"... a-ah!"

Papaya's eyes open as she- gets up, looking around quickly. "G-Guys! Guys, where are you?!" she calls out to her friends, the last thing in her mind the poisoning. How the bartender, the gangster bartender, that guy- he put poison in the iced tea, a ton of it. With raw, frantic panic on her face, her surroundings came to view as she calls out to her friends: "D-Don't drink the-"

...

Huh.

Papaya was in a bar. Another bar, a different bar.

One of those karaoke bars, with flashy music playing in the speakers. A classy establishment, really, with dark oak walls and everything. It truly gave a cozy vibe, if not for the flashy colorful circles of light shining around during an upbeat pop song. The lights are overwhelmingly distracting in a way that really just- scratches that itch in Papaya's head.

Papaya gently pats the seat underneath her, the soft cushiony green that felt a little floaty to touch. Tiny little stripe thingies against her fingers. Curious. She's in some sort of booth, a booth with a table and stuff, with...

"... oh- oh!" Papaya exclaims, her eyes lighting up as she gets a better look at the seat and table. The sight clears up in her eyes and she remembers almost instantly. "Wait a minute! Is this-?!"

To check if she's right, Papaya quickly reaches her hand out to her right, and is handed a cherry smoothie by a red haired man in a fancy suit. One who lovingly stares at her with blue eyes, his rich and expensive attire pleasant to the eyes.

It was! It was a dream! It was her dream!

Papaya brims with delight as she remembers that this was a regular dream she had!

See, this bar is "Karaoke Karaoke", the makeshift bar she's invented in her mind to inform her of when she's dreaming. The way to induce this dream is not perfect, but Papaya learned from someone that writing a dream journal made it easier to "lucid dream" - to dream while being aware that it's a dream. Nowadays, almost every time she goes to sleep, Papaya tries to dream of Karaoke Karaoke, because this was the dream where-

"Yo, Paps, you took a nasty spill!" a blonde man exclaims, sitting across from her table. One of three that sat at her table.

"Yeah- we were worried sick..." a brown haired man in a sweater speaks, hugging his book in his chest. Round glasses slightly tilted on his nose, the man having yet to tilt them back into place.

"Ey! Everyone, Paps is awake!" the white haired man on the end shouts. His green and black plaid scarf hanging around his neck as he calls to attention everyone else in the bar, alerting them of her awakeness.

This is the dream where 100 men are in love with her! Men of different looks, flavors and all!

Papaya always feels giddy when she ends up here, bright and sunny at the thought of receiving unconditional love from a surplus of men. Earthling men, to be specific, those fine dudes in media and possibly real life! It filled her boy-crazy heart to feel loved, to be obsessed over, to know that all eyes were on her as she was being her Papaya self!

"Yes~ yes! I'm awake~ thank you, thank you~" Papaya calls out to her adoring lovers, all nice and warm as they shower her with relieved smiles. Taking a nice sip of her smoothie, absolutely gushing with vivid joy at the sweetness and tanginess of the smoothie.

The rest of the bar's boys cheer for her awakening, with the one at the microphone starting to sing her theme song. In fact, the upbeat pop song was her song all along! All about her, all about how awesome and cute and wonderful she is~!

Papaya puts the smoothie down on the table, falling back to lie her head on the red boy's lap. She doesn't have a name for him, or any of the other boys, but it didn't matter! "Ahhh~! That's some good smoothie...~! Hehehe."

The red guy smiles down at her and gently pats her head. Looking down at her with an absolutely enamored look on his face. And why wouldn't he be? Papaya's the best person ever~

"Hey! Don't just keep Papaya to yourself!" a college guy in a white kitty cat t-shirt exclaims, adjusting his round nerd glasses and joining in the variously vague and glaring men all staring in unison.

"Yeah, pardner, you ain't slick," a man... suspiciously looking like Quade, but with a cowboy hat and cowboy clothes. A pure stereotype with an exaggerated old timey wild west accent, kinda- like what Quade does, but... meh. "So get the lil' lady off your lap right this instant."

Papaya chuckles with delight. Boys fighting over her. That's precious. "Now, gentlemen, gentlemen~ there's no need to fight~! Isn't it enough to just love me~? To enjoy just being around my happy lil' self~?"

"Yes, that's right, everyone!" an armor wearing knight shouts. A fantasy themed knight, one with blonde hair and a red scarf, that massive sword on his back just- prevalently steel. Buff arms, smoking hot jawline- mmmh! "Papaya is a treasure we all share equally!"

"By my calculations, all of us are still in acceptable parameters to adore Papaya equally," a refined gentleman with long ears and a bowl cut with sideburns comments. Whipping out his fancy sci-fi computer - oh, the irony, Papaya's seen far more advanced stuff - and typing a bunch of numbers. "For every minute she spends on Crimson's lap, that is an additional minute to his meters that begins to balance it out. She has more physical contact with Cotton Candy than all of us, after all."

So the red guy's name is Crimson! Right. Papaya knew that. Totally.

... wait, which one's Cotton Candy?

"That's right!" a tall, attractive Korean singer exclaims, strutting into the room with his blue and pink haircut. Stylized into a wonderful, eccentric dream as his voice melodiously rings out through the bar. "You all simply have to shower her with more love and attention~ get your Papaya fill~"

Papaya has no idea who the real world equivalent of this man is, but absolutely melts as this stunning man trails his fingers along his cheek. Shivers throughout her body, feeling her face do that human thing where the cheeks warm up and blush bright red. Her green eyes sparkling brightly as she thinks to herself: ah, yes, Cotton Candy.

There isn't any harm in just- having fun with this dream, right? It's not every night that a girl gets this chance, to fall into a dream with a hundred dudes. If Papaya had her way, she'd have one million guys clamoring out for her, crying out for her attention.

... wait. Wait, it's her dream!

If this is her lucid dream, why exactly is it "if she had her way"? SHE DOES! She does have her way! If she wants a million guys to cheer for her, what's stopping her?!

"Hey~ hey, hey, hey, heyyyyy~ boys~" Papaya calls out, sitting up from Red Guy's lap and getting up from the booth. "Guess what? Guess what, c'mon~ guess!"

Papaya stands as all of the guys mumble and murmur, as if they were actual people trying to think her thoughts. Each guy, each well detailed guy with unspecified character motives and backstory. Giving them plenty of time to talk amongst themselves, before interrupting their thoughts.

"I'm craving some karaokeeeeeeeeeee~!" Papaya calls out, strutting over to the system and stage.

And then the crowd of guys goes nuts, cheering their lungs out. Papaya walks past an expansive setting of guys, seeing a surreal bar that was far too massive to be real. But Karaoke Karaoke only had 100 guys in it. Just 100 guys, even if her heart has more than enough room for millions.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She needed something bigger than a bar to achieve the love that a girl like her deserves.

As the crowd gets louder, the cozy bar walls start to crumble and collapse, the chunks of scenery drifting off into space. Ceiling dissolving into specks of dust, wooden floors morphing into solid marble. Before Papaya's eyes, Karaoke Karaoke morphed into the Roman Colosseum, but updated with marble, having a fifty foot tall pathway of marble and at least three times as large.

With an expansive sky above her, the light of the star filled sky shines down on Papaya. Sparkling twinkles of white amidst a dark, smoky blue. But it isn't bright enough for Papaya, she needs more lights! The ground quakes and shakes, and metal poles of football stadium LED lights shine down her walkway. Pure, artificial white illuminating Papaya's walkway and guiding her forward.

Up ahead, with each step, the modest karaoke bar stage turns to a massive circular platform. Red carpeted stairs for Papaya to begin her ascent, her sneakers treading along and stomping on the luxurious foot fabric. Not a single footprint, however, as Papaya is just that clean and tidy~! She has no trouble stepping on carpets whatsoever!

Eventually, Papaya makes it up the stairs and is face to face with the grandeur of the platform. Right on the edge of it, visualizing before her a platform that...

... uhm.

Too lazy to do any of the math of how big this platform is, Papaya takes a moment to take a step back, briefly throws her hands forward, and 184 buses fall out of the sky to fill the entirety of the platform.

This platform was enough to hold 180 buses.

The 180 buses that spontaneously poof away, replaced by an assortment of fireworks and confetti shooters. All of them shoot off into the air, creating colorful scraps of sparkly paper that swirl and whirl around as Papaya makes her strut to the center stage. Cheers erupting throughout the karaoke arena with bursts of purple and green set off in the sky. Papaya's fireworks-created face winking in the sky,

"Papaya! Papaya! Papaya!" the crowd cheers, tens of millions of voices in unison rhythmically chanting her name.

"Yes, yes, thank you! Thank you all~!" Papaya turns around as she walks backwards, blowing kisses out to the cheering public. "Mwah~! Mwah! Yes, yes, yes~! More~! More!"

Pillars rise from the abyss around the platform, with a fourth of her lovers equipped with megaphones and I <3 Papaya signs. "Papaya! Papaya! Papaya!"

Papaya twirls around, utterly basking in this praise with the ego as large as the moon itself. In fact, the visual representation of this is immediately shown in the sky, as the moon is now in competition with a large ball of condensed light marked "Me". Nothing else matters right now but her!

After this grandeur show, Papaya approaches the microphone and tablet. A gentle tap-tap of the mic, before waving to her adoring public and cheering out: "Say it, scream it, everyone! Who do you love?!"

"Papaya! Papaya! Papaya!" the voices uproar.

"Ahhh~ okay, okay, okaaaaay~! Now, what should I get to singing?!" Papaya shouts to her loving fans. "We could go... 'Papaya, Papaya, Please Love Me Papaya'~?"

An overwhelming uproar. "Papaya! Papaya! Papaya!"

"Oooh, but what about 'Spotlight Papaya'? A little bit of a somber jazz vibe...~?"

More joyous cheering. "Papaya! Papaya! Papaya!"

Papaya builds this up further by listing off more songs about herself. "Hmmmm... 'Papaya, Dearest' could be neat! Old timey music, classics~! Ooh, what about 'For Papaya', orchestral symphonic music? Oh, man... 'Papaya Palace', 'Count Your Papaya', 'No One Like Papaya'..."

Every song on the catalog was clearly just about Papaya, some rendition of Papaya's name alongside other words. In her dream, Papaya can list off hundreds upon hundreds of songs all about her, even if none of them make sense. The audience just keeps chanting and cheering, blindly begging and calling for more Papaya.

Eventually, Papaya reaches one option that crosses her mind. Something that wasn't Papaya related.

"Huh. 'A Message from Peritzal'..." Papaya hmms to herself, the audience going utterly quiet after she reads off a non-Papayesque song.

Well, it IS related to Papaya, but... it wasn't her. It wasn't Papaya. It wasn't a Papaya song being read out.

The audience goes quiet from this, as they were just here for Papaya. The resulting, hollowing silence weighs heavily on Papaya's back, as if a shadow looms over her and her stage.

"... u... uhm-" Papaya noises, looking around at the silent crowd. "G... Guys? O... Okay, okay! Uhm, we don't have to sing that one! What about, what about... 'Papaya Monsters DX', huh? We- We could sing that! Lemme just..."

Papaya flicks her finger along the tablet, shaking as the song options were completely different. All of the song names were replaced with Peritzal. Any mention of Papaya was completely and utterly gone. No song available.

"W... What? Wait, t... this is my dream, right?" Papaya mumbles, staring at the tablet with concern. Scrolling down, seeing nothing but Peritzal, Peritzal, Peritzal... there... there used to be songs in here about Papaya! Papaya read the songs- she read them out!

Papaya KNOWS her songs are here, but where were they?! She scrolled up to look for them, and- they were gone! No "For Papaya", no "Papaya Palace", none of that. It was "Peritzal Stars", "Our Lord and Savior, Peritzal", "Peritzal Bell"... every song in here, each song that had Papaya's name in it, all of it replaced Papaya's name with Peritzal.

Peritzal overwrote everything on that tablet, every instance of her name, every ounce of her... identity.

A tense look forms on her face as she "squeezes her brain" to try and come up with songs about her. Trying to bring the boys back to constant, constant love and admiration. For five seconds, Papaya forces more cheers to roar throughout the colosseum karaoke stage, before... silence. Their voices fading again, gone and silent.

A hollow feeling envelops Papaya's... heart. Some tears trailing from her eyes as she... as she feels miserable. Papaya's everything was taken away in that moment, the center of an arena full of nobody. Papaya falls to her knees, calling out... calling out to anyone that could still hear her: "Y... You're... supposed to... love... me..."

"... Papaya."

Papaya looks up as she stares to see Peritzal. Her twin sister, walking up the stairs as the boys boo and admonish this new girl showing up.

"P-Peri...?! Y-You're hijacking my dream..." Papaya faintly accuses, glaring at her sister with an offended look on her face.

"That is preposterous, Papaya," Peritzal explains, arms crossed. "You know full well that I am simply a representation of your mental imagery of me. A 'Dream Peritzal', if you will."

Papaya... narrows her eyes at Dream Peritzal, then sighs. "Y... Yeah, yeah. You're not real, I... I know." Momentarily sulking as she holds her hands to her face. "... why? Why are you here? This is supposed to be my dream."

"Do you remember what your first thought upon entering this dream was?" Dream Peritzal asks, arms crossed as she walks closer to Papaya.

"First thought...?"

"Yes. Normally, this dream could go uninterrupted and all," Dream Peritzal explains in classic Peritzal fashion, elaborately explaining to Papaya the meaning of this dream anomaly. "But your first thought is making your psyche warp and distort this dream for a reason. That first thought of yours that you're trying to drown out."

Papaya engages in a long and hard think, before... "Oh! Wait, right! Poison! We've been poisoned! P-Peri, what's going on right now AS I'm being poisoned?!"

"... if you do not have an idea, why would I know?" Dream Peritzal asks.

"Oh, right, yeah- duh." Papaya gently knocks on the side of her head with her hand. "... yikes. So- what exactly are we gonna do? Now that... now that I know what the problem is? I can't exactly just- wake up, I'm poisoned."

"... well." Dream Peritzal walks up to the tablet, browsing through it. "Now that you vividly remember what's going on... we'll engage in some karaoke, obviously."

Dream Peritzal presses a button, letting a beep sound out. A massive screen lowers down from the sky, presenting a cinematic view of the stage itself. Papaya looks at it to see her and Dream Peritzal on the screen, alongside the title of the song Dream Peritzal has chosen...

... Wake Up, My Papaya.

Spontaneously, this respawns all of the boys, the crowds coming back for Papaya. The cheers of the crowds echo out as this text shows up, hyped for some Papaya songs!

Papaya looking to Dream Peritzal in disbelief. "W... Wha-? Wait, but I thought all of the songs were about you, Peritzal...? How did you-"

"Papaya, this stadium is full of people who love you. One hundred men or otherwise," Dream Peritzal explains, waving the tablet.

"Oh...!" Papaya... couldn't help but giggle at this. "So you're saying-!"

"Your dream, your mind. You already know," Dream Peritzal smirks, as two microphones spontaneously appearing in the twins' hands.

"H-Heh... love you too, Peri."

As the song begins to play, as the twins are greeted to an upbeat and high energy pop song that Papaya doesn't even know the lyrics to, as some semblance of words form on the screen and the twins were preparing to sing their hearts out...

"... ugh-"

Papaya noises as her eyes open, coughing- violently- as she felt the pain of the poison coursing through her body. The arena was gone, the karaoke stuff was also gone. Papaya was lying in a hospital bed, a stretcher, eyes glancing at the ceiling of the ward she was in. Glancing down to see a respirator over her mouth, with some of her alien blood coughed out into it.

Papaya's voice gains the attention of a nearby nurse. A male one in typical nurse attire, shock on his face. "...?! D-Doctor! T-The alien's awake!"

Papaya... groans as she- can't move her body. As much as she tries to move her arms or legs, these appendages remain limp and paralyzed. "W... Wha... where am I-?"

"Y-You're in the hospital, in our emergency ward-! Hang on- we're gonna get you all cured of the poison...!" the nurse tells her, before a doctor comes over.

"P... oison...?" Papaya mumbles, still visibly groggy after waking up before- augh- coughing again into the respirator. "A... Augh... okay. I- I see..."

Part of her wanted to stay asleep, to sing her heart out and engage in that song again, but...

"..."

Papaya then realizes her skin was gone, as the doctor was examining her.

"Huh." Papaya wasn't in any condition to reform her human skin, so she just remains a gelatinous purple alien on the stretcher. "Nurse?"

"...?" The nurse tilts his head, confused why Papaya was calling for him and not the doctor. "Yes?"

"By any chance, are you seeing anyone? Or...?"