Choose Me

Date: 7/20/2021

The main thing I remember from this dream is a world where magic was common -- around half the world's population could use it from birth and half couldn't -- and a pair of people in that world who seemed like total opposites. A grumpy, non-witch man & a happy, energetic witch woman. The witch got her grump into a lot of trouble, and a lot of times trouble found them without her being the direct cause. She always had a spell or an idea to get them out of it. It was just him, her, their electric scooter, & the friends they unwittingly picked up along the way against the chaos of the world. However, there was also a kind of bonding system. Witches weren't considered proper "adults" (in terms of their magic not being settled, it could just go crazy at any time before magical "adulthood") until they had chosen a partner. I use quotes around the word "adult" because these are people in their 20's or so who would be considered young adults by this world's standards -- they just didn't have that last piece in terms of their magic. I'm not sure if the partner they were supposed to choose originally meant that they were picking a lover or a familiar, but it seemed like a lot of witches saw it as choosing their soulmate: their fate-intended lover for life, who coincidentally filled a familiar role. The witch would make their choice on a specific day of the year, along with any other witches who were ready. Then, they would take their feline form -- which, apparently, all witches could do but "adults" could do in a more stable way with cooler beast cat forms too instead of just house cats -- and gather in a place where other witches could watch over them. In this place, guarded by beast cats, they would sleep. This sleep would be sudden, total, and would not be over until everything had been decided with their chosen partner. Once it was definitively clear in the eyes of whatever fate was judging this whole thing, whether their partner also wanted to/was fated to be partnered with them for life, their partner would be physically compelled to come to their side & the witch would wake up to the sight of their face. To be either accepted or rejected. The dream followed this energetic witch & her grump for several days. They attended the same college together (despite the grump looking a little too old for college, apparently he was in his 20's too), and there were always shenanigans happening. The grump would start to resolve things in his own way, only to have his witch friend's magic come into the picture to either solve things even quicker or complicate everything. It was fun to follow them. On the day of choice, which is what I'm calling that day when witches are eligible to reach "adulthood" & wake up having their magic settled & their partnership status officially decided, they were also helping their friends prepare for a play their college was putting on. They weren't actors in it, themselves, but they were well-suited to managing the chaos of preparing a play in a place with so many young witches & their untamed magic. There were several scenes I remember particularly enjoying, even if I don't remember the exact details as clearly as I'd like. The scene of the grump driving his sky blue electric scooter around the corner of one one of the school buildings to flee a group chasing them while his witch laughed & made a gesture in the air & a storm gathered right over their pursuers. The scene of the pair of them running into a bunch of thugs & grump cursing & getting ready to fight only to have witch turn them all into little plush animals so people could freely hug them until they felt less like fighting. The pair of them hiding in a broken shower in an empty dorm & arguing about how to get back out of the shower without being seen -- witch suggesting they just go out the window and grump insisting that it wasn't safe. All of those seemed like really nice snapshots of their life & dynamic together. At the start of the day, the young witch wasn't planning to make a choice. She'd wait until next year or the year after. Early to mid 20's was the standard for this process, but it seemed like you could really make your choice whenever you wanted. Just as long as it was on an official choice day when you could be guarded when you slept. She knew who she would choose. She'd known for a long time. She just didn't want to bring fate or romance or magic contracts into a thing that was already working well, no matter how she felt about those things or her yet-to-be chosen partner herself, because it could mess it all up. But by the time the play was about to start & everything there was settled, she started to get the feeling that this was the only -- or at least, the best -- time she could do this. So she made an excuse, slipped away while grump was managing the last few things, & went to the park where other witches were either already sleeping in their house cat forms or setting up to sleep. There was basically a huge, magic, multi-leveled & mushroom-shaped cat tree set up in the park. It was plain & dark purple & attended at every level by at least 2 or 3 beast cats. She chose her own spot & hopped up, already in her cat form as soon as she'd set foot in the park. She was a very pretty grey tortoise-shell cat, a pattern you wouldn't have expected given her blonde hair in her human form. She was fluffy yet graceful, & stood out a little among the other cats -- not that any of them took notice of her when they were either asleep or worrying over their choices. This was it, after all. The official proof. The finalization of their standing w/ whomever they'd chosen as a partner. Our witch wondered if she'd messed up by not telling her partner that she'd chosen him. Some witches did, saying it was better for a partner to be conscious that they've chosen their witch in response to said witch choosing them, others said it ruined the romance of fate making the choice. She'd just been scared. Scared he'd say "You shouldn't do that, you should wait until you've met someone else who doesn't see you as just a normal (meaning not a magic partnership contract candidate) friend the way I do." She'd been worried that she would be rejected before even undergoing the day of choice process, & that would make her never try to do the day of choice or become an "adult" all her life. So she hadn't said anything, just silently went to the park. She wondered as she fell asleep... since she didn't tell him, would he be mad at her for taking that risk when she woke up? Would he know what had happened? She silently sent out a mental request to him. Not using any magic of her own, just thinking w/ a strong feeling of hope that he would get her message. "I chose you," she said, "Please choose me back." She had a sad yet hopeful face as she fell asleep, & the dream didn't show me anything past that but I like to think that her grump sensed her message & wasn't too surprised or angry when he got pulled to the park & drawn over to the side of a pretty little tortoise-shell cat. To be her partner for life. There were a lot of other plot-lines & events in this dream, several in whole other settings w/ whole other casts of characters, but I only remember vague flashes of impressions from those. This is the only story that stayed after I woke up. I think it's cute, & I'm glad I got to remember it out of all the things my subconscious brain had to show me. Until next I wander.