Stefan looks down at himself, running the palms of his hands over the unfamiliar fabric of the vest, eying the medical bag sitting at his feat. Brother. He... looked like River's brother, sometimes? He'd suspected she had family, but he'd never bothered to inquire. There was something about asking that seemed out of place, that he always felt he should wait on whenever the desire to ask struck him. A brother made sense, and Stefan's intrigued (as well as touched, and had River not had her back to him for the moment he directed a softer, fonder look in her direction, she would've seen it, too) by the notion of a brother, as well as what the medical bag means. Was her brother a doctor? River had read his journals, knew all about the early years; she would've known he had wanted to be a doctor, once upon a time. Was his dream profession her brother's actual one, or was this just River paying mind to that wish of his?

The tiger catches his attention, the eyes, the voice-- And Stefan's eyes widen when he realize it's speaking to him in Katherine's voice, uttering words he hears not only in his memories, but during his couplings with his sire, as well. "Sweet, steadfast Stefan," the tiger croons, the phrase something often spoken to him in heated whispers these days. He flinches at the sound and tries to weave the tiger away, to change the dream into something else.

The animal doesn't budge, doesn't change. He doesn't understand why he can't do it, but his subconscious - or perhaps hers - does.

Again, the tiger speaks, providing him with an answer in Katherine's voice. "Don't you know that rules are meant to be broken?"

Stepping into the mind of a psychic meant bending the rules of traditional dream walking.