met, the one and only time she'd seen Riley cry.

[everysecond]

She wrinkles her nose then frees her hair. With it down, she flops down again and closes her eyes. That's so much better.

"There. Now you can play with it and everything. Which only you are allowed to do I might add."

[tonsofpun]

Ellie settles too, an arm behind her head to prop it up so she can look down, and Riley can't see up her nose -- and finds the warm patch of skin behind Riley's ear to trail a fingertip over. Slowly, Ellie is coming around to the idea of cuddling, mostly because Riley insists on using her as a pillow in some form or another.

Secretly, she does enjoy the contact. She's not an especially romantic person and she'll often deflect things with jokes or sarcasm, but she's starting to tolerate Riley's aggressive form of skinship.

"It's not my fault that your hair's fun to touch."

[everysecond]

Riley sighs because that feels good. Yeah, Ellie is definitely the best at petting her, no one else can compare. Smiling a bit more, she nuzzles a bit then settles.

Ellie may have kissed her first but Riley has definitely been the one to cuddle her more. She likes it that way actually. It works for them.

"Because it's a curly mess?"

[tonsofpun]

"Because it's way, super soft, like a cloud or something."

She's getting dumb about it, so she pulls a face, pressing her fingers into Riley's hair so they meet her scalp, and rubbing. She found out accidentally that Riley really likes this.

[everysecond]

"I hair you on that one."

She falls quiet. Just letting her pun sink in. Yep, just letting that one sink in for Ellie...

[tonsofpun]

Slowly, slowly, Ellie lets out a low groan, trying to hide a wheezing little laugh.

"That's so bad."

[everysecond]

"Awww c'mon. It wasn't the worst. You did laugh."

Okay yeah, she knows it was horrible. Still, just hearing that little laugh is enough for her.

[tonsofpun]

Ellie's mostly laughing because it's Riley telling it, but she can't go and say that.

"What do you call bees that produce milk?"

[everysecond]

This is actually not one that she knows off the top of her head so she thinks about it a bit. Huh. Bees that produce milk?

"What?"

[tonsofpun]

"Boo-bees."