New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

2017, 12-14

The Dark Tower – A Bridge to Doom

I am walking with the others along an old road. For while it is hard to see anything around us, because the road sits down below ground level. We finally come to a bridge. It is a large suspension bridge, although it doesn’t look like it is in the best of conditions. I think Eddie might be sick. He says the heights have never been one of his favorite things. Roland asks if he thinks he’s going to be able to make it? He says now is the time to admit that if it is the case, and we will find another way. I can see that Eddie is looking across the bridge to a point where a lot of it is broken away and it looks like we will have to cross on top of a large curved pipe. That doesn’t look particularly easy. After considering it for a bit, he says he’ll make it just fine. I tell him if he needs help I will help him. And also his Witchblade will. If he slips and falls, it will not let him fall. It will shoot a tendril or rope to grab hold of something more solid, and then it will pull him up. So we start across the bridge.

Eddie is doing his best not to look down. Roland and Susanna both seem OK, although Susanna seems a little uneasy with her artificial legs. She has gotten used to walking on them, but this is something new. Jake seems to think this is fun. He seems to have no fear heights, and he is making his way across the bridge as if there was nothing wrong with it. We are making our way across to quite easily. We come to the part where we will have to walk across the curved pipe, but there are cables to the sides of it so that we can use them as hand rails. Jake runs off across the pipe. That’s when he decides he’s made a mistake, when he looks back and sees his little Billy Bumbler struggling with it. Oy is having trouble getting purchase on the curved pipe with his clawed feet. Jake is trying to urge him across. Eddie seems to be doing OK for now, so I go forward and try to scoop up Oy learned my arms. He doesn’t seem to want to be touched by anyone except Jake. I told him that I can carry him across the gap. Jake is also trying to reassure him, telling you it’s OK and let me pick him up. Finally he lets me scoop him into my arms. I look back and ask Eddie if he will be OK? I say if he has trouble, I can come back. He says he will be OK. So I carry Oy across the gap in my arms.

There is an asshole at the other end of the bridge now. It is the asshole Gasher wants to take Jake back to his Tick Tock Man. He’s holding a grenade up over his head and saying that we had better cooperate or we will all ride the handsome. I think that means he’s going to blast all of us into the next world. The idea that the grenade might be a dud comes to mind. The asshole says that he wants to take Jake with him, but everyone else will be able to leave. People are getting angry when Roland seems to be considering complying with it for the time being. Probably because if the grenade goes off, even if the blast doesn’t reach us it will probably destabilize the bridge enough to make it fall. So everyone would die. Eddie says the grenade might be dud. That seems logical considering it’s probably pretty old, but it doesn’t seem safe to count on that. Plus, I am remembering from the books that it is not a dud. And then Jake says he should make the decision for himself. He doesn’t wait for Roland or Eddie or any of us to come up with a plan, he heads off across the rest of the bridge towards the asshole.

The asshole says he thought we would listen to reason. Eddie is saying that Jake should stop, there’s no saying that Gasher will let us leave even if he has Jake. He tries to say he’s not that much of an asshole, if he was he would have told us to throw our weapons over the side. But he didn’t because we’re going to need them in the city. Oy, still in my arms, now wiggles his way free and goes chasing after Jake. Jake catches Oy in his arms as they meet up. Asshole wants Jake to throw Oy over the side, but Jake’s only response is fuck you. I am thinking maybe I could telekinetically contain the explosion if the grenade kills off. I start to follow Jake so I can get a better view of the hand holding the grenade. The asshole says to stop right there or will all ride the handsome. He moves away from the end of the bridge and disappears between a couple of buildings. Just a little bit after that I hear a loud explosion. The grenade wasn’t a dud…

12/03/13

A Father's Betrayal
I am standing out in a parking lot at night. I am not myself, and I am completely non-lucid. My name is Amelia. I keep thinking about mistakes I made. I shouldn't have gone outside the safety of the walls of the military base. But I'd just felt so cooped up. I'd longed to feel the ocean breeze instead of smelling the stagnant exhaust of the military vehicles. And the zombie infestation had been cleared from the area. So what could be the danger? I'd forgotten about the biggest threat of all... Alex Mercer. But even if I had thought of that, what interest would he have in a 25 year old college student? I was supposed to be off at school, but I'd gotten stuck here when I had been visiting my father at the time of the outbreak. Yet here I was, in the middle of a parking lot with a strange tendril wrapped around my waist like a tether, waiting for my father's response to Alex's terms for my safe release. Alex just wanted some dumb serum. Of course my father would turn it over, I was the most important thing in his life. Sure, he had been preoccupied with his work lately, but nothing would come between us. Wow... if Alex keeps his word and releases me I will get hell for leaving the base. I'll never hear the end of it. I am mindlessly playing with the tendril on my waist, secure but not uncomfortable, interesting texture, wondering what is taking so long. What if they don't have the serum Alex wants?

Then I hear my father responding, I'm sure not much time has really passed, it just feels like that. My father is saying someone will be right out with the serum... but that's not what he said! Did he just tell Alex to go fuck himself? For a bit there is no response from Alex. My father must have a plan. That must be it. I can tell Alex isn't happy with the response. The tendril around my waist tightens uncomfortably, but only briefly, then it relaxes again like it was just a reaction to Alex being annoyed. Alex asks my father if he really wants to watch his daughter die. My father responds that Alex can do whatever he wants with me. Kill me… eat me… fuck me if that's what he wants. Alex would get nothing from him. He wouldn't turn over last week's shopping list. I am in shock… did my father just say he doesn't care if Alex kills me?

I feel like my knees are about to give out, but before I collapse I feel the tendril around my waist pulling at me, pulling gently, though. Soon I am standing beside Alex. Somewhere in my mind I am thinking he's probably going to kill me now, hoping he will at least make it quick, but the foremost thought in my mind is how could my own father betray me like that. I am silently crying, my knees give out completely, but I don't collapse. Alex is holding me up. The tendril around my waist is withdrawn, now I feel Alex's arms around me. Is he hugging me? No… he must be consuming me, that's how he's going to kill me. But nothing happens. I am crying on Alex Mercer's shoulder. I hear his voice in my ear, but it sounds distant and I don't understand what he is saying. What I do realize is that he is speaking in a comforting tone. Maybe he's not going to hurt me? Then I hear him talking to my father again, saying maybe my father would reconsider when Alex started sending me back to him piece by piece. So much for not hurting me… Immediately after he finishes saying that, however, it's back to the comforting whispers again. I strain to hear what he's saying. He doesn't mean it. He'll keep me safe. He promises. He keeps repeating that while he holds me close. I hear him mutter something about sending my father pieces of a dead body, but that won't hold up if they test DNA. Damn, he'll have to get the serum some other way.

Then my father's voice drowns out Alex's whispers. He repeats that he doesn't give a shit what Alex does to me. He says I am of no use to him. Maybe he thinks if he convinces Alex I am worthless to him that Alex will just release me and go away? That seems like an awfully risky thing to assume… My father is yelling at his own people now. He asks them what they're just standing around for? Mercer is right there in the open! Kill him! There are some voices that aren't loud enough for me to understand what is being said, then my father yelling again. What part of "she is of no use to me" did you not understand?! Open fire! I feel a quick movement as Alex turns away from my father and the base, bending both of us over and standing hunched over me. I look and see a shield has formed on his back that looks a bit like a spiked turtle shell. Bullets are ricocheting off of the shield. There is a lull in the gunfire, they are probably reloading… or preparing larger weapons. Alex is muttering some expletives and I think they are about my father. He tightens his hold on me and tells me to hold on to him as tight as I can. I wrap my arms around behind his neck. He seems to be tensed up as if about to spring, but he says to hold on tighter, as tight as I can manage. So I do, holding on so tightly that I would think it would be hurting him. But he doesn't seem to notice. Then he launches into the air, practically flying up the side of a building as I hear more gunfire and explosions around us. A couple more jumps and we are well out of range of any weapons at the base.

Alex has stopped running and jumping, so I let go of him. I try to pull away from Alex, I really just want to get away from him and find someplace I can be alone. Alex holds on to me. Of course. What had made me think he was going to just let me go? My father had failed to meet his terms… flat out refused to even consider it. I try a bit harder to pull free, but it's clear I won't be able to do it. Alex holds me closer and says to just relax, he's not going to hurt me. He says the things he told my father he would do to me was all talk, trying to shock the bastard into cooperating. It hadn't worked. He says not to worry, though, he is not going to hurt me. He says I had better stick around, though… there have been some zombies moving back into the area, but they won't get anywhere near me as long as he is there. He lets go of me now, and then paces around the roof we are on for a few minutes. He seems to be thinking about something very hard. He stops and looks over at me. I don't like the look on his face. But he quickly looks away, shaking his head and muttering something, I hear him say there has to be another way. He seems very upset about something.

I can't help it any longer and I ask what the serum he wanted is for. He looks over at me as if surprised I'm still there. He then says he needs it to cure his sister Dana. He says without the serum she will die. He goes back to pacing around the roof. Oh… his sister is sick… I guess maybe a lot of people would do whatever it takes to save a loved one. I stand there in silence for a bit. So it looks like both Alex and I will be losing someone we love. Without the serum Dana would die, and I as I feel right now my father is dead to me. I hear his voice in my mind again saying I am of no use to him. I think about it a bit longer and then something occurs to me. My father has always been a bit paranoid that someone would steal or sabotage his work. To prevent that, he has always kept a backup copy of all his data on a hidden hard drive on his home computer. Surely he has the data on the serum Alex needs. I ask Alex if the chemical formula for the serum would be helpful. My father has always said as long as he has the chemical formula, the samples are just extra insurance. Alex stops pacing and looks over at me again. He asks if I have that formula, I see a glimmering of hope in his eyes. I tell him I don't have it, but I can get it. I just need a computer with wireless capability. Alex says he knows a place and comes over to me. He crouches down and says I should get on his back and hold on at tight as I can. I put my arms around his neck and hold on. He is holding onto my legs so I am riding piggy-back. He says to hold on tighter. I hold on a little tighter, but after all I have my arms around his neck… He asks if I am actually concerned about holding on too tight… because if I am, don't be. It would take someone much stronger than me to choke him. Ok… so I hold on as tight as I can, and he launches into the air for what turns out to be a very exhilarating ride.

A short time later Alex lands on top of what looks like an apartment building. There is a hole ripped in the wall of one of the apartments and we go in through there. There are several computers along one wall along with bulletin boards filled with notes and maps. The notes and maps mean nothing to me. I sit down at the computer and turn it on. It boots quickly since it had been in standby mode. Whoever had used it last had left it on when they left. Once online I go to the wireless connection. I wonder at first if I'll be able to access the network. But I needn't have worried, Blackwatch has turned all of New York into a wi-fi zone so they can communicate. And there aren't many civilians left who would know how to access it. Once on the network I have no problems navigating to my father's personal computer. As long as he isn't in the office, he won't notice the computer receive the remote power-on command. And he is surely still on duty. There is a password to get into his computer. I think about it for a bit and then use my mother's name. Access denied. I enter my mother's name and birthday. Access denied. No, he wouldn't make it that easy. So I enter my mother's name backwards and then her birthday. Access granted. Yes! Now to access his hidden drive. Finding the drive is easy, but it has another password. I use the same password… access denied. I guess it couldn't have been that easy. Then I realize it is just looking for a number. I use my mother's birthday. Access denied. Her birthday backwards. Access denied. Shit! It says one more failed attempt results in the system being locked down. Gotta make this one count. I am a bit too aware of Alex looking over my shoulder. Even though he hasn't done anything to hurt me and it doesn't look like he will it makes me uneasy. And I need that password…

I fiddle around on the computer. I find a C# compiler. I fiddle around with code. Too bad I haven't studied code… But I find I know it anyhow! Somehow the information is just there, in my mind, like I've known it all along. (I know programming in my waking life, so that is probably where the knowledge came from.) I write some code quickly to sequentially search through numbers to identify a password. It then compares the number with the password in the database to determine if it is correct without submitting it and counting it as an attempt. I run the program, keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work. After a pause that is too long for my liking the computer finally flashes up the Access granted message. There is a list of directories that I don't understand. Alex points at one that says Batch 250 and says that's the one. I click that and he points at one that says 256b. I click on that and it opens up a list of files containing all sorts of information from the chemical composition of serum 256b to the results of experiments done with serum 256b. There is a final note on the bottom that said 256b was being terminated as a failed experiment. I stare at that word for a bit. Failed. Alex says something but I don't hear what. Right now I am thinking how my own father was willing to give up my life to protect a failed experiment. A fucking FAILED experiment! Alex carefully rolls my chair to the side and pulls another chair up to the computer. He types a quick email to a Dr. Ragland and sends off a couple of the files.

Alex leans back in his chair and sighs. He says he hopes that will allow Dr. Ragland to create an antidote for Dana. I tell him I hope she is ok. An email comes back from Dr. Ragland. It says that the files Alex sent are exactly what he needs, he will create and administer the serum right away. He says he will send another email when she is awake. I look through the broken wall into the night, which is now brightening into dawn. Now that the action of hacking into my dad's computer has passed, I am just depressed again at the way he betrayed me. I slump down in my chair, feeling like crying but no tears actually come. Alex moves his chair closer and says if it means anything, he'd never had any intention of hurting me. It doesn't mean much… I say there's no way my sperm donor could have known that. I don't want to call him my father. He gave up that title when he told Alex to go ahead and kill me. I look over at Alex, right into his blue eyes which look a lot more caring than I would have expected after the horrible things I have heard about him. But it's looking like maybe I can't believe everything I hear, especially from sources such as Blackwatch and Gentek. Alex puts his arms around me and holds me close, trying to comfort me in my depression over my father's betrayal. And it is helping. It feels nice to be held. I somehow feel safe here, and suddenly very tired. I drift off to sleep in Alex's arms and wake up in my own bed.

Note: Tonight I fell asleep with some very ambitious goals including checking to see if L will leave Asuka alone if she goes out, dream view a dream MoSh had quite a while ago where he was speaking with don Juan, sharing a DDO dream with Tigress, finding and doing another healing spell on Xildron, tasks of the year… the list of my goals just seems to go on and on… I fell asleep with my light / sound machine and successfully slipped into a WILD…

I found myself in a very familiar setting standing in the front yard of MoSh's house in his inner world. I went right up to the door without any hesitation, I wanted to get going on my goals. I knocked on the door and MoSh answered it. He was smiling when he saw me and he opened the door to let me in. When I looked around the room I saw Asuka sitting in the living room watching something on television. I walked over to Asuka and looked to see what she was watching, there was nothing actually on the television and I wondered why Asuka was staring at a blank screen. As if on cue, Asuka got up and came over to me, she said she was ready to go out and see that L had gotten the picture that he needs to leave her alone. I asked her where she wanted to go this time, it really should be somewhere she would be likely to go on her own. She said she knew of a mountain spring that was very relaxing. She said it was a place where she hoped to take MoSh someday so they could relax there and have some time to themselves. She said she was waiting until he started remembering her more consistently, though. After fusing with Asuka by using the fusion amulet she opened a portal and we went through it as one person.

The other side of the portal was a beautiful place. There was a crystal clear pool of water with colorful flowers growing on the surface of the water, numerous lily pads dotted the surface of the water as well. Colorful butterflies were flitting around near the shores of the pool, and there were even some butterflies out on the lily pads farther out in the pool.

It really was a very peaceful scene. I could see why Asuka would want to spend some time alone there with MoSh. I just let Asuka go where she wanted to go since she knew this place and liked it, and she waded into the water a bit. The water was very pleasant, and there were small fish tickling my feet. We spent quite a bit of time there wandering around the place, exploring all the hidden areas to find what wonders might be found there. We spent so much time there that I was beginning to wonder if the dream was going to end without L showing up… that would be a good sign that he had learned something from the last time he had kidnapped Asuka. After spending a bit longer there, Asuka said she was ready to go home… but first she wanted to go into the water in her own body, because the water here is so wonderfully refreshing and she couldn't feel it as well when fused with someone else. So we separated right there. Asuka swam out into the water still in her kimono which floated out beside her in an ethereal way. She sank beneath the surface of the water.

I had turned away from Asuka for only a short time to take a closer look at some of the beautiful flowers, to go over to them and smell them. The flowers were beautifully fragrant, and their fragrance was also very relaxing. I was smelling the flower when I heard some sounds from behind me. I turned around just in time to see there was a pair of tendrils were reaching through a portal and wrapped around Asuka, pulling her towards the portal. Wtf? I chased after her as she disappeared through the portal, jumping out over the pool of water and reaching to grab hold of Asuka's leg as she was disappearing through the portal. Then the portal was gone. I was yelling at an empty sky to give Asuka back right now, you yellow bellied bastard. My first thought was that L had come after Asuka again, well he would pay for that… I focused on opening a portal to follow Asuka to wherever she had been taken, then I flew through the portal ready to kick the ass of whoever I found on the other side.

I emerged from the portal in a world that looked like it was entirely made up of crystal formations. There was a sun shining brightly in the sky and rainbows were reflecting off of many of the crystal formations that made up the landscape. It was really a very beautiful place that I wouldn't have minded visiting if I hadn't been following after Asuka… Things being as they were, however, I didn't take time to notice the beauty of the place. I looked around for any sign of Asuka having had been through there recently. The fact was that I didn't see any sign of human life anywhere let alone Asuka… some very shiny butterflies were flitting around the crystal formations just as the ones near the mountain spring had been flitting around the flowers there. I called out to Asuka a couple of times, scanned for any trace of her, and I found nothing. I was in the wrong place! I wasn't sure how I had managed to get to the wrong place, but I tried the portal again.

I exited this portal to find myself about five feet in the air over a pool of rancid water. I wasn't ready to be in the air, so I fell right into the disgusting water which reminded me of sewer water. It was disgusting! It smelled bad, it was covered with a thick layer of slime, although the area around it didn't look contaminated or anything. It was just a typical stagnant pool of water. I paid about as much attention to the foul water as I had to the beautiful crystals, I flew back out of the pool and scanned the area for Asuka, for any trace of Asuka. Once again I could not find any sign that Asuka was there or that she had ever been there, at least not recently. Whoever had taken Asuka, I was on a wild goose chase, somehow they were making it so my portals weren't getting me to her! I was getting pissed at ending in the wrong places. I landed on dry land, felt like I was going to wake up when I didn't want to, so I dilated time. Something was keeping me from tracking down Asuka, and the first person on my list of suspects was still L, so instead of focusing my portal to follow Asuka I focused it on going to L's inner world. There was a bit of resistance when I tried opening the portal but it was nothing I couldn't easily overcome.

This time when I exited the portal I was in L's inner world, near his pool where I usually appear. I scanned the area for Asuka again, and I knew right away I had found the place she had been taken. I approached the house to see if they were in there, Asuka's energy frequency was still around the place from her last visit so it was a bit harder to tell which signals were more recent. When I headed for the house, however, Kanmuri came from around the corner of the house and pointed towards a building I hadn't noticed before. She said if I was looking for Asuka, L had taken her in there and insisted on being left alone, and when she had just peeked in out of curiosity L had gotten so pissed off at her… she said she didn't know what was going on in there. That was clearly where I had to go next, though.

I followed a path to the building which appeared to be a guest house, and though the path was very pleasant and beautiful with trees and flowers around it, now it seemed like a path descending into a nightmare. I didn't want anyone to see my approach so I used the song Of Wolf and Man by Metallica to change my form into a small blue bird since there were many similar birds around the area. I flew over to the guest house and landed on a window sill. I looked in through the window and I saw both Asuka and L, and I immediately wanted to kill L slowly and painfully. Asuka was sitting on a couch with no restraints or anything to keep her from leaving, but she was staring off into space with a blank expression on her face. She was also quite bruised and she was crying.

L was sitting beside her with his arm around her, had he been the one who had beaten her? He had wanted to take Asuka with him so he could beat her? Or had he done that out of anger over the torturing she (I) had given him last night? An unforeseen backlash of that tactic, making L want to get revenge for the pain she (I) had put him through.

I no longer cared about being unnoticed, instead I changed back to my normal form, my Assassin form, and kicked the front door of the guest house open, it slammed open with a loud crash that made L jump about three feet in surprise. Asuka didn't respond. I used telekinesis to slam L against the wall hard enough to put cracks in it, I asked him what the fuck he had done to Asuka, why was she like that, what had happened. He sniffed the air and said someone sure stank… I said it was him who stank even though I was pretty sure he was referring to the stink of the rancid water that was still on me. I demanded again to know what he had done to Asuka. He said he had just been playing games with her, those games that she seemed to like so well, it seemed she didn't like them anymore. He was laughing the whole time he said that, so I pounded the laughter out of him by slamming him around the room some more using telekinesis and I ended up slamming him right through one of the interior walls into the bathroom where I made sure his face landed in the toilet, actually he hit the toilet hard enough to crack the bowl… the icing on the cake was when raw sewage backed up from the pipe below and washed over L…

I looked over at Asuka, who had still not responded to anything that had happened. She seemed to have not noticed L getting thrown around the room, she hadn't noticed me yelling at him, she hadn't noticed him going through the wall or getting covered with sewage… I went over to Asuka, who didn't respond to my presence, but when I went to help her stand up she was very compliant to that. I focused on healing her injuries, I would do more healing on her once I had her somewhere safe. If she would snap out of this strange trance for anyone, that person would be MoSh. I opened a portal to get to MoSh's inner world and led Asuka through it.

I carefully helped Asuka out of the portal into the front yard of MoSh's house. I led her up to the front door with ease, she was offering no resistance, but she was also not reacting to the change in location. What the fuck had that asshole done to her to make her this unresponsive? We reached the front door and I opened it to find MoSh was right inside, he had been about to open the door. He asked what had happened, what was wrong with Asuka, who had done that to her, what had they done to her… I said I didn't know what had been done to her, but it was L who had done it. I told MoSh that L had shown up and kidnapped Asuka to take her… MoSh interrupted, asking how could I just let L have Asuka? I continued to tell MoSh that she had been taken, I had tracked her down to L's inner world and when I got to her she had been like this, worse in fact, it looked like L had been beating her. MoSh said something about a picture being real, and it had happened because I had let L take Asuka… what picture? He took Asuka into his arms and said something about so many men… so many men? I had only seen L… I told MoSh that Asuka needed healing, and he said any fool could see that. I said I would help him heal her, but he just glared over at me, he said Asuka didn't need any more of my help, I had clearly 'helped' her more than enough. He said they didn't need that kind of help. He slammed the door before I could say anything else.

I paused, I wanted to go inside and try to explain things to MoSh, but he was right… I was supposed to have been protecting Asuka, not just letting L walk off with her to do whatever he wanted to her… if I'd just been more careful she wouldn't have gotten taken, L wouldn't have done whatever it was he did to her… Maybe I should send Basara back over to do some healing on Asuka, who clearly needed it. How was she doing now that she was with MoSh? I walked around to the side of the house and peeked in through a window to see if I could find the two of them. First I saw Asuka's clothes tossed carelessly aside in the room. Then I saw Asuka was sitting naked in a corner of the room and I could see MoSh trying to get her to come out. Asuka wasn't responding to him, she had her knees pulled up to her chest, making herself as small as possible, and she was crying. That was because of what L had done to her, whatever he had done it must have been pretty awful to leave her in such a state. Seeing her like that made me want to hurt L, and hurt him bad, really bad.

So now it was time for L to pay, and the price was high. I opened a portal back to L's inner world and went through it looking to draw some blood. Kanmuri was standing near my portal when I got there, I asked her where L was, where was that foul piece of shit hiding, because I had some business to discuss with him… Kanmuri asked what was going on, she asked what had been wrong with Asuka when I had brought her out from the guest house? She had figured L was in there trying to coax Asuka into bed with him and probably epic failing at that, he wouldn't have hurt her, would he? I scanned the area for L and found him in the main house, I headed straight for him with Kanmuri following after me. She wouldn't shut up. L didn't hurt Asuka, did he? She said she knows he can be an ass sometimes, but she couldn't see him actually doing anything to hurt Asuka… he's too crazy about her… I told Kanmuri, focusing a bit too much of my anger on her, that I didn't know what L had done to Asuka, but he had definitely hurt her, and he'd hurt her bad. Kanmuri stopped and had a shocked look on her face as she watched me go into the house.

I found L in the living room kicked back on the couch as if nothing was wrong in the world, and that just pissed me off more. He looked up at me and smiled, he said it was so nice to see me again. He said if I wanted him all to myself, he could have said so instead of coming in and stealing Asuka. That was it, I was much too pissed off for words. All I could feel inside was unstable dark energy, but I didn't make any effort to control it, I just let it do what it wanted. The shadows in one corner of the room came to life as a swarm of scarab beetles each the size of a golf ball.

I used telekinesis to hold L still long enough for the bugs to get on him. The scarabs didn't stay still long enough for L to get them off, they immediately burrowed their way into L's skin, tunneling through his flesh as he was screaming in pain. I could see the moving bumps of the scarabs underneath L's skin, and he was apparently desparate to get rid of them as he tore through his own skin to get to one of the scarabs and pull it out. He threw the bug on the floor and stomped on it. So he had gotten rid of one of about ten bugs that were now tunneling through his flesh… several of which were in places he could not hope to reach. He was yelling at me or someone else to get those things out of him, get them OUT! While L was writhing on the floor in pain I was kicking him as hard as I could, anything to make him pay for what he had done… I'm not sure how long he was writhing and trying to reach the scarabs under his skin, how long I was kicking him before he was finally still, there was blood coming out of his mouth… and finally I woke, not really wanting to remember the events of this dream…

Note: It seems L has been causing problems again, still trying to get to Asuka even though he has a girlfriend of his own, and now he is using Kanmuri to do it! We came to the conclusion that we were going to try to make L afraid of Asuka, so that he would want to avoid her at all costs. My goal for tonight was to go ahead to do this. I fell asleep, failed to slip into my WILD. I actually don't remember the beginning of this dream or exactly how I became lucid, but here is the dream from the point where I start remembering it…


The earliest thing I remember in this dream is being in MoSh's inner world. I was in the living room with MoSh and Asuka. MoSh was playing a video game on the flat screen television while Asuka was watching him. Asuka got up and came over to me. She said she was ready to do whatever we had to do to make sure L would finally stop bothering her and MoSh. I told her I had a plan I thought might work. She said she knew, and she was ready to do the fusion. I said there was one more part to it… while fused, we should go out of MoSh's inner world and do something Asuka would enjoy doing… thus making her an easy target. So when L took her back to his inner world, that was when his nightmare would begin. MoSh seemed to have barely noticed I was there, I wasn't fully convinced MoSh had noticed me at all. I touched him on the shoulder and he finally looked up. I told him Asuka and I were off to give L a nice nightmare. I said L might need a few nightmares to get the point across, but it would start now. MoSh saved his video game and changed the channel. He said he would watch it from there. I asked Asuka what she would like to go out and do, she said she likes gardens and flowers, so that's what I focused on when I opened a portal. Asuka and I fused using the fusion amulet and went through the portal.

There was a beautiful garden on the other side of the portal, just as I had wanted to find. I could feel that Asuka liked it very much. I just let her control our fused body as she wandered through the garden, looking at the various flowers, smelling some of them, admiring others from afar, she picked one and put it in our hair. The garden was full of winding paths, there was a stream flowing through it with a pretty bridge over it, and Asuka's goal seemed to be to explore every bit of the garden. There was no questioning that the garden was pretty, but I was beginning to think L wasn't going to take the bait this time. Had he not noticed that Asuka was wandering around in a garden by herself? Had he caught on to the trick? Was he not as interested in Asuka as we had thought? Whatever the reason, it was beginning to look like he wasn't going to show up at all. I was just about to suggest to Asuka that we go home, I was getting a bit bored, when a portal opened in front of us. Without even giving much of a look around to make sure Asuka was alone, L's arm reached through the portal to grab our left arm and pull us through into his inner world.

I recognized L's inner world right away, we were near the pool that is outside of his house. I saw that Kanmuri was already back there, she was lying out on a lounge near the pool sunning herself when we arrived. She got up and looked over at L and me, rolling her eyes in an exacerbated manner. She asked L if he was never going to get it through his head that Asuka has no interest in him, he should stop going after some woman who didn't want him and give his attention all to her. She said she has an open mind about L having another woman around, but he should quit already with this woman who clearly doesn't like him. L said he had rescued me once more, that MoSh had carelessly let me out on my own, and now he would make sure I was protected. He said he knew I wanted to stay with him and he would make sure that this time it happened, MoSh and Raven weren't going to take me away from him this time.

I looked around at the pool and the house. I told L he might just be the man for me, assuming he has bigger balls than MoSh who seems to get mad at me every time I start to have some fun. L said of course, he has much bigger balls than MoSh, how could there be any doubt about that? He said his purpose would be to ensure I had fun every moment I was there with him. I smiled at him and said maybe I could be happy here after all, he said it had taken me long enough to acknowledge that he was really the one I want… he apparently thought I wasn't dressed properly, however, because he motioned and my clothes changed to a tiny sundress that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. I didn't really care. L looked at me in the sundress, practically drooling, and then said whatever would make me happy and want to stay was what I would get.

I told L what I really wanted to do was play some of the games I never get to play with MoSh without him getting mad. He asked what game I wanted to play. I said hide and seek… with a twist. I gave him a sexy look along with that suggestion which clearly got his attention. I said I would hide first. He said sure… then I said for him to count to 50, then come find me… He turned his back and started counting rather fast, I was actually surprised he could count that high. I went into the house and looked around in the first room I was in which appeared to be a kitchen. I moved through the kitchen into the living room where there was a lot of fancy furniture. I noticed one corner where there was a particularly dark shadow, I changed form into a shadow and merged with that shadow becoming completely invisible. Shortly later L came into the room. He said he knew I was in there. So… let the show begin.

L seemed pretty sure I was in the room, I wondered if he was cheating somehow. I focused on changing the dreamscape now, causing the shadows to grow and take over the room. Where it had been pretty bright and cheerful, now it was rather dark and dreary. L seemed to think that was strange, but he continued looking for me. I morphed my shadow form into my normal form, but I was dressed in tight leather instead of the sundress. L did a brief double take, but then said he had found me, so what was his reward? I said I wanted to hear him scream, he said he was sure I could make him scream. I said I knew I could, giving off an evil grin at the same time. Some of the other shadows formed dark tentacles and bound him to the floor, arms and legs spread, he apparently still thought he was in for some wild sex…

I had long fingernails which were actually thin blades dripping with acid. As I was standing over him some of the acid dripped onto him and burned through his clothes, burning into his skin. Those blade fingernails could be fired… so I fired one into his right shoulder where it smoked a bit as the acid ate away at his flesh, he let out a brief cry of pain and asked me what the fuck I thought I was doing… I said I was playing my game with him, I wanted to hear him scream. I fired more of the spears into him, into his arms, into his legs, anywhere I could fire one without hitting a vital organ and allowing him to die too quickly. I'd said I wanted to hear him scream, and he was screaming now. I took a couple of minutes to stand over him and laugh at his pain, he was screaming that it hurt so much, begging me to stop, crying like a baby, and a foul odor wafted over from him… he'd shit his pants! I acted disappointed, saying even MoSh had been able to play games better than this… how disappointing, because I was just getting started.

As I was deciding where to fire the next blade, Kanmuri came into the room and looked around. She asked what was going on in there, she had heard screaming… she looked and saw L pinned to the floor by shadows and with the blades sticking out of him, acid burning the areas around the blades. Now L was begging Kanmuri to help him, telling her that Asuka (I) had gone completely insane. Kanmuri looked upset, thought I think she was feigning it, and asked me what I was doing to her man, let him go right now. I made the dark tendrils retract, the room was bright and cheery once again. L still couldn't move, the blades had him pinned to the floor. I was definitely willing to help. I said it seemed neither L nor Kanmuri wanted to have any fun after all. I pulled the first blade out of L, doing this brought another scream of agonizing pain.

The blade was barbed so that it would go in smoothly but the barbs would extend when pulling it out, ripping the flesh on its way out. Kanmuri told me to stop doing that, I was hurting him. I said she wanted him to be free to get up, right? I continued pulling the blades out one by one, not doing it especially fast, twisting them a bit as I pulled them out, basically doing whatever I could to increase the pain they were causing… and of course the acid kept burning even after I had removed the blades. L was begging incoherently now, I couldn't tell what he was saying. The instant I got the last blade out Kanmuri was over to me telling me to stay away from him, how could I be so sick as to do those horrible things? I told her he had agreed to play my game… now he wanted to back out. How rude. Kanmuri told me to get out of L's inner world, she told me I wasn't welcome there. She began healing L's wounds, clearly soothing his pain with healing energy. I figured she wanted to be the good guy since she wanted L to focus his affection on her. I didn't interfere with that and I opened a portal back to MoSh's inner world when Kanmuri told me again that I was not welcome there.

Note: Still no luck with my WILD attempts. I am not sure why that is happening so rarely now when it used to be so common. I had one primary goal for this night, and that was to track down Asuka and bring her home. Q found a fake Asuka in MoSh's inner world, so the only conclusion, or most likely conclusion, is she was kidnapped. Other than that there is my usual list of goals…

I was lying on the living room couch. My mother woke me up. She said I had slept through half the movie. She suggested I go to bed if I was that tired. I told her I didn't feel tired. She said if I wasn't tired, I wouldn't have slept through so much of the movie. I thought a minute and realized I couldn't even remember what movie we had been watching… ok… she must be right. I must be tired, even if I didn't feel it… or maybe the nap had been all I needed. I got up from the couch and went into my bedroom. Something didn't look right there… there was a desk with a desktop computer on the far side of the room. I thought there shouldn't have even been room for that desk… I did a reality check… and found I was dreaming!

Now fully lucid, I focused on remembering my goals. Asuka! Yes, I had to help MoSh get Asuka back. I used my bedroom door as a portal for a change of pace, and I opened it and walked through into MoSh's inner world. I turned around just in time to see the doorway behind me fold up on itself until it became too tiny to see… and it was gone.

I looked around for MoSh. I saw I was standing in the living room of his house. MoSh looked over at me. He said he had been wondering if I wasn't going to make it. I said I had, and now we had better get going. No time to lose in getting Asuka back. I was pretty sure I already knew where she was, but I figured I would let my tracking guide my portal anyhow… just on the off chance we were wrong about who had taken her. I focused on opening a portal and on finding Asuka. A portal opened, MoSh and I went through it…

On the other side of the portal we were in a strange place. It looked rather nice. There was a swimming pool there, and it was a beautiful pool. There were several women with perfect bodies lying out on lounges sunbathing and a few more in the pool. I briefly felt ashamed of my large belly and second chin before I reminded myself that it is a dream, and in dreams I have neither of those. There was a man standing on the patio surveying the scene, practically drooling over the women in the pool. He looked like a faker biker, dressed in leather, but somehow it looked like he was trying so hard to look cool that he really just wound up with an epic fail. I knew who that was, it was L. I also saw there was one woman sitting on a chair on the patio, she didn't look happy to be there. That was Asuka. I went over to Asuka. I hadn't even reached her before L spotted me and seemed pleased. He said there is always room for one more bathing beauty in his place… I saw in my reflection that I suddenly had on a string bikini that left little to the imagination. I was about to curse at L, but I got distracted admiring how nice my dream body looks compared to my waking body. L told me to help myself to a drink at the bar or dive into the pool, the water was always the perfect temperature. Wait a minute… I wasn't there for a pool party…

"Asuka," I said, "I have come to take you home."

"She is very happy here," L said, "Now go ahead and enjoy yourself. Don't worry about the others."

"I think Asuka can answer for herself," I said to L, I was a bit annoyed, "Asuka? Let's go home. MoSh is worried about you."

Asuka looked up at me with a rather blank look on her face. She stared at me for a few minutes before she finally answered. She said she didn't want to go back. She said she wouldn't force herself on MoSh any longer. I asked what she was talking about. She said she knew everything now. She MoSh doesn't want her back. She said he had willingly turned her over to L, not once, but twice. He had willingly given up to L in a contest where she was the prize, and then when he had the choice between her and the alternate Asuka, he had chosen the other one. She said he had been hoping she wouldn't survive the battle to get her flame back. He had been counting on her dying so he could have the better version of her. She said she understood why. She said he had tried to, but he had never been able to forgive her for lying to him. Right now this was the only place she belonged.

I noticed that the whole time Asuka was talking she basically showed no emotion. It was as if she was rehearsing a script. I had no doubt in mind that L had put those exact lines into her head. L said the fact MoSh had sent me to get Asuka and hadn't come to get her himself. Wait a minute… MoSh had been with me to come get Asuka… where was he? Had he woken up? This wasn't a good time to wake up… I looked around and headed back in the direction I had come from. I reached the place where I had entered through the portal. I looked around. I saw MoSh. He had wandered off in the other direction. Wtf? I went over to him and asked what he was doing. He looked over at me. He looked a bit puzzled. I asked if he was even lucid. He looked at me. He looked at his hands. He pointed at me with his pinky… and then announced I was real.

"No shit, Sherlock," I said, "Now let's go get Asuka." MoSh was wanting to know if Asuka was ok. I said she was fine apart from the lies L had been filling her head with… which he hadn't been there do dispute just now… MoSh followed me over to the pool, seeming much more alert and lucid. Asuka was still sitting in the same chair. L was watching me bring MoSh back. He didn't seem overly concerned about that. I wondered if he had a plan up his sleeve. I figured it didn't matter. Whatever his plan was, it wouldn't work. MoSh saw Asuka and went over to her and said he was there to take her home. She started repeating the rehearsed lines she had given me. MoSh interrupted her before she was done. He said none of that was true. After MoSh's protest, Asuka just continued with her lines. I told MoSh I was sure she was under the influence of mind control. I would have to break the control.

"Breaking the silence of the night, can't you hear me screaming?" I focused on the song Breaking the Silence by Queensrÿche, "I look for your face in the neon light, you never answer… I could make all the wrong seem right if you were by my side, I'd gather all the tears you cried and hide them deep underground!" The song played through. L's certainty that we wouldn't be able to do anything to get through to Asuka seemed to be wavering. The song had its effect on Asuka. Her eyes cleared, and she looked over at MoSh. She looked on the verge of tears. She looked at me and then at MoSh. She said everyone kept saying MoSh hated her now.

"That…" Asuka stammered, "That's not true, is it?"

"Come on, Asuka," MoSh said, "You know I love you!"

Asuka got up, looked a bit dizzy, and walked towards MoSh in an unsteady manner. She looked kind of drunk.

"Why don't you two just go home?" L said, "Asuka wants to be here with me. Although Raven, if you want to have a swim you are certainly welcome to stay…"

"I'd sooner swim in a sewer than in a pool with you," I said, "And if Asuka wants to stay with you, why does she look like she's about to puke?"

I used Master of Puppets on L. If he is so fond of mind control, let's do a little on him. "Master of puppets is pulling your strings, twisting your mind and smashing your dreams, blinded by me you can't see a thing, just call my name, I'll hear you scream! Master! Master!" I ordered L to release Asuka. He did. She came over to MoSh. L snapped out of the mind control, I hadn't meant for it to last very long. He got mad at MoSh and me for forcing him to do things against his will. He said no one forces him to do anything! He is his own man and…

"And there is an alien pulling your strings," MoSh said. He created a hologram of the alien in this picture. "It's a Reptilian, or a Draconian… and I saw one of them draining your energy.

L looked at the picture briefly, having been completely interrupted from his yelling at MoSh and me. He looked at the hologram, then at MoSh, at the hologram, at MoSh…

"Are you on drugs?" he asked MoSh, then he looked at me, "He's on drugs, isn't he?"

I didn't really have a chance to answer. MoSh was answering. "I saw it," MoSh said, "It was draining your energy. It is controlling your every move. Maybe that's why you're such an ass."

"You're making excuses for me being an ass?" L asked, sounding thoroughly confused, "Now there's a new one. Now why don't you just leave these two lovely ladies here with me, and go on your pathetic way?"

"I'm not staying with you," Asuka said, "Go back to your stupid DC bimbos," she looked at me, "They are all DCs, you know. Just illusions. He couldn't get the attentions of a real woman if he paid her…"

"And if I have to look at your face for one more second," I told L, "I think I'll vomit. So we'll all be going. Have fun with your DCs… which is like using blow-up dolls, right? So have fun with your blow-up dolls." I opened a portal to get us all back to MoSh's inner world. The three of us went through. On the other side of the portal, we were all in the yard in front of MoSh's house. I closed the portal before L could consider following us. MoSh had his arms around Asuka, who seemed happy to be there. I was going to ask if Asuka was ok. I didn't have a chance to say anything.