non-lucid

The DILD Fanclub:

I'm in a study-room, resembling one from my college years.
There is a girl with us who has pink hair. She looks like Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim.
Within the story of the dream I fall for this girl hard.
...
I'm in a place similar to a Vison-Works glasses store.
There is some sort of zombie-game that the class is to play as a group.
The game is a 2D-sidescroller, where the group teams up to fight the zombies.
Glasses are required to play the game, but since I don't have them, I'm concerned that I'll cause an issue.
I go to the front desk and try to get a prescription.
...
I return to the Vison-Works later to see if my prescription is ready, but it is dark. Probably closed.
...
I'm with my friend D at something like a dungeons & dragons night at his childhood home's basement.
Danny from Game Grumps is sitting nearby, and I ask him if he was born in 1989. He replies with something about 90's kids.
I notice D has some software open on his PC. It's an old-style big grey monitor from the 2000s or earlier.
The software is showing a home-page for a fan club. There are dollar values for money to donate to him, listed into themed tiers.
One of the tiers is 'pancankes' and shows a stack with some butter on it.
It's labeled the 'DILD' fan club, which my brain does not connect as dream initiated lucid dream.
...
Later we are outside and it is so rainy that we can barely see a few feet in front of us.
Despite not being able to see, I get the impression that we are in a futuristic city area with tall skyscrapers.
D is supposed to fly me somewhere. He can fly freely, and I need to hold onto him to fly.
I tell him that the raindrops will feel like bullets if we try to fly fast.

The Bulldog:

I'm sitting on a patio chair looking out to a sunrise. I'm high up, a few stories above the ground.
The patio is made of large wood pieces, similar in style to Frontier Land from Disneyland. Within the lore of the dream, we had just built it (my Dad, sister, and I).
I looked at my left hand and noticed that it had three fingers, and I looked at my right. It had four.
I become lucid. The very next thought is that I want to learn more about my dreamworld, to serve me better later.
So I decide to keep looking at my hands. They keep changing in finger count wildly, not fast or as if morphing, more like my brain kept trying to convince me that they had 'always been' said count.
It was more like my perception was in flux than the actual visuals. Tough to describe.
This activity doubles down on the fact that I truly am dreaming.

I decide to get up and look around. I see a man down below in a pool, he's singing on a platform in the middle.
Also, across the way there is another man singing. I listen to them for a while, but I can't recall the tune now.
I noticed a bulldog down by my heel. I feel a massively comforting presence. I don't recognize this dog but I feel the comfort anyway.
He is wearing some sort of skin(or should I say fur) tight dog-shirt.
I remember that I should be stabilizing the dream, so I run my hands across the wood railing a bit.
I notice that the patio is missing some pieces, and get concerned about the stability of the structure.
I decide to go the the side of the house, and once I turn the corner, it represents the side of the house I'm living in now.

The bull-dog is sitting in front of the gate that leads to the front yard. I go up to him and start to pet him.
"Are you a bulldog?" I ask.
"Yes, I am!" the bulldog replied with a British accent.
"Can you tell more more about you so that I can find you in my world?" I ask.
"Ohhh you shouldn't do that...because I have...my issue." the bulldog replies ominously.
I notice he is drooling a bit.
"Well, what is the issue?"
"I....tend to wet the bed." the bulldog admits with some shame in his voice.
I start to comfort the bulldog, but then I begin to lose lucidity.
Instead, I start telling the bulldog a story of a recurring dream. It's about not making finals for marching band back in high-school.
I try to recall the name of the girl who was our drum major who broke the news, but I can't remember her name (just her face).
This isn't actually a recurring dream.
An Asian girl appears behind him as if in response to the story, but she doesn't resemble anybody from it.
At this point I seem to get my bearings, and I start to narrate what has happened up to now, to the bulldog.

"So I've spent a lot of time in this dream letting things flow on their own, observing, doing RCs, keeping it low-key. Do you think it is OK if I try some dream control now?" I ask the bulldog.
"Yes, that seems reasonable." the bulldog replies matter of factly.
I walk forward and open the gate leading to the front yard.
It's night-time over here.
I remember that I want to try the teleport-sprint from another dream, so I position myself on the street with plenty of runway space in front of me.
But there is a festival happening on the street. Lots of people. This prevents me from having space.
I get the impression that the dream characters are not fans of what I am about to try, slightly hostile.
They don't stop me when I went to find a new position, but one guy did bump me as I passed.
I don't visualize a particular place. I break out into a sprint with the night-road in front of me and close my eyes.
I feel my body shake, similar to the first time having a WILD transition. Feels like going through a wormhole.
When I open my eyes, I see blackness. I assume I have woken up.
...
I'm back on the patio with the sunrise, but this time I think I am awake.
"Wow! What a cool lucid dream, I'd better go record it before I forget!" I think to myself.
I enter the house through a doorwall and go to a computer.
This home does not resemble one I have lived in.
The computer has three or four monitors all setup, and looks super cool.
Dream-me has a program setup that will record my dreams as audio, and then auto-tune them.
So I narrate the previous dream as it happened in its entirety.
I mess up the recording so I have to start and stop a few times.
As I recorded it, the computer generated an animated movie, with the audio, as a musical.
The graphics resembled Final Fantasy VII: Remake's.
I'm invested in making the video good.
...
I'm back in my actual bed. My girlfriend is by me, and so is a dog. It may have been a german-shepherd.
Strangely, my sister is at the foot of the bed.
We're awake because we are concerned that there is an intruder in the house.
I felt safe, because the dog would be able to alert us if there was a problem.
My girlfriend tells me I should give my sister the larger pillow, and I tell her that she is already asleep so there is no point.
I reflect that the dog with us is not giving me an allergic reaction, so maybe I can have a dog after all.
...
I'm back at my childhood home, and I'm talking about the intruder with my Dad.
I look at the thermostat, and it reads '60 degrees'. I think it is low, but my Dad tells me that this is how it has to be.
I look over to the living room and see my Mom playing a video game. She's losing so she calls me over to help and I do.

For a moment I see myself: a tall man, dressed in black and with black hair. I'm not myself in this dream, I am him, seeing everything through his eyes. I don't feel like a girl anymore.

A street at night. It's wide enough, paved evenly, though the slabs vary in colour and shade. The streetlamps give off a low, cool white light that's like moonlight. The sky above is dark blue without a single star.

In the middle of the two-lane road is an industrial-looking island, a tangle of thick pipes and ducts that come out of the ground and go back in again, twisting over one another. It's confined into a strict rectangular patch of ground. In the light the curves of the metal are glinting dully. I walk with quiet but sure footsteps onward, past railings and railings and railings, black and gleaming along the length of the street and around the corner. As I near it, eerie music starts playing from one of the corner houses. The house is purplish-grey and has three stories and a basement. On the first floor only the house's corners are missing and covered with a thick dark grey mesh. From here a bright purple mist is wafting out from inside. A purple van in front of the house reads in bubble letters above the windscreen: 'Ultra Shelibatology'.

I pass the house and walk through many more residential streets, across main roads; everything is dark and cool and quiet. Until when passing a garden square I catch sight of a man inside, watching me. He has light hair sticking up in tufts and his whole face is obscured in the dark except his staring eyes. Our eyes meet. Another person walks by in front of me.

The school bathroom. I'm washing my hands in front of the mirror. When I try to enter the only stall, the door is locked, but I can hear people talking inside. Annoyed, I go into another bathroom. There are two stalls in here, but one seems to have been replaced with a blank wall while the other is also occupied. I bang on the door and hear a surprised noise from inside, so, feeling guilty for disturbing them, I turn to leave the room. But this time the door feels extremely heavy and it takes me a long struggle to get it open. As I'm pulling at it my vision seems to black out and I reel back from the effort. When I finally stumble out, I feel so disoriented, it's as if my mind is trying to pull away from my body.
Finally I enter the third bathroom. By now I feel dizzy and can't see properly. Just as I get my bearings enough to register that there is a free stall I also see that someone else has come in after me and is about to enter it. I feel a sort of sinking despair and hopelessness at this. I stammer something out about how I was about to go in there. She takes a step back and offers to let me go first, but I, feeling sheepish, hurriedly refuse and resign myself to waiting.

At no time in this dream - nor when I woke up - did I feel I needed the toilet. It's not one of those dreams that I often hear about. Strangely, this is the third time I can remember dreaming about being in an eerie and somewhat surreal school bathroom. All looked different but all of them left me with a similar feeling of disorientation and unhappy confusion.

Missed Signals:

I'm outside my house on the sidewalk.
There is a man that claims he has proof that I shot someone.
The scene transitions, and I'm now in a restaurant that resembles Bennigan's.
I'm conflicted about whether I actually hurt someone or not, I may have been drunk or high.
There is a work-meeting happening at a table nearby. They are together for a 5-year anniversary. My boss is there.
...
My dad is defending me against the murder accusations.
I wonder (while dreaming) what problem my brain is working through, or what inspired this dream.
But I don't become lucid.

Fragment:

I'm at a game night in a large home. We might have been playing hide and seek.
HM from the tots may have been on my team.

Fragment:

I'm on a grassy hill with someone and it's a bit chilly outside.
We're inspecting the hill for evidence of a person living in it.
We find an air-pipe and water-line device nearby.

Fragment:

There is a battle with a queen-like figure.
It took place in a 2D-platformer game style.

I remember being in a place that seems like an American-style cartoon town. Red barns (like Applejack's) surround a small square and wide dusty streets. They are big, each two floors and then a high barn roof. I have a brief image of being inside one of these, on the first floor. The floor was of light wood boards and the room was large and fairly empty. I feel that there were wrought iron spiral stairs down to the ground floor - though those would be rather out of place in a barn.

Outside there seems to be a small market going on. In the square I examine goods displayed on a wooden table. There are other people milling around, as well.

I was half-asleep when this one came to me. It's mixed in with details of what I was reading when I dozed off and I can remember a bit of a story!

I am in a boarding school - the buildings are somewhat old. All are built in different colours of brick as far as I can see. I'm eating lunch at a small, square table in the large canteen - a little ways off I can see a white brick pillar capped with brown bricks, and beyond it a broad vague expanse. A girl is sitting across from me, but she's nobody I know. She's eating a hot dish - it looks to me like white rice covered with a thick layer of tomato sauce and then sprinkled with walnuts (would this actually taste good???). I notice and register that our school should be a nut-free one, but pass it off thinking that perhaps she brought her own food. I am allergic to nuts.

A teacher (who I recognise) approaches us and sits near our table. As she's talking, for some reason I decide to try a bite of my companion's dish. Chewing absentmindedly, I suddenly remember that I can't eat nuts and spit out the one in my mouth. I see it's been slightly chewed and I feel myself start breathing faster as fear bolts through my body. Meanwhile, the teacher has left some time before without my noticing. Hurrying up to my dorm room I tell myself that this is just a panic reaction and I'll be fine, since I didn't even swallow.

I arrive at the door to my room. The dormitories are laid out along open-air walkways which form a square around a central courtyard and rise for several levels, all in the same white and brown brick: the balconies are white, capped with brown. The walls of the building are brown. A blond-haired boy steps out in front of me and begins speaking, but I push past him and begin heading back downstairs - when I realise I was in such a rush that I forgot to pick up my EpiPen. So I run back, get it, and go back to lunch. But I never suffer an allergic reaction.

Later, a Christmas celebration. Most of the school is crowded into the brown-brick church. It's Victorian-style and reminds me of the chapel on the grounds of another well-known boarding school. Organ music drifts across the snowy churchyard to our ears as we wait for the service to begin. I am outside the church, skipping the service with my friends, the chilly air chafing harshly against my face, and the snow still falling.

I was in the hotel...again, I came to know this by remembering through dream memory, I've been there before.
It felt more like a level Ive completed already.
For some reason in finland, I was lost in this large hotel, it had all kinds of rooms and halls, it was quite ornate, think 17 century french palaces, but a bit less fancy.
Idk what I was looking for, quests I guess...but I knew that there were layers to that realm and I had to switch by them... at one of the doors I encountered the echoes of an enemy or something hostile that took the form of a man, but it couldnt hurt me now, only saw and heard its monstrous echoes...
I went to some sort of dining hall, there were people down there, eating, while I was up there on some sort of balcony, near the ceiling, that was really high, like 200 meters.
There was a girl there, I wanted to ask her for directions but then I woke up.

I've been lazy about editing my journals for posting so I've got a bit of a backlog now. Four more dreams waiting to be posted - including this morning's journal! Nothing lucid yet but it looks like my recall is improving, so that's good. Perhaps I'd better move on to trying some lucid techniques soon.

I'm abroad in a different city. I'm sure this is some mainland European country, though it somewhat reminds me of English country towns. The buildings and walls are built of large irregular cobblestones while the streets are paved in the uneven way that's so common in Corsica (to the detriment of my shoes). I catch sight of a large set of wooden double doors, black, wide but not as high as those I see in Italy and France.

I'm guided to the house where I'll be staying by two men. They both wear glasses and seem nerdy, I think they are a gay couple. In retrospect, I'm quite sure the two looked exactly the same - that, or I saw only one and imagined the second. The two are friendly and I remember them talking and laughing with me. They have brown hair.

I meet two more people later on. One is a businessman - broad-shouldered, black suit, cold expression and an office full of heavy dark wooden furniture, thick books and leather upholstery. He reminds me greatly of a character from one of my favourite series. I don't remember the other.

At one point, I'm wandering the streets in the evening, light spilling out of restaurant windows which display scenes of people leaning towards one another talking, cutlery resting loosely between gesticulating fingers, red wine swilling about in glasses, unfinished dishes on the table. I can almost hear the hubbub of hundreds of conversations jostling to make themselves heard.

It was the last day of elementary school, a lot of festivities and performances were planned in the gymnasium, me along with three other kids, one being a girl I had a crush on during 5th - 6th grade, another being my current best friend I didn't even know back then, and I think the last one was the girl's best friend. We did a short skit, or performance that was maybe three minutes long or something followed by us dancing to either Barbie Girl or a song from the Dutch girlband K3 as ending/credits as the audience would give us an applause! However, we would just continue dancing for the entire song while they kept applauding. We would've done so for the entire 7(?) minute run of the song, but eventually decided to gather in front of the audience and bow, my theatre school instincts kicked in to say "Yes!" as we bowed.

We then leave the gymnasium and decide backstage to hang out together instead of attending the rest of the event (considering it was primary school, it was literally early in the afternoon) We then decided to go to the city, my crush asking me where I live to see if it was possible. Although I was thinking like my current age self while supposedly being a prospective 7th grader, I was still convinced I lived in Utrecht rather than Berlin where I currently live so I'd be good. We went to a supermarket nearby to get some food, but I woke up.

Curse you brain for finally letting me hang out with my crush ;_;

Not much today. I was half-asleep while noting down the dream and too tired to write much - editing it later I've almost forgotten the rest.

I dream of waking up, blissfully slowly, snug and warm and surrounded by bright golden light. It's the kind of light that makes you want to sleep. More accurately, I'm being woken by someone - a man, smiling - who? I don't feel that he and I are close. I lie in a three-quarter bed - a wrought bedstead in shiny gold metal, with sheets and covers in two shades of pink. I think that if Princess Peach's dress were a bed, it would look like this. It is in the centre of a large, bare, bright room. Although there's nothing here I feel warm and safe.

The above is what I remember now, after 10 PM - having woken up at 5:30 AM. Soon after waking I wrote this:

"I dream of two people who are waking me up (separately) at 6 and after 6. I remember they gave me gifts."

Sadly I've forgotten those other details.

I also remember a car driving along a dark road at night, the sky is a deep rich blue. None of the usual trees growing beside the road either. I have a view over a wide open space. The car is a very stylish old sort and of a colour between pink and maroon. It's open-topped and the windows rimmed with silver metal. The license plate only has 6 digits although they all have 7 over here. I remembered the plate when I woke up and now I only remember the beginning: MV0. Actually, I think the second part was BKZ. I am inside the car, seeming to view it simultaneously from several points of view. I'm not driving - there is no driver. I can feel the cool night air and the low rumble of the engine. Looking up at the clear sky fills me with calm and peace, as though I am all alone in the world.

Went to bed around 10:30PM.

Smashing Birthday:

I'm at my friend JM's birthday party. There is a long table setup in a restaurant.
The restaurant resembles one we were at during festivities from my girlfriend's sisters wedding.
I'm working on a tapestry that is inspired by Super Smash Bros as a gift for JM.
I go to sit at an open spot next to his left, but he tells me it is for his girlfriend BH.
The person on the right of JM scootches over to make room so that I can sit on JM's right.

New Old Car:

I'm driving through a nice looking community in a new car.
The car is older, but it is well kept. It smells like leather too.
There are clean-looking wood accents on the doors and console.
I'm driving to a parking garage for the community.
...
I'm in a main receiving area for the community. It resembles the lobby of a fancy hotel.
It is a large open space with a desk at the far end in front of me.
This place resembles the facility a character was infiltrating from the book, Neuromancer.
...
Later I'm leaving the parking structure and I wonder if the older car has high mileage.
I realize that I never checked it before buying it.
I start to wonder if I actually got a good deal or not.
I notice some smudges on the frontside passenger door's wood trim and I rub at them with my finger.
It mostly comes off.

Both recorded at 7:16AM.

247 words for the night.

This dream with the receiving area is interesting. I was recently wondering whether locations I visualize while reading would manifest in dreams or not.
The facility location indeed has, and while the theme and tone of the situation is entirely different from the book, it is still noteworthy.

Went to bed around 11:30PM.

Berries with the Tots:

I'm with JM and JV from the Tots group. We're at a store modeled after the Pokémon Centers from various Pokémon games.
There is a deli nearby in the same store selling lunchmeat, as well as Pokémon merchandise lining shelves on the walls.
I'm looking at some berries, and the perspective changes such that I'm using a menu to scroll sideways through the different berry options.
There are arrows up and down to change the quantity of berries to buy. There is a price that dynamically updates as well.

Recorded at 5AM.

Kitten in the Kitchen:

I'm at a house. I get the impression it is a new thing, as in somebody has just bought it or started a rental arrangement.
There is a front door area with a kitchen on the left. There is a mudroom type area on the right. The layout is vaguely similar to my parents' old home in northern Michigan.
I'm standing in the kitchen near a plate with some food on it. There is a small kitten near the plate, attracted to the food.
The kitten is black and longhaired, similar to how one of my cats from childhood, Oreo, used to look.
I pickup the kitten to show it to my girlfriend who is in the kitchen nearby.
I get the impression the situation is a 'meet the parents' type scenario.
...
I'm with my Grandma P in a bedroom area from the same house.
She seems to be sharpening chopsticks to resell as a business.

Recorded at 6:45AM.

254 words for the night.

Went to bed at 10:30PM.

Teleport Sprints:
I'm in a highschool hallway that reminds me of one from the show, Stranger Things.
HM is there and she has an umbrella. We have a brief conversation about some other function the umbrella has and she leaves.
She's going to catch a bus, and I'm late for that bus. I try to catch up but I can't.
...
I'm leaving JM's house after a game-night, but my car isn't around. I remember that I teleported here.
I walk into the road and find a long stretch of open space.
I break into a sprint and close my eyes. It reminds me of what Ness does in the intro to Super Smash Bros Melee.
https://earthbound.fandom.com/wiki/Teleport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXs4-M-ZiOg (at 1:02).
When I open them, I've teleported to my childhood home.
My friends are inside and they have used the kitchen chairs to make a fort.
At one point a drink gets knocked into JM's face.
...
I'm with my Dad and my Mom driving on a mountain road. Dad is driving and Mom is in the front passenger seat.
There is a lake far down below us, and my Dad gets too close to the railing.
We go over the edge. We are all panicking less than we should be as we go into freefall.
I start to think about how I can survive. I think about undoing my seatbelt so that I don't get stuck underwater, or opening a door so that the water pressure doesn't hold them all shut.
We impact the water and it isn't that bad. Turns out the water was not as deep as it looked.
The car careens forward and then we do hit a larger body of water.
I wonder if I can teleport my Mom away, but then I realize that I need a runway to do so.
...
I'm at work with GO and CP. We are on the 2nd floor of our building, but it looks like it has elements of my middle school bandroom.
There is a woodshop water fountain (the same one that was in the bandroom) and GO gets water in his face from mis-operating it.
Another DC tells me "the woman is from the Maw, the Underworld".

Recorded at 6:30AM.

372 words for the night.

Parts of these dreams felt semi-lucid. As in, I was using dream control to address situations that I thought presented danger.
I'm excited that my mind gave me a way to teleport. Can't wait to try the teleport sprint in my next true lucid dream

Created Tuesday 07 November 2023

Got a dream and some fragments today. I feel so motivated for dreams again. It's that same enthusiasm I had when I genuinely started LD practices all that time ago. I want to try and maintain that passion, without any baggage of ambition and distraction I've had in that interval...

Scrap Group 1
Wandering around locally during dusk. There were very different looking buildings in the shopping plazas, and far more of them in the spaces that should be empty. There was also another pond near the intersection. It looked more like a dirty marsh.

Riding around town via public transit during a clear afternoon. Seemed like a lot of aimless wandering.

Playing an MvC2 match. I thought my opponent was an old friend. I was using Magneto, Storm, Cyclops on player two side. He was using Magneto and I believe Cable, with Sentinel as an anchor. The background was The Abyss. I'm sure IRL he's way better at me in this game than I'll probably ever be. It came to a surprise when I not only took the initiative, but that he didn't respond to my fumbling a faux Rom-loop (used medium punches instead of light kicks; shouldn't be possible). I did a bunch of lazy day one resets to keep the pressure going. I finished with a no-confirm thrown out super, which he responded with his own. A silly DHC escalation followed, ending with my Cyclops beating out his Cable. A similar event happened later on. I reduced him down to his Sentinel, which he played substantially better. He got me with some solid Rocket Punch fly loops. I was left with a low health Magneto. More cheesy resets got me the win.

Spoiler for It's a long one:

Dream 1 - Incursion of the Wicked God

Several forgotten scenes before this point. The visuals were mostly clear. I was walking through the hallways of an office tower, the floors green and walls white. Another figure was with me. This just so happened to be God of Destruction Beerus from Dragon Ball Super. He alone was displayed in anime style, contrasting the realistic surroundings. I was supposedly acquaintances with him. Still, I chose my actions carefully, lest I unwittingly incur his wrath. I "understood" that we were looking for a certain food stall. Indeed, we did pass a few kiosks along the way.

"Are we almost there yet?", Beerus asked.

"Yes. It's close."

One stall we were nearing seemed very suspicious. On closer look, there was some faint, dark aura emanating from it. Suddenly, it began to shudder in place. A strange, rippling force roils out, enveloping the God of Destruction before he could respond. Soon, he's trapped in some kind of floating panel, inside of which was an entire extra-dimensional plane of glowing violet. And then, a feminine voice echoes from the other side, cackling in a squeaky laugh. Beerus' eyes furrow into a serious expression. He mutters a name I couldn't comprehend. Whatever it was, Beerus presented them with an unpleasant appellation. "The Wicked God", if I'm remembering it correctly.

"This is my world now!", asserted the chortling voice.

The portal slowly began to close. As it did, Beerus turned to me, his gaze stoic, almost peculiarly relaxed. "Mortal, this planet's fate is left to you. Now run." With these words, the panel closes, and vanishes.

Following sound advice, I turned tail and and rushed to find an exit. I glanced back, where I saw that the evil force was steadily spreading its corruption. Every surface it touched was immediately covered in some kind of pink ectoplasm. On closer look, this had semblance of pulsating flesh, complete with veins blue and red. It was further accompanied by a cacophony of horrible moans, surging exponentially in volume as it drew near. All the more reason to hurry!

After a minute of sprinting, it seemed I'd a good lead away from the horror. Instead, I found that the corruption was approaching from almost all sides. Every visible passageway seemed to lead to a dead end. With my choices dwindling, I took the nearest closed door. This took me to an alcove. By chance, this had a window out. I peeked down, only to see I was miles above ground. How tall was this building?! Well, no other option. Looks like I'm gonna have to jump!

Only a few seconds of descending allowed me to finally see what was below. It seemed to be a bare dirt lot. A decent size for a normal apartment building, but comically narrow for a structure this big. To my left and right, the building's granite-colored walls partially enclosed the lot in narrow wings, these probably having just enough vlocume to fit a room on each floor. Awkward architecture, but that was the least of my worries, as I saw the windows of each floor zooming past me.

"Oh God.", I grumbled. "I'm gonna have to 'Baki' my way out of this, won't I?" After briefly glancing around, I decided that trying to cling on the left wing was a better gamble. "Bye bye, soles of my shoes..." I noticed then I was wearing white sneakers with green soles. Since when did I own these? I'd also some dark colored sweat clothing. Regardless, I'd urgent matters. Extending my legs, I thrust my feet on the wall. I was bounced away a few times, but eventually, I was able to slide down, slowing my fall substantially. Despite all the smoke-hot friction, my shoes made it out intact. Heck, I was equally amazed and grateful that my legs weren't mulched into tomato sauce.

I then found myself dangling on a concrete window sill. There was still a ten story climb down. Quite a climb, yet only a mere fraction of what I'd dropped from. I now noticed a cast-iron fence gating the lot, built all the way to my level. This too seemed nonsensical at the time. At least it would make for better handholds.

I made it down to around the three story level. Immediately outside the lot was a pathway between apartment buildings, all bordered by rickety picket fences that'd long lost their coating of paint. To my right were urban streets. Some retail-under-apartment buildings were visible across the road, a few shops covered with roller doors. Despite the shabby conditions, there was a surprising lack of graffiti.

Anyway, more clambering. I made it to around the second level, when there was a sudden disturbance below. That evil energy was amiss, evinced to the disturbing sounds of tearing flesh. The wooden fences folded, and collapsed on a pile towards the lot. From the debris, a figure steps out. It was a light skinned girl in her early teens, if that, standing no higher than 5' tall. Her blonde wavy hair was cut at shoulder length. She wore a Victorian-era styled dress, colored white and lined in red. This was the Wicked God. Pure evil, disguised in the form of an innocent waif.

"You're too late.", she yelled with a lilting voice.

The girl, smiling warmly, waved and gestured for me to go to her. I froze momentarily to contemplate my situation. Should I attack? Should I run? No. Don't provoke her. It's probably what she expects. Stay calm, do what she says, humor her for a bit. Buy time until you can find a way out of this. Shouting back, I agreed to meet with her.

I continued climbing, if reluctantly, turning my attention to any handholds on my way down. Once there was only about 10ft left, I made a wide jump atop the pile of wooden wreckage. But, the being wasn't there. "Hello?", I called out.

Then, from behind, it jumped at me with a terrible screech. Now, the creature's face was distorted into a horrific countenance. Her eyes were sunken deep into her skull, the sockets and lid peeled inside out. Furthermore, her lips were stretched far past human proportions. Yet, her teeth, impeccably white and straightened, remained normal.

I recoil, and scream. Only barely do I keep from losing it entirely. "Gah! You coulda scared me to death"! I gasped desperately for air.

The spirit chuckles, as her face reverts back to normal. "You won't go that easily.", she responds. That wasn't very encouraging. The girl walks past me towards the building. As she did, I discerned that she wore black leather punk boots. Anyway, she extends her hand at me. "Shall we?" I take a deep breath, and comply. Her skin, pasty, yet not unnaturally pale, was nonetheless oddly clammy. Her grasp was sensitive. So frail. Fragile. Like a withering daisy. Part of me thought I could break her in half, and get this whole matter over with. But deep down, I knew that was wishful thinking. Whatever this thing was, I was only looking at a very small fragment of its entirety. I would've just been snuffing out a tiny spark within an inferno.

She lead me into the nearest door back into the supersized skyscraper. We were met with a u-shaped stairway, constructions mostly of wood. I followed her up. Besides poor lighting, nothing seemed amiss at first glance. But as I ascended further, I noted a faint violet hue. It was the only sign I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

After making it up a level, my captor/host speaks. "Could you help me pick out clothes those kids wore in the 90's?", she asked. "When this is done, I'm gonna do a dance. And I wanna look so cute doing that!"

I didn't even bother trying to find reason in this, choosing instead to fire out my surface thoughts. "We could probably try that now. You know, I think I saw a clothing store earlier. It was across the street. We could turn around and-"

"Mortal,", the waif interjects jadedly. "It would take eons to explain the intricacies and morphology of a nether being to one such as you." Ouch.

"Well, I was just trying to be help. I mean it's not that far..." I trailed off from there.

We walk for a bit longer. Then, the fell deity began muttering a reminder to herself. "Let's see, what did I need again? Black Baptists? Red Priests? Some goblins? Field[?] raiders?" She repeated this a few times.

I 'recalled' one-upping such opponents in previous scuffles. "That doesn't sound so bad", I thought to myself.

The girl glances back at me, as if she'd read my mind. "Oh, and Banko[?] gods.", she blurts loudly, sly grin on her face.

"Yeah, that would do it...", I sighed. No idea what those things were, only that they would spell certain doom. All things considered, I felt quite composed. I was only a bit miffed, at worst.

At the third floor, I'm finally pulled out of the stairway and pointed to another door. The Wicked God opens it for me. "After you.", she implores. I take a deep breath, and step forth.

The dream suddenly goes black. A faint impressions of a hallway lingered momentarily. Before I knew it, I wake up.