ChildrenOfChildren:The Touched

--The Touched-- These days, there are children being born who took refuge in the safe places in the Dream-Realm, and have an... understanding... with some of the less vicious aliens. This is particularly likely to happen to the children of ANIMa (or Anti Exo Morph-Psychic Construct, or Nightmare Wave-Form Emulator, or other names, as following the success of the Treasure Island Resistance, independent Resistances with different terminology popped up all over - though most were brutally destroyed before they had a chance to make a difference) Pilots who flew missions while pregnant - unlike Sara, who felt safe in taking maternity leave in the three-four years of relative peace following the Battle of Darkside.

Some people with a more mystical bent call them Changelings: most call them the Nightmare-Touched, or the Dream-Touched, or just the Touched. They tend to have very slightly opalescent, translucent skin, or drow-like hues of red, purple and blue - and vivid hair-colors that are normally impossible for humans. White, gold, a deep blue or purple... in short, they look the way most people assume that the People at the End of the World in Polaris look. XD

The Touched, while they sleep and dream, have demonstrated a limited ability to shape the dreaming. Nowhere near as powerful as the shattering illusions of the aliens, of course, but they could pull the ground up and use it as a make-shift cloak, or eat the fruit in the Castro to temporarily stave off IRL hunger. For this reason, they make good Pilots and, as Lily has proven, Anchors.

There is a growing unease between the Touched and untouched humans who assume, rightly or wrongly, that they must be quislings, traitors, or worse and tend towards 'Nightmare-Touched': there are others who believe them to be blessed with a superior understanding of the dream-realm and the aliens and tend towards Dream-Touched. The Touched (or rather, the Touched who assume that both theories are flawed at best), on the other hand, maintain that they are as normal as, say, an anemic child in a country stricken by malaria.