Let's start with Martyn, simply because he's the only one that follows the format completely, I think. We start at the lake that Martyn, Grian, Scar, and Jimmy all went to the summer after Martyn and Jimmy's senior year of high school (Grian and Scar's freshman year of college). Scar stands alone on the lake shore, until Martyn grabs his attention. He reminds him of the trip, then dives right into confrontation without any hesitation. Scar denies that there's a problem, the clouds turn black, Martyn "dies" (Scar's legs are stolen whoops), and then he wakes up.

Now, all the ghosts have an "assignment" of sorts; things they each are trying to help Scar recognize/work through as he tries to force his life back to how it was before the accident. Martyn's is his injury: that he hasn't come to terms with the fact that he is injured/disabled now, and is doing much more than he should.

Next is Cleo. She comes before Martyn, of course, but hers strays a bit from the format.

Scar is in the arcade that the Clockers often hung out at, technically alone, even though he's surrounded by people. He pushes through the crowd, looking for someone. That someone is Cleo, and as soon as he finds them the crowd parts, and even though it's still there, it's quieter. Scar, intimately familiar with the place, comments that they haven't gone in a while and suggests they do so soon. Cleo also, like Martyn, jumps right in and asks him why he's isolating himself, shutting the world and everyone who loves him out. Scar denies it, insisting that things are normal. The arcade becomes desolate, Cleo "dies", and then Scar wakes up.

As I'm sure you can guess, Cleo's assignment was to push Scar back towards community, although she didn't entirely succeed. On her part, he does make at least a little bit of an effort to respond to Xisuma, and later Cub.

Also, although Cleo isn't the one to 'introduce' the place to Scar, she did say "You know where I've been, Scar" which for Scar was enough prompting to look around and recognize the arcade. That location is also arguably the one he spent the most time at out of all of them, especially when you consider it was over a period of time as well, so it makes sense that he would be able to recognize it on his own.

Now, Pearl. Sweet, sweet Pearl. Hers is different for a couple of reasons, but I'll lay out the dream before I get into them.

Scar starts in the park where he first met Pearl. His attention is immediately drawn by Tilly. Pearl follows close behind. Scar attempts to pet Tilly, and fails. He asks her why he can't pet Tilly, but Pearl doesn't respond. She reminds him of the memory of how they met, and they laugh together. Pearl takes her time with her confrontation, waiting a few moments before asking what happened "that night". Scar asks what she means. She reminds him she was asleep when "it happened", but Scar once again denies any knowledge of what she's talking about. In fact, the direct quote is, "'I don’t know what you’re talking about,' he told her, honestly." She sighs and makes a remark, but doesn't press further. They sit together in the grass for an ambiguous amount of time. While they are doing so, the sky breaks loose in a shower, but the sun stays, and it's not enough to bother them. Finally, Scar again asks Pearl why he can't pet Tilly. She turns to look at him, revealing that she has "died" (although she looks significantly more at peace than the rest of the ghosts), and reminds him that Tilly has been dead for nearly a year. Scar wakes up.

WOO ok that was a mouthful. Ok so. The other ghosts have seen the effect that the dreams have had on Scar so far—less call to action, and more fear and dread. Pearl decides to draw from this, and be a lot gentler with hers. Give Scar a break, almost. So while she draws his attention immediately, not giving him any time to ruminate in his thoughts, she also stretches out the rest of the dream. The setting she picked was not particularly familiar, as he met Pearl nearly a decade ago, but it allowed her to reveal something she had never gotten to tell him, and it gave him a chance to make a joke and laugh.

Pearl takes her time with the confrontation; and even then, I don't know that you could even call it that. She probes Scar gently a few times, trying to get him to talk about it, but ultimately drops it once she realizes she isn't getting anywhere. And then, after that—Pearl has seen the progression of the dreams. She knows the format. She knows that if she continues pressing for too long, the dream will end. So, she doesn't. She lets them sit in silence, and spends a few more moments with Scar. The atmosphere changes, but it's not unpleasant. When Scar asks her the question, though, she knows her time is up. But she's ok, because she got to see her friend one last time. And she got to give him some peace, a break from all the turmoil his mind is constantly going through. And, at the very least, she has Tilly.

Pearl managed to draw the dream out so long that Scar wakes up in the morning, rather than the middle of the night like all the others. That was probably the only good night of sleep he got for the next few months.

What was Pearl's assignment, you ask? Simply to have Scar face the reality that the accident happened. You'll notice that Scar spends the entire day (and those before that) lying to other people and himself about how he's doing. He doesn't mention Grian's name once while he's shopping, even though he's thinking about him the whole time. Pearl decided she didn't care much about assignments, though. Scar needed more. (Or... less?)

Before we do Scott, we need to backtrack to Joel. Joel's is, well. Yeah

Now, Joel's dream, similarly to Pearl's, immediately catches Scars attention. He doesn't have time to look around, nor does Joel ever give him a chance to. As far as Scar knows, they're in some random parking lot. This is actually incorrect! They are outside of an old theater that Joel and Scar (and often Skizz) would go to together. I have one like this in my town, that pretty much only plays older movies, though they also sometimes host dance recitals.

Joel begins friendly enough, talking about how him and Lizzie packing up their apartment in preparation to move into the new house. He then says he needs to tell Scar something. Scar leans in, and he begins saying he "couldn't see the truck", before seemingly interrupting himself and instead instructing Scar to "tell her I'm sorry". He begins to "die" at the same time the atmosphere changes, still speaking in this erratic way, jumping from telling Scar that it wasn't his fault to begging him to apologize to Lizzie. Scar tries to step back, only for Joel to grab him and hold him in place. Joel fully "dies", his begging growing more desperate a few seconds before Scar wakes up.

Wow! What's all this, then? Well, Joel went into this dream with a singular goal: find some way to reach Lizzie. Now, the guidelines of the dream didn't like that. Joel was supposed to confront Scar about his survivor's guilt, not deliver a message from the dead. He does start out with the "script", but immediately pushes it aside. He even glances around before he does so, as if searching for the unseen forces that will stop him, and his antennae twitch, showing his anxiety. The dream keeps trying to get him back on track as he fights harder and harder against it, escalating the speed of deterioration before it finally ends abruptly, cutting Joel off entirely. Although the rest are definitely off-putting, this one genuinely stressed Scar out, and you can bet he still thinks about it sometimes.

You may be wondering: if it's so important that they deliver these messages, how on earth did Pearl get away with this? Well, she 1. Did try delivering the message before ultimately giving up, and b. Sat in silence, not pushing any other agenda. As I said before, she learned from the other dreams.

Onto the blue haired man. His is kinda funny to me for several reasons (most of them being I like to make fun of him. He's like my Sam of the Life Series), but let me recap the dream first.

Scar sits alone in a forest, staring up at the night sky. This is the same forest (and around the same spot) that he, Etho, Bdubs, and Scott all went camping together to see a meteor shower. Scott appears and makes a comment on the stars, and Scar says he doesn't like the night, because of the dreams he's been having (that he "can't remember"). Scott says, "dreams like this one?" Scar is confused, but Scott doesn't clarify, instead asking him if he's sure he can't remember. Scar says he is. Scott asks again, but Scar doesn't respond, instead asking if they had "been there before." Scott says they have. Scar suggests they go again sometime, and Scott sighs before jumping into his confrontation. The stars disappear. Rather than denying that the crash had happened, Scar refutes with his own questions, asking why it had to be him that survived. Scott "dies", asks another question, and Scar begins to respond when he is woken up by Jellie.

heheheheh ok so this is for all my scott fans out there who have been sad because I don't post a lot of smajor content

We're gonna start with Scar though. Scar begins by denying the events, and then just gives up halfway through. He claims that he can't remember the dreams, even though directly before this he was thinking (in real life!) about how he didn't want to have another dream with the ghosts of his dead friends. The other, subtler way he disputes that statement is when he asks Scott if they had been there before. Scar, like Pearl, has learned the pattern the dreams take. He also knows that this is the last one, and that's part of the reason why he suddenly decides to drop the act. He knows that Scott knows, and while before he maybe wanted to spend a few final moments with his friends, he knows that Scott isn't going to let him go that easily. So he cracks, because all he wants are answers. He's tired, and he's hurting, and he's sick of this. He's still beating himself up for not reaching out to Cleo for advice when he had the chance, and now he's grabbing desperately for anything Scott can tell him.

Scott!! What a silly guy. What is Scott's purpose, you ask? Well, we may never know, because Scott's original assignment was replaced with Joel's, since he failed to fulfill his and only freaked Scar out. A great first start. Everyone is really happy about this.

Scott, like Pearl and Scar, has learned from the dreams. Specifically though, he's learned from Pearls dream. Keep it low-key, joke around a bit before getting serious, don't press too hard; but Scott, unlike Pearl, won't leave a job unfinished. So while Pearl was willing to sacrifice any other conversation she might've had to give Scar a moment of peace, Scott has a duty to fulfill and he's going to fulfill it.

Scott's dream was ultimately cut off. I don't know how clear that was, but there was definitely supposed to be at least a few more lines of dialogue before Scar woke up. That didn't happen cause Jellie was hungry

As for Grian, well. I don't really have much to say on his end. Scar comes downstairs to find him, completely silent. Scar is the only one interacting with Grian the whole time, even though he's speaking as if Grian is responding. It's as if he isn't even there. And then of course as soon as Scar attempts to initiate contact, the dream flips into a memory, and Grian delivers his final line before he "dies".

Scar’s phone had been dead for quite some time.

He had meant to charge it, but then he set it down for a moment to get something out of the fridge, and then he had forgotten where he set it down, and... well. It was still dead.

After Mumbo’s impromptu visit, he had finally tracked it down and plugged it in, not wanting any more surprise visitors. However, the amount of notification sounds that began playing were immediately overwhelming, and so could you really blame him for putting it on silent and stuffing it in a drawer to better muffle the buzzing? And, as they say, “out of sight, out of mind.”

After Lizzie came by, he pulled it out again, scrolling through the notification-filled group chats and occasional concerned friend. When he couldn’t find an announcement from her, he tossed it back in the drawer and went back to his garden, not thinking to check whether he had plugged it back in.

Needless to say, Scar wasn’t exactly in a place to receive texts or calls. Sort of the opposite of his original intentions, but if it was really an emergency they could just reach him on his work phone, which was always on the counter plugged up, fully charged.

He was pretty sure he had given someone that number.

Probably.

— — —

Messages

Hermitchat (876) SILENCED – Yesterday Cub: About to drive Scar home, d... Jevin: Can someone remind me w... +874 more...

Cub (9) – Monday hey, it’s been a bit. how are you d... do you need anything? +7 more...

Grian Watchers (340) SILENCED – June 15 You have been added to a group... Xisuma: Hi friends, with everythin... +338 more...

Joe (1) – June 9 You: outside :) Hey Scar, I took the liberty of repl...

Zedaph (8) – June 5 I’m sorry Are you avoiding me? +4 more...

Bdubs (23) – May 21 are we still on for movie night? etho said no +21 more...

Gem (3) – May 19 are you the one mysteriously leav... bc mumbo is actively losing his m... +1 more...

Mumbo (2) – May 15 I’m near your place, would it be al... The alliums you left look nice. Tha...

magic mountain soon to be volcano of doom? scar stop proposing ideas by changing the group name (19) – May 1 Impulse: sent an image Skizz: dork +17 more...

Xisuma – April 25 You: thanks Anytime :)

Clocker “““Family””” (10) – April 23 Bdubs: moooom how do I use the... Bdubs: cleo?? scar?? Joe just calle... +9 more

Impulse (3) – April 22 Hey, we’re putting together a me... Either for you or you helping with... +1 more...

Tango – April 19 Do you WANT a ride home? You: no btu thanks for th eoffer

Lizzie – April 17 You: maybe ill say smth at the cel... Ok

Boatem (21) – April 13 Mumbo: Text when you guys get... Pearl: You’re such a worrywart M... +19 more...

Buttercups (9) – April 12 Grian: ok so i’m NOT saying that i... Mumbo: mate aren’t you already... (+7 more)

Grian – April 12 JUST GRAB THE LITTLE DEBBIES A... You: Im coming don’t leave me !

BAMboozlers – April 12 Lizzie: But you’re my idiots Jimmy: <3

Joel – April 12 TRY ME I’VE HAD EIGHT CUPS OF ESPRESS...

VACATIONEERS!! (8) SILENCED – April 12 Joel: Leaving my house now, is th... Scott: No, any food we need we’ll... +6 more...

<  Page 1 of 6  >>

— — —

Jimmy had been finishing up the practice schedule for his middle school soccer team when his phone started pinging wildly with messages from Tango. Which was odd, because although it wasn’t abnormal to receive one or two comments (or complaints) from his roommate, Tango generally stayed away from his phone while at work. He claimed that it offered too much distraction, which was dangerous when working in such “versatile environments.” (Jimmy… wasn’t certain what that meant. He was pretty sure Tango sat in front of a computer for most of the day.)

So, the fact that his phone had been buzzing non-stop for the last five minutes probably meant something rather important was happening. His theory was proved right as soon as he glanced down and saw not just messages from Tango, but another group chat as well.

He immediately clocked off, and was out the door in the next five minutes.

— — —

>>>You have new unread messages<<<

Tango (8) Literally bored out of my minddd oh rancher my rancher will you co... +6 more...

Watchers (1) Impulse: HES AWAKE!

>>>You are now chatting with Grian Watchers<<<

Impulse HES AWAKE!

Jimmy How long??

Impulse A little under ten minutes at this point He woke up while I was in here

Tango Woo!!

Skizz Yeah baby!!!

Jimmy How is he? I’m omw

Impulse He’s a little disoriented but he’s definitely awake and seems to remember everything before the crash, but not the crash itself

Cub Replying to Impulse: HES AWAKE! Woo hoo!

Jimmy The doctors said that would probably happen, though

Zedaph Don’t text and drive!!

Ren Replying to Impulse: HES AWAKE! Yeah baby!

Lizzie Jim can’t drive He’s on the bus probably

Jimmy I called an uber it’s faster

Xisuma Replying to Impulse: HES AWAKE! Woo!

Ren Has anyone told Scar?

Oli Replying to Impulse: HES AWAKE! MY MAN!!

Skizz Isn’t he in this group chat?

Impulse Yeah, but he’s never said anything

Jimmy Replying to Ren: Has anyone told Scar? I texted him

Cub Might want to have multiple people do so He hasn’t responded to me in a while

Tango Has anyone talked to him since Mumbo visited?

Lizzie I went to see him He wasn’t doing great I don’t think he’s checked his messages in a while

Mumbo Replying to Impulse: HES AWAKE! WHAT IS HE OK? ARE WE ALLOWED TO GO SEE HIM?

Bdubs Replying to Impulse: HES AWAKE! YEAH!!!!!

Impulse Replying to Mumbo: ARE WE ALLOWED TO GO SEE HIM? He’s good! And yeah, he just can’t have too many visitors at once so we’ll have to go in shifts

Gem Grian’s awake???

Impulse Sure is! He says hi :)

Mumbo HI GRIAN

Jimmy Hi Grian!! I’ll see you soon bud :D

Ren hi G!

Skizz Hey G sharp!

Tango Hi Grian!

Gem Grian!!!! <33

Oli Whats up Grian!!

Xisuma Hey Grian!

Bdubs Hi Grian!!

Joe Howdy, Grian!

Doc It was a terrible idea to agree to be in two chats with this group My phone was always blowing up before, and now it does it twice as much...

Ren might wanna read the chat back Doc

Doc Oh My bad Welcome back, Grian! We’ve missed you!

>>>You are now privately chatting with BigB<<<

Jimmy He’s awake!

BigB !! :D

>>>You are now privately chatting with Tango<<<

Jimmy Where did we put Gs phone

Tango Uhh is it not still on your nightstand? No cause we moved it that’s right Check the kitchen table

Jimmy No cause you were working on that project last night

Tango The hutch then Prob first or second shelf

Jimmy Found it thank you

>>>You are now privately chatting with Impulse<<<

Jimmy How’s he doing?

Impulse Not too bad A little shaky Nurse said he’s in pretty good shape considering everything

Jimmy When is the doctor coming in?

Impulse When they can Est 15-30 min They’ll probably run a few tests depending on what the doctor says but they said right now it’s looking like he can probably go home soon You on your way?

Jimmy Made a pitstop to the house to grab his phone but I am now

Impulse Gotcha He’s been making faces at me the whole time the nurses have been checking him so I don’t think he had any personality changes I know you were worried about that

Jimmy Hah Yeah that definitely sounds like G Any word from Scar?

Impulse No You?

Jimmy Nope

Impulse Maybe he’s just on his way to the hospital And he forgot to respond

Jimmy Maybe Maybe he’ll get there before me Since he lives closer

Impulse Doesn’t he have work?

Jimmy Mumbo said he’s been working from home

Impulse Oh, right Grian wants to know if you’ll bring him rhubarb custards

Jimmy Where would I even find some

Impulse He says “if you love me you’d know”

Jimmy That’s not helpful

Impulse TIMMY BRING ME RHUBARB CUSTARDS I HAVE JUST BEEN INFORMED I’VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR NEARLY THREE MONTHS AND NO PRINCE CAME TO WAKE ME UP I DEMAND JUSTICE

Jimmy In the form of rhubarb custards?

Impulse exactly you wouldn’t deny a poor sickly fellow would you

Jimmy Is it denying if I don’t know where to get them

Impulse yes

Jimmy You are mean

Impulse yes bring me custard

Jimmy I have to tell my driver a location I can’t just drive around looking for them!!

Impulse i forgot you can’t drive ugh fine i’ll just text gem then you have failed me

Jimmy Yeah, yeah See you in a few minutes

Impulse ok love you <3

Jimmy <3

Impulse SAY IT BACK!!

— — —

Stuffed into the back of a drawer belonging to a bedside table, a phone buzzes urgently, over and over, its owner deaf to the sudden tsunami of missed messages.

>>>You have new unread notifications<<<

Jimmy (4) Scar, I don’t know what the chanc... Seriously though, can you at least... +2 more...

Impulse (2) Hey Scar, I know that Jim reache... I just wanted to be sure that you...

Cub (2) Grian’s awake! Please see this

Skizz (3) Hey Scarface, I don’t know what’s... Just know we’re here for you, and... +1 more…

Missed call from Cub

Missed call from Cub Voicemail

Missed call from Cub Voicemail

Bdubs (3) GRIANS AWAAAAKKEEEE!!! scar :( +1 more...

Missed call from Gem

Missed call from Gem

Missed call from Gem

Missed call from Gem

Missed call from Gem

Missed call from Gem

Missed call from Gem Voicemail

Gem (2) Where are you?? Why aren’t you here??

Etho (3) Hey Lmk when you get to the hospital... +1 more...

Lizzie (5) I know you’re probably not seeing... But just in case you are, please kn... +3 more...

Mumbo (4) Hey mate I know you’ve been sort of out of i... +2 more..

Missed call from Grian

Missed call from Grian

Missed call from Grian