Joe mutters "I can never spell subtlety without a spellchecker...", and more normal volume says "Tend towards either not remembering, or pointless dreams of the pre-emptive dejavu variety."  Dreaming you just got out of bed, and then waking up to... have to get out of bed.

  ENTIRELY POINTLESS.

Liberty looks to see the older boy. "Oh neat... what's that?" she points at the speak-and-spell. An ancient, if not incredibly cool toy of epic awesome. She has opted to take the welcome distraction from admitting her dream.

"It's a Speak-and-Spell," Jake answers with a smile, "An electronic toy that challenges you to spell correctly.  I've modified it extensively to have a much larger vocabulary, but it's made the thing a bit... glitchy."

"Bee-Boop!  Next, spell: grandiloquent."

"Oh hush."

Jake shrugs and smiles again at Liberty.

"What was your dream?"

  Let's see *looks up word*... Oh, Robbies got a sense of humor allright...  "I'm not sure why, but for some reason I keep seeing Speak And Spell's referenced as embodiments of Evil."

  Maybe it's the monotone voice that throws some people off?  But then Joe never understood that.  Then again, he also never understood why people are freaked out by little girls that act vaguely spooky.

Liberty isn't spooked by it. "What? Why? Oh... you just said you aren't sure." she glances at Jake. "I had a dream I woke up in some pod made of glass. I was naked and had tubes connected all over my body and when I tried to look around, it was blurry. It felt for a moment like my real life was a dream. But I peaked out of the pod, I saw thousands of pods... too many to count anyway. All with people in them. I was so scared, I got back in the pod and hoped I wouldn't be seen. Then I woke up. Crazy, eh?"

"Evil," Robbie says, "S. P. E. A. K. A. N. D. S. P. E. L. L...  Wrong.  Try again."

Jake snickers then looks over at Liberty.

"Truth is stranger than fiction, they say.  But that sounds like a great opening for a Sci-fi movie.  Wait... I think I saw something like that.  From the 50's.  Where people were living in a shared dream.  Then one guy figured it out, but when he tried to warn the others no one believed him.  Would you believe him after that dream you had?  What if the real world sucked way more than the dream.  Would you even want to wake up?"

  "I'd figure I shouldn't have let you borrow that H.R. Giger artbook?"  He considers Jake <brlue>"Well, there was also Megazone 23 where it turned out the city was an on an enclosed spacecraft.  Nobody dreaming at all but the whole place was faked, of course people tended to pay more attention to the transforming motorcycle armor."</blue>

  Many people gave their lives in the war against THE FREAKING MOON.

  "Reality can be a hassle, though normally in those stories something turns up that makes it so they can't ignore it even if they wanted to."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:52, Tue 03 May 2011.

Liberty responds to Joe's Megazone comment, "Like Dark City?" then looks back at Jake. "I don't know... it was so scary, I... just felt too small. I mean, what can a little girl like me do in a world like that? Anyone who would help you is asleep and stuff. I guess I'd wanna know, but..." she headshakes. "Why do you ask? I mean it seems an obvious answer considering what I described. Doesn't it?"

"Error," Robbie says, "Gieger not in dictionary."

"No idea what he's talking about either."

Jake looks at Liberty.

"I ask 'cause if you ever did wake up in such a reality, I'd want you to do me the courtesy of asking me first if I wanted to wake up before waking me up.  Who knows?  I might tell you something like, 'Normally, I'd say yes, but I've already woke up, found the other survivors, and plugged myself back in to find other dreamers who want to wake up.'"

  "Giger is the crazy artist they hired to do the art style for the 'Alien' movies." now STAY blue yah crazy words.  "So, aside from the fact Liberty brought up such a dream, particular reasons you have such an interest in this topic with such oddly specific answers?"

Liberty looks confused by what Jake said. So when Joe speaks up, she says, "Yeah. Why ARE you so interested...?"

"They got ya now, Jake," Robbie says.

Jake puts on a sly, mischievous grin and rubs behind his head.  "Oh maybe 'cause it's not just a dream.  Maybe it's something more.  Something dangerous.  Maybe there's freedom fighters willing to let you in on the secret, but only if you want to know the truth.  Even if the truth is depressing and crazy sounding."

He pauses a moment for effect.

"Or maybe I'm just messing with ya."

"Choose the red pill of truth," Robbie says, "Much more fun."

  Crazypants talking ominous talking Speak And Spell.  Yes, nobody would ever equate those toys with possessed tools of evil.  "Such as, Liberty's dream word for word depressing and crazy sounding for example.  Though taking pills from rambling strangers isn't exactly high on the list of 'things to do'.  For the next trick, will you be suggesting we go with the nice man in the van offering candy?"

Liberty says, "Messing with us or not, your toy seems to be interacting a bit more than it was just a minute ago..."

Jake blushes.

"Robbie is programmed to play games," the toy explains.

"Yeah.  I named my Speak And Spell Robbie.  As for the whole strange people thing, well, yeah.  Um... yeah.  You see there's this organization of really bad guys that would take me from my family if they knew I knew about them.  They usually pose as FBI agents.  I've hooked up with a few folks who use code to communicate.  For example, to take the 'red pill' means you've decided to take the risk to know the truth about the badguys."

  Joe comments "While knowing the truth could be handy, how do they not notice you if you don't even leave home and have a less than subtle gadget providing commentary along?  Or do they dress like the FBI without half the competence?"

Liberty says, "The worst part of the dream was realizing I couldn't do anything. I couldn't make a difference. If reality is so bad you can't do anything about it... what's the point of knowing? I'd die of depression."

"Robbie protects Jake," Robbie answers.

"The agents rely heavily on their high tech gadgets.  Robbie makes anything unusual about us that the gadgets might pick up seem ordinary.  As far as making a difference, there's folks who do make a difference.  A small difference individually, but combined a big difference.  That's why I joined 'em."

  Should Joe die by having an agent punch a hole through him, he would wish he lived so he could explain 'super strength is not a gadget' to Jake in as sarcastic a manner as possible.  "Hmm, making a difference with zero risk from home.  Yeah, I think I like those odds.  Unless they're hiring people roughly a decade younger than me because they ran out of older applicants."

Liberty says, "Well if I could make a difference, then duh. I'd rather be an ally to good than do nothing."

"It's not zero risk," Jake says, "Once they find out that you know...  It's very bad.  If you want in, just wait around for the good-guys to show up."

  Joe considers Jake "Little enough risk that you'd not seem particularly concerned about it, and offer such risks to an eight year old girl though.  Unless of course you're in constant nonstop lethal danger and you don't mind putting Liberty into that sort of situation."

Liberty is unsure herself, but she knows what she dreamed. "I don't really have much choice... if what I dreamed was true, it won't be long before I "wake up" again anyway. I want in."

Though Joe has a point. An 8-year-old girl is naive, pliable and able to believe the littlest thing.

"Remember Men in Black?" Jake answers, "They considered it dangerous for civilians to know that aliens exist.  So they'd mind wipe people who found out.  The good guys in this case at least have the courtesy of asking first, regardless of age.  If Liberty had chosen to not know, that's what's known as the 'greenblue pill.'"
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:19, Wed 04 May 2011.

  Green Pill?  Whatever happened to the Blue pill?  Oh crap, Jake is Colorblind!  That's a very bad thing when color coded pills are involved.  "Right, this is probably one of my stupider plans but how about I go first and that way if I die spectacularly or disintegrate before her eyes she'll know this is a Bad Plan."