here's a short little story because i have ideas and nothing to draw with.
punctuation and caps fail because i wrote this in a hurry...sorry to anyone who gets annoyed by that stuff...i know i do
The Dream Link Device
Mark wasn't one to dream much. sure he had them every night, technically all people do. although he usually forgot them and the ones he remembered were blurry and made no sense. this was pretty normal for a human. so when Mark fell asleep and immediately felt as though he woke up again, lying in a grassy field under a clear, blue sky, he was confused to say the least.
What Mark felt became something far more than just confusion as an odd creature looked down at him from where he lay on the grass. he had never seen anything like it. the little thing clearly wasn't human...and it was then that he realized he was dreaming. but this dream was different. it was so real and his mind was so clear he could even remember lying down in bed. a perfectly lucid dream. this certainly wasn't normal. and neither was the little humanoid bird-like creature staring down at him.
Now normally Mark would have freaked...but he knew this was a dream by now so he felt surprisingly relaxed, and got himself up. and yet suddenly he recognized a confused look on the little owl-creature's face...
"is something wrong?"
"who're you?"
"ummmm...i'm Mark"
"what're you doing here?"
"it seems to me i'm dreaming"
"well this isn't your dream!"
"what do you mean?"
"get out of here! how did you even...oooooooooooooh"
The little humanoid owl reached into his pocket and pulled out a little remote control looking device. it was covered in blinking lights and dials, which he quickly began fiddling with, all the while waving the remote at him.
"yup...wrong address"
"wrong
address?!"
"yeah...i don't know how i'm gonna fix this one, you're really not supposed to be here while this thing is in beta"
"what thing?"
"the dream link"
"dream link?...man did i eat something weird before bed tonight?"
"it's a device that allows to users to share a dream together...i'm almost done with it too"
"you mean like inception?"
the owl sighed. "As long as you're here...i guess i can run the test with you"
"test? that doesn't sound like fun..."
"oh no it's quite fun, just...just try wiggling your fingers"
is this it? Mark thought as he wiggled his fingers...
i thought he said this would be-"now jump"
mark did a little hop, nothing happened.
does anything interesting happen here"now wag your tail a little...oh...wait"
mark, being a perfectly normal human, had no tail. this was apparently a hitch in the test.
"you see i planned to conduct this test with someone who had a tail...this is a problem"
"sorry about that"
"well i guess we can just lead into step 4 since that will cover this...normally i would have you imagine an orange balloon...but since this
is a dream...i guess you can start by imagining yourself a tail...then we can continue"
Mark wasn't entirely sure how this worked...but it
was a dream...anything can happen. Mark looked at the little owl's set of tail feathers...he thought about just using that for inspiration but he thought that might be rude...maybe something a bit more...fuzzy.
With a
poof mark realized that something had just burst a hole right through the seat of his pants...which, looking down, he realized were still his pajamas, although right now they had a fluffy, gray tail poking out of them. Mark, of course, was quite excited to see that he had done this himself.
"that's 3 and 4 checked off..."
Mark was busy poking his new tail. for a dream, it felt so real...
"hey...focus so i can get this over with!"
mark looked back up at the owl, who seemed to have been grading him on a clipboard.
"we just need a simple hearing and vision test...i wouldn't want people unable to hear in their own dream link"
"hearing and eye test...just like the one you get at the doctor's?"
"yep, just read this chart, row by row"
" E-X-W-C...L-V-W-Z-D-A-G...H-Y-T-R-S-U-I-O-F-K-J."
"very good, now put these on"
a pair of headphones were placed over mark's ears...
"ok almost done...just tell me when you hear the tone"
"...i can't hear anything..."
mark was worried...had he lost his hearing because of this dream linker thingy?!
"ugh...ok i forgot. humans have terrible hearing, can we just fix that...just like you did with the tail?"
this came easier to him the second time...and a pair of fuzzy ears were there on the top of his head within seconds.
"i can hear the tone just fine...wow this is so-"
"yes yes i'm sure it's great...now let's be going...go on shoo. and don't forget to order your own dream link unit soon, get one for all of your friends and make your dreams a party! just $25.99!"
mark was shoved right in the chest and fell over backwards...but he landed on something soft. he looked around to see that it was his bed...in his room. he was awake from the strangest dream ever. and he could remember it clearly...and that's when he noticed the uncomfortable lump in his bed right under his butt. and he rolled over to move it, thinking it was a pillow, only to have a furry gray tail brush his face...he tugged on it...it was his, just like in the dream...a quick feel of his head showed the ears were still there too...Mark was going to need to file a bug report.
