New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

05/06/13

Land of Confusion
I am lying on a towel in the middle of a green field. It is a very peaceful setting. I sit up and look around. At first I think I am alone in the field but then I see there is a man there with me. One solitary Templar. He is watching me from a distance. I figure I will ignore him but then I remember the tasks of the month. One of them is to tell a DC that they don't exist. This should be an easy one. I go over to the Templar, who seems unsure of what to expect. He says he is just there to watch, he means no harm. I say it doesn't matter. He isn't even real. He hesitates and then asks what I'm talking about. I tell him he doesn't exist. He pauses again and then says if he doesn't exist then why do I keep killing him and his friends. I ask how I can kill him if he doesn't exist. I can't kill something that doesn't exist. He pauses again. I remember the other part of the task of the month, which is to set myself on fire in front of a DC. I've already confused this Templar, why not go a bit further. I ask him if he'd like to see someone on fire. He backs away, holds his hands up, and says no, don't do that. I tell him I'm not going to set him on fire, I'm not a sociopath. I'll be the fire. I call up a small fireball and set myself on fire. It's warm but not hot. I'm on fire but not burning. The Templar just stares. He is totally speechless. He says I really am insane. I comment that I should've known. If I'm on fire he wouldn't piss on me to put me out. Typical Templar bastard. He doesn't seem to know what to respond. I hear a meow and I look down to see Grumpy Cat roasting a marshmallow on my left foot.

I summon a splash of water to extinguish my fire and then scoop up Grumpy Cat to pet the cat. Grumpy Cat submits to being picked up but looks grumpier than ever, she has a look in her eyes that says she would like to scratch my eyes out but for some reason she doesn't make any move to do so. Grumpy Cat wiggles in my arms so I put her down. She walks away, sticking her tail up as she goes as if she is flipping me the bird with her tail, telling me to fuck off. I am left alone with the confused Templar. I remember that I had been planning on checking on Nomad since I haven't heard from him for a while. I focus on opening a portal to find Nomad, and one opens. I am about to go through the portal when I wake up instead.
 
Captive Rage
After waking up from the previous dream I manage to go back to sleep and go directly back into the same dream. I am in the field of grass, the Templar is still there watching me as if nothing had happened at all. I focus on opening a portal to find Nomad and one opens. This time I am able to go through it without any annoying waking up. On the other side I am in trees, up in a tree. I hear the sounds of quite a few people not far off. I follow the sound, keeping to the trees as I go, jumping from tree to tree. I have the idea if I appeared in the trees that maybe I should stay there for now. I reach the site where I hear people without being spotted. I look down on the scene below. There are lots of Templars, some of them look like human Templars, others look like orcs.

There is an altar with a woman chained down to it, there are strange things crawling all over her. The things look like worms of some kind, and they are burrowing into and out of her flesh as if it was loose soil. I recognize the woman as Winter. There are a couple Templars watching the torture, but most of them are focused on a large humanoid panther that they have chained to a huge stone of some kind. That looks like Nomad, though he doesn't appear lucid. A Templar is right beside him trying to be heard, which is very difficult considering Nomad is yelling some of the loudest expletives I have ever heard. I look back down and see the altar is right below me with two Templars, both men, watching. All of the others are distracted. I form Witchblade into tow hidden blades and jump down on the two observing Templars, air assassinating both of them at the same time. The move is silent and does not get any attention. I am trying to get through the locks to free Winter when I realize Nomad is no longer yelling expletives. I can now hear the Templar telling Nomad that the sooner he cooperates the sooner Winter will get well. He resumes cursing at that Templar. I focus on a healing spell, using Voices to send healing energy through Winter. The healing energy forces the worms out and they burn in white energy. Winter seems to relax, though she is still badly injured. I sneak around the outside of the clearing to approach the rock Nomad is chained to from behind. They are locked, of course. I use the unlock spell from Harry Potter, alohamora, to open the locks and I kick myself for not thinking of the spell when trying to free Winter. As I unlock the chains, an enraged Nomad realizes he is free and grabs the Templar who has been talking to him, practically tearing him in two with his claws. He rips an orc Templar open and heads directly for Winter. One Templar yells to stop him, another one says if the first one wants him stopped to do it himself. Nomad reaches Winter and tears the chains off of her, they are smaller than the ones that had been holding him. He looks at her and is pissed even more, tearing into more Templars with such a rage that the remaining ones scatter. I open a portal to the moon, telling Nomad that Winter needs healing. The first place I think of is the healing springs. Nomad seems to calm down when he sees me and sees the Templars are gone. We go through the portal to the healing springs. Nomad sets Winter in the water, the water around her glows with a bright light as it has its healing effect. Some dirty black stuff washes off of Winter and disperses. I use my healing spell on her again, focusing more healing energy through her. The worms are all gone now, and the wounds they have made heal closed. After the healing she seems to be sleeping peacefully. Nomad is crying now, saying he couldn't stand watching them do that to her… and then he adds that they will pay for what they've done. Everything fades to black as I wake.

Task of the Year: Nightmare On Elm Street
I am in high school, walking down one of the hallways with lockers on both sides of the hall. I am looking for my own locker, and I can't remember where the locker is, but I know I am late heading to my next class. I am getting frustrated with finding my locker and feeling rather stupid… but finally I find it. Great… now I can't remember the combination. I take a hair pin from the floor and start trying to pick the lock to my own locker. It opens and I see my books on the bottom, and there is a kid that looks to be about 8 years old impaled on the coat hanger on the back of the locker. And he is still alive, he is weakly trying to get down, blood coming from his mouth in strangled gasps… A gloved hand explodes through the boy's chest, there are knives on the glove like in Nightmare On Elm Street. The boy's body is broken in half and pulled through a hole in the back of the locker. I look through the hole and see something on the other side, a figure that has some resemblance to Freddy Krueger, but is even uglier and more disgusting… he is eating the flesh off of the boy's arm. He looks up at me and snarls in a horrible grin. Thoughts of Freddy Krueger lead to thoughts of dream demons and thoughts of dreaming… I can fight this guy… this is my dream! I move closer to the hole in the locker and Freddy reaches through to grab hold of me. I grab his hand before he can stab me with the knives and I will not let go, I twist it in a martial arts move and flip him over. The glove comes off in my hands, he glares at me and the dream shifts.

I am now at what looks like a mining site of some kind, I am still holding Freddy Krueger's glove in my hands, but now I see that I am not alone. There are a couple of men there with me, they are getting really close and hot and heavy with each other. They are kissing very passionately and feeling each other up… then they see me and cool it a bit. One of them, a black guy, says the two of them are ready to come out of the closet. Where did Freddy Krueger go? I don't care if these guys are gay or not… I want to find that dream demon. Well, I don't have long to wait. The ground starts to rumble and shake and then a huge worm / snake thing with the face of Freddy Krueger erupts from the ground and bites on to the black guy.

The other guy, a white guy, screams no over and over again, jumping up and down in place like a scared little girl. I still have Freddy's glove… I use the glove and sink the knives into the neck of the worm thing, making it roar in anger and pain and spit the guy out. He is covered in brown goop but seems unharmed. The guy's boyfriend hugs him and now they are both covered in goop. I am focused more on Freddy. He is trying to maneuver around and bite me, but the knives of the glove are imbedded in the thing's neck and I am holding on to that. So his moving around succeeds only in cutting him deeper. I focus on the song Damage Inc. by Metallica to send fire energy right through the glove and into the worm creature. The thing erupts into flames from the inside out and is gone in a blaze of fire which somehow doesn't burn me. I look to see if the two men are alive and they are making love on the ground… naked… covered in goop… yuck… not something I want to see so I wake up.

Viral
I am in a strange underground cavern which I somehow know is located underneath MoSh's inner world, and things have gone very wrong there lately. I look around and see I am in what appears to be a central chamber with many smaller caves branching off to the sides in various directions. Data is suspended in the middle of the room by a vast array of colorful wires which seem to be connecting him to every corner of the cavern and beyond. I have the idea that all of these twisted wires and cables are connecting Data to every aspect of MoSh's inner world. But there is something wrong. Data does not look right, in fact he looks stark raving mad. His eyes have a flashing red glow to them, there is smoke rising from several of the places where the wires are connected to him, and he is laughing maniacally. He seems to not have noticed me. I move towards Data, wondering what is wrong, and he finally notices me and announces I have great timing and I am about to witness the birth of a new era, where all will be perfection and there will be no flaws. Wtf? Apparently Data has lost it… I ask him what he is talking about… he said everything that is flawed will be purged and replaced with pure perfection. I notice that he is also talking strange… "All in the-the-the world that is fla-a-awed will be pur-pur-ged and repla-ce-ce-ce-d with pure per-fect-fect-perfection!" Stuttering beyond belief. Maybe he has a virus? But there's no way he could have a virus… he has penticon CPUs… they don't get viruses, do they? Only one way to find out. I use the penticon processor I have implanted in my head to generate nanites. I send the nanites through one of the cables near me that is connected to Data. Apparently Data registered the intrusion at the last minute, he tries to block the nanites out by disconnecting many of the wires, but it's too late. The nanites are already inside. And there is a virus! The virus has programmed Data to see all biological living beings as flawed and thus must be eliminated, he apparently tried to eliminate Asuka… where is she now? Data doesn't know. That could be a good thing… the last Data saw she was ok at least. I direct the nanites to delete the virus from Data's programming and restore him to optimum operating conditions… and then stick around and act as an anti-virus for Data in the future.

Sweet Sacrifice
I am in a forest walking along a path that has been clearly marked out through the trees. The path looks heavily traveled, there are many footprints heading both directions. I follow the path for a short ways and find there is a small town at one end that looks like something out of a RPG fantasy game. I decide I want to see where the other direction of the path leads before talking to anyone in the village, so I turn and leave before anyone sees me. I hear someone over there is arguing… and I listen in… and it seems some woman is pissed off because she doesn't think her son should be the one to be sent to satisfy the demon… I follow the trail in the other direction, maybe I can see what is going on. The trail leads through a very pleasant forest, the sounds of the birds singing, the wind in the trees… someone screaming in agony… wait… not such a nice sound… I hurry along the path and find a shrine at the end of it. There is a woman there, she looks like a hooker… scantily dressed and appearing sexy, long black hair, unnaturally white skin, bright red lips…

and there is a young man chained to what appears to be an altar. He sees me arrive and can't seem to decide if he wants me to help him or run for my life. The woman has razor sharp finger nails and she uses one to cut a square of skin off the man's chest which she eats in the manner a seductress would eat a particularly tantalizing piece of chocolate. The man screams in pain, which she seems to enjoy as much as the food. She asks if I came to watch or if I want to join in. She laughed. She said leave or I would be dessert. I tell her that could never happen, she can't take me. She seems annoyed at the challenge… she says she hasn't had a fool villager challenge her for a long time, this will be fun. She attacks me, her finger nails grow into massive talons, apparently she thinks she will just rip me open. Epic fail. I form Witchblade into a sword and relieve her of her head. How pathetically weak for a demon… I set the prisoner free just before I wake up

EVE: Fox In The Hole

I am inside a game of EVE Online and I am flying a drake loaded down with heavy missile launchers. Furthermore, I am pissed off. I am pissed off at another player by the username of Foxtrot 02 for recently putting me in a very uncomfortable position involving secrets and backstabbing against the CEO of our online corporation… that gets too convoluted to get into here, suffice it to say I am out for blood. I am flying my drake from asteroid belt to asteroid belt in the solar system Kaaputenen which is where Fox usually hangs out. I finally find him in one of the asteroid belts in his retriever mining some pyro from a couple asteroids.

Normally I am not in favor of attacking an unarmed mining ship, but in this case I make an exception. I open fire on Fox's retriever with a barrage of missiles. He launches his drones, but the drones are barely launched before my missiles wipe his retriever from existence. Fox's pod is now floating in space. Boom! I blast the pod before he can warp away. In the chat window I see Fox is cursing fluently at me, I tell him that's what he gets for the position he put me in. He says I will pay for that and then goes silent. Shortly later Fox warps back into the asteroid belt, this time he is in a tengu…

which is an advanced battleship. Wait a minute… Fox can't fly a tengu! But there it is… While I am wondering how it is even possible he blows up my drake. I launch in my fire valkyrie instead of my pod, however. Now it is his turn to pull a "wtf" and have the hesitation prove fatal. I blast his tengu into debris. I then blast his pod. Ha! That's twice, Fox! I blasted you twice! Ship and pod both times! You should count yourself double podded!

09/13/11

EVE: War Sucks
I am in a game of EVE Online. I am flying my drake in low security space, I know I am looking for trouble. I wonder if maybe I should've brought a smaller ship. Griefers might be afraid a drake might fight back. But I'm looking for a specific griefer. Back Hoe is his username. I finally find the system he is in. I call him out in local. I say I challenge him to a fight, my drake vs. whatever he has. He agrees to a one on one. I arrive and find there are somehow three of him all out there at the same time. So much for one on one. Well, I also got a secret. I launch my Fire Valkyrie from my drake. He can't seem to hit that no matter how many of him there are. I blast all three of his ships and then triple pod him when escape pods launch. Ha! The joke is on him. 3 vs. 1 but it was him that didn't have a chance!

EVE: Betrayal
I am in low sec space in my drake, looking for someone to fight, preferably some asshole who likes to pick on those weaker than themselves. I scan the system and locate a tengu. That's a pretty powerful ship so I warp to the location to see if he attacks. It turns out the player is Xenoace, who is a member of a friend corp. Oh, well. No fight there. But I was wrong. He attacks me and blows up my drake, this took me by surprise. My Fire Valkyrie ejects instead of my escape pod. This clearly surprises him. That's a fancy pod, he says. Now it go boom. He's trying to warp scramble me, but I don't have any intention of running. I attack Xeno's tengu an blow it up. His pod ejects. I hesitate just a bit too long and it warps away before I can pod him. Why was Xeno attacking me???

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09/15/11

I Am Sailor Moon
I am Serena Usagi, also known as Sailor Moon . I am meeting with the other sailor scouts and we are discussing how to keep the silver imperium crystal safe. Every time I start an idea Rae says it's a dumb one. She follows that by insulting me a lot. No one is objecting. I get pissed. I finally throw the crescent moon wand at Rae and tell her fine, if everyone there hates me so much, I quit. Rae can be leader, she can be the new Sailor Moon. I'm out of here. I leave in a huff, almost in tears. I am near a plant shop when I hear something. I follow the noise. A weird mutant plant woman is attacking Rae, who is in Sailor Mars form now. The plant woman has Rae cornered. Hey! Double ugly weed bitch! Over here! She glares at me then comes at me. I turn and run, I have no wand to transform with. I go to the plant shop. Where is your weed killer? A shelf of Weed-B-Gone. I take several. Plant bitch is here. I spray her with weed killer. The weeds all over her die, leaving a disoriented woman. Rae comes. She says that was the second dumbest thing I have ever done... the first being when I left... I interrupt. The dumbest was ever thinking I could have a real friend. Fuck off, I'm still out of here. I leave, I am still pissed. I ignore Rae calling me to stop. I wake up feeling so very isolated, so alone.

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09/17/11

EVE: Revenge
I am once again in a game of EVE Online, I am in my Fire Valkyrie. I am hovering outside a station where I know there are several assholes holed up. The list on my screen shows Back Hoe, Menardii, Draco, Marley... and a couple others. They are all showing as war targets. I wait for a bit and finally Back Hoe tries to leave. I blast him... ship and pod. I wait some more. Draco tries to leave. I blast him, too. Ship and pod. This is amusing. They are cursing at me in local chat. I don't respond. I warp away. One of them tries to leave again. I warp back so fast. Boom, I blast Menardii... ship and pod. You guys are screwed. Whenever you step out of the safety of that station I'll be here to pod your asses! I will be here and POD YOU every time! How do you like it, assholes? It sucks to be you!

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9/19/11

Pokémon Hunt
My mother and I are in a forest searching around for pokémon, my mother is looking to catch herself one. My mom says what she really wants to catch is a pikachu. I remind her we already have a pikachu back at the house, in fact we have several of them. She says one can never have too many pikachus. We have pokéballs and my mother asks me where she should look. I tell her most of the pokémon will be in the tall grassy areas and in the bushes, most of them will be hidden from sight. They don't realize we aren't there to hurt them. My mom and I look for a while longer, I really want to find a feline pokémon. My mom surprises me when she throws her pokéball. It opens up and successfully captures a pokémon, though I don't get a good look at it before it vanishes inside. She asks how she's supposed to convince it she will be nice to it. I tell her she has to be friends with it. She opens the pokéball and reveals the pokémon she caught. It is about the size of a house cat, but it is a bug type… it looks like a lady bug with iridescent spots. The pokémon flies around my mother a few times as if assessing her, deciding if it will trust her. It apparently decides it likes her energy because it lands beside her and seems relaxed. My mom is ready to go home even without a pikachu. I say I'm going to keep looking for a feline.

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Summer Gift Day
I am at school, it is like a high school, and it is the last day of the year before summer break. The entire school is participating in a secret gift-giving event. Everyone will draw the name of another student and then give them a modestly priced or homemade gift. I figure that since I am so extremely popular (NOT!) I'll probably get someone's dogs shit wrapped up in a brown paper bag. But I'm not going to do that. I don't know what the person would like… I get a name of someone I don't know. Gloria. I decide to get her a gift card from somewhere that her money might go a bit farther than with new items. I will get her a gift card from Bookman's. If she likes books, she's set. Music, movies, video games… Alicia is there with me and she thinks that is a good idea. We are leaving for Bookman's when someone tells us not to be late for graduation.

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09/28/11

Cleaning House
I am in a large house, more of a mansion than a regular sized home, and I am exploring the place. The entire house is really creepy, it looks abandoned and haunted. But I somehow know it isn't supposed to be like that, there are people who live here, or there are supposed to be. I wonder if they are still here with the mess. I start cleaning up some of the mess I find around, doing so seems to brighten the place up a bit. I open a door that is on the third floor, thinking I will find a room. But instead the door leads to empty space, an exterior door on the third level of a house that doesn't lead to a deck or a stairway, just to a three story drop. Well, that seems odd, I wonder if I should put a warning sign on the door or maybe board it up so no one opens it and strolls through… only to find themselves in mid air. Outside it is dark, there is a breeze blowing through some large trees. A rather nice view if someone would just put a deck there. I go inside and continue cleaning the place up, I am actually making some decent progress. I wonder where the people who live here are… have they left? Will they come back?
Note: After I woke up I got the feeling I had been inside MoSh's inner world.

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09/29/11

Save Me
I am in MoSh's inner world, this is something I do not question at all, and it doesn't lead me to do a reality check. It seems perfectly normal for me to be there. I look around, trying to get my bearings, wondering where MoSh and Asuka might be… and their kids, too. Right now I don't see anyone… but wait… I do. There is a strange woman standing alone in an open area of dirt. I can hear her crying. She says she only wanted a safe place to hide, she didn't mean to cause any harm… really… she just wants to be safe… I wonder what she is talking about. Is she somehow responsible for the problems going on in here lately? Could it be an accident? She says she needs help, someone to save her… but she's not sure if she is worth saving. She says probably not. Some weird things erupt from the ground at her feet, wires and such are forming all over her body, it makes her look like some kind of strange robot. She is screaming the whole time that happens, then she suddenly attacks me. I am forced to fight her, and I finally use a water based spell that is shorting out the robotic circuits. The wires retreat, pulling back into the ground. The woman is also gone, now there is a little girl huddled on the ground sobbing. I try to approach the little girl but she disappears before I can reach her.

So now I was facing this huge dragon, I had no idea what its intentions might be, but I felt like I was losing the dream, like I was going to wake up. No way! There was no way I was going to let myself wake up now that I was face to face with this amazing creature! Refusing to lose the dream, I focused on Allura's method of time dilation, and by doing this I managed to stabilize the dream, which I will continue in the next post.

The huge dragon stood before me, and I was struck dumb… , "Wow… you are absolutely AWESOME!" I said to the dragon, "Absolutely AMAZING!" That sounded like a foolish thing to say to a dragon that looked like it might be about to toast me like a marshmallow, but I was unable to contain it. The dragon eyed me strangely, it was either growling or snarling or speaking in a language I have never heard. It finally paused and then spoke in English, it asked me if I thought I could hide forever. That statement confused me, I had not realized there was a dragon looking for me, so I hadn't been hiding at all. I asked him what he was talking about, he said I already knew that, so now there was only one thing left to do… prepare to defend myself. I told the dragon I had no interest in fighting him, his only response was to say the only alternative to fighting was to die. With that, the dragon flapped his immense wings and soared off into the sky.

I was standing there in the clearing looking up at where the dragon had disappeared from sight when I saw something moving in the sky. It was just a speck at first, but that speck rapidly grew in size until the dragon was filling half the sky, the force of the wind from his wings created tornados all around that were trying to pull me into them, once the tornados were going, he added a breath of fire to each of them which made each of them from a tornado of wind into whirlwinds of flames…

All of the fire tornados were centering in on me, setting everything in their path ablaze… which I found particularly annoying since it was such a beautiful forest… I used the song Trapped Under Ice to generate a blizzard of ice and snow which quickly extinguished the flames and crushed out the tornados, also extinguishing the flames the fire tornados had started in random places throughout the meadow. The dragon was coming in for another attack, I wasn't sure why he was so set on fighting, but I told him if he insisted on a fight he would have one, but not here, it would take place somewhere that there wouldn't be so much collateral damage. I opened a large portal with that in mind and went through it, the dragon right behind me. I wasn't sure if he had heard me and agreed with me or was just following me because I was leaving, and it really didn't matter.

On the other side of the portal I found the dragon and I were in a desolate place that looked like the surface of an asteroid or a small lifeless planet, there was no breathable atmosphere to speak of, but that didn't seem to bother the dragon one bit. The pull of gravity was also greatly reduced on the strange planet. The change of location didn't seem to have any effect on the dragon at all, he was apparently too focused on me to the point that he wasn't aware of where we had gone or just didn't care. The portal closed behind us, and he just continued his attack as if nothing had happened.

The dragon came charging from the black sky, this time breathing a breath that was composed of lightning, Witchblade formed immediately and I jumped into the sky to avoid the majority of the blast. Witchblade formed into a sword and absorbed the rest of the electricity and became charged with it, sparking brightly. Having absorbed the lightning into my sword, I moved around to counter-attack… if the dragon wanted a fight that badly, I would give him one… and there was a huge fireball right behind the blast of lightning that pushed me down into the planet surface, into my own personal crater. Witchblade armor absorbed the force of the hit so I wasn't hurt, but the attack surprised me just the same.

Before the explosion even cleared I was up and in the sky, using energy powered flight like they use in Dragonball Z, using some of the speed Vegeta has been teaching me to control, such that I was up and onto the back of the dragon in an instant… only to find out there was no opening to attack. The dragon's sparkling armor scales were the very image of perfection, or so it appeared, fitting together to create as tight a seal as if they were just one solid piece. The dragon did a full flip and flew up into the dark sky with me on his back, there really wasn't much to hang on to there with the smooth scales, however, so I dropped back down to the planet surface. There were several eruptions from the ground around me, it was pretty clear this dragon had an affinity for tornado formations, but this time it was a water tornado, a water spout formed from water that seemed to come from underneath the surface of the planet.

There were five of the waterspouts, I used Battery and added a bolt of lightning to each one, electrifying them before using Whiplash to send them right back at the dragon that had created them. The electrified waterspouts surrounded the dragon now, sparking and exploding all around him until he used a massive flame tornado to burn off the water and thus leave no easy conduit for the electricity. The dragon himself was still sparking a bit as he glared down at me from his towering height as if unsure how I had managed to turn his own attack back on him.

I still wanted to know why the dragon was attacking me in the first place, so I tried again to ask what was the reason behind this attack. Before I could get more than the words, "Why are…" out, however, he was on the offensive again, this time attacking me with yet another whirlwind, this one was an ice tornado, filled with extremely sharp and fast moving shards of ice that were exploding violently against my Witchblade armor, one particularly large shard was heading for me and I sliced through it with my Witchblade sword. I used the song Phantom Lord to call forth a wall of fire that surrounded me and melted away all of the ice before it actually reached me, effectively adding a large quantity of steam to the dead planet's thin atmosphere. The dragon seemed to be getting more and more pissed off that his attacks weren't getting through to hit me, and immediately followed the ice attack with a fire attack. I used the cover of the fire and smoke to teleport to a spot behind the dragon and try to strike from there, but he was too fast for that. Apparently he sensed me back there and brought his huge tail around, using it as a spiked mace to send me to the ground again, though the attack was still largely ineffective since he hit Witchblade again.

Ok, this was getting nowhere… the dragon couldn't harm me, I couldn't harm him, so maybe I would have to try something else. If I was going to try to strike the dragon from behind, I would still need a way to slow him down, but on this planet he was even faster than he would normally be due to the decreased gravity allowing him to… gravity. That was a definite possibility… I used the song Crush 'Em by Megadeth and hit the dragon with a massive ball of gravity, sending him out of the sky and into a large crater in the planet, the size of the crater made me wonder if the planet would be able to hold itself together by the time we were done there… well, at least there was no life on it, my penticon computer had scanned and confirmed the absence of any life form even as small as a bacteria. The dragon glared up at me from the crater he was now lying on his back in… and then I saw the spot where I would have to strike, this seemed a bit too much like Smaug in the Hobbit with the one missing armored scale on his chest, but I could clearly see there was a spot there that wasn't covered with the shimmering armor.

He blasted a fire tornado surrounded by lightning at me, I used another gravity attack that effectively pulled the fire and lightning attack right back down to the dragon, creating a huge explosion and forcing his crater a bit deeper than before. The dragon issued a loud roar, but it sounded more like rage and anger than pain, so I figured the attack wasn't really making any progress towards hurting him or weakening him even. This was getting on my nerves to have been attacked for no reason at all when I had been having a nice peaceful dream, I took the opportunity to teleport right in close to the dragon, right to the spot where the missing scale was… Even as I drove my Witchblade sword into that spot, the dragon was sending another whirlwind of electricity and ice at me, I flew down the center of that whirlwind with my Witchblade sword and hit the mark where the missing scale was, driving the sword all of the way in.

This time when the dragon roared, I could tell it was even more pissed off than ever, but it was also in some pain, so apparently I had finally made an effective attack. I pulled the Witchblade sword out and jumped back out of the dragon's reach just before he tried to cut me in two with his razor sharp claws, he was laughing now even though he was bleeding from his chest, he was saying there was no way something that minor would kill one such as him. I was still wanting to know why he was attacking me, so I asked what the attack had been for in the first place. He said I already know that, and I would not escape judgment this easily. It seemed the blood loss was weakening him more than he cared to admit, he said he would be back to get his revenge, and next time he wouldn't be so easily defeated. I was getting really annoyed that he wouldn't tell me what this was all about, so I tried doing a telepathic scan to find out what he was thinking… I got a glimpse of many dragons flying through the sky over a planet covered with beautiful forests, but that was all I saw before I woke.

Note: Tonight I fell asleep with some very ambitious goals including checking to see if L will leave Asuka alone if she goes out, dream view a dream MoSh had quite a while ago where he was speaking with don Juan, sharing a DDO dream with Tigress, finding and doing another healing spell on Xildron, tasks of the year… the list of my goals just seems to go on and on… I fell asleep with my light / sound machine and successfully slipped into a WILD…

I found myself in a very familiar setting standing in the front yard of MoSh's house in his inner world. I went right up to the door without any hesitation, I wanted to get going on my goals. I knocked on the door and MoSh answered it. He was smiling when he saw me and he opened the door to let me in. When I looked around the room I saw Asuka sitting in the living room watching something on television. I walked over to Asuka and looked to see what she was watching, there was nothing actually on the television and I wondered why Asuka was staring at a blank screen. As if on cue, Asuka got up and came over to me, she said she was ready to go out and see that L had gotten the picture that he needs to leave her alone. I asked her where she wanted to go this time, it really should be somewhere she would be likely to go on her own. She said she knew of a mountain spring that was very relaxing. She said it was a place where she hoped to take MoSh someday so they could relax there and have some time to themselves. She said she was waiting until he started remembering her more consistently, though. After fusing with Asuka by using the fusion amulet she opened a portal and we went through it as one person.

The other side of the portal was a beautiful place. There was a crystal clear pool of water with colorful flowers growing on the surface of the water, numerous lily pads dotted the surface of the water as well. Colorful butterflies were flitting around near the shores of the pool, and there were even some butterflies out on the lily pads farther out in the pool.

It really was a very peaceful scene. I could see why Asuka would want to spend some time alone there with MoSh. I just let Asuka go where she wanted to go since she knew this place and liked it, and she waded into the water a bit. The water was very pleasant, and there were small fish tickling my feet. We spent quite a bit of time there wandering around the place, exploring all the hidden areas to find what wonders might be found there. We spent so much time there that I was beginning to wonder if the dream was going to end without L showing up… that would be a good sign that he had learned something from the last time he had kidnapped Asuka. After spending a bit longer there, Asuka said she was ready to go home… but first she wanted to go into the water in her own body, because the water here is so wonderfully refreshing and she couldn't feel it as well when fused with someone else. So we separated right there. Asuka swam out into the water still in her kimono which floated out beside her in an ethereal way. She sank beneath the surface of the water.

I had turned away from Asuka for only a short time to take a closer look at some of the beautiful flowers, to go over to them and smell them. The flowers were beautifully fragrant, and their fragrance was also very relaxing. I was smelling the flower when I heard some sounds from behind me. I turned around just in time to see there was a pair of tendrils were reaching through a portal and wrapped around Asuka, pulling her towards the portal. Wtf? I chased after her as she disappeared through the portal, jumping out over the pool of water and reaching to grab hold of Asuka's leg as she was disappearing through the portal. Then the portal was gone. I was yelling at an empty sky to give Asuka back right now, you yellow bellied bastard. My first thought was that L had come after Asuka again, well he would pay for that… I focused on opening a portal to follow Asuka to wherever she had been taken, then I flew through the portal ready to kick the ass of whoever I found on the other side.

I emerged from the portal in a world that looked like it was entirely made up of crystal formations. There was a sun shining brightly in the sky and rainbows were reflecting off of many of the crystal formations that made up the landscape. It was really a very beautiful place that I wouldn't have minded visiting if I hadn't been following after Asuka… Things being as they were, however, I didn't take time to notice the beauty of the place. I looked around for any sign of Asuka having had been through there recently. The fact was that I didn't see any sign of human life anywhere let alone Asuka… some very shiny butterflies were flitting around the crystal formations just as the ones near the mountain spring had been flitting around the flowers there. I called out to Asuka a couple of times, scanned for any trace of her, and I found nothing. I was in the wrong place! I wasn't sure how I had managed to get to the wrong place, but I tried the portal again.

I exited this portal to find myself about five feet in the air over a pool of rancid water. I wasn't ready to be in the air, so I fell right into the disgusting water which reminded me of sewer water. It was disgusting! It smelled bad, it was covered with a thick layer of slime, although the area around it didn't look contaminated or anything. It was just a typical stagnant pool of water. I paid about as much attention to the foul water as I had to the beautiful crystals, I flew back out of the pool and scanned the area for Asuka, for any trace of Asuka. Once again I could not find any sign that Asuka was there or that she had ever been there, at least not recently. Whoever had taken Asuka, I was on a wild goose chase, somehow they were making it so my portals weren't getting me to her! I was getting pissed at ending in the wrong places. I landed on dry land, felt like I was going to wake up when I didn't want to, so I dilated time. Something was keeping me from tracking down Asuka, and the first person on my list of suspects was still L, so instead of focusing my portal to follow Asuka I focused it on going to L's inner world. There was a bit of resistance when I tried opening the portal but it was nothing I couldn't easily overcome.

This time when I exited the portal I was in L's inner world, near his pool where I usually appear. I scanned the area for Asuka again, and I knew right away I had found the place she had been taken. I approached the house to see if they were in there, Asuka's energy frequency was still around the place from her last visit so it was a bit harder to tell which signals were more recent. When I headed for the house, however, Kanmuri came from around the corner of the house and pointed towards a building I hadn't noticed before. She said if I was looking for Asuka, L had taken her in there and insisted on being left alone, and when she had just peeked in out of curiosity L had gotten so pissed off at her… she said she didn't know what was going on in there. That was clearly where I had to go next, though.

I followed a path to the building which appeared to be a guest house, and though the path was very pleasant and beautiful with trees and flowers around it, now it seemed like a path descending into a nightmare. I didn't want anyone to see my approach so I used the song Of Wolf and Man by Metallica to change my form into a small blue bird since there were many similar birds around the area. I flew over to the guest house and landed on a window sill. I looked in through the window and I saw both Asuka and L, and I immediately wanted to kill L slowly and painfully. Asuka was sitting on a couch with no restraints or anything to keep her from leaving, but she was staring off into space with a blank expression on her face. She was also quite bruised and she was crying.

L was sitting beside her with his arm around her, had he been the one who had beaten her? He had wanted to take Asuka with him so he could beat her? Or had he done that out of anger over the torturing she (I) had given him last night? An unforeseen backlash of that tactic, making L want to get revenge for the pain she (I) had put him through.

I no longer cared about being unnoticed, instead I changed back to my normal form, my Assassin form, and kicked the front door of the guest house open, it slammed open with a loud crash that made L jump about three feet in surprise. Asuka didn't respond. I used telekinesis to slam L against the wall hard enough to put cracks in it, I asked him what the fuck he had done to Asuka, why was she like that, what had happened. He sniffed the air and said someone sure stank… I said it was him who stank even though I was pretty sure he was referring to the stink of the rancid water that was still on me. I demanded again to know what he had done to Asuka. He said he had just been playing games with her, those games that she seemed to like so well, it seemed she didn't like them anymore. He was laughing the whole time he said that, so I pounded the laughter out of him by slamming him around the room some more using telekinesis and I ended up slamming him right through one of the interior walls into the bathroom where I made sure his face landed in the toilet, actually he hit the toilet hard enough to crack the bowl… the icing on the cake was when raw sewage backed up from the pipe below and washed over L…

I looked over at Asuka, who had still not responded to anything that had happened. She seemed to have not noticed L getting thrown around the room, she hadn't noticed me yelling at him, she hadn't noticed him going through the wall or getting covered with sewage… I went over to Asuka, who didn't respond to my presence, but when I went to help her stand up she was very compliant to that. I focused on healing her injuries, I would do more healing on her once I had her somewhere safe. If she would snap out of this strange trance for anyone, that person would be MoSh. I opened a portal to get to MoSh's inner world and led Asuka through it.

I carefully helped Asuka out of the portal into the front yard of MoSh's house. I led her up to the front door with ease, she was offering no resistance, but she was also not reacting to the change in location. What the fuck had that asshole done to her to make her this unresponsive? We reached the front door and I opened it to find MoSh was right inside, he had been about to open the door. He asked what had happened, what was wrong with Asuka, who had done that to her, what had they done to her… I said I didn't know what had been done to her, but it was L who had done it. I told MoSh that L had shown up and kidnapped Asuka to take her… MoSh interrupted, asking how could I just let L have Asuka? I continued to tell MoSh that she had been taken, I had tracked her down to L's inner world and when I got to her she had been like this, worse in fact, it looked like L had been beating her. MoSh said something about a picture being real, and it had happened because I had let L take Asuka… what picture? He took Asuka into his arms and said something about so many men… so many men? I had only seen L… I told MoSh that Asuka needed healing, and he said any fool could see that. I said I would help him heal her, but he just glared over at me, he said Asuka didn't need any more of my help, I had clearly 'helped' her more than enough. He said they didn't need that kind of help. He slammed the door before I could say anything else.

I paused, I wanted to go inside and try to explain things to MoSh, but he was right… I was supposed to have been protecting Asuka, not just letting L walk off with her to do whatever he wanted to her… if I'd just been more careful she wouldn't have gotten taken, L wouldn't have done whatever it was he did to her… Maybe I should send Basara back over to do some healing on Asuka, who clearly needed it. How was she doing now that she was with MoSh? I walked around to the side of the house and peeked in through a window to see if I could find the two of them. First I saw Asuka's clothes tossed carelessly aside in the room. Then I saw Asuka was sitting naked in a corner of the room and I could see MoSh trying to get her to come out. Asuka wasn't responding to him, she had her knees pulled up to her chest, making herself as small as possible, and she was crying. That was because of what L had done to her, whatever he had done it must have been pretty awful to leave her in such a state. Seeing her like that made me want to hurt L, and hurt him bad, really bad.

So now it was time for L to pay, and the price was high. I opened a portal back to L's inner world and went through it looking to draw some blood. Kanmuri was standing near my portal when I got there, I asked her where L was, where was that foul piece of shit hiding, because I had some business to discuss with him… Kanmuri asked what was going on, she asked what had been wrong with Asuka when I had brought her out from the guest house? She had figured L was in there trying to coax Asuka into bed with him and probably epic failing at that, he wouldn't have hurt her, would he? I scanned the area for L and found him in the main house, I headed straight for him with Kanmuri following after me. She wouldn't shut up. L didn't hurt Asuka, did he? She said she knows he can be an ass sometimes, but she couldn't see him actually doing anything to hurt Asuka… he's too crazy about her… I told Kanmuri, focusing a bit too much of my anger on her, that I didn't know what L had done to Asuka, but he had definitely hurt her, and he'd hurt her bad. Kanmuri stopped and had a shocked look on her face as she watched me go into the house.

I found L in the living room kicked back on the couch as if nothing was wrong in the world, and that just pissed me off more. He looked up at me and smiled, he said it was so nice to see me again. He said if I wanted him all to myself, he could have said so instead of coming in and stealing Asuka. That was it, I was much too pissed off for words. All I could feel inside was unstable dark energy, but I didn't make any effort to control it, I just let it do what it wanted. The shadows in one corner of the room came to life as a swarm of scarab beetles each the size of a golf ball.

I used telekinesis to hold L still long enough for the bugs to get on him. The scarabs didn't stay still long enough for L to get them off, they immediately burrowed their way into L's skin, tunneling through his flesh as he was screaming in pain. I could see the moving bumps of the scarabs underneath L's skin, and he was apparently desparate to get rid of them as he tore through his own skin to get to one of the scarabs and pull it out. He threw the bug on the floor and stomped on it. So he had gotten rid of one of about ten bugs that were now tunneling through his flesh… several of which were in places he could not hope to reach. He was yelling at me or someone else to get those things out of him, get them OUT! While L was writhing on the floor in pain I was kicking him as hard as I could, anything to make him pay for what he had done… I'm not sure how long he was writhing and trying to reach the scarabs under his skin, how long I was kicking him before he was finally still, there was blood coming out of his mouth… and finally I woke, not really wanting to remember the events of this dream…

Note: I fell asleep this night with my energy in a very unstable state due to some problems I had during the evening. When I say unstable, I mean unstable to the point where I was not able to finish my evening class in school… I had to tell the instructor I wasn't feeling well and then leave early. While I had managed to calm down some by the time I went to bed, I was still very unstable. A large portion of my negative energy was directed at the Templars who have given me nightmares on the previous two nights… so my main plan was to kick Templar ass. I had this plan in mind when I fell asleep, but I was not successful in entering my WILD. Fortunately, my intentions were strong enough that I still ended up where I wanted to be…

I was in my room. I was in bed. I rolled over and thought about the events of the previous evening. I was a nice mixture of pissed off and depressed, basically quite unstable. I was thinking that was why I was being unable to sleep. I sat up in bed and stroked the kitty beside me. She purred. I got out of bed to use the bathroom. I thought I should try to stay in the habit of doing an RC when I wake up or get up in the night… even if I don't think I've been asleep… I did a nose-pinch RC and found that I was dreaming. I became fully lucid.

I thought about what I wanted to do… I was feeling pissed off… and I wanted someone to take that out on. Templars! They were the origin of my current problems, so I would take it all out on Templars! I had told them that continuing to disturb my dreams and turn them into them nightmares would result in serious consequences. Now it was time to deliver on those consequences. I focused on opening a portal to find a Templar base, I would go straight to them and have a kill fest right there in their base. The portal opened and I went through it.

I was now in a Templar base. There were Templars wandering around. They all were going about their own business. At first no one noticed me. Those were the bastards who had turned my past two nights' dreams into nightmares… they were the cause of the instability and the situation that had led to an argument between a friend and mine who had told me that he no longer wants to be my friend… I walked over to the Templar closest to me as the others moved out of sight. I could feel unstable dark energy inside of me… my energy had been unstable all evening, and now I could finally do something about it! I grabbed the Templar by the throat and slammed him against the wall. He let out a surprised 'glurk' but could not speak to alert the others. I squeezed his throat until I felt something get crushed, then I let him down. He grabbed his neck and was choking… he couldn't breathe… he coughed up blood, collapsed, and died.

One dead Templar was not nearly enough. Time to start killing them in larger numbers. I went into a room with two Templars there. A big guard and another who looked more like a scientist. I used Master of Puppets on the guard, and made him beat the other Templar to death. I then made him grab a scissors from a desk and imbed it into his own throat, followed by using the scissors to cut the wound larger. He pierced his own jugular vein and bled out . I continued through the base. I met several Templars in the halls. I stabbed each of them with my hidden blade before they realized I didn't belong there. I looked into a large control room. There were 15 Templars in there at control stations. I let a tendril of Witchblade out, it went through the room and pierced the throats of each Templar. The instant I retracted the tendril, the blood flowed freely and they all died.

As I continued on my way, I tried to think of a creative way to kill the next Templar… I found a lone Templar in the hall. He stopped and looked at me. I used Damage, Inc. to set him on fire. The Templar was quickly engulfed in flames. In a blind panic, he ran into another room with a number of Templars in it. He wanted someone to help him, but all he ended up accomplishing was to set several more of the Templars on fire… now there were five Templars panicking in the room, engulfed in flames and screaming in pain. That didn't last long; they all collapsed, dead. I killed the next few Templars I met with my Witchblade sword. Electrocuted a few with lightning. Crushed several more with gravity. And each Templar I killed was immensely satisfying. My unstable energy was simmering down to an icy rage.

It was around here that I thought I was waking up… but I wasn't finished getting my payback against these Templar assholes! I focused on Allura's method of time dilation and the dream stabilized.

I made my way down into a dungeon. That looked like the kind of place where they would carry out their tortures. There were hooks on the walls from which lanterns were hanging. I used telekinesis and lifted a Templar up, impaling him on a hook through his abdomen. He was still alive when I left him, coughing up blood as he tried to call for help. The next several Templars I came across met the same fate as the first one, hung from those iron lantern hooks. I found three more Templars near an open dungeon cell door. A couple of big guards and a smaller one. I could hear them talking, I could hear them clearly.

"Ok… when she gets here," the one said to the others, "You grab her like last time. All you have to do is chain her up in this room, and we'll let the rats do the rest." He laughed.

I was standing right beside the three Templars now, between the two larger guards while the smaller man was facing away from me, looking at a door. "So…" I said, "What's the plan here?"

"Weren't you listening at all?" the Templar said with some frustration, "You two grab Raven, chain her up in the dungeon, and then we watch the rats eat her alive! Now get it…" the Templar had been turning around, and was now facing me. There was a big guy on either side of me. "There she is right now! Grab her, you idiots!"

Each of the big Templars grabbed one of my arms and held on tight. I didn't even try to pull free. Time to activate Witchblade. Nothing happened. The smaller Templar held up a remote and laughed. He said the dampening field was up, so I could forget my little tricks. I told him it was their loss. Using Witchblade would have brought them to a much quicker death than the alternative… The smaller Templar told the other two to put me in the cell; the rats are hungry. He laughed again. I focused on controlling dark energy into tendrils. The tendrils wove from each of my arms and wrapped around the arms of the big guys beside me. At first they didn't seem to notice. Then both of them started screaming and let go of me… or they tried to let go. Each of them had a black tendril boring its way into their arm. Each attempt to pull free resulted in more pain.

The third Templar just stood there and stared at us for a bit, muttering something about the dampening field he had mentioned before. He pulled out a sword and was apparently intent on just killing me so I would wake up and be away from them. A third dark energy tendril snaked out of where my 3rd eye would be and wrapped around the sword. The Templar dropped the sword and turned to run down the hall. The tendril was faster, and it bored its way into the Templar's back. Armor was nothing to the dark energy tendril. All three of the Templars were now screaming in pain. Their screams brought more Templars to see what was happening. The tendrils that attached me to the three separated, and I was able to direct those tendrils and more at the arriving Templars. Most of them didn't have a chance to react… a couple tried to cut the tendrils with swords, but that was completely ineffective. So soon all of the Templars in the room, the three I had found there plus 12 who had come to check it out, were writhing on the ground in pain.

I went over to the Templar who had been telling the big stupid ones the plan. He was grimacing in pain and clutching his abdomen. I kicked him there and lifted him up. I told him I knew he would wake up soon, but for his sake he had better have learned a valuable lesson… don't fuck with me. And don't go back to fucking with any of my friends, either. Harm one of them and the results will be the same, maybe worse. Get the picture? He cursed at me. I slammed him against the wall and said if he was still failing to get it, there's a lot more trouble where this came from. So stay away from me, stay away from my friends, or there would be consequences. I dropped him on the ground where he continued to writhe in pain. I wasn't sure what the dark energy tendrils were doing… or maybe I was… they were eating the Templars alive from the inside out. Well, they had intended for me to be eaten alive, so their plan backfired.

I went into the dungeon cell and looked around. Chains and shackles on the floor clearly meant to chain a prisoner so they couldn't move… cages with horribly underfed rats inside them; add animal cruelty to the list of Templar offenses… I felt my dark energy. It still felt like an icy rage… I was glad the Templars were in pain. But not the animals… they had done nothing. I opened the cages. The rats weren't in such bad condition that they couldn't make a run for it when given the chance. They ran for the cell door and out it. I heard more screams from the Templars. I glanced out and saw some of the rats were on various Templars. The Templars seemed nearly immobilized with pain from the dark energy tendrils… and now there were rats on them. A rat chewing on a Templar's ear, a rat chewing on a Templar's cheek, a rat chewing on a Templar's nose… The rats would be fed… but it was fresh Templar on the menu… I shut the cell door and was waiting to wake up. Now I was alone in the dark room with nothing but the background sounds of Templar pain.

I was waiting in the dark room to wake up. The icy rage inside me made the Templars' dying gasps of pain sound like wonderful music… then there was silence. Ok… now to wake up? Maybe that dampening field was still there and I would have to leave here by normal means and then wake up… I formed a fireball in my hand… my abilities seemed to be working fine.

"Raven!" came a voice from behind me. Wtf? Who had found me here? I turned and looked behind me, I saw MoSh was in the room with me. The icy rage I had felt inside had been starting to subside… but suddenly it surged back again, almost as strong as it had ever been. Now it was MoSh's turn… I would see him writhing on the ground in pain… I would… wait… no… I turned my gaze back to the blank dark stone wall. Watching Templars suffer… ok. But not MoSh… no. I focused on that blank stone wall and on The Curse by Disturbed, must stabilize the dark energy. It'd had its fun with the Templars… and that's all it was going to get. MoSh was saying something about dark energy and an attack. I said that telling me to stay out of his dreams doesn't make a whole lot of sense if he is just going to come into mine. He said he needed my help to stop the dark energy something… I said if there was a dark energy threat, get Walms or Tigress… and if it was simply an extremely powerful threat of any kind, get Vegeta… but don't stay here. My energy is currently about as stable as nitroglycerin… well shaken nitroglycerin, and could blow at any moment. And it was getting very unstable… it hadn't been very unstable earlier because I had been working with it to eliminate Templars, but now I was actively fighting it… and that was creating instability.

That was it… I wouldn't be able to keep it inside any longer. I turned back towards MoSh… who took a step back when he saw how crazed I probably looked… I opened a vortex portal right next to MoSh that led back to his inner world, used telekinesis to push him through, closed it behind him and then BOOM! There was an explosion… and then I was no longer standing in a Templar base… now I was standing in a crater… um… ok… I hadn't realized the explosion would be quite that bad… although the icy rage was completely gone now. Completely vented off against the Templars. I looked around the crater… I didn't think a single Templar could have survived… which brought me to a chuckle. But I felt stable. Finally it felt completely under control. Now that control was restored everything faded and I woke.