Recent DJ Posts

Once again, I'm in a video game-esque world; or at least, the graphics in this world is good ol' early 90's DOS, 256-colors game. We (as in my party, who are comprised of 2D sprites -- looks like we are in an SRPG game) have just hit the Sad Ending, and the female protagonist is going to be lost to another dimension in an act of self sacrifice. Only, she suddenly realizes that she can totally get out of this predicament, and yep, we are suddenly in Good Ending, complete with a big boost in graphics as we hit an FMV sequence. I'm not sure how/why, but now we are flying around on a big airship (that acts as our party's camp, I assume) overlooking mountains and plains, and a pack of birds is celebrating with us. It would not feel out of place in a Final Fantasy FMV sequence. Then blurriness.

Dream two has me acting as the older brother of two poor orphans who I named Kate and Sam. Kate is older (I want to say 8-9 years old), has perfect curls, and is dressed in a patched down jacket that reaches down to her knees. Sam is maybe 4 or 5, carries a teddy bear in one hand (while holding on to Kate with the other) while wearing a faded onesie. They look like pathetically cute ragamuffins.

Oh, and apparently, I'm a ghost in this scenario, and only Kate and Sam can see me. So I go around watching over them as they struggle in the middle of winter in a grim-looking city. At one point, we are in a small market at the meat section, and an old man that resembles/played by Jonathan Banks tries to buy food -- a package of uncooked chicken drumsticks and chicken breasts -- for them, only I Ghost-slap the food out of his hands in anger. Apparently, Dream Knowledge fills me in that this old man is a detective, and I am agitated because I guess he wasn't able to prevent my death/overlooked my murder/I'm a dick.

The dream switches to the outside of an alleyway, and I'm also able to communicate with the detective now. We seem to have put our differences aside, and he even has decided to take in Kate and Sam to watch over as his own. But before we can get to the Happy Ending, we have to take down a mobster nicknamed "Leek," like the vegetable. Apparently, he is the one who is responsible for my death. Sadly, the dream fades before I find out what happens.

Oh no, wait, yes I do -- my subconscious ripped off the plot from The Crow, so I have a pretty good idea what happens.

This was the third of my LDs from early Christmas morning. This WILD was rather nightmarish, but in the end pretty amazing. Hands down, the most hostile DCs that I've encountered.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #50: The Gauntlet of Greed

The WILD drops me into a wood-paneled room. There's a door in front of me, and behind me is a frosted glass window through which sunlight illuminates the room. In the middle of the room is a huge, square pile of $100 bills. It has to be, at minimum, something like $30 million. Probably more.

Someone starts shouting and hammering on the door. I feel grasping and suspicious that it's someone who is after my money. They slip a note under the door that simply reads, "You're broke, bitch." I should find this funny, but instead I feel insulted, entitled and petty. Not in my LD, not when I'm sitting on this much cash. There's a chorus of angry voices outside of the door now and fists and feet are slamming into the door. It's about to rattle off the hinges.

I throw the door open and I'm stunned to see a broad hallway filled with literally hundreds of hostile dream characters. The enraged mob (all male) is armed to the teeth, aggressive and bristling with guns. Somebody punches me in the face just as a mobster aims a lupara-style sawed-off shotgun at me. The crowd howls, and I see AKs, handguns, machine pistols, and every other manner of gun pointing my way.

They open fire and I feel a spray of bullets trace across my body. Buckshot rakes the left side of my face. Everything is chaos as stray bullets rip into DCs, who fall to the floor and are trampled by the others as they run toward me. I know that nothing can hurt me but I'm still gripped with aggression, fear and nervous energy. A man in a trench coat is unlucky to get close and I punch him as hard as I can. He goes flying, crashes into the wall, and lies still.

The chaos is getting to be too much for me and I feel lucidity slipping. I hate that I'm fighting and the madness of the whole situation dawns on me. Am I even sure that this is my money? Do I really want to go to war with some unknown element of my subconscious over this worthless pile of dream cash? I decide to just walk forward, leave the money behind, and separate myself from the riot going on all around me.

DCs continue to run past, firing at me and occasionally striking me with fists and feet, but as more and more of them run into the room behind me, the hallway ahead clears out. I hear some kind of frantic melee going on in the money room but I ignore it. The few remaining DCs that run past now ignore me and as I continue forward through the hall, I soon find myself alone. I feel calm again, and the thought of the Pyramid refocuses me on my goals.

I pass a large window on my right that gives me a view into a busy newsroom. Reporters run excitedly from desk to desk but I don't investigate further. The exit is up ahead, and I find that it is the same set of automatic doors from the last dream. I again imagine that the Great Pyramid lies just beyond the door, but this time the dream fades just as I approach the doors.