Ari looked out at a sunless grey sky.
Dark and dreary, the colorless empty fields with distant jagged lonely mountains that cut the sky with their sharp edges.
Along the grey lifeless path, remnants of an old road could be seen leading to a distant fog closer to the mountains.
"The fuck is this place?" Ari said in a low tone to Buttons who walked alongside her on all fours.
"This is Cora Chandler's mental state. When you're really far gone life feels like a grey, sunless fog" Buttons said walking alongside Ari before looking over at her repeatedly.
"What is it?" Ari said noticing Bottons looking over at her once more.
"Just think it's funny how grey and dark this place is and you're wearing that" he said looking at her stood barefoot in green shorts with a frog's face across the front and a white crop top.
"Hey I didn't know I was gonna have some isekai dream with a talking panda. Whatever none of this is real anyways" she said dismissively.
"Um this is all very much real" Buttons said side eyeing Ari.
"Cool sure it is" Ari said rolling her eyes.
Quiet awkward step after quiet awkward step, Ari noticed Buttons looking over at her repeatedly.
"Jeez stop looking okay, I got these as a troll" she said looking down at her comfortable green pants.
"No it's not that. Well... how are you? Like really" he said in a soft tone.
"Fine" Ari replied dismissively.
"Hey, I'm an extension of your mind so I know that's a load of bull. So again how are you?" he said in a stern tone.
"Well if you're my mind you know I don't like talking about stuff" Ari said as she folded her arms and continued forward.
"True but I am from your mind so if I'm asking you this some part of you wants to confront what's going on" he said seeing her stop dead in her tracks.
"Okay double mind logic fine" Ari said stopping as her shoulders slumped and she looked up at the grey still skies.
"I feel like shit" she said as she scowled and continued:
"Ugh nope this isn't about me" she said as she walked forward even faster.
"Ayo my legs hella tiny wait up!" Buttons shouted as he chased after Ari waddling forward on his tiny legs.
"When am I gonna wake up and be done with this shit" Ari said under her breath as she finally approached the fog at the end of the road.
Unsure why a gnawing feeling of uncertainty came over her as she let out a deep breath and walked through it waving her hands in front of her face to clear her vision.
Stepping through to the other side of the fog she looked out at a grey, grainy version of a normal city street.
"Wait a sec" she said aloud looking around as a sense of familiarity hit her.
"What is it?" Buttons asked as his ears perked up as Ari froze in place.
"This place feels hella familiar" she said looking around at dark sign free stores and unmarked street signs.
Walking further into the street she saw people scattered around off in the distance.
"Wow this place is creepy, he wasn't-" Buttons said under his breath but was cut off with Ari placing an arm out in front of him.
"Shh listen to that" she said as they heard murmuring.
"Man not gonna lie her ass kinda flat" a distant voice sounded.
Ari was taken aback by the random comments.
Listening closely they sounded random, stilted and robotic.
As they walked forward something in the distance manifested out of thin air.
"What the fuck" Ari said as she saw a brunette woman tied to a pole in the middle of the road in a bra and shorts.
The pole was placed on a wooden stage with what appeared to be miniature people stood in front of it pelting her with garbage.
Looking at the woman with a forgone glazed over look on her face Ari's jaw dropped.
"Wait that's Cora Chanel" she said recognizing the influencer in spite of her dust and garbage covered state.
"Oh you know her, she's the client" Buttons said pointing to Cora having trash thrown at her.
"Aight nah that ain't it" Ari said darting forward towards the stage.
"Hey get the fuck off of he-" she said before stopping in hee tracks when the miniature people turned to face her.
Looking down at them she saw that they were all black from the neck down with grey, blank spherical faces.
Standing off with them she looked over at Cora who had been left in an indignant state with ropes holding her up as her head drooped and she remained only semi lucid.
Ari cleched her fists and found her nerve as she flinched towards the odd miniature people they took a step forward in unison.
Doing a rough estimate in her head she concluded there were at least fifty of them.
"Shit" she said realizing she was now greatly outnumbered.
"Hey bald gnomes you better let that girl go or else!" Buttons shouted at the now still miniatures.
"Does doing that usually work?" Ari asked in a hushed tone looking over at Buttons.
"I have no idea it's my first day too" he replied whispering aloud.
"Aren't you supposed to be a guide, scare em off or bark or roar or something" Ari said through gritted teeth as they took a step back when the miniatures stepped forward.
"Pandas don't bark or roar, we bleat" Buttons replied.
"The fuck is that?" Ari asked silently.
"Kinda sound like sheeps" Buttons said under his breath.
"You're fucking bears, why can't you roar" Ari said as her head dropped.
"Fuck" she said as she quickly took five big steps back.
"What are you-" Buttons said before Ari sprinted past her and run into the miniatures kneed and kicks first.
"Oh we're gonna-" Buttons continued snarkily before a sharp jolt through his body rendered him stiff for a second before he lept into action.
With Ari surrounded but still holding her own he bolted in rolling through the miniatures like a bowling ball.
Landing by her side he took a karate stance and began expertly eliminating miniatures.
Using the limited karate she took as a child Ari used the basic moves she had committed to muscle memory to easily dispatch of goon after goon.
As soon as they were hit a select amount of times the miniatures stopped moving and evaporated into pixels.
As their numbers dwindled down Ari held the last one up by it's neck as Buttons lept up and they punched either side of it's head in unison.
"Dang that was a piece of piss" Ari said as she felt a thudding pain in her hands.
"Shit I haven't punched anything in ages" she said trying to shake off the feeling from her hands.
"No... no... no" Cora said in a weak tone.
"Oh shit" Ari said snapping back into reality and climbing up onto the wooden.
"You okay?!" she shouted as she hastily tried to undo the knots holding Cora to the pole.
"Shit I can't get these" she said as she failed to undo them.
Looking around she tried to find a sharp object to cut her down with and looked down at a loose floorboard.
Yanking a length of wood free from the stage she ran over to a window on the street and broke it.
In her hast to grab a broken shard of glass she her palm open on the exposed glass.
[-5 HP] popped up in front of her eyes as she clutched her hand and winced in pain.
Gritting her teeth so hard she could feel her jaw get sore she persevered and took the glass shard and cut Cora down from the pole.
"Wh... where am I" Cora said as she took one step forward from the pole before falling to her knees then side.
As soon as Ari went to help her up she dissipated into thin air.
[Mission Completed!] Popped up in a green text as Ari looked at where Cora once was.
As soon as she looked over towards Buttons everything faded to black.
Ari heard the clap of thunder as she tossed and turned in her bed before waking up in a cold sweat.
Bolting up from her pillow she felt a pounding sensation in her head as she woke up in a confused foggy state.
Looking around her she saw it was still dark.
"Shit what time is it?" she said as she reached over to her bedside for her phone.
"Gah!" she shouted as a stinging sensation hit her hand when she grabbed her phone.
Now wide awake from the pain she reached over with her non dominant hand and shone a light on her hand.
Her heart dropped at the sight of a bloody cut on her hand.
Putting two and two together she realized that was exactly where she'd cut herself in what she assumed was a extremely lucid dream.
"..." no words nor a thought could be summoned in her mind as she sat and in pain watching the blood pool in her palm.