Dreaming in Digital

20210202

In a gallery room, I was with Flan. He was working on paintings and drawings, and was slowly filling the walls. But on this particular day, the gallery manager barged in, angry. He yelled at Flan, who was busy painting on a Bristol board sheet of a forest bathed in sunset. He was angry because this was the gallery's main attraction, and the walls weren't covered in art. The gallery was going to open soon.

I laid down on blanket was spread across the floor by a coffee table and fell asleep. In bird's-eye-view, I saw the days rapidly pass, from day to night and back around. Another girl came in and slept under the coffee table.

When I awoke, it was dark. Something felt wrong, as if it was the end of the world. I got to my feet, grabbing my purse and slung it cross-body. I climbed out the first window I saw. There was a trail of sunset in the purply-grey sky. Many people were running away, somewhere. I met with a [Bosmer] and a couple of humans. We ran into an apartment building and up the stairs to the second floor.

We holed off in a room, no bigger than 10' x 5'. The walls were stark white and carpeted in grey. Against the wall was a queen sized bed. To one wall was a line of 4 doors, each a different style and size. One of the doors had a foot from the bottom missing, so we tried to keep out of sight. We needed to rest and wait for daylight, so everyone cuddled up in the bed. I began locking the doors, and as I got to the last one, the Bosmer told me to wait for his wife. Not too long, his wife rushed through the door and slid into bed beside the Bosmer. The bed had five people on it, so I slept on the floor.

I woke up to wood cracking and saw a hand reach under the door, trying to reach us. I screamed, startled, thinking it was a zombie, and shook everyone awake. The Bosmer hopped out of bed and said, "time to go!" He told us to take only what we needed. I grabbed my purse and picked up my Gen2 iPod from the floor. I picked up a bag or yarn, but paused realizing I had to find a crochet hook. Dropping the bag, I ran out the door with the last few of us survivors, and closed the door behind me.

There was a wooden ship on wooden tracks waiting for us. Half already left on another boat. Once I got in, the operator behind me pushed an oar off the ground, paddling us forward. We tilted downhill and sped up. I felt my body get pushed forward as we rolled downhill. It felt like a rollercoaster, except not as scary.

Three dreams.

1. Cookie and I were in the living room of my old apartment at 9L. With us were three mothers with their children ages 3-5, running wildly and loudly about. Out of the hallway, Mango was sleep deprived and drunk. He held a box cutter in alert, ready to swipe at anyone. The children began screaming. Cookie cautiously approached, but Mango knew he would try to take the blade and slashed at his hands. I looked at our golden-haired friend and noticed how dark his skin was under his eyes. I jumped from my seat, and being coy and cute, I tried to coax him into giving it to me, but he slashed my hands and I stumbled back as my blood pooled in my hands.

2. Cookie and I were going on a vacation with my family. In a spacious version of the 9L living room, we were packing our suitcases, and my mother was trying to pick out which suitcases Cookie and I should use. We were given huge, red ones, but I wanted to pack light.

Sometime later, Cookie and I were strolling around a mall. A few mini faeries caught my attention, and we stopped to have a look. Among other little trinkets, they were placed on a table. The store owner, an old, sweet lady, talked to us about our interest. Cookie held the conversation, and I my mind quickly drifted away, finding myself in a room with endless sky and no ground beneath. I held on to many coloured chains made of words and letters that formed the shape of a balloon. I held on, climbing down until I was beneath it and seeing where all the chains ended. I pulled and twisted them so they wouldn't be uneven, and I was brought back to the mall. The old lady had gathered a few 'volunteers', Cookie and I among them. The lady told us we were going to visit somewhere no one knows about, and I found myself back in the sky. The lady noticed something different about the chain balloon - someone had tampered with it, and I came clean. I don't remember what happens, but when we came back, I told the shop owner we'd have a look around before we purchase the faeries.

3. I was in some kind of danger, but I didn't know from what. I wasn't afraid. John Reese (from the television show, Person of Interest) escorted me to a grimy, rundown corner house that became a store in a dirty part of the city. There were few windows, and the lighting was dim. He patted my shoulder and said he'd be back. In the little window by the door, I watched him exit and lean against a lamp post across the street. A shady man with a small package approached him. They exchanged a few words before a fight and many more men joined. When the fight was over, he pried the box from the first man's hands, and came back to the shop. Watching all that happen, I wanted to be a policeman.

Next, I was in university again. On a tropical island, I stood on one of the floating docks. I'd chosen an elective which was taken by those studying law enforcement - some kind of police drills. Unfortunately, the class' time collided with another - a dance class of some kind. I looked at my classmates. Of everyone, I only recognized Flan. Someone was whispering my name. At first, I ignored it, thinking I'd misheard, but when it was clear, I turned to see my best university friend, Cupcake, waving at me. Having a closer look at her classmates, they were everyone else I took my art courses with. I figured us art students we divided either into law enforcement drills or dance classes.

After the sun had set, we were still in the water. I lost my balance and fell into the deep, dark teal water. I quickly got the hang of floating and swimming, and soon I was floating and watching the star-filled sky on my back.

Not sure where to start. I lived in the basement of my house and I was working on something at midnight. Shortbread was on my computer and she showed me a site to watch streaming movies. I had something to do in the kitchen, maybe make something, so I climbed the stairs to get there. The kitchen was different from my kitchen in real life. It was bigger, and the sink was built into the island counter. As I was washing dishes, my mom and dad came into the room. There were two knives I soaped up and I placed one on the counter, so I could rinse off the other. My dad stacked a plate on top of that knife so when I reached for it, I cut myself grabbing the blade bit, because I'd forgotten the blade part was facing me. My mom produced a tub of lychee and jackfruit in syrup from an overhead cupboard, and told me to submerge my cut in it so it'd heal faster. After bandaging it, I realized it was four in the morning, so I foolishly rushed to wash the rest of the dishes before heading downstairs to my room to get some sleep. I grabbed four rice cracker sticks (one of which I wanted to eat as a snack before bed) to pack in my purse for school, and headed down the stairs. Downstairs, Cookie's cousin, Apple, paced around on our laminate flooring, waiting for him. I offered him three cracker sticks, one for him and the other two for his siblings, but I realized I should give the fourth one too, and since I didn't open my snack yet, I gave it to him too. Cookie came and the two of them were off to go somewhere. When I finally entered my room, this is where the first dream cuts.

The second dream was in an animated world. I entered high school and saw a bunch of girls gathered in the corner of some display cases. There were several on the wall, some were in floor cases parallel to them. I ignored the girls and noticed a pretty boy who I knew. It was Wally West from Young Justice. I knew he was pretty, but I didn't realize he was that pretty. He seemed down, so I jumped on him, wrapping my legs around his stomach while his hands caught my butt so I wouldn't fall. I cupped his face with my hands, squishing his cheeks. I noticed he had red stubble all over his jaw and chin. "You grew facial hair," I said. "Suits you. Looks cute." He happily replied, "You think so?" In my head, although, for a long time, I thought his best friend, Dick Grayson, was cute, I thought I might just like Wally more. This dream ended when we kissed and my hand knocked over a stack of violet cards on top of one of the floor cases, advertising something, most likely an event.

The third dream had Cookie's university female friends participating in some kind of beauty pageant. Even though I traveled with them, I barely spoke with any of them; I was being ignored and not purposely. I followed them upstairs to the first room for a physical examination test, and once everyone was gone, I climbed down and forlornly waited on a table set by a potted tree. The place looked similar to the Living Arts Centre. A friend of ours approached me, and she wasn't participating in the events. She was a wise friend, and I think she was Bunny, my friend from university. Together, we went upstairs to check if the girls finished, but they were already gone. We climbed higher and found they've entered the next room, so we went back to the middle floor and sat inside a children's play house, one built for a sandbox. We talked about the girls,  and how I was feeling left out. Bunny asked if I wanted to see how they were doing in the competition, and when I agreed, we called a number on our cell phones and dialed someone's contestant number when prompted. I ended up with info for someone named Brianna when I was searching for Peach. Bunny dialed someone's number correctly, and I cant remember if they were doing well. This is where the third dream ends.

In the last dream, I was at work with the grandparents of the owner of the restaurant. Suddenly, a crowd appeared and it was Peach and the other contestants from the beauty pageant. Grams told me to go to the back and get something from Gramps, so I rushed into the back kitchen and Gramps made me wait for it... whatever it was. With urgency, I looked behind and at the crowd. Our goal is to serve everyone, and not lose any customers that walk out who were waiting. I learned Peach and the others learned I was worked here so they visited me.