Dreams True And Untrue

It is past midnight as Liz's car pulls in, and people get out.

Aron checks the sky, as a matter of course, and then nods to the others. "I should look in on things upstairs." Thusly excusing himself, he heads up.

Aron makes his way to Azalea's door and knocks. He is still black-clad.

Azalea says "Come in."

Aron steps in and nods. "Azalea."

Azalea looks up. She sits at her desk; in front of her a file folder. "Is it time to go now?"

Aron frowns slightly. "Go?"

<> Aron says "Oh man, this is going to hurt."

Azalea answers, patiently, "To this thing tonight. To find out about the dream drug."

Aron says "Oh."

Aron rubs the corner of his mouth with his thumb. "I believe there has been a miscommunication."

Azalea lifts a brow.

Aron says "We just returned."

Azalea says "Ah."

Azalea says "What do you think about this drug, then?"

Aron says "I'll have to see. I could not tell much about the dealers. Once Tanya takes it, I was going to enter he dreams."

Aron says "Would you come with me?"

Azalea says, to the air, "/Now/ he includes me."

Aron looks wry. "I've misstepped, I think."

Aron says "I thought, from earlier conversation, that you had other things on your mind."

Azalea says "I did, but I put my other duties aside to work on this."

Liz knocks on the (open) door. "Hi. May I come in?"

Azalea tells Liz, "Yes."

Liz walks in, holding a ticket and a small packet full of pills.

Liz says "Tania should be up in a few minutes."

Liz says "Don't look like much, do they?"

Azalea says "No."

Liz says "Oh, I have a ticket to a music concert next week. If you like, I could get another and you could come along. It should be entertaining."

Aron remains thoughtful through this exchange. Then, to Azalea, "I'm sorry."

Azalea looks dark, but her tone is mild. "Tania is here, then?"

Liz says "Downstairs."

Azalea says "Has she tried this drug before?"

Liz says "Yes."

Aron's mien, by contrast, is cool, if rueful. He listens.

Azalea says "Good."

Liz says "In fact, she asked if it was okay to keep taking it, which is how this all started."

Azalea says "Can some sort of chemical analysis be made on the drug, also?"

Liz nods. "We have enough for Sephar's people to do so."

Liz says "You're welcome to a sample as well."

Azalea says "I have no resources in that area."

Liz nods.

Aron says "Best for us to see the effects."

Liz says "I'll go get Tania and ask Marath if we can use one of the spare rooms."

Liz trundles downstairs to find Tania and Marath.

Tania is findable, loitering nervously in the kitchen. Marath is tending to the last few post-midnight diners.

Liz says "How're you feeling, Tania?"

Azalea closes her file folders and follows Liz downstairs.

Tania gets off her stool. "Okay. You, ah, want me to do it?"

Aron makes preparations for the spare room.

Liz says "Tania, this is Azalea."

Liz says "You don't have to do anything. If you want to help out, we'd be grateful."

Liz says "If you do decide to do it, Azalea will help keep watch on your Dreams. She's an expert on the subject."

Tania nods to Azalea, then turns back to Liz. "It's okay. I said I'd do it. I just don't know what it's going to be like, having people in my head."

Liz smiles. "It doesn't quite work that way."

Liz says "But I think it would be best if Azalea explained further. It's really not my field."

Azalea says "I'm not an expert. Merely a journeyman."

Azalea says "If all goes well, you will see me in your dreams. It will be like any other dream, except perhaps more lucid while it happens."

Tania nods. "Okay."

Azalea says "I won't be in your head, I won't know what you're thinking, and you won't know what I'm thinking."

Tania hesitates, and nods again.

Tania says, "I'll probably have to lie down if I'm going to sleep."

Aron comes down a few stairs from the landing. "The room is ready."

Tania nods. Silently she makes her way up the stairs.

Liz follows Tania up the stairs.

Tania makes her way into the indicated room, dropping her shoulder-bag at the end of the bed.

Tania says, "Please could I have a glass of water?"

Liz disappears, returning remarkably quickly with a bottle of water, a glass, and ice.

Azalea says "Of course."

Tania takes the glass of water in one hand, and reaches out the other hand for a pill.

Tania says "Thank you."

Azalea says "We'll just be next door."

Azalea says "You're certain you're comfortable doing this?"

Tania swallows dryly, and lies, "Yes."

Azalea says, low and intent, "You must be certain that you wish to help us. We do not force or coerce others."

Tania looks up. "I am certain. I'm just nervous. I haven't done this before."

Azalea says "It is your decision."

Tania nods. "I want to do it."

Aron hides a smile.

Azalea nods, with a deferential gesture. "Thank you."

Azalea turns, and departs.

Tania says, "Um, if I get a lethal overdose or something, someone please wake me up."

Aron says, to Azalea, as she leaves, "I like you, Azalea of Dream."

Aron smiles and heads for his own room.

Next door, Tania swallows the pill, then washes it down with a swig of water. She puts the glass down hastily, and watches her hands.

Aron settles down to sleeep and attempts to send himself towards Tania's dreamscape.

Tania blinks once, then again slowly, and lies back on the bed. She's breathing steadily by the time she's relaxed.

With the familiar sensation of translocation, Aron and Azalea find themselves... elsewhere. It looks like the bridge of the Millenium Falcon. Tania, a lightsaber at her side, plays chess with Han Solo. In the background, Chewbacca and Ben Kenobi seem to be sipping pina coladas.

Aron raises an eyebrow, glances at Azalea.

None of the people in the dream - including Tania - seem to have noticed Aron and Azalea. The starscape does funky things.

Aron makes it even more improbable that he will be noticed. He moves around the dreamscape checking its, well, feel, he supposes. Does it seem natural?

The dreamscape feels... well, there's _something_ slightly peculiar.

<> Demiurge says "Perception roll."

<> Demiurge says "From both of you."

<> Azalea rolls the d666 and gets 6 2 CHECK: 3.

<> Aron rolls the d666 and gets 2 4 CHECK: 2.

The dream seems much as normal to Azalea. To Aron, however, it has a slightly ... recorded? ... texture to it. Not as if Tania were truly creating it.

The console begins to beep. Han Solo jumps to his feet, and yells, "The Empire! They've got us in a tractor beam!"

Tania also jumps to her feet. "We've got to sneak into the base undetected!" Previous unnoticed Jedi robes swirl round her. "Everyone hide!"

All those currently on the bridge promptly run to concealed wall panels, and jump behind them. The wall panels click shut.

Aron continues to watch, as that is his primary purpose here.

Azalea watches.

In a sudden telescoping of time, Stormtroopers run onto the bridge and poke around desultorily. They walk right past Aron and Azalea, looking through them as if they weren't there. One Stormtrooper barks into his helmet, "Ship's empty, sir. We'll bring her in."

Aron moves up to Azalea and murmurs, sotto vocce, "This seems scripted."

There is another telescoping ripple of time, and the Stormtroopers are gone, and Tania and the others clamber out from behind the wall panels. Ben Kenobi says, "Steve, you go and rescue the Princess with Han there. I'll deal with the tractor beam.

Azalea whispers to Aron, low, "How do you mean?"

Aron replies, "I'm not quite sure; I don't think she's creating this dream."

Aron then mouths, "Steve?"

Tania nods enthusiastically. She runs down a corridor, Han Solo following, Chewbacca staggering behind them.

The corridor telescopes, in the best style of science fiction serials, into another corridor that is already in a cell block.

Han Solo says, "All right, kid, so how do you want to work this?"

Tania draws her lightsaber and waves it round. "Hey. I've got a cool sword, we're on the side of righteousness. Let's go kick some ass, kiddo."

Han Solo says, "Okay, Steve. You're the boss."

Chewbacca growls, once.

Han Solo says, "But yeah, my partner thinks that charging in like that is a great idea. He says it sounds like the poets of his homeworld and that you will be long fabled in bartime stories."

Tania says, "He sure talks pithy."

Aron shakes his head bemusedly.

Azalea crosses her arms.

Tania charges, Han Solo and Wookie following. Stormtroopers blast at them. Tania does the cool parry-with-lightsaber thing. Nobody even seems to notice Aron and Azalea.

Aron murmurs, "I think I shall try a test."

Tania hacks a cell door open, pulls Princess Leia - who for some reason is in her bikini outfit for this scene - out of there, and does a surprisingly manly pose. "Time to get you out of here, girl."

Leia makes big eyes. "Oh, Steve! I knew you'd come."

Aron maneuvers behind Leia and taps her on the shoulder.

Leia totally ignores Aron.

Chewbacca, smoking from several blaster bolts, staggers up and grunts.

Han Solo blinks. "Hey, kid, he says that your buddy Ben is currently duelling it out with Vader. We'd better get the hell out of here!"

Azalea murmurs to Aron, "Why anyone would buy a drug whose sole purpose is to make you Luke Skywalker is beyond me, Xfiles notwithstanding."

Aron says "Who is Luke Skywalker?"

Tania tosses Leia aside. "Like hell! I have to save Ben."

Azalea says "Tania."

Aron says "Oh."

Aron says "I thought she was 'Steve'."

Azalea says "It's a metaphor."

Azalea sighs. "Never mind."

Tania dashes down a corridor, Leia somehow fading from the scene.

Aron nods. "Still, your point stands."

Tania rushes out at the other end of the corridor - in another telescoping - onto a high platform on which Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi duel, lightsabers flashing.

Tania charges into the fight, just as Darth Vader strikes Kenobi down and is about to give him the deathblow. There is much artistic lightsaber-play.

Aron frowns, and then snaps his fingers. "I've seen this scene somewhere before."

Tania gives a final cry of, "Die, thing of evil!" and strikes a Mighty Blow that sends Darth Vader toppling off the edge of the platform. Vader gives a looooooooooooong cry as he falls.

Aron says "Hm. I don't think that's how it went, though. Curious."

Tania turns and embraces a Leia who has somehow appeared up there, miraculously managing not to cut her in half with the lightsaber.

Azalea says "No, it isn't."

The dream begins, slowly, to waver, as though Tania were starting to wake.

Aron moves back. "Time to go, I think."

Azalea slips to the edge of the dream.

The dream begins to fracture and vanish, suggesting that Tania is waking.

Aron slips back into wakefulness, then.

<> Demiurge says "You can either exit into the Marches, or back to your bodies."

<> Aron will slip into the Marches, first, quickly, and then back into his body.

<> Aron wants to take a quick look to see if there's anyone there

<> Pat says "Nobody....except BELETH!"

<> Pat says "mwoo ha ha"

<> Aron laughs.

In the Marches, there is nobody else nearby. Dreamscapes drift around, and Blandine's Tower is pale on the horizon, but nobody else seems to be nearby.

<> Demiurge says "Now there's a thought... ;)"

Aron slides into wakefulness, then.

<> Daimon says "And Beleth says, "Aron, about our little argument...""

Azalea goes back to her body, not having as much forethought as Aron.

>From next door, where Tania is, there is the sound of someone muttering and stretching.

Azalea stands, stretching, and moves to the next room.

Tania is sitting on her legs on the bed, watching the glass of water that she holds in her hands dreamily.

Azalea asks, mildly, "What did you think?"

Aron works the kinks out and rises. He, also, makes for Tania's room.

Tania says, "That was _wonderful_."

Aron, in the doorway, asks, "Do you always dream that you're 'Steve, the Jedi'?"

Azalea slants a look at Tania. "What do you remember?"

Tania blinks. "Steve? I suppose..." She hesitates. "I didn't really think about that at the time. The dream just flowed."

Tania turns back to Azalea. "I dreamed I was Luke Skywalker, all heroic with a lightsaber." She shrugs self-consciously.

Azalea says "And people would buy a drug just to be Luke Skywalker, you think?"

Tania says, "No, not just for that. But that was such a _good_ dream. I had it. It felt real. I can remember it now."

Tania suddenly blushes.

Azalea says "What?"

Tania says, "Um. What if they get able to start making, well, stuff like sex dreams? Or particular stuff a person asked for?"

Liz knocks gently on the door. "May I come in?"

Tania says, "I don't know what sort of thing's possible with dreams and with people like you."

Aron says "Anything's possible."

Azalea nods to Liz. "Do."

Aron says "Anything you imagine."

Aron stresses the pronoun slightly.

Tania says, "I thought angels had imaginations too."

Aron says "But this was your dream."

Tania says, "I don't usually dream like that. Not that clearly, not that much fun."

Azalea says "It occurs to me that a demon could make a tidy profit, selling dreams to humans. Good thing I was never the mercenary sort."

Aron raises an eyebrow but says nothing.

Liz enters, carrying a tray of drinks. "I brought coffee, tea, cocoa, and orange juice for anyone who might be thirsty." She looks at Tania. "It went well, then?"

Tania says, "Can I have some juice? And it was a cool dream."

Liz hands Tania a glass of orange juice.

Aron says "I can offer my thoughts, if it is appropriate?"

Tania sips the juice, and looks up at Aron. "Sure! I mean, you're the angels."

Azalea says, pained, "Please, Tania."

Azalea says "It's not nearly as prestigious as we'd like to think."

Aron takes that moment to gather up a mug of coffee. He sips it and nods.

Tania says, "Sorry. But, like, you are the ones who know more about this sort of thing, then."

Aron says "On the positive side, this substance seems to have produced a truly enjoyable experience."

Liz sets the tray on a nearby table without taking anything, and orbits quietly about the room.

Aron says "On the negative, the dream was not really Tania's. Also, I am concerned that her own dreams will now seem less vivid."

Azalea says "I don't like it."

Aron nods. "I don't, either."

Tania says, "Belle didn't ask me to give them to anyone else. She just said that I might like to try some more. I mean, a pusher would have wanted me to pass them round, wouldn't she?" She clearly wants to be reassured.

Azalea says "She might not be a pusher."

Tania drinks her orange juice, looking a little happier, though not much.

Aron says "I think we need to investigate these people."

Azalea tells Tania, "You should rest some more; it's still late."

Azalea says "If you wish, one of us can police your dreams."

Aron nods.

Tania says, "It's okay. I mean, I should be getting home anyhow, if that's okay?"

Azalea says "Of course."

Aron steps away from the door.

Tania nods, and gets up. "Thanks," she says, picking up her shoulder-bag again as she heads out. "See you round."

Aron says "Take care, Tania."

Azalea bows to Tania as she leaves, a gesture of deference.

Azalea says "Thank you."

Azalea says "It was very brave, what you did."

Tania pauses. She seems uncertain, then she says, "I ... appreciate you thinking that. It didn't feel that brave."

Tania, clearly now embarassed, does her best to leave rapidly.

Aron smiles to himself, and then takes his leave quietly.

Liz says to Azalea, "What did you think?"

Azalea says "It was - odd. I don't know what to make of it yet."

Azalea says "The dream - Aron said - was manufactured. But harmless."

Azalea says "At least, it seemed harmless."

Liz hmms.

Liz says "Did it seem like a normal dream from the outside?"

Liz says "Or is that a reasonable question to ask."

Azalea says "To me, it did. Aron felt differently."

Liz nods.

Liz says "I'll make sure Sephar's people get the samples to review."

Liz says "Thanks."

Liz ponders. "I wonder how you'd manufacture a dream..."

Azalea says "I don't know."

Azalea says "I could see creating a dream and then being there when the person sleeps, to guide them through it - but in pill form?"

Liz says "Seems sort of suspicious."

Azalea says "Rather."

Liz says "And Tania said it was better than a real dream?"

Azalea says "She did. More real, more vivid, more fun."

Liz lets that roll around her mind. "More...'fun'... I've never known humans to describe their dreams as mostly 'fun'."

Azalea says "She was living out a fantasy, as much as dreaming."

Liz nods.

Liz says "What were you able to see, from the outside?"

Azalea says "The dream ignored Aron and I; we weren't part of the script, so it had no place for us."

Azalea says "We couldn't affect it at all."

Liz says "Is that unusual?"

Azalea says "Yes."

Liz looks disturbed. "If it had been, say, a nightmare. A really horrible one.. no matter what happened, the dreamer would have been unable to break out of it?"

Liz says "And they would have been unable to receive aid from outside?"

<> Demiurge says "Azalea, you and Aron didn't really try any significant Will-use effects to alter it."

<> Demiurge says "So possibly it _could_ have been altered, if you'd really tried."

<> Azalea says "Yes. That's for next time."

Azalea says "I don't know."

Azalea says "We didn't try to interrupt her part of the dream."

Liz nods.

Liz takes out the packet of drugs she had.

Liz separates the four remaining tabs into two and two.

Liz hands two to Azalea. "For you and Aron to experiment with."

Liz says "One will go to Sephar's people. One to my Boss."

Liz says "And I do believe I'm going to have a talk with Belle."

Azalea says "Be discreet. We have no idea what we're dealing with here. So far, this thing seems harmless. Which frightens me."

Liz nods. "Oh, I will."

Liz looks at her packet. "Which of course leads one to wonder what would happen if one of us were to take it."

Azalea says "Bring me more of them, and perhaps we'll find out."

Liz says "I'll see what I can arrange for."

Liz pockets the drugs.

Liz says "Meanwhile, I am going to a music concert next week." She shows Azalea the ticket. "If you like, you're welcome to come along.""

Azalea says "What sort of concert?"

Liz says "Rap, blues, related things."

Azalea says "On purpose?"

Liz nods. "On purpose. There will be lots of dancing."

Liz says "And, if this dream stuff begins to propagate to the community at large, there may be signs of it there."

Azalea says "But is it really worth listening to rap music?"

Azalea makes a face.

Azalea says "Who says we couldn't find the dream drug somewhere that plays real music?"

Liz laughs softly. "I'll ask Tania if Belle has friends in the performing arts groups. If any are doing Mozart or Brahms, I'll get us tickets."

Azalea says "Brahms. Now there's music to dream by."

<> Liz takes this moment to note that her player utterly detests about 90% of rap, but Liz doesn't. Something about the rhythm, movement, and flow of words and ideas...

Liz says "It is lovely, yes."

Liz says "Although I'm afraid I don't do much dreaming."

Azalea admits, grudgingly, "Although I suppose if one were listening to actually /good/ music, one wouldn't need drugs to have dreams."

Liz just smiles.

Liz checks the time.

Azalea looks at Liz.

---

Fiat Justitia