At 27, she still hung to every word they said, did everything they told her to do. When she went to college she majored in business, even though she would have preferred to major in art. She lived in a suburban area, even though she'd rather live in the city itself. They told her what to eat and what wear and even what to think, and for the most part she went along with everything she wanted, even though, way down deep inside she just wanted to go out and live her life the way she wanted, but she was too afraid to go against her parents wishes. Her poor heart wouldn't be able to take it. Her only escape was through her art and her music. She had weaseled her way to making her art her 'business' and her parents didn't really seem to care all that much really. She could express her 'true' self with songs and with her work, a more free, confident self, that she could never show in the real world.
She was currently listening to one song on repeat at the moment. She called it her inner self's theme song; 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen. She loved that song, and she usually always listened to it at least once every day, more if she were working on a commission, which she was currently working on.
She slid her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose as she scratched away on her tablet, it practically moving to the fast paced beat of the song, her lips silently mouthing the words. It was getting late, and she knew that she needed to meet with her parents in the morning, so she started her usual save and shut down process. Everything was going normally, until she finally looked away from the computer screen and nearly fell out of her chair.
That...that was a floating egg, right? An eye blinding floating egg, right in her face. The song looped around for another go in her headphones, and as it started getting faster she saw that the egg was...blinking at her in the same beat. Now that couldn't be random. It was like it was telling her that she was intended for this egg...thing. Whatever it was.
She reached out and grabbed it, pulling it closer to her. It was such an odd sensation, if anything because she knew her parents would be disapproving of this, but for once, she didn't care. She would find a way to get them to accept this...whatever it was. Until then, well, they didn't have to know about it, now did they?
"Do you need to be kept warm?" she asked the egg before yawning. It was pretty late. "I don't have time to make you a nest right now, so I guess you'll be going to bed with me so I can keep you warm."
She got up from her chair, egg thing in her arms as she walked the not so far distance from her computer to her bed. She sat it gingerly on the bed before getting in herself and curling herself around it.
And then she slept.
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As Lori slept, she would dream. But not just any dream. It started off with the song, that song that had been on repeat, her 'soul's song', her heart's desire in the lyrics of rhythm and beat. And as the song played - stuck on repeat in her head - she would watch something like a drug-tripped light-show occurring in pitch black night. The vague sounds of a cheering crowd... or maybe it was the wind?
That song continued and continued to play. But there were oddities in the melody. Words that didn't belong. Weren't even English, or any language at all, really. Not one she would know. And through all of these, there was a feeling, a strong and terrible, powerful voice that was not a voice. A broken record of emotion playing in the background with only two words to say.
Through the colors swirling to the beat, and the music notes going by in a blur... through the neon and black, through the noise and the supposed crowd played the emotional sobs and sensation of a shaking hand... Help me! Help me! Help me!
As the dream drew to a climax, the colors started dancing, brighter and brighter, eye-blinding in all senses of the world. Then they spun out of existence, dissipating into formless smoke... drifting away into a black world.
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When Lori woke up, she might feel a little dizzy... a little disoriented. If she bothered to check a mirror, she'd notice why. One eye had shot bright green around the iris... and there were hot-pink streaks in her hair that weren't there before she went to bed.
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"I feel like...not good..." were the first words that Lori moaned as she awoke. What the frick was that dream supposed to be about? She heard that song of hers, but it started becoming warped as the dream progressed. She looked at the clock, and realized she had slept in a lot more then she had intended. She could have sworn she had set an alarm.
Giving the egg a quick pat, she darted off to the bathroom in a mad dash. She was supposed to meet with her parents in a half an hour and she really couldn't be late. She had just started brushing her teeth when she actually looked at the mirror.
Her toothbrush fell to the floor as her mouth stood agape. This...what was this?! She defiantly did not look like this the last time she checked. She started to shake. How was she going to explain this?!
Answer, she wasn't. After regaining some of her barrings she fumbled out of her bathroom and grabbed her cell phone. She hit the familiar speed dial and waited.
A voice spoke on the other end. "Mom? I can't meet with you and Daddy today..." Pause to listen. "Something came up for work. Big project, due really soon, nice pay..." Another pause. "I know, but you said to take work seriously..." She sighed as she listened again. "Ok, thanks for understanding. Bye"
She had bought time. She could get contacts to color her eyes back to normal. She could dye her hair back to the right boring shade of brown.
But what she needed to do was lie down. She crawled back in bed and closed her eyes, and once again, sleep found her.
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Lori would dream again... but not that night. Not the next... Three days afterward, when she went to bed, that music would start to play again... But more slowly. More softly. With more tragic emotion in it than before. The sound of the usually-jumpy song, in this format, would just about bring someone to tears.
Flashes, bits and pieces of different things... swirling through a black fog. A blank, empty stage... Lights shining on a metal surface... The roar of a crowd, and the sound of a frantic, rapid heartbeat.
Again, and again, images passed in the dream. Eyes the color of emerald, a long, black cord, faces of people Lori wouldn't recognize, a voice so silky-smooth, singing the lyrics to the song... and then blackness... darkness... a pinpoint of light shining off a metallic sliver... a rush of cold thrill... pain... pain... then relief from the pain.. Colors and lights faded and blurred... glassy green eyes staring out into a crowd, tearfully watching as it blurred and faded.
A sudden sensation of falling.. falling... falling... Darkness.
The single, solitary sound of someone sobbing. Weeping without a care as to who might hear. The kind of desperate crying that only the most wretched of individuals partake in, when there is no hope left. The dream faded with that sound.
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When Lori awoke again, likely crying, there would be something rather... unusual. Complete knowledge, as though she'd gone to school for it, of how to sing. Warble like a little lark, completely in tune, and perfectly in tempo. As if she'd been doing it her entire life. Not just singing WELL - singing perfectly. Even if she'd never been able to carry a tune in a bucket before.
With this knowledge came an intense, compelling desire to write. Songs, lyrics, poetry... anything that could be put to music.
And with these two things would come one more change. An inescapable darkness in her heart, a loneliness that no manner of texting or talking with friends could fill. A deep and powerful, unexplained REGRET for something... and a strange and all-consuming desire to perform.
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"Lori, we'd like to have a word with you." The voice was bitter and cold behind her and it made her shudder. Even with the fear rising in her, she did not move from where she was, and continued to write in her notebook. This need to make songs was so strong, but honestly, it really didn't bother her. Even her random ability to sing perfectly didn't really bother her. It was that inner loneliness that tore at her, and it intensified when that voice was heard.
"Stop that scratching and listen to me!" the voice snarled, and a perfectly manicured hand ripped the book from her hands and across the room.
Lori finally looked at her. Her mother, a cold, thin, vile creature. She was scowling at her daughter, her thin arms slowly crossing over her fake endowed chest.
"You're making the neighbors talk young miss," she began. "All my friends can talk about is your hair and how you've been acting odd..." She paused, as if waiting for Lori to say something, and her scowl intensified when Lori remained silent, her eyes fixated on the notebook across the room. "Do you think this is FUNNY? Like some sort of game?! Do you think I like being the lady with the freaky daughter?! You're making my life miserable!"
Lori was quiet for a few moment before shrugging. "You've made me miserable my whole life. I suppose it's just karma finally getting back at you..." she said rather solemnly.
"Wh...what? H...how DARE you! You're father and I have given you everything you could have ever wanted!" The elder woman's face was red with rage. Lori just shook her head.
"No, I've finally come to terms with the fact that it was everything YOU and father wanted. I never got a choice in the matter. I've come to see, it's time I do things for me, not you. I don't know WHY this all happened, but it has. I've accepted it, so it's time you start accepting as well, or get out."
Her mother stammered for a bit before storming out of her apartment. Lori just shook her head and walked over and picked up her notebook and began a new song, one about finally breaking free from the chains that held someone down for who knew how long. Maybe she'd sing it at an open mic night. She probably would have to pay for her bills someway, with how her mother was acting.
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The dream would begin again two nights after her blow-up with her parents. This dream started to get faster and faster and faster. Racing with the colors and the sound. Blowing the other dreams out of the water with the speed and the... scenery. A screaming crowd, the glare of stage-lights, the glint of a microphone in hand.
The music coming from the dream was coming from the one on stage. Shadowy, indistinct, the glare from the lights too bright. But there were some features that were sort of hard to ignore. For one - the huge fluffy tail waving back and forth. For two, the ears on top of the skull. A costume? Maybe?
The dream shifted again, to what appear to be a backstage. People rushing all over the place, colors shifting and swirling.. and a single, harsh scream. A scream that dimmed the lights, and caused the ground underneath to weave dangerously. But where had that scream come from?
Blackness descended in a wave - only the beating of a very scared heart the sole accompaniment to the slowed and softened song. It ended, with the heartbeat, quickly and quietly.
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When she awoke this time, she would feel.. very different. VERY different. It wasn't her hair... it wasn't her clothing... it wasn't her eyes - although they still had that green ring... But a quick inspection in the shower would... show exactly what was that nagging feeling...
SHE was no longer a SHE. SHE was a HE. Lori had become a Lore - and there was one guess what had caused that change to pass.
Mentally, the loneliness hadn't gone - but it hadn't gotten worse. And there was a near-paralyzing fear... of heights. Even if s-... he had never been afraid of heights in h..IS life... He'd now be terrified of falling from any height up further than a stage.
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None of the doctors could explain it. Lori...or Lore as it was now, went to every single doctor that he had ever known. Most thought he was some crazy punk who was trying to cash in on someone's name to get drugs or something, but the close family doctor he had been able to convince, seeing as it was his uncle. Many tests were run, but they all said the same thing. Lori was Lore, and she was now a he.
That of course did not sit well with her parents, and he was officially disowned from the Burnkwist fortune. It was a harsh blow for poor Lore, but his uncle promised that Lore was always welcome with his family. While Lore was grateful, it still was a huge change. A painful change.
After a bit, if anything to dull this new shock, Lore started listing why becoming a guy would have been a good thing for him. He still sorta LOOKED like a girl, just really flat chested, but he didn't have to worry about having a period anymore or getting pregnant. That was always a plus, right?
Lore was beginning to suspect the mysterious egg was to blame for these changes. He could just try and smash it, break it to bits for warping him like this, but it wasn't in him to be so destructive.
The fear of heights wasn't anything new to Lore though. He had always been terrified of heights as Lori, she never had ridden on a plane because of it, to the chargrin of her former parents. Still, it seemed like the fear was being reinforced, even being up on an elevated stage would shake him up a bit.
He was getting popular fast in the music world. Several bands had started begging him to be their singer. The guy that was a girl with the perfect voice, it was a wonderful hook.
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Shortly after Lore fell asleep about a month after the last dream, there was another. A last. The music in this one was back to normal, cheery and skippy, as if maybe... apologizing for the rest of this craziness. But this time was different. THIS time, Lore was front and center, singing alongside the mysterious furred figure from before. Only... he wasn't so mysterious.
A golden voice, although he looked strange, who sang beside Lore was good, and he knew it. He was having a great time on stage, jumping around on digitigrade legs, spinning around as he sung, and moving to the music easily. He knew the lyrics, and he sang them in the exact key and tempo they should be sung. And Lore took the stage with him.
Tail lashing all about, he finally finished the song, and turned to Lore. A HUGE grin was on his face, and he winked, curling that fluffiness around his odd leg, and offering a hand to the boy who's life he'd just made miserable.
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The dream ended there - but didn't end at all. Because as soon as Lore opened his eyes, that egg, that BLASTED egg that had caused all of this, exploded in a shower of musical-notes and applause. Standing there, singing his little heart out with a miniature mic, was the cat-boy from his dream. As soon as the song was done, he turned to Lore and bowed low, ear flicking.
"ALRIIIIGHT! We're gonna rock this house DOWN, Asi'kai! ALSIR IN THE HOUZE!"
