####$††~^. .^~††$####
###$††~^.. ..^~††$###
##$††~^... ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... ....^~††$#
$††~^..... .....^~††$
#$††~^.... $ dream palace $ ....^~††$#
##$††~^... ^ ----- ------ ^ ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. $ ..... ...... $ ..^~††$###
####$††~^. † ..... ...... † .^~††$####
###$††~^.. ^ ..... ...... ^ ..^~††$###
##$††~^... ^ ..... ...... ^ ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... . ..... ...... . ....^~††$#
$††~^..... .....^~††$
#$††~^.... ....^~††$#
##$††~^... not actually a palace. a cottage in the ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. woods (temperate climate, rains every ..^~††$###
####$††~^. other day, springs and streams and .^~††$####
###$††~^.. mysterious iron and stone artifacts, ..^~††$###
##$††~^... birdland-ish eternal spring (late ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... spring)) ....^~††$#
$††~^..... .....^~††$
#$††~^.... ~ ....^~††$#
##$††~^... ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. i wake up every morning at six am. it's ..^~††$###
####$††~^. dark, and the stars are out, but the .^~††$####
###$††~^.. sun is about to rise. its a long day, ..^~††$###
##$††~^... before it fades to night again, and ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... then it stays so until i fall asleep. ....^~††$#
$††~^..... it doesn't rise unless i've had my .....^~††$
#$††~^.... dreams. ....^~††$#
##$††~^... ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. † ..^~††$###
####$††~^. .^~††$####
###$††~^.. in this cottage there's a lot of radio ..^~††$###
##$††~^... equipment, sound stuff, synths, tape ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... players. pen and paper, books, cameras, ....^~††$#
$††~^..... mirrors, prisms, and various things to .....^~††$
#$††~^.... do art with. the fridge is filled with ....^~††$#
##$††~^... differet foods, all of them intriguing, ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. slightly weird. ..^~††$###
####$††~^. .^~††$####
###$††~^.. # ..^~††$###
##$††~^... ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... i have friends - there's a cat, and a ....^~††$#
$††~^..... dog (who is ridicolously large and .....^~††$
#$††~^.... wants to be the big spoon). i listen to ....^~††$#
##$††~^... the shortwave radio, and transmit a bit ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. myself, songs and poetry, and found ..^~††$###
####$††~^. sounds from the forest. the others tell .^~††$####
###$††~^.. of their lives, play the guitar for me, ..^~††$###
##$††~^... and tell tales of the old world. i ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... consider them friends as well. ....^~††$#
$††~^..... .....^~††$
#$††~^.... # ....^~††$#
##$††~^... ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. most importantly, there's a two square ..^~††$###
####$††~^. meter area on the floor where i can .^~††$####
###$††~^.. "save" things. whatever i put in here ..^~††$###
##$††~^... will not be affected by the nightly ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... reset. everything else, however, is ....^~††$#
$††~^..... completely reset overnight: synth .....^~††$
#$††~^.... patches removed, food uneaten, wounds ....^~††$#
##$††~^... healed, and wherever and whenever i'd ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. fall asleep i'd always wake up fully ..^~††$###
####$††~^. rested in my bed. sometimes there's .^~††$####
###$††~^.. accidents where i lose stuff by ..^~††$###
##$††~^... forgetting to put them in the square. ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... ....^~††$#
$††~^..... . .....^~††$
#$††~^.... ....^~††$#
##$††~^... at night, i have demi-lucid dreams ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. where the spirits of the forest around ..^~††$###
####$††~^. the cottage tries to communicate. here, .^~††$####
###$††~^.. it's not endless but connected to a ..^~††$###
##$††~^... large sprawling city, where my radio ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... friends live. we go exploring together ....^~††$#
$††~^..... - things are deep and dark - but unlike .....^~††$
#$††~^.... me, they never remember during the day. ....^~††$#
##$††~^... this is a mystery we often discuss. ...^~††$##
###$††~^.. ..^~††$###
####$††~^. .^~††$####
###$††~^.. ..^~††$###
##$††~^... ...^~††$##
#$††~^.... ....^~††$#
$††~^..... .....^~††$