lucid

Before WBTB

I set my alarm for 6 hours from now, make a plan to stay up for about 30 minutes when it goes off, and then go to bed.

WBTB

No recall. I spend some time incubating a dream where I am in the lamp-post area from Chronicles of Narnia where Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus. The goal being to transition directly from waking into this dream. I've grabbed onto lamp-posts and other objects before to "pull myself into" dreams, so it seems like a good strategy. I write up a dream where I summon Daniel Love, ask him for advice on teleporting, and then go through a portal to arrive at Silverlight. This takes me about 30 minutes and then I return to bed. I have some difficulty going back to sleep, but eventually I get there. No WILD sensations though.

After WBTB

Chasing Daniel:
I’m in my bedroom, and I remember that I was just going to sleep from a WBTB and perform a nose RC [1]. Aha! This is a dream.
I get up and start looking around. I can feel the dream is unstable so I start to rub the floor with my hands, and (as is tradition) lick the wall. It still tastes like wall.
I recall that my first task is to summon, so I go to the bathroom door in front of me and imagine Daniel Love behind it.
I pull the door open and check the whole room, including the area behind the opened door. He isn’t there. Crap. Maybe I was too rushed?
I go to the kitchen and my Mom and Dad are there, talking about something. I pay them little attention.
I do notice that the kitchen table is covered in pizza boxes, empty two-liters, and crumpled up paper. I reflect about how my brain is this good about characterizing my past.
I make it to the fridge, thinking I want something to eat, and sure enough there is an apple in a bottom drawer in the fridge [2].


Successful summon! First task complete!

As I try to grab it, I feel the dream destabilizing.
Void.
I try to focus and go back into the dream.
I hear my Mom’s voice from outside my room.
Wait. My Mom isn’t alive. It can’t be her.
I perform a nose RC. This is a false awakening [3]. I get out of bed again and try to stabilize more vigorously this time, but the dream fades.
…
I’m outside a small shop, and I remember that I had just been stabilizing. Nose RC: Lucid again. I recall that I want to summon Daniel.
I see that there are two people in the shop: a customer facing away and a person tending the register.
The customer is the one facing away, so I imagine that when I see his face, it’ll be Daniel.
I approach him and I notice the back of his head looks like what I expect Daniel's would look like. Short black hair.
But when I extend my hand out to meet him, he says “not him” [4]. This is a dark skinned man with a mustache. Nope.
He shakes my hand anyway though. I try to turn-around-and-turn-back to get him to transform into Daniel, but no luck. The dream starts to fade again.

Points

Day Time Practice
Reality Checks (Good) = 1pt

Induction and Recall
WBTB (Success) = 2pts
[1]: First DILD = 10pts
[3]: Catch a False Awakening = 2pts

Dream Control Tasks
[1]: Reality Check/Stabilize = 1pt
[2]: Basic Summoning + First Task = 5pts + 5pts = 10pts
[4]: Interact with a Dream Character = 2pts

Night 6 Total = 28pts

Summoning F:
I'm at my Grandma M's condo in the kitchen. There are a few of my family members there too.
I notice there is a game on the table relating to prospective memory.
I recall that I've been working on prospective memory for my lucid dreaming practice.
I perform a nose reality check and become lucid.
I try and summon F, but it doesn't work. I recall that sometimes it is easier to summon using a door.
I leave the kitchen and go to the laundry room, shutting the door behind me. I imagine F standing in the living room.
I open the door.
It works. She is there. Either my family is gone now, or I simply ignore them entirely.
I go over to start some naughty stuff. I feel the dream stability "shake" when we embrace, but it doesn't fall apart. I feel relieved about that.
...
I've lost lucidity by now. I'm in a downtown city area underneath a highway. I'm with F, looking for somewhere to continue.
I notice that there are cameras all over the bottom of the highway above us and tell her this is too public.
F is now a man wearing a trenchcoat, and the story changes such that he is my buddy cop partner or similar.

Rude:
I'm in an elevator filled with water in an inner tube. I'm with a bunch of other people also in inner tubes and wearing bathing suits.
This is some kind of ride at an amusement park. Over an intercom, a man announces that we will be racing the 1st years.
I get excited and sarcastically say outloud to the group "WE'RE GONNA CRUSH THOSE KIDS!"
One other person and me get pulled aside and removed from the race. Apparently this was unsportsmanlike conduct.

How 'bout those Chiefs?:
I'm in a hotel room, hiding off to the side by the entrance.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are in bed together 'celebrating' the Superbowl win.
I'm stressed out that I'm going to get caught.
I decide to come out from behind the wall and admit that I don't know how I got here.
There is a tall, regal looking red alien in front of me. There is another off to my left. That one seems to be observing Taylor and Travis.
The aliens are wearing robes, and have mostly human features, minus their elongated heads and red skin color.
They would have fit in with Marvel's depictions of green and blue aliens from Guardians of the Galaxy.
The alien near me says in a deep feminine voice "When you became lucid in your world, you came to our world."
This triggers me to do a nose reality check.
I become lucid...but the dream fades.
...
I false awake and tell my girlfriend about the red aliens.
I've lost lucidity.


The Red Alien.

Nostalgia Band:
I'm in a highschool gym at indoor band practice. I'm a senior who will be graduating soon, so feeling nostalgic.
I walk over to our saxophone cases and join the group. I feel the familiar rush of uncertainty.
Where are we going? What are we doing? Gotta do it fast!
...
I'm with the same group, this time outside. We have our instruments and backpacks.
It's a grassy mountain hike, spiraly.
I see PK, a senior from my 2nd year. He is talking about burying time-capsules for future years.
There are already a lot of time capsules buried in the ground waiting to be opened.
...
We're in a large, cylindrical, dimly lit room now. There are pictures of previous band members along the wall.
My brother's picture gets pointed out. It is his picture from 1st or 2nd grade.

Sunny Day Lucid:
I'm in my childhood neighborhood on a sunny day.
I'm running through the backyards, with the grass being typical vivid dream green.
I have a sense of urgency to get somewhere soon.
There are some horses up ahead, stabled at somebody's house.
I'm on a garden path moving toward them. I try to leave the path to avoid alerting the horses, but I can't.
I eventually pass by them without a problem.
I stop and stand still, realizing that my childhood neighborhood and sunny days are some of my top dreamsigns.
I perform a nose reality check and I can breathe.
I check my hands and I have 4 fingers and a thumb. That's strange, shouldn't they be off in a dream?
I keep checking my finger and nose, and eventually conclude that I must be dreaming.
I try to summon somebody, but it doesn't work.
I feel the dream start to fade.

Sci-Fi Rejection:
I'm in a futuristic house with two levels.
I've completed a nose reality check, and become lucid.
I'm trying to start spicy content with a girl nearby, but she isn't interested.
I lose lucidity.

Flight Over The Forest Chasm:
I'm in a forest with giant trees, standing on a leaf.
The leaf is strong enough to support my weight.
The setting reminds me a bit of my childhood front yard, but sized up (or with me sized down).
Out of habit, I perform a nose reality check and become lucid.
In front of me, I see a large chasm. I decide to fly over it.
I make it to another leaf across the chasm without issue.
I start to think about whether I should stabilize.
But I lose lucidity shortly after.


Overlooking the Chasm.

Party Memories:
I'm at a wedding party, but I don't know whose it is.
The party is being held at an outdoor venue, and it looks like a mixture of IM's (from the Tots) and MM's (from highschool) backyards.
It's night-time, and there is a hot tub on my right. I see BY from highschool in a full suit, and wonder if he got the memo that this was supposed to be casual.
There is a sliding door on the left, and it goes into the sitting room from my previous home.
I set up an area there, sort of "my spot" where I can feel less socially awkward, and gather up the people I know at the party.
...
I'm in a local bar called Cornish Pasty. I'm sitting at the bar with MW from highschool.
We're sitting where I sat a few months back with JV in waking life.
He's there because I am getting married soon.
MW tells me that there might be something in the mail for me, implying he's bought one of the wedding registry items.
I'm feeling awkward, looking for a conversation topic, when I remember that I was at his wedding party recently.
I bring it up, and he remarks how drunk everybody was, and how we are all singing.
I tell him I remember that, but I don't.

Stuck:
I'm waking up in my bed, and I remember that I had just returned to sleep from my 6hr/20m WBTB.
I do a nose reality check and I can breathe. I'm dreaming.
I'm in bed, but I can't move. I try to blink-teleport, imagining that if I can just change the dream scene I'll regain my movement naturally.
So, I close my eyes and imagine a vast blue ocean.
I open my eyes.
Nothing changes, still stuck.
The dream fades and I wake briefly.

Loki and Oreo:
I false awake into my bed again, knowing to reality check.
I'm lucid again, but still can't move.
This time I try something else. I imagine my old Doberman Loki (rest is peace, he was the best boy).
The idea is that he will jostle the bed enough to kick my body into gear.
I call for him "Loki! Are you here?" and he comes bounding into the bedroom and jumps into the bed.
He, of course, lays down next to me because he always was a big lazy boy.
He looks up at me, inquisitive as ever with his dopey eyes and large snoot. He looks so real. I laugh, and wonder if my girlfriend can hear me laughing in waking life (I asked later, she could not).
My plan worked, when Loki jumped on me, that was enough to give me my movement back.
I looked back down, and now Loki had changed into a different childhood pet.
My longhair black and white cat, Oreo (also rest in peace, she was top-gangsta thug).
I get out of bed and say "C'mon! Let's go!" and Oreo gracefully leaps off the bed to follow me.
I see her characteristic "gangsta-prowl" as she moves and marvel at how well my brain is recreating my old pets.
Finally I leave the bedroom and realize that I should stabilize the dream soon, worried that it might fade.
The dream is a near-perfect recreation of my house, but it has blue hue to it.
Otherwise, the best way I can describe it is "thin". I think to myself, maybe I am low on REM sleep.
I start to narrate what I am doing as I do it "I'm walking in my hallway, I'm stabilizing the dream, I'm touching the walls..."
It occurs to me that I need to spend less time in my own head, or the dream is going to fade.
I make a concerted effort to engage with the environment, and not internalize too much.
As is tradition at this point, I lick the wall to help stabilize. It tastes like wall.
All this seems to help a bit, but I believe that I was simply low on REM, so the dream was going to be unstable no matter what.
Then I remember that it was the last night of competition, and I had defined some goals.
I recall my first goal of the three-step is to "summon" and then "ask for advice" so I go to summon Jordan Peterson.
But wait, I changed my mind earlier on the plan. I struggle to remember, but then I do.
During my WBTB 20 minutes, I decided instead that I would summon Daniel Love, because he would be able to assist me with a teleport.
I start to imagine Daniel Love in my house. I call out to him "Daniel! Are you here? Daniel?"
For a moment, no response.
But then a head pops out from behind a door down the hallway on the right, where the bathroom is.
"Yeah yeah I'm here!" he says, a bit flustered.
But, before I can ask him for advice on teleporting, the dream fades out.

Miles to Meters With Grandpa:

I'm on vacation with my girlfriend's family. Mostly her's, but a few representatives from mine are there too. We are all staying at a large ranch-style home.
Recently I have woken up from a dream and I have my phone out ready to record audio for it.
The dream within a dream I am remembering is apparently a lucid dream, where I noticed my girlfriend sleeping next to me.
She is twitching and making quiet pained sounds. From experience I know this is a nightmare.
After a few tries I successfully wake her up.
So, I want to find somewhere private to record this dream, but there are people everywhere I go.
I walk from the living room, to a hallway, to a den that looks like a room from my ex's Dad's house.
All crowded with people. I make my way outside eventually into the yard.
It's vibrant green, summertime, as typical for my dreams, with some yellow shine effects.
...
I'm in the garage now with somebody that the dream indicates is my girlfriend's Grandpa, but he doesn't look like him.
We're in a car together and parking it by pulling forward into the garage.
He wants me to measure some distance from where we are to the parking spot, so he hits some big square buttons on the dashboard.
There is a digital indicator with a two digit number followed by an "m" for the units that comes onto the dash after he has hit the buttons.
I say outloud that "Ah! That must be miles...oh wait that doesn't make sense...meters!"
I'm worried that I look stupid in front of him...not wanting to embarrass myself in front of my girlfriend's Grandpa.
I ask him why we are measuring this in the first place and he excitedly says "So that we get to hit the buttons!"
This strikes me as odd, so I do a nose reality-check.
I can breathe. This is a dream.
I tell the Grandpa that this is a dream, and he gives me a strange look. Like an "oh shit, you've figured it out" look.
I attempt to transform him for certain experimental purposes, but it doesn't work.


Fragment:

I'm in a mall-like building, in a large diner similar to something like a Coney Island restaurant.
There is a clothing store nearby that, within the story of the dream, I am very familiar with.
It seems that I have worked at this mall for a long time.


Fragment:

I'm with my brother and my girlfriend in the living room. My brother hits my girlfriend. I'm enraged.
I catch her, and then within seconds I've knocked my brother down, without thinking about it.
He tried to defend his action, but I'm not listening. In my mind, he has no excuse.

Glitchy Holodeck:

I'm sleeping on a couch at DR's house (where I actually am).
The room's lighting looks darker than usual.
I reflect that since I am sleeping somewhere relatively unfamiliar, maybe I will be more likely to become lucid from my body being more alert.
It occurs to me that I haven't done a RC for some time.
I plug my nose, breathe, and realize that I can breathe through it. I'm dreaming.
I hardly believe it at first, but I repeat a few times to confirm.
I have trouble getting up from the couch, feels like moving through thick mud, but I get to my feet.
I recall wanting to travel by pretending I am in the Holodeck from Star Trek.
"Computer, send me to the forest!" I say outloud.
Nothing happens. The dream fades.
I "wake-up" on the couch again, but I immediately do another nose RC to keep lucidity.
I repeat the same steps but have no success.
Eventually I wake up and the RC shows I am truly awake this time.

Hands Observation and High Jumps:

I'm in some foreign place. There is sand, mountains, and two sets of railroad tracks side by side. I'm standing in middle of the two railroad track sets.
There is a train coming toward me.
There are also cars coming, but they aren't on the tracks.
At first I'm trying to use a hearthstone (From the MMORPG World of Warcraft) to teleport away, but it isn't going to be fast enough.
I get out of the way, and then notice there are two people approaching me.
One of them is an older woman, and the other is a younger man.
Neither of them speak English, and I realize I'm in a foreign country.
Despite this, they begin to speak and I understand anyway.
They ask me what language I speak, so I tell them American.
Upon hearing this, the older woman grabs my arm and starts to pull on me.
I get the impression she wants to capture me because I am American. Ill intent.
My first thought is that I need to get out of the situation.
I pull out my phone and look around at places I could use my hearthstone to teleport to.
I start to think about my childhood home, and I see a pin on a Maps app.
It occurs to me that my phone shouldn't be giving me the ability to teleport, even if I had a hearthstone.
I realize I'm dreaming, confirming with a nose RC.
At this point I look up from my phone and notice I'm now in a small shed.
No longer concerned about the danger the old woman posed, I recall that I wanted to test looking at my hands.
I hold them in front of me, and I notice there are seven or so fingers.
I look away and back to the hands a few times, noting how the number of fingers changed.
It did vary, but it was always more than five fingers.
I open the door leading out of the shed, and I'm hit with a vibrant green scene.
It's a backyard from my childhood neighborhood, somewhat resembling BM's yard.
I make a mental note to not try anything to crazy, not wanting the dream to end too fast.
I step out, and I notice there is another house down the way. I decide that I'm going to fly over there, and land.
I jump up into the air, and fly over the street. I start looking down for a place to land, and struggle to make myself go down where I want, but I do land there.
Instead of continuing to fly, I decide to sit down and observe the dream from this rooftop.
I see a big, man-made lake on the horizon. There are three husky-dogs playing on the frozen surface, and a fourth one that has fallen into a hole in the ice.
The huskies, strangely, are laughing somehow. Maybe it was sounds similar to laughing that a dog could make. Tough to describe.
It's a light-hearted scenario, the dog isn't in danger. I start to laugh too.
...
I'm sitting at an outdoor patio table with a family. My Mom is there.
I've lost some lucidity by this point.
I get up and leave the table, remembering that there was more stuff I wanted to do with the lucid dream.
I'm back to lucidity again.
There's a cake on a side table nearby, and I think to grab a plate and get a slice...but then I remember this is a dream and that doesn't matter.
So, I grab into the cake with my index finger, middle finger, and thumb, grab a chunk, and take a bite.
It tastes maybe 90% like a buttercream sheet-cake. Pretty close!
I notice a kid watching me nearby, but I'm not concerned if he sees me doing lucid dream stuff.
I see a house nearby and decide I want to not fly, but do some flip jumps like Goku from Dragonball Z.
So I jump once, make it to the first house, and then the next, and the next, until I am pretty high up.
I land on a chimney.
...
I'm sitting at a table again outside, and there is a family behind me playing.
The dad looks like my landlord, C.
He has a son, who has a girlfriend there.
The boyfriend jumps forward and vaults off the girlfriend. It is played off as a joke.
I tell the boyfriend, nice jump!

Working Recovery:

I'm at work, outside, on the garden path between buildings.
NH from high-school marching band is there.
He has some kind of injury to one arm and to one leg.
The injuries, are exceptionally gory, like stumps where the hand and foot should be.
NH seems like he is in a good mood regardless.
...
I'm on the production floor, but the office cube area is reversed from left/right and under construction.
There is a tarp that goes over all the cubes, indicating that they are inaccessible.
...
Later I'm with NH at a back-area of the production floor.
His injuries seem to be lesser now, with just bruised limbs where the stumps once were.

WBTB:
I woke up after about 7.5 hours of sleep (11PM to 630AM) and then stayed up for about 45 minutes before going to sleep on the couch for a morning nap.

False Awakening:

I'm at home and taking out the trash. I notice that there are a few more trash/recycle cans than there should be. About 4 or 5 against the expected 2.
I do a nose-RC and become lucid. I recall the 'pre-flight check' from Daniel Love's book, so I decide to attempt that.
I say outloud "this is a dream, nothing is real, nothing can hurt me."
I look around the yard, trying to interact and stabilize the dream.
But this only lasts a few seconds or so, and the world fades.
I vaguely recall trying to fit my hands into some kind of gardening pot by the front door or side of the house.
...
I 'wake up' on the couch, and my family is there. Dad, sister, brother, and my friend DR.
We are taking turns playing a VR game, where the perspective of the person playing the game shows on the TV.
...
Later I'm in a different room, with pillars on four sides and 'open concept' entry ways.
I'm struggling with some straps on the VR setup for my arms.
There were also two different sizes for the VR goggles, and a smaller one fits me better.

Recorded at 940AM.

The Bulldog:

I'm sitting on a patio chair looking out to a sunrise. I'm high up, a few stories above the ground.
The patio is made of large wood pieces, similar in style to Frontier Land from Disneyland. Within the lore of the dream, we had just built it (my Dad, sister, and I).
I looked at my left hand and noticed that it had three fingers, and I looked at my right. It had four.
I become lucid. The very next thought is that I want to learn more about my dreamworld, to serve me better later.
So I decide to keep looking at my hands. They keep changing in finger count wildly, not fast or as if morphing, more like my brain kept trying to convince me that they had 'always been' said count.
It was more like my perception was in flux than the actual visuals. Tough to describe.
This activity doubles down on the fact that I truly am dreaming.

I decide to get up and look around. I see a man down below in a pool, he's singing on a platform in the middle.
Also, across the way there is another man singing. I listen to them for a while, but I can't recall the tune now.
I noticed a bulldog down by my heel. I feel a massively comforting presence. I don't recognize this dog but I feel the comfort anyway.
He is wearing some sort of skin(or should I say fur) tight dog-shirt.
I remember that I should be stabilizing the dream, so I run my hands across the wood railing a bit.
I notice that the patio is missing some pieces, and get concerned about the stability of the structure.
I decide to go the the side of the house, and once I turn the corner, it represents the side of the house I'm living in now.

The bull-dog is sitting in front of the gate that leads to the front yard. I go up to him and start to pet him.
"Are you a bulldog?" I ask.
"Yes, I am!" the bulldog replied with a British accent.
"Can you tell more more about you so that I can find you in my world?" I ask.
"Ohhh you shouldn't do that...because I have...my issue." the bulldog replies ominously.
I notice he is drooling a bit.
"Well, what is the issue?"
"I....tend to wet the bed." the bulldog admits with some shame in his voice.
I start to comfort the bulldog, but then I begin to lose lucidity.
Instead, I start telling the bulldog a story of a recurring dream. It's about not making finals for marching band back in high-school.
I try to recall the name of the girl who was our drum major who broke the news, but I can't remember her name (just her face).
This isn't actually a recurring dream.
An Asian girl appears behind him as if in response to the story, but she doesn't resemble anybody from it.
At this point I seem to get my bearings, and I start to narrate what has happened up to now, to the bulldog.

"So I've spent a lot of time in this dream letting things flow on their own, observing, doing RCs, keeping it low-key. Do you think it is OK if I try some dream control now?" I ask the bulldog.
"Yes, that seems reasonable." the bulldog replies matter of factly.
I walk forward and open the gate leading to the front yard.
It's night-time over here.
I remember that I want to try the teleport-sprint from another dream, so I position myself on the street with plenty of runway space in front of me.
But there is a festival happening on the street. Lots of people. This prevents me from having space.
I get the impression that the dream characters are not fans of what I am about to try, slightly hostile.
They don't stop me when I went to find a new position, but one guy did bump me as I passed.
I don't visualize a particular place. I break out into a sprint with the night-road in front of me and close my eyes.
I feel my body shake, similar to the first time having a WILD transition. Feels like going through a wormhole.
When I open my eyes, I see blackness. I assume I have woken up.
...
I'm back on the patio with the sunrise, but this time I think I am awake.
"Wow! What a cool lucid dream, I'd better go record it before I forget!" I think to myself.
I enter the house through a doorwall and go to a computer.
This home does not resemble one I have lived in.
The computer has three or four monitors all setup, and looks super cool.
Dream-me has a program setup that will record my dreams as audio, and then auto-tune them.
So I narrate the previous dream as it happened in its entirety.
I mess up the recording so I have to start and stop a few times.
As I recorded it, the computer generated an animated movie, with the audio, as a musical.
The graphics resembled Final Fantasy VII: Remake's.
I'm invested in making the video good.
...
I'm back in my actual bed. My girlfriend is by me, and so is a dog. It may have been a german-shepherd.
Strangely, my sister is at the foot of the bed.
We're awake because we are concerned that there is an intruder in the house.
I felt safe, because the dog would be able to alert us if there was a problem.
My girlfriend tells me I should give my sister the larger pillow, and I tell her that she is already asleep so there is no point.
I reflect that the dog with us is not giving me an allergic reaction, so maybe I can have a dog after all.
...
I'm back at my childhood home, and I'm talking about the intruder with my Dad.
I look at the thermostat, and it reads '60 degrees'. I think it is low, but my Dad tells me that this is how it has to be.
I look over to the living room and see my Mom playing a video game. She's losing so she calls me over to help and I do.

Went to bed around 12:00AM.

Messy Awakenings:
I have a false awakening on my couch (where I currently was sleeping in waking life).
My uncle J is sleeping nearby. My dad is there and tells me that I should move to the bed so I don't hurt in the morning.
I heed the advice and head to my bed. When I entered the room, my sister is in my bed and there are some blankets and pillows on the floor.
The room is larger than I recall in waking memory but I don't pick up on the inconsistency at the time.
So as not to disturb my sister, I lie down on the floor and go to sleep.
While I don't recall exactly, I think this is where I must have reality checked and became lucid, because I realized that I had just gone to sleep, so I should reality check.
I'm now lucid in this larger version of my bedroom. My first thought is to take a deep breath and try to stabilize the dream.
But I'm not lucid enough to follow through and start engaging the senses. I only get through the deep breath.
While I do start to think about the dream being 'biological virtual reality', I don't truly engage with the question deeply.
I see a window at the end of the room and remember that I want to go to a new landscape.
I recall the blink-and-snap method for traveling from a Daniel Love video.
I close my eyes, imagine a grassy forest environment, and snap my fingers.
The ground underneath me has transformed into AstroTurf, but no forest.
I lose lucidity shortly after this.
...
Sometime later, I've regained lucidity and I'm with a girl that I know is my sister's friend. We're at my Grandma's condo.

Spoiler for Spicy Content:

She's angry with me about something. Out of pocket, I say "Well obviously the solution is to blow me."
Surprisingly, she agrees. I'm pretty excited about this. Another girl shows up and joins her. I can see the details of their faces...and what is on them.

When the activities are over, I consider whether I actually did finish in waking life.
I'm concerned about that, but it also transfers to the dream. I hurriedly try to make my way to a bathroom to inspect myself.
I'm now at the top of the stairs at my grandma's current condo. As I head down the stairs, it makes a lot of noise to my dismay.
But luckily it doesn't alert anyone.
I find a side door that I think leads to the bathroom.
There is an in-between passage that has another set of doors past it. There is a black poodle dog in here.
My sister is hot on my heels, and she chases me into the room.
But I hide behind the door as it opens (that's a classic trick of mine) and she doesn't find me. The dog gets a bit crunched as the door opens, but it doesn't mind.
After this I sneak my way to the bathroom to inspect, but I lose lucidity along the way.

Recorded at 1:08AM.

War Games:
I'm in a war. In the moment, it felt like a training camp, but later the dream treated it as if it had been actual combat.
I'm with a group of people, perhaps a platoon. The area is sandy and surrounded by wooden walls on all sides.
We're running forward trying to reach cover. The cover is on the left, and there is an enemy soldier sitting on a chair on the right.
I can't recall, but I may have attempted to shoot the soldier in the chair as I ran for the cover.
...
I'm in a room. We've lost the war, so I'm being held there as a prisoner.
I'm thinking about whether my friends are OK and what will happen to us.
TH from somewhat recently at work in waking life arrives at my holding area.
He is there to tell me that the others are OK.
Then, back to isolation.
...
Sometime later my niece shows up at the back window (the window is up high, since the room is partially underground).
I try to hide under a desk in the room because I don't want her to have to deal with her uncle being imprisoned.
She doesn't find me.
...
A phone in the room rings and I answer. The person on the line tells me that there might be a chance of me getting out.
There is a form that I can fill out and if done correctly I can leave isolation.
I pickup the form and go outside to where the guards are outside.
I approach them and ask what my options are.
One part of the form is asking whether I actually killed any enemy combatants.
I honestly couldn't recall if I had killed the man in the chair, and the guards seemed compassionate to my memory inaccuracy.
...
I'm in a cafeteria eating, so perhaps they let me go.

Recorded at 7:53AM.

Bathroom Wonder:
I'm in my childhood home, it is about highschool timeframe.
My friend DR is visiting, and my brother and him are across the hallway playing Super Mario Bros Wonder in the basement living room.
I'm in the downstairs bathroom, trying to rub one out. I recall thinking that I had been playing Zelda Twilight Princess recently (but I'm not sure why this detail is here).
The toilet I am sitting at is on the opposite wall that it should be,
I can hear my brother and DR talking about how good of a game Wonder is, in terms of the level design and how the music interacts with it.

Recorded at 7:53AM.

940 words for the night.

Went to bed around 11PM.

Ascending:
I'm in the garage of my childhood home talking to someone.
I don't recall what prompted it, but I start to perform a string of hand and nose reality checks.
Interestingly the first few checks act as I would expect in waking life. Maybe my brain was doing some next-level deception to distract me.
But then on the last nose reality check I can breathe. I become lucid.
I do an extra hand reality check to verify and it confirms that I am dreaming.
Linus from Linus Tech Tips is there in the garage, and he says "Great job becoming lucid!"
I think this might have been my brain attempting to invoke "Lucid Dream Tech Support" from Daniel Love's writings.
There are a few others there congratulating me, but I can't recall who.
I go outside through a side opening that isn't there in waking life.
The grass is long and very deep green. The world in general is dark and dim.
I try to increase the dream's brightness by requesting it outloud, but nothing happens.
I see that the moon in the sky is huge and bright.
I decide to start flying towards the moon, taking off superman-style.
As I fly, I recall that the scene is similar to that of the finale in the PC game, Everhood.
I think about how it would be fun to play the soundtrack from the game here.
I can hear the music I want to play in my head, but I can't remember what it is called.
In the dream, I falsely named it 'Ascending Heaven' and asked for it to play.
The song I had in my head was called 'Reconciliation' but even that was wrong for the scenario.
The song from the game that actually would have fit is called 'Euthanasia Rollercoaster'.
This doesn't work, but it plays something else I don't recognize.
As I accelerate to the moon, I lose my way (and maybe some lucidity too) and end up at my elementary school.
The school is just down the street from my home, so it sorta makes sense.
I'm flying high above the playground, now on a metal ring. Sorta like Goku on the flying nimbus.
The ring isn't slippery, so I don't struggle to stay on.
There is a full-on medieval war happening far below. I see two armies locked in combat.
I focus on an old man wizard wielding a staff, and then he sees me looking down.
Despite the supposed distance, he jabs into the air and strikes the metal ring and starts to pull on it.
I shake him off and dodge, but I lose lucidity shortly after.

Recorded at 12:26AM.

445 words for the night.

Went to bed at ???

Bad Pheromones
I'm in a school/college situation. It may have been mixed with my work cafeteria. ER from work a few years back is there.
I default to hiding my interest in her (as I did in waking reality), thinking that there is not a high likelihood of that interest being returned by her.
There is a vague situation where I smell bad (lack of deodorant, dirty clothes etc).
This makes the situation all the more tense.

Recorded at ???

I woke up from my alarm and started to get ready for work. I showered, dressed etc. But then I decided to call in for the day (and went bad to bed) because I felt crappy. So, that technically makes this a mid-morning WBTB, but I wasn't going for any kind of timing goal here.

Went back to bed around 8AM.

Getting Lost at Costco
I'm at Costco with my girlfriend.
I do a nose RC out of habit and become lucid. I also do a hands RC, and I have baby-hands branching off my fingers. Nice.
I'm thinking that this is a great opportunity to try baked goods and see what they taste like in a dream.
Ape-brain kicks in at this point though, and activities ensue with my girlfriend.
She comments that since this is a dream, it doesn't matter that we are in public.
After that, I try to find the bakery section but lose my lucidity before reaching it.

Summoning Snow
I'm at home and did a nose-RC in the hallway, becoming lucid.
My brother is there. He had a nerf gun, but I mostly ignored him.
I did stabilization (narrating, rubbing hands/feet). I had the presence of mind to try to stand still, observe the dream environment, and ground myself.
The dream started to fade, but I managed to hold on. The same dream reformed, and I repeated my reality checks + stabilization. I felt pretty happy about this.
I reflect that maybe past dreams 'fading' were just my brain attempting to wrestle lucidity from me and succeeding. But this time I beat it.
I went out to the living room area, it's a long room instead. I wanted to go somewhere more interesting.
I remember one method for traversal is association/reframing, and also that my previous attempts at portals have been lackluster.
I think about where I would like to go and decide on a snowy place. I wonder what association might help my brain generate such a place.
I decide to imagine an ice pick and search around the living room for one, but no luck. I head outside.
There is a bit of snow on the ground, sort of like when snow that had been there previously has mostly melted. I find the ice pick on the ground in the yard.
I vaguely recall seeing my brother outside too, but then there was an older woman there. Not someone I recognized now or then.
The woman tries to advise me on lucid dream ability. She tells me that I have done well, but need to move on now.
I take the advice to mean my summoning of the ice pick went well, but I should try something new.
Where there is normally brick wall in my yard, there is a wooden fence. There is a beautiful New Zealand-esque grassy field landscape beyond the fence.
I jump over the fence and fly into the distance.

Alternate Silverlight
I am in a futuristic city with silver skyscrapers, lucid, and flying around.
I wonder whether this place is another interpretation of Silverlight (a fantasy forest I've been trying to get to).
I'm in a crowd with some DCs. The DCs know I am there, lucid, and dangerous to them. They have been warned by something.
I didn't do anything with these people and just flew off again, enjoying the dreamscape. This environment is much more interesting than my typical lucid dream fare.

Recorded around 10AM.