International Oneironaut Shared Dreaming Journal

Nephanim's Dreams

I woke up several times during the night, but I didn't make it out of bed to write down my dreams. I only remember some of them.

Murder Trial in the Swamp Valley

I was traveling across the country on foot. I stopped at a store to buy some food and ended up getting a handful of gummy bears. The guy at the register thought it was strange that I asked for a handful instead of a certain number, but I was just going to carry them until I finished eating them. After I paid for my gummy bears, I continued walking along a mountain road. I sensed that I was somewhere along the Texas-Louisiana border – although I’m not sure where there would be mountains in that area. The road barely had a shoulder, so I was walking really close to the cliff. Portions crumbled beneath my feet, but I was careful about where I put my weight. I met a guy with black hair who was also traveling on foot. When I told him I wanted to reach Houston before the night was through, he gave me a doubtful look. It was already deep into the night, and I’m sure I looked as tired as I felt.

The road curved, and I spotted a tall man in some kind of Neo-Egyptian armor. When we approached him, he announced that we weren’t permitted to go any further. The black-haired guy tried to walk past him anyway, and the armored man threw him off the cliff. Rather than endangering my life, I decided to carefully slide down the cliff. That way, I could check on the other guy and continue traveling in the valley below. Amazingly, the guy survived the fall. He pointed out a small village nearby, and we decided to stay there for the night.

The dream jumped. I was walking with him through the village the next morning. Apparently, there were riots all night long… The town’s mayor begged us not to judge the villagers based on their rioting. We had some kind of “Rate your experience!” form provided by the Department of Tourism. I assured the mayor that I would never judge his performance or the quality of our stay based on riots, but in reality, I’m sure I would. We walked into a garage, and the black-haired guy climbed into a corvette. He explained that he was responding to a crime report and invited me to come along.

The dream jumped. We drove up to the base of a tower. At this point, I figured we would get out and walk up the stairs to the rooftop. Instead, he drove into the building and up the stairs. The car had a clever suspension system that allowed him to pop the front into the air to get up stairs. We found Chelsea standing on the open roof. It was fairly high above ground level, so we could see the whole valley around us. It looked like there was some kind of marsh in the distance. The black-haired guy got another call from the police department. Allegedly, the murderer he was looking for had been sighted nearby. Chelsea joined us in the car as we drove back down the stairs to the ground level.

The dream jumped. We stopped at the edge of a swamp. There was nothing the corvette could do here, so I had to cross on foot. We used fallen trees and bits of trash that had been discarded here as stepping stones to move between patches of land. My parents and Austin joined in crossing the swamp. I was the first one to make it to the other side! While I waited for them to show up, I wandered into an outdoor trial of sorts. The judge was a woman in her early twenties. Her glasses made her look tired. She kept making oatmeal and eggs for people attending the trial. I soon realized that the man on trial was the alleged murderer from my friend’s report. The townspeople had captured him and put him in a wooden cage for his trial. Of course, the jury consisted of people who had been tasked with his capture, so I doubted it was really a fair trial… I ended up inside the cage somehow. When the judge asked what I thought of the man on trial, I said that I figured he was a murderer. He gave me a death glare.

The judge left to get some supplies to continue cooking. While she was gone, the murderer grabbed me by the throat. I thought I was going to die, but I didn’t really care. I was only distantly aware of any consequences associated with that. The judge came back, and he stopped immediately. She made some kind of omelette topped with cornbread for herself. I was surprised by how good this looked. The trial was put on hold to give her time to eat. In the meantime, the murderer broke out of his wooden cage and escaped.

Preparing for a Master's Program

I had just graduated from college. While riding in the back of a white truck somewhere in Europe, I explained to Apheri that I was considering going to Harvard for my master’s degree. They had a school in Belgium I could attend. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to specialize in, though… I supposed it would be a good idea to figure that out before applying anywhere. Apheri didn’t have any suggestions to offer.

Mount Khragastag, Dream Bank, and Borders

In this dream, my dad opened a dream bank on top of Mount Khragastag. It was built on top of a series of towers which were supported by a massive, stone bridge connecting the two halves of the mountain. I used the mountain as a way to improve my acrobatics. I kept jumping off the edge of the mountain and teleporting back to the summit. When I realized I could jump from a higher elevation if I climbed to the top of my dad’s bank, I wasted no time in getting up there. I couldn’t teleport up there until I had placed a tracer of energy on the roof, so I had to climb up the face of the wall first. My dad saw me and asked for my help with something. I told him I would be right back to help him. When I jumped, I realized the side of the mountain I was on wasn’t steep enough to help me with my acrobatics training… I hopped the rest of the way to sea level and circled around the mountain. From the side, it looked like an alligator standing on its hind legs.

I teleported back up to the bank and walked in to assist my dad. He was submitting forms online for dream accounts. The website was really confusing, and it looked like each form would take him hours to complete. Still, he said he would get $1000 for every dream account he opened. It seemed like a pretty good deal. I told him there wasn’t anything I could do to speed up the process; he would just have to follow the instructions carefully to prevent any wasted time. I ran toward the edge of the mountain and jumped.

The dream jumped. I was sitting in the grass with Autumn, my mom, and Chelsea. A couple of people were skydiving above us. Instead of parachutes, they had hang gliders. My awareness passed into the perspective of one of the hang gliding women. She kept thinking about how free she was in the air. It was a dreamlike experience for her – one that I was glad I had experienced myself. From her perspective, I could easily see Mount Khragastag looming over the forest. She gradually descended to the ground, weaving her way between the trees. When she landed, my awareness returned to my body. I pointed out the mountain on the horizon and told my mom about the dream bank. She didn’t believe it was really called Mount Khragastag. As I was explaining my dad’s dream bank idea, a significant portion of the bridge connecting the two halves of the mountain exploded. The debris was sucked away into another world. I zoomed in on the image of the bridge and saw a red-eyed creature with brown fur standing on it. It glared hatefully at me. Intuitively, I knew this was the guardian spirit of the mountain.

The dream jumped. I was shopping at Borders. I observed a conversation between a redneck and one of the employees working at a register. The redneck kept insisting that the employees shouldn’t talk to their customers; they were far too busy to distract themselves like that. Every time the guy at the register agreed with something he said, the redneck guy waggled a finger and warned him not to slack off.

“I’m gonna buy this Millhouse figurine,” he muttered, patting the Simpsons figurines on display affectionately. He wandered off to look at books. I did the same, although Autumn and I had already spent the majority of the money on the card. We only had a few dollars left. One of my friends picked out some hentai manga. For whatever reason, my dad had to buy it for him… I felt bad for my dad. Surely, he must have felt incredibly embarrassed when the woman at the register saw what he was buying. On our way out of Borders, I asked Autumn about the episode of King of the Hill where Hank is accused of renting pornographic films. I wanted to tell my mom about it. Unfortunately, Autumn wasn’t listening. We headed back to the car together.