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    Things to Run Away From Really Fast

    Warnings: violence, problems with authority, and links to TV Tropes.

    But in all seriousness, this journal legitimately contains the kind of graphic and disturbing content that gives people nightmares, so either that's a selling point or a reason not to read on. Just a heads up.

    As of 2015, dreams are ranked according to three categories:

    Adventure: How much fun and excitement can I fit into one dream?
    Control: How much control do I have over the narrative, environment, and dream powers?
    Fear: How scared and out of control do I feel? (Has very little to do with how Silent Hill the monsters get.)

    Regular dreams are in black (along with notes).
    Semi-lucid dreams are green.
    Lucid dreams are blue.

    1. #165. The Long Haul

      by , 10-31-2010 at 09:58 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      I finally got to move away from Saskatchewan, so I'm happy about that. Haven't really been concentrating on my dreams, though.

      Also, Halloween is the best holiday ever.

      10/31/10



      An angel and I talk economics.

      "You gambled my soul away in a poker game?" Bobby growls, his voice growing louder with every syllable.

      Balthazar raises his hands in a peaceful gesture, as best he can while I have him held up by the collar of his two piece suit.

      break

      "Look at that man over there," says Balthazar, pointing across the street. "What do you think would happen if you said to him, 'Give me your soul, and you can have anything you want in the world'?"

      The sun is shining down on us; the crisp autumn breeze brushes leaves through the gutters. The man pulls his overcoat more closely around himself, hurrying his steps towards the church on Eleventh.

      "He'll say no." I say in a low voice, my arms crossed over my chest.

      "He'll tell you to fuck off, is what he'll do. Pop culture's done more to harm the trade than religion ever did. He probably doesn't believe he has a soul, and he still won't sign it over." Balthazar takes a breath, grins. "Look, the trick is to ask for something smaller."

      The man is out of sight, now.

      The trick, apparently, is to plan for the long term. Get someone to agree to a small price, a small favour in exchange for their needful thing. These agreements, they're bound to the bloodline. If the man doesn't pay back the favour, rest assured that his children will.

      Chances are, we'll get our soul eventually.

      break

      When Dean comes to, he's leaning against a concrete wall in an underground parking garage. He doesn't know exactly where he is or what he's doing there, but he knows it can't be good.

      Dean stumbles up the exit ramp, blinks a bit against the cool night air.

      Click. Look up.

      Sam's at the top of the ramp, pointing a gun directly at his brother.

      "Sammael," says Sam Winchester, his voice cold.

      Dean fades to black, and I smile up at Sam.

      break

      In which I try to solve a puzzle involving time travel.

      Standing at the ticket counter, drumming my fingers impatiently against the arborite. The ticket-seller has my passport in her hand. She glances at the name, up at my face, at a poster I can't see behind the glass, and her face goes white. She hands me back the passport, slides two tickets under the glass, and tries not to meet my eyes. I smile and thank her, and I take my thinks and walk into the parking lot.

      I open the driver's seat door to an Oldsmobile, my parents' car when I was younger, and start the engine. Zoe is sitting in the passenger seat.

      "They're already onto us." I tell her. "Buses aren't running, cops'll be all over the place within an hour. We have to drive."

      break

      And now it's real life, and I tell Zoe I'm leaving Calgary. It's two years into the future, and I've been in one place too long.

      break

      "Where are we?" I demand. My voice is quiet, but the threat is there.

      Daniel smiles, suddenly nervous. "This is one of the last human settlements on Earth."

      "I'm waiting."

      "From your point of view," he says slowly, "I suppose this is the future."

      Zoe stands quietly behind me.

      break

      I step through the sliding metal doors, out into an oasis of footpaths and greenery, quiet places for meditation and training. Above us is a dome, given away by the subtle waves in its surface, the way it refracts the light from the bright skies above. Beyond the dome is the endless desert that the earth has become.

      break

      "When you say this is the future," I ask Daniel, "Exactly how far do you mean?"

      He hesitates. "Well, it's been at least... it's been tens of billions of years."

      He's expecting me to freak out, but I simply nod, having had my suspicions confirmed. "And physiologically, humans have remained the same for the last... tens of billions of years?"

      Daniel frowns, and looks at me, searching. "Physiologically? You mean evolution."

      "And there have been no significant changes." I state, daring him to contradict me. "You know what this means?"

      "Someone's been breeding us."

      Scare Factor: 2/10
    2. #164. Catch Me If You Can

      by , 10-19-2010 at 07:14 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      Four hours of sleep, and suddenly this monstrosity comes along. It's fairly disjointed; I don't have a whole lot of time to play with it, so without further ado...

      10/18/10



      Harry Potter tries to mess with the fabric of reality, I have diabolical plans, and Dumbledore disapproves as usual.

      "Just think about it," I tell her. "With this kind of breakthrough, we could completely alter the way humans perceive reality!"

      Sophie looks up at me, skeptical, one hand keeping her place in the textbook. She's holding a pen in her other hand, and she taps it impatiently against her notebook. She pushes a few strands of short red hair out of her eyes, and says, "I know what happens when you try to play mad scientist, Harry."

      We're sitting across from each other at a long wooden table. Sophie's studying - this is a library, after all. The interior is almost entirely decorated with red-stained wood, giving the impression of a highly modern, really big log cabin. With lots and lots of glass (and books). Sunlight streams in from the huge windows, and outside is a view of the forest, and the other school buildings in the clearing.



      "Chaos, generally." I say, grinning. Some of the other students notice that I'm grinning, and quietly begin to edge away from us. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

      skip

      There's this thing I have to do on the computer. It's very important. I'm sitting outside on the green grass, trying to do this very important thing, when - hey, will you look at that? Dumbledore's on Skype!

      Albus Dumbledore appears in a new window, looking very grave indeed. This is somewhat offset by all of the spinning and twirling metal gadgetry on his desk.

      "Harry," says Dumbledore gravely, "I've received word of the research you've begun."

      "Really?" I say, looking up from Minesweeper. "Brilliant, isn't it?"

      He sighs. "Harry," he repeats, "This is not a road you cannot walk down unscathed. You'll be returning to Hogwarts."

      "Um..." I say slowly, "No."

      "By force, if necessary."

      My computer pings.

      "Did you just -" I say, looking at the screen, "Did you just track my location through my internet connection? You realize I'm on a different PLANET? How the hell does that even -"

      But Dumbledore's appearing at the edge of the wards, walking into the school grounds the only way he can. I meet his eyes for just a moment, and I disapparate.

      skip

      Moving through Ixburg, and I'm running. I'm moving through a jobsite, people from my hometown who were, apparently, in direct competition with my family's business. By some sort of mutual agreement, they all ignore my presence, and I pass through completely unnoticed.

      Back doors of the grocery store and I'm having a conversation with someone before I disappear again -


      Narcissa Malfoy. We're standing in some anonymous hallway of a starship, looking out into the black.

      "I don't disapprove of your cutting his influence out of your life," she's saying, "But I'm not convinced that making an enemy of Dumbledore will be conducive to your goals."

      "There are greater forces at work here. He may get in my way," I say coldly, "But he can't stop me."

      Narcissa nods once, sharply. "Very well. My family is at your service, as always."

      I'm closing my eyes, casting my senses out into the nothing. Golden light is cutting through the darkness, pushing it away, burning.

      "You need to leave," I tell my informant, and I'm hurtling out into the void of space, an ethereal being of energy and animal and just a sliver of humanity. And the burning, fierce presence is crying out, raising its wings.

      Fawkes.

      He's found me through Harry's holly wand, called by the phoenix feather within. I smile and pull another wand from my sleeve, one made of ebony. And as the phoenix is upon me, I call up the Void, and I meet the creature's light with an unfathomable darkness.

      Boom.

      (O'Neill: What the hell was that?)
      (Carter: I don't know, sir, but it almost blew straight through our shields. We're lucky it wasn't closer.)

      "Grab my arm." I tell Sophie. We apparate from planet to planet, trying to get Dumbledore off our trail. One, two, three, four, five. Hoth, Antarctica, Europa, Tartarus, Miranda.

      I appear in the woodshop of the school in the clearing. There's another person in the room.

      "Where is my daughter?" The woman asks.

      I look around, but Sophie's nowhere to be seen.

      Dumbledore.

      skip

      "Aurors and their locking spells," I mutter, pointing my ebony wand at the door. The lock clicks, and I open the door to the super-secret impenetrable Unspeakable Library. "Well, come on." I hiss at the nervous man behind me.

      The two of us shuffle into the library and quietly barricade ourselves in one of the rooms. We're pretty sure that the information we need is here.

      The man is flipping through a card catalogue, mumbling under his breath. I'm scanning the books on the shelf, but something seems out of place. I feel a presence. Thinking it's a guard, I make my way over to one of the closed doors and peer through the keyhole. I'm looking for the beam of a flashlight.

      At first, I don't see anything. The hallway is white, and bare, and dark. I look through at a different angle, and

      look directly into blood red eyes. There's no pupil, iris, sclera, it's all a murderous shade of red, and for a moment, I'm held captive by the gaze. I notice, peripherally, that she's a ghostly little girl in a tattered white dress and everything is bleeding into itself

      She flickers, like a strobe light. In and out of existence, and suddenly, she's in the room with us

      Harry is terrified, and I'm calm. The ghost is on us, tearing into our essence, and Harry is terrified but I know that there's no danger but I can feel his fear

      Everything's going dark

      And I wake up, disoriented, in a pitch black room.

      Scare Factor: 4/10

      Oh. It was a dream.

      It made sense at the time?

      Updated 10-31-2010 at 10:09 PM by 31096

      Categories
      non-lucid , memorable
    3. #163. Corona

      by , 10-17-2010 at 06:31 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★☆☆☆☆

      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
    4. #162. Energy Beings

      by , 10-17-2010 at 03:49 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      Work's still trying to kill me, but I think it's time to start posting in my DJ again. I've been writing in my paper DJ every day, but it's just not the same.

      So here's the only lucid I've had in the last couple weeks.

      10/06/10



      I'm looking down at the ledge of a window, standing on top of a platform. I stick my head through the window and look down at the ground. I want to keep moving, running, going somewhere, I don't know. I should really stop and stabilize. The scene is staticky, overlaid with a red filter.

      I breathe, take a moment to watch the world around me. The moment ends, and I jump -

      We're running. Non-human figures, all of us, made of light, each an almost pure, bright colour. One is bright red, an orange glow streaking out from the center, like fire. Another is white with gold rays, woven through with colourless threads. Another gives me the impression of a stormy sky and the smell of ozone. I have no sense of myself, but I don't have a body. I just am, and I'm interacting with the others - we take the shape of wolves and run across the sky of the prairie below.

      Mzzkc and I communicate.

      We're dream-sharing, says one of us. Do you want to try a password, see if both of us remember it?

      Q and K, says the other. That's the password.

      Hard to remember, says the first. How about 'quark'?

      I try to wake myself up so I'll remember it, but
      I go spinning into a dream I won't remember.

      Scare Factor: 2/10
      Categories
      lucid
    5. #161. Air Nailers, Take 2

      by , 10-02-2010 at 04:25 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      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.
    6. #160. Caramel Macchiato

      by , 10-01-2010 at 04:18 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★☆☆☆☆

      09/30/10



      I'm sitting at a table in a fancy cafe. The fancy cafe is next to the walkway of a mall. There's a lot of orange in the colour scheme.

      My mom is sitting across from me, trying to order drinks from the waiter. He's looking at her skeptically.

      "...the water and flour, please." she finishes.

      The waiter doesn't write anything down. He's giving me a look, Is she serious?

      I put my elbows on the table and rub my temples with two fingers. "We'll get a caramel macchiato and a chai latte."

      The waiter nods and flees before my mom can say anything else.

      "Why did you do that?" She demands. "Everyone knows the flour is a code for getting all the components of the drink separately. I want to mix it myself."

      "Do you want the latte or the macchiato?" I say flatly.

      Scare Factor: 1/10
      Tags: boring, cafe, mall, mom
      Categories
      non-lucid
    7. #159. More Aliens

      by , 09-30-2010 at 03:05 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★☆☆☆

      09/29/10



      Jesse is my third cousin once removed. Or something. We don't really get along. In this universe, however, we apparently travel together like the brothers from Supernatural.

      Jesse and I have been abducted by aliens. I'm looking around the room, which appears to be a workshop. There are sturdy wooden tables are laid out at right angles throughout the room, and they're covered in various projects, models and mock-ups. The concrete walls are wallpapered with sketches and equations. Also, we're in a space station orbiting Earth.

      "Welcome!" says one of the aliens, as it moves towards us. He has his skinny arms raised in welcome. His skin is blue on the top, and fades to peach underneath. He has a dome-shaped head, and a wide smile. "Welcome to our benevolent kingdom, humans! Our benevolent ruler sends his greetings."

      "They're kind of friendly, aren't they?" says Jesse, under his breath.

      "So... what do you want?" I ask him.

      The alien smiles wider. "I'm glad you asked. We have many questions about your civilization."

      Jesse puffs himself up, and I make a gesture with my hand. "Go on."

      "We need to know, specifically, about the Catholic church." he says. He brings us over to a model of my hometown's cathedral. "Our benevolent ruler came to know of this society through the storyteller called 'Dan Brown'. You see, our society is an advanced, rational civilization. Our benevolent ruler believes that we should 'add some chaos to the mix', and has decided to use your Church as a model."

      "I'm Protestant." says Jesse.

      "I'm not." I mutter.

      "Nevertheless, you have been chosen to grace us with this information. It is a great honour," he says, meeting my eyes.

      I read his intentions there. Once he has his information, he'll have no more use for us. We'll be disposed of, lethally.

      I smile brightly. "Jesse, why don't you tap into humanity's collective consciousness and bring up the data our host is asking for? I'll help clean up, and answer any questions he has in the meantime." Ignoring Jesse's flabbergasted expression, I turn back to the alien scientist. "Would that be satisfactory?"

      "Humanity has a collective consciousness?" asks the alien, looking interested.

      "Humanity. Has a collective consciousness." says Jesse flatly. "What the flying fuck -"

      I grab him by the arm and whisper in his ear. "Meditate. Gather the energy we need to teleport the hell out of here."

      "So!" I say to the alien as I pick up a rag. "What do you want to know?"

      skip

      I throw down the rag next to Jesse. He opens his eyes and blinks up at me.

      "Not that I'm upset you're trying to save our lives," I say, "But if this takes any longer, you'll be paying in chores for a month."

      He glares. "I could just leave you here."

      "You can't kill kin." I tell him.

      Scare Factor: 2/10
      Categories
      non-lucid
    8. #158. Soul Eater

      by , 09-29-2010 at 05:40 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★★☆

      09/28/10



      Killing from the shadows.

      I get tied up a lot. I would wonder at the Freudian implications of that, but I'm a little busy right now. What with being tied to a chair, and all. I'm at the center of an empty conference room, surrounded on all sides by bare floor space. It's almost like the huge room, with its fluorescent lights and grey carpet, is supposed to be intimidating or something. The syndicate's second in command swaggers into the room. He's an older man with greying hair, and wearing a business suit. He's confident, and self-assured, and my gods do I want to beat the smirk off of his face. He's walking towards me, and stops three feet away.

      Get closer, I dare you.

      "How is it," says the man, leaning in, "That you got in here? Our defenses should be impenetrable."

      I tilt my head to the side, deliberately widening my eyes. "Should they, really?"

      The man scowls. "You should tell us what we want to know. Things might get... unpleasant for you, otherwise."

      This is going to be the most cliched interrogation ever.

      "Hm," I pretend to think about it. "No."

      The man growls. His arm swings back, and suddenly I'm released from my bonds. I surge forward, catching him off balance, and use his arm to throw him to the floor. I'm on top of him in an instant, grabbing him by the sides of the head. I lift up, and I smash his head into the floor. The back of his skull impacts with a dull thud, and the man struggles, feebly. I lift again, smash his skull into the floor until the back of his head is a pulpy, bloody mess.

      Well, I feel better.

      I exit the room, closing the door behind me. No guards. I sense someone approaching, and I duck into a hallway running across a glass wall. Outside, I can see the city, sparkling in the night. This building is mostly office space, but that's a front for something larger. Hell, the ground floor is actually a mall, teeming with people during the day.

      The footsteps are getting closer. The guard rounds the corner next to me. I duck behind him and lock an arm behind his back, and use his momentum to push him into the window. He grunts with the impact, and cracks spiderweb across the glass. Before he can pull himself together, I'm pulling him back, away from the window. With a blast of telekinetic energy, he goes flying. The window breaks, and the man goes tumbling out into the street, several stories below.

      I run up a staircase, trying to avoid the patrolling guards. The longer I can hold off the alert, the more time my partner has to find -

      The dream is destabilizing. My surroundings are a blur of light blue and white. I feel blinded, fully aware that I won't be able to see the guards before they find me. I'm trying to hold onto the dream, and I sense it. It's a shadow, human-shaped and in the room next to me. One of the guards - his aura is completely black, and I can feel him getting closer. He solidifies as a human shadow -

      I strike out at him, hitting him in the temple. Before he has a chance to react, I have him in a full nelson, choking him. He's losing oxygen, starting to pass out.

      He doesn't have to die, I could just knock him out. Maybe I should stop killing them. This is their job, they probably have families. No. I'm just too close, physically. I'm feeling his fear. A memory washes across the surface of his mind. He's on a job, on a team with three others. Capturing a girl. They rape her.

      I freeze. I almost recoil, but the man's waking up, starting to struggle.

      A snarl of rage is coming from me, and I throw him to the ground. I disable his vocal cords with a wave of my hand, and he's inching away, trying to scream for help. I weave a wordless spell in blue, lay it over him.

      He's frozen for a moment, as he begins to lift up into the air, gravity losing its effect on him. I'm standing back now, as he starts to tug against invisible bonds. I summon another wave of energy.

      Glass shatters into thousands of pieces, and this man, too, goes flying. He's falling up, though, up and up and up, screaming soundlessly, clearing the outcropping near the top of the skyscraper, falling into the sky.

      Even if the spell fails before he hits the stratosphere, well. It's a long way down.

      Killing in the open.

      I'm surrounded. Six mooks in blue, four fighters in red, and the leader, a Djinn. Bald and muscular, covered in shifting blue tattoos, he's easily the most threatening presence in the room.

      I wave my hand, sending a wave of kinetic energy at them. Four out of six mooks have their necks snapped, dead before they hit the ground. The remaining combatants have too strong of a will to be taken out of the game so easily.

      I need a stronger spell. I call up blue-tinted soul energy, holding it in my right hand, and I rush one of the mooks and force it into his chest. I can feel his heartbeat, one, two, and the energy pulses, entwining with his soul and pulling it out of him.

      I'm counting numbers in my head: 20, 24. The numbers seem arbitrary, but they help me keep track of the soul energy. If I hit zero, I'll be powerless.

      The Djinn hits me from behind, and I can feel my numbers sink to 17. Snarling, I pull free of his grip and hit him with a pulse of the energy. He's flying backwards and I'm down to 16.

      The red-shirts are in my way, and I down two, one with each hand. Their souls pulse out and back into their bodies, frying them. I absorb the excess. 27.

      I'm ready this time. I block the Djinn, meeting his attack with a soul shield. The energy sparks dangerously with the impact, and we're both forced back, sliding several feet. 23.

      Where are the other guys? The floor is conspicuously empty. Jim Gordon is standing on the sidelines, surrounded by the remaining mooks. They've got his gun.

      Cursing, I put up an energy shield as I fry the mooks with soul energy. 7. "Run!" I shout at him, "Get the fuck out of here!"

      He's hesitating. Why is he hesitating?

      My shield is draining me. I'm blocking an attack by the Djinn. 4. "You have all the evidence we need to shut them down! You need to get out!"

      Something in my tone convinces him. He's turning on his heel and running, and I'm turning around to face the Djinn.

      "I can take care of things on this end," I say, and I let the shield drop.

      Happy endings.

      I'm walking through the building at the mall level, a skip in my step. It's daylight, and there are people around. A feeling of contentment is going through me, and I ignore the graves being built near the side entrances of the mall.

      I'm a child, and I construct a mother DC out of nothing.

      Something is coming to an end, some mystery was solved. It feels like closure.

      Scare Factor: 4/10

      On second thought, think I may have lost that fight. Djinn in the Supernatural universe "grant wishes" by trapping their victims in a dream world and sucking out their life energy. Happy ending? I don't think so.

      I think this deserves another play-through.

      (P.S. This has nothing to do with the anime of the same name.)
    9. #157. Keys to the Kingdom

      by , 09-28-2010 at 04:00 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★★☆

      ...or "Taking Over a Country in Five Easy Steps".

      09/27/10



      "Your son, your majesty, is a psychotic despot who's been running your country into the ground."

      "And you have a solution?"

      "Your youngest child went missing several years ago. You should inform your court that I have returned."


      Johanna swings the sword furiously at her attacker. Her blonde hair, braided into a plait, sweeps through the air as she ducks his return attack. She's on the defensive, frantically blocking his sword, barely avoiding being cut. The man's face is expressionless as he forces her into a corner.

      A slow clapping starts up from across the room. The attacker stills, and Johanna steps away, keeping her sword ready.

      "Bravo," says the man on the other side of the room. "You've done extraordinarily well, getting this far."

      "I'll kill you," she hisses back, not taking her eyes from the bodyguard, "For destroying my family."

      "With that sword?" asks the prince, "I think not."

      "I've fought my way through your legions," she pronounces, "Decimated them."

      "Yes," says the prince, "But then, you had someone to protect, which is the purpose of your enchanted sword. Tell me, where is your brother?"

      "He's dead," says Johanna, "Murdered by your men!" On the last word, a knife materializes in her other hand. She rushes the bodyguard, swipes down, slicing at his face.

      Blood splatters against the wall, and Johanna clutches at her throat in surprise. She falls to the ground, aware that she's bleeding out. From the corner of her eye, she can see another man emerge from the shadows. Stupid, she thinks, should have realized he would have backup...

      She's standing on a stone bridge, which spans the entirety of a mountainous valley. At the end of the bridge is a city. Blue spires reach up into the sky, and Johanna is dimly aware that she's looking at the Capitol City. This was her home, before everything. It's still peaceful. The sky is blue, and sunlight shines down, lighting up the valley and the mist with an ethereal glow. The valley is lush, full of greens and grains and enough food keep most of the kingdom from growing hungry. It's almost unbelievable, that such an awe-inspiring sight could hide such a great evil.

      "I brought you back." I tell her.

      Johanna turns to look at me. "Why?" Her face is blank, but I can hear the anguish in her voice.

      "I don't think you understand," I say slowly, "I brought you back. Nothing you've endured has happened yet. Your family is still alive."

      She's quiet for a moment, looking out over the blue lustre of the city in the distance. "What's the catch?"

      I have to smile at that. "You can prevent all of this from happening," I say, "If you do exactly as I say."

      plots to pacify the population with the latest crop of sweet potato, wading through water fields under the bridge

      I'm standing in a stone building (opulence, splendor) at the centre of the city. I know the precise moment that it happens, because it feels like a string is being cut. And just like that, destiny has been rewritten. The prince is dead, long live the prince.

      A cell phone chimes in my pocket. I answer on the third ring.

      "Hello, 'Father'," I say, irony in my tone. "So, when is my coronation?"

      Scare Factor: 3/10

      Wait, wait. Your crown prince is an evil sociopath, so you want my dream self to rule instead? Good luck with that.

      1. Establish yourself as an heir to the throne.
      2. Find someone who wants the prince dead.
      3. Bring them back in time.
      4. Assassinate the prince.
      5. How old was the king, again?
    10. #156. The Demon Boy

      by , 09-27-2010 at 05:33 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      LUCID

      If my hair keeps changing colour in the pictures, it's because that's what it tends to do IRL.

      09/26/10

      Fragment about going to my (late) grandma's church for a Halloween party. There were some really cool decorations. A distinct lack of alcohol, however.

      I'm in the front entrance to our house. Everything seems normal, and I do a routine reality check just because. I count my fingers. Onetwothreefour... new ones start sprouting. Well, that's weird. It's almost like I'm dreaming or something.

      I try again, and I get to seven before I give up. Obviously I am dreaming. So... Nomad's task. I need to get to a forest. I jump out the nearest window into the front yard. My brother is there, hanging out with a DC from the Halloween party. Definitely dreaming, then, and whoa...

      The dream is destabilizing. The entire world tilts on its axis, and white lines start running parallel to every object in the scene, as they do in Assassin's Creed. I stop to take a breath, keeping my eyes open, and I start touching the objects around me. I kneel down and touch the grass, the concrete driveway, a metal railing, and I'm back.

      I decide that the best way to get there is to run in a straight line. There's a forest directly to the south, I convince myself. I cross the street at a run, hit the wall with one foot, and leap onto the brown-shingled roof.

      I don't stop. From the first house, I jump onto the roof of the next. Keep moving. I land on some kind of antennae, and the structure sways dangerously as I make the jump to the next structure.

      I'm on a scaffold. The next building - a warehouse - is an impossible distance away, several feet higher than the platform I'm jumping from, and twenty feet away. I jump the gap, and I'm suspended in the air.

      I pull at my momentum, bending the dream to allow me a few more meters in height - and I grasp the edge of the roof. I pull myself up near the chimney. On the other side of the warehouse is a big camping tent set up in someone's backyard. I jump. I land on the tent, and it cushions my fall, billowing out around me. My vision is filled with yellow and red, and I think hard, imagining the demon boy I'm supposed to rescue, and the dark thing that's after him...


      The forest is oppressively quiet. I can smell the pine, feel the hot mugginess created by a recent rain. Fully immersed in my character, I stand in the center of a huge clearing, waiting.

      A flash of red goes zooming by. I've found Nomad's demon boy. I'm slightly disappointed. I was hoping I could use this opportunity to discover Amon's origin (a DC I've apparently mentored throughout his life). Instead, it's just a regular demon.

      He's being chased by a wolf. I recognize the creature as an entity from my childhood nightmares. It's back, and I'll have to deal with that eventually. For now, I allow the demon child to distract it.

      I spot a piece of paper on the ground near a pond. Picking it up, I skim the text. Instructions from Nomad on what to do next.

      Did you save the demon boy? Y/N

      I look up across the clearing. The demon is running as fast as he can, frantically trying to get away from my nightmare creature. The wolf is gleefully giving chase. I'm not sure whether he's actually any danger, or if he's just toying with the demon. Either way, I have no interest in rescuing the child.

      Did you propose to the barmaid? Y/N

      I look at the paper, and blink. And blink again. No, WakingNomad, I did not propose to the barmaid. Although, I should pay a visit to Denn sometime in the near future.

      Scare Factor: 3

      Also, this result amused me.

      Updated 11-10-2014 at 01:37 AM by 31096

      Categories
      lucid , memorable
    11. #155. Shopping

      by , 09-26-2010 at 05:43 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★☆☆☆☆

      I'm switching to the five star system for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it allows you, the reader, to know which of my entries are skippable (ie: this one). For another, I'm sure it will aggravate the person who keeps one-starring my entries. You know who you are.

      I hate clothes shopping. Also, "blonde" isn't in my browser dictionary. Weird.

      09/25/10



      I need some new clothes for job hunting. In this frame of mind, I find myself in a moderately high-end clothing store in a mall. I'm looking along the racks on the wall, and I've found what appears to be a genuinely horrifying purple-striped dress shirt. It seems fine within the dream, though. I pick up a pair of pants or two, even though they're brown and probably won't fit properly. I've decided that this store has shirts that fit really well, but I usually buy my pants at another store. I pick up another pair of jeans and head over to the changing rooms.

      "Doors are unlocked, right?" I ask the salesperson behind the counter.

      "What?" She looks up. She's blonde, early twenties, and has her hair pulled up into a ponytail. She looks me up and down, seemingly confused about something. I've probably switched genders in the last five seconds or something.

      Time skip. I've finished trying things on. Now I'm looking at shoes.

      Somebody get me out of here.

      Scare Factor: Through the roof. (1/10)
    12. #154. More Carpet

      by , 09-24-2010 at 08:07 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      Recall's a bit fuzzy. This happened in the middle of the night, and I didn't get up to write it down. In the morning, I originally woke up with the vague impression that I might have had a lucid.

      Slept quite well, though. I was in a very good mood for a while.

      09/24/10



      Staring at a grey carpet floor, I am fully aware that I'm in a dream. I don't bother with a reality check, but I do take a moment to stabilize my surroundings (do nothing). I'm concentrating on the carpet, for some reason. Next time, I should probably focus on the rest of the room.

      Nomad's RPG task is to rescue the demon boy. I imagine myself in a forest, an aura of fear tinging the air. I wait for the faint pull that will take me from one dream to the other, and

      End recall.

      Scare Factor: 1/10
      Rating: 4/10


      And then, at work, I hit myself with a crowbar in the face. Ow.
      Categories
      lucid
    13. #153. Thai Food

      by , 09-23-2010 at 05:31 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      09/22/10

      One gigantic funeral/conspiracy dream I don't remember. Moving on.



      I think I'd been dreaming about dolls. There was, of course, something entirely creepy about them. Also, dog trainers, road trips, and friends of Zoe.

      I'm walking down a short flight of carpeted steps, into the entrance hallway of a house somewhere. My foot hits the bottom step, and Oh, I think. I'm dreaming.

      Reality check. I need to get back into the habit. Finger count: six.

      I'mlucidI'mlucidI'mlucid, I repeat to myself, concentrating. What did I want to do, again?

      Oh yeah. "Do nothing."

      I sit down on the light grey carpet and place my hands palms up over my knees. I take a deep breath, and close my eyes briefly.

      Everything turns a swirly grey. Alarmed, thinking I'm going to lose the dream, I open my eyes and begin touching all the surfaces in the room. Carpet, wooden bench, painted walls.

      I feel that the dream is secured, and walk out through a screen door. The screen door pulls around me, warping, and I push through it.

      I find myself at the entrance to a meeting place. A gym, or something. Apparently, it's for members of Nomad's shared dreaming class.

      I introduce myself as "Sam", and chat with some of the other students. One girl's avatar or userpic was very pink. We ended up making out on a couch.


      I'm losing lucidity, and I don't notice. One of the students is an old friend of mine, who died a couple years ago. Elaine sits beside me and whispers something in my ear.

      I'm hungry. We're sitting in a cafeteria, and I have to get back to class soon. I want some vegetarian food, but the Thai place is closed, and the sushi place doesn't have anything without fish in it. Someone brings a Saskatoon Berry Pie from the restaurant next door.

      Scare Factor: 2/10
      Rating: 3/10
    14. #152. Vampires & Unicorns

      by , 09-23-2010 at 05:06 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      Actors are running amok in my dreeeeaaaaams.

      09/21/10

      Don't leave your distractions up to me. Things will get dark.

      I'm leaning over the stone railing of the balcony, stretched out under afternoon sunlight. The balcony overlooks the city below, with its clay tile rooftops and climbing ivy. This place is teeming with life, and I allow myself to bask in its positive energy. Looking at the roads below, I can see -

      Wait.

      "Is that guy riding a unicorn?" I ask.

      The soldier standing next to me, dressed in forest green camo, puts a hand above his eyes and squints. "Oh, yeah. That's the pizza guy."

      "The pizza guy." I repeat flatly. "Of course."

      The pizza guy has convinced his unicorn to go up a flight of steps. As he turns the corner, I see his face. I bury my head in my hands.

      I appear outside next to him. "Really, Misha?" I say, "You know what'll happen if they catch you?"

      He says something.

      I shake my head. "The stage is set." I make a grand gesture with a sweep of my arm. "Your distraction is ready."

      How many pizzas would you need to feed a platoon of soldiers, anyway?

      Vampires.

      The girl looks maybe thirteen years old. She's quiet and sullen, and thirty vampires are following her through the darkness.

      She didn't mean to turn them. Well, not all of them. As their sire, she's responsible for them, and needs to keep them under control.

      I really need to kill a few, she thinks.

      She keeps three.

      "Rosie," she says, "It doesn't have to be this way." She's staring at the animated corpse of her friend. She turned Rosie into a vampire to save her life.

      Rosie laughs, trapped as she is within the circle. Still grinning, she'll speak the words that will damn her friend forever.

      Flashback.

      This is the girl vampire's past. She's still human, up in the building that I just left, protected by a platoon of pizza-ordering soldiers in forest green.

      The soldiers are all dead, attacked by vampires. The girl is injured, bleeding. There is one soldier left, a recurring character. He turns around to reassure her, tell her they'll be all right. He lowers his weapon.

      "Look," I say gleefully. "You can see the precise moment that she turns."

      She's a vampire now. She kills the soldier.

      Scare Factor: 3/10
      Rating: 4/10


      I realize this was probably confusing. I've got nothing.

      Updated 11-10-2014 at 01:38 AM by 31096

      Categories
      non-lucid
    15. #151. Frappuccino

      by , 09-20-2010 at 03:53 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      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
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