Vampire sci-fi-ish dream
I hope I can post this right despite LJ being all wonky :P
Anyway, this is a dream I had during a nap this morning. I got woken up really early by the fire alarm going off for all of three seconds... just long enough to be heard by anyone trying to sleep... and had trouble getting any real sleep afterwards. So I got up, and went back to bed an huorish later, and am kind of glad that I did, since this is one of those rare dreams that I wish I could have every night, where I remember the smallest details and it's really a lot like watching a movie.
I'm a vampiric gargoyle, or shifting vampire (the latter, most likely). I seem to be chased by both vampires and shifters, and near causing a war between the two due to my efforts to find someone, vampires thinking I'm unleashing some great evil and disobeying orders, or possibly trying to subvert the master and take over.... shifters thinking I'm spying on them and planning to kill a sleeping shifter to gain its power.
It turns out there's some sort of 'bonding' ability that some few vamps and shifters can achieve, and I'd achieved this with a rare species of shifter from another continant, one most here thought had been destroyed... but, in fact, he was only slumbering, and I had to find him and wake him before he -was- destroyed.
In doing so I angered most of both sides, to the point that they both had people coming after me. It was difficult to chase me since I could fly (not all vampires can, only those who can shift into flight forms can, and I could shift into a bat-hybrid much like a gargoyle, with feet that could be used as hands, and claws on my wings that could hold things - this is apparently very rare for vampires, who can only normally take on certain forms)
At one point, some witch vamps were after me, flying via broom, which I found odd at first - I believe they were from a special vamp sect that are sent after rogue vamps, and they were extremely difficult to shake off, being right on my tail until the end.
Eventually I found a device that would awaken the shifter I was after, and succeeded in doing so, but was unable to meet with him. Instead, I somehow sent him a message to meet at a certain location - the central meeting place of vamps, our master's meeting chamber - and I went there.
Once I arrived, I was almost imediately assaulted, but the master motioned them away as I approached him rather boldly, and explained to him that I'd felt a bonding with this shifter and had saved him. The shifter arrived then, almost materializing (I think some rarer forms of shifters can become more than the lycanthrope form and human form, but also mist forms that could travel quickly and avoid most dangers)
The master watched the shifter, realizing his uniqueness and rarity, and then watched him approach me. There was a strong sexual tension between us, him walking right up to me, wearing only pants, and me almost immediately rubbing my hands over him. He stood so close my face was against his neck, but I refrained from biting, no matter how much I wanted to.
The master watched for a moment, then told the others they could leave, once everyone understood what was going on. The bonding is not only very rare, but very important, though I'm not entirely sure how, so once they realized what had caused my behaviour, everyone backed off, vamps and shifters, including the special sect, though they kept a close eye on me.
The sun was going to be rising soon, and I told the shifter that I needed to go home before the sun rose, and we'd meet again. The master gave me permission to give him some information of a place to stay, other shifters that would give him shelter for the night.
I shifted and flew off. This was when I started to pay attention to the setting - it was post appocalyptic, but not entirely destroyed, just dismal with lots of buildings suffering damage. It was also not uncommon for mortals to see shifters, witches or vampires flying overhead, or running past, or what have you - as though the reality of humanity had been broken ages ago and we'd become common place for them - though we didn't really associate with them. We left them alone, except for those that wished to contact us, and in turn, they left us alone, for the most part. A peaceful coexistance without really understanding each other, like two entirely different cultures sharing an island and leaving each other in peace without much interest in learning about each other.
On my way 'home', I passed the shifter, who'd met up with two other shifters. He was lizard-like in appearance, without the tail - soft scales in place of skin with a reptilian head and eyes - and though he was truely unique, there were other reptilian shifters here, two of them who'd met up with him and agreed to give him shelter. I flew around overtop for a short time, and though they took no notice of me, I know they knew I was there, especially him. I resisted the urge to go down and wrap myself around him and flew on my way.
That side-trip unfortunately made me unable to get home before the sun started to rise, and I ducked into some half-abandoned mining facility, and decided to take up residence there for the night, heading up to some rafters in an attached factory where I'd planned to shift into an actual bat and hang to sleep. Then I woke up.
Some things I remember: I was about six feet tall with scruffy black hair that was a bit long but left in an unruly mess, and I wore a hat, black leather pants (not tight, and not shiny, a dull black leather), biker boots, and a jacket the same as the pants. The lizard really wanted me to bite him, but I restrained myself, since it would have lead to far too much to get done in the short time I had before the sun rose. I seem to recall that even the rising sun seemed to not really hurt, you could almost not tell it was rising, but the urgency to get home before it hit it's peek was very strong - perhaps the sun only hurt once it rose overhead, there was a rather heavy atmosphere of gases and dust blocking it at an angle.
The sky was orange most of the night, not black like I would have expected, as though the atmosphere were lit up on a regular basis. The lizard was also orange-coloured, dusky, with black patterns similar to cheetah markings on him. I believe both sides may have thought I was trying to summon, or bring back, some great evil that had caused all the devastation that was visible on the land, which was why they were so desperate to stop me - it would have finished destroying everything on the planet - but when they finally realized that wasn't my goal, most of them left me be. The witch sect of vamps still watched me, though I don't think for that reason - it had something to do with the bonding I had with the lizard, which I still don't know the full significance of - I don't think my dream self really understood it either, just that it was important somehow.
The master was only his title, used in the manner of calling your sensei 'master', though he was the eldest of the vampires - not the first, but only off by a few generations. His role was to maintain control of the vampires, peace between the various 'mythical' races, and ensure that humanity was able to rebuild without too much interference from us. His skin was greyed and ancient looking, eyes a bit sunken, and he never spoke - we 'heard' what he thought when he wanted us to understand him. He generally sat upon a stone throne in the center of his meeting chamber, I don't know if he ever actually walked, though I know he didn't sit there all the time - possibly ancient enough to know how to shift into various forms, or to fly with his mind, I'm not entirely sure.
I had two devices I kept with me, one was some sort of 'wand', and the other was a staff of some sort, and I held them in my feet when I was in gargoyle form, and hands when in humanoid form, using a fluid motion to switch them during shifting. They were fully functional in both forms, though aside from swatting at someone with the staff once, I don't recall doing much with them until I activated the device to awaken the shifter's slumber. I do know they were really important to me, and had some power. I also had some documents I kept with me on my flight back to my home, and found it odd that I insisted on holding onto them in a wing-claw, rather than tucking them into my clothes - it's possible the world worked in a manner that, while clothes could be 'tuned' to meld with you when you shifted, other items were not automatically tuned, and had to be carried in other ways.
I can remember bits and pieces of other things, but nothing really of note. It was really neat though.