Sleeping Powder

12-8-18 (morning): City Nights

Just for some reference of imagination, the city aesthetic is like this. If you've ever played it, imagine Sonic Unleashed's night stages for Skyscraper Scamper (the U.S.-based staged) and Rooftop Run (Spagonia) for the smaller living districts.

I had apparently lived in a large city my whole life and was walking around in it with my friend one day. Bored and upset about something, I began climbing up a large apartment building.

This was a small section of the city with a patch of grass and playground in the middle of the square made by eight identical apartment buildings with two on each side. The city and buildings beyond this were much larger. Each building was only nine stories tall and had a stone ledge in front of every window with no guard rails, as they were not meant to be balconies.

Climbing up to the fourth-floor ledge, I stopped to sit down and look over the playground. My friend had made it up, too, but said nothing and sat further back by the window. Had I not been sitting cross-legged, my legs would dangle off the edge.

I began speaking, but I don't remember what, and the friend just listened quietly, playing with something in his hands and looking down at it as if it held all his attention. Anyone who didn't know him would say that it did and that he wasn't listening, but I knew better.

Multiple times, butterflies would fly up to me as I stared out at the other buildings. Thinking nothing of it, I made no attempts to swat them away. Every time, they landed on my nose and grappled onto it as though their lives depended on it.

Had it been a gentle landing, I wouldn't care that they were on my face; they were butterflies and I've swallowed real flies before. Plus, I genuinely do like most invertabrae and wouldn't hurt them if I didn't have to. This applies to the real world, too. However, the feeling of the small feet gripping my nose so tightly caused me to flick my hands by my face to encourage them to leave.

Soon, day turned to night and the blue skies and summer heat faded into the cool dark, littered with countless more stars than the day let on. Funny, as the city most certainly should've made it virtually impossible to see the stars, but there they were in their shining glory.

I knew the fun was up when a fireman and a ladder had risen up to meet my view. They waited for a good while before extending the ladder out to the ledge, as though waiting for me to finish my last thoughts.

When I had, I approached it and began climbing down without the need for help from the fireman, who had reached out to aid me.

I assume that my friend had made it out just fine, but I would never know.

Because I woke up.