[ It could've gone either way, with Asriel: grim belief or the eyeroll and sigh. He prefers the eyeroll. John, who hasn't expected anyone to get his references for ten thousand years and still hasn't adjusted to the change, waves off the concept of movies wholesale. ]

That's the worst or the funniest thing about them, depending on perspective. They really seem to get a kick out of human clichés. The way I've heard it told, Julia read stories, and dreamed up some of her own, and so she started dragging in monsters and heroes from all worlds to this one.

[ He pauses, wobbles a hand. ] Sort of this one. That's why they call us Sleepers. She slept here in reality, and we - the old guard, anyway, the earlier cohort, which I was lucky to miss out on - had to walk in her dreams, dodging old clichés and scraps of bad memory.

[ John's expression has gone wry and distant again, in the way of a personal joke or something quietly significant. ]

All the while, this world decayed to match her nightmares, and the rest of the Pthumerians came piling in. If you want my take? That kid was a terraforming device. Brilliant piece of magic, but, you know, pretty sad.