Really odd series of dream sequence, starting outside the Winter Palace in a summer-winter amongst some kind of fair.
Can't remember what the ancient-but-fat vendor was selling--I think toy train cars--but an old friend stood across the other side and began explaining how nice we are together. Two random passers-by stepped up and began listening in at either of my sides, and I viciously began refuting old friend's statements. Not a chance in hell I went to a "fat convention" ... rather, I laughed at friend upon friend's return.
The first floor of the Winter Palace was a bookstore. A kid a lot like one named Matt, same age as me, was browsing the freebies rack. I picked up a trial-cd of MS Excel (on the cardboard jewel-case-sized package, a sticker: "Really, it's free! Can you believe that?") and two Lord of the Rings pocketbooks. The rest of the stuff was rather junky. So I explored the first floor with a new friend that looked like an old one.
And picked up some sort of English reference book. But we weren't prepared to leave, so, oddly, I payed for it and asked the cashiers to hold it for me. Time skipped ahead and we were about finished up with the first floor, and happened to be at the front of a now extremely long check-out line. People kept asking the cashiers stupid shit, but I was finally able to interject:
"Well, even though I've been here for four hours," and laughter erupts around me, "I'm going to step out of line so I can come back into it after I check out the basement." More laughter... not very called for, either.
Sadly, a cute female cashier tells me she accidently gave someone else my reference book--but not to fear, because they would mail me a new copy once it was back in stock. I almost felt like crying... I guess I really wanted that book.
The basement was much aversed to a bookstore, as well as against what I expect the Winter Palace really is. Instead, it was more like a Youth Center, with a number of hallways connecting sports gymnasiums. Among the halls were cases containing posters declaring the "Willy Wonka Cake Decorating Contest," as well as the final entrants (it appeared this was the end of the contest). Some random eight year old (I knew because the name plate under the cake included age) won with a sketchy build of the cartoon (commercial) Willy Wonka's face. He had the smile of The Joker from Batman. Creepy...
An odd sport was underway in one of the gymnasiums--called something like "Tralawalmaloo." The setup was as such: four square mats with small circles in the middle lined up horizontally. The game was two or four players--if two were playing, the outer circles were not used. Players were issued plastic short spears with very wide spear-heads--which were sharp enough to be abrasive, but not to kill. Apparently I had watched a game or two on ESPN, so I was mostly familiar with the play-style. The objective was to knock the other player out of his or her circle.
A girl from my highschool class was practicing balance and the like. Can't remember for the life of me what the parallel real-world woman's name is. She offered to challenge me--apparently she was a world-class, olympic-competing player. I accepted because I like attacking people with spears.
And she /was/ damned good--in the first round, I unleashed a flurry of quick side-slashes, all of which she ably deflected. It was, in fact, myself who threw me off balance that round--I didn't once let up with my attacks, but the deflections caught up with me, continuously widening my strike-area, and I stepped out.
I fared better in the second round. I varied my attacks and, strategically enough, waited for her to attack me before launching anything. I was confident enough in my untrained balancing/attack-withstanding abilities that I went solely for massice counter-thrusts, and this worked to my ultimate advantage. I can't remember precisely what threw her into the air giving me enough time to swap spear orientation and drop the head against her side as if stabbing someone with a knife, but this is what I did--and when she hit the ground, I asked if the completely-unnecesary-finishing-move was legal in the sport. It wasn't.
Across from the mats was a large plasma-screen TV, and appearing on it was a wrestling match. Outside, in Russian snow (it was winter-summer, remember). I recognized one of the players--Joaquim from Shadow Hearts 2. He's a vampire who is also a wrestler. However, it wasn't as apparent as one might think--elements of Devil May Cry 3, which I began playing the other night, were also present.
In DMC3 Dante, the hero, dispatches enemies during cutscenes with absolute ease, grace, skill, etc. But then the game hands the player the controls and Dante seems to lose all of his inhuman reflex and such. In this dream, Joaquim had summoned a number of spectral spirits that were annihilating his opponent. They converged for a finishing move that literally tore out the poor victim's soul, and then a bat flew out of nowhere (which was, actually, Joaquim himself).
This is dreaming from about 8-11:30am, all the details I can remember. The new sport was by far the most interesting. Might be something fun to try setting up--assuming the spears could be replicated (they were flimsy to the point I expect they would break in the middle of a match if used by a madman like myself).
Otherwise, I worked three days this week. Just recieved a decent paycheck with 17.5% taxed out... that was a kicker. My last paycheck saw less than 10% removed. I also boosted my Blue Burst FOnewearl to level 33, unlocking hard mode and finishing half of Episode II for the first time. Socially, I can't remember doing a damned thing--aside from free lunches at the office.
Was listening to live-recordings of 16g on the train yesterday.
