"You didn't have a body, and you should, so you do."

She throws her arms around him and hugs him tight.

"Fuck–it sounds like my voice, even, whatever you put me in is so good–thank you–"

She's trembling a little.

"How'd you get into my dream–was that actually a sim, did they just not tell me?"

He hugs back. "I'm a little confused about that part myself."

She pulls out a couple of barstools. 

"You're going to want to sit down, honey. There's a lot to explain."

"...that sounds like there's a catch."

Pause.

"–like, not that I'm saying put me back, I'm so cool with catches..."

He snuggles her. "I dunno about a catch. I don't really understand what's going on. The important thing is I can hug you now."

"You don't know what's happening either...?"

She attempts to unsnuggle just enough to sit down.

He unsnuggles just enough to let her, then stands by her barstool hugging her some more. Mmmmcozy.

"This nice lady gave me magic powers!"

"No, like, really."

"He's being serious, honey."

She looks at him.

"I used to be a lindworm and I couldn't talk and then I came here and she gave me some stuff and I had a weird dream and you were there and now I can shapeshift," he elaborates.

By way of demonstration, he turns back into a lindworm, coiled up around her barstool, and hugs her with his scaly arms and nuzzles her with his scaly snout, and then turns back.

"Coke. Pepsi. Snickers. Dollie. M&M's. Kleenex. Peppy-Kola – what the fuck – Superman, Iron Man, Kitty Kasper and the Jump-up Band, Mickey Mouse, Stay-lo, Colorbrite, Twinkies Doritos Pringles what the fuck."

"What?"

"Either somebody went to a lot of fucking trouble or magic is real."

"...magic is real."

"Not last time I checked!"

"Well—" he gestures around at the place they are in, and at Honeysuckle Rose, and at his formerly reptilian self.

"This is stuff that could happen in sims. And obviously this isn't some rando's project, there's no branding, I don't even know if the cops get no branding – but if I pissed off Coke or the ASL or something while I was legal –"

"...hon, if you come with me I think we can straighten this all out."

She holds out a hand, and, warily, Z takes it, and grabs his as well.

"I don't think I know what a sim is," he contributes, but he follows along.

"...what?"

"That's part of what we're going to fix."

This time, the space behind the curtain is an expanse of cloud.

It pulls them in gently with what probably shouldn't be described as "fluffy tentacles".

But are the fluffy tentacles soft?