New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

12/27/12

Hidden Poison
I am in my Fire Valkyrie on my way to the moon. I realize many of my dreams will be starting like this since I am trying a different hypnosis program when I fall asleep which ironically enough involves a trip to the moon during the process of relaxation. So I am able to start this dream off lucid. I land on the moon and explore the craters briefly before deciding to open a portal to somewhere I might be needed. I trace out a circle in front of me which becomes a portal and I go through it. I enter into a garden of some kind which looks like the numerous small garden enclosures in Florence in Assassin's Creed II.

It is night time and I am not sure why I have come here. I am looking at the garden when someone runs in looking quite frantic. He grabs me by my robes and says I have to save him, the person after him is going to kill him. The guy looks like he is about to piss his pants… smells like he already has. I ask who is trying to kill him, he says it is an Assassin. What is he, a Templar? He says he has no idea what a Templar is. He looks like he is lying. A man enters the garden and stops, looking at me strangely. He is dressed like an Assassin. The man who was running hides behind me, looking quite pathetic. The Assassin mocks him for hiding behind a girl. He then looks at my robes and says the man chose the wrong woman to try to hide behind. He says the coward behind me was trying to poison the city's water supply. The coward says the Assassin is lying. The Assassin says the poison is in a vial in the man's pouch. The man refuses to show me what is in his pouch. More people have arrived in the garden. A bunch of guards. The coward hiding behind me laughs and tells the guards to kill both the Assassin and me, since apparently we are working together. So a fight breaks out. I use my Witchblade sword, which seems to surprise everyone when it forms. The Assassin and I fight against what I estimate to be eight guards, until six of them are dead and two of them think better of continuing to fight and run away. The Assassin climbs up a wall and grabs hold of the fleeing man, the one who had originally hidden behind me, and kills him before throwing the body back into the enclosure. I still have my sword out, not sure if he's going to attack me, but he says we are on the same side here. So I put my sword away. When I get a better look at him I see it looks like he is Ezio Auditore.

I confirm that it is Ezio, he says we need to get somewhere safe before the body is found. He turns to leave, apparently expecting me to follow, but he will soon find there is no one there because it is here that I wake up.

Bullies
I am climbing around on the roofs of Florence in a full virtual reality version of Assassin's Creed II. But I am not playing as Ezio… I am playing as a female Assassin.

It is awesome. I wonder how come I didn't get this virtual reality system sooner. I am collecting eagle feathers from the roofs of the buildings, looking to find the last of the feathers in Florence. I jump from one roof to another to grab a feather. I wonder how hard it will be to climb to the highest places in virtual reality when the possibility of falling looks so real. I look down to determine if the heights will bother me. I have never been afraid of heights in my waking life, and I am not afraid of heights now. I see some assholes down below me. Four sizeable guys are pushing one woman around, I hear them talking about taking turns at her. One of them says they should go somewhere more private. Another says he knows where they won't be bothered. Being unafraid of heights, I jump down off of the roof and land right behind one of the assholes. I tell them to leave the woman alone or there's going to be trouble. Three of the four men laugh. The fourth one looks scared, which I had expected laughter from all of them. One of the laughing men said two women means twice as much fun. The scared person is repeating the word 'ass' over and over again. One of the men grabs my arm and says if I relax maybe I'll have some fun, too. The scared guy finally yells that I am an Assassin and turns and runs out into the street, he runs flat into a guard. The guard starts pushing him around and he keeps pointing and yelling that there is an Assassin over there. I comment that one of them has a brain… let go of me and leave the woman alone, last chance. He tries to pull me with him, still laughing. I nail him with my hidden blade. Another says no bitch is going to take him out. He charges at me and practically skewers himself on my other hidden blade. The fourth one runs away in the same direction the first one went. I notice that the guards don't seem to be taking their claims of an Assassin seriously. They are mocking the two men. The woman thanks me for saving her life. I see the two men get hot headed with the guards, they start throwing insults and get themselves arrested. The woman thanks me again and then hurries off down the street, seeming in a hurry to get somewhere. I climb back up the wall of the building. It seems harder to climb than I had expected it to be. Is it because it's virtual reality? Maybe… As I am climbing the wall I feel like I am going to fall, but I fall into my bed as I wake up.

01/03/12

Note: This is the 2nd day in a row for me posting dreams in the new year. Not much of a streak yet, but I'm working on it. Here is the dream from last night:

Agent 00-Raven
I am in a swampy type area, approaching the outside walls of a large military installation. I know my goals for this mission. I am to get inside the compound and open the outer gates so the forces controlled by my allies can enter and take over the installation. There are biological weapons being created in there, and this is what I am here to put a stop to. The outside of the compound is far too well defended, but if someone can get in and open the front gates…

So I am approaching the compound from the back side, through some thick swampy land. The swamplands provide a good cover for my approach as long as I am careful not to get stuck in quicksand or something like that. Even in the swamps there are lookout towers hidden in the trees. And even though it is night I am worried about being seen, so I stick in the areas with deeper water. When I get close to a lookout tower I duck under the murky water where I am sure no one can see me. Using this method I arrive at the outer wall of the compound.


I search around the walls for a bit until I find an opening where the water is allowed to flow through the outer wall… either that or the swampy water has eaten away at the wall... I slip through that opening and now I am inside the compound. Now I need to find the main controls for the front gate so I can let my allies in. Since I have no idea where to look, I start sneaking around trying to find any sign of where I need to be. I find the main lab first. They are working on a bio-toxin that causes some kind of plague that is known for bringing death within 24 hours. I remember I have the antidote in my pocket, one dose of it, in the form of a stick of gum. I also remember them telling me not to use it until I am sure there is no chance of further contact with the illness. While the cure rate for the first time is nearly 100%, the effectiveness of the antidote decreases with each subsequent exposure to the illness. I go into the room and destroy a couple of samples of the virus to make sure no one can grab a sample and split. Not only are the samples compromised, but anyone going after them would be infected. I am sure I have also been infected, but I have my antidote gum, so I am good.


I continue searching the compound and finally I find the place I was looking for. It is the front guard room where the main gate controls are. There are three men in there keeping an eye on things, but they don't seem to be doing that good a job of it. They seem pretty laid back and bored. Of course that changes when they see me there, and all three of them reach for their guns. I am faster than them, however, and I pull my gun and squeeze off three quick rounds, one shot to each of the guards. Bang, bang, bang. They all drop dead. I go over to the controls and activate the mechanism to open the gates. When the gates move that sets off an alarm and the guards in the compound rush out to see what is going on. It is too late, however, as my allies are now swarming into the compound and taking out enemies rapidly. I see them surround a final group of enemies, who surrender and are taken into custody.

I notice I have a bit of a sore throat right now, and I am even noticing the beginnings of a fever. That surprises me, I hadn't realized symptoms would begin so quickly. I pull out my stick of antidote gum and chew it. I sit there in the guard house and chew my gum while I wait for the symptoms to ease. While I am doing that I wake up. It turns out I have a sore throat in waking life, so that is probably what I was feeling in the dream.

My Virtual World
I am in a place that looks like a video game. There is just something about the place that makes it look like a computer rendering instead of a real physical place, though I'm not entirely sure what that something is. I am designing the place as if I was in a 3D virtual reality design system. I place pieces of geometry to form them into buildings and such, then I choose textures from a menu that pops up in mid air to apply to the buildings… it is really cool. There are a couple people there with me, but they don't seem to be real people. They are actual NPCs I have already designed for the game, and it seems I programmed them well enough that they can now help me with designing the world.

That is awesome. I have to give them explicit instructions, but they are still very helpful. I leave the virtual world for a bit and find out I am at school, at ITT Tech. I wonder when they got such cool equipment in, and why did they have to get it when I am just ready to graduate? My instructor tells me what effect I need to be creating in the virtual world, so I go back in and begin setting that up. It is a lighting effect where the rays of the sun are visible shining through one of the windows of the building. I create the effect without much difficulty. There is another effect I have to do in the same setting. I enter a completely blank void. I pull out what seems like a blanket and throw it out in front of me. It expands to become a copy of the world I just made previously. Now that is a useful feature! I pull my NPCs into the setting again and then I begin adding the details I need to achieve the next effect. My NPCs are getting annoying now, however, they just want to stand around and do nothing while I do all the work.

DDO - In Poisoned Waters
I am in a place that looks a lot like the city of Stormreach from the DDO game, I am in the harbor area. I am not alone there, I see there are two men and a woman there with me. I am instantly aware of who they are, though I do not become aware it is a dream. It is Nomad, MoSh, and Tigress, but I am thinking they are just in a virtual reality version of DDO with me. And the game is completely awesome! I look around at all of the NPCs and the other players, there are actually some of the NPCs with golden chalices floating over their heads indicating they have quests… Tigress heads over to one of them and talks to her. I follow Tigress, Nomad and MoSh come with me. The NPC is telling Tigress how some of the wells in Stormreach had been yielding poisoned water. She says the kobolds are responsible, though no one knows why. The poison is coming from the waterworks.

The four of us go into the waterworks. At first we get attacked by a few kobolds, but there isn't much kobold resistance. Farther down we start seeing a lot of dead kobolds lying about in varying stages of decomposition… yuck. The water smells bad, it is poisoned. Why would kobolds poison their own water supply? We go deeper, and soon we aren't in the waterworks any more, now we are in what looks like mine shafts. Kobolds are digging at the mine, but they pay no attention to us. Most of them look very weary, exhausted even. I see a kobold fall over from exhaustion. A goblin comes and starts poking the kobold with a spear, snarling at it to get up and back to work. It is clear the kobold can't go on any longer. It weakly tries to get up and then collapses again. The kobolds around the fallen one make no move to help, they hardly seem to notice. The goblin kicks the fallen kobold.

Nomad tells the goblin to pick on someone his own size. The goblin notices us for the first time and calls out that there are intruders. Nomad picks the goblin up by the neck in a hand that has grown huge, and snarls at the goblin that he is pathetic for being able to pick on those who can't fight back but he calls for help the instant someone who can fight comes along. He crushes the goblin's neck. More goblins are coming now, so a fight breaks out. I am a paladin, Nomad is a dark knight cutting down goblins with a black sword and drawing their energy into himself, Tigress is a rogue hitting the goblins when they are distracted attacking Nomad, MoSh, and me, MoSh is a monk knocking goblins to the ground with martial arts moves. We fight all the goblins off, but we know the boss is down farther into the dungeon.

The four of us continue down farther, past a lot of kobolds who are working as hard as they can. A couple kobolds pause in their work to look over at us. We get down to the bottom chamber where the kobolds are digging down even farther. There is a really nasty looking goblin there, examining a chunk of metal. He smacks the kobold who presented it to him, saying he would not stand for them bringing him crap like that. He says any fool can see it's the wrong mineral. The kobold is on the ground, begging for mercy. The nasty goblin says mercy is for the weak and kicks the kobold. He then tells the kobold to get back to work and don't bring him any more crap or next time the penalty would be death. The kobold can barely stand, and is moving slowly away. The goblin tells the kobold to move faster or he might change his mind and kill the kobold now. The goblin looks over and finally sees us, and asks who the fuck the three of us are. Three? I notice that the rogue Tigress is not with us. I then spot her in sneak mode over behind the goblin boss. I comment that they are polluting the water, and that has to stop. The goblin laughs and says he doesn't care. That's what he told the kobolds when they bitched about it, and that's what he's telling us. I say I guess that means it's time for him to die, then. He laughs harder. He says his goblins are more than a match for three pathetic humans.

Tigress attacks the goblin boss, which takes him completely by surprise, he spits an obscenity… AAHHH!!! SHIT!!! What the FUCK? We get into a big fight. I am fighting off goblin warriors and throwing out healing spells to allies. I can't see their health bars… so I don't know if they are needing the healing… but I don't want to take any chances. It feels like my supply of mana is limitless, and I credit that to a potion that gives that temporary effect. The goblin army that the boss boasted about proves to not be so tough. Archers are shooting at us from above. Tigress is sneaking around the rim up there and knocking the goblin archers off one by one. On the other side of the room I see a couple goblin archers get attacked by kobolds. It seems some of the more capable kobolds decided to join in the fight. The goblins never had a chance. We wipe out their numbers completely, I see Tigress finish off the boss near the end of the fight. I see Nomad over near the underground stream, he is doing something to clean the pollution from the water. The kobolds keep saying they don't want any trouble, won't attack any people, they just want their home in the waterworks back… I don't see any reason to attack kobolds right now, so instead I heal some of the ones that are more seriously injured. I tell a couple of the kobolds in charge that as long as they're not hostile towards the inhabitants of Stormreach, I certainly have no problem with them. The kobolds say we helped free them, they won't forget that. I'm not really sure that will prove to be true, but Stormreach is used to dealing with kobold problems… and they'll probably be busy for a while cleaning up the mess the goblins made.

Note: Tonight is the first challenge of the tournament at Hogwarts, so this is my main plan, to go participate in the event. MoSh is coming for that, of course, so we will see how the first challenge goes. For now we will be working in teams for each house, so that means I will be working with Draco, MoSh will be working with Harry and Hermione. There are two other schools visiting, and each of them have four houses, two contestants from each house, also working as teams this time. I'm not sure how many challenges will be done as teams before it's everyone for themselves. That was my only goal, so I focused on that as I slipped into a WILD…

I am in bed, in my bed at Hogwarts. I am immediately aware of that by the feel of the bed, and the sounds going on around me, it seems everyone else is already up and moving around but I have been sleeping in. I get out of bed and dressed, then open the curtains to see what is going on out there. The other girls are talking to each other, and they seem happy to see me, all of them asking how I am doing, if I am nervous about the challenge, Marie says I am lucky to be able to ditch classes today, Shanara says she can't wait to find out more about the challenge, Andie says she knows Draco and I can win… I am not really sure what they are talking about, but I figure I will find out in due time, so for now I just go with it. As the four of us go down to the common room, my mind is clearing up, the last of my sleepiness is passing, I think it is odd that I am sleepy after waking up in a lucid dream… When we get down to the common room I see Draco there, it looks like he has been waiting for me, my memory is completely clear now. I remember that the first challenge of the Tri-School Wizard Tournament is today, and I will be doing it with Draco since we are from the same house. Draco has a strange look on his face, but he greets me ok, and says all of the contestants are to meet near the Quidditch field… that was something I hadn't thought of at the school yet… Quidditch! Is there not going to be Quidditch teams this year? Maybe the season just hasn't started yet… So after going to the great hall to get some breakfast, Draco and I go out by the Quidditch field.

When Draco and I reach the Quidditch field I see that McGonagall is there, and she is waiting for the contestants to gather. Several of them I recognize, others I don't, though. Viktor Krum is there, he doesn't look to bright, but that could be decieving… One of them I recognize as Fleur Delacour, Hermione is there looking nervously up at the castle, I recognize some of the others as fellow Hogwarts students and the others I am assuming are from the other schools. MoSh shows up, it seems he has appeared from nowhere, Hermione is glad to see him, she asks him where Harry is, he is running late. MoSh said maybe Harry is still getting his flu shot. Hermione gives MoSh a strange look, says she hasn't heard anything about a flu shot, but she doesn't take the thought any further as Harry shows up at this point. Finally everyone has gathered, Hermione is asking Harry where he has been, but Harry doesn't have a chance to answer before McGonagall starts talking. She says we have the morning to make any finally plans, but we should be made aware that no items can be taken into the maze. She says no wands can be used during the challenge. She adds that any items found on the course can be used, some of them may have magical properties, but we would have to know what to do with it, of course. She points at an amulet one of the students from another school is wearing, and says she sees it has magical properties, so she will have to leave it behind. She points at my Witchblade bracelet and says the same goes for that. It seems both of us are reluctant to give our items up, McGonagall is a bit impatient, she says she will make sure nothing happens to either of them, and they will be waiting for us at the other end of the challenge course. I finally give her my Witchblade, figuring I can summon it back if needed, and the other girl hands over her amulet. McGonagall tells us to meet back by the Quidditch field at noon, lunch would be provided, then we would start at 12:30 sharp. So don't be late, she looks at Harry when she says that last part.

On this map: MoSh, Harry, and Hermione are the red line, Draco and I are the green line.

So Draco and I look over the map one more time to plan out our course, we are not allowed to have the map in the challenge, so we will have to memorize the path we want to take, and we meet back at the Quidditch field right on time. Everyone else is there on time, too, so the challenge begins on time. For a short distance it seems everyone is going in the same direction, but finally we split up and head in our own ways. Draco and I are following the green path on this map, while MoSh, Harry, and Hermione are on the red path. The map shows a lot, so I will just hit the important parts. The first darker green area on the map is a vine covered region, as Draco and I pass through there, we collect some long pieces of vine that look strong, and take them with us. That way when we reach the ravine, I am able to tie a stone to the end of the vine and then throw it over the ravine. The ravine isn't really that wide, but it is really deep. The rock proves unnecessary, though, the vine has a magical property and it plants itself right where it lands. Placing the other end of the vine on this side makes the vine plant itself here, too, and the vine across the ravine goes tight. I tell Draco we can just use the vine to cross… he doesn't seem to like it much… I take a second vine and throw it over, using a rock just so I can aim better… and a little TK helps… so I land this one on a slightly higher spot, place the second end… then once more, now the three vines form a triangle, a bridge, with two vines to hold onto and a third to walk on. Draco is looking at the bridge not far along the ravine, and says we could just use that… I point out that someone else is already there, and there are small specks bombarding them, apparently the enemies Draco's father had warned him about, warning him against taking what appeared to be the easy route. I wonder if that's MoSh, Harry, and Hermione… I see there are three of them, and I am sure Hermione would not want to cross anywhere but at the bridge since she is scared of heights. Draco and I use my vine bridge and cross, heading into the forest on the other side.

The forest is deliberately made confusing, but we don't get lost. We soon reach the other side of the forest where there is a large rock there, I am thinking up there is a good spot to survey the land from. Harry, MoSh, and Hermione show up right after us, Draco makes some remark to Harry about being behind already, it's a good thing he and I are nice enough to let them catch up… after all, we don't want it to be too easy. I tell him to leave me out of that. Harry says he is surprised Draco made it this far, and adds that he and I probably cheated by using magic to get to the rock first. I look over at Harry, but all that comes out of my mouth is, "Excuse you?" While they are getting into that, MoSh is climbing the rock to get a view of the area. I join MoSh in the climbing of the rock, not wanting to deal with Draco and Harry arguing, MoSh and I vent about our partners… MoSh says Harry thinks he knows everything, I say Draco is about as mature as a two year old… We are almost to the top when a monkey about the size of a human jumps from one of the trees and grabs at MoSh. MoSh throws the monkey back to the ground, where it lands right between Harry and Draco, effectively breaking their argument up. The monkey gets up and looks around at us, but MoSh isn't done with him yet. MoSh jumps off of the rock, grabs the monkey, and slams him into a tree… then slams him into the ground a few more times, stomps on him for good measure, then throws him up into the sky and over the forest where it disappears from sight. Harry, Hermione, Draco, and I are now all staring at MoSh, not entirely sure of what to say, apparently that monkey had really pissed MoSh off… MoSh starts climbing the rock again, Harry comes up behind him and grabs his shirt to get his attention. "Are you…" Harry starts, then MoSh jumps on Harry and slams him into a tree. I am asking MoSh why he is attacking his own teammate, it makes no sense, is he ok? I jump off the rock and help Hermione pull MoSh off of Harry, Draco is laughing his ass off, saying if they keep that up, there's no way they will win… Gryffindor will be the first house out of the running. Hermione tells Draco to shut up, MoSh has stopped trying to attack Harry, but now he feels like he has a fever… he is sick? Hermione shoots up emergency sparks with her wand… we have them in case of emergency but are not permitted to use them… and soon a couple of people swoop down on brooms, they carry both Harry and MoSh off. Hermione says she wants to stay and finish the challenge, there's no way she's letting Slytherin come in first… then she looks at me, and says she means no offense to me.

We leave the rock and head in different directions, Hermione heads off to the east, Draco and I are heading west. We come to the river we had been told about, and it is rapids, but they don't look too bad. I use the last of my vines to tie together some wood that Draco and I collect, and make it into a raft… surprisingly, it floats. Yay! Draco and I use the raft to ride the rapids and take the shortcut by steering off onto the right fork in the river. Not only have we avoided having to do the extra climbing to get past some small mountains, but we are moving much faster than we would be if we were on foot. As the river veers back off to the west we pull our raft over to the shore, where Draco and I get out. We follow a path that leads up to some steep sheer mountains, there is a steep and difficult path that goes over the mountain, and there is a longer but easy path that goes around the mountain… or there is a tunnel that passes through the mountain, and an easier path that goes over. Draco and I choose the tunnel that goes through the mountain, it is well hidden, but Draco had it marked on his map, and we remember where it is. So with that little extra short cut we get through the mountain and out the other side first. The two of us are greeted with an array of cheering and booing… rude people booing… shortly later, Hermione shows up, and stares at us, she says she doesn't know how we managed to get there first. She seems very out of breath, close to collapsing, but Draco and I are hardly winded after walking the mostly level path through the mountain.

There are judges there, all of the members of the judge's panel, I see Umbridge there, she is glaring over at us, she accuses Hermione of cheating since there is no way one person could have made it through. I ask another of the judges how MoSh and Harry are, I am told that the two of them are going to be fine, Harry just had some bruises, MoSh seems to have the flu, he was most likely a bit delirious when he attacked Harry. I ask how MoSh could have the flu… The woman I am speaking to says she doesn't know, but Madam Palmphrey will be more than able to get them both back to full health. I feel like I am going to wake up soon, so I tell the others that I am going to the hospital wing to check on MoSh, then I leave. If I make it to the Hospital wing, then I am not remembering it now, because this is where my memories end.

Note: MoSh says he got a PM from Walms stating that Asuka has been poisoned. The best I can tell, it appears that Walms was going back to MoSh's inner world to get something he lost there, Kaomea was there, and everything went unstable ending up with Walms leaving a poison of some kind in Asuka. Apparently this was the cause of the illness I tried to cure last night. MoSh said Walms had refused to help cure her, Walms said he just wouldn't go near her in a dream… so my goal was simply to go find Walms and get the antidote, then take that back to Asuka. I fell asleep with my light / sound machine and successfully slipped into my WILD…

I am in my own room, but I know that I am dreaming, I am in a lucid dream. I remember my goal is to go find Walms to get the antidote to Asuka's illness, so I focus on opening a portal to locate Walms. Just as the portal is about to open, another portal opens and MoSh comes into my room. MoSh says he can make sure Walms tells him how to heal Asuka, I tell MoSh that he's already told me and the only thing I have to do is go get it. He pauses for a bit, it looks like he isn't completely lucid, and then he seems to remember. He says yeah, he remembers, but he doesn't seem fully convinced everything will go that easily. I tell him I usually get a feeling about that kind of thing, and I wasn't feeling anything to indicate a problem. The portal I had opened to locate Walms closes before I get a chance to make sure it stays open, so I have to open another one. I realize that is just as well, as the first portal was no longer accurate, apparently Walms had moved. I go through the new portal, MoSh follows me through.

MoSh and I exit the other end of the portal, I look around and see we are at the edge of a forest near an old building of some kind. I scan the area to see if I can find Walms there, but it is not difficult to find him, he is over near the building holding something. I get a bit closer and I see he is holding a strange animal… or a bug? It is about the size of a bunny rabbit, it is furry, but it looks a lot like a beetle. It looks like a big, furry beetle. I get close enough to Walms and ask about getting the antidote, instead I get a bug… the fluffy but Walms is holding flies into the air and hovers only a couple inches in front of my face, staring into my face with huge multifaceted eyes. I reach out to touch the bug's fur, it looks really soft, MoSh tells me to stay away from the bug in case it is dangerous. The bug responds by hissing loudly at MoSh, a strange hissing / squealing noise, then it flies away into the forest. Um… ok…

I turn my attention back to Walms and start to ask about the antidote again, MoSh says he wants the antidote right now. Walms says the cure is simple, really, all it takes is a bit of his blood… so come get it. He disappears from sight, drawing a crude expletive from MoSh, it looks to me that Walms apparently wanted to make a game of it to get the antidote. I feel a short burst of instability, I wonder if maybe it would be a better idea to just go back and get our trio of genius docs to fix the problem, since Walms had already told me what the problem was, curing it would be a piece of cake for them… without even waking them from their nap. I may have been considering talking to Washu, Janet, and Maura, but MoSh was already gone, breaking down the front door of the building and making about as much racket as a rhinoceros charging through a china shop… I follow MoSh into the building, I can see he is chasing Walms, who seems to always be just a bit ahead of MoSh. I soon lose track of them in the maze of halls and passages in the building. That is fine with me, I hadn't figured a straight forward race would get me anywhere. MoSh had that one covered, I'd have to take another approach.

I stop trying to follow MoSh and Walms at all, and I focus on a tracking spell, not to use in a portal, but just for tracking alone. The first thing that comes to mind is "All Nightmare Long" by Metallica, "We hunt you down all nightmare long…" and it would only stand to reason I would find Walms in the middle of a nightmare somewhere… I focus on the tracking, and I feel an instinctive pull in one direction, so I follow that pull. It actually leads me out of the building completely, I find I am on the third floor of the building and the forest is stretching out below me. I jump out of a broken window and fly over the forest, form shifting in mid flight to become a raven… wait… too obvious… I change into an eagle… that also seems too obvious… I change into a simple tree sparrow… I fly down into the trees, still following my instinct as to where I would be able to find Walms. If he is out here, I wonder where MoSh is… is MoSh following Walms out here? Is MoSh following a fake Walms in the building? Am I following another fucking DC? I realize I am muttering as close as a song bird can get to expletives… well, I would follow my tracking instincts, and just see what I find.

I am getting close to the signal source, so I land in one of the trees and look over beside a tree where I see Walms sitting there looking at an animal, this one looks like a rabbit of some kind. I flutter down closer to Walms and the rabbit, trying to be sure that it's really Walms and not a DC this time. I land on a low branch only to have the rabbit spring from Walms' arms and attack me… with fangs… psycho rabbit! Ok… I hadn't expected that, but I react as the sparrow would and take wing, chirping expletives at the rabbit as I fly out of reach. Walms calls me a silly bird, and says I should have known better than to get that close to a… (I don't remember what he called the bunny animal). I fly over closer to Walms and land in a tree near him, and I do my best to unobtrusively scan him to be sure it's not a DC. Real energy signature, looks right… I don't think it's a DC… Walms is looking at me strangely, I wonder if he can tell I'm not a normal sparrow, well if he can, I'd better make it quick or have to do the whole tracking thing over again, and I'm not sure how much longer I'll be in the dream.

I flutter down to the ground as if I am going after a particularly tasty seed or worm, poking around the ground with my beak, of course not picking up anything… my Witchblade has adjusted its size and form to my altered form… so the easiest way I can think of to get what I need is to use that. A tiny tendril of Witchblade extends from my right leg into the grass and other vegetation, snaking its way around to where Walms is standing and watching me, the tendril of Witchblade is behind him now, it snakes its way over and claims the sample I need while making no more disturbance than a light breeze. Walms is looking at me very closely… I decide not to wait any longer. I pull the tendril of Witchblade back and take flight into the trees. I wonder if Walms had any idea it was me he was looking at, I wonder if he knows I got what I was after… I figure it doesn't really matter, now I have to get the antidote back to Asuka.

I head into the building, now I want to find MoSh, because I figure he will want to be there when Asuka is healed. I then kick myself as best as I can in the form of a sparrow, wondering why I didn't just track MoSh the same way I tracked Walms. I finally do that and open a portal to go straight to MoSh. A small bird-sized portal opens and I go through it into MoSh's inner world. MoSh is looking around for something there, Asuka is there with him. She looks fine, there doesn't appear to be any sign of her previous illness relapsing. I ask how she is feeling, she says fine. I tell her I have what we need for the antidote, but I feel it should be done in the healing glen. MoSh asks if I checked the blood to make sure it is safe. I tell him it is safe, I have no doubt in my mind about it… I open a portal and go through into the healing glen.

In the healing glen there is a pool of the healing water, Allura is there waiting for us. She says she will have to remove the time stasis from the toxin, so that it can be neutralized. She does something, though I can't tell what, then says Asuka is ready to be healed. Asuka gets into the pool of water, I realize I have no idea what to do with the sample… d'oh! Not bright. Apparently the Crystal Golem knows more than I do about that kind of healing, he takes the sample and pours it right into the pool of water with Asuka. The water turns a disgusting black color, MoSh moves to pull her out of the water, but the Crystal Golem stops him and says the poison is being purged from Asuka, drawn out by the blood sample he had just added, so this isn't a negative effect. The water gets really disgusting and finally the Crystal Golem lifts Asuka carefully from the water and bathes her in light energy. I use Touch My Heart to clear any remaining dark energy from Asuka, I barely get that done before everything around me fades to black and I wake up.

Note: The final presentation is done and over, so the only thing to do for now was to try to get my dream control and recall back So with every intention of recalling dreams tonight, no special plans except to relax a bit after working so hard, and an attempt to WILD, I fell asleep with my light / sound machine on. Unfortunately I was unable to get into my WILD…

I was on a beach, it was nearly sunset, and the only sounds I could hear were the sounds of the waves hitting the shore, the cries of seagulls in the distance, and the sound of a gentle wind blowing in off of the ocean. The scene was very relaxing, which felt good. Even though I didn't realize I was dreaming, I still felt a need for relaxation and rest, so I sat down on the warm sand and stared out over the waves and into the colorful sky with the reds and oranges of the sunset, it was beautiful. I'm not sure how long I sat there and relaxed before I sensed that I was not alone there, there was someone else on the beach with me. I knew I wouldn't necessarily have the beach to myself for long, but I did want to see who I was sharing it with, if it was someone hot… someone creepy… someone with a dog… a psychotic looking clown… yes, that thought did enter my mind… What I did see when I turned around was an older man, he didn't look threatening or psychotic, he was by himself, he looked like an American Indian, and he was gazing off into the sunset just as I was. So I turned my attention from the man and back to the waves, birds, and the sunset.

I now sensed that the Indian man was right behind me, I could feel his gaze as he was looking right at me, and this caused me to turn around again. He was, indeed, staring at me now, and he had a disapproving look on his face. My first thought was that I was trespassing on a private beach, that would definitely explain why there weren't any other people there. He probably wanted me to leave. I felt a mixture of foolishness for wandering onto private property and annoyance at having to leave since I clearly wasn't hurting anything, but I got up, brushed sand off my pants, apologized to the man for trespassing on his beach, and started to walk away. He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, he said he did not own the beach, no one owned the beach. Whew, that was good, so there was really nothing wrong with me being there. The man pointed out to the sea, asking if I saw something wrong. I said no, since I had been staring and not seeing anything wrong. He told me to look again, more closely. I did. The sun was hanging over the ocean, the sky was bright reds and oranges, fading to deep purple and blue overhead, and the waves flowed steadily out to sea… huh? The waves were weird… wrong somehow… I looked closer, and the water seemed to be emerging from the sand itself and flowing out to sea… that wasn't normal, so I did a RC and found I was dreaming…

I looked back at the man now, he said it was about time I became lucid, I found the way he said it to be a bit annoying, but he had made me lucid so I brushed it off. I asked him who he was, he said I should already know that now that I was lucid, unless of course I was completely blind, he said I should look at him and actually see who he was. I was getting a bit more impatient with his attitude, but I still didn't respond to that, resisting an impulse to call him an ass… there couldn't be any benefit to that. I looked at the man, focusing on seeing his energy this time, and I finally decided I was looking at don Juan, but there was something about his energy that was a bit off… right as I thought his energy was off, the frequency conformed to what I thought it should be, he said now I could see him. He pointed back out at the ocean and asked what I saw there… I saw dolphins swimming out in the ocean, so I watched them for a bit and told don Juan about the dolphins I saw even thought I thought he should be able to see them for himself.

I was watching the dolphins still when don Juan slipped a cold glass into my hand, I looked at it and it was full of a drink of some kind, he said to drink it… I sniffed the stuff, wondering what it could be, maybe I'd get my penticon implant to do a spectral analysis on the stuff before drinking it, that way I could be sure it wasn't dangerous… then that felt a bit dumb, I was in a dream, I could eat a cyanide and arsenic sandwich with cobra venom on it and a glass of bleach to wash it down, and it wouldn't be dangerous. It would be disgusting, but not dangerous… besides, I didn't remember any time where don Juan had seemed hostile, so I took a sip of the drink. It was actually pretty good, sweet and fruity, so I drank a bit more and looked back out over the ocean to see if the dolphins were still there.

The red sun was just about gone beneath the surface of the waves, and the full moon was rising a bit to the right of the sun… wtf? How could the moon be rising from the same direction the sun was setting? I rubbed my eyes, looked again, and the sun was rising now, and the moon was setting. Um… ok… well, it was a dream after all… so anything is possible in a dream, the laws of physics are not applicable here. I was absent mindedly drinking the juice when I noticed I felt strange, a bit light headed… wait a minute… the world was spinning, I was losing the dream! Damn! I focused on the moon and willed the dream to stabilize, I wasn't ready to wake up… The sun turned into a giant pacman with fangs and tore a large mouthful out of the moon, red color that looked like blood came out of the torn moon and added even brighter reds to the sky, and it caused the ocean itself to look like it was on fire. The sun ate the rest of the moon in one bite, then hundreds of stars fell from the sky and ate the sun until there was nothing left but a dark night sky filled with stars, although some of those stars were notably fatter than the others. I was just staring at that in silence until I finally muttered a, "What the FUCK was that all about?"

I took another drink and stared at the night sky for a bit longer, waiting for anything else odd to happen, and I felt something bite my lip. I looked in the glass and saw there was not much of the drink left, and there were weird worm things with lots of teeth squirming on the bottom of the glass, looking up at me and snarling, jumping to get to me to bite, one of them was hanging off of my face. I removed the worm, put it back in the glass, and felt like vomiting at the idea I might have actually swallowed one of those things… as I said, things like that won't hurt me in a dream, but it can still be extremely disgusting. I felt light headed and nauseated, what the fuck? I had been poisoned after all, though this guy hadn't seemed hostile in any way, I had been poisoned, I looked over where I knew don Juan was and I saw a clown… a weird clown with so many razor sharp fangs, blood dripping from his fangs… what the FUCK? I thought I was on a beach with don Juan, not Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's It! The clown was grinning at me in a very evil manner, which was weird since the energy I sensed from the clown was still not hostile, maybe a bit amused, but not hostile. My penticon implant spoke to me, saying the foreign substance had been identified and was being neutralized… I closed my eyes and waited until the computer said the neutralization was complete… then I opened my eyes and looked around.

It was dark out now, there were stars in the sky, no sign of the moon, there was a faint red glow on the horizon, dolphins were playing in the ocean as the waves rolled in from the ocean instead of out to the ocean… and don Juan was standing beside me, not Pennywise the Clown, although he did look amused. I realized I was still holding the glass that had the juice in it, but when I looked it was just a bit of juice left, no worms or anything inside it. Hmmm… it seemed I was the butt of some kind of joke here… I took a deep breath and looked over at don Juan, I asked him what the point of that had been, because if it was a poison, he should know I can't be poisoned in the dream state… He looked into my eyes and got a strange look on his face. I had no doubt in my mind that the drink had been poisoned… my penticon said the drink would be safe now, since the substance to neutralize the poison was already in my system. Don Juan was still staring… I commented it's rude to stare… I then commented that the fruit drink was good, asked if he had any more of it… he said sure, and filled my glass from a flask, so I drank down the poison then deliberately smirked… then accidently burped… a long, loud, and embarrassing one that smelled like fruit… I said, "Excuse me," out of habit.

Don Juan asked if I could sense all the different way things are… he said I should be doing it effortlessly now, but… he seemed a bit puzzled… He said I have already done it in dreams, I have seen many worlds at once in the dream state… he indicated the ocean, I saw don Juan standing in front of the ocean (a gunslinger at the edge of a desert) (an old hic at the edge of a swamp) (a fire elemental beside an ocean of lava) (and Indian shaman at a fire at the edge of a thick forest) (a desolate ocean bed with a vampire in front of it) (a massive storm that was blowing with intense force, no sign of don Juan or anyone else) (a battlefield with many dead and dying soldiers lying everywhere, one not far from me was screaming as a vulture was eating him while he still lived as a soldier beside me pointed and laughed) (a field of colorful flowers and a country man standing beside me) (a vast level area of land with an army of Goa'uld marching across it, Teal'c was beside me) There were so many different versions I wasn't able to focus enough to take action in any of them, it was quite disorienting…

Then I heard don Juan speaking to me, focused on that, and pulled myself back into one world, seeing one place, one time… The beach was completely dark now, illuminated only by the dim glow of the stars, my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could see don Juan was still there, and he was speaking. He said I have the ability to see into many worlds at once when in the dream state, and with practice, to take a different action in each one of those worlds, so why hadn't I yet tried to exist in even two worlds simultaneously while awake? I said it was because I would never believe it or trust it to be real. He asked why not, I said I would have no way of being certain I was having an effect on another world or just pulling fictional shit out of my ass. He said I have to learn not to question what my own senses tell me, be they physical senses or other senses, it is completely normal for a nagual to see many planes and interact with them simultaneously… ok, there's your problem… I am not a nagual, if you want to talk to a nagual, maybe I could bring MoSh to this dream… He said he will find MoSh on his own when it is time, but now he was telling me to use the powers I have IWL… I said I have no powers IWL. He said I do have powers there, he said my friend thinks he is full of shit, so was I saying I agree with that, was I also saying he was full of shit? I wondered how he was so sure I have a friend who thinks he is full of shit… he said he wasn't blind, and that is fine if she wants to think that, she will find her own path. So, did my opinion match hers? That he was full of shit? I wasn't sure what to say, I didn't want to be rude and say yes, he's full of shit, but I know I have no powers IWL… so I said nothing.

After waiting for a short time, don Juan said again to use my powers IWL, I repeated I have no power IWL, to me we were both starting to sound like broken records, repeating over and over and over… I was getting impatient. I said of course I have no powers IWL, that's why they locked me into the trash hole of a dimension where I am now imprisoned. I'm not sure why I said someone sealed me in my home dimension… he said the prison couldn't be secure if I was there, on that beach, with him right now… I said apparently there is a breach that allows for dream travels… but on the physical plane, any powers I had have been sealed. He asked who had sealed my powers. I said I didn't know, maybe the Templars? He laughed, said not even close. He said the only one who had sealed my powers in my waking world was me, sealed it with doubt and disbelief, self doubt and refusal to believe in myself, because without those two things nothing will ever be possible. Or, of course, if I prefer to think he is full of shit, then go ask someone else and they will say the same things using different words. I really wasn't sure what to say right now, but I didn't have a chance to say anything before the dream faded and I woke.

Note: This was a night of particularly low recall. I was not successful in my WILD, and I didn't really remember anything for the night until someone mentioned scorpions and that brought back memories of the following dream. So here is my single dream for the night…

I was in a desert location. I wasn't lucid, but for some reason my first thought was of graboids from Tremors, and that led to thoughts of getting eaten by one… which didn't make a lot of sense at all. I pushed the thought out of my mind and looked around, not sure how I had gotten where I currently was. Great. I was lost. I was thinking I had taken a walk from my house and gotten completely lost, even though that has never happened. I usually have a really good sense of direction. I walked for a while. I saw some buildings in the distance. Not too far off. They looked like makeshift buildings made from scrap metal. I wondered if there was even anyone there. I wondered if the buildings were at least located on a main road where I could get my bearings… The entire situation seemed so weird that even though I didn't do a RC, I gained a low level of lucidity…

I went over to the buildings and looked around. At first I didn't see any sign of anyone there, but then I heard people. So I had found someone. I wondered if they would know which way to the main road. I would have preferred to avoid them, but I saw no sign of a main road anywhere. The people were cheering and yelling, sounded like quite a party. But I also heard disappointed groans… I wondered what was going on. I followed the sound and looked out into a fenced area. In the middle of the fenced area there was a crowd of people gathered around something I couldn't see. They were the ones cheering and groaning. I saw money being exchanged. Most likely those who were cheering had won a bet, those groaning had lost a bet. There was a wide variety of people there, men and women, old and young, though there were no children, so I didn't see any problem with approaching them. When I got into the open, a woman spotted me and eagerly invited me over.

"Come on over and join the fun!" she said, "Don't worry if you don't have any money… not everyone is here to place bets. Some of us are just here to enjoy the action." She seemed very friendly and welcoming, so I went over and joined the crowd to see what was going on. She indicated what looked like a miniature boxing ring. It was empty now. She said the next match was about to start. A path through the crowd cleared, and a couple men brought through cages. A rather attractive man with brown hair, and a bald one who had scars on his bald head. They put the cages in the ring and opened the doors with remote controls, then they removed the cages after the occupants of the cages had left. I did a double take… they were scorpions! Not normal small scorpions, but huge ones! Each scorpion was about the size of a Chihuahua! Both the scorpions seemed quite lazy and proceeded to lounge in different parts of the ring. Whatever action these people had expected wasn't going to happen.

The men who had placed the scorpions in the ring didn't seem too pleased. They pulled out cattle prods and started shocking the scorpions, apparently trying to piss them off. Wtf? The scorpions were making loud squealing noises that sounded like pain… I asked no one in particular what those assholes thought they were doing. The woman who had invited me over apparently completely misunderstood my statement and said the shocks would get the critters to fight. People around me were starting to cheer and call out. I didn't like it, not at all. After a couple more shocks the scorpions did lash out at each other, being unable to get to their tormentors, who continued to prod the scorpions to urge them to keep fighting. I pushed my way to the front of the crowd near the attractive man. I grabbed the prod from him. He asked what the fuck I was doing. I asked him how the fuck he would like getting prodded… I poked him with the cattle prod. He jumped back at getting shocked. He grabbed at the cattle prod, but only succeeded in getting himself poked again. He was now cursing fluently at me. A couple men behind me grabbed my arms and the other man took the cattle prod back and proceeded to poke me with it a couple times. It didn't hurt, I just felt a tingly sensation… which wasn't unpleasant. He turned his attention back to the scorpions.

The two men behind me were still holding my arms. I told the man with the cattle prod to stop doing that. The woman who had invited me over told me to relax, they don't feel pain like humans do… and they're just big bugs, so who cares, anyway? I was annoyed at her. I told her they are still living things. One of the men holding me said he had heard of animal rights activists, but bug rights activists? That was a new one on him… Everyone laughed and the two men pulled me out of the crowd and shoved me away, telling me to go cry over bugs somewhere else. Right after that, some of the people cheered and the others groaned, The two men carried the cages out. One was happy and praising his scorpion, while the other was cursing at his bug and saying he would have it chopped into food for his other scorpions.

I followed the men, and they went into the same building. I slipped in before the door closed behind them and locked. It was oppressively hot in there. They put the cages in stacks and then went back outside. People outside were talking loudly and laughing. I heard them laughing at my expense, about how I had opposed abusing scorpions… There were stacks of cages. There were scorpions in all of them. I looked at the two just brought back. Injured scorpions, one near death. I healed them, told them I was there to help so don't go and sting me, then let them out. They quickly headed towards the door. I opened the door and let them out into the desert. I left the door open and opened the other cages, staying clear to avoid being stung. They all headed out to the desert. Some of them headed over towards the group of people. Their laughter turned into screams as they saw the scorpions were loose. There was also a lot of cursing. I looked out and saw people running off into the desert, a few of them trying to fend off scorpions with cattle prods… people getting stung. I wondered if I should feel bad for the people getting attacked… but I found that my 'give-a-damn' was thoroughly busted.

I waited until the place was clear of scorpions, just to be sure they didn't mistake me for one of the people there to watch the fights, then I came out. There were a few people lying on the ground. Most weren't moving. A couple were writhing… they looked very sick… must be the venom. Maybe my 'give-a-damn' wasn't completely busted, since I found it rather disturbing when one of the women crawled over towards me, reached out towards me, "Please… help… me…" and then vomited blood before dying… um… maybe I should've stayed in the building… The other people around me who had been still moving were now also dead. There were dead people and blood everywhere, and I could hear people screaming in the desert at random intervals… were they still being attacked? And it was a bit disturbing… I didn't try to resist it when I felt that I was going to wake up.