The Other Floors
Dec. 6th, 2022 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cetra777Initial Dream:
In the dream there is a boarding school that is on the top floors of a building that also contains a multi-floor mall and underground parking complex. For the most part it is a plausible space for a modern city, especially in countries where vertical has become very normalized like Japan. However the building has a quirk. Sometimes when transitioning between floors, whether by elevator or stairs instead of arriving on the expected floor the traveler lands on one of the Other Floors. Other Floors are characterized by being mostly empty with night time or emergency lighting. Anyone walking around the Other Floors without a digital device broadcasting special programs generates graffiti on the walls around them. This graffiti is based on their thoughts, emotional state, etc. but is not a direct copy of them. The best course of action when entering an Other Floor is to turn around and retrace your steps exactly. Often this gets you out. This is enhanced by Aegis, a shield program designed to keep people out of the Other Rooms that looks like a wireless router and is installed in every elevator and on every stair landing. It is not a guarantee though. Some people go into the Other Floors on purpose, to disappear, or out of curiosity or dare. Most people though end up there on accident and successfully leave. Every so often someone disappears. Some people choose to live on the Other Floors. Mostly bullied or outcast former students. These people are generally considered dangerous or crazy. The final thing from the dream is that being on the Other Floors for more than a couple minutes seems to effect one's perception. To others folks who have come back from the Other Floors seem disoriented, drunk, or as though they have ingested narcotics. They appear to mutter, ramble, and be responding to internal stimuli. This passes for most people fairly soon after leaving the Other Floors. Generally people seem to ignore it or try to guide people into safe corners or chairs until they snap out of it. If someone is acting violent or disruptive though it can become an incident. This effect is one way. The person coming from the Other Floors sees a plausible world including usually what is going on in front of them. They respond in ways that appear rational. However the translation seems to result in what they are doing not equaling what others experience.
There is a boy who lives deep in the Other Floors. He has built programs that hide him from others and from the Other Rooms itself. He runs these programs on old phones, radios, even rumbas. Power sources are limited however. So it is not a totally reliable system. People don't know about him. He and others who live in the Other Floors know a secret. On the Other Floors you don't age or properly metabolize. Your body experiences thirst and hunger but it doesn't kill you. IF it has inputs it processes them normally and requires output. However not having inputs doesn't kill you. It just hurts if you don't attend to your needs. He has been down here so long that he has lost track of how old he really is.
Questions:
There are a lot of questions unanswered by this story seed.
1. Who or what made the Other Floors?
2. Why is it here?
3. Why is this building in use given this phenomenon?
4. Is this sort of thing common?
5. Why does anyone allow their child to go to school here.
6. Who is the boy that lives on the "Bottom Floor"?
7. Why can the Other Floors be manipulated by digital technology and radio transmissions?
8. Does anything live in the Other Floors naturally?
9. What does civilization look like down there.
In the dream there is a boarding school that is on the top floors of a building that also contains a multi-floor mall and underground parking complex. For the most part it is a plausible space for a modern city, especially in countries where vertical has become very normalized like Japan. However the building has a quirk. Sometimes when transitioning between floors, whether by elevator or stairs instead of arriving on the expected floor the traveler lands on one of the Other Floors. Other Floors are characterized by being mostly empty with night time or emergency lighting. Anyone walking around the Other Floors without a digital device broadcasting special programs generates graffiti on the walls around them. This graffiti is based on their thoughts, emotional state, etc. but is not a direct copy of them. The best course of action when entering an Other Floor is to turn around and retrace your steps exactly. Often this gets you out. This is enhanced by Aegis, a shield program designed to keep people out of the Other Rooms that looks like a wireless router and is installed in every elevator and on every stair landing. It is not a guarantee though. Some people go into the Other Floors on purpose, to disappear, or out of curiosity or dare. Most people though end up there on accident and successfully leave. Every so often someone disappears. Some people choose to live on the Other Floors. Mostly bullied or outcast former students. These people are generally considered dangerous or crazy. The final thing from the dream is that being on the Other Floors for more than a couple minutes seems to effect one's perception. To others folks who have come back from the Other Floors seem disoriented, drunk, or as though they have ingested narcotics. They appear to mutter, ramble, and be responding to internal stimuli. This passes for most people fairly soon after leaving the Other Floors. Generally people seem to ignore it or try to guide people into safe corners or chairs until they snap out of it. If someone is acting violent or disruptive though it can become an incident. This effect is one way. The person coming from the Other Floors sees a plausible world including usually what is going on in front of them. They respond in ways that appear rational. However the translation seems to result in what they are doing not equaling what others experience.
There is a boy who lives deep in the Other Floors. He has built programs that hide him from others and from the Other Rooms itself. He runs these programs on old phones, radios, even rumbas. Power sources are limited however. So it is not a totally reliable system. People don't know about him. He and others who live in the Other Floors know a secret. On the Other Floors you don't age or properly metabolize. Your body experiences thirst and hunger but it doesn't kill you. IF it has inputs it processes them normally and requires output. However not having inputs doesn't kill you. It just hurts if you don't attend to your needs. He has been down here so long that he has lost track of how old he really is.
Questions:
There are a lot of questions unanswered by this story seed.
1. Who or what made the Other Floors?
2. Why is it here?
3. Why is this building in use given this phenomenon?
4. Is this sort of thing common?
5. Why does anyone allow their child to go to school here.
6. Who is the boy that lives on the "Bottom Floor"?
7. Why can the Other Floors be manipulated by digital technology and radio transmissions?
8. Does anything live in the Other Floors naturally?
9. What does civilization look like down there.
