Death's Other Kingdom

07.16.2014

The Other Realm (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

After a nonsensical soccer fiasco in the back yard of my childhood home, I spontaneously become lucid. My task of visiting Hell is not far from my mind.

I walk over to one of the coaches, a tall man who looks like an older version of The Rock. "Can you help me with something?" I ask politely. I find it much more enjoyable to get DCs to do all my work when possible rather than exerting direct control.

"Sure," he replies. "What do you need.?"

"I'm looking for a girl with purple hair who goes by 'Dreamer.' Can you take me to her?"

This DC is of the non-helpful sort, apparently. "I have no idea who that is," he tells me. Out of nowhere, he holds up a pie as if he's about to throw it at me.

"Please don't throw that in my face!" I cry out, blocking the pie with my hand. As a result, I end up with a fist-full of the filling.

Forgetting the coach, I decide to just find Dreamer the same way I did last time. As I walk across the street, I lick the pie from my hand. It is delicious; a kind of cream cheese pie with chocolate chips. "Hey, eating junk food was one of the tasks of the month!" I exclaim. I'm quite amused that I completed this task before I even consciously remembered it.

Before reaching my neighbor's house, I notice duffle bags and suitcases sitting out on the front porch. Dreamer must be really eager to come with me on an extended trip to Hell, I think to myself jokingly. When I get closer, however, I'm confused to find that the porch and the front door are all that's left of the house. Everything else lies in rubble at my feet. I knock on the door half-heartedly anyway. Nothing happens.

An old man appears. "Dreamer has already crossed to the Other World," he tells me rather cryptically. He points in the direction of my house.

I follow the old man back across the street, where he shows me a charred area of burned grass.

"So... I just touch this and it'll take me to Hell?" I guess. The old man nods.

I touch the ashes and get flashes of a gray Silent Hill type area. Then I'm pulled from the dream into sleep paralysis.

I'm now lying trapped in SP. I'd turn this into a DEILD, but I'm distracted. There is a woman's voice reciting her life story in poem form, accompanied by music. Everything she says is clear and makes perfect sense. I'm trying to lock at least a few lines of her words into memory so I can write it later, but I end up forgetting all of it.

07.16.2014

Minecraft (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

While driving--- and doing a terrible job of it--- I spontaneously become lucid once again. I ditch the car, opting to walk.

I remember something I'd read recently about extending dream time by engaging all five senses. I want to try this out, but I make the mistake of starting with vision. The first thing I notice is that the world looks a little blocky. Because my attention is fixed on the blockiness, that particular quality increases dramatically until the whole world looks like a game of Minecraft. This annoys me immensely.

I decide to start over. I close my eys, focusing on the feeling of my feet hitting the ground as I walk. Closing my eyes proves to be a terrible idea. Predictably, this forces me yet again into sleep paralysis.

Now lying trapped in my bed, I believe I hear my aunt outside my door yelling for me to wake up. Is she really there or am I hallucinating? I manage to shake my foot enough to exit SP--- now awake, my aunt is no longer talking.

I keep still and am pulled right back into SP. My aunt starts talking again. She's rambling on about things that seemed to have happened in the past with her daughter, speaking as if I AM her daughter. I am again amazed by my mind's ability to come up with all of this dialogue.

Two more lucids to report! One really short one in which I accomplished nothing, and the WILD from last night that was a failure at my own task, but may at least count toward the TotM.

I didn't post my brief failed attempt yesterday, so...

7/10/14

07.10.2014

Onward to Fail (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm talking to my parents, when I reach up to feel my hair and notice that its longer than it should be. It seems to be as long as it was before I cut it short, which means it's well past my shoulders. How could it possibly have gotten so long again?

It couldn't have. This only happens when I'm dreaming, I remind myself. I instantly recall the task that I've already failed at once. I'm supposed to find Dreamer and then find an elevator to Hell. I walk off, starting to call for her, but quickly feel myself losing the dream.

I try to stabilize it... No luck.

I'm pulled into a false awakening.

My problem seems to be that I'm too worried about stabilization, which causes me to think too much of my physical body. Since my attention is more on worrying about waking up, I lose the scene.

7/11/14

07.11.2014

Critter (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

There are three black widow spiders in front of me, having a conversation. They are neutral to my presence. They also seem to be males, which means they're not venomous. Still, I'm not too keen on being bitten, so I am doing my best to get what I need without coming into contact with them.

I reach around their webs, only to be bitten by a different kind of bug. At first I think it's one of the spiders. I jerk my hand back and the bug comes with me. It's this weird blobby thing; I can't really call it an insect because it doesn't have six legs--- it only has four. Still, it's insect-like. It is white and globular; each part of its body looks squishy and balloon-like except for its legs, which are serrated like a grasshopper's. Its body is clearly intended to try to camouflage it as a rabbit. The bug's hind end is equip with blobby extensions made to look like rabbit ears. It's real, insectoid head protrudes from its back. (Although since it seems more like the bug walks upside down and backwards, like a human trying to do a crab walk, I suppose the head is actually protruding from the creature's stomach). It is the size of a small baby rabbit.

((This is the best I could sketch it with my non-existent art skills.))




I stare in awe at the strange creature for a while before I learn it can talk. This surprises me, despite the fact I found talking spiders perfectly normal. His name is Jack and he becomes my friend.

07.11.2014

Journey Toward Hell (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm lying in bed awake with my eyes closed when I feel a slight vibrating feeling that means I'm about to enter sleep. It would be great if I can turn this into a WILD since I wasn't even aiming for that. The vibrations grow stronger, and by the second wave I am fully within sleep paralysis. I figure I can just get up and start the dream. I'm wrong. I open my eyes, but I seem to have opened my physical eyes instead of my dream ones (something that I'm able to do while trapped in SP). When I do, the vibrations feel like they're tearing my head apart. I quickly shut my eyes again.

Surely if I just lie here, it'll HAVE to turn into a dream. I wait, but nothing happens except for more uncomfortable vibrations. I try to move, hoping I can just get up and walk into a dream. I'm completely unable to budge a single muscle, phantom or otherwise. Normally I can imaging rolling out of the bed to get the dream going. This doesn't work either. Maybe WILD isn't the best technique for someone who suffers from chronic sleep paralysis anyway.

Finally, I'm able to lift my dream arm. I grasp around blindly, reaching for something that I can use to pull myself up out of my body. I reach a dresser and finally manage to succeed in untangling myself from the physical world.

I'm standing in my bedroom just in front of the door. I do a quick RC just for good measure, but it's not necessary. I'm already lucid.

I run out the bedroom door, ending up in my childhood home. No way am I going to fail at my task this time! I do my best not to think of the dream ending as I exit my house. It's night time and pitch black outside, unlike in real life where the sun has just barely risen. I sprint across the street toward my neighbor's house. I call out for Dreamer, banging on the door.

The door swings open and a sleepy looking purple-haired girl stands there staring out at me. Finally! Some hint of success! "I found you!" I exclaim in delight. "Now we've got to find an elevator and make it down to Hell!"

I grab her hand and pull her out of the house, trying to convey the necessity for speed. We start to run down the road together, full throttle. "I know where an elevator is," she tells me, seeming to understand what's going on now after her brief confusion. "Follow me!"

As we run down the street, she asks me why I'm asleep at such a strange time. At first I don't understand; then I remember that she lives in Australia. "Oh, right. There's a huge time difference between where you are and where I am," I tell her. "Last time I checked, it was 7:00 in the morning here. That seems like a while ago and my alarm is supposed to go off at 7:30, so we really need to hurry!"

She leads me to a section of the street that never fails to have some kind of evil within my dreams. I hope this time will be different; I don't need any distractions. Dreamer veers to the right toward a farm that used to have donkeys irl. We run through the dark field toward an outhouse-shaped building. Suddenly, an evil looking farmer in a tractor begins riding toward us. I feel a twinge of fear at his appearance, but I ignore it.

We run into the "outhouse" which turns out to be far bigger on the inside than on the outside. I expect there to be an elevator in here. Instead, it's filled with hay and dirt. Dreamer and I climb up and hang from the ceiling like ninja's hoping to hide from the evil farmer. He'll never look up here, I tell myself.

He does. He looks up and sees us as soon as he walks into the building. An evil grin spreads across his face. Once spotted, Dreamer and I drop from the ceiling to face him. The man wordlessly turns and pulls a lever by the door. The floor drops away beneath us--- we're falling into a pit which most likely leads to Hell.

Dreamer gives me a helpful smile. "Does this count as an elevator?" she asks.

I don't think it does. I summon a platform beneath us. It's one of those circular platform elevators that I've only ever seen in video games. There's a vague rumbling noise as the elevator slowly descends deeper and deeper into the ground. It's dark, and there's not much scenery, so I start to become concerned with losing the dream.

"Can't this thing move any faster?" I complain. I run from wall to wall, trying to keep focused on the minimal imagery. It's no use. The dream fades and I have a false awakening.

Well, it's a good start.

07.07.2014

As The Venom Flows Through (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Cheyenne is holding an incredibly beautiful snake, which has coiled itself around her body and is reaching out to regard me at eye level. I've never seen a snake quite like this, but I can tell from its eyes that it is venomous. "Be careful not to let it bite you," I tell Cheyenne. For now, it seems more focused on biting me. I am just within the line of danger, but I manage to dodge its strikes. I decide its best to step back.

When I do, the snake loses its one distraction and notices the warm, living body that it is coiled around. It turns around slowly and deliberately to glare at Cheyenne, before latching on to her neck.

Now I'm practically dragging her through the woods, screaming for help as the venom takes hold of my poor friend. First, she simply begins to act a little loopy. But soon her veins are bulging black from her skin while her lips turn a deathly shade of blue. A green liquid leaks from her temples, running down her face.

I barely get her to help in time to rescue her.

This is hugely symbolic of a situation that occured IRL.

07.07.2014

Onward To Hell (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

College is in session once more, and I'm entering into the cafeteria for the first time since summer break. When I get to the place where I'm supposed to scan my card, I struggle to remove it from my new wallet. I apologize to the cashier for the delay. He hands me some kind of scholarship form from a different college and says I must fill it out before I can eat.

This form is impossible! The directions the man gives me make absolutely no sense, and the sections I'm supposed to fill out keep disappearing and changing order. Plus, some of the answers I've already written are nonsensical when I go back over them. It slowly dawns on me that I have to be dreaming.

"Screw this!" I yell, slamming my pen down before the now bewildered man. I storm off, phasing effortlessly through the glass door and entering a neighborhood similar to my grandmother's.

I suddenly recall my task of going to Hell to find out what the Devil wants with my high school ring.

It is a rather cloudy day; the sky is dark with a reddish, rusty tint. I smile to myself. "What a perfect day to visit Hell," I chuckle.

I remember that first I must summon Dreamer, so I call for her a few times. When that doesn't work, I make the decision that she's going to be in one of the nearby houses. I walk towards one, clapping and rubbing my hands together as I walk because the dream has taken on a surreal, old movie quality and I keep nearly losing my vision altogether.

When I ascend the steps, I lose the dream completely and am pulled into the black void of sleep paralysis.

"No biggy," I think, "I'll just turn this into a DEILD."

I succeed in the dream part, but lose the 'ILD' in the belief that I've actually woken up. I check the time. 8:44. That's well after my alarm should have gone off! I'm going to be late to work!

I run off to get ready, only to wake up for real when my alarm goes off at its normal time.

Interestingly, after I've actually gotten going and mostly ready, I check the time at exactly 8:44. For real this time.