Dream Weavers

The Power of Dreams

I've chased you through your dreams since you were a child. Dreams work in reverse for me. When you fall asleep, I awaken. There is one of us for every one of you. The first time you fell asleep in your mother's arms, I joined you in the embrace of night.

The moment you were conceived, I began studying and practicing the art of dream-weaving, all with the goal of guiding your mind, through its nightly journey. We don't create your dreams; we merely fill in the details, after landscapes, that sort of thing. You know when you're dreaming, and you know you're at home, but it looks nothing like home? That's us. Or when you try to run, but you're super slow? That's us too.

We have nine(ish) months to master the basics, but once you are born, one of us is assigned to you forever. In the beginning, we're still learning and experimenting. That's pretty much why you have no super early memories of dreaming; we were just starting out. Plus, the infantile mind doesn't give us a lot to work with.

Anyway, once we are with you, as I previously stated, we only wake when you sleep. In other words, I am not sitting in your head watching the world through your eyes. All I know about you comes from your sleeping brain: unconscious thought. That's mainly why "home" looks weird in your dreams. Your brain says "home" or "work," but I've never actually seen these places, so I fill in the blanks as best as I can.

People are different. Your brain conveniently provides images to go with most of the names it comes up with. A few details might be left out, so someone might have shorter hair or be slightly off in age.

Anyway, why bother telling you all this? Same reason we Dream-Weavers do anything: experimentation. We like to see what effect dreams and information have on people in their day-to-day life. Some Dream-Weavers focus on nothing but positive dreams. Especially if the brain seems naturally pessimistic, the Weaver will guide all dreams toward a positive state. Sometimes this does lead to a perceived improvement in the attitude of the subconscious.

Other Weavers focus on nightmares just to see how messed up they can make the brain. Still others are lazy and do as little as possible, claiming their experiment to be "seeing what happens when the brain is left alone." This can lead to broken, incomplete drams. Some Weavers suppress all dreams for the entire life of their human. This tends to lead to dull lives for the Weaver as well as the human, for we are able to participate in the dreams.

So, what kind of Weaver am I? We'll get to that.

First, another question: Why bother? Why change things up like that if we can't see your daily lives anyway? Well, during the nine months of your gestation/our training, we can watch events in your world, as well as the dreams of any individual we choose. This allow us to have an idea of how different dreams affect humans, and what kind of dreams we want to give when our human is born. Also, when our human dies we exist long enough to recount their life and see what effect our dreams had.

So, now you know the important stuff. On to the good part! What am I? Am I a positive Dream-Weaver? A Nightmare-Weaver? Am I lazy? I actually think I have chosen a path different from my fellow Dream-Weavers. Some have tried, but they all gave up after two or three failures. Humans generally wake up right before the good bit. Are you ready for this? I am the Dream-Weaver who wants to know what happens in the real world if you die in your dream. Over, and over, and over.

Now, I'm not evil. Well, at least I don't think so. I am simply goal-oriented. And I'm a bit over-competitive. No Dream-Weaver has ever successfully caused the dream-death of their human. Humans say it's not possible; your brain won't let you die in your dreams, as it wakes you up right before death. I have some theories of my own.

My number one thought is that Weavers are afraid. They don't know what will happen to them if their human dies in a dream. Oh, there are theories:

· Nothing happens – the dream ends, the human wakes up a little shaken, and they go back to sleep. This theory would be the most helpful to my experiment. I could then orchestrate many subsequent dream deaths to see how you are affected.

· The human stops dreaming – not just for that night, but for the rest of their life. This theory is troubling for Weavers, because we don't know what that would mean for us. Would that Weaver cease to exist immediately? Would they be trapped in an empty void every night instead of the dream world?

· Nothing happens to the human, but the Weaver dies – Weavers have been known to empathize with strong emotions and fears in their human's dreams. Some of us develop fears of heights, water, snakes, and other things after a few consecutive nightmares, even though dreams cannot hurt us. This empathy leads some Weavers to believe that if their human dies in a dream, the Weaver will connect to that feeling of death and succumb to it.

· The human dies in the real world – this one is rather self-explanatory and is good for neither party involved.

So, of our four main theories on the matter, three end badly for us, and the fourth contains no major benefits that are worth the risk. For these reasons Weavers tend to stay away from death dreams. As I said before, some have tried, but their methods betray the fact that they don't truly want to succeed. Their causes of death are long and drawn-out: they give the brain time to react and wake the human before the critical moment. Falling, drowning, burning, and freezing are popular methods. The human is a little freaked out, but they awake right before hitting the ground or just before they run out of breath. It needs to be quick and unexpected, before the brain can react: a gun shot, an explosion, or maybe decapitation.

First, another experiment. How much, if anything, from a dream can translate into the real world? Ah, you're falling asleep. Let's see what you'll give me to work with. You're in a dark room, laying down. OK, I've got an idea! Time to Weave...

The table is cold metal. You're not just lying there; you're strapped to the table! An unfamiliar man walks in. He is carrying a chainsaw. He begins to cut off your right leg...

The dream begins to fade. Your brain is saving you. You're in the state between sleeping and waking. In this state I can briefly sense your body and emotions to monitor how the dream affected you. Your right leg is asleep! My experiment was a success! While your leg obviously isn't going to spontaneously fall off because of a dream, your brain translated that loss from the dream-world into something tangible. This gives me great hope for my primary experiment: the Death-Dream!

A new night. The dream begins to take shape. You are in...a forest? It appears to be a camp. I believe this could work. There! I shall Weave a tall wooden structure. There are strange men in the camp, with guns! One of them chases you to the top of this wooden structure. Yes, he points his gun at you. No! Stop backing up: you're going to fall! Nooo! I watch you fall, knowing that you will wake up right before hitting the ground.

That was my fault. I should not have created a tall structure. That gave your brain an exit. Next time I will not be so clumsy.

The next few nights pass uneventfully, as your brain seeks to recover from the near dream-death experience. This is fairly normal. The brain tries to regain a sense of normalcy after a traumatizing event. In other words, you don't dream for a few days. At least nothing coherent enough to work with. However, this gives me time to plan.

As you sleep, I go through your dream archives to get some ideas. Superpowers, zombie apocalypse, school in your underwear, and other less interesting dreams. Here is something interesting. You once dreamed that you were in a high-rise building that was being robbed. Hmmmm...I can use that.

Tonight is the night. I can feel it. As you drift off to sleep, I awaken. Using the brainwave patterns from your previous dream, I influence your subconscious to replay the robbery. Ah! You seem to realize it is a dream and attempt to take a different course of action. Though you know it is a dream, you are still acting in accordance with the rules of reality; you do not think you are invincible. This is good for me.

I send one of the robbers after you, gun in hand. This is it! Will you stop dreaming forever? Will nothing happen? Will I die? Will we both die? I admit I am scared and exhilarated. The robber follows you through the building. You stop to peer around a corner. He comes up behind you. He whispers, "Good night," and pulls the trigger.

I...did it? I did it! You died in your dream! I wonder what will hap...