lucid

1. I forget under what circumstances it happens, but I do the nose pinch reality check and realize that I'm dreaming. I do the standard hand rub to stabilize, then see a window to the side of me. I have nothing better in mind, so I jump through it with ease and emerge on the other side into a winter scene. I start to fly and surge upwards through a cloud of snow. I realize that it's really rather cold, so I focus and summon a pair of gray wool pants. They appear in my hands with proper texture, and when I put them on they feel very soft and warm. I think about going into space, and as I look around I see a balloon ship. I fly over to it and fire up its engines, continuing to rise all the time. I try to change my clothes into a spacesuit, but I feel myself losing control...

I false awaken, and emerge into a scene where my mom and I are baking, with flour strewn everywhere. I ask nonchalantly if she was in the previous dream, and she responds that she's skilled enough to manage her own control. I talk excitedly about the concept of shared dreaming, admitting that it's probably "metaphysical bullshit."

2. I'm with some girl in a room that seems almost like a temple. Around a central altar, where we both are laying, are twelve pillars that correspond to the signs of the zodiac. She is initially very aggressive and defiant, but I calm her down and it seems like we go through a relationship in superfast motion with stages informed by zodiac signs.

3. I'm playing a game of hide and seek (using parkour to maneuver) on the Havana map of Call of Duty. My team has my brother and a couple of professional wrestlers, while my mom's team has her old friends. I eventually manage to track their last team member down and deliver the tag in a room from my own house.

1. I must have gone lucid spontaneously, as I don't recall making a reality check or even what came before the lucid moment. But in any case, I become aware that I'm dreaming in the guest room of my house. I start stabilizing by rubbing my hands on my sides, but I also remember a thread I recently read on DV. Apparently the poster had success stabilizing with a musical focus, so I start singing the third declension ending song from my high school Latin class. It really seems to help, and I walk from the guest room into my bedroom. My computer is set up on my desk and my lights are on, but I ignore them. I try to work on object summoning, as I have problems with that. I try to create a sword in my hands for dream fighting, and with my willpower I call into being an ill-defined brown colored katana. It's less vivid than the rest of the dream, but I do feel resistance as my hands grasp it and start going through some simple slashes. The blade moves with my moves, and I'm pleased with my progress. I decide to close out by flying, and I drop the sword to jump through my ceiling. There's a tremendous rush upward, a few stars in the sky, and then I wake up.

2. I'm walking home from Newport with C.W. when we run into a New Orleans-style funeral. Apparently it's being held by a guild of clowns, all dressed in white robes with red emoticon faces on them. Some are happy :-) and are playing saxophones, some are sad :-( and simply march. Some are wearing large red plastic necklaces in the shape of bananas. After walking with the procession a bit, we come across a group which is using those necklaces to play a lacrosse-type game.

I emerge from one dream, the contents of which are fairly blurry... I think they involved being attacked by a helicopter and a plane while on foot, and tricking the two into clipping their wings on nearby buildings. Anyway, after I wake up I notice I'm not turning around and maintain enough presence of mind to stay still and close my eyes. I relax and let sleep come back into me, and soon enough I realize that I'm in a dream state. It's a rather formless place, but when I start to think about what I'd like to do it begins to fill with a series of pipes for acrobatics. I soon find that the pipes are too closely placed, and I can't do the wide swinging arcs that I want to. Instead I focus and jump, and end up flying through the roof of the space. I emerge into a beautiful parklike area, with a large shining lake and forest all around, and I fly for a few moments before waking.

Sigh... I'm not posting enough to make the lucids happen, but I still get a couple. Oddly, I got two in one night, so I figured I should reinforce that.

1. I'm just sort of walking through my house when I realize I'm dreaming. There was either no reality check or I've forgotten it. I enter my kitchen and try to do a couple of turn-summons for different things, but nothing seems to be working. In frustration I go and eat a banana; the authentic taste and feel at least affirms my lucidity. I remember flying through walls in my last lucid and try to do that, but I thud inelegantly against my front door when I try a running start. I just open the door instead and finally do get to fly. I notice two girls on my front lawn, but on closer inspection they seem to be versions of the same, Suzie N. I knew from high school. One is dressed in black, the other in white, and I figure "What the hell" as I swoop in for an aerial makeout. It lasts a few seconds before I fade out.

2. Recall is horrible, but I distinctly remember being lucid, once more in my own kitchen.

Shit, it's been weeks since I last posted... I should get back on the train, and nothing better to do so with than a lucid.

The man in the house neighboring my childhood home has passed away. The dream goes into a sort of news-style overview of his life, complete with interviews from people who had known him in the past. He's apparently been a recluse for the past several years, his only intercourse with the world a mail slot through which he got movies, books, and food. The dream then cuts back to first-person as I start to explore his house. I enter his library, stacked floor to ceiling with books. As I look around, I notice that the titles on the spines are different every time I look at a particular shelf. I pass this reality check!

I start to walk around the house, leaving the library, and I enter into the hallway from my own house. I think about what I'd like to do, and decide I should try some dream combat. I try to turn-summon an awesome sword from the closet in the hallway, but for all I try nothing appears in my hands. I then decide I should do something before I lose lucidity, so I jump down the stairs and start to fly. I pass like a ghost through the wall, then pull up sharply in a breathless rise. It's nighttime, and the moon is huge and full. It illuminates a towering cloud that looks like the Grim Reaper! I get a couple of swoops and whirls in before I wake up.

1. I'm watching an old couple do a live broadcast of some comedic radio show. They only get a couple of lines in, the last of which is "He's always so polite," before I false-awaken into my bed. I start to write it down in my dream journal, when suddenly I hear "Habenera" from Carmen blaring in full orchestral beauty. This causes me to check my dream journal, and sure enough, my handwriting is unstable! I get lucid and try to stabilize, rubbing my hands together and feeling the bed beneath me. Things are solid and quite real feeling, and I try to engage as many senses as possible. I start thinking about where to take the dream while still stabilizing, and this continues for a good twenty seconds. However, I lose control before I'm able to do anything.

2. It's after the civil war, and my embarrassed family is ordering drinks from our former slaves who are now free employees of a restaurant.

1. I'm walking on the halls of the research station, and I see V coming back from a lover's tryst. As she climbs the stairs, her low-cut shirt reveals her cleavage, and I am overcome with jealousy. I then catch a glimpse of MB, living in a different room, and my vision zooms in on her computer, where she's texting a new interest.

2. V and I are playing D&D on the overpass of a local highway. Each of us pulls out a D20 and rolls, heedless of the cars streaking past us. I'm low to the ground, and as the dice stops, I notice the cursive 11 on its side slowly morphing into a 7. I PASS this reality check, and realizing I'm lucid, I manage to resolve the scene around me into waking-like focus and feeling. The pavement feels grainy and coarse, the sun is mildly hot, and I feel in perfect control of my arms and legs. Suddenly, she tells me to run for a football pass, and as she does I feel the ground beneath my legs and run. I feel the impact of the ball in my hands, and somewhat inspired by this, I do the turn-summon to place her in a cheerleader's outfit. It's blue and gold (colors with no particular importance) and very revealing. Confidently I stride up to her, and we engage in a passionate kiss. It feels just like waking life but when I try to turn things towards actual intercourse, I lose lucidity and fall out of the dream.

This seems to be a dream within a dream; I start playing Dungeons and Dragons at my research station, choosing the dwarf artificer as my character. Perspective quickly shifts to being the dwarf in a fantasy worldscape. I'm heading with my party into a mining town, which has as its access point an impressive tower that lowers into the mines. I enter and begin walking down the stairs to my assigned bunk. It seems to take ages, and as I pass the other adventurers who have already gotten bunks, I notice that their names are written on whiteboards in the style of a college dorm. All of them have names of people I know from my college, as well.
When I arrive at the bottom of the stairs, I find my real life name written on a board beside a bunk. The space is very spartan, and in the back of my head I wish there were a faucet to wash my hands. When I turn around, lo and behold, there is one! I remember the "turnaround summon" I've read about on the Dreamviews forums, and this reality check lets me realize that I'm dreaming. I get about a second or two of true lucidity as water pours over my hands, but after that I wake up. My eyes are still closed and I try fervently to get lucidity back, but the images I'm conjuring are just like those of a waking daydream and not the full-sense immersion of a lucid dream.