Thread: Raven Knight's Dream Travels

Hm, I thought you said you were going to check out the Dream Wheel stuff?

I was lying in bed. I woke up and rolled over to go back to sleep. Then something soft, wet, and squishy hit me in the face! It felt like a wet sponge. It smelled fruity. It talked!

"This is a dream!" it said.

"What the hell?!" I asked as I sat up in bed and picked up the squishy thing. It felt like a nerf ball. It was hard to see in the dim light. It smelled like grapes. It smelled kind of good, actually. As I was examining the ball another one hit me in the side of the head.

"You are dreaming!" it said.

I picked that one up, too. It smelled like raspberries. I threw both balls back in the direction they had come from. Both of them hit something…

"This is a dream!" the first one said.

"You are dreaming!" the second one said.

I heard laughing from at my door. I peered into the darkness to see who was there. I could make out a silhouette of a man. He was the one who was laughing. I asked him what was so funny. He asked me if I was going to do a reality check. I went ahead and did a nose-pinch reality check. I was dreaming!

I wanted to see the man better. A light came on in my room. It was Nomad! He was holding the two nerf balls now. I wondered if I had hit him with them. I told him this was a dream. He said he knew. I said we should do something cool. He said we were going to check on Portalboat, remember? To see if something was blocking them from sharing dreams? I remembered what he was saying and said ok. Nomad said he thought he could find Portalboat so he would open that portal. He opened a portal and we went through it…

On the other side of the portal we were standing outside a house. There was a strange man standing there looking at the house. He was holding some kind of strange weapon. I walked right over behind the man and looked at the house with him.

"What 'cha looking at?" I asked the man in a curious manner.

"There's a dreamer in this house," the man said, "and there's no way he's getting out of here without going past me first."

"Why are you blocking him?" I asked.

"I'm going to give him a nightmare like he's never experienced before," the man said, "I can imagine it now… the fear, the delicious fear…"

I thought it was interesting that he had been answering my questions just as if he knew me without even looking over in my direction. "What would you say if I told you that's not going to happen?" I asked the man.

"What?" he asked, looking at me for the first time, "Of course it's going to happen!" I smiled at him.

"That's not going to happen," I repeated, "because I'm going to kick your worthless ass right out of here."

"You haven't got a chance," the man said. I yawned dramatically.

The man was annoyed, "You've done it now," he said. He summoned up a bunch of others like himself. There were lots of them everywhere. The man said he would just take care of me before giving the idiot in the house nightmares. He saw Nomad for the first time. He now announced that we would both have our asses kicked.

The fight really didn't last long. Those guys liked to talk tough but there wasn't much behind that talk. I formed a sword from Witchblade and took them out like that. Nomad was a werecat and he was tearing them apart with his claws. The last remaining man was the one who had been watching the house. Now it looked like he was the one afraid. I told him it looked like there would be a nightmare, but he was the one having it. He was trying to make a deal with us, but he didn't get too far into it before Nomad ran a sword right through his head. The man was incinerated by energy from that sword. I looked over at Nomad and asked if he thought there were more. He said he thought this one had called all his buddies… and it still hadn't been enough. He said he was leaving. He disappeared. I wondered where he'd gone. Everything around me faded to black and I woke.

Originally Posted by Portalboat

Hm, I thought you said you were going to check out the Dream Wheel stuff?

I was behind in recording my dreams... those were from night before last.

lol that one was funny dream, also, what is this dream wheel stuff I read about?

Originally Posted by Walms

lol that one was funny dream, also, what is this dream wheel stuff I read about?

Dream Wheel

An experiment in shared dreaming that a few people on DV have been working on.

Well, thanks
I have a feeling I would have freaked out if that guy had gotten though.
I.E. Freaked out enough that I wouldn't want to have anything to do with LDs anymore.

I woke up in bed. I rolled over to go back to sleep. For once I actually thought to do a reality check. (I tell myself to do an RC every time I wake up, but I seldom do it… ) I pinched my nose and found I could still breathe! I was dreaming!

Cool! I got out of bed and went outside my house. I found I was in a normal looking neighborhood in spite of the fact my actual house is in the middle of the desert… I realized I was in my own inner world. I could decide where I wanted to go from here. While I was thinking I walked out to the street and stood there. I looked up at the blue sky. It looked like I was outside. I was thinking about the fact I was actually in my own little inner world when I saw something…

I looked up in the sky and saw a double decker bus plunging from the sky. It crashed down to the ground rather hard and skidded to a stop just a couple of feet from me. The doors opened. I looked in the bus. I saw a bunch of people I don't know. Nomad was driving. I asked him what he thought he was doing. He said he was picking me up. I re-worded my question. I was feeling quite irritated. I asked him what he thought he was doing by bringing this bus and all of these people I don't know into my inner world. I asked if everyone had been scanned to be sure they don't have dark energy on them… or something nasty hitchhiking in on one of the people or the bus itself. I told him there is a reason why the shield makes this one of the safest places available… and that reason is because only certain people have access to go in and out.

"But I do know these people," Nomad said, "That's Robo…" he pointed at a guy that looked partially cybernetic, "That's Portalboat…" he pointed at a guy who was looking around very interestedly, "That's Red…" he pointed at a young woman vampire, "That's Loaf…" he pointed at a young man staring out the window at nothing in particular, "That's…"

"That's not the point," I said. I looked around at the other passengers and spoke more quietly to Nomad, "The point is that there is limited access to this place for a reason. You-know-who and you-know-who are sealed up here. We don't want them to get a way out, do we? And no offense meant to anyone, but how well do you know these people?"

"Well enough to know they aren't enemies!" Nomad immediately said, sounding annoyed himself.

"I wasn't going to suggest that anyone here is an enemy," I said, "What I was going to ask is do you know them well enough to spot the subtle differences in behavior that might be the signs of dark energy infection. If too many people come in here too often some asshole might start trying to use them to get dark energy in here, into this sanctuary… and if that happens it's not good for anyone. So can we please not do this again?"

"Fine," Nomad said, still sounding annoyed. He floored the bus in an upward direction, taking off and flying a bit more erratically than before. I was feeling annoyed at the fact he was annoyed. It seemed the negative energy was getting stronger the more I thought about it… but that's not good… I forced myself to respond to the negative energy differently this time. I went back over to Nomad and hugged him, which made the course of the bus go even more erratic. Nomad asked if I was looking to crash… I said crashing is fun. He let go of the wheel long enough to hug me back… and the negative energy was gone. Good. Didn't need that.

I went over near the guy who was staring out the window. Nomad had said it was Loaf. I remembered I was trying to share a dream with Loaf. I sat in the seat next to Loaf. I tried to get his attention. He ignored me. I tapped him on the shoulder. He ignored me. I smacked him a bit harder on the shoulder. He ignored me. I said his name loudly in his ear.

"Loaf!" I said, "It's Raven! We're sharing a dream!" He ignored me. "This is the Moon Bus calling Loaf, come in Loaf!" I said as if I was talking into an old fashioned radio system. Loaf ignored me. I summoned a loaf of fresh ciabatta bread and held it out so that the aroma was surely flowing right past his face. He ignored me. I tossed the bread aside and summoned a triple chocolate cookie, fresh and warm. I held it to where the aroma would be going right past Loaf. He ignored me. Damn! If he could ignore three kinds of chocolate in a cookie form, there was no way I could get his attention! I didn't throw the cookie away. I ate it. It was delicious. I told Loaf I had another delicious CHOCOLATE cookie if he was interested. I put emphasis on the word 'chocolate' as I said that. No response.

"CHOCOLATE!" I yelled in Loaf's ear. No response. Wtf? I was wondering if something was wrong with him. He disappeared. I guessed he'd woken up. Damn. I headed to the stairs and went to the second level of the bus. I selected different music for the second level. I selected Disturbed. I was sitting there listening to Disturbed when everything around me faded to black and I woke. I was hoping Nomad wasn't going to be mad at me any more…

I wasn't lucid you see. IRL, I don't like interacting with others on the bus. I just stare out the window pretending I am not stuck sitting next to randoms.

Dang, it seems like every night I have a shared with you guys!
I know how you feel now, Loaf!

Thanks for taking the time to write all the beautiful dreams down Raven, and especially helping protect and heal our friends.

Sorry about driving the Moon Bus into your Inner World. That wasn't a concious intention! I was just supposed to drive it straight to the Moon. My subconcious sometimes has other plans.

I wish I had time to write my dreams down. Alas, I don't. See you on the Moon!

I was in the biodome. I looked around to see where I was. I recognized the location and became semi-lucid. I saw I wasn't alone. Nomad was there with me. He came right over to me. I noticed he was dressed in armor like a knight. I asked him if he was off to battle. He said yes. He said those things we had fought in Portalboat's dream hadn't been all of them. He said there were still others that were draining their energy. I looked at him strangely. He opened a portal and went through. I followed him…

On the other side of the portal I was in space. Nomad was there with me. I saw something weird. There were five capsule type things arranged in a star formation. They were also connected to each other in a circle so it formed a pentacle. In each capsule there was someone sleeping. I looked at Nomad. Nomad said it was a dream representation of their connections with each other. He then formed his Witchblade into a sword and flew in towards the star and started hacking at one of the connections. I flew over to him. By the time I reached him he had changed his Witchblade to a hammer and was pounding on a connection.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, "You don't want to break the connections, do you?" He said he just wanted to kick some demon ass. I was going to say something else but I saw movement in the center of the pentacle. I was watching as a dragon emerged. It had two heads. I told Nomad to wait a minute… what the hell is that?

The dragon glared at Nomad and me. It was talking. One head said it was good. The other head said it was evil. Both of them started saying something about yin and yang… but Nomad interrupted them.

"Blah, blah, blah!" Nomad said, clearly having no patience for the dragon's talking, "Fuck your bullshit!" His Witchblade changed back into a sword and Nomad immediately went in and cut through the dragon head that had claimed to be evil. I looked closer at the one who claimed to be good… but nothing about it looked good. The dragon was coming out of the center of the Pentacle, the remaining head looked pissed. A giant winged cobra flew out of nowhere and swooped over the dragon, breathing a blast of green flames on the remaining head of the dragon before disappearing again…

"What the hell?" I asked myself, "Was that MoSh?" I hit the body of the dragon with a large bolt of lightning and it was incinerated in a blast of flame. I saw Nomad was right beside me.

"No way was he really good," I commented.

"I think he was an asshole," Nomad said.

"Three of those capsules have demons in them with the dreamers," I said to Nomad as I looked around at the capsules, "Let me get them out here… then we can kick their asses." I formed a vortex that locked onto the three demons and pulled them out into the open. They woke up as if they'd been sleeping. They were clearly not happy.

"Who dares awaken us?!" one of the demons asked.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked the demons, "And what the fuck are you doing here?"

The demon who appeared to be the leader continued to speak. He said that the knight, the naga, and I were supposed to be part of the wheel. But since we hadn't joined they had taken our places. The demon laughed.

"What kind of bullshit is that supposed to be?" I asked the demons, "If you must know, we weren't invited to be part of it… you're full of shit."

"Thanks to you we are going to suck the energy right out of these dreamers," the demon said, "When we're done there won't be anything left except… AAAHHH! You ASSHOLE!"

The demon's monologue had been interrupted by Nomad throwing a disc of fire that sliced right through him. It looked like he should be dead, but he was still talking. I hit him with a blast of lightning that incinerated the rest of the demon. The other two demons were glaring at us. One of them said it wouldn't be nearly so easy to take them out. The other one started taking, but Nomad interrupted.

"Enough talk!" Nomad said, "More battle, bitches!"

"Now you will suffer," one of the demons roared as he began dividing himself into many. The second demon was doing the same. They were laughing and making threats as they did it. Nomad yawned as if he was bored.

"Less blabbing," I said to the demons, "More stabbing!" I formed Witchblade into a sword and sliced through several of the demon clones closest to me. I focused on the song Divide by Disturbed to multiply myself… 2, 4, 8, 16… 32, 64, 128, 256… "I'm one impressive motherf-er, now wouldn't you say?"

We attacked the army of demons. Nomad had taken the form of a lion man… but I lost track of him as I was trying to keep track of all 256 of me in battle. I sliced through demons with my Witchblade, blasted them with lightning… An army of birds came flying down and attacking the demons. Some of the demons were reduced to skeletons. I did a double take as someone who looked a bit too much like Mario off of the Mario Brothers games was smashing skeletons with a hammer…

I saw the last two demons about to attack one of the dreamers… but he woke up. His capsule opened and he pulled out a shotgun. He blasted the two demons at point blank range before lying back down to go back to sleep.

Another dreamer woke up. That one looked familiar… maybe that was Portalboat? He's the only one of the group I've seen in dreams before… He said there was too much noise and it woke him up. He said he was thirsty. I summoned a glass of water and gave it to him. I asked if he was ok. He said sure, then he lied back down and went back to sleep.

A third dreamer woke up and glared over at us. I wondered what his problem was.

"You assholes!" he yelled, "Get out of here! This is MY dream wheel!"

I did a double take. Who had started the circle? Larther! Was that him? If so, what pissed him off? Nomad said he was just trying to help…

"I already told you that you can't be in it!" Larther said, "There are time and number limits! Now you weren't invited here, so get out!"

Larther was annoying me a lot. "Look, asshole," I said, "We were invited. Portalboat asked us to help out, and we just kicked some demon ass so you guys can dream in peace."

"Demons?!" Larther asked, "There are no such things as demons! Just manifestations of your minds! And I know none of us created them, which means YOU brought them here!"

"He is full of shit," I told Nomad. Larther was still talking, but his talk was more directed at Nomad now. "Hey, Mr. Nomad with the big ego! Stay out of my dreams! I block you from my dreams!"

"That's fine with me!" Nomad responded, "But, remember we are all mirrors of each other. If you think I have an ego problem, it's probably because you do, too."

I couldn't help but laugh a bit at the look on Larther's face.

"You are so contemptuous!" Larther yelled, "Just let me do this experiment in peace!"

I saw another of the dreamers waking up. I flew over to him and looked closer. He didn't awaken fully. He rolled over and continued to sleep. There was one more capsule to check. It was a woman, so I figured it must be Juroara. There was a dark aura around her.

"Nomad!" I called, "She has dark energy. We should heal her!"

"You leave her alone!" Larther said, "I don't give you permission to dream with her!"

"You have nothing to say about who dreams with her!" I called over to Larther, "So shut the fuck up!"

"You two are…" Larther started.

Nomad changed into Spiderman and shot a blob of web across Larther's mouth, making the rest of what Larther said muffled and unintelligible. More web wrapped around Larther.

I focused on the song Touch My Heart from the Devil Hunter Yohko soundtrack. Nomad came over to help me with healing Juroara. Golden energy flowed into Juroara as Nomad formed a caduceus over her. Dark energy was purged from her and she went into a more peaceful sleep.

I flew back towards the center of the pentacle. I looked at the dreamers around the pentacle. One of the other sleeping people had a small amount of dark energy. I went over to him and used Touch My Heart to clean it up. I noted it was the same guy who had shot the demons at the end of the battle. I turned around and looked at the others. The only one still awake was Larther. He was glaring at me… from inside an aura of dark energy. Great… not the one I wanted to deal with… But the dark energy had to be cleaned up so I flew over to him.

"Hey," I said to him, "Master of the Dream Wheel, you have dark energy, too."

Nomad came over and joined me, removing the web from Larther's mouth.

"I do not have dark energy!" he insisted.
I telepathically asked Nomad if we absolutely had to heal him… Nomad said yes… as I had expected. A healer can't base who they heal on who they like… I used Touch My Heart on Larther and Nomad summoned another caduceus. Golden energy flowed into Larther and the dark energy flowed out. He seemed calmer now. Nomad took the rest of the web off of him.

"Feel better?" I asked him

"Yeah," Larther said, "I don't normally get mad like that… it's not in my nature."

"You had dark energy," I said, "That tends to lead to anger, hatred, violence… You probably got it from those demons."

"I still don't believe in demons," Larther said.

"I'm sure they'll be very glad to hear that," I said, "People who don't believe make the easiest targets." Larther lied back down and went to sleep.

Nomad was in the center of the pentacle. I went there and joined him. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was creating a dream world for them to share dreams in. He said he was adding three DC's to fill the three empty places, and they would roam the dream world saying to everyone, "You're lucid." I asked if it wouldn't make more sense for them to say, "You're dreaming." He agreed. He stuffed some mantra balls in the pockets of the DC's. He said we could get back to the moon now. I said no, I was waking up. I was lucky to not have left in the middle of the battle. I laughed. Everything around me faded to black and I woke.

Nice job!
I hope I'll remember the inevitable shared dream with you guys tonight.

By naga did he mean MoSh?

Originally Posted by Portalboat

By naga did he mean MoSh?

Most likely since MoSh has a naga form in the dream state.

Wow these dreams are fun to read. I gotta work on the whole fireball lightning bolt type thing

Less blabbing, More stabbing! HAHAHAHAA

you rock. can you update the shared dream thread? I don't have time. Red should be in there also.

Thank you so much for writing this all down, Raven!

I wonder why I always perceive Naga MoSh's breath as acid, and you perceive it as green fire.

It's like Gawn and also the King of the North. very interesting.

I love sharing dreams with you!

Post 666 is mine. HAHAHAHAHA

Originally Posted by WakingNomad

can you update the shared dream thread? I don't have time. Red should be in there also.

Sorry... I barely have time to keep up with my job, school, big projects, other homework, and keeping up my own DJ! I have no time, either.

P.S. I like your new avatar!

Note: I fell asleep with my light / sound device on tonight. I did have a few plans. One was to go catch the Nightbus to the moon, another was to meet up with MoSh… These things were what were in my mind when I fell asleep and slipped into a WILD…

I was outside the pyramid in Egypt, or at least that's what it looked like. There were some other people there I didn't recognize. I wondered if any of them were people I knew. I waited for a bit until a double decker bus came from the sky and came to a sudden halt near us. It kicked up quite a cloud of sand as it landed. The doors were right in front of the group of people. The doors opened up and I could see Nomad in the driver's seat of the bus, he was in his part Jaguar form and grinning.

People started getting on the bus. I could hear Nomad greeting the people as they got on. Some of the names I recognized and / or remember included Portalboat, Kraftwerk, Robo, Loaf, Yoshi… I got on the bus and Nomad said hello to me, too. I looked around at the people getting on the bus. They were talking amongst themselves, but seemed to be ignoring me for the most part. I told Nomad I was going topside, but I would see him on the moon. He said that was cool.

I went to the top level of the bus. I was followed by some other people. I was playing Disturbed up there. I looked around at the people. One of them was standing right next to me and looking at me strangely. I wondered why he was staring at me. Had I grown a 3rd eye or something? I sat down in a driver's seat on the second level. It looked fully equipped to drive the bus.

The one person was standing next to me still. I looked at him closer… Loaf? That was the only name that came to me. I asked if he was Loaf. He didn't answer. I asked if he was lucid. He said he was more lucid than me. I asked again if he was Loaf. I still didn't get an answer. I decided to do what I had planned anyway. I summoned a triple chocolate cookie. I handed the cookie to the person I thought might be Loaf. The cookie was fresh and warm. Loaf took the cookie and ate it. He seemed to like it. I told him that now he'd had dream chocolate… remember it.

The bus was flying erratically towards the moon. I activated a control that sealed the hole between the bus levels and split the bus in two. I was now driving the top half of the bus as a separate vehicle. I contacted Nomad on the communicator. He seemed to be having fun with something. I challenged him to a race to the moon. He said I was on. We both launched towards the moon at high speeds. I got there first, skidding to a stop on the belly of the bus since the top half had no wheels.

Where was Nomad? I expected him right behind me… but it was a couple of minutes before Nomad came in and screeched to a halt. When we were out of the bus Nomad said Kraftwerk had wanted to pick someone up. I told him that sounded like an excuse. I laughed to show it was a joke.

Nomad said we should go outside into the biodome and do something fun with everyone. I didn't get a chance to respond. Everything around me faded to black and I woke.

I was in MoSh's inner world. I recognized that right away and became semi-lucid. I saw the house where I knew MoSh often is in his dreams. I went up to the door and opened it. I went inside and saw Asuka there. She was looking at me with a smile. She was also holding the baby. I asked if I could hold the baby. She handed me the baby. I stood there holding the baby for a few minutes until she started crying. I handed the baby back to Asuka. Asuka said MoSh was in the living room. I went into the living room. Nomad was also there. There was a bit of dark energy hovering around Nomad. Not a lot, but I did a brief rendition of Touch My Heart to clear it up. I saw Nomad and MoSh were playing video games. I asked if I could borrow MoSh. MoSh asked why. I said I had a spell he might want… or it could wait, either way. Makes no difference to me. MoSh said ok, and he came over to me, leaving the game on pause. I saw Nomad unpause the game and beat the shit out of MoSh's character…

MoSh and I went outside. I used Unforgiven II by Metallica to transfer the Battery spell to MoSh… and he spent some time throwing lightning bolts around. He said he liked fire better… so I transferred Damage, Inc. I told him it has a cool effect to merge the two. He threw fire around for a bit and then merged the two to create a stream of fire with lightning wrapped around it… it looked kind of like this picture except the lightning going around the fire was blue instead of red. It made a huge explosion and obliterated the neighboring house.

When the explosion cleared there was a singed woman standing in the middle of the crater holding the top of a test tube. Her hair was sticking out in all directions and the tips of her hair were still smoking. Her outfit was mostly blasted off, she was wearing rags. Those rags were singed black. And she had an extremely comical stunned look on her face. It was Washu… She stood in the middle of the crater for a couple of minutes before looking up at MoSh and me.

"Ow…" was all she had to say at first, then, "My lab… my beautiful lab… it went boom… and it wasn't me that did it…"

"Oops…" MoSh said, "I forgot she was here…"

"Hey!" Washu called up, "Did anyone get the license of that meteor?"

"Um…" MoSh said, "That was me… sorry! I forgot you were here…"

Washu climbed out of the crater and walked over in front of MoSh, still holding the broken test tube. "That was you?" she asked, looking back at the crater, "Nice. It would have been nicer if it hadn't been on my head, but still... nice." She created a holographic computer and typed a couple of things on a keyboard I'm sure she didn't really need. "Fire AND lightning…" Washu commented, "I'm heading back to my lab on the moon… where it's safe." She smiled at me and then at MoSh before disappearing.

MoSh headed back into the house where he found Nomad playing the video game on his own. Asuka asked what the explosion had been. MoSh said he had blasted Washu. Asuka asked why. MoSh said it was an accident… he'd forgotten she was there. Asuka asked if Washu was ok. MoSh said she seemed to be… a little singed, but otherwise ok. Nomad said he wanted to play an MMORPG. He said we could get Allison involved on it. MoSh sat down on the couch and picked up a controller. I saw no reason to play a video game when I could go experience one. I told them to count me out, I was going out to do something. MoSh thanked me for transferring the spells… it had an awesome effect, especially together. I was going to leave but everything around me faded to black and I woke.

I was in a mall. I was there with my mother. We were going to see a movie. Actually we were going to see two different movies. After getting our tickets we split in two different directions. I went into my chosen movie and sat down. The lights went dark and the movie started. It was some kind of anime film. It looked like a Hayao Miyazaki film, though I didn't recognize which one.

I was sitting there watching it when the person in front of me lit up a cigarette. I knew he had because I could smell it. He blew smoke into the air which wafted back into my face. I found that to be quite annoying. I looked at the two people sitting in front of me. One of them was smoking. They were talking to each other, not seeming to be paying any attention to the movie at all. The smoker finished his cigarette and immediately started another. I decided to move.

I moved to an empty seat across the aisle, out of the path of the smoke. I continued watching the movie. I could see the two annoying people over there, both talking, the one still smoking. I considered going to tell management that someone in here was smoking… I was sure it was a non-smoking movie… but I didn't want to miss the movie. And it wasn't affecting me any more, so who cares?

The smoker across the aisle threw his empty cigarette pack into the aisle. I rolled my eyes. I figured his cigarette butts were no doubt under his seat. Another man got up and picked up the empty package. The two annoying people started tossing out many pieces of garbage. The man who had picked up the cigarette package continued silently picking up the trash. I looked back at the movie. It was a different movie now… it looked like a crappy romance. Damn! I had missed the end of the Hayao Miyazaki film because I was paying too much attention to annoying people!

I got up and left the theater. My mom was outside. She said I could spend approximately $100 on her credit card, so I should go shopping. She then left. I went out to look at the stores. I wanted a game and a new pair of boots. The shoe store was first. I found a pair of nice black boots that would run about $45. I wanted to try them on. I asked a saleswoman. She went back and brought out a pair of sandles… uh… no. I wanted boots. She disappeared and came back with some kind of fancy black heeled shoe. No. I wanted boots. She went back and returned with the ugliest pair of flats I have ever seen. I asked her why she wouldn't let me look at the boots. She said they were wrong for me.

I left the store. I continued down the mall. I found I had gone the wrong way. I was by the theater again. The man I had seen smoking was outside the theater looking around. He wasn't smoking now. I turned to leave. I saw a face I didn't want to see. I saw my ex boyfriend / fiancé, James. Great. I didn't want to see him right now, or ever. I turned and went towards the theater and the man who had been smoking. But damn! It was too late! I heard James call my name. He started to use my birth name but then switched to Raven. I was standing right in front of the smoker when I cursed softly, "Ah, fuck!"

"I take it you don't want to talk to him?" the smoker asked.

"No," I said, "He's an asshole."

The smoker pulled me into his arms and hugged me. I braced myself for the smell of stale smoke… but I didn't smell any smoke. Odd… James was still behind me and was still talking to me.

"Hey!" the smoker said, "She said she doesn't want to talk to you. So why don't you go away."

"Get out of the way, you lying sack of shit, or you'll be sorry!" James threatened the smoker. Lying sack of shit? Did James know the smoker somehow? I turned around and told James it wasn't a lie… I wanted him to go away.

"They told me you might be a problem," James said to the smoker, "It looks like they were right."

"They?" I asked James, "They who? And what did they say about him?"

"Everything is in his file," James said, "Name: Nathan ----, aka WakingNomad, aka just Nomad…"

Nomad? I was standing next to Nomad? But that was impossible… he lives in Hawaii… unless this was a dream… I pinched my nose and found I could still breathe. I became lucid.

"… con artist," James was continuing, "He'll tell you anything you want to hear to get what he wants and then toss you aside like yesterday's trash."

"I think you're mistaken…" I said, "I think you were reading your own file… because that sure sounds like you… and you still didn't answer me… who is this 'they' you're talking about?"

"They've gotten to him," Nomad said, "Those bastards…"

"Time to get rid of the trash," James said.

"You're leaving?" I asked, "Good."

James formed his Witchblade into a sword and jumped right over me to attack Nomad. Nomad's Witchblade formed as well, as did an invisible force shield. James' sword hit the force shield and created an array of sparks. The sword changed to a very familiar sword… Swordsplitter.

(Note: Swordsplitter was a sword James used to use that could find the breaking point of just about anything, especially other swords.)

The invisible force shield was cracking. I used Battery and sent a bolt of lightning straight into Swordsplitter. There was an explosion and James was thrown across the mall and though a glass display window. I noticed we had an audience now. Nomad was looking at his cracked force shield. I went over to James and told him to leave now. This was his last chance. He said he wasn't leaving until he got through to me.

"Are you lost in your lies," I said to him, thinking of the lyrics to Linkin Park's No More Sorrow, "Do you tell yourself I don't realize your crusade's a disguise. Replace freedom with fear, you trade money for lives! I'm aware of what you've done! No! No more sorrow! I've paid for your mistakes! Your time is borrowed, your time has come to pay, pay, pay!"

"You have to listen to me!" James was insisting.

"I see pain, I see need," I continued, "I see liars and thieves abuse power with greed. I had hope, I believed. But then it turned out that I'd been deceived! You will pay for what you've done!"

"Why won't you listen?!" James demanded.

"If you really don't know that," I said, "Then you are way more retarded than I had thought you were." I opened a vortex portal that led to somewhere out in the void. It sucked a surprised James through and closed behind him. The crowd around us cheered as if they knew he was the villain.

"His sword was breaking through my shield," Nomad said, sounding surprised.

"That sword breaks anything," I said, "Except a Witchblade. It can't break a Witchblade."

"If he was referring to the 'they' I think he was," Nomad said, "he's in trouble."

"Good riddance," I said. Everything around me faded to black and I woke.

Not to imply that I know anything at all about the situation between you and James.

If I am interpreting that entry correctly, the templars may have gotten to him. you might not care, but do you really want them to have him as an ally? I would think that in the long run, It would be better to at least set him straight about the templars than let them have him as an ally in their plans.

Sorry about smoking. I keep doing weird things like that. I dream I eat meat and other weird vices. I guess it's my way of dealing with giving up my vices: smoking, alcohol, and flesh.

Originally Posted by Robo

Not to imply that I know anything at all about the situation between you and James.

If I am interpreting that entry correctly, the templars may have gotten to him. you might not care, but do you really want them to have him as an ally? I would think that in the long run, It would be better to at least set him straight about the templars than let them have him as an ally in their plans.

Logically I have to admit you are right... but it was an ugly break-up that left me hurt and angry and I haven't been able to quite let it go. I think subconsciously I would like to have another reason to hate him. I know that's not a good thing. I really need to work on letting my past with him go and focusing on the future instead.

yay you don't like smoking! And that guy, apparently, I wonder, if you hear him out and then toss him, would that help?