New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

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.