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[aloadeddie]

[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.

Comments

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[epigrammatical]

[Henry chuckles.] In my day, there are opium-dens for that, if one is willing to brave certain less salubrious parts of the city.

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[aloadeddie]

We have something like that, too, though it's not the drug that's addictive. It's the dreaming itself. Some people get lost in it.

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[epigrammatical]

Waking life is a disappointment to many; to such people, I can easily imagine that dreaming must be far preferable.

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[aloadeddie]

Something like that, yeah. When you lose things, sometimes it's easier to lose yourself in a dream.

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[epigrammatical]

You speak as if you have known such unfortunates personally.

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[aloadeddie]

A few. I've been doing this for almost ten years.

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[epigrammatical]

Is it possible, with your drugs, to become lost in a dream forever?

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[aloadeddie]

Sort of. Time works differently in dreams - so you could spend an entire lifetime in a dream, and then wake up to find it's only been a few hours in the real world. If you're not prepared for it, it can really mess you up.

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[epigrammatical]

Ah yes—even I have known how it seems that days or weeks may pass in a dream, but one wakes the next morning no more the older.

[A thought strikes him; he smiles faintly, remembering a recent translation of The Odyssey that he has enjoyed.]

"But withal they gave unto them to taste of the Lotus meat,
And what man of themsoever of that sweet thing did eat
Had no will to bear back tidings or to get him back again;
But to bide with the Lotus-eaters for ever was he fain,
And to eat the Lotus for ever, and forget his returning day."

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[aloadeddie]

I'd say the lotus-eater metaphor is apt. [He's smiling a little, because OH HENRY you just quoted Homer you are so freaking Victorian.]