[ Anne's Dream Realm - A few minutes before. ]
Dreams are fickle thing.
"M... Lin."
'Who...?'
For one British artist, it's an expression.
"Miss Lin!"
Mary inhales, blinking twice as her pupils adjust to a workshop full of oak. Seated to a stool, her mind whirls with a thin brush lingering within her right hand. On her left, her thumb locks a palette filled with basic colors that were gleaming, ready to make a mark. Such strokes would lie on the stretch of white before her.
"I do hope your art is as good as your sitting nap, Miss Lin."
A few chuckles erupt. Stiffening for a moment, Mary turns to the stern voice before her eyes widen further. Her vision expands to a ring of students that she's a part of, including one messy black-haired professor standing in the center. With similar easels and canvases by their side, their attention digs sharply as they mark the odd one out.
While that would be expected, "odd" doesn't seem to paint her nearly as well in this situation. That's because...
'Who are these faceless background characters!?' she thinks, her hair rising.
Indeed, Mary stares blankly at the assortment of placeholder men and women judging her, their eyes shadowed mysteriously behind simple hairstyles and plain attires. No matter how many she observes, she can't seem to perceive their gazes. A cough ropes her to the center where the professor adjusts his glasses. Despite the spectacles, the underlying eyes are also hidden.
"Do you find this lesson boring, Miss Lin?" he asks flatly.
Mary mouth opens silently for a moment before shutting. 'I'm... back in school?'
She thins her lips with a hum, glancing around again. Before the sudden change in scenery, she recalls being flooded by Anne and Viviane as they all attempted to join together. Although she didn't mean to fall asleep immediately, perhaps the stimulation was so great that it couldn't be helped.
"Um..." she raises her hand thoughtfully.
"Yes?" the instructor follows, crossing his arms.
Mary lowers her hand, then squints. "What's wrong with all of your faces?"
"..."
It was a thoughtful question.
The instructor huffs, his lips bending. "That's hardly appropriate, Miss Lin. I'm giving you a warning, so let's not get sidetracked. Now, speaking of faces, that's precisely what we're going to be talking about."
As he goes on his lecture about the human features, one that appears to be lacking credibility in this space, Mary draws to her hand holding the brush. She lifts an index finger, and sure enough, she's able to will a small appendage of blue slime from her skin.
'Okay, I'm not going crazy. So then, this place is definitely from my memories, but... not exactly?' She cocks her head. 'Am I in my own dream space or something? No... wouldn't that be the forest?'
Either way, she can't be leisurely painting like nothing is wrong. If she and the others connected, they must be around somewhere.
'Oh, wait! Daniel might be here as well!'
This would be the school they first met.
About to shift her weight to search, a shadow looms over her instead with an irritated sigh. The room has gone quiet as the instructor stands over, his glasses flaring. "You seem to be facing some trouble, Miss Lin? Care to share why you're so distracted?"
Ah..." Mary holds for a second before her brows furrow. She snaps up, grabbing the canvas with a growl. "Look here, I don't need to hear a stupid teacher voice in my dreams, mister I-don't-remember. Mind your face with this!"
CRACK!
"Ack!?"
The class gasps as Mary slams the board against the instructor's head, tearing it through before he can react. He stumbles back, falling to the circular stage with a yelp.
Mary grins, lifting her chin. "Hehehe, now that's a work of art! I hope you can accept my submission of your faceless face, mister. Peace out!"
She dashes away while the mysterious dream crowd lies stunned. A tiny part of her wonders if she made an error being bold and abusive, but she shakes away such bland thoughts. Dream or not, there's no way she's going to sit around and listen to contemporary instructors again.
However, creativity doesn't always go as planned.
Busting her way through the only door in hopes of reaching someone with a proper face, the reality of the dream space dims. Her breath stalls, her steps giving way to a familiar cloud of gray instead of a hallway. Suddenly, any warmth is lost as she nearly trips forward in her attempts to reverse.
She's in a fog again.
"Fuck." Her lips rise crookedly. After a few seconds of standing idly, she twists back, half-expecting to see something to prove her class attendance. Somewhat surprisingly, a building is etched behind her, barely visible within the clouds.
It also seemed... run down?
'What the heck is this?!' Straightening, Mary looks to the sides, catching silhouettes of buildings spreading around her.
'A city?'
It looks less than a city, but Mary can't focus on the details of broken windows, bricks, and concrete. She tries to cling to something that she might recognize to gather her whereabouts.
Then, she lifts her head to the sky.
Between the towering shapes, her pupils expand to the magical tear spills symbols above.
"No way... W-we're in Anne's domain?!"
It certainly has changed.
Staring dumbfounded, she shakes her head out of it. "Get it together. I mean, we had to end up in one of our domains, right? Why is everything so different? Did something change after they met Merlin in that bubble?"
Whoooo...
The uncertain movements of fog chills further questions. She drags her hands down her face. "Ugh, why am I alone? Hello?!"
Only her voice bounces back.
"Fuck," she repeats, shutting her eyes. From the collective memories, she understands the last time Anne and Daniel were searching for her, but it was without knowing she was in a separate domain.
"Uuuuu... and now I'm here." Opening her eyes, she looks around once more. "They must be searching for me, so I shouldn't roam too far, but... ugh, if it's like this, I may as well wait inside."
The canvas-lined instructor and his students might be a little off and pissed, but she'd welcome that compared to standing around in this spooky city.
Thus, she turns back to the building she exited. Although she doesn't remember the exact layout of her school, a lone workshop leading into downtown directly was definitely not it. Granted, questioning the layout of anything in this space would be a waste of time.
Stepping to the front, though, she can't help notice the rusty metal door and cracked bricks. The entire city seemed quite degraded from what little she can see through the mist. Nonetheless, she swallows down the twisting feeling in her gut, and pushes through.
"H-hey, instructor? Yeah, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Do you think we could—"
Crick!
As the door shuts behind with a creak, the loud groan of the wooden floor makes her flinch. She hitches as her eyes follow straight, a long breath escaping from her mouth.
"Oh."
Surprisingly, the workshop exists despite the abrupt change in setting.
Time has escaped, however.
The workshop is dark, ceiling lights broken, but Mary can make out cracked easels, torn wooden platforms, and moldy walls that weren't there before. More than that, her lack of breath holds to the ring of students, and a crashed center-piece that now lie as piles of dust.
The floor creaks to her steps as she pushes forward, noting her canvas that she broke through the instructor's head. In his place is more dust and a set of broken glasses within.
'How did these guys get vaporized? No, no, let's not worry about that.' Straightening, her lip curl as she scans around. 'I'm not sure if it's any better here. Actually, this sort of reminds me of a movie scene... what was it?'
Before she can jog her brain, a creak cuts from behind.
Her shoulders jerk up. Before she might turn, a hand plants itself, twisting in a whip. All she can see is dark shadow towering above.
She screams, her voice flying like a bird, and louder than ever before.
...
..
.
VROOOO!
Further away, a different scream pierces through cleaner air. Anne presses the gas of a light blue sedan, easily sliding across the grassy plains of the land. Her eyes glimmer at the familiar dashboard, watching the speed dial of a car sold long ago.
Yet, it's here, along with their old home.
"I can't believe this is real and working! Oh... my baby is alive!"
In the backseat, Viviane furrows her brows. "But it's—"
"Let's not break her immersion," Daniel urges from the passenger side. He smiles a little as he looks at his driving slime mother, overlapping Amy's image. He can recall his mom's excitement when she got her first car, something of which remained to drive him home from school.
It was too much for him to drive, however.
His eyes trace bitterly for a moment before facing the front to see their watery destination grow bigger.
He hums. "Is it wise to check Mary's lake instead of heading straight to foggy city?"
"If everything from that movie has manifested within my fog, we'll have even worse time finding her," Viviane reasons. "Besides, we're all here and connected. It's worth seeing if our lakes can show her perspective in real time like it does with your mom."
"I guess."
"It won't take long, sweetie," Anne chirps, tapping the wheel. "Mary will be fine, I'm sure."
Daniel sighs. "Let's not raise a flag, mom."
Flag or not, they arrive at lakes within a few minutes. Ignoring the two new lakes nearby that Daniel assumes to represent Rose and Marlin's memories, he steps out and hurries to the shore of Mary's lake.
Viviane trails behind first. "I hope my theory is right."
"Me too," Daniel follows. His brows knit as he focuses on his girlfriend, probably freaking out within the fog. If it's anything like he remembered for Anne, it didn't take much to see what she was doing outside.
But, inside?
The sounds of the engine increased.
Viviane frowns and turns to Anne. "It's hard to hear. Can you shut off the car?"
Anne cocks her head. "I...did?"
The elder slime widens her eyes. Past her slime sister, the car does seem to be off, aside from the headlights being left on for them to see better.
"No, it's coming from Mary's view!" Daniel alerts. The two slime mothers moved in closer to their son, watching the lake glow as a image form with rippled depth.
"I was certain we heard something."
"Kader, let's just get going. Boss is going to be furious if we're late."
"Yeah, yeah, shut your pipe hole, I'm coming."
Daniel's brows rise.
Kader?
"Sounds familiar. Isn't that one of the henchmen in the movie?" Anne asks.
"Oh, I think you're right!" Daniel can't be too happy. His counterpart's perspective is much too dark to make out anything, but it sounds like Mary might be hiding.
"Mmmph..."
"Not yet. Keep quiet for a little longer."
Two different noise confirms Daniel's thought. He breathes out, recognizing the first whimper as Mary, but the second male and whispered tone is unknown.
"That voice..."
Except for Viviane, perhaps.
Anne and Daniel snap to the elder slime, whose silver gaze glimmers with familiarity as she stares at the waters. Before they can ask, Mary sharp inhale pulls their attention back to the image.
"W-who are you?!" Mary is heard whispering back.
"That's not important, lady. I don't know how you found yourself in Glador's territory, but we need to get you out of here."
Hearing more of the man, Daniel finds he has a little of an English accent like Mary. Within the movie, there were a few with that, though.
"Glador?" Anne holds steadily. "That's the... main villain of the movie that was chasing to find that temporal device, right?"
Daniel shakes his head. "Maybe, but I remember there were multiple warlords fighting over the city. Either way, we have some lead to where she is right now. If the movie characters from our memories have manifested into these dream just like mom did, that's trouble."
They watch for a little longer, enough to see Mary pull out of a dusty closet. A dim and broken workshop lies spread from her view, one that sinks Daniel's stomach. He blinks a few times, shaking his head. "No way... Is that... That's one of my classrooms in university!"
Anne leans forward. "Huh? You're right, but that's from your memories. Why is it there?"
"Why is anything here?"
The dream space only grows deeper, but they hold themselves as the man helping Mary pulls into view. Sadly, they don't get much of the helper, entering with a motorcycle helmet, his body covered with a dark jacket with a blue ribbon wrapped around the arm.
'Oh, the ribbon!'
Daniel's shoulders relax. Without another word, he pulls away, breaking the image from focus and letting it dissolve into the water.
"What—Hey!" Anne growls. She snaps to her son. "We could have gotten more information if we kept watching."
"It won't help us find her within the fog, especially if everything we know is a jumbled mess in there. More importantly, I'm pretty sure Mary is with the... what was it, the Resistance, I think?"
"Ah." Anne freezes briefly before frowning. "Things sure are coming back to you, huh."
"Well, it would help if you channel less of Amy, and actually remember the plot details."
"I'm trying! It clearly wasn't a good movie if our own memories on it is...ahem, foggy."
"Point is, I'm more positive she's with the good guys... or better guys," Daniel maintains. He turns to Viviane, softening. "Mother, do you know who she's with?"
Viviane lowers her gaze, trying to cling to this recognition within her collective memories. After a bit, she shakes her head. "No, it's not coming to me."
Her silver orbs rise fiercely. "But, if I'm the only feeling strange about that man, there might be more than theater here for me."
Anne and Daniel blink, and glance at each other.
"That's not ominous at all."
"Mama thinks Viviane is raising flags now."
"Urgh... Hey, can we just go?" Viviane huffs. Her arm extends out, snatching the key from Anne's hand.
"Ah, noooo!" Anne wails, reaching out as her elder sister retracts.
Viviane grins, dangles the keys. "Also, I'll be driving this time."