humor, Life Talk

To Sleep, Perchance …

I haven’t been doing anything terribly interesting this week, writing-wise or life-wise. However, apparently my subconscious is doing its best to make up for my dull life by WILD dreams.

The first night wasn’t so great – it was actually more of a nightmare. Trapped on an abandoned cruise ship with a serial killer, me against him, (apparently I was a detective) me trying to catch him but feeling uneasily certain he was toying with me. Thankfully I woke up before the final confrontation. The overall tone of that dream was dark and creepy, even more than the events in it. Took several cups of tea that morning before I felt normal again!

The dream returned in a lighter fashion the next few nights – the cruise ship wasn’t deserted, and it had more of a Peter Wimsey feel – still serious, but not creepy, and this time, I always had the upper hand over the killer. One night it wasn’t even a murderer I was after, but a jewel thief.

Then last night – oh, I have no idea where this one came from, but I do most earnestly hope it returns, because FUN – my dream was a veritable sci-fi television mashup.

Started out in a green clearing, trees all around. All kinds of characters from sci-fi tv were waiting for their assignments from a platform at one end of the clearing (and no, I don’t remember any of them clearly). I ended up being sent on a quest with Chakotay (from Star Trek: Voyager) and Mal (Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly). Now, I was myself – Louise – and had no idea why I was tagging along, but dudes, I was not complaining. Both Mal and Chakotay (naturally) wanted to be in charge, but since we’d only been given a direction to go in, no actual specifics as to what our quest was (bad planning, Management), there weren’t too many problems at first.

Then we ran into a friend I know in real life, except something was weird about her, and then, as we were chatting, she told me that she’d downloaded her consciousness into an android’s body because she’d been afraid of getting fat, and droids’ bodies never change. And then she ended up coming along with us because she had nothing better to do.

Things got hazy after that (I think I was starting to move toward waking up) … I remember a fight between Mal and Chakotay, and then a fight between Mal and my android friend (Mal, apparently, had a lot of anger issues to work out – though the droid friend started the second fight, and would have won it except I tried to pull them apart and accidentally dropped her off the cliff, but we figured she survived because, hey, droid bodies are remarkably resilient), and then just as we were getting close to figuring out what the point was of the quest, what we were after to begin with …

thump thump thump little feet coming up to the bed, “I have to go potty” little voice whispered, and even though Carl got up and I was able to get back to sort-of sleep, the dream was gone.

I most sincerely hope it returns tonight – I want to figure out this quest now (and also, would like to know if I was sent for more than just taking notes and pushing droids off cliffs).

What sort of fun dreams have you been having lately?

Note: I have not watched any sci-fi shows in the last several weeks, and the only sci-fi book I’ve read has been A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which is more science fantasy than science fiction, nor have I been reading/watching anything related to mysterious happenings aboard a cruise ship, so I really, really have no idea where these dreams are coming from. But they are, with the exception of that first nightmare, immensely amusing to me.

0 thoughts on “To Sleep, Perchance …”

  1. Your dreams rock! I don't dream often, but when I do, it is strangely detailed. When I tell my friends about my dreams, they always tend to respond, "how did you dream ALL of that in one night?"

  2. *AHEM* From a completely serious dream analysis standpoint, the good news about the cruise trip dream is that, with you progressively gaining more control of the situation every time the dream happened, you must have been working out whatever real-life stress had caused you to have the first dream in the first place!But who wants serious dream analysis? We're story people, here! We like our dreams at face value!I actually started writing because of my dreams. For many years as a child, the ONLY stories I would write were based on dreams– I didn't like starting stories from scratch! Lately I'm wondering if I should go back to that route– sure, I may REwrite them into something completely unrecognizable, but it gets me over that Blank Page Block. Lately my dreams are like a source of comfort– see, I AM a creative person! Look at what my subconscious mind can do! If only I could make my CONSCIOUS mind do that!But since I've also gotten into the habit of journaling first thing in the morning, I also write down my dreams a lot, so I've got a pretty good record of potential story starters…and a sizeable collection of make-out fantasies involving my Imaginary Husband, but more importantly, yes, potential stories, or at least weird details that could make for a more interesting longer story.Last night the most interesting bit involved some mad Victorian professor having built a rocket ship into the design of a building on campus, and it was about to take off, and I tried to get out on the balcony to see it but this really obnoxious girl was IN MY WAY. Also I dreamed I was supposed to take an Accelerated Reader test on Emily Jenkins' Toys Come Home but I HADN'T EVEN READ IT; this is a relatively boring part of the dream but I only mention it because I was just helping a patron find something totally unrelated, spotted the book on the shelf, said "OH!" and told the patron about the dream ("Guess I ought to read this now"), and she laughed, so hey.

  3. Laura – As with most shows that I like, I discovered Firefly only after everyone else in the world had already watched it and bemoaned its cancellation. I wasn't too sure even at first, but I suddenly realized around the third episode that I was HOOKED, and that even though Mal is not at all the type of character I usually admire, I adored him. And Zoe is just AWESOME. Voyager, now, I've loved since it was first on. Carl and I are rewatching it together, and it's almost making me sad, because I can see so much clearer how much better it could have been if the writers had cared enough to write the plots the characters and basic premise deserved.Olene – I don't usually have such entertaining dreams, but of late they have been hugely vivid and detailed. Aside from the nightmare one, I'm not complaining at all!Rockinlibrarian – Hm, hadn't thought of that dream analysis for the murder dreams, but it does make sense. Last night I dreamed that Carl and I were investigating an art theft at a church during a music festival. We were like Tommy and Tuppence, only still very much ourselves – I woke thoroughly amused, and annoyed because I KNEW they were hidden someplace obvious, and I just wasn't thinking simply enough, and then I woke up (stupid alarm, stupid me trying to get up at a reasonable time) before I could find them. Oh, and I fell off the piano bench while I was checking the sheet music to see if the painting were hidden there, and then leapt to my feet and posed as if I did it on purpose. That is so very, very much something I would do in real life.I hope you pushed the girl blocking your view OFF the balcony.

  4. Hahaha that is a fun dream. I actually had an awesome dream too, but as these things always work, I woke up just as I really got intrigued to see where the dream was going. 🙂

  5. Misha – Oh, don't you hate it when that happens? It always does, too. So irritating.Lydia – Stress dreams are the worst. I wake up sometimes with a pounding headache because I've ended up tensing so much in my sleep over a dream about stress. No fun – more wild adventures with sci-fi characters, please!

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