task of the month

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Finally, another long and fun-filled lucid dream!! Unfortunately, my dream recall has been at a low point as of late, so I can neither remember every detail nor what order things go in...but I will certainly do my best.

When the dream began, I was simply walking through some store. It wasn't your average store; everything was painted black or a dark gray, and the lights were kept just bright enough to see comfortably. I'm not sure what they were supposed to be selling at this, since I never saw any products anywhere, but there was a single cashier behind a solitary desk.

As I walked through this place, something suddenly bothered my nose. Maybe a fly nearly went up into it or something; I'm not really sure. But I simply reached up and rubbed my nose with the back of my hand, which should have temporarily cut off breathing...but it didn't.

"That felt weird." I thought. "I had better check again."

This time I pinched hard and still breathed in effortlessly.

"Ok...do I actually get to say it?" I asked myself, realizing with excitement what was going on. "I'm...I'm dreaming! Yes, I'm actually aware of it! I'm dreaming!"

Of course, the first thing that came to mind then was the question of what to do with this dream.

"I need to have a Matrix fight!"

The moment I looked down, I was suddenly no longer myself, but Neo. And when I looked all around the room, doors had appeared in the walls. I took my stance and waited. Within moments, all sorts of people rushed in from them; agents, the Twins, and all kinds of other henchmen, too.

Although the ensuing fight was enjoyable from Neo's perspective, it was altogether far too short. I simply unleashed my dream body in a fury of moves that would be too fast for waking-mind reaction speeds, but as the dream itself was a matter of thought processes, my actions could apparently be just as quick as each electrical signal that formed my environment. This effectively sent people flying everywhere, and when they hit the walls, it was usually hard enough that they did not get back up.

I looked around after the last man was down, saw their bodies laying everywhere, and figured I should move on to something else.

"I should accomplish some dream goal or task of the month. Don't think I'll be doing either of those here, now."

Since I was already Neo, I bent low to the ground, which sent small waves out from under me, just before I shot straight up into the sky, phasing right through the ceiling to get there.

It was night all around me, but I could see a sea sparkling beneath a sky full of stars off to my right, and a city alive with lights in every window to my left.

"Let's see, what was that task of the month? Oh yes. Pyrokinesis. I think I'll skip on the mushroom patch...Neo just doesn't seem to fit in that scene."

I reached my hands up over my head and formed a large flame in between them. Since I had nothing better to burn, I threw it down towards the store I'd just been in and watched it explode as I continued to feed fire into it from the palms of my hands.

Shortly, however, I came to the realization that my goal had been accomplished, and once again it was far too short. I needed new territory; new people. So I shot off across the sea to my right and planned on just going to whatever place struck me first.

I ended up having much less say in the matter than I had planned on, though. For some reason, soon after crossing the sea and arriving in another city, I began to lose my ability to fly. At first I tried to just change my position a little, but that only sped up my descent. Eventually I was plummeting straight down and I could do nothing to stop it.

My fall ended at a glass roof in someone's apartment. I went crashing through, suddenly myself again and no longer neo. Of course the family that lived there was startled to say the least, and instantly ran to see if I was alright. I'm sure they expected blood and glass wounds, but I only ever saw one piece of glass in me, and as soon as I pulled it out of my arm and passed my hand over it the wound was gone.

From this point on, things get very hazy, which is frustrating, because the longest part of the dream came hereafter.

I stayed with that family for days (though I didn't see every moment of each day), trying to regain my ability to fly, and also using them as an experiment. Over our time together, I didn't just outright tell them they were part of a dream, but I slowly built up their knowledge of the world until they understood that none of it really existed and that they could bend or break all the rules as they wished. The parents seemed to have a hard time accepting it, only ever being able to do things like move pencils across a table with telekineses. The younger ones, however, caught on quite well, and when I finally did recover my ability to fly, they could easily join me.

There was, however, a LOT involved in all of that; this is one of the longest lucid dreams I've had in a long while. I simply don't remember all the details

After a while, I went into a false awakening and tried to write down the previous dream. Unfortunately, all I succeeded in was screwing up my recall, since I wasn't truly awake.

It doesn't actually seem like that fun of a dream now that I write it, but while I was going through it it sure seemed enjoyable

NOTICE: This shall be the last of my dream journal entries that uses this format. From now on I shall use the new DJ Blog format. I intend to get everything migrated over there, so all these entries will not be lost in the midst of a vast archive, but for nostalgia's sake...so long, my first-ever dream journal!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Oooh, we've got new smilies!

Oh yeah, and last night was a great LDing night for me, too! Two LD's, both of them accomplishing the lucid task of the month (basic and advanced)!

Dream 1: I was walking around in my backyard at night when I looked up and saw the sun in the sky. "What? The sun at night? That doesn't make any sense...this must be a dream!" I pinched my nose and breathed in just fine, solidifying my assumption. "Cool! Well, let's see, I've got three things I've been wanting to do...oh well, the sun's right there, so I guess I'll go with the basic task of the month first." I looked at the sun and flew up to it. The dark sky looked a bit more fitting once I got into space. Well, I circled around it a couple times until I found a place that looked like a good entry spot, and then flew right inside. Surprisingly, it didn't feel very bright. I mean, it looked like someone had photoshopped the sun to lose half of its saturation, so even though it was bright, it was...not. But whatever, it was the sun, and surprisingly, I did have a shadow this time! Probably just because I was looking for it, though. I didn't get much more time to think about it, though, because I woke up pretty quickly after that.

I was awake for about fifteen minutes then; I had intended to WILD but I was pretty tired so I broke it off soon after SP hit and decided I would DILD again instead.

Dream 2: I can't exactly remember everything that went on at first, but eventually I found myself watching football early in the morning and really enjoying it. Now there were a couple things about that scenario that made me question the reality of it. #1: I don't believe football is ever played early in the morning, and #2: I hate football, so I wouldn't know for sure in the first place, but I also wouldn't watch it and enjoy it . That much being thought through, I decided to reality check, which of course led me to becoming lucid! "Alright! Let's see...I got the basic task of the month down...let's go for the advanced now!" I turned and faced a wall and tried my usual teleportation method. "When I turn around, I'll be at Niagara Falls." I turned around and found the room to be mostly unchanged. I was definitely not at the falls. But something had changed, and that was the wall across from me. It now had a very large picture of Niagara Falls hanging on it, and a little table beneath it. "That'll work." I walked over and moved the table out of the way, then reached into the picture, first with my hand, then with my leg, then with the rest of me, and stepped through the picture into Niagara Falls! I found myself on a wooden walkway that circled around it, but I needed to get out onto the Maiden of the Mist in order to complete the advanced lucid task. Now I can't swim very well IRL, but I didn't let that even factor into it. I jumped into the water and began swimming out to the Maiden of the Mist, which was in the near distance. The water was amazing! It was so clear and clean and the temperature was perfect. Not to mention it, along with everything else, was so realistic I was just marveling at the sight of it all. Well, soon I made it to the ship and climbed up to the top deck. "Ok, so now I have to get married here to complete the lucid task...I wonder who I'm going to be married to?" I looked up ahead of me and got my answer. It wasn't hard to figure out, considering the whole thing was already set up, everybody was there, and she was the only one in a fancy white dress. "Woah, that works for me!" I thought when I saw her. I tried hard to remember her face, but of course that memory faded when I awoke. I do remember her name was Maria, though. I transformed my dripping wet clothes into a dry tux and then took my place in front of everyone, next to Maria. I couldn't believe it when the 'pastor' walked up, though...he was some kind of alien! "Well that's weird..." I thought. But it got weirder. A small, hovering alien that resembled a fish came up out of nowhere and tried to stop the wedding. "Oh buzz off." I said, hurling the thing away with telekinesis. The rest of the ceremony went on without interruption, and I gotta admit, the first alien dude wasn't so bad at his job after all. What was really fun was the reception, though. Everybody went below deck (does the Maiden of the Mist even have a lower deck?) where food and (non-alcoholic) drink and music and all our friends were waiting. Of course the food was amazing, and they only played my favorite songs, but nothing could beat the reactions of the dream characters. They all came up and told us congratulations, and I just smiled at each one and replied, "Pretty cool dream, huh?" Usually they just gave me a funny look and walked away, but there was one guy who didn't take it so well. He thought it was a joke at first. "Yeah, it can feel like a dream at first. It sinks in after the first couple days, though." He said. "No, no, I really mean this is a dream, I can pinch my nose and still breath in. Watch." It didn't convince him. He just stared at me. "Umm...yeah it's really a dream." I repeated. "THIS is NOT a DREAM!" He shouted before stomping off. "Woah...ok...then." After a moment of nobody saying anything to us, Maria slapped me on the arm. "You're making people upset!" She said. "Now c'mon, would this really be a dream?" "Yes." I replied. I took her hand and put it up to her nose, told her to pinch, and then try to breath in. "See." I said. A tear formed in her eye. "You're right, then...this is a dream!" It made her so sad I kind of wished I hadn't said anything, but at least someone else knew the truth. I went to go get us drinks in hopes of cheering her up a bit, but when I came back, she was gone. "That's weird." I thought out loud. Just then, a friend of mine walked by. "Hey, Mike. Mike!" I ran up to him as he headed to the restroom. "Have you seen my wife anywhere?" He motioned for me to follow him into the restroom. "Sorry," he said, "This is just the only place that I think we'll have some privacy." He went into a stall as he talked. I went into one myself just because it was awkward standing out there waiting, and to be honest I was kind of wondering what it would be like to pee in a lucid dream . "You know that little floating alien?" Mike asked. "Well, he's furious that the wedding went through. He kidnapped Maria. I tried to stop him, but...I can't fly." "Dangit, yes you can." I muttered under my breath. Mike was done then, so I decided to be done, too. I mean, in a lucid dream, you could keep going for forever! While we washed our hands, I asked, "So where'd he take her?" Mike didn't have a chance to answer. We heard the alien's voice outside the door. "Quick! Hide!" Mike said. I created a closet door in the wall next to me and climbed inside. The floating alien came in, checked himself in the mirror, and then left. "So do I need to hide because he's trying to kidnap me, too?" "Yep. I don't know where he took your wife, but I don't think you want to find out the hard way." "True. So how do we get out of here without me being caught, or you being caught helping me?" Mike smiled at that question. "Canoes." That made me smile, too. We climbed out the window and stood on the side of the ship. Suddenly we were at the top of Niagara falls. A couple canoes were tied to the boat, and we each took one and got in. "Now this is going to be awesome!" I shouted over the roar of the approaching falls. In another moment, we had completely gone over, and were canoeing down Niagara Falls! The canoes were smashed at the bottom, but of course we made it out ok.

After that we got to formulating a plan. Mike volunteered to get a bunch of his buddies together to help arrange transport to wherever the alien had taken Maria to, and I took Mike's laptop to go find out just where that was. I hacked into some security cameras until I found the alien's location. "Bingo." I said...which got the attention of a nearby security guard. "Hey, you there, what do you think you're doing!?" I sighed. "Sorry doc, I don't have time for this." I held my hands in front of me, concentrated, and made the guard disappear into thin air. So I took the sword left behind from the security guard (yeah...he had one ) and tried to sneak up onto the alien back aboard the ship. Of course since the whole wedding party was there, someone heard and saw me, so stealth failed. I swung at the alien, but missed, and he then pulled out a sword of his own and we had an epic duel. He was hard to hit, but weak, so before long, I had him on the floor, badly wounded, his weapon far out of his reach. "Alright! Alright!" He said, giving up. "Your wife is in the caves. North west. Only way in is by river." For some reason, everyone was shocked to hear the alien confess to a crime like that, but I left them to deal judgment however they wished. I flew around until I found Mike, who had a bunch of midgets with pointy gray beards and mustaches build a water craft. I couldn't fly through the caves because they were too low and treacherous, so I gladly accepted the vehicle from them. As I climbed in and took the strange controls, they wished me luck and cheered for my victory over the floating alien. I started the wooden craft off into the caves, having a little trouble driving at first, but never got a chance to find Maria. Pretty quickly after entering the caves, I woke up.

I didn't think I could have a dream that was more realistic than any previous one, but that one tops them all. The appearance and actions of water are very hard things to duplicate, yet it all looked perfect. Lighting was all totally realistic, too. If I hadn't repeatedly pinched my nose to maintain lucidity, I probably would have started to believe it was real myself.

But anyway, I completed both the basic and advanced lucid task of the month in one night!