I was in Final Fantasy 7, part of my party, working our way from the levening forest towards the mountains. Think the entranceway between Nibelheim and the mountains. There were even 1998 graphics, and I had some kick ass limit breaks that blinked when I was supposed to use them.

If you can imagine: I was both playing the adventure as well as part of it.

Anyway, we’d just finished dodging an encounter with the Tunesmith; not because she was dangerous but because she was annoying, in that yellow dress and hyperactive J-pop manner. (Note: there is no actual Tunesmith in the game). I’d managed some kind of tic-tac-toe game; eventually just smashing it with limit breaks. Oddly enough the theme song was not playing-I’ve had the fight theme song play in my dreams before.

I think I had to pick up a sword, somewhere, too. Not sure.

Anyway, to get where we were going, we had to pass through a graveyard. It wasn’t a terribly depressing graveyard: aside from the black iron bars running around the outside, there was a white gazebo and tiny colorful helpful creatures running around. I’m not sure what the creatures where-but they were giggly and pretty much harmless. But we couldn’t just pass. We had a mini-game to play before we could get through. Some kind of hooded figure said so. Fuck it, let’s play the game.
The mini-game involved digging on the hill the gazebo covered. We had to dig more than the little creatures in the time allotted. True to FF7 gameplay; there was a tiny timer in the lower right hand corner of all the action, showing in mauve numbers the countdown.

Ben (there is no Ben in the game, this is a guy I know from Spokane who often astounds me with his wisdom), came up with the perfect plan. As soon as the timer started, he went over to the large soundsystem that suddenly appeared, and pressed Play. The greatest Slayer song ever rocked out (but I don’t know what the title is, because it’s coming from the new album and I haven’t actually heard it) and all the little colorful creatures did the metalhead rock out headbang thing. The poor dude in the hood just slumped his shoulders, and as the timer ran down, Ben just walked over to a small patch of grass, dug once, and we won!

And then I woke up.