Silence blanketed Dyllan’s room like fog, the low growling of Dyllan’s shadow flowing underneath it. The seconds were passing with the weight of hours. He wasn’t exactly proud of it, but Dyllan knew he wasn’t a patient person - it was only a matter of time until his shadow cracked.

“Alright! Jeez, fine!” Shadow Dyllan clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “I’ll give you your stupid how-shadows-work 101 lesson.” He sighed. “I never tried to ambush you in your bedroom because you could just escape back into your dreams. Shadows can’t even interact with their egos while they’re dreaming unless it’s a nightmare, and even then… we aren’t really in control. There’s a limit to what we can do.”

“…That’s it? That’s what you went to all this effort for, to avoid telling me that? It barely took you three sentences to explain it, and there wasn’t exactly a huge revelation that would help me fight you or anything…” Dyllan loosened his grip on his shadow slightly, then tightened it again. “You didn’t even tell me why you can’t affect me in my dreams!”

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“Ha! Who do I look like, Cedric?” A mocking grin splattered across shadow Dyllan’s face. He could tell his ego was confused and frustrated, and a frustrated ego made for a happy shadow. “I only know what I can do from trial and error, it’s not like I’m a psychologist or some shit.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t answer why you were so reluctant to -” Realization dawned on Dyllan, loosening his grip enough for his shadow to break free. “You did all of this just to mess with me, didn’t you?”

Shadow Dyllan pushed himself away from his ego and scrambled upright as he cackled with satisfaction. “Well, duh!”