The only part I remember clearly is described below. Everything else either led to or thoroughly explored the aftermath of this event.
I was part of a team of 3 scientists who were abruptly taken into captivity. We were trapped in a tiny room with a single shelf high up. All we had were a few test tubes we had grabbed right before being taken and a glass tank holding three modified gerbils. The gerbils represented all the progress we'd made so far. As long as we kept them alive, there was hope for our research.
One of the scientists drank a concoction that shrank him down to smaller-than-gerbil size. We put him in the cage at his request. He did what he could to improve the gerbil's condition. But the people holding us were not feeding us, and things were starting to go downhill. The gerbils were going to starve to death if things continued.
I remember myself and the other scientist sitting against the wall looking up at a shelf in the wall on which the tank was placed. We saw the tiny scientist prick his arm and place a drop of blood on the mouth of one of the gerbils. "What are you doing?" We shouted. "If they smell blood on you they'll go crazy!"
But the scientist had already taken leave of his senses. He managed another drop of blood on another gerbil. Because of his small size, even a drop really drained him. The hungry freak-of-nature gerbils were getting worked up into a blood frenzy. The other scientist and I stood and tried to open the glass tank to get our colleague out. We were screaming at him to run, but he seemed to think he was perfectly safe.
The gerbils attacked him suddenly and devoured him down to the bones.
Porcelain Portal
This is the last part of a lengthy, detailed, and chaotic dream.
I was infiltrating a large area at night for reasons I'm not sure. No one liked me. There was a massive crowd; the government was holding a feast for all the citizens (but I wasn't invited). The main feast area was raised up on poles like a house in a flood-prone area - but it was so big (like a giant multi-story warehouse) that the poles were actually a matrix of steel girders.
I found myself at the front of the room in the banquet hall. There were rows consisting of 4 long tables covered in spotless white tablecloths. Hungry citizens sat at each table with their forks raised. I was trying to blend in and the government thought I was a servant. I found myself serving a pea-and-carrot casserole, alternating back and forth down my row and scooping it on the nearest plate. There were other servants skittering about serving food too but there was no system; the servants were all terrified and moving too fast. The citizens got disgruntled and started shouting at us and soon the entire room was in chaos.
There was a grumpy older citizen who was rude to me and almost ratted me out to the government.
After the casserole, I did a line of buttery rolls. Every time I got into a groove, scooping back and forth at each table, I would bump into another servant. Soon I was confused and having to stop and look around and figure out who I hadn't served yet. The citizens were all really upset that they didn't have their food. The ones in the back of the room were picky about where I put the roll - not next to the steak, or please on top of the casserole. I was overwhelmed and knew that it was only a matter of time before the government soldiers realized I didn't belong.
Then the rude older citizen pulled me aside. He was going to help me infiltrate deeper! This was a huge surprise to me. He said he had a contact on the inside, and that he was going by the name "Alias." When he said that - just for that instant - I felt like my dream had an audience and they were all laughing at what a stupid code name Alias was.
I followed the citizen out of the banquet hall and we climbed precariously down the steel girders, dropping onto platforms below. It was like descending the Eiffel Tower on a rainy night with no stairs, ladders, or elevators. Finally we hit a large sheltered platform with a door leading into a smaller building area (still part of the banquet hall structure, but further down and smaller). The citizen landed on the platform soon after holding a nightstick. The end was spiky and glowing with electricity.
A voice whispered on the other side of the door. "Alias?" It was incredibly quiet.
The citizen. "Yeah. It's him."
The door opened and the citizen led me down a short walkway, giving me confusing directions about what to do next. Then he opened a door at the end and thrust me in. I found myself in a large theater-style room, with raised seats on one side and a stage in the left corner of the room. The entire room was made of bright white porcelain and illuminated by glaring fluorescent lights. Where the theater seats should have been, there were a variety of robotic turrets reminiscent of the ones in portal. All the objects inside the room were white porcelain as well.
This was a test chamber of some kind - but I had no platforming skills or portal guns. The turrets all started shooting at me and I ran onto the stage, where there was a small wall made of dominoes. It wouldn't last for long under the withering fire of the turrets - some of which had rockets or laser guns. The turrets seemed very intelligent, as if they had their own unique personalities.
Inside the wall of dominoes were several objects, which were apparently the tools I had to use to beat the test chamber. I grabbed the first - a white microphone. The moment I touched it it turned on and my breathing became audible through big speakers throughout the theater. I couldn't think of anything to say. I felt a tangible sense of danger at the thought of more turret fire (which is rare for me; I don't feel like I usually feel fear of injury in my dreams). I dropped the microphone. The turrets were all muttering and watching the wall, waiting.
Careful to keep my head down, I grabbed the next object. It was an old-school plunger - a detonator for dynamite. The handle was a 4-pronged porcelain claw. I reached for it with a deep sense of dread, knowing that it would blow up most of the turrets; maybe all of them and myself as well. I had just made up my mind to press the claw down when my alarm went off.
I was infiltrating a large area at night for reasons I'm not sure. No one liked me. There was a massive crowd; the government was holding a feast for all the citizens (but I wasn't invited). The main feast area was raised up on poles like a house in a flood-prone area - but it was so big (like a giant multi-story warehouse) that the poles were actually a matrix of steel girders.
I found myself at the front of the room in the banquet hall. There were rows consisting of 4 long tables covered in spotless white tablecloths. Hungry citizens sat at each table with their forks raised. I was trying to blend in and the government thought I was a servant. I found myself serving a pea-and-carrot casserole, alternating back and forth down my row and scooping it on the nearest plate. There were other servants skittering about serving food too but there was no system; the servants were all terrified and moving too fast. The citizens got disgruntled and started shouting at us and soon the entire room was in chaos.
There was a grumpy older citizen who was rude to me and almost ratted me out to the government.
After the casserole, I did a line of buttery rolls. Every time I got into a groove, scooping back and forth at each table, I would bump into another servant. Soon I was confused and having to stop and look around and figure out who I hadn't served yet. The citizens were all really upset that they didn't have their food. The ones in the back of the room were picky about where I put the roll - not next to the steak, or please on top of the casserole. I was overwhelmed and knew that it was only a matter of time before the government soldiers realized I didn't belong.
Then the rude older citizen pulled me aside. He was going to help me infiltrate deeper! This was a huge surprise to me. He said he had a contact on the inside, and that he was going by the name "Alias." When he said that - just for that instant - I felt like my dream had an audience and they were all laughing at what a stupid code name Alias was.
I followed the citizen out of the banquet hall and we climbed precariously down the steel girders, dropping onto platforms below. It was like descending the Eiffel Tower on a rainy night with no stairs, ladders, or elevators. Finally we hit a large sheltered platform with a door leading into a smaller building area (still part of the banquet hall structure, but further down and smaller). The citizen landed on the platform soon after holding a nightstick. The end was spiky and glowing with electricity.
A voice whispered on the other side of the door. "Alias?" It was incredibly quiet.
The citizen. "Yeah. It's him."
The door opened and the citizen led me down a short walkway, giving me confusing directions about what to do next. Then he opened a door at the end and thrust me in. I found myself in a large theater-style room, with raised seats on one side and a stage in the left corner of the room. The entire room was made of bright white porcelain and illuminated by glaring fluorescent lights. Where the theater seats should have been, there were a variety of robotic turrets reminiscent of the ones in portal. All the objects inside the room were white porcelain as well.
This was a test chamber of some kind - but I had no platforming skills or portal guns. The turrets all started shooting at me and I ran onto the stage, where there was a small wall made of dominoes. It wouldn't last for long under the withering fire of the turrets - some of which had rockets or laser guns. The turrets seemed very intelligent, as if they had their own unique personalities.
Inside the wall of dominoes were several objects, which were apparently the tools I had to use to beat the test chamber. I grabbed the first - a white microphone. The moment I touched it it turned on and my breathing became audible through big speakers throughout the theater. I couldn't think of anything to say. I felt a tangible sense of danger at the thought of more turret fire (which is rare for me; I don't feel like I usually feel fear of injury in my dreams). I dropped the microphone. The turrets were all muttering and watching the wall, waiting.
Careful to keep my head down, I grabbed the next object. It was an old-school plunger - a detonator for dynamite. The handle was a 4-pronged porcelain claw. I reached for it with a deep sense of dread, knowing that it would blow up most of the turrets; maybe all of them and myself as well. I had just made up my mind to press the claw down when my alarm went off.
Running out of Air
This next dream was one of constant, gradual evolution. As described it will feel like many different dreams; but it was experienced as a single dream that changed so slightly that I never realized it had changed. In the dream I accepted each change; looking back while awake I can see the absurdity.
I was an American soldier taking part in an invasion. For what seemed like an hour I fought from street to street and room to room of an old city as tanks, rockets, and grenades blasted holes in everything that stood up. I was regularly barraged by bricks. I used intelligent infantry tactics like suppressing fire and flanking. It all got very involved. George W. Bush was president and he was leading the attack from the front with a revolver.
Eventually I found myself in another part of the city, far ahead of the attacking line. The dream morphed and I was moving in, along with many people from my present and past. I had sit-down conversations with many of them. We were all very optimistic about our new lives in the city.
But the dream kept morphing. The city became more and more like a massive english manor and surrounding gardens. We were all walking around in the gardens, but one by one people started dying. I was a detective trying to figure out why they were dying. At one point I saw two people playing frisbee. They suddenly put their hands on their knees, then fell down with their hands reaching out for something. By the time I reached them they were dead.
I finally discovered that they were suffocating! There was some sort of draft that was sucking the air out of an area and causing sudden, rapid death. But before I could find out more, the manor had become a home for the greatest live-action roleplayers in the world. I stood under a bridge talking to a group of them. Then Roleplayer Magazine came out, and on the cover was the roleplayer of the year. It was one of the people I was talking to. I was hurt that I had not won - in the dream I was an active LARPer. Liz Lemon from 30 Rock looked at the magazine as the winner jumped up and down in celebration. She was skeptical too and commented that he wasn't even cute.
I was an American soldier taking part in an invasion. For what seemed like an hour I fought from street to street and room to room of an old city as tanks, rockets, and grenades blasted holes in everything that stood up. I was regularly barraged by bricks. I used intelligent infantry tactics like suppressing fire and flanking. It all got very involved. George W. Bush was president and he was leading the attack from the front with a revolver.
Eventually I found myself in another part of the city, far ahead of the attacking line. The dream morphed and I was moving in, along with many people from my present and past. I had sit-down conversations with many of them. We were all very optimistic about our new lives in the city.
But the dream kept morphing. The city became more and more like a massive english manor and surrounding gardens. We were all walking around in the gardens, but one by one people started dying. I was a detective trying to figure out why they were dying. At one point I saw two people playing frisbee. They suddenly put their hands on their knees, then fell down with their hands reaching out for something. By the time I reached them they were dead.
I finally discovered that they were suffocating! There was some sort of draft that was sucking the air out of an area and causing sudden, rapid death. But before I could find out more, the manor had become a home for the greatest live-action roleplayers in the world. I stood under a bridge talking to a group of them. Then Roleplayer Magazine came out, and on the cover was the roleplayer of the year. It was one of the people I was talking to. I was hurt that I had not won - in the dream I was an active LARPer. Liz Lemon from 30 Rock looked at the magazine as the winner jumped up and down in celebration. She was skeptical too and commented that he wasn't even cute.
Comic Book Space Boy
When the dream began, I was a spectator watching a 2D animated movie. As it went on, I identified with the boy more and more and the art style became more and more realistic.
A father and son were travelling on a ship in a storm. The ship was carrying advanced technology. When the ship began to sink, they got into a rocket ship and escaped down into the water. The ship was clunky, top heavy, and lacked any aerodynamics. It wasn't designed for water travel.
In the greenish water of the ocean, they found an underwater base of an organization trying to get to the moon. The father and son eagerly asked to be taken along but were refused, so they took their rocket ship and got there first.
The next thing I remember is seeing the organization's ship sucking the moon into its giant frontal maw. Within seconds, the moon was completely and permanently gone. The ship turned to go back to earth but the boy was standing in their way.
At this point, I had a sense of self with the boy and the cartoon style had faded into realism.
Earth had a ring like Saturn, and I was standing on it. I had used some sort of power/technology power to phase out earth. The result: the planet and I were mostly transparent. We were faintly visible, but nothing could hit us because we were primarily in another dimension.
The phase out foiled the plans of the organization and they left to another part of space.
I went down to the organization's primary headquarters, which were built with each story like a stair step into a mountain. It had many, many stories. I was supposed to meet someone alone at the top story so I took the long, diagonal elevator up. To my surprise, I found a host of people at that story - none from the organization. They had all moved in now that the organization was defeated. The top story was a hall of hotel rooms with no doors. Everyone was taking showers and singing loudly.
I went from room to room trying to find the person I was supposed to meet. The top story got darker and darker as I went until I felt like I was being smothered in a green gloom. I found a few of my real-world brothers and a real-world non-biological sister (whom I will call Alena). But not my appointment.
There was a wedding beginning outside the building, so I took the elevator back down, bewildered. Then I woke up.
A father and son were travelling on a ship in a storm. The ship was carrying advanced technology. When the ship began to sink, they got into a rocket ship and escaped down into the water. The ship was clunky, top heavy, and lacked any aerodynamics. It wasn't designed for water travel.
In the greenish water of the ocean, they found an underwater base of an organization trying to get to the moon. The father and son eagerly asked to be taken along but were refused, so they took their rocket ship and got there first.
The next thing I remember is seeing the organization's ship sucking the moon into its giant frontal maw. Within seconds, the moon was completely and permanently gone. The ship turned to go back to earth but the boy was standing in their way.
At this point, I had a sense of self with the boy and the cartoon style had faded into realism.
Earth had a ring like Saturn, and I was standing on it. I had used some sort of power/technology power to phase out earth. The result: the planet and I were mostly transparent. We were faintly visible, but nothing could hit us because we were primarily in another dimension.
The phase out foiled the plans of the organization and they left to another part of space.
I went down to the organization's primary headquarters, which were built with each story like a stair step into a mountain. It had many, many stories. I was supposed to meet someone alone at the top story so I took the long, diagonal elevator up. To my surprise, I found a host of people at that story - none from the organization. They had all moved in now that the organization was defeated. The top story was a hall of hotel rooms with no doors. Everyone was taking showers and singing loudly.
I went from room to room trying to find the person I was supposed to meet. The top story got darker and darker as I went until I felt like I was being smothered in a green gloom. I found a few of my real-world brothers and a real-world non-biological sister (whom I will call Alena). But not my appointment.
There was a wedding beginning outside the building, so I took the elevator back down, bewildered. Then I woke up.
Fake Hitler
A friend was speaking in front of a group of Christians. We wanted to challenge them to think beyond just using Christianese lingo so we used a script from a Hitler speech which used such lingo.
We were sitting in a dark amphitheater with several hundred people. As the speaker spoke from the script, a screen would show lines that the audience was supposed to shout back. At first it was just a few people who knew what was going on, but soon the entire audience caught on. In a few minutes, the whole room was leaping to its feet with arm extended and shouting the lines required.
Then, one by one, the audience began to realize what was happening and filing out. The fake Hitler started talking about people the Reich was trying to apprehend. I remembered one of these people from earlier in the dream, which involved an outdoor maze of some kind.
With every passing moment Hitler was becoming more real. There were now armed guards at the doors and Nazi flags hanging on the walls. I was morphing into a mid-level Nazi officer whose loyalty was in question. I wanted to keep my family safe. So I went down to the front and reported the man the Nazis were looking for (which seems like a terrible move now, in my waking hours. At the time I had no perception of choice).
One of the Nazi officers said "If this man is innocent, your whole family will be killed."
Me: "And if he's guilty?"
Officer: "The Reich no longer has a use for you. You will be forced to join the army, then accept a mission with 100% chance of death."
I went back to row. For the rest of the dream I was unable to speak. I heard a friend say: "That's ridiculous. You'd look awful carrying a spear." Other friends and family were touching me and saying sympathetic things.
Later I was in a bi-plane flying over picturesque landscape. I was on the way to my suicide mission. I had a wingman who didn't know about my sentence. I knew he had been sent to observe, that way the nazis knew I had died. Even in the dream, it seemed odd to me that everyone was flying WW I planes during WW II.
After we got over allied territory, I released a white banner behind my plane. I was hoping to defect peacefully. My wingman started yelling at me over the radio. Then, out of nowhere, the legendary Flying Circus appeared. They were all flying bright red Fokker Dr.Is - the classic red baron plane. They promptly started gunning away at me. I flew evasively but there were no allies in sight and I was being targeted by a whole squadron of aces.
When my plane was within an inch of destruction, my wingman screamed at the Flying Circus people to back off and let him end it. They flew away and the wingman dropped into the kill zone behind me. He urged me one last time to come back to the Reich. I still did not reply. I heard him weeping as he squeezed the trigger.
Later I saw a battlefield covered with Nazi and allied bodies. My body had apparently fallen into it from my wrecked plane. I saw people burying the bodies but there was no one I knew. I felt a deep sadness that I couldn't be a part of anyone's lives anymore. I wondered what they were doing now, and if they would be safe.
We were sitting in a dark amphitheater with several hundred people. As the speaker spoke from the script, a screen would show lines that the audience was supposed to shout back. At first it was just a few people who knew what was going on, but soon the entire audience caught on. In a few minutes, the whole room was leaping to its feet with arm extended and shouting the lines required.
Then, one by one, the audience began to realize what was happening and filing out. The fake Hitler started talking about people the Reich was trying to apprehend. I remembered one of these people from earlier in the dream, which involved an outdoor maze of some kind.
With every passing moment Hitler was becoming more real. There were now armed guards at the doors and Nazi flags hanging on the walls. I was morphing into a mid-level Nazi officer whose loyalty was in question. I wanted to keep my family safe. So I went down to the front and reported the man the Nazis were looking for (which seems like a terrible move now, in my waking hours. At the time I had no perception of choice).
One of the Nazi officers said "If this man is innocent, your whole family will be killed."
Me: "And if he's guilty?"
Officer: "The Reich no longer has a use for you. You will be forced to join the army, then accept a mission with 100% chance of death."
I went back to row. For the rest of the dream I was unable to speak. I heard a friend say: "That's ridiculous. You'd look awful carrying a spear." Other friends and family were touching me and saying sympathetic things.
Later I was in a bi-plane flying over picturesque landscape. I was on the way to my suicide mission. I had a wingman who didn't know about my sentence. I knew he had been sent to observe, that way the nazis knew I had died. Even in the dream, it seemed odd to me that everyone was flying WW I planes during WW II.
After we got over allied territory, I released a white banner behind my plane. I was hoping to defect peacefully. My wingman started yelling at me over the radio. Then, out of nowhere, the legendary Flying Circus appeared. They were all flying bright red Fokker Dr.Is - the classic red baron plane. They promptly started gunning away at me. I flew evasively but there were no allies in sight and I was being targeted by a whole squadron of aces.
When my plane was within an inch of destruction, my wingman screamed at the Flying Circus people to back off and let him end it. They flew away and the wingman dropped into the kill zone behind me. He urged me one last time to come back to the Reich. I still did not reply. I heard him weeping as he squeezed the trigger.
Later I saw a battlefield covered with Nazi and allied bodies. My body had apparently fallen into it from my wrecked plane. I saw people burying the bodies but there was no one I knew. I felt a deep sadness that I couldn't be a part of anyone's lives anymore. I wondered what they were doing now, and if they would be safe.
The Three Factions
This is the last part of a lengthy, detailed dream, most of which I don't remember.
There were three factions on a planet. I looked down on the planet and saw that their land was more or less evenly divided as three wide north-south strips. Though the actual factions were very different, they had the names of the playable races from Sins of a Solar Empire - TEC, Advent, and Vasari. The TEC were human, and they had a vast space fleet. I was making a documentary about their war with the Vasari. Though their ships were real, I was using hyper-realistic CGI to show the ships, cutting back to real interviews with people on board. The ships were almost indescribably massive - many were basically floating continents. I showed comparatively smaller ships flying out of a hangar the size of Nevada.
Later, I learned that a friend of mine had been accepted by the Vasari to learn their ways. At this point I was watching loosely from the body of a middle-aged woman. I had some sense of self in her but she wasn't me. The woman was begging the young man not to go, even as he went. He landed on the Vasari territory, and to my surprise it was lush and green. An old woman with a hood came and started preparing him for the transition - mostly covering him with beads and muttering. "I" kept begging him not to do this, reminding him how evil the Vasari were.
The old woman opened a hole in a massive tree that reached up into the sky. Bark and termites poured out. Then she climbed in, wrapped her arms around my friend, and pulled him in. "I" leaned in, saw the darkness and smelled the rotting wood. I begged him one last time not to go. He said it was too late for him, and asked me to come with him. Then there was another weird old lady humming, ready to take me into the tree too. I hesitated. I felt deep down inside that I should go into the tree, but I also knew that the un-self part of me wouldn't do it. I sadly said goodbye.
Later I saw Dane Cook standing on the top of a skyscraper in a TEC city. I had a similar sense of shared self with him, though I watched him from a distance of about thirty feet. Soon he was wanted by the police; he leapt from building to building to evade them. Whenever helicopter-borne cameras were on him, I saw the chase as live action. When I didn't, the news casters approximated the chase with CGI, which was always precisely accurate to the actual course taken.
Dane Cook kept running; sometimes he was surrounded on all sides but he always found a way to evade. Then part of a building gave way near the edge of the city and he slid down, grabbing onto things for support. They collapsed too, and down and down he went in a gently broken free fall. Soon he was nearly at the bottom of the building, decidedly outside the city. The lights and sounds had faded away. A woman's voice in the blackness called for help. About this time, I felt complete selfness in Dane's body.
I slid down the rest of the building searching for the sound, though I had a sinking feeling I knew what I would find. There was a river between dark trees with a soft, warm glow. A woman was standing in it weeping. I waded out and saw that the river didn't have water, it had balsam wood statues of people. I then knew I was in Advent territory. The woman was crying because the balsam statues had been her friends; they had been turned into wood. I couldn't think of a way to help her.
Later, the sun came up and I was in an Advent village. The Advent were also completely human. They reminded me of the Lakota Sioux, living in tipis and being totally horse-crazy. There were magnificent horses everywhere. This struck me as odd considering they were a space-faring race. I had been accepted as an Advent warrior. I mounted up and the chief shouted that we were attacking a church.
Just as we were about to head out, one of the women shouted: "How many captives?" And the chief's son said: "You're right. To keep our honor, we must each take six captives. Perhaps even six and a half." Then we rode, in a chaotic and glorious mass of horseflesh and half-naked warrior.
We surrounded a classsic little white church and burst into the doors. The people inside were stereotypical pioneers. I immediately went to the back and selected six people. I herded them onto side pews. Within seconds, the entire congregation was held captive.
For some reason, we couldn't ride out of the church yet. We had to wait for something. I explained to my captives that if any tried to escape, I would kill someone left behind. They seemed appropriately terrified.
Many of the women from the village arrived and sat around on pews talking. I felt the captives growing restless, and at the same time more and more familiar. Then one of them disappeared when I turned my back and I knew who he was - one of my interp kids. The others said he had a canoe.
I pounded out of the church onto a wide rolling hill. I knew that the canoe meant going downhill so I urged my horse that way. I saw three canoes in the river. I went faster and faster then leapt into the water and used my momentum to carry me ot the first canoe. I knocked the rider off and spun around in front of the other two. Night was falling.
It was my kid and his older brother. I shouted at them: "Did you not believe me when I said I would kill you?" They weren't taking me seriously. I worried about the other captives unattended at the top. Then I woke up.
There were three factions on a planet. I looked down on the planet and saw that their land was more or less evenly divided as three wide north-south strips. Though the actual factions were very different, they had the names of the playable races from Sins of a Solar Empire - TEC, Advent, and Vasari. The TEC were human, and they had a vast space fleet. I was making a documentary about their war with the Vasari. Though their ships were real, I was using hyper-realistic CGI to show the ships, cutting back to real interviews with people on board. The ships were almost indescribably massive - many were basically floating continents. I showed comparatively smaller ships flying out of a hangar the size of Nevada.
Later, I learned that a friend of mine had been accepted by the Vasari to learn their ways. At this point I was watching loosely from the body of a middle-aged woman. I had some sense of self in her but she wasn't me. The woman was begging the young man not to go, even as he went. He landed on the Vasari territory, and to my surprise it was lush and green. An old woman with a hood came and started preparing him for the transition - mostly covering him with beads and muttering. "I" kept begging him not to do this, reminding him how evil the Vasari were.
The old woman opened a hole in a massive tree that reached up into the sky. Bark and termites poured out. Then she climbed in, wrapped her arms around my friend, and pulled him in. "I" leaned in, saw the darkness and smelled the rotting wood. I begged him one last time not to go. He said it was too late for him, and asked me to come with him. Then there was another weird old lady humming, ready to take me into the tree too. I hesitated. I felt deep down inside that I should go into the tree, but I also knew that the un-self part of me wouldn't do it. I sadly said goodbye.
Later I saw Dane Cook standing on the top of a skyscraper in a TEC city. I had a similar sense of shared self with him, though I watched him from a distance of about thirty feet. Soon he was wanted by the police; he leapt from building to building to evade them. Whenever helicopter-borne cameras were on him, I saw the chase as live action. When I didn't, the news casters approximated the chase with CGI, which was always precisely accurate to the actual course taken.
Dane Cook kept running; sometimes he was surrounded on all sides but he always found a way to evade. Then part of a building gave way near the edge of the city and he slid down, grabbing onto things for support. They collapsed too, and down and down he went in a gently broken free fall. Soon he was nearly at the bottom of the building, decidedly outside the city. The lights and sounds had faded away. A woman's voice in the blackness called for help. About this time, I felt complete selfness in Dane's body.
I slid down the rest of the building searching for the sound, though I had a sinking feeling I knew what I would find. There was a river between dark trees with a soft, warm glow. A woman was standing in it weeping. I waded out and saw that the river didn't have water, it had balsam wood statues of people. I then knew I was in Advent territory. The woman was crying because the balsam statues had been her friends; they had been turned into wood. I couldn't think of a way to help her.
Later, the sun came up and I was in an Advent village. The Advent were also completely human. They reminded me of the Lakota Sioux, living in tipis and being totally horse-crazy. There were magnificent horses everywhere. This struck me as odd considering they were a space-faring race. I had been accepted as an Advent warrior. I mounted up and the chief shouted that we were attacking a church.
Just as we were about to head out, one of the women shouted: "How many captives?" And the chief's son said: "You're right. To keep our honor, we must each take six captives. Perhaps even six and a half." Then we rode, in a chaotic and glorious mass of horseflesh and half-naked warrior.
We surrounded a classsic little white church and burst into the doors. The people inside were stereotypical pioneers. I immediately went to the back and selected six people. I herded them onto side pews. Within seconds, the entire congregation was held captive.
For some reason, we couldn't ride out of the church yet. We had to wait for something. I explained to my captives that if any tried to escape, I would kill someone left behind. They seemed appropriately terrified.
Many of the women from the village arrived and sat around on pews talking. I felt the captives growing restless, and at the same time more and more familiar. Then one of them disappeared when I turned my back and I knew who he was - one of my interp kids. The others said he had a canoe.
I pounded out of the church onto a wide rolling hill. I knew that the canoe meant going downhill so I urged my horse that way. I saw three canoes in the river. I went faster and faster then leapt into the water and used my momentum to carry me ot the first canoe. I knocked the rider off and spun around in front of the other two. Night was falling.
It was my kid and his older brother. I shouted at them: "Did you not believe me when I said I would kill you?" They weren't taking me seriously. I worried about the other captives unattended at the top. Then I woke up.
The Unfinished Journey
I was supposed to get five items. The first two were keys. A man's voice told me to get the items; I felt a great urgency to do so.
I had traveled a short distance already, much of the time with Penny (who is my real-life girlfriend). But now I entered a maze of canyons alone. There were various families and clans there but they all got along well. They didn't trust me at all, and most of the people there believed I should be driven away. I scanned the group and pointed out one woman; she was holding a small key in her mouth, about a half-inch long. That key was the first item, but it was also a weapon. When I found it, her clan accepted me. The others still ridiculed me.
I searched the canyon for a way to press on to the next area but it was all sheer rock. A girl who seemed to want to help me showed me a complex, abstract, branching map. She said half the fun was finding a route to the end. Before I could finish studying it, I heard the sound of rushing water. I ran to the top of the canyon and saw as water poured in. The clans retreated to the high corners where they were safe.
But one of the women in another clan - the one who had been outspoken in wanting me exiled, walked out onto the water. It had frozen into ice. Five or six kids stood behind her. I saw the water warming up again, and getting thinner. I yelled at her to go back but she wouldn't listen to me. Then she looked down and jumped back just as the ice fell away. She was safe but the kids all fell into the water. I dove in.
The water was freezing cold and pitch black. By feel, I found each of the kids and shoved them to the surface. Then my feet hit the bottom and I jumped up.
Everyone was studying instant replay of the rescue mission I had done. Many were arguing I had just done it to win favor, not because I cared about the kids. They were analyzing my facial expressions. Eventually I was driven out of the canyon.
I walked along a board walk. I saw the Eiffel Tower across the water far in the distance. I called Penny. She had found another item and were going to meet up to find the last 3. I saw her at the end of a board walk and ran up to her. I spoke to her but she didn't acknowledge me - she was running to catch a train.
She reached the train and I put a hand on her shoulder. "Where are you going?" She stopped and turned to me; in that instant the train streaked away over the water. She had missed it.
"I'm going to see you," she said.
"But I'm here!" I cried. Then I woke up.
I had traveled a short distance already, much of the time with Penny (who is my real-life girlfriend). But now I entered a maze of canyons alone. There were various families and clans there but they all got along well. They didn't trust me at all, and most of the people there believed I should be driven away. I scanned the group and pointed out one woman; she was holding a small key in her mouth, about a half-inch long. That key was the first item, but it was also a weapon. When I found it, her clan accepted me. The others still ridiculed me.
I searched the canyon for a way to press on to the next area but it was all sheer rock. A girl who seemed to want to help me showed me a complex, abstract, branching map. She said half the fun was finding a route to the end. Before I could finish studying it, I heard the sound of rushing water. I ran to the top of the canyon and saw as water poured in. The clans retreated to the high corners where they were safe.
But one of the women in another clan - the one who had been outspoken in wanting me exiled, walked out onto the water. It had frozen into ice. Five or six kids stood behind her. I saw the water warming up again, and getting thinner. I yelled at her to go back but she wouldn't listen to me. Then she looked down and jumped back just as the ice fell away. She was safe but the kids all fell into the water. I dove in.
The water was freezing cold and pitch black. By feel, I found each of the kids and shoved them to the surface. Then my feet hit the bottom and I jumped up.
Everyone was studying instant replay of the rescue mission I had done. Many were arguing I had just done it to win favor, not because I cared about the kids. They were analyzing my facial expressions. Eventually I was driven out of the canyon.
I walked along a board walk. I saw the Eiffel Tower across the water far in the distance. I called Penny. She had found another item and were going to meet up to find the last 3. I saw her at the end of a board walk and ran up to her. I spoke to her but she didn't acknowledge me - she was running to catch a train.
She reached the train and I put a hand on her shoulder. "Where are you going?" She stopped and turned to me; in that instant the train streaked away over the water. She had missed it.
"I'm going to see you," she said.
"But I'm here!" I cried. Then I woke up.