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Dream last night, around 4:30:
You can temporarily enhance your skills (any skills) by mentally uplinking to a hive-mind composed of the souls of the dead. By establishing this link (done, I seem to remember, by dialling a payphone number at an exorbitant fee), I am suddenly able to drive a car perfectly at incredible speeds in heavy traffic. There is a feeling of tremendous power, of heightened senses and of lightning-fast reactions, but also of utter terror. I can feel them inside my head, minds polite but vast and cool and unsympathetic, only cooperating because some sort of supernatural contract obliges them to. Imagine, if you will, a nazgûl fallen on hard times and working as a tourist guide; that is the general feeling, of a terrifying creature being polite of necessity, and who might dispense with politeness if you provoke it enough. It is made clear to me somehow that the feeling of terror is an intentional tradeoff so living people won't abuse it, for the dead do not gladly suffer to be disturbed except by emergencies, and even then they resent it strongly. Therefore, it is purposely made as frightening as possible, so that the service will only be used when the alternative is even more terrifying. They are bound by the Contract to help those who contact them to the best of their abilities, but no force on either side of the veil can make them like it.
This is not the whole dream, of course, but only a fragment of it. There was a girl in it too, who was someone I slightly know and would like to know better IRL, and yet she wasn't. And fire. And a strange underground station. I don't really remember much more. Anyhow, if any weird horror writer would like to use this idea, do so.
You can temporarily enhance your skills (any skills) by mentally uplinking to a hive-mind composed of the souls of the dead. By establishing this link (done, I seem to remember, by dialling a payphone number at an exorbitant fee), I am suddenly able to drive a car perfectly at incredible speeds in heavy traffic. There is a feeling of tremendous power, of heightened senses and of lightning-fast reactions, but also of utter terror. I can feel them inside my head, minds polite but vast and cool and unsympathetic, only cooperating because some sort of supernatural contract obliges them to. Imagine, if you will, a nazgûl fallen on hard times and working as a tourist guide; that is the general feeling, of a terrifying creature being polite of necessity, and who might dispense with politeness if you provoke it enough. It is made clear to me somehow that the feeling of terror is an intentional tradeoff so living people won't abuse it, for the dead do not gladly suffer to be disturbed except by emergencies, and even then they resent it strongly. Therefore, it is purposely made as frightening as possible, so that the service will only be used when the alternative is even more terrifying. They are bound by the Contract to help those who contact them to the best of their abilities, but no force on either side of the veil can make them like it.
This is not the whole dream, of course, but only a fragment of it. There was a girl in it too, who was someone I slightly know and would like to know better IRL, and yet she wasn't. And fire. And a strange underground station. I don't really remember much more. Anyhow, if any weird horror writer would like to use this idea, do so.