dice rattles
2020-06-27
I was working on a rooftop patio on my laptop, and stood up to leave. I was holding a mug of coffee, and my laptop in one hand. For some reason I leaned out over the railing and fumbled my laptop and it fell three or four stories down and landed on the sidewalk below and fell apart like a sandwich.
When I got down there the laptop still worked but the lid had come fully off, and had split into three separate layers: the glass, the lid, and whatever circuitry lay between the two. The base had kind loosened up into two pieces as well. So using the computer meant balancing these five separate things and holding them in place at the same time.
I think I was in high school. But the energy felt even younger than that. Maybe middle school. One of the teachers was going to host a huge tournament of dungeons and dragons for us as a special event. I had a team of friends, making a five person party. I had gone ahead to the school library and had checked out a bunch of books like the players handbook, the dungeon master guide, and the monster manual, and a couple other supplements. (Because in this dream world, it is perfectly reasonable for a school library to have a full collection of D&D handbooks.) My hope was to impress my friends with the quality of the books and their illustrations, and also to use them myself so I didnât have to use my broken laptop to work on my character sheet.
We played, paying little attention to the story, putting a little more effort into our characters (I think I played a barbarian?), and mostly being obsessed with all of the dice, which came in a never-ending variety of colors and patterns, and in standard size, a large size that filled the palm of your hand, and a tiny size that you had to lean in and squint to even read.
One of the teachers made a crack about boys being obsessed with comparing sizes of things, and it made me embarrassed.
The tournament was held in the school cafeteria. Dozens of kids crowded around each long table, throwing dice and cackling.
I was walking between the tables, and noticed that one of my teeth was loose. I reached in and it came out in my hand. The one next to it was loose and came out too. This was disturbing because they were permanent, adult teeth and should not just fall out. I felt revulsion and fear, and like I was responsible somehow for this happening.
Then a woman was speaking at a podium. She was older, with shock white hair cut very close to her head. Short and stout, very pale skinned in appearance and very âwhiteâ in demeanor. She spoke with a dixie twang and exclusively in catch phrases, punctuating each statement with practiced gestures, like a skilled and seasoned politician. The last thing I remember her saying was, âIf youâre hot, say youâre hot. If youâre cold, say youâre cold. But donât yell out, âIâm fine!ââ.
tags: #teeth #dungeons-and-dragons
Commentary:
Dropping the laptop: this is obviously a reference to just last night when I was in bed watching a show on my laptop. The show ended, and I closed the laptop and went to place it on the nightstand but fumbled, and the computer fell to the ground and made a noise loud enough, through some inscrutable property of the ancient floorboards in this house, to rattle a stool in the living room and knock an idle lampshade to the ground. Scared the lady half to death.
Dungeons and dragons: one of my favorite hobbies and pastimes. It has featured in my dreams before, here in this blog. This one is interesting because I got to play with kids, which is not something Iâve ever done. I never played the game until well into adulthood.
Teeth: a recurring horror element of my dreams. Seems like I dream about it every couple of weeks, and it always feels real, and I am always disgusted and disturbed.
The dixie politician: I think the tone and posturing was similar to a clip I saw of people protesting face masks to some legislative body. Otherwise, I donât know who this was.
10 points to lucidiot for catching a typo in this post!