“Our dreams are filled with wonder as we sleep through the night. While we sleep we explore worlds of our own creation without moving a single muscle… Well, maybe our brain muscles..”
The audience chuckles.
“People are so hung up on virtual reality technology when we have been exploring virtual realities every night since the night we were born, which is why it is such a tragedy that we often forget our dreams after only a few minutes of waking up.”
The audience’s heads nod in agreement around the room.
“However our dreams often find ways into our waking hours. You may have a dream of a mysterious world full of red floating mesas and spires, and then find yourself writing about it in a story weeks later.”
The screen behind him changes to reflect such a place.
“This is how worlds are built, and how games with fantastical worlds come into existence, the realization of dreams. So what's to stop us from using the greatest processor in the world, the human mind, to share and explore the greatest simulation of all, our own dreams.”
The crowd is very interested at this point.
“I present the Dream Weaver Cloud, an innovation in virtual reality; a minimalistic, noninvasive way to share and explore each other's dreams. A technology that allows for the shared dream cloud of up to eight people, paving the way for the ultimate sandbox experience, the ultimate way to experience virtual reality with your friends. Thank you and keep dreaming!”
At least that’s how the speech went in his dreams, he has never been much of a public speaker. He was always the one behind the scenes, the brain behind the madness, the dreamer if you will. Ever since he was young and found the creativity and imagination of the game world inspiring, he would often dream of worlds combining the best elements of each game he encountered. Games like Myst and Halo were combined easily in his head, suddenly a puzzle exploration game would exist on a ringworld, but he couldn’t share it perfectly with anyone, and as time went on he would forget he even had the idea. So he started keeping a dream journal, but even that wasn’t a perfect way to keep the ideas alive, that is why he is making the Dream Weaver Cloud a reality. Because although your dreams might weave their way into your writing, or games, or art, or whatever medium you choose, it’s never as vivid as when you first came up with it in your dreams. With the Dream Weaver Cloud, you can store, and share dreams through the internet, just like you would share a document, whether that be through single player, or live multiplayer. Not only can the Dream Weaver share your dreamscape with other people, it can record them so you never forget the experience you had…
*BZZZZZZT* *BZZZZZZT* *BZZZZZZT*
The dreamscape of the office he had been in slowly disappears as a reality takes hold. Nothing sucked more than a reality. Reaching out, Jones haphazardly slapped the alarm clock, shutting up its incessant screeching. Opening the nightstand drawer, he takes out his dream journal.
14/25/2121
Last night, I presented the Dream Weaver Cloud again. It was again received well, and I hope I can do it for real. It’s just so much easier to dream.
Walking to the bathroom and waving on the light, he turned on the mirror, his face appearing from the dull cloudy material. He had been working on the Dream Weaver Cloud for years, almost fifty by this point, and as technology improved, it was all stark and bland, nothing like the imagination of the dream. He still remembers with a vehement nostalgia how creative old games were, but nobody really went retro anymore. Nowadays people think they aren’t creative, aren’t imaginative, aren’t able to produce anything but the bland futarnism of the 22nd century, but when they dream, that's when they truly shine. Grabbing his Control Gauntlet, he moseyed on down the stairs to order some coffee from the fridge. Typing in his order, he looked out at the floating city skylines, and the draping stonework of the neighbor’s castle, loosely imagined off the ancient cartoon Gargoyles. It was always interesting how no matter whose dream he was in, he already knew everything about how their world worked, or at least everything they wanted him to know about their world. Taking a sip of coffee he glances down to see whose dream he was in. It seemed to be Ted Fallows, which made sense as he was a cartoon and comic buff. This was part of the reason Jones chose Ted for the initial beta testing, their shared love of retro arts. Though slightly different, comics and cartoons shared the same vision that he found in old video games. Finishing his coffee he slides again into another dream.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
The world he was in now was a rolling plain of grasslands, a pleasant but not unbearably cutesy land. All sorts of creatures grazed in the fields, things like boars and sheep. He glances down at his Gauntlet, the vital signs of the beta testers appear on a small display, they all seemed stable, though Leahanin was wavering on the edge of coming out of her theta wave sleep, shouldn’t be too much of a problem though. A light appeared next to Sarah Hallister showing whose dream he was now in. A large exclamation point appeared in the sky above a cart down the road. Walking towards it he saw a small gathering of Gypsies around a fire.
“Sastipe!” The woman stirring a pot of stew shouted to Jones. “I need some more meat for my stew, care to earn some coppers and a bowl of the finest Tullen spiced stew that you will find outside the city?”
“Uh, sure?” Jones replied lamely
“Just over yonder you can find some boars, and sheep, watch out for wolves though, they hunt in packs.”
He was about to question how he would be hunting them when it suddenly came to his mind that there was a spear on his back. He worked his way back to the fields, the sounds of howling in the distance. As he crested the hill, he saw Sarah fighting a pack of wolves. He watched for a little bit as she expertly dispatched one after the other with nothing but an arrow, her bow in tatters on the ground. He ghosted in closer as she took out another one. He was about forty paces out when he saw that one of the ones she had already taken out wasn’t actually dead. She didn’t see it coming! Jones quickly loosed his spear, the wolf let out an exasperated yelp as the spear finished the job.
“Thanks!” She said as Jones pulled his spear out of the wolf. “This place is awesome Jones, like the best experience I have ever had! I am not kidding either, you really pulled off something special.”
Before he can answer, his Gauntlet beeped at him.
“What’s that?” She inquired.
“Not sure, and thanks, but you beta testers are the real key to the Weaver’s success.”
Sitting on a nearby rock he saw something strange as he fingered through his gauntlet, someone’s vitals were acting up. An increase in adrenaline, and…
The world turned red. He turned to see Sarah melting? Layer by layer he saw her disappear. An immense wave of fear ran down his spine, as one after another the vitals of the beta testers flashed critical. Suddenly they were all together, standing on a large dark cloud, they were all stuck, they couldn’t move, they couldn’t talk, the more the nightmare entered their minds, the stronger the terror felt as it reinforced itself in a vicious cycle until every dream in the cloud was the same nightmare. The last thing he saw before forcing his way to his Gauntlet, was Leahanin, his friend from college she always had an interest in horror, but she never seemed unstable. Jones fingered the eject button.
The sounds of hissing filled the air, as the bright lights of the lab stabbed his eyes. Jones was drenched in sweat, sitting up off of the bed inside his chamber, he saw the others in different stages of waking up. He instantly shoved past the flurry of medical staff in green scrubs trying to ask him questions. Moving towards Leahanin, the first to experience the nightmare, he pushed past Ted who was on the ground screaming. Sarah was still in her pod convulsing as the medical team called for a crash cart. Finally reaching Leahanin he saw that the medical staff had seemingly ignored her.
“Leah, are you alright!?”
She was stock still, too still, almost like she was frozen.
“Leah!?” He yells as he shakes her in vain trying to wake her up. But as he begins to let go of her shoulders she fades to an ashy red dust, whispering through his hands. That’s when he felt it, another chill, this one a different feeling altogether, the realization that he was still dreaming, and he didn’t have his gauntlet.