.: day sixteen :.

blanket of sky

I'm looking at the sky right now

I wonder if she looks just as beautiful

from where you're standing.

We're so far apart.

Two different sides of the world,

but at least we're on the same world.

We can both meet half-way anytime.

As long as we're still covered 

by the same blanket of sky.

Mine's often gray from here. What about yours?

I no longer want to be

star-crossed lovers torn by distance

and time and place.

If I could hitch a ride on a shooting star,

I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Wait for me. I'll come for you.

. 27.12.11 hornets and bees .

  The Dream takes place in a normal suburban area and I'm hanging out at the local mall. All of a sudden, hornets were seeing hovering everywhere, attaching themselves to people and stinging them. People panicked and ran amok, stirring up the insects and making the attacks even worse. I was with a friend. A Japanese girl with a cute bob-cut and she didn't seem frightened of the hornets at all. I was frightened but I tried my very best not to panic, knowing it'll hurt more if I did. They were specifically Japanese Giant Wasps. I recognized them from their distinct size and pattern. I got stung on my arms and stomach and it felt like a needle pushing through my flesh. I tried my best not to scream or flail around as my friend helped pluck the hornets off me, and she did it with ease.

  After removing the bugs from my body, I just wanted to find a way out of the mall. My friend, somehow or rather, got hold of a kitchen knife with which she used to fend off the hornets. When they would attach themselves to me again, she'd pluck them with her bare hands and cut them in halves as if she were chopping vegetables. We escaped the hell-hole of a mall while the people around us ran around in a chaotic frenzy, many already dying from overdose of stings.

  The Dream cuts to scene of a man sitting immobile in the dark. I am a Bystander, witnessing the scene before me. He is bound to a chair with a single spotlight above him. He's terrified, trembling; he doesn't know where he is or why he's there. He calls out to the darkness, demanding answers. All that replies are indecipherable voices, or murmurs too soft and too dark for me to understand. But the man understood and his face turned pale. His eyes said that now he knew why he was here, but now he was afraid of the unknown; or what was to come. He was bound – and couldn't escape his gruesome death.

  From the darkness, something stirred. At first it was too soft for either of us to hear. But then we heard the soft buzzing of wings. A shadowy figured separated itself from the blob of surrounding darkness and landed heavily on the man's head. It was a bumblebee, the size of a football. It sat on the man's head for a while, it's black body and dull, yellow stripes making one ridiculous toupee. The man was petrified and dared not move. Fear oozed out of his pores and whimpers followed his quivering lips.

The bee crawled slowly from his temple to the front of his face, sitting right-side up. Its stinger erected, poised and ready; the width as thick as a wooden 2B pencil just sharpened. It grew longer, than shorter, than longer again, as if the bug was deciding which length was more precise. By now the man was begging for his life, but his voice drowned within his fear and inaudible cries escaped his mouth. He knew he shouldn't have left his mouth open but his eyes were clouded and deep inside, he knew it was his end. I couldn't bear to watch. I wanted to so turn my head and look away, but apparently you can't do that when you're a Bystander. With a single thrust, the stinger went through the man's mouth and protruded out the back of his head. The blood was thick as it spilled from his head and mouth, and the bee just lazily flew on its way.

  In the darkness, someone cackled.

One of the most disturbing Dreams I've had recently, and it's about bees and hornets. I'm terrified of them in the sense that I would avoid them at all costs and in any way possible. But I don't encounter them very often. And I'm not saying that I'd like to either...

. 09.10.11 treasure hunters .

  I'm in a team of four. My persona in the Dream was not much different than who I was in real life. There was a cat-human who stood on two legs, and her name was Puss. She was white all over and had a large fluffy tail. Her eyes were crystal blue and she had on an adventure suit of silver and dark grey. Something told me she was the spy of the group. The other animal being in the group was a large mouse we called Dormy (as in dormouse). He was the size of a dog but he was very timid in nature. What he was doing in a group of treasure hunters, I'm still not sure. Lastly, our leader was a grown man, looking his late-twenties, who looked like an all-American hunter. He had large, orange-tint sunglasses, and a cowboy hat. He wore a maroon, plaid, collar shirt with his utility vest and a pair of slacks and tracker boots. He reminded me of the Sniper from the game Team Fortress. I named him Gunner.

  These were the characters, here's the story: We were squeezing into a small entrance of a stoned ruin, buried in sand and mud. The deeper we burrowed into the small tunnel, the deeper we treaded into a level of sludge. The mud-water was thick and I was on all fours, leaning on my elbows and it was reaching my chin. Dormy the mouse was the most unfortunate as he had trouble keeping his head above the sludge. He said something about having to crawl on his belly, and when he had trouble getting air, Gunner took action. The ceiling that was cramming us in was loose and Gunner pushed it upwards, lifting it with his own back, letting the others pass easily and out into a larger corridor. I was still at the front of the troop when we came across a stone wall.

  It looked like a door and I had a feeling that it would open any minute, but I felt an ominous atmosphere the closer I approached it. Before I even touched the stone slab, it slided upwards and revealed to us the next room. It was a plainly large area, brightly illuminated by flaming torches. It was a barren room, everything almost covered in sand and dust. In the middle of the plain room was a crypt, half buried in the sand. Its entrance wide open and staring at us from afar. I felt the disturbing atmosphere again.

  Just then, the stone door drooped down shut, and we heard a thunderous laugh from the other side. Gunner moved to my side cautiously, his hand ready at his holster. I felt a little safer, anticipating what would appear when the door opened again. When it did, the crypt was still empty, but just a few inches from our doorway were two items laid out before us. On the left was a box of matches and on the right was a book, its details I can't recall now. But it had a white cover. Gunner whispered to me, “It wants you to make a choice.”

  “Then... which one's the right one?” I asked him back. Gunner didn't answer. Either he didn't know it, or it was up to me to decide. Cautiously eying the open crypt, the air thick with fear and evil, my trembling hand reached out and grabbed the book. My fingers tight on the object and my body coiled, ready for a quick escape. Puss and Dormy had already retreated to the front of the tunnel, waiting for us to exit. As soon as I pulled my hand back in, the structure shook from the bellowing roar. Immediately my eyes darted to the crypt and in the darkness I stared into a pair of glowing, red eyes.

  I don't know whether we made the wrong choice, or whether it was mad that I made the right one, but we didn't stick around to find out. “GO! GO! GO!” Gunner rushed me, telling me to forget about the book. I flipped through the pages and after realizing the contents were useless, I dropped it. We scrambled through the tunnel, out the exit and into the open, desert plains. There was a gate surrounding the ruins and Puss and Dormy had already made it past. Gunner helped me up and over the gate. He had just made it over the flimsy, metal boundary when the evil spirit charged and rammed into it.

  Luckily, as if like a magical barrier, it didn't do any damage or ram all the way through. From the other side of the gate, I saw the shape of the ominous spirit that guarded the ruins. It was a white hippopotamus with large, red eyes that burned like rubies. That was the end to our first mission.

  On our second mission, it was just me and Gunner and the Dream kind of shows exactly what kind of relationship I had with the male protagonist. I was a teenager of 17, 18 – almost a young adult – and Gunner was my guardian. A drifting treasure/bounty hunter who took me, an orphan girl, as his ward. In the end he taught me all his skills of fighting, and especially handling weapons. That night, after the hippo incident, Gunner gives me my first automatic pistol. He tells me to practice shooting targets using metal cans and I get started right away.

  The Dreams cuts to daytime, and we're riding the back of a jeep, treading through more deserts. We reach a large plateau where I see red rocks and trees together in one environment. Standing atop  the plateau, we discover where the distress calls were coming from. We witnessed dinosaurs running amok, chasing the herbivores and surviving humans around the terrain. The area looked like it was designed to be some kind of zoo. I saw one of their jeeps and I saw the words Jurassic Park. I exclaimed, “God damn, not again.”

  Gunner analysed the situation. Fortunately the dinosaurs hadn't noticed us yet. The only species I remember seeing were the Raptors, running in packs, other two legged predators, but gratefully no T-Rex. They were chasing the plant-eaters, Diplodocus, and other humans trying to escape in their jeeps and motorcycles. I look at Gunner, “I'm going to need a bigger gun than this.” I point at my minuscule pistol. He looks back at me with a raised eyebrow, “When you do, you'll need a lot of practice. You're gonna poke someone's eye out if you get anything bigger than what I give you.”

  “OH COME OOONNN!!” I whine, like the teenager I am. “I've been practicing!”

I was glad I didn't need to face off the dinosaurs in my Dream cus it just ended there. It was like a sneak peek into the lives of me and Gunner. I have to say that even though it was just for a short while, I really enjoyed the depth of the relationship I had with Gunner. In the first mission, when I was younger, it looked more like a father-daughter, teacher-student sort of relationship. But as I grew older, becoming a young woman of my own, I develop more tender feelings for my guardian. Though it didn't really show that in the Dream, I was thinking of possibilities of what would happen afterwards had their future developed. Sad I didn't see any more of Puss and Dormy though. Their roles in the Dream are still a mystery.

. xenomorph .

  I find myself in the middle of a jungle-like reserve, near a homely shack which, funny enough, resembles my grandmother's house. I'm with a small group of people who were either mercenaries or bounty hunters. Though I can't remember their exact features, there were about five to seven of them, maybe five men and two women. Me excluded. I was sort of debriefing them about something serious, while small eyes watched us from inside the shack. For some reason I was the only one unarmed while everyone else had big guns and all kinds of weaponry, which was a first. In the middle of the briefing, one of them spots something large and green moving behind me. I turn and it's one of those Xenomorphs from the Alien movies, except this one was green. Its body was more of a plant, save for its oversize head. It looked like a bad combination of Alien and the venus flytrap from the Little Shop of Horrors.

  Its body was covered in large leaves and stalks and moved around using its short vines. Everyone was startled and started shooting it, but it only provoked the thing. Fortunately it moved very slowly and it gave time for us to escape. The house looked more and more like my grandmother's house, together with the fences at the sides. There was a big gap between the house and the fence, with jungle greenery in the way. It was too risky to dash to the front doors where the Alien was so the first thing I thought of was the back door. The hunters were doing fine holding the Alien off, but it was ME it was after for some damn reason!! Good thing it was slow. I headed for the back of the house, the foliage and rocks easy obstacles which slowed the Alien down. I saw the Alien move slowly through the narrow gap and I hurried to the back door. I flung inside and locked the door behind me. There were some people in the house, some looked like my cousins, which scared me since the Alien would be coming through the door any second. But since it didn't attack the mercs, I had a hunch that it wouldn't attack civilians.

  I went through the door and escaped into the front yard. The front gates were locked with a huge padlock and chains (I don't know why) so I had to climb out. As you can tell, we weren't in the jungle anymore. I was in my old neighborhood, where my grandmother lived, and I had escaped into the old streets. I didn't stop running though. I headed for the main road area and when I looked back at the gates, I saw the Alien climbing over and still headed for my direction. That was the part where I said to myself in the Dreaming, “Screw this! I'm waking up!” And just like that, my eyes spiraled upwards and the Dream unraveled like seams, mixing with images of reality. I saw bits and pieces of my bedroom ceiling in the dark, and the next minute I was phased out from the Dreaming entirely.

This was the first time I had the Alien in my Dream so I was pretty excited. The only downside to the whole thing was that I wasn't given any weapons, not like the other Dreams. The other exciting part of my experience is the phasing in between the Dreamworld and reality. I can still remember the feeling. I've only had one other experience like it, where I was hugging my pillow between my legs. Slowly, as I drifted off to sleep, it was like a half of me was still conscious. I started to feel the phase. I started to feel wind in my face, my hair blowing back and the sound of a motor running. As I sunk deeper into subconsciousness, I dreamt I was riding a motorcycle up and around a busy highway :) Besides Dreams with guns, I just love Dreams when I'm driving, especially since I can't drive in real life (yet) xppp

. air pistols .

  My persona is a police rookie straight out of a low class academy from Detroit and because it was low class, a lot of the officers didn't take me seriously. My partner was somewhat like me, but more gutsy, as if she was from Brooklyn. She had hands-on-life attitude, fiery red hair, and didn't give a rat's ass where I came from. She told me I was a good cop and so did my chief, who was a real jolly, understanding, old man, with a bushy, white mustache and suspenders. I was hardworking and dedicated, but lots of ppl still looked down on me and didn't trust my decisions.

  One case in particular tested the ppl around me to see if I had really made a breakthrough. Apparently I had a hunch, a very sensitive one, because my ends pointed at another police officer for being involved in the crime. The crime was high in corruption and politics and it would be a very sensitive accusation. This officer was a woman, and also a graduate from a prestigious cadet academy, and for some reason all my leads pointed to her.

  There was also this other officer (who looked a lot like Will Smith, so I'll call him Will). He was the star of the police force. He was funny, good looking, ace shooter on the range and he does his job well. We all looked up to him, even me. Since I was a rookie, I confided in him of my findings asking him for advice. He was calm and told me not to tell anyone else about it, and that I shouldn't do anything for now. He also said that he would do some tinkering of his own.

  What he DIDN'T know was that I was playing him. After telling my partner, Brooklyn, of Will's reaction to the whole thing and after some psychological analysis, we concluded that Will was scheming together with the female officer I had a hunch about. That and of course when we went to spy on them, we turned round the corner and they started shooting at us. There were also other shooters hiding in random places, as if I were playing Halo. What was weirder, I didn't have a gun. I was shooting with my fingers.

  If you've watched the Anime, Yu Yu Hakusho, the hero character has the power of the spirit gun, where he shoots spiritual energy just like he would out of normal pistols; cept he uses his hands. I did the same thing cept I didn't have spiritual energy. All I had was air. As funny as it sounded, it had the same effect as normal bullets. All I had to do was aim and say pow. Those I shot went down one by one, and I had pretty good aim. The last person I took down was the female officer and I jump-kicked her in the head. I saw Will and his female accomplice get taken in. The chief congratulated me on solving the case, saying he should have had more faith on my gut feelings. I was awarded a promotion, I think, but also the respect I deserved from the other police officers who looked down on me before.

I really enjoyed this Dream. It was a real underdog story, and I got to see Will Smith! Too bad he was the bad guy this time, but oh well. Now that my memory's coming back... the corrupt female officer kinda looked like Ziva David, from the NCIS show on Fox (I forgot the actress' name..)...and I jump-kicked her in the head... That's...wow.... No words for it xDDD

.: the Sleepless :.

This isn't really a new Dream, but some artsy update on an old one I now call the Sleepless. You can read the old dream here. I did these paintings a long while ago and posted them on my deviantart, but never got around to posting them here. So here are their portraits along with a short description of the character :) Enjoy~

Delucian, the calm, indifferent one. He's the personification of the illusion concept or more specifically the perceptions of the human mind. In the Dream, he seems to be up-tight and always thinking about work, the total opposite of his colleague, Nytscare. Nytscare can get on his nerves sometimes, and he can get a bit more than bossy when a job needs to be done. In truth, he has the most power in the Dreaming, having control and authority in anything and everything that goes on in the realm. The only problem he finds worth bothering about is Ensomny's mysterious origins, which he hasn't figured out yet.

Ensomny's supposed to be the personification of insomnia and in the Dream she is apparently the cause of interference with the Sleepless' line of work since. She is mute and has no emotion whatsoever, always wearing that porcelain doll-like face. Her yellow marble eyes are always open (don't think she blinks) and she communicates through her clients via psychic ability, making them speak in her place like puppets. Other than that though she's practically harmless and will stay out of your way.

Nytscare is in charge of nightmares. He loves surveying his work on the giant and multiple surveillance screens they have in their dimension. Though he looks scary, with his jagged teeth, black eyes and charcoal tongue, he's really just a joker who enjoys scaring ppl for fun. Very laid back and probably the most human-like of the three, enjoying mortal pleasures like eating popcorn. Having the ability of peering insight and to control your darkest fears, he's someone you don't want to get on the wrong side of.

. the ride home .

  This story definitely has some romantic fling in it. It's about a girl and two guys and a most cliché love triangle. My persona was the girl and I switched back and forth between persona and bystander (where I just watch the story unfold by itself) so I could take a good look at how my persona looked like. She was a very pretty, petite, ordinary, brunette girl-next-door. And because she sort of reminded me of that Rachael from Glee, I'm going to call her that. She has two very good friends, Chris and Vincent, whom just likes to be called Vinnie. Rachael basically has a crush on Chris, but Chris only sees her as a little sister, while Vinnie has a crush on Rachael.

  According to the background story, what was not shown in the Dream itself, is that Rachael had confessed to Chris before but was rejected, politely I might add. Chris explained the best he could that he only wanted to be friends. Though this was heart-breaking for Rachael, they remained friends. Rachael enjoyed their friendship, secretly hoping that Chris would like her back. While she waited, Vinnie, who is a friend of Chris but not very close, was always there to lend her his shoulder. And though she knew that Vinnie had feelings for her, she didn't want to give up on Chris.

  The drama ended on the night of a party. Rachael confronted Chris outside their friend's house, away from the party. Chris had done something to her and as painful as it was, his intentions were actually good ones. But he was still in the wrong and all he could do was apologize. Rachael was angry at him on the inside, so much that she wanted to cry. Her eyes were watery and before she left him and the party, she gave him a peck on the lips. She walks away from the house and Vinnie, who saw everything, followed her and offered to take her home.

  “Hey... I know it was really hard.. but you were strong out there. You did good.. I just want you to know that..” Vinnie comforted her and because of his kind words, Rachael broke out in tears. Vinnie cuddled her, letting her sob into his chest. They stood there less than a minute before he led her to his car. It was a silent drive and Rachael was calming down a bit. They didn't have dinner from leaving the party a little early, they stopped by a diner to eat. At the diner, Vinnie did his best to cheer Rachael up. Most of the conversation was silenced as I became the narrator but their expressions told me that Vinnie succeeded in making Rachael laugh. They had a good time. When they got back to the car, it started to rain.

  Halfway back to her house, the rain was so heavy Vinnie had to pull over, afraid he couldn't see the road through the downpour. They sat in the car and waited for the rain to lighten. They continued to talk and joke around. When it got a bit cold, Vinnie lent Rachael his coat. And before the Dream ended, fading into the darkness, the last thing I saw was Rachael's face and the way she was looking at Vinnie. She was smiling, with tenderness in her eyes; as if she finally realised that perhaps the one she loved all this time was not the one she was looking for.

It was such a sweet short story~ And I'm glad it had a happy ending~ As for what Chris did to Rachael that made her angry, it wasn't elaborated in the Dream but I'm just going to construct it according to my best guess. My guess is that after a while of seeing how much Rachael really wanted to be with him, Chris agrees to go out with her aka be her boyfriend. Unfortunately he was doing this out of pity and just leading her on, which is NEVER a smart move. In the end both sides get hurt and the friendship is either fixed awkwardly over time or it turns sour. Anyways, I think after a while of regret and forgiveness, Rachael and Chris remain good friends, together with Vinnie ^^ Yeyy!!