The First Test

"You heard me, wanderer. What direction do you want this dream to go?" The spectre asks, and again, you stand confused.

"D-Direction?" You ask hesitantly, and you swear you can hear some semblance of a sigh.

"Wanderer, it is not a hard concept to grasp. Every dream has a direction, or at least, those that get remembered do. Most people experience those that either are sad or...depraved in nature, but it is not an uncommon event to have a dream based around other feelings such as envy, joy, fear or anger. Most people just lump the negative emotions all into one simple bubble of a "nightmare", but it is far more complex than that." The spectre explains, "For example, your dream yesterday had tones of sadness and despair, as all nightmares do, but it also featured major hints of anger and jealousy within them. You wished to be a better person, to be the one who got accepted rather than rejected, and it showed in how you nearly transformed the whole dream into a pit of rage." It says, and you finally begin understanding the concept.

"So...how do I control a dream's tone, then?" You ask.

"To control a dream's tone, you must be able to control the environment around you. Just remember that a happy dream does not necessarily make a good dream, nor does a dream filled with despair always make a bad dream." The spectre says, and suddenly vanishes from sight.

With you left alone now within the dream, you try to take its words and use them to the best of your ability, trying to get a feel for how to "control" a dream. You start by simply focusing on the school cafeteria around you. You remember how it was upgraded about two years after this had happened, how it was split into two sections - one for hot lunches and one for an in-school deli...and suddenly, you see the cafeteria morph around you until it was the same as the newly upgraded one at the school. Taking it in with wonder, you let out a small gasp.

"I...I just...I controlled a dream..." You mutter, but the jubilance stops when you begin thinking about how more work needs to be done. You feel the despair still desperately clinging to the air around you, the dread making you feel like what you just did meant nothing compared to the rest of the environment.

Focusing hard on it, you figure that the best way to change this dream is to remember what came from it, and begin thinking about the positives.

"Her rejection led to me trying to work out...she let me down easy compared to the others...I found other girls pretty easily to fawn for compared to her..." You think, but nothing seems to change. It still feels moody and dreadful.

Getting more frustrated, you catch sight of the girl and remember what ended up happening to her.

"Chloe...she was abused...she was **** to drop out due to getting pregnant...she was **** to marry by her family...she got pregnant again...her fiance broke it off with her..." You think, and as you do, you notice the air around the dream becoming surprisingly better. It feels horrible to think about this...but at the same time, it makes you feel good to know you would've been the better choice. You start thinking about more of your previous crushes, and remember how many of them either became high school dropouts or barely graduating bimbos...and you feel the dream not only getting more joyful, but even getting lewder.

You think about how they would be begging to get with you now after what happened to them. How they made the wrong choice, not you. Each thought feeling like a drop of ecstasy in your mind as the dream becomes a joyful memory about how each rejection had made you feel like a better and better person, how they should've taken you instead of falling into the laps of these horrible, no-good men and women who have treated them terribly. You know you are not a sadist, but thinking about them suffering just...

"Makes you happy?"

The voice of the spectre scares you enough to wrangle you out of the dream, and you finally are pulled out of this trance-like state you had gone into just thinking about these ex-crushes.

"So...you are a rather spiteful mortal...yet you gain happiness rather than anger from it? Intriguing, mortal...very intriguing. I wonder...could I possibly move you onto the next step?" It ponders out loud, ignoring you being before it as it thinks. Eventually, a door appears between you and the spectre, and as it opens, you are nearly blinded by the light.