Dream Job
Dream Job
A 7'8" amalgamation of wolf and bear rises with a yawn from a bamboo bed and goes to relieve himself in a waterfall coming out of a crazy Tiki statue's mouth as he takes off his black silk boxers and takes an invigorating cold shower. He steps out and admires himself in a mirror. Beyond the mirror is an overweight human with dark hair and a red beard.
"Sleep well, my dreamer," the lupursyn says lovingly to the image of the human as the mirror becomes a full length mirror once more. "And hello to you, Kodyax, you handsome devil of a lupursyn you!" He smirks and admires himself in the mirror. "I have black fur today, and red hair and gray eyes, the boy must thinking Goth again." Then tattoo patterns come into view. "A green tree of life over my heart, blood roses on the backs of my palms complete with tribal thorny vines in green up and down both arms, yup, he's dreaming me in Goth mode again the only things that are missing are, and here they come blood lightning bolts up and down my legs. Well at least he does seem to be through his tiger striping phase..." Orange tiger stripes appear on his face and torso with rings on his wolf like tail including the tip. "I had to say something. Ah well, let's see what he's got for me to wear today." Kodyax walks to a closet and shakes his head at what he sees. "Oh good fucking grief! Really, Mike? Red lacquered leather bracers and greaves with a kilt and hooded cloak to match? Gimme a break, looks like he got Celtic Eire on his mind as well. Well at least there are some nice black rucksacks on the belt weaving through the kilt. Now what kind of a weapon am I wielding today?" Kodyax takes out an Oriental style weapon with twin crescent moon blades mounted before a nasty looking spear point. "Chinese halberd, still grooving to that Asian vibe I see. Ah well, time to get to work."
Kodyax walks out his home in the shape of a Tiki and hops on stone circles to navigate his way past a lake of lava. When he gets to the edge it's a gravel pit slide to a scale model of the Twin Towers before they were destroyed in New York. After climbing to the roof he waves his halberd at a flying saucer that comes over and beams him aboard.
Inside the saucer a scarecrow with a frighteningly carved Jack O' Lantern for a head dressed as a circus ringmaster is the pilot with various other furry humanoids sitting in chairs in various places, just floating in space included. Kodyax greets the pilot and gets a friendly wave of his wooden hand in return. As he takes a seat on a bench a pink bunny with designs through her fur approaches him.
"Hey, Kody!" Miss Bunny cries out as she gets closer. "Your dreamer is thinking Goth tonight, huh?"
"Yeah, Lorelei," Kodyax says to a frequent fuck buddy as she kneels before him. "What is on your mind? Or should I guess for such a prominent member of the Hedonist Association?"
"You sound as if you mind?" Lorelei puts mockingly.
"Not necessarily but I'd love it our dreamers would do something like this before we wake up." Kodyax states.
"Little chance of that," Lorelei says as she reaches under his kilt, "The Dreamlands are like the internet before there was an internet, and in some cases is still better in some ways."
"Yeah, but usually the gender you r avatar is, is the gender of the avatar," Kodyax says as Lorelei puts her head beneath his kilt. "Not quite up to your cum quota tonight?" He just gets a giggle from the nude bunny. "You are as talented as ever, Lore," Kodyax groans as she gives him head beneath the kilt.
Kodyax is getting ready to climax when the pilot announces they are approaching the junction for the Doom-Cell Express. Lorelei quickly swallows Kody's cum as he gets ready to disembark as the flying saucer approaches train tracks on mesas near a cliff wall city with a steam engine like those seen in countless Wild West movies bearing down on the track fast. The engineer is a robot in the classic style of the Atomic Age who signals to the saucer by playing Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" on the engine's whistle.
The saucer beams Kodyax aboard the train the inside of the car looks like something out of an 80s cyberpunk cartoon. A snow white vixen with pink hair and pink tribal tattoos up and down her body floats naked in a tube of glass but slowly opens her eyes of deepest blue as Kodyax approaches. Kodyax punches in a code and frees the vixen as skin tight black leather forms provocative armor over her body.
"I was wondering when you'd get here, Kody," the vixen coos.
"I just woke up not too long ago, Aurora," Kodyax admits.
"High time you did, son!" A drill sergeant like voice calls out from behind the as a speaker on mechanical spider legs with a video camera attached walks its way into the room.
"Hello, Mecha-Mind," Kodyax says with a smirk as Aurora giggles behind him, "Thank you for completing my morning routine."
"Always with the wisecracks!" Mecha-Mind thunders at full volume as Aurora sneak behind him. "WE COULD GET A LOT MORE DONE IF YOU COULD A MORE CIVIL TONGUE in your head." He pauses after Aurora turns his volume way down so he can't speak louder than a normal conversation. "Hey! Who turned my volume down?"
"Well, that a a more civil volume," Kody quips. "Any crises pop up that threatens the integrity of the Dream World before I got here?"
"Nazi Pope Benny Kick and his Nightmare Council are making threatens again, nothing the rest of s are taking seriously but still it's something to keep an eye on." Mecha-Mind reports. "We have a couple of dreamscapes darkening but we haven't determined yet if those are cause for alarm."
"What site?" Kodyax asks. "I can determine the likelihood of an Obelisk if I'm been there before."
"And there aren't many sites you haven't been to at least once." Aurora chimes in.
"Blood Cove, Tiki Archipelago, Nocturnal Matrix, I know the Cyberpunk dreamscape is almost always dark but it seems like a different kind now," Mecha-Mind states as he rattles off the names of different areas of the Dream World. "Bloody Storm Cloud, Clockwork City, Sanguine Circus and Hedge Maze Harvest Zone all have shadows over them that look like undue influence from the Nightmare Council."
"Those last two are in league with the Nightmare Council, Mecha-Mind," Kodyax states with a shake of his head. "I'm surprised Cemetery City isn't on that list."
"That one got renamed, Kody," Aurora says, "It's Necropolis now. And it's the seat of the Nightmare Council."
"Neither the Circus nor the Hedge Maze have been completely been corrupted yet, Kody," Mecha-Mind cautions. "Even though both have more than their share of psychos, Avatars still play there."
"Whether they are awakened or not," Aurora says with a sigh. "And we've both been to each place at least once. Although Kody isn't exactly dressed for Clockwork City."
"Maybe tomorrow night, my dreamer will be in Steampunk mode," Kody jokes.
"And Nocturnal Matrix is a cyberpunk area," Aurora says with a smirk. "You'd fit right in with most of the folks in Tiki. But the only ways to get there is either through a Dream Gate or through the pirate dreams."
"Blood Cove is the better route on that though," Kodyax says firmly. "Bloody Storm Cloud is airship pirates; they play best with Clockwork City."
"Right, setting a course for Hedge Maze Harvest Zone," Mecha-Mind states and then orders: "Use the Stonehenge in the center to gate over to the archipelago."
"What's the season over there now, Mecha-Mind?" Kodyax asks. "Summer or fall?"
"Autumn," Mecha-Mind replies. "Specifically Halloween."
"Oh, great!" Aurora and Kodyax shout as one.
Halloween dreams can be especially hazardous and confusing to Doom-Cell agents like Aurora and Kodyax. On the good side, no matter how their dressed nobody will give them a second look because they'll assume it's a costume. On the bad side, it means that just because a fur looks like someone from a slasher film it won't mean they're an agent of the Nightmare Council, they might just be somebody's Avatar in a trick or treat dream.
The Nightmare Council is what is know in the Dream World as a guild of awakened avatars for the most part but also has creatures of pure terror, nightmares, in their ranks. It is the goal of the Council to spread fear and strife all over the place so all the waking world ever dreams are nightmares. Dying in a dream is not necessarily fatal to the dreamer but it does cause disruptions in people's sleep patterns and prevents meaningful development of dreamers and their dreams which add to the beauty and majesty of the Dream World.
The Doom Cell Guild is a guardian guild one of a few whose members work to protect innocent dreamers from excessive strife. Doom Cells recognize that some strife can be a dreamers way of working out problems that plague them in the waking world but the reality the Nightmare Council wants to institute would prevent people from sleeping to avoid being plagues by bad dreams night after night after night. For this reason alone the Doom Cell Guild and the Nightmare Council are constantly fighting.
Dark Obelisks are a set of artifacts the Nightmare Council set up in a given public dream as part of their take over bid in a given dreamscape. It amplifies the fears of all avatars, the conciseness or soul of a given dreamer, The Congress of Awakened Avatars, the closest thing the Dream World has to a governing body with all guilds sending members to debate other guilds on what rules they should all obey for the good of all, has banned their use as something that could ultimate destroy individual dreams and could rend the Dream World as a whole.
The train pulls into the station that looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. In fact the whole dream is in much the same manner in terms of its over all feel. Night is the time of the day with a huge full moon over head and Jack-O'-Lanterns all over the place with carved face ranging from blissfully ignorant and happy to downright sinister in their demeanor.
Idealism is all over the place as everyone is in costume. Kodyax with his attire and openly carrying a weapon goes unchallenged as Aurora steps out of the train behind him dressed like a Gothic country sorceress, somewhere between a traditional Hollywood witch and what certain role playing companies have been portraying that profession. As a way of fitting in, Aurora's staff has a jack-o'-lantern as its finial which in turn amuses and annoys Kodyax.
A jack-o'-lantern headed scarecrow lumber past them, pausing to look at them before the flames in its head gourd flares for a moment before it goes on its way. Kodyax notes that its claws are currently dripping what appears to be blood, which is a clue that this fairy tale scarecrow could be a nightmare. Aurora conjures a bat made of shadow stuff and has it follow the scarecrow as Kodyax traces the trail of blood back to the poor avatar that thing attacked earlier.
It doesn't take long to follow the blood trail to a dying lion cub in a Freddy costume unconscious from his wounds. Kodyax prays over the child and heals his wounds by channeling the Divine power of Nature as he casts a spell over the boy. He wakes up as the spell saves his life and although he is very weak, he thanks the ranger before fading from view indicating his dreamer has safely woken up.
The shadow bat Aurora conjured up comes back to them as the scarecrow is returning with an angry expression on its pumpkin face.
"Who dares impede the will of the Nightmare Council!?!" The scarecrow rumbles angrily. "The cub was a sacrifice for the dark ones. His rescuers shall feed the hungry darkness with their souls instead!"
"Kodyax and Aurora of the Doom Cell Guild have dared, monster," Kodyax growls back and lowers the spike of his halberd in challenge.
"Doom Cell?" The scarecrow asks incredulously. "How did you get here so fast? It's too soon! Too soon!"
After speaking its astonished reply the scarecrow moves to attack them. What it only realizes too late is that Kodyax is an experience horror hunter and he dispatches the creature quickly and easily. Aurora uses her magic to dump water on the fiery remains before it catches the dry tinder of the hedge maze and sets it ablaze.
"I take it we're staying here for a bit?" Aurora asks facetiously
"Looks like it," Kodyax admits. "I want to make sure the Nightmare Council's influence is kept to a minimum. Just keep your eyes out for White Skelton; I really don't want to run into him tonight."
A black robed skeletal wizard dances in pumpkin patch singing along with the Insane Clown Posse as axes of pure purple energy orbit his head like planets around their star. He sees a pyre rise and fall suddenly not far from the patch he is meandering through. Several species young and old are already bleeding and dying in the patch when he sees the pyre and starts over there.
What the necromancer finds is the remains of a scarecrow he created to kill dreamers and generally cause mayhem. It angers him that his creation could be destroyed so easily as evidenced by there not being much blood on the golem's claws. But the victors of the fight are nowhere to be seen.
Kodyax and Aurora as meandering around the maze proper when they come out of the maze of hedges into a cornfield that is just a confusing to navigate than the main area they just left. But one structure grabs their attention as being odd as there is a look out tower looming in the distance where there really shouldn't be. The sounds of chainsaws start to drift on the wind along with the screams of the dying and those just plain scared out of their minds.
Frankenstein effigies of mismatched body parts sewn together in a semblance of thinking being but with chainsaws grafted to where their hands should be shamble around chasing folks left and through the cornfield with hockey masks where their faces should be. The bodies of men, women and children of various species litter the fields, bleeding from their wounds, including more than a few decapitations. Aurora dances and chants a spell to change the weather in the dream as the skies become overcast as a prelude to the clouds getting gutted themselves and dumping of gallons of water on the area in a summer storm.
Visibility is quite naturally poor under such conditions but the mud slows down the monsters stalking the cornfields as bolts of lighting come down in random places for the most part unless Aurora and Kodyax come upon Jason Frankenstein and his clones. Lightning strikes the golem at Aurora's command as Kodyax eviscerates them with his halberd. White Skelton stalks the stalkers as they take out the minions he created and unleashed on the dream.
Aurora and Kodyax both are and are not surprised by what they see when they find the watch tower. It is made of blackened oak as scaffolding around an obsidian obelisk core. Lightning strikes the tower at the witch-sorceress's command as White Skelton emerges from the cornfield and glares at the pair. The energy axes become a scythe that he holds in his bony hands.
"Kodyax and Aurora of the Doom Cell Guild," White Skelton growls. "I might have known you two do-gooders would stumble onto my scheme."
"How did I know you skulking about, Skelton?" Kodyax growls at the necromancer as his weapon changes from a halberd to a tetsubo. "I wonder if the obelisk is active yet?" He swings his tetsubo and hits the structure at full force causing to rumble as White Skelton has to lean on his scythe for support.
"Skelton is already drawing strength from the structure," Aurora observes. "I would say it's probably active, hun."
"Do you have any idea how long it took to construct that?" Skelton growls. "I'll kill you for this." He has to jump back to avoid getting struck by lightning. "Can't face me yourself, Kody? You have to send your bitch to fight me for you?"
"We know better, Skelton," Aurora charges back snidely. "As long as that obelisk is up it will be near impossible to kill you." The tower and its obelisk begins to crack under the strain of his assault. "We know the game far too well at this point."
"Destroy the obelisk and you are defeated," Kodyax yells back as he keeps hammering away at the obelisk. "Besides, you know as well as we do, this thing is illegal. I'm just doing my civic duty."
"Which is why I simply cannot allow you destroy my soul silo," Skelton growls before chanting a spell that causes human skeletons the size of the titans to rise out of the ground. "I'm still powerful enough to do this at least."
"Impressive," Aurora says fearfully.
"And fully dedicated to our cause," White Skelton boasts.
"Thanks, Skelton, it would have taken forever my way," Kodyax beams and climbs up a skeleton, batting hands away with his tetsubo in places. "Now to get this skeleton to head butt your tower." Kodyax brings that huge club down on the skull of the giant to dislodge it in such a way that it falls on the obelisk and puts a great big dent in it. "That's what I'm talking about!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Skelton yells. "You can't do this! All my work; ruined!"
"I get it!" Aurora yells and chants a spell that has the earth form a huge wall in front of another skeleton, not to impede it but to trip it so impales its skull on the tower. "Use the skeletal titans to help topple the tower!"
The efforts of the giant skeleton to free itself causes the obelisk to crumble which causes them to fall into great piles of bones around the remains of the structure.
"You've won this round, Doom Cells!" White Skelton glowers at them as he begins to fade away. "But the war rages on! We are entropy; you cannot stave us off forever!"
"Don't be too sure about that, White Skelton!" Kodyax growls defiantly. "We will defend our home till the end of time and beyond."
The trip to the Stonehenge is uneventful and once they arrive they manage to figure out how to make the jump from the dream they are in to the dream they want to go to. Passing through the dream gate is an instantaneous affair and immediately after there is a difference that can be felt as the chill of autumn gives way to the heat of the tropics. Wafting through the air is the smell of rain as if the islands were experiencing the monsoon or rainy season.
Aurora and Kodyax find themselves in a sea cave, the doorway behind them carved into the back of the cave and a host of carved stone pillars in Tiki fashion. Sea shells of various types litter the cave floor which will activate the gate behind them when placed in the right configuration of the mouth of the Tikis. The pair smirk at each other and start to wade in the water when a presence nearby causes them to pause.
Kodyax dives beneath the waters and sees an ammonite of great size swimming near them. A huge ammonite alone is nothing to be alarmed at, these are the Dreamlands and many a paleontologist has dreamed on the creatures of the past and what they might have looked and acted like, but there is a gleam in its eye that bespeaks of a malign intelligence far beyond the simple pre-historic animal it portends to be. Most animals tend to ignore avatars in a given dreamscape unless they play a part in a given dream so the fact that this ammonite is hanging around as to watch this sea cave is rather suspicious and when it shows the side of its spiral shell to Kodyax, he sees the yellow sign which chills him to the bone.
It glitters, the yellow sign, in the near light of this undersea landscape which alone disturbs the lupursyn and the significance of the sign is another matter entirely. The sign is an emblem of one of the dark ones which means something around here has attracted their attention and that is never good. Kodyax's weapon has gone changed to a battle ready trident which he is very thankful for as he swims forth to challenge the monster.
The monstrous ammonite charges him in the water but Kodyax just sets himself to accept the charge with his trident and waits. The ammonite impales itself on the tines of the trident just as Kody expect but then the yellow sign on its shell starts to spin. The ranger ignores the effect and drives the trident deeper into the monster's flesh.
After Kodyax kills the monster in question it fades away as if it never existed in the first place with a necklace of pearl and gold inlay floating where it once floated. Kodyax takes but does not don the treasure as he knows it is cursed without even looking at it. Aurora is right behind him when they finally reach the shore.
"Alright, what the freak just happened?" Aurora asks.
"We ran into a lesser servitor of the dark ones," Kodyax replies. "Not a good indication of what we may find here. Although it may help to confirm the fact that the Nightmare Council is in league with the dark ones as a whole, White Skelton not withstanding."
"Isn't there speculation that this is the case with them?" Aurora asks.
"There's speculation on a lot of things," Kodyax answers. "The idea that they are fronting for the dark ones is just one line of thought regarding their actions and motivations. It explains a lot about them but not everything."
"What will it take for you to fully admit that at least some members of the Nightmare Council are cultists of the dark ones?" Aurora inquires incredulously. "Seeing them try to sacrifice an innocent to them?"
"I wouldn't go that far but I'm not fully convinced the whole Council is involved," Kodyax responds. "A good number of them? I can believe that, but every single awakened avatar within the guild is a bit of a stretch, even for them."
"Yeah, they can be a fractured lot I'll grant you," Aurora accedes. "But you do agree that at least some of them are involved in the cult."
"Absolutely," Kodyax says and then stops and whispers: "Hide!"
They both conceal themselves as clouded leopard amazons dressed up like true hula girls, which is to say grass skirt but not the coconut bra, pass by them with spears in hand. Their eyes look rather glazed over as if they were in some kind of trance with a mark like the yellow sign on their foreheads. The lupursyn just sighs and picks up a coconut that just so happens to be by his feet and tosses it at one of the two amazons after they go past him.
His aim is true and gets a knock out hit with his first toss but this unfortunately alerts her sister who looks around to see where to throw her spear. Aurora hits the other one with a sleep spell and she collapses to the jungle floor. Kodyax and Aurora work together to remove the sign from the foreheads of the lady leopards to free them of the evil influence of the dark ones.
When the girls come to they are grateful for having the fog that had descended on their minds lifted. In fact they are so grateful Kodyax finds them under his kilt almost as soon as they awaken. Aurora giggles as she just watches her lover get double teamed as she masturbates and watches.
Aurora encourages one of the amazons to attend her as Kodyax pounds the pussy of the other kitty. The two females play and as they play, the vixen learns that several Tiki idols have been defaced and an obsidian obelisk appeared on their island last week and has been affecting everyone in such a way that has been frightening everyone until the mind fog sickness turns them into cannibals. It takes everything she can think of to convince Kody to finish fucking the amazon he is playing with before going off to destroy the obelisk and as much as they both want a load of his semen in them the clouded leopard amazons are very willing to show the ranger where the obelisk is so he can destroy it.
Maya and Azteka warn Kodyax of the tree demons that guard the obelisk but their description of a ten armed green octopus with an evil face only serve to anger him greater and when they ask Aurora all they get is that they know the monster and the fact that Kodyax is dedicated to utterly destroying such demons. The amazons look at each other in wonder when they hear this and start to wish they were canine instead of feline so they could more easily breed with the ranger. One of the three decapuses descends from the trees and tries to attack them but Kodyax's weapon is back to being a moon blade halberd and he charges the yelling an oath of its destruction.
Kodyax howls a spell at the thing that causes it to be very afraid of the ranger as the tattoos on his body light up like a Christmas tree. Aurora generates lightning from her staff to help cook the thing as Kodyax chops mercilessly at it. The decapus flails its arms at the ranger but its attacks do little to him except make him angrier.
It tries to retreat when the thought it could be killed dawns on the monster but Kodyax is not about to let it go that easily. He hacks of its limbs that it is using to climb the trees as it tries to cast a spell at him. Behind him, Aurora casts a counter spell to protect Kody and the two cancel each other out.
Once the decapus is no more, Kodyax defecates on its corpse, primarily to show his contempt for the abomination that it is than anything else. When the second decapus shows up, it refuses to leave the jungle canopy forcing Kodyax to come to it. Upon reaching a platform near the thing, Kodyax conveniently finds a quiver of arrows a compound bow for him to use as the decapus starts hurling coconuts and insults at him.
"A ranger, huh?" The decapus challenges. "I finally get a challenge instead of those worthless primitives."
"Yeah, I'm a ranger," Kodyax confirms. "I'm sort of specialized in taking down things like you."
"Good, it's been ages since my existence was properly challenged," it boasts until Kodyax puts an arrow between its almost human like eyes on its face. "Ouch! You weren't kidding. Damn, I could actually get killed by this idiot!"
"I have you now!" Kodyax yells as he swings above the thing and drops down on it with the point of his halberd leading the way.
"Curse of Dark Ones upon you!" It breathes as Kodyax cuts away the limbs holding it aloft.
"I exist to keep them out of the dreamlands, abomination!" Kodyax growls as he rides the decapus down to the forest floor and after he hacks it to death. "Two down, one to go!"
Kodyax is actually disappointed when he finds the obelisk before he finds the last decapus but with a shrug of his shoulders he wraps a pair of cestuses around his hands and starts to pound away on the obelisk in an effort to destroy it. A substantial crater has formed on the one side of the obelisk by the time the decapus arrives to defend the artifact of evil. Both amazons throw their spears to try and keep it at bay as Aurora targets it with a juiced up version of a basic spell to buy Kodyax more time but in the end Kodyax bashes the obelisk in such a way that it topples on top of the decapus and crushes it as a kind of final insult.
Back at the amazon village a feast is held in Kody's honor as they make calamari out of the monsters he just killed. Kodyax eats heartily as practically every girl in the village offers herself as a companion for the night. Aurora is actually annoyed that Kodyax gets to sleep with a bevy of cat girls while she is left to her own devices but then she remembers that there's always tomorrow night.