Strange dream

[fbhjr]

Last night I dreamed I was the sort of person who could find themselves on
alternate versions of our world without too much notice. I had a companion
in this, but I don’t remember any details of them at all.

For reasons not clear in the dream, I seemed to be on an alternate world in
the equivalent of Ralph’s diner in Worcester:
http://www.ralphsrockdiner.com/photos.php

However, in this version it wasn’t a diner that had live music, it was some
sort of pet store.

My companion and I went in looking for something and the woman who worked
at the cash register looked up at us.
“I won’t be able to help you until you renew your citizenship test,” she
said.
“We have to renew out citizenship test?” I asked her. “I’m sure it hasn’t
been that long.”
Even in the dream I had no idea what the test was, how it was taken or what
it took to pass. But, I wanted to seem like a local.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve got a terminal right there you can use.”
She pointed to an old VT100 terminal sitting in the nook across from the
main entrance.
My companion sat down and started the test. It appeared to be only four
questions that seemed to have little bearing on being a citizen.

Things like “someone is talking in a movie theater. What do you do?:
A) Tell them to be quiet
B) Call an usher
C) Attack them”

I could see the questions all had the theme of “take action”, “report to
authority” or “do something criminal yourself”.

When it was my turn I dutifully put down 3 “report to authority” and one
“take action” for myself.
When I hit the “submit” button the screen came back with “this citizen is
not approved for on line test.”

I showed it to the woman who worked there.
“Don’t worry, I have the paper forms here and can enter it at my register.”
The paper form was very similar to the on line on, except on high gloss
paper that did not take ink very well.

I filled out the form and handed it to her.
“Have a seat here while I enter this,” she told me.
I sat on a stool next to the register. There was a table in front of me.
On the table was a chicken pecking at different things. It ignored me and I
ignored it.
The woman was entering the information from my form into her
register/computer. Any time she paused, she picked up a little gold object
on the desk and played with it.
I noticed an orange flash to my side and looked over. Nothing seemed out
of place.

“There we go,” she said. “All entered. Don’t know why you couldn’t do it
yourself, but it is done now.”
She got up and walked away from the register.

Before I could get up, a large man leaned down in front of me.
“What did you do to my chicken?” he asked.
“I didn’t do anything to your chicken,” I said. “It was here a minute ago.
It probably went off somewhere.”
“My chicken doesn’t go anywhere without me,” he said. “You must have done
something to it.”
He reached down and grabbed me by the front of my shirt. He lifted me up,
and was very strong. I noticed a red glow from one of his eyes and
realized he was some sort of cyborg.
“Last chance to tell me,” he said, raising me up above him.
As he lifted me, I flailed about some. My hand hit the little gold thing
next to the register. It fell of the counter and onto the ground.
A big orange sphere that looked like fire appeared in front of me. The man
holding me fell into it, letting go of me as he did.
It disappeared as soon as he fell into it.

I picked up the small gold thing on the floor very carefully.
It was an L shaped thing that seemed to be either made of gold that was
flaking off a bit, or something else with gold paint on it.
It was not very big, maybe an inch or so long.
There were no markings or anything on it.

I walked over to my companion.
“Have you ever heard of something made of gold that would open some sort of
fire gate?” I asked.
“Oh yes,” they said. “There is the legendary gate of (I don’t remember the
name) that would fit that description. But, it hasn’t been seen in ages.”

I went up to the woman who worked there and asked her where she had gotten
the gold block.
“It’s from some sort of game I found here,” she said. “There are lots of
other things like it in the box.”
She led me to the back of the store where there was a shelf full of boxes.
She took a small thin one down and handed it to me. Then, she walked off
again.

I opened the box. There were many of these gold L shaped blocks in it.
They were arranged in a rectangle with the tall side of the L out. There
were two corner pieces, but the right most wall was missing.
I realized the piece I had was also a corner.
I put it down in the upper right corner of the rectangle.
A small sphere of fire appeared in front of me. Fortunately, it had
appeared in an empty fish tank on a table in front of me. It seemed to be
trying to move forward towards me, but the glass stopped it.

I called my companion to have a look. But, before they could get there it
disappeared.
I showed them the pieces in the box and explained what had happened.
“I think the different patterns you make change the gate,” they said.
“And, I expect it stays open until something goes through it. Did anything
go through it?”
“No, it was in the fish tank,” I said. “There wasn’t anything else in
there with it.”
“Something must have passed through,” they said. “Let’s go look.”

We moved through the store looking for some sign that something had
disappeared. As I got to the front I saw there was some sort of commotion
outside.
There was a squad of police in what looked like riot gear and they had
someone surrounded.
As I looked closer, I could see that the person they had surrounded was
Melanie Griffith.
She was clearly confused about where she was and what was going on.

I realized that she must have been pulled through the gate somehow.
And, that the manual citizenship test for me was probably so the police
could track me down and had come for me. But, finding another stranger to
the world just outside of where I was, assumed she was the person they were
after.

Dream ends.

I’ve got no idea what brought this one on or any of the influences. I
haven’t been in a pet store in ages. I haven’t been to Ralph’s in years.
To the best of my knowledge I have never jumped into an alternate version
of this world, nor caused Melanie Griffith to cross dimensions.
All very strange.

Comments

[malterre.livejournal.com]

That IS an odd dream.

[charliemc.livejournal.com]

While I was reading this, Frank, I became so interested. It would make a great SciFi book -- or movie. Really.

You know, you're a good storyteller...

(hugs)

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Dreamscapes are really odd.