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Fermius Firefly

A Dream Log, whenever I remember the dreams I've had.

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Location: San Marcos, United States

Fermius is a pen name drawn from a series of short fiction I wrote when I published the small press magazine Stellanova (on paper.) I play RPG games to escape from my daily grind as a technology wage slave for the state of California. I eat out a lot in order to do my part in supporting our increasingly service level economy. I am butler to 2 feline masters. If you ask them they will tell you I'm not very good at it, late with dinner, don't have enough hands with brushes in them, and sometimes I even lock them out of their office.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Un-Amusement Park

        I was, in this dream, visiting the old partly broken down amusement park, somewhere in my dream city landscape. I dont know exactly where it is located, as I dont seem to remember ever getting there, just being there. In this dream there were several attractions being renovated, a different set than last time.

        As N and I walked through the place, it seemed that the only attractions N was interested in were being renovated. To be honest I was more interested in the renovation process than most of the attractions anyway. There were lots of cranes and pipe bending machines, as well as people welding and assembling large mechanical devices. Nerd heaven.

        In what could only be defined as a snit N made her way to the show office to complain.

I waited in the lobby for a bit, where I bumped into a park manager who asked, Is there something I can do for you?

I pointed to the office where N was ranting at another manager. Im with her, shes really un-amused at the state of the park today.

Oh, we can give you free tickets to come back another day, if youd like, and well refund todays fees.

Thanks, Id like that.

She got me squared away so I opened up the office door and tapped N on the shoulder. I got us a refund, and tickets to come back another time.

N grabbed the refund and the pair of tickets and stormed out. I dont know why I even bothered.

I watched N get in her car and drive off.

Shes kinda mean.

No, shes just having a bad day, I started making excuses for her, like I always had. I stopped in mid sentence, realizing I didnt have to do that anymore.

Yeah, and she forgot that we car-pooled, too.

Oh dear! Can I drop you off somewhere? Call you a cab?

Thanks, if youre headed towards SM Id love a ride. You can call me D. I tried to make light of being stranded.

Time shifted, I rode the glass elevator in the parking structure several times, just to enjoy the view of people walking around the park, they looked like they were all having a good time, the feeling was catching.

Soon we were pulling into the parking lot of Penny Lane, where she invited me to stay for a drink after her union meeting. Im kind of the president, so I have to say a few words to get things going, then Ill be right with you.

The phrase right with you seems to have a pretty variable meaning for most people. I was just thinking that I could walk home from here in an hour or so when she slid into the booth next to me. Shed somehow slipped off and changed her clothes and re-done her hair. Instead of slicked back and held down by combs her hair was now a mass of variegated brown and blonde curls framing her face. Her blue eyes were crinkled up in the corners from smiling and I suddenly thought that her lips were very kissable looking.

        Thats the point that Teddy or Miranda (or both) went bounding across my tummy.

        I went back to sleep, but dropped into a work dream, answering parent calls and resetting passwords. The phone would not stop ringing, every call I took seemed to generate two or three calls at the same time. I wondered when I would ever find time to call people back.

Ad astra per technica,
FF

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Hand Tools

            I found myself working underwater, in my house. It seems the floor had collapsed into a sink hole, and the sink hole had a few feet of bromine scented water at the bottom. I was trying to dig myself a path out using my hands, which had turned into a hammer and chisel. I wasn't holding a hammer and chisel, my hands were the hammer and chisel.

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Polymorphic Problem

        I was rushing around with a couple of friends, climbing way back in a storage container, looking for my  pocket vest and light cargo pants. We were preparing to jump through a rift to go visit a huge festival in a sword and sorcery universe, and I wanted lots of emergency supplies, since it was best to be prepared.

        We hopped through the portal and met up with a couple of other folks wed travelled with before. Our room at a local Inn was ready for us, and we dumped off our non-essentials and changed into appropriate clothing to attend the festival. That meant very ornate robes for me and leather and linen for everyone else.

        We ate our way across the festival grounds. At one point we stopped to say hello to the court magician. He gave the guy we called Angry D a vial of potion and myself.

        Go ahead, drink it! He grinned at us.

        We both took a sip.

        In only a few warped feeling moments, I shrunk down to Angry Ds size and he grew to mine. It was great being young and healthy, but I wasnt too thrilled with being short.

        Angry D looked very pleasantly surprised and was busily adjusting his vest and trousers to fit his suddenly taller and wider frame. I hiked up my robes and tightened my belt. I took a couple of steps and then stopped to roll up my pants legs.

        In the noise and confusion I didnt hear what the Court Magician said next. Angry D smiled and thanked him, however, so I figured I would find out later.

        It didnt take long for Angry D to get separated from the group. We watched a few worlds class performances, having fun spotting the other Rift Travelers in the crowds.

        Back in our Inn, wed had visitors to our room. Everyone was upset, until I pointed out that theyd left us paper money and a couple of pins from their worlds. I made my way over to their room and returned the compliment.

        The occupants were lounging around, obviously as worn out as we were. One of them was a tall elf looking fellow and another was light lavender skinned. I didnt have any badges for them, though, so left them with some bills and coins. One of them recognized my name, but said I thought you had brown hair?

        And Im much taller, I showed them the potion and explained that Id temporarily traded forms with Angry D.

        Turned out they were from a future world and had actually found out about this festival from my blog. (Which was, in their time, thousands of posts long.) They looked at one another and there were whispered comments of should we tell him? and the like. The evidently decided that telling me, whatever it was, was a bad idea.

        I went back to my room, the group had hired some women to come in and bathe and give them massages. As I prepared to join them, I noticed that Angry D, whose reflection rather shockingly greeted me in the mirror, didnt have naturally black hair. The roots were definitely brown. The stubble of my incoming beard was a dark reddish color though, I figured I would just let it grow until we switched forms.

        The massage was wonderful, the woman, delightful, speaking in highly accented English, we joked and shared stories of our lives. She was also a very attentive and gentle masseuse. I remember thinking I could live here quite happily, if only they had computers and the internet. Being a fantasy world with lots of magic, the population wasnt living in squalor and filth like many such worlds. The standard of living was actually very high for such a low technology world.

        Angry D arrived, laughing in my voice, asking So, hows your girlfriend, or mine, rather.

        It turns out that Angry D had been spending a lot of time in this world, and my masseuse had learned English from him.

        He admitted that hed grow cool on her, because she wouldnt put out without a commitment. That made me like her even more. Our conversation was fairly fast and Angry D seemed to be stretching it out, taking forever to make his points. The woman, though, managed to follow along, finally breaking in and asking how wed changed bodies.

        The Court Magician had us drink these, I showed her what was left of the potion.

        Oh, no, thats permanent if you dont drink the second dose together!

        What?

        Sucker! Angry D bolted out of the room, grabbing my robes on his way out the door. I was glad I didnt have anything in the pockets of the robe.

        What happens if I drink the rest of this and he doesnt? I asked.

        No one knew the answer. I took the chance. Change rippled through me, but I didnt grow any taller and my beard didnt come back. I was still young. The only thing that seemed to change was my skin and hair color.

        Hes heading for your Rift! one of my companions yelled.

        Get him!

        Hey, youse, where do you think youre goin, a gruff voice rumbled in my ear. The owner of the voice picked me up off the ground. One of the local bosses, underworld like, walked up to where I was being held.

        It only took showing him the potion bottle to convince him of what had happened. Apparently the woman was related to him in some way, daughter, niece, I couldnt quite make out as I didnt know the local language all that well.

He sent his men after Angry D, but the Rift had closed.  I got hit by another change, this time growing to my normal height. My hair was still brown without any gray in it and my beard had grown back, fully reddish brown instead of white.

This could be a problem. My face had also sort of changed back, but was thinner and the eyebrows thicker and my eyes were now dark green instead of blue. I could tell that the magic of the potion had worn off, and that this was pretty much, without finding Angry D, what I was going to look like.

I turned back to the woman, asking if she would like to see my world. (Normally this would not be good Rift Traveler protocol, but Angry D would take some finding.) She agreed, and the underworld boss pointed to two of his bruisers and said, Take them with you, for luck.

Uh, okay. Let me bring them back some clothing, though, that armor isnt going to fly where Im from.

My friends had all ready packed up their stuff and werent too happy when I explained that we were taking the bruisers with us to help find Angry D.

At least you almost look like you.

        Lets hope the jump through the Rift bumps me a little bit back to normal. Low magic world where Im from. I explained to the woman, who translated for our body guards.

She leaned in close as I opened up the rift home, Its okay with me if we dont come back here. Id like to stay with you if I can.

I hadnt really thought about that, but found that I kind of liked the idea. I just wasnt too sure that I would be able to resume my old life if we didnt find Angry D and get him to drink the rest of the potion, which one of the bruisers had found on the ground by the portal as we stepped through. Luckily the vial hadnt been smashed on the wood floor.

I could tell there was going to be lots of explaining by their wide open expressions at my home. There was no sign of Angry D. My coin collection was gone, however, as was my check book. I hopped online and moved my money into another account. I started to realize that I wasnt probably going to find him and get my old pain filled body back. I decided that I was okay with that. I wasnt sure what was going to happen, but liked the team Id managed to collect to deal with the problem.

I think we may need to pay your Court Magician another visit. One of my friends told the woman. Perhaps there is something to make him look like he used to.

Why in the world would I want to be fat and old again?

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Boating the Amethyst Maelstrom

        I dreamed that N and I were in boats headed out to where there were some large gemstone islands, green, purple and pink crystals jutted out of the sea. As we neared the place I could see the shore wasnt really a shore, but a thin layer of purple amethyst crystals about three millimeters thick. N wanted to plow through it, but I wanted to carefully cut away large sheets of the material, as I thought it had some very unique features that would make it sell to collectors for far more than the value of the crystals themselves. I was fairly certain the flat field of crystals was unique.

        N, from her boat, started breaking the formation up, while I carefully pulled the sheets of material aboard my boat, stacking them with paper and foam between the layers to help protect them from bumps.

        I heard a yelp from N, way out in front of me, shed been aimed directly for a large green garnet, but was shouting something I couldnt make out as she pointed over the side of her boat.

        I saw her boat dip down a trough out of sight and shortly after I knew why. Shed uncovered a maelstrom. My boat dipped over the lip of the swirling storm and shot down the sloping wall of water. The thin crystalline sheets rained down around us from the edges of the swirling funnel. I managed to get the boat turned so I wasnt racing towards the center of the swirling water, but couldnt get enough power from the motor to climb out of the dip.

I could see the funnel was slowly flattening out, but I didnt think that would happen fast enough for us to escape. Ns boat was opposite mine, and it was obvious she was having the same trouble and I had an idea. I had a long pole, used when the boat was near shore, I unshipped it and set it into a divot in the deck and stretched it over to Ns boat, bracing it against her mid-deck.

        Set yours between us, too, I shouted into the raging wind, but she didnt seem to understand what I was asking. With both poles we can keep the boats aimed perpendicular to the funnel and we can ride out the storm! I shouted, and hoped.

        Nan pulled out her pole, but used it, instead, to skull her boat , adding its power to the power of her motor, trying to get out of the storm. This had the effect, as long as my pole was connected, of pulling me more towards the center.

        This dream is so obviously symbolic it isnt even funny.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Bears, CH Gets New Glasses.

            I dreamed that I had met up with a large number of folks in a heavily wooded area where they had hidden horses in a large cave system. Although I wasn't really sure of the reason, we were evacuating the area. Only one problem, there weren't enough horses for everyone. At least a half dozen people would have to ride double, a couple of them adults. That would slow us down.
            I noticed that there were, however, a couple of very large brown shaggy bears chained in the back of one of the caves. I went over to them and "communicated" the problem with them. I came out of the little side cave riding one and leading the other.
            Everyone backed away from us. "I can take another adult if anyone is willing. We have to leave now, because the bears are going to be slower than the horses."
            "I can't imagine anyone would follow you, though."
            "Those bears are even bigger than I thought," whispered a woman hiding behind her husband.
            "I'll go, but my sister has to come with us," a young woman said. Her sister looked to be about eleven or twelve.
            I turned and asked the female bear if she would take them, and the bear said she could take one, the other would have to ride the male with me.
            "I'm okay with that," the little girl said, apparently able to understand the bears, too. She grabbed up her school backpack and ran over to where I was and I helped her up in front of me. "Don't you have a bag?"
            "No, just what's in my pockets." Which I knew to be a lot, as I was wearing a vest with four pockets and cargo pants.
            We started out immediately, no one else in the group left behind offered anything more than a wave, mostly seeming to be glad to see the bears go.

            I dreamed that CH came over to help clean the house, and she was wearing new glasses, thick dark red frames with a slender rounded rectangle shape. They really drew attention to her blue eyes. I commented on them which made her smile, and that's when I noticed that they were prop glasses, with no actual lenses in them.
            She explained that they were for a costume she was working on, but I couldn't tell now what I thought she said.

All in all these were both a welcome change from the all consuming Zombie dreams I've been having of late.

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Friday, January 07, 2011

A Kiss to Build a Dream On, Lost and Confused

        Had four dreams last night, but only remember bits of all but the first and last.

        In the first dream N was visiting and I showed her the exercise room. Somehow we ended up in a kiss the likes of which I have not had in over a decade. The kiss led to other activities and then I had to go and ruin it by saying, Look at the time, you should be going.

        What!

        Time to feed the cats, Ginger and Marvin, they will be expecting you. Even though it was meant to be considerate, N didnt take it that way. I sat there kicking myself that I should have started with the statement about Ginger and Marvin first. I have no idea how to talk to women, even in my dreams.

        There was another dream immediately following, but despite the action adventure orientation of it, I kept thinking about how I had tripped up the romance in the previous dream. No amount of 3d fantasy battle action was able to knock that out of my thoughts.

        There was then a sort of generic fold spindle and mutilate reality dream, little red driving across the ocean, but the swells were choppy and about 15 foot so soon the poor little car was being tumbled all topsy turvy under the waves. I wasnt sure the four of us would be able to survive, but managed to land on the bottom on our wheels and was able to drive up onto a beach and then from the beach to a causeway and up to the road. Im still not sure how I got four people into that little two seater.

        The last dream was much more set in time and place. I was in RB, when I suddenly forgot where I was going and for what reason. I headed back in the direction I thought Id left my car, but didnt recognize the landmarks or the names on the street signs. At one point I found myself in a parking lot, that as I walked turned into a playground. I spotted an adult, and approached her to ask where the street I thought Id been walking on was. The street name I gave her is actually not even in RB, so Im not surprised that she didnt recognize it. Sadly, it wasnt really the street name I wanted to say.

        Unfortunately, I could only make two and three word sentences. She got scared. I managed Bring help, before she ducked into the building behind some students. I couldnt help notice that she was a very pretty blonde woman, the one wed sat across from at pizza last Wednesday night. (I cant usually recognize where anyone but my friends come from in my dreams, so that was unusual.) I wanted to say something, but my brain still wouldnt let me say anything more than two or three words. Even then, I couldnt always bring the correct word to mind.

        A gentleman came out to talk to me, the white collar giving away that he was a minister. I pointed to my own neck and said Thank you which is not exactly what I meant to say, I was looking for something more like Im lost, help, please. It took me several minutes to pull up the name of the street I was looking for. The minister guided me over to a retaining wall on the other side of the buildings and we sat and talked. I was having a hard time following what he was saying. During the talk we moved to the trunk of a nearby car, much the same vintage as my old Plymouth, but a sort of faded, dingy, metal-flake blue, with tail fins.

        I finally pointed to the car and managed to get out Lost car, and that seemed to have clued him in to what was going on.

        I think you may have had a stroke, the Minister said.

        I thought about that a moment, then nodded. As he was making a phone call, for the paramedics, I suspect. While I watched him punch up the number, I saw a giant blue-green sunfish shaped fish in the sky. Sky whale, I said pointing.

        Uh, yes. The minister motioned for me to sit back down.

        More of them started to rise from the other side of the school building. I could tell they were real fish, large, floating in the sky, but knew I had no way of telling the minister that because of the slippery grasp I currently had of language.

        Kites, maybe. I blurted out, having tried several different phrases under my breath until I found one that translated into something that he might not dismiss immediately.

        It worked, he casually looked over his shoulder, as pretty much would anyone, then started so bad he dropped his cell phone. I  managed to snatch it out of the air before it had fallen too far and tapped him on the shoulder to hand it back to him. He just stood, mouth agape, looking at the giant school of sky fish as they swam up over the school. They shimmered blue and green in the sun, large yellow dots on their tails and silvery bellies with dark blue spots. They were very pretty. The one Id fist spotted turned to better look at us, then swam (flew?) back to the rest of the school.

 Wed better get inside, he took me by the sleeve and hurried me towards the school building that was rapidly being enveloped by the school of fish.

        I was thinking that we would have been safer in the car, because we could at least drive away, but then realized that the car might not have been his.