And every time you go to sleep...

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Who: Meyer Lansky and all y'all
Where: ~Only in dreams
When: Day 83-88
What: Meyer is having some dreams. Perhaps you'd like to stumble into them.
Warnings: There is definitely disturbing imagery in here. There's copious amounts of murder and blood, kidnapping, drug dealing, and traumatic childhood memories that most definitely include murder and gore. There is also swearing, of course. More warnings will be added if more come up during the dreams.

[[This is an open dream log, to keep things tidy! I set up a couple specific threads for people, but other people can jump in as well, or they can make their own thread, or they can jump into the collective dream thread!

Please just note what day the dream is occurring on if you tag!]]

Comments

[thezerothlaw]

Obediently, feeling that thread of terror, Daneel goes to the other rooms of the apartment, seeking out any sign of any other residents. He can see nothing, can see no sign of where they might have gone.

"I see no trace of anyone," he reports, reluctant to give such bad news, but it is nevertheless the truth.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

"They're... In New York," he says again, almost as though reassuring himself. Reality is starting to seep into the dream, making him question what's true and what's false, making him wonder whether any of this really happened, whether he's awake or asleep, whether this is all an elaborate fantasy one way or the other.

He stares at Daneel again, accusation clear in his eyes as he asks: "Are you real?"

[thezerothlaw]

The question catches Daneel by surprise. Why would he not be real? Unless the question is one of his humanity, which is a different question.

"I am real." He knows he exists, if nothing else. "I am a robot, but I am certainly real."

[recognize_an_opportunity]

"Am I real?"

It's not a question of humanity, and somehow, it doesn't even strike him as bizarre that Daneel is a robot. In his brain, in his dream, that makes perfect sense and isn't worth questioning. He looks around himself, stuffing his hands back into his pockets, still unable to warm them up. The question of reality, though, strikes him as an important one. Maybe it isn't real.

[thezerothlaw]

"You appear to be real to me."

But dreams are an alien thing to him, something he cannot quite make sense of yet. He treats everything as though it was real: imaginary things are something he has little experience with.

"I am not certain what else you would be, if not real."

[recognize_an_opportunity]

"I think," he says slowly, ponderously, and he's aware of the fact that the room somehow seems to be melting, to be fading even as he speaks, but it somehow makes sense. He himself is turning from a child back into the adult he'd been when he entered the dream, growing up even as the room dissipates.

"I think this is a dream," he tells Daneel, and maybe he wants it to be, because there's a tone of desperation in his voice that wasn't there seconds before.

[thezerothlaw]

"I am aware," Daneel observes, "which would imply this is my dream, but this does not resemble any place I have seen. Nor should I be able to dream."

He's going through the problem rationally, or at least as rationally he can be in a dream. He's not coming to any sensical conclusions, either. When he was human, he dreamed of people he knew, places that were familiar. He doesn't know the man in front of him, nor why he would imagine him as a boy.

"Is this your dream?" Strange, impossible, but he can't rule it out either.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

"It's my dream," he says automatically. It's one he's had many times before, or at least some version of it, but it's always varied, always changing, and Daneel has never been in it before. How could someone else get into his dream in this way?

Certainly, he's seen strangers in dreams before, but they've never had the awareness level that Daneel seems to; they've always been an obvious creation of his own mind, and this man isn't.

"Then we need to wake up," he says determinedly.

[thezerothlaw]

"This is an excellent plan," Daneel agrees. It's just slightly unsettling to realise that he's intruding like this. He's often aware of minds, but not quite like this.

There's only one problem: he can't really be asleep in the proper sense of the word, and even if he is... well, how does one wake up on purpose? Is whatever he is doing close enough that the same rules apply?

"Is there a method of doing this I should be aware of?"

[recognize_an_opportunity]

"I don't know," he says honestly. Usually, when he becomes aware that he's dreaming, the realization of it snaps him back into wakefulness almost immediately, but this dream stubbornly lingers.

Then he has an idea, albeit a half formed one. "I came into this dream by dreaming that I walked through a door. Maybe if we walk out the door, we'll walk out of the dream, yes?" It's not much, but it's an idea nevertheless.

[thezerothlaw]

Well, it's worth a try, and Daneel will easily give way to anyone who has more experience with dreams than he does -- which is most people to be sure.

"If this is your dream, then perhaps my own attempt will make no difference, but I will try to think of a door. Unless a particular door is necessary?"

He's not good with dream logic.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

"You're probably right," he muses, "But it can't hurt for both of us to try."

He turns around several times, trying to orient himself in the apartment that now looks completely unfamiliar. It isn't his childhood home, but it isn't his apartment in New York, either. It seems that the realization that he's in some kind of dream world has altered his perceptions, has confused him somehow.

Then, almost as if summoned, a door appears in front of them, and he steps towards it as though summoned, looking over his shoulder at Daneel. "This way," he says.

[thezerothlaw]

Daneel follows, not sure what to expect. Did his input help? Certainly the door does not look like the one he was thinking of. Imagination is not, he feels, his strong suit in any case.

He steps through the door, blinking curiously.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Meyer's not sure whether the door that had appeared is the one he was thinking of, either. It seems that his brain has some hidden agenda in mind, some way of conjuring things that perhaps only his subconscious could imagine. Somehow, it doesn't matter, because when they make their way through this door, he hears the faint but distinct sound of that crying child again, and he immediately wants to turn around.

"This isn't the right way," he says, but the door behind them has disappeared, and he seems to be turning small again, too. Desperately, he tries to fight it, tries to will himself into wakefulness, tries to drown out the sounds of the child -- his brother, dammit, his brother in distress and he can't find him -- and he closes his eyes, concentrating hard.

Just as he begins to think it's a lost cause, another door appears, this one larger and more forbidding than the first, but somehow it looks right. And somehow, he knows that to return to consciousness, he needs Daneel to be the one to open it, so he gestures to it. "Go ahead," he says eagerly.

[thezerothlaw]

His gaze falls on Meyer, his expression carefully neutral, and he pauses for a moment with his hand on the door. He doesn't know what to expect, has no notion of what sort of thing Meyer's mind might summon for them on the other side.

"As you wish," he says, and he turns to open the door, stepping through.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Once Daneel opens the door and steps through, Meyer follows him. For a moment, there's nothing on the other side of the door. Blankness, the absence of any sound, of any light, of any sign that there's anything beyond the doorway except nothingness. Then he gets the feeling that he's falling, tumbling through something, out of control, although he can tell he's not actually moved from where he's standing. He can't see Daneel anymore, has no idea where he's gone, is about to call out to find out where they are, and then...

He's waking up in bed, disoriented, eyes bleary, shaking his head, wondering what had just happened.