Glieuaeiel's DJ

Cat Surgery

I walk into the basement to find an unfamiliar young man sitting with some of my parents. He's holding one of our pet cats, while my dad holds the other. [IRL: The other cat died, actually, about a year ago.] The other cat (a white one) gets away from dad, so I go after it. Evidently something is being done to the cats which they don't like, but which is good for them. Eventually I find the white cat and bring it back downstairs.

Now the stranger is sawing off the cat's front paw with a hacksaw. My parents assure me that this is a necessary surgery, since the cats' paws never healed right from that time they fell from a great height. I remember that event; it was somehow my fault. [IRL: No such thing has ever happened.] Despite my parents' assurances, I still think that this operation will probably kill the cats. Which is a real shame, because I think this first cat in particular had a long, eventful life ahead of him, in spite of his limp. The man finishes with the first cat, and we give him the second one.

Later, the first cat jumps up onto the couch next to me. I'm shocked to see that he has both front paws back already, and they don't seem to be paining him at all. Do cats have some kind of regenerative ability?

Manual Roller Coaster

Right up ahead, my sisters and I see the entrance of a big covered slide. We dive right in; I'm last. It's a sort of man-powered roller coaster: the idea is to crawl through as quickly as possible. Visibility isn't so good, so sometimes a sharp curve will take you off guard. Then suddenly I reach a long downward segment that I can just slide straight down. This is a blast! A bit later, I accidentally run into my sisters, who apparently just ran into each other. The youngest one apparently tripped because of an unusually long, sharp turn (something like 720 degrees), and then we all crashed right into her. Still, we extricate ourselves in moments and continue the ride.

At the end of the ride, there are a bunch of computers. You can type in your identification and it will tell you how long it took you to go through the ride, and how you compare to that day's other participants. I got 611th, which I think isn't too bad. Then I talk to my sisters, and it turns out the youngest one got 609th. I hadn't expected her to do better than I did! I'm a bit put out, but good for her anyway.

Exclusive Buffet

I'm eating dinner with some classmates at a big restaurant. We're having an important conversation, when suddenly someone comes out on the stage at one side of the room. The person talking to me has his back to the stage, so I try to shush him so I can hear what the woman on stage has to say. I realize I seem a bit rude, but surely he'll understand. A few other actors come onstage, and they start performing a play.

I have only a moment to feel surprised before a bulky, intimidating man comes up to our table and starts taking away our plates, whether or not we're done with them.

"I'm sorry," he says firmly, "we're closing now unless you're part of the club." He has a bit of an accent.

I remember that this place serves a buffet until 8:00, when the actual fancy dinner starts. You have to pay extra to be part of that, or something. And now it's 8:00, so we have to go. On the way out, some of my classmates snag something from the dessert station at the buffet. That's a little rude of them, since technically we're not allowed to eat anything from here anymore. Good thing I got my dessert earlier. Outside on the sidewalk, I hear some other classmates complaining about not having eaten a full dinner because there was nothing good at the buffet. I'm glad I avoided that problem by eating plenty, even if the food was pretty unremarkable.

First Day of Classes (LUCID)

I get up later than usual and hurry to find breakfast. I pass one of the dormitory suites, where apparently someone has set up a small continental breakfast. Interesting, to see such a business here. I get some food there. Then it's time to find my first class.

A lot of time has passed, so when I go back into the hallway, I see a gigantic line of people coming out of the suite's main entrance. It goes all the way down the hallway and down a staircase. I'm glad I missed the line, but suddenly I realize that so many people in line means these are probably the people who get breakfast immediately before heading to class. So I have very little time to collect my things and find my class. I hurry down the staircase, trying not to jostle the line of people too much.

[about 6 classes later . . .]

My next class is titled something like "Practice Session." My guess would be that that refers to a free slot for me to practice my instrument, but that doesn't make much sense, since I'm not a music major and this is not a conservatory. But in any case, I have to find the classroom, which is called the MUSIC room, appropriately enough. But the name "MUSIC" is actually some kind of alphabetical index of where to find the class. Like, I need to find floor M, then hallway U, etc. I suppose the music department thought they were very clever when they designed this room numbering scheme.

I'm hurrying down a surprisingly dark corridor, feeling rather lost. I think I'm on the right floor, but I can't find "U" anywhere. Suddenly, I come upon a library, where my orchestra conductor is talking to some of her students. Well, it's good to find other live people here, but I don't really want to talk to her right now, so I avoid them. Consulting my class schedule again, I realize that my next class isn't even in the MUSIC room. I've had about three other classes in there today, but this one is somewhere else. That's a relief, until I realize that the room shouldn't just disappear if I don't happen to have a class in it right now. But I don't have time to worry about that; I have to find this other place.

It strikes me that today has been an inauspicious first day of classes. I had been hoping that after last quarter (which was very stressful) I would have learned something about avoiding stress and staying calm--but alas, it seems like I have not. Especially since I seem to remember that I skipped most of one of my classes this morning because I had to finish an essay that was technically due last quarter.

My map has a sort of sticker on it, labeled with the name of the place I'm looking for, but it's way out in the middle of nowhere, and the map doesn't show any route to get there. I'm not convinced that's the right place, so I wander around some more. Then I realize I'm just pretending that it's not the place because it's much farther away than I expected. I should just suck it up and go there, even if it will take a while. Looking at the syllabus for this class (which is a small, staple-bound book with a brown cover), I notice that there's even some advice printed on the back cover: the professor says we should leave for his class within ten seconds of the end of the previous class if we want to make it to his class within ten minutes of the alleged start time. I start walking, but then I realize I'm not carrying a backpack or any school supplies at all. And I have only fifteen minutes until class starts. I might make it on time if I keep walking there, but I'll definitely be late if I go back to my room first. I wish I could just "Accio" my school supplies so they catch up to me while I'm walking. Of course, that's just wishful thinking--

--but then I realize that I'm dreaming! Sweet! Okay, I can fly back to my room, get my stuff, and fly to class, and still be there with time to spare. So I set out to do just that. [On my way to class, I lose lucidity.]

The route to class turns into a dirt hiking trail. I try going straight to the classroom, but the path leads under a giant boulder, and I discover that there's not enough clearance for me to squeeze through. Backing out, I make my way around the boulder instead. There are two young boys jumping around on the rocks, shooting at each other with what I identify as laser guns. One shouts at the other, "Mister, show me your ID card!" Clearly, they're imitating the adults from around here, the security guards that watch the entrance to the secure facility in which my class takes place. Okay, I should try to find the guardhouse so I can gain entrance to the facility. There's a small wooden cabin across the road that looks promising.

Inside the cabin, I find the teacher for my class. In order to pass the gatehouse, every student has to sign a contract. All of the contracts are hand-written (by the professor), and I can't read mine at all--it's totally illegible. But one by one, all of the other students are leaving the gatehouse to go to class, and in desperation I finally just sign the contract.

The classroom seems rather like an art studio. There are a lot of heavy-duty tables spread around the room; some of them are pushed against the wall like booth seats at restaurants. It is at one of these latter tables that the professor is sitting, and he invites the class to gather 'round his table while he explains what we'll do in today's class.

Hanging Roller Coaster (1:32)

[This dream isn't very cohesive. I had trouble falling asleep.]

I'm in line for a roller coaster. It's the last ride of the day, and the line is long. You ride the roller coaster like a zipline. Suddenly all of the hangers start moving at once, which surprises me, because I expected everyone to go one at a time, for safety reasons. Then I reach the end of the coaster and start going backwards. No wonder people went one at a time [??], because otherwise we'd run into each other at this part of the ride. Somehow I realize that I'm dreaming. I exit the boarding platform by using a series of coat hangers along the wall as if they were monkey bars. I realize that I'm not having much fun, and what I'd really like to be doing is having sex. I sort of just start imagining the accompanying pumping motion, and before long I wake up somewhat messily.

Stronghold Minigame (9:43)

I've had this game for a while, but on a whim, I decide to explore the menus for a bit. I find out about a prison minigame, which supposedly happens any time you get captured in the main storyline. The rules say that the game is only 6 minutes long, and you have to complete five smaller minigames in that time. Sounds like it would be pretty challenging to finish. I decide to try it. Next thing I know, I'm browsing through a menu of screenshots for each of the possible castles that you can try to escape from. The screenshots all have different dimensions, and they fit together like a well-planned, orthogonal collage. It's pretty cool. One of the wider screenshots catches my eye, and I choose it.

My character (a female) appears on the roof of an apparently vacant castle. Something bad happened here to drive out all of the inhabitants. A voice-over explains to me that my guards were killed as soon as I landed here, and they'll be no more help to me now. I see a soldier pacing a nearby tower, but I'm not sure how to reach it. Presumably he's an enemy, and the pathway for the level will bring me over there eventually to fight him.

I immediately start grabbing as much loot as I can. I need armor and weapons. I look behind me and see a dead dragon that apparently crash-landed into the edge of the roof. That must have been how I landed here--I rode the dragon. I run over there to see if there's any good loot. The dragon's saddle is decorated with two lightsabers, which are of course totally outside the universe of the game. I must have downloaded a Star Wars texture pack. I turn away from the dragon and notice my own lightsaber floating in the air about twenty feet up. It's hard to see because the camera is at about the same height and it's difficult to manipulate. I use the Force to pull my lightsaber toward me and pick it up. Then I find some armor and start investigating the rest of the rooftop. I keep picking up everything using the Force.

There's a child standing near the edge of the roof. When I approach her, she comes alive and starts talking to me. She lost her family in the chaos of whatever just happened, and she's willing to help me now. I cast a glamour spell to make the child look like an old woman. This will protect her somehow. The spell animation looks like a flying dragon's head.

Inside a small rooftop building, I find a furnished room. This is where the child's grandmother lived. I find a wooden box lined with felt rows, each containing smooth, round stones colored pastel green and red. The stones are about the size of a penny, and they have various lumpy irregularities. They are powerful magical artifacts, and I want to take them with me. I use the Force to group them into a ball, but the stones have a Force of their own which repels them from each other. I can't close my pocket, so as soon as I put them in there, most of them will pop right back out. I try anyway, but things happen exactly as I expected they would. That's probably why the wolf that invaded the castle didn't take these stones with him. The wolf was good, but the grandmother was better. I wish I had a ziploc bag or something to hold the stones together.

Suddenly Dad calls from a nearby doorway. The family is loading up the car RIGHT NOW, and I'm expected to do my part to help out. Obediently, I wake up.

Snap (LUCID)

[Finally! Woop woop! Only, I'm pretty uncertain on the chronology for some parts. You'll see.]

While at a traveling carnival, I run into my sister with a group of her friends. They're discussing what they should go do next, since recently a bunch of extra people joined their group and now there are maybe too many people for them to travel together. As a joke, I walk up and join, pretending I don't know that I'm exacerbating the problem. Suddenly, I notice that there's a younger girl in the group who keeps shouting for everyone to shut up. She must think that if everyone quiets down, then the discussion will go more smoothly. From the perspective of the wisdom of years, I realize that she's not going about this the right way. I walk up to her and encourage her to quiet down and be more mature. She stares at me as if suddenly realizing how annoying her behavior was, and then she sincerely thanks me for my intervention. To the group, I point out that we can just split into two groups and meet up again later.

Later, I ride a roller coaster. All you do to get on board is to grab a horizontal bar that's connected to the track above you. It's a very scary ride, because the only things preventing you from falling to great injury or death are your grip strength and your arm strength. As the coaster starts moving, I start to fear for my life. I try to secure my grip by looping an elbow over the bar, but it's difficult to adjust your grip safely while the ride is in motion. The coaster rounds a corner and heads down a downward slope, gathering speed. I see that at the bottom, the track turns sharply to the left. "Oh no," I moan, praying that I can withstand the G forces. Somehow I do, and shortly afterward, the ground rises beneath me and the coaster slows so that I can get off.

Of course, doing so is almost as hard as getting off of a ski lift, so in the process, I drop my notebook and pencil. I try to go back to grab them, but I almost get hit by the next car. I'm forced to dive to the side and seize another car going up the hill. Then I realize that I've switched tracks, and I'm about to go all the way around the ride again. First, I'm confused as to why they would design the ride to make this possible. Second, I'm worried that they'll be mad at me for going around the ride again without paying a second time. Third, I realize that the much more pressing concern is that now the ride has a second chance to kill me.

At some point later, I'm discussing lucid dreaming with someone, and I decide to do a reality check by plugging my nose and breathing in. To my delight, it works! Next thing I know, I'm standing in my childhood bedroom. [Maybe I had a false awakening?] I do the same RC again, and it works again. But I'm not totally convinced, so I do it one more time, making sure that I've totally plugged my nose and there's no way that air should be able to get through. It still works.

Awesome! Time to get to work. I remember that I have dream goals, but, nevertheless, the first thing that occurs to me is that I should look for a naked woman. I'm alone in my room, but maybe I can conjure one into my closet (which is currently closed). I decide that the first thing to do is to turn on the lights in there. I'll be able to see if I've succeeded by looking at the gap beneath the door. There's a faint light coming from it right now, so I snap my fingers to try and turn it on all the way. It flickers a bit, then goes out completely. Lol. Maybe I should try to work on some dream control, first.

I'm glad that this dream seems to be easy to maintain. I figure that's probably because it takes place in a very familiar location; namely, my own house.

At some point, I decide to dive through a big glass window on the second story. As I'm banging it with my arm, testing its strength, it occurs to me that this would be very dangerous in the case that I actually am awake. I do another RC, just to be safe.

At another point, I open my closet door to discover that my parents have been storing a lot of creepy presents in there. I mean, all I can see are boxes and bags, but it still creeps me out.

At another point, I decide that I might as well actually do one of my dream goals: "feel my heartbeat." I press two fingers of my right hand against the artery in the side of my neck. Surprisingly, my pulse is very strong and rather rapid. It even seems to be accelerating slightly. I guess that fits, since I feel like I'm high on adrenaline.

At another point, I'm in the downstairs hallway when my mom calls everyone to dinner. Obviously, I'd rather keep working on dream control than go sit down with them. I know my dad's probably going to try to find me and insist that I come. But I also hope that since I'm dreaming, I can just sort of will him not to pay attention to me. I see him come out of a door at the end of the hallway and start walking towards me--and I'm very relieved when he walks by without even looking in my direction.

At another point, I'm practicing dream control in living room. The idea is this: every time I snap, I want it to be followed a moment later by a sharp crack and a small flare of light located wherever it is that I've directed my attention. It's like using those little firecrackers that you're supposed to throw against the ground. Anyway, the first time I try, I fail. I'm disappointed and worried that I'll never be able to do it. But I remind myself that all of this is imaginary: it's happening in my own mind, so I should have complete control over it. I try again. It works! I repeat it a few times, and then I notice that sometimes the little flash of light can affect its nearby surroundings, a little bit. I try to do this on purpose by directing my attention at a button which is hanging loose from the side of a cushion. When I snap, the flash of light breaks the thread, and the button rolls across the floor. Neat!

While I'm practicing, I notice that our dog is behaving strangely. She jumps up on a couch, then climbs some other furniture in order to jump onto a light that hangs by a chain from the ceiling. She climbs up the chain and touches her nose to the ceiling. A dog's paws should never have been able to achieve that, but I figure that since this is a dream, she may as well be able to do anything she wants to do.

Later, I consider stopping to review what I've done so far, to solidify it in my memory for easier dream recall. But, nah. Much more fun to keep trying to do new stuff.

I decide that the next thing to try would be snapping my fingers and having a little flame appear above them. I go into the family room, where I find a convenient bunch of lit candles. I sit in the couch. My hand has become wrapped in protective oily cloth, and I light a couple of fingers by sticking them into a candle flame. I contemplate this for a bit, then blow them out. Except I don't quite succeed, and the fire flares up again. I blow harder, and this time it goes out completely. I feel silly for working that hard to accomplish something so simple. For instance, there is a friendly dog in the room who would gladly put out the fire for me if I were to stick my hand in its mouth. I guess the saliva just put me off.

A few moments later, I realize that I haven't thought about anything for a few moments, and everything's gone black. I try to shout "Clarity!" but there's nothing to clarify. I open my eyes upon my new bedroom, then do an RC to make sure I'm awake. When I check the time, I'm surprised to find I've only been asleep for a couple of hours.

Evil Statue

The ceremony to release a powerful evil spirit on the world is scheduled to begin in a few hours. It'll take place at a museum. Unfortunately, the statue of the evil spirit has long been missing from the building, so we have no idea what exactly we'll be facing. Now, usually I would procrastinate, which is to say I would start setting up to face the spirit only a couple of minutes before its scheduled release. But this time, I call together the team and try to get us started with a few hours to spare. We hide out in the parking lot under an overturned rowboat. Every so often, an evil black dog comes along to snap at us through the gaps in the side, and we have to stab it to death. Those jaws look very dangerous, and I'm not really confident in my abilities. Especially when half the team is out scouting and I have to face the dogs with only about one other person.

Scare Game

Evil creatures are loose on the world. I'm headed to the basement, but I'm worried they might be waiting for me down there. There are rules about when and where they can attack you, but I don't remember them exactly. Mom happens to be in the living room with me, so I ask her. She says yes, they're allowed to attack at this time. I also check a rules handbook, and it says there are actually no limitations on when you can be attacked. Huh. It must have been that they don't like sunlight, so you're usually safe during the day. Anyway, I decide to go to the basement. I'll just be very careful.

When I'm about two steps into the room down there, a hand comes flying around a corner to try and grab me. I intercept it with my own arm and wrestle with it for a bit until my dad gives up and comes around the corner, laughing. He'd been trying to scare me, because in this game you get points for that.