Dean sat with the information for a while, attempting to process. The most shocking thing of all the revelations thus far was that this was actually a separate realm, and not just hallucinations that were going on inside his mind. After all, although everything was stunningly real, it entirely contradicted his perception of reality. Up until now, he couldn't really be sure whether or not he was imagining things.
However, encountering real individuals, every bit as vivid and human as him, and hailing from Earth, reassured him that this was in actuality a realm unto itself. After understanding this, he looked up.
Another question nagged at him.
"Wait, if we're all… you know, tripping… does that mean we all took the drug at the same time?"
Lyle burst out into laughter.
"No, no. Time doesn't work the same way as it does back home. It doesn't exist in the traditional sense. You could meet someone from hundreds of years in the past, or the way distant future. That usually won't happen, though, because our… well, our vibrations are too different."
Dean stared blankly at the man. He'd seen the term referenced before on the tablet but was clueless as to it's meaning.
"Vibration?"
"Yeah, it's the frequency at which your body and soul resonate."
Lyle continued his explanation.
"If the tablet is like a passport, then the vibration determines what country you're from. The higher it is, the more places you can go. Think American. The lower it is, the less access. Maybe…Afghanistan? It's kind of hierarchical, but it's a little more nuanced than that. Emotions like lust and anger, for instance, have similar frequencies, but different essences. If you're focused on either one, they'll take you to different places. Similarly, people from the same era- like us, from the 21st century - share a similar context and interpret the world in comparable ways. That's why we can meet here and interact. Our vibrations align well enough."
Dean's head spun with all the newly acquired information. The pieces were falling into place within his head so neatly, but alongside his newly found knowledge, came a multitude of other questions. Before he could even get his bearings though, Lyle spoke again, glancing on either side of him with a knowing grin.
"So, now that all the small talk is out of the way,"
He lifted his hand, displaying a rotating tablet etched with orange script.
"Want to trade?"
At his declaration, for the first time since Dean had entered the room, the others reacted.
Cole sat up in his seat, leaning forward in rapt attention. Roger stood and strode across the room, his wiry frame taking residence next to Cole's own. Desmond tore his gaze away from the mirror to face Lyle, and the man responded to their attention in kind.
Lifting his hand, the tablet began to float horizontally above his palm, before emitting orange light that flickered across their faces.
Dean couldn't help but let out a small gasp as he observed the sight before him.
In the Violet Vast Expanse, when he had summoned his map, there was nothing but a pitiful box that denoted the location of the lone named location he had discovered.
In front of him now, emanating from Lyle's tablet, was a veritable maze of scintillating orange light that spread out like beams of the sun.
Boxes stacked atop one another, and reached out in every direction to fill the room. They were most spread out on the central level and became increasingly sparse as they approached the floor and the ceiling.
It wasn't just his inexperience that made this sight astonishing either. Cole's eyes flickered from corner to corner, observing the boxes with disbelief. He spoke out in what almost sounded like anguish -
"You - how do you have so many?"
Roger finally stopped speaking to himself, his leg twitching as he sat in place.
Desmond's narrowed eyes fell upon one in particular, higher up in the room, producing his own tablet.
"That one - that's very interesting. Let me have the location node for that realm, Lyle!"
Immediately they fell into fervent discussion, as each of them produced their tablets in turn.
The room was filled with an inexplicable scene. Layers of different colored boxes filled the room, expanding the array of different colored lights that shone within the space. Red, orange, blue. Together, they formed an even more complete map, though none alone was as impressive as Lyle's. In some places, different colored boxes superimposed to create an assortment of colors, vermillion, purple, and sienna.
Just when Dean thought the conversation would escalate to fists being thrown, Lyle raised his hands and gestured for them to calm down.
"Relax - let me explain it to the guy first, and then we can decide what we're gonna trade."
Turning to Dean he eyed him with a knowing look as he lifted the tablet up.
"You don't know how to summon this, do you?"
He shook his head, slightly embarrassed as the heated gazes of the other 3 fell on him in exasperated annoyance.
"I told you the tablet was like a passport - well, besides vibration, another factor determines where you can travel."
Now, Lyle's eyes took a predatory glint.
There was an ineffable quality to humans - at least, the ones of the modern era. Perhaps being raised under the iron rule of the state has caused us to forget what it was like to live under natural law - happily taken by passing fancies like birds and rabbits. Alas, whether it was the material world or this one, humans found it necessary to distinguish themselves from one another and assess the measure of each man. If there was a higher, there must be a lower, and so on.
And so Lyle continued.
"In this realm - there's only one thing that can garner you the respect of another - money, talent, looks, and wealth mean nothing. As a Psychonaut, there's one measure of status that rises head and shoulders above any other metric -"
He raised his hands to gesture at the mass of boxes.
"How big your map is."