New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

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.

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.

06/21/13

Dreamscape
I wake up in bed and roll over to go back to sleep. I don't even open my eyes. There is a soft furry animal curled up next to me. I reach over and pet the animal, assuming it is going to be my kitty Midna. I am surprised when the animal says, "Pika," instead of, "Meow." A pikachu? I still have my eyes closed, but it looks like it is light in the room. I often sleep in late in the morning so it isn't unusual for there to be some light in the room, but it seems brighter than I am used to. Did I somehow leave the light on? I open my eyes and find I am looking at an unfamiliar room. It is a rather comfortable looking room. There is a table and chair in the middle of the room, I spot a black cat on the chair but it is not my black cat Shadow. I can tell this because this black cat has short hair where Shadow has long hair. The cat sits there patiently as if waiting for something. I look at the animal by my side and see it is indeed a sleeping pikachu.

He wakes up, lifts his head, looks around the room and tips one ear as if also unfamiliar with the location. I get out of the bed, turning back a floral blanket and almost tripping over a small statue of Buddha on the floor. If I didn't know better I'd think the cat snickers at me. There is also a journal on the floor with a pen. That gets my attention and I reach for it. I am just about to pick it up when someone knocks at the door. It seems like a friendly patient knock at first but it rapidly becomes impatient and then angry. Someone outside is telling me to open the door, they know I'm in here. The black cat has jumped to the back of the chair and is looking at the door and hissing with its back arched and fur fluffed out. There is more banging at the door. I go over to the chair and stroke the cat gently to calm it down.

I tell the cat not to worry, there's no way I'm letting those crazy people in… they're probably Templars. Of all the neighbors to have, did my new place have to have Templars as neighbors? I call out and ask if they’re Templars. There is a pause in the knocking. Two people answer at the same time. One says yes, the other says no, and then calls the first one an idiot. The first one replies that there's no way I could not know they're Templars. I tell them to go away, I can't let them in. One of them asks why. I answer that it seems most every time I meet Templars in my dream I end up having to kill them… and I don't want blood on my new carpet, certainly not Templar blood… so make it easier on everyone and go away. In the relative silence since the Templars stopped pounding on the door I notice the black cat has relaxed and is now purring as I stroke it. There is silence from outside the door for a bit and I wonder if the Templars might have actually taken my suggestion to just leave me alone. My hopes for that are dashed when there is another knock at the door. I am still stroking the black cat when I wake up.