CanisLucidus

The second of two lucids from playing Myst at WBTB.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #123: Walking Backwards

I'm walking by a pool with Dad toward a pile of towels on a beach chair. He asks me how to get really lean for the summer. I'm going through some long-winded explanation and he keeps asking the same really basic questions, apparently understanding almost nothing I'm saying. I wonder why he's so slow to grasp what I'm saying but then realize that I'm dreaming.

Dad has vanished and I'm standing alone by the empty pool. It's long and skinny, like a stretched out Olympic pool. I fly over it toward a doorway on the opposite side. I walk through the doorway into a busy two-story mall. I decide to allow myself a couple of minutes to walk around and take in the sights.

I pass a few stores, turn a corner, and suddenly feel a jolt of fear that the dream won't be stable. I start narrating out loud: "I'm having a really stable lucid dream." I rub my hands together, continuing to narrate out loud to the DCs passing nearby. "And now I am rubbing my hands together. You cannot forget to do that shit!" I yell.

I remember wanting to get to the Colosseum and expect to see an Exit sign. There it is, on my left, near a bank of doors. I walk toward the doors when I spot my friend "Chia" approaching me with a sort of vacuous grin on her face. "Hi!" I say. She repeats it back: "Hi!", still grinning, but her face is sort of morphing into a stranger's face. It's not stable.

I tell Chia that I'm going to the Colosseum and that I'll talk to her later. She nods, and rather than turning away, she walks backwards, not looking where she's going. She's walking near a support column that for some reason is covered with awful stuff like barbed wire and Orcs Must Die-style wall blades. "Watch where you're going!" I say, really feeling distressed. But she just smiles blissfully, circling around the column and out of sight.

Okay, back to the task at hand -- Colosseum. I head for the exit doors, shoving the door open with the crash bar, expecting to wind up in one of the tunnels under the Colosseum. The next hall is a tunnel but it still looks like part of the mall. As I'm deciding what to do next, I'm thrown into the void.

In the darkness of the void, I clearly sense my dream body. But when I try to rub my hands together, I can't make it happen. Awareness of my physical body starts to creep back in. I keep trying to move my dream hands but I'm not getting any response. After attempting this for a while, I finally wake up.