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]

"Well, she is their leader. At least she was in Boston."

Maybe she doesn't call the shots in Salt Lake.

"... but anyway, the Grey Lady said that I could be the cure. That it's possible. So I don't think Joel and I found the right people. We just... have to figure it out from here."

It doesn't answer her question, but it's what she's held onto.

"He doesn't want to keep going. I don't blame him."

[wasbrave]

"Yeah. After all that..." She trails off. It was a long road for both of them, longer than she's ever been on.

"But, I mean... can you let it go?" Just stop looking? Tris isn't sure she could, but then, she isn't in those shoes. She knows for sure that the right thing to do is to try and save the world, to try and get people the cure so that everything can be mended, if it's possible. But the right thing isn't always everything that matters.

[tonsofpun]

Fingers opening and closing, Ellie shuts her eyes, taking a deep breath as she presses the heels of her hands into them. The long pause before she answers gives away her state of mind. But even so, she comes up shaking her head, a sort of wry, knowing smile on her lips, serious and composed.

"Tess and Riley died for this. They weren't the only ones. I can't give up. Not after everything."

[wasbrave]

A deep breath. She returns that same smile without thinking about it. "I don't know if it helps any, but... I couldn't either, if it was me."

Having the possibility of fixing something - of maybe helping other people so that they don't have to go through the same terrible things, and just leaving it behind? No way.

[tonsofpun]

It makes her smile, and she lowers her hands, ducking her head.

"Yeah, it kinda helps. ... I feel like a selfish asshole either way, but there's no way to win. Riley says I shouldn't worry about what I should do, and just do what I think is right."

[wasbrave]

"Yeah? I think so, too." She bumps her shoulder against her friend's. "Joel's probably gonna be against it, but... I dunno, sometimes I think there are things you just have to do."

[tonsofpun]

The bump makes her grin despite herself, and Ellie bumps back, then leans in and sets her cheek against Tris's shoulder, shutting her eyes. She's not especially affectionate, not physically, which means this is really weighing on her.

"Joel can deal with it."

[wasbrave]

"Yeah. He'll live."

Tris still isn't used to any kind of casual physical contact, so all of this is very strange for her. She tenses when Ellie settles against her, and has to make a conscious effort to not sit there like she's made out of brick. It gets easier from wanting to comfort her friend somehow.

"I'd go with you."

[tonsofpun]

Touching helps quiet the pain thumping through her body and head, she's figured out. If nothing else, it accomplishes that much.

"I know you would," she mumbles, eyes still shut. Even if she knows, it's still causing a little lump in her throat. She wishes she could.

Ellie realizes with a sudden, horrible pang that she's going to miss Tris, when all of this is done. She's going to miss her just as much as she misses Riley. It's kind of scary, realizing how much she cares, because she knows what she can lose.

[wasbrave]

Tris is thinking along much the same lines. Knowing, at the same time, that the last times she was home she didn't even remember makes it worse. If she hadn't met Ellie, she isn't sure where she'd be. Her throat closes up a little at the thought, distorting her voice as she replies.

"I guess we don't get to choose where we go back to in the end." And even if she could, she would never forgive herself for running and leaving her friends at home behind.

[tonsofpun]

"We don't get to choose a lot of what happens," Ellie whispers back. It's one of those things that makes her sound impossibly older, like she's used up everything.

The next part sounds much more like her.

"All we can do is choose how we want to deal with it. Me, I'm gonna fight for all I can get."

[wasbrave]

"You'll probably go and start a fight with as many of the gods as it takes." She smiles as she says it, because that's Ellie all over. She wants to believe they'll find some way, but isn't sure she can yet.

[tonsofpun]

"Oh yeah, one after another-"

Laughing, Ellie links their arms so she can give her a squeeze. She feels... better. Much better.

[wasbrave]

"Loki's gonna start betting on how it goes-" It's a weight off her shoulders to see Ellie cheering up, and laughing about it helps, it helps a lot. She doesn't want to start thinking about leaving everyone she's met here, she doesn't want to have to fight anyone to let her keep anything at all. But she will.

[tonsofpun]

"Odin's gonna come in and start refusing to weigh in and asking all the fucking moral questions..."

Big, big sigh. "Can I fight Baldr? He's the one I wanna punch in the face."

[wasbrave]

It would make a great story, in all.

"Why him?"

[tonsofpun]

"Because he's a shithead, Tris. He's such a shithead."

[wasbrave]

"I haven't met the guy. He's that bad, huh?"

[tonsofpun]

"I've met worse, but not by a whole lot. He's not Tom Riddle or Barty Crouch bad, but I'd rather make out with a horse than be trapped in a room with him for an hour."

[wasbrave]

"That's an interesting way to measure it."

[tonsofpun]

"It's impossible to describe it if you don't know him."

Ellie gives her a slow smile anyway. She's calmed down by now, feeling much better. Slowly, she leans back within their forest of leaves, watching them wave slightly in the wind. It's nice up here, removed and secluded, but they can still watch the world.

It reminds her of things long buried, a more peaceful time, if her life could ever have been called peaceful.

"Anyway. As long as we're dragging all this crap out. Any questions? Anything you're curious about?"

[wasbrave]

Tris has never seen this many tall trees in one place before she came to Asgard, so she isn't reminded of anything. But it is peaceful. A kind of quiet, even though there's the rustling of leaves everywhere. She takes a deep breath, looking out of their world and down into the streets.

"Do you know anything about your parents? I guess your mom used to be friends with the leader of the fireflies, but besides that?"

[tonsofpun]

Ellie picks at her fingernails, then slides the switchblade out of her pocket, turning it over in her fingers. It's old but well-made, polished by countless time in her hand. The blade shows no hint of rust.

Gently, she hands it over to Tris. It will come into play soon.

"I still don't know anything about my dad," she begins. "I didn't know about my mom, either, not until I was thirteen."

Ellie doesn't sound sad, or the distant type of tired she gets when it's all too much. This sounds thoughtful, a little wistful.

"I don't know how I got dropped off, or how old I was. Not having parents is pretty normal. I got passed around from school to school. ... and then I met Marlene."

She shrugs a little. "It was the first night after I met Riley. We snuck out of the school and got attacked by some Infected. The Fireflies saved our asses. ... and then they bagged us, until Marlene recognized me."

Ellie takes a very deep breath, lets it go. There's still a lot she doesn't understand. "I'd never seen her before. But she knew all about me, like she'd been checking up on my records. She took us back to the school. And then she gave me a letter. And the knife." She nods at the switchblade in Tris's hands.

"... that's when she told me my mom's name was Anna."

Carefully, she opens her backpack and takes out a small, folded, ancient bit of notebook paper. It's water-damaged and bloodstained, but she's always kept it close. She hands it over.

"She died right after I was born."

[wasbrave]

Tris handles the knife and the letter with great care. She doesn't know what it's like to grow up without a family, nor can she really imagine it. Losing your family and never having one in the first place, she feels, are very different things.

She hands the knife back so that she can unfold the letter with both hands, smoothing it over like a very precious thing - because it is. Having something personal to hold on to after someone passes always is. She reads it quietly, turning it over for the last lines. Folding it back up and handing it back to Ellie, she looks solemn.

"Did she ever tell you anything else? Marlene, I mean."

[tonsofpun]

Ellie takes the letter back, holding it carefully in her fingertips. Tris is only the second person she's ever shown. Harry was the first -- and only because they'd been through something so similar, grown up without knowing.

She puts it away, then shrugs, picking at a leaf.

"She told Riley more than she ever told me. ... Riley says that she used to be a nurse, before the Infection hit. And I guess they argued a lot -- and that I remind Marlene of my mom."