Dreaming Wide Awake [Fourth Wall/Open]

[revenancemods]

Who: Everyone! Current characters, fourth wall characters, whoever wants to show up.
What: The portals are closed. Everyone's in Traverse Town, including a whole bunch of new people. This should be interesting.
Where: Traverse Town
When: Throughout the day
Warnings: Depends on the characters. Expect language at least.

You didn't expect to be here. You really didn't. The technicolor buildings are a surprise, as is the little white flying bear telling you you're in the dream world. He gives you a bag full of what looks to be currency, enough shiny things to create a creature of your own (or so he says), and sends you on your way.

Good luck.

Comments

[allpurposescarf]

It might be a User thing. Or it might just be a thing with him. And in any case, he's not really about to talk about that.

"Yes, I can imagine it would be. Have you been enjoying it, so far?"

[userless]

Gibson tilts his head to one side, considering.

"Hard to tell. This whole 'dream' idea is still pretty bizarre to me. But I haven't had any virus-infected programs trying to kill me so far, so it beats home."

[allpurposescarf]

"Yes, I can imagine it would. Viruses are terribly bothersome. Regardless of where you happen to be when you happen to come across them."

Of course, his last encounter with a virus was terribly awkward and had taken a good deal of quick thinking in order to get everything settled the way it should have been, but that is a conversation for another time. Assuming it happens to come up, at least.

[userless]

"Now that's an understatement. Add on a genocidal program with Admin privileges and - you know what? Suddenly this dream place doesn't seem too bad at all."

Gotta look on the bright side of things. Right? Right.

[allpurposescarf]

"Ah, now that sounds familiar. Not that I know yours, of course, but the general concept is really far more common than you might think at first. And they can be awfully hard to manage to oust, once they've gotten well and truly gotten set up. But I quite agree. This isn't a bad place at all."

It's a dream that most likely can't last forever, but it's better this than anywhere else. Especially given that there certainly doesn't seem to be anything terribly out of the ordinary here, apart from the shared dream that's going on.

[userless]

"Really? What a shame." He clicks his tongue disapprovingly, but then, all his life he's had to deal with being the different one, the one who didn't fit into a nice little neat box of blind obedience to a single directive. Should it really surprise him that there are other systems out there with the same problem?

No. No, it shouldn't.

"Anyway, I didn't catch your identification. I'm Gibson."

[allpurposescarf]

"I quite agree."

Of course, calling it a shame is putting it mildly, but he doesn't really want to bother getting into the actual details of what he might call it just at the moment. Maybe if there's time later, but right now, he's perfectly content to let it fall to the wayside.

"I'm the Doctor."

[userless]

"Yeah? Nice to meet you." That's--some kind of User occupation, Gibson is sure of it. He doesn't remember exactly what a doctor does, but he's pretty sure it's a title.

His Pricklemane, up till now investigating other things, bounces back over to introduce itself too.

[allpurposescarf]

"Likewise."

And Gibson is absolutely correct that it's a User designation although given that the Doctor isn't really very much like the title would suggest, it's just as well that Gibson doesn't much know what goes with the title.

Meanwhile, the Doctor's own Pricklemane (which he's decided to name Harry) comes bouncing over to say hello to Gibson's. New friends are always great!

[userless]

Gridbug the Pricklemane introduces himself to Harry with a spinning flourish, given that he can't actually bow with the way he's shaped. Hi! Look at my Person! He glows. Isn't that neat? He whacks some of Gibson's lower circuits with his tail lightly.

It's enough to make Gibson notice, anyway. "Hey, don't hurt yourself."

[allpurposescarf]

"Would that normally hurt someone?"

It's honest curiosity prompting the question. He's never really met any sentient programs quite like Gibson before and even then there's no telling if things will be the same across the various worlds.

It is! Harry answers with a bounce that suggests that he finds it more than a little interesting. Mine isn't nearly that interesting.

[userless]

"A normal program? Nah. But there's no telling with these things. Never seen anything like them before." But it looks like the Pricklemane certainly isn't taking any damage, so Gibson shrugs it off.

"They're supposed to fight, right? Maybe they have good combat instincts."

[allpurposescarf]

"From what I've seen, they do. At least where the local enemies are concerned."

Which is certainly better than nothing, and besides it all manages to work out well. It's not the sort of thing that he usually has to deal with, or not entirely, but it works, and that's good enough for a start.

[userless]

"Could be worse, then." He reaches down to pat the little Pricklemane once it bounces its way back to him. Sure, it's a far cry from having his friend the Monitor around, but no one ever said Gibson couldn't handle himself (at least, not in the other program's hearing). "Could be much worse."

[allpurposescarf]

"Very much so," he agrees. And given just how many things have gone wrong in some shape or form during his travels, a dream is a perfectly good alternative. And one that should hopefully be relatively calm besides.

Or at least, maybe a little less prone to trouble than what he has to usually deal with.