International Oneironaut Shared Dreaming Journal

Nephanim's Dreams

Holy recall, Batman!

Austin's Driving and Blizzard in Texas

I wanted to help my mom at the grocery store while visiting my family in Texas, but since I didn’t have a car, there was no practical way for me to get there. To my surprise, Austin volunteered himself to drive. He had a tiny, red car of his own. Zooming out of the neighborhood at speeds ten miles per hour over the limit or more, he didn’t seem to care for slowing down in the roundabouts. He just swerved through them without even putting his foot on the brake. When we made it to the highway – still in one piece, amazingly – I discovered that he was the type of person to weave in and out of traffic to avoid following anyone. He cut a zigzag path through a number of trucks in a row. When we arrived at the grocery store, my mom was surprised to see us. I announced with pride that Austin had driven the whole way. Our mom was either impressed or horrified at the thought… I couldn’t decide which. Anyway, Austin drove back home alone, leaving me at the grocery store with my mom.

On the way home, Austin received a call from our dad. He told Austin to park at the nearest gas station and refill his tank. It wasn’t clear why he needed to do this; there was plenty of gas in it already. Regardless, Austin did as instructed. While he was refilling it, a powerful snowstorm blew in. Austin was separated from his car and couldn’t see well enough to get back to it. He wandered in the poor visibility of the storm until he found the glass windows of a car dealership. He stumbled inside. For the duration of the storm, it was being used as a homeless shelter. All of the cars had been moved somewhere else. Austin tried to contact our dad, but the cell phone networks were overloaded.

It was the worst blizzard Texas had ever seen. When it blew over, Austin headed right back to the car to pay for his gasoline. He hadn’t wandered far; the gas station was just a few minutes away from the car dealership. A police officer was parked right in front of his car. When he came close, Austin saw the officer standing beside the open fuel cap with a notepad. He was scrawling down notes and stuffing dollar bills into the fuel tank to plug it up.

“Hold on, I was just going to pay for that!” Austin shouted. The officer turned his head.

“Good,” he said. “How much is it?” Austin hurried over to the pump and checked the price on the display.

“$78…” he read in amazement. Considering how little gasoline he bought, that sounded a bit ridiculous. Observing this, I decided it was just because he left the pump in his tank. Austin paid for it with his credit card, and the police officer left when he displayed the receipt. He immediately called our dad to complain. Why had he asked Austin to do this? There must have been advance warning of the storm if the car dealership was cleared out for the homeless. It was as though he wanted Austin to freeze to death!

Ace is a Kasa

I was watching a spin-off of One Piece in which all of the characters were birds. For example, Ace was a kasa (Ragnarok Online). He had to fight a giant black bird for the water he needed to survive a harsh drought. The black bird was many times his size, but Ace had the benefit of fire. He shot blasts of flame at the bird. Despite its size, it was too fast for any of the attacks to connect. During the fight, a bunch of hawks rallied on Ace’s side. They wanted to rebel against the black bird’s tyranny. Autumn seemed to be worried about what would happen to Ace because of the main storyline, but I assured her he would be fine. This was another universe in which Ace was a flaming bird. What could go wrong?

A Collared Shirt, Pineapple Pizza, and Water

I went out to eat with my dad, Chelsea, and Austin. We all stood in the waiting area while we decided what we wanted to eat. I recalled that I ordered a beef burrito the last time we were here, so I wanted to try something different. I looked over the menu several times and couldn’t make a decision. I decided I wasn’t really that hungry… Instead of food, I wanted to get a collared shirt on display and a bottle of water. Austin asked my dad if he could get something, and my dad insisted that he would have to pay for it. This sparked a furious argument; Austin only had ten dollars, so he was one dollar short. He still had more money than me. As I approached the counter to order my shirt and drink, I noticed some pizza on display in the kitchen. One pizza used pineapple as toppings. I added two slices of pineapple pizza to my order. For some reason, I started eating something just as I began to order. This made communicating with the woman at the register quite difficult…

She quickly retrieved my food as Chelsea hopped around next to me. The pizza actually came in four slices, but three of them were tiny. I supposed someone messed up the proportions while cutting the slices. When she fetched the water bottle from a refrigerator behind the counter, she twisted off the cap and took a long chug. Only half of the water remained when she set it down in front of me. She gave me a strangely seductive smile.

“Sorry about that,” she said in a sweet voice, wiping the water from the corner of her lips. The apology meant nothing to me.

“If you’re sorry, why don’t you get me a full one? You can do whatever you want with this one, but now that you’ve put your mouth on it, it’s yours.” I paid the full price for my water. Why would I accept a bottle that was only half full?

The Luffy Effect

I was reading a research report posted on Dreamviews. The research revolved around a psychological phenomenon called the “Luffy Effect.” As the report described, this was a scenario in which one individual gradually gave into the advances of another. The author traced this back to the sculpting of a statue in Ancient Rome. He noted that in 2030, this statue would be accepted into a local museum – at which time the museum would also become a victim of the Luffy Effect. He suggested that this would mark the dawn of a new era of complacency. I didn’t understand what all this had to do with Luffy, though.

Apparently, the author’s evidence for the theory revolved around the assumption that our culture was the first to record dreams. Shortly after he posted it, Nomad replied to contradict the evidence. Plenty of ancient cultures discussed their dreams as part of tradition. Defeated, the researcher decided there was no basis for his claims.

Spider to Hermit Crab

I was in a small room inside a much larger building with Autumn. We found a spider trapped under a pebble, and Autumn saved it. The spider announced telepathically that we were now its best friends. Pleased by this, Autumn decided to prod the spider with her finger. I urged her not to – oddly enough, I was concerned that we didn’t know what its “programming” was. It seemed reasonable that the spider’s claim of friendship was really just a ploy. The moment a chance to bite Autumn opened up, it would seize the opportunity.

Then again, when she poked it, the spider turned into a hermit crab and hid in its shell. It seemed far more harmless than I originally expected.

Taking Symphony to Chichen-Itza

I was riding on a bus back to my campus. I recalled going to an 11:25 AM class earlier that day, but when I really thought about it, I felt like I should’ve had my 10 AM class instead. I checked the time. It was nearly 1 PM! I groaned at the thought of missing a class in the first week. I turned to Kunle who sat beside me and began explaining the situation. He interrupted me for an “urgent” announcement.

“Listen, when we get back to our room, I really need to use the bathroom,” he said.

“Okay… So?”

“So we don’t have any toilet paper. I would ask Sun, but he’s like that, you know?” Who? I puzzled at him. “Maybe we could stop at Target or something…”

“I’d love to tell you I can help, but now’s not the time.” Kunle nodded, smiling uneasily. I slumped back in my seat. “Wait… What day is today? Isn’t it Saturday? I don’t have class on Saturday!” I exclaimed. I checked my hand. There was nothing weird about it, but why else would I be going to school on a Saturday? I was obviously dreaming. I could feel the difference in the way my mind interfaced with the world around me. I turned to Kunle and announced that we were in a dream.

“Of course we are,” he laughed, agreeing with me. “Didn’t you know?”

“Jerk,” I teased. I punched him in the face. I gave him a noogie, too. “I love how rough your hair is. It makes this dream noogie even better.” I squeezed past him and turned to the guy sitting in the seat in front of ours. It was one of the guys from the room connected to mine. I punched him a few times for good measure. The feeling of his jaw colliding with my knuckles reinforced the bus environment around me. I decided not to torment the poor dream character too much… Fortunately, when I smiled at him and Kunle, they both smiled back as though I’d never hit them. “I’m leaving now. Take care!’

As they bid me farewell, I opened the door and jumped out of the bus. I let myself tumble end over end in the grass, changing the dreamscape. I remembered my goal to reach Chichen-Itza tonight. When my imagery returned, I was in a long, rainbow-colored tube. I could see individual particles whizzing by in both directions. Just by willing it, I would be whisked either way. I willed myself forward in the rainbow tube. In the distance, I could see something blue…

“Symphony!” I called. She rapidly approached after that, and I had an instantaneous view of her dazzlingly detailed appearance before she slammed into me. Her short, blue hair caught in the illogical wind of the tube-shaped space. Her bells gave a sharp jingle as we glided backward together. “I knew I would find you along the way. We’re supposed to go together, right?” She replied… but in Japanese.

“Okay, seriously,” I demanded. “What’s with all the Japanese lately?!” She said one more thing in Japanese – as if to question my claim that she was speaking in another language – but then she processed the mistake and corrected it.

“My apologies,” the robot said, her face an inch from my own. She eased backward to restore my personal space, much to my gratitude. She was wearing her black uniform again. The bow above her chest was neatly tied, and the white stripes on her sleeves, her torso, and her skirt were as pristine as though it had never been worn. “Which way is Chichen-Itza?” Symphony asked, glancing back and forth. I was almost too excited to see her again to respond.

“It doesn’t matter,” I finally explained. “Both ways will take us there. This space exists to bring us to Chichen-Itza.”

“Acknowledged,” she said, but I was already whizzing by her. I grabbed Symphony’s hand and accelerated rapidly down the rainbow tube. The colors began to blur together into a blazing white. We went faster and faster… Then, in an instant, we were flooded in light as we passed through the portal at the end of the tube. For a few moments, I found myself in darkness. I took some time to confirm that I was still asleep. I had no imagery – not even the view of the back of my eyelids. Since it should have been morning, I reasoned that I would be processing some kind of light if I was awake. I was definitely still dreaming.

My patience paid off. Before long, Symphony and I spilled out of our portal. We tumbled about thirty feet and landed gracelessly on top of Chichen-Itza. I hit the stone structure pretty hard. Symphony didn’t seem to notice her impact. When I sat up, Nomad and another person (whose gender seemed to change from male to female every few seconds) were standing over us like sentinels. They stared off into the distance as though they hadn’t noticed our arrival.

Table for One and a Half

There’s no way for me to tell whether this dream took place before or after I went back to sleep. I’ll just assume it took place after visiting Chichen-Itza.

I walked into a restaurant by myself. The tables were set up for couples, but I was there by myself. I glanced at some of the curtains drawn around tables. It would’ve been a really romantic place to take Autumn, I thought… What a shame that I was alone. The restaurant was built in a plus shape with a central ballroom and four adjacent dining areas. There were a few people waltzing around on the dance floor. A brown-haired woman in a black uniform approached me with a menu.

“Is there anyone else with you this evening?” she asked. I smiled wearily.

“No, just me,” I said, reliving the chain of associated thoughts that brought on. She did her best to hide her pity, but I could steal read it in her eyes as though it had been printed for all to see. The waitress led me to a candlelit table and set the menu down in front of me.

“Just call me when you’re ready to order,” she said with a warm smile. I gave a nod in return. I glossed over the menu, but nothing really seemed appetizing. I couldn’t decide why I had even come here. It certainly wasn’t to eat. The waitress came back around shortly after and drew the curtain around my table closed. She slipped through and took a seat opposite me. I hadn’t noticed until now, but she had changed into a beautiful white dress with bronze beads dangling from her shoulders. She put her hands in her lap. “They gave me the rest of the evening off work. Do you mind if I sit here?”

“Not at all,” I assured her. Her face looked oddly familiar, but I didn’t recognize it.

Efficiency in a Dream within a Dream

I was in the living room with Autumn, presumably well into the day. I explained how I had a lucid dream involving Chichen-Itza. I had to explain that it was an objective for the IOSDP and where it was located. She acted like she had never heard of it before. Anyway, I went into detail about how Symphony came to me in the rainbow tube. I also recounted a number of dreams that I can only vaguely recall now. I don’t think I actually had most of them last night; rather, I just thought I did.

One involved sitting at a fancy restaurant alone. That was an obvious reference to the dream I had immediately before this one. There was another that seemed to involve skiing… Then another in which I drowned a child in a pool of water. Eric came into the room and set up some kind of hose system by drawing it on the wall. The hose came to life, and when he turned the faucet, water started spraying out of the wall. I grabbed the hose and pointed it at him. He just drank the water in gulps. I tried to get Eric to stop so we wouldn’t have water flying all over the living room, but every time I erased his drawings on the wall, he just made new ones. I finally drew a patch over his mouth to prevent him from drinking the water. He gave up and left the room.

Autumn continued watching TV while I lay at her feet with a blanket. I thought back to my dreams and found myself gradually dozing off. A dream within a dream began. Portions omitted. I woke up once, thought about writing down that dream, and then really awakened.

Razor Blades, a Pistol, and Fuzzy Memories

I was in prison for who-knows-what. My gun had been taken from me along with all of my belongings. As I lay on the bottom of the bunk bed the prison facility provided us with, my thoughts were mainly focused on how I couldn’t reach out to Symphony. I couldn’t remember what had just happened a short time ago, but it had been important for me to recreate the experience. I complained to the inmate on the upper bunk about my inability to direct my dreams.

“Shut up already,” he grumbled back. I supposed I had bothered him enough about this. As the prison warden walked by my cell, I saw myself from her perspective. I had short, black hair and golden eyes.

“Wait!” I demanded, leaping out of bed. My inmate looked over the edge at me with disgust. The warden stopped in her tracks and turned to face me.

“What is it, scoundrel?” she hissed. The two armed guards behind her pointed their weapons at me. I thought it was pretty silly since I was behind bars. I had a flash of another environment. Lauren and another girl were watching TV.

“It’s Takizawa!” Lauren announced. I realized I looked a lot like the male lead of Eden of the East. The imagery changed back to the prison, but I returned to my own body.

“Can I have my gun back?” I asked.

“Absolutely not,” one of the guards with the warden answered.

“Come on, just for a second. There’s this thing you put on me that really hurts.” I started unzipping my pants, and the warden glared at me. She pulled a pistol out of her pocket and tossed it through the bars. I caught it in one hand. I took my pants off and looked around for a moment. “What about my bag?”

“What about it?” the warden asked, tapping her foot.

“I need that, too.” She rolled her eyes.

“Fetch his bag, please…” she continued. The guards seemed hesitant, but one eventually left to retrieve it. While he did that, I studied the frustrated looks my cellmate was giving me. He didn’t enjoy all the commotion. The door to our cell opened, and the guard threw my bag at me. I caught it in my arms and went into one of the pouches to get my razor. I took it apart inside the bag and grabbed a few of the components. When I was satisfied that I had everything, I put the razor back together. I didn’t realize the warden was standing over me.

“What are you doing?!” she shouted. I thought I had been caught at first. “That’s an expensive razor! Now it’s ruined!” She took it out of the bag and pointed at one of the blades sticking out at an awkward angle. “Are you going to shave with this? Of course not, you’ll cut yourself. I told you not to put it in your bag like that.” I had no idea what she was talking about. Anyway, I had already checked that the gun was loaded, so I stood and pointed it at the warden’s head. The guards were outside the cell – too far away to do much except hold their guns at me.

“Shoot me if you want, but I’ll take her with me.”

Motorola Commercial - Man on the Run

Ben sent us an email about his plans for making a commercial for Motorola. As soon as I heard the idea, I began dreaming of an overweight black man running across the highway in front of my old high school while inspirational music played. His wife stood in the schoolyard with her hands over her mouth, terrified that her husband was going to be killed. The cars whizzed past him, narrowly missing him. He kept struggling to get over a green fence separating the feeder road from the highway itself – mainly because I was in charge of his footwork. When he got onto the highway, he couldn’t get past a motorcycle in time and decided to try outrunning it instead. It didn’t work. He had to jump over the motorcycle to prevent being mowed down. I had my doubts about a man running fast enough to keep up with any vehicle on the highway, but it seemed to be working, so I didn’t think about it for long. The same thing happened with a red pinto.

After all of this, I found myself back in bed and assumed I had awakened. Autumn commented that it would make a great commercial. She felt that Ben and I should really go into advertising. At the time, it really seemed like a good idea, but I’m not sure what message the commercial conveyed about Motorola products…

Like Star Fox and Carnival Corpse

I was playing a game similar to Star Fox in Autumn’s bedroom. The desk had been moved to the south wall of the room. My parents were sitting together at the dining room table. At first, I had my headphones on so they wouldn’t hear the game, but my dad made me take them off because I couldn’t hear him talking to me. I played through sixteen levels. I didn’t realize I was on the last level until Autumn told me I was close to the end. I paused the game in the middle of it because my mom was disturbed by the violence in the game and the offensive script. The male pilots were talking about prostitutes and all the things they’d do with their women when they got back home. I offered to put my headphones back on, but I was certain my dad wouldn’t allow it since he made me take them off. Surprisingly, he decided that was fine.

My mom expressed her concerns that I had something school-related to attend today since it was Saturday. I assured her that wasn’t a problem; I even had a lucid dream the previous night about it. I forgot to finish the last level before I turned the game off and switched to the next one. Autumn didn’t say anything until I mentioned it. She said she was going to ask to play after me. Honestly, I didn’t perceive much of the game’s storyline. I missed the opening cutscene, and the rest was just chatter between the pilots. I had no idea what was going on. That made it much less painful to realize I’d fallen a few minutes short of completing the game.

The second game was based on Deadman Wonderland’s Carnival Corpse. It was an MMORPG with infinite character advancement. I accidentally made a male character when I really meant to recreate Symphony… I kept looking for a way to redo the character, but I supposed I would have to reset the game and make a new account. The world rankings were posted on a wall in the lobby. They didn’t say anything about the characters’ levels or stats, just the player name and rank. I found them difficult to read until I stood really close. The letters were out of focus.

While looking through all the information provided by NPCs in the lobby, I discovered that advancement matches were a two-versus-two affair. I would need a second character if I wanted to be competent at all. A group of two overheard me talking with the NPC about this and snickered. They said they would love to take me by myself. I wasn’t at all tempted. In a game like this, that would be suicide. I found an option to go to a waiting area for people who wanted to pair up on a team. There were some seventeenth-century English women in one room, Egyptian belly dancers in another, and a bunch of rooms with locks on them. I supposed I would have to level up to access those. At any rate, I decided to wait and come back to the game sometime later.