bakerstreet | The Lucid Dreaming Meme

The Lucid Dreaming Meme

The Lucid Dreaming Meme

... and then it hits you: none of this is real. You're dreaming. You've been dreaming all along.

Maybe you'd normally wake up now. The brain is a funny thing, though, and you can't seem to. Must be something you ate. You do, however, realize that you're in a dream - and in dream, you can do anything. Always wanted to dream about flying? It's your lucky night. Want to dream back a lost childhood home? It's there just as you remember, or perhaps imagine it. Been fantasizing about that one cute co-worker for weeks? Well then.

There's only one problem. There seems to be someone else in your dreamscape, and they can apparently control it just as easily as you can. They even have the audacity to claim that they are dreaming you!

All the usual:

Post with your character's name and canon in the subject line.
Said character is having a lucid dream, where since they know they are dreaming, they can do literally anything. Fun!
... except that the character that comments on your thread is also in the same dream and just as lucid. Both characters can affect the world around them, but not each other.
Both characters are the "original" dreamer from their perspective, and neither is stronger than the other. Conflicting changes to the environment simply overwrite each other in a loop until one character or the other gives up.
The setup of this meme is built to facilitate cross-canon interaction: it's probably a good idea to state in your subject line whether you're open to it.
Tag around and play nice!
TRIGGER WARNING: Meme may contain unpleasant themes. Please use warnings and browse responsibly.

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The house has high ceilings, too many rooms, curtains hiding away too much of the windows and portraits that cluster the wall with pale, disapproving faces that move.

Sirius was sitting on the bed in his old room, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. It was still too dark in the house, too cold and the many years since it had been built were pressing down and making him feel claustrophobic.

Steps can be heard in the corridor outside Sirius' room, someone climbing up a flight of stairs, but too leasurely? -slow, in any case, than the other people who normally live here. Meanwhile, the surroundings warm up. It's a sunny afternoon out, the whole place becomes less stretched vertically, and there's, distant but audible, the sound of children playing in the yard.

Mello had no idea so far that dreaming of his old home had led him into someone else's. He simply figured if he has control over his dream for once, he might as well make it something pleasant.

Sirius hadn't realized yet that he was in control of his dream for once, or it definitely wouldn't be this house. Unless it'd be burning and he had a lighter in his hand. Oh yes.

But he did realize that those steps didn't really fit, neither his father's, not that they'd come that close to his room, anyway, nor his mother's, sharp and unavoidable, not even Regulus's, who always had been more the type to sneak, really.

However, what really threw him off was the sound of playing children. Not to say that he and his brother never played, but they definitely made sure to stay more quiet for that, lest there game be cut off and there certainly hadn't ever been any other children playing anywhere close to this place. Sirius hardly blamed them.

Something wasn't right and as unsettling as the dream was in and on itself, at least it had been familiar. He got up from the bed and ran his hand along a wall that should have looked different as he walked out into the hallway. He froze when he spotted a strange man, someone he had never seen before, in his own dream.

There was nothing familiar about the person, not as if it was someone he might only remember subconsciously, not someone he might have dreamed up for some subliminal reason, putting features together to create that person. This was an intrusion and Sirius, whose first reaction to danger was usually a thrill with a tilt of excitement, felt nothing but a dark chill for a moment. Then he drew his wand.

"What are you doing here?" His eyes narrowed, his wand pointed, there are many questions on his mind, but that seems to encompass the gist best.

Footsteps? But the house should've been empty of kids, and that certainly wasn't Roger. Mello's eyes narrowed at Sirius, his brain rapidly sifting through people he knew, was acquainted with, had seen, and this one fit into none of those categories. It was a strain not to instinctively draw his gun. Despite the fact that this teenager was pointing a stick at him, there was the distinct air of a threat about it. Instantly, the day outside darkened, thunder rumbling in the distance.

"I might ask you the same thing," he replied. "Last I checked I was dreaming, and I sure as hell didn't invite anyone." Cocked his head, raised his eyebrows, clearly expecting an answer.

At least it was a long stick, so that might give a bit more credential to feeling threatened by it, though the fact that he seemed absolutely serious about it probably had more to do with it. Sirius heard the thunder and wondered why his dreams had such a flair for the dramatic. Actually, he didn't really wonder, it was fairly self-explanatory.

He stood with his back to the part of the house that was still familiar - hated, dreaded, despised, but familiar - and narrowed his eyes at the person. He was a wizard, he was used to strange things happening, so his mind was more open to the theory of someone else sharing a dream with him. However, that didn't mean he welcomed it. Specifically not this dream and not a complete stranger.

"Can't recall sending you an invitation, either, mate." Sirius lowered his wand, because if it hadn't been this man's intention to invade his dreams and seeing how he seemed just as surprised, he at least didn't plan on harming him. "There must be some reason we're sharing a dream." He glanced around for a moment and corrected. "Fighting for dominion of a dream."

With the threat more or less removed, the weather shifted again, but didn't quite clear up. Mello began noting details about the surroundings, the difference between the place where the teenager was standing and what was clearly his own making with keen eyes and curiosity.

Naturally, his mind latched onto the challenge at hand. It was just too hard to pass up, and this was, after all, a completely new and therefore very interesting territory. Plus, in a dream, what did he have to lose?

"Are we?" A smirk. "You're not putting up much of a fight." A lurch in the scenery, and pieces of Sirius' home stood detached and displaced in the middle of a road at night in the middle of nowhere at all.

Sirius responded to that smirk with one of his own before even realizing it. He had always been up for a challenge, especially if it was one as crazy as fighting for control in his own dream with someone he didn't know.

He looked around himself and shrugged. "Not much of a loss." True enough, he was hardly minding the change of scenery. Already he felt like he could breathe more freely. But that definitely didn't mean he was just going to roll over and let the other take over.

The road went by under them without having to move, the scenery changed, mountains and hills of Scotland, passing through a village that looked part out of another century, part out of an odd fairy-tale, with the forest close by to match and the castle towering over it all.

That was a different kind of familiarity and one Sirius had a lot more interest in holding onto. The debris of his childhood home vanished like a bad dream when things finally settled around them. Warm colours, the warmth of fire in fireplaces, red and gold to even make a centuries old castle feel welcoming.

"Much more like it," he announced, his stance relaxing automatically and that challenging smile gaining an amused spark in his eyes.

As soon as the scenery settled, it began deconstructing. Carpet into thread, wall into bricks, fireplace into embers and individual burning logs. An analytical mind could have that kind of effect, Mello supposed, as he regarded the surroundings - when everything slipped back into place, it was legos. All of it. Except of course for the dreamers themselves.

"Better than the last place." A shrug, noncommital, but he couldn't quite keep the amusement from his own face either.

"Glad we're in agreement." Sirius felt at ease here, more than any other place he'd willingly bring a stranger along to. By now he was convinced the man didn't mean to harm him - much less actually knew how he could harm him - so he walked over to one of the many sofas and sat down, no, sprawled out, deciding to take it in stride that his dreams suddenly weren't just his anymore.

"You should sit down." Stranger I'm sharing a subconscious with. "This might have potential." Good or bad, obviously.

"You're right about that." So sit down he did, but not before conjuring up a very comfortable leather couch, because sharing a dream with someone certainly wasn't synonymous with trust.

Once they were both seated, or sprawling, the ground gave way. Everything simply crumbled and fell, through floor and basement, and then seemed to change direction midway - so the fell up instead, up and up and up. Into the sky, nearly like flying but not quite.

Hey, once he'd gotten used to the general concept of being in a dream not only he can influence, it'd gotten a lot easier to just deal with changes. That and flying - even if not quite - was hardly something new for him. Definitely something he enjoyed, though.

"I hear most people dream about falling down." Sirius never did, either. Leaning back against the sofa, he looked around, waiting. "Show me what you got."

He'd never put thought into what other people dreamt. It wasn't important, not factual enough to be of use to him.

"Falling down seemed too limited." They were still gaining speed, the castle, the country, eventually the whole planet easily within view. Breathing of course wouldn't become a problem unless they thought about it, which Mello quite pointedly didn't. In the distance, constellations shifted through the sky much faster than they ought to, forming letters, symbols and patterns in quick succession.

Sirius didn't even put much thought into what he dreamed himself. He never had been nor would be a very introspective person, perhaps unconsciously wary of what he might find if he looked too deep. He had spent years interpreting dreams in Divination back at school, but other than the - especially for a teenage boy - highly amusing discovery of just how many things were related to sex, it had never held his interest, nor did he think much of it.

"High riser, are you?" Sirius looked around himself reminded momentarily of midnight lessons on the Astronomy tower. It wasn't surprising to see that even as the rest of the sky shifted, the dog star and its related constellation stayed constant and prominent. Sirius did want to see 'what Mello could do', so to say, but he just wasn't the type to hold himself back completely. "Stargazing on a first date. How romantic."

Mello rolled his eyes. His deadpan tone didn't quite seem to agree with his words. "What can I say, nothing beats the classics."

He noted that the dog star wasn't shifting, but did nothing to change that, instead chose to file it away as another piece of information. Not that he was at all able to identify the thing at all, astronomy had never particularly interested him.

"Honestly though, limits are nonexistant here. If you want to see what I'm capable of, we'll be here for years. Show some of your own."

Meanwhile, the moon had already raced past, and they were headed for the center of the solar system.

"And here I thought I was the last romantic." Although Sirius's voice was more amused than dry, it was just as much in disagreement with what he said.

Astronomy wasn't really his forte, either, to be honest, mostly he had just spent a lot of time pointing the star he was named after out to people. it was pretty much the only way to spend Astronomy lessons with talking about himself and he was a far more interesting topic than Astronomy.

Sirius glanced at the moon as it rushed by. The lunar cycle, the one other heavenly body related thing he was too aware of. It was just a little gesture for a close friend, but as they passed it, the moon vanished.

"You've started us off on a grand scale. Bound to be hard to compete with." Without a sound, but plenty visual effect, the universe pretty much began to explode or implode around them. Sirius always had a knack for dramatics, even without ever having seen an action movie. It made no sense, but what did in a dream, and he felt the burning heat of stars collapsing against his face.

"What can I say? I like dreaming big." In more than one sense of the phrase, too. The explosions, on the other hand, clearly put a damper on his mood, and for no apparent reason a firmly shut steel door barred the heat of the nearest star from touching him at all.

"And you're one for dramatics, looks like." Pot, meet kettle. The tension he felt at the reminder of a plan gone sour carried over into his voice and his posture. He wasn't trying terribly hard not to let it, and come right down to it, didn't see why he should, either.

"Guilty as charged." Obviously not feeling too terribly guilty at that. But, well, the steel door is hardly a subtle hint and Sirius did note the tension rising in his...dream companion. Whatever the correct term for that was.

A raised eyebrow and a smirk and he couldn't help the question, "Can't stand the heat?" He waved his hand, which was an unnecessary gesture, really, but he was used to waving his hand around when he did things like this. They were in a dungeon suddenly, as far away from space as Sirius could imagine right that moment - though less far away from explosions, given that it was in a room with many desks and several cauldrons brewing.

He glanced at Mello and smirked, too much of a practical joker not to try and see if he could do it. Just as he'd thought, the Slytherin uniform fit the blond perfectly. Sorting Hat wasn't needed when Sirius felt like being judgmental.

Another eyeroll. If this other dreamer couldn't put two and two together enough to associate burn scars with explosions, well, he didn't feel like spelling it out for him.

He couldn't exactly help feeling his clothes change, frowned, and picked at his robes, unconcerned. Of course it fit him perfectly, Mello refused to wear anything that fell short. As tempted as he was to return the favor, the first dozen outfits that came to mind would've been just nasty, so he refrained and smirked instead.

"Why green?" As much as he disliked needing the joke explained to him, this wouldn't hurt his pride too much.

In his defense, in a world were brewing potions was something people just did, burn scars were pretty common and Sirius had neither taken too much notice nor cared all that much. So far, at least, part of his mind definitely pondered it now.

Huh. Somehow it hadn't really occurred to Sirius so far that the other could be a muggle. He kept the surprise off his face and shrugged. "Seemed like your color. Full of yourself and ambitious."

"Really? I used to keep hearing reckless." Not that he said anything about Sirius being wrong, not at all. Meanwhile his clothes shifted back into his usual black leather, if only because he tended to think of himself that way.

"Doesn't seem like it'd be a contradiction." Sirius glanced at Mello's clothes and actually imitated them just a bit. He found he rather liked the style. "I've been hearing reckless a lot, too, but no one's accusing me of ambition." There was a certain intimacy to sharing a dream like this. Whether it was just the odd circumstances, perhaps their subconscious really touched on each other, but it was a certain feel of kinship.

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The Lucid Dreaming Meme

Sirius Black || Harry Potter || OTA

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A Mello! and I counter with tl;dr, I'm so sorry ^^;

^^ yus! And don't worry, I actually like tl;dr.

oh good! I hate to scare people off ;)

;3 I'll just counter with some of my own on occasion.

I'm up for that challenge

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now it needs to be crossover..ed

XD yes, definitely. and mello makes a pretty great slytherin, too.

first time I thought about it and it took half a second to sort him xD