Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Strange dream. Was attending a meeting of some sort of club ... apparently not fandom-oriented or reenactment-oriented, but chock full of people I know from those environments. Athelstan, seeming very much his old self, had a position of some importance. Chort was there. Fred had gotten elected to some office within the club, and the ceremony installing him into that position included a mock funeral. We were in one of those cafeteria/auditorium/theatre/meeting room (but not basketball court) multipurpose rooms in some building that was not a school -- I'm pretty sure it was some group's very own clubhouse, but I don't know whether it was our group's, or rented for the evening. Fancy enough to have pews, rather than folding or stacking chairs, when configured in auditorium/theatre mode. Fred had to lie in a coffin for a long stretch of the ceremony, and at some point I was supposed to go up and slip a handcuff onto one of his wrists -- I was picked because everyone thought it would be cute for me, whom "everyone knows is into that stuff" to put it on him. (Though in a fannish setting (or at least a place with that many fen present) you'd think I wouldn't be the "most out" person WRT kink, but that leads to an entry all its own). When I did so, a grey tabby cat (not Perrine; different face and body shape, shorthair all over) ran under the coffin-stand I tried to coax it out while causing as little disruption to the ceremony as possible. At one point I reached in and tried to coax it nearer to the opening by initiating a game of "swat", but instead of the wee cat's paw, I encountered something a lot closer to a human child's hand (but with longer bones relative to the hand's width than most humans), covered in thin but downy-soft cat fur. The fur was not "sparse", but it was not dense enough to completely hide the skin from sight the way a cat's or dog's fur is -- The hand was warm, and very delicate-feeling -- almost fragile.

There were also bits about flirting with a cute young woman in the back row early on and excusing myself when I was motioned up to the stage; the handcuff turning out to look more like a loose-leaf "binder ring" (the standalone kind, not part of a 3-ring notebook) which confussed me because I didn't understand how that was supposed to make anyone think of a handcuff; and parts of the coffin+stand being misplaced by the people whose job it was to remove them so I could open the coffin itself and then put them back. And being directed to another room to look for them after hunting behind the stage curtains for a while. I'm not sure, but I thing Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer was there (I mean in the character of Giles, not as the actor who portrayed him), but he had a smaller role than Athelstan. And I think there was a harpsichord in the room, but nobody played it during the part of the dream I remember.

I woke up while I was still looking for the missing pieces, and never did get a good look at the owner of that hand to find out whether it was a were-kitty, or just a very furry and emaciated child, or something else entirely. But the fur was really, really soft. I remember the sense of touch from the dream vividly (though oddly, I don't remember perceiving any other tactile sensations during the dream -- it was all sight and sound and the memory (not the direct perception) of smells. I can still remember how the bones felt under that soft fur and warm skin, and how I was afraid to grip it harder for fear of injuring it.