THAT EVENING

I'm watching Tina Fey's comedy series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt--Kimmy spent her teens trapped in a survivalist's bunker, but now she's out of the tin can and living in New York City!

"We only give to causes that help us..."

True, Tina, true.

THAT NIGHT

A woman is working as a serf on a large plantation in a quasi-Roman empire--or so it seems.

But in fact there are six empires, each subtly different--a spray of time-twigs. Each of six similar women in this ring of empires gets pushed sideways into the nearest alt-world, each bumping the next woman out of her time, like twisting a bracelet of... people.

All are low-status and vulnerable; mostly youngish, two in their teens; several are out-and-out slaves. The branches aren't that different, and their plantation gets little news; so when they slip across time, they're slow to realize the details of history have changed under them.

And then, as they start to adjust, the bracelet rotates again...

After six shifts, each jumper finds she's back in familiar territory--except that co-workers look at her funny, say "You've been acting strange." That return home, every sixth jump, slowly makes the women face that this isn't madness, nor history changing at random, but a time-ring! Co-workers don't mention any physical changes, suggesting only souls jump across time, not bodies. They felt at home in each body--is there some natural adaptation so whatever body you're in feels like self?

Slowly the six start comparing notes--literal notes, since by definition they never meet! All they can do to communicate is leave scribbled notes for the next in the ring to find, and hunt for notes from their predecessor.

At least they can write; this isn't ancient Rome, where slaves and lowclass workers were illiterate. It's modern times, just a sheaf of sister dystopias--nasty little sextuplets!--as stratified and feudal as the Roman Empire.

Or, of course, our increasingly feudal America.

• Quasi-Rome: on Kimmie Schmidt, that charity gala. Rich men brought their wives AND their mistresses. Might as well wear togas!
• Ring of six sympathetic females in a multiverse: the six friends in My Little Pony, who protect Equestria (and, in several shows, face dystopian timeforks). Why'd my dream mix a live Tina Fey comedy with cartoon ponies? Well, Kimmie Schmidt is naïve, stubborn, idealistic, meddling, and she loves loud candy girly colors--lemon yellow, purple, shocking pink (New Yorkers think she's nuts). In short, she's a perfect Pony.

• Serfs and slaves: a warning. I've been workaholic this year. All the changes I've made have been minor--like the barely noticeable shifts between different oppressive empires in the dream.
• What to do? The two TV shows have a lot in common:
  1. Unbreakable Kimmie has to face that she is partly broken; she defied her abductor, but years in a bunker left her naïve and sexually phobic. Despite dreading it she goes into therapy (with an alcoholic Tina Fey, but still, she does it).
  2. Twilight the unicorn must face she's a socially naïve, workaholic geek whose only friends are books. That's why her mentor Celestia demands weekly reports on friendship-steps taken, and lessons learned. Essentially, weekly therapy too.
  Both shows are about the slow work of bringing frozen parts to life. And I think the dream's warning I need to do the same.
• Comparing notes from different worlds since they can't meet in person: dreams! Comparing dream-notes. More than that... I think it's suggesting I look beyond single dreams to overall patterns. Jung emphasized this; I rarely bother, since my dreams' advice is so often explicit. But this time, or this issue, will take a long haul.
• ACTION: Start by skimming all my major dreams this year. What am I avoiding with all this overwork? Don't expect it to be easy to fix, either. Only subtle details will show exactly what sort of serfdom I'm living in. Can't treat the illness till it's rightly diagnosed! And I haven't.

• Wild Magic
  I'm blind to how I seem to others; underestimate my power. And I CAN work with others; I just need freedom to be the group weirdo.
• Four Screens
  Keep ONE layer of defenses, to block those annoying flies. But drop 3/4 of my defenses; I way overdo it.
• Slides
  Don't seek (more) fame; anonymity and marginality are freedom! Do seek play and playmates--artistic, sexual, spiritual, and other.
• Stallion, Not Mare
  1: Contribute to women's campaigns for President and Senate; trust my sense that Trump is even more about gender than race.
  2: Hand-tailor your clothes to show your body, show you're male; androgeny's not solidarity.
• Skunkerpillar
  1: I'm single, and grooming matters--I have little sense of myself and it shows.
  2: Defend myself even if it raises a stink. Don't lie in the name of harmony.
• Secret Screen
  1: It's not autism or timidity that paralyzes me--it's something strange. ESP-guilt! I see things others can't; often an advantage, but it can backfire too.
  2: When I'm blocked, ESP often finds me some unlikely work-around. Trust weird paths. I'm quite an effective witch.
  3: Step out of your dreary workaholic basement! Women, kids, dating and flirtation show the way out...
• Magical Graduation
  I'm an Andre Norton--a longlived, kooky amateur whose work IS valuable. Unpolished, yes, but original!
  Abuse once made it impossible for me to find or sustain love. I fixed that. Then I was too ill, too physically fragile. I fixed THAT. Now, late in life, I can love.
  Don't self-punish when I squabble with friends. Quarrels happen. I'm not obliged to be a saint.
• The Power of Non-Visualization
  What I want most is't what I thought--health, sex, respect. I just like that feeling when I or others change in a good way--when my shamanic power's doing its job!
• The Griffins' Lesson
  1: Powerful ESP! Two precise predictions six days ahead. Trust my intuition! Keep logic loose like that axles of the griffin-cart...
  2: Someone may be trying to play me or set me up--does anyone gain?
  3: I like positive, even sappy lovers like Gilda the Griffin, not the clever people I think I want...
• Christa's Fur
  1: Lots of men do need to ask permission of women. But I'm MORE inhibited than I should be!
  2: So... pet more pussies. They're hornier and less fussy than I was taught. "More bi than meets the eye."
• Fall at the Right Size
  Waffling works! "Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
• Wizard's Horse
  Trust my nose--it says our home-renovation can stop at the subflooring, it's sound underneath.
• Texans
  White male leaders live in a world unlike mine--where women, birth, kids, education, and the long work of character-building is nothing, done by nobodies. So they kill us! Why not? More cannon fodder will appear--outa nothing and nobody.
• Featherwolf
  Trust my brains, autistic gifts, ESP... weirdness. I may only attain the heights in brief flights, but that aerial perspective lets me navigate...
• Bike over the Bell Curve
  I'm a statistical outlier, way out on the rim of any bell curve. Use outlier/freak skills--brains, intuition, autism. They serve me better than imitating normality.
• Green-Screen Angel
  1: like The Griffins' Lesson above, a bizarre, very specific ESP hit. So... trust your hunches!
  2: fight for health--if I neglect, I'm not the only loser. Others will grieve--family friends and readers, now and a century from now.
  3: One more who may care: guardian angels may be real. We may be each others' guardians. Don't piss off your angel by self-neglect!
• Furmaki
  Yet another strong psychic hit! Face that my world's big and weird, not the little cubbyhole others see--and stay in. Step outside.

1: ESP's real. 2: I underestimate myself intellectually, socially, sexually, creatively. 3: I neglect health & appearance. Quit it! 4: After decades of problems making love impractical, I have a real chance. 5: Quit trying to be normal, normal is boring. 6: Date anyone playful & positive, don't demand smarties. Oh, and 7: fight Trump's patriarchy with all my might.

That'll do for today--for my slave-note to pass on. Psst...

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