Ok so in my dream last night I was being tormented by Bannister (Our D&D game's BBEG). Details are fuzzy and I'm hoping that writing will allow me to work out details here. I remember being at my grandparents house on my dads side. Just one of those very old run down neighborhoods where all the grass outside is patchy and yellow and it hurts to walk on. There were thick brambles and weeds and I remember at one point I stepped on them and hurt myself pretty badly. I was at this house searching for signs of Bannister because, duh, our whole goal for the past 54 sessions has been to get rid of him and this was seemingly my chance.

It's not clear who I was in this dream exactly, but I did have several powers. Like most my dreams I was able to fly, although this time in order to fly I had to shapeshift into Halcyon which was kind of strange but whatever. I also had the ability to turn invisible and like pause time temporarily? Not really sure what this was, all I know was that there were times I could move and do stuff and no one else could. Lastly I had this bag of holding, but unlike a normal bag of holding that's devoid of oxygen this one was basically its own demiplane. When I went inside of it I was in this room FULL of stuff I had collected over my adventures. It was a weird circular shaped room with branching ladders on several sides that lead to more circular shaped rooms. Think club penguin igloos almost. No sharp corners, just rounded edges galore. My bed was in a small alcove and I remember there were fairy lights and shiny purple trinkets absolutely everywhere. It looked like a room on the set of one of those old nickelodeon shows like Icarly or Victorius where it's way overly populated with random stuff.

So on to the dream itself. I was with my dad and various other random people and we were visiting my grandparents. While here I somehow caught wind of Bannister. Actually I'm pretty sure I saw him sitting on top of a local school. The school had this massive bell on the top and he was sitting on top of the bell. It was a blink and you'll miss it type deal because when I did a double take to confirm he had disappeared. But with the knowledge he was in the area I had my guard up.

Not surprisingly, when we got to my grandparents house it came out that we had all been invited to this gala/dinner party type event at a local high society type hotel. The family was all very excited about this because, hey, we don't visit often and what better way to spend time together? I was the only one cued in to what was going on. I desperetly tried to get them to stay home but to no avail. They were hellbent on going to this event so I had no choice but to play it out.

The hotel I remember being very elaborate. Red carpets and chessboard patterned linoleum. Fancy golden mirrors and decorations and whatnot. The feet of tables and chairs and pretty much anything with feet had those ornate lion's paw style feet. It was all very strange. We were taken to the dining room where circular tables draped in nice white tableclothes were scattered everywhere. The room itself was symmetrical but none of the decorations were in the slightest. My family took a seat on the bottom area of the dining hall, but there was a pseudo second floor to it. I remember as we were eating I used my time pause ability to wander around the dining area and scope things out. Everything seemed to be in order for the most part until I ran into a SUPER old friend of mine that I lost contact with years ago. For the sake of anonymity I'll call her Skittles because that was her fursona's name at the time.

I had not seen Skittles in YEARS and because I don't really have friends I can hangout with IRL I immediately dropped my ability so we could talk. It was just like old times. We talked about drawing and our characters and blah blah blah. She asked me what I was doing here and I explained that I was here looking for Bannister. She... Somehow knew who I was talking about and she told me she'd help me look. So the two of us snuck out of the dining hall and began to wander the various rooms in the hotel. Yes, including occupied ones.

Each room, occupied or not, clearly had a theme and was clearly some trap created by Bannister. I very clearly remember that one of the rooms was full of like 15 naked men in tanning beds who were super mad at us for disturbing them. One of them was Bannister's assistant (what one I can't remember) and because another one of our goals has been to kill his assistants I jumped to the offence. And by offence I mean pausing time while beating the shit out of the guy. Before he was unconscious I un-paused time and demanded to know where Bannister was. He told me he had "already visited me" and pointed to the tanning room's check in desk. On the desk was a single note left for me stating that he had taken my "little friends". No ransom, no threats, just a statement that he had taken them. The second I saw this I jumped back into the bag and I found that both my cat and big knuck were gone. Kiwi, obviously, is my goddamn idiot child so her being taken enraged me. Big Knuck is literally a god salmon so uhhh yeah Bannister having a god held hostage is a horrible idea.

With them gone I booked it out of the hotel. I ended back up at my grandparents house and was wandering around the area wondering what to do. This is where I found the tiniest kitten I have ever seen. I little, grey, shorthair tabby kitten who literally had just opened his eyes. He was PRECIOUS and I just picked him up to keep him safe because a kitten that age should not be left outside alone. Shortly afterwards an adult orange tabby ran over to me and took the small kitten. I followed her and found the momma cat had 5 kittens. A grey tabby, two orange tabby, and two calico kittens. They were all ADORABLE and the second I saw them I knew I had to have one.

By this point everyone had gotten home from the gala dinner and I walked over to my dad with a kitten in hand and begged to be able to keep it. He said no because I already have a cat and that's when I remembered that Kiwi had been kidnapped. I immedeatly ignored what he had just told me and shoved the kitten and the rest of the little cat family into my bag of holding and made sure they had a safe nesting spot in one of my rooms. Then I turned into Halcyon and took flight to go search for my lost little friends

Once again I found Bannister sitting on top of the school. I flew up to him and demanded to know where my friends were. Bannister seemed... Oddly somber. Like usually he has crackhead old man energy and is always doing something insane. Here he was sitting atop the school bell tower and just staring sadly into the sunset. He then began to talk, not even looking at me or acknowledging my presence. He may as well have been talking to himself, which in all likelihood was actually the case.

He began his rant by asking what the point of all this was. He has been alive for so long, doing the same thing for thousands of years without an end in sight. Seasons come and go, apprentices rise and fall, his projects get dreamed up, started, and completed. But what's the point of any of it? As he spoke time seemed to get faster. As he talked about the seasons coming and going time was fast enough to cycle through all four seasons, although it notably remained twilight as he spoke regardless of season. He explained that his accomplishments and goals meant nothing because they were infinite.

A mortal had have their "life's work" and be proud of it because there is such little time for them to actually achieve it. Things like family and friends all matter because you have such limited time with them. He did not have the luxury of a finite lifespan. He existed, he will continue to exist. People will come and go. Technology will improve indefinitely. Eventually anything he achieved will become obsolete and be forgotten as the world ticks forwards. He was sick of it. At this point the season returned to spring and the time of day shot back to sunset, as if time had never moved forwards at all. Here he FINALLY looked at me and told me that my little friends were "inside the bell" and that I had to ring the bell to free them. Then he vanished without a trace, leaving me behind with my cat and my floating god fish.

The second both of them were back I hopped inside my bag of holding to get them all situated. There I found Skittles, who was sitting on my bed with the momma cat and her kittens. She told me that she needed to make sure they were all safe and sound before she left. I asked what she meant by this and where she was going. She said she was off to join a new apprenticeship and seemed pretty somber about it. I knew it was Bannister. There was no other way she would have known about him before I showed up. I tried to convince her not to do it but she said she had no choice. She just wanted to try helping me beat him before she was forced away, and I had failed. Because you can't beat Bannister. Even if he wants to be beaten, he can't. He will always be. He is one of very few constants in this world, and there is nothing we can do to change that.

Before she left Skittles gave me an awkward friend hug and told me to take good care of my little friends. Hold them close. Animals like these don't live as long as people do. Your time with them is short, so cherish every moment of it. With that, she exited the bag of holding and disappeared. I was left inside, alone, with 7 cats and a floating god fish wondering how the hell I was ever going to defeat Bannister.