Weird, weird dreams.
Mar. 3rd, 2012 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleI dreamed I was a member of a hereditary order of guardians who kept horrible mutated creatures from escaping their underground prisons. After several near-disastrous jailbreak attempts, it was decided that we should break the terms of our ancient compact, and actually open the door to send me in as a spy. At first, I needed stealth -- the creatures were terrible, inhuman, ravenous. But the further I descended, the less the place resembled a zoo, and the closer it came to a dormitory -- complete with human inhabitants. The upper levels were peopled with visibly mutated people -- horns, claws, hunched backs, extra limbs. The lower levels, however, seemed to conceal baseline humans -- teenagers. Many or most of them were insane, and all lived in a society that encouraged dominance through force and discouraged friendship and personal loyalty -- bullying and the ferreting out of secrets were rewarded, actively. I remained there, pretending to be one of them, and that my madness made me silent and sullen. It became quickly obvious to me that all the terrible creatures began this way, and the more they were subject to the influence of their masters, the more they changed. The masters lived near the top of the prison, and held regular meetings where they accepted tribute in the form of stolen confidences.
I discovered this when, in an attempt to return to the surface with the knowledge I'd gained (including a set of written plans I'd beaten someone unconscious to get, with a viciousness that terrified me and implied I was also subject to this influence, and in immediate danger of blending in all too well)... I stumbled into the middle of such a meeting. While I could fool mad teenagers into thinking I was a part of their culture, their cloaked and hooded masters were more discerning. They took what I had stolen as tribute (as well as the knowledge that their ancient rivals were willing to break the treaty that limited the war between them to certain forms), and... then I woke up.
The cloaked creatures, I think, may have been the same beings I bargained with in my 'Shadow of the Tree' dream, but otherwise I'm not sure what connection there could be between the two. If my brain is doing worldbuilding on its own, it's built something larger and stranger than I currently understand.
I discovered this when, in an attempt to return to the surface with the knowledge I'd gained (including a set of written plans I'd beaten someone unconscious to get, with a viciousness that terrified me and implied I was also subject to this influence, and in immediate danger of blending in all too well)... I stumbled into the middle of such a meeting. While I could fool mad teenagers into thinking I was a part of their culture, their cloaked and hooded masters were more discerning. They took what I had stolen as tribute (as well as the knowledge that their ancient rivals were willing to break the treaty that limited the war between them to certain forms), and... then I woke up.
The cloaked creatures, I think, may have been the same beings I bargained with in my 'Shadow of the Tree' dream, but otherwise I'm not sure what connection there could be between the two. If my brain is doing worldbuilding on its own, it's built something larger and stranger than I currently understand.
