A dream about monsters
Oct. 21st, 2022 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrThe setup (to the patchy extent that it made consistent sense): quasi-fantasy setting, monsters exist, as much larger and more dangerous versions of regular animals, with the full range of sentience from bug to human but a natural tendency towards extreme violence.
The context is I've been thinking about the worldbuilding around monsters in Stardew Valley.
Content note: death. I feel like there's also some Problematic Subtext to all this but such is the nature of my subconscious.
The dystopian government kills monsters on sight. They also barely tolerated the elves, who were a minority with shaky control of their/our own lands (whether the character I was playing was an elf or deposed member of the human government varied during the dream. But she had an especially high ability to communicate with monsters. LOOK, IT'S A DREAM. I CAN BE A MAGIC ELF). The elves were more sympathetic to monsters but couldn't act openly against the government.
A huge baby monster appeared, travelling through elf land towards a human controlled region. It was so huge the government were aware of it, but decided it was easier to wait until it got to their lands to kill it. The elves couldn't do much but let it travel unimpeded and offer me support as I tried to communicate with it. The best I could do was convince it to change it's direction.
So I took it to the only place I knew with the space, willingness, and ability to defend it, a 'monster sanctuary' run by a powerful priest. But I wasn't very happy about it. I go there and asked a friend what the priest had been up to lately.
Friend, with disgust: He's getting the monsters to marry people.
Me: What.
Friend: There's one about to happen now, just watch.
The priest starts with a speech about how monsters are misunderstood. They do have a sinful nature, but there is good in there too, and with patience, hard work, and the love of the right person, they can be Saved.
The happy couple smile at each other affectionately as the priest describes how he slowly coached the monster to behave in a safe, civilised manner. The monster is much larger than the person(*) and even I feel a bit nervous seeing them holding bare hands: monsters are covered in a deadly toxin that even the most careful preparations can't make entirely safe, and prone to unexpected violent outbursts. They say their vows and there is a chaste, careful, kiss.
(*)A human-sized talking hedgehog but I feel that undermines both the worldbuilding and the vibe so. Let's ignore that.
And then the monster, smiling, takes out a knife, and slices its own throat. It smiles, rather more weakly and with a bit of self doubt in its eyes, as its new spouse holds it gently in their arms, smiling with tears in their eyes, and the priest continues to sermonise about the beauty of self sacrifice and love.
I tell the baby monster that we should move on.
We ended up hiding beneath the soil of the government's Monster Research Museum, which was where the monster had been drawn to in the first place, because of all the monstery materials gathered there, for both research and "attract monsters to where we have the firepower to kill them" reasons. I wandered the halls in disguise, looking at all the small, relatively harmless monsters that were dissected and in cages so that museum visitors could get a thrill of danger as they read little plaques of anti-monster pro-government propaganda, and wondered if there was any way I could have prevented this happening back when I worked there, and the museum had been more of a place of genuine curiosity and open-mindedness. Or had it always had the seeds of this inside it?
And then it turned into a dream about me being a bus driver, the end.
The context is I've been thinking about the worldbuilding around monsters in Stardew Valley.
Content note: death. I feel like there's also some Problematic Subtext to all this but such is the nature of my subconscious.
The dystopian government kills monsters on sight. They also barely tolerated the elves, who were a minority with shaky control of their/our own lands (whether the character I was playing was an elf or deposed member of the human government varied during the dream. But she had an especially high ability to communicate with monsters. LOOK, IT'S A DREAM. I CAN BE A MAGIC ELF). The elves were more sympathetic to monsters but couldn't act openly against the government.
A huge baby monster appeared, travelling through elf land towards a human controlled region. It was so huge the government were aware of it, but decided it was easier to wait until it got to their lands to kill it. The elves couldn't do much but let it travel unimpeded and offer me support as I tried to communicate with it. The best I could do was convince it to change it's direction.
So I took it to the only place I knew with the space, willingness, and ability to defend it, a 'monster sanctuary' run by a powerful priest. But I wasn't very happy about it. I go there and asked a friend what the priest had been up to lately.
Friend, with disgust: He's getting the monsters to marry people.
Me: What.
Friend: There's one about to happen now, just watch.
The priest starts with a speech about how monsters are misunderstood. They do have a sinful nature, but there is good in there too, and with patience, hard work, and the love of the right person, they can be Saved.
The happy couple smile at each other affectionately as the priest describes how he slowly coached the monster to behave in a safe, civilised manner. The monster is much larger than the person(*) and even I feel a bit nervous seeing them holding bare hands: monsters are covered in a deadly toxin that even the most careful preparations can't make entirely safe, and prone to unexpected violent outbursts. They say their vows and there is a chaste, careful, kiss.
(*)A human-sized talking hedgehog but I feel that undermines both the worldbuilding and the vibe so. Let's ignore that.
And then the monster, smiling, takes out a knife, and slices its own throat. It smiles, rather more weakly and with a bit of self doubt in its eyes, as its new spouse holds it gently in their arms, smiling with tears in their eyes, and the priest continues to sermonise about the beauty of self sacrifice and love.
I tell the baby monster that we should move on.
We ended up hiding beneath the soil of the government's Monster Research Museum, which was where the monster had been drawn to in the first place, because of all the monstery materials gathered there, for both research and "attract monsters to where we have the firepower to kill them" reasons. I wandered the halls in disguise, looking at all the small, relatively harmless monsters that were dissected and in cages so that museum visitors could get a thrill of danger as they read little plaques of anti-monster pro-government propaganda, and wondered if there was any way I could have prevented this happening back when I worked there, and the museum had been more of a place of genuine curiosity and open-mindedness. Or had it always had the seeds of this inside it?
And then it turned into a dream about me being a bus driver, the end.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-21 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 03:14 am (UTC)Yeah I've added it to my "ideas to maybe use in a story one day" pile.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-21 07:06 am (UTC)Also the talking human-sized hedgehog who is a human and not a monster, and the sudden shift to bus driver dream, which bring it crashing down from surprisingly coherent dream-story to properly incoherent dream.
Really an excellent dream all round!
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 03:14 am (UTC)I'm glad my summary of what was overall a very incoherent dream works as a little story. I skipped a bunch of stuff about sesame street themed monsters and how very bad I was at being a busdriver etc.