I'm Dreaming of a White Ewaymas | OPEN

[vitaelamorte]

Who: EVERYONE
Where: Your dreams!
When: December 15th - December 25th, whenever a character is asleep.
Rating: PG-13 (Warn if Higher)
Summary: A catch-all for everyone's mysterious alternate Wonderland dreams!
The Story:

At first, it will seem like the decorations are the only change for the season. The days will proceed as usual. No other holiday magic to be seen. But when night falls and everyone is nestled, all snug in their beds, they will not have their usual dreams. Instead they will "wake up" in an alternate version of Wonderland - one where those white decorations are displayed on top of white walls, white furniture, white everything in the common areas of the mansion. Even when the holidays are over, this mansion would go back to a mostly white color palette. There are others in this pale place, your friends and loved ones, but something is not right. They are all nice enough and everyone seems content, but it will become apparent the more you speak to them - they do not remember anything outside of Wonderland. None of them do.

This alternate dream Wonderland is free for you to explore, and will be mostly the same as the one in the waking world, aside from the excessively white decorations. ALl of your belongings are there, all of your familiar locations are there, but there is just one room that is different. Deep in the basement, there is a room with the white Queen's symbol on the door. When asked about it, the people of the dream will say that it is always locked, and many of them are content to let their Queen have her privacy, after all that she has given them. Some might be more concerned, but either way the door is always locked.

Except when the person having the dream tries the door. It will open for them. And inside that mysterious (and evidently very large) room is row after row after row of jars, all faintly glowing in different colors.

Upon inspection, each jar is labeled with the name of someone in Wonderland and a series of numbers and letters. They are labelled by number and not name, but each person has hundreds of jars in this room. The dreamer might even see their own name mixed in among the thousands. They might want to take a jar, and if they do an alarm will go off to alert Her Majesty that she has been robbed. They will only be able to reason take one jar - the first one they pick up. The door will slam shut behind them and every time they try the door after that, it will be locked. No magic or lock-picking will open it.

If they take a jar with someone else's name on it and give it to that person, and that person opens it, that colorful glow will rise up and sink into them and they will regain one random memory from home. If they open a jar with their own name, they will remember a memory so vividly it is as though they're reliving it (since they already have all their memories) and if they open a jar with someone else's name it will drift off to go find its owner, and restore that memory to them.

EACH THREAD IS ONE PERSON'S DREAM-CATCHALL FOR THE WHOLE EVENT and the content will differ slightly from dreamer to dreamer based on what they do in their dreams (so just because someone has a memory restored in Character A's dream does NOT mean it is restored in EVERYONE'S dreams). Prose or [Action brackets] are fine and if you have any other questions or need to plot more with this new information, head over to the plot post!

Comments

22nd

[circlejerked]

<sub>[Waking up from the dream is easy--a little sleeping spell and poof, he's back in the real Wonderland. It's staying awake once he's there that's the hard part. A week into the event and all Anders' body wants is a nice, long coma no matter where his mind travels to.

He does what he can to occupy himself so he doesn't nod off. The flesh is willing, but the mind says "hell no, you're staying right where you are."

... Of course, these methods get less and less effective as the week wears on. Case in point: Anders is fast asleep in the dining room when Bucky happens to walk in at some point in the day, head tipped back against the headrest, a book fallen open in his lap. He'd thought propping himself up in a high-traffic area would keep him alert. He hadn't accounted for the possibility that he might become an interesting piece of dining room ornamentation.

If he wakes up with antlers on his head, at least he'll actually understand their significance thanks to the book he's been reading.]</sub>

[readytocomply]

[Bucky is doing everything he can to stay awake.

Exercise, perimeter checks, bothering Steve, mediation, reading, more exercise, bothering Steve, and eating in between each thing. If he stands while doing it, he gets a little boost before he goes back to doing something else. He can tell it's not going to last, his body needs rest, but he goes back to the dining room for a thirtieth round.

He spots Anders on his way out, asleep, and he sprints into action.]

Wake up.

[Bucky shakes him roughly. It doesn't work. He taps his face a few times, harder on the last.]

[circlejerked]

<sub>[You're not the boss of him, Bucky.

... And as if anything would be so easy during an Ewaymas event. The book slips free and tumbles to the floor (opened onto a passage on last minute Christmas shopping, one of those quirky Earth things Anders finds both interesting and strange), but that's as much as the sleeping mage stirs. The poking and prodding does little to disturb the picture of restfulness, eyes closed, breathing slow and steady.

Plan B?]</sub>

[readytocomply]

[Bucky grimaces and then hits Anders once, firm and centered on his cheek, pausing to see if it does anything.]

Goddamn it.

[He turns to survey the room, and spots a pitcher of something he hopes is water. Bucky strides over to get it, and when he comes back - ]

I'll do it. [When Anders doesn't move, he does it.]

[circlejerked]

<sub>[The pitcher does indeed contain water. It's very wet water, for the record. And when it splashes down all over Anders' face and torso, the end result is a very wet, bedraggled mage who--you guessed it--is still slumbering as peacefully as a babe lulled to sleep with a teaspoon of brandy.

In about two minutes he's going to wake up and wonder when in the Maker's name he decided to have a swim with his clothes on, but in that time he's still dreaming, and in his dream he's striving to go to sleep so that he can wake up. This dream business is annoyingly convoluted. Give him demons in the Fade any day.

A spell to put himself to sleep in the white Wonderland isn't all that difficult when you have magic in place of sleeping pills, but it does take some preparation and double-checking his room is locked so he won't be disturbed. And when the spell takes hold and his dream self's eyelids begin to grow heavy, Anders is tugged back through the veil between sleeping and waking, back into his body wherever he left it...

As it so happens, he doesn't remember being this damp and sore when he left it.]</sub>

--uugh.

<sub>[Waking is a sudden, loud business involving a gasp (a choke, really; some water had gone up his nose) and Anders shooting up to a ramrod straight sitting position, eyes flaring wide enough to show white. Some of the books now wet pages end up accidentally stepped on, poor thing.

For some inexplicable reason, there's a scarecrow looming over him that's in desperate need of a shave. Wait, no. No. It's just Bucky holding a container with a few inches of water left in it.

Well, that would explain why he's soaked.]</sub>

... Did you hit me in the face with that pitcher, too, by chance?

_{[Why does his face hurt, Bucky. Be honest.]}

[readytocomply]

[Bucky's about two seconds away from going for help - he knows there's an event going on, but it shouldn't be that hard to wake anyone up. Then Anders is waking up and he feels a little guilty for being so rough, but not too guilty. He'd been worried.]

No, but I did dump water on you.

[He pulls a chair out to sit down beside him, eyes narrowed in on his face in concern.]

You shouldn't sleep. [He leans back, arms over his chest.] We don't know the extent of the event. What if it's more than memory loss?

[Sorry, Anders. There's a super soldier worried about whether you're okay or not.]

I didn't mean to hurt you.

[circlejerked]

<sub>[Looking around him, Anders brushes a wet lock of hair off his face as bits and pieces of how he'd gotten here float back to the surface. The surprise of his rude awakening dims to understanding. Right. He'd been reading, trying to distract himself--

He lowers his hand a few inches, probing his stinging cheek. Apparently that hadn't gone exactly to plan.]</sub>

No kidding.

_{[For the water and for the obvious warning he shouldn't be sleeping. In contrast to his wet clothes, the sarcasm in his voice is bone dry.]}

Did you slap me?

_{[Look, he's still stuck on why he woke up a drowned rat with a headache.]}

[readytocomply]

[Bucky shrugs, making himself more comfortable. He feels better, all around, now that Anders is awake and talking. He'll suffer whatever wrath he throws his way for it.]

Might've.

[He leans back and kicks his foot out, nudging his toe against the man's shin.]

That part ain't wet. If you were lookin' for something dry.

[The past is irrelevant, now, in his mind. Bucky hadn't meant to hurt him or get him wet, but he was awake and seemed alright.]

How you feeling? Other than your face.

[circlejerked]

Well, I'm awake now. Or the closest thing to it. I could've told you ahead of time waterboarding me awake wasn't going to work--I had cats biting my nose and I slept right through it. And that's real torture.

_{[As he gets his bearings again, the name at the top of Anders' wrath hit list is mostly just his own for letting his guard down far enough to succumb to his body's demand for a siesta. The lack of real rest is getting to him more than he'd thought. He brings a knuckle to his eye and rubs, pausing to peer over the back of his hand at the nudge.]}

Gee, thanks. So helpful. _{[But then he drops his hand and with it the cheerfully breezy sarcasm. Bucky's reaction had been justified, and he'd been doing him a favor by trying his damndest to snap him out of it.]} Really, though. Thanks. I thought I had it under control, but I must have fallen asleep despite best laid plans.

_{[Bending, he collects the fallen book and sets it aside on a table.]}

I feel tired. But no worse for wear.

[readytocomply]

Seems so far that falling asleep just takes you to a dream version of this place.

[He doesn't know for sure that that's all there is to it. Bucky can't imagine it's only that, something so simple, but he can't say that it's not. While he hadn't meant to hurt Anders, or get him all wet, he doesn't feel particularly guilty about it. He'd only hope the man would have done the same for him, if they'd switched positions.]

And you don't have to thank me. [His mouth quirks, eyes flicking to the slight discoloration on Ander's cheek.] Just return the favor sometime, if you ever have to.

Maybe it'll be over soon.

[The events don't usually last for longer than a week, but he hasn't been here long enough to know that for a fact.]

What cats were biting your nose?

[circlejerked]

_{[Don't mind him if he pulls his sleeve over his hand and dabs his face during the course of this conversation. No need to worry about him getting his eight glasses of water a day; he's properly hydrated after that refreshing encounter with the flower vase.]}

An open invitation to tar and feather you. Got it. Etch this moment in your memory and remember you said that the next time we have a slow day and you wake up wearing the contents of your feather pillow. _{[You heard it here first, folks.]} And maybe. But I think we're all going to need some shut eye before that happens. Case in point.

<sub>[Still, Bucky's right, despite the involuntary nature of the switcheroo between waking and dreaming, he feels perfectly fine. All appendages accounted. And no demons riding shotgun, which is more than can be said for some visits to the Fade.

All things considered, it could be worse, and that knowledge--along with the knowledge that Bucky had been worried about him--wrings a smile out of him.]</sub>

Mine. I have two. They tried to wake me the first night. I suppose I should be thanking all three of you for the concern.

[readytocomply]

[Bucky rolls his eyes, making a sound in the back of his throat.]

I don't hear you threatening to tar and feather those cats.

[He puts a hand to his chest, feigns indignant.]

Why am I the odd man out?

[He settles back into his seat. All things considered, this was turning out better than he'd thought it would. They were both awake and nobody was hurt.]

Sugar tried a few times but gave up.

[circlejerked]

<sub>[Excuse you, sir, don't you go stealing his indignant thunder while he sits here and air dries his robes. Bucky can rest assured Anders is back in control of his faculties and must be feeling better--the evidence is in his smile, curling higher.

He can't be put out about anything--it's just a relief to be back in the real world again. Well. The semi-real world. Whatever they're calling Wonderland these days.]</sub>

Um, because you just invited me to.

_{[He hears what he wants to hear. Maybe he has some water in his ears.]}

It was a near thing when you found me--I was just about to send myself back. You can get partial credits if you want, though. _{[Another teasing little smile.]} It's the thought that counts. Sorry if I worried you.