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Recurring dream. This is another of those elaborate choreographed, technicolor, widescreen presentations that I seem to get now and then, and it has been replaying at intervals for a while now. A very large convention center hotel, sprawling, lots of fake marble, fountains, and escalators as well as banks of elevators in various locations. The first two or three floors are mezzanine affairs with balconies that overlook the lobby-courtyard arrangement that contains a restaurant and bar. Not too hard to imagine, there must be many such places and even I, who rarely travel or visit hotels, have seen quite a few. There's a difference, though. This place is famous for enactments or dramas that take place over an entire weekend, around and over the guests and involving them peripherally in the plotline. The sort of thing some dinner theatres do, only it takes several days to unfold. I've had more than one dream that contained a furry convention being held in the midst of such a thing, and in fact this particular sequence often seems to feature people I know from furrydom though it's not a furry con and there are no fursuits. There is always much confusion and getting lost in the complex, which, as I said, is huge and sprawling. The theme in this one appears to be based on the legend of Robin Hood, as hotel employees are dressed appropriate to that, and menus are designed around it. The element that holds the repeats together takes place at the end of the day on Sunday, somewhere around 8 pm. (In fact, in last night's multiple repeats, I actually looked at my watch and found that it was 8:10 pm as it started.) A group of men, presumably representing Robin Hood and his cohort, enter the lobby quietly from a corner. The lights would undoubtedly dim, except the place is largely lit by candles and lanterns at this point anyway. "Robin" starts singing in a rich tenor, a nice poetic ditty about "Day is done, and gone the sun, from every field and stable..." A hush falls over the assemblage, and then the men start shooting what one assumes are blunt arrows, with great accuracy, putting out lights one by one. At this point, a mad panic ensues with people scrambling for exits, stairways, and escalators. I'm usually caught up in a crowd, thinking "I knew this was coming and should have gotten out of here a half hour ago as I dash for an elevator and manage to squeeze into it just when the doors are closing. The reason? The arrows are not all blunt, and someone is always hit by the one that has a real point. Usually it doesn't kill them, but the possibility exists. And people choose this as a thrill-seeking adventure. The hotel requires them to sign binding waivers and all that sort of thing. When the panic clears, I find myself again in the lobby, surrounded by people I know, and I'm the one extracting a barbed dart from an unknown young woman's calf, where she was struck a glancing blow. It should be a bloody wound, but is surprisingly clean. The barb must be broken off in order to extract the shaft without more damage, but this is fairly easy since it went all the way through and out the other side... I don't know where this thing is coming from, but I want it to go away. Even the song Robin Hood sings, which is actually quite lovely, is now so tainted with disgust, fear, and anger at the behaviors of commercial entities and crowd-following morons that I could never enjoy it in real life. Tags: dreams
Current Location: Home in the oak grove
Mood: annoyed
Music: Robin Hood - "Day is Done"
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I think I know where it came from. Yesterday ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) soanos and I were having a chat that, among other things, touched on giraffes and okapis and zebras. Early this morning, right before awakening, I had a bizarre dream. Not disturbing, but unusual even for me. This one lacked the more or less sequential plot that my remembered dreams usually have. Anyway, the setting looked vaguely like the US in old west days. The way you used to see it on television or in movies, dry, dusty, rather drab. Driving or riding in a horse-drawn wagon into or out of a town (vague, I know, but it was.) And there was a young kid with two four-legged animals. He was trying to ride one, and it was taking exception to that, not by bucking like a horse, but by squirming and twisting around. In the dream, I thought of these animals as giraffes, though really they didn't look like giraffes. No spots, necks more like camels or llamas than like giraffes. They had stripes like okapi, but were shaggier, like alpacas or llamas. Anyway, in the dream they were supposed to be giraffes, apparently. And the kid pulled a thing like a gun out of his pocket or a holster, held it to the head of the creature he was struggling with, and fired. It made a dull thud, and I thought "OMG, a captive bolt like in slaughter houses," but the animal continued to struggle until it succeeded in shaking him off its back. By that time I was on foot and shouting at him, but he ran and disappeared. I turned to the two odd animals, thinking one must be dead, but it wasn't. The larger of the two, the one the kid had shot, was still standing but holding one hind foot off the ground. A little blood was dripping, but not a lot. I asked it if I could look at the injury, and it nodded, turning to present that side and lifting the foot, which had padded toes rather like those of a camelid but three in number. There seemed to be no broken bones, and the bleeding had already stopped, but there was a large gash in the skin. "We should have that cared for," I said, and to my surprise, the creature answered me. "What would you propose?" it asked. I got over the surprise quickly enough, and suddenly it seemed perfectly normal to be conversing with the two creatures. They did not tell me what they were, and I didn't ask how the situation had arisen. The talk was all about the injury and how to treat it. At length they agreed to let a veterinarian examine the wound. We walked, or rather, I and the smaller beast walked while the large one limped, down the street until we found a veterinary office and went in. The vet said the wound should heal all right but it needed to be cleaned and stitched shut. He also proposed to give the creature an injection of some antibiotic. It agreed to the treatment. The vet asked me to hold the beast's head while he gave the injection. He explained that it might be painful, and that the poor thing should not struggle because it might hurt itself. It nodded understanding. Then I was holding its head and shaggy neck while the vet gave the injection. It went very rigid and started to shrink to the size of a large dog, while I still held and petted its neck. Somehow this seemed normal, as if it had explained that it could change sizes at will when necessary. The vet was stitching the wound shut without difficulty when I woke up, interrupting the story line. I still have no idea what the creatures were. Something like llamas, I guess, but not exactly. They spoke perfect English, with radio announcer type voices, and seemed very gentle and civilized. I suppose they might have been some sort of alien race, though this was never acknowledged. Tags: dreams
Current Location: Frozen oak grove
Mood:  puzzled
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I had a dream last night about a vampire. This might seem like an ordinary nightmare to some folks, but for me it is utterly bizarre. I never have dreams or even think about vampires. As usual with dreams, there was no context, it just happened. The setting was an old church that had been converted to some kind of boarding house. I was either living there or else working there as the cook or something. I was the one who first realized that one of the guests was in fact a dangerous vampire. For some reason he revealed himself to me as he went up to his room. It was morning (of course, he was going to sleep for the day I guess) and the other residents were all out at work or school. I determined to protect everyone by locking the vampire in and closing off access to the top floor where his room was. I did this, somehow (never mind the fact that vampires can supposedly slip through the tiniest of openings, like keyholes or cracks) and waited for the residents to return. As each arrived (they were all furries of various sorts) I explained the situation and warned them to stay on the ground floor until we could solve the problem. After everyone was there, I decided to go outside and examine the exterior of the building to see how secure it was. The vampire was visible as a shadow at the window of his room, and he threw something at me. It missed, and when it hit the ground it split into two pieces. It was a glass globe, like a fancy paperweight, with a swirling red design in the glass. I carried this back inside, wondering what the significance of it might be, if it had any. We started a discussion of what to do next, and about then I woke up. It was 2:30 am. I was not frightened, as I might be on waking from a scary dream, but more puzzled because the nature of this one was so different from what I usually get. I lay awake for about an hour before finally falling asleep again. Oddly, and I'm sure without any connection to this, I learned this morning that goldenstallion is in the hospital and had bypass surgery yesterday. Doing OK so far, I guess. Hooves crossed here. Tags: dreams
Current Location: Home in the oak grove
Mood:  puzzled
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amused