"DJ? DJ?" Fruitbat asked, worried. "You were studying that laptop thing from Adama and then it was like you were hypnotized, or something..."
DJ Woohoo lifted a well-manicured hand to her aching head. "'Sokay, Fruitbat," she slurred, "only to be expected when you go wandering around in random memories from someone else's mind..."
"Say what?" the lizard girl asked.
DJ indicated the laptop. "Adama downloaded memories of the Hotel from two Men in Gray into this, she said. "To access them I had to go into a dream-state. It takes a mind to read and reintegrate the random memories from another mind... or two. Now I just have to make sense of it all, and confirm it."
"Confirm it? You mean you don't think the memories are accurate?"
"Oh, they're accurate, as far as they go, the problem is with what my mind did with them trying to make sense out of them. They're all mixed in with my memories of various parts of the Backstage, even though the thoughts I was accessing mostly had to do with the Hotel. In my dream, the Hotel actually became the whole Backstage, with Central and the Bar and Grill mixed in."
"You know," said Fruitbat, "if you dreamed all this, it's probably become real, on some level. Dreams have a way of doing that, here in the AddVenture. A whole separate reality, essentially a new Backstage, with option and everything, could have spun off of your dream."
DJ nodded. "It did, actually, but I'm only concerned with our reality. Surely no one can expect me to map a different one..."
Fruitbat shrugged. "Well, if you're all right," she said, "I'll just wrap up the organizing. I've just got a bit more to do."
"You go ahead," DJ agree. "I've got some conversation with my clipboard to do."
Fruitbat gave her an odd look, but went back to her work.
DJ looked at the board. Words appeared on it.
Hi, said the words.
"Hi yourself, DVd," DJ responded. "Mind telling me what that last episode was about?"
F-Cup Fitzgerald. He does have some interesting ideas.
"How many of them are real? In the here-and-now reality, I mean, not the threads he spun off."
As Mr. Hilbert -- or rather, Dr. Commander's memory of Mr. Hilbert, put it, the impression you received "is essentially correct." The Hotel, of course, does not encompass the whole Backstage, but otherwise what you learned was fairly accurate.
"Can you be more specific?"
Not very. Mapping the Backstage is, after all, your job, not mine. But since your dream was reflected into my mind once you learned it, I can compare it to what I know about the Backstage, and help you clear up any inaccuracies.
"Reflected into your mind? Aha! I knew it! I am still your Avatar!"
Oh shut up. We've been through this. Ask me about anything you're unclear on, and I'll do my best to set you straight.
"Very well," said DJ, feeling a bit smug. "Hilbert. He's really the Hotel manager? And what about those contractors I 'met' in my dream?"
That which does not fly in the face of previous experience may be presumed to be true.
"By which you mean what?"
The facts concerning Hilbert and the others you initially 'met' are correct.
"What about the rest of what I drempt about the Hotel management?"
While it would probably come as news to them, Sid Russell and the Old Wizard are indeed on the list of the Board of Directors. They will probably find this out for the first time the next time a board meeting is called. The board, however, sits for the whole Backstage, and is only incidentally involved in the management of the Hotel.
"The basement levels?"
Accurate. The transporation networks focalized there serve the whole BE AddVenture. 'Porting isn't economical when it comes to freight. The basement levels do not, of course, strictly speaking belong to the Hotel, though they do supply it along with the rest of the Backstage, and the only public access to them is indeed through the Hotel.
"What about the levels above? The description there seemed slightly off to me."
Only in that Mr. Hilbert takes an expansive view of what constitutes the Hotel. The ten floors of the Hotel itself are housed in a single Hotel building complex on the main level of the Backstage. His regarding the fifteen levels above as additional floors of the Hotel is an interesting conceit, no doubt stemming from the fact that he manages the Author services as well as the Hotel, albeit in a different capacity. He is efficient. For that, we can put up with a little vainglory.
"Does his vainglory account for his sticking the Old Wizard's Bar and Grill in the lobby, too?"
That, I presume, is owed to the confusion of your dreaming mind. The Bar and Grill is on the Hotel's Floor 1 only in the sense that both are on the main level of the Backstage. As you know, the Old Wizard's business is nowhere near the Hotel, but clear at the opposite end of the Backstage from it. Nor is it under Mr. Hilbert's control -- it functions wholly under the separate management of the Old Wizard. The separation, physical and operational, was of course done to encourage and maintain as much distance between the Characters and their Authors as possible. Authors aren't supposed to intrude on the Hotel -- that is why, when they did in the past, it was considered a crisis worthy of Sid Russell's attention. Which is not to say Authors may not visit there if they keep a low profile, keep to themselves, and are on good behavior. But the Hotel is, properly speaking, a haven for Characters outside the hustle and bustle of the AddVenture itself, where powers and paraphenalia can be laid aside and the subjects of the story interact as human beings rather than mere counters in a cutthroat struggle for sex and power. The Bar and Grill, by contrast, is a venue in which anything goes, where Authors may cut loose and experience the pleasures and the perils of the AddVenture first hand.
"What are the upper levels for, then? As far as the Authors are concerned, I mean?"
The themed Luxury Suites are for quieter recreation -- R & R, if you will. Strictly speaking, that of Authors alone, though Characters are welcome if invited. The Author Offices, in contrast, are workplaces, although, as you know, many Avatars also choose to reside and dally with Characters there as well. JigSaw, for instance, utilizes his office for a rather unique blend of work and play -- not, perhaps, altogether in keeping with its intended function.
"But Authors pretty much do whatever they want to," DJ noted.
Quite. If not for that, doubtless no Character would ever have been permitted to see, much less experience, the Upper Levels.
"So my dream's Hotel Floors 11-20 and above correspond to the Backstage's actual Levels 2-10 -- and above. Hmm, there seems to be an extra floor in there somewhere..."
Ah yes. That would be Hilbert's 'Floor 13,' which does not appear in the directories -- though hardly for the reason he alleges. In the directory enumeratin it would have to be called Level 3.5, I suppose. It's off the charts because it's dangerous, with things there even Authors are seldom permitted access to. Hilbert barely hinted at what lies on that level, as he himself has little knowledge of it. If it weren't for the need to keep the chapel clean, he would know even less.
"Ah. So there is a chapel? Why have it there, then?"
Religion is itself a dangerous thing. We sequester it from the AddVenture at large as best we can, though there are leakages. And the number of Characters and Authors here interested in attending services can be counted on the finger of one hand.
"You mean fingers, plural."
No I don't. Ask around yourself how many want to go to church and see how many fingers you get.
"And which," DJ murmured. "I see."
Always knew you were a quick study.
"I don't suppose you would care to fill me in on what all is on that level that Hilbert didn't mention?"
Dream on, DJ!
"Well, it was worth a shot. One last query, then. Are MarkT's and Adama's offices really 2000 and 2001?"
No. They are 001 and 002.
"Thanks, I wondered about that."
Don't mention it. Is that really your last query?
DJ tried to think if she had any other questions, but couldn't think of any. She nodded. "Very well," she said, "my questions on the variant schematics of the Backstage have been answered. Of course, mapping each level in detail will be a much bigger task."
Yes it will.
"I'm going to close the clipboard, now."
'Bye.
DJ closed the clipboard.
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Mon Apr 23 16:56:50 2001
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