Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by malloyd

It's a cool idea, but has a serious problem for high tech settings like Infinity: interaction with other timezones.

Note that you can get most of the concept with much less in the way of logic tangles like that by not messing with the universal clock and just giving mages an extra hour that *isn't* on the clock between 12:00:00 and 12:00:01 - effectively instead of everyone else freezing for an hour, mages superaccelerate for an instant.

Edit: The everybody freezes but all other processes continue to run implicit in the sky seems to jump (as opposed to the hour just vanishes concept) can work, but doesn't seem as mysterious. Everybody will know it happens and be well aware of need to stop automatic processes, be careful not be moving when it kicks in, ensure any fires are safe to leave untended for an hour.... It's like everybody has to sleep, only more compulsory.

Canon has lots of odd "impossible" interactions between realities, that I don't think dimensional hoppers would automatically know what's really going on. But I get the point.
Sudden speed ups would involve fewer hidden pitfalls, I agree. It also allows a hint of paranoia for hoppers in nearby seemingly normal realities.
Did I really leave my notes there? Why do I fee like I'm being watched? I'm a mage, but what if this reality has a different effected group?

Compulsory sleep would lead to so many expression cliches for mages. The sleeper has AWAKENED! Don't go through life with your eyes closed, etc.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Canon has lots of odd "impossible" interactions between realities, that I don't think dimensional hoppers would automatically know what's really going on. But I get the point.

It's not really the dimension hoppers that are the problem, it's the guy in a city on the other side of the world who is having a lunchtime videoconference with you when your local midnight arrives.

[Jasonft]

Originally Posted by RageWalrus

Hardrade-6 and Strieber-5: Hardrade-6 is a Q4 TL5 world where Harald Hardrade rather than William the Conqueror claimed the throne of England. The current year is 1801, and Hardrade’s Anglo-Norway is engaged in a global conflict with the Second Yuan Dynasty over Africa and the Americas. Strieber-5 is a Q7 TL3 world where a global Ice Age has been happening since around 1300. Civilization has collapsed and with every lengthening winter more people starve. These two worlds should be utterly unrelated, but when they people of Hardrade-6 sleep they dream of a specific other person on Strieber-5, and vice versa. Since the population is larger on Hardrade-6, multiple people dream about the same person from Strieber-5.

This could be very interesting for a talented writer to work with. Can dreamers learn any useful skills if, for example, their dream target is a medical student? Are there any temperate zones near the Equator on the Ice Age world where cities could be rebuilt?

Normally dreams don't let you read things, even notes to your dream buddy written on the wall. Are these dreams different?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by malloyd

It's not really the dimension hoppers that are the problem, it's the guy in a city on the other side of the world who is having a lunchtime videoconference with you when your local midnight arrives.

Oh thooooose time zones. Wow, that's rather embarrassingly obvious now that you say it.
I don't supposed I can blame that brain fart idiocy on an alternate me, could I?

Though a wave of inaction sweeping over the globe would make for weird wars. Quick, midnight just hit them, throw all our missiles so everything hits when they re-phase. For a time stop that effects all objects as well, of course.
Though re-phasing to all the world ablaze has its own horror.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Jasonft

...
Normally dreams don't let you read things, even notes to your dream buddy written on the wall. Are these dreams different?

That's a very weird myth I've heard too. I have no clue where it comes from. I think it's also cliche to not be able to perform simple arithmetic.
Why would this reality automatically follow our dream myths?
Going with that though, one must wonder about the dying in dream meaning dying in reality myth.
"In today's news, everyone dreaming of Californian John B. Smith died last night as Smith wasn't paying attention to traffic."

[RageWalrus]

Originally Posted by Jasonft

This could be very interesting for a talented writer to work with. Can dreamers learn any useful skills if, for example, their dream target is a medical student? Are there any temperate zones near the Equator on the Ice Age world where cities could be rebuilt?

Normally dreams don't let you read things, even notes to your dream buddy written on the wall. Are these dreams different?

Dreaming is more lucid on both parallels. People have clearer memories of their dreams, and while dreaming they can read, do arithmetic, etc. This does allow the learning of primarily mental skills, and in fact most people on both lines speak at least two languages: their native tongue, and the language of their regular dream target. The different TLs and cultural situations of the two worlds do to some extent hinder further skill acquisition.

Strieber-5 still has major cities as far north as the Mediterranean. These are all depopulated due to decreased crop yields, and have suffered through hundreds of years of incursions by migrating northerners. As a result, all have slid from the world's cultural and technological high.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That's a very weird myth I've heard too. I have no clue where it comes from. I think it's also cliche to not be able to perform simple arithmetic.
Why would this reality automatically follow our dream myths?
Going with that though, one must wonder about the dying in dream meaning dying in reality myth.
"In today's news, everyone dreaming of Californian John B. Smith died last night as Smith wasn't paying attention to traffic."

If your dream target dies while you are actively dreaming them, you usually die. About 25% survive this, but virtually all of these go mad as a result. If your dream target dies while you are awake, you start dreaming of someone new.

This, coupled with the above mentioned language and skill acquisition means that some scholars on Hardrade-6 have begun to seriously study the nature of dreams and the dream world. Historically on Hardrade-6 (and currently on Strieber-5) dreaming phenomena were ascribed to magical or divine agents. Though not yet advanced enough to crack the enigma, the people of Hardrade-6 are under careful watch by Infinity in case they ever approach discovery of The Secret.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That's a very weird myth I've heard too. I have no clue where it comes from. "

It's semi-true. Dreams have conservation of detail...sort of like a cartoon. Usually if you see a lawn in a cartoon, you don't see individual blades of grass. It's too much work to draw it. Similarly if you pick up a book in a dream and try to read, you'll generally find yourself unable to read or you'll find yourself switching dreams, because that's less work than writing a book in your dreams or even visualizing the precise shapes of words. But it isn't a law of nature. There are exceptions.

[Flyndaran]

Um no. I can read and do basic math sometimes in dreams. This must be like that myth about not being able to tickle yourself. Sure, most people are like that, but not all. It isn't some facet of human biology.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Um no. I can read and do basic math sometimes in dreams. .

"sometimes". Yes. I can recall one occasion where I could read in my sleep as well. And sometimes cartoonists do in fact draw individual blades of grass. But the idea is based on a reality, that many people can never read in dreams, and others can read only rare. As I said, it's only semi-true and not a natural law. Exceptions exist. But it is a typical experience to not be able to read in a dream.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

"sometimes". Yes. I can recall one occasion where I could read in my sleep as well. And sometimes cartoonists do in fact draw individual blades of grass. But the idea is based on a reality, that many people can never read in dreams, and others can read only rare. As I said, it's only semi-true and not a natural law. Exceptions exist. But it is a typical experience to not be able to read in a dream.

Since nothing is universal to everyone when dreaming, I think you've lost your point. I've had dreams with absolutely zero visual aspect. Not blackness, but simple lack of vision which is not the same thing. They're dreams. They don't play by anybody's rules.