Knight of Iron

    If you’re here, then that’s your first mistake.
    Adventurer, villain, or just a simple farmer; in any case, you came to the wrong place. I recommend that you get out while you still can, before you regret it.
    But if you plan on staying, let me explain.
    You can call me whatever you want for the time being. Names aren’t among the kinds of things you find here. Here, you find fears, pain, weakness, and shame. Everything you wish you didn’t have hiding out inside your conscience—every negative emotion, every broken heart—will eventually find its way down here.
    I’m the one who gives shelter to all of these lost shards and fragments of your soul. Some people call this place purgatory; others hell. I call it home.
    You look confused. Why don’t you sit down? I’d offer you a hot cup of tea, but warmth isn’t exactly something you find down here either. Maybe you’ve noticed already. I can still offer you a cold cup, though. If it tastes bitter to you… well, that’s because it is.
    Go ahead. Ask as many questions as you like; there isn’t much else to do down here.
    How’d you get here? So you don’t know? Not many do, I suppose, but it’d be nice to have someone who does for a change. Well, you could be here for a number of reasons. Plenty of hidden portals and whatnot that could get you here, but I doubt you took one of those. More likely you needed a place to take a breather and found your way here.
    Hmm. It does seem like a bad place, doesn’t it? Personally I don’t think so. Gloomy, certainly. Perhaps depressing at times if you stop to think about it. I guess it’s all dependent on how you define ‘bad.’ What does that word mean to you? Is it an absence of good or a thing unto itself? Could you sit down and make a list of all things good and all things bad? That seems rather subjective to me. I doubt you could. In my opinion, a bad thing is something we wish we didn’t have: but that’s just me. It’s up to everyone to figure out what it means on their own.
    Why are you down here? Now that’s a good question. Like I said, you needed shelter, so you went and found it. Yeah, maybe this place doesn’t seem like the best place for that, but at the same time it kinda is.
    Do you have enough tea? It might take me awhile to explain that.
    This place doesn’t have a name. In fact, it’s not even a place in terms of being a somewhere. Let’s say, for the time being, that your soul is ‘here.’ It’s like when someone says you’re in bad place. When you’re going through a hard time, this is the place you’re traveling through. When you’re feeling down, this is the bottom you’ve hit.
    So let’s say that you’re not doing well right now. If you’re in the dark, then here’s somewhere you can stay until you adjust. Maybe you’re feeling lost, in which case this is the place you’ve found. Maybe you lost someone else; you’re feeling alone. So you came and found us.
    Mhm. You’re not the only one here. Try looking around.
    No, not with your eyes.
    There. Do you see them now? All those dark shards are kind of like bits of peoples’ souls. They’ve been torn up and thrown away. Those belong to the ones who hide their regrets; sometimes even from themselves. Eventually they’ll have to come down here and find them again to make themselves complete, but for now they can pretend to be happy with their dark patches hidden away from the rest of the world. Until then, it’s my job to take care of them.
    If you look around hard enough, you’ll find people like yourself down here. Some of them have made a terrible decision; others have had terrible decisions made for them. That man over there is struggling with addiction, and that woman—his wife—is at a loss for what to do. That child’s parents have been neglecting him, but he isn’t old enough to tell anyone about it. And that one… well, if you can remember, you know that one. When you have the time and the courage, try to ask them about it.
    If you’re afraid, then that’s alright. A lot of the people here are too. If you’re sad, then so are they. The thing is, you’re all here. With your souls broken and thrown away, you all came to the same place. Here, you and everyone else are connected by what brought you to such a dark place. How that works is complex, and I could spend hours explaining how it worked on every level; from the nature of a soul to the chemicals in your brain. But suffice it to say that where most people come from, it’s just called empathy.
    Are you starting to get it now? You’re coming close. Why don’t you take a bit more tea?
    If you find yourself still looking around, then that’s okay. Everyone comes down here at some point. It can be hard to understand that at first. Realizing that everyone has inner demons that they have to deal with at some point or another—just like you—can be a bit shocking. Some people try to pretend like that’s not the case. You can find pieces of their souls down here, just like everyone else. 
A lot of people try to leave as soon as they can, but they almost always leaving a bit of themselves behind. Even if how long you need to spend down here is different from person to person, you have to live out all of it eventually. I can promise you that it isn’t going to be pleasant, but it is necessary.
So while you’re here, try to think about why you’re here. You’re here to rest, to collect yourself, to feel out the terrain before you venture away.
If you need to catch your breath, then here it is.
If you’re feeling broken, then here’s a place to take a break.
If you need to cry, then here’s a place where people won’t watch.
I’m here; I always have been, I always will be. I’m not going anywhere.
Why don’t you take some more tea?
I’m sorry that you have to be here. I really am. But you can feel free to stay as long as you need.

I DON'T WANNA GO BACK TO SCHOOL

H E L P 

I also had a second dream a few weeks later where he saw this terrible picture I edited of him, and he went up to me like, "Why did you do this? I do not look like that." And then I woke up laughing super hard. This picture is iconic, though. It's hilarious to me now because Dream-Vashkril looked absolutely disgusted.