Dreaming in Digital

20240216 After years without contact, Wafer invited me to her new apartment's party room where she was entertaining new friends. I haven't seen or spoken to her in years, purely because I didn't think she was contributing anything positive in my life. Since I've had time to cool my head, I decided to give her another chance. i atrived to a sleek, white party room, where I decided to spend most of my time behind the bar and kitchenette. When Shortbread arrived, she'd stay there with me, each of us holding a red Solo cup as a crutch or our awkardness. Every now and then, the social butterfly, Wafer would come there to get something. She was surrounded by her friends. Barely any time was spent with us.

 20230528 Rummaging through a filled garage, stacked with rows upon rows of metal shelves, I came across a partially opened cardboard box. I pulled out a picture book with a familiar-looking girl on the cover. It was a book about Jyn Erso's adventures before the events of Star Wars: Rogue One.

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Cookie's four-year-old nephew was having another birthday party for his friends only. Despite not having children, cookie and I were invited, so we awkwardly watched children run around the party hall.

Stacks of colouring sheet packages and a cup of crayons sat on a foldable table. I took one stack and began colouring the dinosaur-themed package. Not soon after, the nephew's mother's friend, and her two sons, were leaving. She searched the colouring packages for her sons' names but only found one. Dread set into my system as I flipped through the sheets I found a name written on the top right of the package.

I rushed to Cookie's nephew's mother telling her what I'd accidentally done - I didn't know they were only for the children. Overhearing my panic, my mother-in-law handed me a black USB stick and pointed me to a door.

"You can print out more colouring pages in there," she said, patting my shoulder.

Cookie and I entered the room. Everything was white. The only things in the room were a single computer and a black printer in the centre of the room. I booted up the stick in Windows Explorer to see thousands of files, and to my horror, none of them were in folders. I used the search function without luck, and after a few minutes, I decided to try searching on the internet for the exact same colouring book pages to print.

20210928 With a cocktail in hand, I was at a party with Bobby Pin, from Heels. He was dressed in a white suit with a black, collared shirt underneath. It was late Spring, and the sun was high in the sky. We'd just met and I spent most of the party talking to him. A part of our conversation became about getting swindled by someone we both knew. Excitedly, he told me about [something relating to the same guy]. I joked that we should break into his office to get back our money, and he thought it was an excellent idea.

 20201203

Cookie and I travelled to a hotel resort for Mango's and Papaya's wedding. I was helping their wedding set up until I realized the time was 3:30pm. I found Cookie and we rushed back to our room to get ready.

On the way, I saw Papaya already in her white dress and I hid to avoid her. I wore my black summer dress because my formal attire would take me a while to get ready.

20201012 

20201005

It was Honeycrisp's birthday and the part I remember was we met our work friends somewhere, then continued walking. We walked until we came across my apartment. The lobby was massive -- it looked like a fancy hotel, with a casino and stage. It's what I imagine Las Vegas looks like.

I was with PinkLady, Ambrosia, another cashier, and Honeycrisp. On this grey, winter day, I wore a black dress with jeans beneath, and I dearly, dearly wanted to shave my legs. There as a show on stage, and the girls stopped to watch.

As I explained what I knew about the show, I noticed Honeycrisp was a little bored. He wandered away from the enthralled group, then came back to find they haven't moved. I gave him my house keys and building fob, telling him, "I'll be right back." I told him they should explore. I left for home to shave my legs.

Shortbread and I went to a new high school. We had different classes and lunch periods, and the people we got along with were different too. My first class was an art class, where I've met a girl and she invited me to eat lunch with her friends. I refused because I promised I'd eat with Shortbread. In art, my teacher was kind, and tried to inspire me. We sat in a stairwell even though she had a classroom and asked if I wanted to borrow a book from her. I declined since it was during lunch. When lunch came, I went looking for Shortbread and found her in an English class, writing an essay in the hallway. I talked to her a little before a boy came to me, asking for help. He has porcelain skin and auburn hair, and he led me to the english teacher's classroom during an ongoing class. Something told me he was strange, but I followed him. He led me through a door in the back of class which led to an empty classroom. With the teacher following behind, the boy closed the door behind us. I can't remember what he did, but I felt threatened and insulted. The teacher handed him a piece of cardstock, and told him to go to the office. The teacher told me he did this often, maybe unaware of his actions. Then I wentto find Shortbread. I met Shortbread at the end of the hallway, and we went for lunch in the park, where there was a picnic table. Later on at night, we were invited to a girl's house for dinner. We sat in their parking lot, double checking the address when a car pulled up in front of the house, blaring music and laughter. Out came a noisy group of her friends. We weren't the only ones she invited.

I came home in my first dream to find that the door to my house was left unlock and closed improperly. I went inside, discovering our furniture was all gone. Everything was gone except my plastic bag of wedding planning. I panicked and called my parent's cellphones but they didn't answer. I ran to Shortbread's house, texting her if I could stay there until my parents were back. As I was going there, I texted Wafer and Cookie in panic. I hugged Shortbread as soon as I saw her, and hugged her dad in thanks. My mom called and picked me up before going home. My dad laughed when I told him the house was robbed - he put everything in a storage compartment to make cleaning the house easier.

My dad dropped me at high school during a rainy day and I realized I was late for my first class. I fumbled with the class schedules in my hand, running up stairs until I reached the highest floor. My class was in the middle of the hallway and I was embarrassed to join them because I had the same teacher another year ago. Class soon ended and I followed them and chose a locker before going to my next class in a hotel room-like space. We sat on beds and I sat beside someone I've met before. His hair was dirty blond and down to his chin and he was tall compared to me. I sat beside him on the bed and his group of male friends. Everyone was watching the television to our right, but I felt his eyes on me. I bounced on the bed a little, flirtatiously and adjusted the way I sat. He leaned over and whispered, "I like you", but I rejected him - I had a boyfriend.

I went to a formal party with a girl and we walked around the banquet hall. It was lively inside and I was happy, but somewhere along the way, we met the same boy in my previous dream who had a crush on me. He had a bag of stuffed toys, one of which was a plump, little, round pig. We sat down and the girl and he talked while I squished and rolled the pig in my hands. My friend started crying because someone had eaten her little dog here. We all got up to leave, and find her dog. The boy left us for a bit and she and I ran in the underground parking lot. Beside one garbage can was a worker, and we asked him if he could check if the dog was in the garbage. It wasn't. We went to the surface and met the boy again. He had his bag of toys and told us that they were slowly disappearing and he needed to restock. We crossed a grassy, untamed field to a shed in the sunshine. He started grabbing more and I understood he was working for some carnival. After he had collected enough, he left me in the shed and I took one of each toy, stuffing it into my bag just as an obese woman trotted towards the shed. I closed the zipper and walked off, meeting my friends. At my locker, I fumbled with the lock, unable to remember the code, but my friend tried and opened it. Streams of coin fell from my locker, spilling on the ground. We gathered them up while the boy was confused. Knowing his boss, the obese lady, was watching, I told him firmly, "don't you remember? We played some games." He nodded in agreement.

I was part of a kingdom who was at war with another, and I viewed the world in a slanted bird's eye view. The kingdom I was a part of used baby blue to represent their kingdom, while the neighbouring kingdom used red. The land we shared had rolling hills of green grass and the sky always retained its bright blue hue. It never became night.

I was a prince in the blue kingdom with the ability to switch bodies with any subject I chose. My best friend was Tim Drake as Robin, in his red and black uniform, and black cape with yellow lining. I borrowed his body often to visit the red kingdom and see the princess. Sometimes he would visit the princess when I couldn't and send her messages of my affection. Of all our subjects, he had the fastest speed when covering ground, and used his acrobatic skill to dodge attacks from enemy subjects. In his body, I through the grassy fields, reaching the outermost point of the enemy's kingdom. There were ruins of protective walls scattered about in rings around the kingdom. As soon as I entered the first ring, I learned they had learned to build robots, using them as killer machines. The majority travelled in swarms, and I was able to destroy a few, but I soon felt the floor shake with heavy footprints. Scanning the horizon, I saw a gigantic, humanoid/bug-like machine racing towards me. It was black and red and both hands were machine guns. I dodged most of its attacked, but I took heavy damage until I died. Although Tim's body was lying in the grass, lifeless, I was still alive as a  ghost soul. I watched as the red king came out and ordered his army to stop. Stop everything. He walked a distance away from his kingdom, into a display of chairs and tables, and plates neatly spaced out. I soon realized it was where the reception of a wedding was to take place. The princess was by her father, weeping because her friend was killed. The king gave a speech to all his subjects who had gathered closely around him, including his robot subjects. They listened to the king talk aabout ending the war, because they had killed the princess' friend. I could not figure out if the wedding that was set up was for the princess and I, or for the princess and another prince. I also couldn't figure out if the princess cried because Tim had died or she might be marrying another prince.

I went to a formal party with one of my supervisors at work. I was her guest, and she let me wander around. It was held in a restaurant inside a store. Each table had white linens and the centrepieces were tall vases with long stemmed lollipops of different flavours. She said I could take some, so I  took a bunch - at least one from each table. She called me over when dinner was about to start, and I took my seat beside her and a little girl. I was embarrassed by the amount I'd taken so I held onto them under the table. The child grabbed them from me and I tugged as she pulled. I let go eventually, until I had one left.
After the party, I went with Shortbread to an abandoned... something. It was in ruins and had a stack of lockers. We put our things in one and explored the ruins. Chunks of the roof was missing and the floor had become grass. When we were leaving, zombies came out, separating the lockers from the exit. There were about thirty zombies, and they knew how to run. A girl ran past us and made it to the entrance. She looked back and cheered us on. Once we got everything, we ran into the field, dodging grasps and disease infested bodies. I thought about whether I'd forgottwn a lollipop inside the locker. I almost made it out, but I was too slow. One female zombie dashed out and grabbed the hood of my sweatshirt.

Being a member of a party planning company, I was surrounded by dwarves from high fantasy stories. The stout and stocky built dwarves that grow to about four feet, and burly with wide shoulders. As the lead planner laid out the plans for a rich client's young son's (six to nine year) birthday party by a tall, three tiered red velvet cake still being iced, he told his second in command how he'd asked the child what he wanted for entertainment, to which the child demanded a large swimming pool and something else I can't recall, but the planner told him it wasn't possible. When night fell, everyone involved in the party plans gathered at a picnic table outdoor. The area was lit up by candles and the dwarves occupied the bench with beer in their hands. Each one of us was going to supervise a station for the child's birthday, and I suggested seven dwarves for seven stations; I was also going to run a station too.

The next day, I arrived at the party early as dawn arose and everyone was gathered in the hallway of my old apartment building with what they needed for each station. I had musical instruments for mine, with my recorder from grade five, to entertain myself in case children didn't want to play in my station, and a green, plastic tambourine, along with a few others. When we arrived at the location, one dwarf didn't like the set up of flat roads and grass and took apart the land as if the place was built with Lego or more accurately, Minecraft blocks. After a while he called us all he was done, and it looked magnificent and defied gravity. There were winding, white cobblestone roads that reached to the sky and was supported by nothing underneath. Every few metres were wide sidewalks for everyone to set up on. I picked a sidewalk, set a picnic blanket on the floor and laid out each instrument. As no children came to play, I fell asleep.

I woke up on a soft layer of grass. Not getting up, I recalled where I was and remembered the party, but I wasn't panicked that I fell asleep. Relaxed, I raised the green tambourine to the sun, its round shape parallel to the sun's glowing sides and laid it down when I heard someone call for me and came. A girl of seventeen with pastel green hair approached with a big smile, and I realized I'd slept for years. She wore a pink dress, accented with black and white, wristbands on her arms and a labelless baseball cap on her head. I asked if I'd fallen asleep and she giggled and nodded and said it was fine. I fiddled with my recorder, playing 'Shepard's Flute' from Lineage II as she said children didn't come to my station because I slept. She told me to follow so I left the instruments and held her hand through the grassy field and other stations. We stopped at the foot of a few steps leading to a platform. There were three thrones on top, and in the middle one sat a young man with the same hair and bright smile as hers. He wore a gold crown atop his head and black clothing with a sheathed sword on his belt. She ran up the stairs to her brother, who rose out of his throne to hug her and warmly welcomed me with one as well. I was close friends with these two, but closer friends with the brother rather than his sister. She soon left us and the king walked with me, watching the children play about at his birthday party.

Cookie and I were in a classroom held in a floor above a mall. It was the last day of classes so we were having a tamed party. We sat facing each other, on a small square table, with two other students on either side of us; one male and one female. We were eating a glamourous meal of rotisserie chicken and vegetables. Cookie had an idea to go to the dollar store and buy some drinks on the floor below us, so I came along with him. I asked if he was worried about leaving our things with our classmates and he said not to worry because our table mates would look after them.

The floor below looked like the street of the business area of a small town. We arrived at the dollar store, and once we went in, it looked like a thrift store within. We browsed through the merchandise, being loud and having fun, and soon we caught the attention of  a serious employee. When she was near to us, we removed our sweaters - his black, shiny Roca Wear sweater with white trimming and a zipper, and my compact, brown, cropped hoodie - and stuffed them into a shelf of clothes by the glass door entrance. We grabbed two large books, sat down and pretended to read them, covering our faces. When she'd passed, we rushed for the cashier, and bottles and stacks of twenty-four cans of Pepsi suddenly appearing in our hands. The total came to a shocking fourteen dollars, and we asked why. The stacks came to twelve each. We opted to buy a stack of twelve and the bottles instead (I'm aware the math isn't right). We came back to the classroom and remembered we forgot our sweaters in the store. After dropping off the drinks, we returned to find the dollar store a thrift shop during closing time, as the sky was becoming a dark blue and the street lamps were all lit. A Korean girl with long, straight hair opened it for us and let us look for our sweaters, which were now gone from the shelves and possibly bought. Cookie was angry and I was sad to lose our sweaters, but now that they were gone, we couldn't do anything. The shop was run by many Korean women in their twenties, and because it was dark outside, they let us stay the night. Along the bookshelves were mattresses lined up to form one big bed. We all crawled in, the feeling of putting Cookie in a bad mood and losing my sweater weighed heavily in my heart. I curled up beside Cookie, facing away from him, and slowly drifted away to the dream world. Sometime when everyone was asleep, I noticed an arm around my waist; it was Cookie's. It was like an act of forgiveness.

Everyone in Middle Earth gathered to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy when night began to fall. There were many that I didn't recognize, of dwarves, hobbits, elves and humans, and they were seated on a grassy hill in rings, like in a sports stadium. I walked around looking for quests to do, as if I were in the Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG. I found Legolas with Gimli seated before him, so I zigzagged towards them, and asked Legolas if he knew of any quests. Materializing in front of him were plain, shining, gold rings, a little larger and thicker than wedding bands. He began breaking them in half so they lost their glow and became ghostly blue ones. After he'd done that, there were no other quest for me to do. I also spoke to an elegant elven maiden who told me Aragorn didn't attend the movie screenings, and I wondered what he was up to as a king.