- Location
- Somewhere
[X] What are the strengths, flaws, and goals of each of my competitors?
[X] Where are some excellent places to collect gossamer in the dream realm, and their difficulty level in comparison to the me of now?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
Would the second question count as two questions? Both are closely linked to each other and I don't know if the answer would purposely exclude knowledge about the kind of dangers we would face. A forested valley for example might not just include a literal gold mine, but a huge pack of wolves that could be turned into a mountain of fur coats.
[X] Where are some excellent places to collect gossamer in the dream realm, and their difficulty level in comparison to the me of now?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
Would the second question count as two questions? Both are closely linked to each other and I don't know if the answer would purposely exclude knowledge about the kind of dangers we would face. A forested valley for example might not just include a literal gold mine, but a huge pack of wolves that could be turned into a mountain of fur coats.
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That works fine.
[X] Who is most likely to be my greatest challenge among my rivals in Dream-Catchers game?
[X] Where are some excellent places to collect gossamer in the dream realm, and their difficulty level in comparison to the me of now?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
sounds good!
[X] Where are some excellent places to collect gossamer in the dream realm, and their difficulty level in comparison to the me of now?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
sounds good!
- Location
- with internet
Well this has all sorts of warning flags for being hilariously dangerous.
Being more real means being in more danger— think of the sympathetic shock from being wounded or killed here, and the power the dream denizen would need to expand a dream of a dragon into a realistic simulation of the nervous system of a dragon— and this denizen is outright refusing to give any information at all about himself; not even a name or statement of intent— "he who would keep knowledge from you dreams himself your master" and such.
I would not be surprised if this thing was taking our questions as a measure of whether to eat us or not, using one hell of a narrative offense*.
@Lost Star, would you being willing to give a bit more time than normal for discussions to accumulate on how to handle this? And, separately, could we take votes for each question instead of all of them at once?
*(Think of all those classic horror stories where a character answered three questions before completing a murder, or those philosophical pieces that end with the questioner dying to their naivete or distraction. This thing is a lot deeper than the Vault Angel or the Penguins and it shows.)
Edit: I would suggest something like "[] Ask what price you will need to pay for this advice", but that might not count as a question "about yourself or your situation", and breaking the rules seems like a terribly rude (read: suicidal) idea.
Edit 2: I don't like this vote much, especially since it lacks forewarning of what might happen when we finish asking questions and receiving answers, but the previous winning vote would be horrible if it went through.
[X] What are the strengths, flaws, and goals of each of my competitors?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
Edit 3: Updating from veekie's vote and putting my vote in my next post.
Being more real means being in more danger— think of the sympathetic shock from being wounded or killed here, and the power the dream denizen would need to expand a dream of a dragon into a realistic simulation of the nervous system of a dragon— and this denizen is outright refusing to give any information at all about himself; not even a name or statement of intent— "he who would keep knowledge from you dreams himself your master" and such.
I would not be surprised if this thing was taking our questions as a measure of whether to eat us or not, using one hell of a narrative offense*.
@Lost Star, would you being willing to give a bit more time than normal for discussions to accumulate on how to handle this? And, separately, could we take votes for each question instead of all of them at once?
*(Think of all those classic horror stories where a character answered three questions before completing a murder, or those philosophical pieces that end with the questioner dying to their naivete or distraction. This thing is a lot deeper than the Vault Angel or the Penguins and it shows.)
Edit: I would suggest something like "[] Ask what price you will need to pay for this advice", but that might not count as a question "about yourself or your situation", and breaking the rules seems like a terribly rude (read: suicidal) idea.
Edit 2: I don't like this vote much, especially since it lacks forewarning of what might happen when we finish asking questions and receiving answers, but the previous winning vote would be horrible if it went through.
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
Edit 3: Updating from veekie's vote and putting my vote in my next post.
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Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
We're getting offered a chance to ask any three questions about ourselves or our situation and y'all are just asking where we can gain the most gossamer from? We can figure it out by exploring. It's not like we're not already flush w/ gossamer anyways. & it's better to learn a little more about all of our competitors than to learn just *who* our greatest challenge will be, not even *how* or *why* they are our biggest challenge.
[X] What are the strengths, flaws, and goals of each of my competitors?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
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I can give a bit more time
I'd rather not have separate questions though. The updates would be a bit short then.
- Location
- with internet
I'm going to guess this means we won't get any hints interspersed with the answers as to exactly how the denizen is dangerous or what it's trying to do.
I'm swapping this question out because it might count as multiple questions and it's possible that it no longer counts as our situation; it's asking for a total of 21 separate pieces of information, and we might be able to ask questions about "our rivalry" or "the Dream Catcher's competition", but not directly about "the Moth" or "the nightmare of burning alive".
I think the "the" should be a "my"; "the biggest problem" might give us a general answer about the real world or the dream realm we can't do anything about, if we've sufficiently underestimated the scale of "or you situation".
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
[X] What is my biggest problem I'm overlooking?
If we're under the effects of a narrative offense, I'd expect the third question to strengthen it, but the second question should give a chance at survival if that's the case (unless they go the route of thinking "if you're dead you don't desire anything, and if you die fast enough you wont get a chance to desire leaving").
Edit: Fixing third question, credit to Marlin.
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Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
@Lost Star Would "[] What are the strengths, flaws, and goals of each of my competitors?" count as multiple questions?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
- Location
- St. Petersburg
[X] What are the strengths, flaws, and goals of each of my competitors?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
[X] What are the strengths, flaws, and goals of each of my competitors?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
- Location
- Somewhere
I think this is a poor question. Yes, we probably will get details on something that concerns us a great deal. However, whatever it is will be a past event, and if we don't understand whatever we are told about the problem predicting the future cascade effect of the problem won't be easy.
We might see something like a giant hole in the ground, a tree that reaches impossible heights, or maybe a school teacher talking with a concerned parent. What we won't see are the hidden details that could be important. The concerned parent could be talking in a secret code to the school teacher. The giant tree could be slowly suffering corruption we can't see because the corruption is most obvious underground. The giant hole could be the place a giant very important rock statue used to be until one of our rivals 'claimed ownership'.
Then there is the question of time. How much time will we have before the event blows up in our face? If there is no time to prepare, intervene, or prevent the question is pointless. If there is time can we find the location, or person, in time to stop whatever is going to happen? We should be able to find a rival if they are behind it, but what about a rival's minion? We might need to seek out each of our rivals to determine which one has a minion, then locate the minion.
I think this question is more of a shot in the dark if the problem isn't about a catastrophe to us, or the dream realm that will affect us. Being more about a personal problem that will be annoying if it succeeds, but not a disaster if we fail to prevent it.
Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
@Marlin
To my knowledge, the problem we overlooked would just be something like "you really suck at x" "challenger y is going to murder you," "why do you even trust the dreamcatcher anyways."
if we get a mystical vision then yeah it's a shot in the dark but at least it's a fun shot in the dark which will have florid writing and lead to endless speculation later.
I've been considering changing it to "how can I enter and leave here as I please?" though. It's true that he might trap us in this corner of the dreamworld.
To my knowledge, the problem we overlooked would just be something like "you really suck at x" "challenger y is going to murder you," "why do you even trust the dreamcatcher anyways."
if we get a mystical vision then yeah it's a shot in the dark but at least it's a fun shot in the dark which will have florid writing and lead to endless speculation later.
I've been considering changing it to "how can I enter and leave here as I please?" though. It's true that he might trap us in this corner of the dreamworld.
- Location
- with internet
Edit: Ok, recovered my post from interface confusion.
Now if only we could consolidate the subtle differences in our votes. A number of people have edited theirs.
Inserted tally
The dream vision stuff seems quite off the mark, since the denizen said "advice" and "answer" rather than "show you" or "see about". Other than that, this is a good point; how do we make sure our question hits upon the most important thing to our plans and actions? Because you see, if we put in the caveat "[...]problem I've overlooked that I can do something about", then we're also cutting off potentially more important things that we might not be able to do anything about directly, but we would much prefer to know for our plans. We could also simply change to "I'm overlooking", which will cover current problems but also won't exclude previous problems still overlooked if they're more important.
Now if only we could consolidate the subtle differences in our votes. A number of people have edited theirs.
Inserted tally
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Thirty Four
[X] How can I return and leave here as many times as I desire?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
There are three questions asked. The dragon doesn't quite remember asking them though. It's like the record on a recording skips and he's at the answers. One moment he's drinking tea, and the next the teacup's empty. It's intensely disconcerting, because he's quite sure that what came across was more the meaning rather than the words themselves. As if a conversation happened.
"Your first question. Leaving is easy. The way out to the normal world is just over the edge. Jump and you'll be perfectly fine." The man chuckles quietly and refills the dragon's cup. "This place will also dissolve when you leave. The key thing about this area is it's never quite the same place as you left it." He sighs and breathes in the steam from his tea cup. "Mysteries like this place are so very important for proper dreams you know?"
The dragon snorted and sipped at his new cup. He wants to speak in reply, but the disconcerting sensation lingers still.
"You might be able to find here, if you go deeper and explore more. You might not." The man shrugs. "The Dream-catcher caught mere glimpses of what this place really is. You, you don't have her power yet. You're angling for it though. It's a good goal I think." He laughs. "There must always be someone on top you know?"
The dragon nods at that. Why angle for anything less?
"This leads into the second question. Ultimately you're not going to be fully grounded in reality. There's a trick you might pick up to step into the Dream with your real body. With that, you can become more and less real. There's an even more deadly trick that can take others with you." The man gives the dragon a stern look and waves a finger. "This will be dangerous to them more than you. If they can't get out, they'll likely die. Some would warp into something else." He lowers the finger and looks grim. "Be careful with that one."
That makes the dragon shudder. There are some things that he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy. That was likely up there. Having a real body in a nightmare would be a torture beyond imagining. The only thing that made some things tolerable was the lack of pain and risk.
"Now, I'd suggest you find someone or something to ground you. Otherwise you'll forget to eat and drink. You're not at that point yet, but as your power and proficiency grow, reality seems more distant." The man chuckles. "Or rather the world of flesh and bone seems more distant." He winks there.
There was a disturbing implication in that statement. The dragon chewed on the thought in the silence. "You're implying something about the dream."
"Layers within layers. Worlds within worlds. Those stars aren't for show. The dream in the infinite expanse from which all things come and go. Eternity isn't just a name." The man shakes his head and laughs at himself. "Look at me, meandering around. Don't mind me. That was a good question by the way. How do you judge what infinity does to a person? It's hard to tell. I've given you the high and low points. The rest is up to you there."
"Thank you." The dragon nodded and finished off his tea.
"Almost out of time. Your last question. A guidepost." The man chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "Hmm. I'd actually suggest you look at the news reports in the city of Los Angeles. Such a lovely city this time of the year I understand. The dreams from there are lovely."
The chill this time wasn't due to something the man had done. The dragon gulped and forced himself to ask. "What would I find there?"
"Murder, blackmail, and sin of course!" The man laughed. "And one of your rivals doing all three." The room began to fade. "I hope to see you again! We can try coffee next time."
Now there was nothing but stars around him. Large stars, small stars, and more. A vision of reality in all it's infinite glory. The size of the world and the universe. You could spend a lifetime and not even see a fraction of everything. The dragon flapped his wings and tried to orient himself on something. The stars and the fabric of reality flapped with him and everything rippled. He just needed to identify one thing to focus on.
One star shone brighter than the others. He flapped, and light bent for an instant. A timeless moment later and he was in front of a great sun. Something so large and massive that there were no words to mention it.
Something urged him onward though. He could feel vibrations of something. A scream of pain. A cry of joy. Roars and laughs.
There. A tiny dot. A familiar voice came from that dot. The dragon flapped his wings again and light bent around him.
He was falling then. Coming home in a shooting star, circling a familiar earth. Something burned away as he dropped, and the dragon felt a great wrapping of gossamer slowly disintegrate around him as he got close. The bubble of protection? Confusion? Something he hadn't noticed until this point. It was going away, and he realized that he was actually in reality.
Somehow the man had brought him into outer space? The thought was inconceivable. It broke his brain just a bit. The proof was in what he was seeing now. He was falling to earth in a wash of fire. Protected by a gossamer shield that was burning away. The man had done it without the dragon noticing until the very second he was back home.
The dragon landed at the apartment of where his real form should have been. He ducked briefly into the dream to slide into the room.
The bed was empty. John fell to the ground as the last of the dragon's form fell away.
-----
Wonder +1
-Breath of Eternity (A glimpse of the true eternity. Dragon Breath cannot be avoided, mitigated, or negated. The damage it causes is permanent until the dragon wills it isn't.) Unlocked.
Introspection time. What does John do after this?
[]?
[X] What is the ultimate impact of prolonged exposure to the Dream upon a mortal such as myself and how can this impact be increased, reduced, or altered?
[X] What is the biggest problem I've overlooked?
There are three questions asked. The dragon doesn't quite remember asking them though. It's like the record on a recording skips and he's at the answers. One moment he's drinking tea, and the next the teacup's empty. It's intensely disconcerting, because he's quite sure that what came across was more the meaning rather than the words themselves. As if a conversation happened.
"Your first question. Leaving is easy. The way out to the normal world is just over the edge. Jump and you'll be perfectly fine." The man chuckles quietly and refills the dragon's cup. "This place will also dissolve when you leave. The key thing about this area is it's never quite the same place as you left it." He sighs and breathes in the steam from his tea cup. "Mysteries like this place are so very important for proper dreams you know?"
The dragon snorted and sipped at his new cup. He wants to speak in reply, but the disconcerting sensation lingers still.
"You might be able to find here, if you go deeper and explore more. You might not." The man shrugs. "The Dream-catcher caught mere glimpses of what this place really is. You, you don't have her power yet. You're angling for it though. It's a good goal I think." He laughs. "There must always be someone on top you know?"
The dragon nods at that. Why angle for anything less?
"This leads into the second question. Ultimately you're not going to be fully grounded in reality. There's a trick you might pick up to step into the Dream with your real body. With that, you can become more and less real. There's an even more deadly trick that can take others with you." The man gives the dragon a stern look and waves a finger. "This will be dangerous to them more than you. If they can't get out, they'll likely die. Some would warp into something else." He lowers the finger and looks grim. "Be careful with that one."
That makes the dragon shudder. There are some things that he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy. That was likely up there. Having a real body in a nightmare would be a torture beyond imagining. The only thing that made some things tolerable was the lack of pain and risk.
"Now, I'd suggest you find someone or something to ground you. Otherwise you'll forget to eat and drink. You're not at that point yet, but as your power and proficiency grow, reality seems more distant." The man chuckles. "Or rather the world of flesh and bone seems more distant." He winks there.
There was a disturbing implication in that statement. The dragon chewed on the thought in the silence. "You're implying something about the dream."
"Layers within layers. Worlds within worlds. Those stars aren't for show. The dream in the infinite expanse from which all things come and go. Eternity isn't just a name." The man shakes his head and laughs at himself. "Look at me, meandering around. Don't mind me. That was a good question by the way. How do you judge what infinity does to a person? It's hard to tell. I've given you the high and low points. The rest is up to you there."
"Thank you." The dragon nodded and finished off his tea.
"Almost out of time. Your last question. A guidepost." The man chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "Hmm. I'd actually suggest you look at the news reports in the city of Los Angeles. Such a lovely city this time of the year I understand. The dreams from there are lovely."
The chill this time wasn't due to something the man had done. The dragon gulped and forced himself to ask. "What would I find there?"
"Murder, blackmail, and sin of course!" The man laughed. "And one of your rivals doing all three." The room began to fade. "I hope to see you again! We can try coffee next time."
Now there was nothing but stars around him. Large stars, small stars, and more. A vision of reality in all it's infinite glory. The size of the world and the universe. You could spend a lifetime and not even see a fraction of everything. The dragon flapped his wings and tried to orient himself on something. The stars and the fabric of reality flapped with him and everything rippled. He just needed to identify one thing to focus on.
One star shone brighter than the others. He flapped, and light bent for an instant. A timeless moment later and he was in front of a great sun. Something so large and massive that there were no words to mention it.
Something urged him onward though. He could feel vibrations of something. A scream of pain. A cry of joy. Roars and laughs.
There. A tiny dot. A familiar voice came from that dot. The dragon flapped his wings again and light bent around him.
He was falling then. Coming home in a shooting star, circling a familiar earth. Something burned away as he dropped, and the dragon felt a great wrapping of gossamer slowly disintegrate around him as he got close. The bubble of protection? Confusion? Something he hadn't noticed until this point. It was going away, and he realized that he was actually in reality.
Somehow the man had brought him into outer space? The thought was inconceivable. It broke his brain just a bit. The proof was in what he was seeing now. He was falling to earth in a wash of fire. Protected by a gossamer shield that was burning away. The man had done it without the dragon noticing until the very second he was back home.
The dragon landed at the apartment of where his real form should have been. He ducked briefly into the dream to slide into the room.
The bed was empty. John fell to the ground as the last of the dragon's form fell away.
-----
Wonder +1
-Breath of Eternity (A glimpse of the true eternity. Dragon Breath cannot be avoided, mitigated, or negated. The damage it causes is permanent until the dragon wills it isn't.) Unlocked.
Introspection time. What does John do after this?
[]?
MooGoesCow21
Just Listen to me....
- Location
- US Washington
[X] Go to an art store, buy some a couple of canvases, some paint. Spend time creating art in order to process and decompress what he's learned and wants to do.
- Location
- Germany
Dunno, sounds kinda expensive, both on the financial side and on the time side, which probably will cause us to forgot something, so I would rather just get down to it instead of wasting time
Also painting does not equal drawing, so doing it might not even be all the relaxing cause of the beginner mistakes that he is aware of but would make anyway from the lack of experience
so down to something simple
[X] Draw
-[X] Theme
--[X]Dragons & Stars, maybe draw a dragon made out of Stars
--[X] review what you have learned and what it implies,
---[X] compare it to the memories that you were shown by the dream catcher
----[X] maybe try to draw these as well
Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
afaik he does more art than just drawing. p wrong tho.
we have a free week to spend, so time doesn't matter. We don't really leave our house for much, so spending $ on art is fine.