Dreams require more study
Aug. 25th, 2011 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI haven't been asleep more than five hours today, but I dreamed stuff that could greatly benefit from retcon. And then I dreamed stuff with a whole lot of screaming and disaster, but I find that easier on the brainspace, since there's things to do about screaming disaster. In this case, apparently, make Rick Castle incident commander and pass out (or rather wake up, but in the dream I was passing out). What's Castle doing in my brain? I watched one episode! And no, it wasn't Mal, that would have made sense, what with the shooting and all. He introduced himself. Also there was more flirting and less shooting.
So now I'm awake I'm checking my responses to said imaginary disaster and finding them wanting. It was an okay start, set up someone to be In Charge and find the medics and start to sort out who needs help right now. But the question I missed was 'is this going to get worse', followed by 'can we get somewhere better'. Although since I was passing out at the time the personal answer was 'yes' and 'no', and I needed the someone in charge and the medic in the next five minutes, so my priorities weren't terrible, just unstated.
In the dream it started out as a bad restaurant meal where I'd checked about allergens but once I had ate some they admitted they'd put 'just a little' strawberry in for the color. Plus a bunch of other stuff mostly pulled out of their garden. And my throat had started to feel funny. So I stomped off to find (a) a doctor and (b) a lawyer. As I yelled at the restaurant lady. She'd assured me in writing she wouldn't use any of those things, she was so screwed.
So I went down to the waterfront to find medical help. There was one of those concrete bits you get above beaches, with a wall at the back and the rest of town on top of the wall. Like up at that level, not down with all the chip stalls and souvenirs and dodgy sales places. But the chip souvenir sales places were leading to a big tent with useful resources, including first aid. And a lawyer. And a preacher and some politicians. I dont' know, I just dreamed it. So I was heading along to there, and then there were these lights in the sky. Big zappy shiny lights, all green and purple. Showed up even against the usual backdrop of low grey cloud. They weren't right for fireworks. I thought sort of whimsically they'd look right for a sky battle, plane to plane combat.
Then the lights hit the ground and the screaming started. Tracer fire painting long slow lines and tearing up everything it hit. Everyone screaming and running. Well, almost everyone. I saw one guy just standing there, not even trying to get out of the way, and I grabbed him and pulled him down, and that was when I got shot in the arm. There were people lying flat to try and hide from the bullets and the lights just walked across them. I tried huddling in a ball and only got hit that once.
And then the lights stopped, but the screaming didn't.
So I collapsed a bit. That wasn't very helpful. Castle found me and tied my arm up because bleeding and then was going to check other bits but I was all hey, not on a first date, and then he was less freaked and more flirty so that was fun.
Everyone's first response was to get their phones out or try and get on the internet. I told them not to be idiots, the comms were what the planes had been shooting at, we were right under a cell tower and near an exchange. My cousin did telecoms, I had the knowing of it. But then again, it wasn't stupid, because this was clearly all about the terror, so why make it so we couldn't tell everyone how terrified we were? The 'clearly' was quibbled, they reckoned it was about killing as many of us as possible, but I said the weapons weren't right for that. All those tracers so we could see it coming? Walking so slow you could dive out of the way? That's not trying real hard to kill us. It's like Stargate, weapon of terror vs weapon of war, if it's for terror it makes a lot of fuss and boom and people run screaming, if it's for war they don't get the time to run screaming. Anything that can launch an aerial attack with pretty zappy guns has the resources to drop actual bombs. And they didn't. Did they? Someone go check whatever lines of sight we have, see if there's a big column of smoke. What vector is the hospital on? Police station? City Hall? Whichever targets they chose says a lot about them. Target right here is comms and holidaymakers. Maximise the screaming, minimise the calling for help. Terror.
So Castle had GPS on his phone and that was still working, and he could figure which way to the hospital and picked people to go look, and he was listening to the way I was thinking it through out loud. We introduced ourselves as writers and he said crime and I said post apocalyptic SF; Torchwood has twice blown up Cardiff and once blown up the emergency planners for Cardiff so I had some tiny amount of research on emergency response to large scale incidents. So he started listening to me, and then he had a way of making everyone listen to him, and then he was In Charge, or Incident Commander, until we found a better one.
I told him, find five people. They report to you. They find five more each, who report to them. Then you've got a chain of command. You have a medic, who will need to triage. You need comms. There's a dodgy electronics place down the way, send someone to get a police scanner and some radios. And, privately, you need to get people something to do, instead of milling around screaming. The Jesus people didn't have such a very bad idea about that, since the preacher had got a bunch of them together to sing gospel songs; they weren't hurting, they just weren't helping terribly much. Plus, not all of us are Jesus people. Not quite what I needed to hear.
So by then I was all wheezy and faint and fading fast. Allergy incident plus blood loss from being shot equals kind of a large problem. And I had a medic and knew someone was being In Charge and help was going to happen, so that was an okay start. But since I'm awake now I'd have to make up if that character even survived the incident.
... I think I prefer surviving, all in all.
So, questions I missed, is it going to get worse, are there better places to be. We're on the seafront, which isn't massively well connected to anything. All the little stalls are selling bottled water or whatever. All the people are going to need it. It's going to be a bitch to evacuate in a hurry, because everyone has to get up the wall or along the beach until the wall peters out. And the wall just got shot up, so it might be useful to check if it's going to fall down. Also the comms place got shot, so where did that crash down, and is anything sparky happening? And are there gas pipes running under the road but above our head? Bullets and gas pipes are not mixy. Also car wrecks, again above our heads, what's getting worse up there? And down with us, boats. A bunch of them. Depending on the state of the tide they might have been in close (didn't see them, probably not) or out far. In close was more likely to have been hit, same issues as car wrecks, flammable fuel, people in them, but boats keep drifting longer. Out far they may be the answer to how to spread the story. We have a huge great line of sight out there, with a whiteboard and binoculars we've got communications going on, even without knowing clever code things. Plus they'll be the way in and out, when the tide gets right. Tide is not inherently a problem up on the concrete, unless there's a storm coming. Keep a weather eye out and keep the command post where it is - it has a roof and a medic. The roof is full of holes but the medic is not. That makes it a winner. Though if the hospital has been a target we may not want to advertise the medic.
Tide on the beach is a problem. Whatever delights tourists are down there to sample, they were there in swarms, and they just got shot at. And the water will come in. They're on a different clock than the people up on the concrete. Though bleeding is obviously likely to be a bigger factor.
It wasn't any town I knew real well in the dream. Some places have some defences along the coast that could be much better places to be in if shooting is happening. Of course they're mostly full of sand and smelling of pee and really really old now. Still, caves, underground car parks, there are many places better to be while shooting is going on than an actual tent.
Now I'm awake I wish to do research and make a proper plan should such a thing actually happen.
I know such a thing will not in fact happen, but, while it makes my brain a calmer place, it don't actually make the thoughts go away.
also, still none of this is the bit that makes me want to scrub my brain. this makes better thinking than that.
So now I'm awake I'm checking my responses to said imaginary disaster and finding them wanting. It was an okay start, set up someone to be In Charge and find the medics and start to sort out who needs help right now. But the question I missed was 'is this going to get worse', followed by 'can we get somewhere better'. Although since I was passing out at the time the personal answer was 'yes' and 'no', and I needed the someone in charge and the medic in the next five minutes, so my priorities weren't terrible, just unstated.
In the dream it started out as a bad restaurant meal where I'd checked about allergens but once I had ate some they admitted they'd put 'just a little' strawberry in for the color. Plus a bunch of other stuff mostly pulled out of their garden. And my throat had started to feel funny. So I stomped off to find (a) a doctor and (b) a lawyer. As I yelled at the restaurant lady. She'd assured me in writing she wouldn't use any of those things, she was so screwed.
So I went down to the waterfront to find medical help. There was one of those concrete bits you get above beaches, with a wall at the back and the rest of town on top of the wall. Like up at that level, not down with all the chip stalls and souvenirs and dodgy sales places. But the chip souvenir sales places were leading to a big tent with useful resources, including first aid. And a lawyer. And a preacher and some politicians. I dont' know, I just dreamed it. So I was heading along to there, and then there were these lights in the sky. Big zappy shiny lights, all green and purple. Showed up even against the usual backdrop of low grey cloud. They weren't right for fireworks. I thought sort of whimsically they'd look right for a sky battle, plane to plane combat.
Then the lights hit the ground and the screaming started. Tracer fire painting long slow lines and tearing up everything it hit. Everyone screaming and running. Well, almost everyone. I saw one guy just standing there, not even trying to get out of the way, and I grabbed him and pulled him down, and that was when I got shot in the arm. There were people lying flat to try and hide from the bullets and the lights just walked across them. I tried huddling in a ball and only got hit that once.
And then the lights stopped, but the screaming didn't.
So I collapsed a bit. That wasn't very helpful. Castle found me and tied my arm up because bleeding and then was going to check other bits but I was all hey, not on a first date, and then he was less freaked and more flirty so that was fun.
Everyone's first response was to get their phones out or try and get on the internet. I told them not to be idiots, the comms were what the planes had been shooting at, we were right under a cell tower and near an exchange. My cousin did telecoms, I had the knowing of it. But then again, it wasn't stupid, because this was clearly all about the terror, so why make it so we couldn't tell everyone how terrified we were? The 'clearly' was quibbled, they reckoned it was about killing as many of us as possible, but I said the weapons weren't right for that. All those tracers so we could see it coming? Walking so slow you could dive out of the way? That's not trying real hard to kill us. It's like Stargate, weapon of terror vs weapon of war, if it's for terror it makes a lot of fuss and boom and people run screaming, if it's for war they don't get the time to run screaming. Anything that can launch an aerial attack with pretty zappy guns has the resources to drop actual bombs. And they didn't. Did they? Someone go check whatever lines of sight we have, see if there's a big column of smoke. What vector is the hospital on? Police station? City Hall? Whichever targets they chose says a lot about them. Target right here is comms and holidaymakers. Maximise the screaming, minimise the calling for help. Terror.
So Castle had GPS on his phone and that was still working, and he could figure which way to the hospital and picked people to go look, and he was listening to the way I was thinking it through out loud. We introduced ourselves as writers and he said crime and I said post apocalyptic SF; Torchwood has twice blown up Cardiff and once blown up the emergency planners for Cardiff so I had some tiny amount of research on emergency response to large scale incidents. So he started listening to me, and then he had a way of making everyone listen to him, and then he was In Charge, or Incident Commander, until we found a better one.
I told him, find five people. They report to you. They find five more each, who report to them. Then you've got a chain of command. You have a medic, who will need to triage. You need comms. There's a dodgy electronics place down the way, send someone to get a police scanner and some radios. And, privately, you need to get people something to do, instead of milling around screaming. The Jesus people didn't have such a very bad idea about that, since the preacher had got a bunch of them together to sing gospel songs; they weren't hurting, they just weren't helping terribly much. Plus, not all of us are Jesus people. Not quite what I needed to hear.
So by then I was all wheezy and faint and fading fast. Allergy incident plus blood loss from being shot equals kind of a large problem. And I had a medic and knew someone was being In Charge and help was going to happen, so that was an okay start. But since I'm awake now I'd have to make up if that character even survived the incident.
... I think I prefer surviving, all in all.
So, questions I missed, is it going to get worse, are there better places to be. We're on the seafront, which isn't massively well connected to anything. All the little stalls are selling bottled water or whatever. All the people are going to need it. It's going to be a bitch to evacuate in a hurry, because everyone has to get up the wall or along the beach until the wall peters out. And the wall just got shot up, so it might be useful to check if it's going to fall down. Also the comms place got shot, so where did that crash down, and is anything sparky happening? And are there gas pipes running under the road but above our head? Bullets and gas pipes are not mixy. Also car wrecks, again above our heads, what's getting worse up there? And down with us, boats. A bunch of them. Depending on the state of the tide they might have been in close (didn't see them, probably not) or out far. In close was more likely to have been hit, same issues as car wrecks, flammable fuel, people in them, but boats keep drifting longer. Out far they may be the answer to how to spread the story. We have a huge great line of sight out there, with a whiteboard and binoculars we've got communications going on, even without knowing clever code things. Plus they'll be the way in and out, when the tide gets right. Tide is not inherently a problem up on the concrete, unless there's a storm coming. Keep a weather eye out and keep the command post where it is - it has a roof and a medic. The roof is full of holes but the medic is not. That makes it a winner. Though if the hospital has been a target we may not want to advertise the medic.
Tide on the beach is a problem. Whatever delights tourists are down there to sample, they were there in swarms, and they just got shot at. And the water will come in. They're on a different clock than the people up on the concrete. Though bleeding is obviously likely to be a bigger factor.
It wasn't any town I knew real well in the dream. Some places have some defences along the coast that could be much better places to be in if shooting is happening. Of course they're mostly full of sand and smelling of pee and really really old now. Still, caves, underground car parks, there are many places better to be while shooting is going on than an actual tent.
Now I'm awake I wish to do research and make a proper plan should such a thing actually happen.
I know such a thing will not in fact happen, but, while it makes my brain a calmer place, it don't actually make the thoughts go away.
also, still none of this is the bit that makes me want to scrub my brain. this makes better thinking than that.