I'd Rather Be Sleeping

You can get the song that goes with this here.

I dreamed that I was part of a small group of ambitious scientists who had invented the replicator years ago and were famous for revolutionizing human society. Our current project was decades in the making, and was coming to its final stage; we were determined to create the first true transhuman, an evolutionary leap aided by technology to artificially create a better species of thinking being. There were four of us, in all, best friends united be a reckless goal of advancing technology regardless of the risks involved.

After the replicator, we had privately worked on several techniques to regenerate dead tissue and revive people from near-death conditions, and used it on numerous occasions on our escape from the society which had grown hostile toward our research. We lived in an isolated compound; a serene and sterile grounds for creation surrounded by nature.

We were ready for our final project to be completed. One of us would begin a new humanity. We had chosen her at random, and should would become a being of overwhelming grace and ability only faintly imaginable to us. She would walk to the end of the dock near our building, and I would initiate the process from the patio overlooking the lake.

Our great achievement would come at enormous cost. The only certainty in the process was that the remaining three of us would be annihilated entirely. I stood at the beginning of the dock, the sun becoming a hazy orange and colliding with the massive pines at far end of the lake, and held her for what I wished to be an eternity. I poured over my fear and doubts, my love and my regrets. After all we had been through, she was finally going to realize our ultimate dream of becoming a replacement for our failing human race.

I lowered my head so every part of me was close to her, and imagined her at the end of the dock, a white light transcending reality as a beacon of the future, as all humanity perished in a wave of death emanating from that very spot. I would be the first to die.

I pulled away from her and watched my tears stain the ground. By the time I finally looked up again, the sky was darkening and the color of the sunset dominated the lake and the trees. The sun behind her lit up her dark brown hair, cut short above her shoulders. She flashed a wide but sheepish smile and made her way down the dock.

The three of us remaining were all armed, in the unlikely case that an outsider had discovered our location and intended to stop us before we had finished. I walked back to the console, our only connection to the outside world. We had already announce our intentions publicly, and as I powered up the terminal a torrent of protest, intrigue, and pleading flashed across the screen too quickly for me to read.

When the terminal was up, a song, Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping by Grouper faded in slowly, and played continuously from that moment on. The beautiful but melancholic drone fit the task at hand. I imagined that, standing at the end of the dock on the shimmering sunset lake, she was singing softly, “Love is enormous, It’s lifting me up, I’d rather be sleeping, I’d rather fall in sideways, Right where the deepest currents flow...”

My thoughts were racing. Could I really do this? We had worked for so many years perfecting the process here. I knew all the steps by heart. I had known these people for so long... seen so much. Could I kill all of humanity in the name of progress? My lover would become something unimaginably noble, the pinnacle our research and of human achievement. And I would never witness it.

I initiated the first stage via the console and watched her as she was lifted up lazily over the lake by an invisible force. There was only one step left, and that was all. My mind was breaking down, logic became illogic as the pressure mounted and time collapsed in on itself to crowd around and witness this single momentous action. I pulled the gun out of my belt and looked it over. At that moment there were now two options, neither more imaginable than the other in the crushing panic. I aimed the gun for the center of the lake.

I froze. The primal instinct of survival was overwhelming. This was suicide. I stood there for a long time, battling myself for control. For an instant I regained control and smashed the butt of my gun down on the terminal, breaking the glass, but initiating the final sequence, and I woke up.

Gory Battle with Zombie Jesus

I was in a kid's playground in a heated fight with Zombie Jesus. His shredded, bloody, matted tunic was stuck in his wounds like a disintegrating burlap sack, and every cut on his body had some pieces of tanbark stuck to it from being thrown to the ground. The blood from his crown of thorns dribbled into his cold dead eye sockets and dripped from a broken and partially decomposed nose across graying patchwork skin.

I had a stiff rope with a knife tied to the end of it. I kept my distance and darted around him on the playground, going up and down the different levels and sprinting up the slide at times. Although I was much faster, it seemed that with his unrelenting and slow movements, Zombie Jesus was always closing in on me.

I swung the rope with all the might of someone fueled by all the adrenaline and fear one would expect when confronting their undead savior in a battle to the death. At one point Zombie Jesus grabbed on to my knife as I swung it at him, and I yanked hard and chopped his hand off right across the palm. This separated the knife from the rope and sent it flying out of view. With only a rope, I started to whack him like it was a whip but it had almost no effect since it was too stiff and thick for that.

Eventually the rope shredded into two pieces and I was able to tie his feet to the playground supports, and tie his hands with the other piece of rope. I twisted the rope at his hands and pulled tight, so that his body was stretched as far as it could. I then began to twist his entire body, until he was in an unnatural and painful contortion. I got a stick and put it in the twisted rope at his hand for leverage and began to twist harder, until his arms and legs, which were spiraled together, began pressing harder against each other until the bones snapped. Once the bones were broken I moved farther away and pulled harder, twisting until his rib cage buckled and the ribs fractured and he lay motionless.

A friend from school appeared and started singing a Christmas carol and it began snowing on the corpse. A church choir began singing an epic and moving melody about the twisting, crushing death.

Music Taste

I dreamed that I was listening to music with a friend. All the albums I had were laid out in a grid on the floor. I was looking for a specific song, but he saw the album cover for Medúlla by Björk and wanted to listen to that, so we did and it was beautiful.

Birthday Party at School

I dreamed that I was at school and it was an acquaintance's birthday. I was on a balcony and had a white rose. I blew the petals off the rose like it was a dandelion, and they grew back smoothly as if it was only natural and sensible thing for it to do.

I realized I was dreaming, and I decided I would try to summon another white rose in my left hand. I tried three times but nothing happened. I decided to move around, and I went down a ramp to get off the balcony. At the bottom, I saw a cart that wasn't there before. I lifted a table cloth draped over it and on the bottom shelf were three large white roses, much bigger than the one I originally had.

Someone announced the arrival of a girl from school and the girl in black as if it was gossip and they might fight since they weren't getting along. I asked where they both were and discovered that they were at opposite ends of the school. By now I had fallen back in to the dream, and I walked to the girl in black and gave her a hug, and met another friend that she had come with.

I went to the other side of the school into my chemistry teacher's room. There were touch-pad payment consoles on a table, as if there were a fee to be at the party, and I decided to see what I could do to mess with it. I drew a triangle and a square on it, and it started blasting the Bill Nye the Science Guy theme song.

Under the Bridge

I had a dream that was a flythrough of a trippy cityscape to the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Under the Bridge".

The lyrics I remember hearing in the song (still going through my head) are:
I don't ever wannna feeel like I did that day.
Take me to the place I looove
Take me all the wayy

and then the song got really intense backup vocals wailed
Under the bridge downtown

I haven't listened to this song in a really long time. I never really listened to it on purpose, actually.