Into the Ether

A couple friends and I are working on a shared dreaming project. One which involves a still standing Castle in Europe and using it as a home base.

1. Visiting a place near a body of water. Looked like our Home Castle, yet different in certain ways. I never went inside, but there was water surrounding the property, clear water, fresh (didn't look like the pictures we viewed.) On the edges of the water had a lot of plants and vegetation, it actually could have passed for a luxury hotel. I'm with others. We board a medium sized water vessel with a group of people and visited a nearby island. Sen (?) and I went swimming underwater, think Wg was nearby too. I watched as someone transformed themselves into a barracuda type fish. Other fish swam away, haha. Then I changed too. Shortly after the island adventure I'm standing in front of a woman with another man. She tells him that it's too bad he's not taller with blonde hair. Odd.

2. When we were done we went back to the Castle. I was running around searching for something. Forgot what. Eventually I find a puppy and recall floods in. I realize I was at the Castle earlier in dreaming and now I'm trying to figure out a way to keep the recall (lol), thinking that none of this will be remembered (LOL). I'm also either trying to get a message from the puppy or I'm trying to give it a message for Wg and Sen. It was small, mostly white with brown spots.

3. Some point along the night I was in Egypt. There was a ceremony but also a disruption. I vaguely recall racing through corridors trying to escape something (come to think of it, that may have been the caves.)

4. Then at another point I'm driving and manage to crash about three vehicles, moving from one to the next. When I crashed the third I realized perhaps driving isn't the best thing for me to be doing. I seem to be having a bad string of luck with cars/motorcycles. The final vehicle I crash I'm able to move with my mind to get it out of the way of other traffic (I was in a one-lane area of a very busy highway.)

5. I'm on a stretch of road and climb into the back of a parked truck. There's something inside I'm going after. I find it, it's a clear large vial/jar. I read the label on it, it's a lethal virus (can't recall the name.) I'm careful as I open it, vapor streams from the opening. I hold my breath, thinking that might help. I remove the lid completely, invert it, insert a long tube then replace the lid. Hop out and run back to a waiting car (think Sen was driving).

6. I make my way inside a nearby university/Castle? I talk to a few people, then a male professor, then I find an Indian woman sitting in a large open room on the steps. I sit down near her and we speak respectfully. (Felt like the Priestess). She's heavy-set, older, tan skin (first time I've seen her in human form, usually it's whispy ethereal forms.) She shows me something, she takes a piece of what looks like coal and ingests it. It enters her body and I can see the reaction in her, smoke begins pouring from skin, it's eating her flesh from the looks of it. I'm concerned at this point, standing up about to try and assist, when she stands up and then shits out the piece of coal. Her body returns to the prior healthy appearance and she smiles at me. Again, I think this was another lesson for me but again, the lesson is difficult to grasp. A woman of very few, if any, words.

The hopelessness seeps through the armor I've molded for myself, it eats away at my flesh as though it were acid.

I'm not returning there.

Escaping thoughts of the past, I feel it pulling me, dragging me back into the darkness. Grabbing the most solid image I can, I escape it before I'm submerged into the depths.

I see a friend, M, I haven't spoken to in a very long time. Make a proposal to him.

"I need your help."

"Ok."

"It's just, there's an issue-- wait, you just said ok?"

"Yes."

"Do you know why I'm here?"

"Yes."

He touches me on the side of my head and images begin to flicker within my mind.

I see us together, from his perspective. I'm sitting in front of him, talking, when black almost formless figures begin seeping into the space from behind me. I haven't seen them yet but he has. Before either of us do anything I watch as I'm being dragged away, down into the floor, past the floor, fighting against them. He tunnels after, trying to follow.

He pulls his hand from my temple.

"Wonderful! I don't have to explain then."

I just need a quiet, safe place to go over my methods. Being dumped into pointless dream after pointless dream means I waste energy leaving those dreams instead of thinking of a long term plan. The illusions are busy work. I need time, my friend can buy me more time.



He agrees. I head off to resolve the issue. I find a couple friends, one of which is the person I was looking for, Sen. Sen and others are here, in a hotel rooms of sorts. Waiting. Sen gets a phone call, it's time to move.

We leave and as I get downstairs there's a bus waiting. Sen ushers me onto it, I worry I forgot my phone but then as I dig around for it, I hear them shouting at me to get on. I do.

Once my foot touches the platform the bus moves. I struggle to pull myself fully on board. I assumed they'd come with me but they're not. I find a seat.

Looking out the windows it's clear we're speeding. Then we're going faster, fast enough to blur the images. It almost looks like we're in New York. Then the environment changes to more Asian influences. The bus stops. I get off. There are Chinese people nearby. I silently walk past them.

Eventually I arrive in a room, like an observatory. There's a large pole in the middle of the room as well as Sen's ancestor, a Voodoo Priestess I had met a number of times before.

A dead body is moved along the floor, then up against the wall, then overhead, only to be hit by an oncoming object from the opposite direction. The body bounces and returns to the original location. Then another sequence begins, this time the force has more impact to the body.

After the second sequence, lightning strikes the top of the pole, many bolts of lightning. I watch it, trying to understand.

"Don't look at the pole, this part will damage your (she either said mind or eyes)."

Quickly I look away, assuming it was one of those rules like don't stare at the sun.

Soon after this session fades, I'm in the mountains, trying to escape again. The area is too large to explore so I use a method similar to google maps. I drop a pin into a location, land there, observe the routes it leads to, then pick the pin up and redrop it someplace else. There's a specific exit I'm searching for.

Finding the direction I want I leave. I arrive at a lake with a friend. We jump from the top of a waterfall before other smaller issues arise.

As the night begins I find myself suckered into cleaning up a Spring Break motel room after an escapade of filthy sex. Not my own mind you, I was hired. As I'm digging through the mess, I find odd items. Old toys which I can't make sense of. Staying here seems like a waste of time. I look for an exit but two men interfere with my departure. They tell me I have a job to do. I tell them no, I don't. I head back into the room and they leave yet remain nearby. I manage to rip a hole in the wall and leave that way.

I emerge into an old home of mine. I walk around. My close friend, K, is already here. She wants Starbucks again. We walk downstairs to the Starbucks, she gets her drink but I have a nagging feeling I can't get rid of.

We go back upstairs and I sense it again. Something is following me. Something dark and heavy but I can't see it and it doesn't interact with me.

I ignore it since I can't pinpoint it. I go into a bedroom to rest. I fall asleep and wake up looking at a computer screen. People are chatting, I'm reading the lines of text, nothing out of the ordinary for chat rooms. Until a symbol shows up on the screen.

A glowing red eye appears at the bottom of the page and the chatter picks up. I look at the name next to the eye and it's Mzzkc. I lean away from the screen. Look left then right. Hrm.

I haven't typed anything into chat yet and don't feel like I should. I'm about to log out when suddenly I get an invitation to join a call. Silently I click 'accept' and wait.

Mzzkc is in the middle of talking to a group of us about a video game he's designed. I can't recall specifics, it was nerd-speak on the mechanics of it but I understood enough to know he was talking about the 'how' in regards to the creation of the game.

A moment later I'm pulled through the screen of my computer and am within the game. Others are here with me and we're standing while listening to Mzzkc continue his lecture. I'm still decently confused of the 'how' and the 'why' behind this but don't mind it enough to leave yet.

Along the way we passed through a barricaded hallway. I stared at the barricade for a long while, trying to make sense of the mess. Many fire extinguishers and boxes. . . varying types and sizes for both.

We're doing a walk through of the progression of the game. We're guided through a school, eventually finding our way to a laboratory with a medical chair in the middle of the room. We walk into a connected room with windows and vials bordering the walls. As we walk around this area a werewolf looking character emerges. Startled, I prepare to fight it but soon realize it's not real. Sort of like a hologram or a replica of the real thing. The attention to detail in the character is impressive, in fact everything so far holds an excessive attention to detail.

I haven't said much so far but decide to walk out. I walk down a driveway and then continue along the side walk for a short distance.

"Hey, wait up."

Mzzkc is walking on the grass at an angle before arriving in front me. He keeps walking, says something, then points out the snake nest to my right.

"They won't bother you if you don't bother them." He points right in front of me.

I look down. There's a couple coral snakes that I would have stepped on with my next step if he hadn't pointed them out.

Slowly I step away but one of the snakes takes an interest and follows me. I slowly shift directions but the snake moves for me. I'm forced to jump to avoid it, when I land it comes at me again, I jump again and the cycle repeats a few times before I ask for help.

Mzzkc catches it attention and it follows after him, which gives me enough time to leave.

I'm now in a house nearby, safely away from the snakes. Then I see some kids running outside as I run inside. I'm concerned they'll run into the nest and head out after them.

Turns out they've found a snake and they're hovering over it, staring at it curiously.

I walk over and get to them before they've touched it, managing to pick the snake up and hold it near the neck.

I can't seem to keep a solid grip on it and the longer I hold the snake, the more the flesh degrades and falls apart. Yet it's still alive and able to strike so I continue to hold it, considering tossing it but aren't sure the risks involved with tossing it free. I become worked up with holding it and eventually break down.

"Mzzkc!"

"Mzzkc!"

"Mzzkc!!!"

He comes running out of the house I was just in, passes through the garage, and comes to help take the snake from me. Just in time for me to wake up.

Notes from a couple nights ago:

Walking in downtown. Sad about recent things. Happy about others. A project I was invested in for the past three months has finally been completed. Knowing it was a temporary project I knew it would end at some point so I was careful about over investing of myself. Yet when all was said and done, my objective completed, I couldn't help but feel the odd emotion of sadness. The people are what I miss. The person I was able to portray, that character is also somebody I will miss.

Now I'm left to my own devices again. Another successful assignment and yet I don't quite understand why I feel the way I do. I was successful. Everything I set out to do has been completed. It was a win. I should be elated and patting myself on the back.

Strangely, I'm not.

That is a lifetime I would enjoy living but again, I can't settle into that lifetime. Any lifetime. I must move on to the next assignment. Must remain unattached.

What comes next is a wave of oddities.

One dream I'm on an airplane disposing of drunken pilots. Another I'm with a friend from the assignment I just completed and entertaining her ideas for being a teacher. Another dream I'm with an old boss and assisting her in building her team and office. Then at another point I'm with that same boss, doing a poor job of driving a vehicle she asked me to drive, running into old men at the bottom of a drive way and then having the car vanish only to have trouble ascending the drive way.