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Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #228: The Fall from Orbit

I’m lying in bed when I sense a shift and suspect that a WILD has begun. Something feels not quite real about the situation. I rub my hands together. It’s close, but it feels like I’m dreaming this rather than experiencing it in the waking world. I feel Wife stir next to me and wonder if she can sense me moving around.

I try to speak but all that comes out is a strange, reluctant croak. There’s no doubt that it’s a dream now. The sense of being in bed becomes less and less clear and I feel like I’ve at least partially entered the void.

I wait for a while, relying on hand-rubbing to keep me in the dream but finally call out: “Dreamer, pull me out of here!” I feel the sensation of a hand grabbing my right arm and pulling me down toward where the “bed” would have been, and I get the sense that I’m rotating. When I’ve turned about 180 degrees I suddenly feel massive acceleration ahead of me and slightly downward, like something attached a rocket to me!

The acceleration halts and a new scene comes into view. I’m flying high above the Earth in lower earth orbit! The clouds look slightly pixelated but convincing enough that the effect is very dramatic.



I remember that all of my goals are on the surface of the planet, so I point myself downward and imagine myself shooting forward at top speed. I take off like a rocket, the ground rising dizzyingly fast to meet me. I’m shooting toward a bunch of buildings, headed directly for a house!

I’m prepare to plow into this house, but my fall stops short, my feet rotate back under me and I’m now standing gently on the ground next to a miniature house and a cluster of miniature buildings. What looked like a city seconds ago now looks like a bunch of little model buildings. The room is fully enclosed and dimly-lit but I can still see well enough to do what I want.

I want to summon Dreamer but there aren’t any DCs around to use. I remember my behind the back summoning tech, but I’m not feeling sure about how I executed it. It fizzles. I walk to another corner of the room and try it there. Still nothing.

I approach another part of the room where there’s a bar and a broad mirror above it. When I look into the mirror, I see myself standing there but in a completely different scene. My reflection is on some cobblestoned street, outdoors and it’s daytime. I strafe back and forth to test the reflection and he reacts as expected.

Now I spy the building’s glass front door and through it I see the cobblestoned scene I’d just viewed in the mirror. There’s a guy trying to get into the room, an Asian guy in his mid-twenties wearing glasses. Not the easiest DC to transform to Dreamer, maybe, but nothing I can’t handle!

I go up to the door to let him in and start messing with the lock. Then I realize what a waste of time this is. Why not just phase instead? I start the phase, my right arm passing straight through the glass but as I’m about to go the rest of the way, the dream ends.

I'm browsing DreamViews on my PC. I think that I am currently doing my WBTB.
There is something important I need to ask ~ Dreamer ~, but I cannot quite remember what it is.
I have the private message site open, trying to remember what it is I wanted to say.
Then, I spot some movement from the corner of my eye.
I could have sworn that ~ Dreamer ~'s Avatar just winked at me.


After some initial confusion, I think that she must have changed her Avatar to an animated gif, which does just that.
I think it is a pretty hilarious idea, because it is going to catch people off guard.
It might get people to RC if they notice...
I try to increase my awareness, given what just happened.
Hmm...
That avatar does look somewhat suspicious.
I poke it with my finger.
The avatar giggles and moves further into the screen a little.

"... Hello?"

The avatar then proceeds to climb outside of the screen and eventually ends up on my desk, still giggling.
It is so cute. But I resist the urge to poke it again.
The avatar points towards my left. I turn around.
~ Dreamer ~ is standing right next to me!
This comes as one hell of a shock. I immediately stand up.
I was in a semi-lucid state, but now, in the blink of an eye, I am fully lucid.

I run my fingers over the palm of my left hand to check my senses.
Everything is crystal clear. I can feel the individual patterns on my skin.
I haven't had a dream this clear in some time...
Oh... right... Dreamer!

"Hi..."

Really? That's all that I can come up with? "Hi"?
Well, I suppose I'm still a bit in shock from her sudden appearance.
She smiles.

"Hi Hyu."

I try to calm down a little. I point at my monitor.
Her voice is very soft, so I decide to reply softly as well.

"That was one hell of a trick."
"Which trick?"

I look at my monitors, and they are all blank now, with a purple haze around the corners.
This has happened many times before. I don't worry about it.
There is no sign of the Avatar.

"You made me realize that I am dreaming."
"Yes."

This is amazing! And the dream is so vivid and clear!

"Hyu, do you remember my dare?"

I wouldn't have remembered that on my own.
Lucid Dares

"I am to confront Faye."
"Yes. It is time to solve this once and for all."
"Yes... it is."

But you're right here in my dream.
I want to talk with you about all sorts of things.

"Go now. Faye awaits you."

She points towards the door leading out of my room. It becomes clear that Faye awaits me behind it.
I suppose ~ Dreamer ~ has a better grasp on priorities than I do. She is right.
The dream is so clear and stable, I need to use it to confront Faye.

"Thank you!"

~ Dreamer ~ winks at me, just like her avatar did, and then slowly fades away. Wow... what an amazing encounter.
I approach the door, but hesitate a moment before opening it.
I assert again that the dream is perfectly stable, and that my head is clear.
Yes, I am. Though I'm not entirely sure what to say yet. But that's okay, I'll figure it out on the fly.
I open the door with confidence, expecting to encounter Faye behind it.


To my surprise, this new room that I've just entered looks like some sort of an interrogation room.
One table, two chairs facing each other, and a big, probably one sided mirror.
Faye sits in one of the chairs waiting for me.
I'm not off to a good start. Not only does Faye look like Kate again, but I really dislike that this is an interrogation room.
I can understand why this happened though. It must have been caused by my determination to get answers from her.
I sit in the other chair and try to smile.

"Hello Faye."

She doesn't answer. She just stares down at her hands which are on the desk.
That's alright. I'll talk for now.
I recall positive memories we shared together. I retell those stories. (Unfortunately I don't remember this part of the conversation well)
But I can't seem to get any reaction out of her.
I gently grab her hands. She finally looks me in the eyes.

"I miss you Faye."
"We had so much fun together. I want to go on adventures with you again."
"..."
"The Faye that you remember is dead."
"..."
"I understand... What do you want?"
"No. You don't understand. And what I want..."

She smiles.

"I will destroy you. I will destroy us both."

She plays with a butterfly knife a little, then shows me the palm of her left hand, and then cuts right across it.
I can feel the cut in my left hand clearly. I look at it, and I have the same wound Faye has. We're both bleeding a little.

"You and I we are the same. We've always been."
"What has changed?"
"There is darkness within you. I am that darkness now."
"Nothing you do can stop me now."

This is not what I wanted to hear. But I suppose deep down, I already knew that things would never return to the way they were.
She also made it quite clear that I cannot remove her by force. What do I do now?
... first of all, I need a change of scenery. This interrogation room is inappropriate, it probably plays right into her hands.
Teraluna it is. I stand up and use the wing technique to teleport to Riven. Faye follows me. We are on a bridge close to Yuya's place.
She's no longer looking like Kate. She's looking the same way she did when we first met. She shows me her knife and says.

"I will never let you be with Yuya again."

I can see Yuya in the distance. She reads my thoughts. I make it clear that now is not a good moment to come over. She understands.
I look at the horizon. The gas giant that we are orbiting is experiencing a huge storm. It is quite beautiful.
This change of scenery was a good idea. I feel refreshed. And I know what I have to do...

"Oh Faye..."
"When I look at you, I remember all the good times we've had together."
"I will cherish those memories. I'll always remember you as the person you were, not as the person you have become."
"Whatever it is you are trying to do. It is not going to work."

I just smile. It is a genuine smile. I truly do cherish those memories.
And what I am about to say is going to hurt. But I know that it is the only way out.

"Faye... you are right. You always are. You and I, we are the same. And there is darkness within me... I do understand that."
"You do not... you have no idea. It will destroy you. I will destroy you."
"I know."
"No."
"You see, I've done a terrible thing."
"..."
"I didn't see what was wrong. I couldn't understand. So I have channelled all that darkness; all what was wrong, into a single dream character."
"You're making this up..."
"I needed for it to have a face. So that I could clearly identify..."
"These lies will not work on me!"
"Faye, I am sorry. I did not do this consciously. But it is all clear to me now."
"You are all that remains of that darkness. I will have to let you go..."
"No... I am your dream guide!"

Her voice has become faint. I can see fear and sadness in her now.
Is this truly the explanation I believe in?

"Faye is no longer here... My dream guide is dead."

I touch her face... one last time. I look deeply into her eyes. I can see nothing within them. You are no longer Faye.
Was it my fault that she ended up like this? Or was it beyond my control? I will never know.
But this is the only choice I have left. I take a step back... and then I let go...

"Goodbye Faye..."

She closes her eyes... and slowly fades into dust. The wind takes her away until nothing is left. Faye is gone.
Have I done the right thing? Was this really the only way?
Yuya approaches and hugs me. I hold her tightly.
I can feel her thoughts, her emotions, how helpless she felt, because this is not something she could help me with.
This was something I needed to solve on my own.

"Did I do the right thing?"

She gently answers:

"What do you think?"
"I think so... but I cannot shake the feeling that I may have taken the only path, rather than the right one."
"When there is only one path, is it not by definition always the right one?"
"Well..."
"Worry not. This was the choice you needed to make."

And suddenly I feel such relief. Like all the weight has been lifted off my shoulders. My dreams are mine again.
Yuya rarely gives me such a straight up answer. Instead she helps me to find my own.
But this time I needed to hear it from her.
I am so happy to be with her again.

We walk through her gardens, knowing that my dream will soon end. That is fine. I am exhausted.
I know that I can now visit Yuya again whenever I desire. That is what is most important.
But Faye is gone. Forever.

I set myself an alarm to wake me up after ~6 hours of sleep.
The idea was to attempt a WILD, which is something I haven't done in a long time.
I figured with a WILD I would remember my goals more easily, and I might be able to tackle the issues I have with Faye.

I wake up from the alarm. I immediately close my eyes again and try to remember any dreams.
All I can remember is a few weak fragments. I do not bother writing them down.
Instead I get up and walk around in my room a little, thinking about my dream goals.
The most important thing would be to deal with Faye. I feel like this is crucial in order to fix my dreams.
I've also been dared to tell her how she makes me feel.
I go back to bed after roughly 5 minutes and attempt to WILD.

I quickly get some HI, followed by the appearance of random faces.
Some scenes begin to form, but they seem to fall apart before I can transition.
I open my eyes a few times by accident. I'm really not used to do this anymore.

After some time I notice that I can see my room even though my eyes are still closed.
Oh. I am actually already dreaming. For some reason I decide to just stand up, even though I know that I've lost many lucids by doing this.
Fortunately this time it works. My body is really heavy though.
I have a lot of trouble moving, but I eventually manage to stand up.

I shake myself, a bit like a dog shaking away water from its wet pelt. Except I shake away the weight. It works. Neat!
I rub my hands together and look around.
I'm not in my room anymore. It's really dark.
Upon closer inspection, I appear to be standing on some dark marble floor, in an empty room that is clouded in dark fog.
Another person appears in front of me. First it's just an outline, but as he comes closer he looks more and more like a normal human being.

Wait what? He looks exactly like me!
I take a step back as I'm really creeped out. I am super uncomfortable encountering myself.
He looks a bit older than myself though... maybe by a few years.

"Who are you?"
"I am Hyu"

Great...

"You're not being helpful."
"Haha, I'm a future version of yourself, of course!"

Right...
So now what? Am I supposed to ask him something?
I probably should. Even though he's still creeping me out...

"So... any future advice for me?"
"Hmm... well... not really."
"Dude!"
"Alright, alright. I can tell you that it is going to work out. Is that helpful?"
"What is going to work out?"
"You'll know."
"Oh for fucks sake, you're pulling the same shit as all of the other DC's"
"Well. What did you expect? I am a DC."
"... you do have a point..."

He starts to walk away from me, but just before he disappears in the fog he addresses me one last time:

"On second thought... maybe you should get that Unreal 4 license. Mess around with it a little you know?"

(I have thought so much about starting my own company over the past few days. Was this what he was referring to when he said that everything would work out?
The comment about getting a UE4 license seems related to this.)

The black fog suddenly starts to move in. Oh shit, the dream is falling apart.
I panic and slam my palms against the ground yelling "PORTAL!".
For some reason this works. I fall through the ground, spin around a little and then crash land somewhere in the city.
I rub my hands against each other very hard. The dream is still unstable, I need to engage my senses.
A young girl eating some ice cream catches my attention. I steal her ice cream cone and take a large bite.

"Hey! That's MY ice cream!"
"Sorry, I need to stabilize."
"Oh, okay."

After the inevitable brain freeze I feel like messing around with dream powers a little.
I don't do this very often. I try to grasp onto the clouds and squeeze them to make it rain.
It doesn't work whatsoever. Well, this is disappointing, but I'm not sure what I was expecting.


Then I notice the presence of a huge stargate. That wasn't here before!
I want to visit Yuya! I point at it and yell:

"Teraluna, Riven!"

The gate dials in and opens a portal. Well, that was easy. Sweet!
I charge at the portal, wanting to jump through.
But at the last moment someone grabs on to me, trying to hold me back.
What the hell? Go away!
...
I can't unsummon him??? WTF? This never fails!
More people run at me, all trying to prevent me from going through the portal.
Oh my god there is an endless stream of them. Hundreds of people all holding me down.

I use my dream powers to release a shockwave to get them off me.
Those who were close to me are thrown a few meters back and they pile up on top of each other.
Then I spot Faye in the middle of it all, controlling the DC's like puppets.
Her smile is pure evil.
She makes a gesture, and the stargate unsummons.

"You're not going anywhere tonight."

I am afraid of her, and angry at myself. I want my dreams back. I am sick of this Faye nonsense.
My katana materializes in my hand, even though I have no desire to summon it.

"Cute."

Faye summons an exact copy of my katana... how...?
This is not right. She can't do that. She doesn't have that power.
Are these her dreams now? Have I lost all control over them?
My desire to visit Yuya fades. I want this dream to end. I feel completely powerless.

"Aww, I thought you would put up a fight. That would have been so cute."
"And oh so idiotic. You don't understand anything."

I have no reply. I close my eyes. This will end the dream...


... I'm in some sort of japanese garden. Probably sight seeing or something? I'm with a few other people. (3 I think)
Everyone is talking about dreams, so I conclude that they must all be DV members.
But I don't understand what they're talking about. Some induction techniques involving butterflies? What?
I feel bad because I can't contribute anything to the discussion.

Then I notice that one of them has purple hair, so obviously she must be ~ Dreamer ~.
I'm somewhat proud of having figured that out all on my own!
I want to do something to impress her. I want to show her something really cool.
And then I have the most glorious of ideas! I am going to use my dream powers to piss a rainbow!
(Oh god why . By the way I'm totally blaming KristaNicole for this. XD)

"Hey Dreamer, check this out!"

I unzip my pants, point my dick upwards at a 45° angle for maximum efficiency and commence some high pressure pissing.
The stream of piss is nothing short of impressive, but it doesn't create a rainbow.
Everyone is giving me this what the hell are you doing look. I don't understand why.
It makes me sad that no rainbow is appearing.

The WILD has helped to some extend. My dreams did contain elements from my dream goals, but I failed to act on them.
It's cool that I saw ~ Dreamer ~, even though I wasn't lucid and I behaved like a complete idiot.
I'm quite disappointed at how I dealt with Faye.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #224: Speedboat

I’m racing along on a speedboat, seated on a wooden chair that’s lashed to the deck. The wind buffets my hair and face. I’m much younger, a high school student again, and there are about a dozen or so other passengers, mostly other high schoolers. I think we’re on some kind of cool, high-speed fieldtrip.

A girl walks across the deck near the front of the boat and I think that she looks way too young to be the same age as me. It hits me that I must be dreaming!

I spend a couple seconds enjoying the wind, the speed, and the outdoors, but now it’s time to get down to business. I intend to summon Dreamer, so I look to my left to see if I have any DCs to work with. There’s a woman seated to my left, looking away from me out over the water as we race along. She has long, blonde, somewhat sun-damaged hair.

“Hey look, you’re becoming Dreamer,” I say, stroking my fingers through her hair and leaving purple streaks where I touch. After two or three strokes, her hair is completely purple-ified and when she turns to face me, it’s Dreamer! “You’re here!” I say.

She’s wearing a huge smile and vaguely seems to be trying to talk, but seems somehow tired and unable to speak clearly. I wonder if she needs more time, so I turn to the right and think about doing a couple of dream control tasks before doing anything further with her.

Another speedboat approaches from our right. I wave my hand, lifting it into the air, and then throwing it forcefully ahead of our boat. It hits the river ahead of us with a huge spray of water and then (quite improbably) disappears.

I look to the right riverbank and see a large number of pixellated children running along the hilly shoreline, pointing laughing and shouting. They look precisely like characters from an 8-bit video game. I’m trying to show off more telekinesis, so I lift about ten of these kids into the air and then throw them along the shore in the direction the boat’s. Most of them land on their feet and start bouncing along, following the boat, but one or two land oddly and disappear into the ground. I feel bad about this and resummon a couple more to take their place, pretending they’re the same.

Not much later, the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #223: Final Heart

I have a false awakening in my childhood bedroom and as I’m contemplating going back to sleep, I realize that no way am I really sleeping in my old room. I become lucid and attempt to get out of bed, which fails. I try rolling out OBE-style and after some clumsy attempts, I’m finally on my feet.

I walk out to the living room, looking at my hands. They’re darker and more grayish than they’d be in waking life, but other than that they look pretty much just as they should. The dream’s feeling a bit dark, so I shout, “Let there be light!” Embarrassingly, nothing much happens, so I just wander around in the den some more, trying not to focus too much on this.

I look to my left to find my doppelganger (a lookalike or double of me) standing at the door I emerged from. He’s dressed like I do to sleep and he’s sort of got bed head. He smirks sleepily at me and I walk toward him, but as soon as we get close to each other, I snap suddenly to his perspective (more or less) and find myself alone again. I drift toward an external wall and phase outside onto the street.

Outside it feels like early morning. In the neighbor’s yard I find a woman in her late 40s standing around as 4 small dogs scamper happily at her feet. She nods a casual greeting. I remember my goal of summoning Dreamer, so I say to the woman, “Ahh, you’re Dreamer.” She seems confused at first, but even as I watch I see her becoming friendlier, younger and more familiar. She’s starting to look like Dreamer, but the transformation’s not complete.

“I will be soon,” she says, smiling. I smile back and we walk through the yard together. I drape an arm over her shoulder as I explain (to her and to myself) the plans for this dream. I lose the dream, though, and wake up.

I sit tight for DEILD and wind up back in the kitchen of my childhood home. A couple of Brazilian men are sitting at the dining room table saying unkind things about my brother-in-law “Muppet”. One sarcastically calls him a “phenomenon.” I feel myself becoming invested in this plotline, but no, let it go, it’s a distraction.

I phase back outside and it’s nighttime now. I want to find Dreamer again and for some reason decide that a playground or dog park is the way to go. I fly up high into the air at high speed, piercing the cloud cover. When I look back down, I expect to see a park but nothing is showing up. I try to pretend that I already see it but when I pierce back through the clouds back to Earth, I’m half a block away from where I started.

There’s a badass three-wheeled police car here that looks a little like The Dark Knight Batmobile. It appears to be stuck because it hit another car and the officer seated inside is berating a teenage girl, blaming her for what happened. I just want the car, though, so I open the top of the car and boot the cop out of the driver’s seat with my left foot and drive off down the street.



I have a fun time driving for a couple of blocks until I come to an intersection where a cement truck is gushing this huge, oozing wave of wet cement everywhere. I avoid it by driving up onto someone’s yard and going around, but all the bumping seems to make the car sort of disappear within a half block or so.

I walk out onto DA street to see this amazing parade of armored elephants going by. There must be dozens of them, marching slowly and regally in single file. There’s something sad about their demeanor and from out of nowhere Wife is standing next to me, saying, “This last march they do is called their ‘Final Heart.’” She’s moved by what she’s seeing and I am too in spite of not really understanding it.



Further down the road I encounter a vertical sandstone wall with small outcroppings that could be used as handholds. When I look across the street to my left, I see my doppelganger already climbing up an identical wall! He looks over at me and grins. I decide that this is a great opportunity to practice my dream climbing, so I make my way up about twenty feet or so. I keep looking over at my double as I go, a little envious of how quickly and confidently he can make the climb. As I’m climbing, the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #222: The Australian Odyssey

I’m standing in line with my friends SC and MR along with some other people that I false remember as people from my past. I’m trying to introduce these “old friends” but it’s hopeless because I can’t even remember their names. Very embarrassing, and to my relief the line moves ahead and we walk into a large video arcade.

SC, MR, and I watch this one game for a while that’s a cross between a sandbox-style game, a racing game, and a platformer. I get confused after a while and wander to another part of the arcade, when some creep elbows me aside and then flicks me on the back. The creep stares at me as he walks by with a “what are you gonna do about it?” look. He’s a short little guy with a mustache. “You’re short,” I observe out loud.

This enrages him, and he charges at me, taking an unbelievably slow swing at my head. I push him gently aside and he falls to the floor. “Stop it,” I tell him. “I don’t want to get arrested.” I move away from him down a hallway but he chases me down and tries to hit me again. I scoop up his right ankle and he falls backward to the floor.

I say, “I’m not hurting you because I don’t think you can hurt me.” As I’m walking away I start doing some pondering out loud: “But… what if you try to hit me 5000 more times? Wouldn't all of that practice make you dangerous to me?” Convinced by the dream logic, I pick up a toddler-sized chair and say, “Next time, I’m going to hit you with this chair! In the face!” I shake the chair for emphasis. He ignores my warnings and again comes charging for me. I smash the chair into the center of his forehead and he crumples to the ground.

I walk off down the hall, hoping nobody saw me do that. Something about all this strikes me as completely crazy and I become lucid. I walk down a long hallway lined with school lockers, and at the end I find a dirt ramp leading downward. I follow the tunnel downward into a large temple built with big stone blocks. There are gaps in the stonework near the high ceiling and shafts of sunlight cut across the room from above.

It’s a beautiful place and I begin slowly flying around the room, overcome with joy to be lucid. “Fucking lucidity!” I say, feeling like I might cry with emotion. After flying around for a bit, I walk outside of the temple to find myself in a Venice-like city of canals. A few boats drift gently by.

I look back at the temple and see a large, golden statue of an angel sliding down a ramp from the ceiling to the door right in front of me. From somewhere a voice says, “Although we recognize Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we believe this church is powered by the Holy Spirit.” I get the sense that the voice is trying to explain what they use for electricity. After admiring the statue for a few moments, I step into one of the boats and set off.

It’s not long before I find myself at the edge of the city, heading out to sea. I get the feeling that I’m in Australia and the beauty of the story and the scenery eventually drain away my lucidity. Dreamer starts narrating: “Parts of Australia are dirty, polluted, and not as nice as you might think.” As she says this, I notice oily water lapping against the side of the boat.

I set sail away from the city, staying close to the shoreline, Dreamer narrating here and there. The water is clear and beautiful now. Dreamer says that I’m trying to find my way to the islands of the “Hawthorne Formation” but I don’t know my way there. The sea is calm and I feel peaceful and relaxed. Eventually my boat lands on a sandy beach where Noah Bennet from Heroes is working at a carpentry table. I think he’s my dad and that he’s counting on me making this journey to the Hawthorne Formation to get help for my mom and sister. (100% false memories and characters.)

“Son,” he says, “draw me a map of where you think you are.” I draw a globe on a piece of plywood and sketch out Australia. I think it looks pretty good until I see all of the lines of longitude converging in its center. I realize that I’ve put Australia where Antarctica is supposed to go and feel really embarrassed.

Noah Bennet sighs. “Here’s the Hawthorne Formation,” he says, drawing a series of 4 islands off the southwestern coast of Australia.” He draws an arrow pointing northeast into the middle of these islands.

I thank him and return to the boat. “Good luck, son,” he says, and the dream fades.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #221: The Singing Robot

I’m taking an unusually long time to fall asleep after WBTB and I sense a shift which makes me wonder whether the dream has begun. I will myself to roll out of bed and I find myself floating in the air about 3 feet above and to the left of where I normally sleep.

The sun shouldn’t be up yet but a trickle of daylight’s coming in through the shutters. I roll a couple of times, a little out of control. When I try to fly I wind up just heading straight downward, soon faceplanting in the floor. The scene goes dark and I hold on for DEILD. After a while I give up,I incorrectly thinking I’ve failed and have a false awakening, feeling disappointed that the dream was “so short”.

I log onto DV and see that Dreamer has left a series of comments on one of my DJ entries. Rather than text, these comments are a series of giant images that are larger than my screen, so I have to scroll around to see the entire picture. The first is one of Dreamer standing with one foot on a balcony railing, looking back at the “camera” and grinning. She’s holding her other foot over her head almost straight up in the air like some kind of crazy ballet move.

The next few pictures show different angles of a similar scene from a Japanese manga and I see that she’s just creating some favorite piece of a manga she likes. I think that this looks dangerous but I chuckle at her cleverness.

Soon the dream ends and I hold on for DEILD. I feel another shift and I once again roll out of bed into the air. This time I’m able to fly again but my dream body feels slight and insubstantial. It’s daytime, just as before, and I phase out through the shutters. The dream’s feeling really thin, and I try to rub my hands together but I can’t even manage that simple act. The dream soon falls into the void.

“I’m having a lucid dream,” I say, but my voice comes out very gargled and robotic. I don’t want to lose the dream, so I try singing. It works, but every word comes out in this strange, metallic robot voice:

This is a dreeeeeeam,
This is a dreeeeeeeeeeeam…
<pause> Dream dream dreeeeeeam…

The audio holds together for longer than I expect, but eventually I lose even this and wake up.

07.16.2014

The Other Realm (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

After a nonsensical soccer fiasco in the back yard of my childhood home, I spontaneously become lucid. My task of visiting Hell is not far from my mind.

I walk over to one of the coaches, a tall man who looks like an older version of The Rock. "Can you help me with something?" I ask politely. I find it much more enjoyable to get DCs to do all my work when possible rather than exerting direct control.

"Sure," he replies. "What do you need.?"

"I'm looking for a girl with purple hair who goes by 'Dreamer.' Can you take me to her?"

This DC is of the non-helpful sort, apparently. "I have no idea who that is," he tells me. Out of nowhere, he holds up a pie as if he's about to throw it at me.

"Please don't throw that in my face!" I cry out, blocking the pie with my hand. As a result, I end up with a fist-full of the filling.

Forgetting the coach, I decide to just find Dreamer the same way I did last time. As I walk across the street, I lick the pie from my hand. It is delicious; a kind of cream cheese pie with chocolate chips. "Hey, eating junk food was one of the tasks of the month!" I exclaim. I'm quite amused that I completed this task before I even consciously remembered it.

Before reaching my neighbor's house, I notice duffle bags and suitcases sitting out on the front porch. Dreamer must be really eager to come with me on an extended trip to Hell, I think to myself jokingly. When I get closer, however, I'm confused to find that the porch and the front door are all that's left of the house. Everything else lies in rubble at my feet. I knock on the door half-heartedly anyway. Nothing happens.

An old man appears. "Dreamer has already crossed to the Other World," he tells me rather cryptically. He points in the direction of my house.

I follow the old man back across the street, where he shows me a charred area of burned grass.

"So... I just touch this and it'll take me to Hell?" I guess. The old man nods.

I touch the ashes and get flashes of a gray Silent Hill type area. Then I'm pulled from the dream into sleep paralysis.

I'm now lying trapped in SP. I'd turn this into a DEILD, but I'm distracted. There is a woman's voice reciting her life story in poem form, accompanied by music. Everything she says is clear and makes perfect sense. I'm trying to lock at least a few lines of her words into memory so I can write it later, but I end up forgetting all of it.

07.16.2014

Minecraft (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

While driving--- and doing a terrible job of it--- I spontaneously become lucid once again. I ditch the car, opting to walk.

I remember something I'd read recently about extending dream time by engaging all five senses. I want to try this out, but I make the mistake of starting with vision. The first thing I notice is that the world looks a little blocky. Because my attention is fixed on the blockiness, that particular quality increases dramatically until the whole world looks like a game of Minecraft. This annoys me immensely.

I decide to start over. I close my eys, focusing on the feeling of my feet hitting the ground as I walk. Closing my eyes proves to be a terrible idea. Predictably, this forces me yet again into sleep paralysis.

Now lying trapped in my bed, I believe I hear my aunt outside my door yelling for me to wake up. Is she really there or am I hallucinating? I manage to shake my foot enough to exit SP--- now awake, my aunt is no longer talking.

I keep still and am pulled right back into SP. My aunt starts talking again. She's rambling on about things that seemed to have happened in the past with her daughter, speaking as if I AM her daughter. I am again amazed by my mind's ability to come up with all of this dialogue.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #220: Purple Haze

I’m walking through a hallway in an art school, getting ready to attend a class. I recall a previous dream where a lot of money had been stolen from my wallet and I dig for my wallet in a panic. I recall my intent to LD, get suspicious and nose pinch RC my way into lucidity.

I remember my intent to summon Dreamer for the challenge as I walk into one of the classrooms, but as I walk in a cluster of art students engage me in conversation. Before I know it, I’m blabbing about lucid dreaming until I’m only semi-lucid. Something prompts me to take out my iPod and check it. It acts just like waking life, but one of the words on-screen is “Kentucky”. Look away, look back, the letters are now a jumble, and I’m lucid again.

Wary of being distracted again, I duck back out into the hallway, which is now empty. I walk along for a while, thinking about how I’ll do my summon. I want to try rolling with what the dream gives me and using an existing DC. I step into an atrium where I see a handful of DCs walking around. I point at the closest one and say, “You’re Dreamer!” Immediately I notice that her hair is purple and she’s walking toward me. I lean in to make sure and it’s a perfect match!

“Yeah it’s me!” she says, as if nothing could be more obvious.

We hug and I start describing my plans for the dream. I tell her that I’m planning for us to do something together but that I’m having some trouble remembering Task of the Month. “That is Task of the Month!” she says, laughing. (Good call!)

“Oh right,” I say, “that’s Basic. [Note: Wrong, that’s Bonus!] But what’s advanced?”

She furrows her brow and then shrugs. We walk down the hall together and I tell her that I have an idea for something cool to do outside. We talk a bit more but I’m feeling like all this walking is compromising my lucidity, so I say, “Hey, let’s just fly, okay?” I turn my back toward her because for some reason I think she needs to ride around on my back. (How insulting!)

“Okay!” she says, and hops onto my back, “seatbelting” herself on by reaching her right arm over my right shoulder and her left hand under my left arm, then clasping her hands together. I hop up into the air and fortunately the flying feels effortless. We go soaring through the atrium into an area that looks like a shopping mall. There are a number of DCs milling about below and I’m surprised to see that a few of them also have purple hair!

We swoop low past a bench of DCs and a few of them run. I laugh at this, and Dreamer does too (though a little less maniacally than me.) We’re heading toward a low wall and I have a little trouble pulling up, my dream body kind of “oozing” awkwardly over the top. Made it, though! I see a set of doors off in the distance, so I set us down and head for them, determined to get outside. All the while I keep talking about how all of this is a lucid dream.

As I’m talking Dreamer starts taking over more and more of the conversation. I keep my left hand on her right shoulder as I walk in order to keep her “stuck” as part of the scene. But after a bit I notice that her accent, perfect at first, sounds all wrong and she’s changed the subject from dreaming to how I really should go back to art school. I nearly lose lucidity, but look over in time to see that Dreamer has been replaced by a young, dark-haired woman who looks Thai. “You never go to your art classes!” she says. “How can you expect to succeed if you don't go to your art classes?”

“You are not Dreamer!” I declare, pointing a dorky finger in the air and running for the exit.

“Wait!” says the woman, and I feel her grab onto my ankle. I ignore the sensation, though, and fly out through the door, phasing outside to a parking lot. There are a number of DCs milling about, mostly women, and all of them have purple hair!

I swoop toward the closest DC, a stout, middle-aged woman with glasses. “You’re Dreamer!” I say, pointing dramatically at her and kind of dropping into a goofy lunge. She says something noncommittal so I follow up with, “Don’t worry, you will be,” which she seems to accept with some surprise.

I tell her that my Task is to eat a huge dessert (somehow I’ve finally remembered) and she tells me that there is a “Chili’s” nearby. I point to a building and leadingly say, “You mean there, right?” She agrees and somehow I wind up inside of this restaurant, the purple-haired woman no longer around.

I’m walking forward in a huge line in order to enter the restaurant, which winds through some kind of indoor forest. I zoom in close to the tree’s detail and see ants crawling along the bark. I study the way that the lighting and shadows play off of the trees in real-time and I brag about all of this detail to the DCs, gushing that “This is all inside my head!” They nod politely and look a little uncomfortable.

We come to a long spiral staircase downward that leads to a cavern floor blanketed in mist. I don’t want to wait so I leap over the side, floating down to the floor and then moving into a dark tunnel. I remember how Dreamer had good luck producing a flame from her finger and how Xanous had focused on the pain of the experience to create fire in his hands. I hold up my thumb and expect this to happen for me as well but there’s nothing.

Now I expect pain and heat. There’s a slight tingling ache, but it’s little more than a nuisance. “The big fire!” I say. Nothing. I exit the tunnel into a large, darkened movie theater. I try to shout “The big fire!” but I get the sensation of my waking life voice croaking out the words and I’m startled awake.

Two more lucids to report! One really short one in which I accomplished nothing, and the WILD from last night that was a failure at my own task, but may at least count toward the TotM.

I didn't post my brief failed attempt yesterday, so...

7/10/14

07.10.2014

Onward to Fail (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm talking to my parents, when I reach up to feel my hair and notice that its longer than it should be. It seems to be as long as it was before I cut it short, which means it's well past my shoulders. How could it possibly have gotten so long again?

It couldn't have. This only happens when I'm dreaming, I remind myself. I instantly recall the task that I've already failed at once. I'm supposed to find Dreamer and then find an elevator to Hell. I walk off, starting to call for her, but quickly feel myself losing the dream.

I try to stabilize it... No luck.

I'm pulled into a false awakening.

My problem seems to be that I'm too worried about stabilization, which causes me to think too much of my physical body. Since my attention is more on worrying about waking up, I lose the scene.

7/11/14

07.11.2014

Critter (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

There are three black widow spiders in front of me, having a conversation. They are neutral to my presence. They also seem to be males, which means they're not venomous. Still, I'm not too keen on being bitten, so I am doing my best to get what I need without coming into contact with them.

I reach around their webs, only to be bitten by a different kind of bug. At first I think it's one of the spiders. I jerk my hand back and the bug comes with me. It's this weird blobby thing; I can't really call it an insect because it doesn't have six legs--- it only has four. Still, it's insect-like. It is white and globular; each part of its body looks squishy and balloon-like except for its legs, which are serrated like a grasshopper's. Its body is clearly intended to try to camouflage it as a rabbit. The bug's hind end is equip with blobby extensions made to look like rabbit ears. It's real, insectoid head protrudes from its back. (Although since it seems more like the bug walks upside down and backwards, like a human trying to do a crab walk, I suppose the head is actually protruding from the creature's stomach). It is the size of a small baby rabbit.

((This is the best I could sketch it with my non-existent art skills.))




I stare in awe at the strange creature for a while before I learn it can talk. This surprises me, despite the fact I found talking spiders perfectly normal. His name is Jack and he becomes my friend.

07.11.2014

Journey Toward Hell (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm lying in bed awake with my eyes closed when I feel a slight vibrating feeling that means I'm about to enter sleep. It would be great if I can turn this into a WILD since I wasn't even aiming for that. The vibrations grow stronger, and by the second wave I am fully within sleep paralysis. I figure I can just get up and start the dream. I'm wrong. I open my eyes, but I seem to have opened my physical eyes instead of my dream ones (something that I'm able to do while trapped in SP). When I do, the vibrations feel like they're tearing my head apart. I quickly shut my eyes again.

Surely if I just lie here, it'll HAVE to turn into a dream. I wait, but nothing happens except for more uncomfortable vibrations. I try to move, hoping I can just get up and walk into a dream. I'm completely unable to budge a single muscle, phantom or otherwise. Normally I can imaging rolling out of the bed to get the dream going. This doesn't work either. Maybe WILD isn't the best technique for someone who suffers from chronic sleep paralysis anyway.

Finally, I'm able to lift my dream arm. I grasp around blindly, reaching for something that I can use to pull myself up out of my body. I reach a dresser and finally manage to succeed in untangling myself from the physical world.

I'm standing in my bedroom just in front of the door. I do a quick RC just for good measure, but it's not necessary. I'm already lucid.

I run out the bedroom door, ending up in my childhood home. No way am I going to fail at my task this time! I do my best not to think of the dream ending as I exit my house. It's night time and pitch black outside, unlike in real life where the sun has just barely risen. I sprint across the street toward my neighbor's house. I call out for Dreamer, banging on the door.

The door swings open and a sleepy looking purple-haired girl stands there staring out at me. Finally! Some hint of success! "I found you!" I exclaim in delight. "Now we've got to find an elevator and make it down to Hell!"

I grab her hand and pull her out of the house, trying to convey the necessity for speed. We start to run down the road together, full throttle. "I know where an elevator is," she tells me, seeming to understand what's going on now after her brief confusion. "Follow me!"

As we run down the street, she asks me why I'm asleep at such a strange time. At first I don't understand; then I remember that she lives in Australia. "Oh, right. There's a huge time difference between where you are and where I am," I tell her. "Last time I checked, it was 7:00 in the morning here. That seems like a while ago and my alarm is supposed to go off at 7:30, so we really need to hurry!"

She leads me to a section of the street that never fails to have some kind of evil within my dreams. I hope this time will be different; I don't need any distractions. Dreamer veers to the right toward a farm that used to have donkeys irl. We run through the dark field toward an outhouse-shaped building. Suddenly, an evil looking farmer in a tractor begins riding toward us. I feel a twinge of fear at his appearance, but I ignore it.

We run into the "outhouse" which turns out to be far bigger on the inside than on the outside. I expect there to be an elevator in here. Instead, it's filled with hay and dirt. Dreamer and I climb up and hang from the ceiling like ninja's hoping to hide from the evil farmer. He'll never look up here, I tell myself.

He does. He looks up and sees us as soon as he walks into the building. An evil grin spreads across his face. Once spotted, Dreamer and I drop from the ceiling to face him. The man wordlessly turns and pulls a lever by the door. The floor drops away beneath us--- we're falling into a pit which most likely leads to Hell.

Dreamer gives me a helpful smile. "Does this count as an elevator?" she asks.

I don't think it does. I summon a platform beneath us. It's one of those circular platform elevators that I've only ever seen in video games. There's a vague rumbling noise as the elevator slowly descends deeper and deeper into the ground. It's dark, and there's not much scenery, so I start to become concerned with losing the dream.

"Can't this thing move any faster?" I complain. I run from wall to wall, trying to keep focused on the minimal imagery. It's no use. The dream fades and I have a false awakening.

Well, it's a good start.

07.07.2014

As The Venom Flows Through (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Cheyenne is holding an incredibly beautiful snake, which has coiled itself around her body and is reaching out to regard me at eye level. I've never seen a snake quite like this, but I can tell from its eyes that it is venomous. "Be careful not to let it bite you," I tell Cheyenne. For now, it seems more focused on biting me. I am just within the line of danger, but I manage to dodge its strikes. I decide its best to step back.

When I do, the snake loses its one distraction and notices the warm, living body that it is coiled around. It turns around slowly and deliberately to glare at Cheyenne, before latching on to her neck.

Now I'm practically dragging her through the woods, screaming for help as the venom takes hold of my poor friend. First, she simply begins to act a little loopy. But soon her veins are bulging black from her skin while her lips turn a deathly shade of blue. A green liquid leaks from her temples, running down her face.

I barely get her to help in time to rescue her.

This is hugely symbolic of a situation that occured IRL.

07.07.2014

Onward To Hell (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

College is in session once more, and I'm entering into the cafeteria for the first time since summer break. When I get to the place where I'm supposed to scan my card, I struggle to remove it from my new wallet. I apologize to the cashier for the delay. He hands me some kind of scholarship form from a different college and says I must fill it out before I can eat.

This form is impossible! The directions the man gives me make absolutely no sense, and the sections I'm supposed to fill out keep disappearing and changing order. Plus, some of the answers I've already written are nonsensical when I go back over them. It slowly dawns on me that I have to be dreaming.

"Screw this!" I yell, slamming my pen down before the now bewildered man. I storm off, phasing effortlessly through the glass door and entering a neighborhood similar to my grandmother's.

I suddenly recall my task of going to Hell to find out what the Devil wants with my high school ring.

It is a rather cloudy day; the sky is dark with a reddish, rusty tint. I smile to myself. "What a perfect day to visit Hell," I chuckle.

I remember that first I must summon Dreamer, so I call for her a few times. When that doesn't work, I make the decision that she's going to be in one of the nearby houses. I walk towards one, clapping and rubbing my hands together as I walk because the dream has taken on a surreal, old movie quality and I keep nearly losing my vision altogether.

When I ascend the steps, I lose the dream completely and am pulled into the black void of sleep paralysis.

"No biggy," I think, "I'll just turn this into a DEILD."

I succeed in the dream part, but lose the 'ILD' in the belief that I've actually woken up. I check the time. 8:44. That's well after my alarm should have gone off! I'm going to be late to work!

I run off to get ready, only to wake up for real when my alarm goes off at its normal time.

Interestingly, after I've actually gotten going and mostly ready, I check the time at exactly 8:44. For real this time.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #219: The Conga Convention

I’ve arrived for work at some kind of computer lab where we build or test hardware. Dreamer works here, too, and when I walk into the back room I find her interviewing a candidate, a young woman in her early to mid-20s. Dreamer’s in the middle of having the candidate assemble the scattered parts of a computer, so I decide not to bother them.

I return to the front room to find the door blocked with tables and computer parts. I figure that Dreamer moved all this stuff to make room for the interview but I’m confused as to how it all got here. The idea of lucid dreaming crosses my mind, so I try the nose pinch and I’m lucid. My breathing is clumsy and difficult, though, and I lose stability, falling into the void.

I rub my hands together and talk out loud to myself about lucid dreaming until a new scene forms where I’m walking through a large, nearly empty room with a few tables against the wall. I think this may be the office again and that Dreamer will be here, but there’s only one unfamiliar, dark-haired woman in her early 30s sitting at the table writing on a clipboard.

I walk through a door into a large, brightly lit convention hall, filled with DCs seated at round tables, most of them sitting in front of plates of nondescript convention food. I remember that I need to summon Dreamer for the challenge so I say, “That’s Dreamer right over there,” and turn my gaze to the right while doing this sweeping gesture with my hand. When I turn I see a tiny child (about a foot tall!) with purple hair standing between two of the tables. This mini-Dreamer giggles, hops up in the air, and scampers away. When she’s run about 20 feet, she disappears in a purple flash. Several of the DCs look at me in confusion.

This was not what I had in mind, so I circle the room for a while, rubbing my hands together and thinking about how I want to do this. Okay, new plan. I do a vague, sweeping gesture at several tables and say, “Ah, Dreamer, you’re sitting over here.” A very tall woman is hunched over at one of the nearby tables and I see that purple hair cascades all around her head, hiding her face. She’s covered in layers and layers of shawls, rags, and wraps to the point where she just looks like a big pile of rags and hair.

The enormous woman begins to stir, slowly unfolding herself to full height. When she finally draws herself up to full height, it’s Dreamer, but a seven-foot-tall (2.1336 meters ) version of herself draped in colorful, purple-hued cloth. She smiles and then walks past me before I can say anything else, vanishing behind me.

I’m getting agitated about these summons, so I decide to go for Task of the Month instead. All I can remember is the “get naked” task, so off comes the shirt. Next I whip my pants down, but they get stuck around my shins like I’ve gotten sweaty or something. I get a little annoyed by this and simply will myself to be de-pantsed. Should have thought of that first!

The problem is that none of the DCs are taking notice that I’m in my birthday suit! I throw in a few booty-shaking dance moves, hoping for more of a reaction, and now the DCs start picking up on it. They start getting up from their tables, strip off their clothes (only down to underwear, interestingly) and start dancing as well. A big conga line starts forming to my left and after a moment the whole underwear-clad room is conga-ing around the entire place.

While all of this is going on, I just watch for a while. As I'm doing this, I experiment with looking away from dream characters and looking back to see how they change. They seem to mostly stay the same except some of the DCs seem to undergo slight changes in make-up or facial appearance. As I’m toying with this persistence trick, an attractive blonde woman in her late 20s drapes her arms around my neck and kisses me.

Spoiler for Awkwardness:

She tells me that she wants sex, and what do you know? Apparently I do too. But when she removes her undies, her entire body is made of some kind of smooth, rubberized plastic like a life-sized Barbie doll. She positions herself seductively, but the doll effect is so unbelievably off-putting that I decide to just wander to some other part of the room and pretend all of this never happened.

The conga line dies down and I seem to be dressed again. The DCs are all dressed and seem to be heading for the exit of the convention hall, and after a bit of wandering I decide to give the Dreamer summon another good shot. As I’m heading toward a double door, I pick one of the women at random and say, “Okay, there’s Dreamer…” One quick morph later and now I’ve finally got a proper, purple-haired, normal-heighted Dreamer walking toward me.

I give Dreamer a hug and start walking with her toward the exit, explaining out loud my plans for the dream. She nods and “uh-huh”s along but before we get to any of this, the dream fades out into a false awakening in an outdoor courtyard with a garden. There’s a woman in her late 40s with curly hair standing nearby and I tell her about the dream that I just had.

“I just had a lucid dream myself,” she responds. “I’m glad that one ended. It was getting strange. I think that REM cycle was all played out, so I’m up for the morning.”

“I’m going for more,” I tell her. “If you just wait long enough, there’s always another REM cycle.” She nods, pondering this. I wander the garden for a bit until the dream fades for good.

05.07.2014

Flying in the nude and eating junk food with Dreamer before visiting an alien planet. (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was in some sort of party, somewhere in south california. I was surrounded by people that I have never seen before. I was wondering what i was doing in such party as it did not appear to be anything that I knew before. As I was wondering this, I told myself, "Wait a minute, I moved to Spain, how come I am still here?" After a few moments of confusion I realized I was in a dream. As soon as I did, the dream quality skyrocketed and everything became very clear.

I immediately recalled the basic task of the month, which was being naked in public, something I have no problem at all as I have done it previously. I took my shirt off as well as my pants and my boxers. I had no shoes or sok whatsoever so I was completely butt naked.

I walked through the party and some of the DCs stared at me, a female DC seemed to be very attracted to me. She was very good looking, but I did not want to engage in lucid sex and risk my "to-do" list so I took off right away and started to fly. It felt great to be flying in the nude, it always does since I've done it several times.

After some quality time flying and being very anchored in the dream, I landed in what looked some sort of downtown, with a lot of tall buildings and a lot of people dressed in business attire. I figured I could cause mayhem being naked in the business district, but I did not care, what I did was entering the building and looking for an elevator.

The building on the inside, looking like the Ritz hotel. There was a lot of red and green carpeting, windows had silk covers and there were huge chandeliers and a violin-played soft music. I looked for an elevator to enter it for the "advanced" Task of the Month (this is a basic task, Opehlia, come on!! LOL You can ride an elevator in waking life) As I entered the elevator, it looked pretty much like the photo posted here on page one (I think I used that photo for another major elevator-dream a few years ago.) Everything appeared to be working efficiently, except for the buttons, which were random numbers, letters and some of them had weird symbols. I felt the excitement rushing through my body, as elevators are amazing in dreams. As I was about to push a button and see what happened, Dreamer entered the elevator and hugged me. She was smiling at me and told me, "I hope you settle soon so we can start to dream together" (this is funny, because Dreamer told me something similar in waking life as I told her I arrived to Europe) I found it funny, because we were already dreaming together, even though I knew somehow that this one could not be a dream-share, since she knew I am still moving and settling.

I told Dreamer, "Well, you know, the Special Task of the Month is to dream with another Dreamviews member, so I am excited you came."

Dreamer was smiling and then I could see her excitement in her eyes, so I suggested to ride the elevator. Before I could press a button, Dreamer did and a very strange noise sounded. The elevator started to shake and move oddly. I hopped the elevator would take us to someplace instead of just break down (as it happens a lot of times) so I could accomplish the advanced task. The elevator stopped and the doors opened, but it was between two floors. I exalted, "Of course! Why I am not surprised." Dreamer jumped out the elevator and I followed her.

We were in a big lobby, what appeared to be a brunch buffet of some sorts, but there were no chairs. Just a huge table where over one hundred settings. I recalled another task of the month, where we needed to make/eat as much junk food as we could. There was a huge tray in the middle of the table and suddenly, a lot of stuff spawned around the table. Chocolate cakes, cookies, candies... everything hundreds of calories and sugar. I grabbed with my hands what appeared to be a frozen chocolate cake. Dreamer grabbed some random cookies, marshmallows and other sweets. She tossed them on the tray as well. I tossed some whipped cream, some M&Ms and some strawberry syrup. Dreamer emptied an ENTIRE bottle of corn syrup over the mix (Jesus Christ... this is a nuclear bomb) and started to laugh. Somehow I tossed cotton candy over the mix and started to mix everything. I wrapped it up with some chocolate cookies and more random candies.

We started to eat the monster-junk-food we created. The taste was extremely sweet, too sweet to be honest. Tasted of chocolate, candies, plain suggar and it was so overwhelming, that we both only ate a bite or two.

With that being done, and while I was with Dreamer I recalled the other advanced task, which was visiting an alien planet. In that moment, I also felt that for the special task I had to actually fly with a DV member, so we both took off and left the Earth. I almost lost the dream here and started to allow the dream to take me away, but I felt it would be cool to accomplish all tasks in one shot, so I kept focused on the dream.

We flew through a wormhole and it was very dark. I could feel Dreamer's energy so I knew that we flew for a while together, but at this moment, I struggled to keep up with the dream, until I saw a green planet in front of me. I focused on anchoring on the dream and staying lucid. As I was approaching the planet, the dream became more clear again, and to the time I landed in the planet, I did not see where Dreamer went but I felt that the dream would not last long, so I explored the planet for a bit.

There were some small beings, grey and green colored, non-humanoid that appeared very gentle. I felt they were welcoming me somehow to the planet, knowing I would cause no harm to them.

I explored this planet for a bit longer. They had houses, but they were made out of green ooze and I did not want to touch them in case i broke them. They sky looked like Earth's, but green instead of blue.

I wondered how funny it would be if I found an elevator in that planet and I used it, but as I was thinking this I realized that was dream was fading very fast until I woke up.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #217: Jazz Hands

I’m standing at the foot of the stairs, droning on and on to Wife about lucid dreaming. “Remember!” I tell her. “You have to let me summon you.”

“Okay, fine, fine!” she says, seemingly in a hurry and darts away into the kitchen. I’m confused for a moment -- wasn’t I intending to summon Dreamer for the challenge? I realize that I’m dreaming and head for the front door, phasing out onto the front walk.

It’s a clear morning outside and I walk out to the sidewalk and then start running to the east, ready to attempt the summon. I reach my right hand out, slightly behind me and out of sight and say, “[Dreamer], I know you’re here!” I feel a hand and then two sharp tugs and when I look to my right, Dreamer is running/floating along beside me. She beams and starts floating while doing a silly “jazz hands” move with her right hand.

I decide to fly as well and wind up soaring into the air. Dreamer seems to be sticking at a lower altitude, though, and now dangles calmly from my right hand. I can see trees going by far below her feet.

I haul her up and she wraps her arms around my shoulders while still dangling underneath. She seems very relaxed about the whole thing but I start having trouble controlling my altitude and feel like I’m going to nosedive back into the earth. The scene collapses into the void but I still feel like we're flying. The fear of crashing is still there, though, and after a few more seconds I’m awake.

Finally got one for the challenge! Now we've got a competition...

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #214: The Challenge

I have a false awakening in the early morning, worried that I’ve run out of time to have another lucid. I get up, pee, and return to bed. To my dismay Wife has already removed the sheets from the bed. The clock says “5:50” and I complain to her that this is way too early to be up. “This is so unlike you!” I whine. She’s too busy to pay much attention.

I walk over to the gym and lay down on the floor, tossing and turning for a while. I have another false awakening in a field near a tent where a movie is being filmed. I walk around and explore for a while, feeling oddly comfortable and in charge, like this is my place even if it’s not familiar to me. I enter a nearby building where I’m required to remove my shoes, then move further on to find my friends PM and RP standing under an open rooftop. I try in vain to point out how much the clouds look like the ones we’ve worked on in our game project, but they’re too busy to pay attention.

I move further through the building, moving through a confusing maze riddled with dead ends until I emerge in a retro arcade. I stop at a machine that’s a multicade which features Street Fighter II and a library of 8-bit Nintendo games. I’m considering firing up Double Dragon when I realize that this has to be a dream.

I move outward from the arcade back to the main entrance. I’m still shoeless, so I produce some running shoes and walk off into the night. I’m on a concrete driveway and hordes of DCs on bicycles go whizzing by, not a trace of lights or reflectors on their bikes and bodies. They’re super hard to see, getting too close, and making me nervous, so I step off into the grass and move over to a sidewalk.

Now I remember my challenge goal of trying to summon Dreamer. I reach my hand behind my back, expect her to grab it, and immediately feel someone grab on. I turn around and she’s right there, purple hair and all! When I see her I exclaim, “Well that worked!” She seems to find this hilarious, squeezing her eyes shut and doubling over with laughter. I try to say something else but the dream destabilizes into a false awakening at my parents’ house.

My mom asks me if I need to go to work and I tell her no, just let me sleep as long as possible. She asks me to help clean their now-green pool (false memory, they have no pool) but I tell her that I’ll do it after I get some sleep. I crash back down on the bed, transitioning into…

...a false awakening on a bare mattress in a dark, candle-lit room. I get up and see that there are 4 or 5 similar mattresses here, too. There’s an Asian woman in her early 50s laying on one bed, tossing and turning restlessly. Some unseen male narrator tells me that, “She wants to dream but in here, she can’t. In this place, nobody can.” I’m disturbed by this, and I move toward the wall, hopeful that I’m dreaming right now. I phase right through, and the wall crumbles in cubes around me -- lucid again!

I float about twenty feet down to a poolside area with ankle deep water next to wall covered by a large mirror. The dream threatens to fade but I rub my hands together and splash around in the water. I again remember my summoning goal and reach my hand behind my back, summoning Dreamer for a second time. For some reason, I point to the mirror to help “prove” to her that she’s been summoned and say, “Look! It worked again!”

Dreamer seems fascinated by this, reaching out to the mirror and then waving her hands back and forth. “Look at this,” she says, bending forward at the waist a couple of times as her reflection copies her actions. I wonder whether this counts as two points in the challenge or just one.

We walk back inside and it’s another creepy room with those anti-dreaming mattresses. Dreamer stiffens her fingers like a spear and drives them into one of the mattresses and digs around like she’s looking for something but doesn’t seem to find it. I ask her what she’s looking for but she doesn’t say. I sweep my eyes around the room but when I look back to where I expect to find Dreamer, instead there’s a brown-haired girl of about 8. I kneel down and ask, “Are you Dreamer?” She gives me a you can’t be serious look and then walks out of the room.

There’s a mirror on the wall here and I get the idea to try summoning NewArtemis into the dream now. I keep watching myself in the mirror as I try to perform this summon, but it keeps failing. I realize I'm making this harder for myself but I can’t seem to help it. I want to see what she looks like when she actually materializes. I give three separate efforts to summon NewArtemis, but they all fail. I feel like something is wrong with me or with this room. Now I try to summon Dreamer. Another failure.

I feel like my mojo is fading out in the room, so I run for the wall and throw myself through it. There’s a glass shattering effect and now I’m falling through the darkness, air rushing past me. I fall like this for a few seconds until I wake up.