The Dream

*ding*

I slowly open my eyes at the soft sound of a bell. Everything around me is white, the ceiling, walls and floor. Come to think about it, am I even in a room? It doesn't feel like a room, but it doesn't feel like I'm outside either. Actually, I can't seem to feel anything.

I try to lift my body but it doesn't respond. I am able to look around though and so I look down but can't see my body, I'ts just white everywhere. 'What's going on?' a Semi-transparent sapphire blue screen popped up in front of me

[Welcome to the Lunaris Interface Prototype setup]

Wha..?

[Please input User information for log in]

'what is thi...Oh I see what's going on, I passed out after getting home and drank a lot more than I usually do. But I don't recall ever dreaming when passed out drunk before. Or maybe I did but don't remember it? I mean who remembers all of their dreams.' I shrug, or I would if I could

I decide to just go along with the dream, not like I really have much choice until I wake up anyway, I'm kind of at the mercy of my own subconscious mind until then.

[Username: . . . Alex]

[Greetings user Alex Installation of the system will now commence...]

[Error has occurred, Installation paused, scanning....]

[Host unoptimized for proper system functioning, System will install at reduced capabilities, User is advised to resolve errors]

'Lack of optimization? What does that even mean?'

[Error report will be generated at the completion of Installation]

'I see...'

[Installation Paused at 75%, User's authorization for restart required to continue with installation]

'Fine whatever I guess'

I feel a pinprick 'Wh....' everything goes dark

*CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK*

the sound of a Clackson reverberates in the room.

My head is pounding and the alarm is not making things any better, I fumble as I roll over and try to get to the source of the noise and shut it off. After struggling for a few moments I finally managed to get my phone and shut it off. 'Ugh, why the hell did I let myself drink so much last night' I look around and my clothes are strewn all over the room, and I was laying on the couch in the front room. I plop back down on the couch and put my arm across my face.

With a groan I eventually roll to sitting up and slowly grab my shirt and undergarments and pull them on wincing as a car drives passed and the light reflection from the window flashes passed my eyes and gives me a pain spike from my headache 'fuck...I don't remember ever having a hangover this bad before.' Not only do I feel like a jackhammer is going at my head, but I feel nauseous as well. I slowly shuffle to the kitchen and get a glass of water and I glance around noting that I seem to be the only one here. I check the house and I'm the only one, my car is out in the drive and my keys are hanging up by the door. I guess Lexi and Ash must have went home after dropping me off inside.

I open up my phone to send a text to Lexi thanking her for last night, but when I open up my phone, her contact and all communications with her have been deleted from the phone. Just great... I plop back down on the couch and rub my hands on my face feeling like shit even more so than from the hangover. I opened up the app we used to contact each other, but also noticed that our conversation there has been deleted and her profile is nowhere to be found on the site.

Wow... that was some dedication right there to making sure I can't contact her anymore. If that was going to be the case, why even bother asking me out last night? I check just to be sure, and my wallet Isn't missing, nor is any of the cash from it. I decided to check the house completely, because this was just really strange. But nothing is missing, nothing has been rummaged through.

It's a real head scratcher, after all why go through all that effort? Ghosting takes less effort than deleting everything from the other person. So I can't help but be a bit curious. I look at the time and go back to the kitchen to get some more water and decide to go grab something to eat. I figure I'll go back to the grill that I met Lexi at yesterday.

After arriving, I end up ordering the same Bacon cheddar as yesterday, and go to pay at the counter.

"So It was a bit interesting yesterday wasn't it?"

the cashier looks at me a bit confused "What do you mean?"

"The whole kerfuffle with those guys and the cops." I mention

The cashier looked even more confused. "I was off yesterday, what happened?" they look to the other cashier who shakes his head "Don't know what your talking about, I was working all day yesterday, nothing happened"

I'm a bit confused and quickly glance back at the window at where I was sitting yesterday, and the window is undamaged, But I clearly remember the guy practically going through the window. "What about the chick I was with yesterday?" I decided to ask

"Who? You weren't with anyone yesterday, you came in, ordered your usual, and went outside and ate. You were alone the whole time from what I saw."

I was confused by this statement from the cashier, but didn't ask anything further so i waited for my food to be ready, and I opened up my phones insurance app that tracked my travels, and went to the previous day's trips, it showed me going home from the airport, and to the grill for lunch then back home, and then absolutely nothing until this afternoon when i went back out for lunch, this is strange.

I went ahead and just ate while thinking this over, the whole situation I found strange. First there was the fact that the person I had spent most of the previous day with seemed to have just up and disappeared, Deleting all their conversations with me and the number off my phone.

The place we met up at yesterday for lunch, the cashier remembered me, but seems to claim that I was alone, that no altercations happened yesterday, and the window that was cracked during the altercation was fixed already, albeit this is easily explained with the quick response that some business have, and they could have sent someone out yesterday and had it fixed in a short time.

Things though just didn't quite add up. Maybe the cashier just wasn't that attentive yesterday, and missed the whole thing. I guess I will run by the club we were at yesterday to see if she is there to figure out what the heck is going on.

On the way back to the house I stopped off and picked up some aspirin and water as my head was still pounding like a bag of bricks. I got home then decided to take another short nap and set my alarm to wake me up in a couple of hours so that I could swing by the club and hope to figure out just what happened last night.

The Alarm goes off at the set time and I get up and get showered and changed. After a few minutes I'm on the road to where the club was. When I arrive, the warehouse district it was located in is very dark. Even last night the place wasn't this dark. It feels foreboding and strange.

Am I too early? I check the clock again, and no, I'm here at the same time I arrived last night, so the place should still be open. But the place is pitch black, this just doesn't make any sense. Why would a club be closed during peak hours on a Saturday?

I get out of the vehicle and start walking towards the door of the club, as I put a hand on the door handle, an Electric shock runs through my body from my head, and it feels as if I got hit by a linebacker. Like, full on body slammed with no padding, my vision goes blurry and I crumple like a wet rag. It becomes difficult to breathe, and I pass out by the time I hit the ground.

[Installation complete, System update in progress]

I find myself in the white room again. 'Ah ok now it all makes sense, I was still in the dream, though I guess it feels a bit odd to sleep in a dream, then again maybe it's not? Not like i have too much experience knowing when i'm actually in a dream'

[System error report generating]

'Huh… right I guess the previous dream segment mentioned this well lets see what this error report is about shall we?'

[Installation error code 404 files not found, User data was incompatible with the system information. System information initiated backwards compatibility with user data to complete proper installation]

'Well, I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, I wonder what the compatibility issues were and what the fix was.'

[System information is running at reduced capacity, Periodic updates will be required to bring User information up to required parameters for proper functionality, However due to the intrinsic Incompatibility between the System data and User data modifications have been made to the system and by extension the user data.

This requires a complete restructuring of the User data however such a solution is both impractical and not feasible. A non recognized feature has been installed to bridge the incompatibilities between User data and System data. The result was a corruption of some non-essential User data]

'Wait.. a corruption of non-essential data? What does that mean?'

[Essential data of the User is data required to sustain life, and the capabilities to function from day to day. Non-essential data is anything that does not facilitate these processes. Corrupted information has been purged from the user data to prevent further conflicts. We apologize for this inconvenience, but felt the compromise was more than worth the temporary hardships.]

'We? Who's we?'

[The compromise within the non-recognized option to bridge the system data and user data allows for the User to more easily understand the User's limits and potentially improve upon them, should the User learn how to do so. The system cannot provide any details to this besides a basic description of this option.]

A flashing icon appeared with some odd characters on it that I knew I couldn't read. They were almost like a combination of three different types of letter characters, yet somehow I understood them.

[Status]

I pressed on the status button

[User: Alex]

[Age: 28

[Race: Human]

[Form: Human(m)]

[Level: 0]

[HP: 180]

[SP: 200]

[XP: 0/100]

[Strength: 13]

[Agility: 10]

[Dexterity: 13]

[Constitution: 10]

[Body: 8]

[Intelligence: 12]

[Wisdom: 11]

[Charisma: 12]

[Luck: 7]

[Knowledge Skills]

[Survival: Basic]

[Active Skills]

[None]

[Titles]

[Child of Luna]

'What is all of this?'

[System is unable to provide any further information only to say that the non-recognized option selected during installation is unable to be installed, It has fused with both System data and User data, locking the two together.

The basic description of this option which is the only thing available to the system is that this option allows for more direct control of the system, It exploited a backdoor to the system overwriting the initial command structure of the system.

It modifies the system to allow the User to improve upon the User's capabilities as well as providing the blessing of Luna, which allows the user to take on any form that they have intimate knowledge of.]

'Ok….. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What, is the User able to shapeshift or something? And what is this improvement thing about?'

[System is unable to process query]

'Well aren't you useless construct of my subconscious'

[System update complete, restarting]

The topaz blue screen in front of me closes out and it goes dark as if someone shut the lights off. A faint repetitive buzzing sound draws my attention as it slowly grows in volume and clarity

*CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK*

My alarm is going off and I slap my arm out grabbing the phone and shutting the alarm off. I open my eyes slowly and a familiar ceiling is in front of me, and a familiar ceiling fan spinning. I'm on the couch in my front room. 'That… was one wild dream.' Unlike most dreams this one still seems very vivid in my mind, I glance at the time and notice that it's very early Sunday, Or very late Saturday night. I feel well rested, and full of