A couple of nights ago I dreamed about a superhero named “Vox Pop” who had the uncanny ability to speak with the voice of the people, i.e. he always said things which the general populace agreed with and they in turn supported all of his activities (regardless of their legality or relation to traditional morality). There was some debate as to whether this meant he was superhumanly good at surveys and statistics, whether he was reading the collective mind somehow, or his thoughts and speeches were superhumanly effective at swaying popular opinion. In other words, was he really good at understanding what the people wanted, or did his desires somehow cause the people to share his desires? Did he represent or did he lead, and was this a matter of his capabilities or his inclinations? Either way, he was a potent force, and a somewhat creepy guy.

In the dream, some other superhero was trying to convince Vox Pop to take a stand on some vital issue, and Vox Pop was being evasive and quiet. Of course, since they were underwear perverts, Vox Pop was being quietly evasive while the other guy was angrily trying to beat him senseless, and destroying lots of scenery. *sigh* Boys will be boys. Or perhaps action-addicted superheroes will be action-addicted superheroes.

I also dreamed that I had the ability to see monsters that may or may not be there. That is, I had hallucinations that sometimes turned out to be real, but this “second sight” was inconsistent in its accuracy. This was problematic because there were in fact invisible monsters running around eating people, but I was getting lots of “false positives” and developing a bit of a Cassandra or “boy who cried wolf” syndrome. Anybody have any plausible explanations for a such an affliction? (For the purpose of, say, writing a short story about it?) This was a bit too silly to be a nightmare, but the monsters were pretty disturbing and I’m glad that they’re not real. Or are they?