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Caused partially by reading 'Permutation City' by Greg Egan too late at night.
Brain Scanning
First there was just a little couple of electrode strips but that was history; the real work was done in a rig like in the picture (poles of metal and black 'plastic' electrodes on the end as big as tennis balls arranged around your head, five of them, on a robot arm). Started in the morning before the sun came up and finished about midday. Lots of random things to record responses; saying words as they came up on screen faster and more difficult to pronounce (competing against someone else apparently, for the right to be the experimenter's daughter, but that was just a dreamthing; when the score came up at the end my name 'Caroline' I think came up with the tester's surname 'Carter'. except it wasn't because I'd have noticed the alliteration, I think I got my name wrong, but it wasn't Michelle.) I scored about 282 which was the highest score apparently but that was just another response test. and there was this person with a name like Rhoddenia except not and more complicated but definitely starting with r and with lots of vowels and said like Rhoddenia, but it was one of the words I had to say and it was spelt weirdly. Rhoddenia was apparently my best friend and we play-fought.
The Weather Balloon
After a while the tester said that he would have to analyse the data for a bit and I lifted the edge of the curtain and saw there was bright sunshine outside so I said I was going to have a bite to eat and go to the loo and he could call me back when he was ready. I think this was the point I remembered I was getting paid lots of money for this because I was shocked at how much time it had all taken. the corridor I walked out along had a big set of windows on one side, and as I walked along it I saw something come down outside, and it was a weather balloon that looked like a UFO. (I told Amy, who'd appeared by my side in the corridor (I spoke to her yesterday) that I could see why people got them confused.) I scurried up a level to try and get a better view; there were silvery balloons but there seemed to be a house n the middle, and I was going to go outside to try and get a look but there were dozens of kids trying to scale the rock it'd landed on and one of them fell and injured themselves, and then they all fell off, and Amy suggested that we just go round to the other viewing gallery, so I agreed. From there I could see that there was also half a lorry embedded in the UFOthing. it was the Marriage Miller's logo on a normal white thin-metal-sided lorry, and the lorry was full of hay it appeared. along the ridge there was a conveyer belt where the children were now standing along, which was carrying stuff out of the UFO; there were two other things I noticed first, but what I remember was the strange fish, and one of them moved, so they weren't all dead. I wanted to eat one but I knew I couldn't get through the crowds.
The Car
We left that part of the building and started exploring. We found an old car in one of the rooms, it was painted mostly red with pale yellow ('lemonade'?) highlights. Amy said it wasn't like the scanned version which was neon green and dark blue, and showed me a sketch of the scan. Apparently the car was very old and had cost a fortune to convert. It was kind of like a truck and a sports car, the front was a sports car and then the back had wooden planks over that you could sit on and was flat like a truck bed.
Aeo Electronics
We wandered around an area partitioned off with big display boards about Aeo Electronics, with a receptionist sitting at a desk. We peered around corners and wondered if our ideas would be taken by Aeo because we'd watched some of their stuff, even if it was just the funny stuff that the bored programmers had made. There was some kind of Harry Potter spoof on one of the TV sets we found (dream-chronology... this scene happened in a subsequent sleep) but somehow there were ewoks involved too.
The Meeting
Somehow I got a call that told me I should be going to a board meeting. I was a student but I'd been invited to these meetings before, partly because I did make an intelligent contribution but partly as some kind of mascot. It was on the top floor; the top floor hall was scary, the floors were of slightly frosted glass and there were all these transparent glass half-bubbles (domes?) just over a meter in diameter in a regular pattern so you could see down to the floor below and all the outside walls were transparent glass so it looked like you could just fall out. I felt kind of dizzy but I knew I'd been here before and it was okay so I pressed on to the meeting room and handprinted the guard's pad to get my badge (one of those plastic badge holder doohickeys with a couple of pieces of paper inside declaring my name, my occupation and my marital status, for some reason).
Inside it was all frosted glass but otherwise a pretty ordinary little room full of chairs. I sat down next to an older lady and immediately we both dropped our badges. Naturally we each picked up the other's, but I noticed when I was showing it to someone and it said something that meant 'married once then divorced' but in a more concise format. so we swapped badges again. she seemed to think it was mildly amusing and my fault. also at the meeting was a couple of old white men in business suits and black Siamese twins with dreadlocks tied with bright yellow bands. We did have a meeting and I did say some good things but I can't remember it well.
Flying
After the meeting I met up with Amy again, and she talked about what she was going to do next; she hadn't even filled in a UCAS form, she told me, and from her conversation with Mrs Templeton it appeared she was staying her another year. (She was talking about that she was going to take on the task of doing something again with the car, and Mrs Templeton asked her if she'd got the money - yes - and if she'd thought of a symbol (which implied 'the symbolism' rather than 'a logo') which she hadn't quite yet. We walked down some stairs, and this was when my dream-flying kicked in; I walked just above the stairs and had enough floaty momentum left to fly across the room and hit the other wall with my foot (gently) as if I'd jump-kicked it. Amy was quite impressed. I told her that this was what I liked best about dreams, the ability to fly-float around, and proceeded to walk on air quite a lot.
The Car, Redux
We went through a deserted bar-type-place with all the bar stools on the tables, and then back past the Aeo people (who I get the feeling were sponsoring the school) to the car. There was a notice up about no unauthorised access or something and a workman in grey overalls looked surprised to see us walking casually past it but nobody actually challenged us. After we'd played around on the car for a bit I noticed a poster up on the wall with a big spring around a small cuboid with 'radiation' coming off it (you know, those little lines) and saying '3 Tesla magnet' and listing all the things it could harm. I backed swiftly out of the room and Amy asked me why, I said I had metallic things in my backpack, and then I remembered my Psion, but it was all wiped. Then I started going on about how I was a killer because I'd had people in there, three people and countless proto-people.
Random Bar Scene
That was when I woke up for the last time, but there was a scene at a bar (still in the complex) where a Snape-type character (slimy!Snape) was attempting to seduce me (I think I was a boy at the time, of about eleven or twelve) by promising chocolate, but my friend told me not to trust him and when I started struggling the bartender split us up. That doesn't quite fit in.
Brain Scanning
First there was just a little couple of electrode strips but that was history; the real work was done in a rig like in the picture (poles of metal and black 'plastic' electrodes on the end as big as tennis balls arranged around your head, five of them, on a robot arm). Started in the morning before the sun came up and finished about midday. Lots of random things to record responses; saying words as they came up on screen faster and more difficult to pronounce (competing against someone else apparently, for the right to be the experimenter's daughter, but that was just a dreamthing; when the score came up at the end my name 'Caroline' I think came up with the tester's surname 'Carter'. except it wasn't because I'd have noticed the alliteration, I think I got my name wrong, but it wasn't Michelle.) I scored about 282 which was the highest score apparently but that was just another response test. and there was this person with a name like Rhoddenia except not and more complicated but definitely starting with r and with lots of vowels and said like Rhoddenia, but it was one of the words I had to say and it was spelt weirdly. Rhoddenia was apparently my best friend and we play-fought.
The Weather Balloon
After a while the tester said that he would have to analyse the data for a bit and I lifted the edge of the curtain and saw there was bright sunshine outside so I said I was going to have a bite to eat and go to the loo and he could call me back when he was ready. I think this was the point I remembered I was getting paid lots of money for this because I was shocked at how much time it had all taken. the corridor I walked out along had a big set of windows on one side, and as I walked along it I saw something come down outside, and it was a weather balloon that looked like a UFO. (I told Amy, who'd appeared by my side in the corridor (I spoke to her yesterday) that I could see why people got them confused.) I scurried up a level to try and get a better view; there were silvery balloons but there seemed to be a house n the middle, and I was going to go outside to try and get a look but there were dozens of kids trying to scale the rock it'd landed on and one of them fell and injured themselves, and then they all fell off, and Amy suggested that we just go round to the other viewing gallery, so I agreed. From there I could see that there was also half a lorry embedded in the UFOthing. it was the Marriage Miller's logo on a normal white thin-metal-sided lorry, and the lorry was full of hay it appeared. along the ridge there was a conveyer belt where the children were now standing along, which was carrying stuff out of the UFO; there were two other things I noticed first, but what I remember was the strange fish, and one of them moved, so they weren't all dead. I wanted to eat one but I knew I couldn't get through the crowds.
The Car
We left that part of the building and started exploring. We found an old car in one of the rooms, it was painted mostly red with pale yellow ('lemonade'?) highlights. Amy said it wasn't like the scanned version which was neon green and dark blue, and showed me a sketch of the scan. Apparently the car was very old and had cost a fortune to convert. It was kind of like a truck and a sports car, the front was a sports car and then the back had wooden planks over that you could sit on and was flat like a truck bed.
Aeo Electronics
We wandered around an area partitioned off with big display boards about Aeo Electronics, with a receptionist sitting at a desk. We peered around corners and wondered if our ideas would be taken by Aeo because we'd watched some of their stuff, even if it was just the funny stuff that the bored programmers had made. There was some kind of Harry Potter spoof on one of the TV sets we found (dream-chronology... this scene happened in a subsequent sleep) but somehow there were ewoks involved too.
The Meeting
Somehow I got a call that told me I should be going to a board meeting. I was a student but I'd been invited to these meetings before, partly because I did make an intelligent contribution but partly as some kind of mascot. It was on the top floor; the top floor hall was scary, the floors were of slightly frosted glass and there were all these transparent glass half-bubbles (domes?) just over a meter in diameter in a regular pattern so you could see down to the floor below and all the outside walls were transparent glass so it looked like you could just fall out. I felt kind of dizzy but I knew I'd been here before and it was okay so I pressed on to the meeting room and handprinted the guard's pad to get my badge (one of those plastic badge holder doohickeys with a couple of pieces of paper inside declaring my name, my occupation and my marital status, for some reason).
Inside it was all frosted glass but otherwise a pretty ordinary little room full of chairs. I sat down next to an older lady and immediately we both dropped our badges. Naturally we each picked up the other's, but I noticed when I was showing it to someone and it said something that meant 'married once then divorced' but in a more concise format. so we swapped badges again. she seemed to think it was mildly amusing and my fault. also at the meeting was a couple of old white men in business suits and black Siamese twins with dreadlocks tied with bright yellow bands. We did have a meeting and I did say some good things but I can't remember it well.
Flying
After the meeting I met up with Amy again, and she talked about what she was going to do next; she hadn't even filled in a UCAS form, she told me, and from her conversation with Mrs Templeton it appeared she was staying her another year. (She was talking about that she was going to take on the task of doing something again with the car, and Mrs Templeton asked her if she'd got the money - yes - and if she'd thought of a symbol (which implied 'the symbolism' rather than 'a logo') which she hadn't quite yet. We walked down some stairs, and this was when my dream-flying kicked in; I walked just above the stairs and had enough floaty momentum left to fly across the room and hit the other wall with my foot (gently) as if I'd jump-kicked it. Amy was quite impressed. I told her that this was what I liked best about dreams, the ability to fly-float around, and proceeded to walk on air quite a lot.
The Car, Redux
We went through a deserted bar-type-place with all the bar stools on the tables, and then back past the Aeo people (who I get the feeling were sponsoring the school) to the car. There was a notice up about no unauthorised access or something and a workman in grey overalls looked surprised to see us walking casually past it but nobody actually challenged us. After we'd played around on the car for a bit I noticed a poster up on the wall with a big spring around a small cuboid with 'radiation' coming off it (you know, those little lines) and saying '3 Tesla magnet' and listing all the things it could harm. I backed swiftly out of the room and Amy asked me why, I said I had metallic things in my backpack, and then I remembered my Psion, but it was all wiped. Then I started going on about how I was a killer because I'd had people in there, three people and countless proto-people.
Random Bar Scene
That was when I woke up for the last time, but there was a scene at a bar (still in the complex) where a Snape-type character (slimy!Snape) was attempting to seduce me (I think I was a boy at the time, of about eleven or twelve) by promising chocolate, but my friend told me not to trust him and when I started struggling the bartender split us up. That doesn't quite fit in.
