WhyAmINaked

Didn't get the best night's sleep -- partially out of my own fault, partially because of things on my mind and so on, so forth. C'est la vie.

Dream one tells me I'm, yet again, back in the Fallout world; but I'm woefully out of place as a fantasy-setting fighter type. I "knew" that I was able to enter V.A.T.S. and take my time targeting enemies, though I never really did. I wander around the ruins of a radioactive city a little bit. I know my RAD level is raising, so I'm trying to find a "safe" zone -- only all the doors I come across are inaccessible because they don't have a waypoint set. The dream fades and I wake up.

I fall asleep again, but then I'm immediately jolted awake by my alarm. Stupid me set it up on the wrong day, so there's that little episode.

Next, I'm in the deep ocean. Not the magical one you see in cartoons, but the pitch black reality of the abyss -- I knew this day would come, but dammit, it still took me by surprise. I'm swimming in the trenches without any special equipment, and I'm intensely worried that some parasitic creature would drill into my brain, or I'd look at my arm and there's suddenly a cigar shark eating a hole. My "vision" resembles a flashlight sequence in a video game, and part of me knows that as long as that "light" is on, the fishes will stay out of my protective sphere. My visibility is also quite clear despite being underwater, in the dark, and not wearing any goggles; plus my eye sight isn't the best as is.

I eventually come across a humongous pit -- maybe something like a kilometer wide and God knows how deep? It's an uneasy feeling, but I know that I must go down there. So I swim over to try to peer down, but a current emitting from the pit keeps pushing me back, so it was really difficult. The dream fades and I wake up again at whatever hour this was.

I fall asleep again (note that it takes me a long time to fall asleep everytime I wake up), and now I'm in spectator mode. I see my parents and my brother. I'm agitated due to real life things, and I start walking over. It takes forever to get to them, and I wake up before I could because my normal alarm goes off.

Ugh.

I'm in a classroom setting as a student, and the class is in a wide crescent moon shape with our professor in the middle. The class is on Connect-Four, and apparently, I'm kind of the shit.

So naturally, I get in an epic game (somehow) with the professor, who has white hair and a Christopher Lee beard going. Our game takes up two gameboards at once. Some clashes cannot be constrained by mortal boundaries. I don't know who won, but I knew I did very well.

This somehow led to an interlude about some weird game show, and the contestants need to dress up as characters in a book to compete. One of the male contestants has on too much make-up, and I recall thinking, man, you are seconds away from a uni brow.

The dream shifts into an end scene from Parks and Rec, where they play a bit over the credits. In this, I'm picking strawberries with what I guess is Tom Haverford, and we are talking about Ron Swanson being impressed with my Connect-Four skills. I mention "I wonder if it'll piss off Ron if I address him as an equal?" To which Tom finds that hilarious.

I was pushing a wooden barrel down a gravel road like Walter White pushing a barrel across the desert. I kinda know what's inside the barrel as something valuable or precious, so I'm feeling protective of it. I seem to recall being warned about the dangers of going down this road, and I think this might even be the dreaded The Road to the South from Return to Zork.

Eventually, I come across diverging paths. I knew one path leads me to my goal (whatever that is), but like a good RPG-player, I wanted to explore the other path for the potential of rare treasure. I know such treasure exists, dammit, via Dream Video Game Logic.

Sadly, the dream ends before I could find anything. Still got my barrel though!

I was playing a fighting game through an arcade cabinet. It is definitely the SNK classic Samurai Shodown (the spelling irritates me too), but some new version that doesn't exist.

I insert a quarter. I think I'm playing someone over a connection, and the clarity and authenticity of the sprites is a little amazing for a dream (or maybe I just played that game way too much). But what really struck me now was that it felt more like I was playing the game than watching me play the game, and I'm reacting to the screen. The "other" guy won because he exploited a glitch to score the last hit.

I insert another quarter. The game characters switched to guys from another series for some reason, and it's more of me playing a game (but not in the same feeling as playing the game here, but like watching me play).

Dream two had me needing to go somewhere with 10 minutes, only I keep doing dumb things like making wrong turns or getting into dead ends.

Nov 23

Can't recall too much of my dreams, and didn't write any down. I do recall eating some sort of colorful thing, like candy? Berries? Snozzberries? Either way, I slept well, and woke up feeling content.

Nov. 24

I was wandering around a series of buildings, like in a office compound or something. But at some point, my brain decided office buildings suck, and I'm now walking around the campus of Greendale Community College.

It was a bit Truman Show-esque, since a part of me is aware that GCC is supposed to be on the set of Community, but at the same time I'm also aware I'm also an "actual" student. The dream didn't go anywhere though before I woke up; no GCC flag, no Luis Guzman statue, no Gang of Seven.

I am helping to clear out tables in a gym for some sort of lunch event. At one point I shot a stray basketball, but I missed. I then shot my jacket (seeing as there's no other place to put it), and it hung itself on the rim. I remark something like "well, of course that worked."

Things moved to the actual lunch itself, where I'm situated in the middle of a long table near the corner with a single push-door under a green EXIT sign. The food was mediocre at best, and I didn't really want to be there. The table next to us was serving "Mexican" food, but all I can recall were fries and fried chicken. They looked like they were enjoying themselves much more.

At this point, C, someone I have a very poor opinion of, showed up, and he has a 2 or 3-year-old nephew that looks just like him. They both have close-shaved heads, and that makes the kid look like a kiwi, so I stuck a piece of red tape (missed MILD cue alert) like you'd find on bananas in the store on the side of his head. A mutual friend, T, appeared just to roll her eyes in disapproval.

I reappear outside, and I'm by a bus stop in what looks like a rainy day in downtown Vancouver, probably somewhere in East Hastings judging by the condition of the buildings. I just missed my bus, apparently, so I run back inside to take a shortcut.

It's now a mall inside, and I'm running towards one of the large department stores at an end of a wing. Along the way, I notice a gathering/event, and it's for -- I'm still a little distraught at this -- pairing dying kids with one-legged puppies. And Dream Me -- I need to make a distinction between the two of us -- hurdles over a sick, bald boy with tubes up his nose who's petting a one-legged collie that is sadly flopped down on the floor. Dream me didn't even look back.

ANYWAYS. So I arrive at my destination, which is a theme restaurant/hotel much like the Hard Rock cafe. I sprint through the restaurant and head down a flight of stairs next to the bar.

I re-appear in one of those Jeep/SUV hybrids, like a black Range Rover or something, and I'm barreling down a glass tube in the water like you'd find in aquariums (or maybe screens showing water/marine life, or both?). And when I say 'barreling down,' I mean a literal vertical drop off at least 30 stories, and towards the end, it looked like an elevator shaft. I wasn't panicking at the fall, but it felt more like "ooh, the bump at the end is gonna hurt my ass." This was still a part of the restaurant/hotel's architecture, by the way.

I somehow exit the tube (not sure how), and now I'm out in the field on my motorcycle (Red motorcycle -- Missed MILD cue alert) in gray, autumn weather. I'm heading towards a large structure that stands out a bit like Scrooge McDuck's vault, except I know this is like a memorabilia building/museum for the restaurant/hotel. I also noticed that there is a money counter to the top right of my vision at something like $71,XXX/$154,000 (I'm surprised the values were this vivid). When I crash my motorcycle through some giant glass windows and start purposely wrecking the place up, I begin to meet my quota.

At one point the lights go out, and security is walking about with flashlights above me on some sort of glass pane, but they don't notice me at all. So I keep purposely running into things, and I think I was at $151,XXX when I notice that I unplugged my router. Apparently, my earphones got caught, and this all somehow forced an end to whatever I'm doing. It's also at this point that a security notices something is going on, so I scoop up my router and earphone (I tried to untangle them first, even) and make my escape. It's night time at this point, and I see headlights on the road. It's wet and windy out, and the leaves are yellow and orange. My dream ends.

Bad night's sleep, horrendous recalls. This is what I can remember for the first part:

Bxcxgds. EWRaf asgdsgkldj blaskfj? Adgldskgj!

I woke up at maybe around 2:00 or 2:45 and was couldn't fall asleep due to various things on my mind. So I worked on some things until 3:30am and tried to go back to bed. Still took me a long time to fall asleep, but at least this recall isn't complete gibberish:

I hiked up a mountain. It was at times forested, and at times dry rock -- totally different climates. At one point, I came across a boulder. It wasn't particularly immense or unique-looking, but it felt overwhelming, as if there's a really dense gravity field to it, and it feels like I'm thisclose to it all the time. It actually felt a little like the dreams I'd have when I have a fever.

I'm not sure if I reached the top, or how long this went on. Eventually the dream fades, and I wake up.

I am visiting my friend T's house, which is way too sitcom-looking. In this world, he is apparently a costumed superhero, and he is freaking out because he thinks someone will discover his secret identity (Paranoia is definitely his thing in real life). So we go through his house to process "evidence" of his secret life:

• First bit of evidence is, somehow, leftover meat in a casserole dish (lol, what?), which my advice is to not leave that shit out or it'll spoil. That settles T down a little.
• Second bit of evidence is a board game that's titled something ridiculous like "I'm Secretly a Crime Fighter" (lolol, whaaat?), in which Dream Me rationalizes something like owning a Monopoly board doesn't make me a tycoon. Wise words, Dream Me. Wise words.
• Third piece of evidence is the severed human head of a criminal he has in his freezer (lolololol, wh-- *record scratch* wait, what?). Apparently, Dream Me already knows about this; as T is opening up his freezer, I tell him I don't need to see it, just don't keep it in your freezer anymore. I also Dream Know that T kept the head in a plastic bag.

So now, my subconscious gets a conscience (ha! ...too soon after talking about freezer remains. I got ahead of myself), and it took form of an argument between Cartman and Kyle Broflovski about morals.

Then shit got REALLY weird.

My view zooms in to Kyle's face, to the point I can see the individual pimples. The pimples, who talk in Al Gore voice, are conferring with one another to stop their host body because his morals are being swayed. So now, the pimple choose to infiltate Kyle's mind, which resembles a blue room with a computer on the floor.

Two pimple-people (hehe), a male and female dressed in tight black outfits and harnesses like rejects from a Mission Impossible remake, has snuck in, and are attempting to upload a virus into the computer/Kyle's mind. But Kyle's consciousness materializes inside himself to stop them; first, he stomps on the head of the pimple-man (symbolism alert -- also, what is up with me and head violence that night?), then pokes a hole with his fingers in the pimple-woman's side, causing her to deflate like a balloon before she could hit the "Enter" key. Mind-Kyle looks over her while she says something to appeal to him -- it seems to work, because Kyle hits the "Enter" key himself to upload the virus. The dream fades before I can find out what happens next.

Note: There was, at one point in all this, a screen where I'm equipping items to slots like I'm playing an Flash RPG game, and having trouble deciding whether getting the bonus in X is better than the other. But I'm not sure/remember where THAT little scene fit in. I dream in video game way, way too much,

This is after I woke up from my first dream. I recited "if it's red, I'm in bed" with great difficulty before simply falling asleep.

I'm walking in a somewhat active park with someone, and we drove my car there. It began pleasantly enough, but then the person I'm with starts to feel not as well. I say something along the lines of "lets go back to my car and turn on the AC"; but instead, like the actions of a rational human being, I put her in a shopping cart and scoot her around. I find this hilarious after I wake up, for very ironic reasons aside from the thought of pushing an unconscious adult around in a cart.

We go to the boardwalk of a pier, which actually reminds me of Navy Pier in Chicago. And, like the real Navy Pier, it was ridonkulously foggy. It is starting to get dark at this time, and the streets lights are starting to turn on. We are heading towards Lake Michigan (or, in the dream, a random ocean), and to my left, I can see a giant, jade-colored tower with golden lights rising out of the fog in the waters. I couldn't see the base of it due to the fog/mist; but the way it is situated, it looks like the fog is some sort of a portal, and the tower is rising out of it since I can see the water line, and it is all clear. (Note: Now that I'm awake, I realize that it is very similar one of my favorite pictures I took of a tower in Chicago, which actually did kind of look like it was rising out of the fog -- hey, an excuse to use the attachment feature! -- though, not at this of an extreme as my dream).

It's the building to the right. God, I love Chicago.

To my right is another giant tower, only this one is more marble white, and, due to its proximity, I can see the base (which featured columns -- lots and lots of columns). It's situated right in front of a grass quad. It's at this time my friend wakes up. I tell her she overheated (not as in a fever, but as in the cooling fans didn't work), and I figured the ocean breeze would help. I guess even Fake Chicago has winds colder than death. There was a Video Game College to our right in front of the white tower, so we decide to go in and visit.

Inside, it is pleasantly lit. It looks like a hotel in terms of hallway/room layout, but the actual rooms feature wooden bunk beds like the dorms I've been in. The guy who greets us is a tubby, modern faux-hippy wearing a green shirt half a size too small, dirty orange hair in white-people dreads, and just-as-dirty-ginger beard (not a missed MILD cue alert for me, by the way: it's a very, very specific red that I'm noticing). The dream fades while the dude talks at me.

The dream picks up again, and I'm back in the same busy park, only I moved backwards in time and it's the afternoon again. I'm next to my car, and it is parked on the street in the same spot as I "knew" from before. In terms of location, if I keep going straight, I'd eventually make it back to the pier again. To my right is a row of dirty apartment buildings; it's similar to the row houses you'd find in San Francisco, only if San Francisco just gave up and started downing whole gallons of ice cream each night.

To my left is a grassy patch, with a large oak tree (the trunk is maybe a 1.5-meters wide) at my 10 'o clock. Just a bit past the tree, but more to my immediate left, is a decently sized park basketball court that features 4-5 rows of bleacher seats and chain-linked fences. Two of my housemates, E and S, are there, but they are complaining about the gutters around the court being overgrown with weeds. So now, in my mind, I make some sort of weird plan to insert a grate through the sewers where the roots are, cement off the opening while leaving a slight opening, then pulling the weeds out as they grow through the limited opening. Somewhere during the planning phase, I somehow actually do it.

The dream fades; and then it gets a bit noteworthy.

I wake up, and but it's not time for me to get out of bed yet, so I just lay there for a bit. I recite my MILD mantra just in case, but I still have the park dream with the basketball court fresh in my mind; so my mind begins to wander a bit about playing basketball. I thought about playing hoops with my friend DR. C!!! (FYI: it is required by law that you tell his name every time due to reasons)... the wicked crossover move I had in middle school... fantasized a bit about what if I was back in high school and I retained all my current abilities... being athletic enough to dunk the ball from the foul line... and suddenly, I wake up again. Apparently, I dozed off while thinking about basketball, only I don't think my stream of thought ever "broke," thus my mind was still busy doing the basketball equivalent of masturbating while my body slept. I'm chalking this up to some sort of WILD, or perhaps a very, very brief step towards LD?

I drift in and out of sleep a little more, but nothing else happened.

Part one is a short one because part two is much, much more vivid. But anyways, I continue use of my MILD mantra before dozing off.

I'm watching basketball on television in a living room at what I feel like is my parents' house (I'm the only person in this dream). I'm also aware that I'm cooking something in the adjoining kitchen, so I'm not completely engrossed in the game.

In the basketball game, I know it's the Boston Celtics against the Miami Heat -- two teams that I root against. A lot of sequences involve LeBron James guarding Jason Terry (for the 99.9999% of you who don't watch the NBA, if this was a chess match, this is like watching a world-class chess player defending against a carrot), and Jason Terry is doing frustrating Jason Terry things that is frustrating because frustrating people is how frustrating Jason Terry frustrates. He's over-dribbling, driving into crowds, doing useless spins, putting up contested fadeaways... only it's all somehow fucking working. Seeing how I dislike Miami marginally more so than Boston, I root for the carrot despite my objections as a basketball fascist.

Anyways, I remember that I have a pot of broth on the stove; and when I go check, the broth is bubbling (but not going nuts). I manage the heat a little, and then I wake up.

The odd thing is, when I woke up at whatever dumb time it was, I got this overwhelming sense of melancholy about missing my parents, watching basketball, and cooking -- except that I stayed over at my parents house, watched basketball, and helped cook dinner that exact same night.

My MILD mantra before going to sleep now is "If it's red, I'm in my bed." I'm worried it's too catchy to do what it's supposed to do. ANYWAYS...

Dream one has me in what looks like a steam-punk/apocalypse world (no real visual proof other than I just know), and my home is the remains of half of a jumbo plane. It's night time, and I'm sitting by a fire cleaning/fixing some sort of a tool or machine. (Edit: I now remember that I have a red bandanna with a flower motif around my head. Missed MILD cue alert!)

A single-row character select screen gets juxtaposed over the top of my "vision," as if I'm quick-selecting something in the middle of game play. As I browse the portraits (which are in DOS 256-color again), they are associated with my actual friends. Towards the right end of the screen, the portraits are grayed out; I guess in this world, friendship is an achievement you unlock.

Each individual friend has their associated stats according to Dream Knowledge. Sadly, my dream is not vivid enough for me to see detailed stats. But I do get a general associated sense of it according to certain traits. There are at least 10 characters, and I "know" there's more if I scroll to the right. But these are the ones I could still remember:

• My friends B and K, brothers who power lift and play organized football in real life, have really high Strength scores. I also Dream-Know that their abilities are offset by low their movement rate, which I lol'ed at because I guess I'm just a dick.
• Girl-R and Boy-R both can cast spells (Looks like I associate artistry and creativity with magical ability. Or maybe just people whose names starts with R.), while Girl-R also shares the ability to charm animals with Girl-J.
• Boy-R, I should also note, is the Ken to my Ryu in real life, and that carries over in this dream in terms of "knowing" our stats are similar.
• Sten from Dragon Age was there. No, I don't know him in real life. Go home, Sten, you are drunk.
• Boy-J has rogue-like stats, possibly because he's shady. And he'll flaunt said shadiness, which makes him all the more shady.
• Poor, poor A. In real life, he's slightly taller than me, but possibly twice my weight -- but he doesn't have the physical abilities of B and K. He'd go down in the initial wave of a zombie attack.

And wouldn't you know it, the second I think of being attacked, my camp is raided by the Mohawked raiders from Fallout (they have red pants. Missed MILD cue alert!), only my vision is obstructed by the character select screen -- which has now taken over my entire "screen" like the overlay in Steam -- and I can't seem to find a way to hide it again. That's karma for A, I like to think.

ANYWAYS, so I'm running around blind, and my vision would flash red (possible missed MILD cue alert) on the edges like a FPS as I keep getting shot. I know I'm also doing a lot of damage to them (also, I'm dual-wielding pistols -- flashy, but not terribly effective), only none of them are going down, and I'm reloading a lot even for dual wielding. I fall back to a part of the airplane, and I know I'm not going to be able to hold off the raiders for long like this. In which my brain -- my asshole of a brain -- goes "lol! Know what would suck?" and plays that scene from Robocop.

Well, I guess it worked, because the raiders are now focused on poor Murphy (who materialized in my dream JUST to suffer a horrible fate). I theorize that there's a sidequest in Fallout New Vegas that references this, so my brain went there. Either way, the scene abruptly ends to the sweet sounds of gunfire and torture screams.

We're skipping dream two because that's Willy's time. There was a missed MILD cue in there, and I will also partially hint that towards the end... well, has anyone seen those troll-ish Photoshop images where they take the inside of a lotus flower pod and superimpose it over someone's flesh so it looks like there are tiny ho-AHHH, FUCK, I JUST GOT A MENTAL IMAGE. NEXT DREAM! NEXT DREAM!

Dream three was barely there, and all I can recall was that I'm on my motorcycle (edit: my motorcycle is red. Missed MILD cue alert!) on a highway next to a forest, and the weather is gray and shitty. And all I have for dream four is that I knew I had four dreams.

Before going to bed, I practiced MILD -- I noticed that the color red is a recurring theme, especially when it is on a person, like clothing or hair color -- and practiced making that a cue. As you'll see, I dropped the ball.

Dream one had me in a Baldur's Gate-esque world, but the "graphics" are updated to at least 2010 standards, a la Dragon's Age -- which, by the way, I'd throw gobs of money at an updated Baldur's Gate. Anyways, my party and I are settling into a wooden house in the city, and we are turning in for the night. The house we are in had two rooms (which I never saw) to the left and right of the entrance in the "main" room, which sinks a foot lower and features a hearth in the middle middle (so it actually has a bit of a Warring States-era Japanese design). Straight across the entrance is a ladder that leads up to a loft area (which I'll get into detail later).

Our party seems to be pretty big, as Dream Knowledge tells me that others in our group have settled into other houses nearby, and that I'm sharing a house, hostel style. Of note, two of the people I'm teamed with are a married couple in their late 20's-early 30's, and they are both pleasant spellcasters wearing robes. The wife is in a red robe with green trims (missed MILD cue alert), while the husband is in a navy robe with yellow trim. I think the husband resembles a classmate as well from middle school, who I want to say is K, that I never really was friends with, but hey, whatever you say, Dream Logic. It also appears that the town/city we are in is a little bit hostile, because there was an exchange where we are strategically planning how we should assign rooms (i.e. if we are ambushed in the middle of the night, where should we sleep so we are best prepared), and I say something like "don't worry, I'll sleep anywhere and decide what class I'll be based on that."

I'm now suddenly climbing up the stairs to the loft -- I'm staying there, apparently. The loft area is surprisingly modern looking, including working electrical lights and a sliding-pane window. There is also a private bathroom in the corner. It's also a little messy, with a ton of clothes hanging on hangers all around the wall, and some piles of clothes strewn here and there. There's a giant bed in the middle (bigger than a King-sized bed) that takes up 75% of the available space, and there are some heavy-looking covers. In short, I would absolutely live in a place like this in real life.

I also notice an adorable kitten in the loft, so I reach down to pet it. It's an orange calico kitten, and is really affectionate and playful. After playing with it a little, it lays on its back for me to rub its tummy. It's a trap. The second I do, the kitten snaps like a bear trap to love-bite/claw my forearm. I find it even more adorable at how cat-like this cat is, and after freeing my arm, I call out to the others to come see. I demonstrate by placing my hand on the kitten's tummy again, who reacts exactly like I expected. It's visibly trying to gnaw my arm (and it's soooo cute while it does), but it's just so small and tiny that it barely managed to draw blood (Red blood on my arm. Missed MILD cue alert).

It still "hurt" though, so let that be a lesson: Cats are pure evil, no matter how cute they are.

ANYWAYS, the scene changes, and now I'm alone in another house in the same town. I'm in the kitchen area, because there's a modern looking stove and fridge to my left. There's a small wooden table and two chairs against the wall, and the entrance is in the wall to my right. Straight across, by the fridge, is another doorway to a darkened room, and I emerge from what appears to be the storage/stable. It's dawn, and I'm aware that I'm in red plate armor (missed MILD cue alert), and my weapon of choice is a grey-white claymore. I'm pretty happy with my gear. I'm also alert, and as expected, I'm ambushed by assassins posing as villagers. I dispose of the first attacker, who is dressed like a villager from Might and Magic VI. I think I cleaved her, but she "disappears" with no blood, like I'm in a PG-13 movie. Another attacker runs in from the side, and I turn around and backhand him. Bloodless murder is the most morally-cleanest murder.

At this point, I get agitated at all these assassins and yell out "I know what's going on. Just show yourselves." To which, maybe 8-9 people dressed as villagers meekly come out. I pan, "What am I, Abraham Lincoln?" (lol at my own brain). It's at this point that Dream Knowledge reveals that these villagers need my help. The dream fades at this point.

Dream two posits me at my high school during an assembly in the gym. The dance club(?) is putting on a swing dance routine. For whatever reason, I think something like, "I can do the Charleston," and just like that, I'm suddenly part of the dance routine. I wasn't sure what the Charleston is before I Googled it, by the way; but apparently I'm rocking whatever swing routine my dream calls the Charleston on the dance floor. The "dance" evolved into a 50's rockabilly concert, and I'm now dressed like the band during the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. I'm also playing a red Epiphone Riviera (which I theorize I was able to identify so vividly because it's an actual guitar I have. Also, missed MILD cue alert) on a pretty modern looking stage. Everyone is doing the Twist. The dream fades.

The dream picks up again with a snow theme. The following happens, but I lost track of the order of which came first:
-I'm outside in the snow (pretty sizable amounts -- the snow blankets the field), and Garfield (from the comics) is laying down in the snow next to a snowman (snowcat?) of himself. He's saying/thought bubbling/captioning something like "perfection is the origin of stress." I don't know if those are wise words or dream gibberish.

-I'm upstairs in a room (it resembles a room in my brother's house, actually), overlooking the driveway. I'm worried that the snow is going to make it hard for my mom to drive, even though she hasn't driven in years. But when I look out the window, I see that the roads are cleared up, and there's only about half-a-foot of snow (a snowplow is seen leaving my vision frame). The driveway isn't cleared yet, but I see tire tracks on it, which leads me to believe that the roads are accessible.

I wake up, and I was really expecting it to be snowing in real life.

I woke up from having to go pee. When I crawled back in bed, I decided to practice reciting "I'm going to be dreaming" mantras for WILD practice. It usually takes me a really long time to fall asleep, but I think I was out within seconds. So that endeavor didn't go as planned.

Dream two plopped me in a situation where Dr. Who (Matt Smith version. I'm team Tennant. This confuses me.) is having a witty argument with some other dude in a chic suit and vest. There is a problem with space time or whatever the dire situation is at the moment, and I vaguely recall the argument is about how much crappier the Doctor's TARDIS is compared to the other guy's device. I think the other guy called the TARDIS "it's a time tomb" derisively -- not the biggest burn, but it's the one line I remember.

ANYWAYS, something something, because now they time-materialize the other guy's machine into what looks like the garage in my old home in Canada. Dream Knowledge tells me that in the room next to it is some sort of walk-in closet (I recall a lot of clothes hanging in the room), and there's Mallory Archer and a really old man in a wheelchair (he's someone's father based on Dream Knowledge), and Mallory is just berating the old man because she's drunk. The scene switches back and forth between the Archer scenes and Dr. Who scenes (though they are in the same universe), and I know whatever situation it was is being resolved.

I wake up, and regret the life decision to watch the Archer Top Gun remake on a loop before going to bed.

I attempted keeping a WILD mantra going for dream three, but my brain turned into a five-year-old and kept asking what Archer's first name is. I kept thinking "Sean?" even though I know it's not right. Clearly, my brain refused to let me sleep, so I hop out of bed.

It took me all of 15 seconds after deciding I'm up for the day and leaving the warmth of my bed that my brain goes "Lol! His name was Sterling."

In dream one, I was in a city in the evening, possibly dusk. I think I was part of an envoy visiting a city; Dream Knowledge tells me that my group represents the historical lost Loulan Kingdom. Since I have little to no knowledge of actual Loulan culture, my brain just used a combination of Nepalese and Indian culture instead. I'm also not an official citizen of Loulan in this dream, but rather I tagged along with them as a sanctioned visitor.

The setting of the city we are in resembles Elizabethan architecture, but with a little more of a fantasy twist. It was a little vague at first, but slowly, the city resembled the city tile set from the game Neverwinter Nights (NWN; a game which I played the shit out of). I think the more I made that connection, the more the city took on that look. And that's when I became aware of our hired guard/guide.

So, background context: I played NWN alot on a RP-based player-made module, and one of the characters I played was an Autistic/Schizophrenic, or at least versions of the disorders based on my poor understanding of them at the time. I played this character long enough that he evolved to be the premiere fighter in this world, which made communicating with this character that much more frustrating because on one hand, he's a lovably difficult guy to talk to; yet on the other hand, you know he can murder you into bits on a whim.

ANYWAYS, D&D-masturexposition aside, yes, that character appeared in my dream. He was just another random guy at first, but my theory is that once my brain decided that the setting resembled NWN, it started filling in the gaps until suddenly, I realized who I'm looking at.

Two takeaways for me: 1) I think there was a point where I had the realization along the lines of "hey, I created you." Hopefully, this is a breakthrough to being able to question dream realities, because 2) I'm not sure how, but my POV shifts and I possess/become this character.

So, background/nerd masturbatory exposition two: The guards in the NWN module I played were designed to be ridonk OP as a way to keep a gaggle of maxed out characters from creating pure chaos during events. So of course, during OOC periods I'd go fight these guards just to see how fast I die; but I eventually figured out the right combination of gear, and proceed to massacre cities after cities with my guy -- because, y'know, GTA made me do it.

So ANYWAYS, I think brain memory kicked in; so for whatever reason, next thing I know, I'm fighting the whole city in my dream now, and somehow, I think I was the victim. The rest of the envoy was nowhere to be found. I wake up as the city burns around me.

Had a horrible night's sleep, and for most of the first parts of the night, I can't remember a single dream.

However, I woke up at around 1:00 or 2:00-ish to use the restroom, and when I got back in bed, I decided to practice WILD (or what my current understanding of WILD is) for the first time. I think "this will be a dream" on repeat, and got distracted by various thoughts and ideas. Next thing I know, I woke up again at 5:00-ish. Fell asleep. Woke up again 7:00-ish when my alarm went off. Ugh.

I knew that I had to leave by 8:00 for work, so I have some snooze time available. I keep drifting in and out of consciousness -- one moment I'm thinking about falling asleep, and then next thing I know the snooze alarm is going off. This goes on a few times until it's 7:40, and I have to get up and do all the morning stuff for work.

ANYWAYS, no dream recollection, but I did notice that in the in-and-out phase during the morning, there is/were that brief flash(s) of "wait, no, am I asleep right now?" thought(s). I can't tell if that was during sleep or consciousness, but I'm jotting it down to be safe.