January 20, 2014 Review: Adventure, nightmare, an apocalyptic future where formless creatures threaten mankind at every turn. We jump from pillar to pillar to stay safe. Hindu demi-gods and demons. Double-Jump or Die I don't know anything about this apocalyptic future, it's like I just woke up and I'm trying to understand whats going on. My dad (a random DC and not my real dad) is going out to collect supplies. I insist on going with him and learning about surviving in this future. The buildings are empty and very quiet. As I learn more about this dangerous place, there doesn't seem to be anywhere safe. Outside is dangerous because a monstrous titan roams the streets. So we only go outside to run from building to building. Naturally, the shadows are dangerous. But the biggest and most surprising rule is, stay away from windows. There's something really weird about that rule, because a window is a long time dream sign for me. We find a staircase leading to a cellar. It must have food and supplies! But its completely dark down there. We take one step in, when the device I'm holding in my hand goes off. This device has a screen and its measuring the monsters. The screen has hundreds of dots approaching us fast! We run back up into the light but we aren't safe yet. From the corner of my eye I see that the monster is a fuzzy formless orb. That was my only brief glimpse of one of these monsters. For the most part, they remain unseen in the shadows. We climb up on a pillar. I can sense the monsters are below us. As long as we stay up here were fine. Luckily the pillar as a narrow ledge that leads straight back to our hideout. Mom *not my real mom* opens the door and lets us in. Our hideout is our home and its a real hole in the wall. There are no windows. And the only light source was a single candle. It was dark and kinda eerie in here, but the monsters can't reach us and that's what matters. I curl up and take a short nap and mom begs me to stay inside, safe and away from the monsters. But I can't stay in this box. I have to go back outside. I leave the hideout with the my sisters and they want to show me something special. How to jump. We climb up a pillar. It's a bit like a zelda video game in that there's lots of pillars for me to jump on. But there pillars are all different heights and very far apart. There's a pattern you have to follow or you'll fall down and you'll have to start over again. My sisters explain to me "out there, if you fall down, that's it!" Sis hands me a pen and makes me draw an imaginary line in the air, connecting my pillar to the next. She tells me when I reach the half-way point of my imaginary line, to jump again. The instructions leave me confused, and although I'm jumping, I keep falling short of that next pillar! Finally I understand, they're trying to teach me a double-jump. Just like in video games, double-jump for a longer distance! I climb back up the pillar and perform a flawless double-jump! This is a lot of fun! By jumping again in mid-air I can jump longer and higher. I jump all the pillars, climbing higher and higher. My dream gets fuzzy at this point. At some point, I went on a venture with my sister, mom, and grandma, but we got too close to a window. Hordes of formless monsters pour through the window! We quickly run away and make it back to an area with pillars. But something is wrong with mom and grandma. They're non-responsive, like zombies. The formless monsters must have attacked them, consuming their minds in an instant. Sis helps them across the pillars anyways and leads us to a door. This door isn't our hideout! What is this door? Sis says "I'm in charge now! This is the door I've chosen! I'll go inside first and check it out." We open the door and there is nothing on the other side but a chute (or a hole), going down and down and down into blackness. Were both hesitant to even poke our heads inside. What's down there? Sis thinks this door leads to the source of our problems and answers. I consider turning back, but my monster device starts to blip again! There are swarms of formless monsters coming at us from all directions! "We have no choice! Its jump or die!" I jump through the door and down the hole, but sis doesn't follow. I slide past through formless monsters and land in a pit below. I'm face to face with a giant head buried in the earth. My dream is playing music, an indian chanting I've heard before, its about Ayurveda. Beautiful music but it made this scene seriously creepy. The head is slowly emerging from the earth. I'm trying to move my character but nothing is happening. Like a zelda game, this is a boss fight cut-scene and I have to wait for the cut-scene to be over to move. The giant emerges from the earth, dressed in indian garb. I prepare to fight the giant but he disappears in the shadows. Instead, he summons hundreds of hindu demi-gods and demons from the earth. Oh shit. The chanting is getting louder and louder. Their demi-god and demon eyes turn to me. Is this what the formless monsters really look like? I try as fast as I can to run through that demi-god and demon crowd! Their hands reach out for me! This is impossible! Its like trying to run in rock fest! I see a pillar up ahead. If I can just reach it and start jumping - I'm kicked down by a giant. The demons run at me like ravenous wolves. There's too many of them! I'm not fast enough! The chanting won't stop. I somehow manage to climb that pillar, I just need to jump. I try to jump but the demons grabbed my ankle, they bite down and pull me down. Thats it, its over. I can't bear this madness any longer. I close my eyes and wish myself awake. It's a FA. A friend hands me a video game, the apocalyptic future I was just in! I look at the games ratings. There are different boss levels. Some are labeled easy, difficult or advanced. But mine was simply labeled "MAD". I woke up shortly after and I could still hear that chanting.
January, 2014 review: beach, friends, volcanic eruptions, dinosaurs, monsters, forest Volcanic Irruption by the Beach Me and my friends were swimming in the ocean, while talking about swimming in the ocean. As if talking about it made it happen in my dream. My friends were experimenting with different dream skills and seemed concerned "Do you think there is a way we could harm the ocean?" I look at the giant waves and say "No way! The ocean is constant energy flowing in and out, it breathes. Nothing can hurt it" The giant wave carries us to shore. And then I joke "Nothing could hurt it but say - A Giant Volcanic Explosion! So big, it boils up the sea and the sea rains back on us!" Why did I say that? Suddenly a volcano is birthed right on the beach. It hurls giant volcanic rocks that explode into a horrible greenish lava, burning with acidic gas. The whole beach and city panics. Herds of people try to flee the growing volcano and its acidic lava. The ground is shaking and the sky turns dark from all the ash! In the madness I was separated from most of my friends but one. We ran into a warehouse, even though we know we can't stay here because the lava is coming. Still, were so scared we take cover and duck. Things only got worse. Now there are dinosaurs attacking people. Suddenly a necromancer pops out of nowhere, summoning demons and goblins. He enters our warehouse and attacks us with his legion of demons. What the hell is going on! I grab my friends hand and we run, we just run. We ran until we reached the forest and the sky was blue again. Inside the forest we continued to run, afraid we were being followed. We hide behind a boulder and hope we've lost our assailants. I woke up shortly after.
January, 2014 review: run across an ugly river, run through a desert. FA and brief lucid, where I try to dream share with LM. astronaut dream Desert Run I don't remember my dream to this point. But there are 100's of people outside, enjoying the weather and the green grass. The boundary of this place is an ugly river/storm drainage. I play in the storm drainage for a bit. But then I decide I want to go to the other side. I climb up that hill, by contrast to the green landscape I just came from, the other side is a dry sandy desert. I got the impression its a foreign country too. I see some people in the desert and a few scattered buildings. But mostly I got the impression I wasn't allowed to be here because its a foreign country. Oh well! I run around in the sand on all fours as some weird desert creature and just had lots of fun. Green Window-Lucid I wake up and get ready for work. But when I walk past my bedroom window something catches my eye. Its green! The greenest greenest green! A wild green landscape is growing outside my window, underneath starlight. I jump out my window exhilarated that I'm dreaming. At first I try to dream share with LM but I figured by now he's already awake. I'm flying over the green landscape fast but I have no control over it. Its more like I'm a magnet being pulled. I try to slow down but I can't. Instead I give in and shout "okay dream, take me to where you want to take me. Fast! Faster!" The dream pulls me and I'm flying faster and higher until all is a white haze. I wake up back in my bed but I'm rudely interrupted by astronauts. Our probe has landed on the alien planet and it has something to show us! I quickly jump out of my bed, assuming I'm an astronaut too, and join the others in the console, still in my pjs. I wake up for real shortly after.