Reala Again
Chapter 5
The Magic Pickle Fairy
Elliot took a granola bar and a hazelnut coffee from the Dining Hall and walked over to the Psychology department where Professor Erikson was sitting as he drank a latte from Grinders and worked on a crossword puzzle.
Professor Erikson had brown short hair and dressed in a sweater vest and slick black pants. If Elliot could add glasses, he would look like a stereotypical nerd. Yet what Elliot really recognized was the Grinders cup, "hey, my girlfriend works there!"
"Did she have blonde ringlets?" Professor Erikson asked.
"No, its pink hair in a ponytail," Elliot mentioned, "she's hard to miss."
"Oh, yes, she actually made the drink for me. She's really quick!"
Professor Erikson always seemed like a human being. Not like Elliot's other professors aren't human, but Professor Erikson talked so much about his personal life, that he really knows him. It's strange, since Professor Erikson barely knows him. At least Professor Erikson knows that Elliot's girlfriend works at Grinders.
"I just want to talk about my thoughts on my major."
"What is your major?" asked Professor Erikson.
"Undeclared," Elliot said, "And I'm a sophomore."
"So you still have the rest of this semester and next semester to decide," Professor Erikson mentioned, "now is a good time to think."
"I was thinking about majoring in psychology," said Elliot, "But I also want to do art."
"Art Therapy?" Professor Erikson asked, "Is that what you want to do?"
"What is Art Therapy?" Elliot asked.
"It's when a therapist uses their client's art to analyze their mental states. It's actually a really good way to figure out the issues that clients have, as well as helping heal them through expressing themselves."
"That's really fascinating, is there any way I can learn more?"
Professor Erikson took out his schedule book "let me email Rhonda Tailor and send you a carbon copy of the email, she's an art therapist who you can possibly shadow."
Elliot smiled, "Thanks!"
Elliot was really into a discussion in his psychology class about dreams. It seemed to be his level of expertise.
Memoir class was okay. It was mostly his classmates criticizing the legal system, and how Malcolm's case of being educated in prison was not like most cases out there.
Elliot walked out of class with Tony where they were going to basketball practice. When they got changed, they saw the man with thick glasses.
Tony waved his hands, "oh, hi Finn!"
Apparently his name was Finn. He was wearing sweat pants and a Mega Man T-shirt. "Hey! I thought that I should try the intramurals!"
"Awesome! I could teach you the moves!" Tony smiled.
"And if you don't mind," Finn mentioned, "would you like to see a movie this weekend?"
"Yeah, sure!" Tony said, "I would like to see Lord of the Rings."
"Me too!" Finn smiled, "I heard it's really long, but so epic!"
So it was done. Finn had asked Tony out for a date. Guess Elliot couldn't date Tony. Not like he was attracted to men anyhow. "Wait!" Elliot called out.
Finn and Tony looked at Elliot, "What?"
Elliot blushed so hard his entire face was red, "never mind."
"Hey are you jealous?" Tony asked, "Because it's nothing official. Finn and I may hate each other after the date."
"But he has a girlfriend," Finn mentioned, "but maybe you guys should become an open relationship. I know it'll make Madison happy."
"I guess I'll discuss it with Claris," Elliot said, "wait? Does Madison like Claris? Does Claris know?"
"Oh, Claris knows about Madison," Finn laughed, "Madison told Claris, but Claris didn't want to break up with you."
Wow, Claris wouldn't break up with Elliot for someone as awesome as Madison. Maybe Elliot should be thankful for Claris. Claris is really a cute, creative, and nice girlfriend; Elliot shouldn't risk anything for this girl.
The team got to the court and started playing. Finn wasn't very good at basketball, and their coach was helping him out. Elliot would probably guess that Finn may end up on the bench, or be in charge of water. Finn fell over while trying to shoot a basket, and Tony ran over for his help with the first aid kit. Finn had scraped his knee, and Tony got a large band-aid on his knee.
"I guess I'll just watch and learn for the rest of the day." Finn said.
"As long as you don't give up, you're doing better than me!" Tony gave some encouragement to Finn.
"But didn't you start playing at age eleven?" Elliot asked.
"Beginners have the start somewhere," Tony said.
It bugged Elliot that Reala had mentioned that ze used to work for Nightopia. So was Reala really not a nightmaren? It bugged Elliot even more than Tony's date with Finn. At that night, Elliot didn't even see any nightmaren, but rather, the queen of Nightopia.
This queen had pink hair and a pink dress. "I am Illumina, the queen of Nightopia."
She looked just as large as Wizeman, but much less intimidating. It is apparent that Illumina doesn't create as much as Wizeman, but she does more commanding. Dreamers have the ability much more powerful than Illumina or Wizeman, and have much more potential depending on the dreamer. "Why are you here?" Elliot asked.
"There are two Dream Creatures that are quite unusual that you wanted to know about, and are smarter than your average Nightopian or Nightmaren."
"Who do you mean?" Elliot asked, "Are there more than just Nightopians and Nightmaren?"
"It is a constant battle between Wizeman and I in order to remain the balance between light and darkness. It is also a stressful battle between the dream worlds. It isn't good for the mental state, and we both needed help."
An image of Wizeman and Illumina shot energy out of their hands and joined together. "So we banded together to create two creatures to aid us in our battle over the dreamers' mind and territory. One will be Nightopian, with some Nightmaren, and the other will be Nightmaren with some Nightopian.
The energy formed two jesters like creatures. One of them was red and had a colorful face. The other was purple and had a black and white face.
"I took Reala to aid me in my battle. Yet Reala didn't do a very good job at communicating with my nightopians."
There was an image of Reala giving battle plans to other dream creatures, but the Nightopians shook their heads. When the Nightopians left, Reala buried hir head onto the table. It seemed like Reala was crying.
And Wizeman took NiGHTS, who once had fun tormenting the dreamers for their power, but stopped being satisfied.
Then there was an image of NiGHTS commanding some nightmaren to give scary images to a teenager being abused by his girlfriend. Then suddenly, the child stated to cry. "I know it, there's something wrong with me!"
NiGHTS stopped dead on hir flight. NiGHTS commanded the nightmaren to stop. "No, there isn't. I know Dana is a good girl. She would never hurt you."
Elliot saw the boy's face, it was a younger Tony. "I know. That's what's wrong. I don't love her, and I don't know why. She is sweet, smart, amazing, but I just don't love her."
"Then don't date her," said NiGHTS. NiGHTS snapped hir fingers and an image of a girl who was probably Dana appeared in front of them. She said, "I understand, we can still stay friends."
"She probably would say that," Tony perked up.
That was when Reala appeared, "hey, kid, let's get out of here. Dana is a good girl, and she would never hurt you."
"I know," Tony perked up and pointed to NiGHTS, "he helped me out a bit."
"A nightmaren helping a dreamer?" Reala sneered. "Then that means I can do this!" Reala snapped hir fingers which made the girl start to yell at Tony.
"I can't believe you want to break up with me! I have done nothing wrong! You need a good reason for us not to be together!"
"No!" NiGHTS whined, "We need to make him satisfied with his feelings." NiGHTS snapped hir fingers and Dana hugged Tony.
"It's alright, we'll be the best BFFs, and not be my BF."
"Oh, right, said the Nightmaren!" Reala mocked to NiGHTS.
"You were harming the kid yourself!" cried NiGHTS. Color started coming to NiGHTS' face, and hir shade of purple became brighter, "I guess I can be a Nightopian myself."
Reala's face became darker, and hir tassels became black as well as red. "And giving nightmares to dreamers is kind of fun. I'll take your job."
"And I'll take yours!" NiGHTS cried, "We can both do what we are best at!"
Illumina began to speak again. "NiGHTS was as much as a rebellious nightmaren as much as Reala was a rebellious nightopian. Wizeman was angry about the rebellion, while I am glad that Reala is satisfied with what ze is doing. Wizeman is trying hard to have both NiGHTS and Reala on his side, while I am trying to use NiGHTS to hir full potential. NiGHTS may not be successful now, but ze will be one day.
"And I think ze is." Elliot said, "NiGHTS met Tony again last week, and encouraged him to come out to his parents. Tony is very happy right now, and has a date with a guy!"
"As homosexuality has become more accepted in Waking World society, it has been easier to make our gay, lesbian, and bisexual dreamers happy. Because of people like you who help their friends, we've been able to create better Nightopias of our gay dreamers."
"Yeah, I can get very jealous, but it is best for Tony," said Elliot, "I just didn't realize that until now."
Then there is your new friend, Madison who isn't accepted as a bi-gender individual. Society doesn't understand that there are more than just two genders. Wizeman and I find the concept of gender too complicated to even give genders to our creatures. Humans still don't even get it, and they have a lot of genders. Someday, Madison will be accepted for who ze really is as someone who is both male and female."
"I will help Madison someday, just as I helped Tony." Elliot looked up and smiled, "I know what I want to do. I want to help people discover and accept who they are."
"Then you think you should major in psychology?" Illumina asked.
A voice boomed through the room, "good for you!" Reala flew into the room and bowed to Illumina, "greetings your majesty. I see you have shown who I truly am to The Perfect Dreamer."
"How could you even want to harm dreamers?" Elliot asked harshly.
"Don't be angry at Reala," said Illumina, "the Dream Worlds need a balance between dreams and nightmare in order for it to remain in its state. Wizeman wants supreme powers over the worlds, and I want balance. Reala understands this, and is preventing Wizeman from having complete control over the Dream World."
Reala started picking at hir yellow claws, "and I do a fine job if I say so myself. It's NiGHTS that doesn't understand the concept."
"NiGHTS is a nightmaren, so of course not. Ze will understand one day, and will be much more powerful because of it, so watch out."
Elliot started hearing a knock on the door.
"You better get that!" Reala said, "Seems like an opportunity."
Elliot got up and answered the door. Elliot thought that his roommate forgot his key again, but it was actually Toby and Finn. They both looked really out of it, and Finn had a six pack of beers in his hands.
"So, we really want to do it," Toby explained, "but Finn's roommate practices abstinence and won't let him, and my roommate thinks guys doing it are gross. Can we do it in your dorm since your roommate is never here?"
Elliot, who wasn't drunk, raised his eyebrow, "there is the factor of me not having the room and being the middle of the night."
"You forgot to explain that we want you to join us," Finn yelled out, "it will be awesome."
Well, there was the fact that Elliot had a girlfriend that he hasn't had sex with yet. Then there was the fact that this will be a three way. Then there was the fact that both of them were drunk, and intoxication does not equal to consent. "No, you guys should just go to bed. You aren't in a state to make good decisions."
"Aw you're no fun!" Finn yelled out, "I thought you were fun! You draw gay jesters and stuff, they're fun!"
"Go to sleep! I have to wake up early to finish up a sketch anyhow." Elliot slammed on the door. Elliot had hoped that they didn't remember any of that.
Elliot went back to sleep, and saw Reala and Illumina having tea.
Reala was caught surprised, "Wow! You went back to sleep?"
"It isn't morning in Twin Seeds yet," said Illumina.
"Technically it is," said Reala.
Illumina rolled her eyes, "don't listen to hir. You made a good decision."
Elliot nodded his head, "I probably have." Elliot kind of knew how to go on with life. He knew he wanted to be with Claris, even with his desires for Tony, and he knows what he wants to major in. Life is good.
