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It is an annoyance and a tragedy that the immediate recollections of our escapades within the kaleidoscopic realm of dreams should vacate our minds with such cruel transience upon our withdrawal therefrom. Indeed, there is nary a dreamer – even among the most deliberate and experienced – who is spared the frustration of awakening from the dream realm with only fragmentary evocations of the awesome experiences they had and the amazing things their half-conscious eyes beheld; and there are fewer still who are spared the woefully common tragedy of awakening to no such remembrances at all, vainly grasping in the darkness for memories already gone. And so, as many diligent dreamers do upon awakening, I set immediately to writing the details of my most recent venture through the dream realm, fervently recording as much as I could before the bulk those precious memories faded into the ether. However, regardless of my efforts, many of the important details surrounding this tale were still lost in memory, not least of which were the details of the inciting event from which this tale would otherwise commence.

Because of this, all I can tell is that certain financial circumstances of an unfortunate sort had brought my mother, my sister, and me within the doleful residence of what is infamously known as a “Corporate City.” I cannot, however, tell the specific details of what forced us to settle into such a municipality. If I was ever made aware of the name of this place, I cannot remember it now and so, I will give it the name, “Avericia.” A fitting designation as you will soon tell.

The city of Avericia would most certainly stand as the ultimate staple of Late Stage Capitalism for Avericia was a place ruled by men of power and relentless greed. The rulers were not politicians of any sort, but corporate elites who reside in high towers and look down upon the working masses with little empathy and cruel indifference. Surrounded by a great wall rivaling that of Jericho, Avericia was home to those unfortunate souls who were subjugated to the whims of those ruthless men by whom they were employed.

At some undetermined point in time, I was treated to a panoramic view of the place. The panorama presented to me a deceptively pleasant skyline superimposed against the iridescent pulchritude of a twilight sky peopled by majestic cumuli decorated with calming shades of pink, orange, and mauve by the setting sun. The outer portion of the radial city boasted a suburban sprawl of asphalt roofs, clean-cut lawns, and lush trees for the viewing pleasure of the residents therein. Peering further towards the city center, I could see a lively metropolis of lights, never-ending festivities, and fanfare beyond imagination. And at the center of it all was a casino of impressive proportion. The exact details of that casino’s architecture are lost to me. All I can say is that its grand aspect had me entranced in a venerable state of awe. Upon initial examination, one would be hard-pressed to find anything wrong with such a beautiful sight and it is that very essence of synthetic beauty that draws wealthy tourists to the fantastical inner parts of that city every year.

After a procession of events that managed to evade remembrance, I found myself driving through the suburbs towards our place of residence. I remember little save a stretch of road that curved slightly through a neighborhood area, and from this up-close perspective, I could see fully the state of dereliction in which this suburban area was left. Houses were run down and defaced with graffiti and lawns were flooded with the foul overflow of neglected septic tanks. I do not remember the specific condition our home was in; I only remember that the place was crowded as there were several families taking up residence there. I slept in that house, not looking forward to the next morning.

I do not remember the events the following morning. I simply recall finding myself on an employee monorail tram towards the inner city where My sister and I were to begin our first shift at the casino. The specifics of our job duties were unclear, we only knew that we were to be doing grunt work with only meager compensation. The dereliction of the outer suburbs home to the impoverished employees contrasted with the pulchritude of the inner city which was home to the wealthy tourists. I do not remember the details of this inner-city; I simply remember being taken by the site of that massive casino at the center of it all, silhouetted in part against the rising sun.

The following events can only be described with a vexing degree of vagueness for it is here that all faculties of my recollection begin to break down. The next thing I recall is standing with my sister and the other employees outside of the employee entrance. It was off to the side, hidden from the public eye, and yet it was impressive in size, up to thirty feet high, as though it were a door for giants! I remember the moments where my sister and I would lament our present situation as we were made to clean the bathrooms. Unfortunately, that is all that I remember about the job itself. Sometime later, I found my half-conscious self floating through a cylindrical chamber illuminated by the firey luminescence of an unknown light source far below which caused the walls of this infernal chamber to glow red. The walls were lined with cavities whose openings were barred, each housing a prisoner. There was little doubt in my mind that I was deep within the annals of Sheol, the abode of the damned whose point of entry was at the base of this casino. How I came to be in this place, I do not know.

I do not remember the reasoning for the internment of the poor people imprisoned within those cavities, but I do recall being tasked with their emancipation. As it turned out, the rulers of this casino, as well as the city surrounding it, were demons and if I wanted to free the poor inmates of Sheol I had to go through the casino and kill each demon, bringing an end to their reign of wickedness and greed. What followed was a series of fantastical happenings of bravery, skill, danger, espionage, and camaraderie. The only demon that I specifically remember fighting was a green naga of tremendous size. One by one the demons fell and as they did, more people began to rise up and join the fight. It was a hard battle, but it was a battle that we were winning.

I wish I could say that fought to the very end. I wish I could say that I was able to free those poor people trapped in Sheol. Alas, I awoke before I could complete my task and so, as far as I know, the captives still suffer and many of the demonic elites responsible for their imprisonment still live.

This was the third of my LDs from early Christmas morning. This WILD was rather nightmarish, but in the end pretty amazing. Hands down, the most hostile DCs that I've encountered.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #50: The Gauntlet of Greed

The WILD drops me into a wood-paneled room. There's a door in front of me, and behind me is a frosted glass window through which sunlight illuminates the room. In the middle of the room is a huge, square pile of $100 bills. It has to be, at minimum, something like $30 million. Probably more.

Someone starts shouting and hammering on the door. I feel grasping and suspicious that it's someone who is after my money. They slip a note under the door that simply reads, "You're broke, bitch." I should find this funny, but instead I feel insulted, entitled and petty. Not in my LD, not when I'm sitting on this much cash. There's a chorus of angry voices outside of the door now and fists and feet are slamming into the door. It's about to rattle off the hinges.

I throw the door open and I'm stunned to see a broad hallway filled with literally hundreds of hostile dream characters. The enraged mob (all male) is armed to the teeth, aggressive and bristling with guns. Somebody punches me in the face just as a mobster aims a lupara-style sawed-off shotgun at me. The crowd howls, and I see AKs, handguns, machine pistols, and every other manner of gun pointing my way.

They open fire and I feel a spray of bullets trace across my body. Buckshot rakes the left side of my face. Everything is chaos as stray bullets rip into DCs, who fall to the floor and are trampled by the others as they run toward me. I know that nothing can hurt me but I'm still gripped with aggression, fear and nervous energy. A man in a trench coat is unlucky to get close and I punch him as hard as I can. He goes flying, crashes into the wall, and lies still.

The chaos is getting to be too much for me and I feel lucidity slipping. I hate that I'm fighting and the madness of the whole situation dawns on me. Am I even sure that this is my money? Do I really want to go to war with some unknown element of my subconscious over this worthless pile of dream cash? I decide to just walk forward, leave the money behind, and separate myself from the riot going on all around me.

DCs continue to run past, firing at me and occasionally striking me with fists and feet, but as more and more of them run into the room behind me, the hallway ahead clears out. I hear some kind of frantic melee going on in the money room but I ignore it. The few remaining DCs that run past now ignore me and as I continue forward through the hall, I soon find myself alone. I feel calm again, and the thought of the Pyramid refocuses me on my goals.

I pass a large window on my right that gives me a view into a busy newsroom. Reporters run excitedly from desk to desk but I don't investigate further. The exit is up ahead, and I find that it is the same set of automatic doors from the last dream. I again imagine that the Great Pyramid lies just beyond the door, but this time the dream fades just as I approach the doors.

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

It was a hot day. I was walking up a slope in a desert forest. The soil was grey and dry. There were pine trees, well-spaced, and shrubs and boulders.

I somehow sensed an animal stirring behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see an animal I first thought of as a deer starting up from behind a boulder.

The deer seemed to be afraid of me, so that it wouldn't move. So I turned around and walked away, hoping to calm the animal.

The deer now rushed out from behind the boulder and past me, coming a little close. It was probably still afraid of me. It scared me a little, too. It was very big. I now thought of it as an elk, even though it was colored like a deer.

I now turned to my left and was walking toward a path or road. There were no trees in this area, and the sun was bright. From behind a smaller boulder sprung another deer-like animal. This one was dark mahogany, almost like an elk. But it only came up to my waist.

The little animal was really friendly. So I decided to pet it. It began licking me. But then it got too clingy with me. It began kissing and sucking my hand. I couldn't escape from the animal. It almost seemed to be coiling around me. And it was slobbering all over me.

I knew people said that wild animals with rabies first act really friendly with people. I wondered if this animal had rabies. If it did, and it was slobbering all over me, if was probably exposing me to rabies.

I managed to free myself from the animal. I was now on the path. There were a black man and woman on the path with me. Off to my left was a small, nice, wooden bridge that overlooked a wide, shimmering valley or gleaming lake.

The woman was telling me how she was poor and hungry. She was trying to get me to give her money so she could get some food. But I had a feeling that she only wanted to feel me out to see if she could use me to get a lot of money.

But the man told the woman to stop complaining and to get onto assistance. The man said that where we were, in South Africa (?), people could get really good food assistance.

Dream #2

I was watching a true-crime TV show, kind of like "Unsolved Mysteries," probably with my family. The segment was about some woman who had been murdered by her boyfriend.

The murder was pretty gruesome. But, for some reason, what struck me more was how irresponsible and neglectful the woman had been in her life. I took as a sign of this the woman's obsession with collecting little "cute" toys.

One of these toys stood up on a bookshelf. It was a little, black rabbit. I somehow knew that the rabbit was controlled by a stylus, as if it were something like a touch-screen Game Boy.

I was standing -- somewhere -- with my sister. I was showing her that I knew how to play with these "cute" animals as well. The "cute" animal was basically a screen like an iPad screen, surrounded with white fur.

I was now walking around outside with a tall, fattish white man. The man had stubbly cheeks and wore a baseball cap and a too-tight, pale yellow t-shirt. We were walking through some small mountain town that looked partly lke an old western town and partly like a modern town.

The man and I were crossing some bridge from one section of town to another. After that we walked up a hill of buildings that kind of looked like Old West buildings.

I was telling the man about my job. The man said that my job sounded pretty good. I started to worry that the man would think I was bragging and either try to cut me down or take my job away. So I thought I should tone down my enthusiasm.

I told the man that the job was good for somebody like me because it was a project that was just starting out. It was good for people like me who had volatile emotions. I found it physically hard to say "volatile emotions."

The man asked me what I meant. I explained -- while shrouding my head with a towel (???) -- that I could suddenly get angry really easily.

I was still talking to the man when he veered us into some building that looked partly like an Old West saloon and partly like a modern cafe. I hadn't even quite realized we'd gone inside.

The man veered off to the left and left me behind. He told me he wasn't trying to avoid me. But he just had something important to take care of. He went to the counter.

I stood around for a bit, then decided that maybe I should get something while I was here. But I needed to get money first. So I went to an ATM just to the right of the counter.

Just to the right of the ATM was a table at which sat three ladies. The ladies were all dressed like from the Old West. I felt like I owed the ladies something. So it didn't seem right that I should be getting money out of the ATM right in front of them.

The man walked over to the table and I followed. Apparently the man and I had done something for the ladies. Now the man was looking for our repayment.

The head lady addressed the man. The lady was tall and stately, with a firm, shapely figure. She wore a dress with red and maroon stripes, a corset-like waist, and puffed-out sleeves. She had her greying hair up in a very fancy coiffure.

The lady handed us two tickets as repayment. I looked at my ticket. It was white with peach-pink writing. It said that it was good for any one sporting event, anywhere in the world, at any time.

The woman said she had discussed our repayment with her lawyer, and that this type of repayment balanced being the best for us and the most convenient for her. And since she'd discussed it with her lawyer, it was legally protected. So we shouldn't try to fight her for any other type of repayment -- such as, I guess, the money we'd probably expected.

The man and I walked away. We were probably back outside. The man was disappointed at first. But then he said that this gift was actually good, and quite a feminine gift, because it balanced the boyish and adult sides of a man.

I thought the gift was cheap, and I couldn't figure out why the man seemed satisfied with it. But, either as or after I woke, I began to realize that I could go to any sporting event in the world, at any time. I began trying to decide what sporting event I would go to.