Roxy opens her eyes.
"Wtf...?" she asks no-one in particular. She doesn't recognise her surroundings at all.
"Oh!" A voice behind her says. "Hello!"
She turns around. There's a troll behind her – red-blooded, anything that side of green is probably safe, but Roxy's wary of the weird mind shit which some of the lowbloods can pull and – damn, make that very dangerous, 'cause someone's gone and taken her strife specibus.
Come to think of it, Roxy doesn't remember putting on these sweet purple pyjamas – and she's never seen a troll with those sweet-ass butterfly wings before.
"...Wtf?" she repeats.
The troll girl smiles – okay, wow, that's a first – and holds out a hand.
"I'm Aradia!" she introduces herself. "Welcome to the dream bubbles!"
Roxy blinks a couple of times, and wonders if she's ever actually spoken to a troll before.
"Wha's a dream b'ble?" she slurs.
Aradia looks at her sternly. "You aren't actually drunk, you know."
"Aren't I?" Roxy asks, perhaps a little sharply.
"I've been hearing about you for days, and there's no alcohol here," Aradia explains. "You could make your dreamself drunk psychosomatically, but that's almost impossible if you've been told it's the only way!"
She beams. Roxy blinks again, awards the troll girl a couple of points on the conversation leader board. She'll have to find a way top that.
"So what is a dream bubble?" she repeats.
"It's hard to explain..." Aradia says. "It's a kind of afterlife!"
"I'm dead?" Roxy blurts out.
"No!" Aradia reassures her. "We're both alive – technically, you're asleep."
Roxy understands a bit better now. Dirk warned her about the dreamselves.
"So if this is the afterlife..." she asks. "Do I have to rescue my true love?"
"I'm sorry?" Aradia looks confused. Okay, Roxy corrects herself, Greek mythology gags don't work on people who aren't Strider.
"I mean, what are the chances I'd run into you here?" she tries again. "It must be... what's the word?"
"Fate?" Aradia rolls her eyes.
"Nah, other one... starts with K."
Aradia falls for it. "Kismet?"
"'kay."
She leans forward quickly and gives Aradia a peck on the cheek. She blushes.
"I meant..." Aradia stutters a little.
"I know." Roxy winks at her.
It's time to make dreams come true.