Lucas stood in a swirl of color, wondering who had dropped the paint. Then it dawned on him, that the colors weren't paint - they were just- there, and he was engulfed in the colors, they were pulling at him, drawing him into them.The colors, vivid purples and blues and greens, melted away suddenly, and he found himself falling from an unknown height. He wasn't scared, though. No, far from it. He felt- calm, as though what was happening was perfectly normal, although he knew it was anything but normal.
He fell for what seemed like hours, in a sticky black darkness that didn't feel like water, but didn't feel like air either, until he finally hit something solid. The blackness faded away and he was standing in a very familiar corridor.
Yes, the seaQuest. He was still on the seaQuest. Though where the colors and then the darkness had come from, he couldn't be sure. He looked down the corridor, surprised to find it longer and wider than he remembered. The aqua tunnels looked different too. He wasn't quite sure what was different about them, though, just that they were different.
As he walked, he found the floor squishy beneath his feet, something that he certainly didn't remember from before. "Before what?" he asked himself, but found no answer. He stopped to check the time on an old grandfather clock he saw standing in the corridor. It was thirteen-o-clock, surely time for lunch. Again, the flash of something not being quite right passed through him, but he brushed it off. Of course everything was perfectly in order, all of this was completely natural, had always been like this.
Waltz music wafted up through the floor as Lucas walked, and he said hello to Lillian Straitharen as he walked by her quarters. He picked up a book from a passing turtle and glanced at the cover: "ELFing for Dummies," it read. He handed the book back to the turtle, who thanked him and continued along his slow course.
He got to the mess hall and wasn't wholly surprised to see Rubin Zeller helping himself to some cole slaw from one of the multi-colored vats from the center of the room. No mushrooms growing today, Lucas noted. Or, in fact, anything that said "Eat me" or "Drink me." Lucas puzzled at how he had come up with such nonsensical musings and picked up a sandwich.
A young girl in a blue dress ran up to him, and asked him if he had seen the rabbit. Lucas shook his head and told her that he wouldn't be surprised if the rabbit was in the Moon Pool. After all, that seemed to be where the rabbits liked to go. The girl thanked him and headed towards the Moon Pool.
Lucas finished his sandwich, and, pleased to find he hadn't grown or shrunk at all, continued on his way. He walked through the tall grass growing in part of the hallway, nearly falling into the oubliette. A small glass ball dropped from the ceiling and continued down the oubliette, casting bright light on the stone walls. Lucas watched it fall until he could see it no longer and then began walking again.
He reached his quarters and walked through the thick metal door, not bothering with opening it. When he got in, he saw himself, lying on his unmade bed, chest gently rising and falling.
Lucas waved at the man in the aqua tunnels, then sat down to patiently wait for himself to wake up.