Dreamaway Pillow

"My entire life has been utterly, utterly ordinary."

Anomaly Story

Several monkeys were placed in an experimental enclosure, with food suspended above their heads. At first, every monkey desperately reached out for the food. But whenever one of them touched it, they were all visibly punished.

Gradually, the monkeys realized the pattern. Therefore, they all chose to stop reaching for the food.

Then, a new monkey was placed in the enclosure. Instinctively, it reached for the food, but the moment it tried, the other monkeys prevented it from doing so. Before long, the new monkey stopped thinking about the food above its head entirely.

Every monkey introduced afterward went through the same procedure. Eventually, even after all the original monkeys had left the enclosure, the remaining monkeys still refused to touch the food above them. Some of them may never have tried to touch it, even if they were never punished for doing so in the first place. Or perhaps the original rule—that touching the food would result in punishment—had ceased to exist long ago. None of the monkeys would ever know, however.

…

Although this is an Anomaly Profile, I still wanted to preserve the thought experiment above. We live in an orderly society, where many of the rules have no clear origin—much like the later-generation monkeys, who did not know why they could not touch the food above them. As ordinary people, we cannot afford the cost of defying the rules. All we can do is comply.

The Anomaly "Dreamaway Pillow" presents us with a similar Dreamscape: all you need to do is follow the crowd, hide in the shadows, and do what you are "supposed" to do. Deviant behavior is not permitted. As long as you follow everyone's choice and remain an ordinary person, you can obtain stable happiness for next to nothing.

The concept of a "pillow" has existed since ancient times, while the "Dreamaway Pillow" evolved from the modern soft pillow. This does not mean that such ideas only began to emerge in the modern era. Perhaps it is only now that we have the opportunity to rationally observe our own behavior—and that of the group as a whole.

Anomaly Characteristics

The "Dreamaway Pillow" appears to be an ordinary soft cotton pillow. When unused, it does not affect its surroundings. If someone uses the Anomaly pillow to fall asleep and enter a dream, the dream manifests as several consecutive, bizarre rooms, with indescribable monsters circling overhead, as if constantly monitoring the dreamer's every move.

This Anomaly only affects the images presented in people's dreams. It does not create a real Anomalous Realm.

Once someone uses the Anomaly to enter a dream, everyone else within a certain range will continue having separate dreams within the same environment until the Anomaly undergoes Nullification. The affected range varies, and it is currently believed that the number of affected people is capped, though at what number remains unknown. When the surrounding population is more dense, the affected range becomes significantly smaller.

The affected range moves as the user moves through space. In other words, if the user leaves the original area and enters another, the original area will no longer be affected by the Anomaly.

Most people will unconsciously perform the same actions as those around them in the dream. A small number of people have reported waking up within the dream and voluntarily leaving the crowd, only to be attacked by the monsters overhead. They immediately wake up and are unable to enter a dream again until the Anomaly undergoes Nullification.

Studies indicate that the Anomaly generally does not affect sleep quality. Some subjects reported feeling more relaxed upon waking after following the crowd and performing the same actions in their dreams.

The Anomaly's effects are automatically lifted when the pillow's user leaves the "room" in the dream. Users who leave the room cannot use the Anomaly to enter a dream again.

Anomaly Nexus

The user successfully leaves the room in the dream