501: Concerning Lots of Sand
So the Neil Gaiman, Dream King or creator of the Dream King if you like, has been. This time it was not a case of last minute scrambling. I queued early in the morning for tickets. I came for every talk early. I was beyond prepared yo and It Was Good. He's one of the very few authors whom I adore and is still Living. And to top it all off, he's really nice, very rumpled, always witty and also pretty strange, Just the Way I Love Them.

The Man of My Dreams, Gackt, has also been, believe it or not. Sometime during my Week of Insanity end of Oct, he popped up with small army of Dears to hang out (and sometimes perform) and then leave. I will not dwell on this. I will not go berserk. I will not go into shock. I will not freak out. No, not at all. Inhaling. Exhaling. Repeating. 

My dreams have taken a turn for the Bizarre also. Apparently my subconscious ships Harry/Draco. GASP.

It opens with me visiting a studio park type thing in South Korea. I have no idea why or where exactly. So, it's a large group of tourists, doing the guided tour, watching how television studios work etc. Then, the tour guide starts a little Quiz thing, giving out goodies for the courageous volunteers. Some girl gets a giant wrapped box of....something. Then for some unfathomable reason, I'm up next and do whatever it is they wanted but my prize is to film a music video with Big Bang. (Good Grief, my subconscious is still stuck at age 10 with raging hormones.) 

So I'm thrilled to the moon. Because as most K-Pop fans know, whenever there's a music video with one girl, one or more of the Kpoppers end up with her/fighting over her/getting beaten up because of her etc. (AND OHOHOHO, I GET TO GROPE MY DARLING TOP A BIT. NOT MINDING THAT AT ALL NO >8D)

So while I'm riding the high of being with Big Bang (That name just invites terrible jokes) somewhere in the corner of the room, Msrs. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are being led to a hidden elevator by some poker-faced Korean man in a smart suit. At this point, they don't like each other but happen to be in close proximity for the sake of the Great War (not yet over). It's unclear if they're on opposite sides at the same post or on the same side.

The elevator takes them down 11 floors into the ground, opening up the an underground town with lots of quirky restaurants. The poker-faced Korean man leads them to a Turkish joint where they take adjacent seats and call for the menu, while waiting for their contact. Mr Malfoy bitches about their contact being late while Mr Potter cracks open the menu to see the note "Turn to Page 24 you fools". On page 24, a small white square on the green page swivels out into a real, much larger square note, exactly the thing they had come for from their contact.  

The rest of my dream glosses over the nitty gritty details of the war. What is covered is that, surprise surprise, Potter and Malfoy have grown a lot closer, a mix of respect and some measure of fondness. So the dream cuts to a day or so after the Great Battle and the War's Official End. Harry and Draco are going out for a nice meal to celebrate. It's a nice restaurant, with a party of little girls inside doing what squealing little girls do at parties. Harry rushes over to a two-seater by the glass windows.

Suddenly, the whole sequence goes in really slow motion. Draco smiles at Harry and turns to look out the window, he's still standing a table or two away. He sees a crazy person with a sniper in the neighbouring building aiming straight for Harry. Horrified, he sees the shot being made, stumbling far too slowly to reach Harry, watches the bullet come closer, closer and finally shattering Harry's skull. 


Still in slow motion, the little girls go running, giggling and squealing all over the place, as if nothing had happened. Several of them have blood in their hair, one or two have pieces of what was Harry on their faces. Nobody in the restaurant seems to have noticed the murder. Except Draco, who stands alone in the frame, stunned, wretched and falling to pieces. It had all been too sudden for him to cry, to quick for him to scream.

And the dream ends with the sense that he had absolutely nothing worth living for now. 

I don't know what was in that porridge I had for supper but it must be pretty close to magic mushrooms.