New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

07/28/13

Tigress in the Springs
I wake up in bed and roll over. I am about to go back to sleep when I realize I am not in my own waterbed. I also notice that even though I have my eyes closed I can see the light is on in the room. I open my eyes and find out that I am in the bedroom of my dreamscape. I recognize the place right away and I sit up in bed. There is a black cat on my bed with me.

The cat comes over to me and purrs softly. I pet the cat for a bit and then get up. I look around the room, almost certain that something strange is going to happen. I'm not sure what I expect… something Templar related most likely. The cat jumps down from the bed and walks across the room to a door. The cat sits beside the door and meows. I open the door and the cat heads down the hall. It is a long hall with no doors on either side. The cat is moving rather quickly and I have to hurry to keep up. The cat reaches the end of the hall and scratches on a door. I go to open the door, but it is locked. The cat meows a bit impatiently. I focus on the door for a bit and then I use the alohomora spell from the Harry Potter books. The door clicks unlocked. I open the door and enter the next room. I recognize this next room from dreamscape as well. It is the living room area where my name is written on the wall. It says "Raven Knight Is Free" in black marker. That doesn't seem like what should be written there… it has changed somehow. I look around the room to find the cat. The black cat is grooming itself on the couch. Is this the destination room? I look back at the graffiti. Now it says "Raven Knight Is Infected" on it. Infected? Infected with what? The writing on the wall morphs. Now it says "Mercer Virus" in block letters. I think about that for a minute, but it seems I already knew that… clear to the point where I have used Prototype abilities in dreams. The writing on the wall morphs again. Now it says "Sometimes the disease is the cure," in fancy cursive writing. The disease is the cure… the Mercer Virus is a cure for something? A cure for what? The writing morphs. It changes to "Raven Was Here" which looks like what it is supposed to be. I hear an insistent meow from the other side of the room. I follow the sound and find the cat beside a staircase. The stairs lead up. I follow the stairs up and into a TV room. The television is a large flat screen, and it is turned on, but there is only static on the screen. This room also looks familiar from the dreamscape. The cat jumps up on a chair and curls up. I look at the television and will it to change channels. The image on the screen changes to show a hot spring. I remember saying I was going to meet Tigress there for healing.

I approach the television and find it is a window I can step through. I step through the television and into the biodome near the hot springs. I look around to see if there is anyone else there. I see Tigress in the hot springs relaxing. I go over near her and focus on the song Voices to heal some pains she has been having. She doesn't seem to notice me. I slip into the healing springs, it is warm and comforting. I sink to the bottom. I look up and I see Winter floating in the water. I swim back up towards her and then float beside her while I focus on Voices again to help her with her fibromyalgia. When I stop swimming I sink back to the bottom. I swim back up towards Winter and finish the song before sinking yet again. I wonder why I keep sinking… but then I wake.
 
Moving Day
I am with my mother and we are driving through Tucson looking for a new house. I have no idea why we are moving, but it seems I periodically have dreams of moving to a new and larger house. We are looking for a rather large home on a large plot of land. We soon spot the house we are looking for up on a hill overlooking the city down below.

We drive up to the home and park in the long curved driveway. The two of us go up to the house and ring the bell. A woman answers the door and lets us in. She is tall, unbelievably tall, and has long golden blonde hair. She is holding an adorable little tortoiseshell kitty cat. I immediately think of Amber. My sweet little Amber. Apparently the woman notices me looking at the kitty because she asks if I want to hold her. I say yes, and she hands me the cat. The cat looks at me and begins to purr as I pet her. I tell the woman about the cat's resemblance to my lost cat Amber. My mom and I start looking around the house, I take the cat with me. She continues to purr. The house is even bigger inside than it looks outside. I finally put the cat down when she begins to wiggle. I look out the back sliding door and I see a pool outside. The view is great, I can see the entire city stretched out below. The air looks surprisingly clear today. My mom is talking to the woman. She is saying we will take the house. As we are leaving my mom tells me that we'll have to spend the night in a hotel because she already sold the old place. I wonder where the dogs and cats are. When I ask my mom she says they'll be fine but doesn't really answer me. She takes me to a hotel and then leaves. I go into my room and find I am not alone there. My ex boyfriend James is there with his new wife Tina. I wonder why I am there with them. There are two rooms connected with a bed in each room. I am to use one of the beds. Annoying, but for one night I can handle it. So I go into one of the rooms and lie down to go to sleep. I hear James and Tina having sex in the other room. Yuck. Not what I wanted to hear. Finally they go silent. Then I feel someone slid into bed with me. What the fuck? I look and see it's Tina. What is she doing here? Did she get pissed at James for poor performance? I am so tired I am about to put up with that when James joins us. What do they want? A threesome? No way! I get out of the bed. I'm going somewhere else. I'd rather sleep in a dumpster. James and Tina get up. James asks me where I'm going. A man enters the room and looks at them. I recognize Alex Mercer from Prototype, but somehow this isn't odd enough to make me do a reality check.

James says my new boyfriend there can join us… Alex looks kind of confused, then pissed off. I have enough time to think he is chronically pissed off before he goes right over to James and calls him a lying sack of shit, throws him on the ground, pounds the shit out of him, and consumes him. Tina rolls her eyes and says James has always been such a wuss when it comes to fighting. Alex looks puzzled and then grabs and consumes Tina. He looks over at me and says they weren't real… there was nothing there. I don't answer, I am too busy staring at a smear of blood on the ground that is all that remains of James and Tina, and I find myself laughing. They weren't real? Maybe they were never real… "I just made you up to hurt myself…" lyrics come to mind, part of the song Only by the Nine Inch Nails, I find myself singing a slightly altered version. "I just made them up to hurt myself, I just made them up to hurt myself… and it worked." Alex is giving me a really strange look when I wake up.

 
DDO Prototype
I am in a green field outside of a walled city. I look around to see where I am and I see there is a gate into the city that is closed tight. I wonder if I will be able to get into the city. I head over to the gate and look to get inside. There is a guard at the gate that looks down and asks who I am. When I don't answer right away he says I don't look like a minion of the Devourer. The Devourer? I am in a virtual reality video game! I look at the city wall, marveling at the graphic detail of this game. My thoughts are distracted when the guard says he can let me in as long as I hurry and give up any weapons when I come in. He says that goes for both of us. Both of us? I turn to look behind me and I see Alex Mercer from the game Prototype. I do a double take at that. He is looking around as if he is not sure where we are any more than I am. So now I have both DDO and Prototype? A virtual reality crossover game! Awesome! I look past Alex at the horizon where I see smoke rising. I ask the guard what that is. He says it is the Devourer encampment. He says he hopes those fires aren't burning the hostages… I ask what hostages. He says that they have taken some villagers as hostages. He says they will burn the hostages alive if they don't hand over the sigil stone… which they can't do… but they don't have the soldiers to get through the enemy forces and reach the hostages. Rescue the hostages. Sounds like that's the quest. I'm not sure what Alex intends to do, but I tell the guard that I'll bring the hostages back. The guard asks if I am crazy. I tell him I'll show him crazy. I look towards the smoke in the air and then head in that direction, taking flight as I go. I hear the guard say, "What in Tarinthia?!" as I get out of earshot. I look down below me and I see Alex is keeping up with me easily and then he pulls ahead. I speed up my flight using energy. Alex comes to a stop just before the land drops into a canyon, I land beside him. The smoke is coming from various camp fires down below. I see an array of enemies camped out there. Quite a few sahuagin gathered around a river that flows through the center of the canyon, which is quite wide.

The enemies on the other side of the river seem to be primarily humans dressed in Devourer robes. I see a cave on the far wall that is quite a ways up the side of the cliff, there are bars on the entrance. I figure they must have the hostages in there. Alex says it doesn't look like there's so many of them and then jumps off the cliff. He glides out over a group of sahuagin and drops lightning down on them. I hear the song Battery by Metallica. The sahuagin are water elementals, and particularly susceptible to lightning… fried sahuagin. I am thinking he just used Battery by Metallica… and that's not normal for Alex Mercer. He lands in the area that the lightning cleared and launches a tendril devastator attack that catches sahuagin in a larger radius and even some of the Devourer minions beyond the sahuagin. Now that's more normal for Alex Mercer. The enemies are just now managing to react to the new arrival, though they don't seem too organized. The enemies have officially been caught with their pants down. I jump out over the canyon, flying, and dropping Damage, Inc. fireballs down on enemies as I go. I land in a burned area where a fireball hit and use Phantom Lord to clear a larger area with a wall of fire. Enemies quickly start closing in again. I wish I could use the tendril devastator right now… but why not? If this mod allows for Alex to use Battery… so without really considering how I to do it I set off a tendril devastator and clear a large area of enemies.

There are far fewer enemies now, and they seem confused as to where the attacks are coming from since they seem to be everywhere at once. I see Alex grab a guy in Devourer minion robes that are fancier than the rest of them, probably one of the higher ups, and consume him. I form a sword with Witchblade and fight off two Devourer minions attacking me with spears. Alex is coming right at me now, he takes off and flies right over my head to land beyond me and head for the far wall of the canyon. He jumps up to the cave entrance where the hostages must be being held. I follow after him, fighting through a couple remaining Devourer minions on my way. When I get there I jump towards the entrance, intending to fly the rest of the way, but I reach the entrance with a jump. The gate to the prison has been pulled off of its hinges and tossed aside. I go into the inner cavern that is lit by torches in the walls. I get there just in time to see Alex push a couple hostages out of the way before grabbing a man and quickly consuming him. WTF? "What'd you do that for?!" I yell over the noise made by surprised hostages. I wonder why Alex is killing hostages. In response to what Alex did the other hostages are now clambering over each other in an attempt to get away making it hard for me to get through to Alex. I finally get through into an area around Alex that is now clear. He starts pushing his way into the crowd as if looking for someone specific. He finally grabs one hostage and drags him out into the open area. It looks like he is going to consume that one, too, so I yell at him to stop it. He stops and gives me a dirty look before throwing the hostage over to me and saying he is a traitor who set these people up to be captured. He says to just consume the bastard then I'll know the truth. I say no, I won't do that. The man says Alex is insane, working for the Devourer. A woman asks if he didn't see what happened to Brindle… then says she thinks Alex actually is the Devourer. Alex is just watching me, seeming not to notice the hostages climbing on each other to get as far away from him as the cavern will allow. I hear someone at the exit yell to stop pushing followed by a scream. Great… the hostages are making like lemmings. I realize I am still holding on to the hostage Alex threw at me. He says I can't possibly believe that insane monster, can I? He says Alex ate Brindle! He's not human! Damn… easily solved. I do a telepathic scan of his mind. I see him leading some people down into the canyon… then it is blocked off by the image of a mind flayer.

The hostages are freaking out… gotta get them out of here. I focus on opening a portal leading to just outside the city gates. It opens. I tell the hostages that is their way home. Being used to magic, no one questions that and they all go through the portal quickly. The man I'm still holding tries to go but I don't let go of him. He tries to pull away but I hold him easily. The portal closes leaving Alex, me, and the one hostage remaining in the cavern. The man says I can't possibly believe that monster over there… I use a quick song spell of Liberate by Disturbed and try to scan his mind again. Maybe the mind flayer was controlling him? This scan produces no more information, just an image of a mind flayer. Of course the few images I had gotten do look a bit incriminating… He tries once more to get free before pulling out a dagger and trying to stab me with it, calling me a fucking bitch and saying the Devourer will rule all. His stab is blocked by Witchblade. When the attack fails he seems to be panicking, though he really just seems to be afraid of Alex. He keeps saying to keep that thing away from him. He then stabs himself with his dagger, apparently preferring to die over being forced to talk. But damn, I wanted to know what had been going on! Without really thinking about it I consume the guy… and find out he had been working for the Devourer willingly, no mind control involved, just simple greed. He and his friend had actually prevented an earlier escape attempt, resulting in three of the hostages being burned alive. Alex says that wasn't so hard. I curse at myself for doing what I said I wouldn't do. Alex asks why I automatically assumed he was lying. I don't know what to say about that. I have to force myself to look into Alex's eyes. It looks like he is somewhat annoyed, but I can also see an inner flame. It seems to be burning pretty bright. That's something I am glad to see. He still wants to know why I assumed he was lying. I still have no answer, then I wake up.