Jamais vu.

A lone woman trudged her way through an empty, barren desert. All around her, in every direction, was the same sight: white and gray sand, the exact texture of static, blowing every which way. The seemingly endless cloud of sand almost blotted out the stone-grey sky and the solid black spherical mass that hovered above her.

There was nothing to the woman. She wore nothing but a tattered white labcoat and the remains of what was once a pair of serviceable black slacks. Any other clothing she was wearing...well, she couldn't remember where it went. Any time she tried, it felt like her brain was hitting a proverbial wall.

Was this a dream? A memory? Her reality? With each step she took, thoughts such as those trailed through her mind, and each and every time they did, she could feel her entire existence fade in and out, as if she was never there to begin with, but had a reason to be there at the same time.

Suddenly, a bolt of black lightning flew across the sky and, for a brief while, it bisected the endless sandstorm. Far off in the distance, the woman could see something. It was a figure...definitively human-like, but something still felt off about it. Nevertheless, she moved her way towards it, trudging ever faster, trying to reach the mysterious figure before the sandstorm resumed. She ran, ran, as far as her lungs could take her in the unknown atmosphere. The humanoid did not move, no matter how much closer the woman got. As she neared her destination, the figure became clearer - it had a definitively feminine figure, and long, flowing silvery hair, but its skin was solid white, with what seemed to be tints of purple here and there. There were also two horn-like appendages sticking upwards from its head.

Eventually, she reached the figure, and reached out to touch it. Despite its appearance, it felt odd to her touch, as if she'd just put her hand on a beanbag chair, as opposed to a human. But then, in response to her touch, it turned around...

She could feel the humanoid creature staring directly into her soul with a crushing glare.

An especially odd feeling considering it lacked any eyes to glare with.

It opened its mouth...and then everything, in that moment, became empty.



In New Mexico, a blonde-haired woman, clad in nothing more than an oversized tanktop, sat up from a prone position on her bedroom floor.

Jersey, the woman in question, never really liked sleeping all that much. Sure, she feigned it a lot in order to look cute for the sake of her girlfriend, but it was only so she wouldn't worry too much about her. Every now and then, she would fall asleep for real, but this was never a good thing. Jersey, unfortunately, had a habit of experiencing the same nightmare over and over again in her sleep. At least, it felt like a nightmare to her. Nevertheless, it was something she wasn't too fond of experiencing.

Even now, in her current state of being, in her dimly lit room, on her floor, in the farthest position possible from her bed, Jersey could still hear the ghosts of her dreams calling, calling for her to visit that perilous world once more...but first, there was very important work to be done in reality.

She reached for her phone, opened a file marked "MagicaPrince Revue Fanfic Draft 3”, and got to work. It was a pretty silly idea, sure, but it kept the horrors of the night away. Writing about the world of her favorite series took some of the edge off her mind, and allowed her to fantasize some less horrifying dreams, of magical fantasy girls (and sometimes, magical fantasy girls in very masculine clothing) kissing and falling in love....even if she had to sacrifice sleep for those dreams.

Several paragraphs in, the sun started to rise, sunbeams peeking through the blinds ever so slowly. The sounds of skronks and snrrks coming from her bed reminded Jersey of the love she had that, unlike her fanfiction, was certainly not fantasy. The large figure, slightly tanned skin, and hot pink hair of her girlfriend came into focus...along with her horns. Her girlfriend, who she loved very much, was an oni by the name of Kimiko. Sure, she was a heavy (and loud) sleeper, she was pretty cranky when you woke her up, and pretty cranky in general every day, and tended to cause more destruction than she ever intended....

But goddammit, Jersey loved that oni nonetheless.

Jersey put down her tablet (after saving her writing progress), and slid cleanly back into her bed, right into a spooning position with the hulking, still sleeping, completely nude oni. Her intense warmth (from years of living deep inside a mountain, along with the tattoo-like burn mark on her back) was relaxing, and it almost seemed to stir some feelings within Jersey...

“Yoooooo, Jersey.” It seemed as though the sudden presence of her loved one had caused Kimiko to wake up, though she was still rather hazy, judging by her manner of speech. Kimiko was obviously a little cranky from being woken up so suddenly, but since Jersey was hugging her back, she couldn't be *completely* mad.

“Wooould you wanna give your sugar some coffee before we let the sun in?”
“Hun, I think you got your metaphor a little mixed up there…”
"Awww come on, you know what I mean..."
"Heh...okay, c'mere, baby."

Kimiko turned around, to meet her girlfriend face to face. There was a significant size difference between the two, but in bed, it didn't really matter all that much. The two embraced each other, coming as close to each other as they feasibly could. In spite of their fairly decently long relationship, neither of them were all that good at doing stuff in bed, so they just kinda...improvised as they went along. The oni and the small girl locked lips, feeling every ounce of passion travel between them every time they kissed. Eventually, tongues began to enter the fray - swirling around each others' mouths, warmth and saliva reminded them of the love they shared.

In the midst of the passion, Kimiko decided, rather spontaneously, to reach her hand beneath Jersey's loose-fitting tanktop, lightly feeling the parts below. This prompted a yelp of simultaneous excitement and surprise from the smaller woman. But as quickly as she’d reached down there, she retracted her hand in embarrassment.

“W-was that too much?”

“Not at all, Kimi dear, but I think we can save that for later, don’t you think?” She kissed Kimiko on the cheek, with the usual smile ever present on her face. "But...I think we're being watched right now, heh..." True to her word, behind them was the visage of their ghostly roommate/co-worker, Luna Papillon, sticking her head (quite literally) through the door. Kimiko's response was...surprisingly quick for someone of her size. She leapt out of bed, grabbed the blanket off the bed (nearly throwing Jersey for a loop in the process), and covered herself up as much as she could.
"H-how long have you been watching?"
"Thankfully not long, but if you two are done with your gay shit, you have to come see what's going on right now."
"Y-yeah, we'll be out in a second."
"Also, Kimiko, might I say - you have a very nice bu--"
"WE'LL BE OUT IN A SECOND." With that loud proclamation, Luna's head disappeared back through the door, a slight giggle escaping her lips. Kimiko, on the other hand, was bright red. As she turned around to replace the blanket on the bed, she found Jersey, already standing there fully clothed in her usual attire, a suit, though this time in a hot pink color with a black-and-white striped button-down shirt underneath.
"How--when--wha--never mind, I should be used to this by now."
"You gonna get dressed, hon?" The innocent smile crawled across Jersey's lips once more, but without the backdrop of passion between them, it carried a mildly creepy nature. 
"Y-yeah. Gimme a few minutes."

A little later, the two finally emerged from their bedroom - Kimiko now clad in a pink leather jacket, blue bandanna tied around her neck like a scarf, black Joan Jett shirt, black leather pants, and knee-high black leather boots. It completely clashed with Jersey's more formal style, but that was just the way she liked it.

Luna was waiting for them, casually reclining on the couch in the middle of their combination office and living room. The room that the three of them called their workplace was quaint enough, or at least as quaint as an office the size of an average apartment could feasibly be. A desk sat in the corner of the room, with papers and files strewn about on it. (Though there was at least a visible semblance of an attempt to clean them.) Beyond the simple adornments, there wasn't much else to the office. But it was just the way Jersey liked it. Simple, and not quite clean.

"So," the pink-suited private detective interjected, "what exactly was it you wanted us to see? It sounded very urgent, but also absolutely amazing at the same time." The ghost leapt - well, *floated* would be the more appropriate term in her case - over to window, standing by it proudly.
"Hey, Jersey...can you tell me what day it is?"
Jersey pulled her phone out of her suit pocket, looking at the lockscreen for the answer to Luna's question. "It's...uh, it's August 2nd."
"Exactly. And where are we right now?"
Kimiko seemed puzzled by Luna's train of logic. "We're...in New Mexico. What are you trying to get at, Luna? Get to the point already."
Luna tut-tutted at Kimiko's characteristic impatience. "What I'm trying to say..." She opened the curtains of the office's window, revealing the city of Truth or Consequences beyond its boundaries...and it was covered in snow. "...is that this should not be happening right now."

"Oh, a case of misplaced seasons, huh? I love it! Kimi, we gotta get on this!"
"Look, if this ends with me punching some cheesy weather-control machine, I'm gonna have the heartiest laugh in my life. But I'm in if you're in!"
"Get in the car, we're gonna go investigating!" Jersey leapt into the air with the maximum amount of enthusiasm possible.
Kimiko's excitement, however, turned to concern. "You...you really wanna drive around in the snow in that old clunker?"
"It's safe enough, I assure you."
"I don't think the phrase 'safe enough' inspires a lot of confidence..."

The two continued to exchange verbal tradeoffs of excitement and worry as they left the apartment, prepared for whatever this new incident was going to throw at them.

Just another day under the heat of the southwest sun.