Carabas

I'm walking in the garden, mentally composing a letter. When I'm ready to start putting it down, I go to where I've left my portable writing desk. There are a few bees hovering around it, interested in the vine I left it under. I'm thinking about moving it somewhere I won't disturb the bees, but then I see an envelope that's been left on top of it.

The letter inside is written in classical Chinese. I have no difficulty understanding it, but rather than actually reading the letter, I'm thinking about the woman who sent it - even without seeing her name, there's only one person who writes to me in this language. I'm seeing a mental image of the two of us walking through a rough stone tunnel next to water, with light reflecting off the water, rippling patterns reflected on our faces.

That was a memory, but the next image I see is the present, through her eyes, something that can sometimes happen when I'm thinking about her. She's looking at a painting of a woman I think of as a saint, with an image of a dragon behind her; then her vision moves up to the ceiling, as if she's falling back. I see an image of a pile of roses turning to ash, and my connection to her is gone - not just this vision, but the connection of our blood is gone. She's dead.

(Woke up. Back to sleep.)

There's a man who's been sent back in time, and now several other people who've gone back to rescue him. He'd been involved with the woman leading the rescue team. They've just met up now, and very nearly attacked each other - both of them sneaking around a fortress, trying to avoid being seen. Having sorted it out, it seems he's working together on a mission with a woman from this era, and fallen in love, and has no interest in going back to his original time period. He's just broken her out of a cell in this fortress. The woman who came back to rescue him is thinking it was foolish to chase his spirit into the past when she had his (something) in the present.

The scene transitions to a modern-day park; that man was brought back to the present against his wishes, but so was that woman from the past. They're spending time in the park with their infant son, distracted and unhappy.

My attention shifts to other people in the park, a group discussing magic, specifically one man mentioning a "listen and learn" spell with leaves, as a second step for those just starting to work with trees. He describes trees in general as "a bit froggy, though."

(Woke up. Back to sleep.)

A private performance of a show based on Frankenstein. The 'bride' character speaks beautifully; the 'creation' character is silent, and his hands are bent backwards at the wrist as if they've been broken. When he'd been alive, he'd been the doctor's student or lover or something close.

Dune-based, a Fremen leader has just died and everyone's chanting the name of someone they're choosing for the new Naib, a well-respected middle-aged man known for being level-headed. But they're interrupted by Paul and Jessica, performing some Bene Gesserit trick with light that makes them appear god-like, a move to take power over the Fremen. It works. I find it extremely distasteful.

My IRL mother weighing a desire to give up physical possessions against the potential uses for the land she owns, and considering an apiary.

A wrong number from an angry woman looking for a Melissa. (Not the one from the myths specifically, but still presumably inspired by the apiary bit.)

I'm looking at a digital folder labeled 'Eric'; none of the files inside have anything to do with him.

An earlier, lower-budget movie version of Barbarella.

A variety of nautical references: ornaments shaped like ships, a trip to the beach and a mention of pirates.

A painting of pale, black-haired elves with ravens on their shoulders, in a park.

Two homeless men, one with a dog, the other a preacher standing on a wooden crate, arguing about Jesus and whether or not he spent a lifetime as a cat.

"So ever shall be considered the gardens of Biblios."