The Lotus Eater Machine Meme

[wineandcheese7]

The Lotus Eater Machine Meme

Your character falls asleep, or is knocked out, and finds themselves in a dreamworld which is their own personal paradise.

However, this is a trap - And now, their friends have to come and wake them up!

Your character can be the Dreamer or the Dream-diver, who's trying to wake them up. Being the Villain who entrapped them in the first place, or a fellow slumberer trapped in the Dream is fine too.

[Sample Dream Scenarios]

1. It's pretty much the same as their real life, except that it's just a little bit sparklier and nicer then normal.

2. It looks close to their real life on the surface, but the sparkle factor is much stronger in this one - They're basically whatever they wanted to be, deep down inside. Maybe they wanted to be the smartest, or most popular, or most beautiful, or most talented person in their class, town or family? Well, now they will be!

3. It's a wish fulfillment fantasy, plain and simple - They wanted to be a pop singer or a movie star? Well, now they are!

4. Pull out all the stops - Want to be a King or a Queen, or maybe a Magical Girl? It doesn't matter how impossible it is in their real life - In this dream scenario, those wishes will all come true!

5. They wanted their father, mother or any other person important to them to say they were proud of them? They wanted to be considered to be better then their brother, sister, other family member or fellow student, etc etc etc? Those wishes have been granted - Too bad it's all a dream...

6. Be it the death of important people or something else, they bad thing that hurt them badly never happened in this dream scenario - Or maybe there was a last minute save, who knows.

7. Something Else

[The Roles]

1. The Dreamer - Your character is the one trapped in the Dream World the Lotus Eater Machine is generating.

2. The Dream-diver - Your character is the one who is trying to save the person who's trapped in their dreams.

3. The Villain - Your character the one who trapped whoever it was in the Dream-world in the first place.

4. The Fellow Slumberer - Your character just happened to be trapped in the same Dream as the Dreamer is.

5. Something Else

[How To]

1. Post as your character. (Please write down the name and canon/fandom of the character in the subject line, and also if they're canon, AU, crossover or OC, etc.)

2. Please choose your character's role, and set the first scene. If they're the Dreamer, please describe the Dream they're trapped in.

3. The mun who's tagging choses their own roles for their own characters.

4. Tag, thread and have fun!

Comments

Lavagirl | The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (yes, really) | Canon

[imaginaryfriend]

[Okay, I have to go with her being the dream-diver/rescuer, since that's her canon role and yay canon. Uhhh so anyone who wants to be rescued by a wee fiery one, hit me up.]

Sync | Tales of the Abyss | Cannon

[unwantedtoy]

[How he could not remember it happening is a mystery to him, or perhaps it was all a dream. The last thing he remembered was falling, so maybe he hit his head or something. Either way, the world he awoke to was filled with friendly people, somewhat quiet and bland, but happy. Real people? Replicas? He couldn't tell, but something about the bright city and its citizens seemed unnatural.]

Steve Rogers ★ MCU ★ Canon

[thelivinglegend]

[ Dreams are nothing new to Steve, but this one has never stayed with him until the morning, where it could be remembered. Maybe that's why he accepts it so readily.

It makes sense that Steve's idea of paradise isn't a world where everything is miraculously set right again, and the dead return to life. Something like that would clue him in far too quickly to the fact that none of this is real, however powerful this dream might be.

Instead, this dream is a place of rest, almost reminiscent of the 'other side'. It's peaceful here, the landscape shifting over time from one beautiful vista to another, or maybe none at all. For the moment he's found a tree to sit beneath, no sign of shield or armor or any of the trappings from his life as Captain America. It's a little strange that there are no more battles to fight, in this place. Stranger still that it doesn't bother him and all he feels instead is a sense of relief.

The world still has heroes, after all, he's seen them in action. They'll be fine without him, won't they?

He tips his head back, eyes closed with the echoes of what sounds like birdsong drifting overhead. This has been a long time coming, and if this place is what he thinks it is there are quite a few faces he's looking forward to seeing again. ]

obligatory peggy tag.

[ex_queenvictoria804]

[It doesn't take long for Peggy to realise that this -- whatever it is -- isn't the real world; her bones aren't aching, her hearing's sharper, and her body isn't sagging as much as it normally does. If she had a mirror, she'd see that she looks the way she did back during the war. As it is, though, Peggy figures that she won't get out of this unless she finds the person or thing responsible. So, she starts to walk and it's weird being able to walk this fast again. On most days, she's limited to a shuffle, sometimes being regulated to a cane; it's almost nice, actually, and a little part of her brain reminds her that, if she does go back, she won't be able to drink liquids after ten.

Peggy sees a tree on the steadily changing horizon and she has to run to get there before it disappears. Honestly, she almost trips from shock when she spots the person sitting beneath it. Emotions overfill and spill into her chest like a dam breaking.]

H-hello, Steve.

[thelivinglegend]

Peggy.

[ He turns to look at her and breaks into a wide smile, pushing himself to his feet with ease. There's no sense of nervousness now, no anxiety. No rush. No stumbling, which ought to be some sort of clue in and of itself. He's just glad to see her at long last, and nothing's going to tear them apart ever again.

It wouldn't be Heaven if it did. ]

I was wondering if I'd see you here. Look at you.

[ His brow furrows slightly as he takes her in. Just as he remembers her, every bit as beautiful as the memories he so fondly kept. ]

[ex_queenvictoria804]

[Steve's smile does diminish the urgency and gravity of the situation. Peggy can't help but smile back, hand reaching up to fix her hair. Perhaps she has died; this is certainly what Heaven would look like if she did.]

How long have you been here?

[hulkish]

[ And then, as is the way of dreams, Bruce is sitting cross-legged next to Steve. Hard to tell how long he's been there. To the side stands Hulk, an entirely separate entity, who huffs but otherwise is oddly reserved as he watches Bruce. ]

Hey, Cap.

[ Bruce knows there's a reason he's here, but the false serenity of this place intoxicates, distracts him. Easy to slip into the enticing calm of Steve's dream-- easy because Bruce wants it nearly as badly as his friend.

Hulk grunts, narrowing his eyes; he leans forward and roughly pokes Bruce with a huge finger in the back of the head. Hey. Idiot. Focus. ]

You've been out a while, you know.

[thelivinglegend]

Bruce.

[ There's a moment of confusion as he lays eyes on his friend -- if he's here, that means he's gone, the same as Steve -- but the puzzlement clears quickly, shifting into a broad smile. This place is nothing to be afraid of, and if Bruce found his way here then he's glad for him. ]

Have I? I think I lost track of how long it's been. I guess I don't really need to keep track anymore.

[ If he notices Hulk, he doesn't say anything to indicate that fact. Instead he settles back against the tree again, glancing upwards to catch sight of the apples dangling from those branches. They'd been flowers a little while ago, he thinks. The scent still lingers on the breeze that passes over them every now and then.

It's like catching up with every missed moment in his life, every possible moment of peace he could have had, blending one into the other too smoothly to cause alarm. One long, peaceful dream made of a thousand others. ]

[hulkish]

[ The unburdened smile makes Bruce wince internally. Nothing about this is fair. He'd been warned about coming back without Steve, but part of him, a large part, doesn't want to take this peace away, even if it's an illusion. He wouldn't mind losing himself to this, especially if it meant seeing Betty--

But there's Hulk again, the jagged edge of his conscience, reminding him with a prod to the shoulder blade what he's there for. ]

Listen. Steve. Uh. Do you remember what happened?

[thelivinglegend]

[ What happened? That's a curious thing...he doesn't. It's fuzzy, and fuzzier the more he tries to think about it. It was all starting to blend together by now, and the smile fades as he tries to dig back mentally and find it. It's there, he knows, he'd been...

No, that wasn't it. Had he been fighting? Had it been in his sleep? No, neither of these seemed right. What then?

The apples overhead gleam invitingly, and he draws his legs in, pushing to his feet slowly and reaching up into the low-hanging branches to claim one. The urge just takes him to, like it somehow holds the answers he's looking for. ]

...not really. Maybe it's better that way.

[ But it's something he hadn't considered, and not knowing is bothering him a little. Knowing that he doesn't know. It cuts into that blissful fog of ignorance just enough for him to question, but maybe the doubt will pass. Does it matter? He's here now, and this place is beautiful, everything he could have possibly hoped for and more than he ever dreamed.

A second apple is plucked loose and tossed to Bruce, the skin of it cool to the touch. ]

[hulkish]

It's, it's important that you remember. You were hit with a spell.

[ Bruce's memory is slipping too, even for the few minutes he's been here. Or has it been hours? Days? The apple is a comforting weight in his hand, and he looks down at it, considering...

Before either Bruce or Steve can act, Hulk rises and snatches the apples away-- only it's Bruce moving to take Steve's, his and Hulk's arms overlapping like skin and shadow. The apples arc in the air as he tosses them far into the field. ]

Bad.

[ Hulk's voice is a jangling discordant note, sending an unpleasant shiver across the sky and plain. He plucks Bruce up by the shirt and sets him standing. ]

Move.

Maybe we should walk. See what's around here.

Eames [The Forger] | Inception | Canon

[notjustathief]

[The dream may not be Eames’, but the architecture is certainly his. It’s the rare time where he’s the one constructing a dream, though it may only be because he’s so familiar with the décor – he’s conjured a seedy gambling den, located somewhere underground and lit with overhanging lamps that seem ready to flicker off at any moment. The air is humid and thick, and it smells like tobacco mixed with cologne. There’s several tables filled with people playing cards, drinking hard liquor while holding their poker hands tight while they eye their neighbors for any clues that might help them go home a little bit richer.

Eames wanders, changing appearance to suit where he needs to be – at first, he’s a waitress, wearing a cocktail dress stretched tight around the body’s he’s conjured. Then he shifts into a gambler prowling the tables, looking for an empty chair. When he finds none, he sidles back to the bar and resumes his own appearance while he waits for the dreamer to appear.]

[watchesthewatchers]

[It only takes a few more minutes for Peter to arrive. He's more tired in his own mind's eye than he'd been in person, dream-self half asleep already, dark circles and rumpled hair to the usual immaculate suit the spy wears for work.

He's dressed differently, too, in the khakis and boots and rolled up cotton sleeves of his days spent in Africa, details of the space filling in comfortable with the years he'd spent managing networks of informants in places like this, full of sin.

He scans the room subtly. Whenever he'd been in places like this, it was always looking for a contact, usually a scalphunter.]

[notjustathief]

[Ah, there he is. Eames waits for Peter's eyes to scan another part of the room before he shifts -- his appearance slides away and is replaced with that of another man's. He takes on the look of a somewhat shifty man trying to look more impressive than he knows how to be -- he wears a suit that looks badly tailored and shoes that are unwise in the African heat.

He walks over, hands stuffed in his pockets as he asks:] Mr. Guillam?

[watchesthewatchers]

Take a back table, I'll join you in a moment with a drink.

[Peter informs him, voice low, with a smile that would fool the room at large but doesn't quite make it all the way to his eyes. It's business.

Even if his contact looked a little like someone he used to know for a moment. (Can't put a finger on it.)]

Everything here is battery acid but the whiskey.

[notjustathief]

[He puts on a practiced smile of his own.] S'why they charge so much for the damned whiskey.

[He can read Peter's expression well-enough -- polite and practiced with no warmth in it. It reminds him a tiny bit of Arthur. Eames moves to a back corner and grabs a small table, where all the den's gamblers facing away from it. It's as much privacy as a place like this can afford.]

[watchesthewatchers]

[Expensive or not, he comes back with two glasses, sinking into the seat opposite and sliding one across the table to him.]

So. What's news?

[Could be discussing the weather, a mutual aunt;]

Anything from our friend?

Tony Stark: MCU: OTA

[st_a_rk]

[Tony's dreams are full of sand and thirst, to this day. He hears the strike of metal on the forge, the pepper of gunfire, the rush of a hot wind and the terrifying crunch of guard's boots in the hall outside.

Sand and thirst. He sits alone in the corner, whirring away with his car-battery still attached, paralyzed. They never come back in his dreams, never try to touch him, just leave him in here to wait and dread and remember.

Normally, the dream ends with one of them opening the door, or with the sound of someone (Yinsen) screaming. He isn't expecting anyone else to join him.]

Bruce Wayne/Batman | DCAU

[nightsknight]

[Fine with him being trapped or trying to be rescued. Spoilers all of Bruce's fantasies ever involve his parents being alive.]

Miss Spider | James and the Giant Peach | OTA

[araignee]

[Miss Spider can be the rescuer or the rescued. Just let me know which you'd prefer.

Also, in all her dreams, she's a human.]

Steve Rogers | Captain America | Avengers MCU

[super_soldier]

I am no 3 and this is gonna be mean =D (No 7)

[powerofthegods]

The machine had so many different applications and while Schmidt normally wouldn't have tested it out before hand--Steve was ever the lab rat--he had tried it on one of his men this time. The captain still had information he wanted, and hurting him would not be very interesting if the Lotus Easter damaged his mind somehow.

He had so many plans for this, so many different places he could send the captain, and yet he felt compelled to just turn on the machine's nightmare setting and see what Steve's mind gave him. Because he could see everything being dreamed of, and enter the dream himself if he wanted to. It really was a most ingenious invention, and he wished he'd come up with it himself.

Surely by the time he was done Steve would tell him everything about what had happened to the Tesseract, and about SHIELD. And if not then he at least he had the satisfaction of hurting the man who had destroyed everything he'd worked so hard to build.

He hit the button and powered up the machine, waiting to see what sort of nightmares Steve would have...

[super_soldier]

Steve's dreams were filled with icy water and cries coming at him from a distance. He was cold in a way that was unnatural and went all the way down to the bone but no matter what he did to try and warm up, it was no use. Everywhere he turned, more ice was flowing in from all sides.

The doctors had tried to tell him it was just post-traumatic stress disorder, just some fancy name modern men and women had cooked up. For some reason, people in this time felt the need to label everything including a man’s nightmares. One second Steve was dreaming about Bucky and the look of terror in his friends eyes.

Metal screeched and sheered away and then Bucky was falling. There was a strangely accepting look on his best friend’s face for the briefest of moments. Then he was falling and screaming for Steve. Screaming at him about how he failed, how he left him fall.

But there was no relief for Steve because almost immediately after he was relieving the crash and talking to Peggy on the comms. He could hear the tears in her voice as the water came closing in on him. Then he was hitting and glass was flying everywhere, c cutting his face up but then the water was closing on him once more. It was icy cold, colder than anything he’d ever felt before. So cold that it hurt and stole the very breath from his lungs.

Terror filled Steve as he tried to claw himself free of the plane’s shattered window and towards the surface in hopes that maybe he could reach it. But the pressure was too strong and the water freezing cold. Dimly, he could see the light from the surface disappearing as he was drawn further into the depths and as he screamed, water flooded his lungs.

He was going to die here. This he accepted just as Bucky accepted the fact that he was falling to his death. Once more, Steve Rogers failed. He'd failed Peggy, Bucky, everyone. And now he was going to die for that failure.

[powerofthegods]

Well now, Schmidt couldn't have wished for a better nightmare. And of course he drew a great of satisfaction from knowing that he was the cause of all this, though it had always disgusted him how Steve had sacrificed his life to save others, or at least how he'd been willing to.

Except Steve hadn't died, no; the fate he suffered now was worse than that, because everyone he ever loved or knew was dead or very old now. He didn't know if Peggy was still alive, but that didn't matter here. All that mattered was the exploitation of Steve's guilt.

He assumed that Steve would normally wake up from the nightmare now, but that was not what he intended to happen, not for a long while yet. Instead Steve went from nearly drowning to standing in the Stork Club, where happy couples danced to slow music.

Not Peggy, though. She sat at a table alone, looking down at two glasses of wine and waiting for Steve. But he would never come. Her eyes were red from crying, the tears having smeared the makeup she wore. Yet no one seemed to notice her. And if Steve tried to talk to this dream version of Peggy, she wouldn't hear him. No one would hear him. Oh, and of course, to make things that much worse, Steve was still cold, as if he was frozen and this was all just him being forced to watch as everyone suffered because of his failure.

And Schmidt was going to make it worse in a few moments, once he invoked the captain's best friend, but first he wanted to see what happened here.

[super_soldier]

Seeing Peggy sitting there crying was like a knife to the gut. She was such an incredibly strong woman that he couldn’t even imagine her crying. Even over him and missed dates. The urge to comfort her was overwhelming and before he could even think about his actions he was crossing the ballroom and trying to hug Peggy.

Unfortunately, his arms just seemed to pass through her as though he were lacking any real substance. “Peggy! Shh, I’m here, I’m here. Don’t cry.” Being a little slow on the uptake, Steve tried to capture her face with his so he could wipe the tears away from her face but once more his hands just seemed to pass through her. He was about as substantial as smoke. But the worst part was that he was helpless to comfort her.

Right before his eyes, another hot trail of tears rolled down Peggy’s cheeks, the trailing smears of mascara only making her eyes all the more dark.

“P-Peggy,” But there was no reaction from the crying woman.