| The dream is more vivid tonight than it ever has been before. |
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| — |
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| She wants to wake up, but she cannot. Kacey is sobbing though her pain and begging for it to end; one way or another. Her weak and desperate voice calls out for Hope through the sobs. If there were only some way to help her. Then she sees Faith wandering through the misty setting of her dream-place. Is she searching for Kacey too? Hope tries to call out, but nothing happens. |
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| There is somebody else here too. He is tall, handsome, and dark-skinned. He is following Faith, but she doesn’t realize it. Hope’s heart begins to race. Faith finds something in the mist and she stops to investigate, allowing the man to get closer to her daughter. She tries to yell a warning, but again, nothing comes out. All Hope can see is his dark skin and hair. Is this Faith’s …father? The man startles Faith and she stands, deciding whether to run or fight. He says something inaudible to Faith, then reaches his hand out and tells Faith to come with him. She hesitates at first, then takes his hand and disappears into the mist; leaving only Kacey’s pitiful plea for help in Hope’s panicked mind. |
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| Hope wakes up breathing in gulps, her pillow soaked with sweat. Something is very wrong. She leaps out of her bed, not bothering to dress. Doc is still here and is stirring as a result of her sudden movements. She needs to find Faith; to make sure she is safe. |
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| — |
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| She is a naked blur down the flights of stairs to Faith’s room on the bottom floor. She stands in the doorway to Faith’s bedroom, crying, as she watches her beautiful daughter sleep peacefully and undisturbed in her bed. |
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| After returning to her suite, she crawls back under the covers and curls up next to Doc, still trembling from her frightening dream. He is confused by the fact that he somehow understands the unspoken cue prompting him to hold her; and he does so without hesitation. She manages to calm herself, then asks Doc a perplexing question. Since he is a real sim, and not just her imagination, how is she supposed to know which dreams to believe are true, and which ones are just dreams? |
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| Still somewhat unable to process what is happening, he admits his frustration at not being able to give her an answer. There is a short silence where he simply allows himself to feel her breathing while wrapped safely in his arms. He has nearly drifted off to sleep again when she asks how this happened. How did they dream about each other, and know so much about each other before actually meeting? What made her invite him into her bed after knowing him for less than an hour? |
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| Doc has never been very good at explaining things in a way that other people understand, but he manages to answer Hope’s question with clarity. He explains that they actually had seen the future; their future selves together, reflecting back through some kind of rift in time. He hasn’t discovered the mechanism, nor can he explain why it is so vivid for some sims and completely absent for others. |
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| He had built a machine to measure and pinpoint the source of the anomaly. And now that he has been banned from Jared’s property, he will not be able to continue the work. All he can hope to do is rebuild the machine while there is still a chance to stop something really bad from happening. |
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| Hope shivers again and describes her dream about Kacey’s cries of pain. And Faith going away with a dark-skinned man; who in the dream, she thought might be Faith’s biological father. When he asks who Kacy is, she tells him about the night Kacey found her on a park bench after Michael’s brutal attack. She continues, describing the curious mystery surrounding her grandfather’s belief that Kacey had stopped aging at nineteen years-old. And that she had somehow miraculously healed from mortal wounds after some kind of explosion at an abandoned mine. |
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| Doc is one very smart cookie, and he puts the details together perhaps faster than anybody else could have. He gently untangles himself from Hope and sits up in bed, now wide awake with a sudden understanding. He tells Hope that they need to find Kacey, because she is the answer he has been looking for. She is the key to disrupting the temporal loop, stopping the echo effect, and putting the timestream back on track. |
| Doc looks back down at Hope. He doesn’t want to frighten her, but it is terribly important that she remembers every detail of her dream. Because it is not just a dream. |
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| It is the future. |
| — |
| Author’s Note: Okay, so I figure that I owe some explanation for all the “skin” shots. I had a very specific tone I wanted to set for this post. First, I wanted to make the readers squirm a bit with awkwardness. Doc and Hope actually feel the same way; very, very, awkward. Though at the same time there is this bizarre comfort level they share derived from years of dreaming about each other. I apologize if this upset anybody, but I feel the tone I was looking to set came across nicely without being “raunchy”. |
Stories by Zoxell 
I thought you did a fine job setting the “tone” of the chapter. I wasn’t offended or bothered except in the way you were trying to achieve. I am sort of reminded of a husband and wife preparing for bed. The act of disrobing is so normal that it isn’t sexual anymore…until it is. If that makes any sense.
But anyway, I am enjoying where this is going. I like how the mystery is unfolding.
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Yeah, I was debating whether or not to do it, but when I first thought up this post (driving home from work), this is pretty much how it went. I took screenshots with them wearing PJs, but it just seemed too “normal”. I figured this way, we all knew that this was an awkward, uncomfortable, and admittedly unusual situation.
But anyhow, thanks for the feedback! I do appreciate it!
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I think you achieved the tone you were looking for perfectly, pajamas definitely wouldn’t have worked as well with the scenario. It was sweet that they were so comfortable with each other, while not quite understanding why. Curious to see if we find out more about Kacey soon; Doc came around in just the nick of time!
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I agree with Tipix you set the tone well and as usual its an interesting read 🙂 lookin forward already to the next chapter 🙂
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new chapter up on my legacy for your enjoyment Zoxell 🙂
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I had to take a moment and pause because I was momentarily confused. I literally thought while I was reading: “Is she…naked?” But now that I’ve read it all, I’m a bit less fuzzy on why you did it. Great job, as usual! 🙂
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