CanisLucidus

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #262: Arcade Action

I’m walking through an arcade, heading somewhere but in no particular hurry. It’s a huge place with a very high ceiling and lots of cool-looking games. I come to one beat-em-up game that looks sort of interesting. It’s got a pair of joysticks (one for each player) and a “Kick” button. The “Kick” button looks sort of messed up and mashed to one side.

I notice an odd message flashing on the screen: “Press Kick to Start”. It looks like someone left a credit in this machine! I look around to see if the credit belong to anyone nearby. There’s a black guy in his late 40s walking by and I ask him whether this is his game. He seems confused by my question, so I turn back to the machine, and become lucid as I reflect on my good fortune.

I press “Kick” to start the game, slightly nervous that the dream won’t be stable if I play games. I start singing an impromptu song about dreams and video games (in my lucid dream voice, which is much much better than my waking life voice!)

The game begins and rather than a beat em up, it’s some kind of shooting gallery game where you have a little video game hand with a gun. The graphics look 8-bit, and there are these little circular targets that I’m supposed to be aiming at. When I move the joystick, the gun moves, and pressing kick makes the gun shoot. I miss a couple of times, and then hit a target, which shatters!



The shooting gallery attendant walks out and resets the targets. Unlike the rest of the game, she’s completely lifelike, a petite Asian woman with a medium build, probably in her late 20s. I do another round of shooting. Aiming the gun is kind of a pain, but I eventually shoot two more targets, and the attendant walks out to reset the targets.

I think about trying to change the game into a beat-em-up, but the attendant turns to face me. I see that she looks Thai or Cambodian, and her appearance is very vivid and attractive. She asks me…

Spoiler for Sexytime:

... whether I want to have sex with her. I have no idea how I’m supposed to do this, but sure, I'm interested! As sexytime commences, I find that my dream body’s able to be in two places at once; I’m both standing in the arcade playing the video game and living in the game and doing things with the shooting gallery attendant. (This goes on for about 90 rather action-packed seconds.)

Afterward, I emerge fully back into the video arcade and wonder whether I can play the game some more. The attendant looks toward me, seemingly ready to set up another round. As I’m messing with the controls, the attendant wanders off, leaving the shooting gallery in sort of a half-ready state. I mess a bit more with the game controls, but I’m feeling less tied into the dream, and pretty soon I’m awake.

This lucid is from the morning of 5/11/2014.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #208: Carnival Chain

I have a false awakening where Wife is bustling about the room getting ready for something. I’m groggy and not seeing anything too well, but I follow her as she heads out the door. There’s some kind of event that we’re supposed to be getting ready for, but I have no memory of what it is. I do remember wanting to have a lucid dream, though, so I feel frustrated that I’m expected to get up.

I follow Wife for a bit and suddenly we’re outside by some docks. She’s dressed in a white sundress that I’ve never seen her in before, holding hands with our two children “E” and “R”. She looks beautiful. I wish that I could go with them but I’m almost too tired to move.

I tell her that I’m going back to bed, which she seems to accept. Somehow I stagger back to the bed and as soon as my head hits the pillow, I attempt to WILD. Right away I get the sense of motion and I can’t believe how quickly it’s working. I go with the momentum and experience a moment of massive acceleration before emerging in a mid-morning carnival scene that I know is a dream.

I’m not pleased with the vividness of the scene, so I rub my hands together and then stare at them, trying to draw out as much detail as I can. It takes a few frustrating moments but finally fine details start to emerge. One oddity is that my hands are covered with cuts and scrapes like I’ve been fighting or working with something sharp.

As the scene comes into better focus, I see that Wife is walking here with me at the carnival. We pass a sandwich vendor who stops us and begins an emphatic explanation of what it takes to make the turkey sandwich. He says that the “traditional” sandwich of “turkey on a donut” is outdated and that rye bread is the wave of the future. It sounds crazy to me, but I try to grasp the details, hoping for some flash of insight. It never comes, though, and the dream fades.

I hold on for DEILD, and in a few seconds I’m back in the carnival scene. I take a few steps but something seems to be stuck in my throat. I try to sort of gag and clear my throat, but it’s still there. I feel like there’s some kind of waking life problem and remember that I’m sleeping on my stomach. I have this vision of the pillow pressing on my throat and in a few seconds, I’m out of the dream.

I flop onto my side, get ready for DEILD, and re-enter the carnival scene a few seconds later. Wife’s here with me again, and says something flirtatious. I’m feeling very interested, so we make out for a bit before getting down to some sexytime. I’ll spare the details here, but it's interesting that after the "festivities" the dream continues long enough for us to wander around the carnival a bit more.

Finally the dream breaks, and I DEILD in one last time to the same carnival scene. Wife and I pass by a carnival barker who’s inviting passerby to try out the “lucidity machine”, a large, boxy contraption that he says is guaranteed to make you have a lucid dream for only “4 quarters”.

I encourage Wife to try this out. “But you’re already having a lucid dream,” she replies.

“Yeah, but you’re not.”

She wrinkles her nose. “Four quarters seems kind of expensive.”

“It’s not real money,” I tell her. “Please just try it.”

I’m exasperated by all of this. Wife shakes her head and continues to skeptically study the device as the dream ends.

This dream is from the morning of 1/1/2014.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #177: The Rivals

I'm sitting at a table with Wife looking through some photos when I somehow become lucid. She steps away from the table and leaps onto a nearby bed, posing and smiling seductively. I feel super amorous and move eagerly toward her. But to the side of me, I notice four other guys moving toward her, all of them looking just as eager as me. Wife looks playfully at each of us as if she's choosing.

I'm so angered by this turn of events that I punch the closest rival in the face. He crumples to the floor, his face immediately becoming a bruised mess. He shrinks into a little troll monster with a pinched, sour expression and then just sits there, not moving. Now the other men have all vanished and I leap triumphantly onto the bed and sexytime commences.

We get about fifteen seconds of fun before Wife does this strange transformation into a half-sized Wife replica doll. Total mood killer. I pick up the doll and it's light as a feather. I feel sad and guilty, wondering if my attack on the DC caused this. I walk out the door carrying the doll and it transforms into a slightly wilted bouquet of flowers before disappearing entirely.

Now I'm in some sort of indoor carnival. I walk past a vendor with curly, slightly 80s-looking hair and a mustache. I slow down and note how vivid everything is. I remember that it's been a few weeks since my last lucid and I reflect on what a shock it is to experience the realness of lucid dreaming after some time off.

I approach a circle of benches and there's Wife, sitting by herself on the right side of one. I approach her calmly, hoping I can keep her DC more stable this time. She looks up at me and we smile at one another as the dream ends.