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River Tam has a dream
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She tries making red dots on the floor.

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There are red dots on the floor. "Good job."

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She tries to make a table. 

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That's harder but with effort it's doable.

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And food on top of the table? Simple things to start with, or - simple in her head -

She wants an apple.

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It takes a little work, remembering what an apple tastes like will also help. Eventually though, an apple appears.

Addy waits patiently, wondering what River is going to do next.

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She eats the apple, of course.

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It tastes like an apple should. Depending on how carefully she imagined it other details might be off.

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She makes a pile of foods they wouldn't let her have because they might conflict with the latest regimen - all very carefully imagined - and laughs.

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Addy smiles and copies some of the food to try it herself. If River is paying attention to her mind she'll feel Addy doing the same vacuum trick as with the book except connecting to the piece of food River created instead of to a tether.

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She kind of can't not pay attention to minds.

She tries using the vacuum trick to duplicate a candy bar.

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That works, Addy is happily munching away.

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Nom nom nom.

"So how do I make a building from here?" she asks between bites.

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"To copy a place from your world you need to provide a locus by imagining at least part of that place in some detail and then building a rough framework of what the rest of the place will be the pull the rest of the detail through your tether."

Putting actions to her words. Addy imagines her childhood home, the focus of her imagining, the locus is on her old room, with details like the feeling of the blankets, the bounciness of her mattress, the kind of wood her desk was made of, the feeling of the carpet under bare feet. Further out she's more abstract she makes it clear that she wants all the rooms of the house and the yard out to a hundred meters. Then she attaches it to her tether and lets it fill out the rest of the details. For something so large it will take a couple minutes to fill.

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She observes this, closely.

"Is it safe to use my tether for that, or might I wake up?"

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"It's safe to connect your tether to things, the two things you need to avoid are following your tether back to your waking self or pulling directly on your tether with enough sustained force to bring your body into the dreamscape. It would be really difficult to do the second though, it takes sustained effort, it's rather painful and I'm watching to make sure you don't." 

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"Alright."

She starts trying to make her favorite public library. It's one of the few with an actual extensive collection of physical books, not just computers and such. She starts with the little nook she loves best, the smell of paper and the smooth feel of a paperback, the cushion underneath her and the wall behind her and the warmth from the light shining through the window - the whir of the climate control, the freshness of the air - spiraling out to the facade, slowly, more dreamlike.

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When she connects her tether it will start to slowly fill. If she focuses she can tell that it's going to take around eight minutes to complete. She can also dip her mind into the stream of details but it's a chaotic flow of sights, sounds, tastes and smells, including the tastes of some things not meant for human consumption.

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She backs out of the sense stream after tasting carpet.

Eight minutes is fine - she can keep munching on her stack of treats.

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Addy continues nibbling away as well. Her childhood home finishes filling first. It manifests as a portal in hovering near Addy.

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"Can I explore your place while I'm still filling in the library?"

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"It might be a little harder to keep your focus while you're exploring but I think you'll be fine, and I can make sure you don't lose your connection."

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"Okay!"

And off to explore it is.

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The portal brings them to Addy's old bedroom. The walls are painted a rich forest green, there's a large closet along one wall. Her bed is up against the opposite wall and it has a pile of pillows, blankets and stuffed animals on it. The windows along the left wall look out onto the backyard, there's a treehouse clearly visible. The desk and a dresser, both made out of wood and painted white are along the same wall as the door.

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She spins around.

It looks - normal.

So... So very normal.

She starts laughing, helplessly.

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