Questions about Nightmares!

[Ark]

Sooo here they are:

1) From what I gather, Nightmares can cross over into the Real World and can assume human forms and hide amongst normal people, yes? Is it as easy for them to "fool" people experienced in dealing with Nightmares (such as Fighters, for example) as it would be for them to fool the layman?

2) What stops Nightmares from taking contracts -- is it only because they are not, say, "certified" and thus cannot be held accountable (since I think that's what the point of the contract is...?) if something goes wrong?

3) Would a Nightmare have an "expiry date" -- such as when the person who first created it has forgotten about it (?) -- or do they persist until they are killed?

4) Can Nightmares create other Nightmares? (Haha IDK it suddenly just occurred to me to ask...)

5) Not related to Nightmares, but to the world itself... Is there only just one Base of Operations that takes care of training people, or can a person become, say, a Fighter "free-lance" -- by just entering the Dream World and discovering her ability, or something like that? Are all Imaginers/Fighters/Navigators trained in the school? (I think what I meant to ask is: can a person up and declare herself a Fighter even if she doesn't get trained, assuming she doesn't want AWESUMWEAPONZ?)

Thanks, and apologies for the bunch of questions! >w<

[Morgan]

1. Nightmares can blend in easily as Fighters on their own, so yes. They can 'fool' Fighters, but they just have to keep in mind the consequences of the Fighters in question finding out, and that's a sliding scale of 'Mild Acceptance' and 'Run Away NOW'. XD

2. Nothing stops them from taking contracts. There's as much danger taking one with a group of Real people than there is in taking one with Nightmares disguised as Real people-- it's all a matter of character.

3. Their expiry date isn't when their creator(s) forgets about them, it's when everyone does. Nightmares survive by the existence of the emotion/concept that brought them about. The application for Tyler Imaire is a good example: he came into existence when the first couple broke up, and his existence is based off of causing couples to break up. Also, he's really really old.

So, Nightmares can outlive their own creator(s), but they're pretty much biologically immortal as long as someone believes that they can exist or the concept that created them is still happening (it can happen naturally or the Nightmare itself can cause it to happen). Or they're killed by force.

4. They can feed other Nightmares that already exist, but they can't create them. When they're at the stage where they can, they're no longer Nightmares themselves.

5. There is only one School that trains people and one Base to work for, but the School doesn't train all the people and not everyone works at the Base. There are loads of freelance Dreamwalkers out there that don't work with the Base and do their own thing out there in the 'Scape, or that are self taught and don't attend the specific class for their, uh, Class. Some people sign up anyway because it's 'easier'. And Fighters can totally just make their own Awesome Weapon of Awesomeness. >:3

No apologies necessary. I'm glad you're curious about the setting. >w<