Chapter 2: Obscured Lucidity
A bright light infiltrates your vision, chasing out the drowsiness like a bucket of water to the face. You sit up on your bed, only to realise that something's not quite right.
Why is your room yellow?
Everything in your room, from the very bed you're sitting on to the awesome Goofy hat you got at Disney World two years ago is tinted in hues of custard yellow to ochre. You look down and realise that you're not even wearing the pyjamas you had on before going to sleep. Instead, it's replaced with a yellow long-sleeve emblazoned with a white crescent moon. You've even got matching trousers. The material feels very comfortable and familiar to you, as if you had spent a long time in this outfit. You get off the bed and notice two more important things; the first is that your window no longer provides you with a splendid view of your neighbours, and the second is that the door leading to the rest of your house is gone.
A dream. Yes, this is a dream. You look out of the window, and the sight that greets you leaves you bamboozled. Outside of your window, a magnificent golden city lies sprawled out over the land. You can make out various buildings with intricate and ornate architecture, and the general milling about of odd looking white mannequins. Mannequins are the best way you can describe them in a word, at least. They're dressed in colourful garments and have very round heads, with only basic facial features such as a pair of beady eyes and a mouth. Looking further into the distance, it becomes clear that you are only on the moon of this golden city-planet, and that there is a chain of impossible length and width anchoring the moon to the planet.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a door leading out from your bedroom. Could it be that you're a prisoner in this room? This revelation makes you feel a little uneasy, but then you decide that it isn't the case, because the windows remain unbarred. That's right, it's a dream. Hey, Earth to Steve. It's a LUCID DREAM. Go wild! You jump for joy at this opportunity to do whatever the hell you want, but then stop abruptly for fear of waking yourself up. You climb onto the window pane and look down. Holy shit, that's a long drop. You hesitate for 5 seconds, and then you leap out of the window.
For a terrible moment, you feel as if you are falling. Your eyes widen in panic, but then you realise that you're not dropping at all. The ground remains a long way from your current position, and then a wide grin breaks across your face. Start flying already, godammit! The ground rushes up to greet you as you swoop down into the alleys of the golden city. A few of those white mannequins yelp in surprise as you hurtle down the gilded streets, laughing with wild abandon. You've only ever had one other lucid dream, where you were flying around a bustling metropolis. In some ways, this is similar, except the atmosphere is different here. Instead of a vibrant atmosphere with flashing lights and high-rise skyscrapers, there is now a dignified air which exudes from the grandiose arches and sweeping spires that span the moon and the planet.
Flying is just like how you remember it to be. Your direction and speed seem to be controlled by your will; however there seems to be a limit to how fast you can go before you start to get a headache. A shady alcove catches your eye, and you land softly onto the yellow floor with a 'tmph'. You take a moment to drink in the scenery of your surroundings, when your line of sight falls upon two white mannequins on a bridge closeby. Something about them seems slightly different from all the others that you've glanced at. One of them has an elongated oval head instead of the usual roundish-shape that you've noticed so far. Instead of beady black eyes, this strange looking figure has horizontal slits. He notices your presence and proceeds to mutter something into a walkie talkie. A sudden breeze carries his words to you: "It's time."
The oval headed figure then walks away from your location, down the bridge. The other figure is unusually short, perhaps even the shortest one you've seen. He too notices your presence and waves a greeting, which you return with a smile. The little one is positively jubilant at your reciprocation of mutual amiability, and proceeds to do a quirky little dance with the white umbrella in his hand. Adorable, indeed.
You decide to leave the little umbrella-wielding dancer to his devices, and head further into the alcove. The corridor ahead is lengthy and filled with patterns that weave in and out of one another, and you gain a newfound respect for the artisans who probably toiled for a long time to finish building the city. The corridor opens into a spacious room with a domed roof in similar shades of yellow. There's a rather large computer in the centre and a console with various buttons which mean nothing to you for the time being. Carved onto the surrounding walls are twelve symbols, some more discernible than others. The picture of the sun is pretty obvious: it's meant to represent light. The one with the heart could have some sort of link with the soul, or something. One of them looks like a skull, and another the stem of a plant. What could they mean? There's more as well. A pair of wings, wavy lines (water, perhaps?), a gear, a picture of a bloody cut…
A bright light catches your attention. It seems like the computer has turned itself on. Weird. Do computers usually do that in dreams? Then again, this has been one pretty crazy dream altogether. A sentence appears on the screen:
Steve, over here.
My my.
How does this machine even know your name? If this isn't creepy, you don't know what is. What if this entire dream turns into a nightmare?
Hello. Earth to Steve. Come in, Steve.
You approach the computer. It's a little clunky and the keyboard makes a loud TAKTAKTAK sound when you type, but that's the least of your worries when you realise that you're communicating with a goddamn computer.
"Hello?"
There we go. That took a while, didn't it?
"Um…"
I know, it's probably weird that you're talking to a computer. Trust me, that's not the case.
"Oh, so you're like, a person typing this in?"
Yeah.
"Oh cool. Wait, how do you know my name?"
I have my ways ;)
"Fuck. Are you a stalker? Why the fuck are you stalking me in my own dream? Who are you?"
I can't tell you right now. But what I can tell you is pretty interesting and important, so listen up.
"Why? What are you going to tell me, that I have 10 minutes to live if I don't tell you my address?"
Jesus Steve, calm down. I'm not a stalker, now listen up ok?
"...Fine. But if this conversation gets weird, then I'm outta here."
Fair enough.
"Ok, so what is it?"
You'll be interested to know that I've got the reports of the title test that was conducted on you and your friends.
"What? What title test? Why am I not aware of this?"
Don't ask me. All I have are the results. Anyways, here's the thing. All of your friends have very clear cut results, based on their personalities. There's the occasional tie, but never more than two possible titles. The computer seems to have sorted out which one to give them, at any rate.
"Ok. Then what about me?"
You...well… It seems that the computer is unsure about you. Your test has produced 4 possible results, and currently it's undecided as to which one it's going to give.
"Err… ok… then what?"
Heh. I guess that's my job now.
"Oh great… I don't know how to feel about this. I mean, my fate's being decided by a total stranger here."
Relax Steve. Look, I'm even going to let you in on your choices. There's Hope, Void and Time. Heart was your other choice, but it's taken.
"They all sound pretty cool I guess."
Alright… hmm… which one to give? Ah well, in hindsight there really is only one choice anyway. I can't believe the computer couldn't narrow it down. Oh well, it's only a computer.
"…?"
Stand back Steve, I'm about to press a button.
A loud rumbling reverberates through the chamber. Three symbols light up; the pair of wings, the wheel of apostrophes and the gear. The rumbling intensifies and the ground shakes beneath your feet as the symbols of Hope and Void suddenly go dark, leaving the cog shape lit. Once the other symbols go dark, the rumbling stops just as suddenly as they began.
How was that?
"I don't know what the hell just happened. A lot of rumbling, then the pair of wings and the weird not-pinwheel lit up and turned off again. The gear one is pretty bright now."
Awesome.
"What did you do?"
Well, I gave you time.
"Oh. Am I supposed to be getting out of here or something?"
Heheheh. Yeah go and do that, you might just be waking up soon.
"Um, ok. Thanks, whoever you are."
No problem. Just doing my job ;)
The computer goes dark after that. You decide to head back out in the most hasty manner you can muster, for who knows what horrible terrors your mysterious benefactor has stalled to aid your escape. The alcove comes quickly back into sight, and you leap off into the air. Sure enough, there's a nagging feeling that you're about to wake up. Faster than a speeding car, you whiz right up and make for your bedroom, but your field of vision is already beginning to close in. The yellow globe which houses your bedroom looms in closer than expected, and you step on the mental brakes to try and slow down the approach.
However, it seems that you are a little late in doing so. You curse yourself for not thinking this whole madcap flying thing through, and desperately will the approach angle into what you hope is the critical amount to the normal, so that you can be refracted back into your fluffy bed without injury.
Unfortunately, your mind is so scattered that you forget basic Physics terminology, which is that a flying person and a ray of light are two very different things, dipshit. There isn't even a change in medium to being with. You careen through the open window, skid off the bed and crash right into your wardrobe.
You're out like a light.
