Chapter 2 Meeting friends

Introducing other characters

Meeting friends

Asuka followed Mosh into the church while she saw black butterflies flapping aimlessly around him. They now stood in the entrance way which looked even more impressive inside. Asuka looked up and saw various murals on the ceiling. In one Zeus was in the sky throwing lightning bolts at God's finger which canceled out the the lightning. Mosh kept walking ahead as if he didn't notice them. Asuka was suddenly startled by the gigantic entrance doors which shut behind them with a loud thud. As she then followed him down the dimly candlelit corridor. She then began to hear some faint music coming from a larger room which seemed to be a sort of music room.

They entered the room with Mosh in front and Asuka just behind him. They paused to listen for a moment to listen to the sound of the music. Seated at the harpsichord, was a man playing some enchanting music. The notes filled the music room with a vibrancy that was enlightenment itself. That is until the man at the harpsichord hit a sour note and then began to curse his luck aloud at missing the right note. He fiddled with some music papers in front of him, wrote a few notes down, shook his head and began playing wonderfully again. While he was playing Asuka nudged Mosh a bit. He then walked towards the man at the harpsichord, Asuka still following behind. The man looked up at them and then smiled.

"Nice to see you again... MoSh is it?"

"Ah yeah, something like that," Mosh replied. "Ah... hey This is Asuka." Mosh said indicating to Asuka. "Asuka this is THE Johann Sebastian Bach". Bach got up from the harpsichord momentarily and greeted her in a polite manner and then turned back to Mosh.

"Have you been trying out the music I gave you?" Bach asked.

"Yes, I have.... Although I have a tough time remembering it when I wake up." Mosh then explained to Asuka that he was currently trying to write music from the dream state, by keeping in touch with long dead composers that still existed on the dream plane somewhere, where they continue to write music to this day.

"Oh well," Bach said. "With time you'll get it. Anyway, while you're here... Can you help me end this horrid thing. I have been trying for hours to find a fitting end to this piece but, I just can't seem to grasp it."

"Sure, maybe a fresh look may help" Mosh pulled his guitar from his back and read the notes on the sheet music. He played until he hit the sour note Bach had written. He then played the sequence again trying to end on a different note. Still sour. He tried, and then tried again. On the fourth attempt he accidentally hit the right note. Bach went to the paper and filled in the right note. He then thanked Mosh for his help.

Asuka wandered off a bit while they talked. She began admiring the various architecture that was in the place, even though it was very old and dusty. After a few minutes it sounded like Bach and Mosh had come to an agreement.... "What have you guys decided to do?" She asked. They said that they had agreed to play something for her. It was movement in a concerto that Bach decided to write just for guitar after he had heard Mosh play guitar for the first time.

Mosh tuned up his guitar a bit. He then looked at Bach, Then Bach gave an almost imperceptible nod that it was time to begin. Asuka was overwhelmed at how good it sounded. As she watched them both playing, she noticed strange things happening around Mosh. The black butterflies were back dancing around them, and a green energy seemed to be coming off of the guitar. Soon Mosh began to change shape while he played, one notable time he turned into a gargoyle looking thing with huge wings. His eyes became yellow suns and then began swirling. After they were done playing the music, Mosh and Bach looked at Asuka who was now clapping with a huge smile on her face. Asuka then had an idea... She went over to the Harpsichord and indicated to Bach she wanted to try something. She began playing a piece she had once heard. After a few seconds Bach's attention was no longer at the music, he was staring at one of the keyboard's legs which now had a flower growing underneath it, which undoubtedly came from the music Asuka was playing. Bach then asked her how she did that. She spoke to him a little bit about certain combinations of notes making things grow in the dream realm. Bach nodded as if he understood and said that he may try this himself, since his compositions seemed to have a power of their own.

Soon Mosh and Bach played another song, and soon other flowers and various plants seemed to grow around the dingy room. After they had finished, Mosh began looking at some music papers while Bach wrote some notes down on another paper. He noticed Mosh looking at the one piece.

"You can have that one Mosh... Hopefully with time you'll be able to remember this piece as well. Your world needs more music like mine. It would be great if my legacy could continue in that way."

"Well, if my dream recall were greater, then it might work. But for now... My recall isn't so good especially when it comes to remembering music from dreams." Mosh replied. Mosh then picked up the papers and vanished from sight with them.

Bach was surprised for a moment and then said, "Well I guess being a dreamer he has woken up"

"I hope he remembers something about this." Asuka then stated. "Well it's time for me to go for now. I'll have to track him down again when he falls asleep." She then bid her farewell to Bach with a smile, She then opened a portal and stepped through.

***

Mosh, in his deep dreaming state, was sitting in a large room that looked a lot like a private study. There, he sat at a desk staring at some pieces of paper; and as he stared, he began to see golden lines on the paper. At first he thought he was staring at a strange symbol of some kind, but as he kept staring at the symbol he noticed that it seemed to have more depth. Now, instead of seeing a symbol, there were lines outlining the figure of a person's body. He kept staring some more... Then he noticed even more depth to the diagram. Now there were circles drawn around the diagram of the body, and also what appeared to be a chakra system of some kind. It was unlike any chakra system he had ever seen. Above the crown chakra, were higher chakras that were higher in dimensions. The first seven chakras that inhabited the body were called third density, in fourth density had eight chakras, and finally the fifth density chakras contained seven. Mosh concluded he was being given important information, so he summoned a dream pen and took a few minutes to trace the diagram that he saw the golden lines were depicting.

After Mosh was done the drawing of the energy body diagram, he then took off his glasses, disassembled them piece by piece like you would a gun with many parts, pulled out a case and then finally put each piece into the grooves of the case that were meant for each piece. He opened a drawer with his dream telekinetic powers and put the case away in there. as if it were instinctual: He flew up, opened a portal and flew through it.

On the other side of the portal Mosh was in a space-ship with his friends Waking Nomad and Raven Knight. Raven looked surprised to see him. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be visiting Asuka tonight?" Raven asked.

Mosh wasn't listening. He was fiddling with his new glasses. He knew he had just been wearing a pair and then put them away and now he had a new pair. "Those must have been special dream glasses that enabled me to see the lines I was supposed to draw." He concluded. Raven touched his shoulder to get his attention and then repeated her question. "Oh yeah!" He said.

"Well, aren't you going to catch up with her?" She asked. Mosh looked at Nomad and saw that Nomad was busy operating the ship and trying to land on a strange planet. Mosh looked at Raven and then nodded.

Mosh had a false awakening. He was in the same sleeping bag on top of the same hill. He walked down the hill towards someone. That someone was Asuka. He didn't recognize her.

Asuka rolled her eyes, "Do we have to go through this again?" Mosh looked confused, and then a wave of realization swept across his face.

"Oh yeah, we met here before... I remember!" Mosh said.

"That's right!" Asuka replied," Did you also know that this is a dream?" This was Asuka's meager attempt to make Mosh lucid. He only looked around the scenery a bit and then shrugged. Mosh did find it strange though, that Asuka was wearing a cardboard box. Is she homeless or something? He thought.

"Anyway," Asuka said, "Who shall we see next?" Mosh thought for a second.

"Hazel!" He replied, "I'm not too sure about her though. I remember her a lot from dreams, and I'm sure it's really her and not just a dream character. I can tell by the way she acts."

"How does she act?"

"Like she knows it's a dream. I think she's an unconscious dreamwalker,"

An unconscious dreamwalker is someone who can travel during dreams out of the body quite naturally. They aren't always aware that they are doing so.

"Interesting, We'll visit her next. Do you know how to find her?" Mosh looked up on another hill.

"They should know!" He said and pointed up at two men on the distant hill. "That's my Dad and my Brother. My Brother is better friends with her than I am." They began walking across the field towards the two men. "She invited me to her birthday party!" Mosh said excitedly. When they approached the men on the hill, Asuka noticed his brother looked a lot like him, except for the fact that the brother seemed to have a more childish demeanor. The Dad was just weird, He had a clear bald spot, was bent over while smoking a cigarette, his other hand on one knee, and was shaking his hips back and forth in a strange manner. Asuka, asked the Father what he was doing?

The man replied "Wushu for chair culture." Asuka had no idea what the statement meant. Seeing the look of confusion on her face, the father took it upon himself to explain what it meant. He ranted on for minutes using phrases that only further confused her. After a few minutes of this she got sick of it and nudged Mosh.

"We're going to see Hazel right?" She wasn't asking, but it seemed more like she was pleading. Mosh then asked his brother if he knew where Hazel was. The brother said she was getting ready for her party. But he didn't say how to get there. Asuka rolled her eyes again and then probed Mosh's being for his feeling of Hazel's energy signature, While he stood there trying to ignore his father who seemed to be trying to embarrass him. Asuka eventually found the energy signature of Hazel and a portal opened before them.

Both of them looked through it and saw that Hazel was in a large room with strange blankets of all colors that covered every part of the walls and floors. Asuka stepped through the portal and Mosh quickly followed.

"What are you doing?" Asuka asked her.

"Trying to get each color to match with the others in this room before the party starts." Hazel was trying to fasten a corner of one of the blankets too the ground, she kept brushing her long blond hair away from the corner she was working on. Only to look down again and find that another chunk of her hair was blocking her work.

"Let me help you with that." Asuka said and quickly laid down the corner of the sheet perfectly using only her index finger. Then Asuka went around the room summoning flower pots and bouquets all over the place until it was neatly decorated. Hazel stared in awe at Asuka's work. "Now I just need a cake." Hazel said. Asuka thought hard for a second, and then summoned a gigantic cake.

"That looks more like a wedding cake than a birthday cake." Mosh said. Asuka just stared at the cake. Hazel walked over to it.

"Hey, you're right. It's my birthday... I'm not getting married, what is this?" Hazel was saying. She didn't protest much longer however, when she began devouring the cake like a pig.

***

Mosh and Asuka just emerged from a portal. Now they were standing on a dream scape version of the moon. Mosh's friend Nomad, began telling other dreamers to come to the moon on a regular basis when he first went public on a lucid dreaming forum about the nature of shared dreams. Him and Raven knight were the first dreamers to show the people on that forum that the shared dreaming reality is very real. Many people were skeptical, but others were very interested in trying shared dreaming, Mosh was just one of the people who took them up on their offer to share dreams.

On the Dreamscape moon was a biodome. In The biodome was a large tower, luscious gardens, Koi ponds, and a mysterious city.

Mosh and Asuka stood near the Koi ponds. On Mosh's shoulders was a girl around the age of four or five. Her name was Shawna. The girl lived in what Raven called her inner world. Mosh Explained to Asuka earlier in the night, that Shawna was recently a soul who use to inhabit the body of a woman. Mosh explained before visiting her that Shawna and another soul called Aeona inhabited the same body. Asuka thought it was strange that two souls would do that... inhabit the same body. Mosh explained that Shawna was free now to live in the dream world. Raven's inner world was a safe place for her to grow up for now. There, she had many entities to look after including a man very skilled in martial arts. She also had other children as playmates and a woman named Serena to serve as a mother figure. While they talked together a red fox approached them, looked at them and then ran in between them. A half Jaguar man ran after the fox cursing wildly. Asuka wondered who they were. Mosh said that the fox was Pablo, a dreamer from Mexico, and the Jaguar man was Mosh's friend Nomad, also friends with Raven Knight. Mosh, Nomad, and Raven, were the Shared Dreaming Team on the forum they frequented. Asuka was happy that she finally got to see who Nomad was. Just then a woman emerged through a portal, Asuka assumed this was "Serena". Asuka waited while he put Shawna down gave her a hug. Shawna called him "Mochi", and then she followed Serena hand in hand through the portal. Asuka figured Mosh would wake up soon. That left one final person to meet: Aeona.

"Why don't we visit your Aeona friend?" Asuka asked.

"Ok," Mosh replied, "But I have to warn you... She's a little weird."

"How so?" Asuka asked.

"Well, she's given to a lot of drama. I mean, She can get really confusing at times, she keeps saying we were married in a past life or something and that we share a strong love..." Asuka's heart stopped just a moment upon hearing him speak. "... But she has a boyfriend. and She keeps bringing him into my dreams without my permission. I don't really like him. He's just as weird as her. He said he was the one who told me to look after Shawna, when really it was Culexor who made a deal with her that that I was to be the guardian of shawna. Her boyfriend makes all these grandiose claims and asks for my help with her, though my guide tells me that her boyfriend named Poet is in no way involved in all. I feel like he's hiding something. This whole thing is rather complicated and I'd rather not go into it right now. But sure we can visit Aeona, She seems better minded than Poet." Mosh kicked a piece of moon rock and it shot up into the sky a distance. Asuka took him by the arm.

"Well it couldn't hurt to check on her anyways" Asuka said. She let Mosh open a portal to find Aeona. One opened and Mosh headed straight toward it. Asuka yanked him back and started breathing heavily as if she was almost in terror.

"Mosh," she said to him as he resisted her grab on him. The portal was still open and a sort of black smoke was pouring out of the portal. "That... That's Dark energy! Don't go in there." Asuka exclaimed.

"Dark energy? What is that? I'm always wondering why I remember her in a black space... Every dream i remember of her... It's always so black."

"Dark energy..." Asuka said, "Is a very powerful energy that exists on the dream plane, but it is very unstable. People go mad with power over it, and if not used properly it can turn the nicest heart into a darkest one." Asuka looked relieved as the portal closed.

"Well, that explains something." Mosh said. Asuka looked at him and his expression showed that he had put two things together. "In the last dream that she was in Aeona was a black shadow, I could sense it was her, She also had Poet with her uninvited and It think we fought briefly." Asuka seemed really worried about the situation now.

"Well, i think you should stay away from her just for now MoSh. I have a really bad feeling this."

"Well Aeona I don't mind. it's her boyfriend that concerns me. I just get an icky vibe from him."

"Hmm, Well I don't think she is exactly who and what she claims she is. And why they would want you to guard that child, That really bothers me. So just stay away from her for now, at least in dreams anyway."

"Ok," MoSh agreed. He started feeling a bit faint. "I think I'm gonna wake up soon." he said and started looking disoriented. He was thinking about something. "Wait a second, there was a phrase I learned yesterday..." He said and thought for a second more. He then managed to bow to her and he said "Asuka, please be with me." Stated in perfect japanese. He then faded out quickly from her view. He left footprints in the moon dust.

Asuka didn't have to think much before coming up with an answer. At the time, she had no idea in all of the dreamworld what lied ahead with him. But to her it just felt right to say "Yes".

"Yes, MoSh" She said even though by now he wouldn't hear her. She leaned over and drew a heart in the dust around his shoe prints.

***

Asuka Astral Projected to Mosh's physical home around the time he was getting ready for bed. There she wanted to see how much of her he remembered. It seemed his recall wasn't that great, he didn't remember everything, but almost every scene he remembered - Walking into a church with a woman behind him, being at a park, standing on a hill and looking for Hazel, and also something about Aeona. In each dream he noticed a woman was there with him and he concluded it was the Asuka, he briefly remembered meeting when Raven was with him two nights before. So at least he remembered her.

He got into bed again and said "Goodnight Asuka." As if sensing she was there. She sat by his side and watched him fall asleep.

***

Asuka was awakened by something entering his room. At first it was a dark spector floating in the through the door. The Specter became solid and now there was a tall dark man in a trenchcoat. He was pale and his eyes were black. Asuka realized she was in the dream representation of Mosh's room now, which meant she was now on the dream plane. The man was obviously and Astral entity of some sort, and he didn't look friendly.

"Get away from here," She yelled to the man as he walked towards Mosh's bed. She ran to protect Mosh but the entity cast her aside with a strong swing of his arm which flung her against the wall. Mosh wasn't waking up, Even though the man began eating out of Mosh's chest with his fangs. He seemed to be eating some weird black stuff coming out of Mosh's chest. Asuka was paralyzed with fear now. How am I supposed to help him? She thought.