Random Dream of the Now
So I just had a long-ass and WTF dream.
Most of it was just random weirdness that didn't really tie into much, but involved segments of trying to flag down cabs in this bizarre combination cab/bus station and not really succeeding (and all the busses that DID arrive weren't the one I needed) and a few segments that were kind of DreamWorks CGI and I suspect were rather boss battle-y (I blame watching Rise of the Guardians shortly before bed). Following those was one relatively constant bit that played out sort of like a strange side-scrolling platform game.
The game in question had an auto-scroll going up. The bottom of the level was all water (with a level that gradually rose) and there were islands and floating rocks and mini-islands that you basically had to grab onto and climb up the level as the water level rises - latching onto things eroded them though, so you had to be careful (especially since some of the changes stuck from one level attempt to another - so there were a few levels you had to sort of plan ahead on and think quickly). You could be in the water for a bit, but if you got caught in the autoscroll, game over. I played through a few levels of this (they took me a few attempts) - and at the end of every level was a cut-scene in which a large guy who was sort of based on Raven from Snow Crash showed up and did stuff. And you essentially had to stay the fuck out of his view or you KNOW he'd pulverize you in seconds. The one particular cut-scene I remember was at the end of the final level I played - in which you had to climb to the highest point of the level and then zip-line around to another cliff. Once I zip-lined across I heard something and hid behind a rock. A jeep comes across a road on this cliff, stops just by the rock, picks up Ash and Dawn (both of which have their Best Wishes appearance for some reason and are in the car, terrified) and just throws them off the cliff (they looked bizarrely like Sonic's drowning sprite for a moment). There are a few other things in the truck - possibly replacements? or mannequins? they looked similar to Ash and Dawn). He gets back in the car and drives around the corner, only to appear shortly after at the bottom of the cliff, using a vacuum cleaner like device to pick up Pokeballs and shit from the ground and a truck that seems to was crashed there.
but that wasn't the weird shit. The really weird shit happened after that.
It was a tie-in to a dream from a few days ago (or was it just an earlier segment of tonight? I'm not sure).
I was sort of doing a purifying thing on various supernaturally corrupted things (Not with a baseball bat, although the thought occurred to me later XD). My guide/mentor/boss type character there looked and sounded suspiciously like Tim Curry. The early bits weren't as complicated - I had some kind of purifying touch/bolt power that I could invoke and the threats weren't too major. Eventually I was sent out to deal with a phenomenon occurring in a certain forest (which runs to the left side of a long path, the right side being more typical countrysides). Segments of the forest were becoming corrupted by some kind of force - and the corrupted segments were sparser, dark teal, misty, and the trees were all gnarled, twisted and leafless. Think of the Swamps of Dementia in the Shivering Isles expansion of Oblivion, or the Swamp area of Simon the Sorcerer, but more ominous.
The forest in question was home to these little floating mini-pixies - they were sentient creatures capable of human speech, though you never really got to see them as any more than flitting winged blurs - like large insects or hummingbirds that never land. In the ordinary areas of the forest and outside it they maintained a normal form - though if they crossed the threshold into a 'corrupted' zone they would turn into ominous black, smoky wisps - and while they reverted to normal after leaving the corrupted zone's border, apparently passing through these areas was bad for them - had a certain corrupting effect that could -stick- (and if it did, they stayed these black wisps).
Another thing the forest had - and these were rare, thank fuck - were these tall, shambling, orange-glowing faceless humanoid covered in tree roots and branches and vines and whatever in swirly patterns. Sort of zombie-like in a way. They were created by the corrupted segments but could enter the uncorrupted ones. Most of them were easily avoidable - but I have yet to figure out how to purify them or the forest itself.
Anyhow. So much for the background - this is where I was cut off last time I had that dream. In THIS dream, the mentor-type character sends me out to hunt this one pixie that was apparently corrupted and gives me a time gap of five (hours? minutes? some time units anyway) to capture it. I meet other pixies along the way (one of which follows me around and serves as an advisor for the level?) in pursuit of this one, which keeps trying to tell me something as I chase it (but it's too fast for me and it flits in and out of corrupted areas, which I cannot personally enter because I lack the right sort of protection apparently?). Eventually the rogue pixie cuts across the path and heads towards an abandoned building - I follow it, and what it's saying becomes clearer: it claims to be NOT corrupted, and that something else is going on - something very unusual - and that it was trying to get to the bottom of it. Its sibling (the advisor pixie) confirms this and I have to make a choice - whether or not I believe it.
I choose to believe it because something about what it says rings true. I walk out of the building with both the pixies in tow,look across the pathway... And yes, something has gone wrong.
The corruption has dramatically spread. Little, if at all, remains of the original forest - the swampy corrupted forest spread everywhere - and... looking ahead, there's a VERITABLE FUCKING ARMY OF THOSE SWIRLY TREE ZOMBIES COMING OVER THE HORIZON. Not all are orange. Some are greenish, some are brownish, that whole array of autumn colors. But the swirly roots are all there. They are approaching, slowly shambling forward, and on the path... well. The mentor boss character I mentioned, blocking the path. He's all covered in roots and glow too - only his face is visible, with that smug evil Tim Curry grin. He tells me the amount of time I had to capture the rogue pixie is up. We talk for a bit more, as I try to explain what I found out, but it's too late - he's already infested to the core, his face is replaced by one of those things. The zombie army is still on the horizon, looming dangerously nearer... and the starts attacking me.
... And I panicked. Started running, telling the pixies (I referred to them as Tatl and Tale for some reason, wtf Majora's Mask ref?) to take cover as I hold him off. Except, in my exact words in the dream, "How the fuck do I purify this thing?" I tried using my purifying touch ability but it didn't work - it didn't even ACTIVATE. The orange glowy stuff that made up the thing's skin was squishy and damp, sort of had the texture of moist soil and leaf litter. Some of it got on me, but just sort of seemed to be inert when not connected to the rest of the mass (or was it? maybe just not enough of it stuck?). And this thing keeps trying to generally stomp me and attack me, forcing me into a series of rolls and derp - and the situation seemed rather hopeless - and then I woke up... with the instant realization (as if I read it in a walkthrough somewhere) that I had to let the thing corrupt me briefly so I can understand how the process works and reverse it and the pixies were needed to spread the knowledge to cure the forest (and I believe they were supposed to be instrumental in helping me keep my mind/awareness intact while understanding the corruption?) I tried forcing myself back to sleep to use that knowledge but yeah. couldn't.
Tl;dr, dick move, dream. Only telling me how to solve a problem when it's irrelevant. >>;
Most of it was just random weirdness that didn't really tie into much, but involved segments of trying to flag down cabs in this bizarre combination cab/bus station and not really succeeding (and all the busses that DID arrive weren't the one I needed) and a few segments that were kind of DreamWorks CGI and I suspect were rather boss battle-y (I blame watching Rise of the Guardians shortly before bed). Following those was one relatively constant bit that played out sort of like a strange side-scrolling platform game.
The game in question had an auto-scroll going up. The bottom of the level was all water (with a level that gradually rose) and there were islands and floating rocks and mini-islands that you basically had to grab onto and climb up the level as the water level rises - latching onto things eroded them though, so you had to be careful (especially since some of the changes stuck from one level attempt to another - so there were a few levels you had to sort of plan ahead on and think quickly). You could be in the water for a bit, but if you got caught in the autoscroll, game over. I played through a few levels of this (they took me a few attempts) - and at the end of every level was a cut-scene in which a large guy who was sort of based on Raven from Snow Crash showed up and did stuff. And you essentially had to stay the fuck out of his view or you KNOW he'd pulverize you in seconds. The one particular cut-scene I remember was at the end of the final level I played - in which you had to climb to the highest point of the level and then zip-line around to another cliff. Once I zip-lined across I heard something and hid behind a rock. A jeep comes across a road on this cliff, stops just by the rock, picks up Ash and Dawn (both of which have their Best Wishes appearance for some reason and are in the car, terrified) and just throws them off the cliff (they looked bizarrely like Sonic's drowning sprite for a moment). There are a few other things in the truck - possibly replacements? or mannequins? they looked similar to Ash and Dawn). He gets back in the car and drives around the corner, only to appear shortly after at the bottom of the cliff, using a vacuum cleaner like device to pick up Pokeballs and shit from the ground and a truck that seems to was crashed there.
but that wasn't the weird shit. The really weird shit happened after that.
It was a tie-in to a dream from a few days ago (or was it just an earlier segment of tonight? I'm not sure).
I was sort of doing a purifying thing on various supernaturally corrupted things (Not with a baseball bat, although the thought occurred to me later XD). My guide/mentor/boss type character there looked and sounded suspiciously like Tim Curry. The early bits weren't as complicated - I had some kind of purifying touch/bolt power that I could invoke and the threats weren't too major. Eventually I was sent out to deal with a phenomenon occurring in a certain forest (which runs to the left side of a long path, the right side being more typical countrysides). Segments of the forest were becoming corrupted by some kind of force - and the corrupted segments were sparser, dark teal, misty, and the trees were all gnarled, twisted and leafless. Think of the Swamps of Dementia in the Shivering Isles expansion of Oblivion, or the Swamp area of Simon the Sorcerer, but more ominous.
The forest in question was home to these little floating mini-pixies - they were sentient creatures capable of human speech, though you never really got to see them as any more than flitting winged blurs - like large insects or hummingbirds that never land. In the ordinary areas of the forest and outside it they maintained a normal form - though if they crossed the threshold into a 'corrupted' zone they would turn into ominous black, smoky wisps - and while they reverted to normal after leaving the corrupted zone's border, apparently passing through these areas was bad for them - had a certain corrupting effect that could -stick- (and if it did, they stayed these black wisps).
Another thing the forest had - and these were rare, thank fuck - were these tall, shambling, orange-glowing faceless humanoid covered in tree roots and branches and vines and whatever in swirly patterns. Sort of zombie-like in a way. They were created by the corrupted segments but could enter the uncorrupted ones. Most of them were easily avoidable - but I have yet to figure out how to purify them or the forest itself.
Anyhow. So much for the background - this is where I was cut off last time I had that dream. In THIS dream, the mentor-type character sends me out to hunt this one pixie that was apparently corrupted and gives me a time gap of five (hours? minutes? some time units anyway) to capture it. I meet other pixies along the way (one of which follows me around and serves as an advisor for the level?) in pursuit of this one, which keeps trying to tell me something as I chase it (but it's too fast for me and it flits in and out of corrupted areas, which I cannot personally enter because I lack the right sort of protection apparently?). Eventually the rogue pixie cuts across the path and heads towards an abandoned building - I follow it, and what it's saying becomes clearer: it claims to be NOT corrupted, and that something else is going on - something very unusual - and that it was trying to get to the bottom of it. Its sibling (the advisor pixie) confirms this and I have to make a choice - whether or not I believe it.
I choose to believe it because something about what it says rings true. I walk out of the building with both the pixies in tow,look across the pathway... And yes, something has gone wrong.
The corruption has dramatically spread. Little, if at all, remains of the original forest - the swampy corrupted forest spread everywhere - and... looking ahead, there's a VERITABLE FUCKING ARMY OF THOSE SWIRLY TREE ZOMBIES COMING OVER THE HORIZON. Not all are orange. Some are greenish, some are brownish, that whole array of autumn colors. But the swirly roots are all there. They are approaching, slowly shambling forward, and on the path... well. The mentor boss character I mentioned, blocking the path. He's all covered in roots and glow too - only his face is visible, with that smug evil Tim Curry grin. He tells me the amount of time I had to capture the rogue pixie is up. We talk for a bit more, as I try to explain what I found out, but it's too late - he's already infested to the core, his face is replaced by one of those things. The zombie army is still on the horizon, looming dangerously nearer... and the starts attacking me.
... And I panicked. Started running, telling the pixies (I referred to them as Tatl and Tale for some reason, wtf Majora's Mask ref?) to take cover as I hold him off. Except, in my exact words in the dream, "How the fuck do I purify this thing?" I tried using my purifying touch ability but it didn't work - it didn't even ACTIVATE. The orange glowy stuff that made up the thing's skin was squishy and damp, sort of had the texture of moist soil and leaf litter. Some of it got on me, but just sort of seemed to be inert when not connected to the rest of the mass (or was it? maybe just not enough of it stuck?). And this thing keeps trying to generally stomp me and attack me, forcing me into a series of rolls and derp - and the situation seemed rather hopeless - and then I woke up... with the instant realization (as if I read it in a walkthrough somewhere) that I had to let the thing corrupt me briefly so I can understand how the process works and reverse it and the pixies were needed to spread the knowledge to cure the forest (and I believe they were supposed to be instrumental in helping me keep my mind/awareness intact while understanding the corruption?) I tried forcing myself back to sleep to use that knowledge but yeah. couldn't.
Tl;dr, dick move, dream. Only telling me how to solve a problem when it's irrelevant. >>;