WhyAmINaked

I'm invited to a fancy mansion that has a slightly off-kilter architecture, like from the game Fable. I get a bird's-eye view, and it has a brown roof and is shaped like an elongated turtle.

I'm on part of a mystery or side-quest -- I'm there to do something. I speak with the head of the house guards, who informs me the grounds are in lock down. I cannot leave the premises until the quest is complete. So I run around, talking to various haughty-looking guests to gather clues.

I end up in the garage, where I picked up a basketball that is a little bit deflated. I inflate it with a bike pump, and go outside (so much for the lockdown) where I'm suddenly at my old house in Canada, and I'm going to shoot hoops at my neighbor's driveway baskets.

I see my neighbors B, G, and F, who look like last I remembered nearly 20 years ago -- only, B (who is a couple grades older than me) looks like he's on steroids. F is hanging on the rim. I don't know how he got up there, but now he has a 8-feet drop, and he doesn't want to let go.

Somehow, other people start showing up. One of them is some teenage girl who claims to be Kobe Bryant's biggest fan (this is exceedingly awkward for those who don't know about his... um... history). She insists on retrying my shoelaces to the current style, which is basically wrapping the laces around the entire shoe like you would tie up a roast.

The game gets underway, but it devolves into a city-wide obstacle course, where you score by putting the ball through ANY basket you can find, provided you aren't checked or tackled while searching. It becomes very physical, and Dream Knowledge indicates people are getting injured regularly.

I go up against a knight in full plate armor -- at this point, I'm back in Fable universe, but still playing the "basketball" game -- and I'm trying to figure out a way past his armor with my starting-weapon stick.

I wake up.

I was playing a fighting game through an arcade cabinet. It is definitely the SNK classic Samurai Shodown (the spelling irritates me too), but some new version that doesn't exist.

I insert a quarter. I think I'm playing someone over a connection, and the clarity and authenticity of the sprites is a little amazing for a dream (or maybe I just played that game way too much). But what really struck me now was that it felt more like I was playing the game than watching me play the game, and I'm reacting to the screen. The "other" guy won because he exploited a glitch to score the last hit.

I insert another quarter. The game characters switched to guys from another series for some reason, and it's more of me playing a game (but not in the same feeling as playing the game here, but like watching me play).

Dream two had me needing to go somewhere with 10 minutes, only I keep doing dumb things like making wrong turns or getting into dead ends.

I am visiting my friend T's house, which is way too sitcom-looking. In this world, he is apparently a costumed superhero, and he is freaking out because he thinks someone will discover his secret identity (Paranoia is definitely his thing in real life). So we go through his house to process "evidence" of his secret life:

• First bit of evidence is, somehow, leftover meat in a casserole dish (lol, what?), which my advice is to not leave that shit out or it'll spoil. That settles T down a little.
• Second bit of evidence is a board game that's titled something ridiculous like "I'm Secretly a Crime Fighter" (lolol, whaaat?), in which Dream Me rationalizes something like owning a Monopoly board doesn't make me a tycoon. Wise words, Dream Me. Wise words.
• Third piece of evidence is the severed human head of a criminal he has in his freezer (lolololol, wh-- *record scratch* wait, what?). Apparently, Dream Me already knows about this; as T is opening up his freezer, I tell him I don't need to see it, just don't keep it in your freezer anymore. I also Dream Know that T kept the head in a plastic bag.

So now, my subconscious gets a conscience (ha! ...too soon after talking about freezer remains. I got ahead of myself), and it took form of an argument between Cartman and Kyle Broflovski about morals.

Then shit got REALLY weird.

My view zooms in to Kyle's face, to the point I can see the individual pimples. The pimples, who talk in Al Gore voice, are conferring with one another to stop their host body because his morals are being swayed. So now, the pimple choose to infiltate Kyle's mind, which resembles a blue room with a computer on the floor.

Two pimple-people (hehe), a male and female dressed in tight black outfits and harnesses like rejects from a Mission Impossible remake, has snuck in, and are attempting to upload a virus into the computer/Kyle's mind. But Kyle's consciousness materializes inside himself to stop them; first, he stomps on the head of the pimple-man (symbolism alert -- also, what is up with me and head violence that night?), then pokes a hole with his fingers in the pimple-woman's side, causing her to deflate like a balloon before she could hit the "Enter" key. Mind-Kyle looks over her while she says something to appeal to him -- it seems to work, because Kyle hits the "Enter" key himself to upload the virus. The dream fades before I can find out what happens next.

Note: There was, at one point in all this, a screen where I'm equipping items to slots like I'm playing an Flash RPG game, and having trouble deciding whether getting the bonus in X is better than the other. But I'm not sure/remember where THAT little scene fit in. I dream in video game way, way too much,

In dream one, I was in a city in the evening, possibly dusk. I think I was part of an envoy visiting a city; Dream Knowledge tells me that my group represents the historical lost Loulan Kingdom. Since I have little to no knowledge of actual Loulan culture, my brain just used a combination of Nepalese and Indian culture instead. I'm also not an official citizen of Loulan in this dream, but rather I tagged along with them as a sanctioned visitor.

The setting of the city we are in resembles Elizabethan architecture, but with a little more of a fantasy twist. It was a little vague at first, but slowly, the city resembled the city tile set from the game Neverwinter Nights (NWN; a game which I played the shit out of). I think the more I made that connection, the more the city took on that look. And that's when I became aware of our hired guard/guide.

So, background context: I played NWN alot on a RP-based player-made module, and one of the characters I played was an Autistic/Schizophrenic, or at least versions of the disorders based on my poor understanding of them at the time. I played this character long enough that he evolved to be the premiere fighter in this world, which made communicating with this character that much more frustrating because on one hand, he's a lovably difficult guy to talk to; yet on the other hand, you know he can murder you into bits on a whim.

ANYWAYS, D&D-masturexposition aside, yes, that character appeared in my dream. He was just another random guy at first, but my theory is that once my brain decided that the setting resembled NWN, it started filling in the gaps until suddenly, I realized who I'm looking at.

Two takeaways for me: 1) I think there was a point where I had the realization along the lines of "hey, I created you." Hopefully, this is a breakthrough to being able to question dream realities, because 2) I'm not sure how, but my POV shifts and I possess/become this character.

So, background/nerd masturbatory exposition two: The guards in the NWN module I played were designed to be ridonk OP as a way to keep a gaggle of maxed out characters from creating pure chaos during events. So of course, during OOC periods I'd go fight these guards just to see how fast I die; but I eventually figured out the right combination of gear, and proceed to massacre cities after cities with my guy -- because, y'know, GTA made me do it.

So ANYWAYS, I think brain memory kicked in; so for whatever reason, next thing I know, I'm fighting the whole city in my dream now, and somehow, I think I was the victim. The rest of the envoy was nowhere to be found. I wake up as the city burns around me.

Once again, I'm in a video game-esque world; or at least, the graphics in this world is good ol' early 90's DOS, 256-colors game. We (as in my party, who are comprised of 2D sprites -- looks like we are in an SRPG game) have just hit the Sad Ending, and the female protagonist is going to be lost to another dimension in an act of self sacrifice. Only, she suddenly realizes that she can totally get out of this predicament, and yep, we are suddenly in Good Ending, complete with a big boost in graphics as we hit an FMV sequence. I'm not sure how/why, but now we are flying around on a big airship (that acts as our party's camp, I assume) overlooking mountains and plains, and a pack of birds is celebrating with us. It would not feel out of place in a Final Fantasy FMV sequence. Then blurriness.

Dream two has me acting as the older brother of two poor orphans who I named Kate and Sam. Kate is older (I want to say 8-9 years old), has perfect curls, and is dressed in a patched down jacket that reaches down to her knees. Sam is maybe 4 or 5, carries a teddy bear in one hand (while holding on to Kate with the other) while wearing a faded onesie. They look like pathetically cute ragamuffins.

Oh, and apparently, I'm a ghost in this scenario, and only Kate and Sam can see me. So I go around watching over them as they struggle in the middle of winter in a grim-looking city. At one point, we are in a small market at the meat section, and an old man that resembles/played by Jonathan Banks tries to buy food -- a package of uncooked chicken drumsticks and chicken breasts -- for them, only I Ghost-slap the food out of his hands in anger. Apparently, Dream Knowledge fills me in that this old man is a detective, and I am agitated because I guess he wasn't able to prevent my death/overlooked my murder/I'm a dick.

The dream switches to the outside of an alleyway, and I'm also able to communicate with the detective now. We seem to have put our differences aside, and he even has decided to take in Kate and Sam to watch over as his own. But before we can get to the Happy Ending, we have to take down a mobster nicknamed "Leek," like the vegetable. Apparently, he is the one who is responsible for my death. Sadly, the dream fades before I find out what happens.

Oh no, wait, yes I do -- my subconscious ripped off the plot from The Crow, so I have a pretty good idea what happens.