Tim is currently standing behind the desk in his dream-office. Currently, three of the doorways are marked -- the one leading to where Pandora was, the one leading to where she is, and then the one leading to ... Relm, according to the sign on the door. It's currently locked, however, and Tim knows this without needing to try the knob.
Tim blinks for a moment, a bit surprised at the abrupt transition - and the lack of companions. "Thought some of the others were coming with me - guess not today."
With a shrug, he heads through the door which leads to where Pandora is now.
Tim emerges from the same misty walkway he originally reached when he came to the Brotherhood's base of operations.
It doesn't look like it's changed much, though from where he is, Tim can make out a conversation:
The first voice says begins, "...point of not doing that, as it would particularly make things later difficult."
A second voice replies, "Well, I don't mean to question your authority--" A brief pause. "Well. Fair enough. I suppose, then, with all due respect, I do mean to question your authority. Why are we letting two of them run around the Dream unopposed?"
"Well, I don't think I could fight the Wanderer off. I suppose all of us might, but he's not -- really -- a threat to us. Or the Dream. He seems to honestly want for the best, even if I don't agree with his methods."
"Okay. I can accept that. I'd still like to know about Charrel, though. Why can't we stop him?" Another brief pause. "But-- Oh." Another moment of hesitation. "That makes perfect sense, then."
Tim, unable to help overhearing the conversation, waits for a few moments before calling out. "Um... hello?"
The first voice says, "Hm. We may need to move you, Pandora." More loudly then, Tim is able to recognize that it's Alan's voice when he says, "Please, come in."
Tim removes his omnipresent hat before stepping inside the office. "Sorry if I'm intruding - I just had some time free, and Relm suggested I come and talk to you about some training in being a Dreamer and what I can do."
This room isn't Alan's office, but instead, is the room where Pandora's sphere is kept. A rather large amount of text is fading from the sphere, though Pandora herself isn't in sight. Alan was in discussions with a tall and blond-haired Brother of Morpheus.
"Becoming a dreamer is a relatively simple process in theory, but becomes more abstract the further you go. Unfortunately, while Dream is the foundation that underlies reality, it's not reality itself. Though it always has potential." Alan shrugs at that, then shakes his head. "My mind is wandering. We can approach this from multiple angles, but I need to know which you prefer the most.
"We can begin from a practical standpoint, and define a goal you want to work towards. We can discuss the underlying principles of dreaming in general, and see what you can glean from that. Or we can train you as a brother -- though, I don't know that this would suit you, as unlike us, you've got a physical body to take care of."
The other brother nods, and says, "I'll be off, then. If you need me, please send for me."
Alan nods at the other brother without adressing him, and says, "There's no reason we can't start at a theoretical level and then work on practical applications -- or vice-versa. I just need to know how you want to handle it."
"I think theory will help me more," Tim replies. "The more I understand the underlying principles, the better I'll be able to fill in the gaps in the practical on my own."
"Alright," Alan says, nodding. "This works for me. The next part will require practice and contemplation. Because you're just starting out, and may not know exactly what you're doing, it's best to begin in your own personal dream. I imagine that's where you find yourself when you dream, now."
Alan pauses for a heartbeat, as if considering something, and then nods to himself. "From there, you can establish how to work your own dream, and fashion it into something that allows you to comprehend and address the external dream. Right now, you can only percieve the dream that you're within. You can't really navigate your way through it.
"The long and short of it is that because dreams are separate, yet still commonly dreams, you need to impress your will on you moving anywhere through it. Usually this is going to express itself in the form of a journey. What you're going to want to do in your own dream, is formulate an anchor. Something that you can pull yourself back to at all times. This is pretty much essential to traversing the dream safely, at least until you're better equipped to handle some nightmares."
Alan pauses then, and furrows his brows. "That probably raises a lot of questions," he mutters. More clearly, he says, "I'm sorry. I can try to clarify it, if this seems vague."
"I... THINK I get the idea. It's like a beacon - something that I can always refer to as a reference point no matter where I am or what I'm doing in the dream. That much at least makes sense. What exactly comprises an anchor like that, though? Just a definitive reference point that I can come back to and say 'This is here, this is my place?'"
Tim pauses for a moment to further collect his thoughts.
"Now, when you say that I'm not able to navigate through the dream I'm in, that does need a little more explanation. Obviously I'm able to perceive it, and interact with it if I need to - I can touch you here, I can speak with Pandora, I can do things in the dream I'm in. How is that different from navigating through it? Or does that refer to traveling between different aspects of the dream - like here, or my office, or where I first found Pandora?
"And I didn't miss that about nightmares, but let's get the basics out of the way before we get to those."
"Essentially an anchor is something that will always let you find your way back to where you started out. What the anchor looks like or how it works are up to you. You'd set it in your own dream, since you can always go there.
"And I meant traveling between the different facets of the dream -- there's not really space or distance between different dreams, but you can move between them anyway. It's the fact that dreams move, so there wouldn't be any static routes."
"Well, what I've seen so far is that in my dream, there are doorways that lead to places I've been before. And when we first went to see Pandora when we entered the dream in body, I was able to make a path between the place where we entered and the mountaintop where she was - the key was just in wanting to know where I wanted to go. Is there another way to move between dreams? I'd guess there's a way to get into a dream that I've never visited before."
"Well, it depends. On the one hand, there is the general Dream. All points in reality are connected to it. All points in the Dream, too. Well, with rare exception. Regardless, from the Dream, you can also find the dreams of your friends."
"How exactly would I do that, then?" Tim asks, recognizing a practical application. "If I had to hazard a guess, I'd focus on the person, and then try to reach that part of the dream that's most directly connected to them. If all dreams happen within the larger Dream, then that part of the Dream that they're most in tune with would be their own personal dream. Or am I going in the wrong direction?"
"That's about right, though," Alan says, shrugging. "The true route to power within the dream is through tools. Which aren't really tools -- they're essentially restricted uses of your own power. If you try and do everything through force of will, you lose a lot of fine-control. If you make a tool to do it for you, then it will behave, and in learning to make the tool work the way you want, you also learn much better control over the Dream anyway.
"So you'd probably actually begin by making, I suppose, a telephone, or a computer you could use to e-mail your friends. And it doesn't really matter if they've got the symbol of a phone or an e-mail -- the intent of the tool, communication, is your goal, and thus, it's where you go. Simply, with a communicator-shaped anchor. If that makes sense."
"So the anchors I make are the tools I use to navigate the dream," Tim muses. "That... makes a lot of sense, really. Is most of what I'll need to learn just mastery of those tools?"
"And the other question I had: How do my abilities here relate to what I can do in the real world? I've already discovered that I've at least got a limited ability to create objects by will there, and I've seen Kyle do the same. Is that all it extends to, or is there more I can do?"
"Essentially everything you'll want to do is through tools. While they're an extension of yourself, and initially not probably as powerful as you might want ... when you make a mistake, you learn a lot more from the destruction of a tool than from the destruction of yourself. It's not the only way to approach the Dream -- and it's not the one we use. But you're still alive, so it's probably much more suitable for you.
"And of course that question ties in perfectly. As it so happens, you can create a power, or a rock, or ... something. You can build a tool that is meant to do something, even if that tool is a magic word that throws fire. You can invest of yourself to bring your tools over, but in reality, they'll tend to be a bit more ... simplified.
"For example, on a journey, I think you created a walking stick. I doubt you woke up with it in your hand, at any rate. The walking stick is a tool -- it's something to help with a journey. In the real world, it becomes a stick, and less guide-oriented. But that doesn't make it useful, and there's no reason not to create a tool that's simply useful for its shape in the real world -- I'm sure you've seen Kyle's guns."
"I see what you're saying. So for me at least, making a tool isn't just a function of what it does in the dream, but also a function of what it's good for in the real world as well. I think I've got a good foundation to start with - is there anything else I should know? What about nightmares?"
"Well, I can't imagine you'll want to go there for a while yet. Essentially, the less controlled a Dream is ... if s on the fringes of Dream, close to the Enemy. Those dreams are more powerful, but therefore also more dangerous. They're called nightmares simply because we can't afford to forget their danger, even though there's a purpose to going there.
"There are dreams that people can't have ... I'm not sure if the Enemy made them that way, or if they're that way becaus it makes them resist the Enemy more. Either way, you'd have to wade through deep nightmare to reach the Old Dreams.
"You'll have a more convenient route, I imagine," he adds, smirking. "Aside from that, in the nightmare, you can achieve more, and craft more powerful tools. I'm ... not certain if something that far can work outside of the Dream, though. I don't have a way to test it, myself, and I'd rather not have Kyle or Phae try going there."
"I probably won't either, at least not for a while or without good reason. But I'd rather know what to watch out for."
Tim nods. "Thanks for all your help - I might stop by again if I have more questions, and if you ever need to get in touch with me, get in touch with Relm - if you don't find me directly, anyway."
With that done, Tim heads back to the door to his office - whether it was there or not throughout the conversation, it is now. Stepping through, he finds himself inside his 'office' once more.
"Well, if this is my place in the Dream, let's start with some tools." Tim begins by creating a large cherrywood desk. On the desk is a large, old-fashioned dial style phone, with no holes in the dial - at least for the moment. In addition, there's a notebook computer, currently powered off, and the walking stick, now propped up against the wall between the doors to Pandora's mountaintop and Relm's place.
"Now, who do I want to bother..." Tim hmms for a moment. Concentrating briefly, he picks up the phone. As he reaches over to dial, a single hole appears on it, labeled 'Carthrat'. He dials once, and waits for an answer.
Tom finds himself -- briefly -- between dream and waking, and then standing in Tim's office. Dream office.
Either Tim just pulled Tom into his dream, or, for whatever reason, Tom is dreaming about Tim's office. It seems somewhat envy-worthy. The desk is especially nice.
"Is this your fault?" asks Tom, shooting a dirty glare at Tim. "I was having a *nice* dream just now."
"Well, I wasn't expecting THAT, but it works," Tim says with a snort.
"Well, whatever," replies Tom, looking around Tim's office. "This is weird. If you can pull me into this dream, does that mean you can, like, look into my dreams?
Wait. Don't try and do that."
"I probably could," Tim replies with a smirk. As he says this, a flatscreen TV appears on the wall behind him. "Should I take a look or not?"
"I dunno. Do you really want to know?" replies Tom, rolling his eyes. "Even so. Wouldn't it just, like, show what's happening now? I'm not dreaming what I was dreaming a second ago."
"One way to find out," Tim replies. Making himself a nice leather office chair, he plops down in it and swivels it around. Turning on the screen, he attempts to get it to show what Tom was dreaming about fifteen minutes ago.
The channel guide doesn't scroll backwards, unfortunately. But there is a channel that seems to display from the vantage of a security camera above and behind the desk.
Of course, when anyone looks, this camera is clearly not there.
"There we go," replies Tom. "I can sleep slightly easier, now. Oh, can I have a chair, too?"
"Sure, why not." Tim makes another chair for Tom - not quite as nice as his, but still good. "I just finished talking with Alan, and he gave me some more information on how the Dream works and what I can do with it. Just trying some of that out - I wasn't expecting to BRING you here, just get in touch with you."
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting anything," replies Tom, musing. "Could you do that with anyone who was asleep? Even someone who didn't want to come?"
"That... hmm. I'd expect I could, if my will to bring them here was stronger than their will to resist. 'Will defines reality', after all - so if my will is stronger than theirs, my reality becomes theirs. I wouldn't want to try it with another Dreamer yet, but I imagine I could do it with someone else."
"True. That could end up being pretty potent, though," muses Tom. "You have total control here, huh? I'm totally at your mercy.. unless I can summon up the will to break loose."
Tom thinks over that for a bit. "I'd hate to be your enemy right now, that's for sure."
"I'd imagine so. Alan said that the place where I enter the Dream is my place, so I'd imagine this is where I'll be strongest within the Dream. The desk is my anchor here, or at least I think so - something that I can pull myself back to from anywhere in the dream."
Tim swivels around to face Tom. "I'm still making tools that I can use to interact with the dream - that TV should be handy, for viewing other parts of the dream."
"And the phone, to call up people," nods Tom. "And you can make up new tools on the spot, if need be. Nifty. It's all.. visualisation, isn't it? Neat, indeed.
Do you get.. actual sleep when you're here?"
"Not really, as I understand it. It's rest, but not as good as real sleep. That's one of the first things I learned, from Pandora way back when I first encountered the Dream."
Tim sighs. "Seems like it was ages ago now, but it really hasn't been that long. Subjectively, anyway."
"Yeah," says Tom. "When you think about it.. hell, it hasn't even been a week.
Man. Say, do you think you could take me to see the Brotherhood? Relm said something about training, and I could probably use some of that. Sounded all metaphysical and whatnot."
"Sure, I can do that. Some combat training wouldn't be bad for me either, and it'll give me a chance to make some other tools. Or expand what my current tools can do."
With that, Tim collects his staff from where it lies next to the door and opens the door to the Brotherhood's compound. "After you."
Tom steps through the door. "Combat training is never bad, though!"
"Given our recent circumstances, I'd say not," Tim agrees, following Tom through the door.
The two quickly find themselves opposite the waterfall, before the chamber where Pandora rests.
Tom walks into Pandora's chamber, keeping an eye out for members of the Brotherhood.
Tim follows along behind, wondering if everyone is out on business - or moving Pandora as Alan was talking about earlier.
Pandora is indeed gone. In her place is a desk. It's stone, looks very blocky, and has an ancient-looking computer on it. Behind the desk sits Nick, though he's hunched over a gameboy advanced, and is grumbling about something, the tiny machine shaking in his grip.
"Having fun?" Tim comments wryly. He walks around the desk, trying to get an idea of what Nick is playing.
"Hah!" Nick says triumphantly, holding his GBA aloft. "Golden Sun. Uh, the second one. Fun game. So, uh, what's up?"
"Just trying a few things out from having talked with Alan earlier, and managed to get Tom into my dream. He was interested in hooking up with you guys for some combat training, and I wouldn't mind getting a bit of that myself."
"Combat training is good stuff," Nick says. "So ... who wants to learn what?"
"A bit of this, a bit of that," replies Tom, shrugging. "The fine arts of boot to face and bullet to brain, y'know. I already know a bit of karate, and I can shoot a gun and throw a knife and shit... but Relm said something like, 'Build your personal self-image through Dreampower!', so I figure I'll just build on what I know. What little there is."
Tom pauses for a moment, thinking carefully.
"On another tangent, it'd be really neat to be able to drive like they do in them action movies. You know, two-wheels, one-wheel, no-wheels, no ground, all that stuff."
"Wallace knows combat driving, we can teach you most anything else. This way to...." Trailing off, Nick stands up, and points towards a distant doorway on another floating island. "The DANGER ROOM!"
"Ominous!" annouces Tom. "On we go!"
"I'll just brush up on my aikido and jo techniques, if that's cool. Haven't practiced either in a while, so a bit of sparring would probably not be a bad idea."
Tim considers for a minute. "And some basics on firing a gun wouldn't be a bad idea either, I suppose."
Tim and Tom spend what feels like several hours training in various skills before Nick and Wallace respectively suggest they wake up (whereupon they immediately do).
Tim and Tom now return to Please Wake Me Up (http://www.pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=56348#56348).