2010-04-12

Nathan + Dinosaurs = WTF?

Dream 2010-04-12

Summary:

Mal works for a space mine, enters a dimensional portal, meets creatures that seem to have come from "Dinosaurs"

Details:

Mostly fuzzy; But I remember this space mine working on some sort of larger extrasolar object in some small star system; It was a rather rich deposit of extremely rare and non-natural elements (that's right, this SOB had naturally occurring elements heavier than uranium!) so, they were mining it for fuel. Well, Nathan Fillion apparently was the star of this episode (Damn you, Captain Hammer!) and after losing his wife and kids in some sort of car-accident; he continued working his mining job. Well, someone discovered an anomaly, some sort of portal, and after some testing they decided to send a human in without telling any outsiders. Being a space mine, you go to the place to work, and don't return for quite some time, so this was easy to keep secret, always a lot of illicit practices in these sorts of "prying eye" isolated situations.
The backdrops looked like any stereotypical deep earth mine, large steel girders lining large elevator shafts, domed, reinforced ceilings and plenty of weird looking mine equipment (I've been in a few myself, so if you've never been in a mine, look it up!). Well, the anomaly was just some sort of large blurred region of space, and, well they voted Mal up to jump in, since he had nothing to lose. Would certainly end his pain or make him a hero, so why not? He obviously didn't feel that way, but, eventually consented and in a rather Mal-like way, just ran into the damn thing with no warning.
Well, upon entering the other side, it was a direct seamless transition to this darker world, there was breathable air, survivable pressure (~1.2 atm, similar to being under 2m of water on earth), and reasonable temperature (~87 F). Well, comically, the portal was above ground, and lands our hero in a are filled with cycad like trees. Naturally, he was now screwed as he could not get back up to the portal, and wanders around. Eventually, he finds he is near an ocean, and can see civilization by the hallmark of regular geometric shapes being constructed near the sea shore. Upon investigating, he finds all of the structures heavily damaged by some sort of raging sea current, and promptly leaves after finding some really disturbing skeletal parts; Not human, but some sort of alien/dinosaur like parts.
The sky in this are was black, grey at the edges, but seemed to emit light ambiently, as if there was light coming from the sky, but it was only visible in reflections off the earth. There were no stars visible, the sea was also black, must be some odd light-absorbing pigments in the world chemistry;
Well, this part gets a little fuzzy, but somehow Mal runs into this teenage dinosaur, and they become allies, and he introduces him to their world, and becomes some sort of science project, blah blah generic plot basically. Mal almost gets into a fight with a small gang of dinosaurs, but being Mal smart talks them out of it, gaining respect from the gang. I remember something about deeply rooted political messages, environmental concerns, societal oddities about sex and crudeness; Was a really interesting situation;
But! His friend helps him get back to the portal, so he can return home, which the mining company didn't expect, but he brought back a few artifacts to prove he was gone, and destroys access to the portal (to save his friends in the other world).

So yeah, the social parts were hazy at best; not 100% sure what actually happened, though it would be trivial for any Firefly fan to fill in the gaps with some terrible fanfic writing.

-Z

2010-04-01

Dream: Splinter Silent Snake Solid Hill Cell

Dream: 2010-04-01

Summary:

Recurring dream mixing metal gear and splinter cell and silent hill

Details:

This is a recurring dream; as such, the majority of events are similar to all the previous reincarnations of the dream, with only minor changes. I'd say it's very graphic, and horrible. (how often do you get to disembowel things anyways?) Definitely nightmare quality.

So, the dream usually starts out, you take the movie-role of this gray haired, grizzled marine in his 60's; Getting a debrief from president Kennedy about a mission to stop a Russian bioweapon from being released. Your main character looks a lot like a regular chisel jawed blond haired blue eyed German marine, constant fatigues, side bowie knife, a poker face that could break glass, and plenty of gnarled features indicating a slew of victories. Always looks angry though, the beret slightly off kilter, as if asking any young punk with enough balls to mention that was the wrong angle, just to start a fight.
Kennedy gave you a top secret clearance, and this dark green folder with information on this russian woman (naturally in a black latex suit with dark red hair and goth-style accenture; d-cup) who is in charge of the train shipment of the materials needed to create the bioweapon.
You repeatedly ask for more information on the bioweapon, as it is obvious no marine can withstand that kind of weaponry, a bit like trying to punch a landmine. No information is given, apparently this whole thing is hush-hush since it would severely escalate tensions.
Switch scenes to a large cargo plane, four engines and a regular "Red Cross" drop mission of aid, with you secretly stowed on board; jumping off for a night skydrop to land deep in a pine forest, silently, and with plenty of guns and ammo to take out a small militia.
At this point I'll describe the scenery to get an idea of the feelings invoked, since text leaves a lot of detail out. It's about 0320 (sun relative time), damp is forming on all the leaves, you can feel the earth cooling; but it was mid-summer, so the respite from burning heat is welcome. At night, you can hear trucks in the distance, men barking commands, the train had stopped here, secretly, the moon was not out, so darkness was impressive, seeing farther than 20 or more feet was impossible, what lay in the unknown was a mystery; it was likely there were infra-red autoturrets posted around the site, more than likely landmines or classic beartraps laid to thwart and unprepared soldier; classic tripwires and claymores a traditional favorite. All of the trees were dark and tall, traditional pines, the forest floor was mostly cleared; unsure why. There was a rich smell of damp in the air, mostly the dew pervading. Knowing this mission was essentially suicide, as you were ordered to stop this train and shipment at all costs didn't help your mentality; smoking would simply trip an alarm and get you shot early.
Moving cautiously, using all of your available skill to avoid the assumed traps; luckily there were none. There were only 6 guards, and only off duty ones. The train may contain secrets, but would it be better to follow the train to it's destination and discover where the base was, using your e-rad to signal your location?
Apparently, you decide to sneak onto the train, and quickly find out that is impossible; as the train is a unusual design, it looks out of place, a futuristic, slightly blue steel color; No visible doors or windows, it had the feel of an airstream trailer, but quite a few of them connected.
Somehow there is a gap in memory, and it's 1240, afternoon sun glaring down producing a high 90's heat. You had found the camp, and damaged the rail tracks so the train could not make it's shipment, and radioed the position, all without being seen, detected, or killing/alerting anyone. Now you wanted blood; you could see your female target having a cigarette with an AK-47 slung across her back; she was still wearing the ridiculous black leather getup, lol fanservice I guess. Anyways, you strafe one of the smaller buildings, to get a look inside and see if you can start causing some havok; well, inside of this "small" building is a solid black cat; it approaches you, it's rather friendly. Inside the building is a darker red metal decor, lots of white plastic spherical containers and hoses connecting them, leading to a side chamber. This was no building, it was a gas chamber to test the bioweapon.
Immediately you move to sneak out, but the door slams shut and the alarms and lights go off; gas of a light yellow color begins to come from some of the hoses. You whip out your mask and use the cat to determine what the gas would do; holding it with a knife to it's neck so you wouldn't make it suffer too much. The cat seems annoyed, but entirely unaffected by the gas. IT wasn't an irritant, or mutagen, or anything obvious; You put the cat down, the room now hazy with this thick gas; it doesn't stick to you skin either. Time splits, since this is a dream, and you become two instances in time, one of them NOT having entered the chamber, and sneaking to a larger building, the other entering the secondary chamber ,where there were larger plastic cylinders and spheres with other colored chemicals. In that reality, the cat follows and a door from nowhere slams shut like a guillotine; and a greenish gas pours out, immediately burning the skin like fire; the poor cat's eyes begin to melt and it begins hacking up blood, so you mercifully cut it's head off; then quickly gut the can and use it's hide to protect other regions on your body while you wait for the gas to time out. The green gas left unusual burns on the skin, but otherwise seemed to just be a extremely toxic agent. Well, in that reality, turns out the gas penetrates clothing, and while you are basically chemically burned alive, searing agonizing pain; trying to break the door down or stop the system or just escape, you cant, and get to suffer the agony of death, and fail your mission.
Now imagine for a moment, YOU were that person. And also assume that you could not tell it wasn't a dream (lucid). You're trapped in a sold metal box, nothing but dangerous storage vats of chemicals in the corners and ceiling, tubing piping a agent capable of melting your epidermis, And the door is magnetically sealed, and at least a centimeter thick. Unhinged and sliding into the other side about a half a foot too. Basically, you are dying a horrible death, and there is nothing you can do about it. Isn't that lovely?
Now, since this dream had that parallelism moment, let's continue with the dude who DIDN'T poke into the wrong building.
Upon sneaking into this larger facility, which was very poorly lit, only small red lights here and there, dimly illuminating what looked like a power facility, larger generators and tanks, narrow walkways and halls, a more concrete underground feeling. Eventually, you run into a larger section of hallway, some 20x20 ft, and see two guards talking, but one of them is beating the hell out of the other, which isn't even fighting back. Then, this sick thing happens, and the winning guard pulls out this jar and jams it into the other guys gut; Cue class gut-worm scene; this small, 8 inch long alien parasite of some kind tears the victim open, and begins threading itself through and consuming all of the poor bastards innards. Being undetected at this point, and pretty sure of victory, you run in and kill the other guard,kicking his body away and go to kill the other in another mercy kill, just like that cat (that in this reality, you did NOT kill but it is silently following you). But when you turn, the worm had grown at a unprecedented rate, you could see it moving around under the skin, blood and scraps leaking fluids as the guard just stares off, trying to scream without lungs in a agonized expression; seeming to be saying something important, but then the work gets to his brain, and pokes out an eye, blood gushing out and littering the face with brain bits. You ignore the posse, this is getting too weird, and you take a service elevator down a floor; The elevator had red lights, and was large, build for moving trucks it looked like. So much for being unannounced, but luckily, down here there was nothing but a few mech-armors and not many guards; This place held missile components for delivering the bio weapon. Solid snaking your way around, you simply murder guard after guard, leaving only the mechs to take out. Nothing you had could even get close to stopping them, so you continue onto the next room, which was a very large bi-level room with many smaller rooms, kind of like the stack/library in goldeneye. Well, it was still dimly lit in red, and in the middle of this giant empty room was some sort of weird reactor with seats in it ala borg style. You get noticed, and it becomes a intense firefight, you using a traditional revolver in favor of automatic weapons, since you didn't spray and pray, you killed. Eventually, whats her face walks in (leather chick) and talks to you in russian; sadly I can't understand it; nor do I have any way to reproduce it.
Well, turns out she is an alien queen, and had given the russians the keys to making this mutagen that would allow her to generate parasites across the world, and consume our race like we do mcdonalds hamburgers.
Like hell any US marine would let that shit happen, buuuuut we're not talking about an analyst here. Jumping down to take out the queen, you're electrocuted by the floor grid; A simple trap meant to take out aggressive morons. Lucky for you, as you lay there incapacitated on the floor, you see the black cat walk in, parasite sticking out of it's mouth, guiding it. The alien queen comes over and drops a worm on you, and it tears your guts out so you can feel how horrible the pain of death is before it damages your brain past the point of cognizance.
But, like a US Marine, you totally fucked her over. You didn't shoot her, because you unpinned a few grenades first. BLAM!
You eliminated the queen and the machine, saved your country.
The end. Or is it?


What makes me chuckle, is modern games are way more graphical than this in terms of content, but in terms of immersion? Hardly. You'd have to look at some older games to really get a good creepout or scare; simply because the composition for immersion is a very delicate balance and very hard/expensive to get right.
I hope some game house recognizes this and cranks out a decently silent-hill style game.

-Z