New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

01/01/13

Split Consciousness
I am in my Fire Valkyrie heading for the moon. I land on the moon and look around briefly before opening a portal to get somewhere I need to be. I go through the portal and enter a place that looks like a scene from Assassin's Creed. This does not surprise me since I have been dreaming a lot about Assassin's Creed lately. What does surprise me is that someone calls my name. I look over to where someone is calling me from and I see there are lots of Templars. Four of them are holding on to someone who looks like Altaïr. One of the Templars is laughing at me saying I had better not try anything or Altaïr would be dead before I could stop it. I use Battery to call two bolts of lightning, one on each side of Altaïr, nailing the Templars holding him. That frees Altaïr, who grabs a sword from one of the four fallen Templars and runs it through another Templar.

They now have a fight on their hands. I am about to help Altaïr with the large number of Templars, but one of them is still laughing at me. He says I can only save one of them, though. One of them? Who else? He says there are far more of them than there are of me, right now there is a parallel world that just lost its Altaïr. I saved one and lost the other. I use Divide by Disturbed to separate into two people, and one of me opens a portal to find the other Altaïr they are talking about. The situation is practically identical, so I use an identical solution. Battery… the Templars holding Altaïr die… Altaïr grabs a sword and fights back. But they are still laughing. Do I really think there are only two worlds? There are others? Shit. I use Divide again, there are four and then eight and then 16 of me. I send other copies of me to other worlds tracking other Altaïrs. Having multiple copies of me in different dimensions is really disorienting. And not all the worlds are exactly the same, though the basic idea is the same. I free more versions of Altaïr to fight and the Templars are still laughing. I intend to make them shut up. Another Divide. 32 of me, 64… a Templar asks if I really think I can get to all of them. One of me enters a world where I am right in front of Altaïr… and he stabs me with his hidden blade, so at least one of me has been stabbed. I'm not sure how many of me got stabbed. I wonder why Altaïr has attacked me in some places. A Templar says not all of them are immune to their control. So in the places where Altaïr has attacked me I use Liberate by Disturbed to break any possible mind control. It has become hard to keep track of what I am doing where, though. I think maybe I did Liberate everywhere… not that it has any effect where there is no mind control in effect. The Templars are still laughing at me, saying I have missed so many versions of Altaïr, there are so many places where the Templars will now win… there's no way I can save them all, so I might as well give up… So I Divide again, splitting to 128, I have the strange sensation of being everywhere at once and nowhere at all at the same time. But everywhere is close enough to the same. Free Altaïr, use Liberate just in case it's needed, fight Templars. It is really disorienting, I keep hearing Templars laughing… but is it a bit forced now? Maybe I'm reaching their limits… so I Divide yet again to 256, splitting into way too many places at one time… I feel like I am going to completely lose it, so I set to the same task everywhere. Get right next to Altaïr and drop an Immortal Fire. There is a bright light exploding in my mind as 256 simultaneous Immortal Fire spells go of at once, and for once there is no Templar laughter. Just a bunch of yelling. I don't have enough focus to understand what the Templars are saying, but I am reassured by the fact they don't sound happy. I think there is a lot of cursing. I wonder if I have found all of the instances where they have ambushed Altaïr… or did the Templars win in some places… no time to really ponder that before I wake up.

Lost Children
I am in what looks to be an abandoned town, though most of the buildings are still standing quite well. I wonder where all the people there went. I am not lucid, but I know I have a mission to complete. I have been tracking a pedophile to this location. It is a known fact that he has kidnapped numerous children, but no one has been able to track him to where he is keeping them. I have been on this case for a while and I think I am getting close to finding his hideout. I sneak through the streets of the town, peering into windows of homes as I go. Then my attention gets drawn to an abandoned hospital.

I think I see movement over there. Maybe that's where he is. I sneak over and get close to the hospital, and I do seem movement this time. There is a tall bald man pulling a little boy along by the arm, and the little boy is crying. I recognize the man as the pedophile, he is my target. I think maybe I have been playing too much Assassin's Creed because the man seems to faintly glow yellow. An assassination target. I have to get close to him when he doesn't have a child with him or it could become a hostage situation. So I tail the man into the hospital and he shoves the child into one of the rooms, locking the door behind. He is now alone. Now to get close to him. Looking around I see some rubble on the ground. I pick up a large rock and chuck it at the guy, hitting him on the side of the head. He doesn't seem hurt, but he does seem annoyed as he looks over and sees me. He says I am too old for him to have fun with, but not too old to kill. I throw more stuff at him. Mostly rubble on the ground. Rocks… pieces of wood… an old coffee mug… he gets more pissed off with every piece that hits him. He says he is going to have fun killing me slowly. He comes at me, as it appears that I am unarmed. But that weird yellow glow isn't the only thing I have brought from Assassin's Creed. He runs right up onto my hidden blade, practically stabbing himself. He has a shocked look on his face since he hadn't seen a weapon in my hand. I stab the bastard again to make sure he is dead. There are children locked in many of the rooms of the hospital, some of them aren't in very good condition. I call the police and real hospital and before long there are children being led out, some walking on their own, others being carried and given IV medication, all of them look traumatized. Their ages seem to range from 4 to 8… I am glad the pedophile is dead, though in a way it seems like it was too easy for such an asshole. I am still thinking that when I wake up.

12/29/12

Jail Break
I am in my Fire Valkyrie flying to the moon. I land on the moon and wander around a bit before opening a portal, directing the portal to take me to somewhere I need to be. The portal opens and I step through right into a world that looks like something out of Assassin's Creed. I am not sure what city I am in. I look around to try to identify it. What I do see is some guards dragging some people off of the street. I wonder what is going on. One of the people is saying he didn't do anything. One of the guards says with his attitude he doesn't have to actually do anything to get arrested. He laughs. He says he'll be laughing right up until the execution. In total I see ten guards and five prisoners. One of the prisoners looks right at me and then whispers something to one of the others at the cost of getting punched in the gut. A guard insists no talking. More whispers are passed amongst the prisoners until a guard tells them to shut the fuck up or he'll kill them all right now. Another guard says he wants to at least injure a couple of them. A third guard said there's no reason all of them have to make it back alive. One of the prisoners looks over at me, clearly expecting me to do something, then tells the guards something in a foreign language that is clearly an insult. They are all distracted, some of them laughing, some of them pulling weapons. No one is looking anywhere near me. I have two hidden blades… and take out two of the guards before any of the others even realize someone else is there.

Then there is confusion… and another guard taken out, though I am unable to target two of them this time. So in an instant ten has become seven. Now that they have seen me they are demanding my surrender, though it doesn't look like they're prepared to accept surrender. The prisoners are going after weapons on the fallen guards, three of them claim weapons while I am fighting with my Witchblade sword. A guard attacks and I use a counter attack to take him out, and now the three newly armed prisoners are fighting. Six against four… and one of them claims the sword of the guard I just killed… so now it's six against five. The fight is soon over, though two of the prisoners have been injured so I heal them. I ask what they were being arrested for, though it is a bit too late to find that out, and one of them says they were being arrested for protesting a new law, it's not allowed. He says before long it will be illegal to breathe too deeply. He says lots of people are being arrested for pointless offenses, and no one is sure what is happening to them. He says there are many others being arrested, and they are going to find out what is going on. Will I help them? I say I will if I can, but don't worry if I disappear for a short time… I'll be back. At least I am hoping I won't end up being a liar… One of the prisoners asks what important business I have and if they can help in return, but I never get a chance to answer before I wake up.

Silent Nonlucidity
I am in what looks like one of the cities from Assassin's Creed II but I am completely non-lucid. What I do believe is that I am from the future, and I have my iPad in a case that looks like an antique book so no one will question my using it.

I am searching for the glyphs left by Subject 16 and I am using my iPad to decipher the codes hidden within them. The fact I can climb on the walls and do most of the moves done in Assassin's Creed doesn't seem strange to me. Some guy starts putting the moves on me. He also takes my iPad and tosses it in a ditch, saying women shouldn't be reading. I am about to punch him in the face when I see he is offering me an invitation to some coveted event. I think there might be a glyph inside the area of the event, so being able to get in to the event would be helpful. He gives me the invitation and then asks, as if he already knows, who will be accompanying me. I tell him he can go fuck himself, knock him senseless with a kick to the balls then a punch in the face, and leave him sitting in the ditch where he tossed my iPad. I am looking at a building for a glyph when someone pokes something sharp at my back. I hear someone tell me if I cooperate I won't be hurt. I turn to see what is going on, and there is an Assassin pointing a hidden blade at me. I find it annoying. He says he needs to get into the event that I now have an invitation to. I tell him to stop poking me with that thing… I'll help him willingly or not at all. He seems surprised at my response and removes the blade from my back. I look at him closer now, I don't recognize him specifically but I am sure he is an Assassin.

So he must have a good reason for wanting to get into the event. His threat was clearly a bluff… he has no interest in harming what he thinks is an average civilian. He turns to walk away and I tell him I have decided to help him willingly. My invitation lets me bring a guest. So we go to the event together. There is some kind of an art display going on, the guards at the entrance let us in. Once we're inside I tell him I have my own reasons for wanting to be here… so he can go about his. I look around the walls and spot the glyph I was looking for. I scan it with my iPad, sure that chaos will ensue soon since I snuck an Assassin in. And chaos does ensue. The Assassin has apparently taken out his target. Then I hear someone accusing me of being in league with him because we came together, I tell that person he is nuts, how was I supposed to know? He was cute and wanted to come with me, so I brought him. No one seems to believe me, and I am too surrounded to get out. Someone is yelling that if the Assassin doesn't surrender they will kill his partner. I activate the time travel app on my iPad and leave the scene before the Assassin can respond. It transports me back to my own time… and my own bed.

12/28/12

False Messages
I am in my Fire Valkyrie heading for the moon, I hear the affirmations of my hypnotic program over the sound system of the Fire Valkyrie. It is telling me to take deep breaths and relax as I approach the moon and land. I ignore the part about having a space suit on and I just get out of the ship. I know it is a dream, so I don't need any such things as space suits. I walk around on the moon for a bit, I can still hear the affirmations in my head. That's when I notice something wrong with them. The affirmations are telling me I am worthless and that I might as well just stay in bed all day, it's not worth getting up. Those aren't antidepressant affirmations, they are clearly meant to make depression worse. I wonder if I have been totally ripped off when I bought the program. Well it was only $1, so I can't feel too ripped off… but I don't want to be using such trash. So I think maybe I can wake myself up by going to my own room and waking my sleeping body up. I open a portal and go into my room where I see myself sleeping. My earphones are in place, but there are two men, one on either side of my bed, whispering the negative affirmations. It's not my hypnosis program that was giving me negative affirmations… it's those stupid assholes. I ask them what they think they're doing, and they seem surprised to see me. One of them says I'm not supposed to know how to astral travel, I tell him it works fine in a lucid dream state… now they have ten seconds to leave my sight before this particular dream turns into a nightmare for them. They transform into Templar guards from the game Assassin's Creed II, the brute type which I have the most trouble with.

I comment that apparently they have chosen for this to become a nightmare. I form my Witchblade armor and sword just as they attack me. The armor is able to block their attacks, though it still knocks me down. One of them says it is might nightmare and pulls out something hair and throws it to me. It is my cat, Midna… and they have killed her! She is all bloody and mangled! That does it. Before they even know what happened I have cut both of them down. Apparently they didn't realize how pissed off I would be when I saw my cat. After the shock of it wears off I remember that it is just a dream and that is not really Midna. There are two dead Templars on the floor in my room… but one of them is still wiggling a bit. I really don't care. I telekinetically throw them both through my window which has turned into a portal that leads… well I don't know where it leads… but again I don't care. I look at my dead cat and think after pulling a stunt like that the portal can lead to the Dark Realm for all I care. I see my real cat lying beside me on my bed. She is looking at me. I reach to pet her but I find I can't actually touch her. Then I wake up next to her and start petting her.

With a Betrayer
I am in a small apartment with my former boyfriend James, but in the dream it seems we never broke up and are now living together. We are both in the bedroom talking about playing Assassin's Creed, it seems James thinks it is a stupid game. I tell him he doesn't have to play it. When he says he doesn't want me playing it I get annoyed and I tell him I'll play whatever games I like, he can play whatever games he likes. He asks if there isn't something else I'd rather play like Oblivion or Skyrim. I tell him I'll play those in good time, but right now I'm playing Assassin's Creed… and why should he have a problem with that? He says it is a stupid game. I blurt out that he is being stupid. And I'm not going to change what games I play according to what he wants. He says then stop dreaming about Templars. I tell him I'll dream about whatever I want to as well. And if that's to dream about Assassin's Creed then that's what I'll dream about. I ask what's gotten into him, thinking he is acting really strange. I change the subject and say we should get pizza for dinner. He says we should skip dinner and go straight for dessert. I say if it's chocolate cake he has a deal. He announces that he is horny and wants to fuck. I tell him he has gotten me out of the mood… he's going to have to get me back in the mood. He says I'm not worth that much trouble. I tell him then he can fuck himself. He says he thought he could get one final fuck before I was taken away. Taken away by who? He opens the door of the apartment and I see three men standing there, and my first thought is that they are real world Templars. James says he's sorry, he had no choice, confirming he has betrayed me. So I knee him in the balls really hard and tell him he may never fuck again. James doubles over in pain, the three guys come in and grab me. I find out I can fight with the skill of Ziva David off of NCIS which clearly takes the Templars by surprise even as I surprise myself.

So I proceed to kick all three of their asses, kicking a gun out of one of their hands when he tries to draw the weapon on me. I leave the apartment through the back entrance where I spot another couple Templars guarding the rear. Apparently they really don't want me to leave. There's just the two of them, so I take them by surprise and kick their asses in Ziva David style. A third one off to the side says he could just put a bullet in my head. I tell him to go ahead and do that… If I'm not tethered to a body I'll be in the dream state permanently and I'll be their worst nightmare. He does not shoot, but he looks frustrated. I tell him I knew he wasn't quite that stupid. I leave the place, not sure where to go now since I don't want to go back to my mom's place followed by a bunch of Templars. I am deciding where to go when I wake up.

Driving Me Crazy
I am in a car dealership looking for a new car. There are sales people all around me trying to sell me a car. I wonder why I am even looking for a new car since I have a perfectly good car already, and it's even paid for. People around me are arguing that I need fuel efficiency… no, I need safety… no, I need something economical. People are telling me to buy a hybrid… no buy an SUV… no buy an electric car… buy this… buy that… I am thinking that I am unemployed, there's no way I would qualify to buy a vehicle of any kind, certainly not a new one. My mom is there with me telling me I need to choose something low price since I have no job. I tell her I don't really want a new car. I'm fine with the one I have. She doesn't seem to believe me and brings over a salesman who is talking about buying a Fiat.

It is a tiny little car that probably gets great mileage but it has only two seats. My mom says it's not like I have a lot of friends anyway. I tell her again that I don't want a new car. She says of course I do and then starts trying to sell me the car as much as any of the salespeople. I remind her that I can't afford a car. She doesn't seem to know what to say. I tell the salesman I am unemployed, and he responds by walking away to a more promising customer. I think this is all really strange so I finally think to do a reality check. I am dreaming. Why am I dreaming about people trying to sell me a car? Are they beaming commercials into people's dreams now? I take to flying, commenting to a nearby pushy salesman that I don't need a car… I'll just fly where I need to go. My mom tells me to come back down right now, but I ignore her and fly up over Tucson. I think I'd like to go visit my friend Alicia, but I'm not sure if she's home or at work right now… I figure I'll check at her home and then at work. I fly in the direction I think Alicia's house is in, hoping I won't miss it since I'm not used to seeing it from the sky. I am getting quite exhilarated from flying but that wakes me up.

12/27/12

Hidden Poison
I am in my Fire Valkyrie on my way to the moon. I realize many of my dreams will be starting like this since I am trying a different hypnosis program when I fall asleep which ironically enough involves a trip to the moon during the process of relaxation. So I am able to start this dream off lucid. I land on the moon and explore the craters briefly before deciding to open a portal to somewhere I might be needed. I trace out a circle in front of me which becomes a portal and I go through it. I enter into a garden of some kind which looks like the numerous small garden enclosures in Florence in Assassin's Creed II.

It is night time and I am not sure why I have come here. I am looking at the garden when someone runs in looking quite frantic. He grabs me by my robes and says I have to save him, the person after him is going to kill him. The guy looks like he is about to piss his pants… smells like he already has. I ask who is trying to kill him, he says it is an Assassin. What is he, a Templar? He says he has no idea what a Templar is. He looks like he is lying. A man enters the garden and stops, looking at me strangely. He is dressed like an Assassin. The man who was running hides behind me, looking quite pathetic. The Assassin mocks him for hiding behind a girl. He then looks at my robes and says the man chose the wrong woman to try to hide behind. He says the coward behind me was trying to poison the city's water supply. The coward says the Assassin is lying. The Assassin says the poison is in a vial in the man's pouch. The man refuses to show me what is in his pouch. More people have arrived in the garden. A bunch of guards. The coward hiding behind me laughs and tells the guards to kill both the Assassin and me, since apparently we are working together. So a fight breaks out. I use my Witchblade sword, which seems to surprise everyone when it forms. The Assassin and I fight against what I estimate to be eight guards, until six of them are dead and two of them think better of continuing to fight and run away. The Assassin climbs up a wall and grabs hold of the fleeing man, the one who had originally hidden behind me, and kills him before throwing the body back into the enclosure. I still have my sword out, not sure if he's going to attack me, but he says we are on the same side here. So I put my sword away. When I get a better look at him I see it looks like he is Ezio Auditore.

I confirm that it is Ezio, he says we need to get somewhere safe before the body is found. He turns to leave, apparently expecting me to follow, but he will soon find there is no one there because it is here that I wake up.

Bullies
I am climbing around on the roofs of Florence in a full virtual reality version of Assassin's Creed II. But I am not playing as Ezio… I am playing as a female Assassin.

It is awesome. I wonder how come I didn't get this virtual reality system sooner. I am collecting eagle feathers from the roofs of the buildings, looking to find the last of the feathers in Florence. I jump from one roof to another to grab a feather. I wonder how hard it will be to climb to the highest places in virtual reality when the possibility of falling looks so real. I look down to determine if the heights will bother me. I have never been afraid of heights in my waking life, and I am not afraid of heights now. I see some assholes down below me. Four sizeable guys are pushing one woman around, I hear them talking about taking turns at her. One of them says they should go somewhere more private. Another says he knows where they won't be bothered. Being unafraid of heights, I jump down off of the roof and land right behind one of the assholes. I tell them to leave the woman alone or there's going to be trouble. Three of the four men laugh. The fourth one looks scared, which I had expected laughter from all of them. One of the laughing men said two women means twice as much fun. The scared person is repeating the word 'ass' over and over again. One of the men grabs my arm and says if I relax maybe I'll have some fun, too. The scared guy finally yells that I am an Assassin and turns and runs out into the street, he runs flat into a guard. The guard starts pushing him around and he keeps pointing and yelling that there is an Assassin over there. I comment that one of them has a brain… let go of me and leave the woman alone, last chance. He tries to pull me with him, still laughing. I nail him with my hidden blade. Another says no bitch is going to take him out. He charges at me and practically skewers himself on my other hidden blade. The fourth one runs away in the same direction the first one went. I notice that the guards don't seem to be taking their claims of an Assassin seriously. They are mocking the two men. The woman thanks me for saving her life. I see the two men get hot headed with the guards, they start throwing insults and get themselves arrested. The woman thanks me again and then hurries off down the street, seeming in a hurry to get somewhere. I climb back up the wall of the building. It seems harder to climb than I had expected it to be. Is it because it's virtual reality? Maybe… As I am climbing the wall I feel like I am going to fall, but I fall into my bed as I wake up.

12/26/12

Moon Templars
I am in my Fire Valkyrie in space, approaching the moon. I land on the moon and get out of my ship, not concerned with a space suit since it is a dream. I walk on the moon for a while, just looking around, not considering any of my dream goals right now. I spot something strange on top of a small hill not too far away. It looks like a laser of some kind, and it is pointed into the sky where I see the Earth shining like a small jewel in the vastness of space.

I wonder what it is there for, is someone going to shoot the Earth? I decide this is worth checking out and I approach the site slowly, keeping out of sight. I realize I am dressed in white Assassin's robes which look more gray in the dim light of the setting sun, which gives me good camouflage against the gray surface of the moon. When I get closer I see that there are people around the laser, they seem to be working on it. I wonder what their goal is. As I approach them I see they also have uniforms on, and I see the symbol of the Templars on the shoulders of the uniforms where an astronaut would have a flag. Templars… I figure they can be up to nothing good. Well, apparently I'm an Assassin… so it seems pretty obvious I am there to put a stop to whatever they are doing. I hear them talking amongst themselves about the ray, and I gather that it is some kind of a mind control ray that will make people more compliant and less likely to resist changes they would normally protest. I manage to sneak right over to the beam, I look at an access panel. I open it up and look at the wires and stuff inside, which makes no sense to me… but breaking it doesn't require understanding it. I pull out a bunch of the wires and sparks fly from the access panel. That gets an immediate response from the Templars. They start shooting beam weapons at me. They just hit their own laser weapon, adding to the damage I have already done. So I respond by summoning my Witchblade sword and fighting back. There are only three Templars working on the weapon, and I take them out quickly. I then use my sword to cut right through the beam weapon, leaving it as a pile of rubble on the moon. I look up at the Earth in the sky, thinking it sure is beautiful from here… then I wake.

Assassin's Creed
I am in a strange city; I do not recognize it at first. I walk for a short distance until I see something I recognize, but I don't recognize it from my waking life, I recognize it from the video game Assassin's Creed II. I am quite certain that I am standing right next to Leonardo Da Vinci's workshop in Florence.

I am just walking along when I realize someone is chasing after me. I hear them calling that they see me, kill her before she catches up with someone I didn't realize I was chasing. I turn to face my pursuers, Witchblade sword ready. There are five of them. I am outnumbered. But I find out that if I wait for one of them to make their move and then dodge the attack I am able to find an opening to get in a counter attack of my own. Using this technique I am able to take down four of them and the fifth decides he'd rather not fight, sheaths his sword, and runs for it. I see no reason to go after him, and I have the idea it is important for me to catch up with the person I have been chasing. I hurry along the street in the opposite direction that the guards came from, figuring if they were chasing me I must have been going this way. I spot the guy I am after, it seems he was actually stupid enough to stop and watch the fight when he could've been using the opportunity to escape. He has seen that the guards have lost the fight and now he is running away again. He must be the Templar I am after. I chase after him up the side of a building and into a small garden where I have him cornered. He is cowering in a corner and begging for his life. I wonder how someone that pathetic could be a threat to anyone. I tell him he isn't worth the trouble to kill and turn away, thinking if he is a main target I probably have to kill him no matter how pathetic he is. I see movement behind me and I turn just in time to catch the loser trying to stab me in the back. I stab him with my hidden blade before he can stab me and he dies. I leave the garden quickly before any more guards show up and realize I have completed my mission. I am back around Leonardo's workshop when I wake up.

Note: These are some dreams where I don't remember the entire thing from beginning to end, these are basically fragments that I remember.

*Damned Templars!*
I was in my front yard and I was lucid, though I don't know how I became lucid, I just was. I remembered the goal I had was to locate Xildron so I could try to heal him and change him back to his dragon form. The portal I opened was directed to locate Xildron, it took a few minutes, but it finally opened and I went into it. Everything was going normally until there appeared to be some kind of explosion right in the middle of my wormhole, and I was thrown out of it and onto a gray dusty surface like that of the moon. I immediately jumped up and looked around to see where I had landed. It didn't look like Earth's moon at all, there was a bright blue star shining in the sky, and I could see a giant ringed planet that the moon was orbiting around. Another thing I saw was that I was completely surrounded by Templars, several of them were chuckling at me, a few others looked annoyed, a couple of them looked like they were scared… Those assholes had interrupted my search for Xildron!

I was really too pissed off at them to think about what their reason for stopping me was, whether it was deliberately to keep me from reaching Xildron or if it was not related to that search. The Templars moved to attack me, and I attacked them at the same time, forming Witchblade into a sword and cutting the first couple that came at me clean in half. The ones who had been laughing were no longer amused, the ones who looked pissed were attacking me more aggressively, and the ones who had appeared afraid had actually turned around and run for it. I took care of the ones attacking me with a blast of flames that tracked in on each one of them. The Templars were all consumed in flames, tendrils from Witchblade reached out and grabbed the ones running away, wrapping around them and crushing them to death. Those stupid Templars always get in the way at the wrong time!

*So Very Angry*
Alicia and I were walking through the swap meet looking at the various things that were for sale there. Most everything I saw there was junk, something I wouldn't take home even if the seller paid me to take it. The reflection of sunlight off of metal drew my attention into a jewelry shop. Alicia followed me as I went inside to browse the items that were for sale within. Trash. That's what they were selling, shelves and shelves of trash, plastic rings, candy necklaces, kid's jewelry that was so obviously fake that it wasn't even funny. So what was it that had drawn my attention from so far away? Just then, I saw the sunlight reflecting off of a piece of jewelry on a display near the outside of the seller's stall. I went over and looked at what turned out to be a bracelet with beautiful blue stones around it. There was a second silver bracelet there that looked like a southwestern design. I thought I might want one of those. I wanted to browse a bit more. I looked around the rest of the booth, then came back to choose a bracelet, the blue one. Both were gone. I asked where they had gone. Alicia said she had bought them. Both of them?! She said yes. I got pissed, I was yelling at her and saying she had taken everything worth buying in the store. She said it wasn't everything… I asked the shop owner if they had any more decent jewelry. She said no. I yelled at Alicia some more about taking all of it, I was pissed… I yelled at her a lot more, told her she should give me one of the bracelets since I had found them first, hand over the blue one, you bitch! You selfish bitch! Alicia turned and left the store in tears, leaving me thinking I had been too hard on her over a small issue and wondering why I had gotten so angry.

*Don't Brush Your Hair With a Toothbrush!*
I was in an apartment with a man, I don't know who he was. I had the idea it was a temporary arrangement due to some natural disaster. I watched him get up one morning and go into his bathroom. He didn't close the door because he wasn't using the toilet. I saw he was grooming himself. He shaved most of his beard off, leaving only sideburns there. Didn't he know those were out of style? It didn't really matter. I wasn't the fashion police… The man made a strange face of frustration as he tried to get his sideburns to lie down properly and was totally unsuccessful, the more he messed with them the more they wanted to stand up. Finally he got a smirk on his face. He took his toothbrush from a drawer, wet it, and began brushing his sideburns with his toothbrush… um… yuck… I wondered why he was doing that, although it became quickly clear that the attempt was a success. He smirked as he made the hair lie down exactly how he wanted it to. He then proceeded to brush his teeth with the same toothbrush… definite yuck. I left to the kitchen to make some breakfast. A short time later, the man came out and asked if I could please fix him eggs, since I do such a good job. He smiled broadly… and all of his teeth were covered in rot… yuck! I told the man he shouldn't brush his hair with a toothbrush unless he wanted the lice to eat his teeth.

*Down With the Sickness*
I was in my bedroom getting ready to go to school. I rolled out of bed and went to the other room. I had my breakfast as usual, heated up a frozen egg, cheese, and sausage muffin, then went around and hugged on each of my cats. They were all soft, cuddly, and sweet as usual. There was nothing going on that even vaguely indicated this was not a completely normal day. That is everything was normal until I went into the bathroom to take care of doing my hair for the day. I noticed it looked strangely out of place, not like it normally does first thing in the morning. My hair is short, so there is usually very little to be done with it to make it look good enough for my liking. This time it was all hanging at weird angles… Oh, well. I would have to wet it down before I could brush it properly. I splashed water on my face and head, then started brushing my hair. Huge chunks of the hair were coming out on the brush! This continued until the entire crown of my head was bald, completely bald. The rest of the hair seemed firmly attached, but the crown of my head was bald! I tried hopelessly for a comb-over like some men try to get away with, then I looked at my scalp to see it was red and irritated, covered with strange soars. I could only stare at that and wonder over and over, "What is wrong with my body?" I was clearly quite sick, I didn't want anyone to notice, but I was sure I would have to see a doctor about this one.

Note: I had a goal tonight of meeting up with MoSh, checking on and doing a healing spell on Asuka, who has been absent from his dreams lately. After that MoSh wanted to go view an event from a Carlos Castaneda book where Castaneda was watching don Genaro do something interesting near a waterfall… I'm not sure what, but MoSh said that to see the full extent of it I would have to look at his energy, not just his body. So we have tried to do this before and met with an epic fail, so we're going to try it again. I used my light / sound machine to meditate. I fell asleep and successfully slipped into a WILD…

*Execution*
Ok… I immediately noticed something was off… I was actually over someone's shoulder and being carried… wtf? Was this some kind of attack on MoSh's inner world? Because that was where I was supposed to be… I tried to ask the person carrying me who the fuck he was, but I found I couldn't speak… my mouth was full of a foul tasting fabric… yuck… I went to take it out of my mouth, but I found my hands were bound tightly behind my back. Ok… this was annoying. I tried to activate Witchblade to cut through my bonds… nothing happened. This was really starting to piss me off. I was going to try something else when the man carrying me slung me off of his back and stood me on my feet, which I also found were tightly bound. I looked at the jerk who had been carrying me and did a double take… it was a fucking Templar.

I tried to curse at him, momentarily forgetting my mouth was full of foul tasting cloth… apparently curious as to what I would say, the Templar removed the cloth. After a couple of spits to try to get rid of the taste, I did curse at the Templar. I told him if he didn't want a personal tour of Hell then he had better get those bonds off of me immediately. He just laughed. He said I was the one who would be going to Hell… He said he was glad I was awake for my sentence, although he was sure I would have awakened as it was being carried out. No one could sleep through that.

Ok, this guy was dense, so I would have to show him a thing or two… his armor was metal, so the first thing I thought of was to use Battery on him. Nothing happened. I repeated myself, "Battery!" Still nothing happened. The Templar laughed. He said I should know perfectly well that stuff doesn't work in waking life. I told him that this was a dream. He said the drugs must have gotten me quite confused… but I had already been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. He said I had seemed to lose my senses when the method of my execution was announced… but he was glad to see I was fully lucid and able to experience every moment of it. I said of course I was lucid, it was a lucid dream. He said I could tell myself that all I wanted, it wouldn't change a thing. He pushed me to the side, I fell to the ground since my hands and feet were still tightly bound. I looked up and saw the Templar opening the doors of an old medieval execution device known as an iron maiden.

At first I wasn't really sure what to say… was this madman really intending to use that thing? He picked me back up by the ropes on my arms and carried me over to the device, setting me between the open doors. He laughed and said this was going to be fun. I had no thought that I could be actually killed here… I knew it was a dream… I told him if he even thought about trying to use that thing on me I would see him in the dark realm where I would have a front row seat to watch the cruelest demon I could find slowly burn the flesh from his bones. He just laughed again and started swinging the doors closed. I told him I had been leaving them alone because they hadn't been bothering me, but doing something like that would mean all bets are off. So unless he wanted to know… While I was threatening, he had continued swinging the doors slowly closed. The spikes on the doors were poking me, and pushing me back a bit into the spikes on the back of the device. He laughed when my words got cut off, then with one final hard shove, he pushed the doors completely closed.

The first reaction I had was that I couldn't believe he'd actually had the balls to do that… and of course his balls are something I would cheerfully relieve him of… That thought only had an instant in my mind before I was hit with a wave of excruciating pain, feeling each and every spike as it was rammed through my body… it was immediately the worse physical pain I have ever felt… and then to top it off, they had piped in some kind of loud screaming that sounded a bit like an enraged banshee who was also in pain. But this was a dream… why was I feeling so much physical pain in a dream? That damn screaming was too loud for me to think… and then I realized the one screaming was me… apparently an unconscious reaction to the excruciating pain… With an enormous effort of will, I forced myself to close my mouth and think… I just had to wake up. So I focused on waking up. Wake up… wake up… wake up… nothing happened. I tried to move a bit to wake myself up, but the attempt at movement only redoubled the excruciating pain I was in by shifting my position on the spikes… And still I did not wake up. Why could I not awaken? I also noticed I was no longer silent. I hadn't started screaming again, I was just emitting low groaning sounds of pain that sounded like the expression of someone in the deepest pits of despair. I could hear laughter outside… the Templar was enjoying this.

I remembered reading a couple of articles, from when I was doing some research on torture devices I could put in a dungeon for a video game I am designing, about a person shut inside an iron maiden living for as long as a couple of days. How long had I already been in there? Not long, I didn't think… this was a dream. That meant I would wake up. But how long would that take? This was a dream… that also meant I should have my powers. Why weren't they working? Maybe something was blocking them… I just needed to focus to overcome that block… As I was trying to focus, I unintentionally shifted my body again… another wave of unbelievable pain… an involuntary cry of pain and despair… a laugh from the Templar outside… broken focus. A simple ability, like telekinesis… I focused on opening the doors to the iron maiden. That would either result in my being free or in my dream body bleeding to death and me waking up. At that point either alternative was an acceptable result. Nothing happened. I was going to try to focus better when the floor literally dropped from beneath my feet. But of course I was pinned on the spikes and could not fall… instead I was hanging on the spikes now… and what I had thought was the worst possible physical pain got about ten times worse…

After hanging there with my mind clouded by pain for what felt like forever, the floor closed again and I was once again standing on something solid. Apparently that was something they would do for periodic amusement. I could now hear at least two or three Templars outside laughing. One kept saying to do it again. Another said they had to wait… set a pace for the pain, deliver it all at once, what do they do for fun then? For fun?! For fucking FUN?! Those fucking sick bastards, what kind of mind does a person have to have to think putting someone in a device like this is fun?! Rage and dark energy were boiling up within me… and I let it. The dark energy brought a feeling of cold numbness, which blocked out most of the pain. It was not stable dark energy, and I didn't care. I let it be unstable, let it expand and fill me until it was bursting out of me like an explosion… and then there actually was an explosion…

The resultant explosion that blew the iron maiden into three separate pieces… blasted the two doors off to the front, and threw the back half against the wall behind me. One of three Templars got slammed with a door to the iron maiden… it had flipped around in the explosion and he was now impaled on the spikes of the door. Another Templar was staring at me… and kept repeating two words… Oh, shit… oh, shit… oh, shit… He disappeared, abandoning his partners like the coward he was. I was currently pissed and full of unstable dark energy. I used telekinesis to lift the free Templar and slam him into the back half of the iron maiden, impaling him on the spikes there. Must have hit a vital organ or two, because he died quickly. I noticed the one pinned under the door was still moving. I went over and looked at him. His face was contorted by pain and terror. I wondered what I looked like that would instill such a fear response… as if that was a request, I saw a brief 3rd person view of myself… I looked like Sorceress Edea from Final Fantasy VIII (the form usually called the Queen of Night), but in addition to looking like a dark sorceress, I looked dementedly pissed off…

ok… it was a bit disturbing, or it would have been if I hadn't been bursting with unstable dark energy. I stepped on the door under which the terrified Templar was pinned... forcing the spikes further into him, and eliciting a cry of pain and a plea for mercy. I had no urge to be merciful… I gave one more shove down on the door and then walked away as the Templar was grimacing in pain and trying in vain to lift the heavy iron door off of himself.

I walked over to the dungeon door… and did absolutely nothing, but the door blasted off of its hinges apparently of its own accord. I left the dungeon into the main Templar base, throwing dark energy spears at the Templars, randomly impaling them and pinning them to the wall. Some died quickly, others cried out in pain as they hung there dying a much slower death. I got to the center of the base, or what looked like the center, and unleashed an Immortal Fire of pure unstable dark energy, a wall of black flames burst out from me, incinerating everything in its path. I was feeling a bit disoriented… and the scene around me shifted.

*Visions of Castaneda*
Now I was in MoSh's inner world where I had intended to go in the first place. My dark energy had been drained off in the Templar base, and I just felt drained rather than homicidal. I collapsed to my knees in the yard in front of MoSh's house, taking deep breaths and trying to calm myself down. I noticed all my wounds had somehow healed, probably from the intense energy flow… The door to the house flew open and MoSh came running out with Asuka right behind him. MoSh got over to me and was worriedly asking if I was ok… what had happened? I wasn't able to answer right away, which seemed to worry him even more… but finally I was able to tell him I would be ok. Data was there… and he opened a portal. MoSh picked me up… I was trying to tell him I could walk just fine… and carried me through the portal, Asuka followed, and we were in the healing glen. Basara also showed up, and we did a mutual healing, with the crystal golem putting in extra healing energy. My dark energy was stable again, completely controlled.

"Carlos Castaneda," I said to MoSh, "Let's go watch him." MoSh looked surprised. He said no, we didn't have to do that tonight. He said I should get my rest. I felt the dream slipping, too… but for some reason I thought it would be a worst case scenario to let this entire dream be wasted on being tortured by and subsequently killing stupid Templars. I wanted to do something productive. I told him I was ok and I wanted to do it now. I focused on time dilation to stabilize the dream, turning one hour of IWL time into four hours of dream time… I asked for the book… then I remembered it was called 'A Separate Reality' by Carlos Castaneda. I summoned the book. I opened it and skimmed for the word waterfall or don Genaro. Found mention of don Genaro, so I transported MoSh and myself to my room in my inner world and got my laptop. I loaded the book into my laptop through a scanner and then activated the holographic viewing system… I was wondering if it would work… the new scene took shape around us. We could now watch the events in the book… and see the events of the book instead of looking like snack food to a bunch of hungry graboids.

I looked around and saw the target of our viewing. Castaneda, don Juan, and a couple other guys were sitting in a line on a row of rocks that they were using as chairs. They were all staring at a waterfall. The waterfall was quite beautiful, but I didn't see that the beauty of the waterfall alone would command their full attention for that long… I looked over at the waterfall. There was an older man climbing a trail beside the waterfall. It looked like a difficult trail, but the man looked like he was in much better shape than his age might indicate. For the most part he was sure footed about his ascent to the top of the falls where he disappeared from sight.

MoSh touched me on the shoulder and asked if I was sure I was ok… he said it looked like something pretty serious had happened to me. I said I was ok now. He hesitated, then said since we were here, we might as well do it right. He said to point at don Genaro with my pinky when he came back into view. I didn't say anything about that not being my method of energy scanning… I knew what he meant, that was really all that was necessary. The man, apparently don Genaro, appeared by the edge of the waterfall at the top.

I focused on seeing his energy, not just his body. At first I just saw a bright aura, he had strong energy… but also pure and stable. No corruption there, but that wasn't what I was looking for. I watched him for a bit, then his energy field seemed to change its shape, he was clearly manipulating his energy. I watched from next to MoSh as he used tendrils of energy like ropes to help him get to a small stone in the middle of the falls… and then to an even smaller one… somehow without getting swept away. He wouldn't be swept away, he had his energy tendrils to hold on to. He stayed on the second stone for a while, positioning his energy tendrils just right, removing them from the first rock and anchoring them to the far bank of the river… And then he used them to pull himself over to the far bank where he landed with cat-like grace on all fours. He paused there and pulled his energy tendrils back into himself, then finally stood up and looked down at his audience. All four men were staring wide eyed. Don Genaro now momentarily glowed brightly, expanding his energy field in a bright and colorful aura that looked like it might be visible from space… before disappearing from sight on the other side of the waterfall.

It started raining now. The four men who had been sitting got up. I could hear Castaneda talking plaintively to don Juan who was responding as one might to a child who is complaining too much… responding in a tone that sounded like a reprimand… but I couldn't hear what they were saying. And I also had the feeling it didn't matter what they were saying. MoSh and I had been there to see don Genaro's show, not to find out what Carlos Castaneda was complaining to don Juan about… MoSh asked what I had seen. I told him what I had seen, don Genaro using his energy tendrils to help him get across the flowing waterfall without falling off. He commented that it seems I had seen it. I said yeah, I have been able to see energy in the dream state for quite some time… though I didn't remember seeing someone use the energy in that manner before… MoSh said that when Castaneda and don Juan had first watched this, it had been in the physical plane of our own home world… and then Castaneda had written about his experiences, although Castaneda had not been able to see what don Genaro had done at that point. Castaneda had looked, but had not been able to see. That didn't seem odd since most people on our physical plane aren't able to see energy…

The hologram shut down at that point, apparently MoSh and I had seen everything we were going to see. MoSh said don Genaro had been manipulating his energy body on the physical plane of our world. I said yeah, that was pretty cool. I saw MoSh and I were back in my inner world again. I went over to the couch and sat down. MoSh was walking around looking at things. I could feel myself about to wake up again. I told MoSh that I was about to wake up, and time dilation seemed like too much effort to try again when it has never worked the second time anyway. MoSh was saying something else to me when everything faded and I woke.

"There's no time!" the man insisted, "The Ascendentae will answer all your questions, but you have to come with me! It is no longer safe here!" The man opened a portal and I followed him through…

On the other side of the portal I was in what looked like a temple. I felt the dream was slipping. I was about to wake up, but I wasn't done there… so I didn't want the dream to end yet. I repeated what I had done last night, using Allura's method to dilate time. I focused on the 12 hour clock, then morphed it into a 24 hour clock… then to a 48 hour clock… and I felt the dream stabilize. I looked around again. The man who had come to help me with the goons was standing there looking at me strangely.

"Come," he said to me, "The Ascendantae awaits." He turned and walked away.

I followed the man as he walked through the halls. He knocked on a large door at the end of the hall. Someone on the other side said we should enter. The man I was with opened the door and we both went into the room. There was a man sitting on the other side of a desk looking at us as we entered. The man referred to the man who had brought me as Salus, and said he could go now. Salus turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.

I'd had a million questions I'd been wanting to ask, but now I didn't seem to be able to manage any of them. The man behind the desk, the Ascendantae, stood up and came around the desk. He looked at me closely as if evaluating me or something… I didn't like that much. Something about him reminded me of Sean Connery…

I wanted to ask what he was looking at, but he started speaking before I got a chance to. He said Salus had already told him about finding me. He said Salus had also told him about the everto finding me. He said that was not a good sign. He said that if the everto had started looking for their… then he trailed off. He paused and then said he was sure I wanted some answers. He said all the answers I wanted awaited me at the end of the negotium.

"At the end of the what?" I asked, having no idea what this negotium could be. He said it was a simple task. All I would have to do was go to the end of a passage and retrieve a book. A special book that, if I was who they believed me to be, would be able to retrieve. And I was the only one who could retrieve it. That all sounded really strange to me… The man pulled a hidden lever on the desk. A section of the floor slid aside and there was a stairway down into darkness below. The Ascendantae said that the answers awaited at the end of that passage. I looked down the passage into the darkness. I wondered what might await down there… I wasn't sure what I was going to do… but I figured I would not know what was going on if I didn't go down there.

I was about to go down the stairs when the door to the office was flung open. There were a bunch of people in the door… Templars! Wtf? My full lucidity came rushing back to me as I let myself get out of character… There weren't supposed to be Templars attacking here… the Ascendantae was also perplexed. Of course he was a DC I had made for the game… But he was programmed to respond. He went over towards the Templars. He demanded to know the meaning of this intrusion. I told him those were the everto, so he might want to go down the passage himself to escape. He didn't leave, instead he pulled out a rather fancy looking glowing sword and attacked the Templars. One of the Templars hit him with a blast of energy, and since he was a DC that wasn't even intended to fight, the Ascendentae disappeared. I was prepared to fight the Templars now. I was more focused on them, so the dream set I had created fell apart around me. It turned out I was now on the moon.

One of the Templars came towards me and seemed pleased to see me… wtf? He came over and shook my hand with one of his hands and said it was good to have me on their side. What? I asked him if he was on crack… He looked at me strangely and then laughed. He tried to lead me back to the others as a friend would do. I pushed his hand off of me. I asked what he wanted, intruding on my dream… He said it was time that we got down to business. I said I didn't have any business with him… He said if I could just convince MoSh to join us… I repeated that there is no 'us' going on here… He looked at me strangely. He said the joke had gotten old. I said I wasn't joking about anything. These guys really thought I would be working with them!

I asked him what would make him think I had joined their side. He said I had clearly accepted the dark energy… I told him that doesn't mean anything… unless the goals of controlling people by force that and the rest of the Templars were aiming for had drastically changed there was no way I would ever be helping them with it. He looked at me strangely. He didn't seem to be getting the point. I told him to go away and let me finish my dream in peace. The one who had been talking to me looked over at the other Templars. He didn't seem to know what to say now. I told him we had found a good balance… they don't interfere with my dreams, and I don't kick their asses on sight. So unless there was something else that didn't involve me joining them, please go away and let me finish my dream. The Templar closest to me grabbed my arm and said I would be going with him. I said no, I would not, so he would have one more chance to just leave in peace… Instead he tried to pull me with him. I shook him off and opened a vortex portal that dumped all of them someplace around Pluto…

I went to focus on restoring my dream world and continuing my video game development dream. Before I even had a chance to get the dream realm reformed, however, there was another visitor. This one attacked me on sight, throwing spears of light down at me. There were explosions all around me as I jumped out of the way of the attack, getting quite annoyed at my dream being interrupted yet again. I looked to get a closer look at the attacker, and I saw he looked like an angel of some kind… he didn't even pause in his attack, though, throwing another wave of glowing spears in my direction. I used Whiplash and sent the energy spears right back at him. He avoided the attack and landed on the ground not far from me. I asked him what he thought he was doing. He said he does not talk to demons. He continued attacking me. A whirlwind of golden light erupted around me, mixed with fire. This guy was really annoying… This attack was easily countered with a small wave of dark energy that neutralized the attack. The angel was already throwing more light spears at me, I jumped out of the way and hit him with a bolt of lightning by using Battery. Electricity didn't seem to hurt him… I tried a bolt of lightning made of dark energy… that did hurt him. It knocked him backwards. I told him he should get a better definition of what a demon is before attacking random people, then used a vortex portal to send him where I had sent the Templars. Maybe all of them would have some fun together.

Ok… now finally to get back to my video game dream… But the dream was slipping again. I focused on doing another time dilation. The clock with the 12 hours, changing into the clock with 24 hours, changing into the clock with 48 hours… but it didn't seem to be helping this time. The dream slipped away and I woke.