Wednesday, December 13, 2023

"Pressure on the Wound" - 12/17/2016

"Pressure On the Wound"
12/17/2016
Dream #2

I was laying in bed with my girlfriend and, for some unknown reason, I had the worst pain in my left hip. It was absolutely excruciating. It felt like I had either been shot or had my hip bone broken before my recollection of the dream began. (In terms of what I have ever experienced in dream pain, this was definitely Top 2 or 3.) I was crying out and writhing in agony, cradling the unknown wound with my hands, the best I could.

My girlfriend, though, thought my torment was absolutely hilarious. She began to poke and prod my hip with her hands, relishing in every wince and flinch I performed while trying to keep her away from me. I was helpless, however, as I couldn't even move from where I was, without having to deal with another round of some of the worst pain I had ever felt. 

Secure in the fact that I wasn't going anywhere, and obviously excited by my disability, my girlfriend (who is a martial artist, IRL), pulled out her cellphone and leaned back on one side of the bed, propping her feet up across my torso as if I were a stack of throw pillows, and making herself completely comfortable. Through the whimpers of my unrelenting pain, I heard her dialing up a fight agent, scheduling a MMA fight against me, knowing that I was at a handicap and I would be in no condition to even hold my own in a fight - let alone win one. I remember feeling betrayed and continuously trying to reach out and take the phone from her - only to have to pull back, each time - and doubling over in pain once more.

(I woke up writhing in bed, as she was trying to console me after having witnessed me struggling during the dream. She told me that she could see that I was having a nightmare and wanted to make sure I was ok. Reluctantly, I told her about what had been going on. I could tell she was a little disconcerted, but she took it rather well.

Also, I've started working out and taking multi-vitamins again, so my dreams are becoming more frequent - and possibly more intense - than they have been, lately, which usually happens when I start making certain changes during waking life.)

"The Thin Lucid Line" - 12/24/2016 (Lucid)

"The Thin Lucid Line"
12/24/2016
Dream #2
(Lucid)

I was out for some good times with friends, and there was an attractive woman that just kind of fell into our group, after a while, along with some of her male and female friends. The woman and I had been getting along really well, and one of her friends was continuously trying to hook her up, but we all knew that there was going to be nothing going on between us. Throughout the day, I had been driving, and I vaguely remember stopping into a grocery store, before we all went to an apartment complex.

The sun had just gone down, when a group of maybe 8 of us were walking through the parking lot, and two of the guys - one white, one black - decided to play, what they referred to as "a prank". They, then disappeared behind one of the buildings. A few seconds later, a woman comes running out from one of the hallways, screaming for the police, just as a patrol car 'happened' to be pulling into the complex.

Naturally, we all scattered and attempted to evade the police. While running through the parking lot, I'd begun to suspect that I was dreaming. Taking one huge leap, I launched myself into the air, and nearly touched the roof of one of the tall apartment buildings, slowly descending back toward the ground. Trying to keep myself calm and get my bearings within the dream state, I took another jump, just a bit more focused, and touched-down to the rooftop. I, then, flew across the parking lot, to the rooftop across from the building I was once on. (I had originally wanted to do the 'Lucid Task of the Month' but I had completely forgotten, by this point.) Now, assured that I was dreaming, I went back down to find my group.

The cops had everyone rounded up. There were two black cops and one white one - the two black cops acting nonchalant and, ridiculously enough, carrying basketballs as if they were trying to appeal to us level (while being racial stereotypes, obviously). They started putting us in their cruiser and the white cop turned to me and started making bigoted remarks. Still lucid, I just laughed at him and said something smart, in return. Becoming instantly defensive, the cop pulled out his gun and shot me in one leg. It felt like a light punch, and ultimately didn't faze me at all, in terms of pain. The act was, though, irritating, and it caused me to laugh directly in his face, at his futility.

I said something like "you fool! This is a dream. This is My dream! You think you can hurt me, here??" I then held up one hand and challenged him to shoot me in the hand, just to prove to him (read as: myself) that I could override the pain. He looked at my hand, and back at me...and then he shot me multiple times in the Legs, again. It caught me a little off-guard, but I focused on ignoring the pain and what little discomfort came about had immediately disappeared.

Again, his defiance irritated me, but caused me to laugh at him through grit teeth. I was just just about to go completely OP'd on him, when I felt the dream beginning to fade away. I didn't even try to fight waking up, though, even though I would have enjoyed tormenting this DC, and I just let the dream slip away while I awoke.




---------------------------------
I've noticed some recurring themes of racism and fascism in my dreams, lately. Makes sense, really. I've been taking in a lot of politics, and playing games like Tomb Raider and The Last of Us, which contain a lot of such situations. No question as to whether waking world media is seeping into my dreams. Lol.

"Tatano" - 01/13/2012

"Tatano"
01/13/2012
Dream #2

I was exploring a mine, or some other sort of underground cave, which was flooded with waist-deep water. A small ledge rimmed the outer edges of the chamber that I was in, along with a few friends of mine. The water was very murky and someone soon exclaimed there was something moving in the water. Shortly afterward, a surge of current came through this waterway, and some of us began to get swept away and toward a dark tunnel ahead. We were able to hang onto the wall, where the current was much weaker then in the center, and pull ourselves out of the water and onto the ledge.

While we were sitting there on this ledge - pretty much stuck, until the current subsided enough for us to make our way back out the way we came - we encountered another group of people coming (somehow) out of the cave that we were almost just swept into. They were of either Native or Latin American descent, and all carrying guns. Apparently, it was some kind of illegal faction or cartel. I also had a small pistol on my hip, but there were more of them than there were of us, and I figured drawing on them would probably be the worst mistake I could make. The leader of the group made some rambling threat to us about how "the Tatano Comes" for the people of our region, however, they didn't really go into detail about just what 'The Tatano' was. After holding us for a brief period, they let us go home. We were all terrified, though, because they had issued the threat not necessarily to us as individuals, but to all of the people in our community. They were extremely vague, though, so even though we knew that they were planning something, we didn't exactly know what. Once back in our community (apparently, we shared a neighborhood), we started theorizing what they meant by 'The Tatano Comes'. I couldn't figure out if they meant some kind of abominable monster or if 'The Tatano' was the name of their outfit, and they were going to raid our community with guns and whatnot.

It turned out to be the latter. A short while after our encounter, the men had begun to invade our neighborhood. It was now the dead of winter (and was snowing heavily, even though I live in Florida), and I was now watching the dream from a disembodied perspective. I was watching a tiny Latina friend, from my earlier group (whom I believe is someone I know IRL, but am not sure), and she was dressed in a ninja dogi. My perspective followed her as she sneaked around through the night time snow flurries, using stealth to sneak up on the individual, occupying members of 'The Tatano', silently executing them, one by one.

(Sometime during the day after this dream, I came to realize that this dream was directly influenced by a mission that I'd played on Skyrim, before bed. I'd tried to incubate a Skyrim related dream, while playing, and didn't even recognize the similarities, because of how well-hidden they were. In the game, I had to break into a cave belonging to a group of bandits, who wore primitive, Native American-esque outfits. The cave was slightly filled with water. There was a lot of tension building up, while I made my way into and through the cave, stealthily taking down as many opponents, individually, as I could. The apparent 'boss' of these bandits was a female, which might be the reason why I found the tiny female in my group to be such a prominent character.)

"Temple of the Calhoun" - 07/21/2008

"Temple of the Calhoun"
07/21/2008
Dream Two:


At a school graduation. Everyone there was dressed up in suits, dresses or costumes with props, just to be silly. Some huge guy was walking around dressed as Hellboy, and he was pretty much leading us to wherever we had to go, within this huge school with like 10 floors. I can’t remember exactly what I was wearing, but I know I had my Daywalker sword, and Cloud Strife’s seven-piece sword that I was carrying around with me. My friend, B, was trying to get out of coming with us to the graduation, for some reason, and we had to practically drag him around because he was trying to keep from participating.

Later (my notes say something about “Indian Cloth” here, but I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean), huge bugs appeared outside the building. They were flying around by the thousands, and swarming in front of all the windows, hovering and looking in. They began crashing in through the windows. It was only one at first, and I watched disembodied as it transformed into some slimy creature that looked like it was straight out of Cloverfield, chased down some kid, and pinned him down. It traced a “finger” (if you could really call it that) around the kids eyeball, and then it reached in. My perspective looked away from the scene and, though I couldn’t see it, I heard the young guy screaming as the eye was pulled out.

More of these things came crashing through the windows, first, seemingly as pods with wings, but then transforming, as the first did, into more of those legged creatures. I started running, and they soon had many of the floors blocked off, including the way out. I remember racing from floor to floor, up and down the now slime-coated (and stopped) escalators, dodging these things all over the place. After some time, it seemed like I was the only human still left in the building. I began stabbing and slashing my way through these things with the two swords that I was carrying, though all the details of that are gone.

I also remember some sort of voice talking about how the school had turned into the “Temple of the Calhoun,” (“Calhoun” being the name of the bug-things, apparently) but I don’t remember much of the context of that either.

"Hancock's Powers" - 07/20/2008

”Hancock’s Powers”
07/20/2008
Dream One:
 


(I don’t remember very much of this one at all – just going off of my notes, and even those don’t really bring most of the beginning of the dream back into memory.)

I started off this dream with Hancock’s powers (was watching the movie when I went to sleep). Apparently, I started off by going around and helping people, at times. I ended up with a group of friends, including C., who used to hang out in my old neighborhood. Another girl in the group turned out to be my “opposite,” like Charlize’s character in the movie. 

We were, then, at someone’s house. The unfamiliar girl had been crying, for some reason, and I spent a large part of the dream consoling her, hugging and kissing her while our group was waiting around for C. while she was busy with something. We were told that we had to go meet C. at “Covington” something-or-other. I knew where it was, so we all left the house. The mystery girl slipped up to me to hold my hand and, after walking for some time, her expression changed, and she immediately seemed really apprehensive about something. Without disclosing why, she decided that she was going to split from the group and walk a separate way. I asked if she knew something that she wasn’t telling us, and she just refused to answer. She went the opposite way, and the rest of us continued walking to the neighborhood where we were supposed to meet C.

Shortly afterward, I found myself walking through a strange house, alone. All of a sudden, some kid in his late-teens jumped out from around a corner, slashing at me with a knife. He caught me by surprise, so I instinctively reacted and grabbed him. I noticed, though, how strong he was. Holding him back, as best I could, I was still suffering glazing cuts and scratches from the knife proving that, along with having lost my super-strength, I was, also, no longer invulnerable to attack.

We struggled on our feet, for a short while, and ended up crashing through a nearby window. When we hit the ground, on the outside, I felt the boy's head ended up cracking on something. Blood began pouring out of it, profusely. Having merely been defending myself, I never meant to kill this kid. I had, apparently, lost my powers after having been around my "opposite," for quite a while, and I was pretty sliced up, but I picked the stranger up and carried him down the street, where there just happened to be some medics in an ambulance. It turned out that the kid has lost too much blood, though, and it was too late to save him.

"Dirty Deeds" - 03/22/2008

"Dirty Deeds" 
03/22/2008



(This dream started with some weird H.I. that kept flashing in and out, about the movie Van Helsing. It was the part where Anna and Van Helsing were talking in the rain and drinking absynthe, then they fall into the shaft where the Frankenstein monster lived. The actual, heavy dreaming didn't start until after that.)

It was the day after the cave-in (from the H.I.), and I was with a group of guys that had come to the site. The cave-in was much more exaggerated than it had previously been, and there were huge tree stumps and boulders and whatnot covering this giant hole. We weren't there because we'd heard about the monster, though. We were there because we heard there was gold there.

We began trying to clear away some of the debris, but were having a lot of trouble, because everything was just much bigger and heavier than we expected. Out of nowhere, some of the guys in the group turned guns on the rest of us, and some more of their friends drove up. The leader of their part of the group said that we're going to help him and his boys get the gold, and then they are going to keep it for themselves, or they would shoot us all. We were forced to work some more and some stuff proved to just be too big to move. One guy, with this smug look on his face, said something like: "At least I came prepared," and he lit a stick of dynamite and threw it on the pile, ignoring the fact that we were still standing on it, working. We all ran for our lives and I jumped behind the heavy door of one of their trucks, just as the dynamite exploded and sent debris flying everywhere, one huge, splintered log flying right passed where I was hiding.

Happy with the effectiveness of the dynamite, they started using more and more of it, until we finally exposed some crates. Opening the crates, there was nothing but paper inside, folded and stacked up on top of each other. At first, everyone was like "What the f*ck?" and the guys with the guns were beginning to get irate. Then they started going through the papers and discovered that they were unsigned deeds to some kind of building complexes that had a total value of millions of dollars. The mood changed pretty quickly and, for a while, there was a lot of celebrating on the side of the hijackers. However, from the looks of the guys in my side of the group, I could tell that there was a pretty intense power-struggle that was about to go down..

"Special Weapons and....Tentacles?" - 12/11/2006

"Special Weapons And ....Tentacles?"
12/11/2006

 
This one started off in school. High school, I’d say. I was sitting at the front of the class and there was a brotha' in the next row - one seat back - that kept talking shit to me, over my shoulder. I was doing my best to just ignore him, but then he finally stuck out his leg and kicked my chair, to get my attention. I had a Mountain Dew on my desk, and it fell off and spilled all over the floor.

Finally, I got up and walked around to the side of his desk where he could actually stand up. As I came around his row, he stared at me like he was just waiting for me to start something. (Pretty big dude too. Kind of looked like Terrell Owens with facial hair and not quite as much muscle) I could also see, before I got to him, that he was holding a pencil in his right hand, discretely, like it was a shank.

I stopped right next to him and said something like “What the F*CK is your problem?!” I can’t even remember what he said, because my attention was on the pencil (even though my eyes were locked on his, acting like I hadn’t seen it). Before long, he jumped up at me and stabbed the pencil at the side of my neck. I caught his forearm in both hands and tried to bend it around behind his back, but couldn’t, because his back was still facing his desk and I couldn’t get behind him. I think I pushed down on the inside of his elbow to force his arm to bend and started pushing his hand, with the pencil in it, up toward his own throat. Whatever happened, he ended up submitting after seeing that, had I wanted to, I could have pushed the pencil into his neck.

In a huff, he sat back down, and I walked back to my chair and sat down too. The girl who was sitting directly behind me was obviously friends with the other guy, and she was talking all kinds of bull, about how the guy didn’t do anything, and how I’m a shit-starter, and all that. I told her that he kicked my chair and spilled my drink, and she kept denying it, like she was trying to protect him, or something. Eventually, I just ended up ignoring the both of them.

We had this really cool teacher (whom I don’t recognize from waking life) and, pretty soon, the class became something like a big rec room. We were listening to music and a bunch of us had put our desks together and were playing cards. The guy who'd started shit with me, a while earlier, came up to me, apologized, and introduced himself. His name was Marcus, if I remember correctly. I don’t remember the reason he gave for being such an ass, earlier, but he was remained pretty cool, from this point, on.

Our teacher also showed us this new art medium, where he had this large board that was made out of Styrofoam, or something. You'd drop a couple drops of whatever color paint you want to use, over a given area, and then trace your finger back and forth, to smear the paint. While this was occurring, this “special board” would actually draw in the details that you’re visualizing in your mind, using whatever colors you’d spread over the area. It was dope. We all got together and did a huge landscape, drawn from above, adding a few layers of the foam to make texture like mountains and houses.

I also remember dropping a bag of grass on the ground, in the classroom, and hoping my teacher didn’t find it.

The dream shifted, and we were all, suddenly, in a dance club, even though it was still in the middle of the day. After a while, a bunch of SWAT members, in full riot gear, busted in and raided the place. Within the chaos, when no one else seemed to notice, one of the cops lifted up his helmet and I could see that he, clearly, wasn’t human. He had a green face with a tentacle-beard, like Davey Jones, from "Pirates of the Caribbean 2." None of these cops were human. There was a bit of a fight, and one of them ended up shooting me in the thigh, before we were all subdued. I could tell it was a small caliber, because it was merely like a bee sting – more annoying and irritating than excruciating. I remember yelling out something like “What the hell was THAT? A .22 or something?!! F*ck!” and was taken outside, holding my leg, obviously more upset with how much it stung than over the fact that they'd shot me, in the first place.

The dream went into some long scenario explaining this “alien” invasion that ended up in a huge castle/mansion on top of a mountain, at night. I don’t remember much of this part, but I do remember being on a huge cliff, and we were being attacked by this massive tentacle-monster like the Kraken from 'Pirates' (I haven’t ever even seen that movie. Wonder why I have so many elements from it.)

Anyway, this creature was HUGE. A couple of us had gotten too close and were trapped beneath this beast (which was a freaking disgusting feeling – having all these rubbery tentacles and suckers rolling and undulating over top of me) and I remember thinking how we should be dead, simply by the weight of this thing pressing down on us. I was able to pry myself back out, and we continued fighting it. At one point, I saw one of the girls in our group getting lifted up by one of the tentacles, by her leg, and dropped down into the mouth of this monster and eaten.


Also (which was probably the strangest thing about this whole dream), once we got away from the 'land-kraken', there was this guy, who just kinda showed up, that none of us knew. I can’t remember where we ran into him, but he obviously knew a lot about these aliens and had some interstellar connections. He took us to a place, within the castle/mansion, where he said he could get ahold of some sort of backup, or something. There was a ceiling-less room with a large door in the ground. This guy pulled open the door/hatch and jumped in. Once I was close enough to look down inside, I discovered that there was a sprawling machine that was hidden in the floor. As the machine began winding up, it struck me that it looked like a giant chamber on a revolver. It spun, a time or two, and then fired an intense shot into the air, like a cannon. My eyes could barely follow a streak of light as it flew out of the machine and disappeared, up into the stars. It was - I'd deduced - an apparent teleportation device, and the stranger had just transported himself light-years away.


In a matter of seconds, we spotted what looked like a distant star, getting bigger and brighter. It turned into that familiar streak of light and fell out of the sky, landing a few yards away. The guy had just teleported back. I can’t remember if he'd brought troops or weapons back with him, though, or whatever might have been the outcome of his off-world jump, as his arrival was the last thing I could recall.






"Parasite Fae" - 05/22/2022

"Parasite Fae"
05/22/2022

The earliest thing I can remember, from this dream, was witnessing an attack on a small group of people, in an alley. I wasn't actually a part of this group, but I was right there with them, even though I didn't seem to be the target of the assailants, until I started trying to help fend them off. The attackers were a feral gang of masked goons. The way they moved kind of reminded me of the Reapers from "Blade II." 

Eventually, one of the people I'd attempted to save intervened, in kind, and took on the entire gang. He or she swung an arm out, and long, squid-like tentacles splayed out from within the sleeves, overpowering the attackers and causing those who could still stand to turn away in retreat. I can't remember how badly, but I had been wounded in the fight and - in what I first thought was a gesture of thanks, but turned out to be a kidnapping by force - gathered me up and escorted me back to their home. 

The strangers resided in some hidden, underground lair - reminiscent of the hideout of the Morlocks from "The Gifted" (which we'd been watching, lately). There, within a chamber that seemed to be a makeshift laboratory, they 'introduced' to 'their Queen, Fae,' which, they'd said, was somehow related to the mythical "faeries" that we all know from legends and...well...fairytales. To my surprise, though, this "Queen," they spoke of, turned out to be a sentient mass of tangled, shapeless tissue, about the size of a basketball - like something out of John Carpenter's "The Thing." It squelched its way over to me and moved around me, in close proximity, as if silently studying me. Then, without any warning, the 'Thing' darted at me and latched on, its tendrils burying itself into my skin and, apparently, fusing with me.

Almost immediately, I developed a sort of psychic link with this creature - which spoke with a female voice. It began to tell me about its kind, and about how all of the "strangers" in this lair all had the same sort of parasitic relationships with her species, but that she was potentially the most powerful, which is why they saw her as their queen. The longer that these beings "fed" on their hosts, she explained, the more they would be able to resemble humans, themselves. She also said that she found me 'fascinating,' specifically, and that she would be using me as her vessel - whether I wanted her to or not.

What followed was a long, disturbing jumble of fleeting memories of her "taking over" my body, whenever she was attached to me, and using me as a sort of vehicle, to battle the Reaper-like gang from earlier, who were, apparently, rivals to these extraterrestrial creatures. Whenever we would clash, I would use the same tentacled types of attacks that the person had been using, from earlier in the dream - my arms bursting into long, gnarled strands of fleshy tissue that ensnared our victims and tore them apart, graphically - mercilessly - tearing them limb from limb in bloodbath after bloodbath. (It felt very "Tetsuo" from the anime "Akira.") Over time - the more and more that I was used as a tool for her vengeance - she would begin to transform into more of a human appearance, even when some portion of her always remained attach to me, as if I was sprouting a conjoined twin whenever she decided to speak verbally, which she'd developed the ability to do. 

There was one moment, where my fiance showed up, and "Fae" transformed into the likeness of a toddler, running around near my feet, in order to hide her true form and the physical connection that always had to remain between us, in order to keep a humanoid form. Naturally, though, my fiance became inquisitive about the unfamiliar child who was clinging so comfortably to me and, after a round of prodding questions, Fae finally got fed up at the interrogation and did a grotesque, horrific transformation, back into a full-sized adult woman, completely abandoning the disguise and revealing who and what she was.

Eventually, Fae had learned that her "nemesis," was using a large corporation as a front, and he could be found at its headquarters. Prepared to put an end to their ongoing war, we showed up to the facility with intent to take down this 'Boss' of sorts. While we made our way into the building, and up to the main office / penthouse, where this kingpin was supposed to be hanging out, my view switched to a disembodied perspective and showed the outside of the building from the air. From there, I could see the massive fountain at the entrance and, within the fountain, I could see the gigantic silhouette of a fish-like monster swimming around, beneath the surface of the water.

Before long, I was back in a first-person view, just as I was walking into the penthouse. I (along with the parasite attached to my body) searched around for wherever this 'person' might be. There didn't seem to be anyone even remotely nearby, on this entire floor, and I was just beginning to get the feeling that we'd been led here, deceptively.

Suddenly, a large silhouette appeared in the window, just before a loud crash as broken glass streamed into the expansive office. The giant fish monster, from the fountain - about the size of an 18-wheeler - had flown up from the ground floor and burst through the window, crushing the owner's desk and taking up a good portion of the room, as it landed. It flopped around, violently (as one might expect a gigantic fish out of water to do), trying its hardest to swallow me whole. Using my parasitic tendrils to fight back, I was able to defend myself just long enough to escape the penthouse and make my way back down through the building. Once I got down to the ground level, though, the giant fish plummeted to the ground in front of me, having jumped from the top floor, in pursuit. Immediately, the fish monster spun around, in place, transforming in the same, disgusting, visceral way that 'Fae' changed shape, and it became an enormous, hulking, torso of a bald man. Apparently, this was Fae's nemesis, and he had the ability to transform, as well. Only a moment after revealing its oversized, human form, the monstrous figure turned around, again, twisting and contorting its limbs and flesh to become a giant alien head with an elongated cranium and rows about rows of sword-like teeth - each about as big as my own body.

The last thing I remember is a pretty balls-out battle against this shape-shifting monster, using my tentacles as whips and spears, with Fae - at some point - taking about half of her humanoid form and fighting as an almost 'second' person, beside me.





"ScarletVision" - 05/19/2022 (w/ Lucid False Awakening)

"ScarletVision"
05/19/2022
(w/ Lucid False Awakening)

In this dream, I was a disembodied observer (like watching a movie), following a street-level detective, as he went around investigating the murders of innocent people by Wanda Maximoff aka "The Scarlet Witch." I don't remember a whole lot of the detail from this early, but I recall him going from location to location, analyzing crime scenes and gathering clues like in a noir crime drama. There were multiple victims, killed for unknown reasons, but any pattern telling why remained unclear. Over time, the detective was starting to get the feeling that something wasn't right about his situation. Things weren't adding up, and there were a lot of unrealistic scenarios that were playing out. He began to deduce that he couldn't, in fact, be experiencing the real world. The entire scene, then, transitioned. 

Instantly, my point of view focused in on a rounded object, lying on a table. I immediately recognized the object to the decapitated head of her android husband, The Vision. My perspective panned out to reveal that the head was sitting on an operating table, in a lab. The lab was dimly lit with a soft, green light, and looked as it would, if someone had simply left for the night. Strewn around the lab, I could see that there was not only the other dismembered pieces of the Vision's body, but that there were also multiple versions of his body - in the same, decimated conditions - lying all over the place.

As my perspective settled on the lab interior, as a whole, I began to see movement in some of the reflective surfaces around the room. I could see brief glimpses of the Scarlet Witch's form - from an arm, in one corner of the lab; to her flowing hair, in another; and a flash of her eyes, in some of the shiny metal equipment, all around. Then, a pair of symbols appeared in a shadowy walkway, which twisted and contorted themselves into a humanoid form, and transformed into Wanda, in full costume. She stared, rather sternly, at the head of Vision that I had first seen, walking over to it. 

She began talking to the head, saying something about how she knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep him in there, forever, explaining (in detail that I can't quite remember) how she had pulled in variants of him from other universes, searching for a "particular" version, which she had - since - been holding in an "illusion," in the conscious mind of his severed head, to keep him busy while she did....something. (I don't remember her purpose.) However, she admitted finding that he was figuring it all out, and she knew that she was going to have to release him. With a wave of her hand, the scattered pieces of The Vision, that belonged to that, particular head, swirled themselves together and stood upright, making him whole. Immediately, now in control of himself, he switched from his robotic form to his human-looking form and gazed back at her, in terror.

The two had a back and forth conversation (though I can't remember much of the actual dialogue), that had something to do with Wanda trying to justify her imprisonment of him as a means to them finding a way back to their relationship, someday. Vision, naturally, did not follow her logic, and he knew that she had broken bad. The next thing I remember, he was doing everything he could to escape her, while she gave chase after him.

Vision scurried out of the lab and into a barren, nighttime landscape that was bathed in red light, as if the moon shone almost as intensely as the sun, but gave off the deep, crimson color of an eclipse. There was a large, dark body of water, nearby - like a lake or river - which looked much like blood under the light of the moon (though I could not see the moon, itself. Incidentally, had this dream on the night of a blood red moon, while at sea, on a cruise). Vision scrambled to get away, and kept looking behind him, to see if she was still chasing him. Suddenly, the entire landscape went black, like someone had flipped off the red moonlight with a switch. Seconds later, two glowing red orbs blazed in the blacked-out environment. The redness of the moon then came back into view, illuminating the landscape and revealing the two orbs to be Wanda's eyes as she'd manifested herself right next to Vision, when the world went dark.

She stood just between him and the lake or river, with her back to the water. Vision faced her, defiantly, and she gave him a sort of pitiful look, implying that she knew he would not be able to simply escape her. Vision basically called her out as "evil," and he said something about her being "only one" witch - possibly implying that he (like Ultron) had the ability to split his consciousness into other systems (a point that wasn't specifically made in the dream, I don't think, but it certainly would have fit the character). The Scarlet Witch scoffed and said something like "oh? Only one?" She, then, raised her hands, gesturing as if performing a silent spell.

There was movement in the dark red water, behind her. A figure slowly emerged, walking upright, out of the lake/river, and stepping fully into view. It was another Wanda. Then, on her opposite side, the same disturbance in the water appeared, and yet another Wanda walked onto the shore. Then, another. And another. More and more copies of the Scarlet Witch came creeping, eerily, out of the dark water, some of them crawling onto the rocky shore, on all fours, like zombies rising from the dead. As if that weren't enough, a larger figure stood straight up, in the shallow water - a giant-sized Wanda - lumbering forward, standing at about 15 feet high. Yet another giant doppelganger came forward, shortly afterward.

Vision found himself staring at an entire army of various versions of Wanda, as they lined up in formation, around the original. Noticeably taken aback by this, Vision tried to steel himself and pushed back, saying that these were just illusions, and even though she could make it look like they were all tangible, he knew that there was only one of her. Hardly fazed by this, Wanda's face twisted in a gesture of pure concentration, and suddenly one of the copies began speaking for her, stating that she was able to share her consciousness, as well. Another Wanda, on her other side, began talking also, finishing the comment, but the voice's inflection seeming as if it was coming from a completely different entity - almost like Ultron speaking through his many, individual, drones. Many of the other Wandas began chiming in, with comments of their own, making it horrifyingly clear that - though they were extensions of her original mind - they were all individual and autonomous versions of her. (It was creepy as hell.)

I believe that Vision gave up the bravado and continued trying to escape, but I woke up shortly after this moment....(or...rather...I thought I did).


***

Pt.2
(Lucid)
(False Awakening)

I "woke up," in the cruise ship cabin's bed. My fiance was sitting up, beside me, awake, and there was a dark-haired woman sitting on the small couch, next to us. At first, I didn't even notice anything strange about the woman being there, as I just began to tell them both about the Scarlet Witch dream I'd been having, and about how crazy and detailed the narrative was. Annoyingly, as I was recalling the experience, the unfamiliar woman kept interrupting me, telling me that nothing I was saying was somehow "shocking" or "unique," and that it was all just rehashing things that were covered in the new "Doctor Strange" movie, of which Wanda was a central character (even though nothing that happened in the dream was actually in that movie)

Frustrated, I started talking down to her about how rude she was being. Then, almost spontaneously, I realized that this was a dream. I caught myself, practically mid-sentence, and scoffed at how I was even wasting my time by trying to argue with her. I blurted out: "you're not even real," dismissing her, as matter-of-factly as I could. She just smirked and stared back at me, challengingly, as if I was talking nonsense. Attempting to prove the point, I held out a hand and focused my mind on her - like I was Darth Vader, trying to lift her from the couch in a Force Choke, with telekinesis. The dream was still very vivid, and nothing seemed to be working, at first. Then, I tried again, concentrating a little less and just trying to "will" it to happened. Instead of lifting her whole body from the couch, though, I saw that her head actually started to come off at the neck!

Having confirmed my suspicion enough, I released my control over the character, and her head lowered back onto its base, the skin of her neck stringing itself back together, seamlessly. Just picking at her, at this point, I began imagining myself pinching at little spots on her face, from afar. I could see the skin being prodded by the fingertips of my mind, until pieces of it started tearing away. It seemed like she was resisting, though, because her skin kept snapping back into place. Eventually, I gave one, solid, telekinetic yank on her face, and her entire face ripped itself free of her skull. However, instead of seeing the gory presence of an exposed skull, beneath, she had another, perfectly intact, face just beneath the original one.

 The woman gave a scowl and I saw the pupils of her eyes transform into reptilian slits. She, then, gave an evil smile, trying to intimidate me. Completely confident, by now, that I was in a lucid dream, I just shrugged at her and snickered at her attempt to continue trying to scare me, when the jig was already up. This obviously embarrassed her, because she simply grunted with disgust, stood up from the couch, and walked out of the room.

Finally, not wanting to lose my recollection of all that had happened, I woke myself up, intentionally.

(It was one hell of a ride. I absolutely loved the horror vibe that they gave Wanda in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," and I can see that it left an impression. Haha.)

"Remnants of Cerberus" - 12/23/2021 (Lucid)

"Remnants of Cerberus"
12/23/2021
(Lucid)

(This dream was pretty fragmented, and I could only remember a few, key moments of it. I had been playing "Devil May Cry 5", before bed, and I'm pretty sure my acquisition and usage of a 3-tier weapon of fire, ice, and electricity - that I got after defeating the boss demon King Cerberus - is what inspired these encounters.)

I was in my old neighborhood, at night, just roaming about the streets. There were a few other people out, but all was relatively quiet. Then, with absolutely no warning, a raging, flaming minotaur rampaged onto the scene. The top half of its body was set ablaze, as if it was sporting a flowing mane of pure fire that covered its head and upper torso. It was doing these rushing berserker-type attacks and mauled at least one person before turning its sights on me. It blitzed me and I had to brace against its charge with my forearms. Each impact felt like I was bracing against the heaviest lineman, running into me at full speed. After reeling from the intensity of each of its charges - surprisingly, never finding myself getting burned from its fiery headbutts - I was able to dodge a few of its attacks before it veered off toward another person. I don't how, exactly, it happened, but when it caught up to the other passerby, it immediately turned the man into ice, as if it had ejected frozen air from its snout, or something. The person literally froze in place, solid, into a strange, organic form like a nautilus shell made of ice.

Using this window of opportunity, I hauled ass and ran out of the entrance of the neighborhood, sprinting down the sidewalk next to the main road. I remember passing two motorcycle cops that were just hanging out on the side of the road, but the thought never occurred to me to stop and tell them what was happening. Instead, I continued running toward the shopping center that sat at the next major intersection. It was here that I notice something bright, filling the night sky, in the distance. As it loomed closer, I could see that it was a fire-tornado, whirling its way toward the shopping center and in my, personal, direction. 

Still not yet lucid, I don't know exactly what prompted me that I could even do this, but I suddenly decided to take flight, and I levitated off of the sidewalk and into the air. Getting a grand view of the town from above, as well as the imposing cyclone of flames that was still stalking up the street toward me, I instinctively decided to fly back to my neighborhood, feeling that I might rather take my chances with the no-less-fiery minotaur. The moment I touched down, though, just next to my home, I briefly contemplated what had been happening. I realized that - of course - this all had to be a dream.

I was no longer afraid of encountering the minotaur, but it was nowhere to be found. Instead, though, as if right on cue, I saw the bright glow of a monstrous fire coming through the dark streets of my neighborhood. The closer it got, the more I could see that it wasn't the minotaur. No. It was a machine. A crane, of sorts. It was as if an oversized backhoe was fitted with a massive, rotating sawblade on its telescopic arm, and that sawblade - itself - was also made of a supernatural hellfire. The tractor portion of the vehicle didn't have wheels. Instead, it was actively laying track, in front of itself, which constructed a system of x/y axes on the ground, for the tractor to shift toward me in an alternation of frontward / sideward movements.




Unafraid, due to my newfound lucidity, I just waited for the giant machine to approach. The flaming, rotated blade swung itself around in my direction, and I took to the air. The blade swiped just beneath me, and I could hear the loud whirring of the machine as its crane arm changed directions and brought the blade back around toward me, again. I was completely comfortable in my flight, though, able to zip through the air in short, lateral bursts, evading each subsequent slash from the crane and watching the flaming blade shred through the trees - and even some houses - in the neighborhood as it continued to try to slice me out of the air.

I don't remember anything after toying with this contraption, though.


"Politic.....tick.....ticks" 03/14/2022

"Politic.....tick.....ticks"
03/14/2022

The first thing I can remember is that I was lying in bed, in my old Lake Mary home. My bedroom light was on, and I couldn't tell whether I was drifting off to sleep or just waking up, but I had that sort of "in between states" feeling that tends to come when right on the cusp of sleep. Suddenly, the bedroom door slammed open, and a group of what I can only describe as "prominent far-right pundits and politicians" came trudging in. Apparently, they were being ushered in by someone who I'd identified as a "rival from work" (though I don't think this person represented anyone in waking life), and they all began ransacking the room, supposedly looking for something of value. By their hurried and almost cartoonishly-sinister demeanor, I could tell that they were right on the verge of some gargantuan plan coming into fruition and, for some reason, they needed something in my room to make it happen.

As they searched, I tried to pull myself out of the bed, in order to confront them. I found, though, that I could not move. I was pinned to the bed by some unseen force and, no matter how I tried, I could not come to move any of my limbs, or even raise my head far from my pillow. (It felt very much like sleep paralysis, though I couldn't make the connection, at the time.) All I could figure, was that these intruders had some apparatus of control over me, that was making me unable to move. I struggled against it, for the entire time they were in the room, and it wasn't until they all filed back out of it - leaving me unsure of whether or not they'd gotten what they were searching for - that I broke free. Now, able to throw myself out of bed, I ran to the door, to go after them. The moment that I opened the door, however, the scene completely changed.

I was, now, in what looked to be a hotel room. My fiancé and I were making the bed, and I was telling her about the events that had happened, as if they'd happened the night before. As I explained the events to her, she seemed to be familiar with the person that I'd supposedly worked with, from the story, and it was then that I realized the events I was describing to her never happened, because she doesn't really know any of my old coworkers. Because of this, I realized I was describing a dream to her, rather than a memory (though it wasn't enough to realize that I was still, in fact, dreaming as I told her this story). We hurriedly tidied the rest of the room, knowing that we were, apparently, running late to get to some important show or function, within the hotel, and that we had to leave as soon as possible.

My recollection of the dream skipped ahead, and we were coming back from whatever gathering had taken place. My daughter was with us (though she was younger than in waking life), this time, as we returned to the hotel room. Before bed, I'd noticed that she was writing something in her binders, quite intently, but I was unsure of whatever it was that had her so wrapped up in it.

Flash-forward, once again, and I was waking up in the hotel bed. (It wasn't  a full-on 'false awakening,' because it was still continuing the narrative of the current dream.) Just as the first time I'd 'awoken,' though, I found myself caught in paralysis and unable to raise myself from the bed. My fiancé and daughter were nowhere to be found. Suddenly, as before, the hotel room door burst open, and in flooded the same group of far-right provocateurs from earlier. The ransacked the room with the same fervor as they had in the first scenario, and one of them went digging ferociously through my daughter's papers. I kept trying to look over this one's shoulder, to see what might have been so important that could be found in a child's notes. However, I was still pinned to the bed, by an unseen force, and couldn't get a good vantage point.

Before long, the intruders gestured that they'd found what they were looking for, and that they were ready to "begin" whatever it was they were looking to set in motion. As if prepping for some sort of cult-like ritual, they all took up various positions, around the room - one of which was right next to the side of my bed - and laid down on the floor. They closed their eyes in unison, as if preparing to fall asleep, and remained completely still. Still pressed to the bed, I had no idea what they were doing, but I could not shake the feeling of dread creeping over me.

Abruptly, I 'woke up' again, still in the hotel bed. Though I was no longer paralyzed, I immediately knew that something was terribly wrong. My fiancé was nowhere to be found, but my daughter was asleep on her own bed. Fearful that something big was going on, I hopped out of bed and woke my daughter, taking her by the hand and rushing out of the bedroom to find my fiancé.

The moment we opened the door, though, everything 'stopped.' Rather, I should say that everything 'slowed to a crawl,' in terms of time, itself. No matter how hard we ran through the hotel hallways, we were objectively moving in slow motion. It wasn't just us, though. Everything in the hotel was happening in slow motion. People were rushing out of their hotel rooms with the same degree of urgency as we were, yet everyone was observably trapped in the same bit of temporal distortion as the two of us. Still able to think in real time, despite my limbs not following suit, I immediately knew that this was a part of whatever political masterplan was being put into effect. I noticed that the hotel architecture was changing, as we rushed through the corridors at a snail's pace. Normal hotel room doors were suddenly transforming into heavy, riveted metal doors with no handles or knobs. It was as if some entity was changing the landscape in order to try to either trap us or funnel our escape in one direction.

Up ahead, I could see the hallway opening that led to the central courtyard of the hotel. We were a few stories up, and I was pushing my legs as hard as I could, fighting through the debilitating sluggishness that we were somehow locked in, preparing to start a painfully-slow descent through the staircase. It was then that I noticed wave after wave of other hotel patrons leaping from their respective balconies within the courtyard - generally plummeting to their deaths as they fell in completely submissive positions as impacted the ground with the full force of gravity, despite their slow motion freefalling. Still in a belabored sprint, panic washed over me. I only had a moment to ponder what was happening, before I reached the threshold of the open staircase. Since I was still able to think in real-time, I felt confident that I had enough control of myself to take a leap of faith and, clutching my daughter's hand tighter, I took one leap, to clear the first section of stairway, landing with one foot on the pivotal railing before launching off of that one and descending the full four or five stories in a single bound. We touched down, softly, in the grass of the open courtyard and continued our slow-mo sprint toward the nearest exit, which would take us back through the corridors but, instead, on the ground level.

It was around this time - running into the closest covered hallway - that I began to notice the music that was permeating the environment, as if it were being pumped directly into my brain. (This dream took place in the middle of a Wake-Back-to-Bed attempt to induce a lucid dream, and I had meditative binaural music playing in my headphones as I slept. I believe that it was the slow, ambient tone of the music in the waking world that prompted the time distortion in the dream. It was very "Inception"-like.) Ahead of us, a young boy was standing outside of what seemed to have been his hotel room. Running in slow motion gave me a moment to take in his expression, and I could see that he was frantically confused, almost to the point of sobbing. In a manner that sounded like an audio tape played at a fraction of normal speed, I could hear the boy talking to himself about how he "had been in one position," and then found himself instantly shifted to "another position," as if he had witnessed a time-jump or teleportation of some kind, and could not figure out what was happening. It was in hearing this boy's bewilderment, that it solidified in my mind that this was some sort of time-loop or time-manipulation plot that was coming to pass. This was not real life. I had to be trapped in sort of "pocket dimension" or something (ala "Dr. Strange").

Continuing passed the boy, my daughter and I ran through subsequent hallways, unsure of exactly where we were going, at this point, but just running and trying to escape this horrible, surreal, situation. The further we ran, and through each subsequent room that we passed, everything seemed to be getting darker and darker, until we finally barged into one room that caused my vision to go completely black. The feeling of being in an enclosed area faded away, and all I could feel was a dark, empty void. I felt disembodied. Then, I remembered being paralyzed on the hotel bed. I remembered the invaders who came in and did their strange ritual of laying down and seeming to lose consciousness. I remembered that one of them had laid down right beside my bed.

With that logic, I had the feeling that this was a dream. However, I thought it was a dream that I was having while rendered unconscious by the political terrorists who might still be asleep, next to me, in the hotel. Still in the black void, I felt that wave of paralysis wash back over me. I could no longer feel my limbs moving, and I was surrounded by darkness. As last-ditch idea came to me: I figured that, if I could just break free of the paralysis, and roll out of bed, I might be able to land on top of one of the sleeping assailants and break whatever ritual they had going on. 

Fighting against the full-body paralysis, I started trying to rock myself over onto my left side, straining against the invisible force pinning me to the bed. Finally, with one desperate push, I jerked myself off of the bed that I could, now, sense beneath me in the void, and I got the brief sensation of falling before bringing an elbow down and feeling it smash down upon the body of the personal lying unconscious on the floor.

Immediately, I awoke from the dream, and back into waking life, still in darkness before removing my sleep mask from my eyes.

(When I awoke, I was somewhat relieved that I didn't actually act out that final gesture, which - even though she sleeps on the other side of me - would have a real problem, if I'd have accidentally rolled over and dropped an elbow on my fiancé, while she slept. LOL.)

"Shark Tank Hotel" - 11/08/2021 (Lucid)

"Shark Tank Hotel"
11/08/2021
(Lucid)

 
My earliest memory of this dream was of being in a hotel or condominium hallway. After wandering, aimlessly, for some time, I realized that I was in a dream. There was a short, older cleaning lady making her rounds, through the hallways, and I decided to follow her out of curiosity. She was a pretty mundane, character, though, seeming to really have no sort of direction or purpose, as she stopped at one room or another, then just continuing to walk along without really "doing" anything. I noticed a few, small animal cages that lined some of the hallways, which seemed out of place for a hotel, but mostly uninteresting. The woman finally stopped a small storage room with a single toilet inside of it, and it was then that, feeling that this particular thread wasn't really leading anywhere, I decided to ignore her and wander off on my own.

Heading downstairs, I took a moment to look at my hands and focus on the details of my hands, to ground myself into the dream state. My fingers were a bit warped, as if being viewed below a watery surface, but otherwise unaltered, and the environment around me was brought into greater clarity when I looked away from them. Heading outside, to the parking lot, I saw that a number of people had gathered around, and that there was some sort of altercation going down. I don't really recall the details of the situation I'd stumbled upon, but I soon found myself being accosted by a group of 3 or 4 "bullies," who seemed as if they were just looking to start trouble with any and everyone around them. 

Since I was already lucid, I had no problem taking these guys on. Though I don't remember much of the actual fight, I do remember stopping, for a moment, to run my hands along one of the wooden tables nearby, in order to keep me grounded and prevent the dream from fading during the action. Sometime during this skirmish, the crowd he become aware that some kind of giant housecat had roamed onto the property. The animal - which was about the size of a lion, but undoubtedly an exaggeration of a normal housecat - began stalking in my direction, the moment it saw me, and I wasn't exactly getting a welcome feeling from it. 

Immediately, I shifted my attention from my previous, human attackers, and took a defensive stance against the approaching beast. Feeling a good bit of dream control, after taking on multiple opponents, I attempted a superpowered move against the cat, trying to conjure up a "Hadouken!" and throwing my palms out toward it to produce a fireball. Nothing happened, though, and the cat was still coming. I tried once again, yelling the command out, even louder, to try to really get the feeling of willing it into existence. Still nothing, though, and the cat was just about to encroach upon me, so, I did the very first thing that came to mind, instinctively, as it came within reach: I gave it a sharp slap across the face. Unsurprisingly, this didn't seem to faze the big cat, at all, and it simply chomped its jaws down on my hand, and held on tight. The bite didn't really hurt, at all, and it was more annoying than anything else.

Instead of taking the time to continue trying to fight off the animal, I simply turned around and attempted to ignore it, walking away from the crowded lot and back into the hotel. I could feel that the cat's teeth were still closed around my hand, but I noticed that there was very little resistance while I walked. When I looked back, I could see that the cat - which was still locked onto my hand - had shrunk, slightly. It was still big, for a housecat, but not quite as imposing as it had been, before. I passed a reptile tank, which had an alligator inside, and I placed the cat inside. In no time, the two creatures were battling it out, on their own, within the tank. Noticing that there were more tanks in the hallway, I saw one that contained a shark and - for no other real reason than curiosity - I reached into the gator tank, grabbing the two, quarreling animals, and dumping them into the shark tank. On cue, the shark joined into the fray, and all three animals started fighting in the tank that was far too small to fit them comfortably.

Another glass tank caught my eye, nearby, which held some less-threatening, tropical fish. Also inside was an intriguing miniature of internally-lit castle. The windows glowed brightly, in the dim water surrounding it. Since I had become a little tired of this - fairly mundane - hotel environment, I decided to try a scene change and see if I might be able shrink myself down to explore this underwater castle. I figured that phasing through the glass of the aquarium might be the easiest way to make the transition, so I pressed my palms and face against the glass and tried to 'push' myself forward. I encountered just a little resistance, at first, but then I felt myself pass through the glass like a thick, gelatinous fluid. Pushing myself further into the tank, I could see the castle coming closer, though the water was growing more dark and foreboding, the further I advanced. It still felt like my entire body wasn't 'inside' the tank, and I could still sense the discrepancy in my size to that of the castle. It didn't feel natural, at all.

Then, I started thinking about the animals fighting in the tank with which I'd just interacted. The thought of the carnivorous creatures, in an underwater setting, started making me really uncomfortable, as if they were starting to converge on me, in this enclosure, even though this tank was even smaller than the others. Now, unsettled by the notion of being stuck in the murky depths with predators, I reversed my forward progression and pulled my head back out of the tank, through the glass. Upon emerging from the surface, I could see the large head of a great white shark, filling up most of the inside of the tank, just near what my head had been, as if it was swimming toward me to bite my head off of my neck. Since the tank was so small, it was only big enough for the head of the shark. The length of its body, though, was sticking out of the other side of the tank. The head, it seemed, had phased through the glass wall of the tank, just as mine had done, and the body of the shark was just suspended in the air, horizontally, while its head remained stuck inside - as if a pencil had been stabbed a portion of the way into a plastic container.

I was in awe at this surreal image, and the last thing I remember was reaching out and touching the shark's body - which was leathery, damp and detailed - and remarking, out loud, at how cool it was. Unfortunately, touching the shark (although I was not focusing on grounding to the dream, while doing so) was the last thing I actually remember before waking.