Twisted Reality

I had just finished my episode of Datamon one of my favorite shows to watch on a Saturday. As the closing credits start to roll I hear someone coming down from upstairs, I had figured it was my father cause I could hear him coughing a few times before he hit the steps. even though I really wanted to see the preview for the next episode I begrudgingly got up and headed for the stairs which were kiddy corner from my room.

I get to the stairs and look up to see my father was halfway down them, with a yawn and a stretch he said "Hey buddy, you ready for today. I was thinking we could go out to eat before we get started."

I nodded my head "Ye..ye..yeah sounds fun we going to Coonies for breakfast then." Coonies was a place my dad loved going to they served a home style breakfast in a dinner environment. I in turn enjoyed going as well cause it meant spending some time with my father which was a rare occasion since he worked almost all the time.

He gets to the bottom of the stairs "No actually we will be going to you grandmas she wanted me to look at her vehicle today. So she said she would make breakfast in return. I told her you would be coming and she was even more excited to see her grandson."

"So Grandma Mary? Why is she so excited she took me to school just earlier this week." I said with a puzzled look.

We start heading for the door "I don't know she said something like while you work on the car I wanted to talk to him about something."

Even more confused now I said "well then I guess this will be an interesting trip to grandmas but one question"

"What"

"are we walking or taking the truck?'

"Actually the van your mother doesn't need it today so I thought id save on some gas"

The reason I asked the question is cause my grandma didn't live to far away from use just pretty much up the hill that felt like a mountain sometimes to climb. It was also a really nice day so I wouldn't of minded walking up there.

We make it to the van as I get into the passenger side I put on my seat belt and we were on our way.it only took about a minute to get there as well it was a bit of a quiet ride as normally we don't talk to much. its kind of something that we end up doing. we say a few things talk a bit but ultimately we get what we want to talk about in a few words.

This didn't happen this time as the whole way there was more quite then normal, and my dad seemed a bit uncomfortable with the situation at hand.

I didn't understand why or what this reason could of been but left it alone, in fear of making a minute ride more awkward.

We reach the driveway of my grandmas house and pull up into it. There were no other cars there and the garage door bay was actually open with my grandmas car sitting in it.

I had guess she was expecting us sooner then later. we stopped the van short of the door and I quickly open my door as my dad was taking a bit longer. Forgetting I had my seatbelt on I quickly went no where till I pulled it off.

I guess I was a little to excited to see my grandma. I finally unbuckled and got out of the van as my dad let out a little chuckle at the what I had just done, but followed shortly after. the house was a ranch style house so it had two big windows where the living room was. So it wasn't to surprising she had come to the door shortly after we had arrived since all she had to do was look out the window, to the noise of a vehicle pulling up.

She to me prospectively was tall about Five foot six inches, with snow white curly hear her eyes had greyed from age and skin a bit wrinkled. For an 80 year old I guess you wouldn't expect much less.

I ran up the side walk to her stoop as she said "Phyrix buddy I've been wanting to see you again." I give her a big hug as I feel her warm embrace. I feel something weird pulse through my body.

Well that was weird I thought to myself. as I say "I know dad told me, I missed you too grandma."

I look up at my grandma as she was talking the world goes mute. I could no longer hear the words coming out of her mouth or any noise at all. This was a bit frightening, but suddenly I started seeing another world out of my right eye. In this world I was laying on the couch in my grandmas living room watching my grandma and dad talking. This worlds sound came in loud and clear. As the other world continued on with no sound the motions did continue as I had no control over what was happening in either world.

This was extremely trippy and I was frightened on what was going on, but thought to myself I have to still be dreaming. Which scared me even more since I had thought I had already woken up.

As the thoughts were circling in my head I could hear the conversation from the second world loud and clear over my thoughts.

my dad was at the door still with it still opened screen door shut, as my grandma was talking to him about a few feet off into the Livingroom itself.

Her hands go up "why did you bring him you know i hate putting him to sleep."

My dad shrugs "it couldn't be helped I told him id spend time with him today, and this was the only way i could think of to not break my sons heart."

she lets out a sigh "ok I get it I love seeing my grandson as well but you know we have a meeting today what if he wakes."

He shakes his head "you know that's not possible with your perk. Especially since he doesn't have a perk of any sort. it would be near impossible for even a perk user to be able to break yours."

Her head drops in disappointment "You know that is risky either way what if he ends up actually having one that is just not noticeable like intelligence or endurance or even empathy. you know that is possible and those ones are resilient to my perk"

he crosses his arms "I Know what your saying but you know Porter would of detected that ability if that was the case. plus he has never woken up before."

she puts her hand to her head "Ok we will have to just hope that is the case then, I mean it is to late to cancel the meeting anyways."

He Steps a bit closer shutting the door behind him "by the way what dream is he having this time?"

She takes a step back looking like she is about to turn around to the kitchen "its a dream about talking about catechism it will end with him falling asleep on the couch and that's when he will wake up."

Looking concerned he says "Wait catechism is only for people with perks you cant give him a dream like that"

She looks irritated "I'm talking about the religious catechism not the perk one the one he will be doing with the pastor in a few months anyways. Did you honestly forget about our technical religion we go every week to church."

with a sigh he says "Oh right I did kind of forget about it, its just been so long since we had to actually put someone through that one. its easy for it to slip the mind."

She turns around and with a finger tells my dad to follow. "now i have to make sure people come through the garage to make sure he doesn't wake up and we will go into the basement to ensure that is the case."

My dad starts to follow "Yes mom I'm sorry for this again"

She lets out a sigh "its ok don't worry yourself so much this old lady always has a plan B just for these matters."

The walk out of the room there voices getting muffled as the rooms starts getting silent. The other world still playing out on mute. confused on the circumstances at hand I manage to close the eye showing the none mute world and fully embracing the first world once again.

This time I had full control over my actions. I must still be in a dream, I have to be there is no other way to explained what had just happened.

Calming down a bit knowing what is going on now I clear my mind. If this is a dream then I should be able to erase my surroundings right now. The scene still playing out on mute but no longer in sync with my actions. I close my eyes and started to think of nothing at all as the world around me starts to fade away into black nothingness.

I opened my eyes to the dark void. "well I guess I was right this is a dream. I guess I'm going to have to do something till I wake up. I know how I will play this though since this is the dream all I need to do is play around a bit till I wake up. once I do ill know if what I saw in the second world was reality or a dream. So in other words if I don't wake up in my room and at grandmas ill know how this will work."

I start thinking of the woods where I like to hang out and the worlds starts to blur into greens and browns mix and I am now standing at the precipice of the woods.

I think out loud "well I guess this is as good of place as any to play around and just kind of think of what I can do." I start walking into the woods towards my thinking spot.

I sit down next to a tree and look up into the dream sky.

"well I guess this is kind of relaxing but I kind of want to have some fun and enjoy myself.."

I sat against that tree for a few minutes till I came up with a good idea.

"I know I could make a UI Like in a video game for dreaming so I always know when I am."

Taking the idea into effect I start to think of a good UI System to use. Going from game to game in my mind to figure out the best combination of them all. as I do so a Button shaped like a bubbled P Shows up at the bottom right of my vision.

"well that was quicker then I thought it would be" but the problem was it wasn't something I recognized from any game it was just there. Perplexed I Stretch my hand out to touch the button.

It popped up two more buttons with and arrow that showed there were more in the menu.

Well that is weird I guess my brain is a head of me on the UI I wanted to make. Next to the P was a Cogged Shaped S and next to that a bagged shaped B.

Well I'm guessing this S Button is settings I should probably check it out real quick. I don't understand what kind of settings I could do or why it would show up at all.

I click on the Settings button which then popped up a window. This window stated Dream Settings and had a second tab Dubbed Reality Settings. This seemed weird considering there should be no way I can change a reality's setting. I ended up looking through all the dream settings real quick.

Like a game it had a difficulty settings Hearing settings a visual settings it also had a free roam setting there were a few more settings but they were blurred a bit like I wasn't meant to see what they were quiet yet. Which is weird since this is my settings from my brain. Being a bit confused I ended up messing with a few to see what they did.

First was the Hearing Settings it was on mute for some odd reason. I started turning it up and my hearing started to come back into place as I turned it up louder I could hear the birds start chirping, Louder and Louder. It started getting unbearable at some point as I quickly turned it down to a combatable level.

Ok so if I mess with this setting I could start becoming dangerous for my hearing. That is fairly interesting I don't understand why that is the case I wonder what that could be useful for. I shrugged and started playing with the visual button. Curious on that I started moving it down so not to over whelm me just in case.

As I brought it down further and further I notice a fog start to settle in. the lower I put this setting the closer the fog started getting. I brought it almost all the way down and the fog started turning in to blackness like the world was starting to disappear around me.

I stopped playing with this setting pretty quickly thinking its not worth being blind but it does remind me or when I make the world go black. I wonder if this is the setting that controls that. I move the setting back to default.

I'm sure that will be of some use later on but as of now there is no reason to extend or diminish my vision. These settings effected my senses in a weird way and it was pretty confusing, these weren't normal settings you would get out of any game, but I guess the change to reality or dream would make a difference on that note.

I then turned my attention to the difficulty button this one actually had details for each difficulty. Easy being no danger, normal being a up in level but no danger, Hard being a extremely realistic mode but no danger, then Realistic this one had a full detail on it though not just short words to explain it.

This setting is not meant to be activated in dream mode. This will make your Dream as Realistic as the real world. Danger is very eminent and death could occur. This setting is not recommended for anyone. If you do choose this setting you will gain Experience traits and mastery points as if it were reality. wounds inflicted in this mode will also be transferred to your real body. Do Not Use.

well that one is a weird setting if I'm not suppose to use it then what is the use of such a button. sounds like it should of been cut off on hard. Why would I make a setting like that. I guess I could ignore that right now and use normal mode.

I flip it over to normal mode and l look at the next setting.

Free Roam: This allows you to move freely through out the dream world this can be turned off or on depending on if you want to dream or have full control. You can also move from one world to another with no effort.

Ok ok I get it then this is how I can lucid dream huh. I wonder what this last part is about with the world thing. Thinking nothing of it I save my dream settings and head over to reality settings.

I Hit the reality tab to find a few settings that intrigued me. First was a setting that started make your dream settings your reality settings. that had a check mark box beside it. I decided not to touch that one. Thinking it could be a bit dangerous plus I don't understand how reality could have a higher difficulty. I chuckled at the idea of a difficulty on life.

The next check box said bring the UI into reality. I laugh for a second "yeah right like that would ever happen" I ended up checking that one off as a joke.

This Tab Seemed like a big joke anyways how would anything from a dream come into reality but I kept going.

The Next Settings were also blurred out. These blurred out settings were extra confusing. But as of that I saved my reality settings and exited out of the settings tab.

Closing out of everything the P Sat at the bottom right of my vision like I figured it would.

Now the biggest problem is I don't have anything to fight though. If I want to make my dreams game like I might as well figure that one out.

I close my eyes and started thinking of the weakest monster that came to mind. it was a gnoll, gnolls are doglike bipedal monsters from one of my favorite games. I start to imagine them in my head with every weapon imaginable and skill set then imagined them scattered across the forest in random locations and at low levels.

As I open my eyes I Quickly noticed a mallet inches away from my face, as I dodge out of a reaction the mallet narrowly misses me. I roll to the ground as 3 bars appear next to my Bobbled P a Red one A Yellow one and a Black one along with something that said Level 1 up above all of them.

My yellow bar had dropped half way. and a log appeared in the bottom left of my vision that said battle log. I didn't have much time to examine these new items as the gnoll now swings his mallet down upon me as I'm laying on the ground.

I quickly roll to the side my yellow falls back a little below half. I get up from that roll causing the yellow bar to fall to a quarter. as I breath hard a bit out of breath from all the dodging.

The Gnoll now stuck to the ground with his mallet trying to pull it up. I look at him struggle a bit as I saw my yellow bar start to rise a bit. I ended up not thinking about my next move and ran up and hit the gnoll with a running punch uppercut.

This knocks the gnoll off his feet as he tumbles to the ground letting go of his mallet. My Now battle log pops up with unarmmed goes up two point. you did 100 damage to gnoll.

Confused a bit I grabbed the mallet from the ground with surprising ease. As if I had more strength then the gnoll

I lift the Mallet up over my head with both ands as if to swing a bat. While the gnoll was distracted I swung down at the downed gnoll. As the Mallet hit the gnoll in the face he fly's into the tree right next to him as my battle log stated Learned one Handed Mallet Mastery One Handed Mallet goes up two points. You deal three hundred damage to Enemy Gnoll. Enemy Gnoll defeated, you gain one hundred experience.

I look over to where I hit the gnoll and as I do I see it disappear into blocks. the mallet still in my hands, me completely out of breath my yellow bar completely depleted and a sliver of purple shows up on my black back.

The Red bar never moved at all. perplexing it was but I had now figured out what these bars meant. The red must be my health the yellow stamina and black experience bar. Now the battle log does help with telling me what I'm gaining and all but seems more like a distraction then anything else, but I guess it didn't matter

I look over at my yellow bar as it starts to rise again as I start gaining my breath back. This whole situation surprised me greatly and as I look around I see gnolls spread across the forest I could see.

Well this could be difficult maybe i shouldn't have gnolls in the forest right now.

So I start to think of them disappearing and being no more but as I open my eyes again, The gnoll stayed where they were.

Great I cant delete them, I guess I don't have that much control in this dream of mine, that sucks. I let out a sigh in that realization.

as now I'm curious on why I only went up a sliver of experience and why I was only level one. So I reach out my hand and open up the menu bar and press the arrow button the next button in line was a button shaped like a person with a C on it. I pressed it and it brought up what I was looking for it showed equipment and my health stamina and experience bar but not much else.

I get to see I'm holding a one handed weapon that is taking up both hand slots. but not much for actual equipment besides the cloths on my back. I also get to see that my health is five hundred my stamina is one hundred and my experience was one hundred out of one hundred thousand.

Well that explains why I didn't go up that much. The question still is why does it take so long to level, that is a weird thing. is this my brain trying to give me a challenge or something.

I let in a deep breath and backed myself out again. The button going back to the right hand side of my vision again.

I think to myself that this is crazy but I guess I do have mastery skills that can be leveled. But do I have to get into a battle to raise it or can I train it up.

I decided to test out a few theory's first I started swinging the mallet around a bit. All this did was deplete my stamina with no raise in masteries. So I went to the nearest tree instead and started hitting the mallet against that.

This time as I made the first swing into the tree my battle log popped up.

YOU HAVE HIT THE TREE FOR TWO HUNDRED.

YOU HAVE GAINED ONE POINT IN ONE HANDED MALLET MASTERY.

Surprised that my second thought actually worked a started hitting the tree consecutively till my stamina was depleted. finding that my stamina is based on my actual stamina was surprising, but the biggest thing is that it started getting easier to swing the mallet around as well.

after a few more hits a new message had popped up.

YOU ARE NOW LEVEL TWO IN ONE HANDED MALLET MASTERY

YOU GAIN ONE STRENTH FOR MASTERY LEVELING

YOU GAIN ONE DEXTERITY FOR MASTERY LEVELING

YOU GAIN ONE STAMINA FOR MASTERY LEVELING.

I let out a smirk for a second tired from swinging the mallet. "well that is surprising I gain status points as well. I guess that does explain the long leveling process."

This is a bit tiring though I guess training isn't going to be that easy.

I ended up continuing what I was doing with the tree till the tree fell to the ground from all the damage taken. which surprised me greatly but I decided to try battling a gnoll once again. this was because I knew I had more stamina now and on top of that could swing my mallet with less effort.

I peaked a gnoll not to far off me and started making my way toward him. walking up to the tree he was next to I try to stealth fully hit this gnoll this time. I walk around the tree behind the gnoll he hadn't taken noticed to me. as I lift the mallet over my head I swing the mallet down word, almost connecting with the gnoll when suddenly

"BUDDY WAKE UP"

my surroundings start to disappear around "No..no...noooo... not now I was just starting to have some fun."