Boom

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid Lucid #101: Choke I am sitting in a car with <PERSON> at a place that is a cross between Sonic and a Chinese take-out restaurant. We are pulled up next to one of those mic/speaker combos where you place your order and I am debating whether to order sweet and sour chicken or just get a giant bucket of tater tots. (I do not actually eat like this. ) A guy who looks like <PERSON> sticks his head out of the main restaurant building and shouts something about "three orders of sweet and sour chicken". I get out of the car and approach to hear him better. Then Mako makes some remark about our order and something about dreaming. It is semi-amusing, so I chuckle politely and look up at the night sky. The stars look artificially bright and the moon has been replaced by a flying saucer! "This is a dream," I say, and immediately start walking. I leave the restaurant parking lot, moving through an alley that dead-ends at an open door into a house. I go inside, exploring the house for a bit. It is nicely decorated and very realistic. I am pleased with how vivid it looks -- classy carpeting, great lighting, really tasteful decor. I wonder why I suck so bad at decorating IWL if I can imagine scenes like this. It occurs to me that no matter how many LDs I have, part of me always thinks They cannot really look that good, right? But they can and they do. I am a bit lost in the house and as I turn down one hallway, I suddenly find myself in a noisy European street scene. It feels like Germany. The fast transition surprises me and before I can think to speak gibberish to these DCs for Task of the Month, I round another corner and wind up back in the house again. Well that was weird. For some reason this reminds me of my intent to get to the Alamo and meet up with Art. I decide getting outside will be the best way open up the map and get where I want. The closest internal wall of the house is brick (oddly enough), and without hesitating, I phase through it. There is nothing on the other side of the wall, though, and I wind up in the void. Rubbing my hands together, I continue walking through the void. I imagine that I am walking along a street outside. I can feel the roadway underneath my feet (which feel like they are in nothing but socks.) I keep walking forward, waiting for the new scene to form. After a while, I see a pattern of squareish lights that coalesces into the window of my darkened childhood bedroom. I leave immediately, phasing through the window into the street. It is late at night and I am outside on the street where I grew up. I try to figure out which way San Antonio (and the Alamo) would be from here... and totally get it wrong. When I look out at the horizon, I see a huge observation tower surrounded by some scaffolding, like it is under construction. Was there some kind of tower in San Antonio? (Yes, it turns out -- the Tower of the Americas.) I start to zoom-teleport to the tower but the moment I begin to move, I swallow my gum. Swallow my what?? Did I go to bed chewing gum? I try to remember, worrying that it is now lodged in my throat IWL and that I am about to be in big trouble. I freak out and the scene goes black. I manage to calm myself at the last minute but the dream is too far gone and quickly ends.