non-lucid

1. I'm playing Unknown Armies with the usual suspects in a bedroom at my old college. As the session draws to a close, people are getting ready for bed. I unfortunately have to share a bed with K.R., who is quite a large fellow, while everyone else has separate sleeping arrangements. He has a scar on his back, and when I touch it in curiosity he screams out from sleep. M.G. and V.W. walk in to say goodnight; V. looks particularly attractive in a one-piece nightie. I can't sleep, so I go out into the night. I end up in a dorm that seems to be having a Homecoming party.

However, everything is in 19tth century military style, almost Napoleonic. H.B. is dressed in epaulets, playing odd military boardgames with people I don't recognize. The bathrooms are also odd, and I really need to use them. I end up avoiding the matter entirely and pissing on an inconspicuous wall looking out into a courtyard. Of course, a group of other friends, (Q., N.H., M.T.) take this opportunity to walk by (dressed in regular clothing). They look and laugh at me, and I turn away in shame.

I start to almost float, bouncing off the walls as I move down a different hallway (everyone is back to normal). There's a bunch of rowdy old alums making too much noise, and I get past them to a proper bathroom at the end of the hall. There are posters hanging across from the sinks for odd metal bands, including the real-life band "Bigelf." The venue, however, is the fictional "Redneck Mountain." As I look in the mirror, I realize that I look like another student, a Jacob E. I do a double take, and recognize that it's a reality check to go lucid. I start washing my hands, expecting the activity to stabilize me, and I do feel the sensations of running water and friction. However, at this point I've been dreaming for over 10 minutes and I can't hold on any longer.

2. Fragment of a dinner with my future grad school mentor and family. He stays quiet throughout the meal until we ask about his work. When he talks about genes that manage magnetic particles, I stand up in amazement.

1. I'm in a store that sells an odd combination of hardware tools and traditional games. I go to the basement, where there seem to be mostly tools. There's a door in the basement room, though, which leads to another room with wizard robes and hats lining the shelves. Yet another door opens into the store's main office, in which the employees have set up an Xbox. There's a DDR setup on the console and I indulge myself.

2. I'm playing an MMORPG with a strange blend of fantasy and sailing set on the East Coast of the USA. There are five races, including a species of intelligent giraffe people called the E'loi who can only speak under specific conditions. They can talk either to members of the warrior class, or they can talk to anyone while their heads are submerged in a tank of water with fish in it. My brother and I spend some time messing around with the boating mechanics, and I manage to strand my E'loi character's boat on a street.

1. I'm cripplingly depressed, but I'm riding my bike anyway to meet my brother behind an old Blockbuster in my hometown. The store has been repurposed into a porn store, and I go in and buy something. I see my mom exit from the nearby Walgreens, so naturally I drop the porn and meet her. Rest of DJ is unintelligible.

2. I'm hanging out/jamming with my friend Scott A. in the basement of my house. Q and S.T. come over. I go to greet them, but in my clumsiness I start a chain reaction that breaks a bunch of lamps. None of my friends seem to particularly care, but I grab a vacuum cleaner anyway. As I go for it, I realize I'm hungry. I take the vacuum with me and grab my bicycle, heading to my college cafeteria. Along the way, I am insulted about my age by Nathan S. and other jackasses from college. I ignore them and head into the cafeteria, where I first enter the bathroom.

3. I'm playing a Star Trek version of the TIE Fighter video game. I successfully pilot a starfighter against impossible odds, several capital ships at a time. There's then a "trench run" sequence as in Star Wars, where I follow a freighter into a massive building. It's decorated as a nightclub for giants, and there's a critical spot on the floor that I need to shoot. I can't keep my craft steady enough to shoot and use the tractor beam at the same time and fail the mission.

1. My friends from a recent RPG campaign have gathered to perform a work of music I've written. I am leading the ensemble with a marimba, while C.W. plays flute, V.W., K.R., and M.G. all play various percussion instruments. The work is energetic and the conductor is very much into it; there's an extended section of dueling percussion soli.

2. I get a bulky letter from a great-aunt and uncle I hardly know, and on the outside is written something like "If you love us, you'll be much more important." We go to visit them at their sprawling southern plantation-type home, approaching through a huge bluegrass field with a great oak tree as a centerpiece. The great-aunt sees me from across the field and beckons to me; I run away, although I'm not sure why and am a bit embarrassed.

3. I'm in downtown Cincinnati with my brother for some reason, when I realize that I'll miss the opera if I don't go home and change into nice clothes. The crowds outside Music Hall are horrible thanks to the traffic of a Reds game and ticketing problems at the venue. As I walk to the ticket window, MB. T. and her friends jump out of a car and begin to walk behind me. I double my pace to avoid them, but she calls me and I turn around to hug her anyway. A random acquaintance from college, Jessica B., remarks "smooth move," but no one else present thinks this remark is appropriate.

4. I again run into MB at a games club/cigar making club?

5. I'm playing pro baseball, which is serious business in the dreamworld. I miss an important catch, which leads our team to a loss. I am summarily expelled from the team and jailed. In my cell, I get a call from another criminal asking if I want to sell drugs. I act like I have some to receive visitors, then take advantage of the open gate to run like crazy. I get shot but keep running anyway.

1. I'm called by the police after a concert to report on some crime; the process takes forever and I miss getting to my job.

2. Setting of dream is the same as the webcomic "Erfworld." A "good" character has called a massive flood to save her sister, but in doing so wipes out countless other lives. There's a view of a prisoner in an open-air dungeon with a terrified look on his face as the water sweeps in to overwhelm him.

3. I'm playing some sort of turn based strategy version of Super Smash Brothers; the opposing team is Mario and Luigi, and Luigi is kicking away my ranged attacks with his taunt move.

1. I'm talking about traffic density with one of my brother's classmates, Sam S. We have a nice visual aid as we discuss, a projected map of Earth with different traffic patterns as different colors. There are black/white and red/blue modes that show routes of transit quite clearly. Sam gives the example of dogsled races as an unforseen variable that brings lots of traffic to untraveled areas, and illustrates this with the map. The display changes to a 3-D view, showing the swath of tree destruction caused by tourists to the races. Obviously I'm disturbed by this, so I get my family to travel to Alaska to check it out.

Transition to outside the home of one of Alaska's most prominent breeders. We talk about the science of breeding; for whatever reason my parents call heritable traits "actions." Conveniently, the breeder has a poster that's basically an illustrated Punnet square for nose shape, with each genotype's phenotype shown and discussed. My dad talks about technique, and speaks of backcrossing by "taking the best female dog and getting offspring with her son."

We continue to walk to the breeder's backyard; I feel a cool breeze quite vividly. Finally we see the breeder, who is on a deck high above us. He pays us no notice, as he's managing an owl on his shoulder with an unusually big head. He releases the bird, and as it flies down to earth it seems to grow larger. It's practically human sized as it hits the ground in the neighboring yard. This belongs to an apartment complex, and two pretty girls clad only in towels giggle (and maybe flash us) as we look up at them. I comment to myself that it must be cold up there, but the owl has my attention. I marvel at the breeder and say "I want to be the guy!" My dad smirks and says, "You probably already are." Dream ends, but that's probably the best dialogue recall I've had in a long time.

2. I'm playing a Terminator 3 arcade game. It's quite high-tech, with Kinect type technology, but it keeps glitching and showing the body recognition data instead of the game proper.

1. I place a mail order for two large grey discs of "questionable literary material." They arrive in my backyard at a bad time, as I'm playing something with my brother and my mom is on the patio talking. I keep my cool and wait until night to bring them in, but both parents are still puttering around. My dad goes outside to get a radio; I perceive him like guard from Metal Gear Solid. I make a mad dash past him with the discs under my arm, then run up the stairs, stash them under my bed and get ready to go back out. My brother then enters, dressed in a little green man alien costume.

2. I'm playing some sort of Disney/Halo crossover game. Its first level is a straightforward run and gun with an HMG, but the second is sniper mission that my dad and I can't beat. I scan a crowd of faces with my scope, but don't see the character I'm supposed to kill. I shrug and give up, and the sniper nest turns into a hotel room.

3. I'm biking at a local college, where I see my friend C.W. I invite him to have lunch with me.

1. I'm in a bar, relaxing somewhat awkwardly at a table with my frenemy H.B. and his girlfriend J.J. The interior reminds me of a bar in my old college town, but the view out the windows is that of a bustling supermarket in my hometown. H. asks for a pitcher of water as I start texting with my own girlfriend. I turn around and notice that the bar proper is taken up by a line of sorority girls, dressed in black Playboy bunny costumes for a frat party.

2. I decide to go to my old grade school, touring it in a suit, but while doing so I run into people from all levels of schooling. John M. from high school I see in the bathroom, the high school art teacher I see in the hall (interviewing for a position here), and C.W. and S.A. from college I see on the stairs as I'm leaving.

3. I stay up very late watching some football game... then go to sleep. I FA into my own bed at 9 o'clock at night, and my brother is sitting on the chair beside me playing Nintendo DS. My mom walks into the room and starts to berate me for my lateness and asks me how I expect to eat.

1. Playing D&D, which transitions from a traditional fantasy universe to a Western, and then into a LARP Western. I walk into a bar, where I meet a girl named Alice Smith, who's crying over some form that requires the sheriff's signature. I take up her case, and as I converse with her I read through a book of frontier law (failed RC). I eventually go get the sheriff's signature, but as I'm coming back to give her the form, I see a wanted poster for Alice as a Canadian spy. Disgusted, I leave, and meet up with the rest of my party in a nearby arcade. I notice a bunch of college friends at a restaurant table close to the arcade, but I don't go to meet them.

2. I come across two very attractive women on the porch swing at the front of my old house. They are disdainful of me, but after a bit James Bond falls from the roof onto the porch in front of them, completely naked. They start cooing over his manliness, and this is so ridiculous I sort of wake up. I almost manage a semi-lucidity and insert myself into James Bond's body, but this is more of vivid daydream level of reality instead of true lucid sensation. I can't honestly count it as lucid, especially with poor recall as to subsequent events.

1. I'm walking through a sun-speckled woodland on a wide blacktop path, and the way is quite peaceful and warm. Out of the woods comes an oddly attractive figure, a six-armed lizardwoman. She starts to walk beside me and introduces herself as a "mover and shaker" who has time-traveled from close to the end of civilization. As she continues to speak, I realize that she's really rather amoral but is very intelligent, and I'm drawn to her. As we reach the end of the path, I ask her for her name: she smiles and replies, "Fukiyume."

Note: When I woke up, I did some searching on that name. The compound "Fukiyume" is meaningless, adopted only once as a username on an obscure Italian forum. However, both "Fuki" and "Yume" are legitimate Japanese words. "Fuki" refers to a shoot vegetable, and "Yume"... means "dream!" I was certainly unaware of that consciously, but I've seen enough anime (including Ghost Hound) to possibly have it in the subconscious. I'll have to see if this DC appears again.

2. I'm on the highway entrance ramp near my house, phoning my mom who's in a car on the exit ramp. We're trying to coordinate our Father's Day shopping, with little success.

3. I'm at the clinic of a smiling doctor whose specialty is urology, waiting for some routine procedure. Across from the waiting lobby is a banner that morphs according to the type of surgery he's performing at the time. Eventually the banner shifts to tell me it's my time, and I go to an operating room that looks like a bathroom from my old house. I'm allowed to select my own anesthesia, and I try for a hypnosis MP3. The one I pick has a very creep female hypnotist, however, and I'm unable to trance as I start to panic about the knife's cut.

1. I'm reading the steampunk novel "The Difference Engine" and taking notes in the margins with the pen I use for my dream journal. These concern an idea I have to rewrite the story in America, casting it in a more comical light with plenty of snarky humor. For example, I reference "All About the Benjamins" and make Ben Franklin a cocky womanizer.

2. I'm in a hospital for some routine test. I notice J. C. from high school with his sister in the waiting room, and I seek to avoid him by ducking down a hallway. I sit at the end of the hall and read a magazine. When I come back to the waiting room, my old friend W. L. is there talking to someone...

I'm living with my college roommate in a Covington city apartment. I'm going to a concert by The Dear Hunter, one of my favorite bands, but he's not coming along. I decide to walk, and as I do so I pass the library. There I run into two of my favorite high school teachers, Dr. C and Mr. G. We talk about music for a while, but then we go our separate ways. When I get to the venue, it's very crowded in line, and I have to wait for a while. When I get to the front, the bouncer tells me I can't bring my knife in, so I have to run back home to drop it off. The streets seem to change from what I know them in real life, and the distance must be more, for when I get back to the venue the band is done playing. The room is still crowded, but there is no music.

1. My family visits MGM studios at Disney World. One of the main attractions seems to be a large kissing booth with "famous people," but all one can see of these people is a pair of lips. There are text descriptions of each person under their lips, from Einstein to Disney himself and more. I explore for a bit, then head to the exit area, where a friendly Disney employee offers Purell hand sanitizer and a station for making PB&J sandwiches. As I exit into a garden, I look up at the sky and see two missiles streaking down towards the ground. I remark to myself how much the missiles look like breasts, then run to the impact site. My dad is nearby, pissed off, because the missiles were aimed at his bicycle as punishment for trying to enter an attraction through a forbidden doorway. He mentions he might not have been on best terms with Disney, as they caught him littering before.

2. Some sort of four-color version of the webcomic Cyanide and Happiness. The characters are attacked by a shark while on an ocean raft, and they hold it off. The dream ends when the characters start to peel layers off of themselves, revealing different shirts.

3. Vague account of bounding like a dog through a streetlight night...

1. I'm on my recent girlfriend's Facebook, where I see her pictures from field school. She's shaved her head, and she's standing with an old friend from college S. T. I laugh, shut my laptop down, and head into the night. I go to a bank, where I'm trying to get a summer job. On my way in, I see the same girl, but she has a full head of hair and is wearing our green senior class shirt. She says softly to me, with a bit of worry in her eyes, "I was never here." I don't know what to say, so I pass her and enter the bank. I don't get the job, but my parents are in the bank and walk out with me. She's still there, although my parents don't seem to notice her. She affirms, "Seriously, if we somehow meet I was never here."

2. I'm at the opening game of the World Series. Joseph Stalin is opening the ceremonies with a rant about Russia's nuclear capabilities.

I'm walking the streets of London at night in my awesome long coat, when I'm suddenly struck with the urge to break off a piece of a building. This I do, and it feels heavy in my arms as I carry it into a nearby library. There I find an excellent book on poker, which I tuck into my backpack along with the building fragment and take without checking out.

I false awaken into an apartment in Cincinnati. I wander down to the riverbank, where a festival has set up. Two massive swings are on either side of a roller coaster shaped like a snake and themed "The Garden of Eden." I choose to swing, and get massive air, clearing the top of the coaster as I flip in midair and throw the metal horns with my tongue sticking out.