Form TP-1: Application for a Temporary Permit (Dreamwalking)

The applicant agrees to abide by the Department’s regulations from here on out, acknowledges receipt of the regulations whether or not the applicant has read them, and accepts that nobody has read all of them. Answers are used to suggest an office of the Hotel and are not kept by the Department, which has enough paper. Complete in pencil.

1. 1. You arrive in a world you have never seen before. What do you do first?

   Count the exits.Find out who keeps the records here.Look for anyone who is hurt.Watch which way the weather is moving.
2. 2. A door in the Hotel is locked, and nothing on it says why.

   Try the handle.Knock, and wait to be let in.Ask at the desk who holds the key.Leave it shut. Not every door needs opening.
3. 3. On the wall, a world is labelled peripheral concerns. You ask:

   What does the label mean for the people who live there?When did anyone last look at it?What will it look like in ten years?How do I get there?
4. 4. Two travellers are arguing at the desk over one room.

   Step between them and lower the temperature.Find a second room.Check whose name went down first.Show them both how the booking works, so it doesn’t happen again.
5. 5. You are handed a book of regulations that nobody has finished reading.

   Read the first page properly.Read the last page first, to see where it’s going.Ask someone who has used it to show you what matters.Put it under your arm and get on with it.
6. 6. A storm is coming in over a world you are visiting.

   Get everyone indoors.Note which houses will need help afterwards.Read the sky for how long it will last.Stay out and see it properly.
7. 7. In a strange world, a guard is pointing something at you.

   Show your empty hands.Keep the door behind you open for the others.Watch their eyes, not the thing.Stand your ground.
8. 8. You may take one thing from the lost-property shelf.

   A white flag, folded small.A ledger with half its pages blank.A jar of something that heals.A lamp.
9. 9. At the end of a long shift at the desk:

   Check the board one more time.Look over tomorrow’s arrivals.Make sure the next shift knows what you know.Settle any quarrel before you go.

The pencil marks in the margin sort your answers, as the hooks in the margins of Tom’s books did.