dream fragment

Mulcair kicks Harper out of his office, and the group of politicians and staffers watch a jug on the desk to see whether their party actually won the election. If the jug fills up with mostly orange liquid, the NDP definitely win.

They do, and the newspapers are printing stories that are all about the doom of Canada.

I'm apparently one of the staffers. Mulcair seems nice, even though (in the dream) he has a reputation of being quite cold and ruthless.

---

There's a family similar to the Queens in the first season of Arrow. The younger sister is angry and hurt because she's being deliberately shunned by another member of the family. They're in public, but she runs away from the group anyway, despite the paparazzi that are around. Some of them follow her, and she ducks into a seller's tent that is inside the mall to hide from them.

Later, a group of us are in an elevator. I'm examining the multiple security cameras, which apparently aren't operational because the family demands a lot of privacy.

There's a problem with the elevator. On the main floor, about half of us pile out quickly before the doors slam shut behind us and the elevator quickly starts going back up. The technician is working on the elevator so that it will come back down and let the other people out.

I briefly see the person that I reported to directly in a job that didn't work out very well earlier this year.

Beyonce is performing inside the mall.

---

I'm a teenager having a sleepover. We're all girls. There are three of us. One of the girls might not have asked her parents if she actually was allowed to sleep over.

We talk about how one of the girls really didn't like the imagination game that we were playing. I said that maybe we should play Gargoyles or something. She asks if that's a computer game? I say no, we could just pretend we were gargoyles, that would be more exciting than pretending we were in school (or that we were having a sleepover?)

That girl goes home in the morning. I ask her to tell her brother to call me (while making the "call me" hand gesture.)

---

There's narration, and a set. I'm both in the story itself and the story is being filmed. It's all about a whole bunch of "darker" characters interacting with one another. One of the characters who exists in the light is fascinated by the idea of talking to a couple of the characters who stay in the shadows.

Remembered another dream from last night as I was surfing Dreamviews. Weird that I didn't remember a lucid at first—I must have had it earlier in the night.

This dream references Sensei's Sexy Comp (tell your friends.)

---

I remember that I wanted to try pushing through a solid object. There is a wooden door in front of me, with standard front door patterns routed into the wood—it's something like a grid of 3x2 rectangles. I put out a hand, and feel some resistance, like a rubber bubble. I push through, and for a brief second it's like I have my eyes closed, and I'm through to the other side.

Does that count? I think. I feel like I was supposed to keep my eyes open for this challenge.

---

Apparently when I read through Sensei's challenges from the last competition, the idea of phasing through an object stuck in my head, apparently because it's not something that I've done very often. Even in non-lucids, I'll be running away from something and there will always be a door there.

Adventure: 1/10
Control: 7/10
Fear: 1/10

02/20/11

"If I was perfect, I would date perfect."

"Wait, this isn't just about the sex. You like his personality. You like that he's conniving."

"Don't even..."

"Oh my God. You're sleeping with me."

Amber. Scare Factor: 1.

★★☆☆☆

SOLO SENTENCE ESPRESSO

01/29/11

The agent says, "You can't escape this; your fingerprints are a match," and I smirk and rub at my handcuffed wrists, shifting the patterns on my fingertips into something unrecognizable.

Prints. Scare Factor: 2.

★☆☆☆☆

SOLO SENTENCE ESPRESSO

01/28/11

I'm not wearing my contact lenses, or my glasses, but the world is in focus at the centre of my vision, and blurry at the edges.

Fish-Eye Lenses. Scare Factor: 1.

★☆☆☆☆

01/01/11

"I'd like a triple Venti half-sweet white mocha, please," says the woman. Her curly brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and she digs through her purse for change.

I nod absently, pick up my sharpie and mark the drink, putting it on the bar next to the other three drinks that have already been ordered. My hand scrapes against the white fabric and I pause, glancing at the alarm clock on my nightstand. Two AM. Wait...

"What the fuck are you people doing in my house?" I mutter, shaking off the last fragments of the dream. Still half-asleep, I imagine that the customers are waiting impatiently in my living room. Irritated and disoriented, I curl up and try to go back to sleep.

Coffee. Scare Factor: 4.

And working New Years Day... what a nightmare.

★★★★☆

12/07/10

The vibrant old neighbourhood straddles the line between dilapidation and gentrification. Places like this have colour and character completely unlike the sterility of the suburbs. Walking down the street, taking in the brightly coloured fall leaves on the unkempt lawns, you know that this is a place people consider home.

It's dead now. Shadows gather where they shouldn't beneath a cloudless blue sky. Trees whisper with the cold wind, and the world seems to be holding its breath, waiting.

Utterly boring, I decide, as I stare out the window of the second floor of an old house. I'm watching the shadows dance across the vinyl walls of a building across the alley, and I know that I'm being watched in turn. If I make a mistake, one small misstep, they'll attack.

I'm wondering what that step would be, because I'd really like to get it over with.

I see movement in the corner of my eye, and I carefully ignore it. Every light in the house is on, and they don't so much as flicker. I let out a breath, close my eyes.

He asked me to marry him. There will be a wedding on Friday, and I'm a friend, and isn't it terrible what happened to his fiancee?

A blade cuts through the air where my neck was. I'm halfway across the room in that instant, flickering through the shadow-world, disappearing and reappearing between blinks of an eye.

The shadows coalesce into a lizard scuttling across the walls, held in place by the rules of gravity that don't apply to them. It leaps from the far wall to the ceiling above me, strikes at me with its scythe-like tail and shrieks.

And I stand there, waiting. I will not be intimidated.

Shadows. Scare Factor: 3.

★★☆☆☆

11/19/10

I'm a lifeguard at an indoor pool. We're doing drills, practicing rescue techniques. I stand at the edge of the pool, deliberately collapse into the water.

Someone from high school. He's another lifeguard. He dives in after me, pulls me up to the surface.

Surprised to be shooting up out of the water, suspended in the air for a moment.

I'm staying in a hostel with two friends. Going to our bunk beds, and I'm looking up at the inside of a dome-like structure, planning my escape. We're in a group, aren't allowed to leave at night. I plan to. Sharing a conspiratorial glance with the other troublemakers.

A school. My brother and I are sneaking in with one of the girls from the hostel trip. She doesn't speak English. I shrug, tell my brother to pin the blame on me if we get in trouble. Nothing they can do to me.

Hostel. Scare Factor: 1/10.

Yeah, I haven't been around much. Between moving to a new city and starting a new job (or two, or three), life's been a little hectic. I'll get caught up on others' journals when I get the chance.

★☆☆☆☆

10/17/10



I'm sitting at a table in the library, across from a stern-looking woman my age.

"So you want to start a writing group? You realize that you'll be in direct competition with our writing group."

"Hey," I say incredulously, "I just sent out an email asking who was doing NaNo this year."

There's a man sitting beside me with his arms crossed. He snorts.

"Well," says the woman, "Be aware that you won't be able to use the library this week. It's full." She points behind me.

I turn around, and see that the walls are covered, floor to ceiling, with boxes of Corona. I turn back to her.

She sighs. "The Kiwanis club is renting the library for a Christian concert."

Scare Factor: 1/10

★★★☆☆

10/01/10



I'm framing a wall; it's laying down on the plywood floor. I have a cordless air nailer in my hand, and I'm adjusting the studs for the wall and nailing them in place. It's repetitive work, meditative.

A high-pitched laugh echoes through the half-framed house. The outside walls are up, casting long shadows in the evening sunlight. It's fading, getting darker.

I stand up slowly and turn around. Without taking my eyes from the floor, I lift up the air nailer and fire - one, two, three precise shots into the darkness.

The laughter ceases.

Scare Factor: 2/10

Note: the previous "Air Nailer" dream was #89.

09/20/10



We're taking our lunch break. A bottle of Starbucks Frappuccino appears in my hand. It's delicious; the taste is replicated perfectly.

"Are you ready to go?" My dad asks, from the couch. He's asking if I'm ready to go back to work.

"I haven't even eaten yet!" I say, exasperated.

Scare Factor: 1/10
Rating: 1/10

Whoa.

09/13/10



This is a building with no windows. The walls and ceiling are black and plasticky, and the dark tiles on the floor are smooth and glossy. Neon signs and arrows are laid out tackily along the walls, advertising the various games on display and giving directions that I can't read.

I'm in a small alcove, playing one of the arcade games stuffed into the small hallway. The place I'm in connects a larger hallway (which leads to a set of elevators, and the lobby of the building) to a large, open room, the entirety of which is pitch black and shiny.

I keep moving along the wall and towards the room, switching games as I go. I'm trying to stay out of the way of the janitor, who's coming from the elevators. He's driving a rainbow, glowing lawnmower with various mop-like attachments which simultaneously clean all surfaces of the room. The mop cleaning the ceiling is spinning in circles and whipping across from side to side. The side mops are giant spinning things, reaching out to the edges of the hallway. It looks like a demented, inside-out automatic car wash from an alternate dimension.

I haven't actually seen it, though. I'm just quietly moving towards the black room.

- discussing what's happening in the big bang theory tv show on the big screen tv in the black room with someone or other -

I'm playing air hockey against myself (neon, of course, lighting up the room), when He finds me. I roll my eyes. I was really hoping to avoid the Arcade's mascot.

It's a clown, of course. He dances around spastically as he approaches me. I cross my arms over my chest and the colourful clown turns the pitch black of the walls and starts to disintegrate. I hear the employee - the man in the suit - decide that he doesn't get paid nearly enough for this.

In another dream, I'm talking to one of the actors from Supernatural, Jensen Ackles. The surroundings are plain and the carpet is brown. Ackles is complaining about his insane fans, and I decide not to ask for an autograph.

Scare Factor: 2/10
Rating: 4/10

Got most of my stuff packed up today. Just clothes left, mostly.

09/12/10



I'm filming a documentary about the variety of religious beliefs in our culture. My invisible cameraman and I are set up near a bus stop. I interview people and ask them to talk about their beliefs on camera.

One young woman wants me to come to her evangelical, ultra-conservative church to film and meet her minister/pastor/reverend. While this probably is a golden opportunity for me, I really don't want to go. Absolutely nothing in this scenario could possibly end well.

The woman turns into a girl I knew in high school, someone I barely ever talked to. We're going on a road trip through the US, and I'm consulting the GPS on my cell phone.

I'm walking through an airport.

Scare Factor: 2/10
Rating: 1/10

I spent most of the day packing for the move. I don't like packing.

09/11/10



Incandescent light bulbs are hanging from wires, interspersed several meters apart. It's quite dim. The dirt floor is covered in straw, and I kick up pieces of it as I walk.

I'm leaning down over a roughly made cage, which is covered in chicken wire. The top is open, and I see a few rabbits hopping about on the floor. I pick up the one that looks like my childhood pet, all white fur and red eyes. As I pet the rabbit in my arms, the dream fades around me.

Scare Factor: 0/10
Rating: 2/10

Well, that was uncharacteristic.

Fun dream, but the writing's kind of screwy.

Moving out of Saskatchewan! Maybe I'll stop dreaming about "Ixburg".

09/10/10



I've de-aged again. I have the impression of messy black hair, and apparently I'm Harry Potter. Cool.

I'm also trapped in a cave.

"I can't let ya leave, 'Arry," explains Hagrid, turning to a conveniently placed stove to pull a kettle off the boil, "The Ministry won' allow it."

"I see." I'm standing with my hands at my sides, eerily calm. The lack of expression seems to unnerve him.

I'm unconcerned. Hagrid has already given away the secret, and he has his back turned.

I raise my right hand. "Imperio."

I walk out into blue skies.

time skip

In the time since I've left the cave, I've fought off a few extra-inept stormtroopers, easily taken care of. (I actually wasn't sure about one. Thought he might have been a shadow-trooper, but he died easily enough.)

I had another encounter with Berserker!Hagrid. Apparently three layers of Imperius spells don't do anything positive to your sanity.

Beat him.

Now I'm wandering around Ixburg, heading toward the east end of town for some reason.

I'm trying to fly. Annoyed that it's not working. I can manage some of the jumps, but I can't stay in the air.

Standing in the center of an open road, I concentrate on growing red, hawk-like wings. They extend from my arms, so I don't have to concentrate on a new set of limbs. I flap the wings, and take off.

Passing the warehouses on the edge of town, I notice Imperials swarming the place. Apparently it's their base.

I stand across from Darth Vader.

"I am your father."

I'm unimpressed.

We fight, but he fades into the background.

I remember Capture the Flag, from Jedi Academy. That was fun.

A stormtrooper holds the blue flag, and is standing on top of the empty red base. He's waiting for someone to return the flag so he can score.

I force push him off the building, and he goes crashing into the corrugated siding of another warehouse. Dead already. Hn. Blue flag returned.

The blue team scores, and I grab the red flag. Darth Vader's still lurking around here somewhere. Something's glitching on him, maybe? He can't jump onto the roof.

I fly off toward the hospital on the other side of town, the blue base, after sprouting another set of wings. I wonder how I'm carrying the flag without hands. I try not to think about it. Maybe I'm holding it with my teeth.

In another dream, I'm standing in a hallway, looking at the men's and women's bathrooms, which are side by side. I have no fucking clue which one to use.

Scare Factor: 2/10
Rating: 4/10