mindset

reality

oliver's dreamspace is a cozy house. shae had pictured it differently. she hadn't pictured a warm fireplace or soft rugs or heavy quilts or a kitchen that was somehow always stocked with freshly baked cookies.

they're all curled up in his dreamspace this time, and it's the only dreamspace with a television in it- jeremiah's got his forest, caleb his lake, bryce his tree house- and they want to see if it will actually work. according to oliver, once his dreamspace had had a blizzard and it just wouldn't stop until he was content again. (which had taken a while.)

"how would a signal even get here, to this place?" kai is moody and it shows. "none of this is even real, there's nothing here that's real-"

"hey!" oliver is upset, dropping the remote in shae's lap, and he's up faster than any of them have ever seen him move. jeremiah is standing and eloise can tell he's about to intervene and so she holds him back, because it's really not his place.

oliver grabs kai's shoulders and shakes him, forcing him to look at him. "this is real!" he points at mia, gesturing between her and kai. "this is real!" his voice is loud and pained and then kai is walking out of oliver's dreamspace and mia is quick to go after him.

"we're going to die here, aren't we?" it's caleb, of course it's caleb.

eloise looks at him and she hears bryce reassuring him that no, no one's going to die, but she made a promise weeks ago to not lie to the boy.