Carmen didn't even have to open her eyes to know it was bright. Blindingly so, which was only made more annoying by her present state of semi-lucidness. She shut her eyes more tightly to block it out, but her efforts were fruitless. The light shone through just as brightly as before. Irritated, she decided to take it as a sign she'd overslept and forced her eyes open.

It was then she realized something about this was very wrong. A lot of things, in fact. For one, this couldn't have been where she was before. She'd never have been able to fall asleep somewhere this obnoxiously bright. And on top of that, there was no floor beneath her. More than a little strange, but she didn't seem to be falling.

Where [i]had[/i] she fallen asleep? It was her bedroom, wasn't it? She'd just downloaded a fangame of some sort, hadn't she? She'd selected her character from a list, and... she couldn't remember anything past that. Maybe she fell asleep then? She'd been up much later than usual, it wasn't impossible. Or maybe the game was just dull and unmemorable. That was also within the realm of possibility. Maybe she was still asleep, and this was a weird dream. It would explain the lack of ground. But it didn't feel like a dream at all.

Then, she realized she wasn't the only one here. And someone was pulling her somewhere. Away from some of the others. Were they fighting? It looked like it, but she wasn't sure. She was still too tired to make sense of everything. She turned to see who'd grabbed her and saw... Kirby. It was Kirby, wasn't it? Then this was a dream after all? But still, something told her it couldn't be. Should she try to ask the others here what was going on? Would they even know? She still couldn't shake the feeling that something else was different, something she couldn't put her finger on, but she was too groggy to figure out what it was. Giving in to her tiredness and curiosity, she said the first thing that popped into her head, directed at anyone who could hear her.

"Um... hello."