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[abrightboy]

 This is Bright. Leave a message.

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[cactusy]

Lucid dreams? Night terrors?

[abrightboy]

Pavor nocturnus. Night terrors. I also have waking psychoses sometimes, which sort of blur the line a bit, too.

[cactusy]

[She pauses, fiddling with her spoon.]

That sucks. You got any methods that work for dealing with them?

[abrightboy]

Um. Sometimes, when I'm pretty sure something isn't real, I can close my eyes and tell myself that and it'll be gone when I open them. Sometimes I recognize things that I know are my common dream indicators. Basically, you get used to it and you can sort of tell most of the time. And when you can't... you just sort of have to go with it until you figure it out.

[cactusy]

There anything that other people can do to snap you out of it if they see you having a tough time?

[abrightboy]

Interacting with other people doesn’t tend to stop the psychosis. I do try to ignore it, though. If people see you arguing with empty space, it sort of freaks them out.

[cactusy]

It doesn't stop even if they know about it and are trying to get you out of it?

[abrightboy]

I don’t know. That’s never happened before.

[cactusy]

Seriously? Don't your coworkers give a crap?

[abrightboy]

I hide it from them. That part anyway. They don’t know.

[cactusy]

[Guess what possibility hadn't occurred to her in the least.]

Seriously?

[She asks, putting her soup down and looking back up at him.]

You tell everybody everything here.

[abrightboy]

I tell most people here 90%, same as them. I just don’t count you as ‘most people’.

[cactusy]

[Yeah, that look of mild bafflement definitely isn't letting up.]

Why would you confide in me more than most people.

[abrightboy]

You confided your problem to me.

[cactusy]

So is this like a quid pro quo thing, or like... extending trust because you think I extended trust.

[abrightboy]

The second one. With the added dimension that I thought knowing might help you with your own problems.

[cactusy]

[Ah. She sighs, hesitating for a second.]

Yeah, probably not. My issues are pretty different from night terrors.

I also didn't tell you about the simulation stuff because I trusted you. No offense.

[abrightboy]

You don’t tell everyone about it.

[cactusy]

Yeah, but I picked the people I told for practical purposes.

[She pauses again, shrugging uncomfortably.]

I like being straight with people. Just trying to be straight with you here.

[abrightboy]

I understand.

But you wouldn’t have told any of us if you thought you couldn’t trust us.

[cactusy]

Not actively distrusting doesn't mean actively trusting. I wasn't... confiding in you, or whatever. So you don't owe me anything.

[abrightboy]

It wasn’t a quid pro quo, remember?

[cactusy]

[She sighs, rolling her eyes a little, though it's a mild enough gesture rather than anything that looks like true annoyance.]

I like being straight with people, remember?