Private // 1x1 Captive Dreamlands RP
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Private // 1x1 Captive Dreamlands RP
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Posted 2024-11-09 06:09:18 (edited)
 Scenario:// A group of quasi domestics and captive wolves escape a facility and race to the wilderness - only to find more trouble than they left behind. Tripping into an unseen portal, they find their waking bodies at large in the Dreamlands where they are surrounded by an alien landscape far beyond their scope of understanding. Unable to find the portal from once they came they wander further into the strange mirror of a wilderness they never knew, seeking a resolution to their plight. Character Refrences Placeholder. Placeholder. |
 Jaybird #42710 |
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Posted 2024-11-09 17:02:03
Nikki fell hard and knocked her chin against a root when they fell. Her ears were ringing, too, and she felt dizzy, but she kept her eyes squeezed shut. Her crooked, bent ear perked a bit, straining to hear as the ringing faded. Often she'd sit at her owner's back fence and watch the goings-on in the forest. She knew how it sounded, to the point that she was used to it. This, this was different. It was like having radio on constantly in the background, and suddenly switching from a talk show to a pop channel. But she could still smell her companions, and she didn't make an attempt to rise until she felt Remi's nose pressed into her shoulder. Then she slowly lifted her head and blinked her eyes open, staring wide-eyed at the new surroundings. She pinned her ears back and let out a soft whine. Addie had tripped, but managed to stay on her feet (if only just barely). With her paws splayed out a bit more than normal and her neck stretched downward, she had also felt the disorientation that the others had. For a brief moment she thought she'd pass out, before it abruptly stopped and she could open her eyes. She put her ears back and stared in horrified disbelief at the altered environment around her. Nikki's whine got her attention and she looked back, grateful for the fact that all four of her companions were still together. Forest had been running directly behind Oliver, and had tripped directly into his brother. Both had fallen into a tangled heap of limbs and tails, with a yelp from Forest, and had landed by the same tree that Nikki had fallen on the root of. In spite of the disorientation, Forest struggled to his feet even as his vision was clearing, standing over his brother in alarm at the foreign surroundings. Oliver stayed laying as he took in the environment, but his shock was momentary, and soon after, stunned amazement began to creep in. |
Forty Seven #111800 |
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Posted 2024-11-09 18:54:33
Glimpse dropped her bundle, undeterred and shouted clearly, "Dam, there are newcomers, like, waking newcomers. Not dreamers!" Vervain and Vision snapped their heads up instantly, jaws slack and eyes wide. "Are you absolutely certain?" Asked Vervain, her tone almost hushed in disbelief. Without a word Vision had bounded away from his sister and dam disappearing into the gently swaying curtain of purple willow drifts at the pond's edge nearby. "Completely!" Glimpse continued, her posture rigid with excitement standing ready to bound away at a word. She felt as though her pelt was alive with sparks and energy - was today the day they had waited for? The significance was a hand-me-down for Glimpse and Vision who had never known the world on the other side of the Dream, but the meaning was not lost in its inheritance. Her parents had long given up the earnest search for home, but surely, if there were new wolves in the Dream it must mean that the portal they spoke of was nearby? Vision reappeared with another wolf on his heels, "Glimpse, what exactly did you see?" Asked the newcomer in a tone that echoed authority, his eyes looking askance at his daughter. Romulus came to stand next to his mate, brushing his brown and gray-striped pelt against hers in a silent reassurance. Vervain had gathered herself on her paws instantly, but was still trying to master the racing thoughts that echoed in her face. Glimpse swallowed a big breath and retold what she had seen on her way back from gathering herbs - four, maybe five wolves? Dogs? Some of them wore human gifts on them, unnatural looking trinkets. They appeared confused and discombobulated, all together in a group, but unlike the Dreamers their pelts didn't sparkle with stardust and whisps of mist and their eyes didn't carry the haze of half-sleep. Besides, the moon was not yet full - too soon for the Dreamers that came like a parade at the zenith of the moon's cycle. "Can you take us to them, Glimpse?" Romulus asked, almost breathlessly. Could he dare to hope? After all this endless time? Neither Vervain nor himself had any idea how long it had been since they had fallen into the Dreamlands. With no cycle of day, or season to mark the passage of time it seemed to stretch on endlessly. In their bodies they felt no passing of age, even though they both knew that surely they must be well and truly beyond their natural reckoning - it was as if time had left them behind. Glimpse needed no further prompting, and sprung away into the treeline sprinting past oak and ash winding back through the deep undergrowth sending echoes of florescence through the plant life and churning up sparkles of light with her paws. They had appeared not far from their pack's campsite, down the embankment and deep in the oak woods and she knew the surrounding territory in a way that only one who was born there might do. "They're just up ahead now!" She called back over her shoulder to her sire as she slowed to a trot, motioning ahead with a jerk of her muzzle and a twist of her ears. Romulus nodded his silent thanks and walked on ahead, leading his family down the trail to meet these new strangers. |
Jaybird #42710 |
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Posted 2024-11-09 20:45:29
Nikki had shuffled over to huddle next to Addie. She scratched impatiently at her collar, making her tags jingle, a nervous habit. "I- I- I don't know," she tripped over her words a bit as her eyes darted around. While she'd never been in this part of the woods before, surely this was not normal? But then, her humans used to tell stories to each other and watch moving pictures framed on a wall that told of places far beyond her home. She never imagined those fantastical places really existed. "Addie?" She looked to her older friend. The two had been neighbors for most of Nikki's life, and had become virtually inseparable, sisters in all but blood. Nikki, whose natural curiosity was often tempered by her more anxious tendencies, had looked up to the older wolfdog for a long time, trusting her when things seemed uncertain. But now even Addie was at a loss for what to do. When she was a pup, her mother, a full wolf, had told her tales passed down from their ancestors, about what the wilderness was like. But it was nothing like this. "I... I don't know where we are," she confessed. She crouched slightly and then jumped up, rising onto her rear legs, but the foliage was too thick, or the light was too disorienting, or both, and she couldn't quite make heads or tails of what she was seeing in any direction. "It's like our home, but it's... it isn't." She dropped back down and frowned, pinning her ears back. "What do you mean, it isn't?" Remi moved closer, ears pricked, in spite of Nikki's mumbled "Calm down, Rem." He moved to be at Addie's shoulder. "It has to be! We're not even far from where we escaped! If it's not our home, what is it?!" Shock allowed his worry to turn into anger. In the absence of any useful outlet, getting frustrated would have to do. "All we have to do is just-- go back!" He spun around, but every direction looked the same. "We came from, uh, this way. It was this way." Turning abruptly, he marched off through the underbrush, snuffling at the bizarre underbrush glimmering and lighting up under his paws. Addie flinched slightly at Remi's harsh tone in her ear, even as she knew he wasn't really mad at her. His anger was grating, but she could at least understand it. She watched him go, ears still back. When Nikki sprung to her feet, Addie kicked her hocks lightly with a forepaw. "Don't," she said. "I don't think it's safe." Nikki gave her a hesitant side-eye, but then nodded. She had known Remi the longest; Addie, by comparison, had only just met him, not all that long ago. She was confident he would return, if his search proved fruitless. And Addie was right; this place was so strange, she was loath to leave her friend's side. Who knew what getting lost here would mean? She turned towards Oliver and Forest, who had remained more or less quiet the whole time. "Are you two okay?" Forest looked up and blinked at Nikki. He didn't really know her well, only through the stories Remi had told them. He and Oliver had lived in the enclosure their whole lives, and had met Remi when he was rehomed to the zoo. "We're okay," he said after a moment. "I just- uh-" Forest suddenly stopped and flinched away from a cracking noise to his side, spinning around and almost tripping over Oliver, who had yet to stand. He stared with wide eyes and pricked ears at the tiny bird that flitted through the branches nearby, a cute little black-and-white critter with eerie pupil-less glowing blue eyes. Its regular tailfeathers were adorned with extra, long, showy feathers that were illuminated at the ends, and individual blue feathers lined its chest and wings. It looked strangely like familiar birds from back home, and Oliver's perked ears and lightly twitching tail showed he was very interested in learning more about the curious critter, but Forest just seemed ill at ease with its existence. "...I guess I don't understand what's going on," he finally finished somewhat lamely, ducking his head. |
Forty Seven #111800 |
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Posted 2024-11-09 22:06:27
"Fair nights, strangers." He called, as he came into view, his family bunching up behind him. "I don't think they're all wolves." Glimpse whispered conspiratorially to her brother, peeking out from behind Romulus. Of them, she was the smallest but her and Vision both had an ethereal quality to them - a little too long in the leg, in the coat, with tall ears and fringes of fur on their elbows and ankles. Both siblings had coats that felt more at home in the Dreamlands with bright swaths of color and stark patterns to match, only Glimpse's pattern was obscured by the large swaths of white splashed recklessly over her lithe frame. Romulus, like his mate, was a true wolf, drab looking in the brilliant scenery with a noble stance and a confident posture - though for those looking, there was something terribly tired and sad around his olive-green eyes. "Welcome to the Dreamlands." He continued, looking to his mate. Vervain strode up beside him, continuing, "I would hazard a guess that you all are quite lost." Her silver pelt and pale eyes catching and holding just a bit of the radiance that ebbed and flowed all around them even there. They all looked over these newcomers appraisingly, Glimpse with her head slightly tilted and Vision standing quiet and perceptive from his position at the rear of the group. While they had all often encountered the Dreamers in their waking sleep, it had been an impossibly long time since the leaders had seen another living soul in the fur and for the twins - never. Forgetting herself, Glimpse took a quick step forward, ears up and tail waving excitedly behind her, "Oh could you please, please tell us how you got here? And when? And oh if you remember anything important like a cave or a weird tree or, hm, you know, anything like that maybe?" She prattled on thoughtfully. Romulus chuckled softly, and touched his daughter on the shoulder with his nose, she seemed to come back to herself then and looking a little cowed, duck back from the front. "What my daughter is getting at is that you have all found yourself in quite an unusual predicament. We don't truly understand the nature of how this happens, but you have found yourself in the Dreamlands. Do you have any idea of how you got here?" He inquired, doing his private best to hold back the hopeful twist to his tone. "No detail is too small to recount, it may be the key to getting back to your home." He added grimly, looking amongst them all. In truth, the hope he held was fleeting, for the portal that brought strangers in seemed at the very least to be one-sided - a gateway that could only let you in, but not back out. But with a sample size of two their empirical data was nearly baseless in fact, and they had nothing to go on but their own hare-brained surmises and theories. He could only hope that this interesting assortment of canines was willing to chat with him and his family for at least awhile before making their own strides in this mysterious flipside. |
Jaybird #42710 |
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Posted 2024-11-10 07:07:32 (edited)
As for Addie, she cast a wary glance around them in search of where Remi had gone, but she could no longer see nor hear him. Normally he would have been the spokeswolf of the group -- and probably run his mouth a little too much, in her opinion -- so in his absence she took a small step forward. She gave them an evaluating look -- the two younger-seeming ones seemed native to this... what did the male call it? The Dreamlands? But the other two seemed not unlike them, and were a welcome sight for their familiarity. She gave a small nod of affirmation to the female remarking that she thought they were lost, even if Addie thought that was a bit of an understatement. She listened patiently to their explanation and questions before answering, quirking a small, brief smile when the young female piped up. "We have no idea how we got here," Addie began. "Honestly, we wanted only to return to the forest of our land, our kind hasn't lived there in so long and none of us have ever lived there." She shifted her weight uneasily and dipped her head slightly. "...we quite literally fell here." She felt a nudge on her side and turned to look at Nikki, who had started to overcome her nerves when these strangers had spoken up rather than showing aggression. "It was a rocky ledge, of sorts," Nikki spoke up, emboldened mainly by the younger female. In their world, when their owners let them play or meet new wolves or dogs, though she was the first to back down for any growling or aggressive posturing, she was also often the first to jump into a game. This stranger seemed friendly enough, and since she was smaller, she didn't seem as intimidating to a canine of Nikki's small stature. "N-nothing was odd... I thought-- it was only a few feet deep, and then it sloped down, to, like, um... a dry riverbed, I guess. All rocky and dirty, no plants." She looked around and flicked her ears. "Nothing like this place." "We've never been outside of our enclosure," Forest remarked meekly, sitting down next to his brother. He didn't feel like he had much to offer for his inexperience in the 'real world,' much less this one. Like for Addie, the normal-looking wolves were a welcome sight for him, but the other two were altogether foreign to him. "The humans never made any place for us like this." Remi had paused to sniff at a strange item -- well, more strange than everything else, strange mushrooms blooming on a mound of dirt and stone, with eerie, worried faces burned into their tops -- when he heard the voices. His head shot up, ears pricked and swivelling. He couldn't make out what was being said, but he was fairly confident he didn't recognize those voices. He turned sharply, slipping a bit in some bioluminescent, glittering earth, and sprinted back in the direction he had come from (or at least, where the voices were coming from; he had no sense of direction here). Bursting through the glowing undergrowth, he skidded to a stop, kicking up a couple of pebbles. "Who are you?" he demanded immediately, spying the wolves and then the two strange creatures behind them -- were they wolves? They seemed reminiscent of them, but they were unlike any wolves or wolf hybrids Remi had ever seen before in his life. |
Forty Seven #111800 |
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Posted 2024-11-10 10:47:51
Glimpse caught the eye of the black-splashed male as she came to sit on her sire's other side, offering a friendly squint and relaxed smile. What a interesting collective, she thought to herself as her eyes roamed unbidden over the features of these newcomers. In some ways, the two entangled males reminded her of her sire and she felt certain they must be wolves but the two females seemed so small and light with narrow, fine-muzzled features like a fox. Her sire had told her of humans and of dogs, though humans did not come to the Dreamlands when they slept no matter the phase of the moon. She wondered if she would ever meet them somenight, though, they seemed dangerous and unpredictable monsters in her parent's retellings of the Waking land. "Enclosure?" Romulus echoed, "Is that a place?" He looked to his mate who gave a small shrug. "If it's a place in the Waking I'm sorry to say you are very, very far from it now." Romulus continued, his tone low and ears flat. "Humans cannot come here, the Dreamlands are a special place. Normally, creatures and beasts will visit this place in their dreams when the moon is full and when they wake they will have been as if sleeping all the while. Those who come here while awake, well," He paused, pity in his eyes, "For us there seems to be no path by which to return." Vervain leaned forward to lick his cheek, mirroring his sorrowful expression with her own. "We're very sorry." She added. As the fifth wolf exploded into the area heralded by a skittering spray of grit, Vision, who had remained on his feet stepped between him and his family, fixing him with an unflinching stare. "Easy, friend." He replied calmly, "We are the Drifting Pack, my parents were just speaking with your friends here. We mean you no ill, only to help if we can." He differed his eyes as a further attempt to pacify the newest among them. "My son speaks honestly," Romulus added, gathering himself on his paws again, "But if you wish us to leave we will go, only there is much to learn in this place and we would ask that you heed our advice before cutting your own path." Lunar butterflies flitted through the trees nearby, their dusty blue trails glowing brightly in the shadowed spaces between the branches. The busy eyes of Volukros rodents occasionally peeking out from between fern and thorn as they searched through the soil for traces of essence and morsels of food. The night around them alive in ways the Waking could never quite replicate, as few creatures here truly slept and the with no sun to mark the passage of time business happened at all hours of the endless night. One butterfly landed briefly on Glimpse's shoulder, opening and closing its wings slowly before fluttering off to chase the others of it's ilk. She smiled after it, watching the lunar fireflies resume their droning courtship as the forest settled in the red wolf's wake. "Its not a bad place," She spoke up, "I'm sure you'll quite like it after awhile, and there are quite a lot of you, so I'm sure you'll be alright." She added optimistically. |
Jaybird #42710 |
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Posted 2024-11-10 11:53:45
"No humans?" Forest whispered quietly. This is what they had wanted, what they had raced out to find -- but not like this. Wolves that didn't even know what an enclosure was? He didn't know anyone who didn't. Surely they couldn't be past the point of no return. But no return from where? What the heck was a Dreamlands? He'd never heard of it before. He jumped again when Remi bolted through the plants and whined quietly. At least he hadn't stumbled through some other portal to somewhere else while he was gone. Addie pinned her ears back, dread building in her chest as she listened to them explain. This whole thing sure felt like a dream. "Please, we have to find a way back," she said softly, uneasily. Of the group, she had been the most uncertain about leaving; she had loved her human family, and she had her blood relatives nearby too, and all of that had made the choice difficult, even if it had been her choice to leave anyways. If she took a deep breath, she could've admired the beauty around her -- the Dreamlands were breathtakingly stunning, and she would've loved to be a visitor in the full moon. But being stuck here was altogether unsettling. When Remi returned, she growled at his immediate attitude towards these wolves. They had bigger issues to deal with than his temper. Remi opened his mouth in a slight snarl to answer, moving to be closer to his companions, but was cut off by a sharp bark. Turning, he found Nikki darting up to his side, snapping her jaws at him. "Hold your tongue, Rem, before you dig our graves with it," she growled uncharacteristically. "We need their help." She turned back, calming down instantly, and dipping her head apologetically towards the Drifting Pack. "...our world is a lot different from yours. We don't live in any place like this. We've never lived apart from them, we don't really know how, not really. Especially not in a place like this. Please, we don't want to make enemies here, please forgive my friend..." Remi gave a displeased snort at being apologized for; he didn't trust these wolves, or the other two creatures. Nikki ignored him. As she spoke, she watched the butterflies. They really were beautiful. The white-marked wolf seemed sweet, positive. Maybe it wasn't such a bad place after all, but she wanted to see much more of it than this to be certain. "She's right," Addie agreed with a wary sigh, looking between the strangers. "If nothing else, we need to get our bearings here, to figure out what our next steps are. I- would you help us?" |
Forty Seven #111800 |
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Posted 2024-11-10 16:34:17
"I wish it wasn't so, but myself and Romulus have spent.. an uncountable length of time trying to solve this puzzle. In truth, we were hopeful we would find the way back on your heels tonight." She explained. "We lived in the Waking land for most of our lives, and stumbled in here much the same as you all. My pups Glimpse, and Vision were born here... some time ago." She looked between her daughter and her son respectively as she spoke their names aloud - each giving a friendly dip of the muzzle as they were in turn introduced. "Would you follow us back to our packsite?" Romulus offered, "Its just through the woods here and up that ridge." He added, motioning with his muzzle back the way they had come. "I don't know how much aid we can be to you all, but we'll do our best. I think open communication would benefit everyone, if we are to have any of hope of making it back home somenight." Still on his paws he turned back toward the unmarked path beyond the foliage, his eyes lingering on their aggressive companion for a second longer than most. Glimpse's bright expression was unusually drawn at the sight of so many sad faces, she wanted to understand them and though she felt a great deal of sympathy for everyone she had no frame of understanding for their loss. In truth, she couldn't understand how one could be unhappy ending up here in a place so suffused with energy and light. She supposed they likely had families and friends left behind, she looked at each of her family members as she rose to her paws and turned to draw up alongside her sire. That did sound truly horrible she thought, brushing her side against her sire's subconsciously seeking a parent's comfort at the chilling revelation. "No offense taken," Vision said, his eyes fixed on the one called Rem as an easy smile found his lips. "It sounds like you all have had quite the night, you can rest at our packsite and we'll talk it over." It didn't seem like the red pelted wolf took his friend's correction to heart but he also didn't feel like he was any threat to be concerned about. If they had always received care from these humans, they weren't much better than pups lost in the woods. He held back for his sire to take the lead, if the newcomers were willing to follow he'd bring up the rear and make sure no one fell off the trail along the way. He couldn't help but wonder if this group would be so successful in this wild and mysterious land but at least here in their territory there wasn't much to fear and they held their borders easily. |
Jaybird #42710 |
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Posted 2024-11-10 17:20:35
Remi opened his mouth again to speak, only to be headbutted in the ribs by Nikki. He gave her an unimpressed, half-lidded stare, which she returned in equal force, before sighing reluctantly. He didn't entirely trust these strangers or their world. It was too bizarre to him, to simply trip jumping down into a riverbed and suddenly find oneself in literally another world. (He wasn't entirely convinced he hadn't simply fallen, hit his head, and knocked himself out, though everything sure felt real enough.) He huffed. It seemed his companions were willing to go, and he wasn't about to leave them alone with these others. They were entirely too vulnerable in this world with those who no doubt knew it well. "Fine," he agreed reluctantly. But he stood still, waiting for Vision to follow his pack. Nikki flicked her bent ear at Remi and raised an eyebrow, muttering a "Behave yourself, Remi." With that, she turned. Finding Addie had already gone after Romulus and his family, she quickly leapt after them, running to catch up until she was flanking Addie. She eyed the bigger wolfdog, then looked around at the pack guiding them. Her tail drooped slightly and so did her head when she glanced at the older female; she seemed the most intimidating, though the two males weren't far behind in that respect. Glimpse seemed by far the most approachable, but she seemed lost in thought next to her father, so Nikki kept her mouth shut. She paused only briefly to glance back at Remi and Vision and to scratch impatiently at her collar again, making her tags jingle, before trotting on to catch up again. "Thank you," Addie breathed, relieved, as she turned to follow them. She watched the ground beneath her paws for a few strides, studying how the ground pulsed with light under her stride. Such a curious world, she thought. Now that she considered it, she vaguely recalled her mom telling her stories when she was a small pup, something about a world made of the very essence of moonlight itself. That was all she recalled from the old fairytale, and she wasn't certain it was about this place anyways. It didn't help put her at ease, but the welcoming nature of these four did. She followed them, flicking one ear back as she heard Nikki following close at her heels. A question prickled at her mind, and a moment or two later she knew she had to ask. "Erm... Romulus, was it?" she began hesitantly, dipping her head slightly. "If I may ask... if you've been gone so long that you don't know of the human enclosures... what would happen to you if you went back? And what of your family and your life here?" |
Forty Seven #111800 |