Mochi moon dreams

“What the? Hello?”

The last thing he remembered was being in the busy arcade bar. The air filled with the smell of alcohol and mochi, music booming throughout the room, the banter of excited patrons celebrating the year to come, eating and drinking and partying to their hearts content. Now, he was alone, sat on one of the stools, slouched over the bar counter, empty cup in hand. The overhead lights were out, the room only lit by the faint, coloured glow of the neon signs mounting the wall, though they seemed a lot dimmer than they should be.

“Oi, where’d ye go? You put something in my drink to prank me? Seriously…”

He stood up and flicked the light switch. Instead of illuminating the room, the bulb remained off, keeping it cloaked in shadows. Confused, Zepp began to check each of the side rooms. Each empty, void of any sign of life. No other buns, even the arcade machines perfectly still and silent, without their usual flickering and beeping.

After thoroughly searching the building, confirming no one was around, he ascended the stairs to the street. Once he opened the door, instead of the city, the scene was completely different.

The roadway had been replaced with a soft, fluffy, white material, closely resembling cotton wool. All of the buildings were gone, except the door leading down to the basement level where the bar was located. Where the cavern ceiling would normally be, grey rock embedded with glowing crystals and bioluminescent plant life, instead was an endless expanse of darkness that seemed to never end, dotted with small, twinkling lights of various sizes, everywhere. A large, white orb dominated the space, glowing brightly, dominating the scene.

He took a step forward, feet landing solid on the cloud below his feet. He kept going, until reaching the edge of the cloud. Looking over the edge, a dark sea, going as far as the eye could see. 

A loud but familiar bleat echoed behind him. “Heimdall?” He turned to the source of the sound, where his stellaram stood. But instead of being small, easy for a succubun in bun form to carry around, he was now huge, that a doll, if not multiple, could fit upon its back without much difficulty. “What's with you ? Why are you so… big?” He walked towards the sheep like imp. It crouched down as he approached, star tipped tail swishing through the air, and beckoned him to climb on. Hands grasped onto the fluffy grey wool, and he hauled himself upwards. He sank down into its coat once reaching the top, legs and lower torso no longer being visible in the woollen coat. It shook its head, which he understood as him trying to say that he should hold on. He buried his hands deeply into his wool coat, as Heimdall began to run towards the edge, leaping off, causing the pair to plummet downwards towards the vast blue ocean below, Zepp's screams being the only sound throughout the night. 

Just as they were about to hit the water below, the imp outstretched its bat-like wings, now with a wingspan much wider than the bun was tall, and began gliding just above the ocean. Once he composed himself, he opened his eyes, looking out at the endless expanse. The dots in the sky seemed to connect together, forming shapes. Some resembled imps, such as a sceil and impup. Others joined to create dolls in different poses, one shooting a bow, another striking down on something with a club. More formed pictures of strange creatures, though no imps he knew about had any resemblance to them. 

Further into the night they soared, through inky black skies and fluffy dark clouds, and Zepp noticed the air above him seemed to shift. Ripples of colour, faint at first, slowly becoming more prominent. First only desaturated greens and blues waves moved through the sky, before becoming much more vibrant, as trails of pinks and purples joined them. He gazed up in awe, and the imp gave a soft bleat, slowly ascending to bring them up closer, until it abruptly cut to nothingness.

“Hey, sleepyhead.” A solid tap on his shoulder startled him, and he shot upright, dizzy, with a pounding headache. Harsh, artificial lights flooded the room, and he instinctively covered his eyes, as he blinked to try adjust. It took a few seconds to fully register what was going on. The bartender was standing on the counter in front of him, hooves crossed, a rather annoyed expression on her face. 

“Shit, Lilith, sorry, how long was I out?”

“Long enough that even the boss man is cool with me waking you up. I need you out so I can lock up.”

“Sorry for holding you up, uh..” He fumbled in his pockets, pulling out whatever carats he had. The greed buns eyes lit up for a second, before she returned to her scowl. “All I've got on me, sorry, I'll talk to the boss about giving you a bonus.”

He grabbed his jacket, and stumbled towards the door, almost tripping on the steps on the way up.