sanity is relative

I might flesh this out later, but here's the summary from Skype:

[10:53:49 PM] tirsden: hiiiii *fwop* ...wtf star wars dream on crack XD

The first dream was rather long and I barely remember any of it, but it involved zombies who passed on their disease by biting. They could also make zombies out of animals, and although the animal bites didn't make the disease contagious to a person, they were vicious and obviously getting any sort of injury doesn't help one's cause in staying un-zombified. For part of the dream I was indoors and I think underground, which was bad because zombies did better in the dark. The end of it had me and a guy who would be like the main or almost-main character in a movie (if I were the main) outside in the sunlight, with some kind of supposedly-protective circle of branches around us.

The circle was probably a good thirty or forty feet wide, so there was a good amount of room to move, and I think there was only one zombie beyond the circle at the moment but there were a lot more animals. I remember specifically a squirrel or two, and one of them managed to get into the circle and bite me on the back of my right hand (OW yes it definitely very much hurt). There was a third guy with us I think, and I was yelling at him that this circle thing wasn't keeping the bad crap out like it was supposed to and realized right around then that he'd been zombified just now. The whole thing was going to hell and I'm not really sure how it ended, but I woke up really scared and realized it had been the first nightmare of that type I'd had in quite a while (the typical scary-nightmare or horror-movie inspired thing). I was disappointed I'd gone through the whole thing without realizing it was a dream, because if I had, I could have woken myself up.

Well, I went back to sleep because I was way too tired to get up. I went almost immediately back to dreaming. I was in my (randomly dream-created) house, with my (randomly dream-created) boyfriend and family, and it was night time. I was afraid the zombies would attack, as if part of the old dream had carried on to this new dream. Suddenly my boyfriend revealed that he was one, and I ran out of the house. I remember very little of this dream and I wish I could because I'm pretty sure it was epic-scale. I eventually met up with a slightly overweight middle-age lady with a kindly face and medium-length, kinda-curly brown hair. She knew who I was, and told me that I was very important to stopping the evil.

I think I was telling her about what had happened so far, and as I was going over the beginning, the dream sort of flowed into my narrative and thus ended and started to repeat. This time I was back in my house at night where I'd started (though the house had changed) and my boyfriend was there again with my family. I think I was telling them about the first dream, as if I'd just had it or something, and I told them we needed to lock the doors and windows to make sure the zombies didn't get in because I didn't think it was just a dream. Then one of the zombies I recognized came to the front door, I could see him, and as I was freaking out I began to realize my family and boyfriend were all zombies and they were saying something like "she's not ready yet."

I'm not sure what happened to the zombie outside (I think they let him in) but he wasn't out there anymore and I ran outside to get away from them all. I ran left along the sidewalk and I remember thinking it was important I stay under the stars. I looked up and saw what looked like a yellow glow-in-the-dark sword-shaped mouse pointer in the sky pointing to a specific star, so I ran that direction (which was sort of the way I was already going, to my right a little but for the moment I was staying on the sidewalk instead of crossing the street).

An expensive black luxury sedan that I think was a BMW suddenly seemed to be swerving at me or chasing me, so I had to change directions. I silently begged the sky for more help and saw the sword was now on a star further to my left now and right on the horizon, leading me onto grass to my left that dipped down a hill and into some forest and stuff. I was still near the top of the hill as the car stopped and two black people got out, a guy and a girl, dressed nicely and I remember the guy had very short hair.

They asked me what the heck my problem was, and I forget what reason they were actually there but I begged them for a ride. They asked me where I wanted to go and I forget where I said (San Paulo?) and they were cool with that. So I got in the back seat of the car which was now for some reason a convertible, and I had a pillow in my arms when we drove right back past my house so I hugged it and looked away from the house hoping they wouldn't recognize me but at this point I knew I had red hair and I had a bad feeling they would... but we weren't chased immediately. There didn't seem to be anybody at all outside the house as I peeked back at it when we'd gone past.

The couple said they had to make a stop, which was uncomfortably only a few blocks from my house up a side street, but I had barely started telling them about the zombies and I don't think they believed me. The lady they met was going to give them some food they'd ordered, I think they'd found her through some kind of internet service. It was the lady who I had met in the first dream, the one who said I was important, but all I knew now was that she was somehow important, I just couldn't remember why. We were all out of the car as she gave the people their food, and then asked me, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

I answered something about not being sure, and she asked me what my name was. I said, "Shane..." and then it was like it was really hard to remember my last name, it was like I knew the one I had was wrong, and that there was another name I was supposed to be known by. So finally I got it out, "...Dawson" (ahahaha my brain must be taking inspiration from YouTube, even if I have wanted the name Shane for years before running across Shane Dawson). She was sort of looking at me a little funny, like she might be figuring something out, but the other people were saying we had to go now so I left with them.

A few blocks later we suddenly got rammed from behind by another car (and now our car was back to being a sedan). The guy driving finally believed about the zombies, and was wondering how they'd found us so fast. There was some dream illogic behind my response ("They're editing the video!" as if there had been video footage of us going by, and access to fully processed video feed for editing meant they... somehow had all the information they needed) and now it was a car chase.

As if this were a bad Ed Wood movie, we found ourselves in heavy city traffic in broad daylight a few moments later. The zombie car was still too close behind and now they had a large, odd tractor thing on their side as well. I kept telling the driver he needed a wide open road, this kind of car should be able to go really fast and this was totally the wrong area to try and escape in. The girlfriend of the guy agreed with me, and even suggested it might be better if I took a cab instead as those guys could drive fast.

I think we heard on the radio or something that there was an actual ghostbusting service being advertised. I asked the people if they knew about that, they didn't really but the girl drug out a phone book and handed it to me, it was supposed to be the White Pages or something, and she apologized saying it might be harder to find in there. She also gave me her cell phone to borrow, and I dialed 911 while I was looking through the book trying to figure out what the heck section ghostbusting would be under. The operator wasn't honestly sure she believed what I was trying to tell her about the zombies and all, and was fairly sure she couldn't help me. The last thing I asked her was if she had any guesses as to where the ghostbusting number would be, and she said to try the services section. Conveniently, there was such a section, and it wasn't huge.

In that section of the phone book (which was difficult to read because reading is often difficult in dreams), I finally found a page with spiritual services, a lot of occult-related stuff though too much of it seemed like it was places that just sold stuff and had fun-houses and maybe palm readings or fortune tellers if lucky. Still, that had potential and an ad I saw for a place was one I wanted to go to but wasn't sure how to get there, and was about to mention it. The girl suddenly tried handing me a very slim "phone book" that she said was the Yellow Pages with a warm, triumphant smile like it was way more what I needed... but I still wanted to go to the place where the ad was and was about to ask again.

I noticed the shops in the area we were in were a lot like the section of the phone book I'd been looking in. Then the guy said something like, "What about this place?" and suddenly he was pulled over right by that one shop I'd seen the ad for, and in the window there was a sign for "Horror House" though the windows hadn't been cleaned in a while and the whole neighborhood looked really dumpy.

Well, it was the place I wanted to go and we were sitting ducks with the zombies still too close though it seems like we'd temporarily lost them. I said sure I'd go in and begged them to please stay and wait for me in case I had to run out fast again. I grabbed Teddy (my actual teddy bear) who for some reason was in the car as if he'd been with me the whole time, but I left my purse with them as if it was somehow safer to do so (??) and also left the door open even with the zombie threat because I was that worried I'd have to run right back into the car. Also, right around this time there was another person in the back seat of the car, an Asian young lady who the dream plot just sort of threw in like she'd always been there was well.

When outside the store before this conversation, I'd seen some of the employees through the window. Now as I went into the store, the layout changed (baaad dream logic, bad) and also I no longer remember having Teddy (baaad dream edit? lol). I sort of recognized the employees (a guy and a girl in toned-down punky haircuts and stuff) and well it was the same kind of store so I just went with it. I walked past the main customers and those two employees, feeling that the help I wanted wasn't in that area, and I would know the right kind of person when I saw them... if they were there at all.

I saw a lady behind a different counter, she was older and I think she had longish light-colored hair. I could see in her eyes that she held wisdom and knowledge of the sort I was looking for, or something very close to it, so I walked up to her and said I needed help. I forget exactly how I phrased it, possibly being under attack from darkness I was afraid to talk about in public, but at the end I said, "and I'm not looking for help from 'god'" and I even used air quotes.

She nodded, seeming to understand, and then I realized she had totally vanished while I'd... stood there staring for a moment? The Asian girl from the car was now with me (she'd come to check on me I think) and I said, "Wow, she's good." I knew the older lady was going to either talk to someone before talking to me again, or was fetching someone else... possibly because she'd told me. I forget.

It was only a moment or two later that a short, elderly Asian woman walked out from a back room and guided me to go sit nearby with her on a sort of round booth-like seat without a table. I sat down with her and the other girl who was with me, and started telling her about the zombies. I really don't remember what all I said, but this all seemed to make sense to her and she was saying something back to me, I'm not sure what, but as she did so her eyes started looking past me. I looked behind me, back the way I had come, and the area there was totally obscured by almost living darkness.

The old lady got up yelling some kind of curse or something at it (I forget, words of banishment probably) and stretched out her hand. From it came a yellow-white stream of magic with a thick orange-red cord through the middle of it, and it made a long line as it struck into the darkness. A male voice said something from inside the darkness, I don't remember what it was but probably something about the futility of her standing against him. Then I could see a man in the darkness there, and I knew it was one of the zombies, but now it was like I also knew they were actually vampires. Could be that was part of the dialogue, I wish I could remember it better.

The man countered the magic with his own power (which I don't remember what it looked like), and the lady shriveled up and fell backwards, dead. The other girl by me tried to get in his way as well and I think she also either died or got zapped into unconsciousness. Then I was on the floor as well, passing out because he'd hit me with some of that power next, and as everything went dark I heard the voice of Vampire Hunter D asking a very short question. Sadly, I can't remember the question now, though I do believe it had to do with asking where I had vanished to. I realized that perhaps I had disappeared off the floor completely, perhaps with my female friend too, and maybe the lady who I had seen in the previous dream had done it? Perhaps all hope was not yet lost?

But I wouldn't find out, because then I woke up.

I was sort of myself and sort-of not, part of a team sent into a city that was crawling with zombies, trying to find the source of the problem. I remember a trashed street where we spent a lot of time fighting. We realized too late that this seemed more a suicide mission than anything else, as we were vastly outnumbered and were having to improvise weapons much too quickly as ammunition ran out. I vaguely remember the leader of our team, a blonde woman, realizing she was infected and doing some kind of heroic thing like running out into a ton of the zombies with explosives and blowing herself up. There was some vague reference to flying zombies, perhaps a genetics experiment gone very wrong, but the dream seemed to retcon that a moment later.

A lot of this is fuzzy because it was the first of several dreams involving the bio-zombie concept. The last bit of this one I remember was fleeing into a building of some sort, and another member of the team realized he'd been bitten. I think at this point there were, at the most, three or four of us. I walked right up to him with some kind of wooden stake/pole and stabbed him through the heart. He couldn't believe what I'd just done, but then he was shortly dead and the other guy(s) on the team completely agreed with how I'd handled things. Then I woke up.

I fell back asleep, and this time I was playing probably another part of the same story on a console (probably a 360 with how good the graphics were). The view on the screen was first-person perspective, and my character was part-way up a slowly-spiralling, sturdily-secured hanging staircase in an office building somewhere. A cutscene had just ended, and I was trying to pause the game because I had to talk on the phone. No matter how hard I pressed the start button, it wasn't pausing, and I was being attacked from below by a T-Rex skeleton that apparently had been animated by the zombie virus. It wasn't actually trying to bite me though, it seemed to be hellbent on head-butting me to death.

I figured the game had done this on purpose as some sort of surprise realism gimmick, so I figured I'd let myself die and reload the saved game because I was still dealing with the phone call. This seemed a lot like a boss or at least a mini-boss fight, but I noticed it wasn't hurting very much on the interface's life bar. That was a good sign, that meant when I redid the fight it should be pretty easy. Suddenly the T-Rex flopped down onto the main floor as if I'd defeated it. Apparently it only had so much fight and then the thing gave out completely. Weird.

At this point I was done with the phone call, then suddenly the game showed me the hanging supports for the stairs were coming undone (super-rust attack of doom?) and the whole thing was going to collapse. I ran off of the stairs before they fell, then wandered over to see what was up with the skeleton. It seems like there was someone else there now, some guy who was maybe a team member, and we were discussing strategy for taking this thing down if it happened again. It was also not a game anymore, but actually me (or some psuedo-version of me) and the person standing in the room with the dinosaur skeleton.

The dream rewound for a moment, as if the whole fight were happening again, except this time I had a chance to load my gun up with these large, pointed bullets that were "just the thing" for taking the dinosaur out. I think I was trying to kill it without going onto the stairs, because now I knew they had a limited duration and I wanted to see if there was anything I needed to get on the landing the stairs led to (the video game puzzle-solving concept was still in effect it seems). This bit is fuzzy, but I think I was succeeding in taking down the dino but I noticed that the second-floor-type landing had changed more into a catwalk that didn't look very stable. Then I woke up again.

I fell back asleep and this time I was an office-worker who was again sort of like myself. I knew something was wrong, thanks to all the hints from the previous dreams, but it seems like everyone on my floor had no idea and was doing the daily routine. I remember thinking maybe the virus was currently outside and hadn't gotten this far into the building. A group of ladies wanted to gossip and I blew them off because I was actually trying to find a way outside even if it was dangerous out there. Obviously staying in the city would end up a death sentence in the long run.

I was in darker offices before long and I think the zombie thing hit around then. People out in the main offices were toast, and I may have run across something myself (this bit is fuzzy yet again). I was now looking for weapons and not having much luck, but I did find a woman who wasn't infected yet, as well as a little girl. I picked the girl up and we went down a back stairway to the floor below. I remember wanting to protect the child but finding the other lady a nuisance. I woke up again.

Back to sleep, and now a sequence of elevator puzzles ensued. I was alone again, and I knew various floors of the building were badly infected. The main elevator shafts all seemed to open up in the same general area on each floor, but not all the elevators went to every floor. I remember one elevator going to the 5th, 11th, and 12th floors, and one on the 5th floor supposedly went to the 7th, 3rd and 1st. (I'm not 100% sure on the numbers but that sounds about right, considering I was keeping track of this in my head for solving the damn "puzzle." Whether I'm off or not, I'll talk about them like they are the correct floors just to avoid confusion.)

I think I was on the 5th floor when I managed to get onto the elevator that should take me down to the 1st floor, which was my target as I think it was the only one with street exits. I do remember basement numbers that I think I pressed by accident, but managed to clear with a cancel button (which of course I've never seen on an actual elevator in real-life). The elevator stopped at the 3rd floor and a guy got on who looked like Mr. Jones from Fringe. Oddly enough, the elevator now went upwards as if his priority for wanting to go up floors somehow overroad the fact that the elevator should still be going down.

Great, so now I was on the 7th floor where he got off. Somewhere in here I woke up again, and went to sleep again, not wanting to give up on this trail of interconnected dreams (I was actually enjoying them, even with the scary factor and the puzzles of illogical doom.) I was back in the office building on one of the floors a few stories up, and I was near the elevators. There was a black woman who was one of the secretaries, on some very open stairs near me, and it was a bit dark there. I think she knew something was going on, but she was going to take the stairs down and I had no interest in teaming up with her. At this point it seemed like it was gonna be a solo project for me.

By now I'd realized that I'd spent a lot of consecutive time in this building where other people were getting infected, and I wasn't. I'd even tangled with zombies and was still fine. Hmmmmm. I had a feeling that there was some reason I wasn't catching the virus, that I was somehow immune. So now I needed to escape not only to save my own skin, but possibly help make an antivirus or vaccine. Time to get crackin' on the elevators again. Plus, it seems like as soon as I had this epiphany, zombies were approaching. Yep, good time to split.

I thought the first elevator I got into was the correct one, but as I hit the button trying to get the damn door shut right now I realized there was only one number on it, and an arrow above it. The number was 75. Oh crap, I'd just gotten on the executive elevator that makes a non-stop trip to the 75th floor. Gaaaaaaah! Well, at any rate, at least the door would be shut for a while and I had time to think.

The back side of the elevator had another set of doors that was cordoned off by those easily-movable poles with a thick decorative rope between them. There was also cardboard taped over the doors. Hmm, that says "not allowed" in a major sorta way. I had my eyes on the poles themselves, and decided that since it looked like nobody could see what I was doing, I'd try to take the things apart and see if they'd make good weapons.

The pole part itself unscrewed from the top and bottom parts, and was now made of wood for some reason (pretty sure it started as metal -.-;; ). The ends were very pointy where they'd screwed into the other pieces, and it was about 2.5 feet long. Perfect. I got two of these things, though for some reason the second was shorter by about a foot. I also peeked behind the cardboard on the doors, seeing that there weren't actually doors there at all and I could watch the elevator shaft wall go by.

Right then a voice came over a speaker like somebody had been watching me; the way he talked it sounded like a security guard who was probably monitoring things from the 75th floor. There were suddenly a whole bunch of little tiny black cameras in the elevator ceiling now too. (Hey dream logic, you and I need to have a talk.) He was asking what I thought I was doing, and... yay for fuzzy memory... I think I may have said something weird was going on in the building, that it was dangerous, and I didn't even want to be on this elevator.

He was starting to respond like he didn't give a rat's ass and needed to report me and all this stuff... but not far into that he sounded like he was losing interest in the conversation, and forgetting that he'd already said part of it. Then he made this weird staticy almost-growly noise and the feed cut out. Greeeeat. The elevator started slowing down, and also for some reason it had gone from the size of a decent elevator to a rather cramped space. I pointed both my weapons towards the main doors and was sort of crammed in the back-left corner of it, ready to defend myself as needed. My main goal was going to be getting the doors closed again once they opened, and thus the elevator returning to where I'd gotten on earlier.

The doors opened, and I could only see a bit of the waiting room beyond. The lighting was very dim, and I could see a woman sitting in a chair facing away from me. There was some kind of decorative plant next to her, and I couldn't really see anything else. She was just sitting there making little odd humming noises, and I was trying desperately to get the elevator to understand that I'm hitting the damn button that indicates I would like to go somewhere else please. I think I hit it with my elbow at first while holding the weapon in that hand, then using my hand when it wouldn't cooperate. Mind you, the button is now smack in the middle of the back wall where the do-not-touch doors should have been (and no longer were).

The doors shut finally, nothing having attacked me though I knew there were bad things in that room that thankfully hadn't noticed me or hadn't gotten to me yet. As the elevator made its way back down, I made a mental note again that I still wasn't infected. Suddenly I noticed blood on the far ends of my weapons, as if I had been attacked up there but had made it through fine. There was suddenly also carpet in the elevator, so I busied myself with wiping the blood off onto it.

The last thing I remember is finally getting off the elevator of doom, and managing to get to about the 3rd floor or so. There were stairs nearby, the sort of stairs that go to all floors, and I decided that it was high time to screw the elevator puzzle and just walk to the first floor.

Then I woke up (for the last time).

All the people in this dream kept changing a lot, as in the person who they were (whether I know them from real-life or not) even if an entity representing that "character" remained in the same spot all the time. The first part I remember, it was daytime and I was wandering around and into a bunch of rundown buildings that didn't have much space and were crammed really close together. The rooms were tiny, most of them open to the air in some way, and the hallways and doors were often crooked. The general state of decay reminded me of Silent Hill and I said something about it, other people around me (tourists, apparently, like me?) also finding the place creepy. I didn't think it was creepy, I loved it, but the others didn't appreciate the reference.

Then beyond the buildings there was a field with hills and trees beyond, and a river to the left. A guy was hitting on me, but a guy that I liked came to my rescue and told the other one to beat it. I think the guy I liked actually fought him too, but logic was failing hard (as it will continue to in this dream). At least my guy won. This started getting a bit like The Island as it felt like we were going to get in trouble for being near each other for too long... except that the concept of guard-type people coming after us was mixed up with the concept of my real-life parents (how appropriate).

We decided to make a run for it, leave all that behind, and yet we weren't running... just walking quickly up the hill into the trees. There were still other people around, and the reason why we were moving kept getting mixed up with my still being a little upset about that flirty jerk we'd left behind. Like maybe he'd come after us.

There was something about the river... and I have forgotten whatever got us to the next areas. There was a bit where it was like we had gotten to the edge of an MMORPG world map, and yet we were in the world physically and it seemed real enough except for a bit of a CG-texture-over-topography effect when looking down past the edge of the world. The area we were in was large spaces of tall golden grasses and the area beyond where we could get to was very desert-like yellowed ground/rock. The place where we were had a bit of a rise, a little bit taller than us, and when you crawled up it and looked over, the chasm beyond was so incredibly wide and deep it created some serious vertigo. The other guy was really weirding out over the thing, and I remember almost clutching the ground where it was safe on the other side of the rise because the feeling of fear of heights was so incredibly strong when peering over the edge. I looked more than once.

At any rate, we knew we couldn't go any further that way. There was a bizarre moment in my head where I wondered if we could jump off and start back at our "home points" wherever the heck that was (like in World of Warcraft, and actually the edge of the map where we were reminded me a little of the Night Elf home island except the landscape type was wrong). But I didn't want to risk actually killing ourselves as that might hurt and it might not work. And damn but that was a really effin' long drop.

More is missing from what I remember, but the next bit put us in a WWII era car and it seemed to be that time period, as if it always had been. I think we'd hitchhiked or something, and then the plot changed, where the boyfriend type person didn't exist anymore and I was part of a team of possibly-American soldiers. We were in Europe (the terrain was still really dry), supposedly going to France and/or England to escape the German invasion, and we had started in southwest Europe which in the dream failed to recognize the concept of Spain completely (even the word). Anyways, I was sitting in the back right seat composing poetry on a printed sheet of something else (yeah, modern-day printout sheet in black and white and a typical ballpoint pen).

There were three others in the car, one guy in the back seat opposite me and two up front. The guy in the back with me, none of the rest of us liked him. The two others were my friends. I read the poetry out loud, it was some sarcastic thing that if read between the lines was a direct insult/slam on the guy nobody liked; he didn't get it, and it's possibly because some of the references were in-jokes with my friends. After I read it, it was like we knew he was some kind of double agent and it was actually a bad thing to have him in the car... and it was like he was somehow in control of the situation so we were all kinda screwed if we couldn't figure something out. And he thought that was impossible.

I wrote something else on the edge of the paper and showed it to the driver. Also, I was magically now in the front passenger seat. I was trying to make sure it didn't look like I was passing a message, and also be sure the driver saw it. He nodded and smirked and the other ally got the message too cuz he saw the paper and yet somehow the bad guy didn't. The bad guy was getting suspicious that we were planning something but still, he thought he had the upper hand. What I had written was something to the effect of "drive the car off a cliff?" Somehow it was like we'd survive this and he wouldn't, or it would screw up some master plan bigger than us and it'd be worth risking our own lives. Those words I had written also totally matched with something I'd inadvertently written at the end of the poem. (I wish I could remember that poem!)

So now the driver was looking for something steep to drive the car off without the bad guy noticing. This wasn't going so well, and then I'm not sure exactly what happened but there was something about a bridge, and possibly using that since it went over a steep drop, and yet the next thing I remember is we were safely in the middle of a road surrounded by fairly flat terrain. I was now in the back left seat and the driver changed as well to someone I know in real life and would rather not mention. He was one of the allies at this point though. The passenger seat held the other ally, and the bad guy and a new bad guy (which the dream just sorta decided had always been there) were sitting in the back with me.

I whispered up to the driver, something about trying to do something about our predicament. This was also the first real time where it felt like the bad guys were actual Nazis as opposed to some other nonspecific enemy. I remember the driver saying something... agreeing with my concern but not really sure we could do anything. I was left with the feeling that if I wanted to do anything, I had to do it myself. Maybe the other ally would be more open to trying something direct if I started it...

Now the driver changed to someone else from real life who I won't mention, and he was the main enemy in the car. Dream logic got really confused over who else was who at this point, but my memories focus on what I was doing so let's stick with that. I decided to try and jump the driver, grabbing his neck and partly moving over the seat so I could get more leverage. I was trying to break his neck, and it was really hard because he knew I was trying to do it. Also, dream logic gave his neck muscles more strength than any normal person should have (grrr). I may have had a moment of lucidity where I just kinda decided "okay, you're dead, let's move this dream plot on please." Either way, the next bit defaulted to him being dead or no longer an issue. My ally from the front seat I do believe managed to get whoever was in the back seat under gunpoint to help further my own ability to subdue the driver.

The car had stopped and I think I had kicked the driver out the door or something. That left one bad guy in the car, in the seat behind me, and it was, I kid you not, Hitler himself. For some bizarre reason we just told him to get out of the car. I don't think dream logic was matching up the importance of the person with the situation in which we were in. It was like he was just another one of these bizarrely-changing characters, with slightly more realistic ties to the time period. Whatever, we told his ass to bail and left him on the side of the road all dejected-like. We foiled the master plan of whatever the hell was going on in the car! YAY!

We were still worried that the bad guys would track us down, as we had this new overriding idea that we had to get back to Allied territory and be truly safe. Maybe we had some sensitive information stolen from the bad guys. Maybe it was just the fact that they'd tried to kidnap us instead of kill us, and that meant something, and even if they just flat-out killed us or recaptured us now if they caught us... uhhh, I think we wanted to live. So yeah, meanwhile, I'm the driver apparently. There are still two random allies in the car (both guys, I was the only girl in this whole segment), one in the passenger seat and one in the back.

After getting the car started again I noticed and mentioned out loud that even though we were in Europe, everyone was driving on the right side of the road and even the car we were in was American-style with the driver seat on the left. I wondered if we were in a country where this was specifically the rule, or if some weird conformity thing had hit while we were not paying attention. We thought it was funny at any rate. What was not funny was the first major intersection I came to, I realized the brake pedal didn't work! A thought flashed through my mind that this might have been an extra safety measure for the bad guys, in case we got away... we'd end up dying in a car crash or at least wrecking the car.

I knew the bad guy had stopped the car earlier though. My memory of that was very fuzzy, but I got an image of him using the emergency brake. I pulled on the handbrake and it sort-of worked. I did manage to get the car to slow down and/or stop, the next bit was just a lot of stupid dream-logic-failed driving and modern day traffic situations mixing in where they shouldn't have been. We were also trying to find a town to hide out in and rest, and that was failing badly too. I remember towns that looked like toy houses literally, or CG renderings that we obviously couldn't visit, or things like that. Also, I got an image of a map showing sort-of-Europe (if most of southwest Europe had been squished up into one small almost-island-looking thing) showing a line where we'd actually been driven by the bad guys (going east towards Axis territory, at least that part made sense) as opposed to north. So the idea was to go north, and that at least was happening.

Eventually it was getting dark and I think we were thinking we should have been getting to Vienna soon. Vienna was, magically, some sort of shipping port or something in the north of France. (Vienna is actually in Austria, quite a bit to the east of where the dream thought it was.) We still didn't seem to be in friendly territory, as apparently the Germans had taken all of France already or something. We did find a town finally that we could stop into, but it was spread all over hills and it was still kinda not making sense. I think it might even have been Vienna, but all the buildings were mostly just really small houses and there was possibly a ferry dock on the north end by the water.

It was starting to rain as I headed the car towards that north part of town and suddenly my allies were no longer in the car. The original idea seemed to have been that they were going to look for food, but then it seemed more like I'd almost misplaced them. At that same moment, what had helped me discover that they were missing was that the car wasn't a car anymore... it was a plastic-fabric duffel bag I was dragging along the ground. An empty bag. No passengers. Meanwhile I was pulling the thing up a wet, dark hill that didn't actually have a road. (Logic bailed totally. Bye logic.)

I decided to find somewhere that we all could stay, and sort of hoped that the guys would find me or I planned to go find them after securing a room. Right by where the ferry was supposed to be (more logic fail, it was possibly a bridge or a broken-down bridge at this point) was a building marked Hotel with a red neon sign. When I got in there, though, it appeared to be a very small room with some old guy in charge of it. I asked if he had a place where we could stay, and he showed me a closet in this room that was basically a broom cupboard with a simple sleeping mat or two on the floor, a barrel, and yeah, a broom. There were also rats, and he said we could brave them if we wanted to sleep there. At first I was really worried about the rats and then I think logic decided it didn't like that bit of the story, so the rats were friendly, and one of them was on the top of the barrel just being cute. (It looked like saphiresdreams new rat Blob, a black and white pattern to the fur. ♥)

Okay, fine, I decided to take the "room," and there was some issue over money (and logic related to it, I'm sure) but either way I reserved the thing. Now I had to locate my buddies, and I remember thinking maybe I could put the car lights on high-beam and blink them over towards the town (the hotel area was one of the highest points, and yes, this implies I had a real car again and not a damned empty duffel bag). But then I wondered if this would make the enemy find us too.

Then I woke up.

The beginning of this dream involved running around a hospital in which most of the people had been turned into zombies for unknown reasons. They were slower than the humans but stronger (and waaaaay more of them). Those of us who were still not-undead were trying to get everyone who was still living together, and I remember attacking a zombie with a wooden pencil and literally having an argument with it as to the fact that a wood pencil stabbed into the heart should kill it. (Dream logic forgot that this applies only to vampires.) I won the argument, the zombie died.

At one point I was alone again running from zombies who seemed a lot smarter than they should have. I could hear one of them off in the distance sort of calling out to me that he'd find me. (Most of the zombies just did the typical horror movie "raaaaaaaaaar" or whatever.)

I found myself in an empty room that had cupboards up high and I remember trying to see if I could crawl up into a cupboard as some of them seemed to open up into the ceiling-works, or I could at least maybe hide until the zombies went away. I'm not sure if this succeeded or not because the next thing I remember was arriving in the hospital lobby where the survivors were all holed up defending one spot and actually managing to hold it.

I joined the group and after a while things calmed down enough that I said some of us who knew the local area should try and go out and scavenge for things like food and weapons. I told them that everyone should at least go in pairs, and to not let each other out of their sight. I even said if the other person had to go to the bathroom their partner should stay right in the bathroom with them and plug their ears and go "LALALALALALA!" (*snicker*) ....yeah... well it was smart advice for zombie-land at any rate, if rather goofball.

There were restaurants and stores sorta near the hospital, as well as some of our homes. I went to my house with a guy and his son (the house was nothing like anywhere I've ever lived in real life). As I was looking for useful things, I turned around and saw that the son was going zombie. The father was freaking out and the son appeared to be attacking him with some kinda weird black magical bits that flew out of his eyes. I told the guy to run for it but he didn't, he seemed upset he was losing his son and I told him there wasn't anything that could be done, if he wanted to live through this himself he had to bail!

Well, he was still not listening so I ran, managed to snag a bag full of large kosher crackers in the kitchen and ran out the front door. I hadn't had time to get much else of use (I don't think I even snagged any knives in the kitchen either, faaaail). Some blonde guy who's outfit and convertible car screamed California was pulling up in the driveway, he seemed a bit lost. He also had a little girl with him in the passenger seat (there was no back seat, the font seat was all one long seat).

I asked him for a ride, meanwhile he was looking for directions and I realized he wasn't local. I said, "You mean it hasn't spread past our town yet?" And he was like, "What are you talking about?" I told him something bad was happening, people turning into zombies, and I needed to get back to the hospital fast; I could show him where to drop me off because it was close by and then he should get the heck out of Dodge.

I could tell he wasn't sure he could trust me but he had his daughter move over into the middle so I could get in, then we were driving along the main drag (that had a lot of traffic... that I knew came from out of town and just happened to come straight through and continue on). I pointed out miscellaneous zombie and people corpses and then mentioned I'd been fighting them. Suddenly he really wasn't sure he should have let me into the car, I could tell by the look on his face. I told him not to worry, and to please just go right ahead and drive up the sidewalk that led to the hospital main doors (it went in from the road a bit).

He did, and several zombies started chasing us. They were fast enough that they were really close to the car and I couldn't get out and make it to the door. I told him to drive circles, and he managed to get the brainless things to keep chasing the car but they were a little slower than it, so before long there was space enough for me to make a run for it. I made it in through the doors and as far as I know the guy drove off like a bat out of hell.

Meanwhile I reached my impromptu buddies still holed up in the lobby in the middle of another attack. I told them the virus or whatever it was that was making these zombies hadn't seemed to have spread beyond our town yet, and I think we might have thought about moving locations to somewhere safer or trying to go warn the rest of civilization...

Then I woke up.

This started as a roleplay at the forum I've been playing at lately, and the RP in question was a Dungeons & Dragons style thing. You could navigate around the dungeon by following links to different threads, and each thread had a small picture in it (in shades of light blue and white) that showed what sort of area the passage looked like. Mostly it was just maze parts, passages, choices for corners, stuff like that.

We (the other players and I) got to a point where we knew the next area was important, and I think we must have been chatting via AIM because we said we better wait for the person who was in charge of the RP (Beastiewolf, apparently) to get online because we'd need her around to run the next bit.

Then it was like I was actually in the dungeon, transformed into my character for the RP, a human version of Shane who I think was supposed to be set up like a 4th Edition D&D rogue. (The problem with that is that I made her a Tiefling for that version, with some multiclass plans in the warlock direction, but dreams don't require logic anyways.) It was like we had gone ahead without the RP-running person (logic fails again) and decided to explore the area anyways. We found one area that extended over a large pit, and in the center of the room was a round area we could get to over a flat bridge. There was something really nasty out there, possibly a minotaur but I'm not sure now. We managed to upset it and it chased the warrior (who's perspective I had for a moment as he went after it with his kickass 2-handed sword) and then it chased him down the hall and I was now on the far side of it.

I decided to keep exploring since I wasn't entirely sure where the monster or my partymate had gotten to being as it was oddly foggy in the dungeon and a bit on the dark side (hmm, weren't there more people in my party?). Elsewhere in another cave I found a bunch of kobolds and evil dwarves guarding some chests. One of the chests happened to be partly behind a rock, and I snuck over and picked the lock and managed to loot the contents (clear gems) without anyone noticing me. I even walked right straight back through the bad guys and ran off, thinking in my head "Hide In Plain Sight FTW!" (4e rogue skill lol.)

I think I managed to find my party again but I'm not sure, logic was failing so badly by that point that things were starting to merge together into subconscious soup.

Then I woke up.

I am Riddick. I wake up, finding myself in a mental hospital. Ah. Yeah. Familiar, but I'm new here. I've just been drugged after a fight with a patient. My only thought now is "I want out" and it is not nighttime yet. But no nurses or orderlies, just me in the room. I am able to leave through the door (did I break it? I think it was unlocked) and walk quickly down a hall into a room I shouldn't be allowed into. Hell, I shouldn't be allowed out of my room without supervision. They'll be looking for me any second now. This new room is all white and not unlike looking through the inside of a bunch of subway train cabins connected together somehow and there are also large bits of semi-transparent sheet plastic hanging from things. I don't like this area, the way it feels; sense danger but can't see it. Another door, move on to the next room.

This room is bigger, much bigger and all white as well. Big-time feeling of imminent doom. Something coming? Climb up on something (thought this room was mostly empty but reached the ceiling somehow... large bookshelf?). Thin pipes running along ceiling, just enough space to grab them but they don't really go convenient places. Keep trying, out of options. Can't give up now. Able to move along ceiling some, and there are emergency sprinklers here and there. Monster released into room; minotaur perhaps. Too busy trying to unscrew bits of sprinklers. Success, water all over now, careful not to slip please... able to keep grip on pipes. Ceiling getting wet too and weak enough to pull chunks out of.

Drop the refuse on the floor, hanging there by one arm and still pulling layers down. Able to pull up into crawlspace between floors; very little room. Try to find weak spot above, know I need to keep moving even though safer now. Every second counts. Succeed in finding new place to yank flooring out of; work through it only to find large stable and exercise area for mean-ass bull. It doesn't notice me at first, or it smells me but is coming towards me slow enough I can duck quickly back in hole and move along crawlspace to rip up through the floor somewhere else.

Outside now, somehow, must have found the right spot and Kyra is here. Got out a different way? Yes, Kyra's been here for a while or something; doesn't occur to me this isn't really right. No time to catch up (though we do talk, maybe others trying to escape but don't seem to have made it?)... let's move. Thought everything was okay now but then spot a sniper on a complicated fire escape; guy is one of (female) slam boss's top dogs. Run like hell across trashed-out area, dive for cover past a building but one of the shots hits me... follow Kyra over barbed-wire fence, hurting bad and pretty much fall over other side. She's trying to talk to me, seems superficial words, but now trying to help me along. Here we go, another open area between buildings and beyond that is freedom, yes? I'm suddenly dressed in leather and metal straps, and she's wearing even less (looks like chains). She has a whip I think. We are congratulating each other on escaping, she's not helping me anymore, I'm walking fine. She goes over the wall or fence here first and I follow.

Now where the hell am I? War. Everywhere. I'm in the middle of very open ground and people are dying. Not my fight, but taking fire as the enemy notices me. They don't know which side I'm on. Are some of these involved in the mental hospital? I think one side is, but this is all something much bigger now. Not what the patients are supposed to see. (Duh?) Nobody can tell who I am or what my story is. I'm just a living target on a battlefield...

Dive into a hole in the ground barely big enough for cover but it will work. Beats getting shot. Then someone is looking in the hole. It is the "good guys," they are fighting the evil that owns the mental hospital (do they even know?). They are at first cautious knowing I might not trust them. But they point out, what choice do I have? My injuries are present again, or I am noticing them again now, or I got shot again, I don't know. There is a girl, important to the leader or someone high-up, his daughter maybe? She is assigned to take me to a tent in their camp to see to my wounds. Place reminds me of desert nomads in a movie or something.

I sit on a cot and she does her thing. Bandaged now... my arm? Side? Leg? Don't really know. Just know I feel better. Much better. Woman is hot, but I want out of here. Out of all of it. I leave through the back of the tent and she doesn't stop me. Seems to understand. But now, I'm not sure what to do. In return for their services they are expecting me to do something for them? Or give them information on the place I escaped from? Do they even know a mental hospital is involved in all this? I don't care, I'm not staying here.

Then I woke up.


( dream symbol analysis and thoughts )

I was a woman character who was leaving on her honeymoon, and two generic somewhat-elderly parents were saying goodbye to me and my new husband. I'm not sure if they were my parents or his, but either way we were part of a very rich family. Then some other part of the family showed up to show off their new baby. They'd even brought the doting grandparents of the child too. The (my?) father said to the other parents/grandparents of the happy newborn that they had really rotten timing. And it did seem to me like they'd shown up to try and trump our happy event with theirs. There was an older brother of the baby, much older, he looked like Kyle from The Pretender (and for the duration of the dream, he was more or less like him in every way, except not yet a convicted murder and not a product of a secret organization; his name was Kyle in the dream). He kissed the baby, he was sort of ignoring everybody else's created drama.

I became Kyle, and was playing with the baby in a room somewhere in the house after the bride and groom had left. Suddenly the baby made this expression of horrible pain, and it put its little hands to its head. (I think it was a boy, but it felt like an "it" to Kyle-me.) I yelled for my grandfather to come over (not the same guy as possible-father-of-the-bride), but when he arrived the baby was fine again. He asked me what had happened, and I was finding it hard to describe as the image of the baby's face stayed in my mind, distacting me. But I managed to say, "It looked like it was experiencing some sort of... migraine pain." The grandfather didn't believe me for a moment until the baby did it again.

This time I could feel what the baby was feeling and I realized the baby had psychic powers or something. The grandfather believed this as well and I'm not sure what happened next (grandfather sent me away?) but the next part of the dream was me wandering around outside the house through the massive grounds (swimming pool, big garden, etc) while the party from the wedding was still going on. There were people all over, a lot of extended family. The social environment annoyed me so I decided to abandon it and go to my room.

Apparently my room was located down a flight of stairs (almost like subway stairs) near the swimming pool. There were other rooms in this subterranean living space, and I passed a bathroom where someone hadn't flushed the toilet. (The toilet paper had gold edges on it and I knew they were real gold and was somewhat annoyed at the decadence the others had chosen to splurge on.) In my bathroom was the secret entrance to my room (whoo! lol) but as I spoke the security word the tile wall remained unchanged. I figured the voice recognition software hadn't recognized me as I'd spoken the word kinda softly, so I tried again. (I had Kyle's voice of course, which after waking up struck me as really cool.)

No good... strange... I decided to use the restroom while I was there, but then got disgusted enough to decide not to (this bathroom had been trashed worse than the last one). I went back topside and wandered around the garden. Something was trying to form in my brain, a realization, one that was important and probably dangerous. I sat down on the edge of a cement and tile flooring area, and stared at the bushes and dirt and randomly-cut flagstones that made up the path going through the garden.

A lady related to me (aunt? cousin?) showed up and said hello. She mentioned something about my uncle (let's call him Fred) and someone else working on the garden that morning, tearing up the flagstones. Then she left, and the thought that had been coming now had the gaps filled in. The pipes that brought water to my room and that whole underground area ran under the flagstone path. I followed the path, looking at it carefully, and at first it seemed okay but in one area, where the pipes were, the dirt had been packed back down as if it had been disturbed and replaced. And there was even one large hole area where the flagstones had been replaced over the hole (dream logic failing badly) and I couldn't quite see the pipes down there but still...

Then guess who should show up, but uncle Fred. I was pissed off, but I kept my anger calm while I went on a rambling, true-Pretender-Kyle-style accusation. I said that he'd done something to the pipes so I'd drown and also there was something about getting skunk stuff on me (which hadn't happened in the dream proper, but as soon as I said it, it was as if it was a part of the dream's past, during the party) so I'd have to go take a shower, and there was already so much water gone into the bathrooms that were supposedly damaged by "stupid partygoers."

By the end of this my uncle was steaming mad, his face was red and his eyes were huge, his lips drawn back and I knew he was going to attack me and try to kill me here. I attacked him first, but he was really strong. I had enough to do keeping him from getting any advantage, and in the meantime I was trying to get at his head so I could snap his neck. After some struggling I did, and I snapped it one way and then the other for good measure. (Clangy Silent Hill music here, very loud and scary.) My uncle should have died but it was like he was trying to snap his head back properly now, but I tried my best to keep hold of where I wanted the dream plot to go. So Kyle-me turned away and shut his eyes, sort of having a zen moment as he stood there perfectly calm and serene. I knew I had to end the dream fast, and so Kyle opened his eyes and in real life I opened my eyes as well...

...and was quite awake.


( thoughts )

This started out feeling yaoi-ish. I was a young boy hiding in the top of a belltower in an ancient gothic church; there was just one huge bell in the top of this tower. Below I heard the evil master (of me?) and as he climbed the tower steps I hid in fear. Hiding worked, he didn't find me...

The next thing I remember is Spider Man and someone who looked a lot like the Green Goblin fighting on top of a very tall skyscraper. The villain was threatening to blow up all of New York with a nuclear bomb (and ironically I think that's where they were fighting... you'd think he wouldn't stick around for the explosion). Spidey is getting his tush kicked and escapes, and now I'm the villain and I dive off side of the building, hurtling towards the street far below. (The logical side of my brain is hoping I can fly at this point, but as I get closer to the street, I seem only adept at falling.) I manage to catch edges of decoration on the building, grabbing them just long enough to slow my descent. I arrive at street level slowly enough to not die...

...and then I become Vicky Vale (from the first Batman movie). I'm here to see a couple specific things in the city and I think take some pictures. (The logical side of me knew that this Vicky is from the past and not supposed to be in the timeline at this point; something odd must have happened in the space-time continuum. Also, Vicky and Spidey are supposed to become an item, but with time messed up, it's unclear what will happen now.) Anyways, Vicky-me stops a guy in the street to ask for directions (he looks like the reporter dude from the same Batman movie, the guy she sort-of works with).

I ask the guy where my hotel is; all I remember now of the hotel name was that it included numbers. He says it's quite a ways away, and I say, "Oh darn" and ask if he knows where some church is... I think it was called Saint Sepulchres. He's not quite sure what I'm talking about, but I see a huge, old gothic church not far past him and figure that's it (it's the same church I started the dream in). I point to it and say, "Ah, that's probably it, thanks anyways." He says goodbye but seems disappointed that I didn't stick around to talk more. It was getting quite late at this point, as the whole story began after nightfall.

I walk into the huge front doors of the church and find another copy of myself. And there's not just one... there's a bunch. They explain to me that they're all from different parts of the timeline, trying to fight the Joker who is here in the building. Some of the other-me's kick serious ass, and some are more ordinary girls like me. They're planning on trying another assault right now, as so far they've failed and it's like they're trying over and over on the same point in the timeline, but with more copies of "me" every new attempt.

I'm not really sure what the heck is going on, I just decide to go up the stairs towards the belltower (the area below the belltower gap is a large cylinder with one staircase winding up to the top). Suddenly, white sharp things made of porcelain formed into strange shapes come flying at me and I get lethally stabbed by one. Apparently this was part of the copies' plans, I was little more than cannon fodder. A few others are also slated to die while the rest try and kill the Joker. Yay, wonderful, I'm gonna die for this craziness?

Then my alarm clock woke me up.

I was a random male hero-type character in a setting similar to Pirates of the Caribbean. There was a battle against undead pirates and we won. The second time was coming up and we knew it, so I was trying to set up all the people who could help in the battle. The first battle had been at sea (which I don't remember enough of to make sense of, like any of the rest makes sense lol). For some reason we were now setting up on land inside what would have been a theater with a stage except where the stage would have been there was a thick curtain and beyond that was a narrow beach and the ocean. The curtain was open at the beginning of setup but we closed it so the enemy couldn't see us setting up. It had been daylight during the initial battle but the sun was now setting... we feared the enemy would be much stronger at night and would surely attack again soon.

There were three areas of the theater seats and they were separated by walls. I was trying to go back and forth between the areas to better organize the upcoming battle. It seemed that someone else was spreading misinformation and screwing up my plans and people weren't where they were supposed to be. Yeah, someone was definitely undermining me. There were two people in charge of two of the areas and I was in charge of the left-most section (when facing the curtain). I had a lot of trouble finding the other two people. I gave up on the other two sections because things were so bad and I knew an attack was imminent. We were on an island... it's not like the people had anywhere to run, yet they seemed vaguely disinterested in fighting, even though the pirates were interested only in killing everyone and there was no chance of them taking prisoners.

I went back to my section to find it in complete disarray. Some people were leaving and it was obvious whoever was spreading bad info had been here as well. It almost seemed like I'd have to fight most of this battle myself as everyone else looked clueless or scared enough to run for it whenever the undead pirates finally showed up. I saw a man in the crowd who looked like a cross between Will Turner and Westley from The Princess Bride. He was closer to the back of the seats and with a woman who I guessed must be his wife.

I felt bad about splitting them up, like they were there together so that they wouldn't be split up and he could protect her, but I knew this guy looked like a real fighter. He was exactly what I needed to get the edge on this battle. I told him to come with me and told his wife to stay in the back and away from the fighting. She didn't look too confident in this idea but the guy followed me and we went towards the curtain. I said to him, "Stay near me."

I hadn't planned on going past the curtain, I was going to make one last attempt to regain order among the other people but the dude with me said he had a hunch and felt it very imporant we go beyond the curtain. He took me past the curtain and there was nothing around, just moonlight water and sand. It was much calmer out here than back with all those people. It was also obvious that there weren't any bad guys around yet, but there was a dark, sinister feeling in the air and I knew whatever it was we were supposed to be discovering had better happen quickly.

Then I woke up.