01-10-23
Ruins of a city. My sole focus is to become strong and engage in combat; no other drive, want, or need. I boast incredible vascularity; every time, the veins on my forearms become extremely prominent and visibly red through the skin.
I sleep. I've experienced the dream within a dream many times. My avatar is an amalgamation of various natural elements with a mason jar terrarium for a head. Each time I sleep, I find myself in a place in worse disrepair than when I'm "awake." Spiders construct webs by my desk at incredible speeds, and the surroundings appear to be burning down without any visible fire. A malicious entity gains access to my terrarium head, altering aspects of myself and my "awake" world. Despite trying to fight it, the entity whispers loudly in my ears, startling me "awake," but the whispers persist. This doesn't discourage me from entering the second dream many times. At some point, I wake up drenched in sweat. A couple find me at some point and I recount the encounter with the dream hacker to them. The scene shifts and I find myself in a dining room, where I'm sat with people I recognize as my family except for two strangers—two women, one of whom is also affected by the dream hacker.
I sleep again to confront the dream hacker. In the second dream, I find myself in a room with a bed connected to a hallway and a second room across from me. The doorway of the second room is guarded by a shaman—bald, wearing a weathered loincloth, and holding a wooden staff. Everything is bathed in the usual glow of a fire despite its absence, except for the guarded room—it glows blue. I attempt to gain entry, but the shaman forcefully points the staff at my face, threatening to curse me. I try to bribe him with change I find on myself, he laughs and pockets the money wihle still denying me entry. I take my money back, making him furious. I give up trying to reason with him and wake up. I discuss with the two girls what to do, and the one experiencing the hacker dreams reveals she has become a vampire (perhaps hoping the hacker would cure her vampirism, unsure if he gave it to her in the first place). I enter the second dream again, but this time, I am paralyzed and cannot leave the bed. A TV at the foot of the bed plays something like a kids' show, capturing my focus. Still aware of the shaman in the room across from me, a pitbull suddenly peeks out, causing me to hide under the covers. It stares at me for a long time before charging and jumping on the bed to bite me. I struggle with the dog, attempting to fight it off before it punctures my skin. I get kicked out of the dream, and the vampire girl apologizes, running out the front door, expressing concern about succumbing and potentially harming someone that night. Her friend follows after her with a large sledgehammer.