A sense of boredom fell upon the two as they began their walk back to the hotel, Fobus' words of warning and her friends' discoveries carving grooves in her mind as her thoughts fell into a cycle of worry and confusion. Bio couldn't help but think of all the ways it could possibly connect with his warning - maybe the virus would get into the villagers and everyone would start dying? Or maybe the wildlife would all start dying and cause a great famine. Oh or maybe -

"Bio - Bio!" a voice shouted almost directly into her ear, breaking her chain of thought.

"H-huh!? What is it? Is something wrong?"

"No, it's not like I've been trying to have a conversation with you for the past five minutes... not at all..."

"S-sorry Selena, I just can't help but worry about everything that's going on... or for that matter everything that isn't happening,"

Selena huffed indignantly, a frown stretching her features. "It's fine... I'm worried about it too, but still worrying about it isn't going to help anyone - we don't even know what the problem is yet, and I'm not up for brainstorming every possibility..."

"Fair enough, sorry it's just a bad habit when I start worrying about something," Bio apologized softly, tentatively putting an arm around her. She still wasn't used to... initializing contact, but it felt like the right thing to do so she did it - even if steam would plume from her head in a mix of embarrassment and worry that she shouldn't be doing this right now. To her relief though Selena leaned into her side, sighing softly.

"It's alright I guess... man I wish there was something we could do to relax, take our minds off things for a while..."

"Yeah... something that we could both focus on completely..." she couldn't tell why, but her face was slowly starting to heat up.

"Mhmm... someplace warm and comfortable, perhaps just the two of us..." Selena's face was also slightly flushed - the heat must be getting to them. Wait, when was it so hot?

"That does sound pretty nice... any suggestions?"

"Well how about you two head to the town's church?" a cheery voice suggested from behind them, both Bio and Selena's heads whipping around to look at the cat-man who was only a couple feet behind him, an oblivious smile plastered to his face. Bio felt... annoyed for some reason, as if something had just been interrupted... wait a minute what had they been talking abou -

"How in the world would the church be a relaxing place? Neither of us are religious so it's not like divine peace will befall us or anything," Selena scoffed, drawing herself up with an annoyed expression. Wait, was Bio's face as bright red as hers right now?

"Ooh right! I forgot you two were new around here, silly me~" the man recalled, although he didn't seem surprised in the slightest.

"Yeah right... you just wanted to interrupt us..." Bio couldn't help but mutter under her breath, although her curiosity was outweighing her annoyance.

"The church here is to our great lord, the one who rules this entire land!" he continued obliviously, arms wide towards the sky as he proclaimed loudly, "Hypolos!"

Biovera felt like she was struck by lightning - remembering when they had just saved Innsmouth. Fobus' information on the one responsible for what was going on with this world - Hypolos, who was apparently both the ruler and god of this land. Glancing to her right Selena's confused expression showed she hadn't come to the same realization, her head cocked to the side as she stared at the cat-man as if he were crazy. "Hypolos? Soo he who 'rules this entire land' is a god or something?" Selena asked, Bio gently nudging her arm with her own.

"Hypolos is a personification, remember? The one who's causing all this?" Bio murmured softly into her ear, Selena's eyes widening as her memory kicked in.

"Yes, indeed! In his benevolence not only does he keep these lands peaceful (Pfft! what a load - Fobus) but he also blesses us with his gift when we ask!"

"His... 'gift'... riiight..."

"You see, Hypolos has control over the dreams of those who come to him for help," he began to explain, undeterred. "He provides sleep for those unable and bestows the sweetest dreams upon those who ask! If you're looking for someplace peaceful to relax, there is no better a place,"

"I... see... well then, Selena we may as well check out this church, right?" Bio asked carefully, shooting her a meaningful look. If they were going to learn anything about this guy, visiting someplace dedicated to him seemed like a good start.

"Yeah, that sounds fine by me - although, that alone time better happen later..." Selena responded happily, her voice softening into a teasing purr that set Bio's face on fire. Then with a small smile, she walked off in the direction the cat-man was pointing, Bio following close behind. It didn't take long for the large building to come into view, although it wasn't anything spectacular.

The church was painted white with spirals of turquoise, some places the paint was even falling off, revealing the red brick underneath the white coating. A single tower protruded from the top in a smooth arc, a small golden moon at the very tip of the pillar. Then as they got closer, it suddenly hit her - she was exhausted. It was as if the second she got close to the church all the energy from the meal she had only just eaten was leeched out of her. She felt like curling up and sleeping on the soft, comfortable dirt, a yawn escaping her lips at the very thought.

She barely registered as Selena yawned at the exact same time, rubbing at her eyes sleepily as she stared up at the church along with Bio.

"Honestly, I can't leave you two alone for even a moment..." Fobus, who had suddenly appeared in front of them sighed dramatically, turning up his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. "You look like... like..." he paused, trying to think of an analogy. Bio didn't really care what she looked like - she just wanted to sleep. "You look like bears about to go into hibernation... oh well, guess it's up to me!"

The world came into sharp focus as pain blossomed across her left cheek, head snapping to the right as Fobus slapped the both of them... hard.

"Hey! What in the bloody hell was that for!?" Bio exclaimed, putting a hand to the spot on her cheek - she could already feel it bruising - while glaring daggers at Fobus who merely chuckled.

"Welcome back my lovelies~ Can't have you falling under his influence so easily, or I wouldn't see the two of you up for the rest of the day - good thing I'm here hmm?" Fobus preened, smirking playfully as Bio noticed she indeed wasn't so tired anymore. It was still there, at the edges of her mind slowly trying to creep in, but it wasn't as bad as it had been only moments ago.

"So wait... the church makes people sleep?"

"Yep! Did you not notice all the people just laying around?"

He was right - a quick glance showed that there were at least seven people randomly scattered around the ground in front of the church, some even snoring loudly. "Wow... that's a surprising amount of influence considering we haven't even entered the church yet... I suppose that guy was right,"

"Indeed, the distortion in that church is just dreadful!"

"Wait... distortion? What distortion? It's a completely normal-looking church..." Selena puzzled, then after a moment, her eyes widened as if the church had suddenly become an amusement park. "What in the...!"

"Ah so you noticed! Hypolos is a personification of sleep that has gained more power through worship... you see in this world personifications are often considered gods, and their strength depends on how deep their following is - Hypolos in the old world was one of - if not the largest - personification, but one day he had a bad night..."

"A bad night? Are you telling me the entire world got like this because somebody had a bad day?"

"Well of course! You see his girlfriend broke up with him, he got mad, went to bed and his dreams were so powerful it changed the entire world!"

"That... that's just..." Biovera was speechless, mind unable to find the words to express her feelings.

"You know... it's still a better love story than twilight," Selena commented, arms crossed over her chest as she glared up at the church. Fobus gave a solemn nod, then looked to Bio with a small grin stuck to his face.

"You have good taste - anyway, so basically in his dream, he was the only 'god', the dream started off good then got bad - soo here we are,"

"So if he's the only personification - sorry, god - then how are you here?"

"Oh it's simple! I'm not from this dimension the same as you!"

Both Biovera and Selena were silent for a moment, staring at him before letting out a defeated sigh.

"Honestly, I'm not even surprised..."

"Ditto... no way a weirdo like him could be native..."

"You realize I can hear both of you right? My heart is practically shredding itself at your harsh words~" Fobus complained, clutching at his chest dramatically before holding out a hand. "Listen, I don't like to break my character but this is serious - I'm a personification of horror and I get stronger from people being afraid, yet my job is to reduce fear and help people with their problems - so if you could work with me on fixing this world, that'd be great,"

Bio hesitantly reached out her own hand before taking his, shooting him a confused look.

"Alright, but haven't we talked about this before..?"

"Shh, just let it happen~ anyway I'll be off now, watch your backs lovelies!"

With that he was gone, vanishing in a puff of blue smoke before their eyes. The two stared at where he had stood only moments ago before looking to each other, a question dangling in the air between them. What now?

Author's Note

Hey guys, sorry it took me a bit longer to get this out - I've been having some problems with motivation recently, but I plan on keeping this going!

Fobus - chapters may take a bit longer, but we still hope you enjoy! Any support or ideas are welcome by the way, all you lovelies~

Why do you call everyone your lovelies, by the way?

Fobus - its my thing - anyway, thank you all for reading!