Nature Giants

Characters:
"The Crew": Me, Mysterious Mischief Man(Henceforth called Erik), Groot-type character (a nature giant-forests/trees), Older wise man (Henceforth Called Obiwan), and a side kick (henceforth called Strax.)

"Supporting Roles:" Erik's lost love, henceforth called Lisa. Some old woman left behind after Lisa disappears again. The Band of Men, eventually encompassing Obiwan.

The Band of Men: Comprised of five men (six after Obiwan goes back to them)

There is a race of what I would call "Nature Giants." They have one foot in the corporeal world and one foot in a more ethereal place where they can access power and knowledge related to nature. Most are wild and act as nature guardians, they are fierce, territorial, protective, and powerful. They live amongst themselves and within nature in harmony but are unfriendly to humans. Each ecosystem has its own unique guardians, the tundra, the mountains, the forests, the waters, plains, etc. There are some who have formed cults and immerse themselves in "sorcery," the raw untapped power of nature. This is considered part and parcel of some Giants' way of life. These also do not like humans, but think of them more or less as insects, pesty sometimes but overall ignorable and pointless. The last class are those that live among humans for whatever reason. They are friendly (hence Groot).

In this world, towns are isolated by nearly impassable wilderness guarded by the giants. We travel safely by air but our vehicles don't go very far. My town looks much like the city from Howl's Moving Castle, vaguely 18th-century with cobblestone streets and german/victorian/rural american architecture. I am a "modern woman." I have a job and my own apartment in a farmhouse stone building but I am lonely, with no family to speak of nor any interest in the boring men in my town. One day, I find a man in my apartment, just poking around. I'm like wtf who are you but he is charming and handsome with sparkling eyes, a mischievous grin, and this enigmatic presence that completely intoxicates me(this is Erik). I ask him where he came from and he offers to show me. I take his hand (I think, it's something I would do) and step through a "slip"(portal of sorts) and onto his "ship"which exists interdimensionally, I guess? As far as I can tell it is round, at least the room I'm in, with a huge wall-sized screen or window. It looks a little like Titans Tower (Teen Titans). Anyway, I'm completely blown away: filled with awe, wonder, and also a little excited. He introduces me to Obiwan, who is doing techy stuff with the screen. I think Groot and Strax are at a pit stop somewhere and Erik/Obiwan are on their way to pick them up. They offer to take me for a spin and I think, why not?

There was no interval in the dream, but the spin turned into a lifestyle. I develop an infatuation with Erik, our relationship is not dissimilar from that of my friendship with Jack or Brinkman. We are close and have a strong affection for each other but I don't know if he shares my feelings. Sometimes I doubt it, although occasionally, when we're alone, we curl up together. The rest of the crew think it's just because Erik has a soft spot for women and I am the only woman on board. They are a little disdainful but they believe it will pass and he'll drop me off eventually. My omnipotent self outside the character I inhabit in the dream knows that it's more than that, that he cares for me and won't just let me go, but he has a lost love that he can't let go of so he only has so much room for me in his heart, no more than close friends. Very Brinkmanish.

While we're on our "adventures" or whatever they are, we become aware of something stirring, a phenomenon or series of events that doesn't smell quite right. They seem to revolve around the nature giants; someone has a vision of an Arctic Nature Giant weilding a staff and freezing things. Involved in that vision is a Band of Men working behind the scenes, investigating, etc. They have some sort of special knowledge about these events. I think we go somewhere to investigate and lo and behold, Erik's lost love is there. She's involved somehow and that leads to a dangerous situation for her, death/capture/bait for a trap, etc. She is lost again (we're not sure if she's alive or not). We continue to look for her and the situation escalates when Groot gets trapped within a tree. I actually think the power of the nature giants sucks him in through a nearby tree and that's how we discover that it has something to do with the Giants.

Somewhere along the way, we discover a Nature Giant sorcerer has gone rogue and wants to dominate the world or whatever. He wields ice/winter powers (Arctic Giant) and is very destructive. We are put in danger, probably on the run from whoever captured Lisa, and have to abandon our ship. We take shelter in this bunker thing, Old stone built on top of an even older complex. It has no power, we set up shop with lanterns and a hot plate/bunsen burner. We all sleep in the same room. Obiwan leaves shortly thereafter to join the Band of Men. He was once one of them and feels an obligation to go. The bunker/complex has ruins underneath with passages that lead to the wildlands. The night Obiwan leaves, Erik makes me dinner and I am squish, even though I know he's too bereaved to be anything to me. This is our last scene in the dream.

Cut to the Band of Men, they are young and healthy, I'm pretty sure they were nature giants in disguise, perhaps the guardians specific to human life. They have journeyed from mountains which are densely populated with nature giants, these lands are completely unpassable for humans. They are approaching the mud-plains where Strax just happens to be hiding. In the dream, they do not see each other, Strax does not recognize Obiwan and keeps on his way. The Band has come to ask the aqua guardians (fishlike beings) for passage through their swamp. There is an argument and the aquagiants tell the human guardians that they must leave behind their "weapons of destruction," their staffs, as put forth by an ancient peace proclamation. The band acquiesces and open up a rift in the ground, the inside looks like swirling eroded sediment, light gray, cerulean blue, quartz-pink, iridescent white. The band places them in and they are buried/sucked away to a safe place. The Band enters the swamp.

Infinity Stones

It was an ancient society, reminiscent of Judea. Children were sometimes born with a stone inside them correlating with a different universal process. Our society revolves around these people, they are our spiritual elders, they have control over their element and work in harmony to channel all the right energy in a balanced way. 

Once or twice a generation, we travel to the ancient city on the ocean (reminiscent of Jerusalem) to  "elect" elders to the counsel. The city has high stone walls made of huge blocks. the layout is a little bit labyrinthine and reminds me of the cities of the indus valley.

My little sister was born with a purple stone inside her and so we must go, all families with stone children must. She is very young, less than ten, and the city is across the sea. Our family will take the trip alone. We swim there and as we pass a structure (looks like one of those really big power line things, pylons) my sister stops, We keep swimming but I turn back after a bit to check on her. When I reach her she is awake but unresponsive, transfixed by something. I see a little bit of polished green stone/enamel in the sand and dig it up. It is a green pendant/plate/shield with silver workmanship depicting a woman with long hair, my thought is Medusa. I bury it again and help my sister catch up.

Once we reach the pier on the outskirts of the city, we are greeted by disciples with warmth and kisses. The pier looks crappy, like it was slapped together by people who don't know what they're doing. Te boards are old and warped, some of them dark with rot. We know the people somehow, perhaps they are cousins or friends of friends, and there is one person, a Jesus figure, who is famous. We are awaiting his arrival. 

The man arrives soon and It is not long before we go to the city center to "elect" the elders. It's not an election exactly, the counsel chooses a person and a secular force must approve. Nobody says no. The elders are chosen and we go to the feast hall to celebrate. Chaos and violence erupts over something and several of the newly elected elders are killed. My sister is now the only one who can serve in the purple spot but I am concerned about the pendant thing. I communicate this to the high counsel woman and she blows me off, too much going on. I learn that my sister's stone, the purple one, is associated with chaos, violence, and destruction. I cannot imagine my baby sister channeling such energy.

We shelter from the chaos in a tiny room somewhere but there is a monster in there (reminiscent of Dr. Who's Weeping Angels). I tell them to keep their eyes shut, to not look at the creature, and I manage to get out and run away. I run to the abandoned part of the docks, they are falling apart. In the water there are redstone platforms like giant stepping stones that I have to jump onto to keep running.  I fall in the water. I don't know who else survived, I fear I am the only one. 

Weird worlds

It started with a firefight. I don't remember the whole dream but Gerald, myself and a companion were running form something/trying to sneak through something and got caught. Gerald stuffed us into a teleport and promised he would follow. The teleport took us to a sandstone maze. It was indoors but bright, almost sunlit. We had been here before but had never made it out. There was something desireable at the end. I don't recall the walking through part but we found ourselves at a "fork in the road." the path we normally took, the path we knew was the way out, had a monster at the end and the only way to get past him was to trick him. But Gerald had told us of another way out, one that involved solving a puzzle rather than trying to sneak past a monster. We took that path and would up in a cube pit, 12" x 12" x 12". The way in sealed behind us (I think we actually climbed into the pit), there was no turning back. The walls were blank but Gerald had promised us that he knew the solution to the puzzle. We waited and heard the sound of fighting. The dream cut to Gerald and he was fighting the monster. He was younger in the maze, a warrior rather than a scholar. he beat the monster and came to us. He solved the puzzle but only I made it through to the other side.
The maze dream dissolved into a fantasy-ish dream. It was dark and there was something big burning in the distance. A dinosaur attacked. Someone shrunk it and threw it into the lake, a warrior woman. She became trapped in an invisible something and dissappeared (lumped in with a bunch of dormant man warriors in a tomb?) We found where she had gone on the ground, it was like a seal in the dirt. when we freed her it felt like it had been a while.
The next thing I remember is being put in an ancient passage as a child/tween. I feel like this was part of the warrior lady dream. I was told if I cleaned the whole stone passage, I would be able to meet the king. I wiped away some dirt from the floor and it revealed a cave painting. As I looked closer it seemed as though there were many cave paintings. I got up and walked deeper into the passage and found a room full of them, floor to celing. When I emerged from the tomb/passage I was a young woman. The person who had put me in there was waiting outside, and took me to the king.
I was nervous and giddy, I had waited all my life to meet the handsome king. When we met he was much older but still handsome. He was charming as well, and asked me if I would like to stay the night with him. I agreed. It seemed beautiful to me but when I woke up the next morning, he had turned into an ugly, fat, rude, and lazy man with a bowl hair cut and pustules on his neck. I served him food and tended to his bath like a good girl but deeply regretted our night together. Some other things happened (including a sort of reflection of a family laughing and talking around a table that pulled a string somewhere inside me) and I went back in time to warn my younger self of things. She knew who I was, there was no weird "OMG you're me!" moment. I had a conversation with her, checking in to make sure she was ok. She was wiser than I had imagined. I asked her if she wanted to be warned of something (the king thing) and she said no. Then she was put in the passage and I saw the reflection again. It hurt even more this time, but I had the feeling I would never get there.

edit: snow canyon dream

The shit that I see...

This was a dream within a dream. What matters here are the visuals.

There was a tiger poster in my bedroom. It was spiritual, It had an image of a humanoid tiger in strange armor who stood on two feet. It may have been on four feet at some points too with the view being from the top. When humanoid, it was holding a scythe. It was on an indigo blue field, a night sky. The field itself held a swirl of spiritual symbols in place of stars. They spiraled from a point off-left. The tiger was on the right.

A sage in the dream told me that we could find spirituality anywhere. It was unclear whether the sage was in the room or a phantasm. Maybe he was the tiger. He said that his grandson searched for years and years but never found anything, but one day in the Nevada desert he stood by a certain rock for a very long time and was overtaken by this vision:

Stones flying through a red (maroon) void, a neon yellow sun (gem, rock, glows like a firefly) in the distance is the source. The stones spiral back toward the sun like a winding tornado. Is the stone the source? Music is playing. I am within the stones and they turn toward me. They are stone birds, and they are flying in a circle. I'm part of the flock. The sage man is speaking (more like shouting) and I'm struck by the fact that he sounds like Christoper Lee. I don't remember what he says. The vision has an overall feel of tension/action. The birds are angry and keep giving me dirty looks.

boiling planets dream (next)
seagull, died in a cave dream (next next)

Anime dream. Seriously.

A little girl and little boy develop a friendship. Both are lonely. Little girl lives with dad who is loving but never around. Little boy lives with a demanding mom who shows little love. the little girl begins to see things at night, visions, spirits, happenings (spells, explosions). nobody else seems to see, so she tries to ignore them. A fox spirit notices that she sees things and begins to watch her. one night, as she's walking past the little boy's house, she sees boxes outside. He's moving. He comes outside and she stops him, telling him he can't leave. He seems tragically sad. His mother comes out of the house and tells him that he must leave, it's time to go. He tells his mom that he wants to stay. She pulls out a string with flat colored discs strung perpendicular to the string from top to bottom. She twirls it and the colors and patterns create a hypnotic illusion; the boy is transfixed. As he stares, his eyes begin to glow and then the discs glow. He catches fire but is not consumed, the flames are cool and calm. The little girl cries out and wraps him into a hug. He does not respond. She takes his head in her hands and forces him to look her in the eye. The spell is momentarily broken. She tells him he can't leave because she loves him. He is confused for a moment but finally responds. He says he cares about her too but that he "can't..." and looks back at his mother. She is using the twirly thing to call a magical vehicle. It is silver and blue, it looks like a limo from Futurama. His mother tells the little girl that she can never match her powers and tells the little boy that he had better come or she will leave him behind. The boy doesn't want to go but does anyway. The little girl promises herself that she will find him again. The fox is watching. He offers to teach her the kind of magic the woman uses ("string magic") and she says yes. She discovers that using string magic allows her to effect the things she sees, visions and such. They were passive up until now.

She has a vision of the "Second Apocalypse," she sees the "strength" titan fall, deteriorating into clay, and of herself being consumed by another titan. (Called "mustard titan" in the dream. It is deadly and smells bad, look into mustard gas)

The fox is speaking with his cohorts. They question his decision to teach her, saying that she isn't strong enough and "can't do it." The fox believes in her and tells his cohorts that they have no other choice.

He teaches her an avoidance trick. The idea is to tie a string around the waist, and if tied in a certain way, it will float up and stay there, as if it is part of a larger suspension cable. He tells her to tug it (or he will tug it) and she will be pulled out of harm's way. (it will look like she disappears for a moment).

She gets an opportunity to use the avoidance spell when a boar spirit wants to attack a police officer in a park. She ties the spell and tries to save him, but fails. The police officer is killed.

The police that were with him report him being attacked by a dog and that the little girl tried to save him. The ambulance comes and protocol is followed. The girl walks home with her dad. She keeps it together for a little while but eventually breaks down and cries. She says "I killed someone for real this time."

This is the first event in which a human has been killed by a spirit. The Third Apocalypse has begun.

Something about haunted caves.

there were pools in the caves. The water is hot and silky, with the appearance of steaming milky bowls. There used to be a resort here, but it closed down. We stumbled upon this place by accident. When I bathed in the pools, I felt relaxed and sensual. There were others as well, bathing closer to the spout where the water is richer. Something happened and became wary while the others became scared, irritable, paranoid. We followed them out of the pool but they went deeper and deeper into the mines. The mines themselves seemed to be carved, the walls square from each other. They were of dark gray granite, like the rocks that protrude from loam of the Appalachian mountains. There were many twists, turns, and seemingly endless tunnels. One such tunnel terminated in a wildly canted staircase that dove to unknowable depths. It was down this staircase that we lost some. There was an argument, we tried to convince them to stay, that something in the pools had made them delirious. We knew that if they went so far in they wouldn't come back. We tried to tell them, but they didn't care. They were looking for something, and were convinced the way that they were talking would lead them to it. We gave up and turned back, knowing the others were lost and that following them would lead us to our certain doom. I had a crushing sense of deja vu.

We ourselves became lost in the caves. Whatever happened in the pools had disoriented us. A young man appeared. He was happy, confident, snarky but overall friendly. He is small, but very handsome. He rich brown hair that hangs to the shoulder, and piercing green eyes. He looks like a younger and slimmer Andrew WK. He told us of a strange power in these caves, concentrated in the pools. It is unfriendly to humans, and seeks to disorient them so that they may become lost in its labyrinthine clutches. It is implied that our newfound friend is not human. He leads us to a stone staircase that will lead us up and out to the old resort complex and bids us farewell.

The resort complex itself is old. The design is Victorian, with a slightly haunted-house feel to it. The architecture reminds me of a castle. We are preparing to leave, but I look down the hill and see that there is an entire town full of people at the base of the resort ridge. My friends want to go home but I decide that I will go and explore. When I reach the bottom I encounter a strange building. It is less than a story high and long like a wall or barrier rather than a building. There are small trees planted along the side, with paths winding back to unseeable "entrances." I find a grate that is glowing green. Being the only visible opening in this strange building, I bend down to inspect. I open the grate and the green light is blinding. I am unable to pass through and creepy old lady fingers are poking out of the edges. My friend reappears and tells me that this is the Witches' door. He leads me to the proper door and we enter what appears to be a pawn shop. The inside is the same as parts of the caves: gray stone carved into huge blocks. He knows the store owner and they have a conversation while I explore the wares. They're all old and brassy, and look like they're from the early 1900's.

My friend leads me to a few other places in the town. The streets are cobblestone and all of the buildings are the same as the first: long, low, winding and with few visible entrances. There are people about, wandering the streets in and out of sight. It starts to get late and my friend starts leading me back toward the resort. I want to stay, but know intuitively that it's time to go. As he leads me to the front entrance of the resort where I came in, I ask him to come with me. He says that he can't that he must stay here. I get the impression that leaving is impossible for him. I'm sad to go, sad to leave him, but I know that I must.

Lifelight/The Tapestry

Lifelight was supposed to be a tool for good. we would go in and save lives and societies, maintain peace in the multiverse. Our director was Ramona. One event, we went into a river/forest society to fight big bat creatures. I was flying over a great lake and landed in a pine tree, chasing off the draghkar, when I looked behind me to see a great war machine, eating up the forest and its people. The shock woke me from lifelight and I woke to find Ramona at the controls, running the machine that was destroying the forest. In my anger, I grabbed a weapon and shot her. Guards heard the shots and chased me through the complex. Fast-forward, I'm attending a ceremony with some of my colleagues. It's twilight at a lake village. One of them is my lover. He's flirting with a former ex in the water and other women are trying to join. I raise my arm to get his attention and give him a stern look. the woman next to me slaps my arm away. We fight. A mediator from my group of colleagues drags me away and I have a minor breakdown. I'm knocked from that world and brought to the lifelight direct input center (a stepping stone between my world and the others) where my colleague sits me down and asks what's wrong. I tell him that I'm miserable and angry at Jack, and that I miss my husband with every fiber of my being. My colleague offers himself to me, I tell him that's impossible (our minds are at the input center, but I have no idea where his body is) He hugs me and brings my lover back in. My lover hugs me and we exit lifelight together. I wake up in a shock like waking from a dream and it's freezing outside. Jack wakes with me and asks why it's so cold. I say "it's because we've been spending too much damn time in lifelight." I remember that there was an apocalypse and that everyone we know is dead besides jack and the few lifelight jumpers we run into when we stream. most people are lawless bandits, at least as far as we know.
We live in a shed that we've rigged with lifelight wiring. I grab an axe to go outside and find firewood. We live in a place where trees are sparse and I have to walk far from my shed before I get to a tree. and I'm chopping, I see a person driving through the plains and I run away. I get close to the shack to warn Jack, but they have caught up with me. I find that they are peaceable, then I wake up.