(no subject)
Some of my dreams have a lineal progression and firm plot. Some just have repeated imagery. Last night's was of the latter variety.
For some reason, I always imagined the Boston Tea Party taking place on a small ship with just a few people on it. When my teachers told me that some of the English from the ship joined in, I imagined two or three sailors in red suits tossing boxes over the side of the ship laughing "Yeah, my boss is a jerk anyway." I had a very clear image of it, a bright sunny day in the harbour, white people dressed as native Americans (all wearing war bonnets for some reason) walking onto a ship about thirty feet long, explaining their reasoning, and then systematically throwing boxes of tea over the side. Even as I learned more about it, I kept going back to this image.
That's not what happened in the dream. It's not what happened in history, either.
This huge, towering tall ship with at least a hundred hands was attacked in the middle of the night by a mob. A group of screaming, shrieking white men with soot and grease rubbed over their faces, wearing rags and with their red and blonde hair loose, punching inanimate objects and making the most ungodly noises.
And for some reason the Sixth Doctor was there, trying not to get involved in this historical event but making a lot of catty comments about how he was glad Peri wasn't there and didn't need to see how her country was formed. He also made comments about how wildly politically incorrect that was, and how they really should have known that what they were doing didn't remotely resemble the native Americans they thought they were mimicking.
Then the Americans stormed the ship and started throwing all of the cargo off, and when the sailors tried to protect their goods, they were given the option of either helping the rioters destroy the merchandise or being thrown off the ship with it. One sailor asked if they were going to kill him, to which an American responded, "No, I have no intention of killing you. But if you don't help us, I will throw you off the ship and I don't care what happens to you after that." And when they were finished throwing people and tea off the ship, they cut the anchor free, set the sails on fire, and cast off, jumping off the ship themselves.
Someone made a speech about how the anchor would rust in the harbour forever as a reminder of what happened. The Doctor vented his fury that no one thought about where this flaming ship would land, and how it was coasting out towards a spit of land covered in houses.
Then there was a scene in a jail cell, where the prisoners were watching this flaming ship in the distance. These prisoners were Frobisher, Garfield the cat who was Robin Hood who was me, and Odie who was little John who was my brother. Frobisher was telling his cell mates about how he had no idea what was going on, and at this point he was out of ideas. He said he was going to wait for the Doctor to rescue him and hoped that he had a plan, and that was really terrifying because he wasn't sure how long it would take the Doctor to even remember he was there. He kept trying to reassure his cellmates, and by extension himself, that even if the Doctor forgot about him entirely, one day he would remember and come back for him, and since he had a time machine that he would be coming to free him any minute now, even if it took him centuries to think of it. It was really pathetic.