Dreaming of Yesterday (Me and FF!)

[mugenginga]

Claris Sinclair. That was her name, but not what most people knew her by. Did anyone know her real name? She honestly didn't know anymore, her agent was so insistent on showing the public the beautiful night, "Bella Notte", that she sometimes wasn't sure even she knew herself. She looked at herself in the mirror and considered asking the reflection if she was Claris or Bella, but dismissed it as silly. She pulled at the many pins in her hair, and her long pink hair began to fall down to her shoulders.

Half of the room was covered in stuffed animals and flowers. Roses most prominent, white trailing the red. There were boxes of chocolates she'd end up throwing out before the night was over. Even if she was allowed to eat them, there were far too many! All gifts from her adoring fans, none of which who knew her. She glanced over at the mountain of stuffed animals and sighed before turning back to the mirror and beginning to brush her hair out.

When she was fifteen, she'd visited the world of dreams and helped an entity named NiGHTS. In return, he'd helped her concur her fears and take what she considered to be the first step towards her singing career. The anniversary event for Twin Seeds had gotten coverage on the entire east coast. A few years later, she and her high school sweetheart had saved Christmas with NiGHT's help. Elliot had gotten a basketball scholarship, and she was too busy to keep track of how that was going. She let out a sigh, and began to pull her hair up into that familiar ponytail.

She didn't feel so brave anymore. So much for bearing the Ideya of Courage, eh?

[Firebreath Fishslap]

When I wake up, I always feel like I've forgotten something.

Klonoa felt like he was falling through some kind of veil. It wasn't that it was an uncommon feeling of his. Indeed, it had happened before to him, but in truth, he couldn't remember the passing through the veil most times. Somehow or another, he never focused on the important things when this happened. Instead he always ended up musing on the concept of dreaming.

Was it a dream that I have forgotten? Or something more?

All things considered, it probably wasn't what he should have been focusing on. A normal person would probably be panicking or confused in some way. Klonoa never felt confused. Perhaps it was because he knew of his purpose in some way.

Perhaps I have only forgotten a bygone nightmare...

Klonoa didn't so much as land as he did flop into the large pile of stuffed animals. A large ring landed after he did, landing right on Klonoa's head. He gave a sharp yelp of "Magya!" and grasped his head in pain. It would probably be the yelp that would get Claris' attention.

The creature that had just fallen into the pile of stuffed animals didn't look all that different from one himself. His body was covered in black and white fur, and he had two long floppy ears protruding from his head. He wore clothing, and there was a rather distinctive blue cap on his head. It was possible, but not likely, that Claris would recognize the Pac-Man logo on the side of the cap, though if Klonoa was asked, he wouldn't be able to say what Pac-Man was.

Klonoa lowered a hand from his head and grasped the Ring tightly. It was more out of instinct than anything. The Ring was his lifeline, and held great power, though he required another to use it. Even Klonoa didn't know the specifics of its power. Once, he'd needed the power of his best friend to use it. In another, it only required the power of a priestess. No matter what, though, he always kept it close. After confirming that he had the Ring, Klonoa looked toward the only other person in the room. All that occurred to him was how tall she was, and the fact that she looked like a person from the Moon Kingdom. He also wasn't quite sure who she was, but that was normal for him.

"Hello...?"

[mugenginga]

Claris' hairbrush went flying across the room at Klonoa's first yelp, knocking a stuffed bear about Klonoa's size onto the floor. She was out of her seat with a surprised but rather short shout and whirling around towards where the sound had come from. She sort of stood there and blinked with a dumbfounded expression as the stuffed animal she didn't recognize... moved.

And it was now looking at her, its eyes blinking just like any living creature's would (the fact that not all blinked or even had eyes didn't really cross Claris' mind). It looked like a stylized stuffed rabbit from what she could see of it. She continued to stare, wondering if she'd bonked her head and passed out or something. And then it spoke. And the young woman lost the illussion of cool she'd had.

"Eeeeek!" she proceeded to throw a tissue box at Klonoa's head. She was rather sure she wasn't dreaming, and she looked to be reaching for something else to throw.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Klonoa was pretty confused at this point. As far as he could tell, he'd landed in something plushy and soft, and the girl who had been brushing her hair before was staring at him. He'd tried to say something, and she'd thrown some sort of flimsy box at him. It managed to bean him upside the head, and he fell back into the pile of stuffed animals. One of the stuffed animals he landed on gave a rather loud squeak.

Klonoa pushed himself back up. "Hey, what was that for?!" He didn't know who this girl was, but she didn't have to throw a box of... He picked up the box she'd thrown at him and stared at it dumbfoundedly. Box of tissues, maybe? Klonoa couldn't actually recall ever seeing this kind of contraption.

[mugenginga]

Claris had grabbed a compact and had it pulled back to throw when the creature shouted at her. She hesitated. It spoke English, and she'd seen crazier things... but never while awake! And then a thought her earlier panic had discarded hit her. There was no way of knowing she was. She blinked and stared at Klonoa for a few moments, probably making him awkward. He was no Nightopian she'd ever heard of (and he didn't seem aggressive enough for your average Nightmaren), but... she hesitantly lowered the compact.

"Am... Am I dreaming?" she asked. The most interesting part was her question was completely serious. It wasn't as if she was trying to pass off impossible circumstances. It seemed to be an honest question. She noticed the way he was staring at the tissues, "Um... I don't suppose a Nightopian would know what those are... you're not a Nightmaren, right?"

Really, he did look more like a Nightmaren than a Nightopian. Not a Mepian either, he was just too big for that.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Klonoa placed the box of tissues to the side as Claris continued to stare at him. He felt a fair bit awkward, which really wasn't helped by the fact that he was still standing in a pile of stuffed animals. When she finally spoke, Klonoa found it odd that what she'd said sounded like a legitimate question, not an attempt to justify her situation. Then she asked her second question.

"What's a Nightmaren?" Klonoa asked. Were Nightmarens the creatures tormenting this world, and why he'd been pulled here? Okay, that was probably jumping the gun a bit, but he was just going with what he knew.

He stepped out of the pile and shook himself a bit. "I'm just Klonoa! Um... who are you?"

[mugenginga]

Claris hesitated again. Everyone in Nightopia (hadn't one of her dreams revealed the full world was the Night Dimension?) knew what Nightmaren were. And they all seemed pretty capable of recognizing them. She and Elliot hadn't known NiGHTS was one simply because they'd never maintained memories from there. But if... Klonoa didn't know what a Nightmaren was then...

"Um... I'm Claris..." she cautiously put the compact back on her desk, "Um... where did you come from?"

This was still extremely weird, and Claris was still pretty sure she had to be dreaming. But maybe she could move on to figuring out this weird manifestation of her Nightopia after she got some more information from the rabbit thing.