non-lucid

I don't remember much from last night, just a couple fragments. In the first, I found Cookie, a stuffed animal (a black-and-white cat) I've had for as long as I can remember, in my basement. I picked her up and hugged her really tight because I was glad that I'd finally found her (she went missing maybe a couple years ago IWL).

In the second, I was on some website where there was this competition going on. It was some sort of video game competition. People could vote for their favourites in different categories (favourite character, favourite game, favourite genre, favourite moment, etc.).

I was playing Spirit Tracks. It was at the part where Link and Zelda play the sacred duet before the final battle. Afterwards, instead of going onto the final battle, I was taken to a map screen (not the rail map). I had to choose one of three places - stay and fight Malladus, go to some place I can't remember now, or go to some strange tower (not the Tower of Spirits). I selected the tower.

When I entered the tower, it turned into a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon-esque game, though battles worked the same way as in the main series games (judging by the graphics, I'd say G/S/C). I can't remember what my main Pokemon was, but I ended up entering a battle with 1 HP left. I was afraid I might have to switch out to Zubat, which I really didn't want to, as I only used Zubat as an HM slave (I suppose I was on a one-Pokemon challenge).

Just as the other Pokemon had started to attack, I yelled out, "Stop!", pausing the battle. I searched desperately for any healing items I may have. Nothing. I reluctantly allowed the battle to continue. The wild Pokemon finished its attack, causing mine to lose its remaining hit point. However, it wasn't defeated, despite its remaining HP being displayed as "nil". It also gained a new move in the top slot (overwriting whatever was already there, I guess). I can't remember what the move was called, but it was a special move, only usable by Pokemon with no HP remaining (kind of like how Struggle can only be used by Pokemon with no PP on any move). I used this new move to restore more HP.

After the battle, I found myself in Vermillion City (you know, I think this may have been Pokemon Blue - there was little variation in colour, save for a bluish tint on everything now, and it had 8-bit graphics, of course). My Pokemon forgot its new move, which was replaced by Clamp.

Some point soon after, I woke up. I looked at the time - it was already 11:00! I got up, and, in the living room, I found a book that read "Oracle of Ages" on the side. I picked it up and looked at the cover. It appeared to be some crossover between The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and... Star Wars. I decided that was ridiculous and not worth reading.

I woke up again and looked at the clock. It was actually almost 7 AM.

I went back to sleep and had another dream in which I was in the car, thinking about another Zelda game - Minish Cap this time. This one happened to be a crossover with Vocaloid. I was trying to remember who I'd decided to play as (since I'd only borrowed the game, so I don't still have it). I had a feeling I'd picked Len, but then I thought I may have chosen Rin instead. I knew I'd picked one of the Kagamine twins.

Soon, we arrived at home. Inside, I saw my cat, Princess, sitting happily inside a large cardboard box (she loved boxes). I remembered that Princess died last fall and, realizing that it couldn't be her, asked my mom where this cat had come from. She told me she'd taken it in; it was a stray she'd found on our porch.

Next thing I knew, there were now two of these cats. At first, I thought that Princess had come to see the new cat, but, like before, I remembered that it couldn't be her because she was dead. Again, I asked my mom where the second cat had come from. Before she answered, I decided it would be a good idea to do a reality check, given the strangeness of the situation, but I woke up before I could.

I can kind of remember two dreams from last night. Well, more like fragments. In the first, I was trying to help a girl hook up a Playstation to my laptop because she needed a monitor to play it on. The second dream involved me guessing at meanings of things in a language made of colours.

I had a dream last night that involved collecting pieces of candy (Smarties - the American kind - to be specific) and making note of which ones we found on a chart. The candy was all hidden in my living room, and the chart was on the dining room table (we have a combined living room/dining room/kitchen area, all as one big room).

In the next dream, I was watching some weird TV show, in which a school nurse went crazy and killed one of the kids.

I woke up after that but soon went back to sleep and had a dream that I was checking Facebook and saw that one of my friends had spoiled the ending to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (ironically, he's never played Skyward Sword IWL). I can't remember what he'd said, but I kind of wish I could remember, so I could see how close it compares with the actual ending when I finish the game IWL.

The next dream... I don't even know where to start with this one. I remember it. I can't recall anything I can really put into words. I can hardly even recall any images. I can barely even remember anything that happened. Yet I know that I can just... remember it - this feeling of acknowledgement of having dreamt it, I suppose.

I guess I'll try to write what I can remember and put into words. It was kind of dark. It was also a video game - and a rather frustrating one at that. I remember the mini-map in the corner. There were four dots on that map - two red and two yellow. The red ones were me, and the yellow ones were the enemy. I can't remember who/what I was, though, just that I was represented on the mini-map as two red dots.

I don't remember my first dream from last night too well. I remember playing tennis, though.

In the next dream, I was at Earth Camp, and we were playing some weird game outside. One girl accidentally touched some poison ivy (which actually did look exactly the same as IWL), so I instructed her to go inside, not to touch anything with that hand (for the sake of being careful), and go wash her hands thoroughly with soap and water (if you happen to touch poison ivy, you have roughly ten minutes before it gets absorbed into your skin; you can wash it off before then and not get affected at all).

After waking up in the morning, having plenty of time to sleep in, I soon drifted back to sleep. I saw an image of a landscape (on a computer screen, I think) with hills and mountains. I then looked down at the similar landscape beneath it. I switched my attention from one to the other a few times before realizing the bottom one was actually underwater.

Suddenly, I was there, as a mermaid. I looked around. The scene was breathtaking. Off in the distance, I could see the city of Atlantis. It was amazing!

I kind of followed the other mermaids. During the summer, we could swim around in the ocean wherever we pleased. Winter was coming, though, which meant it was time for us to all return to Atlantis.

Now, I wish I'd become lucid by that point, because that part was probably one of the most amazing dreams I've ever had. Once we started heading back to Atlantis, though, it just got weird.

A dolphin started chasing us, trying to eat us. This soon led to what was almost like a game; I was then trying to get the attention of a nearby shark (which seemed to take no interest in me whatsoever), so I could lure it towards the dolphin and get away.

When I finally got past the dolphin (without the help of the shark), it turned into a video game that I was now playing (2D, 32-bit graphics - think GBA game). There were now a TON of enemies I had to avoid. I did good for awhile, but then one of them got me.

Instead of losing a life or getting a game over, there was dialogue explaining that it was all a dream which was now ending. I don't remember specifically what it said, though I do remember the words, "This is a dream. It is time for you to wake up now." Of course, I interpreted this is that part of the game having been a dream in-game, not even thinking that I could have been dreaming, too.

The next part seemed like more than just "waking up", as it transitioned to an entirely different game. I was now playing Spirit Tracks. I was in Aboda Village, which, for some reason, was in the northwestern corner of the Forest Realm. I only had the engine of the Spirit Train, so I had to go find and collect the other three train cars. Fortunately, they were pretty easy to find; I just had to head east and go in a straight line.

After finding all the train cars, I decided to stop at the nearest station, which happened to be at Castle Town. Unlike Aboda Village, Castle Town was in roughly the correct place. There was a woman there who wanted me to take her somewhere new. That was the last thing I remember before waking up.

I looked at the clock and saw that only around five or ten minutes had passed. This was kind of surprising, as that dream felt like it was AT LEAST a solid half-hour.

I drifted off to sleep again and had a dream in which I was looking at questions on a math exam I had to take. It seemed really easy. I don't remember the questions now, though, except for one: "Count to your favourite number."

After waking up from that and going back to sleep yet again, I had another dream about playing Spirit Tracks. This time, I went to a house that supposedly had no one living there; there were supposedly just cats and puppets. Except... there actually was someone there. He was an Arabic man with a French accent. He asked me various odd questions about someone I'd apparently taken to the Tower of Spirits.

Suddenly, I'd somehow activated some multiplayer feature, which brought up a list of nearby players. The list was ridiculously long - surely there weren't THAT many people playing the SAME game right now, and in wireless range! Well, apparently, there were.

That's when I suddenly remembered two important things. One, I wasn't supposed to be playing any video games, since it was morning and I hadn't become lucid that night (part of my reward system for LDing), and, two, I should type up my latest DJ entry before doing anything fun. With the intention of updating my dream journal, I shut off the game, causing me to abruptly wake up.

There were a bunch of elf dolls. They could move and talk, and they would also sing Christmas songs if you played the piano for them. They looked kind of creepy, though, but I wanted one anyway.

I woke up fairly early this morning, so I went back to sleep. I soon found myself taking a shower but realized I didn't know how I'd gotten there, as I'd been in bed a moment ago and hadn't gotten up yet. Immediately upon realizing this, my vision faded to black, and I could feel myself back in my bed. I could still hear the shower, though (which led my clearly-not-yet-awake mind to formulate some crazy theory about how sounds in dreams are formed, though I can't remember it now).

I opened my eyes, and the shower noise stopped, leaving my ears ringing for a few moments.

Having just woken up, I decided to check the time. In place of my clock, however, was an advertisement for a site called lucidkids.com, advertising their "memory games to play before you wake". Despite missing this obvious hint, I decided to visit the website anyway. Conveniently, my laptop was right there on my bed. However, I woke up (for real this time) before I had a chance to get to the site.

In the first dream, I was on a snowy mountain with my family. There was one gap that we had to jump across. My brother tried to jump across. I thought he was going to fall, but he didn't. I decided I wanted to go back anyway because I didn't want to have to jump across.

In the second, there was a little boy who was crying. He looked to be around eight or nine years old. I was trying to comfort him. I can't remember why he was upset, though. There were a bunch of other people around, and we were all trying to cheer him up. I don't remember what they were saying.

In my third dream from last night, I was playing Petz 5. I could tell almost right away that things were wrong. First of all, when I started the game, it was outside the Adoption Center with several dogs running around and deep snow on the ground. This isn't what seemed wrong, though, even though adopted pets can't come out at the Adoption Center and there is only ever snow on the ground in the Snow Scene (however, this I assumed was because it was winter, so everywhere outdoors should be snow-covered).

I looked through the list of pets and saw several weird names I didn't recognize. I thought that was weird but figured maybe it was because one of my dogs had had puppies since last time I'd played. I clicked on one of the puppies, and, sure enough, the scene changed to the Nursery, and the puppies all came out with the... father? I thought this was odd, since only mothers and their offspring are allowed in the Nursery, and especially since I didn't even recognize the name of the father, Luminoso, a black dog.

When I checked the list of playscenes, I could tell that something was definitely wrong. There were some I didn't recognize. I clicked on the one above the Backyard with a long, weird name. It looked similar to the Backyard, yet slightly different. I then went to the Backyard, which was now very different. I realized that the other playscene must have been the Garden (which doesn't exist in-game IWL). Suddenly, a dragon rose out of the sky!

Fearing I may have to uninstall and re-install my game, I went to the Petz website, hoping to find an easy fix. It was around this point that I noticed the computer screen was on the freezer door, in place of the ice dispenser, which seemed... perfectly normal, of course.

Anyway, I couldn't find the solution on their website, so I decided to check Google, just in case, but I woke up before I could, thankful that my game still works normally!

Okay, here's what I remember from last night...

The first one I remember was at my house. In my room, in front of my TV, there was a box full of VHS tapes and DVDs. These were in the "library", so they would come and go as people "checked out" and "returned" them (people didn't actually come into my room; they would go to the library, where checking out a video would cause it to disappear from my room, while returning one would cause it to reappear).

One of the videos was The Minish Cap (a movie based off of the Zelda game, I'm guessing); I decided I'd come back for it later so I could watch it with my friend Lizz. It was on a VHS tape, by the way.

When I came back later (I can't remember any parts of the dream in between), it had been checked out already. However, it was available on DVD, but I didn't want that one because I wanted to watch it in my room (which doesn't really make sense, since I have a DVD player AND a VCR in my room, so either would work).

After waking up from that, I decided to attempt DEILD again. I was barely awake when I woke up, which I figured was good for DEILD. I decided I wanted to enter a Zelda-related dream, so I pictured the first Zelda-related thing I could think of: the Spirit Train. I probably could've come up with something better, like a specific location, but keep in mind that my mind was far from fully awake at the time.

Anyway, I quickly slipped into a dream, but, instead of a lucid dream, I entered a false lucid dream instead (i.e., I had control but didn't know I was dreaming). When I woke up from it, it actually took me a moment to actually figure out if that had been a dream or if I'd just imagined it while still partially awake (like in hypnagogia), but I concluded that it was definitely a dream because, although the actual memory of it was really fuzzy (making it harder to tell), I could definitely remember being able to see everything (as opposed to just knowing it's there without actually seeing it, like in daydreaming or visualization).

Anyway, shortly after entering the dream, the Spirit Train disappeared. I quickly concluded that it had disappeared because there were no tracks, so I made the Spirit Tracks appear and summoned the Spirit Train again. I did this by just wanting it to appear, which caused it to appear right before my eyes (I'm assuming this worked because I knew it was supposed to be there and had been there just moments before). The rest of the dream consisted of me making the Spirit Train reappear a few more times (since it kept disappearing) before waking up.

I had another dream last night, in which a bunch of girls were using my laptop to look at pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr. for some reason. I went outside to the backyard (my backyard). I could the local elementary school next door, which, for some reason, seemed perfectly normal. Anyway, there were these guys outside, and they used some weird handheld device to fire an electromagnetic pulse into the air, which caused a pulsating ball of light to appear in the sky.

I had one final dream, in which I was watching Doctor Who. The episode started with a dream that Amy Pond was having. It was rather surreal and... not like a dream. It would show an image of her against a white background, then switch to a quick scene from her dream (the background never changed, though), then back to the first image, then onto another dream, and so on. One of the scenes was the Doctor kissing her...

Anyway, shortly after she woke up, I woke up.

1. I was in the car, sitting in the back seat. I was trying to sleep because I was tired. I checked the time, saw that it was five-something in the morning, and briefly wondered why I was up so early. I remember passing a university at some point.

2. I was playing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. As with most of my video game dreams, all I could see was what was on the screen. However, I almost always find myself playing console games; Spirit Tracks, on the other hand, is for the DS and is almost exclusively touch-controlled. Interestingly, I knew I was touching the screen with the stylus, though I couldn't actually see my hand or the stylus.

Anyway, I was in the Forest Realm, in the part where the tracks go just about everywhere and there are usually Dark Trains around. The Dark Trains, however, were faster than they normally are, and the arrow showing which way they would go wouldn't appear until they were just about to turn, so predicting where they would go was much harder. Oh, and they could take shortcuts that only Dark Trains could take. Basically, they were ridiculously difficult to avoid.

After getting hit twice by Dark Trains (if you haven't played Spirit Tracks, you get a game over whenever one hits you) - and nearly getting hit a third time - I got frustrated and fed up with them. It turned out I had my Action Replay in my DS, so I pressed Start, which paused the game and brought up a set of options. One of the options was labelled "Star Wars Shouting Power". I had no idea what that meant, but I ignored it and selected to bring up the list of cheat codes. I turned on the code to get rid of the Dark Trains and resumed playing.

I can remember four dreams from last night. In the first, I was at a summer camp. It was just a day camp. I'm not sure what kind of summer camp it was, but it was indoors, in a building that looked kind of like my basement. There were a bunch of other kids and teenagers there. I recognized three people from last year - Zelda, a girl with copper-coloured skin and dark, wavy hair, and a girl and a boy whose names I couldn't remember. Zelda was wearing a yellow dress and had her hair, which fell almost to her shoulders, partially pulled back into a ponytail. She was pretty.

Anyway, the group split into two. One group went upstairs, and the other stayed downstairs. I stayed downstairs, but the people I knew went upstairs. Soon, though, I found out that I was supposed to be with the other group, so I went back upstairs to find them.

After a while, we went back downstairs into a dining area. We were seated at tables. Each person was supposed to have a "date". I hadn't known that, but I assumed my date was going to arrive anyway, even though I had no clue who my date actually was. Someone else came to my table (each table could seat, like, six people, I think), also waiting for their date.

Someone came over and handed me a piece of paper with everyone's names on it, so I could choose who I wanted as my date. I checked off the box next to the name of the boy that I knew (I can't remember his name, though). Instead of him, though, four other boys came over.

I don't remember the exact transition, but we somehow ended up on a bus, where the boys were bullying us. I figured it wasn't really a big deal, though, since I know taekwondo and felt confident I could defend myself if necessary.

In my second dream last night, I was playing Petz 5, but it was nothing like Petz 5. It didn't even have any pets in it. I was scrolling through a list of minigames. In the thumbnail image for one of them, I noticed Deku Link (from Majora's Mask). I accidentally clicked on that game. It was like a platformer, except it scrolled down (and the scrolling was automatic, so you couldn't go too fast, or else you'd fall off the bottom of the screen). Before long, I'd fallen off the bottom of the screen. Instead of restarting the level, going to a "Game Over" screen, or anything else logical, it cut to a different scene (which looked like it was from a COMPLETELY different minigame, probably the next one) in a saloon.

That's when I got that sudden "click" to lucidity.

"This isn't Petz 5, is it?" I said, not exactly asking a question but, rather, declaring it out loud.

"Nope," my brother answered. It turned out he had been behind me. We were in my parents' room, he was on the bed, and the "computer screen" was just projected onto the wall.

Even though I was already certain I was dreaming, I did the hand RC just to double-check. Six fingers. Yep, I was dreaming.

My brother said something about having been up at three in the morning to get on the bus (presumably, to the summer camp from the previous dream, even though he wasn't in that dream). I corrected him, telling him we got on the bus at seven and that I would know because I was there.

I was still lucid, but I think the dream was trying to go back on autopilot, since arguing with my brother was apparently more important than any of my LD goals.

I woke up soon after. I felt awake and fairly refreshed, even though it was still dark out, so I think that must have been the end of an REM cycle that woke me up.

I went back to sleep and had a dream which fits neatly between the other two. This time, I was on the bus back from camp. The bus had one backwards-facing seat, so I decided to sit in that one. The bus stopped in a parking lot somewhere, where my mom was waiting. I was the only person to get off at that stop. After getting off, I realized I'd left my glasses on the bus, so I ran after the bus (it was already leaving), holding up a sign that said, "You forgot someone!"

The bus stopped and let me back on. I boarded the bus, took my glasses, and left.

I had one final dream last night. I was playing Wind Waker (I think) and came across an enemy that I think was either a Darknut or an Iron Knuckle (well, one of those things with a heavy suit of armour). When I got close to it, I noticed that it briefly turned red, then blue, then attempted to fire lasers at me. I figured out that red meant deactivated, while blue meant activated.

I started fighting it, but this game had a weird control method. Like a DS game, it was controlled with a stylus. However, I was using a toothbrush (the back of it, not the part with the bristles) as the stylus... and I could somehow reach the screen just fine, even though I was sitting on my bed, and the screen was where my window should be (it was the same size, too.

Anyway, I defeated it, and it turned red. However, it turned blue again shortly after, making me have to fight it again. This kept happening every time I defeated it, except it would only get partially revived most times.

Eventually, the toothbrush got ruined from being used - rather harshly - as a stylus. I came up with a better idea for how to defeat the Darknut. My mom was in the room, so I said to her, "Get me a weapon, but nothing too sharp, so I don't accidentally damage the screen or hurt myself." What I really meant was for her to go to the kitchen and get a knife. For some reason, I thought that would make the Darknut easier to defeat.

Then, I realized that whatever I used as a controller wouldn't matter, since it was the sword I had IN the game that mattered. Realizing that, I figured I could just use my hand, but not as a stylus; the game was apparently motion-controlled now, like a Kinect rather than a DS.

However, I decided that would be a bad idea, since it could reach out of the screen and attack me if I used my hands.

1. I was in the car. I did the hand reality check. Even though I always count in my head, I counted out loud this time. I counted five, but then I noticed I suddenly had another finger on the end. I turned my hand a bit, and I saw another one appear. I made, two or three more fingers (total) appear this way and concluded I was dreaming. I don't remember anything after (or before) that, though.

2. I was in a restaurant. I don't actually remember anything that happened, though.

I was in my living room with Henri (my cat) and Bugsy (my friend's rabbit, who I looked after for a couple weeks recently while she was away). Henri meowed, and Bugsy copied him. I thought it was really cool that a rabbit was able to mimic a cat. I looked back at Henri, but Oliver (my other cat) was there instead.

I hardly remember the beginning of this dream. I remember being in this tundra-like place, and there was a girl with me. She reached down and touched the snow and said it felt warm (since she was from Mars, and Martian winters can reach temperatures of below -200 degrees Fahrenheit at night... I learned that last night IWL).

I don't remember how, but I somehow ended up on a beach. I have no idea what happened to that girl. Anyway, I ended up finding two turtles at some point and taking them with me. I think they were painted turtles (or something similar, at least).

I started exploring and soon came across a village full of school bus houses. That is, each house was made from a school bus. Some were red, and some were blue. I don't think there were any yellow ones, though. I thought they were really cool, since I'd never seen a school bus house before.

Later, when I was outside of the village, I noticed one of the turtles was really cold, so I wrapped it in a blanket. I asked the turtles if they wanted to go back to the water, and they said yes. There was a creek nearby, so I decided to let them go there. It was really muddy, though, and I ended up getting mud up to my knees. I decided I should find some clearer water instead. The water was a bit clearer at the end of the creek (seriously, it just ended not far away... and, no, it didn't empty into anything; it just stopped), so I went there to wash the mud off my legs.

I remembered that the water was crystal clear at the beach where I had found the turtles, so I decided to go back there to release them. I woke up before I got there, though.

And last night's dream continues! Well, sort of. This one was pretty vivid, too, but it got kinda fuzzy once I woke up. Actually, I can hardly remember specific details now. This time, it was more like a typical video game dream for me; I could only see the screen, like watching a dream in third-person, except I knew I was playing the game (in the other dream, I could still see my room). Also, other characters could actually talk, as opposed to having a dialog box pop up on the screen.

I was playing the "new" Zelda game again (see my previous entry: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/fenn...a-games-37018/). This time, though, I'd already completed the game and was replaying it because I'd unlocked bonus stuff or something. I was in this building, and there were various traps and things that I had to get past (but I already knew how to because I'd apparently done it before).

I eventually reached a glass elevator and went down. Then, I got back in and went up, hoping I wouldn't end up on the same floor as before (remember, it was a video game, so things like what floor I went to weren't necessarily up to me). It went all the way to the top, where there was a shop. The shopkeeper offered me two amounts of money - a larger amount and a smaller amount. I can't remember the exact values. I chose the smaller amount, but then he started yelling at me, telling me to take the larger amount, so I did.

I think there was more to the dream after that, but I can't remember.

After that dream, I woke up and started thinking about it to recall as much as I could. I ended up falling asleep again after a couple minutes or so, causing me to have a dream where I was in the car, thinking about what I was going to write in my dream journal when I got back to my cousins' house (that's where we were going). We soon got to my cousins' house, which looked nothing like it does IWL. When we got out the car, my dad said it was raining, but my mom claimed it wasn't. I couldn't feel any rain, so I stuck my hand out in front of me and could feel rain. I thought it was a little odd that the rain stopped about a foot in front of me, but I didn't really think much of it.

In the next dream, my mom and I were walking down Main Street in the village near where I live, heading for a certain shop (which doesn't exist IWL). We were going there to find and purchase some natural remedy for... something. We entered the shop, arriving in a pink room that smelled strongly of perfume, with a white curtain sort of separating it from the shop itself. We walked past the curtain and into the shop.

Inside, the woman who owned the shop was busy giving a tarot reading to a customer, so my mom and I sat down at a nearby table to wait. There were tarot cards at this table, too, but they looked just like normal playing cards. My mom dealt out some cards (all the while, I was just thinking that she had no clue what she was doing) and then jokingly said that the cards said I would pick them all up (there were a lot on the table), but she picked them up anyway. Then, she told me that these cards were wider than the ones back in England, which meant that they had some sort of special meaning (of course, the real reason they were wider was because they were playing cards, which are wider than tarot cards anyway).

Then, I saw Makayla, a young girl from my church. My mom said she was here to tell us we have to take my friend's mom (not Makayla's mom) to the hospital, as we apparently had to every day at this time. She asked me if I just wanted to be checked out at the hospital while we were there or if I wanted to come back here afterwards instead. Honestly, though, I had no idea what we had even come here for.