New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

07/09/13

Hug-a-Stranger Day
I am at a T intersection of an alley way. The passages extend to my left and right, and the passage in front of me leads to a street that appears deserted. I do not recognize where I am, though it never occurs to me that I might be dreaming. I am still there trying to figure out where I am when a man comes around the corner.

He pauses briefly and looks at me strangely. He seems somehow familiar, but I just can't think of his name or of where I might have seen him before. I notice that he doesn't look too good… he is moving like he has been badly injured and might collapse at any point. I find myself wishing I had my healing powers in my waking life. I feel I would really like to use my healing powers to heal this man even though I can't remember who he is. I hear someone on the main street approaching from the left. It sounds like a lot of someones. I wonder who that might be. Are they the ones responsible for this man's current condition? If so, they almost surely want to finish him off. I figure maybe I can't heal him, but maybe I can help him get to a place to hide until the enemies go away. The man is making his way towards me, so I go over to him and start helping him farther back into the alley. We get near the back of the alley; I stop to look around for someplace to get him out of sight. I hear the people chasing after him getting closer. The man is now standing behind me as I try a door that is partially hidden behind a dumpster. It is unlocked. I wonder if the people behind him could be dumb enough to miss the door. Maybe I could stay outside and misdirect them. I turn around to find the man right in front of me looking at me strangely. He says he really wishes he didn't have to do this but he can't let "them" have their way. I figure he means the people behind him. Then he hugs me. He gives me several firm squeezes and then lets me go. Now he looks puzzled and a bit alarmed. He says something didn't work, and it might be too late, could it be he's just not strong enough now? There's no time to find out what he's talking about or why he hugged me… is this some kind of Hug a Stranger Day? I tell him the door is unlocked, go in, and I'll try to misdirect his pursuers. He hesitates, looking at me strangely one more time before disappearing through the door. The door closes and I get out from behind the dumpster just as a couple men enter the alley. The man in front, who is clearly in charge, says it they almost have the bastard, don't let him get away!

Looking to delay them, I go over and hug the guy in charge. He pushes me away and asks what the fuck I am doing. I tell him I thought it was Hug a Stranger Day since that guy that just went by gave me a big hug. The man laughs, he says that guy wasn't giving me a hug… he was trying to consume me to make himself stronger… though he has no idea why it failed. Consume? My mind is starting to process slowly… The man identifies himself as being with Blackwatch and says it is important that I tell him which way this rogue hugger went. Blackwatch… consuming… wait… I'm dreaming! I do a reality check by pinching my nose and I can still breathe. I point to my right and say he went that way. I say I hope they get that asshole who tried to kill me. They head off in that direction. Of course I now realize the asshole who tried to hug me was Alex Mercer… But I don't feel angry at all, just glad that this means I can use my healing powers… and I love my Witchblade, which I am sure blocked Alex's attempt to consume me. I go to the door and go in, wondering how far Alex might have gotten… He hasn't gone very far. He is sitting on the ground a short ways inside. I wonder what Blackwatch could have done to get him in such a state. So I go over to him, he seems partly conscious and maybe resting, waiting to regenerate. I focus on the song Voices from Macross Plus, using the energy to speed up the healing process. He quickly heals and soon looks like his normal self. He asks what I just did… I tell him I'm a healer, so I used my healing energy. And Blackwatch is out chasing a wild goose… idiotic Templars… He starts to say something about what happened earlier, but I tell him I don't have time to stick around… I'm about to wake up. He looks puzzled at that statement and then I wake.
 
Poke… Poke…
I am walking down a city street in a city I don't recognize, though this doesn't seem strange to me. I am walking when I reach a spot where an alley branches off to the left. There is also a door to a business on each side of the alley. A large dumpster is sitting just inside the alley. For some reason I pause there for a few minutes. As I am trying to figure out where I am going I hear someone behind me yelling for help. I turn and look to see a normal looking man in black slacks and a blue shirt running down the sidewalk. He is pushing people out of his way and asking for help. Everyone he asks for help just turns away, however, clearly not wanting to get in on whatever trouble this man happens to be in. I think that is pretty pathetic, and when the man gets to me I ask what the problem is, is there someone chasing him? He says yes, there is someone chasing him… a mad man… he can't let that man catch him or he will be killed. The man says no, it's worse than being killed… he's heard that the man behind him will eat him alive. I am less inclined to take him seriously now that he's said the man chasing him is a psychopathic cannibal. He must notice the look on my face because he says he is being serious, there has to be somewhere to hide. He says he has to hide, all he needed was for me to not tell that monster behind him where he is hiding. He asks me for a promise, which I give. I promise I won't tell anyone where you hide. After a brief hesitation he says the hot air in the sun-warmed dumpster should help mask his body heat. So now he's also being chased by a predator?

I consider that this man might be on drugs… He goes right over to the dumpster and climbs in. I am standing there watching the dumpster, wondering how long that man intends to stay in the trash, when another man comes down the street in a big hurry. I can clearly see he is neither a monster nor a predator. Of course I can't tell if he might be a cannibal… He looks vaguely familiar but I can't place his name. He is wearing a brown hoodie under a black leather jacket.

Since most bystanders left when the first man was calling for help, I am the only one standing here now. The man who just arrived asks if I saw a man in a blue shirt and black pants come through here. I am not sure what to say. I don't feel at all certain what to do. The man in front of me says the one he's after couldn't have gotten out of sight yet, he wants me to tell him where the man is hiding… I must have seen. I make an effort not to look at the dumpster though I am still uncertain. I ask the man why he is searching for the man hiding. He says he just has a few questions to ask and he thinks that man has some answers. I tell him I can't say, I promised not to. I turn to walk away. When I turn the man grabs me from behind and covers my mouth with one hand and pokes me in my lower back with the other. WTF? So I elbow him in the crotch with my left elbow. That seems totally ineffective, and he pokes me a couple more times. His hold loosens and I use a move I learned in self defense class to spin around and kick him squarely in the crotch as hard as I can. He doesn't seem to care about that, though he does look very puzzled now. I ask what the fuck he's poking me for then I poke him twice in the chest… trying not to show my own bafflement at how the kick to the crotch did nothing. Maybe he doesn't even have balls? A somewhat fat and very smelly man comes out of one of the businesses. He says he can take me somewhere that lowlifes won't bother us. He lurches forward and grabs my breast. I kick him in the balls… he doubles over in pain and throws up. I comment mostly to myself that the technique still works… thus the man who poked me must have no balls. He doesn't seem to care about that statement; he grabs me by my collar and actually lifts me off my feet. I am looking directly in his eyes now, and I would not have any problem believing he is the psychopathic cannibal the first man said he was. I don't remember when I have ever seen someone with such lifeless empty eyes. It was like looking into an abyss, and the abyss was looking back at me. He asks again where the first man went. I tell him fuck off, you piece of trash. But this time I feel my gaze shift towards the dumpster briefly. He sets me down and heads over to the dumpster. I call him an asshole loudly enough for people on the other side of the street to hear. He doesn't even look back at me. He opens the dumpster and looks in, then drags the first man out by his neck. I wonder if I should try to intervene… I wonder if I could do any good, since I still don't realize I'm dreaming. The man in the blue shirt calls for help again, and then I hear him begging the asshole not to do it. I figure he means don't kill him. I head towards the two of them, thinking I can't just stand by if the asshole is going to kill the other man. I stop when the asshole throws the other man on the ground and literally beats him into a bloody pulp. Then the asshole actually absorbs the other man's body into his own body. It is truly disgusting. It looks like Alex Mercer consuming someone in Prototype… wait a minute… I do a reality check by pinching my nose, I can still breathe. It didn't just look like Alex Mercer consuming someone… that's exactly what it was! He takes off and runs up a tall building. I take flight and follow after him. I am already focusing on the song Touch My Heart from the Devil Hunter Yohko soundtrack. I fly up over the top of the building as the song is playing; Alex has stopped and is watching me. The song continues, golden energy surrounds and flows through Alex as usually happens. The song finishes. I want to see if it worked. I want to look at his eyes again and see if there's still nothing there… but I don't get a chance to before I wake.