Waking Up

So, had an interesting dream concerning Daniel. We were in this vast, open space, with a stone floor and dark skies. He was sitting down, panting. I approached him.

"Haven't seen you in a while," I said. "How you doing?"

"You probably shouldn't have come here," he said.

"Where?" I asked. "The dream world?"

"The Board," he replied. "It's uh... This place is all wrong."

"How so?" I asked.

"You know how I turn to stone when the sun comes up the waking world, right?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, I remember tha," I asked. "Why is that important?"

"That's basically my version of sleeping," he said. "Helps me relax, recharge, all that good shit. I don't know if you've noticed, but the Board has no sun."

"Oh," I said.

He's right. There's no sun on the Board. The sky seems to darken occasionally, which I've taken to associating with night time, but that's about it.

"Yeah," he said. "Haven't been stone in a while. A little stressed out."

"Sorry, man," I said. "I didn't realize this would affect you."

"It's alright," he said. "Better than, you know, getting gunned down by proxies and all. But maybe find a way out of this place soonish?"

"No promises," I said. "But I'll try."

"One other messed up thing about the Board though," he said, gesturing above him. "Look up."

I have no fucking clue how I missed it, but there were massive bubbles floating in the air above us. LOTS of them. I couldn't even count them all. A few of them seemed to be playing videos of stuff that I couldn't quite make out.

"What are these," I asked.

"These," Daniel said. "Are the subconscious minds of everyone else on the Board. The players, the Cards, and even..."

He gestured to one bubble, high above us, hat, unlike all the others, was shrouded in darkness.

"...The Game Master himself," Daniel finished. "Somehow, being here has put me in contact with all of them."

"Holy shit," I gasped.

"I'm only used to being in touch with one person at a time," he said. "All this... well, it's overwhelming to say the least..."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I had no idea..."

"Oh, I haven't even gotten to the icing on the cake yet," Daniel said. "Some of these other players are fucking insane. And that's not a comfortable thing to be linked up to."

He raised a hand, and one of the bubbles floated over to him. It was showing images of some messed up, gory shit, and up close, I could see a darkness surrounding it as well, though not nearly as intense as the Game Master's bubble.

"This guys particularly brutal," Daniel said. "You've met him before. Just... not in this universe."

"Quick question," I asked. "Why are some of these showing images and shit?"

"Those are the one's that are sleeping," he said. "Dreaming."

"So who is this nutcase, anyway?" I asked. "And in what universe's have I met him?"

Daniel snapped his finger, and we were suddenly in what appeared to be the below deck area of a ship. A man was kneeling on the ground, heavily wounded. He had long, greasy black hair, and dark clothing. Standing over him, holding a machete, was another man, dressed in a bloodstained hoody, with a white, plastic mask covering his face.

"The Faceless Bastard," I muttered.

"You know him?" Daniel asked.

"Doubt there's a servant alive who hasn't at least heard his name in passing," I said. "Pretty sure he's commented on my blog before..."

I continued watching the scene. The Faceless Bastard raised his machete, about to deal the killing blow, when another version of me showed up and tripped him with his scythe. The Faceless Bastard got back up and turned to the other me angrily. Before the rest of the fight could play out, the scene ended, and we were back on the stone ground.

"Sorry," Daniel said. "Playing those alternate universe flashbacks can be a bit... draining..."

"So, the Faceless Bastard is here, in this tournament?" I asked.

"You'd know that if you read other people's blogs," Daniel said. "But yes. Sergei Korchaviv is one of the opponent's you may come across in this game."

"Well," I said. "Better be prepared for that shit."

Daniel chuckled.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"It's a little amusing," Daniel said. "In that universe I just showed you, the two of you actually end up becoming friends."

Our conversation ended there. Sal shook me awake, saying we were close to Terrence and that we should get moving. So I decided to type all this out real quick.