New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

11/09/13

Wastelands
I am in a barren and dead looking place. I look around and I see no sign of life anywhere. It looks like a place that has been wiped out by a nuclear explosion or something similar. I wonder if that means the place is flooded with radiation. I get the idea that even if it is flooded with radiation I have nothing to worry about. I wonder what I am doing here. I hear a vehicle approaching. I duck behind a rock, not sure if I want to be seen by the new arrivals. It is a hovercraft of some kind, and it comes in for a landing not very far from where I am hidden. A hatch on the side of it opens up. There are two men inside and they push a third one outside. One of them refers to the man they just pushed as Harold, and says he has been sentenced to exile. He tells Harold that if he is seen anywhere near the city again he will be shot on sight. Harold says there's no way he can survive out here. The other of the two men says it's not their problem. The hatch on the hover craft closes and it speeds away in a cloud of dust. Harold watches until the craft has disappeared from sight and then looks around his new surroundings. He looks right at my hiding place but does not see me. He mutters something I don't hear and sets off walking. I follow him at a distance, and he is not very careful about being followed. He soon reaches a small settlement. All of the people there are dressed like Jawas, in robes that completely cover their bodies.

I can't see under the hoods very well, but what I do see looks like they are wearing gas masks of some kind. I notice that there are also some humans milling around, doing various tasks. The jawas seem to be ordering them around as servants. Harold enters the settlement and blends in ok with the other humans. I follow him in, no one questions either of us. I wonder where he is going, but I see at last. There are space ships coming and going from some kind of space port up ahead. There are a lot of the jawas around there, as well as a few humans. Harold approaches the entrance to the space port. A couple of the jawas shoo him away, eyeing him suspiciously as he goes. I guess most humans aren't allowed in there. Harold goes around the side of the building where the ships are coming and going from. He climbs up some stairs and finds a locked door. A couple jawas yell out at him. He is trying to pick the lock. I see three really big guys coming towards Harold. I feel I should do something to protect him while he gets the lock open. I go up on the platform with him before the big guys arrive. They are about the size of a pro wrestler.

I bar their way from reaching Harold. One of them chuckles, clearly thinking a girl will be no threat to them. I feel a great strength in my body, though, and my thoughts are that I am getting extra strength from being infected with the Mercer virus from Prototype. I look like an average girl, but I have the strength of Alex Mercer. One of the guys comes at me. I grab him and flip him over the railing, off of the platform. He falls down and lands with a thud. The fall isn't very far, however, and he gets up right away with a confused look on his face. The other two guys look confused, too. The other two come at me at the same time. I flip one over the railing as the other one grabs me from behind. He pins my arms to my sides, so I just flip my body towards the railing. He hits the metal railing hard, knocking the wind out of him and loosening his grip. I push him off of me, over the dented railing, and off of the platform. All three of them are now down below and looking confused. They consult each other briefly before heading towards the stairs again. I ask Harold if he is almost done. He says yes. I am thinking I could form Alex Mercer claws and slice the big guys to shreds, but I have the idea that will freak Harold out. So I'll just have to keep wrestling them off the platform. Harold gets the door open and pulls me through into the building. He closes the door behind us and points at a ship down below. There are quite a few space ships of various kinds. He says that one is like his, he can fly it. He heads down toward the ship, he tells me to come with him, they're going to be after me, too, since I helped him. The door behind me opens and one of the big guys is there. I shove him back through the door, over the railing, and off of the platform. One grabs me from behind. I pry his arms loose and flip him off of the platform. The third one seems hesitant. Where Harold took the stairs to get down to the landing area below, I just jump off of the platform inside the building and land at the bottom of the stairs as Harold arrives. He looks at me, then he looks up at the platform. The inside of the building must be partly underground, as outside the platform was only one story up and inside it looks like about three stories. He decides not to question it and pulls me towards the ship he indicated from the platform. We get inside the ship, and he does know exactly what to do. He launches the ship and flies it out of the landing bay without any problems, then heads it almost straight up and into space. Once we're in space he sets the ship to hyper drive of some kind and stars fly by as we streak to some far off location. I see we are now alone in space. Harold thanks me for helping him, but he is full of questions. He wants to know why I helped him. He wants to know how I jumped down at least 40 feet without getting hurt. He wants to know how I was able to overpower those big guards. But I don't get a chance to try to answer any of his questions, I wake up.

11/03/13

Death is Forever
I am in a place I don't recognize. It is dark, but there is light up ahead. I am in a hallway. My eyes adjust to the darkness enough that I can see I am not alone there. Alex Mercer off of Prototype is there with me. I look over at him and see he is looking back at me. I don't know where we are or why we are there, I get the idea he doesn't know, either. I hear voices up ahead. I head to the end of the hall to see who is talking. I peek carefully around the corner and see there are too people in a home office of some kind. It's Dana Mercer and James Heller off of Prototype 2. I wonder why the two of them are together. I listen carefully and I can pick up what they are saying. Heller is saying something about his daughter being kidnapped by Dana's brother. Dana says he is not her brother any longer. I glance over at Alex to see how he is responding. He looks pissed. He shifts form to someone I don't recognize, a blonde man who actually looks quite a bit like Edward Kenway off of Assassin's Creed IV.

I stand there and stare at him briefly before peeking around at Dana and Heller again. Alex is looking around the corner with me, glaring daggers at both of them. I think it's a good thing looks don't kill or they would both be dead right now. Apparently one of us makes a noise that Heller hears because he asks who is there. I figure they will find out we're there sooner or later so I come out into the open and identify myself as Raven Knight. Heller asks who my friend is. Alex doesn't answer, he is still glaring, mostly at Heller. I look over at him and answer the first name that comes to mind… Edward. This is Edward Kenway. Heller stares at both of us for a couple minutes, Dana takes a couple steps towards me. Heller grabs her arm and says not to get to close… we're both infected. When Heller grabs Dana, Alex tells him to get his hands off, practically snarls it. Heller says Alex (calling him Edward) has no business telling him to do anything. Alex says Heller will cooperate if he wants to stay in one piece. I roll my eyes… I see Dana doing the same. Heller wants to know where Alex Mercer is. Alex says Heller had better hope he never finds him. "I… er… he would tear you apart." Dana interrupts and asks me what Edward and I have come here for. Before I can answer Heller is yelling at Alex again, telling him he will destroy Alex Mercer and start out with Edward as a warm-up if he doesn't shut the fuck up. Alex says he should kill Heller right now for just saying that. I take hold of Alex's arm and tell him to calm down. He doesn't seem to be hearing me and pulls his arm away. Heller tells him to go ahead and try it. Alex stops and says no, he won't… that would be too easy. He says he has heard Heller has a daughter.

Heller gets really pissed and says if Edward lays one hand on her he will make him beg for death. Alex says not to worry, he would never hurt the little girl… he's just going to tell her the truth about Heller, about what he has done, about what he has become… before he's done she won't be able to stand the sight of Heller. He says he can't wait to see what Heller's reaction is when Amaya looks him in the eye and tells him he is dead to her. Apparently Alex has forgotten that he is in disguise, he is too busy yelling at Heller and ignoring everyone else around him. He says Heller stole Dana from him so he is going to make sure Amaya never speaks to Heller again. Heller doesn't make the connection. He keeps referring to Alex as Edward and says he won't get anywhere near Amaya, that once he gets her back from that psycho… Dana makes the connection and interrupts, "Alex? Is that you?" Alex stops short, realizing what he said gave him away. Heller continues with his rant. Once he gets Amaya back from that psycho he's going to take her somewhere safe but then he'll hunt Edward down and make him beg for mercy before he kills him. Having blown his cover, Alex shifts back to his normal form, which takes Heller completely by surprise. I say, "Well look at that… Edward can transform…" Heller immediately launches off on a new rant, demanding to know where Amaya is and what Alex has done with her. Alex says he doesn't have Heller's brat. That fucking imposter no doubt has her, and he has no idea where. But as soon as he tracks that piece of shit imposter down… I am waiting to see what Dana's reaction is going to be, so far she has only managed to stand there and look shocked and a bit confused. But before she can react any more the ground starts to shake. Strange vine like tentacles burst up from the floor, ripping through the room and into the ceiling, tearing the ceiling away and revealing the open night sky.

More tendrils tear the walls away, leaving us standing out in the open in the ruins of what had been a house. One of the tendrils had punched a hole in the floor right in front of us and then retreated. Alex Mercer jumps up through that hole and lands in the floor right in front of us. Or at least it's someone who looks like Alex Mercer… he is laughing manically and staring at Heller, not seeming to notice there is an Alex Mercer already present. Dana is looking more confused than ever, looking between the two Alex Mercers quickly. Heller is yelling that he will kill both Alex Mercers… he'll take them both on at the same time. The Alex beside me says no, this piece of shit is his. The other Alex is starting to say something to Heller but he doesn't get anything out beyond Heller's name before the Alex beside me attacks him. A fight breaks out, Alex Mercer vs. Alex Mercer, though one of them clearly has the upper hand. In addition to the usual viral form shifting abilities he is using energy attacks and lightning. He forms his blade and charges it with a bolt of lightning, then attacks the enemy Alex with a sparking blade. There isn't time to continue watching the two Alex Mercers fight, however, there are enemies attacking right there on the ground. Various types of hunters and brawlers…

I'm not entirely sure which are which, but it doesn't matter since they are all attacking. Dana isn't able to fight, so she is just trying to stay back and out of the way. That leaves Heller and me, I'm not entirely sure what to expect out of him. The question of who he will attack is answered for him as two of the enemies jump on him at the same time. I don't have time to watch and see what Heller is doing, I am being attacked by more of the enemies. I form an Alex Mercer blade from my arm and armor from Witchblade and cleanly remove the first enemy's head. The second one dodges and comes at me from behind. Witchblade blocks the attack and I drive the sword backwards into its face. No time to make sure it's dead, two more attack. By the time I finish with those two I see there is one about to grab Dana. I use Battery and call a bolt of lightning to strike it, knocking it back away from Dana and crumbling one of the few remaining wall fragments left of the house. It attacks me now and I finish it off with my blade. I look back over to where Alex and Alex are fighting. I look just in time to see one Alex pin the other to the ground using Megadeth's Crush 'Em as a song spell. The one Alex jumps down to where the other Alex is pinned. He says there can only be one Alex Mercer before he cuts the pinned Alex open and consumes him. All the enemies are gone now, either dead or they have left since the other Alex Mercer is no longer there to control them. Heller is going to attack the remaining Alex. I get between him and Alex to deter that move, I know it will not end well for Heller. Instead of attacking Heller demands again to know where Amaya is. Alex glares over at him for a bit and then grabs something from a broken table. He scribbles on it, wads it up, and throws it at Heller. It is a piece of paper. He says she is there, now go get her before he changes his mind. He chuckles and says the imposter was going to make her queen of the new world… though he has no idea why the idiot would have chosen a kid and a relative of Heller's, meaning she is most likely stupid, too. Heller gets annoyed at that and acts like he might attack Alex after all. I am still between them, I ask Heller if he doesn't think Amaya has waited long enough? She needs her father to be with her instead of playing with Alex. He glares at Alex one more time, then looks over at Dana. Dana says he should go to Amaya, she will be fine… or at least she thinks she will be… She is watching Alex closely. Heller leaves, jumping off into the night. Dana hesitates and then asks if it was the imposter the whole time, doing all those horrible things. Alex says if she had bothered to listen to him he had been trying to tell her there was an imposter on the loose. But she had preferred to give up on him and without even hearing what he had to say. She says now the imposter is gone, though, and things can be like they were. Alex doesn't seem in the mood for that, though. He says the only problem with that is once someone is dead, they don't come back… and don't forget, he is dead to her. He opens a portal and disappears through it. Dana calls to him to wait, but he is gone. She looks at me as if wanting to know what she can do. I just shrug, not knowing what to say, and then I wake up.

10/30/13

Down With the Sickness
I am somewhere strange. I am still rather drowsy as if I am just waking up from some kind of a drug induced sleep. I also realize I am standing upright, which is odd considering I feel like I am waking up from a deep sleep. As I become more aware I realize I have my hands up above me. I look up and see they are chained. I am chained to a wall. I also have chains on my feet. I focus on forming Witchblade to cut through the chains but nothing happens. I try to use the Harry Potter spell alohamora on the lock on the chains but that doesn't work, either. Something is wrong with my powers. I am sure this has to be a dream, but nothing is working. I look around the room and I see there are numerous Templars watching me closely, perhaps warily as if they aren't sure if I will have my powers or not.

One of them seems to be the leader and he acts more confident than the others. He said I will now realize all my dream powers are neutralized. I am not so sure of that. The Templar says now I have no choice but to hear him out without attacking them. I pull on the chains a bit. I feel increased strength in my body, and it feels like the chains are about to give way. I am sure it is the Mercer Virus inside my dream body… it is still active. The Templars either can't or didn't neutralize that. But I am wondering what this Templar has to say, so I stop pulling and make it look like I was unable to get free. I tell the Templar that if he wanted to talk all he had to do was ask. He says he tried that last time, but Nomad and I attacked them on sight. That was not going to happen again. I tell him to go ahead and say what he's going to say. He says there is an enemy coming that threatens both Templars and Assassins. A force from another world, more powerful than anything the Templars have witnessed before. He says only if the Assassins and Templars cooperate do we have a chance of surviving the upcoming disaster. So I ask him what he is proposing. He says they need the devices back that we have stolen from them. I ask if he means the devices they'd intended to use to influence the dreams of people on Earth… he says yes, but they won't be directed at Earth… they would be directed at the approaching invaders. Perhaps to use the controls to make some of the enemy's minions turn on him. He says the Templars have developed a weapon that works well on the type of enemy that is coming, and they will share that weapon with the Assassins… consider it an exchange. I ask how I'm supposed to know if he's telling the truth. He says this is far too important to lie about. I ask him if it is really so important that he would risk his life to come here. He says he is not risking anything, but yes, it is important enough that he would die to ensure it is prevented. He says he needs to have the devices in his hands before he can let me go, so tell him where they are. I tell him I would have to go get them, there's no way my allies are going to turn the devices over to a bunch of Templars. I add that it's not like he could keep me from leaving if I want to. He laughs and says all of my powers are neutralized, so I'm not going anywhere. I tell him he has forgotten one thing… I am infected with the Mercer Virus. I pull on the chains again and they snap as if they are made of cardboard. The head Templar takes a couple steps backwards as I transform my right arm into a blade.

I tell them all to stay back if they don't want to be sliced in two. Only one of them has to die here to prove their cause. I move towards the head Templar and he orders the others to kill me. They all move in around me, but I am too fast. I grab the head Templar with my right hand and consume him before the others can get there. I get the information I wanted from him. The other Templars are already attacking. I slice through the first two Templars coming in, feel my blade, you lying bitches! My blade cuts right through their shields and armor and swords. It is a very bloody scene as I cut down all of my attackers. I then turn my attention to the memories I got from the head Templar. There is an evil entity that was going to be coming, but it was the Templars that were bringing it. A demon. They wanted to get the devices back and then set the demon to fight the Assassins for them. What a bunch of assholes! Of course now that their plans have been revealed there is no real reason to continue with summoning the demon. I wonder if they will still do so out of spite… and will the demon really cooperate with them. Maybe the demon will destroy the Templars for us! Or at least keep them occupied for quite some time. I form my bloody blade back into my arm and walk across the room which has been painted red with Templar blood. It seems that I probably should find the blood and the strewn bodies to be disgusting… but it doesn't bother me at all. I laugh at the foolishness of the Templars as I wake up.

10/30/13

Puppet Master
I am in a dungeon of some kind. I am making my way through passages and tunnels of stone. I am thinking of it like a dungeon from one of the Legend of Zelda games. I see I am there with Link. We continue into a larger chamber where we are immediately attacked by some strange creatures. They look sort of like spiders, but they only have four legs. They kind of jump around the room. They are all about the size of wolves. They come at us as soon as we enter the room. Link starts fending them off with his sword and shield but he seems to be holding back. He says he doesn't want to kill them if he can avoid it because they aren't acting of their own free will. He says normally they are quite peaceful. I think stunning them would be a good plan. I use the song spell Battery by Metallica to summon some lightning, but I focus to keep it at a lower power. Sparks fly through the room and knock the strange creatures unconscious. Link checks on one of them to be sure it is alive. He nods at me and starts to continue to the next passage. I tell him to wait, I will charge his shield with electricity so he can knock enemies unconscious with it. I do that using Battery by Metallica again. We encounter a few more of the strange creatures in the hallway but Link knocks them unconscious with his electrified shield. We enter a large cavern now. It extends to unknown depths below us. I look down into the blackness and it looks bottomless. There is a winding path that leads across the room. The ceiling is far above us, almost hidden in the darkness. Fires around the edge of the chamber keep the chamber lit. I briefly wonder how anyone got to those torches to keep them lit but I don't spend much time on that before I see something on the other side of the room. It looks like a huge and creepy doll of some kind.

It looks like one of those evil clowns like Pennywise from the book It or something similar. The clown doll is alive, and it is holding puppet strings that are hanging down into the darkness below. Even though they don't appear to be connected to anything I figure those are what the thing is using to control the strange creatures in the dungeon and who knows what else it is controlling. There are armed guards standing along the narrow passage, blocking the way. Link says they are acting of their own free will… he knows that because they were enemies before the Puppet Master showed up. So we make our way along the narrow path. One of the guards lunges at me. I time it just right to grab hold of him and push him off the edge of the pathway into the darkness below. Link shoves another one off with his shield. I actually jump over Link and grab the next guard before he can react and I push him off of the passage as well. The Puppet Master is getting angry, saying he has to do everything himself. But he doesn't do it himself. Instead he summons forth a lot of strange creatures. Many of them are like the ones in the passages, others look sort of like ewoks with white fur.

Link says they are being controlled by the Puppet Master… but how do we set them free? I tell him I am sure all we have to do is cut the Puppet Master's strings. He looks past the army arrayed against us and at the strings hanging from the creepy clown doll. He sarcastically asks if that is all we have to do… clearly he doesn't think it will be that easy. How do we get past the guards without killing them? They are all innocent. I am thinking of Prototype, so I use moves from Prototype. I jump. But I don't just jump, I crouch and charge up a large jump. I then glide right over the Puppet Master's pawns. I form my right arm into a blade and slice through all the strings on the one side. Link is just staring at me now as if he can't believe what I just did. The Puppet Master screams in rage and about half of the army blocking Link just looks disoriented. Before he can attack me I do another charged jump and cut through the strings on the other side. Now all of his slaves are disoriented and none of them interfere with Link as he passes through them. Link says the only way to kill the Puppet Master is to destroy the gem on his forehead. I look up and see there is a red gem there that is glowing. Link says only the sword of light can do it. I have my doubts that the gem can hold up to my Prototype sword, but I decide to play along. I take hold of Link and charge a jump, getting us out of the way just before one of the clown's huge hands crashes down in an attempt to crush us. When we are high enough Link jumps off of me and drives his sword into the red gem. Red sparks fly and the gem shatters. The Puppet Master collapses to the ground with Link still standing on top. The former slaves of the Puppet Master are still a bit disoriented, but they seem to be regaining their senses. The spider creatures are dispersing. Some of the white ewoks are coming towards Link and me. They are talking to us. One of them says he does not know how to thank us for freeing them from the Puppet Master's control. Link isn't listening to them. He asks how I did that. I ask what he is talking about as I transform my blade back into a human arm. He points at me and says that. I tell him it's a long story and I'm sure I don't have time to tell it. I am right about that, and Link has barely begun to ask me more questions when I wake up.

09/26/13

Fusing a Broken Heart
I wake up in my bed, though I know right away it isn't my real bed. It is my bed in the dreamscape world inside my inner world. I am lying there pissed off, filled with anger, filled with hurt. I don't want to get up; I don't want to deal with the world right now. I finally sit up when it feels like someone is watching me. I'm not alone. I look around the room and I see Alex Mercer from Prototype is in the room with me. I wonder what he is doing there… I get out of bed and go closer to him. I am currently so filled with anger and hate that I'm not sure what I intend to do… I want to hug someone… I want to punch someone in the face. Um… not sure doing either of those things to Alex Mercer is a good idea… but then I'm not thinking much clearly at all. When I get close enough to Alex I guess I have decided I'd rather hug someone than punch them in the face, so I find myself hugging Alex Mercer. I am so upset that I am crying, I feel there is no one I can trust, no one I can count on. I find Alex is hugging me back now… holding me close… too close? I tingle all over… I feel a bit better. I go to pull away but I find I can't… because Alex isn't hugging me after all… he's consuming me! I try to pull away again, but then decide I don't really care. So I just sit there and let it happen. Everything fades to a comforting blackness.

But the dream continues. I am still there. Inside Alex? Fused with Alex? We are one. I actually find that a bit disappointing… but I realize I feel better than I did before. Not so alone. Still rather pissed off, but pissed off at someone specific. Pissed off at Templars. I hear Alex talking to me telepathically; he asks how I am feeling right now. I say I am feeling some better, but why did he do that? At least ask first… he says he had been hoping to help me feel better. Ok, now that makes absolutely no sense… so the next time I want someone to feel better I should go eat them?! He says I can be mad if I want to, but as long as it worked… but I'm not feeling mad at Alex. I am pissed, but it is at the Templars. I want to kill Templars. It feels like the Templars have taken away everything that matters in my life… There is a flat screen television in the room with Alex / me. We are still as one. The screen shows what looks like a lab of some kind. There are scientists all over the place, and cages. Cages with people, cages with other animals… test subjects. The scientists… all Gentek assholes. I have no doubt of that. So now I am pissed off at Gentek.

Alex / I go through the television into the lab on the other side, no doubt appearing out of nowhere as far as the scientists can see. One of them asks who the fuck I am… no doubt he sees only Alex… and Alex is the last thing he ever sees. Alex's / my arm forms into a blade that splits the shocked scientist in two. Of course the other scientists see that and freak out, running for the doors in a blind panic. I want to let the animals out of their cages. The people, too. Those stupid scientists should be in the cages instead. But the scientists are all gone now. So Alex / I start releasing the people and animals locked in cages. I'm not sure where everyone will go, or how to get out of there. Some of the people and animals are injured in various ways. I focus on healing their injuries. I wonder if there are injuries there that I can't heal. The doors to the lab burst open and now a bunch of Templar soldiers come in with guns blazing.

They clearly don't care who they hit, they start firing before they even get a visual lock on where Alex / I am. The people freed from the cages are running for the exits, some of them stopping to help animals and other people on the way. A few of them get shot. I see a specific kitty is running towards the exit and takes a bullet in the head… I see a cute little face explode and I am instantly unbelievably pissed off. Arm forms back into a blade and now Templar soldiers are the targets. They are aiming more accurately at me now, but I don't really seem to notice the bullets. Slight irritants. That's about all it is. My memory of the fight is a bit of a blur… cutting through body armor like it was made of tissue paper… a lot of blood, and Templar soldiers dying. I see the remaining Templar soldiers have decided to run for it after all, and I don't feel any urge to chase after them. I would rather tend to the injured people and animals in the lab. I gather the animals together to bring them back to my inner world, I know Angelina will be glad to take care of them. Alex / I am doing that when everything fades to black. Alex says not to worry about it, he will make sure the animals are safe. So I wake up.

09/25/13

Dark Tower: Vampire
I am in a dark place, on a long road. I look around to see where I am. I am not alone there. Roland, Susanna, and Eddie are standing in front of me several paces. Where's Jake? I have the idea I have missed some of the story… Jake should be here. Did I somehow lose Jake? It is sort of cold. Not really a physical cold. More of a cold that extends into the heart and freezes it there. Roland is pulling a cart of some kind with all their stuff on it. Oy trots over beside Roland and snuggles up a bit as if to try to keep Roland warm. Roland picks up the bumbler and pets his soft fur. Eddie and Susanna are snuggled together for warmth, Eddie is carrying Susanna on his hip. I pull my white Assassin robes closer around me for warmth, but it does little good. I wish I had someone there for warmth… no one is there. I catch up with Roland and the others. Roland finally notices I have arrived. He says he had started to think I wasn't coming back. I say I have been having problems with dreaming lately, I haven't been able to do much. He looks at me strangely but says nothing more. Eddie and Susanna seem oblivious to my presence. I ask where Jake has gone. Roland looks sad and says Jake didn't make it. Now I want to kill someone. I find I am quite angry. How did I miss the time when I needed to be there to save Jake? This is absurd. There is snow on the ground, but I don't think that is the source of the cold. The cold is deep inside. It seems Roland has noticed my anger. He says he felt the same thing, too, wanted to kill the very writer he had gone to save… but it would have done no good. There are houses up ahead. One of them has lights on. We approach and see there is a man standing outside. He seems friendly. He greets us all in a cheerful manner. Something seems off about him. I feel like I want to punch him in the face. The man invites us all inside. I think it is a bad idea. I want to keep going. I don't want to stop here… unless it's to punch the jerk in the face. Not sure what is wrong with me. Is he being TOO nice somehow? He has a hideous skeletal horse type animal with him. I'm not sure if the animal is neglected and abused or if it might be somehow demonic. Everyone wants to go inside with the man. No one else seems to dislike him like I do. His house is a wreck but everyone acts as if it was delightful. Wtf? He tries to feed us crap. I turn it down, which surprises everyone some and seems to piss him off somehow. Everyone else eats it like it was fine dining.

Then the guy starts telling jokes. Dumb jokes. Jokes that even Eddie doesn't seem to find very funny. Though I think Roland is about to bust a gut. Susanna does bust something… a large pimple on her lip. It goes SPLAT and is apparently quite painful as she laughs so hard and for some reason smacks herself in the face like most people would smack themselves on the knee. Yuck. It bleeds all over the place as Eddie tries to stop the bleeding with a napkin… a dirty napkin. Double yuck! But everything in the house is dirty, so there's really nothing to be done for it. Roland finally stops laughing enough to notice. I go over to her and tell her I can heal that sore. She says I can't and heads off to the bathroom. Now I find I'm mad at her. I am just so pissed. I glare over at the man who is still trying to crack jokes but is being ignored for the time being. He looks different than a couple minutes ago. Younger? More healthy? It hits me… he's sucking energy like a fucking vampire. He is a fucking energy vampire. I go over to him and ask him if he is hungry. He says no, he had enough to eat at dinner. I say he looks like he needs dessert. He wants energy? Here… have some. I start pumping energy into the guy on purpose. He tries to block it out, tries to act confused… but he is transforming without seeming to be able to control it. Transforming into a strange demonic form.

Roland apparently is the fastest to react. He probably thinks I am being attacked, he pulls his revolver and blasts several shots right into the vampire's head, killing it instantly. I find I am pissed at Roland. I look over at him, glaring at him, but he just backs off a couple steps, asking if I am still me. I force myself to relax a bit and say I am fine. I hear a sound from what might be the basement. Susanna comes back out of the bathroom after hearing the gunfire. She looks at the dead vampire, who is now decaying into a zombie. We all go outside so we can find the entrance to the basement. Down underground we find a cage with a boy locked inside it. The boy cowers in the far corner, afraid. Has that vampire been feeding on this kid repeatedly? Probably. I think maybe I should heal him. But I don't get a chance to before I wake.

09/16/13

I am in line at an auditorium. I am waiting to see a Disturbed concert. I get my tickets, I am amazed how cheap they are… which is good since I realize I don't have much money. It is a small show, not a huge auditorium. There are seats around the stage. Most of Disturbed is already on the stage, and there are people standing around the stage. I am surprised at how few people there are. I have the idea it is a concert that hasn't been well publicized, only specific fans would have been able to find out about it. I make my way to the front of the room, right by the stage. I know the music here will be loud and I look forward to it. The band members are taking their places, but David Draiman is missing. The person in the lead singer position is Alex Mercer off of Prototype.

I ponder that only briefly, wondering if that means David Draiman is out sick today. I think that is a bummer that he is not there, as I have no idea what Alex Mercer will sound like singing… Well, I'm already here for now. Someone in the crowd apparently shares my concern and decides to express themselves by throwing what looks like a can of beer at Alex. Alex uses a whipfist to reach out and grab the guy, who, by the smell of him, promptly shits his pants before getting thrown to the back of the room. I hear one of the other band members laughing and saying he loves it when some idiot does that. Another one says he doesn't… he got stuck cleaning up the mess last time. No mess this time except in the idiot's pants, I see, as he quickly leaves the auditorium. The band starts playing. The song is Devour, which is one of my favorite Disturbed songs. There was no need to worry about the sound… somehow Alex sounds exactly like David Draiman. As they are singing the song it looks like Alex is staring directly at me. I do not realize it is a dream, so the idea of Alex Mercer staring at me and singing, "I will devour you…" isn't particularly reassuring. But I guess it doesn't bother me enough to make me leave. I continue listening to the song until it's over, and then they start playing The Curse. Before it gets very far I wake up.

08/09/13

Dreamscape Exploration
I am at work. I have actually found a job, though it is not a job I want at all. I am sitting at a desk in front of a computer with a phone, and the phone is ringing. I don't want to answer it. But it is my job to answer it. I'm not sure what I think is going to happen when I answer the phone, just that I am sure it will be very unpleasant. I finally pick up the phone and say that this is the help center, can I help you? There is a pause on the phone, then a strange voice speaks. The voice says that if I think I can really pull a being of pure darkness into the light then I am dumber than I look. I ask who it is, telling him again that this is the computer help line, is he having computer problems? He says no, I am having computer problems. What? I look at my computer screen and it shows an image from the game Prototype. My first thought is that I was playing it at work and I need to hide the screen before my boss returns. I ctrl + tab to another screen. The voice on the phone says I can't cure a disease with a virus. I hesitate, then I ask him if his computer has a virus. Because all of the computers are equipped with an anti-virus program that should be able to handle that. I will talk him through using it if he needs me to. He says no, I am the one with a disease and a virus. The virus feeds the disease until all is lost. I now think of the song by Queensrych called Spreading the Disease. Then I start hearing the song. The song wakes me up and I realize I have been dreaming…

I am lying in bed listening to Queensryche. The song finishes and then all is silent. I wonder why the alarm went off. I sit up and I see I am in my dreamscape bed. I am still dreaming. I get up and stub my toe on a Buddha statue on the floor. Ow! I'd swear I heard a cat laughing. There's a black cat on the chair. I go over and pet it, the cat purrs. I go across the room to the door and open it. The hall is beyond it, long and with no doors. I head down the hall, the cat is right around my feet. I see a door at the end of the hall and go through it. The entire room is filled with graffiti on the wall. So many things written. "There is no cure." "The cure is a lie." "The virus is death." "Life is a disease." "Sometimes death is better." "Stop spreading the disease." There are many other strange statements around the room. A grumbling old man enters the room with a bucket and a sponge. He starts washing the print off of the walls while muttering expletives. I realize he looks like my guardian Hetfield did before I started seeing him as James Hetfield of Metallica. I go to the next room and I see a television showing a beautiful healing spring. Nomad is there. I need to go there. I step through the television into the healing springs on the moon. I hear a voice behind me yelling. "Now why don't you go hug and kiss a deadly virus? Does that sound like a good plan to you? Go hug and kiss a deadly virus!"

Nomad looks behind me at the portal and asks who that is… I tell him I have no idea, but they're in my dreamscape, so maybe it's a subconscious fear that I need to overcome. Winter is floating in the middle of the pool. I see Alex Mercer from Prototype off to the side looking around. Go hug and kiss a deadly virus? Ok! I run over and hug Alex. He looks at me strangely but doesn't do anything else. I feel a bit awkward and I back away. Ok… now that I've made a fool of myself… I slip into the water and sink to the bottom. The water feels good. Full of healing energy. I decide to stay there instead of returning to the surface. I wait there for a while until I wake.
 
Welcome to Hell
I find myself sitting on the bottom of a pool of water. It is warm and comfortable there. It seems I was just here, and now I am back here again. I have a desire to stay here. So I just sit on the bottom of the pool for a while until Nomad swims down beside me and looks at me. He speaks telepathically since speaking underwater doesn't work very well. He tells me to come to the surface, we can go take care of the task of the month. He says I'm the one who says I know the devil, or the Lord of the Pitt, or whatever he calls himself. I say ok, and then swim up to the surface. It seems harder to get to the surface than I had thought it would be. I get to the surface and pull myself out onto the land. Alex is gone, and for that I am grateful. The memories of the previous dream are still with me, and I remember hugging Alex when I clearly shouldn't have, clearly he didn't want me to do that… I lead Nomad into the tower and to the communications room. I activate the communicator and get a connection with the Courts of Chaos, which is an area most people refer to as Hell. I get in touch with an old friend, Pilgrim, who is also known as the Lord of Darkness.

She looks like Pilgrim from the Spawn series with large black bat wings. Pilgrim comments on the fact it has been quite a while since we have talked, and we spend a bit of time talking to each other, and Nomad, too. I finally get to the point where I ask if the Pitt is around, to which Pilgrim says she believes he is. She says he's not around too often, having quite a few other multiverses to deal with, but he is around right now. I tell her that is great, I'm bringing Nomad through. One of the mirror portals opens and both Nomad and I go through it.

On the other side of the portal Nomad and I are standing in a place that definitely looks like Hell, like the biblical version of hell. There is fire everywhere, the sky is red and choked with smoke clouds. I see open flows of lava that flow like rivers and streams. Smoking volcanoes riddle the surrounding mountains, a couple of them are actively erupting. Pilgrim is right there to meet us. She says it has been so long since any of us have been out here that the Pitt can spare a bit of time if we want to meet with him. She comes with us towards what looks like a large fortress. A foreboding fortress. We go inside and to a large room where there is an even larger demon. Lord of the Pitt is sitting on what looks like a throne, well he is really more kicked back on the throne and relaxing. Nomad transforms into a somewhat demonic looking form and walks right over to the Pitt and starts talking to him as if they were old friends. The Pitt doesn't seem to mind. Nomad says that the round of drinks is on him.

He summons up some beers, different sizes dependant on the size of the person drinking it. Pilgrim and my beers are normal size, his is medium since his demon form is a bit larger than a human, and the Pitt's is HUGE. So the four of us sit there in the throne room of Hell with the devil himself drinking beers and chatting for a while. I'm not sure how long this goes on for. I don't remember any details of what we talked about, though. Not sure how much time passes before I finally wake.
 
City of Infection
I am in what looks like a park. I look around there and see it is nice and green where I am standing, but not far off I see smoke and fires burning. I wonder what is going on there. I see that I am not alone. Nomad is there with me. He looks over at me and asks if I am ready to go. He says he has already taken out several tanks and a strike package of three helicopters that were called on him because he transformed into a big cat in front of some Templar idiots. It was fun. I look around a bit more and I see Alex Mercer from Prototype is there with us, as is Q from Star Trek.

Q says the doctor is in the hospital near the center of the zone we are in. He says the dimension is pretty stable, so use mostly whatever powers we want… within reason. He looks in my direction and says dropping a massive Immortal Fire in the center of town would not be considered within reason. I hadn't even thought of dropping a massive Immortal Fire, so I am not sure why he chose to single me out. Q looks over at Alex and then at Nomad, saying such a small group should be able to get in and out without stirring up too much of a disturbance, which is what we want because stirring up too much of a disturbance might lead to a nuclear cleansing… which would be a completely pointless loss of life. Many humans were as yet uninfected, and it is only humans that are susceptible at all. Other animals have proven immune, except maybe monkeys… there were reports of monkeys in the zoo eating each other… Q looks throws me a syringe of blue fluid. He says to give it to the local Alex Mercer, it will make sure he isn't affected by the vaccine. I ask what if we don't see the local Alex Mercer. Q says he is sure we will once we start making a disturbance, and he is sure we can't do it without making any disturbance. So after saying to go at it Q disappears in a flash of white light.

So we leave the area of park that looks healthy and enter the city around it. The city looks trashed, like some kind of post apocalyptic nightmare. Cars wrecked everywhere, fires burning, even dead bodies left in the street. What I notice is that there is no movement in the street. No people, no zombies, no Templars… no one. But I hear some commotion ahead, so we keep going. We come to an intersection where there is chaos. Nomad transforms into a cat man, looks part tiger, and pounces on a zombie that was about to kill some woman.

He has little kitty claws that are as big as Alex Mercer's claws… and cuts through a couple more zombies with them. Alex's hands had morphed into claws and he tore a zombie apart before it could attack a couple of people cowering back against a car. I form my Witchblade into a sword and remove the head of a zombie before using Damage, Inc. to shoot a fireball at some other zombies. So we made our way down the main road leading to the center of the area, taking out any zombies in the way and healing any injured civilians we happened to find. I notice that there don't seem to be any Templars around, so I figure they just haven't noticed we're there. After all, we haven't made any disturbance that they would notice. The hospital is the largest building in the area and very distinct. There are Templars around the hospital. It looks like they are determined to keep anyone from going in or out. This is really easy to get around without alerting them. All three of us take the form of Templar soldiers and walk right into the hospital without being questioned.

Once we are inside, I wonder where the lab is, where will we find the doctor? I am thinking I could do a telepathic scan of someone when I hear a noise off to my left. I look over just in time to realize Alex has just consumed someone… but who? And why? He says he knows where the lab is. He says the Templars have been holding back and waiting for the doctor to finish the vaccine so they could use it for their own purposes. But time is up… the vaccine is done. He heads down a hall, Nomad and I follow him. We pass through a couple doors that say authorized personnel only and then into a lab. I look around the room. There is a man on the other side of the room near some test tubes of liquid. He is doing something on a hand held computer. There is a woman right behind him. She is about to stab him in the back! When Nomad says something to alert the man, who I am assuming is the doctor, the woman quickly hides the knife and turns away from him to see who else is in the room with her. I recognize her right away… she's Karen Parker, Alex's ex-girlfriend from Prototype.

Seeing that we are all disguised as Templar soldiers she doesn't seem particularly alarmed to see us. She speaks quietly to keep the doctor from overhearing and asks if we've come to make sure she doesn't run off with our precious vaccine. I hear some explosions outside. I wonder what is going on out there. Both Karen and the doctor look in the direction of the noise as well. The commotion dies down and all is silent again. Karen is speaking a bit louder now, asking us if we don't speak. A couple soldiers come to the door and look into the room. One of them asks if we've seen anything suspicious. He says Mercer is in the building. Karen seems a bit alarmed by that idea. The soldier says not to worry, they'll track him down. I find myself wondering, they'll track him down and then what? Get their asses kicked? The two soldiers leave the room. Karen is right next to me now, I'm not sure what she is looking for. Is she looking to see if I might be Alex Mercer in disguise? She sees the syringe of blue fluid sticking out of my pocket and asks what that is. Before I can even consider answering someone else enters the room. It's Alex Mercer, looking like himself. He says Karen should have known she couldn't hide. Karen starts making excuses, says she really had no idea what was going to happen and she is glad to see Alex is safe. Alex grabs hold of Karen, she grabs at me but just gets the syringe of fluid. On a strange hunch, I tell her to be careful with the syringe, if that stuff gets on Alex it'll kill him. She responds by immediately jabbing Alex with the syringe and injecting the contents. Of course nothing visible happens since the fluid in the syringe was just meant to make Alex immune to the vaccine. Karen looks over at me and exclaims that nothing happened. I pretend to think about it for a bit and then I say I just got it backwards… the fluid in that syringe was supposed to protect Alex, not kill him. Whew, that was close… Karen tries to pull away from Alex but doesn't get very far. He sarcastically says he can see how happy she is to see he is safe… She reaches towards me and says, "Help me…" and I can see fear on her face now. Before I even have a chance to do anything, however, Alex takes her from the room and both of them are gone. I guess I could follow them… but why? Nomad is talking to the doctor. He says we are there to make sure he gets safely out of the city with his vaccine. We head back to the front of the hospital. There is still some chaos going on there. A couple helicopters are in the air, some soldiers are yelling into communication devices to find them… and kill both of them! So no one really questions when we jack a tank. We are on our way to the edge of the city when I feel the dream slipping. I tell Nomad I will have to go, but if I'm needed I'm sure I'll be back… and then I wake up.

07/28/13

Tigress in the Springs
I wake up in bed and roll over. I am about to go back to sleep when I realize I am not in my own waterbed. I also notice that even though I have my eyes closed I can see the light is on in the room. I open my eyes and find out that I am in the bedroom of my dreamscape. I recognize the place right away and I sit up in bed. There is a black cat on my bed with me.

The cat comes over to me and purrs softly. I pet the cat for a bit and then get up. I look around the room, almost certain that something strange is going to happen. I'm not sure what I expect… something Templar related most likely. The cat jumps down from the bed and walks across the room to a door. The cat sits beside the door and meows. I open the door and the cat heads down the hall. It is a long hall with no doors on either side. The cat is moving rather quickly and I have to hurry to keep up. The cat reaches the end of the hall and scratches on a door. I go to open the door, but it is locked. The cat meows a bit impatiently. I focus on the door for a bit and then I use the alohomora spell from the Harry Potter books. The door clicks unlocked. I open the door and enter the next room. I recognize this next room from dreamscape as well. It is the living room area where my name is written on the wall. It says "Raven Knight Is Free" in black marker. That doesn't seem like what should be written there… it has changed somehow. I look around the room to find the cat. The black cat is grooming itself on the couch. Is this the destination room? I look back at the graffiti. Now it says "Raven Knight Is Infected" on it. Infected? Infected with what? The writing on the wall morphs. Now it says "Mercer Virus" in block letters. I think about that for a minute, but it seems I already knew that… clear to the point where I have used Prototype abilities in dreams. The writing on the wall morphs again. Now it says "Sometimes the disease is the cure," in fancy cursive writing. The disease is the cure… the Mercer Virus is a cure for something? A cure for what? The writing morphs. It changes to "Raven Was Here" which looks like what it is supposed to be. I hear an insistent meow from the other side of the room. I follow the sound and find the cat beside a staircase. The stairs lead up. I follow the stairs up and into a TV room. The television is a large flat screen, and it is turned on, but there is only static on the screen. This room also looks familiar from the dreamscape. The cat jumps up on a chair and curls up. I look at the television and will it to change channels. The image on the screen changes to show a hot spring. I remember saying I was going to meet Tigress there for healing.

I approach the television and find it is a window I can step through. I step through the television and into the biodome near the hot springs. I look around to see if there is anyone else there. I see Tigress in the hot springs relaxing. I go over near her and focus on the song Voices to heal some pains she has been having. She doesn't seem to notice me. I slip into the healing springs, it is warm and comforting. I sink to the bottom. I look up and I see Winter floating in the water. I swim back up towards her and then float beside her while I focus on Voices again to help her with her fibromyalgia. When I stop swimming I sink back to the bottom. I swim back up towards Winter and finish the song before sinking yet again. I wonder why I keep sinking… but then I wake.
 
Moving Day
I am with my mother and we are driving through Tucson looking for a new house. I have no idea why we are moving, but it seems I periodically have dreams of moving to a new and larger house. We are looking for a rather large home on a large plot of land. We soon spot the house we are looking for up on a hill overlooking the city down below.

We drive up to the home and park in the long curved driveway. The two of us go up to the house and ring the bell. A woman answers the door and lets us in. She is tall, unbelievably tall, and has long golden blonde hair. She is holding an adorable little tortoiseshell kitty cat. I immediately think of Amber. My sweet little Amber. Apparently the woman notices me looking at the kitty because she asks if I want to hold her. I say yes, and she hands me the cat. The cat looks at me and begins to purr as I pet her. I tell the woman about the cat's resemblance to my lost cat Amber. My mom and I start looking around the house, I take the cat with me. She continues to purr. The house is even bigger inside than it looks outside. I finally put the cat down when she begins to wiggle. I look out the back sliding door and I see a pool outside. The view is great, I can see the entire city stretched out below. The air looks surprisingly clear today. My mom is talking to the woman. She is saying we will take the house. As we are leaving my mom tells me that we'll have to spend the night in a hotel because she already sold the old place. I wonder where the dogs and cats are. When I ask my mom she says they'll be fine but doesn't really answer me. She takes me to a hotel and then leaves. I go into my room and find I am not alone there. My ex boyfriend James is there with his new wife Tina. I wonder why I am there with them. There are two rooms connected with a bed in each room. I am to use one of the beds. Annoying, but for one night I can handle it. So I go into one of the rooms and lie down to go to sleep. I hear James and Tina having sex in the other room. Yuck. Not what I wanted to hear. Finally they go silent. Then I feel someone slid into bed with me. What the fuck? I look and see it's Tina. What is she doing here? Did she get pissed at James for poor performance? I am so tired I am about to put up with that when James joins us. What do they want? A threesome? No way! I get out of the bed. I'm going somewhere else. I'd rather sleep in a dumpster. James and Tina get up. James asks me where I'm going. A man enters the room and looks at them. I recognize Alex Mercer from Prototype, but somehow this isn't odd enough to make me do a reality check.

James says my new boyfriend there can join us… Alex looks kind of confused, then pissed off. I have enough time to think he is chronically pissed off before he goes right over to James and calls him a lying sack of shit, throws him on the ground, pounds the shit out of him, and consumes him. Tina rolls her eyes and says James has always been such a wuss when it comes to fighting. Alex looks puzzled and then grabs and consumes Tina. He looks over at me and says they weren't real… there was nothing there. I don't answer, I am too busy staring at a smear of blood on the ground that is all that remains of James and Tina, and I find myself laughing. They weren't real? Maybe they were never real… "I just made you up to hurt myself…" lyrics come to mind, part of the song Only by the Nine Inch Nails, I find myself singing a slightly altered version. "I just made them up to hurt myself, I just made them up to hurt myself… and it worked." Alex is giving me a really strange look when I wake up.

 
DDO Prototype
I am in a green field outside of a walled city. I look around to see where I am and I see there is a gate into the city that is closed tight. I wonder if I will be able to get into the city. I head over to the gate and look to get inside. There is a guard at the gate that looks down and asks who I am. When I don't answer right away he says I don't look like a minion of the Devourer. The Devourer? I am in a virtual reality video game! I look at the city wall, marveling at the graphic detail of this game. My thoughts are distracted when the guard says he can let me in as long as I hurry and give up any weapons when I come in. He says that goes for both of us. Both of us? I turn to look behind me and I see Alex Mercer from the game Prototype. I do a double take at that. He is looking around as if he is not sure where we are any more than I am. So now I have both DDO and Prototype? A virtual reality crossover game! Awesome! I look past Alex at the horizon where I see smoke rising. I ask the guard what that is. He says it is the Devourer encampment. He says he hopes those fires aren't burning the hostages… I ask what hostages. He says that they have taken some villagers as hostages. He says they will burn the hostages alive if they don't hand over the sigil stone… which they can't do… but they don't have the soldiers to get through the enemy forces and reach the hostages. Rescue the hostages. Sounds like that's the quest. I'm not sure what Alex intends to do, but I tell the guard that I'll bring the hostages back. The guard asks if I am crazy. I tell him I'll show him crazy. I look towards the smoke in the air and then head in that direction, taking flight as I go. I hear the guard say, "What in Tarinthia?!" as I get out of earshot. I look down below me and I see Alex is keeping up with me easily and then he pulls ahead. I speed up my flight using energy. Alex comes to a stop just before the land drops into a canyon, I land beside him. The smoke is coming from various camp fires down below. I see an array of enemies camped out there. Quite a few sahuagin gathered around a river that flows through the center of the canyon, which is quite wide.

The enemies on the other side of the river seem to be primarily humans dressed in Devourer robes. I see a cave on the far wall that is quite a ways up the side of the cliff, there are bars on the entrance. I figure they must have the hostages in there. Alex says it doesn't look like there's so many of them and then jumps off the cliff. He glides out over a group of sahuagin and drops lightning down on them. I hear the song Battery by Metallica. The sahuagin are water elementals, and particularly susceptible to lightning… fried sahuagin. I am thinking he just used Battery by Metallica… and that's not normal for Alex Mercer. He lands in the area that the lightning cleared and launches a tendril devastator attack that catches sahuagin in a larger radius and even some of the Devourer minions beyond the sahuagin. Now that's more normal for Alex Mercer. The enemies are just now managing to react to the new arrival, though they don't seem too organized. The enemies have officially been caught with their pants down. I jump out over the canyon, flying, and dropping Damage, Inc. fireballs down on enemies as I go. I land in a burned area where a fireball hit and use Phantom Lord to clear a larger area with a wall of fire. Enemies quickly start closing in again. I wish I could use the tendril devastator right now… but why not? If this mod allows for Alex to use Battery… so without really considering how I to do it I set off a tendril devastator and clear a large area of enemies.

There are far fewer enemies now, and they seem confused as to where the attacks are coming from since they seem to be everywhere at once. I see Alex grab a guy in Devourer minion robes that are fancier than the rest of them, probably one of the higher ups, and consume him. I form a sword with Witchblade and fight off two Devourer minions attacking me with spears. Alex is coming right at me now, he takes off and flies right over my head to land beyond me and head for the far wall of the canyon. He jumps up to the cave entrance where the hostages must be being held. I follow after him, fighting through a couple remaining Devourer minions on my way. When I get there I jump towards the entrance, intending to fly the rest of the way, but I reach the entrance with a jump. The gate to the prison has been pulled off of its hinges and tossed aside. I go into the inner cavern that is lit by torches in the walls. I get there just in time to see Alex push a couple hostages out of the way before grabbing a man and quickly consuming him. WTF? "What'd you do that for?!" I yell over the noise made by surprised hostages. I wonder why Alex is killing hostages. In response to what Alex did the other hostages are now clambering over each other in an attempt to get away making it hard for me to get through to Alex. I finally get through into an area around Alex that is now clear. He starts pushing his way into the crowd as if looking for someone specific. He finally grabs one hostage and drags him out into the open area. It looks like he is going to consume that one, too, so I yell at him to stop it. He stops and gives me a dirty look before throwing the hostage over to me and saying he is a traitor who set these people up to be captured. He says to just consume the bastard then I'll know the truth. I say no, I won't do that. The man says Alex is insane, working for the Devourer. A woman asks if he didn't see what happened to Brindle… then says she thinks Alex actually is the Devourer. Alex is just watching me, seeming not to notice the hostages climbing on each other to get as far away from him as the cavern will allow. I hear someone at the exit yell to stop pushing followed by a scream. Great… the hostages are making like lemmings. I realize I am still holding on to the hostage Alex threw at me. He says I can't possibly believe that insane monster, can I? He says Alex ate Brindle! He's not human! Damn… easily solved. I do a telepathic scan of his mind. I see him leading some people down into the canyon… then it is blocked off by the image of a mind flayer.

The hostages are freaking out… gotta get them out of here. I focus on opening a portal leading to just outside the city gates. It opens. I tell the hostages that is their way home. Being used to magic, no one questions that and they all go through the portal quickly. The man I'm still holding tries to go but I don't let go of him. He tries to pull away but I hold him easily. The portal closes leaving Alex, me, and the one hostage remaining in the cavern. The man says I can't possibly believe that monster over there… I use a quick song spell of Liberate by Disturbed and try to scan his mind again. Maybe the mind flayer was controlling him? This scan produces no more information, just an image of a mind flayer. Of course the few images I had gotten do look a bit incriminating… He tries once more to get free before pulling out a dagger and trying to stab me with it, calling me a fucking bitch and saying the Devourer will rule all. His stab is blocked by Witchblade. When the attack fails he seems to be panicking, though he really just seems to be afraid of Alex. He keeps saying to keep that thing away from him. He then stabs himself with his dagger, apparently preferring to die over being forced to talk. But damn, I wanted to know what had been going on! Without really thinking about it I consume the guy… and find out he had been working for the Devourer willingly, no mind control involved, just simple greed. He and his friend had actually prevented an earlier escape attempt, resulting in three of the hostages being burned alive. Alex says that wasn't so hard. I curse at myself for doing what I said I wouldn't do. Alex asks why I automatically assumed he was lying. I don't know what to say about that. I have to force myself to look into Alex's eyes. It looks like he is somewhat annoyed, but I can also see an inner flame. It seems to be burning pretty bright. That's something I am glad to see. He still wants to know why I assumed he was lying. I still have no answer, then I wake up.

07/25/13

Dark Tower: Save the Beam
I am in a strange place. I look around and see that I am not alone there. I recognize the people there with me. I see Roland of Gilead, Susanna Dean, Jake Chambers, and his little pet Oy all there. It seems to me someone is missing. Oh, yeah! I usually share the Dark Tower dreams with MoSh. So that would make this a dream? Maybe… I do a reality check by pinching my nose and I find I can still breathe. So I focus on opening a portal to find MoSh wherever he may be. The portal opens and I look through to see MoSh is in some kind of a strange mall with seemingly endless numbers of shops on three levels. MoSh is looking intently at one of the shops though I can't tell what the shop is selling. He is about 50 feet away. I call to him, but he doesn't respond. I call to him again and I go to reach through the portal, my thought is to wave to him, to motion him to come closer. Instead my arm turns into a strange tendril that reaches out and wraps around MoSh, pulling him over through the portal and to me.

MoSh looks at the tendril wrapped around him and then at me. The tendril disappears and becomes my arm again as the portal closes. Now everyone is here. I look over at the group, but someone still seems to be missing. Eddie! I go over and ask Roland where Eddie is. He says he's glad MoSh and I have come. He says Eddie got taken by some can-toi into the Devar-Toi. Someone let slip to them that he and the others were planning an ambush. Now they say that Eddie will be killed unless we all surrender. I ask where Eddie is being held. Roland says he doesn't know, they have him hidden to prevent the possibility of a rescue. I tell Roland that I can take Eddie's gun down with me and find him, then signal that he is ok and then they can carry on with their plan. Roland asks how I expect to find Eddie. I tell him I have my ways. I hear a voice from down below. There is a single man out in the middle of an open area speaking with a bullhorn of some kind. He says time is running out. Come out now or our friend will meet a very unpleasant end. MoSh has come over and is looking down at the man talking below. I sneak out of our little hiding place and head down towards one of the few gates that lead into the Devar-Toi. There are two guards outside the gate; both of them are can-toi, who are people who appear to be part rat.

I manage to sneak up behind one of them, as they don't seem to be paying a whole lot of attention. A foul odor wafts from the two people who have the heads of rats. So I try to do a telepathic scan of him, but there doesn't seem to be anything to read. Either there is a telepathic block in place or this guy is the stupidest individual I have ever seen. So I need another way to get this guy's information. I have been playing the game Prototype lately, so my next thought is to do a stealth consume on the can-toi directly in front of me. I am a bit disoriented as I get some new memories, selecting through them to find what I need and not be bothered by the rest of it, some of which I glimpse and find rather disturbing. The other can-toi… Harold is his name… asks me if I'm doing ok. I tell him I'm not feeling well and I have to go inside for a bit. He tells me he wouldn't risk leaving my post if he was me. I ignore him and go through the gate. A couple more can-toi see me as I pass but they don't say anything. Pimli Prentiss is the one in the open area threatening to have Eddie killed. I head straight for him. I hear him talking on the bullhorn before I reach him. He asks them if their friend means nothing to them, because time is… he then sees me approaching me and gets a look on his face like he just spotted something foul under his shoe. Putting the bullhorn aside, he asks me what I mean by coming out here and abandoning my post. He says I will be punished for… but that is all he gets out. He clearly doesn't see me as a threat of any kind, so he doesn't pose any resistance to me walking right up to him and consuming him. I get more memories and now I look like Pimli Prentiss… yuck! I drop the bullhorn on the ground… now I know right where Eddie is. I look up to where I know Roland and the others are hiding and I wave to them, momentarily forgetting that I look like Pimli Prentiss and waving to them makes no sense. I head down the street to a small building and open the door. Inside it looks like nothing more than a store room, and I see Eddie tied up in the back of the room being watched over by a couple more can-toi. Markus, one of the can-toi, asks if it's time to kill the smart mouthed asshole. I tell him the one he should kill is himself. He doesn't seem pleased by that, but he also isn't too surprised since Pimli Prentiss tends to look down on the can-toi. Markus says he just wants to bit Eddie's nose off. Eddie is gagged now, but he looks pissed. I tell the two can-toi to come here, I got something to show them. They look at each other for a bit and then they come closer. I tell them, look what I can do… and transform my right arm into a sharp blade like Alex Mercer does on Prototype.

They stare at that, but they don't seem particularly alarmed since I still look like their ally. One of them asks how I did that… the other one is about to say something when I use the blade to cut them both in half at the waist. They fall down in a spray of blood. I turn the blade back to my arm and change back to my normal form so Eddie will recognize me. Eddie is staring at me in what looks like a state of shock. I go over and untie him and give him his gun with some extra bullets. Eddie asks what the fuck I just did. I tell him there's no time to explain now, Roland is waiting for my signal that he is ok and that it is clear to attack the Devar-toi. Eddie follows me out of the store room and out to the street. Eddie takes cover, I go back to the center of the clear area and grab the bullhorn. I use it to say tell Roland all is clear. I have, of course, been spotted by the guards of the Devar-Toi. I recognize many of them as people Pimli Prentiss or that can-toi I consumed had worked with. But that doesn't matter. There is shooting going on all around, explosions, and soon the place is in total chaos. I have formed my arm back into a blade and am killing enemies with it. I notice I get shot a couple times and it doesn't seem to do anything, which clearly surprises the enemies. I see MoSh shooting several enemies that are approaching behind Eddie. I wonder who would have killed Eddie now that Pimli Prentiss is dead… MoSh is over near me now, shooting enemies. I tell him I'm losing the dream but I think they can handle the rest of these assholes. Everything fades to black as I wake.

07/19/13

A New Fusion
I wake up in bed. I roll over and open my eyes to see I am not in my normal bedroom. I find I am in the bedroom of my dreamscape. I get out of bed and I almost trip over a Buddha statue on the floor. I see it at the last minute and I avoid stepping on it. There is a black cat sitting on a chair in the room. I go over to the cat and start petting it. The kitty begins to purr. While I'm petting the cat I look around the room and I see I'm not alone there. There are two men there with me. I recognize Q and Alex Mercer in the room watching me. Q takes out a pair of pendants and holds them up. He says they are the fusion amulets. He says those strange people who seem to want to take Alex with them are being very insistent, and their stories are looking very suspicious. He says the simple solution is for them to take the fusion of Alex and me so we can find out what they're up to. Q hands Alex and me a fusion amulet. Q says to put the amulets on, so I put mine on. Alex looks at his and then puts it on. The amulets activate and trigger a fusion as was done between Vegeta and Goku when they used the magic earrings to become Vegeto.

Since the result has to look like Alex, I find myself looking out of Alex's eyes. Q takes out an electronic collar of some kind. He says it creates a stasis field, but he is sure my power level can toast it at any time I choose. He puts it on Alex/me, though I can tell Alex doesn't like it one bit. Q snaps his fingers and the next instant Alex/I are in a room I don't recognize. There are a couple people waiting there, one man and one woman. Alex tries to transform in some manner but the stasis field blocks it, so instead he just glares at the two of them. The woman looks at Alex/me for a bit. She pushes a button on a device and an invisible barrier closes between Alex/me and the two people. The woman asks what we are trying to pull. They're taking Alex only, not this fusion. What? How could they know about the fusion? I pull off the amulet in frustration, causing the fusion to break apart. I am now standing next to Alex, the stasis collar falls to the ground. Alex forms both arms into blades and attacks the barrier between us and the people. The barrier displays some scratches on it but the damage isn't nearly enough to break through it. He finally stops that and goes to the back of the room. I go over to the barrier and ask who the fuck they are that could see through the fusion. The woman laughs but neither of them answers. So use some other form of fusion? The man says it's not that easy to fool them. Some other form of fusion... well when Alex consumes someone they become one... but that seems like a bad idea... but why? This is a dream, this isn't my real body. It has been blown apart, burned, cut apart, near ground zero of a nuclear detonation, and fucked up any number of ways, worst case scenario is I just wake up. No risk in a dream except for energy contamination. So I telepathically tell Alex to try to consume me. He responds aloud, says no, and asks if I'm crazy. I respond telepathically, telling him to just think his responses, and no, I'm serious. Go ahead and do it, I won't prevent it. This is just a dream for me. Just my dream body, my real body is safe in bed sleeping. He telepathically responds this time, asking if I'm sure doing that even to a dream body won't hurt me. I tell him my dream body has been stabbed, crushed, blown up, cut, at near ground zero of a nuclear blast… Nomad got turned inside out with no negative effects… so yeah, I'm sure. So just come up behind me and do it. I ask the people on the other side of the barrier what they want with Alex anyway. The man says they already told us he has to pay for his crimes. I say I want the truth this time. He says he told the truth. The woman says I shouldn't turn my back on Alex. I ignore her and tell the man I have a sensitive bullshit detector and it is going off full blast. The woman says that thing is right behind me. I ask her what thing. She says Mercer is right behind me; don't let it get a hold on me. I dismiss her concern and turn to the man. I tell him to stop feeding me bullshit and telling me it's chocolate. The woman says look out right as Alex puts his arms around me. The woman tells me to get away before it's too late; I just look at her like she's nuts. I can tell Alex is still hesitating. I telepathically tell him to get on with it already. The woman is pounding on the barrier, yelling at Alex to leave me alone. Something is surrounding me from behind; it's like being pulled into a cocoon of some kind. I don't find that alarming at all, it's actually rather warm and comfortable, until it closes over my face. Then I get a sense of claustrophobia and I have to resist an urge to power up and blast my way out. I feel weird. I wonder if getting consumed would normally hurt; I don't usually feel much pain in dreams, though the Templars have made me feel pain before. I can distantly hear the woman yelling at Alex to let me go, and then everything fades to black…
 
Realms of Darkness
I'm not sure if I woke up here or not, but I find myself floating in darkness. I go to open my eyes but I have no eyes to open. It seems I am a consciousness floating with no body, or a non-corporeal entity maybe. But I can hear. I can hear someone yelling a lot, someone is yelling that some bastard piece of shit consumed Raven and if someone else had cooperated from the start this wouldn't have happened! I am feeling somewhat pissed off, too. I finally manage to open my eyes; or rather I just start seeing. I am looking at an invisible barrier beyond which are two people whom I hate. I am pissed off at them. I want to cut them in two and consume them. What? That's not normal… I look around the side of the room I'm on. Q appears near me and looks at me strangely. He is speaking to me as if he can't see me. He asks if I am in there. My first reaction is to make some sarcastic remark. Nope. Raven has stepped out of her mind for a few moments. If she should return before her mind comes back, please tell her to wait here. I go to say that but I don't have a mouth to speak with. So I send it to Q telepathically. Q replies telepathically that a simple 'yes' would have sufficed. Q then speaks to me aloud. He says I have made a big mistake, and then adds that Raven was really the only one who wanted to protect me. He puts the stasis collar back on me. I want to ask Q what he is talking about, I am Raven, you idiota. No mouth to speak with… but then I find I do have a mouth I'm not controlling. It speaks in a man's voice and says he didn't want to do it at all, it was Raven's idea. Q says that sounds like bullshit, Raven would never have allowed that. I sense that I am not alone. There is another mind here with me, and I reach out to see who it is. Images flash through my head, memories that aren't my own. The other mind present here with me is Alex Mercer off of Prototype.

I try to communicate with him telepathically. He responds, seeming surprised to hear from me. The invisible barrier disappears. My first thought is to transform and cut both of them in half. But I counter that thought, remembering that the goal was to find out what these people are up to since it was clear they are not telling the entire truth. The man says he hadn't realized how stupid I (Alex) was to consume the one person who was trying to help me (him). I am thinking the sucker is really him and the bitch with him. She uses a device she has to open a portal and the man pushes me through it. I resist an urge to turn around and kick him in the balls so hard they get lodged in his fucking nostrils. The portal closes behind us and now we are on an open field. A man is waiting there. He says he had almost given up waiting. He looks like Leland Gaunt as seen on the Needful Things movie by Stephen King.

Somehow both harmless and malevolent at the same time. I can tell Alex doesn't recognize him which leaves me wondering why he wanted these people to bring Alex to him. He tosses a bag to the two people who brought Alex (me) here. They both look intently in the bag. Leland tells Alex (me) that he (I) fucked with the wrong people this time. He laughs in a rather friendly manner, but there is no laughter in his eyes… they look like bottomless abysses. I look into the abyss and it seems the abyss is staring back. He looks briefly puzzled so I stop looking and he finally looks away. I wonder if he could possibly see me inside of Alex. No… surely not this way… not when I was really just a part of Alex… He opens a portal and pulls Alex (me) through it… into a nightmare. Both Alex and I recognize the place instantly even though I am sure he has never seen it, it is the Dark Realm. Alex lets out a, "What the fuck?!" Leland seems pleased with Alex's surprised response. A demon appears, big and ugly. It glares down at Alex (me). It laughs and says that since Alex (I) interfered with his zombie hoards opening the portal now he (I) would pay the price by… what the fuck? The demon looks over at Leland and asks what the fuck this is? The demon says there are two consciousnesses in there, not just one! I telepathically ask Alex how he managed to piss someone off in the Dark fucking Realm. But I already know the answer. In the infected New York there were some infected that were being controlled by an external force and they had been trying to open some kind of gateway. Only certain infected enemies had that power, and Alex had consumed or killed all of them thus preventing the gateway. This must be the demon who had been planning on using the gateway. Ok… that's enough of the Dark Realm… time to go. I tell Alex he'll have to work with me on song spells, but it seems he already knows that… as well as what song spell I'm about to use… Megadeth's Crush 'Em. As the song starts, the energy from it not only breaks the stasis collar, but makes it explode and fall to the ground in pieces. The song creates gravity bombs that come down hard on the demon, pounding him into the ground in a large crater. By the time the song is over the demon has been knocked down, but he is pissed. The demon's minions start coming and attacking Alex (me). He starts dealing with them in a way he is a bit more used to by forming blades and cutting through a lot of them, I focus on the song spell Battery by Metallica and hit more of them with bolts of lightning. We get a ways away from the main demon before finding we are completely surrounded by demon minions.

So now Alex holds them back while I prepare a kick-ass Immortal Fire spell. "And suddenly, the unreal silence is broken by a lament. A lament coming up from the deepest, darkest abyss. And from the seven gates of the dark fortress the dead come back to life to face them. This is hell. Immortal fire, now rise, light my heart, light my way through the darkness, the guardian of space and time!" A massive blast of white flames extends outwards from Alex (me) and incinerates all demons in its path, rising up into the air to catch the flying ones, as well. Now to get out of there. The spell song Through the Never opens a portal out of the Dark Realm. Alex (I) jump through it and it closes behind him (me) before any demons can follow. On the other side Alex (I) is in the same field he (I) was in before our little trip to the Dark Realm. In fact, the man and the woman who had wanted Alex are still there looking at some glowing round gems that they apparently took out of the bag Leland had given them. They are so absorbed in what they are doing that they don't even notice when Alex (I) appear from the portal in the field. I am immediately pissed off at them, though I think it is really more Alex who is pissed off at them than me. He (I) goes right over and picks the man up by the back of his shirt. The woman is just staring with huge eyes, looks like she might shit her pants. The man, on the other hand, drops a stream of expletives and insults that would make a drunken sailor blush. The woman indicates for him to shut up and says he didn't really mean any of that, to which he responds that he sure as fuck did mean every word of it. Not that Alex needed him to get any more pissed off… The man doesn't even realize what is happening when Alex (I) consumes him. I now know what those orbs are… they're real materia, the magic gems from Final Fantasy 7.

And some particularly powerful ones, too. These ones use dark magic. The man at least knew exactly who he had made a deal with, a demon in the Dark Realm. He also knew exactly what he was doing when they handed Alex over to an agent of the Dark Realm. The woman pushes the bag towards Alex (me) and says to take them all as she gets up and runs away. Alex isn't at all interested in the materia, however. He (I) teleports to a point directly in front of the fleeing woman, who skids to a stop and falls on her ass. She scrambles away a few feet but doesn't make much effort to escape, perhaps deciding any attempt is futile. Instead she just holds her hands up in a fending off gesture and says she will do whatever Alex (I) wants if he (I) will just let her go. When Alex (I) grabs her she tries to say the man forced her into helping him, which Alex (I) already knows is a lie. Apparently Alex is in no mood to listen to any more of her bullshit as he (I) consumes her right there. More memories. Apparently the two people wanted to make a deal with the demon to gain more power, to use that power to invade a neighboring country (kingdom?) and obliterate all who got in their way. Not friendly people at all. And neither of them knew of or cared about any crimes Alex may have committed. I feel like I should be waking up. But not here. Alex knows what I am thinking and cooperates with opening a portal back to my inner world. On the other side there are people waiting that don't look too friendly. I telepathically tell them I am here, don't go nuts now. Q asks if I know how to separate. I tell him it should happen automatically when I wake up. If not, I'll figure it out later. And it is here that I wake up.

07/15/13

The Infection
I am in the sick bay of the tower on the moon. I am there with Janet and Washu. I am talking to Janet. She says she can check to see if I have actually been infected by a foreign virus, just lie down on one of the beds and she will do a scan. Right now my mind isn't particularly clear, so I don't remember what she might be talking about. What virus might I be infected with? Can it be cured? If it can't be cured, what will it do? I go over to one of the beds and lie down on my back while Janet goes over to one of the computers and initiates a scan.

She looks at the scan for a few minutes, reads a couple things on the output, and then looks at a couple graphs of some kind on a different display. She comes back to the bed and looks at me for a bit to be sure I am paying attention. She says it seems I have been infected by an interesting virus. She says it isn't immediately clear what the virus is meant to do, however, because it appears the virus is dying off even as we speak. I ask her how much of the virus is left in my dream body. She says it will be completely gone within another day or two. I ask her if she can tell why it is dying off. She says it looks like my nanites are eliminating it, probably because they are programmed to eliminate anything intrusive, and the virus was identified as intrusive. She asks me if I am actually wanting to keep the virus for some reason. I ask her if it could possibly have a beneficial effect. She says she can't tell without taking a sample and analyzing it for a while. She asks if I know where I got it. My mind is clearing now, and I can remember two possible sources of an intrusive virus. I tell her either it is the Mercer Virus as depicted in Prototype which I obtained directly from Alex Mercer after Witchblade failed to form and block an attack, or the fucking Templars actually found a way to get something past all of my defenses. She says we need to find that out, because if the Templars are coming up with new methods, we have to counter that. I get out of bed and go to one of the portal generators. I focus on locating the specific Alex Mercer that I think might have infected me. The portal opens and I go through. On the other side I am in a room with a couple of people. A woman, Dana Mercer, is sitting at a computer doing something. Alex is behind her looking at the screen.

As I appear Alex turns around and sees me there. He asks where I came from… and for that matter, where did I disappear to last time? I just disappeared into thin air… I say that must mean he has seen me before, which I figure is a good sign… He looks at me strangely and says of course he remembers seeing me before. I feel the dream slipping already, and I want to find out what I came to find out before I wake up. So I ask Alex if he infected me with a virus on my last visit there. He seems to hesitate a bit and then says yes. He seems surprised when I tell him that's a relief. I add that it is far better than the alternative… the idea that the Templars… err… you don't know the Templars here, so I'll just say Gentek since they're really the same people… found a way past my defenses and infected me with something. I tell him there's nothing to worry about, this is a complete non-issue now. A tiny mechanical mosquito lands on Alex and extracts a small sample of virus. He slaps at it and misses. It flies over and lands on my shoulder. I figure it was sent to get a sample for Janet. I tell Dana and Alex I will have to be going. Everything around me fades to black as I wake.

Note: Janet used the sample and ran a comparison, confirming my dream body has been infected with the Mercer Virus. She also confirms that it is quickly dying off and will be gone soon, though she has not identified why it is dying.

07/14/13

Witchblade Epic Fail
I am in a strange place, a city I don't recognize. It looks like the place has been falling apart for some time. I wander through the streets for a bit until I spot someone. I approach him carefully, not sure who he is. When I get close enough I recognize Alex Mercer from Prototype. I don't think much about it being a dream, however. I feel drawn to where Alex came out of. I go into where he came out of, a small area of a collapsed building that is still standing. Inside I find Dana Mercer sitting and staring blankly at a computer monitor.

She doesn't seem to be aware of much that is going on around her. I walk over to her and she is startled by my presence, but then she goes back to he blank stare. I ask her what is wrong, as clearly something is bothering her. She says her brother is dead. I look at her strangely, then I say I'm sure he's not... I just saw him leaving the building. Unless she has more than one brother... She says no, she has one brother... or had one brother is more accurate. She says Alex isn't in there anymore. I find myself falling into my dream role without even realizing consciously that I'm dreaming. I tell her I'm sure he's in there somewhere, someone just has to bring him back. She says he's too sick. I tell her for every sickness there is a healer... and I am a soul healer. I will bring her brother back. She looks over at me, and it looks like there might be some hope in her eyes. She asks if I can really do that. I tell her I have done it before, I will do it again. She says she knows where he is going, he is gathering a lot of the infected there. I tell her I'll be back with him as she knows he should be. She describes how to find Alex and then I leave the building, she follows me. I'm not sure how good an idea that is if the city is crawling with zombies and freaks, but I don't say anything since I haven't seen any zombies or freaks since arriving here. She gives me more detailed directions to find Alex. Soon we arrive in what looks like a large parking lot. There are some wrecked cars around, but it is mostly empty. Alex is in the middle of the parking lot, I'm not sure what he's doing. Dana tells me she isn't sure how he's going to react, but I probably want to keep my distance... and definitely don't let him get a hold on me. I tell her I know perfectly well what he can do, and I am prepared. I touch the Witchblade on my wrist, knowing if I need protection from getting consumed or something the Witchblade will provide it. I head out into the parking lot. Alex seems unaware of my presence until I start the healing song. I use the song Devour by Disturbed. The song is nearing its finale when I get right next to Alex, I want to see his eyes... see if this is doing anything. I faintly hear Dana yelling at me that I'm too close, back away! I ignore her warning and get even closer so I can see his eyes, looking deep into them... I'm sure I see a flame rekindling in there. The song is working fine. Just as it should. I am still looking at that when I feel a sudden sharp pain in my abdomen... I look down and see Alex has formed claws on one hand and stabbed me with them.

He has a weird smile on his face. I sit there and look at the hand that is stabbing me, more surprised than hurt... I feel only a sensation of warmth now... I use a telekinetic force wave to push Alex off of me before continuing to complete the last chorus of the healing song. Alex looks disoriented, Dana comes running over to me and asks if I am ok, then repeats that she told me to keep a safe distance. I tap my Witchblade bracelet and tell it to wake the fuck up, this is one of the rare instances where I call the Witchblade a piece of shit. I notice movement around the edges of the parking lot. Zombies... and lots of them. Without stopping to consider the recent failure I summon up a sword from my Witchblade and it forms a sword and armor immediately. I cut into the advancing zombies to the tune Bodies by Drowning Pool. Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor! Alex seems to have gotten past being disoriented quickly and is also taking out zombies using claws on both hands. We are able to keep them away from Dana, and it doesn't take long to dispatch the mindless hoard of zombies. Witchblade forms back into a bracelet. I look at the injury in my abdomen, then at Witchblade with a scowl. I tell the bracelet in an annoyed tone that he had arrived late. Alex is looking at me strangely, he says it never works that fast… I tell him that it didn't work fast… it worked exceptionally slow, tapping on my Witchblade as one might tap on a broken watch. Dana is asking again if I am ok. I feel no pain at all, just a slight coldness around the injury. Alex says there's something he needs to make sure I know about that... I feel I am about to wake up. I tell him not to worry about it, that is surely a complete non-issue considering some of the things that have happened to me in the past when defenses had failed for one reason or another. He starts again to say something but I never hear what it is before I wake up.

07/09/13

Hug-a-Stranger Day
I am at a T intersection of an alley way. The passages extend to my left and right, and the passage in front of me leads to a street that appears deserted. I do not recognize where I am, though it never occurs to me that I might be dreaming. I am still there trying to figure out where I am when a man comes around the corner.

He pauses briefly and looks at me strangely. He seems somehow familiar, but I just can't think of his name or of where I might have seen him before. I notice that he doesn't look too good… he is moving like he has been badly injured and might collapse at any point. I find myself wishing I had my healing powers in my waking life. I feel I would really like to use my healing powers to heal this man even though I can't remember who he is. I hear someone on the main street approaching from the left. It sounds like a lot of someones. I wonder who that might be. Are they the ones responsible for this man's current condition? If so, they almost surely want to finish him off. I figure maybe I can't heal him, but maybe I can help him get to a place to hide until the enemies go away. The man is making his way towards me, so I go over to him and start helping him farther back into the alley. We get near the back of the alley; I stop to look around for someplace to get him out of sight. I hear the people chasing after him getting closer. The man is now standing behind me as I try a door that is partially hidden behind a dumpster. It is unlocked. I wonder if the people behind him could be dumb enough to miss the door. Maybe I could stay outside and misdirect them. I turn around to find the man right in front of me looking at me strangely. He says he really wishes he didn't have to do this but he can't let "them" have their way. I figure he means the people behind him. Then he hugs me. He gives me several firm squeezes and then lets me go. Now he looks puzzled and a bit alarmed. He says something didn't work, and it might be too late, could it be he's just not strong enough now? There's no time to find out what he's talking about or why he hugged me… is this some kind of Hug a Stranger Day? I tell him the door is unlocked, go in, and I'll try to misdirect his pursuers. He hesitates, looking at me strangely one more time before disappearing through the door. The door closes and I get out from behind the dumpster just as a couple men enter the alley. The man in front, who is clearly in charge, says it they almost have the bastard, don't let him get away!

Looking to delay them, I go over and hug the guy in charge. He pushes me away and asks what the fuck I am doing. I tell him I thought it was Hug a Stranger Day since that guy that just went by gave me a big hug. The man laughs, he says that guy wasn't giving me a hug… he was trying to consume me to make himself stronger… though he has no idea why it failed. Consume? My mind is starting to process slowly… The man identifies himself as being with Blackwatch and says it is important that I tell him which way this rogue hugger went. Blackwatch… consuming… wait… I'm dreaming! I do a reality check by pinching my nose and I can still breathe. I point to my right and say he went that way. I say I hope they get that asshole who tried to kill me. They head off in that direction. Of course I now realize the asshole who tried to hug me was Alex Mercer… But I don't feel angry at all, just glad that this means I can use my healing powers… and I love my Witchblade, which I am sure blocked Alex's attempt to consume me. I go to the door and go in, wondering how far Alex might have gotten… He hasn't gone very far. He is sitting on the ground a short ways inside. I wonder what Blackwatch could have done to get him in such a state. So I go over to him, he seems partly conscious and maybe resting, waiting to regenerate. I focus on the song Voices from Macross Plus, using the energy to speed up the healing process. He quickly heals and soon looks like his normal self. He asks what I just did… I tell him I'm a healer, so I used my healing energy. And Blackwatch is out chasing a wild goose… idiotic Templars… He starts to say something about what happened earlier, but I tell him I don't have time to stick around… I'm about to wake up. He looks puzzled at that statement and then I wake.
 
Poke… Poke…
I am walking down a city street in a city I don't recognize, though this doesn't seem strange to me. I am walking when I reach a spot where an alley branches off to the left. There is also a door to a business on each side of the alley. A large dumpster is sitting just inside the alley. For some reason I pause there for a few minutes. As I am trying to figure out where I am going I hear someone behind me yelling for help. I turn and look to see a normal looking man in black slacks and a blue shirt running down the sidewalk. He is pushing people out of his way and asking for help. Everyone he asks for help just turns away, however, clearly not wanting to get in on whatever trouble this man happens to be in. I think that is pretty pathetic, and when the man gets to me I ask what the problem is, is there someone chasing him? He says yes, there is someone chasing him… a mad man… he can't let that man catch him or he will be killed. The man says no, it's worse than being killed… he's heard that the man behind him will eat him alive. I am less inclined to take him seriously now that he's said the man chasing him is a psychopathic cannibal. He must notice the look on my face because he says he is being serious, there has to be somewhere to hide. He says he has to hide, all he needed was for me to not tell that monster behind him where he is hiding. He asks me for a promise, which I give. I promise I won't tell anyone where you hide. After a brief hesitation he says the hot air in the sun-warmed dumpster should help mask his body heat. So now he's also being chased by a predator?

I consider that this man might be on drugs… He goes right over to the dumpster and climbs in. I am standing there watching the dumpster, wondering how long that man intends to stay in the trash, when another man comes down the street in a big hurry. I can clearly see he is neither a monster nor a predator. Of course I can't tell if he might be a cannibal… He looks vaguely familiar but I can't place his name. He is wearing a brown hoodie under a black leather jacket.

Since most bystanders left when the first man was calling for help, I am the only one standing here now. The man who just arrived asks if I saw a man in a blue shirt and black pants come through here. I am not sure what to say. I don't feel at all certain what to do. The man in front of me says the one he's after couldn't have gotten out of sight yet, he wants me to tell him where the man is hiding… I must have seen. I make an effort not to look at the dumpster though I am still uncertain. I ask the man why he is searching for the man hiding. He says he just has a few questions to ask and he thinks that man has some answers. I tell him I can't say, I promised not to. I turn to walk away. When I turn the man grabs me from behind and covers my mouth with one hand and pokes me in my lower back with the other. WTF? So I elbow him in the crotch with my left elbow. That seems totally ineffective, and he pokes me a couple more times. His hold loosens and I use a move I learned in self defense class to spin around and kick him squarely in the crotch as hard as I can. He doesn't seem to care about that, though he does look very puzzled now. I ask what the fuck he's poking me for then I poke him twice in the chest… trying not to show my own bafflement at how the kick to the crotch did nothing. Maybe he doesn't even have balls? A somewhat fat and very smelly man comes out of one of the businesses. He says he can take me somewhere that lowlifes won't bother us. He lurches forward and grabs my breast. I kick him in the balls… he doubles over in pain and throws up. I comment mostly to myself that the technique still works… thus the man who poked me must have no balls. He doesn't seem to care about that statement; he grabs me by my collar and actually lifts me off my feet. I am looking directly in his eyes now, and I would not have any problem believing he is the psychopathic cannibal the first man said he was. I don't remember when I have ever seen someone with such lifeless empty eyes. It was like looking into an abyss, and the abyss was looking back at me. He asks again where the first man went. I tell him fuck off, you piece of trash. But this time I feel my gaze shift towards the dumpster briefly. He sets me down and heads over to the dumpster. I call him an asshole loudly enough for people on the other side of the street to hear. He doesn't even look back at me. He opens the dumpster and looks in, then drags the first man out by his neck. I wonder if I should try to intervene… I wonder if I could do any good, since I still don't realize I'm dreaming. The man in the blue shirt calls for help again, and then I hear him begging the asshole not to do it. I figure he means don't kill him. I head towards the two of them, thinking I can't just stand by if the asshole is going to kill the other man. I stop when the asshole throws the other man on the ground and literally beats him into a bloody pulp. Then the asshole actually absorbs the other man's body into his own body. It is truly disgusting. It looks like Alex Mercer consuming someone in Prototype… wait a minute… I do a reality check by pinching my nose, I can still breathe. It didn't just look like Alex Mercer consuming someone… that's exactly what it was! He takes off and runs up a tall building. I take flight and follow after him. I am already focusing on the song Touch My Heart from the Devil Hunter Yohko soundtrack. I fly up over the top of the building as the song is playing; Alex has stopped and is watching me. The song continues, golden energy surrounds and flows through Alex as usually happens. The song finishes. I want to see if it worked. I want to look at his eyes again and see if there's still nothing there… but I don't get a chance to before I wake.

06/28/13

Dreamscape 2
I wake up in bed and roll over. I am not in my own bed. Something soft and furry is curled up beside me. I reach over and pet it. It responds with a, "Pika!" and a purr. I sit up in the bed and look around. I am back in the bedroom of Dreamscape. I see the black cat sitting on a chair not far from the bed. I get up out of bed and almost trip on the Buddha statue that is sitting on the floor. I curse myself silently for forgetting it. I see there is a journal on the floor near the statue. The cat on the chair meows. I go over to the cat and pet it. The cat begins to purr. There is a knock on the door to the room. I go over to the door and ask who's there. For a minute there is no answer… and then finally someone says that he is my neighbor coming for a visit. I think he is probably a Templar. I don't really want to let a Templar inside my Dreamscape. There is another knock at the door. It is getting a bit more impatient. I think about it for a bit longer, thinking there was some reason I wanted to let them in but I am not able to remember why I would do that. They are pounding on the door now. I finally decide to follow my instinct. I open the door and get out of the way. Two Templars practically tumble into the room. They turn around and look at me. One of them looks around the room and asks if this is where I have been hiding the artifacts. I ask them what they want here. One of them looks back over at me. Before anyone can answer, however, I see another person enter through the door which I had not bothered closing. I look over at the new arrival and recognize him as Alex Mercer from the Prototype game.

I do a double take at that… Great… now my Dreamscape is infested with Templars and a viral shape-shifter. One of the Templars asks Alex who he is. The other one says he has a proposal for me, one he hopes I will not refuse. The Templar talking to Alex tells Alex to get lost, this is not his concern, and pushes him towards the door. I tell the Templar that he really doesn't want to piss Alex off. He asks what Alex is going to do about it? Fight him? Huh? Wanna fight? He says he'll kick Alex's ass right out the… He is interrupted when Alex grabs him and quite quickly consumes him. The Templar talking to me has continued talking, but I have not been listening. He stops now and stares at Alex, saying, "What the fuck?!" He takes a couple steps away from Alex, but he doesn't move quickly enough to avoid getting grabbed by Alex. All he gets out is, "Oh, shit…" before he, too, is consumed. Alex is just standing there looking at me, and all that comes to mind to say is that was truly disgusting as I look at the bloody mess on the floor of my Dreamscape bedroom. I go over to the door and look out, calling out to ask if anyone else wants to come on in. No? Good. I close the door. I turn around to find I'm looking directly at Alex… and he is holding the black cat. I do a double take at that and then head towards the other side of the room. Alex says something about Abstergo being associated with Gentek… I comment a Templar by any other name is still a fucking Templar. I look around and see the door that leads to the hallway on the Dreamscape website.

I go through that door and see it leads to a long hallway that has no doors on either side. I head down the hall, Alex follows me. The black cat jumps from his arms and runs down the hall at top speed. I wonder if the cat is leading me somewhere. I think that if he is, he needs to slow down a bit. I hurry faster to follow the cat. Alex stays right with me. I glance over at him, wondering what he is after, but then I wake up.