Hidden Talents

Date: 8/11/2019

This dream was mainly about a couple of teenagers. A girl who also happened to be a shapeshifter with psychic powers. A boy who had no powers, but seemed to have an odd knack for encountering people who did have them. It was almost like he was a magnet to them. For the sake of clarity & convenience, despite them not being named in the actual dream, I'm going to call these characters by the first names that come to mind. For this pair, those names are Sophia and Sam. Here's how I remember the dream itself, with minimal artistic liberties taken for story flow. Things start with Sophia's mother giving her a sort of... assignment? Mission? After going to normal classes at her own supposedly totally normal high school (which, sadly, I never get to see in-dream), Sophia goes to another school for a few hours. Just long enough to observe/participate in some of their after-school club activities. Her mom seems to have some mysterious reason for this, but never tells her daughter (or unwittingly reveals to me) what this reason is... which wouldn't normally bother me. In this dream, however, the lack of logic gets under my skin a bit. The school where Sophia joins club activities has a fairly high concentration of psychics, a small number of whom are even open about their powers, but it is not a school meant exclusively for the education of psychic students. That's the school next door, which Sophia's mother never even seems to suggest having Sophia attend or observe or infiltrate or anything. Which will frustrate me to no end after the fact, but is just mildly confusing when I'm in the dream itself. For Sophia's part, she enjoys her assignment. It's a long train ride to her second school, but the views of the open countryside are gorgeous. Grazing fields and rice paddies and fields of wheat. In the afternoon sun, they seem to almost glow with beauty. It's serene. We both love this commute. When she gets to the school, she changes into her baseball uniform. She's chosen to join this school's co-ed baseball team. I don't know whether she's any good at baseball, but socially she's doing well. The girls on the team are fun to be around, the guys on the team are respectful of her, and somewhere along the way she'd started dating one of her teammates. He's an outgoing boy who gets along with pretty much everyone he meets. He's able to adapt to new situations easily, from what Sophia knows of him, and doesn't have any prejudice about psychic powers at all. He is, after all, surrounded by psychics more or less all the time. Her boyfriend is Sam, the psychic magnet. Theirs is a very innocently sweet, youthfully clumsy, yet serious and dedicated relationship. They go well together. They're also both friends with a girl I'll call Mindy. Mindy also has psychic powers, and brags about them to people she's out to as often as possible. Specifically, she claims that if her parents didn't make her keep her powers a secret then she'd surely be top of the class at the neighboring psychic academy. She's absolutely sure of it. As it stands, she claims she doesn't really have any competition in this school. The only one who might be powerful enough to qualify as Mindy's direct rival is Sophia, but she still has a ways to go refining her powers. So, naturally, Mindy has to have a hand in that and starts haughtily mentoring Sophia. She's an endearing tsundere type of friend/rival character, and I honestly regret that the story moves away from her. Things get a bit fuzzy here. There are snippets of the group playing baseball a lot, as if to show how time is passing for them. Sophia seems to usually be on the bench, chatting with Mindy and cheering on Sam. Then, someone else starts visiting a club that has its activities in a building right next to the baseball field. When there's a lull in their own noise, the team can hear conversation from the window. Only a few people on the team really take notice of the newcomer, each for different reasons. He's a very bald, fairly round person who looks like he should be doing judo or sumo professionally. He even has a scowling expression most of the time, whether he means to or not. He's a kind person, but he's not warm or cuddly by any means -- still, I'll call him Teddy. He prefers Ted. What Sophia, Mindy, and (somehow) Sam notice about Teddy, however, is the fact that he has psychic powers. After a day or two, he even reaches out to Sophia telepathically. I don't remember what it is they talk about, but it feels disconnected from the sense of tension that's rising for the psychics in this school. The very weather changes. Now, the afternoons they spend at this school are heavy with rain clouds or even wet with actual rain itself. The sun doesn't make an appearance anymore. Life goes on like this for awhile. Sophia, Mindy, Sam, and Teddy talk about psychic things between club activities. Sophia and Sam act like an innocent high school couple. Things are fine. Ominous, but fine. Which is, sadly, when things get fuzzy again. It's a mess of chaos and characters and vague motivations. I think Sophia's uncle shows up to warn her of danger at one point? He sends her on a mission? Or maybe her mom does? Sophia is sent to do something. Sam joins her of his own volition, though she agrees that having him along could be helpful. Teddy and Mindy join them unexpectedly as well, which the couple just kind of shrugs at before moving on with the mission. At one point, some vague enemy attacks and pins them in a treehouse somewhere. Th characters in the dream seem to know who/what these enemies are and what they want, but to me they're just vague shadows with names I never hear or properly make out when they're spoken. Whoever or whatever they are, they're dangerous. The kids can't stand up against them. This is when I show up. Well. Not me, exactly. I can just tell that it's supposed to be an avatar of me, made less to reflect who I am and more to be the deus ex machina the characters need in this moment. The avatar is a slightly dirty guy with a thickly patched-up denim jacket, equally patched-up jeans, and bright, knowing eyes. His hands, oddly enough, are made of twine. The fingers are clunky and huge, layer upon layer upon layer wound up until it takes a shape that more or less matches the fingers of some sort of stop-motion character. He wears a beat up hat and a sheepish smile. He's some kind of... magically-inclined vagabond. I'll call him Twine, as well, after his hands. He jumps from a building to the treehouse, carrying some kind of little snare drum. After some introductions and conversation and "oh, sorry, now you're also pinned by the bad guys" interaction, Twine offers a helping... well, he suggests that his magic can do something to give them a brief opportunity. A chance to run, and move forward with their mission. The kids need an opening and they're curious about Twine's magic. What's the harm in trying? As he works, this avatar of mine explains that his magic is a little like Sophia's shapeshifting. The kids are in awe of how powerful he is, as he magically constructs instruments from parts of the tree and then converts the snare drum and magic instruments into something else. They combine to form some kind of weapon, which I can see but cannot describe. Not visually, at least. It's like some kind of... cannon? It shoots instrument pieces and then fires out a shockwave of sound. The kids can't stop complimenting him on it. Twine, sheepish as ever, says it's not actually that great. See, his power is a dependent kind of power. It depends on his creativity and his musicality and his investment in wanting to make music. If he doesn't have those, and some days he doesn't, then nothing comes of any spells or other magic things he tries to do. He's just a musician, same as any. The difference is that sometimes the music can be repurposed, if things go well. He's really not that amazing. Their powers are more interesting, and convenient to use. Sophia's shapeshifting, especially -- which it seems she told Sam about but not Mindy or Teddy who seem to ignore the new information -- is rare and incredible. It's up to her to find out whether it's dependent on something like his, but Twine thinks it'll be something easier to manage than musical talent. The weapon fires it's shockwave and he urges the kids to go. They say goodbye briefly, and are on their way. I have no idea what happens to Twine after the treehouse is behind them. Maybe he vanishes, having served his purpose. Maybe he gets overwhelmed by the enemy. Maybe he escapes, to make music another day. Whatever the case, the ones he protected are home free. I get a vague feeling that they're continuing their mission, but the dream itself switches to a new scene. A cat, who I somehow know lives with Sophia and her mother, is walking over the dying body of a very well-dressed man. They're in a mansion with oil paintings on the walls and gilded furniture in almost every room. It would be very fancy and refined, if it hadn't been very obviously disturbed by some kind of battle. There are signs of spells having been cast, and guns having been shot. The well-dressed man fails to support himself on an end table, dragging streaks of blood down a corner and along part of a table leg. He's injured in several places, and there's little to no chance he'll survive. Especially not since I get the impression that he's infiltrated this mansion in secret. There's only the cat with him now. This cat starts to take magic power from the dying man, and I realize it's his familiar. I get a feeling like a dramatic twist has been revealed. This cat had seemed to be the familiar of Sophia's mother, but it's actually the familiar of this man. That (somehow) means this man is Sophia's absent father, his absence finally explained. Sort of explained. I still don't know why he's infiltrating fancy mansions and getting killed over it, but now I at least know he's been doing this kind of thing for a long time. It's unclear whether Sophia's mission was connected to her father from the beginning or not, and less clear whether she's on the same mission now or starting a new one. Either way, she knows her father is in danger (possibly dead, she doesn't seem sure) and needs help. Unfortunately, she's now in a position where she also needs help. She's been kidnapped. Somewhere along the way, some enemy force got her. They took Sam as well. Both teenagers wake up with guards and impassible exits and a rush of fear and worry. They wake up in very different places. Sam wakes up in a dull orange tent inside the ruins of a demolished building somewhere snowy and cold. It's being held up by repurposed piping connected together by tent poles. The whole thing is haphazard and slipshod, but there's a roof over the tent and enough wall material to keep them from being seen. Every possible exit is guarded. He's in a sleeping bag when he wakes up, and he's apparently been put in a puffy jacket of the same orange as the tent itself. The hood is lined with fur which may or may not be real? Neither Sam nor I know enough about fur to be certain one way or the other. He's out of the sleeping bag and walking the tent shortly after waking up. He's trying to figure out how best to attempt an escape, but it doesn't take long for him to be interrupted. Two large, boxy, probably middle-aged men step into the tent wearing white and grey jackets of the same material with the same maybe-real fur. The guards also step further inside, until there are five men in the tent and only two outside. The non-guards start to ask Sam questions, but he either has no answers or isn't willing to give them information. He knows they're only being civil because they don't think he's enough of a threat to warrant any stronger intimidation tactics than just "large men stand ominously while they speak." Things will get worse for him if he stays, and then he won't be any good to Sophia. Not thinking too much about it at all, he grabs one of the connecting tent poles from the back of the tent and sweeps it out in front of him like a baseball bat. He strikes three of the men, knocking them down just long enough that they don't move out of the way in time when the pipes come falling down on them. He uses some kind of martial arts kicks on the other two, knocking them out as well, and tosses the pole as he runs and slides out of the tent, between the guards, while the remaining men are still shocked. It's honestly one of the most exciting battle scenes I've been able to witness in a dream in a long time. I admire my powerless psychic magnet. He knows his way around a fight. Better yet, he doesn't get caught after his escape and is able to sneak around enough to figure out where Sophia's being held. Meanwhile, Sophia's trying to think of a plan E for escaping. A, B, C, and D have not worked. She's in a bedroom, on the top bunk of a bunk bed with very fancy maroon blankets that have a very subtle flower pattern tastefully woven into them. There's a dresser, a little table, some chairs. The window has a pretty view into a garden... or, it would if it wasn't barred. It's the opposite of Sam's holding place. Her guards are also stationed outside the room's door and down against the wall on the first floor directly below her window. They're not all bunched up like Sam's. Someone did come in to talk with her after she first woke up, but left after she started shapeshifting into different animals to avoid answering questions. She seems to only be able to shift like this when she's sleeping or has just woken up. When Sam finds her contemplating Plan E, she's in the bunk bed in a form that surely does not actually exist. She's turned into some kind of sea horse fish. Her body is blue with green edges. She has green fins that look almost like they're made of silk. Her head and neck are horse-like, but her eyes seem like glass marbles with black dots in the middle. She also has little reddish-blue pincers like a crab. She brings the pincers to her face and rests her head on them, wondering what use this form is and whether she can shift again and what will happen if she needs water in this form. Sam knows it's her because he can hear her thoughts. He recognizes her voice, and offers to find water to transport her in once they're reunited. As embarrassed as she is to be seen in this form and to need help moving, she agrees. He finds a bucket and some water, fills it up, and climbs a tree to her window. This form fits easily through the bars once he's opened the window itself from the outside. She plops her little body into the bucket, and they sneak away easily. They leave both their prisons behind, following what looks like a nature trail. They walk through the pretty countryside, the scenery making it look like maybe they're headed back to Sam's school. The bucket sloshes softly, and they talk while Sophia hangs her head and claws over the side; both looking forward at the path ahead. They speculate about Sophia's power for a little while. She thinks... maybe it's tied to dreams. Maybe she needs to be dreaming or her body needs to feel like it's in a dream for her shapeshifting power to work. Like Twine needing to invest himself in a song, she has to convince herself she's in a dream. Sam agrees it's possible, but wonders how much control she has when she's fully awake. He suggests she tries changing just one thing about this form without sleeping. Maybe her eyes... he doesn't want to make her feel bad, and he loves her no matter what, but the black dots in glass look is kind of unsettling. As he's suggesting a crustacean character from a movie that she could copy, she's already thought along the same lines and started the process. He says the name of the character and says "you know, like in --" and at the same time, they both say the name of the movie. She says it excitedly, showing off that she managed to do it properly. In fact, she looks more like the character in general. Her eyes are fully black now, so the glass look is gone. Her body is more the reddish-blue color of her claws. She has little crab legs. The head changes color as well, but retains its horse-like shape. She's done more than she thought she could. Sam's proud of her, and also pleased that they think along the same lines. They really get each other. He tells her he's happy that she already knew what he was going to say without using her powers to find out, and she agrees that it helps her feel even more certain about their compatibility as a couple. They smile and laugh and keep walking as if they were never kidnapped or attacked or separated from their friends or anything. Which is when I wake up. That's all I can remember now that I'm awake, and I really hope that if I can't write these characters into a proper story, someone out there can. Until next I wander.