Soda said:
"... Curious... One of the participants seems unable to intergrate theirselves into the formed reality... Unexpected, but this will not be an issue...
Meanwhile ELENA's voice went on to Tweak's mind, only heard by her. Filling it with [pictures] first, then [words], then complete videos, containing information and knowledge about dreams, physical appearance, math, physics and more. All at a hard to follow speed for any normal human.
This all was meant to hopefully aid Tweak to become more aware of what was going on and to give her a body, an exist[e]nce, within the realm.
Normally, the transmission would have been blocked by the firewalls that were native to the NH-7 series' minds. In fact, ELENA couldn't transmit anything directly to Tweak at all, since the neko's physical being was well outside any broadcast range. However, Tweak's dream self was right there with everyone else, so no transmissions were necessary. If ELENA was smart, and it seemed she was intelligent, she would find other ways of providing information to the disembodied projection.
The mind had temporally segregated itself from the others. Perceived time -- of course it wasn't
actual time, that was impossible -- shifted like a recording, more often than not toward the slower end of the spectrum while never quite stopping. ELENA, after determining what the neko was doing and how, could adjust her delivery method to compensate and take the most advantage of it.
Some of the information proffered by ELENA was gathered, but the rest was refused, discarded, ignored as the neko's mind processed the essentials: Language, self-awareness, and different forms and images that were potentially able to be used. Math had no meaning to it, nor did anatomy, physics, or whatever that junk was about "dreams". All of that contradicted what it had already seen for itself concerning what people looked like, what physics did, and (as far as it was concerned) math itself was a fluid concept here.
Without the neko's computerized brain, Tweak's thoughts worked at the same speed as any human's. The difference here was in the flexibility of those thoughts: Instead of working on a preconception that it had a limit to its speed, the neko's mind was incredibly adept at making what it thought was "needed", at doing or being where it perceived it "needed" to do or be. And, right now, it "needed" to interact.
As it re-considered the other dreamers in the 'room', the image from earlier reappeared. Instead of being ghost-like, it solidified...mostly. The image still flickered like a medium-framerate animation on the edge of proper film quality as it blended the physical features of the others in various ways. As a result, the being that was depicted was shown as constantly changing, but eventually certain aspects were settled. It was shown at a height that was an average of all of them, an unsettling skin color that was also the average of all of them, but everything else remained in flux. However, as Venicus donned his suit, a similar suit appeared on the shape. This one, though, constantly adapted to the changes in the body's features. As a result, there was no clear race or species to the new, sixth member of this strange assembly of dreamwalkers, and the gender seemed to constantly shift between male, female, and something that wasn't distinctly either of the two. And, unknown to all except perhaps ELENA, the neko's mind was still separate from the body, using it like a puppet or a suit.
Soda said:
After the short silence for the rest in the time it took ELENA to bring Tweak up to speed, she spoke to the rest of the group again.
"Our last participant will slowly be joining you swiftly. Let us begin with your first objective... Reach the green location marker"
As she mentioned the green location marker, at a short distance of about 50 metres away from the group, an upside down, lightly glowing, green, 4-sided pyramid appeared hovering above the ground, gently bobbing up and down as equally green circles rippled out on the floor below it in the same bobbing rythm.
"Good luck, Lucid Walkers"
The new arrival's head slowly turned from side to side, "looking" at the others. The neko's mind's eye went into it, getting a first-person view of what it now controlled...and controlled without effort, simply by thinking what it wanted the body to do. Now it wanted to speak. The voice that emerged was singular, but somewhat garbled as the pitch and tone shifted slowly between each of the other five's voices as it spoke.
"Name me?"
