task of the month

This failed "Task of the Month" attempt ended up being a great time. I'm so happy to be getting more flight time after all of the trouble that I had with this initially. I was sure that I was doing to meet a Dreamviews member in this one but it just didn't quite happen!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #23: Halloween in the Sky Fortress

I'm walking through the mall with my friend T. We encounter a scrawny old man that I recognize (wrongly) as a professor at the university that T and I attended together. The "professor" excitedly describes his latest invention -- a self-propelled wheelchair that is guided and powered by your mind. With that, one of these wheelchairs pops out of an unseen hole in the floor, scoops T up, and starts racing around with him.

T shouts in protest, insisting that his legs work fine. I decide that this is completely insane and I become lucid. I ignore T and the professor, and they lapse into silence. I can see daylight coming in from around a corner so I start moving toward the exit, making my way through a food court that's packed with dream characters. Sprinting toddlers and their harried parents crisscross my path but always move aside in time for me to pass. I'm tempted to check out the food but my desire to get outside is stronger.

When I reach the automatic glass doors they don't open. For some reason, this doesn't worry me and I press my left hand straight through the glass. (I think that I owe this to reading about all of melanieb's phasing yesterday.) I phase the rest of my body through as well, feeling a slight chill as I pass through.

When I get outside, it's parking lot as far as the eye can see. The day is mild and breezy and all I can think of is what a perfect day it is for flying. I float up nicely but get hung up in the mall's entrance overhang. There are a few moments of grinding where for some reason I have trouble turning my perspective. Fortunately I manage to force myself sideways just far enough that I break free and shoot up into the sky.

Straight ahead there are hills shrouded in fog. I'm eager to avoid turning so I fly toward the fog, imagining that in these hills is the neighborhood where all of the Dreamviews folks are. (I want to perform the "trick or treat" Task of the Month.) As I near the fog, the wind increases to a howl, pushing upward and against me. Rather than force forward progress, I imagine that I am going the wrong way and that this wind is trying to guide me to the real Dreamviews neighborhood.

I turn with the wind and it carries me upward the way that a thermal column lifts a condor. This feels amazing! I'm being carried toward some kind of sky fortress. The "sky fortress" is an enormous collection of buildings connected by a tangle of walkways and I know that this must be where the Dreamviews neighborhood is. Dream characters move unafraid along the narrow, unrailed walkways and I see guards armed with rifles patrolling some of the paths and rooftops.

I arrive at a row of townhouses. Above the front door of each townhouse floats bubble letters that spell out the owner's name. The row stretches as far as I can see in either direction and most of the names are unfamiliar to me. I do see "Xanous" above one of the doors and I fly toward it, imagining that there's a huge DV party going on in there.

The door has a television screen in front of it that seems to show what's going on inside the house. I'm astonished that the screen displays a prairie dog splashing around in a big bathtub. "Xanous?" I ask. The prairie dog stares at me, a bit shocked. He barks, "Phil doesn't just open the door for anyone who knocks!" I can feel myself growing confused but don't know how to regain my composure. "Are you some kind of bodyguard? Are there Dreamviews people in there?" But the dream is beginning to unravel and soon I'm awake.

This was a Task of the Month attempt and my first lucid in several days. This was a fun dream and it was exciting to be back in the saddle.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #19: The (Headless) Man in the Mirror

I'm in an office kitchen and I happen to run into L, an old friend from high school that I barely ever see. I ask how married life has been and whether anything exciting is going on with her. She reveals that she's expecting and is "3 weeks along". I remark that I couldn't tell (duh) but she doesn't respond.

Assuming she didn't hear me, I repeat what I just said, only to realize that she has vanished. A young woman taps me on the shoulder and says, "Are you okay? You look like you're talking to someone but there's nobody there." Immediately lucid, I nod to her. "Thanks. Everything's fine. I'm dreaming." She seems to accept this, walking away. My mind is immediately on the Task of the Month and I walk through the nearest doorway.

I wind up in a large classroom that looks like it might be for first- or second-graders. Daylight streams in from a large window on the far side of the room. I'm the only person in the room and there's a pumpkin in the middle of every short little table. Yes, conditions are perfect for removing my own head.

I walk around the room, thinking of mirrors, expecting to see one around every corner. Finally one of those odd, distorting fish-eye mirrors appears but I figure it'll be fine. I check my reflection and I'm wearing extremely thick black glasses and a purple tank top. My hair looks all 90s and hair-sprayed. I decide not to get too attached to this new look as I shall be ridding myself of this head shortly.

I begin to think about how all my life I have had the head of a Lego man, attached to my neck by nothing but a short knob. I place both hands under my jaw. Even though I can feel my hands on my face, my reflection's hands are a few inches away. I go ahead anyway, smoothly pushing up, and my head pops right off, just like a Lego piece. There's no blood and no pain. All of this feels perfectly natural.

I need to find a pumpkin now so I unceremoniously chuck my head onto the floor. It makes a sound like a softball as it lands. I grab a nearby pumpkin and see that it's already carved like a jack-o-lantern. I wonder whether this is a violation of the rules that I'm supposed to carve it. I decide that once I put it on I'll add features. (Maybe a mustache?) I return to the mirror to complete the procedure but find that my original head has grown back. I feel a flash of surprise and the mirror disappears.

I start looking around the class for more mirrors. One pops up but vanishes as soon as I try to look into it. I grumble about this and my voice suddenly sounds like the growl of an old man. I find a third mirror. When I look into it, Walter White from "Breaking Bad" is staring back at me. He (is this me or someone else??) is wearing the trademark Heisenberg pork pie hat and dark glasses. The dream fades and I'm awake.