blinkinglights

I had a whole series of dreams about the same idea--people called kindles, and what kindling entailed, etc.--until a thunderstorm woke me up, but I was so enamored of the idea that my last dream was about Tiger & Bunny and managed to incorporate it.

So, Tiger & Bunny is an anime about superheroes controlled by a television company who film their exploits for ratings and also just so happen to conveniently fund and control the criminals. In my dream, though, the bad guys were, instead of the somewhat pedestrian Ouroborous, monsters that emerged from things after being incubated purposefully by the TV company who would attack and take over people; if successful, the host became a "kindle"--after being kindled in this fashion--with no memory of his or her past, completely full of monster which had access to all his or her feelings and memories and would then begin to wantonly commit crimes unless exterminated or captured. By Hero TV, I guess.

Also in the dream Kaede was a full-fledged Hero who still didn't listen to her dad at all, and she had a really badass constellation of powers such that Kotetsu was super proud of her (he would probably be super proud of her if she opened a coffee shop, but still). Anyway, for some reason Kotetsu was growing suspicious of...everything, kind of like in the show currently. Or maybe he was completely-oblivious, Kotetsu-style, and that and his terminal nice-guyitude allowed him to be caught off guard by a monster bemoaning a coherent grievance. Anyway he was on his own when suddenly there was an emergence near him at a local mall, a huge frog monster was coming from a big glass bay of mall substrate, shattering outwards and howling mournfully. He faced it as civilians fled in droves, and by the time his teammates rolled on to the scene, there was only Kotetsu standing there. The next part is unclear but...maybe only Bunny came, and let him "escape?" Or something? Or he got allegedly-killed somehow? By Kaede who then let him escape...? Dimly I feel like Kaede was maybe working for the kindle insurgency against the TV company the whole time, because she's not an idiot...? But anyway then he was officially dead but REALLY, ALIVE and in a cool different suit just kind of wandering around not doing anything. Because he'd been told to lie low and hide out in his disguise, but he didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do, so he just kind of stood around on street corners and stuff kicking cans while everybody assumed he was a mascot for something and ignored him.

AND THEN there was a showdown with the head of the TV company. Kotetsu was hanging around in a big amphitheater/lecture hall of some sort, just chillin', lost in musical thoughts. Oh, and Kotetsu has been growing somewhat unsettling since his kindling, because in the dream, especially for this scene, I as the audience do not have any knowledge of kindling particularly, so it all comes as a series of surprises as if I were watching the episode for the first time. Anyway, Maverick comes in and he sideways-confronts Kotetsu. I mean like, indirectly. And they banter for just a little while and then Maverick sends in a team of blackclad SWAT guys, but kindle-Kotetsu reveals that he's been "listening to music" this whole time he's been hiding out (that lugubrious frog that kindled him was apparently music-based), i.e. he's been training and synchronizing with and hearing out the grievances and accusations of the monsters' side, and so with THEIR POWERS COMBINED he's about to attack Maverick, and shit, only then I'm woken up mid-monologue. And I love Kotetsu's monologues, so that was very sad.

AND THEN, THE FIRST SERIES OF DREAMS.
I think I started out being lost at the wedding of somebody from grade school, but that was lame and not epic at all. But eventually it segued into my kind of awesome dream. So: kindles.

In the dreams, kindles were hated, hunted, and desperately feared. Constant campaigns of extermination were launched against them and, under a thin veneer of normalcy, every good kindle-fearing citizen's interactions with each other were tinged with suspicion. A kindle is a person--or a demon--or some kind of hideous disease, depending on who you ask. Everyone knows someone who has been kindled and run off or been caught and lynched.

It's like this: in this world, there are people who, when killed, randomly assume, from a limited selection, the body of a nearby person (the dream told me "person near death" at this point but that doesn't make much sense--maybe my character was taught by a nice mentor, or something). The new person is then "kindled", and in that kindling is completely erased and replaced by the invading personality. Essentially, kindles swap bodies when ganked. There are enough of them that they are considered a horrible scourge, and I'm not sure if the general public understands that it only happens when you kill one. It seems sensible that that sort of information would be suppressed by temporal authorities and kindles alike.

Visually, it's a kind of Witcher 2-like world, rich and verdant but also ancient and swamplike. The trees are huge and little villages tucked away beneath the branches spin well-maintained beaten paths between one another. Like The Elder Scrolls franchise, there are also a ton of different races and mixed-races. At first, I'm a yellow lizard guy, a traveling sort of person. I think I get hunted down and killed somehow--it's so unclear now, and it was the BEST DREAM EVER, wah--and after being extinguished I kindle again in the form of a strong, tall wrinkly blue kind of person with red spikes on his head. In this form I travel to a docks beside a large swamp. I sit on a barrel, prop my face on my hand and my elbow on my knee, and spare a few moments of melancholy for the person I've just destroyed in my rekindling. I think there's someone else there, some kind of younger, scaly big guy there, possibly a guardsman. He seems levelheaded. I talk to him about local stuff, and the places I've been. He seems super levelheaded and I like him. He seems pleased to have met me too. Then, motherfucking Abra walks up as I'm waiting for the raft or canoe or whatever to ferry me somewhere else. We talk for a while. I recognize her instantly, and she seems to know me too, despite my shape and lack of lucidity. It's perfectly clear to me that she's the human Abra, dreamwalker, here from another plane. I'm all strong and spiky and shit so I feel obligated to protect her from whatever dangers she faces from coming to visit someone in my position. I think the other guy is content to walk back to his post--is he a guard?--and give us space. Eventually, though, I think people from the village show up. For some reason they're suspicious of me, though I'd traveled a long ways since my rekindling and this body shouldn't be from around here. I think they want to run some sort of test, which I'm absolutely sure I'll fail. The guard is holding them off at the beginning of the pier and eventually comes to talk to me alone--I think Abra is hanging back a little--he's willing to listen to my side, not looking too happy to have this dumped in his lap considering I'd've been off his hands entirely given thirty minutes for the boat to come.

I'm...well, I'm concerned for myself too, but mostly my responsibility is to Abra. I try to explain her situation to the guard--that she's here because she's dreaming in another world, this point is very important and I remember pressing it. He's shaking his head like he doesn't believe me or it's irrelevant or he might not be able to protect her once the town takes me, but I'm insistent as the crowd works up the nerve to push closer. Abra's no part of this at all, look, fine, I'm the kindle andIjustwanttobeleftalonewe'renotlikewhatyouthinka ndalsoI'mgoingaway!...but I awake on that note due to a supremely inconsiderate thunderstorm at two in the morning.

I think I'd also awakened back when I was the yellow lizard guy whose adventures are now lost to me, at around one o'clock, but I thought the whole kindle thing was so cool I clung to it super hard and actually managed to continue it. SWEET