Things to Run Away From Really Fast

02/24/11

"When can I schedule an appointment for you?"

Needing a doctor's appointment, but I don't have a day free for a while. I'm working every day this week.

"Why are we walking to the train station?" I ask the nurse.

"I need a light. You don't carry a lighter."

"Only if I'm dreaming," I say, amused, and I snap my fingers. A sliver of bright red flame flares up over my closed fist.

Zippo. Scare Factor: 1.

I just remembered this as I was walking home.

07/10/10

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

The first time I woke up last night, I had such a feeling of contentment and happiness that it was unreal. I couldn't remember the dream that I had, but the feeling followed me throughout the day.

In another dream, I was cradling a piece of wood in my hands. A little piece of the wood was on fire, but the rest wasn't catching. I had to keep the flame going.

I order a DC to find me some kindling, so we can get the fire going properly. I maintain my focus on the spark, keeping the flame alive. The DC comes back with some bark and twigs, and I carefully set down my prize, and feed fuel into the fire.

At one point, the spark goes out, but I will it back into existence.

A Spark. Scare Factor: 1.

I had such a great night, guys. Still, this only slightly counts as a drunk post.

Happy feels like warm red dancing through the darkness.

Monday, June 28, 2010

A couple weeks ago, I implemented a new rule: DC's aren't allowed to drive. Apparently, I'm one to talk.




I decide to give up my job in Quickton. I'm never going to have enough money for this, so it's time to leave. I hop on a bus, going west.

Calgary is on a terrorist alert; somebody tried to get into the States and do something bad. As such, travel into the States is practically cut off for the time being.

I'm on a boat, out in the ocean. It's a small boat, and I'm just sitting on a bench holding my backpack. I might be drawing on my ridiculously oversize tablet. The captain comes up to me and says we're getting close to the path of my next ship, so I should pack up. He hands me a whole bunch of change to cover the fare for the next boat.

I wander onto the second boat with my tablet and my backpack. I'm shown to my room. The room itself keeps changing. There are huge windows looking out into a hallway at first, and the whole hallway is covered in posters. Later, the windows look out over a hostel-style common room that I remember from another dream. I remember thinking that it would be really cool to have one of the rooms overlooking the common room on the second story.

I step through the wall and grab a book from one of the shelves.

---

"They're fucking cannibals! Close the door, close the fucking door!"

This has happened before, I register dimly, we're on another loop. I'm too busy slamming the door on someone's fingers to notice. I kick them free and slam the door again. I'm turning the key on the ignition - Ben, why didn't you turn the car on while I was fighting - and barreling through the two dozen people in front of us. One hits the windshield, scrabbles for purchase, and goes sliding off as we pick up speed.

We're on the highway to Regina. It's night. I'm panicked and trying to decide if I should pull over and calm down or keep driving as fast as I can.

"Slow down," says my brother, "This isn't helping." We're fairly far away from the compound.

I slow down to 110 clicks, but I'm still passing other vehicles. This shouldn't be a double lane highway, should it?

My brother gives me a look.

"Shut up," I say, "The speed limit is 110."

The road is twisty and I'm not sure where the lanes are and I'm starting to get confused. Abruptly, the car takes a random turn to the left, and I'm in the ditch, driving through a field that doesn't feel much different than the road.

We come to a stop on another highway, adjacent to the first.

"Maybe we should go this way?" No response from my brother, so I put the car back in drive and start moving at a reasonable pace.

The road ends. We go flying off of a cliff. I see everything from the third person, the camera angle far above us and looking down at the mountains below.

This wouldn't happen in real life, I reason. This is obviously a dream. I remember making a car fly in one of my previous dreams, so I try to do that now.

I'm alone, falling through the air without a vehicle. I've slowed my descent reasonably, and I land at the base of a cliff crawling with rock climbers.

I ignore them. What were my lucid goals again? Oh yeah, pyrokinesis. I bring my hands together like I'm holding a ball between them, and slowly bring them apart. Nothing's happening.

I take a deep breath, focus on all of the rage and anger and fear that I felt in the previous dream. I bring my hands apart, and this time a chain of beads of fire forms between them. I wave my hands and the fire dissipates.

Huh. Apparently it's easier to summon fire when you're actually being threatened. Good to know.

I grab a cardboard box wedged in the rocks behind me and try to do the same thing. The cardboard smoulders on one edge, but doesn't catch fire.

I climb up the cliff face and sit on one of the ledges. The place has shifted into an immense cavern, and sunlight is streaming in through the many entrances. The rock varies from pure white marble to pale grey granite.

I see a pack of wolves in the distance. They're beautiful. They're on the same level as me. They get closer, and one comes over and sniffs at me. I growl at him, and he dances back, cautious. He comes closer again.

We're standing at the ground level of the cave, trying to communicate. The wolf catches onto English quickly, and soon we're having a conversation that I can't remember.

At the same time, we hear someone approaching in the distance.

"It's a hunter," I tell the wolf. "You should run. Take the rest of your pack with you."

Suddenly, I'm a lot younger, and won't be able to stand up to the hunter.

The hunter shows up and realizes that his quarry got away. He gives me a ride back to town.

"This place is totally empty," he tells me, "You might not be able to get a ride out for a while."

"No worries." I eye the empty stretch of highway, remember what someone said on the forums. I hold my thumb out, and someone shows up within seconds.

I climb into the car with a bunch of girls - there's one seat left - and we drive off to wherever we're going. I try to pay attention to the roads so I can remember how we got there.

---

A dream about a bunch of different worlds. Apparently Aslan kicked everybody (including the animals) out of Narnia. Now talking animals and fairies and Faeries are wandering from world to world, trying to find somewhere to live. So am I, for that matter.

I knock on the door. It opens to a short old woman, who asks what my name is.

"I'm Rory."

"No, you're not," she says, sounding angry. Apparently there's a prophecy about a girl named Rory.

"I'm Rory, but I'm a guy?"

"Oh, well, that's okay then." She invites me inside.

There are fairies in cages. I can see the daring rescue from here.

---

I'm Harry Dresden, and I'm in a city... somewhere. I remember that I was looking for ways to travel in dreams, and I wonder if I can use the Ways through Faerie.

I'm reading the new Dresden Files book. My mom is in the room.

"Oh, come on!" I say. My mom looks up, questioning.

"Everyone is Michael's vessel. Dean Winchester was Michael's vessel. In that last thing I read, Lucifer was Michael's vessel. Now Dresden? This is getting ridiculous."

Besides, Dresden already got possessed by an angel.

My Driving. Scare Factor: 4.

The Ways might be an interesting way of getting around, though. Dissolve the dream, wander through the Void, find what I'm looking for.

(The Void being that blackness that seems to be behind every dream.)

I'm at a track for horse-races, in the back. There are trailers around, and stalls as well. The place is deserted.

I don't know what clued me in to the fact that this was a dream. I think on that for a second, then shrug it off. I've been meaning to try flying. I jump into the air and swoop around for a bit. I remember to try to contain my excitement, but -

New dream. I'm probably ten years old, fighting a friend who has decided to be a witch. It's all in fun, and I trace sigils into the windows and tell her she can't get inside. In retaliation, she sets a bulletin board on fire. All of my photographs go up in flames, and I smother the fire with blue energies that aren't a tiny bit wet.

Fighting Fire. Scare Factor: 2.

I'm at school in Halifax. Now I'm going to school in a mall in Halifax. I have some studio space near the entrance of the mall. It's like a stand at a farmer's market, all open. As usual, I work by spreading all of my stuff over every surface, even infringing on the space of other vendors. Temporarily, I promise.

Now I'm going to class in the mall, but I need a specific kind of button for a project, and I can't find them. Big buttons that you'd find on a velvet jacket? Someone mentioned I should try Buttons R' Us or something, on the second floor. I think I have a vague idea of where it should be, so I'll try it out. I take the stairs, but it's all confusing and I don't know where everything is.

And then I spot the robots. At first, I think they're statues, but they're moving around, each of them patrolling a little corner of their own. They seem to be placed at major exits and intersections in the mall. This... could be a problem.

I'm young, maybe ten years old. I'm in a church, sitting in the back row and threading a leather string through the covers of the bibles/hymn books stacked in piles beside me. The other people are being led in the lord's prayer, but I can always say I didn't know it. I'm so engrossed in my work that I don't notice that the service is over and the priest is standing nearby. My friend who dragged me here is sitting beside me, and her mother is in one of the aisles, looking on disapprovingly. And this feels like deja-vu.

It's a surprise when I realize that the priest isn't mad. He's curious, more like, wondering what I've been doing. At one point, I show him that I can lift the books without touching them. Up, up, up, and they fall to the floor. He isn't angry. He tells me that I'm having trouble holding them steady, right? To hold them in one place, I need to harness the potential energy that they have while being held up. They're at rest; they just need to stay that way. I try again, this time doing as he says, and it works beautifully.

I'm somewhat aware that I look like Jubilee. I'm back in the mall, surrounded by Sentinels. I still need to get to class, but somehow that seems like less of a priority at the moment.

At one point, the sentinels are on high alert, and I hear a transmission over the radio, telling all mutants to either get out of the mall, or find refuge in one of the stores (apparently a safe-zone). Not everyone can hear the announcement, I realize. I've been using the stairways that don't seem to be guarded. I spot a Subway nearby.

On the way, I notice that a bunch of the buttons I've been looking for have spilled across the hallway. I decide that picking them up would attract attention, because this is somehow a trap. I discretely pull several buttons from the floor and place them in the pocket of my long jacket, before realizing that this could have been a trap as well, and I probably won't be able to use the buttons for my project.

I make my way to the Subway, even if I'm not hungry, and realize that I don't have enough cash (only change from the last dream), and I'll have to use my debit card. (Wait, I might have a ten.) I stay in the Subway after ordering, until I get bored and annoyed and decide to take out one of the Sentinels on my own.

I manage to separate and corner one away from the rest, outside. It tells me it has a picture of me in its memory, and I'll be hunted now anyway. I realize that's true, so I tell it that I've been wearing a mask the whole time. And now I have been.

Fire's supposed to work well against them for some reason, but my pyrokinesis is on the fritz (read: weak). I'm joined by a boy of about ten who fancies himself a superhero, and helps me cause damage to the thing. It's not fighting back much. I lift the Sentinel about ten meters into the air and let it crash back to the ground. The boy and I then use our limited fire-powers to melt the Sentinel's internal systems and then go investigate it's car.

We find something surprising, and decide it would be a great idea to go back into the mall and pretend to be a part of an anti-mutant demonstration UNTIL THE TIME IS RIGHT TO STRIKE!

Homicidal Robots, Mutant-icidal Robots? Scare Factor: 2.