Phi Episode 3: A CRYPY Dream
I was tired after writing the 2nd episode, so I decided to take a nap. I slept for around 90 minutes before something woke me up. It was the study lamp that had fallen on my head. I felt strange. I had a very unusual dream, and it felt like I remembered it as if I had experienced it in real life. (I know this sounds like a common trope but read on.) I was trying to understand what happened and...
(Phone sounds: Email Notification)
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Wake up, sunshine!
I hope you had a strange, incredible dream, but fortunately, that's all you are allowed to know for now. In case you are wondering, I am not stalking you. I warned you about the dream in the previous message (wink-wink), which makes me look so cool and creepy, right?
Feel free to use the dream as content for the next episode of that stupid series you are writing. Honestly, the first two episodes were dreadful. It seemed like a forced therapy/confession session because you kept talking about how you feel, and the plot was not moving at all. Stop hiding your poor storytelling skills using scientific concepts, and for once, utilize them to further the story.
Regards,
Still pretending to be Anonymous.
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Well, that was harsh. I'm not sure how this strange dream relates to this individual I hate, but it could be a good content opportunity for an episode if it's a clue. So, let's start by laying out a good structure for the episode, keeping the rude criticism in mind.
(“I Tried”)
Let's go back in time to where I just finished writing the second episode. It was a dark and stormy night, and I was exhausted after having written a "forced therapy/confession session." Setting up the scene: my room is always dark since I don't enjoy being exposed to light. My bed is in the center, attached to one side of the wall, and my study table is on the right side near the window. My eyelids were heavy as I sat on my chair near the study table, and my mind wandered to how pitiful I was. I diverted my attention away by thinking about how my biological clock indicated that I needed sleep. It controlled most of the circadian rhythms, which synchronizes with environmental cues such as light and temperature to regulate my sleep-wake cycle. My homeostatic sleep drive got stronger as time passed by, and my eyes got heavier and heavier. I gradually started shifting towards a reduced state of consciousness, my body froze, and I decided to doze off on my chair with my head resting on the table.
(How can I remember the following? This is a story, and I read a biology book.)
Stage 1 / N1(~10-15 minutes)
My eyes were closed, and I entered the first stage of non-REM sleep, which is the changeover from wakefulness to sleep. Everything slowed down, including my eye movement and muscle activity. I felt like I was falling into some kind of a portal and experienced a sudden muscle contraction, a hypnic jerk. It's easy to wake me up during this stage, but fortunately, I was not disturbed, allowing me to move to the next stage.
Stage 2 / N2(~20-25 minutes)
As I moved into stage 2, my body entered a more subdued state, including a drop in body temperature and slowed breathing and heart rate. My brain activity slowed down, yet there were brief spurts of activity so that I could resist being awakened up by external stimuli. This helped gradually detach me from the outer world. The connection with the world of my dreams, a world fabricated to process my emotions grew stronger and stronger. It is said that dreams are experienced in all the stages but are most vivid in REM sleep (stage 4). So, I eagerly awaited the next stage, getting closer and closer to my dreamland.
Stage 3 / N3(~40 minutes)
I entered the third stage, a stage of deep sleep where my muscle tone, pulse, and breathing rate decreased as my body relaxed even further. At this point it was even more difficult to wake me up. My brain activity reduced even more, and it resembled delta wave patterns (the slowest natural brain wave state with a frequency of 0.5-4Hz, frequently experienced during deep dreamless sleep). I realized that this was the part where my body started repairing itself by regrowing tissues, building bones and muscles, and strengthening the immune system. The healing continued as time passed, and my eyes began moving rapidly as I entered my dreamland.
REM Sleep(~10 minutes)
My brain activity picked up, and my body experienced atonia, a temporary paralysis of muscles except for my eyes and muscles that control breathing. As I entered the dreamland, my breathing became faster, and my heart rate increased. The dream became crystal clear, and I found myself running in the woods, being chased by a creature shaped like a hypersphere of some sort. (For special effects and exaggeration, let's imagine the creature with glowing red eyes) The chase felt strange as it wouldn't allow me to turn left or right for some reason. It was as if the creature was navigating me to someplace. I kept running into the dark woods and tripped over a stone (such a cliche). Realizing how dead I was, I turned around to assess my fate, and (surprise surprise) the creature was gone. I was still trying to process the odd appearance of the creature when a mystery town emerged out of nowhere in front of my eyes. The town piqued my curiosity, and I was drawn to it (Now that I recall this part again, it felt exactly like reading that encrypted message for the first time). I stood up and began heading towards the town. As I entered the town, I saw children playing football and reciting something repeatedly while crying. Everything was so strange, the football was spherical sometimes, and it could teleport. The children were glitching as they moved, and the whole playground appeared to split into multiple timelines. Still, the short poem was the most bizarre part of the whole experience:
Null stalks you, and the council lied,
Cipher was born as Cipher died,
Phi unleashed its wrath, and the residents withdrew,
"Save us, O mighty explorer," we screamed as the darkness grew.
They continued to recite the rhyme, and their voices became increasingly louder. At that point, I froze and couldn't make sense of what was going on. Suddenly, that strange football emerged out of nowhere dead in front of my face and collided with my skull, and that's when the lamp fell on my head, and I woke up.
So, this was my dream, but how is this a clue? And, how does the Pseudo-Stranger know about a dream I had a few minutes ago?
(My phone buzzed with another email notification from the Pseudo-Stranger, it was a reply to the previous mail)
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I warned you about the dream in the previous message (wink-wink), which makes me look so cool and crypy*, right?
;)
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As I read the mail, my eyes widened with a glimmer of hope, and I realized that I finally discovered the only way to decrypt the encrypted message! CRYPY, of course! This gives me a perfect opportunity to end this episode in suspense. So, stay tuned!
References:
Credits:
This was the third episode of a Sci-fi series I'm writing for Chrysalis, featured in their blog.
Written By: Manav Shah
Music By: Aaryan Shah
Editors: Vedant Bhutra, Anuprita Kulkarni
Special Thanks: Vivek Nathani
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