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    task of the year

    task of the year dreams

    1. On the Back of the Sphinx

      by , 01-30-2013 at 04:22 PM
      After trying and failing so much in the last several weeks, I finally made it to the Great Pyramid! I didn't complete the Task of the Year, but I had one fantastic lucid dream.

      Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

      Lucid #59: On the Back of the Sphinx

      I'm standing by a hedgerow on a suburban street, waiting for the hedges to part and let me in. Through these hedges is the party I'm supposed to attend. The hedges part for me, then close as I move toward them. "No problem," I say, covering up a sting of rejection. "I'll come back when you're ready for me."

      I wander across the street to wait. I wonder whether I'm dreaming. I decide that I'll reality check "in a few minutes".
      (You slacker!) No -- I don't need to reality check. This is a dream! I look at my hands. No distortion, waviness, extra fingers, or discoloration. Still, I'm sure that I'm dreaming.

      The dream feels sharp, vivid, and stable. I feel like I have tons of time and potential. I sprint across the street, leap over the hedgerow, and with a shout I soar into the sky. I'm flying over a rain forest now and my skyrocketing confidence level makes me shout, "L-dopa!!!"
      (Although I was displaying behavior in line with high dopamine levels, I've never taken L-dopa. Don't know what got into me.) After flying over the rain forest for a while, I wind up in a cloud bank and lose my bearings. Afraid of getting stuck here, I turn back toward the neighborhood, content to take a different direction.

      I fly back out of the cloud bank, but a fierce gust of wind kicks up from the other direction and pushes me back toward the clouds. "Okay," I say. "You're taking me to the Pyramid." I relax as I pass back through the cloud bank, emerging over an ocean. I let the wind push me further on and soon I'm flying thousands of feet over a desert dotted with stones. It's dark, and the sand looks as gray as a moonscape. I descend headfirst toward the sand, sure that I'm going to find what I'm looking for.

      It's nighttime when I land. I look to my right, and there's the Pyramid, illuminated by artificial light! I'm no more than twenty feet from it. The sphinx lies directly at the base of the Pyramid. I note that in the physical world she'd be further east toward Cairo, but the inconsistency doesn't bother me. Instead it reminds me even more strongly that this is my world.

      The sphinx's stony skin is white like alabaster and she has Asian characters tattooed along all four legs and in a single stripe along each side of her body. She's far smaller than I'd expected, no more than thirty feet long. Her entire face has crumbled away (not just her nose.) I'm overcome with this urge to help her. Even setting aside Task of the Year, this is now something I badly want to do.

      I press my palms against her face and say, "I'm going to fix you." I feel the stone first roiling then smoothing out against my hands. In a few seconds her face is repaired and her head starts to move. Her face looks mostly feline but there's still a vaguely humanoid quality to it. She licks my hand once and her tongue is the fleshy, rough tongue of a cat. Her head turns vaguely toward my face but her eyes are pupil-less, blank alabaster so I can't tell whether she's looking straight at me.

      I swing my leg across her back and ask her to "Take me to the top of the Pyramid." She gets to her feet and starts walking around to the other side of the Pyramid. Her route takes us through a restaurant and bar where a number of women are dancing to this really amazing piece of world music. The melody is from some sort of brass instrument and it's backed by the mouth harp.
      (I had to google to even figure out what this instrument is called -- here's a good example of the mouth harp in action. I think it was in my memory banks from a video game I played about 15 years ago.)

      As I ride through the dance floor, the music and dancing begin to draw me in. One particularly stunning dancer, an ebony-skinned young woman of about 25, is driving me to distraction. I feel the sphinx slowing down and things start to feel unstable. I try to refocus on the task at hand, but the dream falls apart.
    2. Gladius and Darkness

      by , 01-19-2013 at 04:40 PM
      This lucid was long enough that I became legitimately concerned about remembering it. This worry wound up being a bit of a downfall, but it still took me in interesting directions.

      Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

      Lucid #57: Gladius and Darkness

      I'm experiencing deja vu as I walk through an airport terminal, sure that I've dreamed of this place before. I note all of these little details that I believe my mind left out of the dream version of this place -- the color of the carpeting, the man arguing at the ticket counter, the way that the ceiling curves into a dome in this room. Then I hear the sound of hurried little footsteps. Someone tells me "E is looking for you!" (E is my oldest son.) Now I'm lucid.

      I hear E shout playfully from somewhere further down the terminal: "Looking for Daaaaddy!" I know that we're playing hide and seek. I eagerly set off, loving the idea of playing like this in an LD. I move through the terminal and wind up in a series of twisting, narrow office hallways. Other children run by me, possibly engaged in their own games of hide and seek.

      As I'm moving through these hallways, a little hand swipes the back of my leg and E declares, "I got Daaaaddy!" I move toward E to scoop him up but he laughs and runs in the opposite direction. I follow but almost immediately I've lost him in the hallways.

      I wind up back in the airport terminal and wander through there a while longer before coming to a craft table. Wife is standing at this table wearing a smock and molding some sort of clay. I walk up to the table but she doesn't acknowledge me. I grab a piece of clay and tell her, "I'm having a lucid dream." She responds in essence that I should "show her" what that means. (I don't remember her exact words.)

      As I begin molding the clay, it starts foaming and fizzing until the entire surface is covered in a layer of foam. I wipe the foam away bit by bit and underneath is a carved image of a human face. Wife looks astonished. I tell her, "I'm telling you, being lucid is the way to go."

      She hands me a round piece of glass. "Make me a picture of a Christmas tree." I nod, take the glass from her, and rub my hand across it once. Instead of a Christmas tree, I produce a little stained glass picture of an eye.

      Wife looks at it. "Nice. But that's not a Christmas tree. I thought you said you were having a lucid dream."

      A bit baffled, I shrug and say, "I don't know what to tell you." She goes back to her crafts and I walk further along in the airport terminal. I'm loving the experience of being lucid again and I suddenly fret that I'll forget everything that's happened. I try to recall everything that's happened up to this point, but this destabilizes the scene. Everything collapses into darkness.

      I remember that Xanous had talked about handling "dark scenes" by acting out some action like riding a bike or running. I want to perform a Task of the Year, so I will myself to have a gladius in my hand. (The gladius is a sword of ancient Rome.) I swing the sword back and forth in the darkness, imagining that I'm locked in a dark tunnel underneath the Colosseum. I can hear the crowd now, and I know that the gates will open any moment to let me out for my match. I'm nervous with anticipation. I try to remember whether I have to kill for this task, and think that I do.



      I see a blob of light forming in the corner of my vision. I'm filled with fear and nervous tension. But just as I'm bursting with anticipation, the crowd noise dies down and the blob of light forms into a high window in the hallway of a university. My vision is badly distorted around the edges, almost as if I'm wearing a shredded contact lens.

      The window is about 15 feet above me, and I float up to it to start phasing through the glass. The phasing is difficult and awkward. It feels like I'm dragging my body through thick plastic wrap. I finally make it through and then I'm flying over a park in the mid-afternoon. The dream feels thin now, and I fly only a short distance before
      waking up.
    3. The Kangarant

      by , 01-13-2013 at 04:29 AM
      I'm glad to be in a patch of more peaceful, relaxed lucids that are geared toward exploration. These are usually among my favorites and tend to provide more opportunity for completing tasks. (Not that I was successful completing anything in this dream, of course, but theoretically...)

      Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

      Lucid #56: The Kangarant

      I'm in a small prop plane flying over a high, snowy mountain range. There are two other guys in the plane with me, both in their 20s. There are no seats -- everyone is standing. Nobody appears to be piloting the aircraft.

      The plane barrels toward a mountain peak, and I shout, "Agggh, watch out!!" But the plane clears the peak (though just barely) and the two guys high five. They look at me like they don't get why I'm being such a baby.

      "Where are we?" I ask. One of the guys ponders this for a moment and says, "California."
      California? "No way," I think, and become lucid.

      The plane goes into a hard, sickening turn to the right and starts losing altitude. My two companions think this is great, but I want off. I phase my left hand through one of the plane's windows. After a brief pause, the rest of my body follows and I'm flying outside in the clouds, the plane buzzing off into the distance.

      I'm descending pretty rapidly but I feel like I'm in control. Unexpectedly, I pass by a gray-haired man who's dressed in an Army Service Uniform. He looks extremely high-ranking, almost certainly a general. He's staying still while I'm moving so I whoosh right by him. He's muttering something as I fly by, but I can't make it out.

      My descent slows and I land in an airfield. Some planes are taxiing on runways while others are refueling. There's even a rocket set up nearby! It looks vaguely like a Saturn V but it's way too small.

      Stranger still are the animals roaming everywhere across this airfield. Each has at least one human handler. I spot camels for sure, and several other types that I can't remember. But the animal that really grabs my attention is something that I can only describe as the cross between a kangaroo and an elephant. (Kangarant? Eleroo?)

      This animal is about 30-feet tall, gray-skinned like an elephant, but with the powerful hind legs and dainty forelimbs of a kangaroo. It has a marsupial pouch but its head has tusks and a modest trunk. The head is elephant-like, but sleeker and longer than an elephant's. I watch this beast in fascination for a while. A handler on a raised platform is passing it some kind of hay to eat. The kangarant munches away, passive and content.

      I start thinking about tasks and I fly past the airfield to see what's out there. I come to a beach where several vendors have stalls set up. I decide that this is Australia and that I should do the Australia Task of the Year. I remember something about Mel Gibson.
      Actual task: ("Hitch a ride on a sea turtle, dolphin, or humpback whale and explore the Great Barrier Reef. Bite a great white shark and don't die. ") I decide that since I don't know what I'm doing I had better try something else. I decide to figure out some kind of way to travel to the Colosseum and have my gladiator battle.

      I convince myself that a time machine will appear behind me. I turn around, shouting, "Time machine!" This fails to do anything but make me feel stupid.

      A girl who looks like she's about nine walks up to me. I think she's perhaps Philippina. I ask, "Can you show me the way to the time machine?"

      She nods, looking a little cross with me. "But I'm not a girl! I'm a boy!" She glares at me, waiting for me to make this right. I don't really know how to respond, since she can apparently read my mind (and I still think she's a girl.)

      "Sorry...?" I offer, and this seems to satisfy her. She starts running inland across a nearby road and I follow. We've only gone a short distance when
      I wake up.
    4. The Cestus

      by , 01-06-2013 at 12:47 PM
      Nowhere near a success, but at least the Task of the Year is on my mind!

      Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

      Lucid #53: The Cestus

      I’m in a bathroom, looking for a stall to use. I don't feel desperate, but I'm not being very careful as I swing one open. Inside I find a guy standing there peeing right into the drain on the floor. I bleat, "Sorry! Sorry!" as I try to hurriedly close the door. But unfortunately, the stall door has completely disappeared, leaving me no escape from this excruciating situation.

      I’m embarrassed for him peeing into the drain like a barbarian and I’m embarrassed for me throwing open the door like an idiot. I stand there marinating in the awkwardness for a moment before it becomes so painful that I have a false awakening into...

      ...the same bathroom.
      I don't buy that I woke up in a bathroom, and I become lucid. The bathroom is empty now and I’m standing by a sink looking into a mirror. I note that the stall doors are all closed again and that I badly need a shave. I cannot handle the idea of leaving a bathroom without washing my hands, so I'm glad that the faucet works. I don't see soap anywhere but fortunately I manage to get over this.

      I head outside into the hall and it looks like the hallway of a dark hotel, deep blue carpeting and flickering fluorescent lights. I can go left or right and I choose left. When I head to the left, though, I see a writhing black cloud of smoke at the end of the hall. It looks like the smoke monster from Lost. I mutter, “I’ll pass...” and head back the other way down the hall.

      The electric lights flicker for a moment and then the whole scene starts to darken and press down on me. I rub my hands together and the details feel real, down to the deadlift calluses at the pinky, ring, and middle finger joints. When I do this, there’s an electric crackle and the lights come back on. I walk for a long way down the hall but somehow it just seems to get longer and longer. I want to either find a DC for basic Task of the Month or get to Rome for the Colosseum battle Task of the Year. I start to feel fretful that I'm going nowhere and the scene
      fades to black.

      I feel it coming, though, and I relax and prep for DEILD. Another scene begins to form. I’m walking through a concrete structure that looks like a parking garage or the innards of a stadium. I’m wearing something like a cestus, a nasty-looking, studded leather wrapping around my hand. This isn’t the Colosseum, but I feel like I can turn this into the “Europe” Task of the Year. I’m armed and the location seems like something I could massage into the Colosseum with a little effort.



      But I notice that I feel like I’m no longer able to breathe. The breath simply doesn't feel like it's coming anymore. I know it has to be an illusion but the sensation is terrifying. I try to relax and wait for this to play itself out but some part of me panics and
      I wake up.

      Updated 01-11-2013 at 06:42 PM by 57387

      Categories
      lucid , false awakening , task of the year
    5. Tibetan Nuclear Winter

      by , 12-10-2012 at 05:44 AM
      I tried to achieve the "Trinity" Task of the Year item, where you witness the world's first atomic detonation. I got nowhere near the Trinity site, but having the atomic age on my mind had lots of interesting side effects.

      Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

      Lucid #40: Tibetan Nuclear Winter

      I'm on a Final Fantasy-style quest with Wife and my son E. I even have "4245/4245" hitpoints, so I'm feeling pretty impressed with myself as we knock on the door to ask some character in the game for help.

      Things suddenly turn nightmarish as we walk inside the house. The house's owner steps out of the shadows and his face is gaunt and drawn, the skin tight and shriveled like a corpse. His eyes are pure white. As he advances toward us, he tells us in this droning zombie voice that "I'm not an American. I've never been a human." His gaunt, zombified wife steps out of the shadows and starts droning the same thing. This is absolutely terrifying to me and
      now I'm lucid.

      I hustle Wife and E out of there back into the daylight and fortunately the corpse-things don't follow. The three of us follow a stone path past a well-kept grassy lawn until the path turns into a smoothly ascending slope. Soon Wife and E have disappeared, and I'm climbing higher up this slope by myself. I continue, badly wanting to know where it leads.

      After climbing for a while, the wind picks up and a light snowfall starts all around me. I see that the stone path (barely six feet wide), stretches hundreds of feet over a vast, snow-filled valley. When I look at the surrounding mountains, I see a number of Tibetan monasteries and beautiful pagodas nestled among the peaks.



      I think about the task of witnessing the Trinity explosion and almost immediately a mushroom cloud erupts over the distant mountains. The sky goes dark and the wind increases to a howl, the snowfall growing heavier at the same time. Strangely, I don't feel any colder.

      More mushroom clouds spring up silently over the horizon. There are maybe half a dozen or more blasts. Suddenly, one of the pagodas explodes like it was packed with TNT. The path that I'm standing on starts to crumble away in front of me and I can't walk any further.



      I take to the air and try to fly toward where the nuclear explosions are thickest, hoping that I'll still come up with some way to pull off my goal. I imagine a wind swelling up behind me to carry me over the mountains but in an instant all of the remaining monasteries explode and the stone path crumbles into the valley. This time I feel the blast and I wobble in flight. The last thing that I see is a swirl of snow before
      I'm awake.

      Updated 01-11-2013 at 06:53 PM by 57387

      Categories
      lucid , nightmare , task of the year
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