PROLOGUE - DREAMS OF REALITY

  A tall, young man, whose face clearly denoted he hadn’t quite reached adulthood, looked into the sky on his way home from his graduation ceremony. He had turned down his parents offer to drive him, wanting to be alone with his thoughts for a while.

  The streets of the small town out in the country were bustling due to the excitement of the children who just graduated having their careers lined up and ready to go to the next stages of their lives. Parties were talked about, preparations being finalized, reservations being checked, deliveries being received… the energy of the town was like this every year.

  It wasn’t a large town, several thousand people strong in population, standard amenities, and an hours drive from any large cities. The people here were simple folk, some lived off the land, others had restaurants and the like, and the community was fairly close knit. This was the young man’s home of 17 years.

  His emerald eyes shone as he looked back down from the sky, his face soft and clearly free of worries. Unlike his friends and peers, he wasn’t that worried about the path he was going to be going on from here in his life. He was considered a genius by many standards, and thankfully he wasn't shunned for it in his school days surprisingly. As a genius, many companies and schools had started reaching out to him as he was coming closer to graduation, which was a year early for him. He could have graduated a few years sooner if he really wanted to, but he had no need to rush his life like that.

  One of the companies that was trying to scout him had contacted him as early as two months ago, and after negotiations started, he began consulting a lawyer with help from his parents. The young man had put a counter offer on the table after much thought and worry. Plenty of the companies and schools had great offers for him, especially considering he came from such a small town, but to him they just didn’t feel right for him. This company on the other hand not only felt right, but after some investigation he found that they were also trustworthy and according to employees, past and present, cared for their people greatly. These things, as well as the company’s vision for moving forward are what drew him to presenting a counter offer to Klenomis LLC.

  He was halfway home when his cell phone suddenly rang, a light hearted and bright ringtone sounding out in the street for a few moments as he looked at the caller ID: Klenomis HR. His stomach leapt into his throat as he gulped once and put his mind in order. This was the call he had been waiting for. The call that would say whether his counter offer was accepted or if further negotiations were needed.

  After putting his mind back in order he quickly answered the phone. “Hello?” his tenor voice asked, gratefully not cracking.

  “Hello, is this Mr. Sebastian Loc?” The beautiful voice of a female asked in a proffessional manner.

  “This is him.” He responded carefully, back automatically straightening to fit the formality the woman portrayed with her tone.

  “I am Lucy, calling from Klenomis Human Relations Department, do you have a moment to speak about the counter offer you sent in?” She asked after introducing herself and the company department she was calling from, despite the caller ID having informed him already.

  “I do.” He responded directly to the point, afraid his voice might crack if he were too eloquent in his response.

  “Very well. We have looked over your proposal and found all of the constituents to be agreeable. We will pay for your college education and degree, meanwhile you will put aside some of your time each day to work for us remotely to get a headstart on this project. We have also added extra remuneration to cover your daily expenses for food and general care as a monthly per diem.” She said, seemingly in one breath somehow. The professional tone and the vocabulary being spit out making his head spin a bit before he could process all of the information.

  “I see…” he responded, having not expected that they would not only meet his expectations but exceed them.

  “The per diem is also in addition of your salary of course. There will be simple goals given to you to meet over long periods of time while you are going through school, and if you exceed these goals there is a chance for bonuses to be added to your pay. Each goal that you exceed greatly will also result in an increase in salary for you. You will receive a call tomorrow from the Creation Department to inform you of your first work related goal. The paperwork that is needed for signatures and finalization should be waiting for you with the courier at your house. Do you have any questions or concerns?” she asked Sebastian, the call clearly coming closer to the end.

  “I believe not. I will take a close look at the paperwork and sign it as long as nothing is out of the ordinary or different from what we have discussed.” he said while nodding to himself. He needed to hurry home it seemed.

  “Very well. Have a wonderful day Mr. Sebastian and we look forward to working with you closely to make both your dreams and those of Klenomis become reality. Have a great day.” She responded before promptly hanging up.

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  Sebastian hadn’t even realized he had stopped walking, or that he was sweating slightly from the mental fortitude he had been unconsciously exercising to not jump for joy and shout in the streets. He stood there for a few minutes, blankly looking at his phone as his mind started to race all of a sudden.

  This was his dream job and he had asked for a number of concessions in return for working for Klenomis… and all of them had just been granted and some he had never thought to even ask for. His college fund was no longer going to be any issue, his living expenses all paid for, and even terms that would make his work and schooling balanced. This was far too good to be true right? There had to be a catch somewhere… right? Otherwise how could Klenomis stay in business with such expenditures?

  Did they like the mock up he had given them that much? They had asked for an example of his creativity when they first contacted him, which he provided after writing a small tidbit. He had shown his attention to detail and his world and lore building capacity, which he had been told were superior. That is what lead to the offer being made, and his counter offer now being accepted it seemed. Someone must have really liked the ideas in the example he provided.

  His mind was firing off ideas faster than he could keep up with as he thought of the idea that he was going to have free reign on creating a world for some large project handled by Klenomis. His ideas were blooming faster than he could hardly think, as if they were being guided and taken care of more by his subconscious than his conscious thought processes.

  As he absently walked into the door of his home he put down his backpack and took off his shoes. His mind was so preoccupied he wasn’t even aware at the time of how big the smile on his face was, or how his parents were speaking to him even as he ate the dinner they served. They had splurged some savings to give him one of his favorite dishes even since he had just graduated, and he couldn’t even taste it, or even realize what he was eating for that matter.

  He cleaned up his own dishes after dinner practically on auto-pilot before going up to his room on the second story of their small house. He was finally coming out of the trance-like state he had been in, exhausted from how hard his gears had been spinning just moments before. He looked at the clock and shook his head, it was only seven in the evening.

  He decided to lay down to sleep anyways, uncharacteristically not even changing his clothes as his mind faded away before he could even pull his sheets up.

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  Sebastian opened his eyes, his mind spinning at the unfamiliar feeling surrounding him. It felt as if he was suspended in midair with no support, yet not falling. He was somewhat disconcerted about the fact it was so dark that it seemed like he was completely surrounded by nothingness.

  He reached up and felt his face with his hand to make sure that his eyes were unimpeded and that they were truly open. He was surprised to find that there was nothing covering his eyes, and his eyes were open, yet no light at all seemed present, as if it had all been devoured.

  I wish there was light so I could see what is around me… He thought to himself as suddenly he had to blink repeatedly as a bright light suddenly came into existence above him, hanging there as if within arm’s reach. He could tell that the distance was deceptive though.

  Wait… how did that happen? What is that? Is that supposed to be the sun? Did it show up because I wanted light? Sebastian questioned, unsure what was going on right now. Lets see what happens if I want a blue sun with red speckles to show up in the ‘sky’ along side that white sun… he told himself as he made the thought.

  He thought for sure that nothing would happen, after all, it is an absurd idea that your own thoughts can reshape the world immediately upon thinking them, right? Wrong. Sure enough, as he thought of it, the sun that was blue with red speckles showed up in the sky along side the other sun, undulating as it hung there and provided a mixture of odd light and heat.

  I understand… he thought as he saw the results of his test. I am inside of a dreamscape! A malleable dreamscape at that! This is PERFECT! He thought to himself as he started to let his mind implement the thoughts he had been going through on the way home and during dinner manifest into this dreamscape, slowly building it up from the base. A world began to take shape before him, rotating around the suns he had placed in the sky. He zoomed into the world mentally, as if second nature as he started to shape the world itself to his liking, even thinking of how he wanted the physics there to be different from his own world in reality. Each thought he had contributed to the shaping of the world before him and the interactions it shared with the dual suns, which he randomly decided to make the planet go around in a figure 8 for its orbit. He could just change it later anyways right?

  Once he was relatively pleased with the way the world looked and the way the physics seemed to be working, he began creating more. His enthusiasm took him to new areas at the speed of thought. He even created animals, plants, people of various fantasy and realistic races even. He found himself at one point conversing with the people he had created, teaching them the basics of survival and universal understanding. To some of the races, he bestowed natural curiosity, to other races he gave enhanced strength, and to some he even gifted advanced knowledge.

  Whenever he slept from then on, he found himself in this “dreamscape”. It seemed to grow and progress even when he wasn’t there, as if it was all its own and he just kick-started it. It was still malleable for him however, allowing him to change things and tweak systems that he found breaking down or wrong, and he also did plenty of various testing while he was there, mostly to satiate his own curiosity.

  He looked forward to his time in the dreamscape every night, creating, and even reaching a point where he was interacting with the world and living amongst his creations for extended amounts of time instead of shaping and creating as much.