Duke spent about three hours working at the register, his thoughts seeming to be focused on what happened in the first few hours of the morning. First his body stretches like rubber, then a strange guy he saw in a dream shows up, kisses him, fondles him, and now he's experiencing strange supernatural phenomena like it's casual, but no one is reacting to it at all. He tested to see if that stretching was legit, but he was interrupted by a familiar customer. It was a guy he was crushing on, but he looked strange this time. His hair was longer and was a blend of green and blue, his eyes were black, with his pupils being blue, he had a tall body and a chubby frame that wasn't too muscular or flabby, and he had a strange looking outfit. Or rather a lack of one, with his crotch just barely covered by a weird fuzzy fabric that formed a thong with a devilish tail and wings near his torso, then going up his back to wrap around his chest to show cleavage.
Duke wanted so bad to say something, to touch him, to kiss him, and more. But he was snapped back to reality when he saw Shiro waving at him outside and pointing to the man with a smile on his face and seemingly gestured a kiss. The man spoke first though. "Hey, you're...Duke right? You hang out at the comic store near here. You okay, you look like you're seeing stars and your face is really red." he said. Duke had no response, his voice was caught in his throat and he was shivering, but not from sickness.
He was polyamorus, so the thought of multiple partners was a great fantasy to him. But now he has two beautiful men around him and he can't seem to do anything in their presence. The man gently felt Duke's forehead, his hand smooth to the touch, and even his fingernails felt amazing on his skin. Duke felt as if he was going to faint, his legs were shaking as if he was a leaf in the middle of a storm.
Suddenly he felt himself fall into a hole and land into a circle made of stones. He saw a man , clad in a black trench coat, a black shirt, short black hair, jeans, and boots. Once again, Duke was in his dream, but he doesn't even remember falling asleep at work. The man walked up to Duke, offering a hand up.
"Hello. My name is Somnus Dreadwood. Call me an odd magician, I came into contact with this place during one of my astral travels. It houses very powerful entities that have existed, yet not named. I take it, you're the creator of this universe." he said. Duke got up, but wasn't sure what he was talking about. He had read about Somnus Dreadwood, a writer and Ascended Grandmaster of the Maergzjiran Cabal and has equally studied and practiced the occult arts for over 20 years. His name is actually a moniker to his Roman ancestry. He hadn't thought about the Maergzjira in a while, but knew it was very powerful magick.
"So, Somnus. You said I made this...universe. But isn't this all in my head, like a dream?" Duke asked. Then he realized that something was looking at him, a massive eye, an otherworldly presence that seemed to be like a person compared to a planet. "This is a dream, yet it is also reality. Two sides of the same coin, divided by a thin line, that being the human mind in conjunction with the soul. This is the oldest magick, yet still as powerful as time goes by, and dreams continue in all things. This is both your dream, and your reality that you can share with others. I take it you've experienced certain phenomena already, yet no one has noticed it but you?" Somnus asked. Suddenly things began to make sense, the stretching, the odd clothing, Shiro appearing, his crush. He was overlaying his dream world with that of the real world to manifest powers.
He then felt a familiar warmth, as if he was covered with a blanket during winter, and a hand was gently caressing his cheek. He slowly woke up, to see his crush holding him on his stomach as he was feeling his face. Duke wanted to move, but his body refused, and seemed to move on it's own and he began to grope his butt, feeling its softness and smoothness. "Such a cheeky boy. I've noticed you looking at me, eyeing every inch of me when I'm wet. How about we have a little fun before my knucklehead brother gets in here. I told your boss you're resting and he left for the day, so you're mine till closing time." he said. Duke wasn't sure what the hell was happening, but he didn't want it to stop. But he couldn't help but notice that his clothes were back to normal along with his hair, and thought that he had the same power that he did. He suddenly felt his belt slip off along with his shirt, exposing his thin body that had a bit of muscle to it, and had a bit of hair on his chest.
"L-look, Kuro, I'm all for this but I'm not sure if now is the perfect time. I'm still figuring things out and...and..." he was cut off by Shiro creeping up behind him, or more accurately one of his wings turned into a hand that came out of the floor and wrapped around him. "Yume inu stuck his nose in a pair of ripe melons I see. Having fun with my big brother?" Shiro asked. Duke was unable to answer as he noticed something watching him from a distance. It wasn't a person, but it wasn't an animal. It looked like something straight out of an H.P Lovecraft story, with smooth black skin large horns and large black wings. It felt like he was looking at something out of a nightmare.
In a split second, it rushed in to attack, it's wings slicing through everything like razor sharp blades through paper. Duke wasn't able to react in time, his surprise causing his body to freeze in place. However the attack never reached him, as if the entity was frozen in place and struggling to move forward. Duke forced himself to smile, masking his fear with a stoic poker face, and thought of some way to get rid of this thing. The first thing that came to mind was a massive amount of fire blasting from his mouth, incinerating everything in his path, but all he needed was to erase this murderous thing only. "Here goes nothing. And I swear this is gonna sound so fucking wrong. Swing a portal Soul Pendulum, shine on the ether and summon forth a....dragon. Pendulum Shōkan! Arawareyo, Ore wa monsta tachi! Wyrm with chromatic eyes, slice through everything in your path and lay waste to all, Rainbow Chrome Wyvern! Rainbow Chrome Wyvern, aim for that thing with a direct attack!" Duke yelled, not even expecting it to work even though it currently did, and the entity burned to dust, and the wyvern spiraled back into a portal.
"Never....tell...anyone I did that bullshit." Duke said. Shiro and Kuro both promised that they would never tell anyone about that, or about the fact that he pulled off a massive summoning without anyone noticing or damaging anything around him. It was clear Duke was both fully in control, yet he didn't even know he was yet due to his power awakening unconsciously. Shiro and Kuro helped with fixing up things and walked out with his brother with a couple of games.
Duke sat back at the register, silently waiting for the next customer. He then thought to himself about naming his new universe. If he was going to become a full blown magician like Aleister Crowley, he might as well give his realm a name. He then looked it up, and decided on the name, Mansuetude Umbra.