New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

12/08/13

Night Hero
I am walking home late at night. I am again completely non-lucid. My name is Rebecca. I am walking home from my job at a local diner. I am a waitress there. I really hate my job but I won't be able to get anything better until I finish school. I am in college studying Computer Science. I will soon be a Network Administrator. That will be much better. Right now I am tired and anxious to get home to bed. I had to work late because Gracie, the girl who was supposed to take over after my shift at the 24 hour diner, had been late. An hour late. So I am tired, I am pissed. Some people have no consideration for others.

I am passing an alley that could easily serve as a shortcut to get home. It would cut a good 15 minutes off of my walk. But it is a dark and creepy alley... It looks like bad things could happen there. No... I'm just being paranoid. This is a nice neighborhood. Nothing happens here. I decide I'm sure I can take the shortcut just this once and be safe. I'm 27 years old... I can manage to get home on my own! After briefly considering, I go down the alley at a fast walk. If I hurry I can shave even more than 15 minutes off of my time.

I am about halfway through the alley when I get the feeling I am being watched. I try to brush it off, I'm just being paranoid again. Still, I walk a bit faster. I am just passing an alley that branches off to the left when a dark figure emerges. A rather large and dirty man. He smells bad. He speaks as if he is talking to himself, he says, "Look what we have here!" I go to continue on my way. The man cuts me off and asks where I'm going, the fun has just started. I tell him I'm not interested. He moves faster than I thought he could and grabs my arm roughly. He pulls out a large knife and holds it at my neck. He pushes me down beside a dumpster and then the next thing I know he is on top of me. He is laughing and he smells horrible. He holds the knife at my neck again and says if I resist he'll kill me. He is holding both my wrists in one of his huge hands as he undoes his belt and zipper with the other. I fight to get free but he's too strong and he just laughs. I call for help, but there is no one to hear... no one to help me. I feel cold inside, I am about to get raped and there's nothing I can do about it. I scream and he tells me to shut up or he'll see how loud I can scream with a slit throat. He is ripping my shirt open and my skirt off...

And then he is off me. Someone has grabbed him and pulled him right off me. He curses loudly and grabs his knife as he is grabbed. He turns around and stabs the person that grabbed him. NO! This is worse than getting raped! Someone came to help me and now he might get killed for it! I try to scramble to my feet to do anything I can to keep my rescuer from being killed but I slip and fall back on my butt. My attacker is stabbing my rescuer over and over and over again, cursing loudly. "What the FUCK?! Why aren't you DYING?!" Then I realize my attacker is actually being held almost a foot off of the ground by the man who came to help me. He is stabbing violently and desperately but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Then something skewers the man. Three razor sharp claws cut through my attacker like paper. The man's cursing changes to pained gurgles. The claws cut the man practically in two. Strange tendrils come from the other man and surround my attacker, ripping into him and literally EATING him until there's nothing left. The would-be rapist lets out some gargled screams as he is being eaten and then goes silent.

There is now just one figure standing over me. And he is not human. He is mostly human in appearance, but both of his hands are taloned claws that are still dripping with my attacker's blood. I realize who it is. I have seen news reports about this, warnings to stay away at all costs. The only sightings of this... man, if he can be called a man, was on the opposite side of New York, but here he is. I find I am looking at Alex Mercer himself, he just killed my would-be rapist, and I am next. I scramble backward, away from him, though I'm sure there is no way I can escape. His claws transform back into hands and he takes a step towards me. I am desperate to escape, I am wishing I could fit under the dumpster... but of course that's impossible. He stops and glares down at me. He looks pissed off. Great... I just met the infamous Alex Mercer and he's in a bad mood. He calls me pathetic and then turns and walks away down the alley my attacker had emerged from.

I stare after Alex, at first I am just shocked that he is leaving me alive. He didn't lay a hand... or claw... on me. That doesn't fit what I've heard at all. The news reports, the warnings, all of them describing Alex Mercer as a psychopathic madman who would happily rip apart and consume anyone he comes across... This doesn't fit at all. Then I start feeling bad. Maybe the news reports and warnings aren't true. And if they aren't, that means Alex just showed up in the nick of time and saved me from being raped and possibly murdered, and I respond like he's some kind of monster. No... I won't let that stand. It's just not right. I get up, pulling my skirt back up quickly. I call after Alex, calling his name. I see him in the alley, silhouetted against the distant street lights. He doesn't respond. I feel the need to not let this go that way. I chase after Alex. As I approach him from behind he suddenly turns, probably because he hears me approaching. As he turns he forms his claws again as if he is expecting an attack. I'm almost to him, and he has his claws spread wide away from his body, so I keep going and put my arms around him, hugging him, thanking him, trying to make up for my strange behavior earlier with a show of gratitude now.

At first it seems Alex doesn't know how to respond. Then finally I feel his arms close around me, and it is his hands rather than his claws that I feel on my back. He finally asks if I am ok, am I hurt? I tell him I'm fine, thanks to him. He lets go of me and pushes me away a couple feet. He asks what happened to me being scared of him? He adds sarcastically that I'd better run away quick before the monster kills me. He still looks annoyed. I put my arms around him again and say I'm not worried about any monster. "You killed the monster back there. He won't hurt anyone ever again." I look into Alex's blue eyes. I am overcome with the thought, "Wow... He's hot! None of those news reports said he kills rapists, saves foolish young women, and he is sooooo hot!" I tell him I want to thank him properly... then I kiss him. He doesn't really respond. Ok, now I just feel awkward.

I want to disappear into a wall or the ground again, but for a totally different reason now. Of course I would be rescued by a hot guy and then make a fool of myself in multiple ways. I take a couple steps away from Alex, calling myself stupid under my breath. I stammer that I'm sorry and turn to run back down the alley. This crazy night can't end soon enough for my liking. As I am running away a strange tendril wraps around me just under my arms like a harness. It lifts me off my feet and pulls me back to Alex. My first thought is, "Oh, shit... I pissed him off!" But I know immediately when I look at him that he is not angry. He is smiling pleasantly. Maybe even amused by my awkwardness.

Alex carefully sets me down in front of him. He says there's nothing I have to be sorry for. And then he kisses me. We kiss for a bit and then separate. After a brief silence Alex says he'll walk me home, make sure nothing else happens to me. I am perfectly happy to have Alex walk me the rest of the way home.

We talk on the way home. It turns out that since the viral outbreak was stopped Alex had been using his abilities to help those in danger. But it seemed whenever he helped someone they always acted like I had initially, like he was some kind of monster. I tell him that's because of the news reports, which I am now seeing are full of lies. He says they're no doubt sponsored by Blackwatch. They haven't given up their obsession to track him down and kill him. But without the virus spreading they have lost their excuse to maintain a military presence in the city. They must be using civilians to try to track him. Making sure they would report him and not even consider trying to talk to him and hear his side of what's happened and is still happening.

We reach my house. I am again embarrassed that am living at home with my mother at my age. But I have an agreement with my mother that I can stay there rent free as long as I am attending classes and keeping my grades up. My job at the diner is enough for other expenses. My mother meets me at the door and is shocked by my appearance. I realize I'd forgotten that my shirt was torn in the attack. She asks what happened to me. Am I ok? She looks suspiciously at Alex and asks who he is. I don't want to tell her I almost got raped, she worries enough about me walking home at night. I tell her I'm fine. I just had a little accident on the way home. Alex here stopped to see that I was ok and walked me home. My mother looks at Alex for a bit and I worry that she'll recognize him as Alex Mercer. I silently curse at myself for calling him Alex instead of making a name up. She just thanks him for seeing me safely home. Alex asks me if I work tomorrow. I say yes. He says if I don't mind, maybe he'll see me later. He smiles and walks away. My mother says he seems nice... I am tired, so I excuse myself to go to bed. I undress and lie down, surprisingly falling asleep almost right away. I wake in my own bed.

01/19/12

Man on a Ledge
I am on top of a building looking out over the city, I have come up here to check out the view from the top of the office building where my new job is. I have finally found a job, though it isn't the exact job I was looking for. I look out over the city and then I see that I'm not alone there. There is a man near the corner of the building, standing right on the ledge. I wonder if he is considering jumping. I see that he has a little girl. He is holding her up in the air and laughing maniacally. Is he going to throw her over the edge?! I have to keep that from happening! I head towards the man to see if I can get him off the ledge. The man leans forward and falls from the ledge. I am close enough to grab hold of his belt to keep him from falling and taking the girl with him. I am surprised at my own strength as I pull him back from the ledge and onto the building. He says that was too close… he thought he was going to fall. I tell him I saw the whole thing, so don't bother lying. The little girl is crying, I am thinking I need to get her to safety and tell the authorities what the man was doing. He needs to see a shrink…

Asuka in a Bed of Flowers
I am inside MoSh's inner world, I am in the living room with MoSh and Asuka. I remember that MoSh wanted me to check on Asuka to be sure there is nothing infecting her or causing her any kind of harm, and I agreed to do that. I ask Asuka if she has any problems with that, and she says to go ahead, though she has been feeling fine. MoSh comments that there won't be any harm in checking. I transport the three of us to the healing glen, it seems that the glen is the best place to do the healing check. Asuka is lying in a bed of flowers, she seems to like the garden very much. The instrumental version of the song Voices from the Macross Plus soundtrack is playing as golden light comes out of the flowers themselves and surrounds Asuka in their healing energy.

Asuka is floating over the flowers with the golden energy flowing all around and through her, it seems to be cleansing her. I don't notice anything strange, no parasites being washed out, no dark energy being purged. If there is any of that, it's being completely destroyed. I figure I might have been here earlier to heal her, I might have done that during a dream I don't remember since my recall has been really crappy. After the healing is done, MoSh asks if I want to come back to his place for a party. I say I really don't want to sit around and watch the activity MoSh and Asuka most likely want to engage in. MoSh says they don't have to be doing that, but I tell him I will be having more dreams.

Heir to the Throne
I am in a city I don't recognize, it seems to be a cross between a futuristic city and a medieval village. The combination results in buildings that look futuristic, but the layout is that of a small village from an RPG of some kind. It also seems that there are problems going around, everyone looks very nervous. It really feels like I'm in a RPG, so I act like I would in a RPG. I start moving around the town and listening to people talking, talking to a few people I see… and I find out there has been a tragedy recently. I finally am able to piece together the horrible recent events. Some unidentified attacker has just killed the king and queen, brutally. It seems the assailant, sick enough to be on a Criminal Minds episode, had tied up both the king and the queen, raped both of them repeatedly, then brutally butchered them both. Also the 14 year old prince had been hiding in the closet, he saw the whole thing. The boy is very traumatized, and he has been unresponsive ever since… the killing was two weeks ago. With the king and queen dead, even though the prince is only 14 years old, they need him to be fit to accept the crown. But he can't do that if he's catatonic, so the legal provisions have that a very unpopular and greedy asshole would become king. So, I'm a healer, and I go to the palace which is a very interesting blend of futuristic and medieval architecture.

It takes some convincing, but I manage to get in to see the prince, who is sitting near the back of the throne room with a pillow, holding it like a teddy bear… the pillow smells of perfume. There is a portrait of the king and queen hanging on the wall, so I figure it is the perfect way to reach him… I transform into the queen's form and use the song spell My Last Breath by Evanescence. When the boy comes out of his state, he fingers the asshole who killed his parents… the same asshole who stood to take the crown! Well, that's a rather cliché motive, but it works.

Gilligan's Island Lost
I am on a tropical island that immediately reminds me of the old television series, Gilligan's Island. It is a very beautiful place, it is also very peaceful there. I can hear the birds singing in the trees, I see animals moving around in the bushes and trees, a nice breeze is blowing in off of the ocean. Wandering a bit farther, I find a crystal clear stream running past some huts made out of wood with grass type roofs, it seems there are people living here. I go over to the small homes and I see the cast from Gilligan's Island all going about their daily business, that is until they see me. Gilligan sees me first, he stops and stares at me for a couple minutes before saying anything at all.

He finally calls the skipper, who calls back, "What?" Gilligan just says there's a girl on the island. The skipper responds that of course there is, there are three of them! Finally the skipper comes out, along with the others, and they see me there. Questions are asked, including how I came to be on the island, do I have a boat, am I here to rescue them. I tell them I can take them to the mainland. They are all thrilled at that news. Everyone is getting some things together to bring with them, I hear Mr. and Mrs. Howell talking about opening a resort on the island. I tell him I hope he is kidding. He says no, he is serious. I say that means I'm going to get them off the island so they can come back and destroy it? He says of course not, he wants to improve it, get rid of some of this wildness. I tell him I can't take them home and let them come back to destroy the island, it is pristine, it needs to stay that way. Gilligan says he really wants to go home. I get an idea on what to do. I tell them to say goodbye, they won't be seeing the island again. Mr. Howell says he's sure he will. I open a portal to get all of them to the mainland, then I return to the island. A bit of magical protection is in order. Some magical wards, spells that cause ships or planes to veer around the island without realizing they have changed course… moving the island into a parallel dimensional pocket… summoning some powerful pokémon that will be able to blend into the environment without harming anything, but they will be able to protect the island… Once I am satisified that the island will be protected I spend the rest of the dream exploring it.

Nightmare Changes
I am in a strange place, I look around to see where I am. It is a wide open plane that looks pretty desolate, the sky is a strange color of orange with some strange wispy clouds floating around up there. It is a strange looking place, but for some reason this doesn't make me lucid.

So I search around for a while to see if I can figure out what's going on. I soon find a couple of people in the vast area. One of them is familiar to me, my first thought is that it is Nomad. He is there with someone else, I somehow know that one is a dream demon. Nomad and the dream demon are exchanging heated words. The dream demon is laughing at Nomad, saying he can never die. Nomad doesn't take the dream demon seriously, he says he knows the dream demon can't die, so how about if the dream demon has no ability to stay together and suddenly exists everywhere but is unable to do anything… eternal pain. The dream demon looks shocked at that idea, seems to be afraid of it. He says please don't do that… then he starts changing form repeatedly into an array of twisted and deformed forms, and he is doing it really quickly. I hear the demon say he won't let it happen, then he self destructs, exploding in a blinding flash of light. When the light fades everything else has changed, too.

Now we are in a bright green and sunny place that looks like paradise. Something still seems wrong. I search around and find one of the shadows of a tree is much darker than others. I approach the shadow and it comes to life, this is the dream demon. Witchblade forms into a sword and I cut the thing in half before it can attack me, though it is about to do so. After the dream demon is gone everything around me fades to black.

Déjà Vu
I am in a room watching a television display, there is a sequence of action going on there. The scene is a fancy dinner, there is a man at the head of the table, I know he is a notorious terrorist, responsible for the deaths of thousands. He is making a toast to a plan he has going on that will kill thousands more, he says no one will ever forget or underestimate the Crimson Knights again. I see myself at the table eating, I pick up my glass of wine and toast the asshole's health… then I add that I hope he enjoyed it before throwing two daggers at the same time. Both of the daggers strike lethal points on the asshole, one in the heart, one right in the jugular. He collapses onto the table and then falls to the side onto the floor, pulling a large amount of things onto the floor with him. Then the scene shifts, and now I really am at the table, I really am at the dinner. Everyone is talking and eating, I see some chocolate treats and I eat a couple. The terrorist leader gets up and proposes his toast. After he gets up and begins his toast, everyone else is toasting his good health. I have the daggers, but can I really throw them effectively? I know I can, because I already saw myself do it! I get up and make the comment I saw myself make on the video, then I throw the daggers, and he collapses just like in the video. Everyone is in shock, staring between me and the man who just collapsed, so I take advantage of the confusion to make my exit. I head to the nearest window, we are on what appears to be the third floor. I grab hold of some fancy curtains, and jump out the window, the curtains gradually unravel until I land on the ground, rather hard, but not too bad. I am making my exit from the area when I wake.

Déjà Vu Vu
I am at what looks like a festival of some kind, there are lots of people who seem to be very happy and celebrating something. I'm not sure what they are celebrating, but I also think this is not that important. There is someone there with me, I think it is Altaïr. We are looking for some people that we know are looking to kill someone, we are trying to make sure the killing doesn't happen. I see some people walking around, but there aren't very many that seem to stand out at all. And the ones that do don't stand out in any suspicious way. I know who we are looking for, and those are not the right people. I finally spot the targets, there are a few men in red and black robes, those are the killers. There are three of them, I need to make sure they don't see me, because they will surely recognize me just as easily as I recognize them. I find Altaïr and I tell him I have found the targets. Now the two of us follow the enemies until they are in an isolated space where no one will notice what happens. It turns out they also knew we were there, now they're looking to eliminate us just as we are looking to get rid of them. They seem unaware that we know them, however, and we still manage to take them by surprise and get each of them with a quick strike. We move the bodies to a place where they won't be found for a long while before leaving the scene and merging back in with the crowd.


Assassinate the Assassin
I am in a hotel with Altaïr, and we are looking for a specific room. I am looking at Altaïr for quite a few minutes before this finally seems odd enough to make me do a reality check. I discover I am dreaming. I look around the hotel and think about different goals. The only goal that comes to mind is the task for the LPTC that involves killing the person that killed Martin Luther King. I realize I have absolutely no memory of how this event really took place, I really am not sure how to make the task work. Since I don't know how the task is supposed to happen, I decide to go with my best estimation. I wonder if that will make a difference on whether or not it counts for the LPTC task. Well, either way, I can do the task this way. I make my way through the hotel looking for the killer, I come to one of the rooms and I see a man in the halls with a gun. He is also moving like he doesn't want to be seen. I move quietly up behind the man and get him from behind with my hidden blade. He falls to the ground, dead. I see there is another man breaking into a room. I have to get there in time to stop him from killing MLK, but it turns out I didn't need to worry. Altaïr is right behind him and takes him out before he can go anywhere. I look into the room the man was breaking into and I see that MLK is in the room coming in off of a balcony, he is looking at Altaïr and me with a strange look. I'm not sure what to say at this point, I finally tell him to keep believing, perhaps one day everyone will truly be seen as equal.


Blood in the Water
I am at what looks like an amazing water park of some kind, it is a huge place, there are so many pools and waterfalls and rivers flowing around. There are many plants and flowers, it is definitely beautiful. But there are also killers roaming in the group, and I know they have to be stopped. There is someone else there with me, he is familiar to me… MoSh? I'm not sure if it is MoSh or not, just as I wasn't sure earlier if it was Nomad. But he is there helping me track down the killers in the water park. I know who I'm looking for, though I am thinking blending in at a water park and still having my hidden blade would be rather difficult. But it isn't… my hidden blade collapses into the size of a bracelet, which is my Witchblade, though I don't think of this at the time. MoSh is there with me, and we head off in separate directions. I know the killers when I see them, I'm not sure how I know this, but I am certain of it. I see there are certain people at the water park who are not there to have fun. I spot one, go casually over behind him, knife him with my hidden blade, then I walk casually away before he even collapses. I hear people behind me responding to the man's collapse, but I don't look back. I just keep going. I find another one in the men's locker room, he is the only one there. He looks over at me and seems to assume I followed him in there because I think he's hot… he is sooooo not hot. But I play along until I'm close enough to take him down. I go back outside and now I see MoSh, who is on the other side of the pool with his arm around a man like they're buddies. MoSh helps the man sit down in a chair and then leaves. It will be a while before anyone notices the man is actually dead. I see one of the killers is about to attack his target. There is no time to get over there before it's too late. I grab a knife from a table, it seems to be a knife used to cut steak, though it seems awfully big even for that… It is perfect for my needs, though. I pick up the knife and throw it at the man, it gets imbedded in the man's chest, killing him before he can attack his target.


Killer Movies
I am outside of a movie theater with my mother, waiting in line to get a ticket for a movie. We get to the front of the line and she buys tickets for us to two different movies, but then she says we won't actually be going to the movies at all. The man in the box office seems to think we are nuts, but he doesn't care. My mother goes to one of the movies, I separate from her and go to the other. I have a job to do in there. I am lured to the concessions stand by the smell of fresh popcorn. I order some popcorn, momentarily distracted from my mission, and the woman behind the counter hands me a big bag of popcorn. I pay her and walk away, looking at the popcorn, dripping with butter… movie theater popcorn with loads of butter… yum… I am heading for the theater and munching on popcorn, then I start wondering how many points I'll have to count for this… probably a lot. I decide it doesn't matter, what I have to do in the theater is much more important. I head into the movie theater and search the seats until I find the person I am looking for. I know who he is. He is a serial killer, but there isn't enough evidence to arrest him. Now there he is enjoying the movie just like everyone else, and his after-movie activity probably involves torturing some woman to death. His MO… to tie the woman up and see how many times he can stab her with a pen knife and not kill her, because he seems to find it very rewarding to watch them bleed out. He takes his time, carefully planning out each stab, he seems to find each one like an intense sexual experience… I have the images of him making his kills playing out in my mind, talk about TMI, this was definitely TMI. The woman has long curly blonde hair, looks to be in her early 20's, the man is sitting on top of her, she is tied to the bed… he is caressing her with the blade and then suddenly plunges the blade in to her shoulder. She tries to scream but can't because she is gagged, though she is crying. I sit down in the seat directly behind the killer. An image of the man sinking his knife into the woman's abdomen… another muffled scream. Just to be sure, I tap the man on the shoulder and ask for the time. He curses at me and tells me to go have sexual relations with myself. The killer sinking his knife into the woman's thigh and cutting slowly, more muffled screams. Damn! I don't need to see this! The man is the killer. I use my hidden blade and kill him instantly. I leave him sitting in the seat at the movie, no one will know he's dead until I'm long gone.

Note: For the past several nights I haven't been able to remember a single dream, and until the last section of last night, I thought I was going to have yet another night where I couldn't remember anything. It was during the last hour or so of my sleep that I started having a dream, and my alarm woke me during the dream, so I was able to remember it. Then it got a bit strange, I will explain it as I post the dream here.

My mother and I are at a train station, looking around to see what is happening. I see one of the trains waiting at the station, though there aren't very many people around, so it is virtually empty. I think it would be fun to take a train ride, but I figure the trains probably cost too much to ride. But when I look, the trains are running for free, so there is no reason why we can't take one and see the sights for a bit. So my mom and I climb onto one of the trains and we wait there, it is a two level train, so we choose seats on the top. More people get on board, and finally it pulls out of the station. From Tucson, the train heads south. The desert looks greener than I have seen it for a long time since there has been a drought going on in the desert for a while. It is really pretty out there. So we just ride along and enjoy the ride until we reach another train station. My mother says it's time to head back to Tucson, so we get off of the train and board a train that is leaving in the opposite direction. Shortly after departure, however, this train turns off to the right, heading east. So we ride the train for a while longer, over a couple bridges, and finally to another station. So once again, we get off the train, but this time we check a couple of maps and find the train that is heading back to Tucson. To be honest, I'm getting a bit bored riding on trains, so I'm ready to head back.

This is also a double level train, but the lower level is actually enclosed. There is a celebration there, I look over and see it is a wedding… or it looks sort of like one. There is a woman in a wedding dress, and another woman in a skimpy bikini, but the two of them are standing in front of an official looking man, saying wedding vows to each other. I take a piece of the cake and eat it, it is delicious, though it isn't chocolate… I then go upstairs onto the open air deck to take a look around. I go to one end of the train where I can see the engineer down below me, or I can see where the engineer is supposed to be… there's no one there now. I look ahead and see smoke and fire, so much fire… and we're heading right for it! I go back downstairs and find the engineer is at the party, so I tell him what is going on, and he goes straight back to his place and sees what I saw. The fire is spreading towards us, so the engineer stops the train and starts backing up. We are backing up into water, which seems strange to me. Everyone goes to the top level of the train to keep from getting drowned inside, but we are still sinking. The engineer says the train will make it, but if not, jump in and swim for it. I am standing on one of the seats, my HP Palmtop computer is in one pocket, my cell phone in my other pocket… I know they would not be happy to get wet. The fact I haven't used my HP palmtop for several years since it became seriously outdated doesn't occur to me, that now I use an iPod Touch… but it does occur to me that the desert is so flooded, and it's not even the monsoon season. So I do a RC and find I'm dreaming.

Now that I'm lucid, I fly into the air to go check out the fire a bit closer. I am checking to see if there is any easy way to go around it so my mom and I can get home. It's not a brush fire like I'd first thought… well, actually much of it is a brush fire, but a large portion of the south side of Tucson is also on fire. There is a track that goes around Tucson to the east, it circumvents the burning areas. Then I ask myself why I need to get the train home, it is a dream, after all. But I decide to follow the story a bit farther, I have the feeling I don't have much longer left to sleep, so trying to complete one of my goals would be pointless. So I fly back to the train and tell the engineer what I saw, as well as telling the other people in the train. The engineer switches tracks at one of the track switches, and we get on a track heading east. I am looking at the fire off to my left when my alarm wakes me up.

So I wake up, and as is my habit, I reach up and hit the snooze button… then I drift off back into the dream again. I do this fast enough that I don't lose lucidity, I'm not sure if this counts as a DEILD, but it was definitely a continuation of the previous dream. The train is being attacked now, it is stopped. Some of the people are trying to escape, running away from the train even though the rest of them are telling those who are running to stay with the train. I see some other people out there waiting for the runners with guns, are they going to shoot them? The guns turn out to be hand held flame throwers, the people waiting for the runners set the first ones on fire. The burning ones run around in circles screaming, the others try to return to the train, but it is too late. The people with flamethrowers seem to find it very entertaining to watch their victims burn alive. They continue approaching the train, and I finally remind myself that I am dreaming and can stop them. They like fire so much, let's let them have some! I use Damage Inc. to send fireballs at them, the fireballs blast some of them and set others on fire, and the remaining ones retreat. I go into the train, and I see my mother staring at me, she asks where I learned to do that, I tell her I can always do that in a dream… and then my alarm goes off because the snooze period is done.

I hit the snooze button again, and slip right back into the dream. Everyone is saying that stopping those attackers now won't help as long as there are more of them out there, they will just try again, and this time with more of them… or they will try a sneakier approach. I tell them I'll just have to follow those who retreated back to their base of operations and take them out there. The people tell me not to leave, they will be defenseless in the train. I tell them I have to go stop the attackers, they're burning everything! So we compromise, we start working on the train, reinforcing the walls to keep attacks out, sealing parts of it off to keep fire out… and then someone got in contact with several large rock golems, these golems stand about twice the height of the train, and they are marching alongside it. Well they should be immune to burning… The work on the train is taking too long, I know my ten minutes might be almost up, and sure enough, my alarm goes off and wakes me.

Ok, so again with the snooze button… the dream was quite interesting, and I wanted to go back. I am back on the train, but I leave right away, heading in the directions the enemies had retreated. I haven't gone far when I see there is an island in the sky, and on that island is a city. I fly up to the island and I see more of the people who tried to set the train on fire, and they were surely the ones who set Tucson on fire. The island is flying low, and there are people with some kind of long range flamethrowers on the front of it… or maybe they're lasers that are starting fires. Looking down in front of the island I see everyone running… quite a few people, dogs, cats, deer, coyotes, rabbits, bobcats, and other assorted animals, all of them mixed together as if they weren't aware they were supposed to be afraid of each other. There are people there shooting the fire, they are setting the stragglers on fire and laughing as their targets burn to death. I go down and use a blast of icy air to extinguish their latest targets which included a woman, a kid looking to be about seven years old, a pair of javalinas, and a coyote. I heal them and then head back to the island, where the people there are staring at me. I am pissed off at their sadistic behavior, I tell them if they like burning so much, they would be the ones to burn. I use Damage, Inc. to start a fire that encircles the entire city, preventing escape. The fire spreads rapidly inwards, I get the feeling there are some in there that can be saved… so I fly into the city and use telekinesis to lift them out of the path of the fire. There aren't many of them… I check, but these people don't seem to believe in pets… so all that is left in the city are a bunch of assholes. I set the people I have pulled out onto the ground, using a healing spell on them just before I wake up again. This time I get up.

I was walking down the sidewalk in a normal looking neighborhood, it looked to be a typical lower middle class neighborhood with homes that looked like they could be quite nice if they were kept up better. But whether due to lack of finances or to laziness, the necessary maintenance kept getting put off… I was somehow at least partially lucid, I realized I was dreaming, but that was about the extent of it. I wasn't thinking at all about my waking life any beyond that. I followed the sidewalk for a while, I figured I would soon find out why I had been brought to this particular place at this particular time. So far nothing looked out of place… a nice evening, the sun was setting, a gentle breeze was blowing, some dogs were barking, a cat darted across the road to the cover of some bushes on the far side. I just kept walking, listening and watching carefully for any sign of why I might be there.

It didn't take long for me to find that out… As I was walking past one of the houses, I heard screaming inside, someone was being attacked. It sounded like a child screaming, but those weren't the screams of an angry child throwing a tantrum because she hadn't gotten what she wanted… those were screams of terror. I ran up to the door of the house, which was locked. There was more screaming from inside the house, though the screams sounded muffled by something now, I couldn't tell what. Since the door was locked, I just blasted it down with a blast of energy and went into the house anyway. The muffled screams were coming from the basement, there was another locked door there which I also broke down. There were three people in the basement. There was a little girl, appeared to be about ten years old, tied up and lying in a shallow hole which looked like a grave, there was a man standing on the far side of the hole holding a gas can, the flammable liquid was still pouring out of the spout onto the little girl in the grave. I could smell the gas from the base of the basement stairs. There was a woman standing by the side of the grave, she was holding a box of matches… it didn't take a detective to figure out what they were doing.

I told them that the girl was coming with me, the woman seemed very upset by that, she told me to stay out of other people's business when I don't understand the situation. I said I understood the situation much better than they thought. Now step away from the pit, I was taking the girl with me. The woman said it was too late, quickly lit a match and tossed it into the pit at the girl. I telekinetically caught the match and knocked it away from the girl in the hole, making sure none of the gas fumes managed to ignite. I wondered if these people were really assholes or if they were only trying to kill the girl because they thought she was a demon… because they knew of the evil inside her… so I did a quick mental scan of the man, then I wished I hadn't. I got images of the couple's first child, a little boy, the father doing absolutely unspeakable things to the child and then the mother would tell the boy he was evil because of what the father had done to him… it was enough to make me sick. He had died when they had decided to punish him by burying him alive for a while to be alone with his claustrophobia and fear of the dark, but they had left him in there a bit too long and he had suffocated. If the girl was a demon, this couple definitely deserved her!

The mother lit another match and threw it into the hole with the girl, I knocked it aside like I had the first one. This one, however, landed next to an empty gas can at the father's feet, but it apparently wasn't quite empty after all. A flame sprung up suddenly, taking both of them by surprise, and igniting the man's pants instantly since he was surely covered with at least the fumes from the gasoline. He saw the fire and started flailing around, which of course just made things worse, the woman seemed at a loss as to what to do about it… while that was going on I jumped down into the hole and untied the girl, giving her a boost out of the hole and then climbing out after her. The father was now completely engulfed in flames, screaming loudly in terror and pain, the mother was trying to use a blanket to put the fire out. All she accomplished was catching the blanket on fire. She threw the blanket down on the ground, but part of it flew back in her face and set her on fire as well. She responded to the fire about as well as the father had, by flailing around a lot. She fell to the ground and started rolling, which is what is supposed to help, but then she rolled into the hole where the girl had been… and into the puddle of gas there… and burst into flames.

I picked the girl up and carried her out of the house, which was starting to burn quickly behind us. There was no way that house was up to fire safety codes… but that didn't really matter. I could hear sirens in the distance, apparently someone had called the fire department or the cops and emergency vehicles were coming. I quickly carried the girl away from the house and down into a dark alley where we wouldn't be found. The girl was acting like she was completely traumatized by the experience with her parents. I wasn't buying it, I could see from her energy signature that she wasn't in a truly traumatized state, I could also see that she had quite a bit of dark energy in her which was most likely the thing that was causing her to behave in an evil way… so basically she did have the energy of a demon. It seemed to me that if she could learn to control that energy, she would be able to focus it better and take care of people who deserve to be eliminated, like her parents had deserved to be eliminated. But that would take time, and I was about to wake up. This is where my recall of the dream ends, but as I woke up I heard Q saying he had brought the girl back to my inner world and set her up in a home in a separated part of my inner world, populated by DC's and anyone from my inner world that felt like visiting her. I remember hearing Q say that since I had wanted to bring her back, she was now my responsibility… congratulations, you adopted a ten year old demonic orphan!

Note: The rest of the night was filled with fragmented dreams, and they are all listed out here:

*Tower Defense*
I was on top of a tower. There were four of us there, and one of the other three was Tigress. I didn't recognize the other two people, but they were men. The tower was circular and quite tall. I could see far out over the surrounding area, which included a cleared meadow area and then a thick forest. The meadow was too circular to have been natural, so I figured it had been cleared to provide a defendable area. The four of us were covering all four directions from the tower. Tigress was on my right. We all had bows and arrows. Enemies were storming the tower. We were picking them off with our arrows. The enemies were firing arrows back, but it was proving harder for them to get their arrows up to the top of our tower than it was to shoot arrows down from the tower at them. I was surprised at my own accuracy. I glanced to my right and saw Tigress was also picking off enemies with deadly accuracy. The fight continued for a while, and was actually rather boring. The enemies seemed to be slowing down, and it was shortly after picking off the last enemy and seeing there were no more enemies coming that I woke.

*What Goes Around Comes Around*
I was in a subway tunnel. I was walking along the walkway at the side of the tunnel. The path was there for maintenance purposes. I saw there was a subway intersection ahead where two tracks merged into the one. There was a young man on the path with me. He was using a hot glue gun to form words on the wall of the subway tunnel. The words were not very visible, but they would be raised off of the wall slightly. He was doing that when another young man came over and got all kinds of pissed off at him for that. The second man grabbed the glue gun from the one who had been using it on the wall. The second man shoved the hot glue gun in the first man's mouth and pulled the trigger, filling the first man's mouth with hot glue. The first man's cries of pain were muffled. The second man kept adding hot glue until it covered both the first man's mouth and nose, then he dropped the first man onto the ground and watched him suffocate. The killer laughed and kicked the victim a few times as the victim suffocated. The killer headed down the path towards the intersection. He stepped out to cross to the other side of the intersection. Right as he was in the intersection, two speeding subway cars, single subway cars, collided there in the intersection and crushed the killer between them… The car operators somehow got out of there uninjured, there was no one else on board either car… only the killer had been killed. Well that was karma for you…

*Metallica's New Member*
I was at a Metallica concert. I had a ticket to get in. I went inside the arena. It wasn't a very large arena, and I felt I was very fortunate to have gotten a ticket. I went to find my seat, but my seat sucked. I thought maybe I could find another seat that hadn't been filled. Maybe someone had been unable to attend. I walked through the seats and saw most of them were filled. The concert was about to start. I saw an empty seat. I sat down, it was only five rows from the stage. The concert started, and it was loud. I watched as the band members came out on stage. Lars Ulrich was on drums, James Hetfield was on guitar and singing, Kirk Hammett was on guitar, and then the fourth member came out… and it was MoSh! I did a double take! Wow! MoSh had joined a band! And not just any band, he was now the fourth member of Metallica! I thought that was awesome, I would have to congratulate him after the show. And this meant I know one of the members of Metallica! I could meet the rest of the band, too! I was so excited while I watched the concert. MoSh was rocking! He did a solo part way through the concert… my only thought was wow! The concert ended, and I was headed to the entrance to back stage to see about talking to MoSh, I told the bouncer to just tell MoSh that Raven was there to see him. The bouncer didn't believe me, but I saw MoSh back there and he waved at me, telling the bouncer to let me through.

*Winter in June?*
I was in my normal house. I left the house to go get the mail. The ground outside was covered with snow! In spite of the fact I live in a desert and this is the middle of summer, I didn't think to do a RC in response to the snow. I threw a couple of snowballs at a large cactus. I threw a few at the house. I hit my mother with one of them. She was not pleased. She told me to stop messing around and go get the mail. For some reason our mailbox was so far away I would have to drive to get there. I left the house in my car. It really was a long ways to the mailbox. I drove down a couple long streets and made several turns before I realized I was hopelessly lost. I figured things must look too different being covered with snow… and so I wasn't recognizing the place. I didn't want to admit to anyone that I had gotten lost when looking for my own mailbox… so I kept looking for it, and I figured to explain why it took so long I would just tell everyone I had gotten stuck in the snow.