Things to Run Away From Really Fast

Long dream that started out when Fitz wanted to go base jumping with Simmons, but he hadn't suited up by the time the group was jumping.

Later, Fitz has to rescue Simmons. Everything has turned into a weird waterpark in the sky. Simmons is briefly some sort of bivalve (like a clam or an oyster) and is glowing, and Fitz has to sneak her in without anyone realizing. Everyone is now looking for the glowing bivalve, because it's some sort of MacGuffin.

Simmons is turned back into her regular self, and now she has to rescue Fitz. I swim through the waterpark as Simmons, breathing easily underwater.

There's a gunfight now.

shift

We're on the ground, now. Autumn colours, and there's some kind of graduation happening. I'm a teenaged girl in a blue dress, only a little bit more practical than Cinderella-style. We're marching against a rival town.

The two groups of rival townspeople meet on a grassy field. I summon a whirlwind of fire. Or try to—it turns out that I have an ice staff, so I freeze everyone within a five-metre radius. Most of the enemy group is frozen, but so are a few allies, including my mage.

I switch to a character on the outskirts. Katniss. Ranged. I nock an arrow.

We shift

so that I'm watching my brother play a strategy game in the same setting. Rival towns, grassy fields. The game involves playing rival towns' structures against one another, so my brother is using playground equipment against his enemy's farm equipment. Jungle gyms versus tractors and combines.

The enemy structures approach and my brother bashes his playground equipment against them. The enemy's mass and your mass cancel each other out, so if you can find enough structures to throw against the invaders, you win. Otherwise, they keep coming.

There's also something about a fairy godmother.

Adventure: 5/10
Control: 4/10
Fear: 2/10

Decorating the ceiling for Halloween, because the floor-to-ceiling decorations at the entrance aren't festive enough for this important holiday.

Characters from the Addams Family. I'm a man who has apparently gotten engaged/married to Morticia, and my character's mother comes over to harass me occasionally over what a bad idea this is. (She bears no resemblance to my real mother and is more like Moira Queen in Arrow.) My character also has an (adult?) son, who resembles Pugsley. Wednesday is still Morticia's daughter. Grandmama likes me, though.

I threaten to cut Pugsley and my mother out of the will if they don't leave me alone over this whole thing.

My black cat is being bad in the dream (and was also being loud in real life) so in the dream, I temporarily put him in the entrance hall of the farmhouse we're now in and close the door with him in there. The other cat is not happy with this arrangement, as she's also in the entranceway, and she crawls into a passageway under the house so that I can't reach her.

Adventure: 2/10
Control: 2/10
Fear: 1/10

It's night, and we're in a heavily wooded valley. Above us is a massive structure that resembles a dam, and there are offices in the building that's built into the structure.

The four (or five?) of us are gathered in a circle, having made camp. There's no fire. We're on the run.

And they've found us.

It's day, now. The parents and one (or two?) of their kids have found a vehicle and are driving up one side of the dam (but there are deer in the way, so they can only go so quickly.)

I'm the daughter, and insect-like attack robots surround me, their numbers penetrating deep into the forest. I feel the energy building up within me, and I lash out, striking at the robots with some kind of sword, taking out half a dozen of them in a straight line.

There are too many of them. I retreat upwards into the office building, blasting through a wall to get inside. There are men and women in suits around a boardroom table, and they spin in their seats as I rush past them, sending up alarmed cries. I get to the interior door, something hot on my heels, and everything goes dark.

shift

The man in charge has short, spiked black hair. He is arrogant, cold, as he gives his orders. They're in the centre of a city now, and he has the girl.

People are frantic. Something has gone wrong. They need to escape, to evacuate. They need to get a message to the Earl.

I laugh. I am now a man, thin-faced and shorter than the man in charge. He is angry, he grabs me by the lapels of my jacket and demands, demands, demands.

Amused, I tell him that I can get the information to the Earl. It's in X folder in his personal, secure system, right? I have the files now, I can send them.

Demands, demands.

Well, I'm a hacker, of course, I tell him. And I'm not really here. But I can help him, for a price.

I'm with the girl I was before, and we're speeding through the city in a shuttle, trying to dodge as multiple giant space worms—like the one from Men in Black—destroy the city and try to eat us, as well.

We're in an elevator. Have we made it?

---

In the church my mom took me to when I was really, really little. It's still dark, because it's winter, and the service is in an hour. I unlock the door with my key and turn on the lights.

No one is here yet. I go downstairs and turn on the lights (I'm a little bit afraid because I need to go through the dark sections to get to the lights), and I consider going home and sleeping for a bit.

I turn off the lights and stand in the darkness for a moment, quiet and still. The trees and the moon above the church create a lovely picture in the sky.

There's still one light on, though. It looks like someone is in the bathroom. I guess I should turn the lights back on and stay here until the service starts, since people have started arriving.

---

Spoiler for Content note for attempted sexual assault:

In this dream, I was at a party with an old friend. Things had died down, and a man tried to climb on top of me, and I fought him off. It seemed like he was expecting me to be out of it, and I remembered that there was one thing that my friend had had that I hadn't; I tried to find my friend.

The dream played over and over, as I tried to find a better outcome. In some versions, there were police and an ambulance. In others, we went home and didn't talk about what had happened.

Note: I think that this dream played on a situation where the same friend helped me out of a situation where two of her guy friends were being hella creepy while I was drunk.

Edit: I also had a dream that Sensei started up his comp and had ALL of the intermediates against the one person who volunteered to be on the advanced team (which wasn't me).

Adventure: 5/10
Control: 3/10
Fear: 7/10

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

I drive a motorcycle across my hometown, and realize I forgot my helmet. Oh well. I'm also carrying a baked potato in my jacket pocket, and it's falling apart.

---

A nest of vampires in an otherwise benign-looking place, like a post office or a government building. S has warned me, but I come back anyway.

Vampires are repelled by objects of faith (Dresden Files), but unlike the stereotype, they don't need to be Christian symbols. The eldest vampire stalks towards me, and I have my pendant in my hand (the question: does the onyx within it represent me or the people I believe in, because I don't necessarily have faith in myself...) and I strike, pressing the pendant into the vampire's skin. It sizzles and burns, the vampire trying to get away, shrieking.

It's cries draw the other vampires, and I draw back to swing a fist, my Celtic ring coming into contact another vampire.

Later, I'll be asked if we can do an empirical test to determine whether the gold of the ring or the silver of the pendant was more effective against vampires.

---

"Who's your commanding officer?" demands a formidable looking black man with a military bearing.

"I don't know yet."

"Good answer," he tells me. He is my commanding officer.

When a small group comes to tell me I'll be joining them, I look back to him.

"Sir?" I ask, and he instructs me to join the group.

We board a plane. There are more than a dozen seats left when I come in, but one of my squadmates is arguing with a blond, thinner man who's already seated.

"These are for the paratroopers," says the seated man. "We don't have any seats for you."

I approach and tell him that we're assigned to this plane, and will be taking some of the seats. He is angry, but we end up seated, anyway.

I'm sitting next to a superior officer who's played by an actor I can't remember the name of. He's a heavier-set black man and he asks roundabout questions about my place in -- and loyalty to -- our shadowy organization. I tell him I will do what needs to be done.

The plane is in the air. I stand up and walk down the aisle. "It's time," I say to one of my squadmates as I walk past. She's a darker-skinned woman with long, curly hair.

We're in the air now. The six members of the squad are gliding towards our destination using wingsuits, flying through the chilled air.

"We can make it the whole way," the woman I was talking to says over the comms.

"Negative," I say. "We're losing altitude. Chutes on my mark; aim to land at the planned point."

I see a red plume of light indicating where we should land.

"And... NOW!"

We deploy our parachutes and land on the ice next to an island. Before I know it, we have skates on and are making our way towards the shore.

A red pickup truck meets us. We put skate guards on our skates and a few of us climb into the cab, the rest getting into the back of the truck. I'm making plans with the driver.

Scare factor: 5/10. Lots of fun and adventure, felt in control of the narrative the entire time, despite not being lucid.

EDIT for new rating system (and formatting colour):

Adventure: 8/10
Control: 8/10
Fear: 2/10

02/25/10

I'm Alex and she's Nikita and – shit! I throw myself behind a set of crates as a blaze of gunfire lights up my trail.

"We have to take the south exit!" she shouts over the noise.

"They've anticipated your escape route," I shout back, "It's an ambush!"

"We don't have a choice!"

Splintering wood and conveniently placed explosives under piles of precariously stacked crates – we make a dash for the exit. Don't stop when you're in the open, I tell myself, sprinting across the lawn, It's when you're most vulnerable, and we dive into the river and Alex closes her eyes.

Caught in the slipstream, I nudge at Alex/Nikita. Don't hold your breath, I say. Breathe. It won't hurt you.

Alexandra. Scare Factor: 2.

02/24/11

"When can I schedule an appointment for you?"

Needing a doctor's appointment, but I don't have a day free for a while. I'm working every day this week.

"Why are we walking to the train station?" I ask the nurse.

"I need a light. You don't carry a lighter."

"Only if I'm dreaming," I say, amused, and I snap my fingers. A sliver of bright red flame flares up over my closed fist.

Zippo. Scare Factor: 1.

02/22/11

Three people sit around a table. Two of them are dead.

The bodies are slumped at awkward angles, twitching. Under their skin, tiny creatures mass and swarm and crawl, and at any moment, the meat-sacks will burst at the seams and the kitchen floor will be flooded with blood and tissues and squirming maggots.

A little girl sits in the third place-setting, quietly finishing her homework.

They play hopscotch on the sidewalk, and they make fun of her. They don't know what she could do to them, what she's about to do. Calling through cracks in the sidewalk, calling up all the little things that crawl.

She doesn't realize that she's raised a hand, fingers stretched out, until another hand is closing over hers and forcing her arm down. She turns and meets the cool stare and raised eyebrows, and knows that the black-clothed child is other, like her.

This "Samael" has a job offer for her, and so she follows.

Sarcophagidae. Scare Factor: 3.

02/21/11

Door after door leading to white hallway after white hallway. "You must remember the way," he says, "For you will return alone."

The next room is an airy loft, warm lights illuminating hardwood floors and brick walls, black leather furniture and red accents. Light streams in from the windows, but I don't look outside. My focus is on the jewelry box which sits on the black coffee table.

Dark stained oak, cheap brass clasp. Approximately six inches across, four inches tall, five inches deep. I flick open the cheap brass clasp. Red velvet? Darker. Not black, too repetitive. Inside the box is an onyx pendant, oval-shaped, set in silver.



My mind filters the details automatically, but I'm focused on the brief spark of red energy, invisible threads latching onto my energy reserves and trailing through another level of the dream-world. A horcrux, then.

Dark. Underground. Cavernous. Walls drip with slime and... blood, yes. No smell, no sensory input other than sight. Area is large, but confining. Can feel the thing trapped here, straining against its bonds.

Sharp movement. Living, shapeless mass of flesh and grinding bone. Something claws its way from inside, tears the creature open from the inside. A humanoid figure steps out of the bloody, writhing thing. This is the monster.

"Run," I say to the other man. "You need to get as far away from me–"

Too late. The room goes pure white in an instant, powered by the horcrux's parasitic bond. A cloaked figure unfurls itself across the room, stands up straight and I make a sharp gesture with my ebony wand, shouting and pulling on the emotions that I need to fuel the spell.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

White noise is deafening and the room gets brighter than should be possible and - nothing.






He sits poised on the far end of the couch, staring disapprovingly at his cup of tea. Earl Grey in delicate white china, set in a saucer that he holds in his left hand. I'm on the other end of the couch, looking straight at him. I probably have a cup of tea, or maybe it's sitting on the coffee table.

"So," I say casually, "From one dark wizard to another..."

He smirks at that. "A dark wizard, Harry? You?"

"This time around, it's different." I say with a scowl, "What was the first curse I cast at you, again?"

"As I recall," he says, taking a sip of the tea, "You attempted to cast the killing curse."

Attempted–?

"You lack the hatred required to fuel the spell." He explains, and he meets my eyes. "This version of you does not love, Harry. All you have is apathy."

Trinkets. Scare Factor: 3.

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.

02/05/11

"You're leaving? How the hell are you planning to get out of the city?"

"By bus."

"That route's run by the gangs. Do you know what they could do to you?"

"I'd kill them if they tried."

"You'd try to kill them, you mean."

"Well, yes."

An image forms in my mind. The bus I'm on, forced to the side of the road. The leader grabs me by the arm, hauls me to my feet. Keeping center of balance low, I take a quick step past him. Use his grip against him, grab, throw, dislocate his shoulder. Follow through to the next man, punch to the solar plexus. Disarm the knife, strike to the throat.

Unrealistic? Depends on reaction time of second man. Don't underestimate.

"Fine," she says, with the look of a person with too many stubborn people in her life. "I'm coming with you."

One Way. Scare Factor: 2.

★★☆☆☆

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.

★★★☆☆

SOLO SENTENCE ESPRESSO

It takes fifteen minutes of standing on the train tracks and yelling before the chupacabra shows up and dies and is recorded onto a tape so that its soul is sufficiently trapped for eternity (or until the sequel); I'm late for work and Dean's hit by a train, but we get better.

Chupacabra. Chupacabras? Scare Factor: 3.