Recent DJ Posts

non-dream dream semi-lucid lucid FA / AP

With dad and uncles, near their hometown, looking for a place to lunch. They tell me there is a place where they have vegan empanadas, but on arrival the restaurant employees try to convince me to eat fish and they have nothing remotely vegan, so I am upset. We all hear a big noise of planes in the sky, something beyond normal, so we all go outside to the town square and look up to the sky. It's cloudy and we can't see anything. Almost feels like we're at war and we will be bombed. I honestly start feeling afraid. Then one plane comes down through the clouds and starts making strange maneuvers at very low altitude. Actually it looks more like a UFO, not like any plane we know. It's triangular, but not solid, more like a tube structure with two cylindrical deposits on each side and a kind of spear in the front. It hovers over the square and seems like it is scanning us. Then makes loops and plunges into the middle of the people, almost killing some with the spear in the front. We are starting to think this thing is trying to kill us.

I am like in Brussels, but not the actual city I know, more like a conceptual version of it. My mom is visiting me. She is upset, because she saw a puppy in danger in the middle of a road nearby but could do nothing to help him. We get on a bus and we pass by a roundabout close to that location and we see the puppy innocently playing in the middle of the traffic. Then I spot two other puppies on another street and then more dogs. Seems there are a bunch of stray dogs around here. Something I had never seen in Brussels before. There is nothing we can do with so many dogs.
I then go stay at some guest house. My mom is not with me anymore. The place is really posh and all guests are highly educated civilized people. I feel a bit awkward among them, but all the people are nice to me and I make good friends there. Then some lady in a white suit, played by Kate McKinnon, comes by one day and gathers some of us. I learn that some of my friends have extraordinary powers and she is coming to ask them to join forces, Avengers-style. I am also being called in. I am ok with that, but she wants us to leave immediately, and has a van outside waiting for us. I claim that I still have to pack my things and need time. She says there is no need for that, snaps her fingers and a servant comes with a small trolley with stuff for me. I claim that's not even 1/10 of my stuff. She says it is sufficient. I argue I won't leave without my stuff, at least I need to take more than a couple clothing options and a few more shoes, if we're going on missions around the world. Also, I need my gadgets and all my personal irreplaceable items. So they allow me to go pack, if I am fast, but then I take ages.... I find a bunch of food rotting in a lunchbox I forgot about, lots of half consumed chocolate bars. I take it all to the kitchen and start throwing things away. Then a couple of my friends who don't know I am leaving, invite me to some things and I have to decline and explain why. I offer them the chocolates. And then I think "it's been a lot of time and I still haven't packed a single clothes, the others must be gone by now".

I remember that a previous LD involved me having to report in to a jail (um, juvenile detention facility) for a day, and I decide that sounds like an interesting dream plot. I warp the road that I'm driving down until it leads to a fictional location.

This is a bad part of town, so I'm trying to chain down the bike that I'm now riding so that both the wheels are locked and it's attached to a concrete structure. I head inside and explain some of my health issues to the receptionist, and then I'm stuck in the waiting area with a book (a new fantasy series by J. K. Rowling!)

I have to go back outside, though, because I'm not sure that I actually finished bolting my bike down. Sure enough, when I go outside, it's gone. Now there's a gang of some kind attacking... not the facility itself, but the people around it. I think it's a raid to steal all the bicycles.

One of the gang members comes after me, and I pounce on him. "And what are you after, huh?" I ask, looking deep into his eyes. I take him down.

The other gang members back down after I defeat their leader. I let them limp away, and go back into the building.

I chat with Sadie, a friend from real life, and then I'm called into an office that belongs to the head of the facility. The warden walks into the room, and she throws down a series of print-outs that explain why the conversation that I was having with Sadie indicates that I'm a spy.

(I'm secretly a SHIELD agent. I wonder if Sadie forgot to add up her character stats correctly again... that would explain the flubbed deception check.)

I play innocent. And then I realize that somehow, I'm going to become the warden.

So now I'm the warden, destroying my own facility because it reeks of pure evil. It's an easy job once the building is evacuated: the warden actually murdered the people who built the facility, so their spirits are perfectly willing to unmake the place during their escape. I destroy the stained glass wards leading to the outside world, and some spirits are quick to flee.

Others will want their vengeance. I sit down, cross-legged, and calmly wait for them to find me.

Waking up after a dream that your husband was kidnapped? Quite a relief.

Having to tell him that we might have been inducted as part-time members of the Wild Hunt? Maybe not so awesome.

***

Cernunnos (KER noo nohss): the Celtic Horned God.

Ravana (rah-vuh-nuh): antagonist in the Hindu epic Ramayana, follower of Shiva, king of Lanka, and depicted as having ten heads.

***

I'm standing at a window, looking out into the forest. It's midday, and sunlight streams down onto the meadow that leads from the trees to the house.

Movement. A deer appears, walking confidently from the forest. He has ten heads, all of them focused down the road beyond the house.

I'm kneeling at the window as the deer goes by, close enough to touch. He's almost gone past. I hesitate, then tap on the glass.

All ten heads swivel towards me, ten pairs of eyes focused on me, just beyond a thin pane of glass. I flinch at the idea that I'm getting the attention of this king of the forest the same way that disrespectful children get the attention of animals at the zoo.

I'm sorry to bother you, I tell him. I saw you, and I know I'm not supposed to. I thought you should know.

He stares for a moment. Then, a few of his heads dipping to look back down the road, he tells me:

Come with me.

***

We're at a bar. In the interim, I've learned more about our world's masquerade, been inducted into a secret society, and given my husband the necessary introductions.

"At one point," my husband tells me, "Four of his heads swivelled around to look at me." His implication, it was creepy, remains unsaid. This is a supernatural bar, after all, and the king of the forest is never too far away.

"He gave you half his attention," I say, tapping on my glass. "Imagine having one hundred per cent of it on you."

I shiver at the memory of ten pairs of eyes looking into my soul.

***

Not even 24 hours, I think to myself. Not even long enough for the police to get involved.

And yet here I am, asking for a god's audience—to demand help to find my missing husband. Because I know that they've taken him.

The king holds his court under the stars. He stands in the centre of the dais in anthropomorphic form, wearing dark maroon robes. I can feel the weight of his many eyes on me... but it feels like a weight has been lifted off of my chest. The decision has already been made. I can breathe.

I need access to the network of cameras along the highway, I tell the god. They may be a long way from here by now, but even they would need to stop for gas.

The heads that are looking my way nod in recognition, and the god raises a hand on his left side, a soft movement gesturing at the man behind him.

I'm standing at the railing, the scrutiny of the court no longer resting with me (but watching, always watching). The man in the suit (the god's left hand) looks down his nose at me, a faint sneer on his face. New favourites of the god already asking for favours, I can practically hear him think.

I'm calm, going through the motions with the mechanized precision of a person in mid-crisis. (Fight or flight or solve the goddamn problem.)

"Thank you for seeing me," I tell him, even though we both know he had no choice in the matter. And then I change gears. "I'll need one of your techs to go through the footage with me. I can't do it myself this time—"

this time, because that's the world we're now a part of

"—but next time this happens to one of our people, I'll be able to help."

A flash of emotion across his face, too quick to identify, and his eyes warm somewhat. "I'm {error

"-Anderson," he says, catching my hand in a firm handshake. "Welcome to �����."

I drive a motorcycle across my hometown, and realize I forgot my helmet. Oh well. I'm also carrying a baked potato in my jacket pocket, and it's falling apart.

---

A nest of vampires in an otherwise benign-looking place, like a post office or a government building. S has warned me, but I come back anyway.

Vampires are repelled by objects of faith (Dresden Files), but unlike the stereotype, they don't need to be Christian symbols. The eldest vampire stalks towards me, and I have my pendant in my hand (the question: does the onyx within it represent me or the people I believe in, because I don't necessarily have faith in myself...) and I strike, pressing the pendant into the vampire's skin. It sizzles and burns, the vampire trying to get away, shrieking.

It's cries draw the other vampires, and I draw back to swing a fist, my Celtic ring coming into contact another vampire.

Later, I'll be asked if we can do an empirical test to determine whether the gold of the ring or the silver of the pendant was more effective against vampires.

---

"Who's your commanding officer?" demands a formidable looking black man with a military bearing.

"I don't know yet."

"Good answer," he tells me. He is my commanding officer.

When a small group comes to tell me I'll be joining them, I look back to him.

"Sir?" I ask, and he instructs me to join the group.

We board a plane. There are more than a dozen seats left when I come in, but one of my squadmates is arguing with a blond, thinner man who's already seated.

"These are for the paratroopers," says the seated man. "We don't have any seats for you."

I approach and tell him that we're assigned to this plane, and will be taking some of the seats. He is angry, but we end up seated, anyway.

I'm sitting next to a superior officer who's played by an actor I can't remember the name of. He's a heavier-set black man and he asks roundabout questions about my place in -- and loyalty to -- our shadowy organization. I tell him I will do what needs to be done.

The plane is in the air. I stand up and walk down the aisle. "It's time," I say to one of my squadmates as I walk past. She's a darker-skinned woman with long, curly hair.

We're in the air now. The six members of the squad are gliding towards our destination using wingsuits, flying through the chilled air.

"We can make it the whole way," the woman I was talking to says over the comms.

"Negative," I say. "We're losing altitude. Chutes on my mark; aim to land at the planned point."

I see a red plume of light indicating where we should land.

"And... NOW!"

We deploy our parachutes and land on the ice next to an island. Before I know it, we have skates on and are making our way towards the shore.

A red pickup truck meets us. We put skate guards on our skates and a few of us climb into the cab, the rest getting into the back of the truck. I'm making plans with the driver.

Scare factor: 5/10. Lots of fun and adventure, felt in control of the narrative the entire time, despite not being lucid.

EDIT for new rating system (and formatting colour):

Adventure: 8/10
Control: 8/10
Fear: 2/10

I don't think I've been getting email notifications for the past few days. Weird.

09/08/10



Ixburg, SK

2000

He's killed, just like that. His daughter, seven years old, is alone in their apartment across town. I'm the daughter.

I slip from the bed, tiny and blonde and short-haired, and push open the door to the rest of the apartment. Somehow, I'm not surprised to see a man there. The man is stocky and blond, and I can see that he's grinning when the orange light from the window hits his face.

I incline my head. "Sir." I say, my voice neutral.

He grins wider and nods back. I step back into the doorway of my bedroom, and he brushes past me into the bright light of the hallway.

He'll be back, if only to keep an eye on me. I need to leave.

Originally Posted by DreamViews DC

It really doesn't count for the RPG if you make up the stories while you're awake.

Originally Posted by Samael

That's why I'm posting in this thread, isn't it? You know, the planning thread. Plotting thread. Where we plot.

I'm incubating a dream, okay?

Originally Posted by DreamViews DC

You still have to write your character profile, btw.

Originally Posted by Samael

...I'm going to finish the story now.

Unknown, IL

2010

I'm a man in a black suit, sitting in the back of a black car, which is driving to the outskirts of a town in Illinois. And we're in Illinois, of course, because the Organization tracked an Extranormal here. One false move, one positive test, and suddenly Jane Doe (Age 17, Grade 12, parents work from home) is about to be assassinated by a team of armed government goons.

It's funny. Extranormals can't strictly be barred from going to school, or holding regular jobs. Hell, they can even travel. Different countries have different restrictions, of course, but the good ol' US of A is all about liberty. The Organization can track them, though. Legality's a little fuzzy, but some real dangerous ones pop up occasionally. What to do with them?

Here's the thing: Extranormals go crazy all the time. They lose control of their powers and suddenly they're either a human icicle or a pile of ashes. Most of the time they take innocent bystanders with them. It's really no problem at all to fake a meltdown. Kill the EN, murder all the bystanders, blow shit up. It's easy.

This one's powers are a little more subtle, so no flashy special effects. Fortunately, ENs tend to be a little crazy to begin with, so it wouldn't be unheard of for one to suddenly... snap. Possibly kill her entire family with a butcher knife. Double murder-suicide, neat and clean.

The man in the passenger seat has the knife.

We pull up the gravel driveway. The other three men silently open their doors and step out. I hide a grin by turning toward the empty road as I step out of the car. No one's coming.

The plan is to enter the house and kill the parents, then ambush the girl when she comes home from school.

Neat and clean.

Except.

Her father died ten years ago.

Her mother died even before that.

And Jane Doe is a really stupid pseudonym.

The only person in the house is the lodger who rents out the basement. That lodger is an Extranormal himself, a young black man who's trying to lie low. Obviously, that's not working out.

I can sense him in the front entrance of the house, ready to attack the first man who comes in. I give the all-clear to the other men.

The man with the knife kicks open the door and walks into an ambush. I shoot the other two in the back.

Once upon a time, there was a man in a black suit. The man was supposed to sit in the back of a black car, and break into a house, and help murder an entire family. While he was still alive, this man used to really hate shapeshifters.

Scare Factor: 3/10
Rating: 6/10