Insomnia

28

"Esme? Esme? Earth, to Esme?" Minerva said.

Esme sat up straighter in her seat, startled. "Yeah, um, yeah, what's going on?"

The girl's shoulders slumped. "You weren't paying attention? Come on, this is a huge deal!"

"Right, right..." Esme yawned. "Sorry."

The girl let out an exaggerated groan, and rolled her eyes. Esme winced at her behavior, and tried to remember that she was still just a kid.

"How can you yawn in a dream?" asked Minerva. "You're literally resting."
"I can't help it. Honestly, it's just..."

"You think this is boring. Say it. You hate this."

"No! It's not boring, it's just... " She turned her gaze towards the screens hovering in the air above them. They were seated on a private veranda, overlooking an endless sea of trees. Oaken floors and walls of dark pine. The rest of the tree house was occupied by Minerva's other friends, drinking and celebrating the incoming election results. "I know you advocated for this referendum, and I'm happy for you, but..." Esme squirmed in her seat. She was still thinking about last night's debacle with Oz and the Omens, while also desperately trying not to think about it. At least they hadn't noticed anything was off in their bizarre torture show. She would be meeting with them later tonight to continue her progress through the ranks. "I don't think I support what you're fighting for."

Minerva's eyes widened, before she hunched forward in her chair with a huff. "Wow. The first time you get interested in politics, and it's against my side."

"Don't be like that," Esme chided. She'd been looking for a way to get involved in Minerva's life again after learning how much the girl missed her. This referendum watch party was the perfect opportunity to resume her mentorship, while also getting a closer look at the kind of policies the Omens were trying to fight. "I just don't see the rationale in destroying the integrity of private dreams. The point of having them is that no one but you and your permitted users can see what's happening inside."

"That's not the point of the resolution. Have you even read the petition text?"

"Some. But it's... really long."

"Well, TLDR: We want nuanced regulation, not to 'destroy privacy'."

"For what? What's the point?"

Minerva got to her feet and paced towards the edge of the veranda. She leaned back against the railings, folding her arms and looking down at Esme. "Did you know that 83% of Psionic attacks take place in private dreams? Assailants lure their victims into a user restricted space, where Somnus can't monitor as closely, and take advantage. We want Fantasian to employ the same monitoring features in public dreams on user-restricted zones."

"But how does that not impact privacy? If you're, I don't know, a married couple hoping to... to..."

" Be intimate?" offered Minerva, an amused smile cropping up on her face at Esme's embarrassment..

She flushed. "Yes. Intimate. Then you don't want Somnus storing and reading that data. You want it to process, the act, between you two, but not record or monitor."

"The system will only activate if there's a clear sign that something's wrong. A person is never notified unless something really bad happens. It's automated. Only the algorithm sees what's going on."

"You say that, but is there really a guarantee?" Esme shuffled awkwardly in her chair. "What's to prevent some, um... weirdo at Fantasian, from snooping through it in his free time. Or, a data leak! That would be pretty awful."

"The system doesn't need to keep the data for more than 12 hours unless there's a red flag. Otherwise, it dumps it. And yeah, it's possible that some peeping tom could watch you go at it, but how likely is it? Really?"

Esme flushed, thinking of snooping in Phoebe Zhang's dream. "Pretty likely! People can be strange."

"After a certain point, we just have to trust that the system works the way it's supposed to. I mean, think about it. We trust Fantasian and Somnus with so much already. Is it really that much more difficult to believe that they can follow the rules?"

"I... I don't know about that."

"Why?"

Her conversation with Oz flashed through her mind. "It might not even be intentional. It might just be through error, or them making a mistake. I mean, Fantasian's messed up a lot of stuff already. The Knightmare's been running amok for months, and they haven't noticed a thing."

Minerva sighed. Disbelief was written on her face, clear as day. "Okay. Assume the Knightmare is real. Then this, proposal, will help stop him! If Fantasian is forced to keep a closer eye on things, then they'll be sure to notice his attacks, right?"

They don't happen in private dreams, Esme thought to herself. They happen in personal ones. In people's heads. Almost undetectable.

"What about the cost?" Esme said, instead of her other objection. "It's expensive to add that kind of data overhead. And Fantasian will pass that onto consumers, making it even harder to have private experiences. I mean, I can afford it, but a lot of Psions might not be able to."

"I'm not saying there aren't details that need to be worked out. But generally, we need more surveillance. It will keep us safer. The resolution isn't a law. It's more like a... call to arms."

Esme nodded thoughtfully, even as she remained unconvinced. "Who votes on these things?"

"Any registered user over the age of 18. That doesn't include me, which kind of sucks, but at least I can still advocate for these issues."

"I didn't mean who gets to vote," Esme stood up and joined Minerva by the railing. Sounds of celebration drifted over from inside the treehouse. "Who actually votes on this stuff?"

"You mean turnout?" Minerva shrugged. "Judging by the readouts, it's roughly 70% of eligible voters."

"Not that." She waved her hands in frustration. "Gah, what I mean is... How many people voted for this just because you, and the Triumvirate, and Somnus influencers came out in support?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You have a lot of power. Influence. This law is basically all you."

Minerva laughed and rolled her eyes. "Esme, as much as I'd like to take all the credit, I can't. Yeah, I pushed the resolution. But people won't vote for it unless they actually think it's good. My followers aren't, sheep, or whatever."

"Maybe..." Esme said. "I'm not sure I have that much faith in them."

"That's kind of elitist."

"I...hmm."

The conversation drew to a halt as a thought bubble appeared next to Minerva, displaying text. She looked closer.

"Shit," Minerva cursed. "A fight broke out by Office Space. Some of our campaign staff are being attacked."

"Need a hand?" Esme asked. "Breaking it up?"

"No, no. I'll take care of it. Probably just the opposition being sore losers. Besides, didn't you say you had a meeting soon?"

"R-right..." She was going to see the Omens after meeting with Minerva. It felt strange leaving the girl alone for something like that.

"I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah."

Minerva moved towards the exit, and prepared to exit the dream. She stopped and turned around, wringing her hands. "Thanks for being here, Esme. Even if you don't agree with the cause. I appreciate it." She took a deep breath.. "It's weird. I dreamed that..." Her eyes widened and her face flushed. "Never mind! Um. Bye."

Esme barely managed a wave before the girl disappeared. She considered her last words, before deciding that Minerva would probably chalk up Esme's appearance in her dream as a pleasant coincidence. She steeled her mind for the task ahead.

It was time.