I had a dream last night.
Nov. 19th, 2003 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrupI rather enjoyed it. I was much like a good anime. I'm hiding the details behind an lj-cut to spare those who are bored by such things:
So, the dream featured five characters, who didn't have names that I ever caught. The few references to names seemed to be all japanese, so I wouldn't remember them anyway. I'll just refer to them by number. In order of appearance they were:
One) Tall lithe white male fighter with a sword. Appears to be about 30 and an experienced veteran. Has some sort of anti-magic or magic-deflecting protection. Wears some sort of stylized leather armor. He can jump 30 feet.
Two) 30-ish Medium-height voluptuous dusky-skinned woman with shoulder-length raven-black hair. Also a fighter. Nowhere near as good a fighter as #1, but with an arsenal of spells, mostly offensive. She wears skin-tight body armor of a variety of colors. She can fly, but not fast.
Three) Medium-height, extremely-cute, short-sandy-haired woman. Looks to be about 20ish. Incredibly tough with amazing reflexes. #1 is a better fighter, but only because #3 lacks experience. Her native talent is far greater. She also wears as little as she can get away with. A chain bikini is typical, but she'll happily go nude if it will give her an advantage in a fight. She also appears to know a few offensive spells. Rumor has it that she is a cyborg with a human brain but everything else robotic. She seems able to fly at high speed.
Four) Medium-height black man who seems to specialize in sabotage, disguises and blowing things up. Tends to wear matte-black clothing and tries to stay out of actual battle. Appears to have an innate grasp of human nature and can often predict what the others are going to do in any given situation. Doesn't fly.
Five) Short little grey-haired fellow wearing grey leathers and a grey cloak. He carries a staff. A highly skilled thief, he seldom tells what he knows, or how he found out. It is later revealed that he knows a range of spells that are useful for deadening sounds, opening locks, and the like. He can speak the language of cats. If he can fly, he won't admit it.
As the dream opens, I'm seeing things from the perspective of One, who is in battle with Two in a desert somewhere. They are doing the typical anime high-leaping bouncing-around sword fighting, with Two throwing the occasional lighting or firebolt that One has to dodge or bat aside. Suddenly, One knocks a firebolt back into Two, and she's knocked from the sky. Simultaneously, there's a large aerial explosion above the two of them, and Three comes plummeting out of it. The explosion also knocks one to the ground. All three land within a few feet of each other.
One recovers first, and is getting ready to kill off Two, who is too weak to defend herself. Instead she points to Three who is lying nearby. One hadn't noticed her yet. Three is lying in a blackened crater, naked and unconscious, but apparently undamaged. I think Two was just trying to distract One by the nearness of a cute naked woman. It works. One clearly recognizes Three and mutters something to the effect of "and an ack-ack shell didn't take her out?" He then turns back to Two and says "I'll finish you later, she's more dangerous DEAD than you are ALIVE". He then makes a leap at Three and plunges his sword where she was lying an instant before. She's now awake and has snatched up a sword from the ground.
We now go into all out gonzo anime fighting, where its obvious that Three is a far better match against One than Two was. In the end, One manages to disarm Three by chopping her sword in pieces. At this Three hesitates for a second, and then flies away. One looks around and sees that Two has also vanished. He lands on the ground and starts running at high speed in the same direction that One went.
-----
In the next scene, there is an urban battle going on. Some sort of voice-over is explaining that the Western Alliance (the supposed good guys) are at war with the Eastern Empire. There is a rumor to the effect that the Empire has a prototype secret super-weapon in a holding area in a city just inside the border of the Empire. The five nations of the Western Alliance have mounted a major push to capture the city, and get their hands on the weapon. They have each also (without telling each other) sent their top agents into the field to secure the weapon. These are the five characters of the dream.
We catch glimpses of One, Two and Three fighting separately as they mow down enemy troops (who all seem to have helmets and machine guns) and make their way to a central storage garage.
Suddenly, I'm seeing things from Four's perspective. When the others get there, the armored garage doors have already been blown open and Four is standing surrounded by dead bodies. He isn't happy. One, Two and Three land beside him and he looks up. "We're too late", he says. "It looks like they moved the weapon a few days ago. They must have been tipped off. It could be anywhere by now."
At this point Five steps out of the shadows. "It was seen being moved 3 days ago. It appears to be large and track-mounted and doesn't move too fast. From what I've been able to gather, it was put on a train and is now in <some city>."
Dismayed looks all around. One says "That's in the heart of the Empire, and a religious enclave to boot, we could never fight our way in, and we'd be spotted as outsiders if we tried to sneak in."
Five looks smug. "That's why I'm approaching you. I've managed to secure the costumes of a priest and four acolytes. I don't think this mission is one that any one of us can pull off alone, but together we'll have a decent chance. I'll be a junior acolyte."
Three pipes up "Okay, then I'll be a junior acolyte too" and Two and One say as one "I'll be a senior acolyte". Four scowls at all of them. "So why do *I* have to be the priest?" Three responds "You *look* like one. Besides, you didn't speak up fast enough, so there!"
----
The next scene opens with the characters in religious garb walking down an almost-deserted snow-covered street of their target city. The clothes that they are wearing are just head-to-toe winter cloaks with various strange symbols embroidered on them. One and Two are in Brown, Three and Five are in Grey, and Four is in Black. Four is saying "You realize that this is doomed. Once we get our hands on the thing, we're just going to start fighting over it again. Can we come to some sort of agreement to keep the peace until AFTER its across the border?" Nods and murmurs of yes all around.
Four then says (secretly enjoying his role as priest) "I've made some inquiries and there's a mission near hear than takes in members of wandering orders, whatever their religious affiliation. We'll try to get lodging for the night."
They turn off of the main street with its close-set lanterns, and head down a dark lane with small residential buildings set back from it. Suddenly I'm seeing things from Five's perspective. He usually walks at the rear of the party, but he now he hangs back even farther, until the others are lost in the gloom. He's heard the meow of a large black cat standing in a stomped down patch of snow in a yard. He looks over, and can make out the eyes and face of the cat in the gloom. "Come here", Five says, "And I'll trade some warmth for some news." Five then squats so his knees make a platform and his thick religious cloak makes an inviting warm cave. The cat hops over and onto Five's knees and snuggles up. After a few moments, it starts to whisper in Five's ear. After a minute or two, the cat hops down and Five stands and continues on his way.
Not long after, he meets Four, who's come back to look for him. Without saying a word, Five follows Four back to the mission. The mission is a large stone building with many doors on the outside. One such door is open and Four and Five go inside. They end up in what looks a lot like a motel room with odd furnishings. There are a couple of couches and a chair but there is only one very large bed, looking like a cross between a mattress and quilt-draped pile of tatami. One, Two and Three have already taken off their cloaks and changed into nighttime garb. For One and Three that appears to be soft cotton shirts and pants. Three is either in her underwear or a bedtime bikini, its hard to tell.
Four takes off his cloak and hangs it up. He's wearing a black floor-length robe embroidered with gold and silver symbols.
Five closes the door, and then raps on it with his staff before doffing his cloak and settling himself on a couch near the door; happening to lean his staff so it touches the door. He is wearing a religiously embossed version of his grey leathers under his cloak.
"What was that all about?" asks One. Two wrinkles up her forehead in thought for a moment. "Its a detection spell", she announces, "It'll go off if anyone tries to listen in on us. Its also VERY hard to detect. I like it". Five smirks. Four looks over at him with an expression of interest "So, you know spells too? I'll have to keep my eyes on you".
My perspective then switches back to that of Four:
"Its not enough in this city", says Two. "All of our spells use mage-type magic. We're at a disadvantage going up against priestly spells." Four looks around and then clears his throat. "I have a bit of a confession to make. Here." He closes his eyes, holds out his hands and concentrates. A swirling milky-white sphere slowly forms between his palms. He then sighs, and it vanishes. "I can summon enough faith to do priestly magic, but I've never been trained in it. I grew up in a place like this, and was going to enter the priesthood but,... things intervened. So, I have power, but no control."
Two looks impressed. "Actually, from what I know of the theory, most of priestly magic is just having enough faith in the gods, clearly knowing what you want, and being able to convince yourself you're worthy of the results. It looks to me like you're more than halfway there. Anyway, we can discuss this more in the morning. We'll want to get an early start. Now, who gets which end of the bed?"
Five says "I prefer to stay up and keep watch. I'll wake someone later". Four lays down in the middle of the bed. "Fine. I'm bushed. That took a lot out of me." One doesn't say anything, but lays down at one side of the bed, with his sword beside him on the floor. Three happily flops down between One and Four. Two then settles on the other edge of the bed, beside Four. As she does, she comments "Well Three, I always thought you were sweet on One." Three giggles and reaches over to kiss Four on the forehead "Don't place your bets yet!" She says. Four then mutters under his breath "I absolutely *HATE* Bedroom politics", and drifts off to sleep.
As they sleep, a soft rhythmic drum sound slowly seeps into the room. Strangely, Five doesn't seem to notice it as he sits on guard. The drum sound slowly increases and a soft chanting can be heard over it. Five is now clearly mesmerized, and its affecting the others who start to thrash in their sleep. Suddenly Four opens his eyes. He still looks like he might be asleep. He holds his hands in front of him and starts miming playing a trombone. Slowly the trombone starts to appear; its made of swirling white fog. As it becomes more solid looking, it starts to make a soft music. As Four plays the music and fog pours out of the bell of the trombone and slowly fill the room, dampening the chanting. After a bit, the trombone turns into a wisp of fog and all of the fog vanishes. Four falls deeply asleep.
Early in the morning, a secret door is opened in the side of the room, and a voice calls out. It orders the heroes to wake and to come and greet their new master and be inducted into the 'True' religion.
Everyone slowly gets up, acting like zombies, except for Four, who clearly has no idea what is going on, but decides to play along. They all stumble through the secret door into a large well-lit room where a priest and a dozen acolytes are already seated.
The five heroes sit in a row where they are ordered to, and the priest starts telling them that they are the newest recruits to his order, an order that is growing rather rapidly even despite the numbers of his people being drafted into the war.
As he is speaking, he makes occasional mystical or symbolic gestures, which the four zombified heroes duplicate, and which Four quickly tries to match. At first the priest carefully eyes his new recruits, but as he continues talking, and they respond correctly, he slowly loses his nervousness, convinced that the spell has worked once again. However, as the talk continues, one-by-one the heroes slowly come to their senses and realize what it going on. By the time the priest finishes his talk, the heroes are all themselves again. When they are ordered to stand and follow the priest to their new quarters, they stand up and attack.
They make quick work of the acolytes, and of the guards who come pouring in due to the sound of a struggle. They capture the priest and start asking him pointed questions about what he was doing, if he is the top guy in charge, and how they have been supporting the Eastern war effort.
----
At this point, unfortunately, I woke up.
All in all. I found it a very interesting dream, with a good set of characters and personalities and an interesting plot line. Now, if only I could do that on command when I'm trying to write a story.
So, the dream featured five characters, who didn't have names that I ever caught. The few references to names seemed to be all japanese, so I wouldn't remember them anyway. I'll just refer to them by number. In order of appearance they were:
One) Tall lithe white male fighter with a sword. Appears to be about 30 and an experienced veteran. Has some sort of anti-magic or magic-deflecting protection. Wears some sort of stylized leather armor. He can jump 30 feet.
Two) 30-ish Medium-height voluptuous dusky-skinned woman with shoulder-length raven-black hair. Also a fighter. Nowhere near as good a fighter as #1, but with an arsenal of spells, mostly offensive. She wears skin-tight body armor of a variety of colors. She can fly, but not fast.
Three) Medium-height, extremely-cute, short-sandy-haired woman. Looks to be about 20ish. Incredibly tough with amazing reflexes. #1 is a better fighter, but only because #3 lacks experience. Her native talent is far greater. She also wears as little as she can get away with. A chain bikini is typical, but she'll happily go nude if it will give her an advantage in a fight. She also appears to know a few offensive spells. Rumor has it that she is a cyborg with a human brain but everything else robotic. She seems able to fly at high speed.
Four) Medium-height black man who seems to specialize in sabotage, disguises and blowing things up. Tends to wear matte-black clothing and tries to stay out of actual battle. Appears to have an innate grasp of human nature and can often predict what the others are going to do in any given situation. Doesn't fly.
Five) Short little grey-haired fellow wearing grey leathers and a grey cloak. He carries a staff. A highly skilled thief, he seldom tells what he knows, or how he found out. It is later revealed that he knows a range of spells that are useful for deadening sounds, opening locks, and the like. He can speak the language of cats. If he can fly, he won't admit it.
As the dream opens, I'm seeing things from the perspective of One, who is in battle with Two in a desert somewhere. They are doing the typical anime high-leaping bouncing-around sword fighting, with Two throwing the occasional lighting or firebolt that One has to dodge or bat aside. Suddenly, One knocks a firebolt back into Two, and she's knocked from the sky. Simultaneously, there's a large aerial explosion above the two of them, and Three comes plummeting out of it. The explosion also knocks one to the ground. All three land within a few feet of each other.
One recovers first, and is getting ready to kill off Two, who is too weak to defend herself. Instead she points to Three who is lying nearby. One hadn't noticed her yet. Three is lying in a blackened crater, naked and unconscious, but apparently undamaged. I think Two was just trying to distract One by the nearness of a cute naked woman. It works. One clearly recognizes Three and mutters something to the effect of "and an ack-ack shell didn't take her out?" He then turns back to Two and says "I'll finish you later, she's more dangerous DEAD than you are ALIVE". He then makes a leap at Three and plunges his sword where she was lying an instant before. She's now awake and has snatched up a sword from the ground.
We now go into all out gonzo anime fighting, where its obvious that Three is a far better match against One than Two was. In the end, One manages to disarm Three by chopping her sword in pieces. At this Three hesitates for a second, and then flies away. One looks around and sees that Two has also vanished. He lands on the ground and starts running at high speed in the same direction that One went.
-----
In the next scene, there is an urban battle going on. Some sort of voice-over is explaining that the Western Alliance (the supposed good guys) are at war with the Eastern Empire. There is a rumor to the effect that the Empire has a prototype secret super-weapon in a holding area in a city just inside the border of the Empire. The five nations of the Western Alliance have mounted a major push to capture the city, and get their hands on the weapon. They have each also (without telling each other) sent their top agents into the field to secure the weapon. These are the five characters of the dream.
We catch glimpses of One, Two and Three fighting separately as they mow down enemy troops (who all seem to have helmets and machine guns) and make their way to a central storage garage.
Suddenly, I'm seeing things from Four's perspective. When the others get there, the armored garage doors have already been blown open and Four is standing surrounded by dead bodies. He isn't happy. One, Two and Three land beside him and he looks up. "We're too late", he says. "It looks like they moved the weapon a few days ago. They must have been tipped off. It could be anywhere by now."
At this point Five steps out of the shadows. "It was seen being moved 3 days ago. It appears to be large and track-mounted and doesn't move too fast. From what I've been able to gather, it was put on a train and is now in <some city>."
Dismayed looks all around. One says "That's in the heart of the Empire, and a religious enclave to boot, we could never fight our way in, and we'd be spotted as outsiders if we tried to sneak in."
Five looks smug. "That's why I'm approaching you. I've managed to secure the costumes of a priest and four acolytes. I don't think this mission is one that any one of us can pull off alone, but together we'll have a decent chance. I'll be a junior acolyte."
Three pipes up "Okay, then I'll be a junior acolyte too" and Two and One say as one "I'll be a senior acolyte". Four scowls at all of them. "So why do *I* have to be the priest?" Three responds "You *look* like one. Besides, you didn't speak up fast enough, so there!"
----
The next scene opens with the characters in religious garb walking down an almost-deserted snow-covered street of their target city. The clothes that they are wearing are just head-to-toe winter cloaks with various strange symbols embroidered on them. One and Two are in Brown, Three and Five are in Grey, and Four is in Black. Four is saying "You realize that this is doomed. Once we get our hands on the thing, we're just going to start fighting over it again. Can we come to some sort of agreement to keep the peace until AFTER its across the border?" Nods and murmurs of yes all around.
Four then says (secretly enjoying his role as priest) "I've made some inquiries and there's a mission near hear than takes in members of wandering orders, whatever their religious affiliation. We'll try to get lodging for the night."
They turn off of the main street with its close-set lanterns, and head down a dark lane with small residential buildings set back from it. Suddenly I'm seeing things from Five's perspective. He usually walks at the rear of the party, but he now he hangs back even farther, until the others are lost in the gloom. He's heard the meow of a large black cat standing in a stomped down patch of snow in a yard. He looks over, and can make out the eyes and face of the cat in the gloom. "Come here", Five says, "And I'll trade some warmth for some news." Five then squats so his knees make a platform and his thick religious cloak makes an inviting warm cave. The cat hops over and onto Five's knees and snuggles up. After a few moments, it starts to whisper in Five's ear. After a minute or two, the cat hops down and Five stands and continues on his way.
Not long after, he meets Four, who's come back to look for him. Without saying a word, Five follows Four back to the mission. The mission is a large stone building with many doors on the outside. One such door is open and Four and Five go inside. They end up in what looks a lot like a motel room with odd furnishings. There are a couple of couches and a chair but there is only one very large bed, looking like a cross between a mattress and quilt-draped pile of tatami. One, Two and Three have already taken off their cloaks and changed into nighttime garb. For One and Three that appears to be soft cotton shirts and pants. Three is either in her underwear or a bedtime bikini, its hard to tell.
Four takes off his cloak and hangs it up. He's wearing a black floor-length robe embroidered with gold and silver symbols.
Five closes the door, and then raps on it with his staff before doffing his cloak and settling himself on a couch near the door; happening to lean his staff so it touches the door. He is wearing a religiously embossed version of his grey leathers under his cloak.
"What was that all about?" asks One. Two wrinkles up her forehead in thought for a moment. "Its a detection spell", she announces, "It'll go off if anyone tries to listen in on us. Its also VERY hard to detect. I like it". Five smirks. Four looks over at him with an expression of interest "So, you know spells too? I'll have to keep my eyes on you".
My perspective then switches back to that of Four:
"Its not enough in this city", says Two. "All of our spells use mage-type magic. We're at a disadvantage going up against priestly spells." Four looks around and then clears his throat. "I have a bit of a confession to make. Here." He closes his eyes, holds out his hands and concentrates. A swirling milky-white sphere slowly forms between his palms. He then sighs, and it vanishes. "I can summon enough faith to do priestly magic, but I've never been trained in it. I grew up in a place like this, and was going to enter the priesthood but,... things intervened. So, I have power, but no control."
Two looks impressed. "Actually, from what I know of the theory, most of priestly magic is just having enough faith in the gods, clearly knowing what you want, and being able to convince yourself you're worthy of the results. It looks to me like you're more than halfway there. Anyway, we can discuss this more in the morning. We'll want to get an early start. Now, who gets which end of the bed?"
Five says "I prefer to stay up and keep watch. I'll wake someone later". Four lays down in the middle of the bed. "Fine. I'm bushed. That took a lot out of me." One doesn't say anything, but lays down at one side of the bed, with his sword beside him on the floor. Three happily flops down between One and Four. Two then settles on the other edge of the bed, beside Four. As she does, she comments "Well Three, I always thought you were sweet on One." Three giggles and reaches over to kiss Four on the forehead "Don't place your bets yet!" She says. Four then mutters under his breath "I absolutely *HATE* Bedroom politics", and drifts off to sleep.
As they sleep, a soft rhythmic drum sound slowly seeps into the room. Strangely, Five doesn't seem to notice it as he sits on guard. The drum sound slowly increases and a soft chanting can be heard over it. Five is now clearly mesmerized, and its affecting the others who start to thrash in their sleep. Suddenly Four opens his eyes. He still looks like he might be asleep. He holds his hands in front of him and starts miming playing a trombone. Slowly the trombone starts to appear; its made of swirling white fog. As it becomes more solid looking, it starts to make a soft music. As Four plays the music and fog pours out of the bell of the trombone and slowly fill the room, dampening the chanting. After a bit, the trombone turns into a wisp of fog and all of the fog vanishes. Four falls deeply asleep.
Early in the morning, a secret door is opened in the side of the room, and a voice calls out. It orders the heroes to wake and to come and greet their new master and be inducted into the 'True' religion.
Everyone slowly gets up, acting like zombies, except for Four, who clearly has no idea what is going on, but decides to play along. They all stumble through the secret door into a large well-lit room where a priest and a dozen acolytes are already seated.
The five heroes sit in a row where they are ordered to, and the priest starts telling them that they are the newest recruits to his order, an order that is growing rather rapidly even despite the numbers of his people being drafted into the war.
As he is speaking, he makes occasional mystical or symbolic gestures, which the four zombified heroes duplicate, and which Four quickly tries to match. At first the priest carefully eyes his new recruits, but as he continues talking, and they respond correctly, he slowly loses his nervousness, convinced that the spell has worked once again. However, as the talk continues, one-by-one the heroes slowly come to their senses and realize what it going on. By the time the priest finishes his talk, the heroes are all themselves again. When they are ordered to stand and follow the priest to their new quarters, they stand up and attack.
They make quick work of the acolytes, and of the guards who come pouring in due to the sound of a struggle. They capture the priest and start asking him pointed questions about what he was doing, if he is the top guy in charge, and how they have been supporting the Eastern war effort.
----
At this point, unfortunately, I woke up.
All in all. I found it a very interesting dream, with a good set of characters and personalities and an interesting plot line. Now, if only I could do that on command when I'm trying to write a story.
