"That's right, love. And you were right to follow your own advice back there; you would have caught me in a little self-gratification," he said with a smug grin.

"Oh, gross…" she groaned, her nose wrinkling.

The green-skinned man looked her over. "I see Stu-pot did an ace job." Murdoc turned and walked back towards his Winnebago. "C'mon chicky," he waved over his shoulder, "I'll fix you."

The two sat on Murdoc's bed. He had removed all the bandages and was now rewrapping them in a neater fashion. Now that she had a more competent human being to talk to, the girl was rambling on about 2D. "It was annoying is what it was. You know what I mean? I wake up to find my limbs wrapped in white knots, my clothes missing, and this creepy tall guy talking to himself. Not exactly a warm welcoming."

"That's D for ya'," Murdoc said, not making any effort to hold back his sneers.

"He doesn't even bother to ask me my name. That's just common decency."

"Well, love, the reason he didn't ask yer name is because he already knows who y'are." He fastened the bandage on her leg. "We all know who you are. We know everybody who knows us."

The girl rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That doesn't even make sense. How can I know someone I didn't even know existed?"

Murdoc chuckled.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"It's funny…" Murdoc pushed his fingers against the girl's. He nudged at her fingers until her hand lifted up and his palm pressed against hers. It was obvious that there was no affection in his gesture, but there was a feeling like he was desperately trying to tell her something. "It's funny, that you would use the word exist."

"What does that mean?" She looked at him and then at their hands. She just couldn't see it.

"I know who you are," he said. "You're a good person." As the man spoke, the girl got the feeling was completely out of character. "You dream a lot, but that's okay. Where would I… we be without them? But you just have to remember to wake up sometimes."

She still didn't understand. The man seemed completely detached from reality. However, that statement really belonged on her. She didn't see the differences between her and the man, between her and the place she was in, or even between her and clothes she wore. "You're not supposed to be like this," she said in a low voice.

"The hell I'm not!" Murdoc exclaimed and pulled his hand away from hers. "But I'm only going t'behave the way you want me to. That's the way the game is played, love. If you want me to be meself, you gotta let me." He scratched the inside of his leg. "And I'd bloody damn well appreciate it if you did."

"My head hurts." The girl pressed a palm to her forehead as her eyebrows came together in her frown. "I… I gotta go…" So she stood, grabbed the stick, and started making her way back into the studio.

Murdoc followed her out into the Winnebago kitchen and watched her leave. Once she was gone he took a bottle of whiskey from the cabinet. "Well, now that that's over." He took a swig from the bottle.

Back in the studio, the girl was rummaging through 2D's medicine cabinet. She would take a pill bottle from the little shelf, read the label, and then take one. She didn't really care what kind of pain the pills were for, just as long as one of them would make her feel better.

"Wot are you doing?"

Startled by his voice, the bottle she was currently holding dropped to the floor and the little blue pills scattered all over the floor. "I was just… I'm sorry. I should have asked first. I'm sorry."

"I gave you sum Advil earlier. Does your leg hurt again?"

"Um, no." She put a pill on the back of her tongue and swallowed "Not really."

"Y'know you shouldn't take those unless you're in pain."

The girl glared at him. Suddenly she slammed her leg against the bathroom door and shouted, "There! Now my leg hurts."

"C'mon, don't be like that." 2D reached for the bottle she was holding. "These aren't even the right kind of pills. All of 'em are mine, and all of 'em are for a different kind of pain. You shouldn't be taking any of 'em."

"I don't need a lecture Stuart. I've got pains, these pills will make the pain go away. That's all I need to know and all I care about." She started opening another bottle.

"You can't take that many."

"Oh please," the girl snapped, "You can't possibly expect me to believe you don't take all these. You told me you did, what's the difference?"

"They won't kill me."

"Ha! Won't kill you? You mean like an overdose?" She laughed in frustration. "So… so let me get this straight. You could swallow all these pills, right here, right now, and nothing would happen? But if I… if I were to take just a few, I'm as good as dead." The girl swallowed yet another pill. "And all because, this is the good part, because you aren't real. Am I right?"

2D scratched the back of his head. "Well, yeah."

"What a load of bullshit! You know your psycho friend Murdoc said the exact same thing. You all aren't real. Then what the hell, I'm not real either. We're all just the figment of some wasted, doobie blazing, pill popping teenager in an alternate universe somewhere!"

"But you are real."

"No! Don't give me that 2D! Don't dump your twisted logic on me!" Her fingers started picking out another pill.

"Quit it Sarah!" 2D yelled. When the man shouted her name, the girl paused in shock. Luckily she stopped just long enough for him to grab her. The girl tried to jerk away, but he wouldn't let go. All the pill bottles that lined the edge of the sink went flying to the floor. "Don't you get it!" He held her in front of the mirror. "Look at us! Look at you! Look at me!"

She stared at their shared reflection. What she saw, she didn't want to believe. Murdoc's words echoed in her mind. 'It's funny, that you would use the word exist.' She saw the dull, natural colors of her face and hair, and the bold, single shaded colors of his. She saw the rounded shadows that fell across her features, and the painted ones on him. She noticed the lack of the touch sensation she thought had been there all along. "It's not fair…" she said sadly. "Both you and Murdoc, you had to go to the extremes, had to be something different so that I could see the truth."

"M'not as stupid and cowardly as everyone finks I am." He let her go. "But it is true, we weren't quite ourselves this whole time. We were only acting th'way you wanted us to."

"The subconscious is a real bitch…"

"We know you'd like us t'be real. A lot'f our fans do. Life's harder for you though, isn't it? That's why you came here and made all this up."

"I don't have any friends 2D! I have one mental quirk and they all decide I'm a problem they don't want to deal with! It's like… I'm that spot on the rug that everyone pulls the couch over and pretends isn't there! That isn't fair!"

"No, it's not. But you ain't gonna solve your problems by popping pain killers and waiting for it to go away. And you can't spend the rest of yer life running back here to us. You can once in awhile, but you don't want to lie to yerself and think this is all real."

"I know that… I just really like you guys. This whole Gorillaz thing is just so cool. It relates to everything that I love, I just feel happy here." She had been staring at his black eyes for the past few minutes, but now she looked away. "You know… It's stupid, but I had a dream once, that I loved you. This is the dream though, so I guess that was reality. I thought that I could love you."

"You still can."

"Yeah right, sure I can."

"You can love everything I represent. You can love my concept, my composition, my inspiration. You can love my music. Hell, you can even love my image if you want. Girls used to love Speed Racer didn't they?"

"2D, that was my mom's generation. Like, 25 years ago."

"The point is that there's no shame in loving an image. After all, Jamie and Damon made it a point to make us as human as possible. So go for it."

"2D?"

"Wot?"

"Will you sing 'Punk' for me?"

Author's Note: Basically that was when I woke up. I dreamt some other weird shit, but it wasn't that important. Wasn't that fun!