eswareinmal | Dream the Fourth : GHB8 [Orb]

[[He takes it with a small 'Thanks']]

Yeah... [[a soft sigh]] I just wish I wasn't so damned useless...

Well. That's a little morose. I can't think of anyone else who can see into someone's dreams.

I can imagine that being very useful.

Not here. Here is just gets me into trouble.. [[Makes a face before starting to eat]] I have one guy who won't stop harassing me because I stopped one of his nightmares... [[scowls before taking another fork full.]]

Just because we aren't sure what do do with it doesn't mean your ability is useless. At the very least, if someone were considering some form of...organization...outside of the king's notice, I imagine you'd be very useful at passing along information. And if you just want to talk, I go to sleep. Eventually. Most nights.

Now look at me. I'm an archaeologist in a place where history is what rumours were going around town two weeks ago. The calendar here is based on years since 'The Wall Fell,' and I haven't found anyone from betwen here and the ocean who will admit they even know what 'The Wall' was. Including the king. I haven't believed in magic for 70 years, but it's all I have access to around here. I'm an expert on 50,000 year old technology, not...this.

I'd be lost surrounded by Asari, and instead, everyone else is human. That's useless.

[[He couldn't help but smile just a bit]]

You think they can see what goes on though these thingis? [[He waves a finger at the pendent form of the orb around his neck, expression a bit thoughtful.]] Aralu said that back before phones and stuff like that were common, Dreamers used to be messengers... but there wasn't much point to it after, which is why most of them wound up being made into Children, even if they could foresee the future...

[[He taps his fork on the plate, expression distant and almost agitated at the reminder. He needs to be back there, helping his Dreamers restructure themselves and start healing the Dreaming... not stuck in this stupid backwards place with out them!]]

I think it's a chance I wouldn't take. If I wasn't playing along, of course. I know I'd keep a close eye on them, especially once the conversations become private, if I had made them. But I didn't.

[Her own plate remains untouched, her thoughts elsewhere. She shakes her head.]

But I can't think of anything more important than making sure this kimgdom remains safe.

[Well, excepting things like going back home and saving her people, and dozens of other races, from extinction. Little stuff, really.]

[[Shin shrugs]] I don't know if the idiots here think that way though. Or care about protecting their kingdom with how little they do anything but gossip and make trouble...

Most of them don't, that's not even worth debating. But I'm not sure everyone here is exactly what they seem. There's...something else going on.

[She lets out a heavy breath.]

There's more to this that what we've seen in the Kingdom, at least. There are books in the manor the king gave us which are nothing like those in the castle's library, nor in the library available to us at the monastery.

There's an interesting collection in the woods, too, which isn't the most welcoming place for outsiders.

And I've spent enough time around humans in the last few years to be confidant in saying that something is not right with anyone here, and I don't think it is at all natural, either. Because the people here are not, contrary to popular opinion, all that stupid. They have roads, buildings, a level of technology and infrastructure it would have been impossible to achieve if everyone was like the townspeople are now.

[Her voice, which has been rising a little bit with each sentence, stops, and she seems perhaps a little embarrassed by her outburst. Liara is not fond of puzzles she can't figure out.]

Uh. How's lunch?

Shin's fork had paused as he watched her, eyebrow slightly raised. "...it's really bugging you how batshit this place is, isn't it?" he asked, setting the fork down to give the subject some proper attention. "So you think this place is a set up, somehow?"

She laughed, softly, mostly at herself, and shook her head. She snorted and looked at him with a wry smile. "My life has been spent making sense out of debris and ruble. And sometimes less concrete sources." Like hacked governmental networks, for instance. She missed her information network.

"Something here is not right, but I have no idea what it is. No one knows where the thorns came from. Who is directing them. What drives them." She shook her head again. "Everyone agrees the thorns have overgrown villages, and most people agree the villagers got out. But no one knows quite which village was actually overgrown."

Lifting her fork, she prodded at her food for a minute. "They are capable...farming, fishing, the maintenance of roads. But they are also wildly incompetent. Not some, every single one of them. Not just here, but every person I met between here and the sea, and all the people in the little Port, too. Something is very wrong in this place, and I don't like not knowing what is causing it."

"They don't have real dreams," Shin added. "I think I've spotted maybe one that looked like it might have been a real one, and I couldn't even reach it." Which was ridiculous. He was the king of the Dreaming, he could go farther and reach more people than anyone else could. There shouldn't be any dream he couldn't reach...

"No dreams? That can't be normal. I'm positive that humans dream for at least a a few hours every night, normally." She prodded at her food again.

"How often do you encounter dreams difficult to enter? And is there some way to pinpoint who is dreaming in the waking world? Out here? Or is the...landscape...too different from the real world?"

"There's a difference between regular dreams and real dreams. The have the regular ones, but those have about as much substance as day dreams. They're like cotton candy. There's nothing real to it, if that makes any sense," Shin attempted to explain. "Like the dreams a dog has. They're still dreams, but trying to go into one of those would be like a person going into a dog house. They dissolve when I get near."

"And it's pretty rare. I mean, Kajiro's is pretty hard to get into but he's the god of the Shadows so that's not any sort of surprise," he shrugged. "And it's impossible to find out who someone is if you can't get into their dream. It'd kinda like..." he trailed off, frowning as he tried to put it into words. "Heck, I don't know if I can explain it... kinda like a blind person trying to find a house that he only knows is white house, I guess. It's a different set of senses that don't really translate. If you spot the person in the Waking world, it's not too hard to put two and two together, but you have to find them to find them, you know?"

She nodded as she listened, and sighed. "Are you confidant it wasn't simply a hero?" She isn't looking at him directly, but her interest was sharp. Anyone local who stood out like that was someone she very much wanted to find.

"Not unless it's someone who doesn't use this thing," he bounced the shrunken form of the orb in the air a few times with his finger.

"Well. Possible, so I'll keep an eye out for anyone. But let's assume it's a local. Who do you think might be capable of keeping you out of their dreams? There is talk of a Witch, in the forest. Dragons." Liara is, perhaps understandably, not at all uneasy with thinking of non-humans as people, and the locals seem to give the dragon sisters intelligence.

"How far away can you reach, dreaming? The bottom of the ocean, where the mermaids are supposed to live, or to the 'Kingdom across the sea'?" This last takes an exaggerated tone, indicating her opinion of such a...creative...name for such a place that was supposed to be at least a trade partner if not an actual ally.

"The Dreaming's not restricted the same way as the physical. If you know where you're going, you can get there. It only takes time if you're searching for something. The only trick is making sure you know how to get back and aren't gone too long."

He shifted in his chair, trying to align his back a little straighter. "And it'd depend on the witch and I have no idea about a dragon. If they exist back home, I never saw one."

"Which means it could be anywhere. Damn it." She shook her head and sighed. "I suppose it diesn't matter, since you couldn't know who it was, anyway. If you do learn anything, please let me know." After a moment, she began to eat, albeit slowly.

"I hope this is to your liking. I wasn't really sure what kind of cuisine you might prefer from what is available locally."

"Yeah, it's fine," Shin assured with a small smile. "I've had to adjust anyway, since most everything's the meat and potatoes and beer kinda food." He took another small bite, chewing carefully and swallowing before continuing. "Long as the company's good, food's secondary. Or at least that's what Aunt Elaine always said. But she's not the best cook, so..." he smiled.

"I've spent so much time eating rations of one kind or another that I simply enjoy something that isn't rehydrated." She grinned. "When you're on a world that's little more than a name on a few star charts, digging into the heart of a ruin buried by millennia of neglect, rations are pretty much the only practical choice. That never endeared them to me."

After another bite, she looked up at Shin, studying him for a moment. "If I gave you a list of people, could you look for their dreams? Locals, I mean. Like the king, and the young mage who supposedly brought us here? If we can eliminate people you can find, it may become easier to deduce which one you cannot." Because yeah, it was highly unlikely she planned on giving that up.

"I can give it a try. Haven't found any local Dreams yet, though. It's just the... well, normal's not the right word for it, neither is real but it sure feels like it somedays..." He shook his head slightly. "The people like us who are here that aren't paper thin."

Dream the Fourth : GHB8 [Orb]

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It always makes me stupidly happy when characters realize just how inane this world is :D

Hahaha, it seems to not happen enough.

Yeah. :) And there are plot hooks hidden in so much of it too :D

~<3

Pardon the swap to prose, feel free to continue however you'd like

Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ok.

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