2025-01-20 - Dream Team Field Trip

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. ~ Oscar Wilde

---

The day has come for the "dream team" to meet up at the hotel so that they can run their experiments. The time was set to meet in the lobby so that Casey could show them up to the suite that he's procured for them to take their individual naps, and hopefully find one another in the ether of dreamland.

Mac makes her way into the lobby. She's got a shopping tote over her bag to carry some stuff -- a comfy fleece blanket and the promised snacks and beverages for her fellow dreamers. She's left Spork at home, because she can't promise the bulldog won't bother the others as they try to dream by cuddling up next to them or licking them while they doze, or maybe grunting in his own sleep.

Her gaze darts around, looking for someone she knows amongst the tourists waiting for the concierges to assist them.

It wasn't the perfect room to organise for the group and the numbers, in fact a few of the near-permanent tourists were clinging to the luxury rooms on various credit cards save just one that sadly...

Needed repairs. Complete mess of a room as Casey was looking through potential repairs. Inhospitable.

Instead the concierge was using the powers of staff privilege and promise to book out a family suite. It didn't come with luxury and several separate bedrooms. But it did come with a couple of bunk beds, more bed and importantly... beds. Oh and space!

Waiting in the lobby at the arranged time, Casey is standing by the desk with his arms over his chest. His hands pressing flat against the dark blue suit worn, thin rimmed glasses sitting on the end of his nose as the grey of his beard is dusting over his chin. A rucksack on one shoulder, hanging easily and loose from his body while he is lifting his hand up in the arrivals direction.

"I tried the best. I really did. But there was a snag."

Trace wanders up to Mac and Casey, beginning to congregate in the lobby. He has a backpack slung over one shoulder and a paper grocery bag in one hand that likely contains his snack contributions to this little foray into dream experimentation. "Hey," he says to those gathered. "Trace."

When the concierge says he tried his best but there was a snag, he shrugs his shoulders and says, "I'm sure it'll be fine. Don't worry. I don't think any of us are going to give you a bad review."

Star shows up with a backpack. Star shows up with a backpack, an enormous black tea boba with extra boba, and a box of chocolate croissants for breakfast. She also has a pillow jammed under one arm, a jolly roger flag for a pillowcase. Her black hair's in space buns though currently hidden, because the hood of her mothman onesie is up.

Yes, mothman onesie. She sips her boba and trundles up to the gathering group in the lobby, totally incognito, pulling some silver aviators off of her face. She heard that bit. "What do you mean there was a snag?" She squints at Casey like maybe she's thinking about a bad review. "I think I'm cursed today." She stuffs her aviators back on. "First I lost a bet and now this."

Perhaps that's why she's dressed thusly.

"I'm here! I'm here!" Aisley comes running up towards the group of her obvious sleepover buddies, a backpack bouncing against her back as she comes jogging up to them. "Sorry! There was crying and there was begging and then there was soothing and... well," She looks at each of them and realizes she probably is not making any sense to them whatsover. "...And it doesn't matter, Sory I'm late." There was chocolate (at least we hope its chocolate smeared across her right cheek), "Hi, I'm Aisley."

Hooking her thumbs into the straps of her backpack, she rocked back on her heels, "Did I miss anything?"

"A snag?" Mac echoes, but she nods with Trace's assessment of the issue. "Whatever it is, it'll be fine. Unless it's a broom closet. We might be too many to fit comfortably in a broom closet. I've slept in worse."

The others she doesn't know already (She's at least met Trace once or twice), so she lifts a hand to waggle her fingers. "Hey. I'm Mac," she tells the others, before looking back to their fearless leader -- or at least the man who has the hookups to the venue for their dreamwalking. "Should we come back another time?" she asks, brows lifting.

"You didn't miss anything yet," Trace tells Aisley. "Casey was just telling us about the room arrangements." And now she is all caught up. He offers her a smile and says, "Trace," introducing himself to those gathered. Then he eyes Star and asks, "What bet did you lose?" Now he's curious.

Star's eyes track Aisley's arrival and she lifts a hand. When she does so, the mothman wings are revealed, which is really just a flying squirrel-esque piece of cloth patterned like moth wings. "Crying and begging and soothing only kept me in the house a few times, then I broke up with—"

Too soon. It's too soon for that, Star. "Star." She says, changing the subject mid-thought. "Hi, Mac." She looks to Casey for the answer to the do we need to come back thing, but then Trace is asking, and so she says, "I bet my goth bestie she couldn't eat four hot pickets and a jumbo boba tea in under two minutes while making eye contact with guests and still manage to sell two hundred dollars in upgraded tickets. I didn't make further stipulations, she got the guests in on it, and the mothman onesie for two days is my penance." She pops a piece of gum in her mouth, from a pack of watermelon flavored sour gum.

"On the plus side, everybody who snapped a pic of me in this stupid thing had to pay into the charity pot, so it's not all bad."

With the collection and congregation of the dream-talented reaching the critical mass of who they would be inspecting, Casey is glancing over his shoulder first to he time. Checking on, yes, this should be everyone from the text message chain.

His lips drawing up as each introduce themselves, his head nodding in time to names before sharing his own in case missed. "And I'm Casey. It's not that another time is needed just..." Pulling his lips into his mouth for a moment while reaching a hand into his pocket, pulling out several key cards.

"Whoever claims bottom bunks first might have an easier night."

Reaching his hand out to each to offer the keycards as the concierge is just about staying on duty. Or at least approaching everything with a business-like mindset.

"Anyway that is elevator talk. I'll show us up to the rooms. Did you all eat, bring anything or do I need to arrange for an off-the-books room service as well?" Speaking while turning his back to the group, Casey is leading down the small corridor to the elevators at the back. Reaching to press the button, door soon after opening as he is preparing them to get up to the right floor.

"That's amazing," Mac says of the Mothman hoodie. "Where do I get one? I don't even need to lose a bet."

But Casey's explaining what's gone wrong and her brows lift at the mention of bunk beds. "I claim top," she says with a grin, but then she pats the bag on her shoulder. "I ate before I came, and I brought some snacks and drinks. Nothing too exciting. Junk food. Pringles and Mint Milanos and some Vitamin Water and some Baja Blasts" It's not that big of a bag, but definitely large enough to accommodate a fair amount of snackage.

“Oh, great!” Aisely says when Trace introduces himself and tells her what she missed. Which was not much. “Ok.”

Star starts talking and it pulls her attention, thinking for moment she knew what she was talking about without having to say it.. but it takes a turn and twist and then… Star stops talking and Aisley is left with all the questions. Which her face totally shows.

But since that conversation did not continue she looks to the others about making it up to the room. “I call
Bottom.” Bunk that is.

As far as food? Aisely hadn’t a moment to stop and thing about eating so she didn’t say, at the mention of snacks, she looks relieved. “I didn’t get a chance to eat yet. But I’ll be good if there’s some snacks.”

"I brought a few things, too," Trace says as he hoists the shopping bag that he's got with him. "I think we can probably make do with what we have unless anyone's got a particular craving once we get up there." He then falls in line with the others to head toward the elevator and up to the rooms in question. "I'll take whatever's left," he offers, as far as the beds go. "I can sleep pretty much anywhere. Just not the bath tub. That will bring back some college memories I don't want to revisit." He grins then and settles into the elevator off to one side to make room for the others as they head up. "We got you covered," he tells Aisley.

"Is bottom bunk code for it really is a janitor closet, but you cleaned out the supplies, and by the way, here's an extra pillow for your shelf?" Star looks dubiously at Casey, but nonetheless reaches out to take a keycard from him. "I can fall asleep anywhere, it's whatever. I once fell asleep at a party on top of a football player fully clothed with half a piece of pizza in my mouth." At a party where they were snowed in at a lodge in the mountains.

"Mint milanos." She looks over at Mac. "I didn't know baja blast was still a thing." She has a box of what smells like pastry, so between them they should be good. She snorts at Trace's bathtub comment. "Yeah, I only go that with company. Gets surprisingly cold in there." She tucks into the back of the elevator for the ride up, outfit on point for a slumber party and dream walking.

"Huh. Maybe it is a thing lost in time then. That the bottom bunk is the best one since getting in-and-out takes the least amount of effort." Pulling his lips a little tighter in the corners, Casey is moving his hand back into his pocket having nudged the button for the elevator open. "And alright, if you do need anything and using the phone." Pausing to speak as he is walking into the elevator as it opens. "Tell them it is for Casey then. In case, I don't know, during your dreams you end up needing a first aid kit or something."

Shrugging his shoulders, not knowing just how everyone's dream situations are going.

Moving back against the glass surrounding the elevator behind him, Casey's shoulder is adjusting his bag once more before getting it to head on up to the appropriate floor. Fortunately, on the day and hour, there aren't others looking to use it. Looking to go up and take up more space beyond the group.

"So, just to check. Plan is get in. Settle. Sleep straight away? Though when we do sleep, to try and meet up in..." Glancing from person to person, "One particular person's dream?"

Fortunate really that nobody else is joining the elevator to hear such talk, nor waiting on the other side as the doors open to the short corridor.

"Fifth door down on the left."

Catching her reflection in the elevator Aisley double takes as she sees the smear of chocolate on her face. Blushed and glanced around to see if anyone else noticed before lifting her hand up to her cheek and rubbing it off before anyone has a chance to see it. If they hadn't already. Taking care of that just as the doors of the elevator open to the 5th floor.

"I was just thinking that the bottom bunk is closer to the ground and if I start spasming or moving in my sleep I'll only fall a shorter distance." Shrugging, "But yeah, I can sleep on the floor and be fine too."

Glancing at the others checking in on the plan for tonight as Casey recites it, "That's the idea I got?" Exiting the elevator with the rest of them as directed to what door they were walking to. "Settle, get comfortable, slip into sleep, and meet up. Have any of you seen the wreck we are trying to find in person? Or seen photographs? Because maybe that should be the persons mind we meet up in since they have the most vivid memory of it."

Trace's request to not sleep in the bathtub draws a laugh from Mac. "I've slept in a bathtub once or twice," she says, with a winkle of her nose. "Mostly in a really really crowded house full of extended family where you have to share a bed with 4 cousins and two of them snore. I'll take the tub over snoring. The trick is to bring the sofa cushions in with you."

But Star gets a wide-eyed look, and she shakes her head. "Try not to eat while sleeping, yeah? Aspiration's not fun at a slumber party, and Casey doesn't want to do that paperwork." She looks up at Casey. "I got you."

Her fingers curl around the strap of her bag, before she nods to the plan. "Unlss we can see if we can sense the ... whatever's dreaming the big weird dreams entity. If we can sense that and target it... that'd be worth looking for."

Dark eyes flit over to Aisley, and she etips her head. "I saw the wreck and the photos, but we didn't get very close. I doubt my consciousness will give you much of a tour."

"The only shared dream that I experienced was the one in the tunnels, not the ship," Trace says as he settles back into the elevator as the others go over the plan. "I don't know how to get there intentionally, if that's the plan. But we can try and see what happens. Or just pick someone and try to head for their dreams and meet there. That might be the easiest starting point instead of just all trying to go in different directions."

He steps out of the elevator when they arrive and then heads down the hall toward the door that Casey indicated, shifting his bag just a little bit as they go. "Did anyone else see the third one? The one with the lab?"

"I was in the one with the lab. But I saw the ship in waking time," Mac replies to Trace.

"There's five beds. Well six sleeping spots." Casey's hand is pressing on the elevator to hold the doors open, a habit from taking it so many times, while leading the group across to the room. "Two bunks, so four. Double bed and a sofa. You'll be okay. Someone gets space to stretch out and since nobody called it."

Casey's voice is trailing a little longer that time as he is tapping the keycard against the door's lock. Admittedly he didn't specify such a thing existed either.

"Anyway, welcome. Welcome." Pushing open on the door after, he is positioning himself inside of the hotel's family room with his foot keeping the door open for the others. Stepping a little further back while turning his hips, setting the keycard down into the deposit for the lights to turn on. Allowing the room to begin brightening up with the ceiling's light casting down. Showing off the room's lounging area, the half wall for the first set of bunk beds with a small corridor to the side for presumably the other room and master room. Finally, though having got them into the room, Casey is answering the question from Trace.

"I haven't. I hadn't actually been in any so you would all be my first time."

Star steps out of the elevator when they reach their floor, pausing just outside and to one side, waiting on the others, though when Casey gives them the number, she shuffles on ahead sipping her boba. Sugar probably isn't a problem for her before napping. "Nope," she says to Aisley, "No idea there." On the shipwreck, that is.

"That's not a habit, just a general... actually I'm not even sure how the pizza—" She shakes her head. "Not important."

She glances between Mac and Trace, nodding, curious. She shuffles inside there when Casey holds the door, to kick off her flip flops pretty much first thing. She wanders through to the master to drop her bag and put her cup down, taking the opportunity to flop on a freshly made bed. Mattress test! "This might be nicer than the room I rented one time." She calls into the other room, "Who's the brain volunteer?"

Aisley follows after the others, looking as each one of them talk in turn, it would appear to her that Trace and Mac seem to know what they were talking about so she nods along with them as they make their way to the room.

"I'll follow all of your leads, but I don't mind being the last one out since I can help people fall asleep, so it should probably be someone else's mind than mine to meet up in."

"Um." Mac considers, heading to the kitchen to offload the drinks and snacks she's brought with her. "I can, since this is theoretically my idea? Or at least I started it all. But ... I apologize entirely for what you might see there. Last night I dreamed about skeletal chickens chasing me on the subway. I've never even been on a subway. Or seen a skeletal chicken. I mean, prior to eating it."

She pulls a drink for herself before closing the refrigerator, cracking open a can of Baja Blast and taking a sip. Clearly she doesn't care about the caffeine.

"If we go with my brain, apologies in advance, do we know each other well enough for you to find me?" she asks, suddenly. "Mac's short for Macaela, my full name is Macaela Arias de la Rosa, but I go by jus Mac Arias, most of the time, because the long name is hard for a lot of people. I work over on the Boo'edwalk, usually at the Haunted Estate, but I float sometimes. My other power is controlling shadows, but I'm not great at that. I'm from Los Angeles. My roommates are Arrow and Robin. I should be Bo or Marian or Little John or something to fit in that theme, but no such luck. I have a bulldog named Spork and I hate beets."

Apparently this is to help them find her. She might also be stalling.

Trace nods to Mac when she mentions having only seen the ship in real time. "I was in the boat when the others went down so I have only seen the photographs."

He follows the others in and wanders over to the couch where he plops down, dropping his own bag on the floor next to it and stretching out his legs as they discuss where and to whom to travel. "I can travel pretty easily, myself, so I can get to whoever we choose. I.. don't even really have to know you other than to have met you once so.. now that we've all met.." He can pop into their dreams any time! That... might not be a reassuring thought.

Both brows up as Mac goes into a full on team building intro sequence and chuckles, "Uh, okay... Trace Emiliano Accardi. Pyrotechnician. I choreograph, load, and launch fireworks shows off Castle Island as well as other areas for special events. Chemist. My other power is telepathy. I can make a connection with someone and we can talk mind to mind. I'm from Boston. My roomies are Fin and Gabe. We do not have a theme, so far as I can tell." He grins a little crookedly.

"Well volunteered." Casey is glancing across to Mac with a faint smile touching the edges of his lips as he is pulling the backpack off his back to set it down on the couch in front of him. Taking a good hold of the top while hearing Star across in the other room to call back to her, "Mac said she would."

As Mac is making the broader introductions, Casey is moving his eyes from her to Trace afterwards before adding his own cents in. "I'm Casey Mateo. Family emigrated here a long time ago. Worked in hospitality since I was about twenty-one and wanted to get out to see the world. Enjoyed it and stayed in it. Seen Tokyo, seen Dubai. Saw an opportunity to move back to the States for a quieter life and, hey." Hand moving up, "That's how I am here. Live alone, employee apartment rented out. Enjoy a drink. Spookeasy is one of the best spots around I've found so far."

"Beets are nasty AF," Star says through the open doorway from the other room, and yeah she spells out her acronyms. She sips her drink, then puts it down on a bedside table, shuffling to the doorway to lean against it. She crosses her arms and looks from Mac to Trace, obviously collecting all the info offered into her memory banks, then Casey as he offers up some info too.

"Star Watanabe. I have an aversion of television psychics after a sus incident in high school and a curse she definitely put on me and my goth bestie. I do socials for the park and if you ever see me without my phone, it's not me, there's an evil doppelganger with no sense of humor. I have recurring nightmares, but you'll know that when you see it. Originally from Brooklyn, but I been a few other places. If we end up in a shitty dorm at any point, take my advice and find the nearest exit." She raps the doorframe twice with her knuckles. "Alright, let's do this."

"See you on the flip side, new friends."

Aisley was the type that needed to know more about people in order to find them in her dreams so all of this information was helpful! Looking from one to the next as they explain who they are and more about them and the lived they have lived.

"Aisley Fitzpatrick, I'm the resident Nanny for the hotel, I'm a former tourist, use to come out here all the time with the kids I use to Nanny for in California. When that gig ended, a friend I'd made here reached out to me and told me about the resort looking for a Nanny and now here I am. I'm from L.A. but I went to college in Santa Barabara, been there ever since I graduated and was a Nanny there until I wasn't. I really hate the cold and Michigan is so fuckin' cold!"

Having taken a seat near Trace she looks over at Star and nods, "So just jump in and go then?"

Just jump in, it is.

After a little socializing and snacking, eventually it's time for the sleeping and dreaming. With Mac as the focal point, she curls up on one of the chairs, promising the others that she doesn't need a bed to sleep -- given some might need to be able to make contact in person before making contact in that strange, dream world.

REM doesn't happen immediately of course, but eventually her lids flutter with movement behind them as she begins to dream.

Anyone who's able to follow her will find themselves in a strange cityscape, with spindly skyscrapers, perhaps a bit reminiscent of a Tim Burton movie. The sky and buildings are a deep and dark, almost black, but there are shades here -- the sky is the darkest, midnight blue, and the edifices hues of deep gray or deep purple. Mac walks along a sidewalk that's been lit by the moon above, just a sliver of silvery light cutting through the city.

Depending on when one falls asleep and where, it is possible to see that the tattoo on the back of Trace's neck lights up with a soft gold, blue, and green glow when he begins dreamwalking. His own dreamscape, as usual, is a brief stop-over before he finds his way into Mac's. In dreams, he looks exactly the same as he does in the waking world right down to the same outfit he had on. As he wanders through the spindly skyscrapers, he takes them in with a kind of idle fascination until he finds Mac, herself, on the sidewalk. "I like it."

"Brooklyn?" Casey's ears are perking up for a moment in the direction of the bedroom as he is picking up on Star's backstory, or at least part of it. With the group winding down after introductions are being made, being shared even and with a bit of time Casey is sending himself off to one of the spare bedrooms. Bottom bunk claimed, easier on his back after all. Leaning back and with his eyes closed, sleep is coming easily to him.

Hands in his pocket while walking through the world, Casey is wearing a dark blue boiler suit in the dreamscape. There is a click from the heavy boots worn hitting the solid ground, his head lifting up as he is looking over the spindly skyscrapers. The darkest, midnight blue above with the silvery light almost guiding him to the group. Through the cut of the air, Casey is picking up on Trace's voice so begins pivoting down one particular darker street. Feeling the edges of the building's darkness closing behind him almost just as he is lifting his hand to greet them in the distance.

"That wasn't too bad really."

Even if the hairs on the back of Casey's neck are standing.

"Brooklyn for life!" Star confirms as she dips back into the other room, like that's how she says night night. Star returns to the bed to flop. Once she's met someone, she has no difficulty reaching them later in dreams, not that it's been an often thing to practice. She's only just started living here full time, after a year of on again off again tourism to hang with her bestie.

True to her word, she can fall asleep pretty fast anywhere, and it doesn't help that she chooses a pretty nice bed as her dropping off point. So when she dreams her way right into a misty Japanese morning landscape, it takes just the sliding open of a door, and a step on through to find herself walking the pavement in Mac's Burtonesque cityscape.

Some of the mist follows her down a hallway, and then it dissipates as she climbs through a window onto an iron balcony overlooking the road. It's not long before she hears what turns out to be Trace's voice when he finds Mac first, and there's Casey. "I dig it, de la Rosa," she calls from her perch. "Long as there aren't sand worms roaming the sewers or whatever." She glances around just in case. Dreams are weird. Sometimes mentioning things can manifest them later. And only after a quick visual confirms no critters she can see, she dips over a railing and drops down to the ground after the briefest of hesitations. Mental maths.

True to her word, Aisley remains awake until she sees that they've all been able to get to sleep all on their own and don't need assistance. Choosing her spot near Mac and getting comfortable she drifts into her own little dream, usually starting off in a similar way, waking up in her childhood home bedroom, dressed the same as she was when she went to sleep.

Getting up from her bed she walks over to a full length mirror and touches it with her fingertips, the mirror glass gives way to her touch and she steps through the mirror and into Mac's dream. Walking along the pavement between the skyscrapers, hear the familiar sounds of those earlier and walk towards them. Lifting her eyes and looking around at what Mac's mind had created for them to meet in. Other people's dreams were so fascinating and it often gave her ideas of creating other types of dreams that hadn't been thought out.

"Thanks," Mac says with a grin to Trace, then raises a brow as their hotel host shows in the boilersuit. "Like this look on you, Casey. Very worker chic." She herself is in her usual black -- black jeans, black hoodie, dark red combat boots.

Somewhere in the distance, a pack of coyotes begins to howl and yip, cackling after a moment in what sounds like fits of laughter. For anyone not used to the creatures, it's maybe a little unsettling, but Mac doesn't seem to give it any notice.

"Don't give my dumb brain any ideas," she says with a grin to Star.

She lifts a hand then to greet Aisley as she joins the party. "So this is good to know if we need a secret meeting place HR doesn't know about," she teases. "Should we see if we can hop to someone else's brain en masse, or maybe if we can sense any strange not-human dreams?"

Laughing a little as he is glancing down his front, down upon his boiler-suit, Casey is bringing his shoulders up. "Clearly in your dream I am here as a janitor or workman of some type. I am not even going to be catching a break in the dreamscape." Hands in large, oversized pockets, keeping them warm as the group at in the midst of tall skyscrapers. His eyes moving up on high to see Star above them, "And that is perhaps why Mac's was safer just in case we got sand worm sewer creatures."

The sounds of the coyotes yipping, catching on the air to send a little brush along Casey's neck as he is replying to Mac. "We can try someone else. Happy to volunteer or if we wanted to risk it with possible sand worms."

Trace hears the coyotes in the distance and they do draw his attention even if he doesn't seem worried by them. He glances off in that direction for a moment while the others gather and they discuss what to do next. "I think.. maybe sensing for the shared dream? See if we can feel whatever we felt while we were in there and try to get there?" That's his suggestion but he doesn't seem to be against traveling to someone else's dreamscape. "I'm fine going wherever. And I'm pretty sure I can handle any sand worms that come up." There's a degree of confidence there that could either be reassuring or concerning.

"Dumb ideas are my bread and butter," Star says to Mac, not even a hint of a smile when she says that. She glances around again, then scans the others as they group up in this strange cityscape. "This is the most expansive of secret clubhouses," she says. "Needs a password."

Star shoves her hands into her back pockets and tips her head, silent for a few beats like she's trying to sense something, but she just shakes her head slightly, moving away a little to scuff her boot on the curb. Instead of a onesie, in the dream she wears heavy boots, jeans, and a black hoodie the logo of a tattoo shop out out near Lake Tahoe called Darkstar Ink.

Aisley was probably the quietest of them all, she wasn't trying to be unhelpful, she was listening and paying attention. Looking around the dreamscape that she was in and looking for anything that might trigger a direction or something to be looked at or chased. The howling of the coyotes does pull to attention to them in the distance.

Something out there was pulling her attention, drawing her in and demanding attention. "Here," Aisley suddenly says, "It's here. I can feel it." Taking a step in the direction of the howling and then another. "Something is here and it is out there. I think the howling might be guiding us towards it."

"Beetlejuice," Mac tells Star with a grin. "But be careful not to repeat it too often."

She doesn't react to the coyotes howling and yipping, even to look in that direction; for her, they're a commonplace sound, at least back home in Los Angeles. "That sounds like a good idea," she tells Trace, when he suggests trying to sense the shared dream. With that, she tips her head upward, and then closes her eyes, like maybe she's trying to feel it in the warm dry breeze that blows through the air, but she frowns with concentration after a moment.

"It's harder than finding someone you know," she says, before turning to Aisley. "Here, like in my dream? It wasn't me who did it," she adds with a nervous laugh. "The coyotes are probably mine, too. I mean, my brains. I like them. Grew up with them in the hills near me. My dad joked I'd adopt one if I could, and, well. No lie detected."

"Sometimes I need to follow a particular path through my own dreamscape to cross over into another one. Maybe what she's sensing is the direction we need to travel in yours to get closer to the magic?" Trace suggests to Mac. "It may not have anything to do with the howling at all, which just might also be coming from the same direction. I don't know how you cross from one to another but I usually find some kind of opening that leads from one to the next, a transition point."

He then nods in the direction of the howling and says, "May as well go take a look, right? We can keep talking while we check it out." He then starts heading in that direction, just kind of expecting the others to want to go and check it out, too.

"Bettlejuice," Star says right back to Mac, amusement dancing in her dark eyes. "I was the kid who dared the other girls to say Bloody Mary into the mirror after I bribed the host's holder brother to flip the fuses," she mutters, listening to the howls in the night. "Coyote are so cool. I used to date this guy who was into wilderness shit and made me go hiking. I hate ticks. It was terrifying in the moment, but he was hot and angry, so now I know what coyote sound like when they're hunting hares or whatever."

"I'm a literal bish," she says. "I usually look for doors and go through them to switch dreams, which gets dodgy when you're in a forest and you have to make one," she says. Transition point. She nods to Trace. "How my brain works too in here." She wanders after Trace, toward the direction of the howling.

Closing his eyes for a moment, focusing on the air around in the dream, Casey is drawing in a longer breath. Allowing himself to hone in somewhat on where Aisley's focus was guiding them. Hearing the howling somewhat more as he is opening his eyes to take a few quicker steps. "Good idea to take a look, unfortunately I cannot understand the howls of coyote to translate it like other languages but."

Pausing his tongue, rolling his lips between his teeth for a moment as he is bringing his hands out of his pockets.

"There is something they seem to want us to know in Mac's dream." Glancing towards the aforementioned Mac afterwards, "Coyote being be better then arachnids."

Aisely shakes her head, “sorry, maybe I’m not explaining this right. I’m knew to all this. But there is something. It might not be the howling specifically, but there is something that way. I can feel it.” A shiver runs through her body and she just keeps on walking the direction that she indicated. Looking back it appears that people are following after her.

“I don’t know what I’m looking for exactly.”

"You're invoking my childhood trauma," Mac says to Star with a grin, but clearly it isn't upsetting her much, but she nods in agreement with the 'let's go that way' and look consensus.

Her gaze turns that way, and she looks to Casey and Aisley as they say something is out there, and she nods, a little nervously. "Do dreams have maps, like video games -- maybe the other thing is on the other side of my dream that way? I hope I don't have a dream parasite. Do they have shots for that?"

She makes a face, at the idea, then smiles at Aisley. "No reason to be sorry. I just meant the coyotes are normal for my brain, but having them pull you guys is not normal, so let's check it out."

As the entire group moves forward toward the direction of the howls, there are never any actual coyotes to be seen. They seem to always howl from somewhere closer by but out of sight as the cityscape seems to all away and the ground beneath their feet takes on a cobbled stone quality. And then eventually they can hear the sound of water lapping up against a shore through what appears to be some sort of misty wall separating them from Mac's dreamscape.

With care, everyone crosses over through the misty boundary, watching their steps as they find themselves on what appears to be the Chicago waterfront in 1871. Why 1871 precisely? Because the Chicago fire burns in the background and ships are pulling away from the docks out into Lake Michigan. There, on the docks is the 3 masted cargo ship that Mac believes she saw at the bottom. It has the same construction, shape, decks, and configuration that she'd remember from what she saw at the bottom of the lake.

The bell on the dock next to the ship clangs as people shout and begin to move to untie its moorings so that it can depart.

"Wow. This is like stepping back in time," Mac murmurs as she takes in the 19th century waterfront before them, squinting at the blaze of buildings on fire in the distance. She doesn't know the year, and couldn't have named the year of the Great Fire if she had been pressed to, but she does recognize the ship.

"That looks like the ship wreck we saw in the water," she says, beginning to move that way, eyes scanning the docks for anything that might give them a clue as to who or what is doing the dreaming here, or any hint as to what on the ship might have been sending out the magical bat signal so to speak, back when they were looking for the source of the magic in the Spellbound Islands.

"Should we try to get on?" She's moving that way already, but glances over her shoulder at the others.

Star strides on into the unknown, pep in her step, nary a sign she's worried in the least about anything crafted of anyone's particular nightmare jumping out of the deep shadows to eat her face. "We should have a sleepover when we finish with this... sleepover," Star says, waving a hand into the air. "For the nostalgia," she says to Mac. Which is as good as saying let's go play Bloody Mary on the grounds of the theme park with magic and walking dreams, because that's a good idea.

She doesn't slow down at the misty wall. She doesn't feel around it, she walks right on through it. Admittedly this risks a funny bonk pratfall, but no. The mist parts and she pauses briefly to look over the dreamscape of a late 19th century Chicago. "This shit is cinematic AF."

"Fuck yes, we should try to board. Everybody swim?" Does Star know that ship probably ends up at the bottom of Lake Michigan? Yes. Does it give even an instant of pause? Absolutely freakin' not. This dream just got interesting. "Last one on has to stick their hand in any dark, mysterious places looking for weird keys or other fucked up Indiana Jones shit."

Briskly catching up with the group as all are crossing through the misty boundary, Casey is rolling his shoulders before correcting the collar of his boiler suit. Ensuring the thing is sat comfortably on him while his eyes are darting across. Seeing the glow of the fire, picking out landmarks that still (probably) stand to this day. "Chicago?"

Whispering a little lower as he is turning his chin in Mac's direction. "On the ship?" A glance back towards the all-consuming fire in the distance before back towards the boat. "Yes, less for the cinematics. More for the, we'll survive this. Plus." Walking a little further forwards as he is keeping his hands in his pockets. "We will find out if the people here can speak with us. Communicate with us or even see us."

A first, being in a historical event within the dreamscape for Casey. Yet to learn the rules, the boundaries of what they are doing.

Aisley rubs over her forearms as they pass through the misty wall, she isn't cold, it just looks like it should be, and the eerie feeling she got once she's crossed over it into 1871. She was no history buff, though she could recognize the sights in the background one that fainted memory remembers from a picture she saw in some history book at one time. She's lose at guessing the date and year, but she'd known it was the Chicago Fire.

"I can swim," she says towards Star at her question and then watches as she goes to jump in the water, "I though we could just think up a boat, but we could swim."

"I can swim," Trace says, seeming to be in on the plan for getting onto the ship. Yes, there is that whole tricky business of the fact that it's supposed to sink, but nothing ventured, right? He heads over with the others, jogging a bit to make sure that they actually get to the ship before it leaves the dock. He waves his arms to signal to the people there to let them on.

A man who looks like he's seen several decades of sea life, well-weathered, and strong of build pauses in unfastening the moorings. "She's already loaded. Plank's down. What's your business?"

"If this is like the other shared dream," Mac murmurs in a quiet voice as they approach the ship and that dock worker, "it's very hard to dream up changes, I found. it's not like a regular dream you're visiting. Or maybe I'm just terrible at it. It took me a few tries to change anything in the one with the lab."

But now they're being asked what their business is, and she glances at the others, hoping one of them will come up with a plausible reason, then she looks out to the ship. Her brow furrows in concentration as she tries to will something to happen.

The look of concentration on Mac's face grows in intensity for a moment, and then she growls a little, just before the gangway appears back in place. Like it was never gone.

"Gangway looks down to me," Star says, nodding to the ship. "Late cargo. Very important business, love." She thumbs toward the ship. "Passage paid." She lies like she breathes, all brash and stalking off toward the ship to board, but she isn't so fast she couldn't be bodily stopped of dream dock worker has a mind to get handsy. He doesn't, she's carrying on, bold as you please.

She glances back at Mac, head turned so the gruff man can't see, and flashes her a little grin.

"Last minute checks, keep the engine going as we need to get this ship puffing hard out of here." Casey is glancing down to himself, opting to use the fact he potentially looks like crew of some kind as his bluff. "So extra and more hands calling in with me." Lifting his hand up to his hair, the older man is wishing that there was even a flat cap on top to suit the look.

A little smile touching his lips to the well-weathered man while following the group to the gangplank. Feeling the flick and lick of head from the fire behind them.

“I’m not sure this ship has an engine at this time frame…” Aisely softly says in passing to Casey as she just follows Star’s lead and walking up the gangway to board the ship. If one of them was going to get tossed in a cell, she wasn’t going to let them go alone. Keeping her head down she doesn’t even look at the gruff (probably now) confused man.

Star gets a very suspicious look from the dock worker who calls out "Ey! Where do you..." and then pauses because the gangway is back in place as though he hadn't just pulled it away a minute ago. He blinks in surprise just in time for the others to come by. He's distracted by Casey who seems somewhat authoritative and that seems to puzzle him enough that while he doesn't understand what he means by engines on the ship, he misses part of that noticing Aisley quickly following Star up the gangway.

"Checks? Hands? I didn't hear about more.." he mutters. Trace grabs some non-descript box off the dock. He has no idea what's in it. It doesn't matter. Holding it carefully he comes up behind Casey and says, "Got the last of it, boss. Gotta carry it real delicate like so it doesn't blow.." He looks at the dock worker, "You know how these things go. We should be getting out of here before the flames catch up." Then he nods to the dock worker, "And so you can get out of here before they do."

That seems enough to convince the somewhat bewildered man to just let them all climb the gang plank and get their 'dangerous cargo' aboard. He doesn't exactly want to be lingering around here as the flames take the city, either. Nobody's paying him enough for that.

And so it is that they are able to board the ship and join the somewhat confused crew.

Exchanging a grin with Star, Mac doesn't say anything to the man they've befuddled; she just follows the rest of the team's lead, hurrying after the rest. Once they're on the gangway, she looks around. "This is kind of amazing. Almost like time travel," she says, a little breathlessly. "Once we're aboard, we should see if we can sense where the magic's coming from -- you know, before this thing sinks."

She makes a face. "Anyone die in a dream that wasn't their own yet? What happens if that happens? Hopefully we just wake up?" This ability of theirs is one that she hasn't played all that much with, despite it being the stronger of her two powers.

"Where we can go backwards, I imagine we can go forwards as well." Casey's voice is murmuring a little to Mac beside him, glancing across to the rest of the crew as they are getting odd looks in their direction. "Then somewhere in the middle we will meet." Adding that line a little lower, head turning over his shoulder as if to see if anyone picked up on his point. On the lyrics...

"But yes, good plan. Anyone able to focus on the position or source of magic? Feel it in the air or taste it, or something?"

Star looks back but not at the dockworker. She jerks her head to Aisley then Mac to encourage them to bust past the 'authority' on the docks, happy to lead the way right into trouble if that's what they're gonna find here. It's in the posture she holds as she moves forward. She's absolutely high on the 'get arrested on holiday' list.

Surprisingly few men are willing to lay hands on a short woman. Casey has the distraction going, Trace adds in a performance that makes her cough to hide a wider grin, and those two are throwing all the information at Mr. Dock Downer seems to overload his dream brain. She thumps up onto the ship asides to Mac and Aisley once aboard. "Nailed it." She thumbs-up to Casey and Trace then resumes casual, man, casual posture, and tucks her hands behind her back to walk on. "There's something about this ship..."

Aisely tried not make eye contact with the dockworker. If she didn’t look at him maybe he wouldn’t notice her. It worked for the most part, she just kept following Star into the ship.

Now on the ship she looked around, there was something about it, and Star said it first, she nodded her head. “I feel it too, not sure what it is though.” Looking back to Mac, Casey and Trace to see if the could feel it too.

Casey and Star are able to feel very clearly that something powerful is on board this ship, magically powerful. They can feel a kind of pull toward it that is hard to resist, though that could be unsettling in and of itself. It's somewhere in the hold of the ship. All they need to do is get down to it. But they feel like they instinctively know the way. There's a hatch nearby that leads down into the ship itself. That would be the quickest route.

Trace and Mac can also feel the power of whatever is on this ship. It feels very familiar to Mac, very much like what she felt in the workshop when they were attempting to fix the device. Somehow she has a feeling that whatever it was they repaired, that might be what is on the ship. Trace was not present for that particular dream, but the resonance is similar to the other shared dream that he was in.

Aisley can feel that strong magical energy, but can't quite pinpoint where exactly it's coming from.

With all of them on the ship, Trace falls in line behind the others, trying to look casual and giving a bit of an up-nod to the dream crew. Just look like you belong and maybe nobody will question it. He hefts his box -- who knows what's even in it -- and says, "Guess we should get this where it's going." Wherever that may be.

Following along, Mac tries to take on the air of 'just doing my job,' which of course doesn't fit very well in the historical context the dream seems to take place in, but it's a dream, and maybe the dream folk won't question this reality. Fake it til you make it.

"It feels," she says thoughtfully, "a bit like the dream I was in where we had to try to repair a device. I think maybe that device is what's on the ship? And I guess at the bottom of the lake. Maybe it's what's causing the magic, or maybe just the dreams?"

She doesn't know. All she knows to do is follow her nose, so to speak, letting those who feel it best lead the way.

"It." Casey's voice is catching itself, pausing as he is trying to hone in on the magical source. His hand reaching out, lifting up from his side, while he is walking along one side of the ship's deck.

"It isn't far now, this way."

Step after step leading the group on past the ships main entrance for the crew. Still going on past it, closer to the front, Casey is pausing as his hand begins moving down. Reaching a broad hatch set in the deck's floor.

"Down here. Into the hold. Someone help me with the other side."

Exhaling hard, Casey is taking to hands onto the large metal handle of the maintenance hatch.

One thing about Star is that Star rarely resists urges, especially powerful ones. There are only three things that could lead her away from a pull like that, and unless burning dream Chicago has a BOGO Boba sale on up on deck, she's going where that pull leads. Moth to a flame. Easily trapped. The dark-haired social media girlie could be a liability at some point, but today she's a dreamer on a mission. "Oh la la, speak to me, creepy shippy."

She glances back at Mac when she reveals that this is familiar in a way. A device in a dream? Her brows go up a little bit. "Oh, good, manual labor." But even with that comment, she goes to help Casey apply some torque. She's not all that strong, but she is stronger than she looks. "My manicuuuure," she says softly, grunting. Thank goodness this is just a dream.

The pull wasn't there for her, she didnt feel what others did in regards to direction, so when Mac and Casey are following their gut and feeling, Aisley stays with the group and follows after them.

Casey and Star begin to lift the door open to the hold, Aisley offers another pair of hands to make it that much easier on both of them.

"Time to find out," Aisley says waiting for those that can feel the source go first in.

Trace, too, steps in to lend a hand to getting the door open. It doesn't take long for them to pull it up. Once they do, there is a distinct blue glow coming from somewhere inside. Down, into the hold they go, toward that glow that seems to be coming right through the slats in the inner walls. He sets down the box that he was carrying off to one side, no longer needing it as a sort of distraction.

When they open the last door between them and what lies within, they find, at the very front of the ship, the device that Mac helped to repair in the dream that she shared with others. That pulsing feeling, the same one that they all felt at the Winter Ball, at New Year's, in the dreams, can be felt here too, though much stronger. Enough that they can feel it in their bones like the bass at a concert.

It looks a little different than Mac may have remembered it, too. There's more bronze casing around it now, surrounding that pulsing blue magic energy in the center, more gears turning, little puffs of steam coming out of it. The bits of bronze-like tubing has small glass windows in it that allows one to see blue energy crackling through the tubing. Whatever it is, it is powerful, and it has brought them there.

"That's the thing. It looks a little different," Mac says, moving a little closer to peer at it, reaching out to not-quite touch it, but see if she can feel that glow as the light colors her fingertips (she's wary enough to avoid the steam puffs from burning her, at least).

"Steampunk magic engine," she muses. "So did this sink and cause all the magic in the islands? Maybe it broke and spilled out?" she wonders, looking up at the others. Her brows knit in thought. "Maybe we should study it to memorize what it's supposed to look like complete, and whole, in case it's broken down in the wreck?" It's just a theory. They fixed it in a dream, after all.

Star approaches with the others, and she stares at that thing, machine? It's glowing, which is distracting. The bronze makes her think, "World's weirdest distillery." She wanders over to peer more closely at it, which is probably ill advised given the power it's giving off, the thrum she can feel in a way that's mysteriously felt but like her body doesn't know how to interpret the sensation of magic.

Like Mac, Star's front and center. She might actually touch it though. "I hope it's not why the city's burning," she says, almost as an afterthought, as her fingers brush the casing.

Turning on his toes having heaved open the hatch, Casey is taking a hold either side of the ladder while heading down into the hold itself. Feeling the pulse, the tickle and drawing call of the magical energy behind him with each step.

Seeing the blue glow from the magic lighting up around him while facing away, as he is turning to meet the large chamber with his eyes. Eyebrows lifting up, his jaw almost dropping as he is experiencing this all for the first time.

Speechless, even, at the sight of it for a few moments. Just before hearing the group speak, catching his attention again.

"Assuming we don't have long, or forever. Should we each study a section. Memorise it, and bring that memory back?"

Before the device is even in view, Aisley could feel its power, the buzzing in her ears the pusling that vibrated in her bones. The blue glow lit up the room and she moved with the group towards it, the feeling stronger the closer they got. With the device in view, she was awestruck, the blue glow reflecting in the light green of her eyes.

Even if he hadn't been advised that they try to put the device to memory, Aisley wouldn't have been able to pull her eyes from it, the pull too strong. Her eyes took in every piece of the device, "So this what you saw in your dream, Mac? And what is currently at the bottom by the islands?" Pausing to reflect, "So does that mean this ship is going down tonight?" with them on it...

Trace stands slightly behind the others but his gaze is no less fixed upon the strange glowing device, fascinated by the sight of it. "I wonder if this is what the old man in the tunnels was asking us about, asking if we'd brought it with us." It's more of an idle musing than anything else. He has no idea if that's the case, but if everything's connected? Perhaps.

He makes no attempt to touch anything, but he nods in agreement. "We should remember everything that we can about it. Maybe when we wake, we could all help put together some kind of drawing of it if anyone's good at sketching. Between all of us we can probably come up with something at least semi-accurate to give to the people who are going to go back down to search for it again? And we can at least tell them that when we saw it, it was at the bow of the ship in the hold." That's all something.

Glancing over at Aisley he nods, "It probably is.. but we can leave this dreamscape before that happens." Since he's not entirely sure what would happen if they drowned in this dream.

Up above, there's some commotion on the deck, the sounds of boots running up above and the very faint sound of voices that manage to filter through from the decks over their heads. "That doesn't sound good..."

"Good idea," Mac says to Casey, when he suggests that they divide and conquer. "I bet you were always good at the group projects in school. I was the one who did my part as fast as possible so I could stop having to talk to any of the others."

She mentally divides the piece into five with her eyes, then gestures to a certain fifth of it. "I'll grab this part. And yeah, let's hurry. While I think we could probably pop out of the dream quick enough, I'd rather not know what first shipwrecks feel like first hand, myself, real or not. I have enough trauma to deal with without imaginary trauma on top of it."

That said, she shuts up enough to focus on the part she's claimed, one finger doodling a little in the air as if she's trying to remember how to draw it, once she wakes up.

"That's why," Star says, face awash in the blue glow of the machine, "I asked if everybody can swim." She smiles a little and starts committing as much of the design as she can to memory, concentrating on the runes. "... We might be able to change the dream even if that happens. I can think up some pretty sick pool floaties."

"Too bad this thing doesn't come with a hand illustrated instruction manual," she murmurs, and glances over at Trace, but her gaze returns to the machine shortly after. Memorization in progress. The sounds of boots running is familiar to Star. She's made more than a few dashes through the city from authority. Never on a boat, though.

"Just think of it as playing mermaids, Mac..." Star's eyes skim the runes. She's used to reading in a couple of different languages, and if you look at it, Japanese is a lot like runes, so maybe she can actually do this.

Tugging his lips to one side, the older Casey is near frowning as Aisley's words are very true. They could, possibly, be going down with the ship and...

At some point. Down in the hull the when, and where and how many not be as obvious. At least for a few moments before Trace is pointing out the footsteps above. "Doesn't sound good at all. Guess this is us working on the clock then."

Moving to the right hand side, "I'll take take this side then." A little smile across to Mac on her praise for him, raising his shoulders up as he's sharing on. "Was less group work when I was at school, more sit there. Read the book. Write the answers. It helps though remembering things."

Life of a man who only had to do exams for his grades. Now, once more, studying something to regurgitate is soon after.

"What I wouldn't give for a notebook that I could sketch on right now," Aisley murmured mostly to herself, not that she'd be able to take it with her out of her dream, so she mentally took in her fifth of what is supposed to be submitting to her memory.

"I was mostly thinking about the poor people on ship, not my ability to not swim," Or survive, but that was still unclear, "Can't warn them, this already happened, nothing to change about who survives. Just sort of sad to think about." And not the thing to think about, not when this glowing magic thing was right in front of them.

...People on the ship, the boot steps are getting closer and she turns look back "Do we distract them? Do we all need more time? Are we good?"

The answer to those questions never come, though. As the group is focused on committing the device itself to memory, the thrumming sound is getting stronger and stronger, and the blue light is pulsing almost rhythmically. They have just enough time to commit the device to memory when suddenly that blue glow suffuses the entire room and..

.. they all wake back in the resort, seemingly forcibly ejected from the magical dream, much as it ended before for those who had experienced one.

Though this time, they get out with with a little more information than they had before.