Rez: Eqstr[Tera]

by NiGHTcapD

ID2: Scape

Author's Note:

In which I show a few of my personal interests and knowledge.

I woke up today and found myself standing on a tesseract. This was my first clue that I had not woken up today, and instead had fallen asleep tonight. I know this because tesseracts do not exist in physical space, but brains and computers can render them. Plus the fact I've had this dream before.

Let me explain a few things first, before this gets any more confusing than it already probably is. "Tesseract" is another word for a four-dimensional cube, lesser known as an 8-cell and better known as a hypercube. A three-dimensional wireframe of it looks like a cube concentric to a larger cube, with wires connecting each corresponding corner of each cube. When it rotates in three dimensions-up/down, left/right, in/out-it looks normal, but ata and kana rotations-ones along the fourth dimension-shift the positioning of the cells. It's hard to explain, but look it up and it will make sense. I could tell it was a tesseract, and not just its wireframe, when I saw that rotation-with me standing on the outside, slowly being rotated in.

...yeah, that assumes it's only a three-dimensional projection of all four dimensions of a tesseract. It's not. I'm only standing on a single three-dimensional slice, and right now, it's becoming something more along the lines of a hexagonal prism.

Imagining in four dimensions was not a challenge back when I was younger. Without the ability to see in even two, I had no preconceived notions of what geometries should and shouldn't look like, even though I knew their shape. I was able to visualize three with ease, four with practice, and five with effort. I haven't needed to use that skill often, but it comes in handy to show off to other programmers, and while I may be out of practice (five is beyond me at this point), I can still imagine a rotating hypercube, in all its native dimension glory, in my sleep. And although I only exist on one 3D "layer" of the 'cube at a time, I can perceive all 4 at all times.

Over the years, I've come to realize a few things. The tesseract dream only comes right before an odd occurrence of some sort, which occurs within 24 hours of me "waking up" on the 'cube. It happened seven years ago, predating the first signs of the Eden Incident. The last time was almost two years ago, and it predicted the second Morolian Incident. And about three years before that, I had a run-in with a dreamwalker...

Thinking about that last one got the gears turning. It wasn't long before I noticed something off, something more than the dream itself: normally, there's automatically even lighting, but when I look down, I cast a shadow. So I do something I haven't done in forever-I look up, away from the surface of the 'cube. What I see is a hypersphere...with a large spherical chunk missing from the three-dimensional "surface".

A pronounced crescent.

"Hello, Luna."

"Rez? Is that you?"

"The one and only. Come down here, let's talk."

The dark blue winged unicorn descended from her vantage point, landing right next to me on the hypercube. "I...can't say I expected to come here. To be frank, I didn't think it was possible."

I shrug. "It's not the first time my dreams have been host to an extradimensional being...speaking of which, I would have thought you'd be surprised, even shocked to be in four dimensions, as opposed to the usual three. But you don't seem the least bit bothered."

"Four dimensions? What are you talking about?"

"Um...this dream uses four spatial dimensions. I perceive them all. You only see three?"

"You're beginning to confuse me."

"I can explain 4D later, if you'd like. But right now, something's bothering me. You said you shouldn't be able to be here right now?"

"Correct. You aren't connected to our world right now, yet you're connected to our dreamscape. This shouldn't be possible."

"Well, maybe a connection was formed when I first entered your dreamscape, and I was never really disconnected? I mean, I guess I was never really supposed to be there in the first place, so when I got there, it kind of stuck."

She thought about it for a bit, before nodding her head in agreement. "That makes sense. Although...what was this about an 'extradimensional being' in your dreams?"

"Good question. Way back when I was a child, before I could even see, I had a nightmare..."

The next half hour (or so-dreams always have a way of messing with your temporal lobes) consisted of me talking about my encounters with a certain entity. Luna seemed very interested the whole way through, as I explained the ins and outs of a dreamscape that was not hers.

"...and about five years ago, I had a chance encounter with it, on the very same tesseract we stand on right now. We took the opportunity to catch up on a few things, especially seeing as it was a wonder we even got to see each other again at that point."

"I would very much like to meet this 'nites' character."

"As far as the connections between the dreamscapes go, the most effective communication would have to go through the equivalent of...what, seven proxies? Good luck!" She laughed at how I said it. I had intended referencing the internet classic as an inside joke, but if it sounds silly enough, even outsiders can laugh along with those that understand it.

For the rest of the time we had before I woke up, we talked about more diverse subject areas, of which I feel no reason or need to divulge. I'm not even sure I remember them all. But if nothing else, it was a good intellectual and social exercise. One that I wouldn't mind having again.