Dream Eater

Arc sighed as he approached the building. He wasn't quite sure what he was getting himself into, but, well… He did want it. He was the one that organized this meeting, after all. It was just that approaching this obviously haunted house on the edge of town unnerved him. The buizel's thoughts turned to earlier, by which he means pretty much 8 hours ago. He'd been chatting with a workmate when their conversation hit a certain topic.

"...So the other day that asshole just fell asleep for no reason, in the restaurant, right? I decided, well, if he's going to sleep in here I might as well amuse myself a little, so I used dream eater, and-" The anecdote speaker was Abacot, Arc's gengar coworker in the diner's kitchen.

Arc interrupted. "Wait. What was that last part?"

Flashing his species' renown grin, the ghost said, "What, dream eater? Something interest you?"

Blushing, he just quietly asked, "What does it do?"

"Could be anything your heart desires!" He poked his chest for effect. "After all, I have free reign in your dreams. Maybe you want to experience it?"

He had agreed very quickly, maybe too quickly. And so, they arranged for a meeting after work, at Abacot's place. The sun was setting. and it was becoming cool outside, so Arc just decided to take a deep breath and head inside. He did trust his coworker; they had been working together for a while now. It was just the atmosphere of the house, the lateness of the hour, the playful way his friend acted, and the opportunity to live out his fantasy was all adding up to feel a little overwhelming.

When he knocked on the front door, it seemed to open itself. Creaking loudly and revealing a dark, wide room didn't help to ease his nerves at all. Stepping inside far enough, the door slammed back behind him and a chandelier along with some other lights came to life to reveal Abacot floating in the middle of the room.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Archimedes!"

"Wh-Who's Archimedes?"

"... Don't worry about it. Just playing with ya!" He floated over to his nervous guest, stopping a little in front of him. He was already tall enough to look at normally, let alone when he floats like that. "Are you prepared for a journey into the dream world? The land of make-believe?" Arc nodded, swallowing nervously. "Don't be so worried, chum! It's all safe, I just like to tease you." Floating up towards the ceiling, he said, "I'll be in the room at the end of the hallway on the second floor. Can't miss it! See you there~" and vanished into the ceiling.

Arc breathed a sigh of relief. It was kind of overwhelming, if he was honest. But it did feel better than the unease from a moment ago. The house remained fortunately well-lit, revealing it wasn't quite as haunted as it seemed from the outside. The interior was quite nicely taken care of, if old-fashioned. It was also smaller than it seemed, but still fairly big for one pokemon to live in. Anyway, Arc took his next steps with more comfort, observing some of the surroundings as he headed up. Near the door for instance was Abacot's hat, on a hanger for instance. He wore that thing pretty much everywhere. It was called a… bycoket? That sounded right.

The house smelled old, really. It creaked when he walked up the stairs and down the hallways past a bunch of doors that led to other unknown rooms. Maybe not haunted but very close to it in ambiance. Abacot probably liked it that way, though. When he got to the end of the hallway, he found the ghost as promised. It was a fairly big bedroom, with one of those old, fancy canopy beds in the middle. It was lit by yet another chandelier, but also a simple lamp on a nightstand next to the bed.

Abacot crossed his legs in mid-air, floating above the bed. He gestured with a single finger, "Come over here Arc, would you? And turn off the chandelier." Arc nodded, turning it off with a rather modern switch compared to everything else. Then he trodded over to the bed, tails shyly twisting on the way. Abacot floated down as he sat down, leaving the two sitting rather close on the nice bed. "Hey, Arc. Nice of you to join me tonight, it's been rather lonely being here all by myself."

"Th-thanks for having me. Um… How do you do it? I need to be asleep, right?"

The gengar grinned. "Just let me take care of that, cutie. Turn and face me?" Arc did so, not sure what to expect. Abacot took his hands in his, gently, just holding them. Arc's heart fluttered unexpectedly, but he felt very… comfortable. His paws were easily wrapped in the (surprisingly enough) warmth of his friend. His eyes darted between his paws and Abacot's face.

"This is nice, but… I don't know if I can sleep like this?" Abacot leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead, stunning him. "I- Um- Is that-"

"Oh, that's not going to put you to sleep. But this will." Suddenly, a ring of green appeared in his eyes, going out from his iris. Then a red one, a blue one, a green one, and those just kept looping with more frequency and intensity. It was very vibrant compared to the rest of the house and Arc couldn't help but stare at them. He became slack-jawed watching them, with his tails going limp and his eyes matching the pattern in Abacot's. His paws were still being held but he wasn't holding them back at this point.

"Now, you should be becoming very sleepy, Arc. It's late at night, we're in a cozy bed, I'm sure you feel tired anyway. Heavy, droopy eyelids." Indeed, his eyes were shutting over the rainbow of colors and he was starting to nod off. Abacot gently let him down into a pillow, adjusting the buizel boy in his sleep. "Just sleep and dream. I'll be there soon."

*/?\*

It was a light day at work. Arc brought some dishes back from the front, dumping them in the sink. It was just him and Abacot on duty it seemed, but it wasn't bad. "Hey Abacot, you know where everyone else is? Some event in town today?"

The gengar chuckled a bit and said, "Hmm. Maybe someone in particular. Can't say for sure, though!"

Arc laughed back, more innocently. "Maybe one of those legendary-types! Though I wish they left us more staffed just in case."

"Isn't it odd?"

Thinking about it a little, he said, "Well, I suppose. I mean, we're… We're not even managers?"

Floating in a 'thinking' pose and looking at his coworker, Abacot said "Huh."

"I can't… Remember who called me in. Do you-" Interrupting his train of thought was a great big tongue dragging across his fur. It left him feeling like he'd gotten a shock, though he could still move. Blushing hard, he said indignantly, "A-Abacot! You're not supposed to do that at work!"

His signature grin creeped onto his face. "Is that where we are?"

"What? Of course we-" When Arc turned back to gesture towards the front of the store, he realized it wasn't there. There was some sort of purple-pink fog obscuring everything that wasn't the little row they occupied. A little afraid now, he asked, "Wh-where are we…?"

"You're dreaming, buiboy!" As he said that, he seemed to dissolve into the background, with his scary face being the last thing to fade. The rest of the diner followed quickly, leaving Arc alone in the mystical landscape. "Don't you rememmmmber?"

It was foggy, but the memory did come to him in a disembodied way. "Y-Yeah! I asked you about… dream eater, and then I came over to your house…"

"You're right! Now we're dreaming and we can do anything."

"So I'm… lucid dreaming? I could-" With a thought, Arc lifted off the ground, now able to fly freely. "I can fly!"

A purple foot with sharp digits slammed down on him. Now he was pinned underneath it, soft but very firm. Just barely he could look above, seeing a towering purple pillar. The endless landscape cleared up to reveal the rest of it, a very, very tall gengar. He was tall before, but now he stood over everything, and particularly on top of Arc. He was short of breath as the foot pressed onto his whole body easily, all while Abacot's laughing face filled the 'sky'. "Maybe you can do anything, but I'm the one in control here!" He grinded his foot into the ground a little, just enough to assert his dominance. Then he tilted his foot to the side as he reached down to pick up the little buizel.

Pinched by his yellow collar, Arc dangled helplessly in front of his humongous friend. "Puny little Arc. Don't worry, I remember why you wanted me to do this. It was this, right?" Abacot opened his mouth wide, tongue hanging out and presenting a deep dark void. Hot breath washed over Arc, making him blush immensely and hide his face with his paws. "Just want to be someone's sweet little meal. Or maybe just a snack. If that, at your size…" The tongue moved, quickly smothering him once again. Abacot pulled him back into his mouth, suckling on his little friend. "Mmm. Maybe just a crumb at this size…" He tossed him all around, pushing him against his palate, his cheek, and his even tipping towards the back of his mouth… Then he spat him back out into his hand.

"Feels too easy, Arc! Aren't you gonna do anything at all?" Arc was a sopping wet mess, gasping breaths after being tossed around like a gumball. It was more than he could've expected but it felt so good. It felt so real. Abacot rolled his eyes. "Well let's get on more even footing, for one." He seemed to shrink slowly, going from holding his coworker in one hand, then two, then carrying them with ease, until they were back on the ground at their natural size ratio. "Hmm. You were pretty tasty. Got any ideas to make you even more appetizing?"

Recovering both his stamina and some of his normal courage now, Arc suggested, "Well… You like chocolate, right? So what if I…" Arc closed his eyes and focused, then reopened them. Looking down at himself, he had turned a dark rich brown, though he remained as animate as ever. Happily, he presented himself and said, "Ta-da!"

Abacot clapped, a bit excited too. "Why, Arc, for me? Aren't you sweet." He gave a big lick to accentuate this, smearing some of the choco-buizel's chest. "Mmmmm! I think I might have to take a bite… But let me take something less vital." He walked around the chocolate treat, crouching down to the tails. With a little bit of effort, he snapped them off and walked back around. "Well, well, well, chocolate buizel tails! Maybe bad to have dessert before dinner, buuut…"

Arc watched with glee as his friend took a big bite of his chocolatey tail. Even if it wasn't quite whole, just seeing the way he chewed that up and then swallowed it down to disappear into his stomach stirred the animate chocolate 'mon. Abacot teased him by making sure he could see each gulp, his big tongue showcasing chunks, then lifting up, gulp, and an empty mouth once more. Soon enough the tails were gone, just leaving the rest of the buizel and the gengar that ate them. "Ahhhhh," he said, tongue hanging out. "Well, that was yummy! You were, I mean." The sentence was punctuated with both a wink and a pat on his belly, though it wasn't too obviously full yet.

"Whaaaaat's next, Abacot?"

He picked a bit at his teeth as he thought. His stomach growled during it, grabbing both of their attention. "Seems like that snack may have gotten me all hungry for the main meal! I suppose we better get down to business, eh buiboy?" He licked his face again, smacking his lips. "Chocolate is good, but I think I need something a bit more substantial… Let's get you back to being all meaty." He pulled a chisel and hammer out of thin air, going to town on his friend. After a few seconds and a final tap, Arc's chocolate form shattered to reveal the original furry water weasel. He was blushing quite brightly, too.

"I'm ready!" He exclaimed, twisting his tails with anticipation. Or so he thought, as he quickly realized his tails were still missing. "Ah! Abacot, my tails…"

"Kekekeke! Don't worry, it's just a dream, remember? None of this is for real, it just feels that way." Arc shivered as a tongue nearly as wide as he was tall made its way around him, wrapping him up tight. "Doethn't thith theel real…?"

"Y-yes," he breathed out.

The tongue squeezed, making a rather squishy wet noise. "Thery real. In thact, I bet you couldn't imagine ethcaping from me like thith!" As an aside he muttered, "Well, not that you'd want to." He opened his mouth widely, giving Arc a good look. It was breathtaking, and not just because of the constricting tongue. Saliva stretched from palate to tongue, glimmering all about in the strange ambient light.

Once again, Arc was pulled into the gengar's maw, slurped around like a savory treat. Even at their normal sizes, Abacot fit him in easily. His maw was quite roughly the size of his body, after all. Flat teeth rubbed against Arc's back as he was tossed from cheek to cheek or even dangerously close to the throat in the back. He could barely tell where he was or what was happening, at least not until light shined in and the tongue he was on put him back outside.

He was dangling in the air almost, the only thing beneath him a very slick and quivering pink tongue. It was holding him in place by running under his collar, with Abacot staring with as much of a grin as he could muster. "Hath a 'thathe' trip, thnackboy." Then the tongue let him go. Very quickly, Arc slid down the tongue, past the teeth, and landed squarely in the throat. A gluck signified his feet being gripped by the muscles there. For a brief while, he could still see Abacot's face from a very sharp angle, grinning with his eyes. Then he vanished behind the row of teeth, which clacked shut behind him. All he was left with was deep warmth gripping him further, pulling him into the fleshy depths of his co-worker. Gulp. Gulp. Gulllp. GLULP! Aaaah~

The last of Arc's head popped into a tight stomach, undoubtedly bulging out unlike his chocolate tails. Those were seemingly already melted, demonstrating his upcoming fate. Which really, excited him to no end. It's been a wonderful dream. He knew he was already asleep in reality, but the coziness of Abacot's belly was inviting him to sleep yet again. Gurgling all around him, the stomach was already pretty active from earlier. Juices washed over him, already softening him a bit. His surroundings reverberated around him as a guttural belch came out. Distantly he could hear, "You sure were tasty, Arc! Maybe I'll have to visit your dreams again sometime. Be a nice meal and digest, would you?" With that, hands pressed down on his back as to shove him into walls and further soak him. Abacot's belly growled happily, satisfied as it began breaking the buizel down. Fading into a dreamless sleep, the last thing Arc could feel was gentle patting as his predator began to float.

*/^\*

Abacot woke up first that morning, yawning widely and smacking his lips a little. He could just about imagine his coworker's taste still, both as chocolate and in the flesh. It made him smile a little and he flipped over to see Arc still snoozing. He nudged him a little and said, "Good morning, sleepyhead." No movement. "Hey, I said good morning," with a more forceful push. Still nothing! "Hey, are you gonna-" when he finally sat up and looked over at his coworker, he realized something was dreadfully wrong. The buizel was completely listless and Abacot didn't want to go as far as to say lifeless. "Arc! Wake up!!" He said, shaking him.

"Awwwwn. What- What's going on?" Arc said, sounding like he just woke up.

Abacot face almost moved to relax before he realized it wasn't coming from the buizel in front of him. "Arc?"

"Abacot! I can't… I'm looking at myself?"

"Uh-oh."

"What's 'uh-oh'?"

Abacot leaned back from the body, bashfully rubbing the back of his head. "Welllll, you see, if you're not in… there," he said, gesturing towards Arc's body, "You must be in me. I may have overexaggerated my experience with dream eater, it's a pretty new move for me."

"W-Wait, if I'm in you and not in me, what does that mean?!"

"Well, it turns out my little dream playtime has some effects in the real world. So when I ate and digested your consciousness, well, that was actually real. In a weird way, anyway." Abacot's stomach growled. The meal itself was unfortunately not real, so he was still empty and hungry from sleeping all night. Though it did bring up a thought…

"Wait, so… I'm just like a ghost? In your head?"

"Ghost may not exactly be correct, since I'm a ghost and you're even less than that, but yeah. Sorry buddy!" Abacot pulled the empty buizel over towards him, feeling its weight and how it was still warm. He licked his lips.

Arc could see this and feel this through the gengar's perception in whatever bizarre state he still existed in. "W-Wait! Abacot! Don't eat my body, we should find a way to put me back in it!"

Grinning, Abacot shrugged. It wasn't like Arc was dead or anything, just stuck in his head and there was a perfectly juicy buizel just lying in his bed. "Can't let good food go to waste!" With that, he engulfed the empty shell's head, savoring the taste once more. It tasted even better in real life; he couldn't have imagined the exact flavor.

"Abacot! Don't you da- Oh…" Wired into his predator's senses, he could feel everything and… he tasted pretty damn good. The particular flavor, holding something that size in your mouth, then slowly but surely swallowing it down into an increasingly heavy belly. Arc's thoughts were so overwhelmed by pleasure he couldn't even begin to think of a complaint. He always fantasized from the side of being eaten, which he was fortunate enough to feel, but now feeling how it felt to be a predator… If he was in control of the body, he'd be drooling, clutching his belly, eating everyone he saw. For now, he'd have to be satisfied with living vicariously through Abacot.

They both sighed at the same time, pleased with their meal. Buorrrrup came from the gengar as his breakfast settled in, a lumpy and fulfilling one. "It's too bad this one can't squirm like you did, but it seems like you enjoyed having yourself."

Arc 'blushed', which Abacot could feel as a warmth in the part of him Arc occupied. "I- Well! I think I understand the appeal fr-from this angle."

"Still want me to spit out your body?"

It hadn't occurred to Arc that was even a possibility. He thought about it but… It felt so nice in his gut. In Abacot's gut. "N-No… You need your energy for the day."

Abacot grinned and laughed. "Right you Arc!" He patted his tummy, admiring it. "Well, you're probably right about energy, considering my coworker won't exactly be coming in… Oh well, a worthy cause! I'm glad you enjoyed your night, now you can enjoy digesting yourself the rest of the day! Kekekeke." He felt Arc blush at that and got ready for work. Hopefully, nobody will take too much of an interest in his belly.

Nobody did, but what he couldn't have expected was exactly how much of a mixed bag it was to have someone's consciousness lingering in your head like Arc's did. On one hand he was basically a second pleasure center, but on the other, he was quite the distraction. His stomach burbled its way through the day, digesting away. Meanwhile, Arc seemed way too eager to experiment with his newfound experience. "H-How about, at the end of the day, you eat our manager? She looks tasty, right?"

Abacot glanced aside at her, a roserade that was probably about as tall as Arc, so she could fit… He shook his head. Quietly, he spoke aloud since his thoughts were apparently separated from Arc. "I can't just eat anybody, Arc. Especially not our manager." He could feel the disappointment already. "Look, I'm not even done digesting you. It's only about noon." He looked down, so Arc could see. His belly was smoothed out now, though still a fairly notable pot belly.

This continued throughout the day as Abacot's morning meal digested. It was slow for both of them, one wanting to eat and one just trying to get through the day. Eventually, it reached the end of Abacot's shift and he started getting ready to go home. "Abacot…! I'm all gone now and you're hunnnngry, can we get something? Maybe- Maybe something alive…"

He started to walk out and whisper annoyed, "Listen Arc, if you wanna stick around there's gonna be some ground rules, like I can't just eat pokemon all the time. And second-"

"Wait! Look, on your left, sitting in that booth…" Arc had spotted someone familiar, out of the corner of Abacot's eye.

Abacot sighed and looked, but then immediately realized what Arc had spotted. Their regular slakoth 'customer'. Just snoozing away. Abacot's stomach growled. His friend was nearly begging. Abacot himself couldn't help but grin at the idea. He quietly said, "This is an exception. Don't get too excited. And I think this time I'll eat him while his mind is in his body, so I don't end up with more passengers…" While Arc got all excited, Abacot walked up calmly, smiling, and said with his most professional voice after prodding the sleepy 'mon awake, "Excuse me sir… If you're not going to buy anything, you'll need to come with me. It's almost time for dinner."