Cool cinematic dream last night.
It was a near future world, where tech like computer-brain interfaces and VR Glasses/Goggles have allowed the Internet to be overlaid on the physical world as Augmented Reality. Things had also moved to be more Police State like, with cameras monitoring movements, Police Forces armed like SWAT-Teams patroling, etc. The protagonist of the dream (who I portrayed in the dream, and saw most of the events through the eyes of, or from a "camera" following) was a girl; hair had been dyed purple some time ago, and was dream-implied to have had a troubled past involving drug culture, etc.
Some fuzzy events related to Future High School Drama establishing characters had happened prior, but I start to remember when I was at the house of a wealthy local family for an after-school club sort of thing. The son of the family was an eccentric classmate, and obsessed with war and fighting to the point of turning model rockets into napalm rockets, and shooting them at targets in his back-yard firing range, having a house full of exotic weapons, etc. The dude was a bit of a creeper (really menacing look in his eyes when he was watching the targets burn, or talking about how his weapons were once used), but with his fabulously wealthy and well-connected parents pushing him to be more social, he had been inviting people over for a sort of VR Fighting Club; they'd get together in a Dojo in his huge house, and have Augmented Reality duels with virtual martial arts weapons. The AR Program was overlaid on the actual weapons hanging in his house, so you'd "click" on the weapons, and the AR version would appear in your hand. He wanted to make the experience as real as possible.
Anyway, everyone had filed into the Dojo to watch an "Honor Duel"; really, just a way to settle the Teen Drama du Juor with virtual weapons. I remembered some kind of round wood paddle with a concealed blade in the handle; utterly ridiculous looking, but with the paddle-end down it could reasonably serve as a small shield/knife combo. Also a polearm with a thin scythe-like blade attached to a swivel, which you manipulated with a long chord, to move it in unpredictable ways. The fight was really awkward and unpleasant to watch; neither of the participants were very good, and were mostly just shouting at each other and flailing.
Me and a few dream friends decided to slip out of the Dojo, and walked back into the kitchen. Cynical Computer Wizard friend was talking about how dumb this all was, and started browsing the internet in her head instead. Me and Soft-Spoken Black Girl decided to snoop around the huge house, to see what the family were like. We wandered through the hallways, and up and down floors (the place was honestly huge) and eventually heard voices from an office. It was Wealthy Family Dad, in a private AR meeting with someone. We could only peek in through the open door, but his desk was covered with weird occult-ish paperweights, and the walls hanging with weird paintings that looked like parts to a Faustian summoning ritual, etc. We heard him say something about "The Order is ready. [...] Yes, tonight." We slipped away quickly, before he saw us.
Anyway, back in the kitchen, Cynical Computer Girl had been joined by a few other friends who were bored of Creeper Dude's Dojo, and had been browsing the net for something else to do tonight. It turns out there was a citywide AR Event going on that evening; some kind of Massively Multiplayer Doom-like Event hosted by a local college. It was going to start soon, but houses and streets were still Opting In to be included in the "Game Area". For the lulz, Cynical Computer Girl decided to opt this house, Dojo and all, into the game area. Before long, the house was engulfed in AR Elements for the game; health and armor pickups, stupidly huge chainguns, grimy chains and bloody skulls, etc. The people from the Dojo emerged, confused, and Cynical Computer Girl started laughing hysterically. Until a door slammed upstairs, and a slightly panicked and very angry Dad stormed downstairs, and demanded to know "What is the meaning of this?" holding up one of the bloody skull props for the game.
We grabbed our AR Body Armor and Chainguns, and booked it into the streets.
It was dark out, both due to it being night, and the AR Overlay dulling the light of the street lamps. We found a pack of other Players marked in our AR HUDs, decked out in Game Equipment headed down the sidewalk, approaching the First Level; a local rec center turned into a hellish landscape. A few flying demon-things strafed us as we approached, but our combined firepower was enough to take them out easily. Once we got to the Rec Center, though... everything changed. The walls were dripping blood, burning corpses supplied the light, and there were hordes of horrible creatures dodging around every corner at us. No one had "died" yet, but the flow of enemies was driving us apart. Cynical Computer Girl and me were isolated and low on Health, and enacting a fighting retreat from a horde of zombie-looking things that seemed to meld out from the gore-covered walls. We were driven to a stairwell, and fled into the basement.
Expecting something horrible down here, we began to slowly sweep around the dimly lit basement. I tried to push a dangling rope out of the way, only to realize it wasn't an AR element. It was a real rope, slung over an overhead pipe. As we continued to sweep the basement with our flashlights, we found a boiler room, some janitorial gear, exposed pipes overhead, and... absolutely no demons. Apparently this area hadn't been factored in as part of the AR Game. Oops!
By the time we got back up into the Game Area, the pack of players we were with had cleared out most of the level, and begun moving on to the next zone. We were lagging behind, and didn't want to get caught alone in the level after it reset for the next pack of players, so we hoofed it out into the streets, cleaning up a few straggling demons on the way. Before long, we saw the gang cutting across a park with a large, gangly grey tree (looked dead) in the middle of it. It wasn't part of the game either, but it was on the way to the next Level. However, the gang appeared to be panicked about something, and we heard gunfire and screams. I climbed the tree to get a look over the low buildings and see what was going on, while Cynical Computer Girl (who didn't want to miss any more action) ran on ahead.
I got to the knobbly top of the tree, and looked over to where the gunshots were coming from, trying to see what enemies the players were up against. Instead of Demons, I saw a series of black armored vans lining the street, and actual SWAT Officers with physical guns shooting at and killing AR-armed players. The streets were stained with actual blood, and Cynical Computer Girl was nowhere to be found. I saw news helicopters flying overhead, converging on the scene. Horrified, I switched out of the AR Channel for the game, to see what the News was saying. Apparently the officers had suspected an armed riot was in progress, and had tragically begun opening fire on the crowd. How they might have confused cartoonishly huge Virtual Weapons for Real Weapons, or why they were stationed en-masse along the path the gamers were following was anyone's guess.
I was preparing to climb down, when I saw Wealthy Family Dad from earlier, now joined by some 10 other figures in long, dark coats with a strange, looping white symbol stitched into their lapels, gathering around the base of the dead tree I was in. They didn't seem to have seen me. They were silent at first, but knelt in a circle around the tree and began a low chant. Wealthy Dad spoke up, proclaiming to the tree "The sacrifice has been offered, Erlking," gesturing to the still bloody streets. "Return to us now, that we may drink of your secrets once more."
The tree I was in started shuddering, as though alive. I switched off my AR Feed completely, just to make sure it wasn't somehow still part of the game, but what was happening was just as real as the scene on the street behind me. Limbs and branches were reconfiguring themselves into an emaciated, gangly humanoid shape, and the area I was clinging to slowly resolved itself into a wrinkled grey head with large, pointed ears, violet light dripping and weeping like tears from a pair of eyes that opened just below my hands.
It was at that point that the gathered cultists looked up, and pointing muttered something about "Someone in the tree." Wealthy Cultist Dad pulled a small silenced pistol from his jacket, and aimed up at me, and pulled the trigger.
Then time stopped.
Everything around me was foggy and grey. The arms of the tree-being they'd called "The Erlking" reached up, and plucked me from my perch, before holding me in cupped hands at eye level. The tree had resolved itself into a giant, lanky, grey-skinned elf-looking creature decorated with purple markings. As it looked at me with its eyes weeping glowing purple sap, some wordlike sounds echoed in my head that I couldn't understand. I said "I have no idea what's going on right now." The creature nodded sagely, saying, "You were in the right place at the right time, I'm afraid. Most unfortunate, for certain others." He gestured down to the frozen figures of the cultists below, indistinct from within the fog. "They will kill you. Even now, they are killing you. It is for this reason you are in luck. We are linked, you and I. You will be under my protection." The creature then pinched a sappy tear from its long nose, and marked my forehead, before placing me back where I had been.
Then time unfroze. The bullet from the cultist's gun hit me. And then I woke up.
Sometimes, I really love my dreams. I just wish I had more creative command of this stuff when I was conscious.
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Topic: [MILK] There were 12 eggs here what did you do with them? (Happy thread?!) (Read 16180041 times)