[Dream Report] Aerocycle Journey to Paradise Lake

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I go to such strange places when I sleep, and some of them are so uniquely beautiful that I feel something similar to separation anxiety when I awaken. I want to still be in that world, and while I inhabited it, I wasn't aware it was a dream except on the few occasions when I'm able to lucid dream.

That makes waking up all the more jarring, because I go from what seems like reality, (and a wonderful, strange, gorgeous reality) to the realization none of it was real in the span of 10-15 seconds. I visited such a world the other night. The dream started out in some sort of workshop.

I was building a motorcycle with which I meant to travel to the lake. The motorcycle was propelled the same way as an airplane, with a giant propeller up front encased in a grated duct for safety like a house fan. I don't know why I decided to build it that way, but it was a mistake.

It seemed to work fine until I braked. The whole thing, being exceptionally front-heavy on account of the giant enclosed propeller, flipped forward sending me over the handlebars. I wound up having to add two more wheels to the front, which displeased me as I wanted it to be a two wheeler.

It worked well enough to get me where I needed to go. The lake was pristine and sparkling, all manner of watercraft darting across its surface. When I arrived to the marina and entered to rent a boat, which was apparently a service they offered, I saw a row of what looked like wind-up coil mechanisms from clocks lining the shelves.

Just the coil itself, housed in a sturdy cube shaped frame to keep it wound. Someone came in and deposited a coil unit that was depleted, the coil being unwound and loose. The marina owner took it and socketed it into a huge noisy winding machine which painstakingly re-wound the coil.

I intuited that they used these things to store energy instead of gas or batteries. The coil looked to be carbon fiber ribbon of unbelievable thinness, so it seemed at least possible it could be wound tightly enough to store a useful amount of kinetic energy. I paid, and the marina owner handed me the coil unit.

It was painfully heavy. I waddled out the door with it. A sign said to pick whichever watercraft I wanted and attach the coil unit. I settled for something resembling a jet-ski but with catamaran style pontoons. I felt nervous installing the coil because I knew if it escaped confinement, it would shred me to pieces.

It went in alright. There was no engine noise as I accelerated out of the marina docks. Just the subtle groan of the frame which constrains the coil as it slowly unwound, turning a high ratio gearing system which drove the pumpjet. I came upon various small islands, but as I approached, there was something unusual about them.

Only the rim resembled an island. After the sandy beach-like shore, there was a metal rim, and you could descend 15-20 feet down. The circular metal enclosure had huge glass windows that looked out into the lake, from underneath the water line. I moored my jet ski to a tree and descended the stairs.

Down within the island, there was some sort of casual club. Various mixed drinks were being served. There was a DJ, but the music was subdued. Outside the windows, fish swam past and aquatic plants undulated gently in the current. Yet the room was open to the sky. When I looked up I felt sunshine on my face and saw a blue sky peppered with fluffy white clouds.

Every other island was like this. Some had an establishment above water level, but you could still descend stairs or a ladder to the underwater portion where the real action was happening. You could watch people swim while you sat on the beach, then go "downstairs" and see them swimming from underwater.

A fully amphibious lifestyle with no compromises. I don't care for parties, so I tried to leave only to discover my coil was nearly depleted. I lugged the heavy piece of shit down the stairs and the bar tender pointed me to a wall mounted coil winding station. After rewinding my coil, I put it back in the jetski and departed.

I called the marina while on the water and complained at how quickly the coil runs out, asking if I could carry a spare. They said the coil is what I actually rented, and they were keeping my fan-motorcycle thing as collateral. "The watercraft are cheap. The coil is the really expensive part. We're not just gonna hand you another one unless you pay for two."

So, disgruntled, I kept a much closer eye on the coil tension meter on the vehicle dashboard as I slowly scooted about the lake's shoreline. I saw a lot of wrecked watercraft and wondered how that happened. I didn't see any warning buoys, shouldn't be any rocks here.

I arrived at my own cabin, but as I drew near, I saw an animal thrashing in the water. I dove off the jet ski and swam over, pulling it out. It was my own cat! I've never known her to swim voluntarily and wondered what possessed her to do such a thing. But there in the water was a slowly sinking robotic toy cat with glowing eyes.

She must have thought it was another cat and came out here to rescue it. I brought the toy to shore with me as well. After drying off and having something to eat, I took apart the drenched toy cat and found it had its own coil unit inside. I used a winding station inside the cabin to power it back up.

When I set it down, it approached my cat and antagonized her until she became aggressive, then fled towards the water. As I watched it coaxed her closer to the shore, then latched onto her with its mouth and began pulling her in. I pried the jaws apart and my cat ran back to the cabin.

Who built this? Why make a toy robot the only purpose of which is to drown cats? How could anybody who lives in such an idyllic paradise still have such cruelty in their heart? I think maybe it meant sometimes people aren't cruel because of past experience. Sometimes they have had a charmed, comfortable life and they're just legitimately insane sadists.

You can't bring those people back from the edge with kindness, because that's fundamentally misunderstanding why they are how they are. They aren't a hurt, scared little kid who lashes out from feelings of exclusion, alienation, humiliation, etc. they are just someone who enjoys inflicting suffering because of messed up brain chemistry.

But at the same time, assuming someone is that way makes a convenient rationale for not trying to help them. It's important to extend an olive branch to them not once or twice, but several times, because a hurt/scared person may swat it out of your hand initially, not trusting that you mean to help.

So the first reaction to someone lashing out at me should not be to retaliate. That is what someone who has had a rough life already expects from other people. They think everybody's out to get them, so they strike pre-emptively. The first reaction should be to find out why they did it.

But if they persist in their cruelty, eventually you have to give up on them and defend yourself. That should just be the last resort, not the first. The dream ending with me roaming the lake with the remains of the toy cat, trying to find out who built it and why. (I woke up before there was any closure.)