@phoenixapprentice
Chapter 43 is up!
Not really feeling like updating today. Felt rather depressed this week. Seasonal depression is here and it's kicking my butt. I've got a sun lamp but some years I just get hit harder than others. Not much to note at work anyway. I'm sort of out of training now but I still don't feel very good at my job. Oh well. It's not like it's a normal job I guess, there's bound to be a learning curve.
Chapter 42 is posted! It's one of my favorites, not going to lie.
I'm back to archiving rather useless dreams at work. I walked into someone's dream about owning a large and labyrinthine apartment that also once doubled as some sort of spa service? And it was a unit above a really fancy pizza restaurant. And the apartment's previous tenants had pet mice which they kept in plastic pantry organizers, and one of the mice was particularly adept at escaping. After my dream in Dromisse, with the red sky and red X shapes in it, Cynthia advised me not to try dreaming about it again. She said I could continue posting my story as it showed the apparent history of Dromisse, but that we couldn't access the dreamscape currently.
I find it a little odd and disappointing that the story I've worked so long on actually was someone else's idea. But Cynthia reassured me saying that every idea has already been thought of, and what we really do when we're making stories is taking pieces of those ideas to make something that appears new. She said that just because a work is inspired by something doesn't make it any less important, because what matters in the creative world is less the originality of one's content and more giving it one's unique voice. I suppose I've believed that for a long time, it's just odd to see it so clearly happening.
Oculus gave me a bit more information about the red dream I had. Well, not much. He says a lot of things to me that don't often make sense. This time he said that the red stuff "hurts him" and that he doesn't "want to be homogenized," that "human ideas aren't supposed to be homogenized. They're supposed to be diverse." He was in the red dream with me, as he accompanies me into all the dreamscapes I go to. Usually he's just a silent observer, or he guides me to whatever he wants me to archive. I've actually met some of my other coworkers' cats, too. But I'll talk about them later as I've nearly hit character limit.
Chapter 41 will go up. It touches back on some things that happened at the end of Part 4, so if you need a refresher, I recommend going back to Chapters 29-32 and rereading or skimming.
I started trying to make Dromisse my dream archive project at work this week. But, weirdly enough, I wasn't able to directly enter it while I was dreaming. When I tried, all I dreamed about was the color red, red Xs filling a red sky. Apparently this has been a problem for others of my coworkers as well. Some dreamscapes appear to be locked behind this strange ... force. We don't know what it is. No one I've talked to can give me an answer. Cynthia just gave me some paperwork to fill out about the incident and told me to keep writing Dark Within. Apparently that works just as well as a dream archive project where I actually insert myself into the dream, as it turns out, I didn't make Dromisse up myself. Cynthia told me it feels too old to have been invented by me. She explained it in that how sometimes people have ideas they don't act on, and those ideas then end up with someone else who will act on them. I've had that happen before; I made Disney's "Inside Out" way before they did, but it was just a random story from when I was a kid that got buried on my hard drive. She thinks I've actually been pulling the basics of Dark Within from the dreamscape as it was in the past but not the present. That it was someone else's idea originally, and that's why I'm able to write about it but not actually dream about it now. I don't know. I barely understand anything she says.
She actually started to imply that Silvia Rie might have been a real person, but I had to leave shortly before we got too deep into that. I heard her mumbling to herself about searching census records before I left, so either that's her project for this week or mine. I hope not mine, because when I get to work I need to sleep. I'm tired by the time I arrive. Anyway, hopefully that all makes sense. More updates next week.
Chapter 40 will post today, which marks the start of Part Six. The story is 58 chapters, and since I started it in January, that'll push us a few weeks into next year by the time it's done. Wow! Time goes by too fast. It feels like just yesterday I was traveling to Florida and stressing out about how the vacation would cut into my writing time. Some of the chapters I did write during my down time there--there was a lot, as it was a rather interesting trip I took with my friends to visit their family, and their mom wanted their help buying a new car, which we then immediately got into an accident with (not a serious one) and I got sick for a few days, and it was just. It was interesting.
I had a dream a few nights ago about finding some cute cloche flapper hats and trying them on. Not exactly Arcom material, though. Most of my dreams involve me in everyday situations that are just slightly surreal. Like the dream I had about trying to follow a fajita recipe and one of the instructions was "A little Mexican man dances around your kitchen." I was like, "Alright," and then it happened.
I think Cynthia is upset with my progress because of that. I'm mostly lost in my own head and still struggling with going through others' dreams. She tells me I need a long-term dream archiving project and that it could even be Dromisse. I actually hadn't even considered that--that Dromisse was a world I could explore. But it makes sense. We're archiving forgotten stories and, well, I haven't forgotten it, but it sure isn't known by almost anyone. I've had dreams about Dromisse before, but that was more when I was actively working on it. Though I have had some fleeting dreams where I hang out with the characters. Maybe I should start working on that now that I'm understanding more what's going on around here. I'll let you guys know how that pans out!
Anyway thanks everyone, have a good week!
Chapter 39 will go up today! It's the last section of Part 5.
I had to take my cat to the emergency vet two days ago. My actual cat, not Oculus. Her name is Arya and she has been on asthma meds for a few weeks but then suddenly developed a blood clot out of nowhere. I have no idea if the two things are connected, but the vet said they weren't. She's back at home now, doped up on pain meds and blood thinners. This is a really bad year for medical problems I guess.
Harriett and Wilford talked to me the other night. Normally they're already asleep by the time I get to work, but apparently they heard there was a new person and wanted to welcome me. I got to hear them talk about how the Arcom used to be, which definitely implies that it wasn't founded in the 2000s--given that Harriett is nearly 75 and talked about her position there since she was in her 20s. I asked both of them when it was founded, and they grumbled back and forth to one another for a little bit before never actually coming up with a real answer. Harriett said it was sometime in the 30s, but Wilford ventured to suggest it had been around since the early 1800s. I'm not even sure this place can surprise me at all anymore, though. Like I said last time, I'm starting to get the hang of it, but I'm still not that good. I watched Harriett and Wilford fall asleep at the drop of a hat. But then again, I think they also take very high doses of melatonin to get to sleep quickly, probably enough to tranquilize horses. Not sure if that's safe or if Arcom has ever had a lawsuit because of that ...
Hopefully next week things are better. I'm really glad my cat is home, but she's so old, and with this sudden problem, I worry she won't be around much longer. Oculus isn't really the same because he doesn't act like a cat. And he's not around at my house to hang out with. Maybe I'll have a more fun update next week. I just don't feel much in the mood to talk about work this week.
Chapter 38 will go up today. We're nearly done with Part 5! That came up fast. Then again, things these days seem to be moving both fast and slow. Like I blinked and it's the end of September, and my brain is still telling me it's July. I seem to get stuck in July for whatever reason though. It happened last year, too.
And I finally catalogued my first dream at Arcom! It didn't seem like a major one, though. I think Oculus is starting me off easy. But I stayed lucid through the entire thing and remembered all of it when I woke up. It was just a dream about someone taking over a pizza business because they thought the owner died, and the way they found this out was by stealing the owner's family's mail. They had ordered tons of glow in the dark bouncy balls, but since none of the mail was addressed to the owner, the dreamer thought the owner was dead and took over the restaurant. Not really sure why this is important, but I wrote it down, and sent it off to be archived.
I'm also starting to get to know some of my new coworkers. I don't see Lanie or Micah or Jared (the janitor) as much anymore. Instead I'm with Cynthia, this person named Antonio, a girl named Denise, a guy named Abdul, an old woman named Harriett, and her husband Wilford. Cynthia told me there are others who work in the Dream Archive, but mostly cataloguing and sorting. And others who, for some reason, take the day shift. The six I just mentioned are the ones I've been seeing on a frequent basis, though Harriett and Wilford are often there and asleep before I arrive, and the other three just seem to show up whenever.
It's been an interesting time to say the least. Still thinking about starting a separate story to write down my experiences at Arcom, but I've just been too lazy. Also, not a ton has happened yet. I'm under the impression that once I get better, I'll be diving into lengthier dreams. We'll soon see!
Chapter 37 is ready to post!
Not much an update from work this week. I'm still learning the ropes. And also coming to terms with magic being basically real. I'm getting better at staying lucid while I dream. Referencing that one old movie 'Inception' helps, actually. I guess I've already got a bit of a head start with this stuff because of my writing, although it's a lot harder top pull off in real life.
I also love that we're surrounded by cats at the Dream Archive. I mean, they're weird cats that are part of one conglomerate entity made out of the threads of imagination, but they're still cute. Apparently each employee in the Dream Archive gets chosen by one of these cats to help guide them to lost stories, and it appears Oculus might be mine.
Hopefully I'll start getting the hang of this soon.
So, I've spent the last two weeks talking to a cat. My own, and the one that has been living at the Arcom.
Actually, it's not a single cat, but multiple. And ... they're not cats. And everything I've been writing about is actually real.
I told you last week I had a bit to think about.
Apparently Judy, my old immediate supervisor, knew about the Dream Archive. That's why she was putting pressure on me to keep publishing Dark Within, to keep writing. She wanted the higher-ups to see I would be a good candidate, so ... I suppose I partially have her to thank for this. I didn't think she cared about me. I thought she only cared about consuming copious amounts of dairy despite her lactose intolerance, and also complaining about her ex-husband (which she did A LOT, and I'm kind of with her, Jake was a jerkbag).
But back to the cat.
Apparently, imaginary friends ARE real. Muses are real. But at the Arcom they're called somnians. And for that matter, The Paracosm is real, which I suppose I should have figured out when they were teaching me how to walk through dreams and how to use omnibuses, all of which are things I've already written about ...
But the mind only believes what it wants to believe, I suppose. That's, that's a reference. That's a reference that will only be understood later in the LW book series.
I can't fit everything I want to write here, but the cat I kept seeing is apparently a somnian, and one that oversees the Arcom. It's sometimes referred to as Lost Dreams, though it's made up of individual cats, one of which has one eye and is named Oculus. One would think it would thrive off dreams being forgotten instead of discovered and catalogued, but apparently the Arcom has kept it alive for years. Decades. Centuries.
I've been thinking about starting a sort of "story" to catalogue my life at Arcom, since it's difficult to fit all I want to say in this textbox. But maybe another time. CH 36 is ready for today, so I'll update again next week.
Well I'm going to be busy tomorrow, between running a D&D session and taking my cat to the vet. (Don't worry, she seems mostly okay, she's just been coughing. It seems like allergies or asthma). I've prepared Chapter 35 today so I don't have to worry about squeezing it in tomorrow, but it'll still post at the regular time.
I've also got a few things to say about my new Arcom experience, but I'll get into that another time. I need some more time to process all of this and get used to working graveyards but sleeping through them completely. It makes it look to other people like I'm lying about this job, but how can you really tell someone your job is to sleep the entire night away? I will say I've begun some minor work archiving dreams, but I'm still just learning the basics of how to do it at all. I used to lucid dream quite a bit as a kid but sort of lost the ability, now I'm trying to get it back ...
Anyway, more updates next week. Thanks everyone for sticking around for my shenanigans and thanks everyone for reading my stories!
Finished my antibiotics, feeling better, and just prepared Chapter 34 to post.
I went back to work on Tuesday this week, to begin training in my new position. This time I couldn't find my way to the fiction archive at all and ended up straight at the bedroom, which Cynthia has told me is the dream archive. She said the entire Arcom is technically the dream archive, but that this is the section where they specifically curate "forgotten dreams." She had set aside a bed for me and told me I can decorate it like I would a desk at any other job. I noticed other beds had different types of sheets, stuffed animals, blankets, stickers on the frames, etc., something I hadn't previously paid much attention to. Mine was rather plain, white sheets, pillows, a beige wooden frame. I didn't particularly like the thought of shelling out money to decorate a second bed, when I had one at home, but Cynthia promised a pay raise for being relocated to the dream archive, so ... how can I really complain?
But I had a rather tough time getting into the flow of the work. Apparently the books that fill the room, the ones I mentioned only had gibberish in them, they're referred to as Omnibuses, and they make navigating dreams easier, somehow. I'm not exactly sure how. On my first day there, I had a hard enough time getting to sleep right after waking up and heading to work. Cynthia said most employees in the dream archive worked graveyards, for obvious reasons, and offered to give me that shift instead. I agreed, and the next few nights of dreaming went a little better, but I still don't quite understand what I'm doing. Cynthia has chastised me for becoming lost in my own head. She says I need to work on developing lucidity, so that I can be aware of what I'm dreaming about and not get caught up in the usual dream nonsense.
And that's been my week. I now regularly go to sleep as part of my job, so it no longer feels like I have one. They still want me writing, so I've been doing that.