Dualism

[Carthrat]

You are dreaming. You have dreamed this dream before.

Look around.

You see an path before you, and a path behind. There is nothing to either side. The path is solid white, and slowly curves up in front of you. Slow, heavy footsteps approach from behind you.

Run.

You start to jog away from the meancing thuds. The white path in front of you is as far as your eyes can see, always heading uphill, always the same level of steepness. Stars flash into existence as you run ahead, twinkling in your peripheral vision.

Look back.

You see nothing. There is no sound of thudding behind you now. You slow your pace to a walk, and the starts shine a little brighter.

Voices begin to talk, all around you, in many langauges. You cannot identify most of them- there is none that sounds like your own. Continuing to see the white path, ever looping up, you reach a sudden epiphany.

Look up.

You see a white corona across the sky, directly paralell to your line. You see the path loop up and around, forming a mile-wide circle. You see a figure directly above you. There are no stars in his half of the circle. There are no voices. There is nothing.

He looks at you.

He opens his mouth-

-and screams-

-and the path cracks-

You awake, a feeling of dread in your heart- the feeling one gets when he realises he's about to fall over, or make a critical error. The scream still rings in your ears.

Your vision is blurry, but you can make out a vauge sight to the side- bright-yet-faded neon letters, reading '5:59'.

[Liddo-kun]

"Glurgle..." I croak out dryly, which roughly translated to - Ugh.  I'm awake and am covered in sweat.  Ick. - in the regional dialect of the I just woke up before my alarm tribe.

I put a hand to my head and draw out a deep breath to calm the thundering in my chest, but not yet trusting myself to get up.

What did I just dream...?  I ask myself.

[Carthrat]

The room is silent at your open questioning, with no obvious insight. Curtains are drawn next to your bed, but a faint glimmering of light shines through them.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

The clock ticks over to 6:00, and a shiny red 'stop' button lights up just underneath the clock face.

[Liddo-kun]

I reach over and tap the alarm clock off and entertain a short internal debate about the merits of rolling over back to bed, but find myself soon standing and heading to where the curtains are slightly parted.  I pull them open, fully expecting (and dreading) the faceful of sunny greeting.

[Carthrat]

Nothing less than the full force of daylight hits you in the face, doing nothing for you vision and everything to make you want to roll under your bed and cringe.

Once your vision clears, though, you can make out the rest of your (quite spacious) bedroom. Your desk sits next to your bed, neatly organized; your clock, a lamp, a closed laptop and a diary sit happily on it. There are a couple of bookshelves in the room; one is filled with what look to be books on accounting, money, finance; the other is filled with novels of all kinds; science-fiction, classics, horror, drama...

A large wardrobe sits opposite your bed, and mounted on the wall over it are the three blades of a samurai; a katana, and wakizashi, and a tanto.

[Liddo-kun]

I rubbed the last vestiges of sleep out of my eyes that the blast of sunlight hadn't already fried out.  Stifling a yawn, I stretched my arms over my head, relishing the feel of muscles loosening.

My eyes roam, completing the survey of my room.  An odd practice, admittedly, but one borne of a habit that I'd yet to kick or find a reason to.  I frowned at the basket of laundry that would soon have to be taken downstairs and washed, the wind chime hanging by my closed window, and finally settled on the familiar tensed form of my kitten Teyto who was...

...about to jump on my bird cage!

"Wagh!  Bad kitty!  No!" I scolded.

[Carthrat]

Frazzled at your shout, the kitten hits the birdcage, and promptly falls off, scampering away from it and out your open door.

Of course, this woke up your parrot, who starts out with a screech, and then starts chattering- "Bad kitty! Bad kitty! Bad kitty! No!"

[Liddo-kun]

"It's too early for this..." I grumble, brushing back a lock of errant hair, while listening to her fine feathered recording device.  I mean really, of all the things her father could've given her as a birthday gift.

Speaking of early though...

I take a quick peek at the clock to see how much time I've got before I have to be where I need to be at a certain time.

[Carthrat]

Crap. When did you have to be in today?

For that matter, where? The time and address completely flee your mind, leaving only two methods of salvation; using your mobile to call your boss, or checking your diary.

[Liddo-kun]

I walk over to my desk to thumb through my planner, so as to get an idea of what's on the the menu today.

[Carthrat]

It's the first of March! This planner is new- there hasn't been a single entry in it, excepting this week.

Code Select Expand


1/3/2020

-8:00am 25 Collins St. City, Floor 12. Ask for Kyle- new position orientation.
-6:00pm Removalists arriving- finally, I shall have an oven!
-7:00pm Mother Calling

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2/3/2020
-8:00am God only knows. Work, definately. Doing? Until when? Ugh...


The specifics of work aren't detailed, of course. You're a financial consultant, recently hired by an Australian company named AXA. They graciously offered to fly you out of Japan, but they've hardly given you any time to get settled. You don't even think they required an interview. One look at your resume, and they let you right in.

It helped to have those references, though.

[Liddo-kun]

Ah, yes.  The references.  Just where would I be without my references?

After jotting down the address on a small sheet of paper, I closed my planner then made quick mental plans for a shower and a trip out to nab something to eat, since she had two hours to kill, afterall.

[Carthrat]

The shower is.. luxrious. It's got all the perks you'd ever want in a shower; hell, the bathroom looks like something out of a luxury house. Shiny tiles, more dials and knobs than you can identify, heaters on the roof to prevent that inevitable chill that comes with leaving the shower...

While you're showering, though, you see a tattoo on your right shoulder. When did you get that? It looks like some kind of plant, but you can't for the life of you identify it.

[Liddo-kun]

How... odd.  I muse to myself, rubbing at - what I can only guess initially - is a stick on tatoo with a soapy rag.

[Carthrat]

It doesn't go away. Odd, that. When was the last time you got drunk enough to do something like this?

The going away part in Japan? Was there even a going away party? You can hardly remember the faces of your friends. Your family wasn't the type to throw a drunken celebration, too.