Thread: Task of the Month for August 2014

Originally Posted by ThreeCat

I might try visiting Sophie and Calcifer--do they have to be present for the task to be a success? What if I get to the castle and no one is home?

Tell ya what, if you can manage the castle and the dial, it should count as basic. Or if you can manage the visit with Sophie and Calcifer without the dial, it could be basic wings as well.

What do y'all think?

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Tell ya what, if you can manage the castle and the dial, it should count as basic. Or if you can manage the visit with Sophie and Calcifer without the dial, it could be basic wings as well.

What do y'all think?

Finding Howl's Castle seems a bit harder than finding an elevator . . . just sayin. I'm doing it, regardless!

I will definitely try these ones in the case of a lucid this month. Anyway, the eyeball one got me shocked, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one!

Not sure how, but maybe I try it, only after making sure I'm really dreaming... Until now I never hurted myself on a lucid, only on normal dreams, at it was always by accident, never on purpose as far as I remember... Weird thing is that injuries always seem to grow, get worse, more gory... instead of healing. Or I just find one... then another... then another.... I wonder if I will pop my eye out, with something stick to it, and as I pull more and more I realise I'm pulling my whole brain out...

Originally Posted by Antoia

It's from the Studio Ghibli movie Howl's Moving Castle I recommend watching it, even if animated movies aren't your thing. Actually, watch any of the Studio Ghibli movies, they're great. And pretty.

So, yeah, a cartoon

Actually, a friend of mine who's a bit into anime (not massively) also mentioned Studio Ghibli in much the same terms. I might have to track some down. I'm not particularly into Anime, myself, I remember trying to watch Akira when I was a kid and not getting it, but I think I was too young, really. I enjoyed Ghost in the machine and Laputa (is that the name of the film, or is the film called something different) but can't remember having seen any other Anime all the way through...

Anyway, I'm definitely up for playing with a giant steam powered walking castle that takes you to random places, so I'll try to do that if I have enough dream control :-D

I'm also very much up for plopping an eyeball out, it's not like you're likely to have the chance in real life (and if you do, you're unlikely to be in the mood to enjoy the experience! :-D)

It reminds me of a variation of the 61 point relaxation technique that I was playing with a few weeks back. I decided that as well as "visualising" pressure at each of the variouis points, I'd take it a couple of steps further, visualising that pressure being inside my joints (where the point was at or near a joint) and then visualising the sensations of those joints becoming ludicrously flexible, bending backwards, stretching, wrapping my arms around my torso twice, that kind of thing. There was an initial mental resistance because I was visualising the sensation of my elbows resistin going past straight and that made it really uncomfortable, but I managed after a couple of attempts to just imagine that my joints were supposed to work like that and it became much easier!

Also, the Great Banana Bank Robbery must be attempted! I've got some lovely ideas for deliberately misunderstanding creatively reinterpreting that one! :-D

SammyTheSnake

Had a short ld where I asked bf to tell me something in a different language. Alas, the reply was muffled as the audio in the dream was not quite ok. Later two cats spoke too, but I forgot to ask them.

Basic i

I realized I was dreaming!

I immediately landed and remembered the task about asking a DC to tell me a word in a foreign language. A young boy appeared, and I asked him to tell me a word in a foreign language. He said something garbled, and I asked him what it meant. He looked at me with a huge grin and, shaking his head, he replied, "I do not know!" I asked him for another one, same answer. So I flew off and found a young black girl sitting with her mom outside their house. Funny, it was night time now. I asked her for a foreign word and she said something that could only be described as tongue and throat clicks. I asked her what that meant and she said, "Go the way of Jesus."

I thought of the eyeball task right after that, and thought about going into their house and finding a bathroom mirror for the task. But before I went in, I decided to recap the basic task so I'd remember it better when I woke up. It was a good plan and a bad plan. I took the time to recall it, but then woke up before going into the house. Oh well, next time

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Basic Task ii - Rob a bank using only a banana as your weapon. - INeverWakeUp

Does it have to be a bank? Lots of my dreams involve the grocery store I work at, and it'd probably be easier to rob them instead.

Originally Posted by ThreeCat

Finding Howl's Castle seems a bit harder than finding an elevator . . . just sayin. I'm doing it, regardless!

On the bright side, don't forget that Howl's Castle runs around on legs like Baba Yaga's hut, so you could always try to summon it directly and make it come to you, instead of having to go look for it.

I'm not sure if I'm up to this task, since my LDs have always seemed to take perverse delight in frustrating my attempts to locate particular people or places. But I was thinking about various ways one might go about it. Another possibility, since it seems like Calcifer himself is the key to the magic that holds the the castle together, might be to create a flame, designate it as "Calcifer," start feeding it, and instruct it to build the castle right there around you!

The eyeball one sounds scary to do. I wonder how you could do that? Maybe just by willing them to fall out or perhaps you could use a spoon... I can't wait to read some awesome and hilarious dreams that will come from the rob a bank task

Originally Posted by spellbee2

Does it have to be a bank? Lots of my dreams involve the grocery store I work at, and it'd probably be easier to rob them instead.

Good point.. since it's basic, should we have made it just a general robbery with a banana?

These are you guys' task suggestions, so it's up to y'all to debate the specifics. I'm just the tie-breaker basically.

Originally Posted by SammyTheSnake

Also, the Great Banana Bank Robbery must be attempted! I've got some lovely ideas for deliberately misunderstanding creatively reinterpreting that one! :-De

Me too, there are so many ways to creatively interpret that, or to pull it off. I think it might take several bananas for what I have planned, but if I duplicate them from a single banana, then it's basically just using one banana. I don't think I'm even allowed to say what some of the ways of interpreting this task are...

Originally Posted by spellbee2

Does it have to be a bank? Lots of my dreams involve the grocery store I work at, and it'd probably be easier to rob them instead.

Some grocery stores have banks inside them. At least mini-banks. In my opinion, if you ask them if it is a bank, and they say yes, then it counts.

Got it!! My eye, I mean...

Amazing experience for me, as I went straight from wake to dream on a WILD attempt that I guess was thanks to luck.

Spoiler for Small introduction as how I got there:

A bit of introduction for those interested. I woke up at around 7.45am. No dream memories. I put my ear-plugs on, and decided to try WILD, laying on my back. At around 8.30am I though on surrendering. Had a little water, and turned over on my side.

A while later I found myself there all dark, relaxed. Not sure if I was already dreaming, but I just though it might be the time for an anchor, so I started thinking on the song Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits). Eventually, the music wasn't imagined anymore. I started hearing it, very low volume, but it started going up, and gettin more clear. I decided to try getting up.

My room had light. I rubbed my hands as the vision was shaking and getting double. Once it went all clear, and seeing it was all too vivid, I decided to do nose-RC.

I remembered the TOTM about the eye. Even if I RCd pinching my nose seconds before, I did it again and as I could definitely breathe, I though to myself: "ok, lets do this...".

I simply led my right hand to my right eye, and it went out really easy, no pain, as if the eye was just "placed" on my face, instead of inside the skull. I did feel anyway the "extraction" as it went out, but no pain. In any case, I got out a white ball with little red veins, no optical nerve, blood, or whatever... It had the iris also. I turned it around while holding it with my fingers. It was white but not shiny, looking more like a ping-pong ball. I also tried closing left eye only, and right eye only, and I could still see with both eyes!

Then I tried to remember what was the other TOTM I though about before going to sleep, but couldn't remember, so I headed out to try having some fun (which I did).

It was 8.45am when I woke up.

(Now I remember that the task was the one about Photoshop. Will have to re-read the tasks again and try to burn them in my brain...)

Ah - some proper eye-examinations here! I'm unsure, if I managed it - your call, Ophelia:

LD #1: I was standing in the atrium of a house, maybe 3 stories high, looked like an office-building, I don't know how I got there. But looking down the hall - it just simply struck me, that it was a dream. Forgot to RC, but did that later on. What was on my mind first, was that Maxis had lucid dared me to die and survive it like a proper cat should be able to do. But what I did first wasn't trying something fancy, nor going after my 5 senses, since I ended up in the void by interrupting what I was doing before and especially upon lacking input from a sense, I search. So I slowly walked out of the building, as if nothing had happened. And that was a good idea, when I came out, the dream had nicely stabilized.

The idea had been to transform into a cat and then let myself get hit by a lightning strike. Somehow I had the feeling that I'm not up to full transformation, didn't dare try - and since I could also die and survive something as a human - I started weather-witching instead and conjured up rain and storm and darkness - but lightning eluded me. I was a bit afraid then if I'd get anything done and went flying - by jumping from a high cliff into something like a canyon. The plan was my 3-stepper super flight, into which I wanted to switch while in the sky, and maybe catch a deadly lightning strike under way. But - soo stupid - I suddenly had such an urge for the toilet, that it disturbed my air-swimming. Soo - what now, I think in mid-flight, and wanting to get something out of this LD in maybe the last seconds, I grab my right eye, see if I can rip it out for the TOTM. Well I do - but not really - it stays on it's optic nerve, I get it out maybe 20 cm and then it bounces back in. No pain - no spectacular visual effects, either - but it feels slimy and I had to dig in to sort of pop it loose. Now reading back - I should have examined it further - what I can say, is that I saw it with my other eye, but just as a dark ball more or less peripherally. Before I could go on and land somewhere and maybe cut it off with something, I felt I had to go so urgently, I woke myself up. And of course - nope - I didn't need a toilet irl - this happened several times before. Need to remember that once and for all - maybe stop moving my dream-body or just letting it go...

Yupp - that's it. I guess, it's not enough, I was only thinking, I need to get it out...?
But otherwise I'm very happy with having had a bit more lucid time than so often - very motivating!

I dunno guys, does that count? I mean, she pulled it out far enough to see it with her other eye...

^^ Lol, well I think it's enough.

Thanks - would be nice! FryingMan, Xanous - from my beloved enemy-camp in the comp? What do you say - would be 5 points?

The text does not say it must be detached. If you "pulled it out and examined it", which is sounds like you did, then you satisfy the task IMO.

The people hath spoken. Wings it is!!

I had 3 LDs last night, and tried TOTM stuff. I succeeded with the basic language one. I tried the advanced castle I one for some reason. I did not know the story or characters, but thought I understood with warped dream reasoning. That dream had a few amazing visuals, but was a TOTM fail. Finally I succeeded in the photo shop bonus task. That went very well and I flew along a street picking cars to alter. I will update this post with links tomorrow after doing the DJ posts.

Originally Posted by sivason

I had 3 LDs last night, and tried TOTM stuff. I succeeded with the basic language one. I tried the advanced castle I one for some reason. I did not know the story or characters, but thought I understood with warped dream reasoning. That dream had a few amazing visuals, but was a TOTM fail. Finally I succeeded in the photo shop bonus task. That went very well and I flew along a street picking cars to alter. I will update this post with links tomorrow after doing the DJ posts.

I can't wait to read this!!

I may try the Sophie and Calcifer one, since sometimes I get back home from work feeling like I was Howl when he gets back exhausted after messing around with the bad guys...

Might try pulling just one out and see what it is like to look at myself, looking back at myself, looking at me looking back at myself..

I'm practicing being bad, I mean bad-bad.....

8/06
5:30 am .
I don't think this will count but I tried, I went to sleep thinking about Tasks and Germany and a girl was wrapped around me in a dusty room in Germany I guessed (No,I wasn't you ) And we were doing things to each other that the conscious mind could not even contemplate like sticking fingers in thru the skin to body parts to tickle and jiggle and we were a real mess and finally almost out of steam I pushed her away and she asked "Ist das alles ?" And I thought wait! That's a task, This must be a dream because humans can't do the things we were doing and I'm supposed to ask you to ask me that and then ask for an answer but I replied "Nein, Ist nicht alles" and lost any sign of lucidity as we returned to our sexual buggery until it evaporated in a cloud of brown dust and I was awake,,

edit. ps: That was after Midnight Ramens at 3am.