#odyssey

An odd Day, when, for no particular reason, some totally UNrelated individuals with nothing in common find themselves with odd insights and gifts, mostly coming to them in dreams.

Symon dreams of a Korean witch with one eye of solid white, the other of solid black ,who grabs him by the ear, somehow he can't squirm free. She chastises him for something, and directions him to make a potion, shaving the whisker off a tiger, gathering the first snow off a mountain (and he has fucking ASTHMA) , and stealing a royal baby's first illness by catching it into a jar. It's all a blur, but the old witch takes it all, and wipes it into some potion. She laughs, and says he'll be paid while he's eating the yukgaejang she has near her fire. He asked who the potion was for, and she said "You, of course." He spiraled into the black and woke up.

Nessa dreams of a great thundering herd of centaurs all over Texas! It was almost as if centaurs were openly seen and known, and the norm! Sons of Adam and daughters of eve she knew were instead centaurs! They moved across the streets and hills freely racing the winds! She gazed in amazement, when a Centaur she hadn't seen smiled at her, and weirdly, his front legs sometimes appeared to be human while his back remained a horse "Go on, ride with the herd, talk to them, each will tell you a sliver of a secret. Gather the slivers, and come back to me, we will bundle them together and see what to make of it mmm?" And Nessa follows his instructions, riding and questioning shop keepers and garbage men, fast food workers and electricians, all of them centaurs. They all talk about their lives ... but in each conversation they let something slip that didn't match the rest. She listened, learned, and gethered them up, these slivers of something greater. She came back to the odd old Centaur, and put the slivers together, and shared the secret.... then she woke up.

Piper dreams of music coming coming from a cavern, it's beautiful, so she goes down! Only to nearly run into a three headed dog of immense size. She retreats, but the music grows more pleading ,so she tries again. Playing her own music, she sings the beast to sleep, and goes down. The boat man greets her, and sighs saying "Your way has been paid by another" and takes her down a black river. She drifts down it, afraid to touch the water, and comes to a gray and forbidding land. Folks keep offering her pomegranates for some damn reason but she declines. Then, she finds him, an old satyr who must have been quite dashing, stuck to a crystal chair. He plays his harp with such skill she's in awe. His eyes light up to see her, and he begs her for release. In exchange he will sing her power. He admits he was wrong, but it's been so long and he still is trapped. Pity wells in her, and she sings, higher, and higher.. and the crystal breaks! The satyr grump is free, and they have a harrowing run back to the boat! When they get up into the cave again... THe fellow thanks her, and sings her a song of power. One she can keep always... and she wakes up

Grete dreams of rocks, gems, stones, all about her, a great glorious ravine full of them, but suddenly they start floating , up up up into the undeserving sky! Some of them big as boulders! She realizes that soon all the rocks of the world will be gone, so she leaps to one, then another, using her best Mario game moves! No grump could have succeeded, that's for sure! One leap, then another, trying to time the ever rising stones bobbing ways for sometimes they seem to fall down only to come up again, making the timing crucial! ALong with strong wichtel finger grips! Rock climbing, stone leaping, she comes up finally to a great cloud where she meets the greedy Cloud King, who has decided he wants the Earth too. She demands the stones back, and he tells her that she may not only have the stones back, but may have a secret of power written on this tablet. However, she must answer three riddles! If she fails, she must stay in the horrible floating sky forever! She tries to solve the riddles, but they're very hard, and she is just a kid. As he tells her she has lost, she is now his, she thinks quickly and says he can never take the Dumas rock! He insists he says no such stone exists. She points over the ledge, and asks him to see for himself. He bends over the ledge of the cloud... and she kicks him in the pants screaming "Rock that, Dumb ass!" causing him to drop his tablet into her hands and down he goes into the vengeful ravine which swallows him up. Grateful, the rocks, stones and gems form a stair way down, allowing her and their return to the world of solid ground!! Then she woke up

Connor dreams of chasing a firefly, not the Serenity kind, though the firefly does sing that theme song. It's really playful, and fun, he would never hurt it. Then suddenly, the firefly is sucked right up into the belly of a frog as big as a horse! He asks really nice to give the firefly back, I mean, how many singing fireflies does one meet even one is in the trade of being magical? But the frog refuses, saying the firefly is in his belly now, and nothing is strong enough to cut open his belly except the amazingly and dangerously close sword in the Scone! And only the heir to great things can use it. Alas, none of his friends are around, so Connor goes to find the Sword in the Scone! He grabs it, King Arthur style, lifting it ,and the scone.. the latter of which he eats! the sword now free from the scone, he returns to the giant frog, and STABS the blade forward.... to tickle the the frog's belly with the flat of it! "Gooch goochie goo!" And the Frog belly laughs SO hard, he had to spit up the firefly! Connor caught it ,and ran, the Firefly so grateful it sang him a secret! One right into his RCA headposed ear.. then he woke up

Vince dreams of walking into a Speak easy the size of a city. Handsome gents and ladies in classy early 20th century apparel crowd the bars and tables, all good naturedly talking. They flirt with each other, with him enjoying the warmth of it all. Vince helps out behind the bar. Then the door opens, and in comes a shriveled almost zombie like man. He stinks, he smells, and he has guns at his side when everyone else is unarmed. He looks like an undead cowboy from hell with slaughter in his eyes "Give me something I ain't never had before and I'll give you some power, boy. But if you fail by the crow of the rooster, I'll kill every one here." Vince is aghast, but even his full charm can't change this crazed nightmare's mind. So he prepares drinks. Starting with common ones like boiler makers, but soon getting rarer, like a Screaming Viking, a Yodeling Susan. Each time the stranger drinks it, and claims he's had it before. Getting drunk just seems ot make the man meaner and he won't pass out for the liquor pours out of his open ribs. Why Vince even tries to create something BRAND new .. but the man claims he's had that by a different name after he tries . "Guess you got nothing new I ain't never had" . Knowing what he must do, Vince moves from behind the bar, holds his hands up ,and then... hugs the nightmare "There there' He says comforting the poor creature who has nothing better to do than scare folks for attention "There there" .... the Nightmare undead cowboy stiffens, then breaks into tears "It's just so hard sometimes" He confesses... but after the creature cried for a time , letting it all out, he admited no one had given him a hug before. And...the scary stranger with the guns left, tipping Vince with a secret of power

Each of these fine folk and maybe others I've forgotten, wakes, with knowledge of a New Art! It's as if they've trained for months and years! The art may not even match their natural interests, no one said gifts were always appropriate, but wowzers! Some will find it vexing not knowing HOW this happened, others will just accept it, and some will be sure it was just a bit of undigested beef that gave them the dream and upgrade (Not the Vegans, that would be a bit of undigested zucchini). But each starts the day with a very odd gift from nothing more than a dream

(Happy Birthday , Rae!. You were due for some EXP on all these anyway :))