dream fragment

No recall for 8/20.

Moving Day
I'm moving into a college dorm of some sort, although I'm not carrying anything. I head up a stairway that's crowded with college-age kids, all chattering happily and getting to know each other. I see someone that looks an awful lot like Cara F. and for a second I think it actually is her, but then realize I'm wrong. The idea of a… dolphin-person?… comes into my head and I'm not sure whether I'm looking for a creature like this or if it's just a random mental image. There's a bend in the stairway and I continue up. Apparently Britney Spears is somewhere in the crowd; I pass a girl with black hair and hear her announce "I don't know about all that, I just know I'm talking to Britney Spears right now."

The stairway lets into a lobby-like area. There's a board with a list of names and their expected arrival dates; I'm on there and my date is listed as the 18th, which I know is "today", at least as far as the dream goes. There are only a few people listed under this date, but a lot more are arriving on the 19th and 20th, so I must be a little on the early side. Next to my name (just my first name) is my email address, but it's written strangely, with parentheses inserted and the @ sign spelled out as "at". I realize it's a spam blocking measure… but everything on the chart is hand-written, so what's the point? Also, obfuscation aside, I don't think my email address is actually spelled correctly.

I realize that instead of moving in right away I could be out socializing with the others and breaking the ice a little… it's typical of me not to think of something like that until after the fact.

Gravity Ball
I'm outside in a classy city setting that strongly reminds me of Gravity Rush's Hekseville. It's late afternoon. My parents are here celebrating their birthdays/anniversary? I try to jump into the air but am disappointed that I can't gravity shift like Kat. I have a small purple ball (looks like a gem from GR) that, if I leave it alone on a surface, will start bouncing all by itself. I throw this in front of me, thinking that *somebody* (who?) will see me with this and change their mind about me not liking fun things. (Odd sentiment that I don't really remember.) The ball bounces away from me and disappears over a ridge - it's the bed, it's actually disappeared under the bed. I'm mostly awake at this point. I nimbly (lol) leap out of bed, again thinking how impressed the mysterious third party must be, and feel around under the bed for the ball. No dice. I figure that since the ball attaches itself to surfaces I'd probably be able to feel it bouncing if it attached to a sheet or something, but I don't feel anything.

Job Application/Vampires and Guns
Outside Newbury Comics, talking to a girl. Originally I was with A. but apparently went off by myself. I go inside the store and start a conversation with the manager; she's pretty friendly and we hit it off. Eventually she says, "You worked at Absolute, right? Ever thought about working here?" (I have a false memory of Absolute being some sort of music-related business.) I say yes, I've always wanted to work at a place like this. She gives me three numbers to call, and after I write them all down she says that if I'm calling to apply for the job, I should only call the third number. I turn to leave and say, "Thank you very much, I'll be in touch!" and she just responds with a disinterested "Yeah," which is a little surprising.

Outside in the parking lot, 2 groups of people are playing some kind of vampire card game against each other. One card I remember is "Solane," a short, pixie-like vampire dressed in a naughty nurse kind of outfit. She is sitting waist deep in a sea of blood and drinking it with a straw. The card strikes me as extremely scandalous, even though the artwork itself (subject matter aside) is tastefully drawn. Anyway, I want to leave but can't while the game is going on, so either I get a card of my own that has a gun or I get an actual gun and point it at the leader, a girl with long blond hair. Her underling (a very big guy but otherwise nondescript) points his own gun at me, yet I feel like I have the advantage.

Fragment
Climbing a snowy mountain i just recently came down from, together with a traveling party that reminds me of Lord of the Rings. I get the sense we're going the wrong way by going up the mountain, yet it's something we have to do for some reason.

Crappy recall night, just fragments:

- Something about "the boundaries of the dream world" (meaning an alternate dimension within my dreams) into which I can follow DCs after they fall unconscious?? (I have NO recollection of this dream at all, I am just going by my notes.)

- Jack and the Beanstalk and the trampoline doctor (again, no recollection)

- Looking at provocative artwork on my computer, then suddenly realizing I'm actually at work

(July 11 2012)

I'm playing Spelunky again. The background of the level shifts with my character's movement: if I walk or run a single step, a tile in the background changes (explodes?) into something else. Thus my movement is key to escaping the level, since only by sufficiently shifting the environment will I reveal the exit.
---
I'm dreaming about Persona 5. There are at least three acoustic (voice and guitar) songs on the soundtrack, supposedly sung by Eri Kawai even though the vocalist doesn't sound like her. I see some music video clips of these songs, and "Eri" is in them - she's a short Japanese woman with bowl-cut black hair and a nice smile that reminds me a little of Makoto Ogawa from Morning Musume. One of the songs is called "The Full Moon Song"(?) and is apparently played during high-tension scenes.

The game itself involves terrorist attacks and actually feels a lot closer in tone to a mainline Shin Megami Tensei game. One attack involves giant globs of poison that are dropped from the sky and become poison rain; once they hit the ground they instantly turn into rivers of poison that burn through the cityscape like acid. I can see people scattering, and there is a car whose driver somehow loses control to such an extent that it goes careening down a roadway, taking out a whole bunch of people. There is a second attack that I think involves gangsters? and a third attack I don't remember anything about.
---
I'm at an office party where I'm saying goodbye to some coworkers who are leaving the company. The party is actually being held in my apartment, though. I'm sitting by the door watching people leave because I don't feel like being social. I know that most everyone in the room is going to an afterparty once this one's over, and (since I know I should probably go to it) I'm hoping that someone will reach out to me and ask whether I want to join them. I'm aware that I'll need to take the initiative, though.

Kept seeing fragments of the mines in Spelunky, pixels and all. There was a female character and I kept wondering if she was a dream guide, but I never really got a good look at her.

Walking through the hallway of my middle school, past the library. I know I'm an adult but still find myself a little confused about whether I'm attending classes here. I reach the front hallway and head down to Miss Powell's room. There's a kind of eager anticipation at the idea of seeing her again after so long.

I'm inside the classroom and I don't see Miss Powell, but on a desk in the middle of the room is a shallow plastic bowl filled with chocolate-frosted cupcakes. I take a couple and see that there's also some kind of additional chocolate topping in the bowl that's meant to go on top of the cakes. I start to take some of this, but as I do I realize that there's actually no topping in the bowl; I'm just picking up more cupcakes. The bowl's almost empty, and I'm not even sure I want to eat any of them.

I'm in a submarine with several others, and we become aware that the ship is about to lose its balance/twist at a crazy angle underwater, such that the inside of the ship will be subject to massive pressure changes. (We'll probably all survive, though, for some reason.) I have this vision of a row of rivets that pop loose with a loud metallic clang one after the other.

Later in the dream I'm walking around a mall with Heidi. I could have been attending Mike and Andrea's wedding during this time, but instead I'm here pretending to be Heidi's husband while she has a lesbian wedding ceremony. Not that the ceremony is actually taking place or anything; we just seem to be wandering around the mall aimlessly. I get bored and start looking up information on Natalie Merchant. I learn that in her early career she and her husband had separate musical acts; she headed a group called Natalie and the Merchants. I wonder whether I'll find any information on her fake British accent, but I don't come across anything.

At some point I meet Mike and Andrea and we exchange photos on our phones. Apparently their wedding consisted of them and some friends hanging out in an apartment while everyone dressed up in some sort of marching band uniform. The whole thing had the atmosphere of a college party rather than a wedding.

(4:30 AM)
I'm parked at the gas station in Stoneham in the middle of the night. Not sure why, but my car is parked parallel to the road, meaning I'd need to turn my car 90 degrees to the left if I actually wanted to get gas. I decide to pull forward and turn left at the nearest pump, but as I'm about to do this another car suddenly approaches me head-on and stops a short ways away, blocking my path. I swear under my breath. The car is white? with several indistinct dark-skinned people inside. I put the car in reverse and roll backward 20 feet or so, still muttering to myself. Not sure which pump I want to use, which is bothering me since I hate when my plans are messed up, even little things like this. I start to turn the car and suddenly notice a couple things about the gas station. First is the strange interplay of light and shadow on the ground: there are dark pools on the asphalt that must be puddles of water, but they melt from black to gray with a viscosity that suggests oil mixed with mist. Second, I suddenly realize it is completely silent. There is no traffic audible from the road, no birds, no sound at all. I briefly wonder to myself whether time has stopped outside the gas station, and the notion fascinates me.

Fragment involving me and Matt S. in the office kitchen, talking about Wizard 101 and something that cost 5 energy to cast. I have a memory of a sharp crackling sound associated with this... there's an empty pack of batteries next to my alarm clock, I must have hit that when I was reaching for the snooze button.

Crappy night for recall.

I'm with a couple of friends; we're making our way through a protracted commute via public transit to a train station/airport. As we get closer to our destination our surroundings gradually get flashier, with neon lights that give the area something of a futuristic look. We climb up the stairs to the boarding platform. I'm dimly aware that my friends are both carrying bags--and at that moment it hits me; I have nothing with me except my coat (which I'm wearing). Oh, damn, I forgot my bag. Again. (I have a sense that this is not unusual for me.)

I turn to my friends and realize one of them is Brian from high school; I recognize the other person but can't put a name to the face. "Guys, I just realized I forgot my bag," I say with an apologetic grimace. They sigh. We're going to have to go back to get it... well, no, why should they have to go back? "Go ahead without me," I say. "I'll meet you at J___ ______." (quick image of a map with place name overlaid and a blue "person" icon where our destination is) Brian starts to protest, but it's clearly just a courtesy, because when I repeat myself he immediately switches to a nod of assent. They leave. I don't know how I'll meet up with them since I won't be able to take the same means of transportation, but I guess I'll figure something out.

I slowly retrace my route. I dislike the fact that I'm going backward, out of the clean neon surroundings and gradually getting cheaper, more rural. It feels wrong, like I wasn't meant to travel in this direction. The details are fuzzy, but I end up at a mostly deserted train station which runs in both inbound and outbound directions. I start to think of how I can take the train and make a loop back to where I just was, nearly forgetting that I still have to go home and get my stuff first.

+fragments:
- possibly related to above dream, I am again at a train station but am a different person: a late-teens/early-20s African American girl. My dad is with me, except he's in some kind of small protective bubble and is dying. His last gift to me is a train ticket to my destination, meaning I don't have to pay for my fare. This is extremely touching (not because of what the gift is, but because I can feel his love for me so strongly) and I start to cry.
- something about a fight with Justin Bieber? (damn, I wish I remembered this one :p)
- other stuff I would have remembered had I not waited 12 hours to write this entry

(fragment: college lottery)
My father chooses which of his children will go to college (me or one of my two dream siblings) by making us choose an envelope. One contains a college acceptance letter; the others contain rejection letters/bundles of sticks?

Billy
There is a recurring character named Billy. This person is either an old woman who dies alone in an old mansion (a family friend--friend of my dream mother, who's dead?) and who I regret never getting to know when she was younger and of sound mind; or a young mentally disabled boy (my cousin) that I've never met and have no desire to meet. I'm in my old house in Lancaster (on Main St.) and Billy (boy version) is coming over w/aunt G. I have the idea that he is going to see one of the upstairs bedrooms because he hasn't been privileged to see an upstairs bedroom in the past, and there's the idea that doing so will confer some sort of magical benefit. I'm in the upstairs bathroom, which is just down the hall from my room, washing my hands. I yell to aunt G to just take him into my room for a second--my room is messy, but it doesn't matter; the point is that she'll see there's no actual magic involved. She yells back something about how no, it's not that, it's that the Department of Education passed a new rule mandating that kids like Billy be allowed _______ (something I don't remember). As I wash my hands I accidentally get a sheaf of paper wet--it's a travel itinerary from Delta Airlines with my name on it.

[skip] Downstairs (still in the Lancaster house) I'm trying to call the airline to ask why my grandfather's flight has been delayed. Actually, I already know why it was delayed: the flight was canceled and not auto-rescheduled by airline. However, the cancellation had generated an abnormal error message and the airline had apparently tried to call me three times, using three separate phone numbers, to tell me what the problem was--so I just want to hear their side of the story out of idle curiosity. I soon regret the call, though. The conversation starts out OK but devolves quickly as the airline agent seems to be unable to understand what I'm saying. Eventually I hear soundbites of Billy over the phone--he is very, very loud (I have to hold the phone away from my ear) and sounds like he has a serious speech problem. A prompt comes up on my phone asking whether his voice was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard (yes/no). I answer no. This pisses off the agent, but I don't care.

Fixing Alarm
I'm trying to fix an alarm (looks like a smoke detector, I have the idea it's from "school"). I just need to change the battery, so to be sure that I don't accidentally mess something else up, I'm removing everything from the alarm that has to do with numbers. This removal extends to things outside the alarm as well: I turn off the radio because it either mentions numbers on the air/has a frequency made up of numbers, and I delete e-mails with numbers in their subject lines. (One email I delete is about some sort of evangelical Christian organization; it was forwarded to me by an aunt/uncle with the note "Adam, we were going to delete this email but then we noticed the view count on it". Apparently I had somehow already looked at this email 20+ times, and they somehow knew about this before sending it?) The battery in the alarm is protected by a panel with a grille that I think can be unscrewed to be taken off. I touch the grille with my hand but realize my fingers are wet, and draw my hand back nervously. I wake up at this point, so I actually raise my right hand into the air in waking life. My fingers are numb.

Indigo Girls in Dead Forest (fragment)
Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are dead (although they look perfectly normal) and have to figure out a way out of a dead forest maze - this is done by collecting giant body parts (eye, skeletal hand, vagina??) and using them as tools?

Obama Nukes Russia: The Roguelike
There's a wacky Japanese TV show that is somehow inspired by Yasutaka Nakata (who appears in the 3rd episode). At the end of each episode audiences combine a couple of items to make a new item; then, in the subsequent episode, they use the item they made in the last episode to make something else, and the pattern continues. There are three episodes and then the series goes off the air for 6 months, but eventually it comes back. I am in a grocery store and am using a kiosk in one of the aisles to assemble a montage of the first six shows. I put a whole bunch of clips together, then add some text in Impact font, promoting it as a great comedy. (Fragment here about meeting a yelling old woman in the store, something to do with her cart?)

Episode 12 (the last one) rolls around, and I am in the store with several Japanese people waiting for it to start. Suddenly (and I know this is going to happen about 5 seconds before it actually does) Barack Obama walks out from the neighboring aisle, smiling. Everyone is shocked, whispering his name amongst themselves; no one seems to have any idea how they should conduct themselves. Obama stands in front of the people and kneels on the floor ... or at least he tries to. His legs are very stiff, like he can barely bend at the knees. Eventually he ends up thudding to the floor, one leg at a time, into a kneeling position. In a halting voice, he explains that he has let down the "flower of the Japanese people" by allowing the U.S. to be vastly outclassed in terms of nuclear power (the impression is that the U.S. will be annihilated shortly because of this?). There is an ASCII (roguelike) view of the situation, which somehow illustrates the predicament.

A young Russian guy named Vinny speaks up. In a loud, brash voice that somehow morphs into a thick Boston accent (but only for certain words, like "car") he explains, using the ASCII grid, how Obama can maneuver himself around the board and extricate himself from danger. This is done in 12 moves, a number which is pointed out, like it's an achievement. Vinny is clearly very proud of himself and asks that the maneuver be named after him if Obama ends up using it. Obama thanks him; after a few seconds of thought, he says he will name the maneuver "the Luvie." He follows Vinny's steps, but I notice that they are subtly altered; somehow he is following Vinny's route but also managing to pick up several nukes as he goes. Eventually Obama reaches the staircase out and escapes from danger.

At this point the scene shifts fully into ASCII. The store is gone; the scene is now inside a Russian nuclear shelter. Obama has departed and Vinny is pleased with his suggestion, still very confident that Obama will use it. He decides to go above ground; he knows that doing this will leave him unprotected, but he doesn't expect a nuclear strike to actually happen, so he thinks it won't matter. Outside the shelter, there is a forest; right by the entrance to the shelter is a wolf. Vinny has sex with the wolf; shortly afterward, Obama nukes Russia and possibly several other countries. Because he's outside of the shelter, Vinny is the only Russian casualty of the nuclear strike.