[Walkabout - Week 4] ...oops.

[willyousee]

[Alcuin sounds contrite, but not precisely sorry, per se.]

I, ah... seem to have started a trend among the children. One of them had a terrible nightmare, so I made them a dream catcher. Now all the children in the household want one. I expect word of it will spread through the children's ranks fairly quickly. They seem to be treating it as a grand secret, however, at least from the adults, so perhaps it will stay quiet?

I thought it only fair to give people warning that you may be asked for one. I can teach others to make them as well, if you like! I am not certain if we can teach the children to make their own, however.

Comments

[willyousee]

Mm! Yes! If kept on or near a person, it will capture and transform bad dreams into energy which may later be drawn upon for spell work.

[fearinahandfulof]

[That sounds useful...]

What kinds of spell work?

[willyousee]

Through various experiments with my friends, I can say for certain... Color magic, Persona magic, Questing Country magics, illusion magics, spiritual summoning, and mana technology and magics. I think it likely that elemental magics would be similarly affected, and anyone who uses a core pool of magic to draw on has been able to do so using energy from a dreamcatcher so far.

[fearinahandfulof]

[Cassandra isn't precisely sure what Persona magic is, but the rest of it she either knows or can at least guess at.]

It sounds very versatile.

[willyousee]

It has certainly been one of the most useful things I have picked up in my Travels.

[fearinahandfulof]

It sounds like it would be.

I know very little magic still, so I don't know how helpful that aspect would be for me.

[willyousee]

You can always allow another to drain the energy from it for you if you wish. Eventually it will fill up, and will need to be emptied before it can serve to filter dreams again. Especially useful in critical combat situations where you must fight and another must heal, I've found.

[fearinahandfulof]

Does it fill automatically?

[willyousee]

Yes. In liminal space it will fill very slowly all of its own, and it will gather dreams of the nearest person when they sleep without any activation. Most jaunt worlds do not seem to have the free-floating magic to fill a dreamcatcher, so you needn't worry there, but it will still filter dreams accordingly.

Thorne and I have traded nights with mine from time to time.

[fearinahandfulof]

Does that mean that person doesn't dream at all while one is near? You said it transformed bad dreams to energy...

[She doesn't know enough about them to know whether it's feasible for a dreamcatcher to differentiate between types of dreams, but she suspects it's not.]

[willyousee]

Actually, no! It seems to only pull energy when dreams turn foul. Silly, happy, or boring dreams and the like remain in place. ...Though I should mention that if one has prophetic nightmares, sometimes those are strong enough to break through if one's dreamcatcher is nearly filled.

[fearinahandfulof]

People seem to be having more of those lately.

[She's inclined to blame Harrogate; that's when they seem to have picked up, anyway.]

How does it differentiate between good and bad?

[willyousee]

I am not entirely certain. I believe it has something to do with the emotional reaction of the dreamer, but I have not experimented enough with various abilities to be able to say for certain.

[fearinahandfulof]

So it reacts to the emotions of... its owner? Or a nearby dreamer? Can it pull energy from more than one dreamer if they're both having nightmares?

[willyousee]

It can only pull from one person at a time, but it can be lent to another person to cleanse their dreams for a time, or for someone else to draw power from it. Whomever holds the dreamcatcher is whom it affects.

[fearinahandfulof]

So you have to be in physical contact with it?

[willyousee]

No. It helps, but if it is close, say on a nightstand, or hanging on a bedpost, it will affect the closest sleeper.

[fearinahandfulof]

So proximity is an important factor...

[willyousee]

Yes it is. It cannot be left across the room and be expected to function for the creator.

[fearinahandfulof]

So it would need to be small enough to be kept on one's person.

[She thinks for a moment.]

Can larger ones hold more, or does that not matter?

[willyousee]

The size of object does not appear to have an impact on its capacity, no. And if you wished to have something large to simply leave in your usual sleeping place, that would be fine, but were you to be caught away from it, its effect would not reach you.

[fearinahandfulof]

That makes sense.

Can you have more than one, or would that confuse things?

[Not that she'd want more than one, but she's curious.]

[willyousee]

I am not certain yet. I want to try doing so in case the children cannot make one themselves, or do not have a good item to use. But the one I created with her last night seemed to function perfectly well.

[fearinahandfulof]

I'm glad. That it worked, I mean - not that they're having nightmares.

[She's not surprised that they're having nightmares.]

[willyousee]

Yes... Perhaps I ought not to have, but I could not stand idly by. No child deserves that. Their lives are too difficult already.

But it is a simple enough process, and having worked I think I will set about providing them for as many as I may.