These Dreams

**Lynn Mills** · Mar 7th, 2016 07:02 PM

Lynn leaned against the wall and tilted her head at the other two. "Maybe we shouldn't be looking at this through our own expectations." She waved a hand at the dream around them. "Robby is shaping his own dreams and learning to deal with the trauma. Maybe we could reshape just one part of it and have it be some sort of gauge as to how much damage there was. Give the dream the idea of needing to be able to monitor his progress, but let the background of the dream itself form the ultimate shape. He's had enough of other peoples expectations shoved into his skull, why don't we let his dreams show us what we need to know?"

**Daniel Leto** · Mar 8th, 2016 12:28 PM

"We could what people do with Death," he said it as if it should be obvious what he meant. "You know, Death is this huge unknowable, unfeeling, unstoppable force." Said with the same calm smile he always had. "Something you can't imagine beating. So people give it a shape and a way to defeat it. They make it an angle and you can make it go away with blood on the door. They make it a skeleton in a hood and suddenly you have a chance to beat it at a chess game. They make it a black dog... and... well that one doesn't really work but at least you can run away from it. We could do that with Robby's fear and once he's able to defeat it, we'll know we're done. Does that make sense? Is it possible?" He looked between Lynn and Ava, unsure whether it was a good idea. They seemed to have a better handle on the therapy stuff.

Mar 9th, 2016 02:15 PM

"Mm..." Ava weighed the ideas thoughtfully, gaze fixed back on the door Robby was beyond. The ideas they offered were good ones, though actually implementing them could be hit or miss. Worth a try, at least. "I like that. The thing we could shape, the crystallization of his fear, doesn't even need to be something he would defeat. He might want to confront it, and that's a good impulse, but I would lean more toward aiming at him accepting it. That may be something we would need to gauge as we go."

Lips pursed, she nodded to Daniel. "I think it's possible. Essentially what we'd be doing is creating an element of the dream he's already in whose single purpose is to seek him out, or position itself nearby him to be discovered. From... from there we could adjust what it does as needed." Uncertainly crept into her words, but it seemed like a good plan to Ava. At the very least a solid start. They just needed to decide on a form for their fear-creature.

"I think we should try to steer clear of things the Sandman used. No creepy young girls, no beasts in the shadows."

**Lynn Mills** · Mar 9th, 2016 09:23 PM

Lynn tilted her head to the side and regarded them both. "Are we sure we want to create a manifestation of his fear and trauma? At least if he's not currently experiencing it?" She waved her hands restlessly. "Unless we're actively shaping the dream towards some kind of therapy, building a bogyman isn't going to do anything beyond undoing any progress he might already have made."

**Daniel Leto** · Mar 10th, 2016 12:49 PM

"Ava's right though, even when he's having good dreams we need some way to see if the trauma is being worked through?" he responded to Lynn "Without us shaping his dreams he still seems to be falling back into nightmare. The space adventure I saw got pretty dark sometimes. And now he's returned to where the Sandman originally held him. A gauge of some kind would be helpful to make sure that once the pledge is done, the nightmares don't start again."

Daniel sighed, feeling a little out of his depth. Ava's suggestion of accepting fear was very... Autumn. It sense made in a way though. Accepting trauma and moving past it. Never free from it's presence but able to live with it. It wasn't an easy thing to do. Looking at the Changeling community was enough to see that.

"How about this? We each shape a part of the manifestation. That way we make sure we cover for each other's... flaws in judgement. Keep it from becoming too much of a boogeyman and more focused on being used a therapy device."

"Maybe a cat?" Daniel remembered seeing one at the Winter event wearing a service animal vest. It could also easily be a symbol of fear.

Mar 12th, 2016 01:40 AM

It was clear she and Lynn didn't share quite the same philosophy about fear and trauma, but it wasn't like that was a surprise. Daniel's explanation of why they might want a gauge, even in what seemed like a perfectly normal dream, received a nod of agreement from the Nix.

"I think each of us handling part of it is a good idea, keep it somewhere in the middle ground." Ava knew that Spring's philosophy of desire and hope helped some people, and was even the only way to live for others, but she just didn't see how it would help Robby. Maybe if they pumped him full of hope for the future? A desire to move forward instead of stagnating? But that didn't actually address the issues he was experiencing, it didn't give him coping tools to just... move away from it. Maybe, yet again, she would need to chalk it up to the fact that she just didn't quite understand that perspective.

For the moment, she wasn't entirely sure if Winter's grief was shaping the way Daniel viewed Robby's possible recovery. It was something to watch for, though, a curiosity rather than a concern.

"Hm. A cat could work, as a start, or we could work with something that doesn't read immediately as a 'pet.' Maybe a fox, something wilder and harder to read; it can seem either predatory or playful, depending."

**Lynn Mills** · Mar 13th, 2016 09:38 AM

"Maybe a wolf?" Lynn shrugged a bit at the glances from the other two. "My invisible friend growing up was a wolf. Very protective, but only once you tame it. Seems like a good metaphor to me. But as for the aspects of this thing, I can take on making it a therapy device, if the two of you want to take on the other aspects." Healing and regrowth, bringing hope to the hopeless. It was a very Spring thing to do. This was something she could manage.

**Daniel Leto** · Mar 15th, 2016 12:05 PM

Save him from the dog lovers. Daniel wasn't really an animal person, he could never quite read their behavior like he could with people. At least with a cat if you didn't bother it, it wouldn't bother you. Canines demanded interaction. Which, when you thought about, was kind of what they were going for. Of the two presented options of fox or wolf, Daniel found himself leaning more towards wolf. Even that he wasn't as sure about though. All the stories he knew about wolves tended to be bad. Maybe, add a bit of dog.

"How about just a huge canine but it could sort of shift in form from dream to dream to better fill its role?" Kitsune to Fenir to guard dog, depending on how far along they were in taming the fear.

Mar 17th, 2016 01:07 AM

"Canine works for me," Ava agreed softly. It was hard not to tie any dog or wolf back to Mal, but maybe she wasn't a bad place to start. Her own hopes, fears and affections might help call to the boy's; it was at least someplace to start.

"Do we want to try this now? Or wait until we've done... more." They were all in this together, and while it was sometimes tiring to make every decision by committee, they were all coming at it from different angles. She wanted them to be sure about whatever they ended up pursuing.

**Lynn Mills** · Mar 17th, 2016 08:24 PM

Lynn shrugged and nodded. "We're all here and we're all in reasonably good shape. Might as well get started while we've got both the time and the energy."

These Dreams

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