I'd been looking at an advanced software system which was made by Nokia and had the codename 'Holiday'. Becoming lucid, I was trying to ask those around to provide me with help in validating my experiences... but began to fade out.
As I faded, it was as if I was talking to my own disembodied head that was in bed with me.
head: "Do you have any questions for me?"
me: (frustrated) "If I am to die, what will happen after that? Is there a nothingness? Does the outcome depend on whether I kill myself or die naturally?"
head: "To answer that question, it's best if you see the serpent. Do you see the serpent?"
I looked away and lost track of the head. The only thing I could see were my hands, where opposing fingers had seemed to criss-cross in a weave pattern.
me: "I don't see a serpent, but my fingers look all twisted up."
voice: (laughing) "Well if you don't see the serpent, that means I'll have to send you a serpent so you have one."
me: "I don't get your joke."
At this point I seemed to levitate up through the ceiling into a strange room with colored walls and tall ceilings. There seemed to be no doors or windows, but there was a single shelf that was at the same height on all the walls. A lot of objects were on the shelf--what looked like steampunk dollhouses and other assorted things.
me: "This! Ah, this room... I remember it!"
voice: "Oh, you remember now? So I guess we'll just have to call this the 'I remember it' room from now on."
Note
This may have been a remark indicating that it's a room of greater importance that I should have known by a different name. Another possibility is that my claimed memory was being mocked as I'd never seen it before--because I now can't match it to anything I've seen before in a dream.
me: "But when I was here before there was a window, a circular one, to another room."
voice: "It's still here, look."
At a spot above the shelf there appeared a round hole. Through the hole was another room that seemed to be painted with clouds. At that moment I felt a strong confidence that this was related to the clouds in the music part of The Hercules Pill.
me: "Last time I did some music. I'll try that again."
I began starting some rhythms going in my mind, and layered a few more while letting the others proceed automatically.
voice: "That's pretty good. You are probably noticing a sensation that your arms are moving much more slowly than you are used to."
me: (waving arms) "Seems normal to me, actually."
At this point the visuals dropped out and I almost woke up, but was more laying down in blackness.
voice: "Oh, dammit."
I managed to spin up some visuals and noticed a couple of plastic looking toys. One was a red dinosaur, the other more nondescript. They could move and talk, and the red dinosaur said something that I don't remember.
me: "Are you who I was talking to earlier?"
dinosaur: "Sure, yes. Same thing. Doesn't matter. The three of us should just have sex."
me: "Three of who?"
dinosaur: "You, Taber, and me. I'm Cobb."
I started to laugh fairly hard while looking at these two weird toys.
me: "Well, in that form...I don't think it's my thing."
dinosaur: "Sex!"
At this point the dinosaur came forward and sunk its teeth into my hand. It was fairly painful but did not wake me up. The other creature came and bit my other hand. I kept as calm as possible and kind of pushed them up against a wall...what was biting my hands turned into more of human faces. I pushed them off and they looked like ordinary people.
me: "What ARE you?"
taber: "I'm Taber, and I'm what they'd call a Home Adept."
me: "What's a home adapt?"
taber: "A highly specialized household adaptive."
Note
In retrospect that sounds a bit contradictory.
me: (to 'Cobb') "Are you also a highly specialized household adaptive?"
'Cobb' "Yes."
me: "And myself?"
'Cobb' "You are one of us, too."
me: "Hm."
'Taber' "Your reaction was tasteless."
Note
I do not know the meaning of this remark, but looking at it after the fact I can throw in a few guesses. It could refer to some biting back I did while we were fighting, or it might have been anger at the notion that I rejected sex with dinosaur toys, or maybe I wasn't enthusiastic enough about being told I was a highly specialized household adaptive.