Picture yourself in a boat on a river/With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

[handy_psychic]

Characters: Bridge handy_psychic and OPEN to dreamers
Date/Time: September 12th, nighttime
Location: Dreamscapes
Rating: Pure G.
Summary: Bridge is having a fun- if a little psychadelic- dream. Why not join him

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[ghost_of_00]

00 didn't know if she dreamed. She never remembered. Or perhaps--a sense she found disquieting and unable to articulate--her dreams were such that her conscious mind could not even comprehend them, and locked them away to defend herself from madness.

She was never aware when she was dreaming, either, but she could recognize the patterns in them. At the moment she moved soundlessly above a world of red, a circle marked by striations with a black pit in the center. It reached at least a mile ahead of her--so huge that it was almost impossible to see that it was her own eye.

Then she was falling, quite suddenly, right towards the black. 00 didn't scream or even fear. She could see matter at the center--something bright, something colorful. She fell below the edge of the scarlet cliffs and found herself... different. Her feet landed on a soft, pink surface, where a clay man lay resting. The sky above was filled with glitter; she couldn't find that other landscape anywhere above her. Crouching, she pressed her hand into the floating pink mass. "Is this real?" she asked aloud. Sometimes she would hear a voice in dreams; maybe one would explain this.

[handy_psychic]

Bridge was completely unsurprised by someone else appearing alongside him; he smiled at the unfamiliar girl and opened his eyes.

"It depends on whether you think your dreams are real," he replied. Below them, on the crayon ocean, a school of clay dolphins began to jump out of the water, chittering merrily. "I think so. And even if not, you can enjoy it while it lasts, hmm?"

[ghost_of_00]

"Dreams are abstract." 00 plucked a handful of clay from the ground and squeezed it between her fingers. "I was flying over my own eye before I saw this. I don't know if that was enjoyable."

Her hands seemed to want to do things without her thinking about it. 00 watched as she rolled up the clay into a ball and then a snake, before she followed the urge to curl it up into a coil. "I don't know who you are," she said to the clay man, peering over the edge of what was apparently a cloud at the sound of dolphins. "Everything here is bright. I wonder why."

[handy_psychic]

"Your eye..." Bridge shuddered a little at that, then watched as the girl plucked some clay from the cloud they were riding on and formed it into a snake. "No, that doesn't sound like it would be very enjoyable."

He then stood up, spreading his arms and thinking it would be nice to have an outfit change... and just like that, he was dressed in a blue Spandex outfit that had a cape, but no helmet, like his usual one.

"Who am I? I'm Bridge~" he said cheerily, enjoying the feeling of the cape flowing out behind him. "I guess I'm dreaming, so that's why it's so bright here, since it belongs to me and I'm a bright person, or at least I like to think I am and I know I'm not bright all of the time, but in my dreams I can be."

Below the two, a landmass suddenly appeared out of the crayon ocean, looking as though it had been cut from construction paper. It was green, with brown and lighter green palm trees rising out of it. The cloud began to drift lower and lower, until it hovered over the landmass, never touching it.

[ghost_of_00]

Enjoyable? No. But familiar. 00 had no idea how frequently that dream occurred, but she wasn't surprised by it. Maybe that meant she'd had it before?

She watched as he stood up, eyes widening when his clothing changed in an instant. "The head Scavenger is named Bridge," she said. "But I've never met him. Why would I dream about him?" Unlike waking reality, 00 felt no need to keep her constant stream of questioning and contemplation on the inside, and perhaps the dream-figure could help her understand what was going on.

Becoming aware of the drop in altitude, 00 stood and looked over the side. Bright. What did it mean? The colors reminded her of the time when the Sphere had suddenly sprouted copious amounts of crafting supplies. A place that was made. Why?

[handy_psychic]

"You know, that's a good question," said Bridge, frowning, totally unfazed by the girl talking about him as though he wasn't there. "Because that's me, Head Scavenger Bridge, and if you know you're dreaming and I'm right here in a dream of yours even though we've never met, and I know that I'm dreaming and I have dreams like this all the time... maybe we're visiting each others' dreams."

It was a strange thought, but then again, stranger things had been known to happen.

[ghost_of_00]

00 stared at him. It was true--Fred and Lyle both worked for Bridge, but she had never met him herself. She'd cleaned his and Sky's house, but she wouldn't recognize him if she saw him. "I don't think I've ever had a dream that looks like this," she said, rolling the clay into a shapeless mass again.

She looked up at the sky. Now she could perceive a vague reddish tint with clear sky in the middle, like someone had laid a circle of red film over the atmosphere. "My dream is up there. I fell into yours. Is that... possible?"

A joining of dreams. Was that like a joining of souls, identities, persons? But Bridge still very much appeared to be a distinct individual, and so did she.

[handy_psychic]

Bridge looked up at the Sky along with her, also noticing the redness, and rubbed his chin.

"I haven't, either- usually when I see other people in dreams like this, they're made out of clay, too. So yeah, the only thing I can think of is that our dreams blended together."

He laughed softly.

"I'd say I wouldn't think it possible... but then I remember the place we live in."

[ghost_of_00]

00's first reaction was still one of skepticism, but then she remembered how her physical age had once been drastically reduced without affecting her memory, and when her soul had been put into the body (or a body copied from) the red-haired girl. So she simply nodded.

A world made of clay. People made of clay. The dreamer himself, clay. Did it mean anything?

"You said you were bright. What does that mean?"

[handy_psychic]

"Bright? I mean that as in I'm an optimistic person," Bridge answered without hesitation. "I always try to be cheerful and hope for the best. Sometimes it's hard, but... I want to believe that things can get better, no matter how bad it is. I guess that's a little naive, but it's the way I am."

[ghost_of_00]

00 nodded. "Happiness is a state that is very difficult for humans to achieve." It was something she knew for a fact even without all the evidence she had seen to support it. "The natural state of humanity is conflict, with each other and the universe."

But she realized, perhaps as a result of observation and tutoring, that this might be perceived as a derision of his attitude. "But seeking happiness is also human."

[handy_psychic]

Bridge didn't think anything of her obeservation, personally; she WAS stating a fact, after all.

"I think you're right about that, sadly." He stepped off the cloud, now imagining it as a raft, and a river suddenly opened up in the middle of the island, the raft beginning to glide down it. He then wished for more fitting clothing and was suddenly wearing shorts, a camoflage shirt, a green vest, and an explorer's hat. "It's a matter of balance. Happiness and sadness balance each other out; I don't really think it's possible for one to exist wholly without the other. I have my moments of doubt conflict just like everybody else, but always come back around to optimism."

[ghost_of_00]

00's eyes widened as the setting changed abruptly. Bridge seemed completely nonchalant about the sudden shift from a tranquil cloudtop to a raft trip down a brand-new river. Had he done that consciously?

If he had, could she do it, too? 00 concentrated on his hat and felt a light impact on her head a moment later. She reached up and felt something shaped identically to his. "I know people who are able to do that," she said. "I usually need their help when I'm feeling unhappy."

She knelt and dipped her hand into the water. It was wet, despite being apparently drawn in crayon.

[handy_psychic]

Bridge watched as the girl made her own hat identical to his and smiled.

"Having friends and people who care about and help you is human, too. We seek companionship. It helps us support each other, and learn from each other, and be able to survive in a world like this. I like being around people. I'd get awfully lonely otherwise."

He then said, "What's your name, by the way? I don't think I ever asked."

[ghost_of_00]

"00." She had another name, Ayanami Rei. She did not choose it; she preferred the one she had in Edensphere.

She lifted the brim of the helmet a little to look down the river. There was a two-pronged, scarlet spear stuck into the ground as the river diverged. It was very like the one she'd wielded during the zombie invasion, except this one was as tall as a building.

"Bonds. They shape our identities." The spear was growing closer. Beyond it, the water looked more turbulent. "We would not be the same without the people we are linked to."

[handy_psychic]

"Oh! I've seen your writing a lot of times~" Bridge said cheerily. "You're friends with Fred, right? She works with me. I like her alot."

He then frowned, noticing that the water ahead looked less happy- and there was a weapon sticking out of the river. The raft steered around it and kept going.

"And yeah. We're all connected in some way- like just now! You and I have never met before, but we both know Fred. And when we find new connections, we share and grow and change even more."