WhyAmINaked

Well, I had a pretty elaborate dream.

I dreamed I was in an ancient Chinese setting as a general again. I'm currently in the market place of a major city, and the view is isometric style like a DOS RPG game, and I'm going around point-and-click style, solving side quests; only in this case, each and every side quest is basically challenging some right bastard to a duel, in which my vision shifts to a combat screen (the view is still isometric, and the combat screen's background recycles the same "market" image). It reminds me a lot of Koei's Sangokushi V's duel screens, and I was able to check my combat rating via Dream Knowledge stat screen; I'm a 95 -- sweet! Also, I'm such a nerd.

So ANYWAYS, Dream Knowledge tells me I'm already pretty immersed in side-questin', and the first combat that I "participated" in was against some thugs terrorizing the market place. I won pretty handily, and I also like the blue/red/white outfit I'm in. Also, in "world map" view, I walk around on foot, but the second I'm in combat, I'm riding around on a white horse. Also, combat is very pixelated. Again, such a nerd.

My second side-quest duel has me fighting a rival general serving some other warlord. I open up the stat screen again and saw that his combat rating is about 73 (or something along those lines). So of course I kick his ass.

My third side-quest has me fighting a scholarly-looking guy who challenged me. I pull up my handy Dream Knowledge Stat Screen, and his combat stat is 97. Dammit, it's a trap! Also, my health hasn't recovered fully from my previous two fights before. So I pause my fight against him, grind on random encounters (my dream is a fan of old-school JRPG's, apparently) until one of the rare-drops a special sword that boosts my combat rating, and THEN continue my fight against the scholar guy. But wait, I forgot to refill my HP! Fortunately, I catch a break when I get a lucky roll (also, my brain is a D&D nerd now) of the dice, except the dice are Dominoes tiles; I "roll" a six (the max value) and my opponent rolls a one. That allows me to perform some crazy super move to beat the guy, which allows me to level-up, refill my HP, AND improve my base combat rating to 97 (not including the bonus from my drop). Sweet!

I fight the Boss Thug next, which isn't nearly as tough. His special thing is that he's running around with a pack of dogs and terrorizing the people in the market. In the fight, I just whistle really sharply, which scares away five of his dogs each time. Three rounds of whistling later, all his dogs are gone. He surrenders.

My last side quest triggered when I noticed a new NPC hanging out near a stand. She's a lady wearing a widow's outfit, and when I talk to her, I get a single text bubble that explains she is forced to marry someone, and will I help her? Yes/No.

I choose Yes, and suddenly, her fiancee appears. Turns out he's a court adviser and powerful sorcerer who, upon entering the combat screen, transforms into the form of a dragon made out of goddamned lava; the upper-half of his human form is visible in the dragon's aura, and is able to cast spells. Oh, poop.

Luckily, this lava dragon sorcerer guy had one unfortunate fatal flaw: he has an overly elaborate attack animation, and I just "jab" at him so that I keep interrupting his attack while I chip his HP away. Yes, again, giant nerd. After winning, the sorcerer guy is temporarily stunned, and I escape with the lady on horseback to the country side. Apparently, the country of this world is made entirely of candy, and at one point in our flight from the city, we passed by Yoda's hut and the Witch's candy house from Hansel and Gretel. That was pretty sweet (heh heh).

It's also at this time I had a costume change, and it's pretty cool according to my brain. It's a mixture of medieval Europe white/silver plate armor, but with early Chinese terracotta styling. It also features use of fur that matches the scheme, and some sort of cape/scarf. Sadly, when I tried to sketch it while I was awake, I realize that my dream keeps creating contradicting details (i.e. the shoulders would shift between having a fur trim to plate armor to robed covers).

ANYWAYS, Dream Knowledge reveals that the lady was forced into a political marriage to form an alliance, and my meddling has already caused an uproar. The bright side is, the two nations ally anyways over their mutual desire to see me captured, so... glad to be of help? The wedding dowry was also apparently 40 tanks, and I'm suddenly in an infomercial-esque screen while the lady describes how powerful these modern tanks are. Because yes, I'm sure fucking tank shells are pretty handy against spearmen. I also know that Miracle Pans from Mr. Show are up next in the infomercial. Nicely done, subconscious!

I somehow end up chasing after a tank on horseback, Indy in Last Crusade style. I leap on the tank and grab on like I'm climbing around in Shadows of the Colossus, complete with looking for a weak point to stab. But sadly, I wake up from this dream before I could find the glowing sigil.

Oct 28
Can't remember what happened in my dream, but whatever it was woke me up at 4:30

I'm in a court of some sort, and I am arguing with what must be the judge (or some sort of authority figure of the law). It was a heated or acrimonious argument, nor do I think I was in any sort of legal trouble (I think. I vaguely remember I wasn't. I think I felt like irritation more so than confrontation in the argument, but, no, fuck that guy).

The scene changes, and now the judge is a warlord from an ancient Chinese setting, and I was one of his generals. Eventually, I deduced that I was the general Zhao Yun, a historical person who has more impact as a literary figure than actual. Either way, it's kinda great, since he's kind of the guy I read most as a kid and grew up wanting to (and still aiming to) be like. The judge/warlord and I aren't fighting now, but I suppose the lingering animosity from before made it uncomfortable now that I'm a subordinate. So, no, fuck him again.

I don't know when I got an army, but all of a sudden I'm leading an army. We land on a beach, and the setting is like a watercolor illustration of a mystical, divine realm. The setting reminded me of pictures in a storybook, and suddenly, I realized that not only am I a character IN a storybook, I also have Dream Knowledge that I come out winning at the end of this story. So I set off on my journey (my army disappeared now, by the way. Way to ditch me, guys) towards my inevitable destiny(?), but after a long build-up preparing to set off, I wake up and the story ends. I assume this is what the first Hobbit movie was like.

Now that I have time to think about it, I'm not sure if, when I was a general, I am leading an army to conquer a peaceful land of mystical creatures (like Avatar), or am I providing reinforcements to said mystical creatures (like Avatar after all pretension that a story exists is over).