A dream with a plot
Dec. 31st, 2023 06:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI was just thinking yesterday that most of my bad dreams lately are the formless anxiety kind, or the sort where you're on a bus going the wrong way or you can't lock all the doors or the stairs are missing.
Well today's was a whole
lost in a hotel and every corridor leads somewhere unexpected and also you are in your pyjamas
but
then there was Very a Plot.
So first the convention disco was interrupted for convention activities, possibly mandatory because lots of people came down the stairs to join us. We were worrying something was Wrong in the hotel and they wanted us all in the same safeish place. But then they said it was
costume time
specifically
"men will dress as women and women will dress as men".
Which many people took as all good fun
but some people booed
some because there's no option for nonbinary
and some loudly because some of us are trans enough already.
So a bunch of us walked out.
Then one of the people walking out with me made it very clear she was leaving because crossdressing bad
and assumed we were too
and ew.
So dream me took some extra corners, though that didnt shake her, and that was when
Lost in A Hotel
possibly in pyjamas
but some of us in costumes that are going to look Weird if we step outside.
Like there were no recogniseable weapons showing, so it wouldnt be a P90s at McDonalds situation, but we were an odd mixture of superhero costumes and Pathfinder roleplay robes.
While taking one of these corridors we
started walking on bones.
Bones everywhere
like the catacombs, but more so,
and with a lot of lighting
so you could definitely see the bones.
So I skipped sideways so as not to be on bones
and
realised the 'cobbles'
were skulls.
Bones Everywhere.
And some gold bits, or at least very polished brass, and some fancy gothic stone, and swiftly we moved from a hotel to a whole Bone Church.
Which was actually very cool, but puzzling.
And then the skeletons started popping out of the ground,
pulling themselves together,
and forming ranks.
!
So dream me, in a set of robes that were mostly black and white and could look religious if you hadnt seen my character sheet, wandered up to a bit the dream seemed to think was an altar but now looks like a tourist information thingy, and touched it and asked god for a briefing.
... some days are just so weird, you might as well, you know?
But instead of god a niche that was probably a fireplace at the back of the bone church
did the big smokey entrance fx
and spat out people who read as a necromancer
and
a devil.
Very much the other team!
So there we were, a bunch of cosplayers surrounded by a skeleton army that just had generals arrive and take control, and 'Sara Lance' said she wasnt even armed, because con rules.
So I stretched up my hand like in Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous and concentrated on summoning forth
the Angel's Sword
which glows real bright and dazzles bad guys and in game goes away again
but I asked Sara if she could take it
and she took it out of my hand
before I mentioned the Angel stuff.
... it's sort of made of sunlight and rainbows and the feeling Heaven would give you, so it's a bit Noticeable, but, I didnt want her getting a crisis of confidence over all the murder.
So she was armed, and I spent the next few seconds casting Snapdragon Fireworks repeatedly, so I had a little swarm of firework dragons to direct like they were Magic Missles (but a prettier rainbow of colors).
And then the fighting started.
I concentrated on the necromancer looking dude, who was indeed trying to direct the skeletons, and threw a bunch of element spells at him in turn. He could ignore the fire, got annoyed by the cold, seemed a bit jolted by the electricity, but only really seemed hurt by force spells, so I kept throwing those. Battering blast had the appropriate knockback, which as a small me standing there in a robe I appreciated, and the Big Hand kept him pressed up against a wall, but the dude had a Worrying number of hit points and I did not seem to be getting anywhere.
Sara was fighting the devil, and also not finishing him off, which was a Surprise after everything that glow sword was doing.
She knocked her opponent into the same wall so I tried to pin them both with the Big Hand, but instead the necromancer dispelled it.
Then a very skinny redhead woman got knocked into them, looked like it was by accident, but she had a dagger in each hand and managed to backstab them behind her own back while trying to stand up straight again.
That worked. Two down.
(She was Very skinny, if she wasnt playing an elf she should be, and also if she wasnt eating All The Breakfast she should be, that was concerning. Also her costume looked so iconic I felt I should recognise it, with the tight khaki sleeves that had red puffs at the elbow and a really big hat with a feather, but even awake I dont recognise her. Cool look though.)
I saw the two opponents slide to the floor while the redhead darted away again like that was nothing, and I was like, "Alright, new MVP. ... no offence, Sara."
Sara was all "I'll work on it." and grinning before she launched back into the fight.
Because now there were REALLY a Lot of Skeletons.
So the fight backed them up into me, standing at the center of the church with the 'altar'
and Sara was all, 'you going to help?'
And I had to be like, 'I've got a plan, it just unfortunately involves letting as many of them as possible get close.'
Which is not a fun part of the plan, I liked the push them back far away plan much better,
but, of course,
Channel Energy.
... in case anyone is wondering, Arcanist Oracle Mystic Theurge, which is not a sane build and sort of nerfs itself, but is not short on spells.
However, when the skeletal dust settled, even so, I had run out
and we were really pretty sure this was a Bad Thing.
And we still hadnt had any answers from god about this stuff. Like sure, angel swords, that's nice, but, people were having serious doubts team good guy was behind it.
And I was very out of spells, with only a Mystery to ask for more.
But we started quoting some things.
Like 'the only place god undoubtedly exists is in the human heart and mind' (Alan Moore paraphrase I think)
and 'We are the universe, seeking to understand itself' (JMS in B5)
and 'If we care, the universe cares' (Brennan Lee Mulligan in something I've only seen quoted on tumblr)
So, if there are gods inside us, maybe we could network and call on them?
To do that we needed to all be doing something synchronised.
To do that we needed
Con Dances!
So, we powered up explicitly 'divine' magic by
Steps 5, 6, 7, 8.
... which, now I'm awake, might not be my first choice...
But the ritual casting worked.
Game mechanically this maybe might possibly be interpreted as
everyone worshipping me?
But dream me explained that the difference between a mortal ritual and an actual god was
god has a giant storage battery
but mortals at best have fat people.
... dream me thanked the fat people...
So! Then I woke up!
So technically I don't know what we used all that 'divine' magic *for*.
Which is the frustrating thing about dreams with a 'plot', they dont actually have a beginning middle and end, they just have Stuff.
It was very vivid Stuff though.
... so many skeletons...
Well today's was a whole
lost in a hotel and every corridor leads somewhere unexpected and also you are in your pyjamas
but
then there was Very a Plot.
So first the convention disco was interrupted for convention activities, possibly mandatory because lots of people came down the stairs to join us. We were worrying something was Wrong in the hotel and they wanted us all in the same safeish place. But then they said it was
costume time
specifically
"men will dress as women and women will dress as men".
Which many people took as all good fun
but some people booed
some because there's no option for nonbinary
and some loudly because some of us are trans enough already.
So a bunch of us walked out.
Then one of the people walking out with me made it very clear she was leaving because crossdressing bad
and assumed we were too
and ew.
So dream me took some extra corners, though that didnt shake her, and that was when
Lost in A Hotel
possibly in pyjamas
but some of us in costumes that are going to look Weird if we step outside.
Like there were no recogniseable weapons showing, so it wouldnt be a P90s at McDonalds situation, but we were an odd mixture of superhero costumes and Pathfinder roleplay robes.
While taking one of these corridors we
started walking on bones.
Bones everywhere
like the catacombs, but more so,
and with a lot of lighting
so you could definitely see the bones.
So I skipped sideways so as not to be on bones
and
realised the 'cobbles'
were skulls.
Bones Everywhere.
And some gold bits, or at least very polished brass, and some fancy gothic stone, and swiftly we moved from a hotel to a whole Bone Church.
Which was actually very cool, but puzzling.
And then the skeletons started popping out of the ground,
pulling themselves together,
and forming ranks.
!
So dream me, in a set of robes that were mostly black and white and could look religious if you hadnt seen my character sheet, wandered up to a bit the dream seemed to think was an altar but now looks like a tourist information thingy, and touched it and asked god for a briefing.
... some days are just so weird, you might as well, you know?
But instead of god a niche that was probably a fireplace at the back of the bone church
did the big smokey entrance fx
and spat out people who read as a necromancer
and
a devil.
Very much the other team!
So there we were, a bunch of cosplayers surrounded by a skeleton army that just had generals arrive and take control, and 'Sara Lance' said she wasnt even armed, because con rules.
So I stretched up my hand like in Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous and concentrated on summoning forth
the Angel's Sword
which glows real bright and dazzles bad guys and in game goes away again
but I asked Sara if she could take it
and she took it out of my hand
before I mentioned the Angel stuff.
... it's sort of made of sunlight and rainbows and the feeling Heaven would give you, so it's a bit Noticeable, but, I didnt want her getting a crisis of confidence over all the murder.
So she was armed, and I spent the next few seconds casting Snapdragon Fireworks repeatedly, so I had a little swarm of firework dragons to direct like they were Magic Missles (but a prettier rainbow of colors).
And then the fighting started.
I concentrated on the necromancer looking dude, who was indeed trying to direct the skeletons, and threw a bunch of element spells at him in turn. He could ignore the fire, got annoyed by the cold, seemed a bit jolted by the electricity, but only really seemed hurt by force spells, so I kept throwing those. Battering blast had the appropriate knockback, which as a small me standing there in a robe I appreciated, and the Big Hand kept him pressed up against a wall, but the dude had a Worrying number of hit points and I did not seem to be getting anywhere.
Sara was fighting the devil, and also not finishing him off, which was a Surprise after everything that glow sword was doing.
She knocked her opponent into the same wall so I tried to pin them both with the Big Hand, but instead the necromancer dispelled it.
Then a very skinny redhead woman got knocked into them, looked like it was by accident, but she had a dagger in each hand and managed to backstab them behind her own back while trying to stand up straight again.
That worked. Two down.
(She was Very skinny, if she wasnt playing an elf she should be, and also if she wasnt eating All The Breakfast she should be, that was concerning. Also her costume looked so iconic I felt I should recognise it, with the tight khaki sleeves that had red puffs at the elbow and a really big hat with a feather, but even awake I dont recognise her. Cool look though.)
I saw the two opponents slide to the floor while the redhead darted away again like that was nothing, and I was like, "Alright, new MVP. ... no offence, Sara."
Sara was all "I'll work on it." and grinning before she launched back into the fight.
Because now there were REALLY a Lot of Skeletons.
So the fight backed them up into me, standing at the center of the church with the 'altar'
and Sara was all, 'you going to help?'
And I had to be like, 'I've got a plan, it just unfortunately involves letting as many of them as possible get close.'
Which is not a fun part of the plan, I liked the push them back far away plan much better,
but, of course,
Channel Energy.
... in case anyone is wondering, Arcanist Oracle Mystic Theurge, which is not a sane build and sort of nerfs itself, but is not short on spells.
However, when the skeletal dust settled, even so, I had run out
and we were really pretty sure this was a Bad Thing.
And we still hadnt had any answers from god about this stuff. Like sure, angel swords, that's nice, but, people were having serious doubts team good guy was behind it.
And I was very out of spells, with only a Mystery to ask for more.
But we started quoting some things.
Like 'the only place god undoubtedly exists is in the human heart and mind' (Alan Moore paraphrase I think)
and 'We are the universe, seeking to understand itself' (JMS in B5)
and 'If we care, the universe cares' (Brennan Lee Mulligan in something I've only seen quoted on tumblr)
So, if there are gods inside us, maybe we could network and call on them?
To do that we needed to all be doing something synchronised.
To do that we needed
Con Dances!
So, we powered up explicitly 'divine' magic by
Steps 5, 6, 7, 8.
... which, now I'm awake, might not be my first choice...
But the ritual casting worked.
Game mechanically this maybe might possibly be interpreted as
everyone worshipping me?
But dream me explained that the difference between a mortal ritual and an actual god was
god has a giant storage battery
but mortals at best have fat people.
... dream me thanked the fat people...
So! Then I woke up!
So technically I don't know what we used all that 'divine' magic *for*.
Which is the frustrating thing about dreams with a 'plot', they dont actually have a beginning middle and end, they just have Stuff.
It was very vivid Stuff though.
... so many skeletons...