Carabas

As Homestuck's Dave, I've been teleported somewhere else, leveled up some insane amount due to timeline shenanigans, and then was teleported back home, to Bro's apartment, in the middle of the same game we were playing when I was yanked out. I'm really annoyed, because now I'm way beyond Bro's level and I'm not okay with that. I'm looking at some kind of selector switch, trying to figure out how to scale it back from a dealing-with-the-fate-of-humanity level to a hanging-around-the-apartment-with-Bro level.

I'm looking at six cards laid out in two rows. They show ravens and swords, black ones and white ones of each. One large white figure is flanked by two smaller black figures, and vice versa. They're labeled, and I hear the text out loud, "Light and Shadow, Occidanto et Icandis."

(Woke up. Noted that my subconscious Latin is terrible. Went back to sleep.)

A little after a scene in which L. appeared, I'm thinking to myself that I'm going to have to tell M. that she was here, when it occurs to me that that's impossible, I must have been dreaming.

Immediately after that thought, the sheriff from Twin Peaks walks in. He complains to me about this demon thing - all these people involved in recent suspicious events have been blaming it on demons, which is ridiculous, he can't figure out what's going on. He leaves the room, and I follow him. In the next room, there are two other people. One of them has something sticking out of the center of his forehead, like a horn, or like he's been stabbed with something, and I realize he's the source of this rotting smell. I also realize he's supposed to be dead, and the sheriff's been harboring him.

(Woke up. Back to sleep.)

I'm reading a news article covering ongoing research on the inside of an ancient spaceship that's been unearthed. The scientist in this article says she's discovered that humanity developed on this planet based on the human image displayed inside this ship, not the other way around. I find it bizarre that this claim is being presented in a major credible news source, as opposed to tabloids and conspiracy theory type sources. Then it occurs to me that the presence of an ancient spaceship, which the article treats as an already-established, commonly-known fact, is also pretty bizarre. I start to look up more information from other sources online, but out loud, I talk about the article with someone else, who, without reading it, dismisses it all as nonsense. I try to stress to her that what's really bothering me as unusual here is its presence in a major newspaper.

There was a royal baby, Herbert, who was locked away with his mother and a small staff in an isolated section of the castle for 8 years, after some disaster with his father. Now they're allowing a few more people to enter, including myself. They're still referring to him as "the baby", although it's been eight years, and now I see why - he's sitting in a high chair, being fed by his nurse, treated as if he were an infant in every respect, and apparently he's never been taught to walk, talk, or feed himself. The queen, clearly mad, is referring to herself as Herbert - I think of this as reflecting a desire to take control of the late king's power.

Most of the small group allowed in behave like sycophants, fawning over them, but after we leave, I speak with two of the other people who were allowed inside, both of them as disturbed as I am: two cat-like creatures, brother and sister, one a doctor, the other a scholar or advisor of some kind. They're cat-sized and they walk on all fours, but they're different enough in the face that they're not quite capable of being confused for actual cats; they're striped black and brilliantly dark blue, and they come from a place called Cheshire. They're very kind, very intelligent, very soft-spoken. The brother says that he believes the child carries some infectious disease that affects the brain, and this is what must have caused the disaster with the king eight years ago. Now it's clearly infected the queen as well. He intends to return tonight to examine the boy more closely. I'm thinking no, he's wrong, it's not a disease that the boy carries but madness, and I have a clear mental image of madness as some kind of spirit attached to the boy. I have the impression that I already know how this will end, that this is the past, I'm seeing a tragedy play out and have been forbidden from doing anything to change it. Suddenly realizing, I exclaim out loud, "the Cheshire Cat!" I'm horrified by this revelation, the idea of the madness that will take over this kind and soft-spoken doctor, and I'm so disturbed that the doctor and his sister become concerned; although I try not to say anything more, my exclamation has surprised them, and it's clear that I know something.

I'm climbing a road up towards the mountains, through a landscape covered in snow, along with the two cats and several other people, heading away from the castle. There's an announcement over a system of loudspeakers, the queen's voice stating "We order you to the tower to be arrested." The announcement goes on to scold us, alternately addressing us as if we were children or saying we've dishonored our esteemed positions, and then says "Now place your life squarely in your master's hands!" Obviously we have no intention of turning ourselves over to be arrested, but the path to the mountains takes us right past that tower.