“Nothing really jumps out.” Andie scanned the nearby shelves. “Spider-man, Batman, Avengers, The Flash, more Spider-man… all the big names are here. There’s a corner for indie stuff over there, too. Nothing I don’t recognize, which would be weird if this was a real store, but it’s Cedric’s mindscape, and he doesn’t read a lot of comics. It makes sense there’d only be stuff I’ve told him about.” Andie scratched the back of her head and frowned. “A lot of anachronistic combinations of different runs, but, again, this is a mindscape. Less Batman than usual, I suppose. Don’t read much of him myself, but he’s pretty popular… and Cedric likes him.” Andie stopped. “…and those are the Bionicle books. Not the comics, the books. That’s weird. Come to think of it, a whole ass comic shop in the mindscape of someone who doesn’t read many comics is weird to begin with. I’d ignore it if it was only a small nook in a big city, but…”

Dyllan smiled. “Starting to have the same realization I did?”

“An entire comic shop.” Andie’s eyes flickered around the shelves one more time. “Full of all my favorites.” She looked at Dyllan. “Right next to a martial arts dojo.”

“A martial arts dojo filled with all sorts of stuff to help maintain your health - physically and mentally.”

“Lemme guess, there wasn’t any of the usual body building or new age stuff you usually see in places like those.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Yeah.” Dyllan grinned. “An entire shelf of different books on yoga, but not a single ‘healing crystal.’ Weird, right?”

“…this whole island is all about us, isn’t it?” Andie wandered around a bit, spotting a section dedicated to “Dreamwalkers” goods. Plastic replicas of Vices and Virtues, a handful of action figures, and many, many comics. Each of their covers featuring a mindscape they’d been in, a Nightmare they’d fought, or Andie herself. Usually a mixture of all three. She picked up one of them, and flipped through the pages. Dreamwalkers, issue #229 - Attack of the Shadows. “…painfully cheesy, but an actually coherent story. Most mindscapes would just leave it blank on the inside, or fill it with colored squares arranged like panels.” Andie’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “…this, this isn’t about us.”

Dyllan shot Andie a bewildered look. “…what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s not about us, Dyllan. It’s for us.” Andie gestured broadly at her surroundings. “This whole place is weirdly detailed and precise, even for Cedric. If this was my first introverted mindscape I’d just say it’s because of who he is… but I’ve been in hundreds of mindscapes. Some have been pretty detailed, but this -” Andie tapped the comic book she was holding. “This is a whole new level. I could justify it if this place stored his memories, not his emotions…” She tapped the comic book she was holding. “But this isn’t written how Cedric would remember these events, it’s written how I would remember them.”

“Huh.” Dyllan stared blankly for a moment. “…I keep forgetting how observant you can be when you’re actually focused on something.”

Andie beamed with pride. “My passive perception is utter garbage, but tell me what I’m looking for and I can give even Cedric a run for his money.”