[Anniversary] Morpheus strikes at noon

Euna rolled her eyes at the large, buzz-cut clown, who had run away screaming into the woods. Moments later, she heard a splash, which probably meant that he dissolved into tears, literally. Again.

She rolled away from the crowd and straight into a cranberry bush. She started picking raspberries out of the brambles, idly throwing the gooseberries at the panther-turned-someone.

Mikhainon

Mikhainon jumped from his chair, making an unattractive yelping sound and dropping the bottle onto... Van Gogh's Starry Night. All right. Mood gone. Grandma totally ruined his game. Unbelievable.

He slapped his forehead, dragging his palm down his face and making a long, exasperated noise. "All right. That's it. I'm done standing around in a forest."

Mikhainon stepped on the ground and transformed a huge chunk of the "forest" into "an exotic dance club" with a bar stocked with non-alcoholic alcoholic drinks and an entire stage flashing with garish lighting. On the stage was an exotic dancer, dancing provocatively but still fully clothed for the kids. He waved at the faceless waiter behind the bar.

"A round for all the ones here that could drink, and ginger ale for the younger ones that can't."

Deep in the heart of the forest lay a head of lettuce. The lettuce lye still in the night wear no one has ever been. The wind blew dramatically through the forest rustling the leaves of every tree in its path. The leaves made an odd noise as they fell to the ground, whistling through the wind. "Tomatoes" They seemed to whisper into the night. anyone who were in this forest would be highly confused as to what would be happening. Should you be scared, or should you laugh hysterically about the noises of the night time forest habitat?

A passer by, who is only known by Shinji by his fellow classmates, walks around the night driven streets of the island that he lives on currently. There seems to be no one around except for him though. Why is this. His eyes are wide as if he had been scared one too many times. His breathing is slow and rapid at the same time. His heart rate moved higher than humanly possible. One might think that he was a special human that could make his bodily functions different from others, however, one may be wrong. He was an average fellow who may have randomly stumbled upon this island one day and decided to stay even though he is unlike most of the people here. What was he even doing out here at this time?

He stood at the edge of his school where everything seemed normal yet still and quiet. More than usual at least. The wind blew his high yellow hair out of his face while be stared into the distance. "Tomatoes" He heard from his left. What was that? He thought to himself. Before he could even think another thought, he heard it again. And again, and again. The sound seemed to get louder as he continued to listen. Trying to figure where it came from, he turned to he left and then his right. Not being able to find the source of the sound, he shrugged and began to walk. After taking only one step, he found that the sound hadn't stopped after all but only got quieter. He could find that it was coming from his left so he tried to follow it.

Upon entering the woods, Shinji had no other reaction but to look around constantly as if something was following him, watching him. What was he to do now that he was deep into the forest. Could he even find his way back out of it? Either way, he had no idea whether or not he could leave so he continued forward. His arms crossed in front of him and his bunny mask still in tact on his face, his deep brown hair began to blow around furiously when the wind blew him hard enough to knock a small child off their tiny little feet.

His narrowed eyes began to widen as he came across a random head of lettuce. It was beautiful and serene. The moon light began to shine through a break in the tree branches above as the student got closer and closer to the head. He was confused as to why their was a head of lettuce here anyways. Setting that thought aside, though, Shinji continued forward before, the lettuce began to move. It moved quickly and erratically while still sitting in one place. What was about to happen?

Within a few seconds, the lettuce moved fast enough to be considered vibrating. After a while it stopped and Shinji's bright red eyes peered through his dark red hair and his monkey's mask. What was the lettuce about to do? With one sudden movement, the lettuce leaped into the air and in one fell swoop...

A puff of dark green air plummeted from the head of lettuce along with a foul sound. Was that..a fart...?

They were in a club now.

This was the kind of dream Lochlann was used to. He was sort of sad the kitty was now a person because at least cats didn't ask him what was up with the weather (he had no idea), but at least the club was an environment he was familiar with.

He leaned back on the barstool, ordered a whiskey on the rocks, and set about watching that dancer. Hot. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen a naked woman. At least, a real one, not one in a magazine.

This was making him hungry. At least at the bar he could...

He could order a cheeseburger.

"One cheeseburger, please," he told the bartender. Was the place on fire? He didn't care.

"Does anyone else want a cheeseburger? I need to eat something soon or I'll get even hungrier for pussy and not the cat kind," he said, frowning. "No offense, Mr. Kitty cat."

He turned to the person nearest to him. "Do you think they do karaoke here?"

==> Strings

There was no possible explanation as to why an abomination such as Strings would be found in a collective dream. For one thing, Strings doesn't actually sleep so it might as well be impossible for her to even dream. It could be that the one in this dream is merely a collective illusion of the creature. But her consciousness seemed to be present in the dream, as well.

Strings found herself in a forest. It was no surprise as she lived in the forest. Though the appearance of flashing lights from a distance seemed out of place. The lights led her to a sort of... dance club? Strings was pretty sure it was a 'dance club'.

There were people. She could try and ... liven up the party.

Strings slipped into the crowd unnoticed and sneak behind the red-haired man who seemed have have to most presence in the location. She made an eerie cackle as she appeared behind him, tendrils at his throat, "Hello, mister!! Would you kindly explain what is going on here?"

In the middle of the forest, there lay a small tent with a black and white stripped pattern. It was a circus tent, of course! But it looked more like something in a Tim Burton film. Inside, there was a cheering crowd of over thirty people. They all whistled and clapped, but they weren't grinning from ear to ear like average circus going folk would. They were all pale, wearing dark eyeshadow and attire that belonged in a Gothic photoshoot with black and white stripes. The whole circus tent smelled of death and decay, with rotting large rats on the ground with starving maggots scattering around and looking for a three course meal. The audience were all facing the stage as a tall and eerie man stepped out from the black curtains wearing a fancy top hat and a striped suit. His voice had a southern twang in it but it came out to be uninterested and monotone.

"Welcome, welcome, everyone! I am glad you're all here today..."

A petite teenage girl came running out of the ebony curtains; her knees giving out and buckling from under her, making her collapse fully on the mahogany wood floor... The only colorful thing in this place. Two guards came from right behind the small girl and grabbed both of her wrists, slapping metal handcuffs around them. As the handcuffs fastened, the pulled her up by both arms and escorted her towards the eerie man.

The teenage girl was Amalia Nightingale, who was wearing a extravagant dark purple medium-length dress and a pair of short boots with the same color that had huge bows in front of them, along with purple and black striped long socks, She also had a small black head bow that was placed on her dyed black hair. She wasn't a pretty or popular face in Starlight Academy. The British teenager was pretty much an average nobody in her own right, sure she had powers just like the rest of the students there but she was just an average girl that didn't go to social events or attend the hottest party. Just a Tim-Burton fangirl that played the french horn in the School band and Music Club.

The eerie man's bored line turned into a smile, that revealed his yellow teeth. "I would like to welcome our volunteer Amalia Nightingale! She will be our escape artist for today! The others have sadly passed away, but I'm sure she will escape the glass box‏, right everyone?" There were silent nods in the audience, their grim faces turned towards Amalia as if waiting for any sort of entertainment. The eerie man in the top hat patted Amalia on the back and led her to the middle of the stage, where there was a large object covered in a black cover up that had red marks over it. The coverup was quickly removed by the guards, and there it stood:

The glass box.

The huge glass box was filled with water, and it was clear water too. Not anything dirty, thankfully. Amalia gulped, why did she always have these Goth Tim Burton-esque dreams that ended up in a demented circus? Amalia placed her foot on the stair, one foot, then the other... In these dreams, sometimes she was a lion tamer, or an acrobat, and maybe the ringleader at times but... An escape artist? This was something new, something rare and it was pretty frightening.

Amalia shook her head and finally made it to the top of the glass box, she turned towards the pale crowd to examine the looks on their faces. They were smiling, all of them. They were all on the edges of their seats, waiting for her to jump into the box of water. The guards had met her halfway, holding onto the chains that were attached to the handcuffs. Amalia looked down at her cupped hands and saw a black skeleton skullhead key just sitting there, before she can take a deep breath, the guards dropped the chains and Amalia fell in headfirst, losing the key at the bottom of the box.

Oh god, I'm going to die in my own dream... Amalia thought, looking around the glass box and kicking the glass with both legs. Seeing that that didn't work in the slightest, she shifted her knees in a sitting position and managed to kick the box from behind her, making her float down to the bottom where the skeleton key was. The teenager tried to grab the key with her teeth but it disappeared. She screamed in frustration, bubbles erupting from her mouth. The crowd was cheering and grinning at the girl's struggle to not realise that the skeleton key was a magic facade. Amalia needed help! She kicked and screamed at the glass box but nothing was working, Help someone, please! She pleaded in her thoughts, pissed at herself for not having Telepathy for a power. Hopefully, someone would find this grim dark Tim Burton circus tent...

Morgan wished that the ICP song was back as she ran away from the massive horde of spiders, she quickly summoned and bonded with her fire spirit Magmos, then spun around and attempted to light the horde ablaze. But despite her attempts to set her horde of fire, they appeared to be immune, she screamed in terror as the spiders crawled onto her and covered her entire body, eventually blocking even her sight.

"Dumbass!"

Morgan opened up her eyes again and found herself in a very familiar place, free of spider, or the Insane Clown Posse. It was a place she named "The dream of the summoner", somewhere she found herself in quite often when she would dream. The appearance never changed, it was a small floating island, with an even smaller house in the middle.

As Amalia continued her desperate and futile struggle, she might have noticed a pair of unusual feet. They were clawed and digitigrade, like a cat’s hind legs, but scaly, like a bird’s talons. The scaled parts of the leg only made it up to the ankle, and were gray; past that point was smooth, pale white skin. The feet carried their owner around the corner of the glass box, then stopped right in front of her. A long, pitch black, devilish tail flicked back and forth in her field of view.

The owner of the legs and the tail fell to her knees and looked down at Amalia. Her name was Chloe. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She was wearing a lacy little black dress, which matched the pitch black horns sprouting from her forehead and the black air tied up in an elaborate bun. She had on a little top hat, or at least a very tiny facsimile of a top hat was attached to her head by some means, the way one might wear a bow in their hair. The dark eye shadow and lipstick completed the facsimile; she looked like she belonged in a macabre stage production more than she would belong in the real world.

Chloe was smiling. The poor girl was drowning, upside down, scared for her life, and Chloe was smiling. It was a predatory sort of smile. The demoness knocked on the surface of the glass box, and reality cracked. Bright light shone in through the cracks. She knocked a second time, and the world shattered. The water fell away, and so did Amalia, hurtling downwards through a pitch black void.

She landed on something soft. It was a giant mushroom. As soon as she landed, her surroundings had changed completely, as though she had awoken from a dream. Now she was in a forest, enveloped in a thick fog. She was still wet, and she was still handcuffed. Chloe was kneeling next to her, but she looked different. Now, she seemed younger, perhaps the same age as Amalia. The little hat was gone, and her wavy, black hair was falling loose past her shoulders. A hand reached down to remove a wet strand of hair from Amalia’s face.

“You’re a cute little thing,” Chloe said. She was smiling again, that same predatory smile, and her hand was lingering against Amalia’s cheek. "I'm glad I could get to you in time."