As both of you enter the portal, you hear your classmates and lecturer bidding farewell to you as the portal entrance slowly shrinks in size and disappears. All you see is the galaxy and it seemed like you are suspended in time.

Before you know it, both of you fall on your sides, on a warm yellow plasticky surface with a plop. Luckily it didn’t hurt that much because it is also a bouncy surface. Both of you look up and give each other a knowing look, smiling.

Standing up, you see someone walking slowly towards you. Due to the bright sunlight coming through the glass roof, you could see him very clearly. A black figure with a white moustache, donned in a yellow highlighter costume. “Finally, I’ve been waiting for you, welcome to Mea’s Castle of Dreams my trainees, Zeeeee and Puff! I’m Boss, I overlook all the dreams in this castle.” He makes an awkward attempt to shake both of your hands, and coughs.

He continued, “Zeeeee, I’ve heard from Mr. Horse that you wanted to come here so much, now I know why. Mea knows you, I’m sure I’ve seen you in several of her earlier dreams!” After hearing your (Zeeeee’s) explanation that you were an imaginary friend from Mea’s childhood, he is pleasantly surprised. “How are you, my old friend.” Looking down, he smiles, patting you on the back.

Boss then brings both of you to a navy-coloured door that has a sign that says “Pantry”. (To Puff, Boss says) “Open it.”

Once the door opens, two Pius in the appearance of a pen and a pair of glasses, the former with a greying moustache, the latter with a cane, welcome you. Beyond this view is a cosy room decorated with balloons and a welcome banner, with many other Pius seated at a long table filled with yummy food: you could make out pizza, sushi, and watermelon. The pen starts to speak. “I’m Pen, and this is Glasses. We take care of the welfare of all our Technicians here, now including both of you too. Welcome.” You are then being invited to the table to have dinner with your fellow co-workers.

All of you are now settled, having dinner and introducing yourselves to each other, but suddenly there were thumping sounds on the pantry door.

BOM-BOM. BOM-BOM.

Pen gives an apologetic look and rushes over to open the door, and all of you go back to eating and talking. However it was not long before all of you realised something was wrong. Pen is frozen on the spot, and in the doorway stands something that looks like a pink sea urchin, but just that it isn’t.

Glasses, who is sitting opposite both of you, whispered, “I guess it’s almost time. It’s a cancer cell. You learnt about it in School of Dreams, didn’t you?”

The pink urchin hopped into the room, now with Pius at the table looking grave. “We’re here to stay. You’ve got exactly three months left to do whatever you need to do here. It’s our rule to not interfere with our host’s dreamland, so be rest assured.” It then gave a slight bow and hopped off. Both of you left your seats and rushed to follow the cancer cell, only to see it floating up, through the glass roof and disappearing into the clouds.

“Let’s just stop working, shall we?”

Turning back, you see the rest of the technicians in the foyer too. It was Glasses who spoke. “I do enjoy maintaining Mea’s dreams, but I’m getting more tired easily now.” Some of your co-workers are nodding in agreement.

“But I only just got to a new storey! How about the ones who started recently? We can’t just give up like that!” You see a frowning Piu that looked like denchers. You hear a few disapproving voices in the crowd too.

Now Boss walks over to your side and turned to address the technicians. “I really love how Mea’s dreams get built on year by year, storey by storey, to how it is like now. I really want it to keep going too, but my health is deteriorating over time too. I’m apologetic to Denchers and the few of you who only started a few years ago, since we’re only left with a short time here, why not wrap up and just spend time with one another more, until we meet our end? Puff and Zeeeee, what are your thoughts? We can just tell you what you want to know and you’ll still learn, how about that?”

All eyes are now on both of you.

What would you do? Would you prefer everyone wrapping up their jobs and then learn from their experiences, or prefer them to continue work and have hands-on learning? After both of you have come to a consensus, roll the dice against Intelligence and try to get Boss to be on your side. Record your points from the rolled dices here and have either Zeeeee or Puff talk to Boss.