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idream_ofmemes2023-02-12 09:48 pm
perchancetodreammods) wrote in idream_ofmemes2023-02-12 09:48 pm
TDM #6 - Planned Outage
TDM #6 - Planned Outage
Pardon Our Dust
Things are a little odd in the Dreamscape at the moment! Typically, newcomers are met with beautiful scenery, a note inviting them to come speak to the Dreamscape's host, an explanation about where they are, and a handy Constellation pendant connecting them to the rest of their new neighbors. But this time, there is something odd afoot, and nothing here to help you make sense of your new surroundings if you've just gotten here. Don't worry, though, it will all make sense soon! Hopefully! Just hang tight. More details to follow... probably? Oh dear.
This is our second Crisis Event, and as such, things are a little different from our usual fare! Details for entry will be in the prompts below, as the rules are a little different from our standard TDMs. There's also usually pictures.
DATE
2/12/2023 (ICly intended to begin 2/15/23, posted early because I love you)
THEME
Crisis Event!
QUICK NAV
We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming
Valentine’s Day comes and goes, and the romantic atmosphere that the Dreamscape had taken on has dwindled after a good long month as the seasonal excitement begins to dwindle. Those who have been here for a while and are familiar with the Outsider’s antics will no doubt be wondering when and what the next big thing will be. They tend to begin a new and exciting project shortly after the previous one ends. However, regardless of how long you’ve been here, the announcement arriving today will more than likely come as a surprise.
A jingle plays from your Constellation pendant, and a stream of light pours from the little star. A suspended screen of light hangs in midair, displaying the Outsider. A video message.
To Bring You This Message From Our Sponsor
“Hello again, my friends!” The Outsider smiled, albeit a bit anxiously. “I hope that those of you who attended had a lovely holiday, however you chose to celebrate it. I do have a rather important bit of news to share, and it’s regarding a somewhat… unique… situation, so please listen carefully, as I will be starting the process shortly after this announcement.”
“Those of you who were here in early January might recall a certain mishap.” There were many words for the dream-shattering event that took place at the beginning of January. “Mishap” was certainly an interesting choice. Anyway, “Ever since that incident occurred, I have been working diligently to find the source of the problem and rebuild a stronger, safer, happier Dreamscape for all of us. While normally I have never fully lost control of my domain in that way, I’ve also never created anything as large scale or structured as this Dreamscape before, so all of this is new territory for me. As such, at this time, I think the best course of action would be for me to rebuild most of the Dreamscape from scratch, as much as I can without putting all of you into unmanageable conditions or giving you the boot.”
“What I intend to do is to shut down all non-essential functions. The outer structure that keeps the Dreamscape intact and separate from the Greater Illogic, the Nimbus Clouds, and parts of the Torn Oak will remain active. The rest of the Dreamscape will be--- well, a blank slate. You may find this alarming at first, but I assure you it is part of the process. While I am gone, many of the normal functionalities of the Dreamscape, including restrictions, will be non-operational. This means that in all communal areas of the Dreamscape, you all will collectively have as much control over the environment as you do your own Nimbus Cloud. So, feel free to experiment and paint the town, or lack thereof, red! Just be cautious with what you imagine, as I will not be available to correct any issues, and be respectful of one another.”
“Unfortunately I will need to be outside of the Dreamscape for this process, and thus will be unreachable, but I’m certain you all will be just fine. Have fun, be safe, and I will see you all soon!”
And then, without any further ado, the display cuts out, and the Dreamscape goes with it.
Have You Tried Turning it Off and Back On Again?
Before you can even process what’s going on, the world around you begins to break apart into tiny fragments and fall away like a dissolve effect on a bad Powerpoint. As promised, you are in very short order left standing in an empty white void. It’s a bit disorienting, hard to even tell what constitutes as the “floor” in this situation, though after a moment your brain adjusts. If you aren’t thinking too hard about it, you can almost see a flat plane of a slightly different shade of white that serves as your walking surface. The Torn Oak, with its blanched trunk and periwinkle leaves, and the cluster of fluffy pink Nimbus Clouds are all that remain. The Twisted City, the Barren Freeway, the Glass Lake, the forest, the sea, the mountain--- everything else is gone. Everything beyond the few remaining amenities appears to be just a blank, white void that goes on forever.
You have a few options here. You could retreat to your Nimbus Cloud, or take this opportunity to visit that of a friend. After all, there’s usually too much going on in the Dreamscape to spend much time dawdling around at home, so this could be a good time to visit one another. You could also explore the Torn Oak. There’s not much to it right now, but the Outsider is away and this might be an opportunity to wander their unusual home unsupervised.
Or, if you’re feeling creative, you can take this once-in-a-lifetime chance to manipulate the Dreamscape--- with no restrictions. No wish required. Rebuild places from your waking world, create impossible feats of architecture or luxurious amenities, have an adventure of your own making, or just dream up nonsense. Truly the only limitation is what you can imagine. However, when shaping the Dreamscape, take care not to let your mind stray, as you may inadvertently create something out of a nightmare.
Aside from continuing to observe the blacklist and common-sense trigger warning guidelines, there is no restriction on what can happen in the Dreamscape. Create your own fun, or a disaster. The choice is yours. However, the Outsider will not be available to be contacted in relation to this event and will not return until March 1st.
Just Passing Through
Another interesting effect of this little procedure is that the barrier between the Dreamscape and the rest of the dreams of every sentient being in the multiverse is now far thinner. Normally, the Outsider hand-selects everyone whose consciousness is brought into the Dreamscape, but at the moment, it seems just anyone can end up here. Perhaps you are one such member of the unfiltered rabble. (No offense, of course.)
Instead of landing where most newcomers do, you’ll find yourself wandering through a version of a certain H.C Escher art piece that is done up in pink marble tile and wrought iron. Take a staircase or find a door, any door, to be released into the strange white void from a disembodied door perched on the stump of a blanched oak tree, while the severed trunk and canopy of blue leaves loom impossibly overhead. Without the normal orientation for new arrivals, you are on your own. No personal cloud, no instructions, no explanations. Just a beautiful, terrifying tree and a bright, blank world. Maybe someone here can tell you what’s going on.
Instead of landing where most newcomers do, you’ll find yourself wandering through a version of a certain H.C Escher art piece that is done up in pink marble tile and wrought iron. Take a staircase or find a door, any door, to be released into the strange white void from a disembodied door perched on the stump of a blanched oak tree, while the severed trunk and canopy of blue leaves loom impossibly overhead. Without the normal orientation for new arrivals, you are on your own. No personal cloud, no instructions, no explanations. Just a beautiful, terrifying tree and a bright, blank world. Maybe someone here can tell you what’s going on.
New arrivals entering the Dreamscape during the Planned Outage crisis event do not need to abide by normal universe rules. They do not have their own Nimbus Cloud or Constellation pendant, do not require a plot reason to be here, and are not subject to normal restrictions. They can be doubles of existing characters, can ignore cast caps, and can wake up and disappear at any time. They don’t even have to ever figure out that they are in a collective dream. They may ask to remain in the Dreamscape after the event, get stuck by accident, or disappear entirely! Additionally, this is a great time to canon-update your characters by having them wake up and come back later in their canon.
Mod Note: Feather Leaderboard
Hello friends! Earlier I made an announcement regarding a Feather Leaderboard that we'll be launching next week, and the March 1st event, which will definitely benefit from folks knowing how many feathers their characters have. If you haven't read that yet, it's pretty brief, but the gist is that the feather tracker spreadsheet is available now and we'll be checking it on Feb. 22nd to establish the leaderboard and announcing the winners with the plotting post for the March event!
The prize for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place is a special RP prompt for just those characters and a friend of their choosing, plus bragging rights, of course!
UNRELATED NOTE: I am posting this TDM a few days in advance, meaning it slightly overlaps with last month's Valentine's TDM. I would like to note that while ICly the prompts here state that the event is over, the feather bonus that was in place for Valentine's day is still in effect until Feb 15th OOCly, so you can still collect on Valentine's day threads started between now and then!
Re: CW: PTSD, allusions to graphic death due to explosives
There are vague images of humanoids rising from the floor as if brought back to life again.
What his War self said is right and seems to echo; "War does make you a monster and you need to become one to fight in a war."
There's something about the forest too, how that is winded but without weather happening.
The Dalek looking in their direction does make The Doctor begin to snap back and pushes John out of the way before someone Exterminate.
Thankfully, John speaking to The Doctor makes the visuals less real. Is he alright? Of course not. The sweat on his brows and the twist of fear and anxiety on The Doctor's face,
"I'm fine. Just fine. Are you alright?"
The Doctor blinks and looks around, "What happened to the Dalek?"
no subject
John looked around in confusion for the sci-Fi tank, but it was gone. There were others in the distance, screams and explosions and weapons…
Turning back to the Doctor, John took in his face—twisted with confusion, slick with sweat, fear in his eyes. It’s a face John knows, and knows intimately.
“I’m fine.” John tried again, reaching out to squeeze the Doctor’s shoulder. “Doctor, this—it isn’t real. You can stop it.”
He knew the name of that tank-thing. That fear, that anguish…
He knows this war—it belongs to him as much as Vietnam and Hope belong to John. Jack helped him escape…maybe John can help the Doctor.
“It’s a dream. All of it, all of us…we’re dreams. You don’t have to stay in this one, though.”
no subject
After he makes that remark, it does click in his head that what he saw, probably wasn't real. Very slowly, his hearts begin to slow down a bit. The images begin to slowly fade. However, the terror on his face still remains for the moment.
He finds himself trying to figure out what is going on here. The Doctor swallows hard, "Where did that - come from?"
Why are you being so kind?
no subject
Not that glassy look in his eye, caught between the war and the rest of the world. The same place John got into trouble.
The same place Jack saved him from.
John shifts to take one of the Doctor’s hands in his, holding tight, never breaking his gaze.
“The same place they always come from, sir. The only place they can come from.” John replies simply. “As long as we’re still alive, it’s still going on…but it can’t hurt anyone else. We won’t let it.”
Because no matter how many people, worlds, universes, or time streams fall, a war is a war. No one understands that better than John Rambo.
That’s why he’s being so kind, Doctor—the blood on his hands is just as impossible to wash away.
no subject
There's vague imagery of a certain blonde hanging onto a lever and floating for some reason. Like she's going to be stuck into - nothingness.
The Doctor is glaring at his teeth, "Can you... Create something for this place? So, it's not so - white?"
cw: links to images & depictions of movie violence
...and Jack.
What scared John was that he wasn't sure he had anything he could make that wasn't as bad as this, if not worse...
...but maybe that was okay.
Shutting his eyes with a deep, shaky breath, John nodded and tried to look for one. Just one of all the bad choices he'd had to make.
Bad choices when no good ones were available--just like Jack said.
When John opened his eyes, the strange war was gone, as was the void--and in its place was the forest cliffs of Hope, Washington. The air was cold and damp, and smelled of fresh, rich earth and pine. Quiet, still...seemingly serene.
Except for the distant call of male voices, laced with fear and pain, crying out the name Bill.
And just like he had that day, John's survival knife was in his hand.
"I could have killed them."
Looking to his right, John watched a ghostly image play out of himself and Teasle on that day...
...and for the first time, didn't feel the agony of uncertainty as he watched himself spare the man's life.
no subject
However, the sound of the voices and the imagery shown before them, explain what The Doctor saw in John's eyes before. And there's a look of concern on his face because he sees the pain and angst in the one John with the knife.
The Doctor remarks with a firm tone, "Don't... It's not worth it. War just makes monsters out of -," The Doctor turns to the actual John, "Oh good. Good for you! Oh yes!" The Doctor beams.
CW: minor references to PTSD flashback
…except the Doctor’s…
Oh good. Good for you.
It’s so bright and so genuine—it’s sunlight on his face through the caged top of a prison pit after a cold night, Co’s soft hands bandaging his wounds, it’s…Jack’s voice in his ear, promising to stay as long as John needed him.
The Doctor is looking at him, talking to him, like he actually did something good.
“I hurt people that day.” He protests quietly, shaking his head. “Every deputy…every one that put hands on me…”
The flash of a blade. The club at his throat, choking him. The lance of pain as blade met skin, the boundaries of reality disappearing…
John shuts his eyes as the agonized cries of men continue in the far distance—and a little closer, a deep, sinister voice, quiet and almost pleasant.
”I promise, you’re gonna talk to me, soldier…”
no subject
And it's not like The Doctor doesn't have beings he hasn't hurt or killed. The Doctor rests a comforting hand on John's shoulder and whispers, "And I forgive you."
no subject
A hand curling against his jaw. Leather pants and a t shirt, armor against John’s demons. Warm breath and a promise of time…a comrade’s pledge to stand firm.
Jack stood with him against this. He didn’t have to. As John looks over at the Doctor with genuine, heartbreaking confusion, he can’t fathom why anyone would offer him forgiveness of any kind. Least of all a doctor. Jack’s steadfastness, the Doctor’s absolution that has so much weight to it that it feels…real.
“Why?” He asks softly for the second time within his own nightmare.
Why would you forgive me? How can you even begin to forgive me? Why do you even want to forgive me when I can’t forgive myself?
no subject
no subject
…or just to meet people like Jack, people like the Doctor, who will just—unlock and open the cell door to every personal prison?
“You deserve one too, you know.”
He doesn’t intend to speak, it just…sort of happens as John finds himself meeting the Doctor’s eyes.
“Don’t matter what planet you come from, sir—when you’re a soldier, the only war that makes you a monster is the one you don’t regret. And for what I saw—for what it’s worth? If I’d been there to serve under you…I’d have followed you into the fire.”
cw: genocide
He would love to come terms to with himself for what happened but he's a monster. The remark John makes The Doctor looks at him rather curiously.
He wants to be let free of his guilt and here someone is trying to reach out to him. The Doctor is breathing in slow and deep breaths because he wants to say something. To test this but he's afraid.
"I - I ended the war. I killed them all."
CW: corpse related imagery
But they’re all still lives. Bodies, the dead piling around every corner of their thoughts. Tossed into the mass grave of their minds.
“You kill enough people in a war, sir—eventually they just become numbers. But those numbers mean something.” John replies softly. His mind drifts back to that first day with Jack—the sting of Co’s death burning so fiercely, and Jack’s gentle but wholly comprehending reassurance.
“A good man told me that remembering the fallen is important. Sometimes it’s why we survive the things we’ve seen…the things we’ve done.” John isn’t aware of the way his features have softened with thoughts of Jack—someone who’s come to mean so much to him in such a short time in ways he’s not quite ready to name.
“A man who remembers—who makes sure he remembers…I’ll still follow that man, sir. Happily.”