Mzzkc's Mind Games

Catching up on a few days worth of notes.

Still gonna try to keep this under the ~30 minute limit writing constraint.

BARE-BONES ENTRY OF MEDIOCRITY

Aliens

Staying in a bed and breakfast, an alien podship smashes into the window, docking similarly to Halo 2's first mission. A severed head speaks the intentions of the immature xenomorphs that spill from the small ship, into the room. They seek only our love, adoration, and worship. Only if necessary will they subsume control of our brains and bodies. Euphoria awaits those who submit.

I make up some excuse and nope the fuck out the front door.

Agricola

Running down the town's main road at super-speeds, I'm stuck behind a bicyclist. I'm pretty sure he's a coworker. I don't want to be rude and pass him, so I make the first available turn between a row of houses, and continue on my path by taking a turn on a road parallel to the main one. I slow as I approach the market. It's really more of a bazaar with open-air shops and colorful awnings lit solely by starlight, all set atop grey cobblestone.

Samael's there, attending to one of the shops. I head into Samael's shop and pull out a copy of Agricola for inspection, since the shop specializes in fixing issues with board games or something. I don't quite remember. As I'm lifting the cover, Samael hastily warns me, but it's too late. A bunch of cardboard meeples scatter across the floor as other patrons crowd around. Graciously, Samael helps me pick them up and place them back in the box, the contents of which look more like Five Tribes than Agricola.

Cafe

After leaving the mall, K and I walk into a golden and brown hued cafe alongside the street. A bunch of people from high school and college are there. They're glaring, murder in their eyes. K is unsurprisingly oblivious to the mood in the room. He takes a seat, and I follow suit.

Hotel

Someone's dead, and I think I might be involved. At the very least, the CEO suspects me. I'm sure that's why I passed hotel security on my way to the stairs. And it's definitely why I jumped down the little square hole between the spiraling stairwell, letting gravity pull me down the hundred or so stories to the ground floor. That should buy me some time.

Vista

Walking through the hotel's grand hall, I take in the extravagance. Around me austere columns stand amidst dark oak tables. Whilst underfoot, a lush carpet with elegant gold inlays cushions my every step. It's not as vivid as it could be. In fact, I notice the dream wavering a bit and muse to myself about the false notion that all lucid dreams are vividly realistically. Vividness is a choice, I remind myself with a smirk, stabilizing the dream around me to life-like realism and stepping out onto the deck, where many of the guests have already gathered. The view is breathtaking. A number of curved, ancient buildings hug the glittering lake below. Towering high above, all perfectly illuminated by varying gradients of blue, pink, purple, and red. To my left, a waterfall spills lazily from the window of one of the stone marvels. I fly to it, cresting over the falling water and landing on the grassy overlook above.

Punks

Some punks are acting up in the parking lot. I can tell they've targeted me, so I untarget myself and pass through without incident.

I think it's finally time for a proper entry!

Nah, just kidding.

BARE-BONES ENTRY OF MEDIOCRITY

Stock Market

The compound door hisses shut behind metal, circular steel sliding into place. I reflect briefly on the progression of the war taking place on the battlefield just beyond. Verizon was making headway in its ploy to undervalue Lipton's stock prices. Releasing all the ants in the facilities. You know, the ones whose sticky sap helps seal the teabags. My viewpoint flashes to an image of the ants in question sealing up a teabag. They move along the thread attached to the paper nub, entering the teabag one-by-one, vomiting up a little goopy mess as a worker presses the seal with his gloved fingers.

My view flashes back to inside the compound, I've just poured myself some tea. I take a mouthful...and there's chunky ants in it. I really don't know what I was expecting, I think to myself as I'm spitting the burnt ant remains from my mouth.

Driving

Lying on the hotel bed, my fiance's coworker, J, enters the room from the balcony door, which leads onto the roof. She's picked out a dress she'd like me try on, but I just want to relax on the bed for a bit. She insists, basically forcing me into the dress as I'm lying there. To her credit, it looks decent, but it's definitely a tad long, and the lavender color doesn't look great with the pseudo-knitted style. But hey, at least it got her out of my hair.

My fiance comes into the hotel room from the hallway, soon after her coworker has left through the balcony. She's visibly upset. "What's wrong?" I ask, worried.

"J just stole my car." I sigh.

That all must have been a distraction. I muse to myself. "Don't worry. I'll go get it."

I make my way onto the roof, toggling invisibility as I go, and see J pulling out of the rooftop parkingspace with my finace's car. She's off before I can close the gap, driving onto the roofs of other nearby building via conveniently placed ramps. I take to the air, maneuvering myself in front of the car, still unseen as I fly between the rooftops. As the car makes another jump, I position myself in the trajectory, phasing through the windshield and plopping down next to J. I drop invisibility, startling her.

"Really?" I ask.

She gives some half-hearted excuse that I don't recall.

Sighing, yet again, I swap our positions, teleporting her to my seat and myself to hers simultaneously. As I turn the car around, she asks "How are you going to get back? You can't exactly drive to higher locations."

"Guess I'll have to fly it back then."

"Huh?" she asks as I take the car up and over a ramp, applying flying vehicle properties to it. The car now handles extremely similarly to a Hornet, with a bit of BF Helicopter mixed in. Very soon, I've landed the car back onto the hotel rooftop, and all is right with the world.

Theorycraft

This was it, the breakthrough we were waiting for. I push on the show curtains and step into the shower, a haunting giggle coming from the corner of the tub, behind the shower curtain. Ghost children. They're the key to universal lucidity! "Now, how best to put this into practice," I ponder aloud, just as my alarm wakes me.

12.11.2011

Close to Home (Non-Lucid)

★★☆☆☆

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

My brother is here. As is my mother and father.

I find this somewhat unusual, as I wander through my home, and they interact with me so jovially.

But no matter.

In the garage, now, I feel like practicing some guitar, so, using my TK, I pull it from my upstairs room, phasing it through a few walls on its way to me. Unfortunately, the neck is screwed up, most of the frets are missing, and the strings are incredibly short as result.

Just a glorified bowl.

I take a look around, noticing my brother coming down the stairs behind me. I doubt he'll have an issue with it, so I fill up the guitar with cocoa rice krispies and milk and start to chow down, moving out of the garage, towards the driveway, only to have my father stop me sternly.

He warns me about watching my behavior, and suggests I head back inside.

I oblige.
______________

We're hosting a house party, and there's lots to do, especially in the kitchen and out back.

Cleaning needs to be done, and things need to be cooked.

I help the best I can.
______________

Sitting on a cheap bed, in what seems to be a dank hotel room, I notice the dark outside, the sketchy neon street signs, and wonder what I'm doing here. . .

To celebrate my hundredth entry, I present my first 'induced' LD.

BONUS ENTRY OF DOOM!™

??.??.????

Humble Beginnings (DILD)

★★★☆☆

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Barely enjoying my time at the mansion, I chatted with a few acquaintances. The conversation was rather boring, much like our 2D environment. Sickly orange and brown patterned floors sat, pixelated, on the same plane as the dark wood paneled walls. Beyond the room, there stretched an infinite sea of black nothingness. Of course, all this seemed perfectly normal to me in all my 8-Bit glory. That is, until I stopped listening to these dreadfully uninteresting people and started thinking about something more exciting.

Recalling my incredibly recent readings on the phenomena known as lucid dreaming, I ponder how cool it would be to have one. Following that line of thought, I realize. . .

"Holy shit. This is a dream."

With that, my flat world exploded into detail. I could now see that ugly-ass carpet under the long fancy banquet table we were sitting at. Pillars supporting richly flowered vases and sculpted busts sprang into view. I stand up, done with this social nonsense, and leave the room through the open, towering, mahogany doors. The cold, hurt, and surprised stares from the lifeless DCs don't phase me in the slightest.

Soon, I'm outside, but one of the girls has trailed along, seemingly concerned for my well being. Opening the door to the black limo waiting in the street, I look back to her and say, "You wanna get out of here? Maybe stay in a hotel tonight?"

"Sure." She replies shyly, smiling as I let her into the vehicle first. I figured, even if she was a DC, it'd be good practice if I ever dated anyone again.

The limo took off, into the city. My date sat quietly next to me, obviously too shy, or to mindless, to start a conversation. However, that didn't bother me, as I was too busy being in awe of the dream around me. Looking out my window, everything seemed so remarkably detailed. The luminescent lights of the tall buildings and casinos, the reflections playing off the glass, the subtle chill of night, and the complexly intricate side-street corner-markets, all appeared as real as I could have possibly hoped for. All doubt had been wiped from my mind: this Lucid Dreaming thing was the wasp's nipples--so to speak.

Coming to a stop now, the two of us exited onto the sidewalk. The ambient orange glow of the neo-gothic hotel's lamp-lights surrounded us as I approached the bellboy, in his red uniform. Reaching into my pocket, I know I have to procure some kind of payment. Good thing this is a dream. I think to myself as I grasp onto the credit card that wasn't in my pocket a moment ago. Presenting it to him proudly, he takes it un-amusedly and swipes it.

"Ma'am, this card has been rejected." He tells me flatly.

"What?! That's not possible. Swipe it again." I order.

The girl lightly grasps my arm at the elbow, as if she could sense my rising anger, and wanted to pull me from the situation.

Sighing, the bellboy swipes my card again. "Nothing has changed, ma'am."

"Well, fine, how about I give you cash?" I reach into my empty pocket again.

"We don't take cash."

I pull away from the girl. Now, I'm proper pissed.

"The hell?! DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"

Obviously, this idiot didn't know he was my creation, part of my mind. A thing whose existence I could destroy with a mere thought. His ignorance to his unimportance was infuriating.

So much so that it woke me up.

I think it's only fair to state in advance I left out an important detail in this dream. Here's hoping Raven can remember it and fill it in.

13.01.2010

Enter Raven (DEILD)

★★★☆☆

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Woke up again. I just couldn't seem to stay in these dreams for longer than 5 minutes. I decided to try again.

I stayed perfectly still and soon enough I felt the onset of SP. After what seemed like mere seconds someone or something started piling covers on top of me.

I RC, and sure enough, I'm dreaming. I start to get out of bed, but whatever was piling those covers on top of me jumps on my back weighing me down. Standard Flight wasn't gonna cut it, so I pulled upon my archetypes from Heroes and the Matrix to allow me to fly at high speeds while still carrying weight.

I shatter through the sliding glass door onto the balcony. Twisting in the air, shaking off whatever it was as I came to a hover 50 feet above the resort's pool. Everything was so clear and vivid. The green grass of the golf course behind us complemented the blue haze of the mountains in the distance. The blue waters of the pool shimmered and rippled in the warm beating sunlight. There were people everywhere, enjoying their vacation.

I fly to the front of the resort, trying to remember what it was I wanted to do. I know! Let's attempt some shared dreaming!
I wonder how to go about something like that for a moment, and choose to try a method Raven Knight frequently uses. But what song to use? I try to think of a good Portugal. The Man song that would be most conducive to a task such as this. For some reason I decide upon "Elephants."

Sure enough, what I believe to be the song starts playing in the background. While I'm oblivious to the fact that the song playing is, in fact, not "Elephants," and is closer to "Gold Fronts," but I really don't care. You see, the song, the beat, the lyrical styling, all culminated into an overwhelming feeling of pure bliss, happiness, and power. I twirl and flit about in the air, just letting the music flow over me. I'm on top of the world. There is nothing I can't do.

I attempt to rip open a portal with my hands in the air in front of me. No good. A few more experiments end in failure before I come up with a new plan. Hovering over to a nearby street lamp/pole thingy (it was fairly wide), I push my hands into the solid metal and pull it apart. To my surprise, a hole had formed, behind which I could easily make out what appeared to be the streets of a small town of sorts. I step through and find myself in a scene reminiscent of an old European village.

Dirt roads wind through the colorful wooden buildings, the architecture of which is very square and practical. I follow one of them to an open building where I see two people, one male, one female. I call up to them, asking, "Raven?" the girl leans over the rafters, knocking down a bit of hay as she does so, saying, "Not here." I turn back, walking only a little while further, before running into another pair of people, again a male and female. The female looks a lot like Raven's Skype picture, except much slimmer. The guy has longish hair and what seemed to be odd dreadlocks. "Raven? Is that you?" I ask the woman.

She looks at me quizzically. "Who. . ?"

"It's me!" I state, excitedly. She seems very cautious of me as does the man she was talking to.

"Wait. . . Are you. . ?" It looks as if she gains a sudden realization, so I reach out my hand for a handshake, but it turns into a hug. However, I feel the dream start to fade due to an overabundance of excitement.

I didn't get to say goodbye.

27.08.2009

Practice Makes Perfect (DILD)

★★★★☆

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

2 Lucids last night. The first one only lasted a minute or two and nothing really interesting happened. The second was much better. I'll cut out a lot of the boring intro stuff.

I had just gotten off the ride. It was some kind of weird water slide that defied the laws of physics and had a story that changed each time you went on it, or something. After getting off, the girl running it tried to give me this sticker/ID/Ticket saying I had agreed to buy it for $17.95. I said "screw you" and kept walking. She followed, trying to convince me to buy it. I refused until she gave it to me for free. It was a ticket to go see The Hiphopopotamus and The Rhymenoceros in concert.

I stuck it in my pocket and went on my way, headed to the Resort's Hotel. Indoors now, I pass by a restaurant where a comedy routine is being done. The subject matter is The Brady Bunch.

I keep going. Things are just getting more and more deserted. I'm starting to worry, but that little voice goes off in my head to remind me that I am, in fact, dreaming.

Well, would you look at that. I keep moving further into the hotel/mall. Things get more and more desolate. Eventually, I come upon a huge room. This seems like a perfect place to practice some lucid skillz. First up, a bit of practice. I look down at my hands and watch as blue lightning starts to form. I can feel the electricity pulsating down my arm.

I stretch out my arms quickly, releasing a torrent of blue bolts into the nearby wall. I run at the wall, and when I reach it I start to run up it. When I am content with my height I push off and start to fall slowly. I decide to spin in midair, releasing bolts of electricity as I fell.

When I reached the ground, characters from the DBZ universe started to appear, as did Superman. I figured I'd try making some fireballs, but the best I can make are little licks of flame that make a small explosion on impact. I hurl a bunch of these at Superman, but it doesn't do anything. An Energy Blast seems like the way to go. So, I start up a kamehameha, since I always fail at normal blasts. To my surprise and delight, it works, and I'm able to sustain it, even increase its size and change its direction. I use it to essentially vaporize Krillin.

They're pretty upset with me now, even after I explain they can just wish him back to life like they do everyone else. "It's no big deal." At that, they surround me. Goku holds me down and pokes my side, thinking that has something to do with me having lucidity. I told him it doesn't work like that and they eventually let off. For some reason, I am now on DV on some random thread.

And then I woke up?

22.07.2009

Hamburger in Paradise (DILD)

★★★★★

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

'Twas an Epic LD, lots of fighting, but I can't remember too many of the details; it was a long one.

It started out partway into things. I was staying in this odd hotel. It was very large and sprawled out instead of up. The room I was staying in was like any old guest room you'd fine in someone's house, except it was about twice as large. and could fit at least 5 people comfortably. However I was the only one staying there.

Some things happen that I have difficulty recalling in detail, but it involves further developing the area we are in. It turns out the hotel is part of this crappy public school and gang violence is on the rise. I decide I need to leave since this isn't even my school, and half the people here don't even know the school's alma mater. I leave with the counselor, but we are followed by this kid in a red jacket. As we enter the car he pulls out a switchblade and tries to mug us and take the car.

All the while he had been following us I had been fingering the butterfly knife in my pocket and watching his shadow follow ours. I whipped it out and flipped it open, lunging at him. He's much more experience than I am and gets a solid cut across my arm, while I just nick his shoulder. I manage a few wrist cuts, but his form is much better than mine and he tears up my arm and neck, spilling blood everywhere. Not one to give up so easily, I manage to subdue him, and, with several stabs to the head later, he dies.

He turns into a ghost and wonders why I can see him. I explain to him my role in helping people cross over, and give him a stereotypical speel on how he has to scare people in order to gain more energy. It's really dumb, but I don't think so at the time.

I'm back in the hotel room, trying to lie down to sleep. Stuff happens that eventually has me with an old teacher and my brother at the arcade/casino of the hotel. There are some odd games there, one particular game they were playing was like a crane game, but with false gold and odd shaped things inside. They were playing that one for awhile. I told them how dumb it was and how worthless the prizes were, but my old teacher told me to stop spoiling the fun.

At this point, my Chick-Fil-A and Burger King meals were ready, so I took them and started walking away. I wonder how I'm going to eat all this food, but a voice in my head blurts in, saying relax it's a dream, eat away.

Yeah, you're right, it is a dream, I think strolling on as if nothing drastic had really changed. I make my way back to the front doors where this guy shouts, pulls out an uzi, and shouts something along the lines of "Everyone down, unless you want to volunteer to let us have some fun with you." I'm getting a kick out of all the people screaming and dropping to the ground. I just walk up to the guy, bags of food still in my right hand. I say to him, "Yeah, sure I'll volunteer," raising my other hand like you would to volunteer for something in a classroom. He looks at me weird, tells me to stay right there, and then runs back outside where he starts assembling his cohorts. There's a lot of them.

Well, crap, now how am I gonna enjoy my meal. There's no way I can fight that many with only one hand. So I run away. At first they're hot on my tail, but a few short range TPs put enough distance between us for a little more comfort, not that I was worried. The TPs destabilized things a bit, due to the sudden and forcible change in scenery. I stabilized by rubbing my hands together and focusing on the room I was now in. White walls, and lots of people on little white cots. I go into the corner, behind a white shelf that blocks most of the room from view, and pull out the Whopper. I take a bite. I normally don't eat in lucids, but maybe I should, because god this was delicious. The evil dudes were still looking for me and even came into the room and kidnapped a few kids and threw them onto crosses and into cramped coffin like boxes. But, I was chill, knowing it was just a dream, so I just kept eating my burger. It was moist and hot and meaty, with crunchy toppings like cold lettuce and sweet onions and pickles, can't forget those pickles.

At the time I didn't even know I was completing the basic task. *facepalm*

When I was satisfied, I got up and decided to go help those kids from earlier. I needed some more practice, so I did a few more short range TPs until I reached this large archway, with a few henchmen a little further in. I looked at my hand and decided to try out some close range energy blasts, since I suck at them. I start to build up a charge in my right hand and rushed at the closest guard. When they see me, a few random DCs think I'm one of their favorite super heroes and call out what they think is my name. Dumb DCs distract me and all I end up doing is forcibly grabbing the dude's face. To follow up, I punch him in the kidney, bringing my leg behind his, and twist my body, pummeling his head down into the cement ground, creating a big indent in it. With him down, I move onto his friends.

I figure I wouldn't do anything fancy here. Just brute strength and martial arts. A spinning jump hook kick to the head takes out one guy, and the other dude backs off, so I ignore him. Another group of henchmen go scrambling as I approach them. Before they can all get away I grab one by the collar and fling him violently downward, making my way to the carriages that housed the kids, on their crosses, in their coffin-like boxes.

I find myself back in bed.