Individual scenes of torment

[davidn]

Not satisfied with the giant scenarios that it's played out during the night previously, during a planned nine hours of sleep that I thought would recover me from my tired and nervous state gained over the weekend my brain fed me a very diverse collection of short dreams, involving:

• Mechanical parasites that slice you up from the inside


• Trying to swim across a river fully clothed, trying to go over facts and lines in my head on my way to speaking on TV about my university's computer science department


• Putting on a nativity at St Andrews church, with Brian Blessed as the narrator


• Attempting to defuse a bomb with a syringe


• Being unable to sleep because of being shut in a box in my parents' utility room, with the cat


• Sunday from 7 Days a Skeptic, again

I'm starting to think I need to see someone. Possibly an exorcist.

Because of being kept awake by all this I went back to sleep in the morning, only for a great big tree-cutting machine to stop outside the bedroom window and wake me up yet again.

Comments

[diarytypething.livejournal.com]

I'd go to see a nativity play narrated by Brian Blessed. I wouldn't sit at the front though - and not just because you *never* sit at the front in most Scottish churches.

Actually, there was a production of Peter and the Wolf narrated by Brian Blessed which was touring the country last year (or was it the year before?). I briefly considered going for the novelty value, but none of the publicity said whether he would be appearing in person or if it was just a recording, and it cost more than I was prepared to pay for an afternoon at the theatre with the under-10s and a recording of Brian Blessed.

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

The slicing-mechanical-parasites and bomb-defusing-with-a-syringe scenarios sound like they could be out of Trauma Center: Second Opinion on the Wii. (Yes, at one stage you perform an 'operation' on a bomb; I believe this is the stage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GFp53tnGIY - here, and this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKOi_0qtTGg&feature=related - is the slicing parasite one.)

I can't do much but offer my condolences on the Sunday dream, though... damn, that's bad luck, man.

Also, seconding the "I'd go and see that" movement for the Brian Blessed nativity play. :P

D.F.

[davidn]

Well...! It's not often that someone presents to me what appears to be a large amount of my nightmares rolled into one. I had heard of this before and knew the general idea of it, but... anyway, thanks a lot - I will have to make sure never to play that. (Although that bomb looks pretty abstract and less threatening than I would have thought, the one I remember in the dream actually needed syringing to take liquid out of two tanks, like in the third Die Hard film).

Sunday has left irreparable scars on my mind. I've honestly never encountered anything in any studio-produced horror game that remotely compares to it. In this particular dream, I had to... keep Malcolm up a stepladder doing something to the ceiling, with the threat of John coming round the corner suddenly and kicking it out from under him. Yes, it sounds comical now, but it made sense in the dream, all right? :)

And Brian Blessed seems to feature in a suspicious amount of my dreams...

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that it seems to have worked its way into your mind as an example of the most frightening thing you can imagine; I had a dream, a good few years ago now, that seemed tailor-made to my personal fears, and it... seemed too well tailored if that makes sense. It made me wonder if, rather than it simply being a series of events and images that evoked fear, it was the emotion that came first, and it simply picked thoughts out of my mind that best expressed itself. I don't know if this is applicable to your situation, but I came to the conclusion my psyche was trying to make me deal with something I wasn't happy with, but had been trying to avoid. It's probably not that helpful an anecdote, but it might explain why John keeps stalking your dreams.

It doesn't, however, explain Brian Blessed. *shrugs*

D.F.

[davidn]

I'm not sure! Games that had scenarios where you're continually hunted by an enemy that you can't effectively fight have always got to me in one way or another (see a summary here) - they're quite nightmarish in themselves, like the common dream scenario of knowing you're being chased but being unable to run away or do anything about it. I think that one in particular just stuck in my mind somehow and has become the standard variation of those dreams for me.

I wouldn't want to really begin to analyze the constant rather horrific dreams I have, but my brain is good at coming up things that I can't begin to imagine in real life.

[starfishchris.livejournal.com]

It means you aren't leading an exciting enough life. Go taunt some axe murderers and survive unscathed - with any luck, your dreams will be significantly more mundane from then on.

As far as Brian Blessed is concerned, it's a sign you should give him a cameo role in CT2. Alas, I fear that doing this will start a series of events where you become progressively more obsessed with him, culminating in you kidnapping him and locking him in a box in your parents' utility room, with the cat.

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

"As far as Brian Blessed is concerned, it's a sign you should give him a cameo role in CT2."

This. If there was ever a personality that deserved to be a boss in I Wanna Be The Guy, Brian Blessed is it. He is a former The Guy wrongly denied his place in legend... but you can restore him to his rightful place... :P

D.F.