Another ridiculous dream...
I was within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, or so the dream told me, and I even had a Norton Critical edition of the novel on hand to reference if I needed to check what should be about to happen, but I was most certainly not in Puritan New England. Not anywhere close, in fact; I was in Buffalo, and, aside from that assumption, I don’t think there was the slightest actual connection to that novel.
Alongside all of this there was something about Cortez’ conquest of the Aztecs. I recall one scene in which he was cutting open an oversized, sealed envelope (for fear that there might be a razor blade inside of it), but I was confused to see that he went to the extent of slicing the entire thing apart, rather than touching it once to open it. Inside of the envelope was a rattle snake - still breathing, nonetheless - which prompted Cortez to grab another rattlesnake with tongs and let them bite each other. Why he had another rattlesnake just lying around was beyond me both then and now. There was also something about some local advising that he should let a scorpion drink his blood so that he would become immune to the scorpion’s venom.
And there was also some development about trying to stop an ancient evil from arising within the city of Buffalo. I think it might have been of Aztec origins, which might also be how the Cortez stuff was supposed to fit into the larger picture. Last I remember I was taking a metro bus to Delaware Park, where there was supposed to be some climactic battle about to happen, but… then I woke up.
Alongside all of this there was something about Cortez’ conquest of the Aztecs. I recall one scene in which he was cutting open an oversized, sealed envelope (for fear that there might be a razor blade inside of it), but I was confused to see that he went to the extent of slicing the entire thing apart, rather than touching it once to open it. Inside of the envelope was a rattle snake - still breathing, nonetheless - which prompted Cortez to grab another rattlesnake with tongs and let them bite each other. Why he had another rattlesnake just lying around was beyond me both then and now. There was also something about some local advising that he should let a scorpion drink his blood so that he would become immune to the scorpion’s venom.
And there was also some development about trying to stop an ancient evil from arising within the city of Buffalo. I think it might have been of Aztec origins, which might also be how the Cortez stuff was supposed to fit into the larger picture. Last I remember I was taking a metro bus to Delaware Park, where there was supposed to be some climactic battle about to happen, but… then I woke up.