Erebus shrugged and dropped out the air, the darkness folding round him, huge black wings exploding in to life as he landed, Silent as the grave, black as night feathered wings, hooded cowl, black cloak. anyone would think he was death incarnate, the sword in his hand glittered with flames that absorbed life and light rather than gave them off like a normal blade. he knocked Hez back with one hand, his blade in the other a blast of etheric energy hurled the golem's hand backwards, sending it reeling. he stepped forwards a single slash up through the center of its body tore it in two, the blade passing through the rotting vegetables as if they were nothing but air. the golem took a step, then colapsed. No one saw this except Hez, Erebus then put his blade away and the cape around him whipped up, under and then over him folding away in to nothing more than a scrap of shadow that flitted away in the darkness.

---

Dice grumbled and stood, picking his backpack up, tea still in hand he followed Lin and Hez up the steps. just in time to watch the Golem fall apart, totally missing the small scrap of shadow that flitted away. "But I'm having a tea brea-" he got about half way through his sentence before a blast of lemon juice took the cup out of his hand. there was a banana using half a lemon like some sort of gun. "Oh thats it!" he said and the aura about him changed once again going from thermal red through to blue, anyone with a ECG, or other electrical measuring device would struggle to shut it off before the amount of energy rippling through his body blew the devices internal capaciters. "Nobody, not even a 8ft banana weilding a lemon gun fucks with my tea breaks." his blades making metalic pinging noises as they cooled earthed bolts of lightning from his body, a walking storm.

Lin recovered from the attack that the vegetable golem did to her and floated back to Hez's side.

"Are you all right?" her voice echoed from the sword. Hez got back up and dusted herself, still stunned from watching Erebus slay the monster before vanishing. She only acknowledged the question with a nod, not wanting to cause more confusion by telling Lin about the mystery Oneiros.

"Good. This way looks clear now. The third floor doesn't look to be as active, so you hurry on up. The rest of us will stave the monsters off here. Be quick about purifying that artifact!" Lin ordered as she flew back into the battle and diced up a can of stale soda rolling towards them like a giant barrel. Hez gathered her wits and dashed towards the next flight of stairs leading up to the third level.

Just as Lin said, there wasn't much going on here. Unlike the other floors, there was no food in sight. It felt more like an actual room than a large fridge shelf. From her night vision, Hez could see faint hints of curtains, mirrors, a sink and some kind of chair... or was it a toilet? Was she inside a bathroom all of a sudden? But she couldn't worry about that now. In the middle of this dark room was an object on the floor emanating a tremendous amount of negative energy, the air thick with a terrible miasma that felt like a constant inferiority complex of some kind. The darkness radiated in several different colors like a kaleidoscope - perhaps to represent the three dreamers connecting this world together - but then those colors shifted into darkness and seeped down to the lower floors. This was the cause of the monsters the team was fighting right now.

Hez couldn't tell what the object was, but it was definitely the source of this negative emotion. She felt the pressure of three different people suffering from whatever mental ailment they shared, wondering if she could possibly cleanse such a powerful artifact. She had to steel her nerves and get ready - her comrades, and three people in the real world, were counting on her to end this.

Dice had finished with the banana and lemon combination and was once again sitting down drinking tea. the remnants of the banana and lemon smoldering on the floor around him, small discharges of energy jumping between the lumps of mush. his two blades in the ground, one next to him, one a small way away where it had been knocked in the fight, he watched the pair discuss something and then Hez head upwards to deal with the artifact.

Alice followed hez, muttering random poems and verses, calming down a bit. Although the main reason she followed hez was to see the artifact in hopes of being able to find her own, she still wanted to make sure she was safe. It had been a while since she had seen the cleansing of an artifact anyhow. Suddenly a strangler, one of the meat-like-zombie-things, showed up swinging a giant kitchen knife at hez. Alice dashed in front of hez and parried it with a flick and split the creature in two with her own blade. "... of with your head..." she muttered absentmindedly.

Hez stood in front of the corrupted artifact, gripped her carnation rod in both of her hands and raised her arms. Just then, a magic symbol drew itself beneath her feet. It was an interlocking heptagram with a white carnation in the center with circles surrounding the star with nonsensical runes repeatedly spelling out the word ‘anjelier’. Seven planetary symbols were etched, one in each point, in the order of the days of the week – the Sun for Sunday, the Moon for Monday, Mars for Tuesday, and so on. It was a symbol of much-needed balance and harmony in this chaotic world.

Just then, the sound of a million buzzing bees rushed through Hez’s head. She struggled to cope with the miasma as she purified the artifact. She squeezed her eyes shut as memories that weren’t her own flowed into her mind. The images jumped everywhere, but she knew these horrible sensations didn’t belong to her. The sights she witnessed were terrifying.

One set of images belonged to a woman who always stared at herself in the mirror. The woman herself was dangerously underweight, but the figure in the mirror was equally obese. Another group of dreams belonged to a welterweight champion who was fervently exercising on his bike, riding across a road that had no end in sight, determined to reach a number at the end that never got any closer. The third set of visions came from a young girl who was attracted to fashion magazines and aspired to become a model, surrounded by make-up, jewelry, dresses, swimsuits and stacks upon stacks of well-read magazines.

With these visions, Hez was able to identify the source of the negative energy; none of these people wanted to eat because they wanted to lose weight for one reason or another. In other words, all of them were anorexics. That explained the rotting food in this absurd dungeon – since no one wanted to eat, the food was left to go bad. However, what surprised her was that the artifact – now identified as a digital weight scale – originally belonged to the first woman, but because all three of them shared the same disorder, the other two dreamers were attracted to the artifact and meshed their thoughts with the woman’s, thus creating this freak chimera dungeon. If the team hadn’t come, their combined anorexia would have gotten much worse upon waking up.

Hez didn’t want that to happen. She prayed harder, wanting to convey to these people that she didn’t want them to suffer anymore. She raised her flower rod over the scale and let a few silvery petals flutter over it, transferring her purifying magic onto the artifact. The petals immediately dissipated the miasma like liquid soap dripping onto grease. Gradually, the two forces canceled each other out. The monsters lost their energy and melted back into heaps of rotting food. All that was left was the source of this madness; the scale.

Hez opened her eyes. Her rod transformed back into her mantle and fit itself back around her shoulders. The girl looked empty and exhausted. She lost consciousness and collapsed backwards.

Atropos dashed forward in the dark, moving even before Hez started to fall. She caught the girl and eased her to the ground, carefully supporting her head and shoulders. She sat down on the floor afterwards, equally exhausted. Before the headache overwhelm her she pulled the blindfold from her pocket and tied it over her eyes again. She tucked the scissors back into a pocket and busied herself rewinding the thread back onto its spool.

"Well that was an entertaining challenge."

Dice walked up the steps, a orb if fire hovering over his hand, after Hez passed out the night vision spell had failed him. "is everyone ok up here?" he asked, looking round and picking up the scales. "Huh, this was it then?" he asked and looked at the others. then at Hez. "can one of you two carry her? I'm going to have to light the way out of here." he pointed out and bounced the fire down the steps to light the area up and called up another. "as a sidenote, what happens to this place now?"

Lin hurried up the stairs, transforming back into human form as she rushed to Hez's side and carried her on her back piggyback style.

"Just give it a moment," she answered Dice's question.

Suddenly, the dungeon warped and rippled like it was underwater, then gradually vanished. The team found themselves back in Remniche along with the purified scale, and the triple fusion blob from before was now gone. The anomaly had been resolved, so everything was back to normal.

"There you go," Lin nodded at Dice. "Once things are fixed, the dungeon disappears and we get kicked out automatically."

She gestured towards the scale and asked, "Can someone get that for me? I want to add it to the museum's collection. Oh, speaking of which, I promised a tour, didn't I? How about we go back to the museum for now? I need to tuck Hez into bed."

Alice scooped up the scale as Lin asked, balancing it on her head as she mumbled rhymes under her breath. she seemed oblivious to everything around her but she was the exact opposite. the rhymes were simply keeping her thoughts in order as she debated what to do after the tour. she still hadn't been able to find her own artifact, and she had almost resigned herself to never being able to find it at all.

A wide grin suddenly materialized in the air next to Alice, followed by a pair of large eyes.
"Alice dear, what are you up to?" it said, staring at her.
She looked at the face venomously, clearly annoyed by its appearance. "Chess, go away. ive no want to deal with you after that last stunt you pulled. Go bug madigan or Blue." the face slowly vanished with a chuckle, a mumbled "well see" escaping before it vanished.

Dice watched and then laughed, "Well I guess that makes sence, allright, lets have a look round your 'museum'" he said with a smile, spinning the garden sheers round and clipping them together he slotted them in to his backpack and flexed his hands "does everyone who comes here get some trippy magical power?" he asked and then nearly jumped out of his skin as the grin appeared a sudden crackle and golden glow announcing the re-activation of his powers, raising his fists so he hoped he'd atleast look like he knew what he was doing "what in the name of Cthulhu was that?!"

____________

Erebus glided down among them, the shadow settling on the ground, staying unnoticed as it always did, resting, weightless upon Hez's shoe, intending to hitch a ride.

"Alice dear, what are you up to?" it said, staring at her.

"Whoa-!" Lin exclaimed, almost dropping Hez from surprise.

the face slowly vanished with a chuckle, a mumbled "well see" escaping before it vanished.

"Yeesh... Should've expected that from your Wonderful Horror-thingy world, Alice. Still caught me off guard," Lin sighed in embarrassment.

She led the group back to the museum and told them with a smile, "Wait here for a moment; I'm just gonna unload the lil' scamp here. Just find a place to set that scale on or whatever. It doesn't matter where."

Lin headed upstairs to the Employees Only area - which was hidden behind a bookshelf full of different artifacts - and entered the girls' bedroom. It was relatively normal except that Hez's half was painted white and Lin's blue, and they each had different beds, dressers and tables done in their respective colors and styles. Hez's style was more plain and simplistic, while Lin's was funky and creative. A vase of white carnations sat on a table on Hez's side while some blue roses were on Lin's.

Lin nestled Hez in her bed, then took a moment to feel her forehead. Yes, it was weird for an Oneiros to be asleep in the dream world, but this just meant the real-life dreamer would have a dreamless night. Lin had noticed Hez suffering from a fever and terrible fatigue. All she could do was sigh in worry.

That last purification's taken a much greater toll on her mind than usual; she had to take care of three people at once. I hate to admit it, but we needed her ability, even if it puts her at risk - no one in Vivi-Dream can purify such corrupted artifacts like she can. If she wasn't with us, the rest of us would have needed to purify it together while dealing with those monsters at the same time. But why did those dungeons fuse? Why did three people's subconsciousness meld together into that nightmare? Why did Hez have to exert so much energy at once? There seem to be more and more dungeons than there are Oneiros to take care of them...

Oh... I wish Hez would spawn a zone of her own for me to investigate, then I could find out more as to why she's still in a coma. Waking up would be better, but that doesn't look likely...

Lin shook her head. She couldn't waste too much time thinking about all of this. She left the room and reunited with the others, replacing her sullen mood with a chipper tone as she said, "Well let's take a walk around, shall we? It's a big place, so try not to get lost!"

Atropos waved her hand and started away from the others.

"Maybe another time. I'd hate to neglect my other self."

She walked down a path for a few minutes, the sky growing darker as she went before becoming pitch black. After a few more minutes of walking the darkness became impenetrable to even her awareness. She knew the path from this point by heart, navigating by memory without even holding out a hand to feel for the walls. Atropos found her chair and sat down.

Katarina woke up in her apartment. The warmth of the sun on her arm told her the sun was up high enough to be above the buildings across the street. Working the lever on the side, she brought the recliner into an upright position. Reaching out to the left, she tapped the closest button on her clock.

'The Current Time is Eleven Fifteen.'

She nodded to herself. Walking to the fridge, she lifted out a bottle of juice and filled a glass before placing the juice back into its position on the bottom shelf. Returning to the chair, she touched another button on the clock. She listened to a news station but nothing caught her attention by the time the glass was empty. She washed the glass in the sink and placed it back in the cupboard.

Throwing on a jacket and her boots, Katarina left for the store, picking her way down the familiar streets of the quiet town.

Lin gave Atropos a wave and said, "See you later!"

She then told the others, "Follow me, then. I'll show you all of the artifacts that Hez and I found during our adventures."

She led Dice and Alice through the large rooms, each having different themes with artifacts that fit each one, such as food items in a restaurant-styled exhibit, bones and skeletons in a room designed like a graveyard, computer gadgets in a futuristic room, school desks and drawing supplies in some kind of atelier, and many, many others.

"Due to the growing number of negative zones, we're always expanding our inventory and creating new exhibits that best fit current trends," Lin explained. "That isn't to say we're running out of room. Since this is Vivi-Dream, a world that doesn't follow real-world logic, we always have space to fit any artifacts we find."

She asked Dice, "So are you getting the hang of this whole world? I know that last dungeon was really crazy, but that was one of a kind. Most zones usually have no monsters and are just exploratory in nature, or they may just have a few that one person can easily defeat."

Erebus faded slowly, his real self waking up, fading back in as it were. after a while pondering the vivid dream he shrugged and stood, showering, dressing and making his way to school for another day, as of late, it had seemed as if the real world was more and more dreamlike.

_______

Dice nodded, tilting his head and picked up a large reptilian skull, tilting it back and forth. he then grinned and put it on his head, sneeking up behind Lin so that when she turned to ask the question she'd come nose to nose with him "rawr!" he called as she did so. laughing even if she didn't jump. just because it was amusing for him.
"Kinda, its a bit....weird for me, just because I feel like I should be dead and all. and here I am drinking tea and going round a museum."

Lin gave him a weird look in response to his stunt. "Whatever you say. But the fact that you're here in Vivi-Dream means you still have hope of being alive. If you're still not convinced, I'll show you something really interesting."

"that, my dear Dice, was chess. He's rather annoying and has a tendency to be a dick. he's also the only, er, person? that i know to be able to follow me out of the wonderful horror. however he cant go to far from me outside. Ever heard of the book Alice in wonderland? if so take everything and horribly twist it." she paused to let it sink in, and then smiled slowly before strolling over to the doorway.
Alice stood in the doorway, not really wanting to do much else out in the wonderful horror, but still wanting to walk amongst the museum. Standing by the door she heard the usual din that was the dream lessen until there wasn't all that much to be heard. Most people had waken up and now there was barely a handful left.Shortly after she headed back over to the others, smirking at Dice's attempted joke.

In the Ignavis Institute, an elite academy spanning all grades from kindergarten through high school and including post-secondary studies, the 50th floor was abuzz with activity. Several researchers examined results on various computer screens, printing pages upon pages of data and analyzing them. Nearby, three sleeping pods whirred and opened, allowing an anorexic woman, a fitness-obsessed young man and a teenage girl to wake up, and doctors removed a needle protruding from each of their left arms that had administered sedatives.

The trio was escorted into an office, where the chief researcher met them and scanned over each of their files. He was an older gentleman approaching his fifties, his blonde hair and beard slowly going grey, and his brown eyes sharp and intelligent. Yet, he seemed to have an aura as if he had little empathy for his test subjects.

“I appreciate all of you for partaking in this experiment. I would like to ask how your experiences were in the network,” the man stated, gesturing to the woman for her to begin.

“It was really depressing. I kept staring at myself in some mirror, and I couldn’t find my scale anywhere. But then I saw something white… I don’t know if it was a flower or a ball of light or what, but suddenly those horrible thoughts went away.”

“Has your appetite returned?”

“Yeah… I’m starving, actually. I want to go to the cafeteria as soon as possible and get some pizza. I haven’t had that in a long time, and I’m suddenly craving for it.”

“Very good. You’re next.”

The buff man explained, “I was on this endless road biking towards some number that always escaped me. But just like she said, something white overwhelmed me and I got off my bike before waking up.”

“How is your appetite?”

“It’s really good all of a sudden. I think I’ll go out with my girlfriend to that restaurant later tonight.”

“And you?” the researcher asked the teenager.

“I was surrounded by all of my favorite magazines in this girly room that had no doors. I kept reading over them, always feeling jealous about how glamorous those models looked. Then the white light they talked about broke through the wallpaper and engulfed me before I woke up.”

“Do you plan on continuing your bulimia after supper every night?”

“I don’t know about stopping altogether… But I felt someone crying for me to stop, and I feel like I’ve disappointed someone out there. I feel horrible for causing so much trouble behind Mom’s back, especially when she makes dinner every single night without complaining. Maybe I should help her out once in a while too.”

“That is very good news,” the man nodded. “I thank you for your feedback and cooperation in Project Soma. As promised, here is the reward for your cooperation.”

He handed the three subjects a check for $100 each and sent them on their way back down the elevator. After they left, the man returned to the facility, bypassing his subordinate scientists and entering his private office. It overlooked the entire city on this partly cloudy day and was complete with an oak desk, velvet carpeting, an in-built aquarium, and a small spa for his personal enjoyment. The only other person inside was a female nurse sitting next to a lone sleeping pod that had a 10-year old girl sleeping inside it. She kept watch on her vital statistics and taking care of necessary functions, while an IV of sedatives constantly fed into the child’s left arm.

“Good morning, Dr. Ignavis,” the nurse addressed him. “How did the project fare last night?”

“Splendidly, although it is still a little risky to expand the network too far at this point. The hardware still doesn’t have enough space to maintain so much cranial activity at once. Last night’s subjects failed to manifest as Oneiros – they only created negative zones that could have encroached the network. Several other subjects, including Cordelia, were able to cure the volunteers of their eating disorders.”

“That’s fantastic, doctor! Your wife’s theory is slowly coming into fruition, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. Project Soma will eventually cure any mental disorders by connecting everyone’s minds into a single network. People will finally be able to ‘feel’ each others’ emotions. The selfish ideal of an ‘individual’ will fade, and the much-needed sense of ‘community’ will evolve among homo sapiens.”

“It’s such a wonderful concept. I don’t understand why your wife and her sister abandoned the project in its prototype phase.”

Dr. Ignavis didn’t respond. He stared at the blonde-haired child as she slept peacefully in her pod. He fondly stroked the fiberglass cover and murmured, “Keep up the good work, Cordelia. Your mother would be very proud of you…”

Atropos returned a while later, waking in the pitch black room as Katarina slept. By touch and memory she made her way back to Remniche through the passages, slowly regaining her awareness before reaching the town again. Finding a bench to sit on, she sat down to simply enjoy things. Idly she wondered if she were spending too much time in the dream. Every time it got more difficult to make herself wake up. It was like losing her sight again, every time, and being plunged back into a world of perfect darkness. She hated it but it was the real her. She was Katarina, not Atropos.

She sighed in anger at herself and stood up to leave, deciding to either go find another Oneiros or find somewhere to explore.

Alice walked out from the city towards her 'zone'. About halfway to her destination chess popped into existence grinning as usual.

"What do you want you cat?" Alice snapped at him.
"temper temper! you'll never get anywhere like that."
"well when it concerns you there's nowhere to be going anyhow." she retorted.
"touche. so what are your plans now then?"
"Go back and look for my artifact as usual. Perhaps have tea with Haddigan..."

Chess rolled through the air as they talked, throwing jibes back and forth in between questions and riddles. At one point she noticed that Chess was wearing a small locket.

"You know, i never would have thought you were one for jewelry, even less so a locket. Whats inside?"
"Ive not a clue. it dost open and Ive no intention on trying anyhow. Not mine to open."
"whos is it then?"
"Not a clue." was all he said before vanishing into thin air, a residual smile fading away.

"well then... Guess ill just have to figure out myself then..." Alice muttered as she reached the giant gate that was the entrance to the wonderful horror. Lifting her blade she simply tapped on the gate and it swung open freely, shutting behind her with a loud clang. Looking around for a moment she thought about the locket, but pushed it aside. She hadn't looked in a few areas yet and that was her first goal. Shed worry about the locket latter.

Lin guided Dice to the chalkboard monitor from earlier and fiddled with a few knobs and keys, making the display change into a long list of names. They all belonged to people who were able to access Vivi-Dream; this included their real names, their Oneiros identity and abilities, their location, their current status, and much more. Lin scrolled down until she found Dice's name and read the contents aloud.

"Alexander Luthor, age 17. Loves base jumping, taking risks, and drinking tea. Oneiros identity 'Dice'. Personal zone created upon manifestation into Vivi-Dream network; zone is low-threat with no negative emotions to resolve. Current status - comatose after sustaining injuries from a failed base jump."

Lin smiled and boasted to Dice, "Not bad, huh? If this doesn't prove you're not dead, nothing will. If you're ever worried about your status, you can always come back here."

She looked around, expecting Alice to be nearby. She found the bloodstained young woman missing and murmured, "I wonder where Alice went."