New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

2017, 10-25

Back to School Daze

I am at Pima Community College heading to my class. It is a computer animation class. There are a lot of people standing around outside right now. And there is a serious weed problem. I’m not talking about the drug. I’m talking about plants. A strange plant has been growing out of control. It is a plant that looks kind of like human hair. It is blocking the pathways in some places. People who want to get by have to grab large chunks of it and throw it out into the desert. It isn’t hard to pull up, and I am actually thinking that this part of the plant is already dead. It looks like serious fire hazard. I am thinking we should try to do something about it, but right now my class is going to start. So I find the correct classroom and go in.

I sit down at a computer that has some 3-D animation software running on it. There are some premade models already in the scene. It actually already looks pretty cool. I see a planet, moon, lots of stars, and a person. A character model looks like Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad from Assassin’s Creed. I am just messing around before class, and I stand Altaïr on the moon. The model of Altaïr is much too large compared to the moon. When I pull him too close to the moon, he automatically bends his legs. I am thinking that my work isn’t very good, because I see someone else working on their project and they have some weird space entity that is eating up all of the other objects. But they don’t seem pleased with it, so I guess that’s not what they wanted to do. My computer does strange things. More models appear. There are now two characters and three moons. The new character looks like Desmond from the Assassin’s Creed series. He is trying to balance on the smallest moon. He fails to do so, and falls right out of the monitor into the room with us. I am sitting there looking at him, he is on the floor next to my seat. All I can think to say is, Desmond! You’re real!

I wake up in bed and get up. I am thinking that I have to go to school. I go out into the other room where my mother is watching television. It looks like she is watching an old episode of MacGyver. I start telling her about my dream. She doesn’t seem very interested, but pays a little bit of attention. I am telling her about the features on the 3-D software, and saying I wish the real ones did that. I have just gotten to the point where Desmond falls out of the computer. My mom stops and looks at me, and asks if he’s cute? She says I should marry him. I tell her he was only a dream. I can’t marry a dream. My mother doesn’t pay any attention to the dream part, and says I should marry Altaïr. I am considering that maybe I am still dreaming, but I wake up before I can do anything about it.

2017, 04-22

The Cure

I am in what looks like a park of some kind, there are lots of trees growing, but it's more well maintained than a forest. The trees are trimmed back away from the path I'm on and the grass has been recently cut. I follow the trail for a while and I soon see some buildings that look like they could be offices or a school. I keep following the path through the trees. I come around a corner and see a man there leaning against a tree. He greets me as I come around the corner. I see he is holding what looks to me like a joint. I look at him for a bit and I wonder if he could be Nomad. I ask the man if he is Nomad. He doesn’t answer right away, then he says he can be whoever I want him to be. He then hands me a joint and tells me to have a puff, don’t worry, it’s the good stuff. I take the joint and look at it for a bit, wondering if it really could help with my depression… so I take a puff on it. I notice almost right away that I feel a bit different, and in a good way, I am thinking this could definitely help ease my depression symptoms if it works consistently.

I go to hand the joint back to the man, but he waves it away. He says to go ahead and keep that one. Use it all now, or save some for later. He hands me a small bag that looks like it contains more pot. He says this stuff is good for what ails you, it’s a plant that costs him nothing to grow, so he doesn’t think he should sell it for a profit. Screw the pharmacies, this is free medicine! He rolls another joint from pot in another bag, lights it up and takes a puff. He says if I wander around here much I had better just try to not act stoned. He says the authorities here prefer if everyone stays sick, they don’t approve of free medicine. I ask again if he is Nomad, adding that I haven’t heard from him lately. I ask if he has been going to the moon, because everything there looked pretty well abandoned, like no one ever went there any more. He says he’s been out beyond the moon. I tell him I got things started at restoring the biodome on the moon, brought some of it back to life, but there’s still more to do. He said I should plant marijuana there… lots of marijuana… then distribute the free medicine. He seems too wrapped up in his pot to give any clear answers. I put the small bag of pot in my pocket and wonder how long that will help my depression. I wonder how I can approach my doctor with the idea I illegally smoked some pot but it helps my depression… I am wondering if doctor/patient confidentiality covers my revealing to him I have illegally smoked pot when everything fades to black and I wake up.

2017, 03/24

A Lesson in Dreaming

I am in what looked like a school. I wondered why I might be there. I look around to see if I can figure out where I am and why I might be here. I am sitting at the instructor’s desk of a classroom like I am there to teach the class rather than take a class. I look at the papers on my desk and see that they are all about dreaming, specifically about lucid dreaming. Apparently, I’m supposed to be teaching a class in lucid dreaming. Well that could be cool. I wait there for a few minutes and soon people start entering the room and sitting down at the desks. I look around to see if I recognize anyone, but no one is looking familiar. As the last people file into the room I pick up some papers on my desk and look at them. I find it is hard to focus on reading the papers, but I figure it is just nerves because I am not used to teaching a class. When everyone is seated and ready I figure there’s no better time than the present to get started.

I introduce myself as Raven Knight and tell everyone that this is a class on lucid dreaming. Someone in the back laughs and says I wouldn’t know a lucid dream if it fell out of the sky, landed on my face, and started to wiggle. I respond that if anything falls from the sky, lands on my face, and starts to wiggle, I’ll do a reality check. With that, I start to talk about different methods of checking reality to determine if you are awake or dreaming. After I go through several methods including pinching the nose and trying to breathe, electronics not functioning like they should, making print on a page change, and trying to float off the ground and fly, I ask if there are any questions.

A woman in the front row stands up. She is a Japanese woman wearing a very pretty kimono, I think it is probably too nice for this class. She asks what if this is a dream right now. I laugh a bit and tell her that dreams are what happens when we are asleep, unless she has been daydreaming that is. She looks a bit annoyed and then says maybe I should do a reality check. I tell her I already know I’m awake, so there’s no point in… but then I think better of it. I add that it actually is a good idea to do random reality checks even when you know you’re awake, because getting into the habit while awake can lead to getting into the habit when dreaming. So I go ahead and do a reality check by pinching my nose and trying to breathe. To my surprise I find I can breathe just fine with my nose pinched… so this is a dream!

The woman seems pleased that I have come to the conclusion that I’m dreaming. She says that just in case I haven’t remembered yet, she is Asuka. She points at a man sitting in the classroom at one of the desks. He is doodling and doesn’t seem to be paying much attention. Asuka walks over to his desk and I go with her. Asuka addresses the man by his name and I realize it is MoSh. Asuka tells him to do a reality check, this is a dream. He doesn’t seem to be listening to her. I tell him I just did a reality check, and this is definitely a dream. Asuka starts suggesting different methods of reality checks to MoSh, and he seems to be doing them but not coming to the conclusion that this is a dream. I wonder how that can be, are all of the reality checks failing to show this is a dream? I think I might be losing lucidity when Asuka takes an egg from somewhere and now seems to be set on showing MoSh the egg rather than on making him lucid. I wonder what an egg has to do with anything. I am telling MoSh he should just pinch his nose, and if he can still breathe through it, it must be a dream. He pinches his nose briefly and then shakes his head before going back to looking at Asuka’s egg. The egg has gotten me thinking of breakfast, and now I am thinking that I can eat all the bacon I could ever want and not gain a single ounce because dream food has no calories or fat! I am now wishing for a plate full of bacon. MoSh disappears into thin air. I wonder what happened to him. Asuka looks frustrated. She says he woke up. I then start thinking that means there will be more bacon for me. I comment that we need plenty of bacon for everyone left in the class. She gives me a strange look as if I have gone quite insane. Everything around me fades to black and I wake up.

12/02/13

In Another Life
I am back in high school. I have absolutely no awareness of my waking life or that there is anything out of place. My name is Marcy, and I am sitting near the back of the room in a math class. It's Algebra. I'm not having any problems with it, I am good at math. More importantly, this is my last class of the day. I am anxious to get out of class and get home. I hope I can get out of the school without meeting up with the jerks that I always have problems with. Sarah, Beth, Maria, and Gene. The bell rang and I shove my books and papers into my backpack and hurry out the door. I am almost to the front door of the school when I see the very people I had been hoping to avoid. Sarah is there talking to her friends. I think I can get out of sight without being seen but it is too late. Sarah speaks loudly, saying watch out, it just got fatter in here. I look down at my body. I am moderately overweight, but it really isn't that much. Gene adds that it got uglier in here. Maria adds that it got stupider in here. Beth tries to add something but I can't understand her because she is laughing too hard. I don't want to let them bother me, but they do. It hurts. I feel like crying.

I hurry past them and out the door, figuring if that is it then I should count myself lucky. But that's not it. Sarah comes out first and shoves me to the ground. The others laugh. Gene and Beth grab my backpack from me, it had only been over one shoulder, and they take off with it. I need that! I chase after them, but I am slower since I am a bit fat. Sarah and Maria follow after me laughing and making comments about my bouncing ass. We reach the far fence of the school yard. I am so out of breath. Gene opens the backpack and starts tossing stuff out over the fence saying that it was all garbage. Beth asks Gene how she can touch stuff I have contaminated. As if just realizing that, Gene tosses the backpack over the fence as if it would bite her. Sarah shoves me into the fence and tells me the world would be better off if I went home and killed myself. I clumsily climb the fence to get my things. I fall down the other side, much to the girls' delight. I scrape my knee up, but that's it. I start collecting my things as the girls walk off, still laughing. After I get my things together I sit by the fence, tired, depressed. Why me? Why did everyone hate me? I start crying.

Not much time had passed before I sense someone watching me. I look up and see a man standing over me. He is wearing a hoodie and has very striking blue eyes. Not sure what a grown man would want with a 14 year old girl I move away a bit. He speaks in a friendly tone. He says not to go, he won't hurt me, he just saw me crying and wondered if I was ok. The fact that a complete stranger has shown concern in how I feel sets me off crying all over again. He asks what is wrong. I find his name is Alex. I'm not sure why, but I feel the need to tell him everything. About the girls harassing me here at school, harassing me online when I'm away from school, one time they had gotten physically violent and broken my nose… maybe Sarah is right and I should just kill myself. He listens sympathetically while I talk. He then holds one hand out to me to help me up. My hesitation has gone now, and I accept his help. He pulls me to my feet… but then he won't let go! He smiles in a friendly way, but what he says is not friendly at all. He says he lied when he said he wouldn't hurt me, this is actually going to hurt quite a bit. But it won't last long. And when it is done, those girls will never push me around again. No one will ever push me around again. I kick at him and try to pull away, I scream, but there is no one way out by the fence to hear me and he is much stronger than I am. He is holding my arm with his right hand… and his left hand is gone? His left hand has transformed into the claws of a beast? My first thought is Wolverine from X-Men. I'm being attacked by Wolverine?! I fight harder. Is this guy going to cut me? Yes, he is. He drives his claws into my mid section. A burning pain erupts from the place he stabbed me. He is holding me close now, whispering in my ear. He says again that it won't last long, so just hang on… it will be much better later. No one would ever hurt me again. Of course no one would hurt me! I was dying! Everything started fading to black. I wonder if anyone will miss me. Will anyone care? My mom would… my brother would… but no one at school would. They'd be glad. I am angry that they will get what they want, then I am swallowed by darkness.

I wake up sitting by the fence that goes around my school. My backpack is beside me. The light is fading. Oh, no! I fell asleep! I look at my stomach, but there is no gaping wound. No blood. Wow… that attack must have been a dream. Just a bad dream. I have to get home! I grab my backpack and run for home. I run as far as I can and then I walk fast. I am exhausted when I reach the house. There are police there, and my mother is beside herself with worry. She sees me and runs over and greets me with the biggest hug. But then she is angry. Where have I been? Why didn't I at least call? What happened? She called the police, she thought I'd been kidnapped or worse! I tell her about being harassed by the girls. I leave out the part about crying, she would consider that a weakness. I tell her I had been waiting by the fence for the girls to leave and I must have fallen asleep. I apologize many times. After a while of apologizing and having people check me out everyone decides it was an honest accident. The police leave, telling me to be more careful about where I fall asleep. I was lucky, but things do happen to girls out alone. I eat dinner, which is macaroni and cheese, then the rest of the evening is spent trying to get my homework done. But it's hard… I don't have as much time as usual since I fell asleep and had to explain everything so many times. And I can't shake the memory of the dream. The weirdest thing is I remember climbing the fence and falling and skinning my knee. But my knee isn't marked. No scratch or scrape, not even any dirt. I am unable to get my homework done before bed time. I am tired, so I crawl into bed and fall asleep right away.

My alarm wakes me up what seems like five minutes later. My sleep had been dreamless this time. I drag myself out of bed, eat some honey nut cheerios for breakfast, then I walk to school as usual. All in a haze, also as usual. As I get to school Sarah starts in on me right away. She tells me I forgot to kill myself last night. I try to ignore her. She asks if there is too much fat in the way for me to cut my wrists. I try to ignore her. She follows me down the hall to my locker while throwing out all the insults she can think of. My birth certificate should've been an apology letter from the condom factory. I'm not sure what a condom is. I should do the world a favor and disappear into fat air. They'd launch me into space but no space ship could lift me… and I'd scare the aliens. This continues. I go to my first class. Sarah is in that class so this offers me no escape. History class. I already don't like history, and with Sarah in the class, it's a nightmare. English class is next, and that offers me some reprieve. But Spanish class is the worst. Both Sarah and Beth are in the class, and the teacher doesn't seem to care what they say to me as long as it's in Spanish. Then there's lunch. I always eat alone. I have no friends. But this time I can't manage to eat alone. Sarah and friends are all around me. Sarah takes my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She takes a bite, then spits it out in my direction before throwing the sandwich in the trash and saying she shouldn't have done that. Now she's infected. She needs an antidote, quick! I escape into my Biology class after being harassed through lunch. Thankfully, Beth and Maria ignore me in my Humanities class. Maybe they've had enough for now. Algebra is a safe class, then it's time to go home.

Again I hope to get out before being spotted by Sarah and her friends, again I fail. When I see them I duck into the girls' bathroom, hoping they didn't see me. I go into one of the stalls. The bathroom is empty and quiet. I hear the door open and someone comes in. My heart sinks when I hear Sarah's voice. She says she knows I'm in there, calling me Fatsy instead of Marcy. About five minutes pass with her standing out there throwing vulgar insults, more vulgar than I normally hear. I figure I should just go past her and leave. I can't stay here all day. So I come out and head for the door. Sarah blocks my way and says not so fast. She says she was being serious about me killing myself. I should do it. Cut the wrists. Warm water would help me bleed out faster. Hanging is an option if I have a rope. Or if my parents have a gun… no, they must not or they would've killed me a long time ago. After being hounded all day I am getting mad. I tell Sarah to get out of the way. She asks who's going to make her. She asks what I'm going to do about it. I think she wants to get into a fight but wants me to start it for some reason. She wants me to throw the first punch. She pushes at me and I briefly lose my balance. Fine… if she wants me to throw the first punch, I will! I punch her in the stomach, hoping to knock the wind out of her. To my stunned horror, my fist actually goes INTO her stomach, spraying blood everywhere. Sarah doubles over and vomits blood. I pull my fist back, I hadn't meant to do that! Really! As I pull my fist back it's like Sarah's insides are somehow caught on it, a stream of bloody tissue flows out of her wound and onto me. I think I might vomit now. The rest of Sarah's body dissolves into a bloody stream and flows onto me. The disgusting mess seems to soak into my body and then it's gone. No blood, no mess, no Sarah. I stand there in shock.

I walk out of the bathroom in a trance, leaving my backpack behind. I walk aimlessly, across the school yard. To the fence where I'd been harassed by Sarah and her friends just the previous day. I reach the fence and drop to my knees, still in shock, not knowing where to go. I try to clear my mind. I have to go home. My mom (and dad?) would be waiting for me… no… not my dad… he's dead… but he's not. My brother Josh would be there, no… it was my sisters Jenna and Sally. Sisters? I didn't have sisters! I try to think clearly, but it's as if I have two sets of conflicting memories in my mind at the same time. One of me, Marcy, and one of Sarah. Sarah, with her timid mother and overbearing father. Overbearing and ABUSIVE! Sarah's memories told me if I was late getting home that would justify a beating… and maybe a nighttime visit. Those horrible nighttime visits… But Sarah is dead now. I killed her. I become stuck on that thought. Sarah is dead and I killed her. But now I know everything about her. She wasn't mean, she was scared. Scared that there was nothing she could control, that everyone could see her weakness, everyone could see she was a victim waiting to be attacked. But if she could prove she was stronger than someone else… like that fat girl Marcy. Damn, she wished she was me. No sign of being beaten at home… Bringing a good lunch every day… Sarah is dead and I killed her.

Guilt overcomes me and I start to cry. Someone jumps the fence but I don't look. He comes over to me, pauses, then acts surprised it is me. He calls me Marcy, then says he has never seen someone figure out how to use that ability on their own before! I look up. It's the man from my dream… Alex… but his hand is normal, not claws. He doesn't look like Wolverine right now, though I am sure Wolverine doesn't have to have his claws out all the time… Anyhow, being attacked isn't really on my mind. I stand up and grab his jacket, saying over and over that Sarah is dead and I killed her. There. I told an adult. Now he would take me to the police. I had to confess, there was no choice. Sarah is dead and I killed her. But he doesn't lead me away. He shakes me until I stop repeating my confession. Tears are still streaming down my face. I look at my right hand that I had somehow used to punch right through Sarah… Alex holds me, trying to comfort me. He says he can explain what is happening. He says I "consumed" Sarah. He says I should now have Sarah's memories, too, and I do have her appearance. The extra set of memories… I say yes, I do… but how? He says that happens when we consume someone. He can do it, too. I start off on a new rant now, telling him Sarah wasn't really bad, it wasn't her fault, she's dead and I killed her… I consumed her… how can I fix it? How can I reverse it? There has to be a way! There just HAS to be a way! He looks like he's not sure what to say to help console me.

Before Alex says anything more, the other three pieces of bad news come over. More insults coming, and there was no way I could handle it right now… no way! But no one says anything mean. Beth asks who my friend is. Maria sees I've been crying and asks if I am ok, but she calls me Sarah. Gene is getting in Alex's face. She asks what he did to Sarah, why did he make her cry. I say Sarah is dead and I killed her. Maria looks genuinely concerned at that. She asks what I'm talking about. Gene goes back at Alex, calling him an asshole and asking again what he'd done to Sarah. Maria leads me away from Alex, saying I need to rest, I need to rest where my bastard father can't hurt me… I should stay over with her tonight. I know right away Sarah's father would say hell no to that and be furious if she did. And when Sarah wasn't there for his nighttime visit, he'd visit Jenna instead. Jenna… only 8 years old… she'd come to Sarah almost a year ago saying father was visiting her sometimes at night. Sarah had advised Jenna not to fight or father would hurt her more. But now I knew what I had to do. I would go home to Sarah's house and break Sarah's number one rule. I would fight back… and that bastard father of Sarah's wouldn't know what hit him.

I ask Maria for a minute of privacy during which I call my own mother and say I am going to a friend's house. She is thrilled that I have a friend. She says to keep my cell phone on. I say I will. Then I tell Maria I have to hurry home. I run most of the way. Sarah's body is that of a cheerleader, and very athletic. I go into the house and find father in a very bad mood. He's drinking again. Perfect. Maybe I can get him to take me to the basement to take my medicine. Then I'll give him his medicine. But he is more focused on mother right now. His dinner wasn't good enough. The house isn't clean enough. He pushes her against the counter while berating her loudly. I tell him to leave mother alone. Mother looks at me as if I've gone mad, so does father. He asks if I want a piece of what he's handing out. Mother tells me to go to my room right now. I say I'm not leaving until this piece of shit that calls himself my father says he's sorry for hurting mother. Mother is shocked to silence, father is now more pissed than shocked, thought the shock still shows in his face. Father asks if I really want to be talking to him like that. Because if I talk like an adult, then I get an adult's medicine. Mother breaks her silence and tells father to leave me alone, I don't know what I'm saying. I tell father I sure do know what I'm saying, and someone ought to kick him in his pathetically small balls so hard they get lodged in his fucking nostrils. Father is pissed. He grabs me roughly by the arm and says it's an adult's medicine for me, then I will never speak to him like that again. Mother pleads with father not to hurt me, but he ignores her and pulls me down into the basement. This is going perfectly.

Down in the dimly lit basement father asks what he should start with. I tell him he should start with begging me not to kill him. He says he doesn't know what has gotten into me, but I have sure gone off the deep end. I don't feel that way at all. I feel strong, like I can take on anyone. And he is weak. He has to pick on those smaller than himself. I spread my arms and tell him to come at me if he wants to die. He says he'll give me my medicine and he can't be sure I'll survive it. He grabs a board and swings it hard into my stomach. I barely feel it. He recoils as if he just smacked a concrete wall with the board. He looks at the board, then at me, then at the board again, clearly puzzled. He swings at me again. I grab the board and take it from him easily. I break it in half as if it was a twig. He steps back in shock, asking me what the fuck I am. I say it's his turn to take his medicine. I close the distance between us with two quick steps and then I repeat what happened with Sarah. I deliberately "consume" this asshole, or that's what Alex had called it. But this time I feel no guilt. Because now I know Jenna will never awaken to his nighttime visits again. Little Sally will never know a single visit. And mother will never have to take her medicine again. I punch my fist right into his gut, which brings about a shocked look of pain on his face. He screams out in pain and terror as I finish "consuming" him.

The sound has brought mother down from upstairs. I look at my hands. I am a man now, I have taken on the form of that asshole. But I don't want to look like him! I want to look like Sarah! I don't want mother to think father killed Sarah. I'm not sure what I do want mother to think… a wave of guilt hits me over Sarah, she shouldn't have died… it was never her fault. As I focus on wanting to look like Sarah I see my hands in front of me shift form. And my perspective drops a couple feet. I am Sarah again. Mother comes down the stairs and stares at me. She asks where father went, she asks if I am ok. I tell her I am ok, father took his medicine. She stops short and asks what I'm trying to say. I feel guilty about Sarah again. I go over to mother and hug her, telling her over and over that I'm sorry, I'm sooooo sorry… I know it will break her heart when Sarah disappears. And Sarah will have to disappear. I can't be both myself and Sarah at the same time. And if I disappear, then my mother will be the one crying. Mother wants to know what I've done. She says whatever it is, she's sure it can't be that bad. I tell her it is, and I can't say what it is… but she will find out soon, and I am sooooo sorry.

Mother wants to hold and comfort me, but I can't take it any longer. I pull away and run back upstairs and out the front door. I run down the street and out of sight even as I hear Sarah's mother behind me calling out. Not that much time has actually passed, and the sun is still shining. But I am in a dark place. I go down an alley to be out of sight and sit down beside a dumpster to cry. I feel some better knowing that Jenna, Sally, and Sarah's mother will no longer be hurt, but I still feel awful about what happened to Sarah. Someone comes up beside me as I am crying. I look up and it's Alex again. He asks if I can change back to Marcy. I think about my normal appearance for a bit and I feel the shift. Alex says I really am a natural. But a natural what? I ignore Alex now and go back to crying. Alex sits down beside me and puts an arm around me. He says to try not to be too hard on myself, what happened with Sarah was an accident. He asks if I really meant to hurt her. I remember wanting to knock the wind out of her, but that was it. Just a belly ache for her. I say no, I hadn't meant to hurt her. He says it was just a terrible accident, and now there was a lot I would have to learn about control so it would never happen again. Control of what? I don't know and I don't really care. I sit there, still crying, with Alex beside me trying to comfort me. I think I fall asleep like that, because then I wake up in bed as Raven again and a full understanding of what had happened in the dream.

01/31/12

Game Analysis 101
I am in school, it seems to be a game design class. Everyone is talking about some video games and comparing them. I am paying some attention, but I feel quite tired and I also feel like falling asleep. My eyelids are heavy and I close them just enough to rest them. I drift to sleep, and then I get poked by the person next to me. I look and I see that my ex-boyfriend is in the class with me, and he has poked me to wake me up. I stay awake long enough to hear everyone is now discussing Oblivion, and how it compares to Fallout 3. The subject of Skyrim comes up as the instructor asks if anyone has played that and how it compares. James says all of them blow ass. I comment he wouldn’t know a good game if it bit him. He gives me a strange look, maybe says something, but I am again drifting off to sleep. My eyes close and then I wake up.

Cats!
I am in a place I don’t recognize, it is a house, and it is a big one. I have no thought that I’m not supposed to be there, I am just wandering around and exploring. I enter a bedroom and see an adorable tabby cat on the bed. How cute! I turn to leave the bedroom and I almost trip over a tortie cat right behind me. Wow… where did you come from? I pat the kitty and head down the hall towards the bathroom. In the bathroom I find there is no human toilet, but there are four cat pans lined against the far wall. Am I supposed to use the cat pan? Even if I wanted to, they are all occupied. There is a cat doing business in each one and also three more cats patiently waiting in line. Wow… 7 more cats! I pat the last one in line and head out to find a human bathroom. I don’t find another bathroom, but I find my way back to the living room. I go to sit on the couch but I am warded off by a hiss. I almost sat on a cat! I look and see there are seven cats crowded onto the seat of the couch, all lying around each other. There are three more cats on the back of the couch and a cat on each arm. 12 more cats! I mentally count cats and realize I have found 21 cats so far. I turn from the couch and almost fall on my face as I realize I am about to step on a cat’s tail and I move awkwardly to avoid doing that. 22 cats… I wake up with a single cat purring beside me.

01/25/12

School of Magic
I am in a large building with a group of people, we are there for a class. The instructor is a man I don't recognize, and he is teaching us about magical energy. The school seems to be some form of Hogwarts. The room we are in is a sort of auditorium. The instructor fires a blast of magical energy into a designated target at one end of the room. He says it is time for everyone else to show what they can do. A lot of the other students don't seem to know how to create the energy blast. I hear a woman's voice through some kind of speaker system. She is standing up on a balcony looking down on us. She says she will vaporize the lot of us if the instructor doesn't come up there and face her like a man. He clearly doesn't want to but decides he has no choice.

He goes through a door that leads up to the balcony from behind. I follow him, and several other students come along as well. A couple of them are saying I need to stay out of that, let them deal with their own problems. I ignore them and we get to the top of the ramp. There is a room off the balcony where the woman and the instructor are facing off. They both fire a beam of energy at each other, the energy intercepts in the middle… but hers is clearly stronger. I get closer to them and I focus on drawing some of that energy out of her attack and into me. Her energy beam actually curves off and heads into me, allowing the instructor's energy beam to get through and hit her. It was apparently a stunning spell of some kind as she is knocked unconscious. Now everyone is staring at me in amazement. I am feeling quite energized. Everyone seems speechless.

Card Depression
I am in a card shop that is in a large mall. I go into the shop and start looking around at the various things on the shelves. Most of it is too expensive for me to buy, but I am enjoying just looking. I wonder if I might be able to jack something small… maybe just a pack of cards or something. I glance around and I don't see anyone looking, I grab a pack of Pokémon cards and slip it into my purse. I feel I have done enough stealing here. I look around a bit more and I see there is a gaming room in the back. I go in there and people are comparing their Pokémon cards. Hey! I have Pokémon cards! I see the others are using their cards to summon real Pokémon. Cool! I open my pack of cards and I find I got two cards with Pokémon on them. The rest of them are assorted effect cards and other stuff I don't know what it is. The two cards with Pokémon on them is a Pikachu and an Espeon. I summon both of the Pokémon and they join a few others that were summoned by a couple other people in the room. All of the Pokémon are playing with each other. One of the others wants to have a match between them… my Pikachu indicates he is not interested, my Espeon seems to be trying not to laugh.

So my Pokémon follow me out of the card shop and into the mall. I wander through the mall for a while. I leave the mall and find there isn't really a parking lot, but there is a lake there. There is also a large dump truck pouring trash into the lake. The trash turns the water black. I tell them to stop doing that, they're poisoning the lake. A man driving asks why that should matter. Pikachu zaps the truck with a bolt of lightning, Espeon telekinetically throws the truck into the air where it disappears from sight. I look at the lake, there are dead animals floating in the water. I find that sight to be so depressing… I am wondering what I can do, and what good will it do if no one even cares? Pikachu and Espeon seem to be trying to cheer me up, but it doesn't help.

01/24/12

NOTE: Yesterday was the first day I failed to post something even if it was to say I didn't recall anything. Well, I didn't recall anything. School homework took priority and then I forgot. But today is different, I have 2 dreams to post!

Kidnapped!
I am with a couple other people I don't recognize and we have all been kidnapped. There are several big guys there guarding us. I am looking for a way out, waiting for an opportunity to present itself. I don't have to wait very long. I see a chain on the ground near me. It looks heavy, but when I pick it up I find I can handle it quite easily. One of the guards sees me and asks what I intend to do with that. He laughs at me, clearly not seeing me as a threat. I throw the chain at him and somehow manage to loop it around him like a lasso. He barely gets out a, "What the fuck?!" before I loop it around him again. That is everyone's cue to act. I manage to secure the one guard to a tree by the chain, he is letting out a stream of expletives like I've never heard. One of the people with me, a young man, grabs a hang glider that was beside the goons' tent. He jumps off the cliff and flies a bit then circles back and crashes into two kidnappers. I think that looked like fun... so I go to the hang glider. Unfortunately it is too badly damaged for me to take a flight on it. Damn. All I can do is wait for the authorities with the other people and the bound/unconscious goons.

Midnight Sun
I am at school, my class just ended so I am ready to go home. I leave the school and have a bit of trouble finding where I parked. I wander around for a bit in the dark feeling a bit dumb, but I finally find the car. I get in and leave. The freeway home is weird. It has changed dramatically since I came this morning! It is so much wider, and there are bright lights all around. The lights make it as bright as daytime! I think I don't need headlights, I need sunglasses! I am curious about what changed. I turn down an exit I don't remember seeing before. I follow the road for a while as it twists and turns. I find a dead end. My car chooses right now to die on me. I get out and see all four tires are flat. Wtf?! I see a building, I'll go there and call for help. I slid down an embankment. I notice the ground is so very dry and cracked and hard. Like a scorched desert much hotter and drier than where I live. I am approaching the door when it opens. A woman steps out. I am overcome by a feeling of dread. I do not want her to see me. I can't think of a logical reason for that, but it feels very real. I dive behind a large rock. I'm sure she saw me... she was looking this way. I peek and see she is looking in my direction with a puzzled look on her face. Why do I feel such dread associated with her? She doesn't look violent or dangerous... But the feeling is strong, I know I have to get out, and I do so by waking up.

01/17/12

School Stealing
I am at school at Pima Community College, which is where I am taking a couple classes during the spring semester. I am on my way to class. I know exactly where class is, and I am running a bit early, so I wander around a bit. The more extra steps I take the better it is for my diet. As I wander I am thinking I forgot to bring any supplies to school… no paper, no pencil… I see a wall with lockers on it. The lockers can be rented by students to keep their books in between classes as opposed to carrying all the books all day. One of the lockers is open a bit. It looks like someone didn't want to spend the 50 cents or so to rent the locker so they just left their stuff. I am curious, so I peek in there. There is a backpack there and nothing else. No one is watching me, I take the backpack and walk away as if there was nothing strange. I figure this backpack surely has some paper and a pencil in it, so my problem is solved. I wonder if I might find a jump drive I can use as well. I go to class and sit down, waiting for class to start. I open the backpack to take out some paper but I find there are no school supplies in the backpack. It is stuffed with cash! Stacks of $20 bills, and lots of them! Wtf? I had thought I was jacking someone's books and notebooks and stuff and I find all this money! I glance around to see if anyone is watching me. No one is paying any attention to me. I close the backpack and wonder where I might be able to find a pencil and paper now…


Kleptomania
I am with my mother and we are visiting a friend somewhere in town. This person is really more of my mother's friend than mine, and I quickly get bored. I say I need to use the bathroom and I leave to do so. I wander around a bit as I go, I figure the friend won't mind. After all, she gave us a tour of the house when my mom and I first arrived, so there's nothing here I haven't seen before. I am looking in the different rooms when I get a bit nosier than I probably should be. I peek in a jewelry box to see what kind of jewelry our friend likes to keep. Some of it is quite pretty, but nothing especially catches my attention. I close the box and peek in a couple other places. Still being nosey. I peek inside a closed roll top desk and find there is a really old looking book there. Cool! There's actually several of the books in a small pile. I open one of the books to see what is inside. It is blank inside, a blank journal. It is such a cool looking book… I slip the book into the waistband of my jeans, hidden under my shirt. I close the desk and then leave the room, heading into the bathroom. There are cute little fluffy stuffed animals, about the size of a mouse. I put one in my pocket without even thinking about it. I take care of business in the bathroom and then return to the living room where my mom and her friend are chatting still. My mom is ready to leave, so we say our goodbyes and head out. In the car my mom asks what that is in my pocket. She sees the stuffed animal I stole. She is mad about that and says I had better hope our friend doesn't notice or we will never be invited over there again. I wonder what will happen when our friend notices the journal missing…

01/08/12

From School to Oblivion
I am in school at Pima Community College, this is my first day back to class. I look around at the other students and find a sear where I wait for the instructor. The teacher comes in pretty soon, and I see he has a cart full of goodies with him! Lots of sweets. Cupcakes, cookies, donuts… there goes my diet! I decide to eat a limited amount of the treats. I pick a chocolate cupcake and start eating it. It is delicious. There doesn't seem to be an actual class, and I wonder if tuition is all going to pay for sweets… weird… I decide I had better leave before I pig out. I go to the door and open it, there is someone else about to come in. A large tentacle or vine or something erupts through his chest as he is standing there. He has the most puzzled look on his face… wtf?! I go around the dying man and see there is an Oblivion gate in the parking lot. There are scamps wandering around the gate and a huge vine like thing coming out of the gate, that is what killed the man. I find I have a sword… it formed from Witchblade. I cut the vine thing off and jump through the Oblivion gate, moving seamlessly from a non-lucid dream to believing I am in a virtual reality video game.

I am in Oblivion now, and I look around to see what needs to be done. There is a massive gate closed between me and the main tower. I guess they expect me to walk around the long way to get there. I have the idea I don't have that much time. I go over to the gate and look at it closely. There are various places on the gate that make it look like I should be able to climb it. I wonder if this version of the game will allow that… so I start climbing. I get to the top with surprisingly little effort. I look down on the other side of the gate. My body feels lighter than normal… instead of taking this as a trigger to do a RC I decide it is because of the game. I fly down on the other side of the gate, immediately engaging two daedra in battle and killing them. I go into the main tower and look around, killing three scamps and a daedra I find there. There is a beam of fire shooting up the center of the tower. I don't have time to go the long way… I fly up the beam to the top. I am being fired at by scamps on the path around the outer edge of the tower. They can't hit the target. I get to the top and look at the sigil stone only briefly before grabbing hold of it… and waking up.

Pop Quiz
I am in my car and driving down the street that leads to my house. The street has recently been widened, but in the dream it was just a 2 lane road curving through the desert. I come to a place on the road where they are doing some road construction. It looks more like road destruction. The road is really torn up. I follow the detour for a ways and I see the entire road has been torn out, the rest of it is made up of a series of dirt tracks and detours. In the middle of all of these dirt tracks I find the place I am heading. It's a school. I go inside and sit at a desk. It turns out there is a test today that I forgot to study for. Damn… what am I going to do now? It turns out we can use resources, like books and stuff. I have my laptop. I open the computer, which is where my notes are. I am taking the test with the aid of my laptop when it starts raining… inside the classroom! The electronics in the room are all sparking and smoking. I hide my laptop under the desk where it won't get wet. But damn… this means I can't use the computer for the test… I'll flunk for sure. I continue trying to write on wet paper.

Bandits in the Trees
I am in a game of Oblivion, exploring through a forest with thick foliage. I am in sneak mode, making sure no one can see me. I know no one can see me, it's as if I can see the eye icon in my mind… and I see that it is faint, indicating that I am not being seen by anyone. I sneak through the foliage until I spot a couple of bandits in a clearing beside a tent. They are sorting through a couple bags of what I know are stolen goods. I take aim with my bow and an arrow, and I get sneak attack bonus damage on the first of the bandits. Of course now they both attack me. One of them attacks with a bow and arrow, the other comes at me with a sword. I use my shield to block an arrow coming my way and attack the bandit coming at me with a sword. After a short fight I win at which point I throw a few fireballs at the archer, who is still attacking me. Soon he is toast. I collect the loot off of the fallen bandits and search the camp for more loot. I find some gold and other assorted loot. I then continue sneaking through the trees until I find a ladder going up a large tree very close by. I start climbing the ladder into the upper branches of the tree. Someone is calling to me from down below. I look down, and there is a man down there calling to me that I am crazy to be climbing this tree. He says I am a sitting duck up there if one of the bandits spots me. I ignore the warning and continue. I swing along horizontal ladder rungs that are running under one of the horizontal branches, then climb more when that branch turns up. I enter a tree house at the top of that branch, and it is quite a tree house. I start searching through the place, and taking whatever I decide is useful or of value. It is the bandit's hideout, after all, it's ok to be stealing from bandits.

08/05/11 Friday
I am in school, I know it is Friday, and I am impatiently waiting for the class to come to an end so I can go home. I fidget in my seat, willing the time to go by more quickly, completely ignoring the paper in front of me. I have all weekend to do that homework, there's no hurry. Something hits me in the back of the head, it is a wad of paper. I pick it up and look at it. There is a note scrawled inside that says, "You are having a cow." Wtf? I look around the room and see there is a boy a couple rows back from me looking at me. He points at me and mouths the word 'cow' very clearly. Weirdo… The bell finally rings and I get up to leave. I brush up against someone as I'm gathering my things and she gives a mock scream. She says something contaminated touched her and she needs to be disinfected before she catches whatever it is that makes me so gross. Another idiot. I already know for a fact that the school is full of idiots. I ignore the idiots and leave the classroom, heading for home. In front of the school there is a group of five boys picking on one boy. Bunch of cowards… I head over to the group, I recognize the boy getting picked on… and I know I don't like being picked on, so neither does this boy. One of them, a particularly fat one, is saying the smaller boy probably wets the bed, how pathetic is that? I comment it is about one tenth as pathetic as a group of five idiots picking on one person. The fat one turns around and says no one asked me, so get lost. I apologize for my mistake… six picking on one, since the big one is clearly fat enough for at least two boys. The fat kid says he isn't fat, he has big bones. I say wow… he'll never have to worry about breaking a bone, then… those bones aren't big, they're HUGE! The fat kid says he's not opposed to hitting a girl, so get lost before he beats me along with Potter. I say I'm not opposed to kicking him in the… wait… Potter? Harry Potter? He looks at me blankly. Does that make you Dudley Dursley? Yeah… who wants to know? I tell him I read about him in a scientific journal… the first known human being to exist with absolutely no brain at all! He says that does it, I'm going to get pounded. He takes a swing at my face, I catch his fist in my hand and twist it over into a very uncomfortable position. He lets out a cry of surprise and a bit of pain. I tell him he has one chance to run home to his mommy before I kick him in the nuts so hard they get lodged in his fucking nostrils. Someone is coming, it is a teacher, asking what is going on here. Everyone is instantly on their best behavior. Dudley whispers to Harry that he will get it later on… and then to me that I will get it tomorrow. Um… tomorrow is Saturday, retard… I won't be seeing you… Harry says that was worth it to see Dudley get shown up by a girl. I invite him to come to my place. He says he can't come home with me every day forever. I ask why not, my dad won't mind. And it's not like his aunt and uncle give a shit… He can't argue with that, and we head back to my place together. I tell him there is a technique to being able to fight people like Dudley… and I know someone who can teach him if he wants to learn. He seems very interested.

08/06/11 Saturday
I am in the back yard of my own house, though it is not the house I live in now, it isn't even a house I recognize. My father is there with me, in fact, my father is James Hetfield from Metallica. Also there with me are Harry Potter and Vegeta from Dragonball Z. Hetfield goes into the house, leaving Harry and me there with Vegeta. Vegeta is giving us a martial arts lesson. He says it doesn't matter how large your opponent is if you know the right techniques to handle ourselves. So we spend a while out in the back yard working on exercises to get in shape and martial arts techniques. I am thinking I am at least getting some exercise for a change, and maybe this time I will even be able to stick with it. Somehow, even though Vegeta and Harry Potter are there with me, and James Hetfield is my father, it never occurs to me that I might be dreaming until I wake up.

08/07/11 Sunday
I am in the back yard of a house that is clearly not one of the places I have ever lived in my waking life, but it is familiar to me as my home. This entire dream consists of practicing martial arts with Harry Potter, Vegeta is the instructor. For some reason it never once occurs to me to do a reality check…

Note: In spite of doing reality checks periodically during the day and telling myself to do them when I am dreaming, I never seem to do them anymore. If anyone has any ideas on how to get back into the habit it would be really helpful, I used to have frequent lucid dreams and now they're gone…

08/08/11 Monday
I am in bed and waking up, the alarm is going off, I don't want to get up… it is too early… why is my alarm going off now?! I sit up and look around the room, there is some light coming in the window, but it is clearly still early in the morning. I drag myself out of bed and get dressed before dragging myself out to the other room. Someone speaks to me from the door, says this is the last week of school, come on, get out of bed. School… wtf? I have school? What is going on? I sit up and get out of bed, not sure what to think. I get dressed and when I go to brush my hair I see I am about 11 years old. My mind just falls into the routine of going to class now, all thoughts of dreaming gone. Eat breakfast, walk to school. I am walking to school with Harry Potter, who apparently spent the night at my house last night. The entire time I am walking to school I get the strange feeling that someone is watching us… following us… am I just being paranoid? Nope. About half way to school a group of five boys blocks our path, one of them is Dudley Dursley. They seem ready for a fight. Dudley says no one humiliates him in front of his friends… I say no need to, he makes a complete fool of himself on his own. He turns red and says he's going to pound me… then he comes at me. I use leverage and strength I didn't realize I had to flip him over and onto his back, then I step on his fat neck. Try that again I'll rip your dick off and shove it so far up your ass that you're giving yourself a blowjob! All five of them look shocked that a girl just did that. While they are shocked, Harry and I continue to school where all my classes go predictably boring. My last class is over, and I am ready to head home… but wasn't I supposed to meet Harry and walk home with him? I look around for Harry for a while, then I finally find him. I'm not sure what made me check… but I find him in a dumpster. He has had his ass kicked… by Dudley and his gang, no doubt… I help Harry out of the dumpster, at first he is mad at me, saying Dudley was beating him because of me, then he is upset, saying he tried to use Vegeta's techniques, but they didn't work… I tell him it takes time to train to fight. I focus on healing a couple of his injuries… the healing works. We walk home together, I am plotting revenge on Dudley, but Harry wants to learn to fight and take care of things himself.

08/09/11 Tuesday
I wake up in bed and know right away that it is time to go to school. Time to get up and get ready to go. I pull myself out of bed, I currently have no awareness of my normal waking life, and no idea that I could be dreaming right now. I come out of the bedroom and have breakfast, I don't want to go to school, I never do, but this is the last week. Yay! I am walking to school with Harry Potter, and it feels like we're being watched. This seems to be a common occurrence now… nothing happens before we reach class, though. No one shows their face. I wonder if it was Dudley and his goons, and they are too cowardly to show their faces. Most likely. Classes today are preparation for the final exams, so there isn't much time to think about anything else. I get really bored with going over material for final exams and I end up doodling again, though this time I am more careful about getting caught. I am doodling plans for a puzzle game I have had in mind, though I am not entirely sure what I plan on doing with the idea. I will figure out that part once I have the idea finalized.

08/10/11 Wednesday, Dream 1
I am in an office, I am there for a job interview. I have no memory of how I got to be there, and I can't even remember what job I am interviewing for. Of course this results in me being about ten times as nervous as I usually am at an interview, and that is never a good thing. I look around the office a bit, it is a really fancy office. I am there by myself, I wonder when the person interviewing me will arrive. I get nosy and look around on the desk. It is a massive mahogany desk, clearly an antique… it is well polished and there are many items on it. I note the items consist of some antique looking pens, a couple bottles of ink, several rolls of parchment, and what is most notably absent is a computer of any kind. Actually there is nothing electronic at all. Weird. I sit there and wait for a few minutes until the door finally opens and a man walks in. I do a double take as I recognize the man, it looks like Professor Dumbledore. I am doing a double take when he comes over and says he's sorry to have kept me waiting, there was some urgent school business to attend to. He introduces himself and says he is pleased to meet me, Quintus has told him a lot about me. Quintus? I am wondering who Quintus is, Dumbledore continues. He says Quintus has said I have held such positions before and performed admirably in them, and he is inclined to believe Quintus since they have been friends for so many years. Who the fuck is Quintus?! I am struggling with this question, but Dumbledore doesn't seem to notice, he keeps talking. I am hardly hearing what he is saying, though I am somehow answering, not even aware of my answers. Finally I am leaving the office, and Dumbledore is saying he is required to speak with someone else, but he really feels he has already made his decision. I wish it was that easy to get a job in my waking life…

08/10/11 Wednesday, Dream 2
I am in school, I am taking a test. It's a final exam. In this dream I spend the entire day going to two different classes and taking final exams, then the school day is over. I get to go home early, though the idea is for me to go home early and then study for the final exams still to come tomorrow. What fun, I am so glad class is almost over for the summer. Outside of the school I meet up with Harry Potter, and we are walking home together. Harry says something about that he really should go home one of these days… he can't move in with me permanently. I ask why not, as long as my dad doesn't care… and it seems pretty clear that his aunt and uncle don't give a shit. Harry says the Dursley's would probably be glad to get rid of him. I say then the problem is solved. Unless someone complains, there is really no reason he can't just stay with me… unless he really prefers living with the Dursleys. He said no, he would not prefer that. I say let's get home, I need to do some studying for our final exams tomorrow. Maybe we can help each other out. Sure, sounds great. The whole way home I can't shake the feeling we are being watched, though I never see any sign of anyone following us. I wonder if Dudley might be a problem… it seems Harry notices me being paranoid. He says if I'm looking for Dudley, don't worry, Dudley is still back at school trying in vain to finish a final exam… when he probably got stuck on the first question, the one where he's required to put his name.

Hogwarts: The Shadow Side
I am at Hogwarts taking a magic class. We have broken up into pairs to do the class exercise, and my partner is Hermione Granger. I am relieved that I didn't get paired with some idiot who is more likely to blow something up than to get the spells to work right. I wait for the instructor to tell us the spell, the teacher looks like one of the teachers from ITT Tech. He says to wave the wand in a certain way and then recites a spell incantation that sounds like a caveman grunting. I'm not sure if I forgot my wand. Great… I am expected to wave a stick I don't have and grunt like a caveman. I find I have my wand after all. Hermione finds instant success with the spell, which I had expected no less. We are transported, and now we are flying high over the countryside around Hogwarts. It is so much fun! Even Hermione finds it thrilling though I thought she was afraid of heights. We fly around for a bit and then head back to Hogwarts. We land outside the castle and go in through a back entrance. The place has changed. It now looks like it hasn't been inhabited for years. Cobwebs everywhere, mold and fungus growing in the dark corners, walls in varying states of decay. Hermione says we must be in the wrong place… The mold is growing like tendrils, the entire scene reminds me of Silent Hill.

We enter a larger area where some walls have collapsed. Creatures worthy of Silent Hill are wandering about. They have eight legs with skin stretched tightly over the oddly misshapen bones, ugly heads that look like what a kobold might look like if it stuck its face in a meat grinder and then let it heal without any assistance… they are hissing loudly and coming at us. Hermione screams and seems a bit paralyzed by panic, I am not so bad off… I use my wand and a fire spell on them, they don't like fire. Hermione also uses fire now, we hold the things off with fire and retreat from the castle. MoSh is outside with some of the other students. Draco is there, looking like he pissed his pants, while Crabb and Goyle are trying to hide their considerable mass behind Draco's smaller form. Harry is blabbering something about Voldermort. Neville doesn't seem worried, he says those things are nothing compared to his gran when she is angry. Ron, having a fear of spiders to begin with, has passed out from fear while a couple students I don't recognize are trying to rouse him. MoSh and I hold the creatures off using fire, Hermione finally gets Harry to shut up about Voldemort and they summon some brooms. We finally get on the brooms and head into the sky, Ron is still unconscious, draped over Harry's broom.

Hospital: The Shadow Side
I am back working at a data center at a hospital, and I am anything but happy about it. I really want to be working somewhere that has to do with my major. This hospital crap really sucks. I tell my coworker I have to use the bathroom and then I take a break. I stroll past the break room where there are cupcakes left over from an office party earlier. The day shift got treats, we get the leftovers. But cupcakes are good leftovers. I take a couple and stroll around the halls while I eat, I didn’t really need to use the bathroom. I finally get back to the office. My coworker says she thought maybe I'd fallen in and flushed myself. I tell her I tried, but I wasn't able to get down. There is a customer service call, which is my absolutely least favorite part, but this one turns out to not be too bad. I have to deliver a replacement cord to one of the emergency room offices. I take the cord and head over there. I deliver the cord and then I dawdle again on my way back. Kill as much time as I reasonably can. I am going down the last hall towards the data center when all the lights go off. Great, a power outage will mean a whole bunch of customer service calls when the power comes back up. Emergency lights come on. At first I think I am seeing things, but now the hall looks like a hall out of some ancient abandoned building. Broken tiles, cobwebs, dust, mold…

Wtf?! I hear things moving in the shadows. Spiders come from the darkness around me, they are huge spiders, the size of cats. I don't like that… I must have been thinking of DDO, because I shoot fire from my hands and start burning the spiders. They squeal and screech. I head out of the hospital, not sure where to go now. The entire town looks like some dark version of itself. Huge spider creatures are all over the place out there. I wonder what the hell is going on. I use more fire to clear an area inside the hospital of the cat-sized spiders. I look out the window as the huge spiders jump from place to place out there and they seem to be covering the city in a layer of thick sticky webs.

ITT Tech: The Shadow Side
I am in one of my game design classes at ITT Tech, it is the last day of class for the quarter. I know this is the last day of class, and I am thinking the instructor should just let everyone leave now since all the presentations are done. Instead we are all stuck in the classroom watching videos until the end of class. I am feeling quite tired, and I actually am having problems staying awake. I'm not the only one. I see that several other students have already drifted off to sleep, or at least they look like they're sleeping. Tigress is sitting beside me, and it looks like she is also asleep. I finally let myself drift off to sleep as well, completely ignoring the video that is playing. I wake up a bit later, I still feel sleepy, but at least the videos are over. The instructor says it is time to go home, so everyone should wake up. He doesn't seem to care that everyone has been sleeping. We go outside, and the school doesn't look like ITT Tech. There are several buildings forming around a small courtyard, doors line each of the buildings entering into different classrooms. I look for the hallway to leave the courtyard and I see it. We are all heading in that direction, but there is something wrong. There is a strange vine growing in the center of the courtyard, it is spreading outward at an amazing rate. I look closer and see it is actually more of a fungus or a mold. Where it is spreading, the ground itself is cracking open as if in decay.

Ugly spider things start crawling out of the holes, spiders the size of cats… yuck. The other students scream and scatter in all directions, it seems they aren’t sure where to go even though there is just the one exit from the courtyard. The cracks get larger and now the bigger spider creatures from the earlier dreams climb out of them. Crap… I am heading for the courtyard exit, as is everyone else, Tigress is right there with me. She says the things can jump, but they need to get a running start, so they won't be able to get out of the courtyard. The smaller ones are following us out. Dennis kicks a fat ugly spider to push it back and it explodes in a blast of yuck. Dennis is now covered in spider guts, if possible he is more disgusting than ever. Tigress climbs up to the top of one of the buildings like she was an Assassin from the Assassin's Creed games. I follow her in the same manner. From on top of the building we can see the larger spider creatures down below. They are indeed trapped, and there are now so many of them that they can hardly move. Tigress and I both use fire spells from DDO and set the entire group of the spiders on fire. The things burn quickly, letting out horrible screeching noises as they burn and die. Down below, the other students have all been kicking fat spiders, and they are all covered in yuck. They also stink. They all desperately need to bathe.

My Old House: The Shadow Side
I wake up in bed, and I roll over thinking about the series of three dreams I just had about weird spider monsters and places that reminded me of Silent Hill. I get out of bed and head into the other room. I feel I am at home even though it isn't the house I currently live in. I grab some food in the form of oatmeal. The oatmeal is unsatisfying, it doesn't seem to want to cook properly. I decide to take a walk around the neighborhood. I go outside and walk down the sidewalk for a while, taking a couple of random turns. It is a nice day outside, perfect for a walk. After a few more turns I am having problems placing exactly where I am. Have I gotten lost? How could I get lost in my own neighborhood? No matter, I will just go to one of the main streets and get my bearings there. I reach the corner of the two main streets near the house, Broadway and Camino Seco. There is a shopping area there which I recognize. I look around the shops for a bit, a video game shop, a toy shop, a clothing shop, and a grocery store. Those are the ones I browse through, though I also see a bank and a jewelry shop. The only thing I end up buying is a soda and a Hostess Twinkie from the grocery store so I can have a snack on the way back home. I go to leave the shopping area, now I have my bearings and I can find my way home. Things aren't normal now. There is a gym there, but I hear screams of agony from within. I know I don't like exercise, but that seems to be taking things a bit too far. I go into the gym to see what is going on, and I see there aren't any exercise machines. Instead there are people bound to the walls by what looks like spider web. Spiders about the size of cats are feeding on them, the people are screaming as they are being eaten alive. Spiders come towards me as they spot me entering the room. I use fire spells from DDO and burn the spiders. The entire place catches on fire, killing the spiders and their victims in a blaze of heat. I leave the burning building quickly and I head towards my house. There are even bigger spider creatures outside. I head into the neighborhood, looking for home. I can't remember where I live. Is it on Gollub? No… but I have to follow the street called Gollub to get to the house. The house is on another street called Holmes. There is now a fog forming throughout the neighborhood, it looks more like Silent Hill than ever, I am sticking to the alleyways where the fog is thicker and I can stay hidden from the creatures more effectively.

A couple times I question my tactic when I find myself on top of one of the things before I realize it's there. I am better hidden, but so are they. I reach the alley behind my house and climb over the wall to get into the back yard. I go around the pool and to the back door… which is broken and mostly missing. I go inside and I am looking for my mother and my pets… but I am not finding any of them. I wonder if they are gone… I end up in the carport where I find that the car is gone, so I figure they must have gotten away already. There are several dead cat-sized spiders in the driveway that were clearly driven over by the car.

Plans: My plans for this night involved becoming lucid, as usual, and meeting up with MoSh to continue a much neglected series of Hogwarts dreams that we had been having a while back that involved the two of us in the Tri-School Wizard Tournament. We had completed two of the tasks… one where we had to make our way across an obstacle range, and another where we had to sneak past a dragon to grab a golden egg, much like the first task in the book Goblet of Fire. Other tasks included the other Hogwarts, where I was supposed to be teaching a class… Q says we can use a bit of time travel to pick up where we left off in both of the Hogwarts worlds… and also to complete tasks from the TotY on DV, the tasks for LPTC, tasks of the month on DV and MM… my own list of goals… wow… o.O

Epic Fail
I am at school, sitting at my desk, waiting for class to start. The instructor is Mr. Chappell, also known as Mr. C, and he is actually one of my favorite instructors. He is passing papers back out, announcing everyone's grade, and I am in line to get mine. I peek ahead and see an 84% on my paper. When I get to the front he hands mine back silently, I wonder why he didn't announce my grade. He says he didn't think I would want him to, I look and see the paper has a 54% on it… an 'F' when I had seen a 'B' there earlier! I ask why the low grade, he says I didn't answer the question properly. I take out the assignment sheet and show him that I did, and I answered it following my notes. He says I didn't even take notes, I say I did so. He says to show them to him, so I go back to my seat and get the notes. I say my paper should at least earn a 'C' even if I did misunderstand the assignment. He reluctantly boosts my grade to a 70%, and says everyone who got an 'F' on the assignment will now get a 'C' instead.


My Last Breath
Note: This one fulfills the Mortal Mist Basic Challenge for the month of February, which is to meet dreambot or, alternatively, to complete one of your own goals. Healing the Longbottoms has been a goal of mine that I have attempted in the past, tonight I completed it!

I am at Hogwarts, the one where I am a student, and I am at the breakfast table. I eat waffles… yum… I am lucid, so I eat plenty of them with lots of butter and syrup since I don't have to count points for these. Just as a note, I am on the Weight Watchers program, so I count points for everything I eat. I finish and wander over by the Gryffindor table to see if MoSh is there. Neville is saying he will be out of the school for the day, but since it is Sunday, it isn't important. He is telling Harry and Hermione this. Maybe he's going to St. Mungo's to visit his parents… perfect opportunity. I follow him, and he does go to St. Mungo's. I follow him to his parents' room, but he sees me before he goes in. He seems embarrassed that I found him there, asks me not to tell anyone. I say he shouldn't be embarrassed of the condition in they're in, but proud of the fact they stood their ground in the face of such opposition. And now it is time for them to be healed. He looks questioning, but I say I have been trying to heal them, and I think he is the key to breaking through, will you help me? Of course he will! Though he doesn't seem too hopeful… We go in, the healers are glad to see both of us, I use the song My Last Breath by Evanescence. I encourage Neville to help me with the spell, he joins in, and it seems he is a natural healer, contributing much energy to the spell. We use it on his mother first, she recognizes him, and there is a brief tearful reunion. That can wait, one healing left to do. We use the song on his father with similar results. Now there is a three-way tearful reunion from which I quietly excuse myself. I figure that is a private moment, and I don't really want to be part of it anyway.


The Secret of the Egg
Back at Hogwarts, the one where I am a student, sitting at the dinner table is when Dumbledore brings up the subject of the tournament again. He says he hopes we are all making good progress on decoding the messages our eggs have to give us. Draco is beside me and he mutters that the egg sounds like someone torturing a hippogryph rather than a message any human could understand… I remember that the way to listen to the egg is underwater. I want to see if MoSh is there this time, so I wander over to the Gryffindor table. Neville is excitedly telling anyone who will listen that his parents are better and they will be visiting next weekend, he can't wait for everyone to meet them. MoSh is also there, as is Asuka, they are sitting next to each other getting a bit too touchy-feely for a public school… and if it wasn't for Neville, they would probably be gathering an audience. I say hi to MoSh, and he says hello, I ask if they have listened to their egg yet. He says no, this is the first time he has been back, Harry has been procrastinating, and Hermione has yet to figure it out. She has been spending her time researching all the strangest languages she could possibly think of. Of course that doesn't do it. We decide to listen to the egg in the lake, since there are both men and women in each group. I tell Draco I have an idea for the egg, and we go down to the lake. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and MoSh are there, too. I briefly think Ron is like a lost puppy following the others around even though he is not in the tournament. Draco thinks this is a weird place to take the egg. I tell him to get in the water with me, then duck under. He looks at me like he thinks I am nuts. Harry and Ron also think MoSh is nuts, but a look of realization is dawning on Hermione's face. She says of course, the density of the water will alter the sound the egg makes… maybe it's not a foreign language after all. We get in the water and go under, I open my egg. It is indeed speaking English now, it describes how to get to the bottom of the lake, follow a maze of passages, and get to the goal. Draco has to surface a few times for air, I breathe water without even thinking about it. When I surface, Draco asks if I am part fish… how long can I hold my breath, anyway? Ron, Harry, and Hermione are staring wide-eyed at MoSh, still underwater, and then he surfaces. Ron is stunned, he says, "Blimey! I've never seen anyone but a fish stay underwater that long!" To top it off, neither MoSh nor I are even winded. I can breathe water to get to the goal, I will have to figure out some way for Draco to do it. MoSh will be able to help Harry and Hermione better than any gillyweed!


Until It Sleeps
I am at the Hogwarts where I am supposed to teach a class, but I have absolutely no idea what I am supposed to be doing because I can't remember where in the curriculum the class is right now! I look through a book called Out of the Darkness by Raven Knight as the students are coming into the class, I figure I haven't taught them any healing spells yet, so I will start with that. I open the book to the song Until It Sleeps by Metallica. I explain the use of the song to the class… how it can be used to calm rage and anger from someone's heart, put the rage and anger to sleep. I also explain that if someone is doing horrible things because they are in pain, not physical pain, but internal pain… emotional pain, spiritual pain… this song will take that pain away. After the song, they will go back to acting like their true selves. Of course if their true self happens to be an asshole, they will still be an asshole after the song. It won't change that. It is meant to heal someone, not to transform who they really are, since that is a choice everyone has a right to make for themselves. I show the spell to everyone in the class, and this goes smoothly with no unexpected difficulties.

Plans: My main plans for tonight were to just remember something, some kind of dreams, although being lucid would definitely be a big plus. It seems my desire to remember some stuff has come to pass, but I was not lucid. What I do remember came in a bunch of seemingly unconnected fragments that make little sense or no sense at all. I really need to get my dreams back to how they used to be. I used to fall asleep in the evening with no dream plans at all and the energy inside me would take me somewhere I needed to be, but lately that hasn't been happening… maybe I'm planning my dreams out too much… I need to get it back.

Where In The World Is Sam?
I am in a mall that I have seen many times in dreams, though I have never seen it in my waking life. I am wandering around in the mall, looking to buy a new Nintendo 3DS, though I know I couldn't possibly afford one. I am thinking maybe I can trade some old crap towards buying it. While I am looking for the computer store, it seems every time I am in this mall the stores have moved, I run into a frantic MoSh. He asks me if I have seen Saim, he says he has to find Saim before it's too late. I stop him from hurrying off and ask if he wouldn't have more luck looking for her in a dream. He calms down a bit and says I am right, he'll go home and try to sleep so he can find Saim in a dream.

Guilty as Charged
I am in my room, I am looking through all of my stuff, I am looking for something that might be worth a bit of cash to sell on the internet. I have to do this because my credit card statement is coming due, and I haven't got anything to pay it with. I wonder how I managed to get myself in debt after the problems I had in the past… My mom comes in and says she knows I am in debt, I'm not sure how she could know, and she clearly doesn't know the whole of it. I decide to come clean and tell her I have a couple thousand dollars of debt. She doesn't get angry like I had expected, instead she looks deeply disappointed, which is worse. She says I apparently learned nothing the first time. I tell her the charges are not mine, I don't even have that card any more. This is a flat out lie. She says she will make a couple phone calls and get it cleared up. I hurry to my purse and take the card out, going directly to the bathroom where I take a scissors and cut the card into tiny pieces and flush them away. There. Now no one can prove I had the card.

Dinner and a Class
I am just walking into a classroom where I have signed up for some kind of school class, though I'm not sure what class I have signed up for. I don't think much about this discrepancy. I know my friend Alicia is taking the class as well, so I look around the classroom to find her. She is near the front of the room, but all of the seats around her are completely filled. Damn… I can't sit with her. I look around for an empty seat and then I spot Tigress a couple seats behind Alicia. I hadn't realized she was also in this class! So while I had just said, "Crap!" when I saw I can't sit with Alicia, I now say, "Yay!" since I see I can sit with Tigress. Class passes awfully fast, then the four of us go out to the parking lot where MoSh meets us there and says he will take us all out to dinner to celebrate some accomplishment. I am feeling uncomfortable about letting him pay for my dinner… especially when he says we are going out for steak… so I say I will have to take a rain check, I have to go home. So as the rest of the group goes in one direction, I walk in the direction of home. I have walked only a short time before I remember I drove to school, so I have to turn around and walk back to school to get my car.

The Punch is Sweet!
I am at a large party where everyone is dressed up and wandering around, though I am really bored right now. There's a buffet table with lots of snacks laid out on it, a couple of large bowls of punch, and everyone is just standing around talking, which is really boring to me. I spot a familiar face in the room, who is going from one person to the next. It's Patrick Jane from The Mentalist. Some of those people are laughing when Patrick leaves, some are angry, some are just confused. Patrick comes over and asks me if I know how to catch a killer, but he doesn't leave me a chance to answer. He says you have to be sweet about it, and then asks if I would mind creating a small distraction… I'm not sure what is going on, but I decide to play along with that. I go to a different table and attach a tablecloth to the shoe of a particularly stuck up woman, who glares down at me as if she was looking at a cockroach. I tell her I dropped something, and I move away. She doesn't see the tablecloth is attached to her shoe. I stay close to her and start bugging her a lot, so she turns and walks away, pulling the tablecloth and a lot of snacks with it, everything falls off with a crash. The distraction works, I look over at Patrick to see what he is doing. He is pouring sugar into the punch bowl, then he quickly moves away. I go back over near Patrick, he whispers that that sugar will quickly reveal the killer.

The Flame of the Dragon
I am in an open field, I look around to see where I am. I am actually on the edge of the field, and I am looking out across the field of tall grass as a gentle breeze blows across the meadow. There is only one thing visible out there, other than this, the field continues as far as the eye can see. The one thing I see is just about unbelievable, so I feel the need to check this out more closely. The grass is so tall I am able to crouch down and move in such a way that I am completely hidden from view. As impossible as it seems, what I saw from the edge of the forest has been confirmed… I am looking upon a dragon! The dragon looks a lot like the one in this picture, a red dragon standing up on two legs and glaring down… right at me… crap… I have been seen. He looks quite pissed off, too. He takes a deep breath and then exhales a huge blast of flaming energy in my direction. I instinctively cross my arms in front of me as if to block the attack… and Witchblade forms armor and a shield to actually do that… So the fiery attack doesn't get through my shield, although the force of it pushes me back quite a ways as I lean into the shield to keep from falling over. I move the shield a bit when the blast is over, and I am now standing on a burned area of the meadow, the dragon is glaring down at me still, though he also looks rather surprised that his attack didn't get through. He quickly covers his confusion with a threat, he tells me that was a warning… and if I don't leave now he will erase me from existence. I have no desire to fight this dragon, and to be honest, I had intruded on the dragon's space. So I don't argue the fact at all, I say I'm sorry I disturbed him, and I quickly return to the cover of the forest.


Animal Rescue
I am on my bike, and I am heading home, riding down a road surrounded by pine trees and other areas of nature that are nothing like my area IWL. The problem I notice is that there is a steep hill going up towards home, and I realize that there is no way I will be able to ride up that hill without having my legs hurting so bad they might fall off. So I get up and walk the bike up to the top of the hill and then the rest of the way is downhill. I get on the bike and cruise down the hill to where the road takes a sharp turn to the left, where I leave the road onto a trail that fortunately goes straight. I slow down so I don't crash, and I notice someone has laid a trap line of steel jaw traps, and there are animals trapped in them. I stop by each trap and release the animal being held there, fortunately they all seem to realize I am trying to help and they don't attack me, not even the ones who would normally attack. I rescue a couple cats, several dogs, a pair of wolves, a bobcat, and more. I am now thinking I should be home by now, and since I stopped to help the animals, I will be late. I figure that my mom will just have to wait, the animals are more important.

Note: My dreaming has been non-existent lately, or at least my recall has been. I'm not sure why I've been having so much trouble remembering dreams, but there are many nights where I don't remember a single dream. Due to my lack of recall, I am taking a bit of a break from trying to dream share with Dakotahnok, since meeting someone for the first time is often a difficulty in itself, and I just want to remember dreams. I do have minor plans, of meeting Nomad and giving him a healing back massage, of hanging out with him for a bit in his serial RPG world as one of the vendors… but nothing major except to remember something.

Body and Mind
I am on the moon, in the area near the koi pond, though I am not lucid and I don't realize where I am. I look around and see Nomad there, I know that his presence should be telling me something, but for some reason my mind can't make the connection between Nomad and dreaming. So I continue to be non-lucid, and Nomad mentions something about me promising him a massage. I don't remember making that promise, but I have no problem with doing that, so I say sure, but let's go somewhere that he can lie down comfortably. We go over to the grassy area of the healing glen, he lies down, and I give him a back massage, focusing healing energy into it. We are talking about nothing in particular, he mentions that his dreams are fusing with his waking life, he says for example this seems like a dream right now. I agree that this is dreamlike, but I still don't do a RC. After the massage, Nomad says it's my turn, I tell him it's not necessary, but he says he agreed to it, so lie down. I lie down, and he rubs my back, and the place really does feel like a dream. The massage is so relaxing that I fall asleep in the dream and wake IWL.

100% Off Sale: It's All Free!
I am with Nomad again, this time we are at a market stall like one might find at the swap meet, it is one of the larger ones, though, and there are people all around. There is a display of fruit that seem to be sparkling slightly, I look at the fruits and wonder what they are. The price tag on them says "100% Off, Today Only!" I pick up a fruit and take a bite of it, it is sweet and juicy… I like it a lot. I think if I can take a bunch of these home, I won't have any problems making myself eat fruits more often. Now to find a vegetable I like just as well… I look at the vegetable display, these are also free. I try a couple of them, and while they aren't as good as the fruit, there are definitely some I could get used to eating. Nomad comes over to me and tells me to not eat all the inventory, I look at the fruits and vegetables in my hands, but I can tell he's just joking around. There are other displays there, with a variety of chocolate treats on them, I wonder how many Weight Watchers points those would cost me… though I should be able to afford to eat something since I have eaten mostly fruits and vegetables. So I start eating other things. Yummy things. Chocolates, cakes, tortilla chips dipped in spicy cheese sauce… washing it down with soda… there goes my diet… While I am eating, a young man asks where he can find some magical fruit. I point to the beans with a giggle, he says not that, the real magical fruit. Since it's the closest thing to magical I have seen, I direct him to the sparkling fruit. He goes over to take one, I eat for a bit longer, then I wake.

The Sound of Music
I am in the mall, though it isn't a mall I am familiar with at all, and I am walking around past the stores looking for anything that might be interesting. Most of the places are just clothing, which while some women might be really into, I'm not… I spot a couple of computer stores, but oddly enough, they're closed. I see a music shop that specializes in keyboards… organs, pianos, synthesizers… I go inside and start playing around on some of them. An employee comes over and asks if I realize I am playing around on a $10,000 piece of equipment that is extremely fine tuned and any disturbance could put it out of tune, any disturbance such as me pounding on the keys. I am not actually pounding on the keys, so I say any instrument that goes out of tune that easily is certainly not worth $10,000. He says only a musical ignoramus would say something like that. Another man comes over and asks the first man how many times he has warned him not to point out and make fun of the ignorance of customers… The rude man tries to answer, but the second man, who I get the idea is the owner, says the run man should go set himself on fire for 5 seconds as punishment. The rude man slinks from the room, I wonder if he really will set himself on fire. The owner asks what I am looking for, I tell him I am looking for a synthesizer that looks and sounds enough like a real piano to convince anyone that I am playing a real piano. The owner looks at me oddly, even I don't know why I asked for what I asked for, then he says to follow him and leads me to a room filled with pianos before I wake.

The Aftermath of Doom
I am on my way to school, though things aren't exactly as I expect them to be. There are much fewer people there at the school when I arrive, though I don't notice that it isn't ITT Tech… and then there's the fact I have graduated from ITT Tech already. While there aren't many people around, there are lots of things lying around, discarded for some reason. I look at the objects on the ground. Many of them are along the side of the sidewalk, I see discarded iPods, discarded Nintendo DS systems, discarded PSPs… I pick up a couple of those things and look at them, no one is around, so I start collecting stuff that has been carelessly discarded. If they didn't care enough to keep their stuff with them… I also see purses lying around with no owner. I know I am being nosy, but I open the purses and look in the wallets for identification. Many of them have ID, many don't, so I hang on to a couple with ID and I leave the ones without ID, except I take any cash out of the wallet before leaving those purses behind. Money… iPods… game systems… this is my lucky day! But why is all this stuff lying out there? I wonder if maybe these people are coming back soon, and will be upset when their stuff is gone. The problem is I can't remember where I got what well enough to put it back, so I keep it. I go into the school and find a couple other people there, they look terrified of something. They are discussing the disappearances. I hear them pondering theories including the biblical rapture, alien abduction, a flesh eating virus, demonic attack… A third person says he saw it all, they were all just torn apart by an unseen force. The others don't believe him, saying if that was true, he would also be dead…