Cedric tapped the side of his leg a few times, then clicked his tongue. No immediate answers to his questions about the color change were coming to him, and when he’d asked his new power all he’d gotten was a five by three grid. The rows were labeled “normal”, “awakened”, and “nightwalker”. The columns had been labeled with names: “Andie”, “Dyllan”, “Cedric”, “Finnegan”, and “Madison”. All five dreamwalkers he’d met, and the three possible “modifiers” that could - potentially - affect color. Eight of the slots were blank, but the seven that corresponded to combinations he had seen firsthand were all filled in.
Given this and previous searches, it was reasonable to believe that Cedric’s power could automatically draw conclusions from the information it gathered and his own memories - but only to a very limited degree. If he wanted any real answers on what these colors meant, he would have to grab a book on color theory after he woke up. In the mean time, it would be prudent to focus on a more pressing issue. It was time to test this new power’s use in a combat scenario.
With a flick of his wrist, Cedric called up three new windows. One for Andie, one for Dyllan, and one for his Nightmare. Cedric had expected his Nightmare’s information to be the star of the show, but something about Andie’s had caught his attention. “Andrea Diane McClyde, aka Andie. Type: Dreamwalker (Unawakened). Status: Cautious. Curious. Mildly confused. Current Activity: Investigating pop-up windows. Vocally comparing pop-ups to video game info boxes.”
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It sounded like Andie was seeing the same kind of pop-up windows as Cedric. She must have had her own set, too - given the fact that neither she nor Cedric had line of sight on each other at the moment. It was possible that she was restricted to only seeing copies of the windows from Cedric’s searches, but Cedric found it far more likely she could make her own searches. Cedric was quiet and introverted, but he had only ever been secretive out of fear. He was not by nature a private person, and loved to share knowledge. It would make sense for a power born from the very core of his personality to reflect those tendencies.
Wait, Andie’s pop-up had just updated! “Status: Alert. Battle ready.” That wasn’t good. “Current Activity: Summoning Virtue. Holding back urge to fight. Glaring at wireframe in the shape of giant angler fish.” And that, was even worse.