A LETTER TO THE DREAM WORLD

By: Lucid

EDITOR'S NOTE: This letter was sent to the Subliminal Tribune through the mail. The author has given us permission to publish it in its entirety because of high public interest.

Greetings to the staff of the Subliminal Tribune and to the residents of the dream world. If you do not remember me, my name is Lucid.

It has been long since I have addressed myself to the public. The last time I spoke to the public was in the year 1930. At the time, there was a highly sensationalized trial against me in the Council’s court. I was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment via ensealment. Not soon after, I found myself back in the dream world by 1936. I am not sure why I returned, nor who brought me back, but I assume it was for a purpose of which I do not know what it is.

For the past 90 years or so, I have been hiding. Perhaps one can call me a coward, but I did not wish to be caught and subjected to ensealment again. If I was brought back, it was for a purpose. I am still trying to figure it out myself, but have been too busy avoiding the authorities to focus on this. It has been quite troublesome to be hiding for so long, but very recently I received word of an extraordinary move by the Dimension Protection Force.

I came to discover that all of my ongoing criminal charges were dropped entirely. In doing so, I am no longer subject to arrest by DPF authorities. I was not expecting such a decision from the chief detective of the Detective Investigation Agency, and yet, here we are. Chief Tsukanai’s decision comes from an incident last November in which he explained how I was responsible for shutting down a highly powerful and dangerous unauthorized portal invented by Francis Robert P. Jackson. I know it may be easy to take his word for it, and I am going to agree. I did indeed successfully shut down this unauthorized portal before it exploded. 

Let me be clear though: doing this was in no way trying to redeem myself on purpose. I did this with the dream world and those I cared about in front of my mind. I have always cared a lot about the dream world, and even after my trial, I still do. I too have been a witness to the anomalies that have affected our world. I believe I did what was right without putting my own priorities first. The dream world is a precious, but delicate place. We know far too well how easily it can become disrupted.

In regards to chief Tsukanai’s decision, I am humble that he took this action. I realize that I am in no way a “perfect” or “ideal” person. I knowingly broke the law back then. I maintain what I said in my last public speech in 1930: I apologize for any distress I may have inadvertently imposed on anyone, as well as apologize for my actions. I am aware I am not perfect, but none of us are. Should we all be perfect people, we would live in a perfect world- but alas, we are not, so we do not. I cannot change the perceptions that people may have towards me, but I ask that you do not disapprove of anyone involved in this decision nor send any ill-wishes to them. I am honored to have received this rare privilege, though I wish this same privilege be extended to all who have not committed any sort of ill malice against another person or people. 

As for the Council of the dream world, my feelings remain the same. I will not ask for a pardon and will leave it up to their own discretion. I am content with what I have now, but should they issue a pardon towards me, I will be honored. If not, the world will continue to move forward. I would like to give my greatest gratitudes to those who made this decision possible, as well as those who never stopped believing in me, and to those who are willing to forgive me.

I will remain in private for a bit longer. I authorize the Subliminal Tribune to publish this letter in its entirety as I believe it is in the public’s interest to read it. I hope to make a public appearance soon once again when I feel comfortable enough to do so. Until then, thank you, be safe.

VALENTINE’S DAY APPROACHING QUICKLY

By: Roman

Love is in the air it seems…

The dream world is currently preparing for the observation of Valentine’s Day. With the holiday quickly approaching, residents are getting ready to send and receive Valentine’s related gifts, cards, and other goodies.

“I’m getting ready to buy some flowers for my lady love,” Formentus, a resident in the Europe ward told me, “She loves sunflowers, so I think she will like it very much.”

“I typically buy stuffed plushies and candy for my friends,” Erica, a resident in the America ward said, “I always buy my friends stuffed plushies of things they like. Whether it be an animal, fictional character, or just something cute, it must come with candy too.”

“I just send the usual Valentine’s cards to people,” Brandon, a resident in the Apartments told me, “Nothing too grand or too simple I think. I always loved sending cards.”

The postal service says that they are well-equipped to handle incoming and outgoing Valentine’s related materials. DPDS chief Kaige says that the agency sees higher activity during early February ahead of Valentine’s Day.

“A lot of people like using the postal service to send and receive gifts across the dream world,” the postal chief said, “Whether it’s Christmas, birthdays, and Valentine’s Day, the DPDS sees a lot of gifts go through its service each year. Nonetheless, we are always prepared to handle higher than normal volumes of material.”

The dream world is also expected to look different in the coming weeks. Many dimensions and areas of the dream world will look a bit sweeter and more pink too.

“We’re getting ready to make the Cafe look much sweeter for Valentine’s Day,” Artisan, a barista at the Cafe told me, “We’re going to be serving tea and crumpets for Valentine’s Day. All of it is baked here of course.”

“We’re bringing back our sweet candy pizzas for Valentine’s Day,” Parlor chief Brie said, “These pizzas only come back during certain periods and Valentine’s Day is one of them. Looking forward to serving these once more!”

Valentine’s Day is coming soon. It will fall next week on Friday, February 14.

Q/A: Ask Nate

Dear Nate, can the dream world be mapped out?

By: Dee Rekshun

Hello Dee! As with any place, you'd expect there to be a map just in case you get lost. The dream world should be no exception, but… it's not that easy!

The dream world is a very big place, but much of it is empty of anything notable. There are few landmarks to base a map off of it, so it's always been a quite difficult task to even map the dream world in the first place! Even if maps exist for small areas, it's still only a fraction of the dream world as a whole!

Many cartographers have tried to map out the dream world piece by piece, bit by bit, but no one's come close to actually having a physical map available! It's one thing to say where point A is in relation to point B, such as point A is northwest of point B, but even then, that's still a wide open space of nothingness around those points that make it hard to map.

Another thing to keep in mind is that dimensions also have a chance to become lost. As our own memories are tied to dimensions, if the dimension becomes lost, the maps become useless to tell us where it is. That's because the dimension fades from our own memory and location to somewhere far and away from any notable location. The dream world is also changing, so maps would have to be constantly changing too!

So, is there anywhere a map WOULD be useful? Well, yes! The District is really the only place that can be mapped with ease. Since it's an artificially created dimension, anything in it can be mapped. Granted, it would be a BIG map! I'd recommend getting maps of the District that focus on wards as you can easily zoom in and find certain enclaves with streets names, businesses, and other landmarks.

It's quite hard to map out the dream world as it's such a large place! Cartographers have always had a tough time to map it out. However, your best way to find a map would be to go to the District! There are maps of all the wards in the District for you to access and view. I can't imagine the life of a cartographer trying to map the rural dream world…how rough!

Dear Nate, is there any rule for visiting other worlds besides the real world?

By: Travis Lure

Hiya Travis! As you may already know, the biggest rule of the dream world is that visiting the real world is highly prohibited. It can result in a lifetime in prison if you are caught! Only a miniscule number of people have access to the real world- usually for high-risk jobs that involve getting information and other material from the real world- but that number is very, very miniscule. However, as for visiting other worlds that may be out there, there’s no real rule for that!

You see, the real world is deemed as dangerous for us in the dream world to go venture to. Once someone gets to the real world, all communication to the dream world is lost and you’re on your own! The only other world we know of is the Void and surprisingly, there’s no rule against visiting the Void. The Void is just that: a completely empty plane of existence underneath the dream world where there is nothing. No signs of life…no electricity…no water…no food…nothing! With this in mind, no rule exists to visit the Void because not only is there just nothing there, but it’s also much harder to get to than the real world.

As of right now, we are not aware of any other worlds that exist aside from the real world, the dream world, and the Void. Technically, you can argue that the worlds exist in certain books- as we saw twice before- but even then, they’re not seen as “true” worlds. Plus, it’s not like it’s easy to get to fictional worlds like these in the first place. So while you may find yourself inside the world of a fictional story, you’re not really breaking any rules.

Truthfully, I think there are other worlds out there that we have yet to discover! The whole theory that a dream world of the dream world exists, but no one has been able to prove it yet. What about alternate universes? I think those exist too, but we haven’t discovered one yet nor is anyone really interested in finding out as it’s hard and also quite expensive. Do you think there are other worlds out there? What if there was a world where everything was the same, but there was low gravity? Now that’d make for some pretty big jumps!