tushanshu | 005; audio;

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005; audio;

[With Ariadne most definitely gone - awake, presumably, though Arthur still can't figure out how she could've woken up but he still can't - Arthur is now alone in this place.

In some ways, being alone opens up certain possibilities that he wouldn't have considered available as long as others were here that he needed to protect. It's just him, and he knows how to look after himself, and he doesn't have to worry about keeping stories straight or anything like that.

Besides, the dream hasn't collapsed yet; what's a few more projections knowing some things?]

I want to get in touch with anyone who had knowledge of those archways in Sinbrilee. [He still disdains the whole idea of magic, but it's clearly a delusion he'll have to work with for the time being.] Especially the dreaming ones.

There are some, ah, tests that I'd like to run.

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[Screw encryptions. He gets a feeling if he keeps using them, he'll just have to explain himself a dozen times over.]

Don't know anything about Death, and I'm not sure what the difference even is. I want to run dream tests.

There was the Death arch and the Dream arch. I think the Death arch brought out our worst fears. I never made it into the Dream one. Dream tests? How do you do that?

I get that there were two of them, I just am not sure how anyone was able to tell that they somehow led to two different worlds, when "Death" just seemed to be bad dreams.

But the answer is probably "magic", which doesn't explain anything, so nevermind.

[He just sort of patiently explains, now:] I have tech, that lets me induce shared dream states. There seems to be magic here that can do something similar. I want to try combining them, run some tests, see if we can make them work together for everyone's benefit.

I don't know. Like I said, I never went into Dream. But, we were told they were two different worlds. That was enough for me.

Magic skeptical?

[ He appreciates the patience. ] How... would that benefit everyone?

The point of magic is that it doesn't make sense and can't actually exist. If it made sense, it would be science. You can give me any spiel you want about how magic exists here - but the fact remains that any answer that boils down to "it's magic" isn't going to help me.

But there's the potential for a lot of information to be mined, from the right person's subconscious. Can't say I've ever done it with a turtle, but if he can visit us in our dreams, I don't see why we couldn't visit him in his.

It doesn't just exist here. It exists other places, too. And magic can act like science, right? Also, I don't think that's the point of magic. It's called magic because it's unexplainable and mysterious, not because it can't exist. Then it'd be called Utopia.

... Yeah, I guess. I don't think he'd like it.

I get that magic exists here or wherever else. But it doesn't where I come from. Which makes it unhelpful for me, and anyone else for whom it doesn't and shouldn't.

That's what asking permission is for. Which is more than he ever did for those of us who's dreams he invaded.

[Of course, Arthur is the biggest hypocrite to talk about consent when it comes to dream sharing, but shhhh.]

That you know of.

He invaded your dream?

He invaded the dreams of a lot of people, myself included. Far as I know, he didn't ask anyone's permission.

I'd say he owes us one.

[Wow Arthur what a hypocrite like really.]