Dreams and honey

I’ve raised my Connoisseur to 10 in the hopes of discovering more about dreams. Not about nightmares - that’s easy, but they’re only in my head, or a warped reflection of something in my head. You can learn things sometimes, but I’m not looking to collect every secret and clue there is in the world, that’s not the point… Honey is different, because it’s an actual journey INTO dreams. And that’s what I loved about it, and wanted to know everything about it, and travel in it. But all I’ve gotten was high honey tolerance, so now dreaming is just expensive. And all there is to see is the same four dreams.

No spoilers, please, but is that all there is to honey and dream-travel in this game?

I can send you a super duper special honey dream with minimal in game effect, if you want. No, I am not flirting with you.

[quote=Von Prabik]And all there is to see is the same four dreams.

No spoilers, please, but is that all there is to honey and dream-travel in this game?[/quote]

According to my notes, I had 6 distinct dreams in the honey-dens of Veilgarden, dependent on Airs of London, so you might have missed two? One required Connoisseur of 4, where the others only required 2. (Colours, a River, Spotted Shadows, a Sunrise, a Tempest, a City)

There is also &quotA Dream of Other Places&quot with three more dreams to experience, although you will have to wait a week for each. Look for a living story to begin on Ladybones Road.

If you become an Exceptional Friend during the current month (June 2015), The Court of Cats storyline will allow you to visit a particular dream-place, although of course that costs actual money. (It should be available for purchase again in 3 months if you miss it, but now would be the better deal)

I assume you’re familiar with the six different major dreams which have their own qualities and appear slowly via opportunity cards. I’m not sure if it’s these or the places you go when the Nightmares become too much for you which you are not as interested in. In either case, I don’t believe the line between the two is as sharp as you. That said, I could well be wrong; I am, after all, not an Oneironaut.

I’ve heard a rumor that one of the Ambitions involves honey dreams of a special sort, but I don’t know details (or which) as I am in pursuit of a game of cards.

There’s definitely other stuff that relates as well, although I can’t tell if it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

Connoisseur also gives you access to a few other options later, particularly on the Presumptuous Little Opportunity card, so that’s something for your work.

Hope all that gives you some direction/assurance or at least whets your appetite for content to come.

It certainly does, and you are right - there are, of course, six basic dreams for 2 actions each - but there seems to be a difference between simple dreaming and honey dreaming. Which is, obviously, that simple dreams - on Opportunity cards or not, with choices to make or without - are inside of you, whereas with honey you are inside of THEM. It’s real travel to… somewhere, and your Fallen London friends won’t find you when they come with umbrellas and top hats to knock on the door. Sure, I know a simple way to “travel” to nightmare-land, just look inside a mirror, except all that journey will be on the bony walls of my cranium while burly men in white hold me by the arms. That is the difference I was talking about… I have to find that other place, the unreal-real.

In case there are zailors around here - tell me, does any of this zound like it might have zome connection to Parabola?

There is definitely a connection to Parabola. There are bits and pieces of this running throughout many storylines.

Are you certain those dreams are inside of you, and you haven’t been briefly whisked elsewhere while you slept? That if your Nightmares bring you to the Mirror-Marches, you are less there than if honey brought you? There are others more expert in these matters than I, but it seems substantially similar to me.

Given your drive, I expect one day when it is possible you will become an Oneironaut, and I hope when that day comes you will be able to explain things about dreams I don’t understand. I believe my future lies with a different profession, although research into dreams does quite fascinate me.

It’s the messiness of the division that bothers me. I’m certain there is a difference between dreams and nightmares - the same as between freedom and captivity, morning and midnight, revelation and self-consumption, Door Number One and Door Number Two, a distinct reality and the state they call &quothoney-mazed,&quot pointing to some sorry lad who goes mumbling on the street because instead of an other-place he has steered into a horror - just a horror. Of course, honey is only a means to an end, and perhaps - hopefully - there are other and better means, but the distinction itself, I feel, is as sharp as a knife’s edge. And it has a wider application than just dreams. Is this thing now happening an introduction, is it letting me closer to something with an independent life, actions, past and destiny so I can know it - meet it - love it - or is it just flashing more of tired old me at myself? &quotIs there a news coming this way?&quot is what I ask of any experience.

So I’m unhappy with the writers of our Opportunity cards. They pile everything &quotoneiric&quot in a jumble, from poetry to zailors’ tales to Correspondence to mirrors. What do mirrors have to do with it? All one gets in mirrors is oneself. You might think Fallen London’s mirrors are different, and they would be if they led inside the writers the way Carroll’s did inside of him. But the writers prefer to leave every plot with an ellipsis. False depths - a few hints, a riddle, and back out we go. There are false doorways all over Fallen London, lots of secrets but no answers. The writers seem to have an aversion to definite facts - not necessarily conclusive, but intermediate, steps on the road. Even answers such as these are absent here, and I can predict a time for myself when this inability to get anything straight - let it be an unusual truth, but a truth - when this inability, I say, will begin to look like a deficit and start to bore. A picture needs some direct brush strokes, gauzy dabs and halos alone aren’t enough. How long can one look at a Turner painting? Forever - if one never discerns shapes and forces, never applies oneself to love it. But after something has drawn one in, art, like dreams and unlike nightmares, becomes a journey of actual discovery, leading not everywhere, because nobody wants to go everywhere, but somewhere - yes, absolutely.
edited by Von Prabik on 6/25/2015
edited by Von Prabik on 6/25/2015

[quote=Von Prabik] <snip>So I’m unhappy with the writers of our Opportunity cards. They pile everything &quotoneiric&quot in a jumble, from poetry to zailors’ tales to Correspondence to mirrors. What do mirrors have to do with it? All one gets in mirrors is oneself. You might think Fallen London’s mirrors are different, and they would be if they led inside the writers the way Carroll’s did inside of him. But the writers prefer to leave every plot with an ellipsis. False depths - a few hints, a riddle, and back out we go. There are false doorways all over Fallen London, lots of secrets but no answers. The writers seem to have an aversion to definite facts - not necessarily conclusive, but intermediate, steps on the road. Even answers such as these are absent here, and I can predict a time for myself when this inability to get anything straight - let it be an unusual truth, but a truth - when this inability, I say, will begin to look like a deficit and start to bore. A picture needs some direct brush strokes, gauzy dabs and halos alone aren’t enough. How long can one look at a Turner painting? Forever - if one never discerns shapes and forces, never applies oneself to love it. But after something has drawn one in, art, like dreams and unlike nightmares, becomes a journey of actual discovery, leading not everywhere, because nobody wants to go everywhere, but somewhere - yes, absolutely.
edited by Von Prabik on 6/25/2015
edited by Von Prabik on 6/25/2015[/quote]

In Fallen London, mirrors lead into the Mirror Marches, which appears to be a place, and not just the inside of one’s mind. There seems to be a mirror connection to Parabola, which also seems to be a place (albeit one about which we currently know little).

You’re in the super early days and early content of the game.
The dream content will become more concise as you uncover more content. Presently, it seem vague because you are just being hinted at the mysteries which have yet to come. They will be revealed to you in time.
There only seem to be ellipses because you are still in the middle of content.

Well, then! I’ll wait and see. What was that about becoming an Oneironaut?

Oneironaut is one of the descriptors for the next tier of Professions. Probably the next stage after Glassman … at least I hope so :)

I think you’re starting to get the idea based upon your very excellent subsequent post &quotWhat connects these places into a world?&quot Be patient :)
edited by bitterhorn on 6/27/2015

&quotYou are standing between two mirrors. Your reflection smiles, so you smile. Your reflection moves its hand, so you move yours. It takes a very long while for you to realise that this is the wrong way round.&quot

&quotSomehow - how exactly? - you turn to the third direction, and step out. You find yourself standing in a room appointed in teak and red lacquer, looking into another quite identical room. Your reflection steps into the frame, smirks at you, and leaves.&quot

Edit: No, I have no idea if this is relevant to anything. But it came to mind when reading these comments. So who can say? ^_^
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edited by Kittenpox on 6/28/2015

I think enough has been said here, I thank everyone. I’ll try to enjoy the game’s dream side as well as the designers were able to make it. As a last gesture, here is a little picture. If you feel a sort of a start when you look at it, do a little searching and then drop me a note in the game under this same name.