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Date Posted: 19:17:44 09/02/01 Sun
Author: Ensign Chris Braddock
Subject: "This is unbelievable!"
In reply to: Biggs 's message, "the desert became more visible..." on 14:31:25 08/31/01 Fri

Of the three who had travelled to Dah'Li from the real world, only Chris seemed awed by the wonders they had seen. Mercado and Justin seemed to accept this new reality without question, the same way one surrenders the laws of reality when dreaming. Chris wondered when they came through the forest why the others hid behind the rock. But no sooner had Biggs acted to protect them from the storm had Chris seen what the others had. It puzzled Chris. Justin had been the most vehement in his protests, and had accepted his transformation into the angelic Nathaniel almost instantly. Buffeted by winds as yet unseen by Chris when they first arrived, Nathaniel had landed behind the rock with the others.

Then there was Mercado. Certainly in his adventures alongside Ebonhawk he had seen stranger things than either Chris or Justin, but the full physical manifestaion of his dead brother?! There had been initial shock, but now Mercado eyed his memory as warily as would have the real thing. He accepted this Raph as the Raph, and Chris knew that was dangerous. Mercado and Justin had surrendered sompletely to the laws of Dah'Li, of dreams.

"Is that it then?" he thought, "Is that why Merc gets his brother, the last thing he'd want, while I don't get to see mine again, the first thing I would want? Is it that I have no imagination, or that I'm still more grounded in reality? Sure, once these guys describe what they're seeing, be it a tree or a rock, then the shimmer solidifies and it becomes real for me. Mind equals matter, or some junk...that Rana guy could explain it in bigger words I'm sure.

We have no idea what we're looking for though. If not for this guide, where would we be? Someplace shaped by our own dreams..or nightmares? Or over at that bar maybe? Wait...bar?"

Chris rubbed his eyes and looked again. Sure enough, as he glanced to the side of the protective sphere within which they moved, tables and stools on the curved surface flickered before him. Chris felt drawn to it, but remembered Biggs words of caution--"it could peel away your flesh in no time." It could be a trap, a trick of some kind. But if the storm was luring him our of the safety of the transparent 'safe zone,' why a bar? Why not Thanksgiving with his brother and his family? Or maybe back on the SP Boardhopper with some of his old..friends?

No sooner did Chris think it than he saw her. Her back was too him, but the hair and the flightsuit screamed the unbelievable truth. It was her because it had to be her, because he needed it to be her. So great was the certainty that once he accepted it, he was gone.

In Dah'Li, dreams become real and reality is what you make of it. Chris made no sound, made no move toward what he was seeing. He simply went. His friends did not see what he saw, did not know he had left and so, to them, he had not. Should any look, they would see the young ensign following along behind them as always. But while his image would be preserved by their perception of him, his actuality would in reality be on a detour, stepping aside breifly from the world of dreams, to one of the dead...

"I find myself wondering about humanity. Their attitude toward my sister's gift is so strange.
Why do they fear the sunless lands? It is as natural to die as it is to be born. But they fear her. Dread her. Feebly they attempt to placate her.
They do not love her."
Dream, describing his sister Death, Sandman #8, August 1989 by Neil Gaiman

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