Dreams

[Artemis]

Who wants to see me ramble about my latest dream??  No one?!  Oh well, I'm going to anyway. 

 

[Artemis]

I've been having recurring dreams about Elves for the last 5 (?) days or so.  Except they're not so much the kind and noble type of Elves like Elrond, they're more suspicious and stern, like Thranduil.  In fact the Elf king in my dream is much like Thranduil from "The Hobbit" movies in both appearance and attitude, so that's probably where my brain got that, lol.

He is austere and removed and not very charitable, but still magical and authoritative, so it's important to show proper deference if you want to be in his good graces.  His son, on the other hand, is much more compassionate.  He's often appalled by his father's coldness.  They argue.  The Elves are commonly white-haired, and wear white and silver armor with a red symbol on the chestplate.  I can't quite remember what it is though, maybe an abstract spiky crown.  I don't know why I'm dreaming about Elves, it's rather out of the blue, lol.  (But then I guess most of my dreams are.)  I repeat parts, sometimes, with slight variations, but mostly it's been one of those dreams that continues from where I left off the night before.

Generally, the way it goes so far is that the commanders of the Orcs have determined that they need to make their armies more formidable.  They have the numbers advantage, but they've realized that Orcs don't have the intelligence to be terribly adept tacticians.  So they've started stealing human babies and raising them to be leaders of their armies.  Only a select few are ultimately chosen for the task (because they don’t need that many, and not everyone shows an aptitude); the rest are kept as slaves.  Dream Me started out as a slave, and then became one of their leaders later, so I wasn't quite as brainwashed as the rest of them.  (Now that I think about it, it's sort of like a Gamora/Thanos situation, in a way: You're raised by evil beings that torture you and force you to do things you hate, and you want to escape, but at the same time it's all you know and you feel trapped.)  The chosen few are also imbued with a minor magical voice power from the Witch-King that's sort of like a siren song; except instead of drawing people in, it allows you to project over great distances and communicate clearly to the entire army, strike fear into the enemy soldiers, and to a subtle extent control/influence the minds of your army to make sure they do what you want them to do (like implanting a subconscious suggestion).

So anyway, I was the leader of one of these Orc armies, but eventually I defected; and instead of leading my army to victory, I led them to defeat, and got most of them killed.  The few that survived captured me and were dragging me back "home" with them to face judgement, torturing me along the way, until I managed to slip them and eventually wandered my way north into the forest.  I wasn't aware I was in Elvish territory because I'd never encountered any beings but Orcs outside of the battlefield, so I had no idea where Elves or humans resided.  Being accustomed to the toxicity of Orcish air and water, normal air and water burned a little going in, especially that of Elvish lands.  I was near death from the torture and exhaustion, so after a point I just couldn't go on and laid down in a glade to die.  (By the way, none of this so far is an actual part of my dream.  Meaning, I didn't dream the part about being raised by Orcs and whatnot, I just started the dream with knowledge of all this.  The dream actually begins with me stumbling into the glade.)  I remember being somewhat awestruck by my surroundings, thinking it was the first time I’d ever felt cool grass or the warmth of sunlight like that, or heard the sound of birds; and I was actually rather content and at peace for the first time in my life.  While lying there, I start singing to comfort myself (a haunting tune that I can still remember), and because of my imbued vocal gift my voice resonates a fairly long way.  The Elf king's son is out with a scouting party, and they hear the sound and follow it to me.  The remaining Orcs from my army that were hunting me down after my escape also find me, and bind me against a tree, but the Elves attack and kill them.

The Elves take me to their kingdom and keep me in a heavily guarded room where I'm allowed to rest and heal, but I'm as much a prisoner as I am a guest.  The Elf king's son has healing magic and is sent regularly to check on me, but also to try and find out who I am and what my story is.  With some time we build a trust and rapport, and I do tell him everything.  He feels a duty to relay the information to his father, but he's also afraid of how his father might react when he learns the truth.  Instead he entreats his father to release me, or at least relent a bit and let me wander the grounds under supervision, to treat me as a friend and let me prove myself.  The Elf king doesn't yet know my history, but as I've mentioned no family he is very suspicious of my origins and purpose and views me as dangerous, so he refuses.  (He also views humans as "lesser" beings and thus has a bias against me in the first place, so that doesn't help matters.)  His son steadfastly defends me, because he feels that I've suffered enough.  The Elf king mistakes his unabating sympathy and compassion for affection, which only serves to inflame his hostility and distrust; so he doubles the guard at my room and forbids his son from seeing or speaking to me again.  (However, his son does manage to sneak in briefly to warn me of his father's growing enmity.)

A day or two after that, the Elf king has me brought to the throne room to be questioned.  His son is also there at his behest, to watch silently from the sidelines.  Per his father's order he doesn't speak to me, though he is visibly concerned.  The Elf king has magical powers, among them the ability to intuit when someone is lying or hiding something, so I had no recourse but to answer him truthfully.  (Not that I was planning to lie anyway.  Really I was just grateful to be away from the Orcs and satisfied to accept my fate, and I understood the king was just trying to protect his people.  Even at their worst, their treatment of me up to that point was still far better than I was ever treated by the Orcs.)  He also possesses the ability to probe someone's mind to try and draw out the truth, but it is painful for that person, and the resulting information is not always clear.  He accuses me of several offenses, suggesting first that I might be a spy who got myself captured on purpose, and then that I bewitched his son with my voice.  (Which was impossible, because the voice thing doesn't work on Elves, only Orcs and weak-willed Men.)  Catching cautionary and progressively alarmed glances from his son, I did try to skirt around the subject of my origins; but it doesn't get past him, and eventually with persistent prodding and probing the whole truth comes out.  That doesn't go over very well, as predicted, and he has me thrown in the dungeons until he decides what to do with me.  His son is dismayed and angered by this and again tries to convince him that I'm no longer a threat, imploring him to let me go or give me the choice to help them as an ally of my own free will.  But the Elf king believes the better course would be to either execute me, imprison me forever, or use me to their advantage.

That's as far as I've gotten so far.  We'll see if I dream any more.

 

[Arcadia]

Wow. Are your dreams usually that detailed?

[Artemis]

Yes, usually, though they're not always so story-like.  Sometimes they play out like movies, but then sometimes they're a lot less coherent, though still vivid.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I have the impression that at least some of my dreams are pretty intricate -- but by the time I'm fully awake, all I can usually remember is a vague feeling.  So I'm impressed by your retention of so much detail.

[Artemis]

That's not uncommon for me either, to have days where I wake up from a dream and all I remember is a vague impression of it, or the feeling of it.  Especially after being awake for a little while, it can fade.  But I'd estimate that at least half the time I can remember a good deal of it.  And apparently some dreams leave more of an impression on me than others, so they stick around in my head for longer after I'm awake.

Does anyone else have "continuing" dreams like me, where you continue a dream over several nights, picking up where you left off the night before?  I've certainly heard of other people having the type of recurring dream where you repeat the same dream over and over again, but I've yet to meet anyone else who experiences "continuing" dreams.

Edit: I Googled 'continuing dreams', and it appears that the experience, while unusual, is not unheard of.    So that's something I learned today.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

31 minutes ago, Artemis said:

Does anyone else have "continuing" dreams like me, where you continue a dream over several nights, picking up where you left off the night before?  I've certainly heard of other people having the type of recurring dream where you repeat the same dream over and over again, but I've yet to meet anyone else who experiences "continuing" dreams.

I definitely have repeaters (which seem to mean that I'm under a specific sort of stress again), but if I've ever had a mini-series, they must have faded before I noticed.

[Van Buren Supernova]

I don't remember having multiple-day dreams. But continuing dream between waking up during the night is quite common to me. In a way, I could stir the dream to the direction I want to before I fall asleep again, normally, the in-between are like half daze-half awake.

And there are multiple occasions when I remember 'this happened in my dream before" in the current dream, dream dejavu if you will, and I'm aware that there are both dreams.

I do remember dreams vividly especially if I recall them by the time I wake up; to the colors and detail. For example, last night I dreamt that we had family vacation on a beach with very clear turquoise water, the size of the sand and broken shells on the bottom, and the clothes that we wore. I also remember what we did and the conversation leading to it, and the ending of which we all decided to swim fully clothed since we forgot to pack but the water was so irrisistable. And there were kittens and puppies as well. Long story 😛

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

8 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

... continuing dream between waking up during the night is quite common to me. In a way, I could stir the dream to the direction I want to before I fall asleep again, normally, the in-between are like half daze-half awake.

Me too, although I often have trouble getting fully back to sleep after that, so it ends up as more of a daydream.  I've had some very elaborate half-asleep dreams, whatever you'd call 'em.

8 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

... there are multiple occasions when I remember 'this happened in my dream before" in the current dream, dream dejavu if you will, and I'm aware that there are both dreams.

Yes!  Although in my dream, I recall the prior dream as real, and it's not till I wake up that I realize they were both dreams.

[Artemis]

^ Ditto to all the above!

Sometimes I have dreams where I know I’m dreaming, but it’s not ‘lucid dreaming’ because I still have no control over how the dream plays out.  I’m just aware that it’s not real.  Occasionally I can wake myself up with that awareness.

 

[J.P.]

On 6/3/2019 at 11:51 AM, Van Buren Supernova said:

And there are multiple occasions when I remember 'this happened in my dream before" in the current dream, dream dejavu if you will, and I'm aware that there are both dreams.

I have that too, but now when you wrote it, I actually cannot tell if I recognize it as a dream in the dream, or do I have the feeling that the dream belongs to another one's universe after I woke up. In any case, there is a strong feeling of visiting a parallel universe I know already. Or several universes.

On 6/4/2019 at 4:48 AM, Artemis said:

Sometimes I have dreams where I know I’m dreaming, but it’s not ‘lucid dreaming’ because I still have no control over how the dream plays out.  I’m just aware that it’s not real.

Is it a lucid dream, when you dream you have a lucid dream?

Funny, because this kind of dreams started quite recently, and I think they come once in a few weeks. The last one was last night.

As for continuing dreams - one of the antidepressants caused spectacular movie-like dreams with complex stories. I could wake up and dream the follow-up.

Apart from that, I've had a dream with an ad break once. I don't remember the dream, but I remember the ad: it was about Red Bull ketchup. It had a Bar scene with two people and ended with a flock of winged red origami bulls flying around. (btw, is this a proper succession of adjectives?)

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, J.P. said:

I've had a dream with an ad break once. I don't remember the dream, but I remember the ad: it was about Red Bull ketchup. It had a Bar scene with two people and ended with a flock of winged red origami bulls flying around. (btw, is this a proper succession of adjectives?)

Yes, that's perfect -- it sounds very natural.

I've never heard of advertisements in a dream, though! 

[Artemis]

5 hours ago, J.P. said:

Is it a lucid dream, when you dream you have a lucid dream?

It depends what you mean, but I wouldn't think so.  As far as I know, lucid dreaming usually involves control over your dream, not just awareness of it.  So unless you actually have control in your dream about lucid dreaming, it's still not a lucid dream.

5 hours ago, J.P. said:

The last one was last night.

Want to share? 

5 hours ago, J.P. said:

winged red origami bulls flying around. (btw, is this a proper succession of adjectives?)

I probably would have said "red winged" rather than "winged red", but the way you said it is probably fine too.   

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, J.P. said:

a flock of winged red origami bulls flying around. (btw, is this a proper succession of adjectives?)

 

1 hour ago, Artemis said:

I probably would have said "red winged" rather than "winged red", but the way you said it is probably fine too. 

 

It depends on what you mean.  To me, "red winged origami bulls" would be origami bulls with red wings (though technically that should be red-winged with a hyphen), and "winged red origami bulls" would be red origami bulls with wings.  So which did you dream about, J.P.?

[Artemis]

44 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

(though technically that should be red-winged with a hyphen)

^ Right.    Without the hyphen it still refers to the whole bull, not just the wings.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

It should, yes, but I think it would be easy to misunderstand.  For example, people might read it quickly and not notice there was no hyphen, or might not even know that a hyphen would change the meaning -- or might assume that *you* don't know the difference.

But I haven't yet thought of any way to misunderstand "winged red origami bulls."  And it doesn't sound awkward to me.  So if I were writing a story about J.P.'s dream, I'd phrase it that way.

[Artemis]

On 6/8/2019 at 1:03 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

And it doesn't sound awkward to me.

It does a little bit to me, but that's neither here nor there.  I agree that "winged red" is clear enough, but J.P. asked about "proper" succession, so I was just answering what I thought was the more grammatically correct way rather than the clearest way.    (I’ll spare you all my thoughts on modifiers and cumulative vs. coordinate adjectives, lol.)

For myself, I’d probably rephrase the sentence to say “red origami bulls with wings”, or else I’d add a comma for clarity and say “red, winged origami bulls”.

 

[J.P.]

The bulls were made of red paper.

And I don't remember the dream from yesterday, only that I've had the sensation "this is a dream", but without control. Well, maybe the lucid dreams will come next.

[Arcadia]

I used to have a lot of the kinds of dreams y'all are describing, back when I was in my 20s-30s. I still remember a couple of them, they were so vivid. But I rarely remember my dreams any more … too tired to wake up, I guess.  

The one I remember most is running through a forest, trying to escape whoever was chasing me (an awful lot of my dreams back then seemed to involve fleeing from something or someone ). I can still remember what the forest looked like; very dense and mossy, with a lot of fallen logs. Eventually I came to a cliff, and a turtle fell off the cliff, slow-motion style, into the sea below. The sea was turquoise, with white sand and a log lying on the shore, and the water was about 6 inches deep as far as the eye could see. And for some reason, the depth of the water, and the turtle falling, had some horrifying significance. But I'll never know what, because that's when I woke up, heart racing. Stupid dream, but it's stuck with me all these years! 

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

I came to a cliff, and a turtle fell off the cliff, slow-motion style, into the sea below. The sea was turquoise, with white sand and a log lying on the shore, and the water was about 6 inches deep as far as the eye could see. And for some reason, the depth of the water, and the turtle falling, had some horrifying significance.  But I'll never know what ....

Maybe that the water was too shallow to dive into (and therefore you had no mode of escape)?  (Though hopefully the turtle tucked itself into its shell good and proper, and survived.)  I'd also be wary of that "log" -- could have been a crocodile in disguise.

[Arcadia]

Somehow, you do not reassure me...  

[Artemis]

6 hours ago, Arcadia said:

The one I remember most is running through a forest, trying to escape whoever was chasing me (an awful lot of my dreams back then seemed to involve fleeing from something or someone ). I can still remember what the forest looked like; very dense and mossy, with a lot of fallen logs. Eventually I came to a cliff, and a turtle fell off the cliff, slow-motion style, into the sea below. The sea was turquoise, with white sand and a log lying on the shore, and the water was about 6 inches deep as far as the eye could see. And for some reason, the depth of the water, and the turtle falling, had some horrifying significance. But I'll never know what, because that's when I woke up, heart racing. Stupid dream, but it's stuck with me all these years! 

That specific dream feels very familiar to me for some reason, like I might have had one just like it myself.  Hmmm...

I have a lot of dreams of that type, and have ever since I was little.  Probably at least 80% of my dreams entail me trying to escape or run from someone/something.

Flying dreams, from what I hear, are very common for most people, but I can recall only ever having one (very short-lived, and it was more like falling than flying).  I just don't have flying dreams, for some reason.

 

[J.P.]

Once you mention it - I haven't flown for a while. Don't remember any recent toilet dreams either. I don't remember much anyway. There might be some moving-to-new-places dreams though.

[Carol the Dabbler]

32 minutes ago, J.P. said:

I haven't flown for a while. Don't remember any recent toilet dreams either.

Hmm, me neither.  Nor do I recall any last-day-of-school-and-I-haven't-been-to-class-all-term-and-don't-know-where-the-final-exam-is dreams lately.  Though I rarely remember my dreams now, other than the occasional nightmare that wakes me up.

[Arcadia]

Same here. Seems like my most vivid dreams … the ones I remember … were mostly when I was in my teens and '20's. 

I did have one a couple of nights ago, which I attempted to remember, but the only scene that sticks with me now is at one point, there were (live) people lying on slabs being turned in sashimi rolls (!) The rest of the dream wasn't horrific, though, which is probably why it's already faded.

What I do remember, however, is the psychedelic light show behind my eyelids when I woke up. I've had this happen a few times before; it's like rapidly flickering images of anything and everything, including a lot of geometric patterns … when I open my eyes, everything's normal, but when I close them again, there's the light show. Eventually, this time, it evolved into a whirling spiral that made me feel dizzy, so I got up. If I remember correctly, I'm barely awake when this stuff happens, so I wonder if it's related to some sort of REM thing. It's weird, and a bit annoying, but infrequent.