by this I mean I was able to half-consciously control my own actions in the dream like I would in real life, and kinda knew it was a dream, but still couldn't control everything else in it, which meant that physics was still guided by nature and not by myself)

This is something I told someone before, they always talk about flying while conscious in the dream or walking through walls but really, those are semi-conscious actions, when you are fully conscious in a lucid dream or oobe, the physics remain the same. This is the way I see it. (the more conscious you are, the more stable the physics is. It's the semi conscious ones walking through walls and such). I have often found levitating itself a trigger, it happens in the almost conscious dream and leads to a fully conscious one.

Also, someone I read once suggested that the seeming consciousness is probably a dream in itself, like you're dreaming of being conscious (that's interesting to think about).

Also I find your meditation on fictional characters interesting, there was this popular comic artist that dabbled into "magic" stuff who used to talk about "evoking" characters (fictional or real) . You can pick one, focus on them to enter the energy that makes them up. I never tried it but your report is interesting.