Nicholas Dreams

Holy Spring Wars

I was in some sort of elite platoon of soldiers whose task it was to free a precious spring of clean water from the clutches of a nebulous villainous entity.  It all took place in a massive post-apocalyptic, mountainous landscape.  I couldn’t figure out if we were on earth or if in fact it was taking place in some strange of-world scenario.

We periodically would make forays into “enemy territory” to attempt to wrest control of this particular fresh water source.  I keenly remember the rest of my team members.  They were not in any respect garbed as soldiers, in fact most of them consisted of my fellow students from ITP dressed as the would be any given day in New York City.  Even though I use the word “platoon”, there was in no way any sort of militaristic quality about any of our endeavors.  Most of our fighting was done using verbal coercion and subtle body movements.  We would engage in tactical arrangements of personnel when we were engaged in a military operation but our strategies were largely non-violent.

The moment I remember first is that we were responsible for attempting to wrest control from a group of policemen who were in command of a secret spring of clean water.  They weren’t policemen in the resect that they were in uniform, they looked like generic, fat, mustachioed detectives from the seventies, replete with plaid blazers, aviators, big bellies and khaki slacks.  They were unarmed, intractable and cantankerous. We were temporarily on assignment in a wretched, post-apocalyptic part of the planet where they were ransoming natural resources as a ploy to make money.  There was very little clean water, vegetation, or organic life of any kind.  We had planned our approach from the mouth of a cave.  I lucidly remember making aggressive, persuasive, conversation with one of the police from behind an overtuned cruiser in a crater next to the hotspring.  I was lying in the dirt and I could see his leather shoes from underneath the car.  I was trying to convince of the futility of holding the spring hostage any longer as our “organization” was the only one with any financial clout and that we were determined not to cough up any money.  I can’t quite recollect how we won but somehow they gave up and we were victorious in the end.

We reconvened back at headquarters after the skirmish.  We were in some sort of technologically intensive compound.  It was mutli-tiered, fabricated mostly out of red and purple steel grating and had a dense layer of flashing screens, touch-screen monitors and there was a whole group of officious, technological lab assistants scurrying about.  We were clearly in a post-mission decompression state.

That unfortunately is the limit of what I can remember.

Ceilingless Cathedral

This dream was of such a cliched Anglo-Saxon nature it was almost comical.
I was inside a massive forest, attired quite simply as a traveling knight. I distinctly remember wearing a layered outfit. Chainmail, a tunic with a  leather belt, a cloak and an array of weapons on top of everything My head was uncovered and I was holding a sword, hilt up, blade down.
I emerged from a wall of trees and in front of me stretched a massive structure. It was very long and narrow and made of stone. It resembled an unnaturally long ceilingless Bavarian inn with multiple, tall, slender, A-frame, vertical extrusions along the edges. These triangular faces were primarily constructed of stained glass and they were radiating multi-colored beams into the interior of the space. The floorspace was incredibly long and composed of enormous, wooden floorboards. It gave me the impression of being one enormous nave. I could faintly recognize rows of figures lined up along the floor.
There was a small stone stairwell protruding off of one corner immediately in front of me. I felt amnesiac, like the space was familiar to me but I had forgotten it existed or even that it was located here in the first place. I knew that I was expected to enter the space but couldn’t remember why.
As I stepped up onto the upper level I was greeted by an incredibly long nave-like floorspace. There were no furnishings, just a continuous line of people arranged in two lines facing inward. I was beckoned forward and I began slowly making my way down the central aisle.
I was immediately welcomed with warmth and congratulation. To such an extent that the assembled group felt as if they ought to be family. It was predominantly bearded men garbed as if they were knights or other Arthurian era dignitaries.  I proceeded down the aisle created by two long lines of people.  Gradually as I walked farther in between them it became more and more obvious that I was being intensely welcomed home.  They began patting me on the back and laughing at my bewilderment.  I began laughing when I realized it was real and there was nothing malevolent or false about their behavior.  I needing to stop to catch my breath as I was overwhelmed by the wave of approval and positive energy coming from them.