Starhowler
Lurker

8/10
I'm with my family, trying to travel back to Boston. For some reason, we keep getting on a maze of connecting flights and being redirected to various airports, so after what feels like a long time, we are actually in Atlanta. For my part, I'm OK with this--in fact I've kind of settled in for a long journey. Now, instead of taking another plane, we take a train instead. It seems to go uneventfully at first, but as we near the station at the end of the line, it becomes obvious that the train is going to have a hard time stopping. It doesn't slow down, though--it speeds up! I realize that I'm probably going to die, although this thought doesn't seem to bother me at all. I turn to P~, who's sitting next to me; I kiss him gently on the lips and tell him that I love him. The train hurtles into the station, then brakes all at once--but we don't crash. Instead, in defiance of physics, we lose speed rapidly but at a controlled rate. The back of the train lifts up briefly, as if supported by a cushion of air, before we come to a gentle stop. My family and I pick up our things and head out; as we leave, I see a sign that advises passengers of trains' sudden deceleration when arriving at this station. The sign _does_ say that there's some danger involved, but somehow I feel that because it's been acknowledged, there _is_ no danger, and that we were never going to come to any harm.

As we leave the station, I realize we actually are in Boston. I'm a little disappointed; I was getting into the groove of traveling and kind of wanted to keep doing it! My mom splits off from the group and leaves to go somewhere. P~ has disappeared and I don't see him again. That just leaves my dad, whom I follow through the city to a building I identify as his office. We enter and I follow him through a labyrinthine, dimly lit series of halls. It's a regular office building, nothing sinister about it, but it seems pretty run down and in bad need of maintenance and cleaning. We stop in a large bathroom. There is water running down the walls--it's almost a waterfall--and a large, deep pool of standing water on the floor, although the section we're standing in is dry. Apparently this is where my dad works. How can someone work in an environment like this? I haven't seen anyone else in the building so far, and my dad hasn't said a word to me either. It's desolate and lonely here. I wake up.

8/9
- It's nighttime. I am at a window and see a figure knocking on it from outside. I lift up the window and see that it is (pop sensation and queen of numbered albums) Adele. She is dressed very plainly, in a white/grey shirt, and holding a lit candle. Now that I have the window open I wonder what she wants, but she doesn't say anything. Later, it is afternoon, and I am at one of her concerts, held in an outdoor arena; however, there is no one there but me. Then I see Adele run toward me from the direction of the stage, through the rows of seats, and to where I'm standing (a little ways away); she gives me a hug.
- I am trying to help my friend T. solve a math problem. Specifically, it's some sort of complicated fraction with several variables, and he wants to solve for one of those variables. It's hard to get a grip on it because his explanation is fuzzy, and the equation itself doesn't really stick in my mind no matter how much I look at it. I look at T. and think about how fond I am of him, and I realize that while he's been explaining this to me, I've put my hand on his shoulder a couple of times. I realize that I want--pretty badly--to do more, maybe even to give him a hug. But I refrain, reasoning that if I've already tried to be physical with him and I'm currently sitting apart, he must not want to reciprocate my affection. I feel vaguely frustrated.
- I am in the ending of some sort of japanese RPG. After finding a magical item, or perhaps a set of magical items, I find an object in the world that plays back a bunch of bloopers from the narrator, a deep-voiced man who sounds like a movie trailer announcer.
- A. and I are living in a very cramped apartment next to an even more crowded Korean restaurant (it seems to be set up in a space the size of our apartment). The restaurant serves gyoza.
- I'm in a store looking at dessert pastries. One package contains a bunch of miniature glazed rolls of dough with honey and sugar. They look delicious.

I am playing Rainbow Moon (immediately obvious due to its distinct interface), although there are some subtle differences in the gameplay mechanics that aren’t present in the actual game. I might or might not be aware of these differences.

I am walking through a parking lot. It is either a large, paved lot with defined spaces (like any lot in a grocery store or shopping mall) or an unpaved, dirt lot in the open countryside. It may be both.

I am editing a large piece of text in Microsoft Word. I wake up just as I am about to take the hyphen out of a word that doesn’t need it.

8/6
I'm in a bar that is actually an online chatroom, yet I have the feeling of being inside it and occupying a physical space. It's wood paneled and there are several tables arranged in the room, each with a host of seats. It reminds me strongly of the Tavern chatroom in those old Sierra games Shadow of Yserbius/Fates of Twinion, even though those were literally just chatrooms with no visuals beyond their title. Anyway, there is a chat log here that I can see, kind of superimposed/off to the side from the room itself. In it I can see that this is a room for canine furries like myself (so the assumption is that there are several other rooms with similar specialization). I can see S, a coyote like me, has posted a message asking where the other coyotes are. I look around and the place is empty except for me, so his message must have been posted a little while ago. Since it's empty, I don't see the point in hanging around, so I go idle.

When my awareness returns, some time has passed, and now the room is bustling. There are several tables full of guests, and there are also a couple of tables with only one person sitting at them--my table is one of those. I assume the others are idling like I had been, or maybe they're just loners? I think they might not want to be bothered, and then realize that's probably what other people have thought when observing my table, so that might explain why no one is here with me. I feel a little lonely. I look through the list of tables/users and I can see S is here now, but his table is filled up with other coyote people. Now I really am kicking myself. I should have at least left a response to his earlier note so he knew I'd be around; I would have liked the chance to talk with him. It's not _technically_ too late; there's probably still space at the table for me to join, but now I feel self-conscious since their conversation is probably in full swing and I worry they'd think I was strange for joining it out of the blue.

No recall for 8/7 (today).

O. from a different forum I visit is posting about the ending to a movie. He includes a brief line that's spoilered out, which I don't read, and below it comments, "Furry muscle!" That's his whole post. Immediately following his post are several more, all quoting him, probably poking fun at him although I don't see their content. They might even have been quotes and nothing else.

I'm in a car driving in the rain, taking an extremely circuitous and hilly drive through back roads, until eventually I arrive at a secluded house with a large sloped roof. It's some kind of day care, although it's strange that it's out here in the middle of seemingly nowhere. With me are two young girls dressed in frilly clothes; they are sisters. I think at some point I am in the building, which is filled with people.

I'm taking a dance class(?) with a guy named Calvin. He's extremely tall, with dark skin, a light beard, and thick-rimmed glasses. He looks like he's in his early 20s, and he's pretty cute—I catch myself sizing him up. The class is being held in some kind of warehouse, or maybe the aisles of a Home Depot. Later, after it's ended, Calvin and I run outside to sit with several other people at a large, circular picnic table. He grabs what looks like the last open seat, and for a second I think there won't be any room for me, but I continue to examine the seats and realize there actually is one open, so I sit down. It's sunny and warm, and the table is shaded by a large tree. We turn and see some people playing with a football, although it's a weird-looking football: it's translucent and has colored lights or sequins on it. We start to guess how many times the football will bounce each time it's spiked on the ground.