Nightmares and Dreamscapes

[Tsemara]

Toni returned the vaccuum to the person who was paid to use it. She thought about being a temp at the lodge. She liked the idea, even if the location was rather far from where she lived. "It sounds like a good idea. I don't think I've got enough money to sustain a longer trip." Lodging wasn't a problem, but food would be. It was pretty important.

Oh, man. Nothing good ever seemed to come out of needing to talk to the Dreamer. Whatever Tomas had seen couldn't have been good, if it troubled her that much. Toni nodded. "I think I can manage that." She could waste time in the information building, and maybe browse through the gift shop for souveniers for her family. That should eat through a good chunk of time. She didn't trust herself to pay attention to the time if she went flying or whatever.

[Keylaleigh]

"Good. Thanks. Now I need to go put this away." She rolled the vaccuum cleaner over to the supply closet, waving goodbye to Toni. Then she went to the cafeteria to clean off the tables and floors there. The kitchen staff was getting tired of doing it alone, and she went off to help them, grabbing some rags and a mop from the supply closet.

She went to the mess hall, which was pretty much empty until lunchtime, and walked up to the kitchen window. "Hey, do you have any more surface cleaner? We're running low in the supply closet." They nodded and handed her a spray bottle. She got straight to work, and the kitchen assistant came out to help her.

"So, did the authorities have any luck catching the thief yet, Tom?" The elderly man asked her. He always kept an ear to the rumor mill, so he always knew what was going on.

"Not yet, Jeff." She shook her head. She decided not to tell him about Malphas. He would think that she was nuts. "They're all still looking for him."

Jeff humphed. "Well, the sooner that they catch him, the better. I got ten dollars snatched from me. And funny enough, they were able to put my wallet right where they left it."

"That is odd, Jeff. I'll let you know what happens, alright?" He nodded, and the two of them worked in silence for the rest of the afternoon.

[Tsemara]

Toni bade Tomas farewell, wondering what the younger woman had seen. Well, she'd find out later anyway, so she figured she shouldn't worry too much about it. Though, it still nagged at her as she walked out the door, and well into her traveling. First thing on her list if things to do was to get groceries. She was running out of food. No, that was the second thing. First thig was to call her folks to let them know she was going to stay longer.

She pulled her cell out of her pocket. The reception wasn't all that great, being in the mountains as all. She meandered around until she could get a somewhat clear and reliable signal before she poked in her home number.

It rang a couple times before someone picked up. The high pitched sqeal that came from the other side nearly deafened the Dreamer. //HI!// Kathleen... and she apparenly had sugar recently.

"Hey Kathy, it's To-"

//Toni!! Hi!! What's up? What are you doing? Are you going to bring me anything? Is it going to be cool? Or are you going to be a looserface?//

"Jeez, Kathy, give me a break. I'll get you something cool. But that means I have to get everyone else cool things too."

//Aww...//

Toni sighed. "Listen. I'm going to stay for another week. Something's come up, and I figured I'd stick around for a bit."

//What's up?//

Toni looked around for a second before answering. "I can't tell you. It's a secret."

There was a bit of silence as her sister figured out what she was saying. Or the line went dead. The Dreamer could never tell with her piece of junk phone. There were voices on the other end, so she must have been talking to someone.

//Okay.// Her sister seemed to have sobered up. //Mom says be safe. Don't get eaten. AND!!! Getmesomethingcool!!! Okaybye!!//

Grinning slightly, Toni put her phone back in her pocket and went to run her errands before getting 'something cool' for her family.

[Keylaleigh]

After about an hour, the dining room was cleaned. Tomas gave the bottle of cleaner back to the kitchen, and she headed back to the lobby. "Hey Edna, is there anything that I can do around here?"

The elderly woman shook her head. "No large messes, and you know that I take care of my desk area, dear." She smiled, leafing through files.

"Alright." she nodded and sat down on one of the cushioned wicker chairs the lobby had gotten from a small wicker shop near the base of the mountain. She still had about twenty minutes until lunch, but there was no shame in starting earlier. And anyways, she picked up her lunch from the kitchen, and it was a hot roast beef sandwich. She considered it more of a crime to let it get cold than taking lunch earlier. Jeff's roast beef sandwich was known as one of the best on the mountain, and it was at its best hot.

[Tsemara]

Toni returned to the lodge a few minutes later than she had intended. The Dreamer had dropped off her groceries back at her site and locked the gifts she got for her family in her car. She was all but certain her siblings would like what they got. Her brother could go either way. He'd either like what he got, or he'd give her a reason to stay a bird for some time. She grinned in spite of herself. She was poor again, but the money she no longer had was pretty well spent.

Inside the lobby of the building, she looked about for Tomas, wondering what she wanted to talk about. She saw her aquaintence with a rather tasty looking sandwich in a chair across the room. She made a small wave as she aproached. "Hey there. Sorry I'm late."

[Keylaleigh]

"You're actually a little early." Tomas chuckled. She put her sandwich down on the paper that is was very carefully wrapped in and wrapped it almost as carefully. Then she looked around to see if anybody suspicious was nearby. "I only asked you to come here because it was a place that we both knew about. We need to go elsewhere to talk, in case anybody happens to be listening." She knew that Malphas had strange powers, and she wasn't exactly sure if invisibility was one of them just yet. She didn't want to take any chances, though.

[Tsemara]

"Really?" Toni looked around for a clock. "Oh, well, I'll take your word for it. Sorry if I interrupted your sandwich." She listened to what Tomas had to say. The Dreamer had a sinking feeling that the discussion wasn't going to be good. "Well, in that case, if you can think of some place that no one will be able to listen in, I'd say we better get going. As much as your bosses like us hanging out and all, I don't think they'd appreciate it if I kept you away longer than your usual break."

She looked around. "Do you have any place in mind?"

[Keylaleigh]

Tomas nodded. "Yeah! Follow me!" She walked quickly out the door and off of the porch towards the woods.

She kept walking until she made it to her favorite spot in the woods. This outcropping of rocks near a small river runoff had been her spot ever since she was a little girl, and nobody else ever came to it. It was her haven as a child, where she would sit when she felt that she needed some alone time. Truth be told, she had never brought another human being to this spot, and she felt like it was the only place where she could tell what she had to tell.

"Here we are."

[Tsemara]

Toni followed Tomas through the woods. To be honest, she would have felt better if they could find something that could be locked, like a walk in freezer, to have a private discussion in. But this was up to the other woman's discression. If she thought the place was secure, the Dreamer wasn't about to argue.

At the announcement of their arrival, Toni looked around. She had to admit, this was a very nice spot. No wonder the younger seemed so proud of it. "I'll have to admit. This is a really nice place." She sat down, crosslegged, on a boulder that hung over the water. She looked around again, making sure there was no one around to listen in. "So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

[Keylaleigh]

Tomas took a deep breath. "Well... while I was heading to the store today, I saw the wallet thief." She put a hand on her forehead. She still didn't exactly believe what she saw. "Well, it was Malphas. And he... he..." she didn't exactly know how to say it without sounding like an absolute nutjob. After thinking a while, she decided that there was no sane way to say it. "He took a wallet without, well, using his hand. It's like, it floated over to him. Then he slipped the money out of it and then put the wallet back. Without actually going near the guy." She probably sounded crazy. "I thought about going to the police about it, but I figured none of them would believe me."

She sighed, looking up at Toni. "I sound nuts right now, don't I?" Tomas had a hard time believing what she had just said, but she couldn't deny what she saw with her own eyes.

[Tsemara]

Toni listened to Tomas speak, concerned, then mortified. She held her head in her hands, elbows on her knees. "Well, shit," came the mumbled reply. That made four. Four Dreamers in one spot. And if one was keeping count, that made one Nightmare, one Dreamer, and two unknowns. This was crazy! Insane! Toni looked up at Tomas, looking positively worried. "I believe you. You're not nuts." She shook her head.

"I wanted to tell you. I really did! But, you need to understand. People aren't supposed to know. They CAN'T know. If they did, if the wrong people heard, they'd kill us all. Or worse." Toni looked away from her friend at that last statement. Would she still want to be friends after she knew? Or would she be one of the people that would turn her in?

[Keylaleigh]

Tomas raised an eyebrow. "Tell me what, Toni? Is there something a little bigger going on?" She could tell that there definately was something bigger about to happen. Then she was hit with a flash of realization. It was just a wild guess, but she thought it would be worth asking. "Can you do that too? Well, if you can, that's pretty amazing! I mean, as long as you don't steal anything. Then it wouldn't be so amazing."

There were no thoughts of hatred in Tomas's head. Only speculations and sheer wonder. If people had these superpowers, then they could turn into, like, superheroes! She had always dreamt of being a superhero that could talk to animals, and her and her animal friends would run around the world, saving the forest. But she didn't have any superpowers, and she got used to a normal existence very quickly.

[Tsemara]

"There's something big going on." Toni nodded, still avoiding Tomas's gaze. She flinched when the younger woman guessed her secret, as if she were slapped. The Dreamer said nothing for a moment, and then inhaled deeply. "Yeah, I can do it too, to an extent. Maybe not the same things you saw, but I can do things other people can't." She thought quietly, attempting to gather her thoughts, to explain. When she thought she had a reasonable train of thought, she looked back up at Tomas.

"Tomas," Toni started softy. "When you dream at night, or even during the day, do you do things that you wouldn't be able to do in the Waking World?"

[Keylaleigh]

Tomas thought back to her dreams. "Yeah... I do do things in my dreams that I wish I could do in real life. Like taking to animals, and flying, and breathing underwater..." It was too long of a list to try and name everything. The thing is, her dreams weren't limited to her time asleep. She also was a frequent daydreamer, and her mind always managed to run away from her.

[Tsemara]

"Okay, hold that thought, for a minute." Toni replied, stopping the younger woman's list. She paused for a bit, while she thought of what to say next. Though, it did seem a bit dramatic. "Now, imagine that you have these powers in the Waking World. And you can use them in any way you pleased. Don't tell me what it is, yet." The Dreamer waited for a bit to make sure Tomas had a good idea of what she would do. "Now, imagine what would happen if you got caught." Toni stated with a bit of a shivver.

"What would people think if they knew? Would they be frightened? Would they turn you in to someone who could "cure" you? Would you be run out? Or would your abilities strike fear into people giving them reason enough to try to kill you?" Toni asked.