skyangel at 5:36PM, Dec. 22, 2014

Poor girl will end up going nuts in the end anyway, I think!! lol

KimLuster at 6:35PM, March 15, 2014

@Banes: Maybe things will turn out okay anyway ;)

Banes at 4:00PM, March 15, 2014

I agree. She may have meant well, but she screwed up.

KimLuster at 9:46AM, March 14, 2014

@bravo1102: those are some lovely quotes... and they ring true. At this point, Kimber Lee may just have to 'go with it'. If she is dreaming, she's already broken all the rules that could 'prove' it, so might as well roll with it eh... Kind of like us 'real' folk haha

bravo1102 at 6:41AM, March 14, 2014

To quote Poe: Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream? And Shakespeare ... for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we've shuffled off this mortal coil... Faith or knowledge? If this be a dream or be it real I'll go where it takes me and enjoy the trip. Because if I never wake up I would conceivably be here forever so I'll "be" here. Just be.

KimLuster at 6:17AM, March 14, 2014

@Banes: Socorro did mean well. Personally I tend to dislike when well-meaning people do things for me 'behind my back' for 'my own good', ya know, like those 'intervention' thingees. But perhaps such tactics are needed if we're too blind or hardheaded to do it for ourselves. And sometimes things turn out well... sometimes ;)

KimLuster at 4:32AM, March 14, 2014

@Plymayer: One thing I think I failed at in the story is properly setting the baseline of how the original dream experiments and guidelines worked. I should have (and may make) a sort of 'prologue' chapter that shows the initial dream sessions, how everyone marvels about how incredibly realistic they are, and finally stern warnings of the dangers of interacting with dream representations of real people you know personally, perhaps with some scenes of the eponymous 'Sally' (mentioned on pages 18 and 82) who ignored such warnings and suffered the consequences. Yeah, I may just do a prologue chapter soonish :)

Banes at 9:30PM, March 13, 2014

wow! Tough situation, here...Socorro surely means well, and I can now say how much I appreciated her line earlier about how she might have to steal this guy for herself (anyone who can mock a recently serious situation like that is aces in my book!)

plymayer at 8:31PM, March 13, 2014

@ Bravo, are we sure it's not a "dream Waffle house"?

plymayer at 8:28PM, March 13, 2014

Dream or not, they are not safe. Thinking on what I'd do in Kimber Lee's place.... Maybe tell myself that they are my "dream family". I could love and cherish my dream family in my dream. Like driving a dream car only better. If I were to wake I'd remember it was just my dream family. Yep, not really feasible....

KimLuster at 7:22PM, March 13, 2014

@Peipei: that is the question ;)

Peipei at 6:26PM, March 13, 2014

Oh man, way to guilt trip mom here xD! But yeah, I'm sure her family is very hurt by her avoidance of them (if that is really them to begin with!)

KimLuster at 7:34AM, March 13, 2014

@bravo1102: at heart, it's a philosophical question. When you're 'in' the matrix, no amount of evidence can convince you it isn't 'real'. You essentially have to take a leap of faith ('take the Red Pill'). Likewise, we 'real' people cannot logically and completely rule that everything we experience isn't a 'dream' of some sort. There are people, Solipsists, who believe everything really is 'in their mind' - nothing and nobody else is truly real). The rest of us 'normals' assume that everything is indeed real (a safe assumption, imo, but an assumption nonetheless). Now, if we, like Kimber Lee did, start to routinely have extremely vivid and lifelike dreams, we might start questioning our assumptions (and maybe get institutionalized in the process haha).

bravo1102 at 6:28AM, March 13, 2014

At what point does the evidence become overwhelming? You want waffles there's a Waffle House in town.