Paprika (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
radioclub_jp) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
maskormenacelogs2016-04-30 05:08 pm
radioclub_jp) wrote in maskormenacelogs2016-04-30 05:08 pm
[semi-open] dreamgirl
WHO: Paprika + open to first 5 responders
WHERE: in the land of sleepy dreams
WHEN: late April / early May
WHAT: Paprika finally stops behaving, starts invading people's dreams. Nbd, right?
WARNINGS: none known
Ever since she'd been Ported in, Paprika hadn't had the slightest trouble falling or staying asleep. Maybe it was part of this expanded ability she'd acquired, or maybe it was a product of being here "by herself"... no to-do lists running through her head, no stray thoughts about office politics. The first night she'd thought excitement might keep her awake, but it didn't. The second night she'd thought apprehension might, but it didn't. The third night it was dread.
Dread! Imagine that, the dream detective, dreading going to sleep! But it wasn't for no reason, of course.
She'd lay her head on the pillow and close her eyes, but when she opened them she saw nothing. Even once she entered REM sleep, nothing. She was still lucid, she'd realized the first night, but not dreaming. It would have been a different story if she were simply dreaming about nothing; in that case she'd have been able to shape the dream herself. But she wasn't having a dream. It was as if her unconscious mind had been shunted off to a holding area and forgotten about for seven to eight hours, like an unclaimed bag at the airport. She knew her body needed the sleep, and so here she was, but there was nothing to do.
Or... no, not nothing, exactly. When she held still and quieted her mind, she would catch snippets of vivid color, far-off voices, faint smells... Even without looking too closely, she knew they were other people's dreams. Accessible without a DC Mini, floating there within reach, daring her to look, to touch, to open. Worlds of infinite scope and possibility. Therein lay the true power of dreams.
"It's too dangerous," she said aloud to no one, in the dark. "You know what happened last time." Her own voice sounded like Atsuko's.
Of course she knew. She couldn't forget something like that incident, still (as far as she knew) unresolved. Only a monster would want to see reruns of that. She didn't yet know if this power she had was safe to use. But how was she supposed to find that out if she never tried? Besides, she'd been wondering... what sort of dreams would someone from another world have, anyway?
In the end, it was too much. She couldn't resist after all.
The dreams drew into sharp focus as she approached, as if she were tightening the aperture on a camera lens. There were so many of them, she hardly knew where to start. But that was easy enough to resolve. Paprika closed her eyes and raised her pointer finger.
"Eeny, meeny, miney... mo!"
She opened one eye to peek, then both. Well, that looked interesting... "Yeah, that'll do," she said, and pulling the edges of the hole apart, she slipped through into the dream.
(NOTE: I plan to do the open dream logs on a regular basis, so don't worry too much if the slots are taken - I'm just limiting it to five people for starters so as not to overwhelm myself. Please fill out permissions here!)
WHERE: in the land of sleepy dreams
WHEN: late April / early May
WHAT: Paprika finally stops behaving, starts invading people's dreams. Nbd, right?
WARNINGS: none known
Ever since she'd been Ported in, Paprika hadn't had the slightest trouble falling or staying asleep. Maybe it was part of this expanded ability she'd acquired, or maybe it was a product of being here "by herself"... no to-do lists running through her head, no stray thoughts about office politics. The first night she'd thought excitement might keep her awake, but it didn't. The second night she'd thought apprehension might, but it didn't. The third night it was dread.
Dread! Imagine that, the dream detective, dreading going to sleep! But it wasn't for no reason, of course.
She'd lay her head on the pillow and close her eyes, but when she opened them she saw nothing. Even once she entered REM sleep, nothing. She was still lucid, she'd realized the first night, but not dreaming. It would have been a different story if she were simply dreaming about nothing; in that case she'd have been able to shape the dream herself. But she wasn't having a dream. It was as if her unconscious mind had been shunted off to a holding area and forgotten about for seven to eight hours, like an unclaimed bag at the airport. She knew her body needed the sleep, and so here she was, but there was nothing to do.
Or... no, not nothing, exactly. When she held still and quieted her mind, she would catch snippets of vivid color, far-off voices, faint smells... Even without looking too closely, she knew they were other people's dreams. Accessible without a DC Mini, floating there within reach, daring her to look, to touch, to open. Worlds of infinite scope and possibility. Therein lay the true power of dreams.
"It's too dangerous," she said aloud to no one, in the dark. "You know what happened last time." Her own voice sounded like Atsuko's.
Of course she knew. She couldn't forget something like that incident, still (as far as she knew) unresolved. Only a monster would want to see reruns of that. She didn't yet know if this power she had was safe to use. But how was she supposed to find that out if she never tried? Besides, she'd been wondering... what sort of dreams would someone from another world have, anyway?
In the end, it was too much. She couldn't resist after all.
The dreams drew into sharp focus as she approached, as if she were tightening the aperture on a camera lens. There were so many of them, she hardly knew where to start. But that was easy enough to resolve. Paprika closed her eyes and raised her pointer finger.
"Eeny, meeny, miney... mo!"
She opened one eye to peek, then both. Well, that looked interesting... "Yeah, that'll do," she said, and pulling the edges of the hole apart, she slipped through into the dream.
(NOTE: I plan to do the open dream logs on a regular basis, so don't worry too much if the slots are taken - I'm just limiting it to five people for starters so as not to overwhelm myself. Please fill out permissions here!)
no subject
A soft breeze rustles the tree, and a few flower petals float loose, spiraling down to join them. Paprika catches one deftly between her fingers. "Pretty, isn't it?" she asks. Not to toot her own horn for making it, of course - just to get him to acknowledge that this is what he's experiencing. "Soon it'll be summer."
no subject
There is no deadly light on the horizon. And he's still intact; when he holds his hand up, it's all in one piece. Finally, he looks up. Nothing but the soft sway of gentle flowers, and bits of blue sky peeking through. The sense of immediate danger dims.
"I've only seen these in pictures," he confesses. "Always wanted to see one for real."
The rich had them, as well as the places that could afford small patches of green. Those parks and green places were worth too much money in a permanently limited space; most places in Neo Tokyo were covered in cement or metal.
no subject
"They don't have sakura where you're from?" she infers aloud. A lot of places don't, even in the world she knows, but to Paprika they're an annual tradition, with fond childhood memories attached. A little girl who was only Atsuko-chan, dancing among the falling petals with friends whose faces she no longer remembers. So it goes.
no subject
He's not sure why it feels so easy to talk about Neo Tokyo now. Usually, he dances around and away from the subject. It's just that something about here has enough of a surreal disconnect to it that he finds himself talking without the very thin filter between thought and action.
Huh. But he doesn't piece together why that's weird. It's just happening now.
no subject
no subject
Tetsuo looks back up, watching the soft clouds of petals directly above them.
"Cities here don't have 'em... there's rich places and poor places, but not like Neo Tokyo." He barely ever said that name anymore. It felt like something fragile, like a secret that he'd lose if he dared talk about it. But now... he barely even thought about it, and the words were there, narrating his thoughts aloud.
Something should still feel weird about that. And maybe it does, but only briefly.
"You can still head out somewhere if they don't let you in the Porters."
no subject
"That's true," she says. "Are you planning to go?"
no subject
He had been at one point. It's true that he knew places he could, and the thought's occurred to him more than once. His eyes slide from the tree back to her, then out at the meadow beyond them.
"I did, for a while... but there's not really anywhere else out there. I don't think about leaving as much anymore."
no subject
"You know, I hear they have cherry trees over in Washington, DC," Paprika points out. "Hundreds of them. They were a gift from Japan, I think, a long time ago." She doesn't know all the details, and hanami season will have passed for them already, but still...