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Bernard Smith "We're in a secluded government research facility with no outside contact and they're conducting experiments on us which we have no say in. Nothing about this place is normal. But there is free food I guess, and the facilities are better than some stories I have read." Bernard responded with a shrug. "Uh, Tycho was it? If you find a round table it'll make some sense to you I guess. I need to grab my gym clothes though, so I will talk to you later I guess."
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Sep 9, 2013 05:49
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| # ? May 4, 2024 09:06 |
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Axel pipes up. "Actually it's only FUNDED by the government..."
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Sep 9, 2013 06:15
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Bernard Smith Bernard nodded. "True. But there was a lottery and we were required to come here so the government, or part of it has to be involved. Otherwise we could have legally said no." He added in addendum.
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Sep 9, 2013 06:19
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Tycho "Government, private corporations. Is there a difference anymore?" She shrugged as they walked. "I'll join you if you like, Bernard. Workouts are easier when you have a buddy."
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Sep 9, 2013 06:35
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Lara Lara jerks her hand away from Gretchen, stifling a yelp, and turns and faces her. Well, bodily at least--her head is pointed firmly away and down, and her hands are balled up into fists, trembling.
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Sep 9, 2013 06:53
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Bernard Smith His response to Tycho was to look slightly to the side. "No. I'm fine really, I am sure you be- have more important things to do." He murmurs a bit quietly. Which is probably a big clue to Tycho that he is a bit shy and also somewhat embarrassed and uncomfortable about his body. While he wasn't obese by any measure, Bernard could definitely do with losing some pounds, and probably gaining some muscle mass.
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Sep 9, 2013 06:59
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Tycho "Not really. I'm approaching this whole thing as a vacation, and my plan is to not have a plan. Come on, I'll join you and we can make smart rear end comments about all the guys who are trying too hard. If there's a gym, there's always one or two people who take the bodybuilding poo poo way too seriously."
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Sep 10, 2013 01:08
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Bernard Smith Bernard still seem reluctant, but acquiesced as refusing further would have been more difficult. "Well. If you want to I guess." He looked at Axel to see if he wanted to come, but that was up to Axel. Regardless he'd go and grab his clothes and head into the gym, get changed and start working out. If nothing else happens for the rest of the day, Bernard will be playing the I Can't Believe It's Not WoW private server.
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Sep 10, 2013 03:07
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Isaac "Izzie" Wilson Izzie blinks at Bob blankly for a second before he catches back up with what's being said. "Uh, yeah, sure. That'd probably help." He shakes his head. "Sorry. Kind of in shock, you know?" He runs one hand through his hair and sighs. "I better go finish my workout. See you at dinner, maybe?" Izzie heads back to the gym afterwards, planning to hit the weights and the elliptical for a while.
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Sep 10, 2013 04:02
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Axel definitely goes to work out--at first, the amount of weight he loads up to lift seems like he's an idiot, or about to hurt himself to impress someone, but it soon becomes evident that beneath his pudge, the man is a powerhouse. He doesn't seem to care if anyone's watching him, either--he seems to enter almost a zen state as he works out. As Bernard logs into not-WoW, he encounters another player almost immediately, nameplate reading <Atom Mayo>. A speech bubble above her head reads, "Well well well...at last we meet, newbie. ke ke ke."
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Sep 10, 2013 05:12
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Bernard Smith Bernard's response was eloquent and succinct. <Feral Shadow> "Uh what? ke ke ke? Isn't that a Japanese thing? Sorry, I'm not feeling sugoi desu today." It was slightly easier to speak his mind online, he could hide behind the visage of a virtual avatar. Anonymity gave him some freedom and confidence he lacked in person.
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Sep 10, 2013 06:00
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Tycho After the workout with Bernard, Tycho found herself wandering the facility. Mostly it was to get a better sense of the place after the hurried tour from last night. However, she did keep her ears open for any interesting gossip as she went. She may not be a detective anymore, but gathering facts and information was still a deeply ingrained reflex.
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Sep 12, 2013 01:31
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Whoever Atom Mayo is, she is clearly no stranger to the game's emote system, as she responds to Bernard's retort by putting her hands on her hips and scowling. "Something wrong with being Japanese? Is that any way to thank the person who made it possible to play this game here? And I was going to give you the little tour of the mods this server has to make it more fun for such a small playerbase, but clearly the baka gaijin wants nothing to do with me." -- A man with close-cropped, iron grey hair and a serious demeanor approaches Tycho. She's seen him before; he's the fellow who took Izzie aside earlier for a few words. "Hey," he says. "Name's Robert, but mostly I go by Bob around here. You're a cop, aren't you? Can always tell another cop. It's the way we walk." He extends a hand. -- Gretchen seems surprised by Lara's reaction. "Whoah, hey, sorry. I just wanted to talk to you--I'm not gonna bite. Look, it's about the..." Gretchen glances around, lowering her voice. "The dreams. I gotta warn you, if you get too caught up in 'em, you might not--" Gretchen falls silent as Nil and Moon come into view from around the corner, and frowns as it becomes obvious they're heading towards her and Lara. -- Izzie finds himself joined by Ewan, the man from earlier. "Hey, sorry 'bout getting dragged off there. Guess the news is out--I'm the one that found Ishikawa, so I had to get debriefed. Look, I'm night-shift, so I'm generally up at odd hours compared to you guys, but I had fun earlier, and definitely wouldn't mind a rematch. Tomorrow?" -- Jonas is trailing around after Guy, chattering about cartoons. "...So the whole computer animation thing looked like it was going to kill hand-drawn animation entirely, but it also made it easier for enthusiasts to get into it, and a couple of real indie studios got formed--man, like, not even in the same country and poo poo. It's some seriously cool stuff, too, edgy but not in that early Ralph Bakshi way where they're just doing tits and stuff, you know, but doing like, serious discussion of issues and philosophy in ways that just don't work in live-action. Anyway, there's like, communities who work on projects now and there's like, always a demand for talented artists of all kinds, and like, an expert like you on architecture and stuff, man, you could really contribute or even start your own awesome project with me, man..."
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Sep 13, 2013 05:14
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Bernard Smith Feral Shadow shrugs <Feral Shadow> Not really. Most people I find in these games that speak like that, <Feral Shadow> Are white people that really love Naruto or Sailor Moon too much. <Feral Shadow> I haven't met a Japanese person before in one of these games, <Feral Shadow> And that's pretty cool if you got this all up and running yourself. <Feral Shadow> I was expecting a GM tag though. Feral Shadow pauses <Feral Shadow> Sorry about that. <Feral Shadow> Someone in our group committed suicide. <Feral Shadow> Then they told us another person is in a coma. <Feral Shadow> It's kind of...a bit confronting I guess. Bernard backpeddled as fast as he could. If the guy was the admin, and there really wasn't much reason to believe he wasn't on a small server in a crazy government campsite then he didn't want to be on bad terms with him. He didn't need Blackwing the Scourer, a level 70 raid boss being dumped on his head when he was a lowbie as had happened to him on one private server. He hadn't returned.
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Sep 13, 2013 05:29
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Tycho Taking his hand, she gave him a firm handshake. "Tycho Barbarossa. Pleased to meet you, Bob." Leaning against the wall, she made small talk with the man. Where you from, got any funny arrest stories, so on and so forth. She figured the guy was probably going to work around to some topic in particular, but she wouldn't hurry him. "Nice place here, huh? Like a resort spa with labcoats instead of hunky latino fitness instructors."
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Sep 13, 2013 05:53
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Isaac "Izzie" Wilson Izzie is still a bit distant, but nods. "Sure man. If you've got any friends who want to jump in too, I'm cool with that." He pauses for a moment, looking ahead, then adds a bit suddenly. "Hey, I've really only checked out the gym... What sort of stuff do people do here to pass the time? I mean, no offense, but it seems like it'd be easy to get bored."
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Sep 14, 2013 05:35
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Guy Reaching the entrance to the gym Guy cuts off Jonas with a raised index finger. He tells Joe, "Y'know, that's a pretty cool idea. You any good at script-writing?" Regardless of his answer, Guy continues, "Could you try to just brainstorm something before you go to bed for me to draw from? It could cool my drafting itch and get the ball rolling on some real groundbreaking stuff. Deal?" He gives up his right hand for a shake. He seems pretty stoked in a laid-back sorta way.
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Sep 15, 2013 06:08
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<Atom Mayo> There's no fun playing as a GM. You can just do everything and there isn't any CHALLENGE. Yeah, Ishikawa and Krukowski, right? Those G-men have been crawling all over everything down here--I almost had to break open a can of karate-style whoop-rear end on them when they started talking about seizing the servers to go over the logs. <Atom Mayo> Kostas made a couple calls and got that handled, though. Guy's a hardass, but he's OUR hardass. Well, I guess maybe...look, I know you're probably not too thrilled to be here but man...imagine this... * Atom Mayo gestures around her. <Atom Mayo> Graphics can only get so good, but dreams are the ultimate in high fidelity fantasy, man. That's why I signed on to this project. -- Jonas frowns. "Oh sure, hey, yeah, I gotcha. I'll be all for it. Yeah, dude, I'll get that all planned out. I totally gotcha. Got that right. Right, so I'll just...go do that." He shakes Guy's hand and then saunters off. -- Ewan shrugs. "We got some leagues and stuff I think. Mostly all I get to see is the night and early morning, right? I know Yamamoto--that's the girl who's in charge of the computer poo poo--plays some online game thing that she's hacked up, and that Jonas kid keeps putting together film festivals. Lots of cartoons but he does like, theme nights and foreign poo poo. Dunno how he gets all of it, I think he does a lot of requisitioning. Not my department, thank God." "Is there anything you're looking for particularly? I can probably point you to whatever's closest to it..." -- Robert chuckles. "I wouldn't know about hunky latino anything. I'd advise against relaxing too much, though. Something around here...stinks. You'll see what I mean soon enough. Till then...be careful who you talk to and watch your back."
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Sep 17, 2013 04:25
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Lara Lara lets out a low, frustrated groan, then darts away, just... running. Running away, or something, without really paying attention where. When she slows, she's near the gym, which was maybe deliberate, and she winds down as she goes back inside. Briefly, she notices Izzie and Ewan, but then just slumps down against the wall near the door, watching.
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Sep 17, 2013 04:46
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Tycho "Right. Thanks for the heads up, Bob." She gave him a wave and moseyed her way back to her quarters. She appreciated that they both made a living being suspicious, but she just couldn't bring herself to take his words at face value. Not yet, anyway. The research being done might be ethically questionable, but sinister? She doubted it. This place was funded primarily by the private sector - the government was just lending a hand as far as she knew. Having Uncle Sam snatch up more and more private citizens to kill off would just cause problems in the long run. The bigwigs paying for all this might not care about their lives in any altruistic sense, but they did hate having problems. There was no money in it. Well, whatever the case, time would tell.
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Sep 17, 2013 22:41
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Isaac "Izzie" Wilson Izzie shrugs, his hands spread out. "I'm mostly a gym rat. Though - anyone do any fencing? Or martial arts stuff? I've always been interested in that."
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Sep 19, 2013 01:49
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Bernard Smith Feral Shadow is surprised. <Feral Shadow> Are you in the testing program as well? <Feral Shadow> I didn't think they'd let stuff participate. <Feral Shadow> I guess it's not so bad though, the worst part is not being allowed to talk to anyone outside. <Feral Shadow> I'm going to miss all the world firsts for Assault on Orcsbad.
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Sep 20, 2013 01:28
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<Atom Mayo> Nah, I'm just here for the end product. Man, don't remind me...they won't even let ME connect outside. ~ Ewan shrugs. "I think Yamamoto, the IT chick, does some kinda karate or something. There's a bit of that kind of thing, anyway, but that's all sport stuff, so..." ~ I wanna skip ahead, anyone have any urgent or important business for the day or shall we move to dreams?
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Sep 24, 2013 19:20
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None here, feel free to fast forward.
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Sep 25, 2013 02:48
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Let's get to what dreams are made of!
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Sep 25, 2013 02:51
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Camelot The hall of doors is slightly different tonight--rather than the endless afternoon from the last time you all saw it, the land is awash with the colors of sunset. There are also significantly more dreamers present in the hall, milling around and chatting quietly. Several familiar faces are present--Drew and Belle, staying close to one another, Jonas's cartoonish form, strangely subdued tonight, the beautiful yet fierce Iris, the begoggled form of Gretchen, and the others you have met. Still more are there too, in an array of forms: a doll girl, all porcelain and lace; a strange mantis-man; a woman wrapped in a feathered cloak wearing a beaked headdress; a six foot tall chair, and more. Bob clears his throat, as you all arrive. "Everyone, let's move into the Round Table's hall, and get this meeting started." The other dreamers begin to file into the great hall, and soon you are all seated at the legendary table of King Arthur and his famous knights. "So, a lot's happened in the past couple of days," Bob says. "Obviously, we have a new wave of people, and just as obviously, none of them is on the placebo...again." Destiny speaks up now. "This is the first time we've had someone kill themselves, but the situation with Ishikawa seems consistent with the others from the earlier waves. For those of you in the Fourth Wave, you should know that this isn't the first time that's happened, and it sure as sugar isn't gonna be the last." Jonas snickers slightly at the way Destiny avoids cussing. Axel snorts and rolls his eyes. "So who put you in charge, anyway?" Axel drawls, interrupting. "I don't mind getting filled in here, but I sure as gently caress don't like the way you two seem to be calling the shots." "Nobody put anyone in charge," the chair says, its voice pleasant and male, emanating from somewhere unknown. "They're the ones who are the most interested in keeping everyone sane and informed. Most of the rest of us wouldn't know where to start, like me, or are busy following our own projects, like Gretchen." "It's a fair question, though," Destiny acknowledges. "And since there's so many new faces here, we may as well take a few moments to answer any others they might have before we move on." I probably abused semicolons. They work differently in dreams, if I did. So there.
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Sep 26, 2013 07:12
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Bernard Smith Bernard could see most people as he stood out, or rather towered above many of the people in the room. "Just the one I guess, has anyone ever accessed someone's dream outside of the program? Say, some random guy in Chicago or something."
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Sep 27, 2013 02:05
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Tycho Tycho sat watching the proceedings quietly. This was all pretty strange to her, but everyone seemed to be taking it in stride. Nobody paid her much mind, which made sense. Some extra arms and a greasy brown coloration was pretty tame compared to most of the people here. Well, she'd roll with it and get some clarification later. After the giant demon posed his question, she likewise spoke up. "I'm wondering why any of you think this is out of the ordinary. The U.S. has a fine history of experimenting on its populace without consent. Don't forget MKULTRA, or the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The people involved in that didn't even get a paycheck for their trouble."
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Sep 27, 2013 02:26
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Bernard Smith Bernard shook his head. "The fact that any of this is occurring is phenomenal. Think about it carefully. We are all sharing a dream here, more important than the increased lucidity is the fact that we all have the same experience. There has to be some form of communication going on between us at a fundamental level. Either they have made a drug that can engender telepathic abilities, or they have decoded brainwaves sufficiently to be able to decode, transmit and re-encode them." He explained to Tycho as he voiced some of the thoughts he had been considering during the day.
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Sep 27, 2013 02:39
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Tycho Leaning forward, she rested her chin on a pair of folded hands. The other four arms fussed with each other a bit before finding an unobtrusive place to rest. Dream or no, her brain was having trouble coping with twice as many limbs to deal with. "I was, uh, trying not to think too much about that. However this is working, the implications are pretty intimidating."
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Sep 27, 2013 02:46
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Asimov/Isaac "Izzie" Wilson Izzie raises his hand from his place standing against the wall. "Why?" He waits for attention to turn his way, then continues. "Why this experiment? What are they attempting to accomplish? It seems to me that they want something specific out of this." He tilts his head, and adds, "And why do you think they are unaware that something is going in the dreams here?"
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Sep 27, 2013 02:52
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"Well that's the real question, isn't it?" Jonas pipes up. "We got a lot of ideas on that front, but unless you guys have heard something the rest of us haven't, none of the staff have told us a thing. It's been a constant topic of discussion every time we have one of these little roundtables, but nobody's got any new data there." "As far as going into unrelated people's dreams: the answer is yes, you can. But don't. It's an invasion of privacy, and frankly there's no way to tell what it might do to whatever poor bastard you're invading if you start mucking around in there." Gretchen winces at Jonas' terminology. "'Mucking around' is hardly the precise term--" she begins, but Bob interrupts. "As far as we can tell nobody is able to eavesdrop on the dreams, because otherwise, why ask us to inform them? They would be questioning the false reports we're giving if they knew. Unless they have some agent in here we can't see, of course, or some reason to let us go on believing they don't know."
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Sep 27, 2013 04:55
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Lara I've been taking much more of an interest in the walls of the castle, flicking at the stone, but I do glance over at the group. "So... I'm still finding it hard to believe that nobody has let it slip, or that they don't have other people worked into this on their own. The size of this facility and the likely cost of this program is way too large for them to be simply relying on self-reporting, or satisfied with what I assume is just random nonsense that the rest of us are writing down."
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Sep 27, 2013 19:44
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Bernard Smith Bernard was stunned. It worked outside of their own dreams? The implications and possibilities were incredible and utterly terrifying. "So, some of you have mentioned already some things you have attempted to do to test the limits of these abilities. What has been found so far?" He asked, wanting to know what experiments had been done so far.
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Sep 29, 2013 05:07
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"There's been no sign that they're aware of what's actually happening in here," Bob repeats. "If they do, it means they're either satisfied to let us play our little game, or that they don't care. I don't think they can read our minds, though--even I'm not that paranoid. It'd be far more likely that someone here is a spy..." There's a few moments of silence after that pronouncement. "Elucidating everything that we have learned to this point and our ongoing experiments would take a sizable amount of time," Gretchen notes, changing the subject. "It's also somewhat outside the scope of this particular meeting. I will be glad to discuss with you the theories I have on oneironautics at a later time. For now, the key elements to bear in mind are that it is extraordinarily dangerous to become too involved in shaping dreams, it is moreso--not to mention quite rude--to do so within the dream of any other individual, and--" Destiny cuts Gretchen off. "What Gretchen's trying to say is that if you push too hard in here, you'll burn yourself out, and wind up a vegetable. We're still exploring the limits of what we can and can't do in here, and the answer is basically that there are either no limits at all, or very, very strict limits, and it depends on whose dream you're in and what kind of dream you're having. Through your own dream door, if you want, you can do almost anything you can imagine, with enough effort...most of the time. Through other people's dream doors, it takes way more energy to do it, and if they don't like what you're doing, lucid or otherwise, they can shut you down and give you a very bad time...or worse. Try not to die in here, by the way. And...well, watch out for nightmares." Drew--Nil?--speaks up now. "How about when we're awake? Can any of this poo poo push through into the really real world?" Probably pretty obvious what he's got in mind there--and Belle looks like she wants to know, just as bad. "No," Bob says. "Yes," Gretchen says at the same time. Giving people a chance to cut in, or ask for clarification, or shift the direction now.
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Oct 1, 2013 06:54
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Lara I frown, moving a bit closer. "Could you tell me more about the burnout thing? Is that maybe what happened to that other girl, Fatimah? Are there any signs of it?"
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Oct 1, 2013 07:11
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Bernard Smith "No and yes. I assume then there is some complication?" Bernard asks with some interest. The fact Bob had said no while Gretchen had said yes was also telling. He wondered what the catch was with it...
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Oct 1, 2013 07:16
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Tycho Tycho sat back again, watching the less talkative members of the meeting, gauging their reactions to all this. Things were still fairly relaxed and discussion firmly in the realm of "could-be and maybe-so", but that likely wouldn't last. People's imaginations and preconceptions would run away with them, and if more unfortunate accidents occurred it would simply add fuel to the fire. It wouldn't be long after that before people started splitting into camps, with their own agendas. It was just human nature, regardless of the circumstances.
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Oct 1, 2013 12:56
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Asimov/Isaac "Izzie" Wilson Izzie listens at the back for a while, but as things begin to devolve into old arguments, he quietly slips out the door. He stops outside for a moment, looking around, then turns and sets out in the direction that looks least traveled at a comfortable pace.
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Oct 2, 2013 01:52
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| # ? May 4, 2024 09:06 |
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"There's no way of telling if Fatimah burned out that way or if something else happened. Could have been a nightmare, could have been simply an embolism caused by a reaction to the drug." Bob shrugs. "But getting back to the matter of using these powers on the real world...I'm curious too, Gretchen." Gretchen clears her throat, and adopts a somewhat professorial stance. It's made a bit ridiculous by her garb, stature, and shock of reddish hair. "Theoretically the walls of reality are permeable enough to permit a certain amount of energy to cross over between this universe and what we think of as reality. Normally they are sufficiently reinforced by our conscious minds telling us that magic and other supernatural abilities are impossible that we are unable to affect any sort of change; given our abilities here though it is possible that were we to take some form of hallucinogenic substance in combination with the chemical they are testing we may be able to accomplish similar effects in a waking state. Furthermore, with a sufficient ratio of oneironauts to mundanes--" "--Mundanes?" Axel objects. "What, are you talking about muggles or some poo poo now? You're a wizard, 'arry!" He barks a laugh. Gretchen looks nonplussed, and does not immediately continue, as everyone starts talking at once... ~~~ Izzie finds himself, meanwhile, heading on the path least travelled, directly into the darkened woods, alone. There is an odd sensation of things almost coming into being mere moments before he sees them. A little way into the wood, a female voice--source not immediately apparent--comments, "And who is this stranger who darkens my doorstep?"
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Oct 8, 2013 07:28
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