Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Pokémon.
Foreword: Just for the record, I'm not on any sort of drug. Nothing. Zip, zilch. I'm freakin' clean!
That said, I wanted to try something a bit more serious than Warp Series (Well, it SEEMED serious at the time...) as well as something that had a surreal, "experimental" feel to it. The result was this strange piece that's supposed to be one part Alice in Wonderland and one part Cat Soup. (That's an anime movie, folks. If you don't believe me, look it up yourself. I'm not bothering with summaries, either.) You can think of it as one part Monkeybone later on as well, but I've only read summaries. Never actually saw the movie. =/
That said, if you get it, yay; if you don't, don't worry about it. I don't think it was meant to be completely understandable anyways. ^_^;
---
Night One: Open the Doors
He placed the last article of clothing into the drawer and pushed it shut before placing his suitcase in the closet. With that, he plopped on the bed and stared out the window, heaving a sigh of nostalgia. He stared out at the cerulean blue sky as white forms drifted in its endless sea like peaceful, white Quagsire drifting serenely by. They reminded him of something, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what. All he saw in his mind was a dark blur...
He stood and took a few steps; his shoeless feet made barely a sound on the hardwood floors. He opened the window and leaned against the sill, raising his dark brown eyes to the pale, blue sky. A zephyr blew in, caressing his pale skin and playing with the dark curls framing his childlike face. He smiled, happy to be back in his childhood home again for the first time in almost a year.
He heard a voice behind him call his name. He looked over his shoulder and straightened up, closing the window as he did.
"Wills, are you here?"
He sighed and crossed the room. Only one person called him by that irritating childhood nickname anymore. He poked his head out of the threshold, only to come face to face with a red-headed girl just a little younger than he was. She turned her head and to catch herself before she collided with him. They both gasped and jumped back, causing him to hit the side of the threshold and her to hit, well, nothing.
"There you are, Wills!" the girl said with a smile.
He rolled his eyes.
"How might my dear older brother be doing?" she asked with a grin.
"Quite fine, thank you," he responded politely to his younger sister.
"How was the trip here?" she drilled.
He replied, "Same as always. Rather well indeed."
"So, what's new in your life?"
He smiled. "I've been working on new theories about Pokémon development and their link to their psychological behavior. I think I've at last made a breakthrough and found a link between a Pokémon's personality and its performance in battle."
The sister blinked. "That's it?"
"Yes, I suppose it is."
"You haven't done anything else in your life?"
"No, not really."
"You lead a boring life," the sister commented dryly.
The brother scoffed. "What makes you think that?"
"You're what? Eighteen, tomorrow nineteen, and it seems like you haven't done anything FUN in your life," the sister told him bluntly.
The brother frowned. "Well, unlike SOME people, I'm forced to work."
The sister shrugged and turned away. "No one is ever FORCED to do ANYTHING of the sort..."
With that, she walked away, leaving him to ponder over her last words.
---
The sun began to set on the city known as Goldenrod. Quite odd that it was called that; there were no goldenrod flowers in and around the city, nor was there anything noteworthy within the city that happened to be golden. If anything, the city would be most appropriately called "Rose," for the sky above it always lit up with a brilliant, red-pink color as the sun descended into the horizon just beyond the skyscrapers.
A darkness spread from the eastern horizon, engulfing the air above and revealing the silver specks within the celestial kingdom. The skyscrapers lit up one by one by one and stood in the busy eternity, glowing in the darkness as the hours passed one by one by one...
The grandfather clock in the family room struck eleven. The sound of eleven chimes rang through the rooms of the quiet house. Down the hall and to the right, a door shut, and a back leaned against it.
"Tomorrow, I'll be nineteen," the youth murmured to himself.
With a sigh, he reached over to flick off the light. In the darkness, he shuffled across the hardwood floors and found his bed. He pulled the covers up and slid under, burying himself the warm sheets. He stretched out, yawned, and closed his eyes before drifting off completely into a world of serene slumber. He didn't notice as the shadows moved, as a thick, line pulled itself from a dark corner, as a dark figure rose from this line and formed a tangible being.
The being's yellow eyes opened within the pale, gray face. His thin body moved within the dark wrappings, passing by the window to have the moonlight make the golden hair that stood in horns on his head seem to shine. The figure didn't stop until he stood by the youth's bed, looking down as the youth continued to sleep. A claw-like hand reached out from under the cloak he wore, touching the youth's chest.
"So, you're the one they call Bill McKenzie," the figure murmured. "The one who never had a childlike dream... whose consciousness is kept busy only with numbers and scientific facts, rather than with whimsical fantasy. Tonight is the night before you lose your every chance to feel true bliss, to experience what it's like to be a true child. You don't know it, but I was sent here to make sure you felt in your heart that thing most children knew and loved."
With that, the claw-like hand plunged into the youth's chest. The sleeper let loose a shuddering gasp before slumping further down, deeper into his sleep. The hand withdrew, pulling with it a ball of glowing white.
"Your soul," the figure murmured. "The key to getting you to see exactly what I want you to see. But unfortunately, I can't just take you into the world and show you all those childlike things. That's because that's not in my power. I am the god of dreams, after all, not of reality. No, to get you to see what I want you to see, I must do something a bit more... drastic."
The figure put his free, claw-like hand on Bill's head. There was a flash of white... before nothingness. No one was in the room, save for an empty body.
---
Two yellow eyes scanned the scenery. So many corridors, so many doors, so many stairs, paths, everything... all going out in different directions like a twisted, green maze of a nightmarish sort.
"Such a complex mind," the figure commented. "One could get very lost in here..."
The figure looked down at the ball in his hands.
"And here, I have such a simple thing. Perhaps I can change that..."
He set the ball down on the ground and waved his hands about it until it formed the shape of a Pokémon. When he was finished, he blew on it, causing little flakes of glowing white to fall off the body, revealing a colored, cat form of a Meowth. The figure drew back and straightened up, watching as the eyelids of the Meowth twitched and a groan escaped its throat. The eyelids finally lifted, allowing the cat to look about and acknowledge the presence of the figure.
"Where am I?" the Meowth asked in a very human voice as he sat up. "Who are you? What am I doing here? Did you bring me here?"
At last, his cat eyes fell upon what parts of his body he could see. He gasped and jumped into a standing position, recognizing the body parts he glanced at.
"What happened to me!?" the Meowth demanded. "How on Earth did I turn into a Meowth!?"
The figure grinned and clicked his tongue. "Ah, yes. You always loved asking questions, Bill. But please, I can only answer one question at a time."
"Alright, then let's start off with one," Bill growled as he looked at the figure. "Who are you?"
"I am Morpheus, god of dreams," the figure responded.
"Morpheus?"
"Yes."
"I must be dreaming."
Morpheus grinned. "You are."
"Oh, good," Bill responded with a sigh of relief. "I thought I was going insane."
Morpheus' grin widened. "You will."
The Meowth tilted his head. "Come again?"
"If you continue on the path that you are going down, you will suffer from your inability to dream like a child," Morpheus explained. "This suffering will cause the pent up dreams deep within you to erupt, taking over your mind and driving you insane. I came to you tonight to prevent this from happening by giving you all the time in the world to experience true, childlike dreams."
"What?" Bill's furry face paled. "You... You can't do that!"
"Yes, I can," Morpheus replied. "I'm the god of dreams. If I want a person's slumber to continue forever, then so be it."
"But... But I'm needed in the real world!" Bill protested.
Morpheus frowned and closed his yellow eyes. "Hmm... I can tell that you would rather be in reality than within the perfect world inside your mind. Is this true?"
"Yes!" Bill shouted, causing an echo to bounce off the empty walls of the labyrinth.
"Then I will bring you back," Morpheus offered. "However, I'm afraid that there's only one corridor the two of us can use to pass back into reality."
"What's that?"
"It resides in the Lotus Temple."
"...The what?"
Morpheus sighed. "Within each human being, there is a temple called the Lotus Temple. This temple enshrines things that the person holds the most dear. The dreams the person cherishes the most. The desires the person wants above everything else."
"Where do I find this temple?" Bill asked.
"I'm afraid I don't know," Morpheus answered. "One person's Lotus Temple, like everything else in this subconscious world, is created and placed differently than everyone else's temple. And since it's impossible for me to keep track of the location of every single Lotus Temple in the entire global population... I have no idea where yours is."
Bill thought for a moment until he at last came up with a solution.
"If I wished to be at my temple, and that's all I wanted, would the temple appear before me?" he inquired.
Morpheus shook his head. "No. The Lotus Temple is a set place. All things are in this world, though they may change their appearance now and then. I'm afraid we'll have to search for it ourselves. That may take as long as minutes... or it may take eternity."
Bill shuddered, not wanting to think about it. "Where do we start looking?"
Morpheus turned around and motioned to every corridor leading to every door with one, thin hand.
"Choose a door," he told Bill.
Bill gulped and moved forward. Already, he could tell that this was going to be a LONG journey. He looked about the chamber, studying each door in an attempt to find out which one seemed best.
Well, actually, they all seemed the SAME to him, and at this thought, he sighed greatly.
Irritated by Morpheus' unwavering stare, Bill looked about quickly and chose a door. He walked straight up to it and looked up at the doorknob. He was much too short to reach it. Turning away from it, Bill faced Morpheus with a question.
"Could you give me a boost?" he asked in embarrassment.
"Why would I need to?" the god responded.
In confusion, Bill turned back to the door, only to find the knob at eye level.
Bill blinked and squeaked, "I..."
Without finishing that thought, he reached up to grab it, only to have it move to the left. He stared at it for a long while in curiosity before reaching up again to grab the doorknob. It, however, moved down, away from his paw before it started giggling at him.
"How utterly strange," he commented under his breath.
He reached out to grab it again, but instead, it moved up. He stood there, feeling like a fool as he chased the knob about the door until, at last, he came up with an idea. He went at the knob with one hand, only to have it move away, into his other paw.
"Aha!" he shouted in triumph.
Suddenly, he realized his circumstances, blushed, and turned the knob. Morpheus only smiled and watched as Bill cleared his throat and opened the door. The door swung open on its hinges, revealing...
Nothing.
That's right. Pitch black nothingness was all there was inside the door. Curious, Bill leaned forward, inspecting the contents of the area beyond the threshold, trying to find SOMETHING residing behind the door. All of a sudden, a vacuum picked up, sucking the poor Meowth into the abyss. He flipped over and injected his claws into the floor, desperately trying to remain rooted in the green, labyrinthine room. However, the suction was powerful, and the poor cat was eventually pulled clean off the floor of the room and deep into the darkness, descending into the nothingness at a slope as he screamed.
Morpheus watched it all. At last, he casually floated forward, through the doorway, and into the blackness.
The door closed slowly behind him with a creak.
---
Bill plunged into a world of color, going at a speed too fast for him to tell what exactly the colored blurs around him were. He felt his Meowth body twisting around involuntarily, so that his paws would break his fall. He knew, however, that it wouldn't matter since SOMETHING was going to break, and it was not necessarily going to be a good thing.
He looked down to see the ground closing in quickly. He closed his eyes, braced himself, and prepared to die, knowing that all would be over in the matter of seconds.
All he felt was silk under him.
He opened his eyes slowly and looked about him. Flower petals, all colored green or pink, scattered about beneath him, creating a cushion. He sighed with relief and stood up, dusting himself off. He didn't look up as Morpheus floated down beside him.
"Suddenly, I understand the pun," Bill muttered. "'Curiosity killed the cat.'"
Bill frowned, refusing to look at Morpheus and instead looking about him. He realized that he was in some sort of field, but judging by the behavior of the doorknob, he could be in a snow globe for all he knew.
He took a cautious step. Was it just him, or did the ground move under him? He took another, hearing cries beneath him. Another step, and flower petals twirled, ejecting pollen.
"Morpheus, what's going on?" Bill asked, looking at Morpheus at last.
Morpheus only shrugged.
Bill took another step, and the ground completely began moving under him. He fell on his back, allowing himself to be carried along. He let out a sharp cry before looking down into a hole in the ground, only to find that it was a gap between two Pokémon. He wedged his paws between the cracks and pulled up one of the Pokémon, only to find that it was in fact, a Bellossom. The Bellossom used Flail on him, thrashing out of his paws and falling back into the sea of Bellossom beneath him.
"Morpheus! Where are they taking me!?" Bill demanded frantically as he looked up to the god.
Morpheus only shrugged again.
Bill growled, attempting to stand up. However, one of his hind paws got caught between the Bellossom, causing him to fall forward. He tried to pull his hind paw out, but it was no use. He was stuck.
However, luckily for him, his situation didn't last too much longer. After awhile, the Bellossom moved him off to one side, closer and closer to the edge of the sea of Bellossom. At last, he was dumped over the edge, onto solid grass in a dazed pile, watching the herds of Bellossom pass.
He gasped for breath before checking to see if the ground below him was actual ground. When he was satisfied, he stood and looked over his shoulder, where Morpheus glided. Behind Morpheus was a small town, a patch of brown among green. Bill turned around in awe and took a step forward, rubbing the back of his furry head with a paw.
"Wow," he murmured. "Where did that come from?"
"Where does anything in this world come from?" Morpheus countered. "It was created by you, Bill."
"Is this where the Lotus Temple is?" Bill asked.
Morpheus shrugged. "There's only one way to find out."
"I hate it when you shrug at me like that," Bill commented.
With that, the young researcher-turned-Meowth ran forward, trying to get closer to the town. However, the further he ran, the further away the town seemed to be. It was almost as if he was running in place. He dropped to all fours, trying to get closer, but still, the town stayed away from him.
"Morpheus!" Bill cried as he stopped to catch his breath. "I thought... you said... that everything... here... was a... set place!"
Morpheus grinned. "It is."
Bill paused for a moment and took a gulp of air. "Then why is that town moving!?"
Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "Is it moving... or is it distance that's not a set thing in this world?"
"What on Earth are you talking about?" Bill asked harshly.
"Places have their set locations," Morpheus explained. "However, though they have their set locations in general, how far apart those locations lay and how big the areas are... those things tend to change."
It was Bill's turn to raise an eyebrow. "What the bloody-- that's not possible!"
"What is impossible in reality becomes completely possible in surreality," Morpheus responded simply.
"Surreality?"
"Surrealism," Morpheus rephrased. "The so-called unreal world, though it's completely real as well."
There was a short pause.
"...I don't follow you," Bill said flatly.
Morpheus sighed. "Of course you wouldn't. Your mind is focused too much on the fact to comprehend the unexplainable world."
Bill didn't answer. He did, however, take a step towards the town, only to find himself on the town limits. He blinked.
"Not everything is as it seems, Bill," Morpheus reminded him. "Remember that from now on."
"Right," Bill responded as he threw a cynical look at Morpheus.
The Meowth and the dark god journeyed into the city, looking about at the Old West-style town as the wind blew dust and tumbleweeds about.
"First, I get turned into a Meowth," Bill murmured to himself. "Then, I have to face a doorknob laughing at me. THEN, I fall god knows how far into--"
He stopped short. So did Morpheus. They both heard it. Someone calling Bill's name.
"Ellie," Bill whispered. "My younger sister. I think I can hear Beth, my other sister, as well. But where are they...?"
"Bill, not everything is as it seems," Morpheus warned him again. "They might not even be--"
"Ellie!" Bill called towards the rosy sky as he ran through the town. "Beth! Where are you!?"
"--Here," Morpheus finished with a sigh.
With that, Morpheus was left with no choice but to follow the Meowth, trying to keep up with him.
---
The sister only slightly younger than Bill shook her brother's body but got no response.
"Ellie, get Mum," the older sister said, addressing the younger behind her.
There stood Ellie, still in her night clothes, though her red hair was done up in two braids draping over her shoulders. Her glistening, tea-colored eyes remained fixed on her older sister as she nodded. At last, she ran from the room. The other sister, undoubtedly Beth, turned back to her older brother.
"Come on, Wills, wake up," Beth pleaded, hugging him as she pulled him into the sunlight that fell on the bed. "Come on..."
A dark-haired woman with deep, brown eyes and creases in her middle-aged face burst into the room and gasped. She darted forward and took her son into her arms, trying to shake him and wake him as well. Ellie stood in the doorway, feeling helpless as all this went on.
"William!" the mother cried. "William, please wake up! Oh... This isn't like him! Not at all! He's not a deep sleeper at all! Not this deep! William, please open your eyes!"
There was no response from the young man. Tears fell from the mother, pulled from her eyes as a deep fear settled into her heart.
"Beth, call an ambulance!" the mother demanded.
"Yes, Mum," Beth responded softly as she turned and ran off into the hallway to get to a phone.
The mother cried, thinking the worse as she held her son to her chest in helplessness.
"Oh, William," she murmured. "Please wake up..."
It was unfortunate that he wouldn't wake up. Not for a long while...
Foreword: Just for the record, I'm not on any sort of drug. Nothing. Zip, zilch. I'm freakin' clean!
That said, I wanted to try something a bit more serious than Warp Series (Well, it SEEMED serious at the time...) as well as something that had a surreal, "experimental" feel to it. The result was this strange piece that's supposed to be one part Alice in Wonderland and one part Cat Soup. (That's an anime movie, folks. If you don't believe me, look it up yourself. I'm not bothering with summaries, either.) You can think of it as one part Monkeybone later on as well, but I've only read summaries. Never actually saw the movie. =/
That said, if you get it, yay; if you don't, don't worry about it. I don't think it was meant to be completely understandable anyways. ^_^;
---
Night One: Open the Doors
He placed the last article of clothing into the drawer and pushed it shut before placing his suitcase in the closet. With that, he plopped on the bed and stared out the window, heaving a sigh of nostalgia. He stared out at the cerulean blue sky as white forms drifted in its endless sea like peaceful, white Quagsire drifting serenely by. They reminded him of something, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what. All he saw in his mind was a dark blur...
He stood and took a few steps; his shoeless feet made barely a sound on the hardwood floors. He opened the window and leaned against the sill, raising his dark brown eyes to the pale, blue sky. A zephyr blew in, caressing his pale skin and playing with the dark curls framing his childlike face. He smiled, happy to be back in his childhood home again for the first time in almost a year.
He heard a voice behind him call his name. He looked over his shoulder and straightened up, closing the window as he did.
"Wills, are you here?"
He sighed and crossed the room. Only one person called him by that irritating childhood nickname anymore. He poked his head out of the threshold, only to come face to face with a red-headed girl just a little younger than he was. She turned her head and to catch herself before she collided with him. They both gasped and jumped back, causing him to hit the side of the threshold and her to hit, well, nothing.
"There you are, Wills!" the girl said with a smile.
He rolled his eyes.
"How might my dear older brother be doing?" she asked with a grin.
"Quite fine, thank you," he responded politely to his younger sister.
"How was the trip here?" she drilled.
He replied, "Same as always. Rather well indeed."
"So, what's new in your life?"
He smiled. "I've been working on new theories about Pokémon development and their link to their psychological behavior. I think I've at last made a breakthrough and found a link between a Pokémon's personality and its performance in battle."
The sister blinked. "That's it?"
"Yes, I suppose it is."
"You haven't done anything else in your life?"
"No, not really."
"You lead a boring life," the sister commented dryly.
The brother scoffed. "What makes you think that?"
"You're what? Eighteen, tomorrow nineteen, and it seems like you haven't done anything FUN in your life," the sister told him bluntly.
The brother frowned. "Well, unlike SOME people, I'm forced to work."
The sister shrugged and turned away. "No one is ever FORCED to do ANYTHING of the sort..."
With that, she walked away, leaving him to ponder over her last words.
---
The sun began to set on the city known as Goldenrod. Quite odd that it was called that; there were no goldenrod flowers in and around the city, nor was there anything noteworthy within the city that happened to be golden. If anything, the city would be most appropriately called "Rose," for the sky above it always lit up with a brilliant, red-pink color as the sun descended into the horizon just beyond the skyscrapers.
A darkness spread from the eastern horizon, engulfing the air above and revealing the silver specks within the celestial kingdom. The skyscrapers lit up one by one by one and stood in the busy eternity, glowing in the darkness as the hours passed one by one by one...
The grandfather clock in the family room struck eleven. The sound of eleven chimes rang through the rooms of the quiet house. Down the hall and to the right, a door shut, and a back leaned against it.
"Tomorrow, I'll be nineteen," the youth murmured to himself.
With a sigh, he reached over to flick off the light. In the darkness, he shuffled across the hardwood floors and found his bed. He pulled the covers up and slid under, burying himself the warm sheets. He stretched out, yawned, and closed his eyes before drifting off completely into a world of serene slumber. He didn't notice as the shadows moved, as a thick, line pulled itself from a dark corner, as a dark figure rose from this line and formed a tangible being.
The being's yellow eyes opened within the pale, gray face. His thin body moved within the dark wrappings, passing by the window to have the moonlight make the golden hair that stood in horns on his head seem to shine. The figure didn't stop until he stood by the youth's bed, looking down as the youth continued to sleep. A claw-like hand reached out from under the cloak he wore, touching the youth's chest.
"So, you're the one they call Bill McKenzie," the figure murmured. "The one who never had a childlike dream... whose consciousness is kept busy only with numbers and scientific facts, rather than with whimsical fantasy. Tonight is the night before you lose your every chance to feel true bliss, to experience what it's like to be a true child. You don't know it, but I was sent here to make sure you felt in your heart that thing most children knew and loved."
With that, the claw-like hand plunged into the youth's chest. The sleeper let loose a shuddering gasp before slumping further down, deeper into his sleep. The hand withdrew, pulling with it a ball of glowing white.
"Your soul," the figure murmured. "The key to getting you to see exactly what I want you to see. But unfortunately, I can't just take you into the world and show you all those childlike things. That's because that's not in my power. I am the god of dreams, after all, not of reality. No, to get you to see what I want you to see, I must do something a bit more... drastic."
The figure put his free, claw-like hand on Bill's head. There was a flash of white... before nothingness. No one was in the room, save for an empty body.
---
Two yellow eyes scanned the scenery. So many corridors, so many doors, so many stairs, paths, everything... all going out in different directions like a twisted, green maze of a nightmarish sort.
"Such a complex mind," the figure commented. "One could get very lost in here..."
The figure looked down at the ball in his hands.
"And here, I have such a simple thing. Perhaps I can change that..."
He set the ball down on the ground and waved his hands about it until it formed the shape of a Pokémon. When he was finished, he blew on it, causing little flakes of glowing white to fall off the body, revealing a colored, cat form of a Meowth. The figure drew back and straightened up, watching as the eyelids of the Meowth twitched and a groan escaped its throat. The eyelids finally lifted, allowing the cat to look about and acknowledge the presence of the figure.
"Where am I?" the Meowth asked in a very human voice as he sat up. "Who are you? What am I doing here? Did you bring me here?"
At last, his cat eyes fell upon what parts of his body he could see. He gasped and jumped into a standing position, recognizing the body parts he glanced at.
"What happened to me!?" the Meowth demanded. "How on Earth did I turn into a Meowth!?"
The figure grinned and clicked his tongue. "Ah, yes. You always loved asking questions, Bill. But please, I can only answer one question at a time."
"Alright, then let's start off with one," Bill growled as he looked at the figure. "Who are you?"
"I am Morpheus, god of dreams," the figure responded.
"Morpheus?"
"Yes."
"I must be dreaming."
Morpheus grinned. "You are."
"Oh, good," Bill responded with a sigh of relief. "I thought I was going insane."
Morpheus' grin widened. "You will."
The Meowth tilted his head. "Come again?"
"If you continue on the path that you are going down, you will suffer from your inability to dream like a child," Morpheus explained. "This suffering will cause the pent up dreams deep within you to erupt, taking over your mind and driving you insane. I came to you tonight to prevent this from happening by giving you all the time in the world to experience true, childlike dreams."
"What?" Bill's furry face paled. "You... You can't do that!"
"Yes, I can," Morpheus replied. "I'm the god of dreams. If I want a person's slumber to continue forever, then so be it."
"But... But I'm needed in the real world!" Bill protested.
Morpheus frowned and closed his yellow eyes. "Hmm... I can tell that you would rather be in reality than within the perfect world inside your mind. Is this true?"
"Yes!" Bill shouted, causing an echo to bounce off the empty walls of the labyrinth.
"Then I will bring you back," Morpheus offered. "However, I'm afraid that there's only one corridor the two of us can use to pass back into reality."
"What's that?"
"It resides in the Lotus Temple."
"...The what?"
Morpheus sighed. "Within each human being, there is a temple called the Lotus Temple. This temple enshrines things that the person holds the most dear. The dreams the person cherishes the most. The desires the person wants above everything else."
"Where do I find this temple?" Bill asked.
"I'm afraid I don't know," Morpheus answered. "One person's Lotus Temple, like everything else in this subconscious world, is created and placed differently than everyone else's temple. And since it's impossible for me to keep track of the location of every single Lotus Temple in the entire global population... I have no idea where yours is."
Bill thought for a moment until he at last came up with a solution.
"If I wished to be at my temple, and that's all I wanted, would the temple appear before me?" he inquired.
Morpheus shook his head. "No. The Lotus Temple is a set place. All things are in this world, though they may change their appearance now and then. I'm afraid we'll have to search for it ourselves. That may take as long as minutes... or it may take eternity."
Bill shuddered, not wanting to think about it. "Where do we start looking?"
Morpheus turned around and motioned to every corridor leading to every door with one, thin hand.
"Choose a door," he told Bill.
Bill gulped and moved forward. Already, he could tell that this was going to be a LONG journey. He looked about the chamber, studying each door in an attempt to find out which one seemed best.
Well, actually, they all seemed the SAME to him, and at this thought, he sighed greatly.
Irritated by Morpheus' unwavering stare, Bill looked about quickly and chose a door. He walked straight up to it and looked up at the doorknob. He was much too short to reach it. Turning away from it, Bill faced Morpheus with a question.
"Could you give me a boost?" he asked in embarrassment.
"Why would I need to?" the god responded.
In confusion, Bill turned back to the door, only to find the knob at eye level.
Bill blinked and squeaked, "I..."
Without finishing that thought, he reached up to grab it, only to have it move to the left. He stared at it for a long while in curiosity before reaching up again to grab the doorknob. It, however, moved down, away from his paw before it started giggling at him.
"How utterly strange," he commented under his breath.
He reached out to grab it again, but instead, it moved up. He stood there, feeling like a fool as he chased the knob about the door until, at last, he came up with an idea. He went at the knob with one hand, only to have it move away, into his other paw.
"Aha!" he shouted in triumph.
Suddenly, he realized his circumstances, blushed, and turned the knob. Morpheus only smiled and watched as Bill cleared his throat and opened the door. The door swung open on its hinges, revealing...
Nothing.
That's right. Pitch black nothingness was all there was inside the door. Curious, Bill leaned forward, inspecting the contents of the area beyond the threshold, trying to find SOMETHING residing behind the door. All of a sudden, a vacuum picked up, sucking the poor Meowth into the abyss. He flipped over and injected his claws into the floor, desperately trying to remain rooted in the green, labyrinthine room. However, the suction was powerful, and the poor cat was eventually pulled clean off the floor of the room and deep into the darkness, descending into the nothingness at a slope as he screamed.
Morpheus watched it all. At last, he casually floated forward, through the doorway, and into the blackness.
The door closed slowly behind him with a creak.
---
Bill plunged into a world of color, going at a speed too fast for him to tell what exactly the colored blurs around him were. He felt his Meowth body twisting around involuntarily, so that his paws would break his fall. He knew, however, that it wouldn't matter since SOMETHING was going to break, and it was not necessarily going to be a good thing.
He looked down to see the ground closing in quickly. He closed his eyes, braced himself, and prepared to die, knowing that all would be over in the matter of seconds.
All he felt was silk under him.
He opened his eyes slowly and looked about him. Flower petals, all colored green or pink, scattered about beneath him, creating a cushion. He sighed with relief and stood up, dusting himself off. He didn't look up as Morpheus floated down beside him.
"Suddenly, I understand the pun," Bill muttered. "'Curiosity killed the cat.'"
Bill frowned, refusing to look at Morpheus and instead looking about him. He realized that he was in some sort of field, but judging by the behavior of the doorknob, he could be in a snow globe for all he knew.
He took a cautious step. Was it just him, or did the ground move under him? He took another, hearing cries beneath him. Another step, and flower petals twirled, ejecting pollen.
"Morpheus, what's going on?" Bill asked, looking at Morpheus at last.
Morpheus only shrugged.
Bill took another step, and the ground completely began moving under him. He fell on his back, allowing himself to be carried along. He let out a sharp cry before looking down into a hole in the ground, only to find that it was a gap between two Pokémon. He wedged his paws between the cracks and pulled up one of the Pokémon, only to find that it was in fact, a Bellossom. The Bellossom used Flail on him, thrashing out of his paws and falling back into the sea of Bellossom beneath him.
"Morpheus! Where are they taking me!?" Bill demanded frantically as he looked up to the god.
Morpheus only shrugged again.
Bill growled, attempting to stand up. However, one of his hind paws got caught between the Bellossom, causing him to fall forward. He tried to pull his hind paw out, but it was no use. He was stuck.
However, luckily for him, his situation didn't last too much longer. After awhile, the Bellossom moved him off to one side, closer and closer to the edge of the sea of Bellossom. At last, he was dumped over the edge, onto solid grass in a dazed pile, watching the herds of Bellossom pass.
He gasped for breath before checking to see if the ground below him was actual ground. When he was satisfied, he stood and looked over his shoulder, where Morpheus glided. Behind Morpheus was a small town, a patch of brown among green. Bill turned around in awe and took a step forward, rubbing the back of his furry head with a paw.
"Wow," he murmured. "Where did that come from?"
"Where does anything in this world come from?" Morpheus countered. "It was created by you, Bill."
"Is this where the Lotus Temple is?" Bill asked.
Morpheus shrugged. "There's only one way to find out."
"I hate it when you shrug at me like that," Bill commented.
With that, the young researcher-turned-Meowth ran forward, trying to get closer to the town. However, the further he ran, the further away the town seemed to be. It was almost as if he was running in place. He dropped to all fours, trying to get closer, but still, the town stayed away from him.
"Morpheus!" Bill cried as he stopped to catch his breath. "I thought... you said... that everything... here... was a... set place!"
Morpheus grinned. "It is."
Bill paused for a moment and took a gulp of air. "Then why is that town moving!?"
Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "Is it moving... or is it distance that's not a set thing in this world?"
"What on Earth are you talking about?" Bill asked harshly.
"Places have their set locations," Morpheus explained. "However, though they have their set locations in general, how far apart those locations lay and how big the areas are... those things tend to change."
It was Bill's turn to raise an eyebrow. "What the bloody-- that's not possible!"
"What is impossible in reality becomes completely possible in surreality," Morpheus responded simply.
"Surreality?"
"Surrealism," Morpheus rephrased. "The so-called unreal world, though it's completely real as well."
There was a short pause.
"...I don't follow you," Bill said flatly.
Morpheus sighed. "Of course you wouldn't. Your mind is focused too much on the fact to comprehend the unexplainable world."
Bill didn't answer. He did, however, take a step towards the town, only to find himself on the town limits. He blinked.
"Not everything is as it seems, Bill," Morpheus reminded him. "Remember that from now on."
"Right," Bill responded as he threw a cynical look at Morpheus.
The Meowth and the dark god journeyed into the city, looking about at the Old West-style town as the wind blew dust and tumbleweeds about.
"First, I get turned into a Meowth," Bill murmured to himself. "Then, I have to face a doorknob laughing at me. THEN, I fall god knows how far into--"
He stopped short. So did Morpheus. They both heard it. Someone calling Bill's name.
"Ellie," Bill whispered. "My younger sister. I think I can hear Beth, my other sister, as well. But where are they...?"
"Bill, not everything is as it seems," Morpheus warned him again. "They might not even be--"
"Ellie!" Bill called towards the rosy sky as he ran through the town. "Beth! Where are you!?"
"--Here," Morpheus finished with a sigh.
With that, Morpheus was left with no choice but to follow the Meowth, trying to keep up with him.
---
The sister only slightly younger than Bill shook her brother's body but got no response.
"Ellie, get Mum," the older sister said, addressing the younger behind her.
There stood Ellie, still in her night clothes, though her red hair was done up in two braids draping over her shoulders. Her glistening, tea-colored eyes remained fixed on her older sister as she nodded. At last, she ran from the room. The other sister, undoubtedly Beth, turned back to her older brother.
"Come on, Wills, wake up," Beth pleaded, hugging him as she pulled him into the sunlight that fell on the bed. "Come on..."
A dark-haired woman with deep, brown eyes and creases in her middle-aged face burst into the room and gasped. She darted forward and took her son into her arms, trying to shake him and wake him as well. Ellie stood in the doorway, feeling helpless as all this went on.
"William!" the mother cried. "William, please wake up! Oh... This isn't like him! Not at all! He's not a deep sleeper at all! Not this deep! William, please open your eyes!"
There was no response from the young man. Tears fell from the mother, pulled from her eyes as a deep fear settled into her heart.
"Beth, call an ambulance!" the mother demanded.
"Yes, Mum," Beth responded softly as she turned and ran off into the hallway to get to a phone.
The mother cried, thinking the worse as she held her son to her chest in helplessness.
"Oh, William," she murmured. "Please wake up..."
It was unfortunate that he wouldn't wake up. Not for a long while...