Theme: melted sound

Mood: whimsical | Archetype: Everyman
Elements: abrasive cheetah follow

I was just standing on a perfectly manicured suburban lawn, holding a watering can, feeling utterly, pleasantly normal. Everything was in its right place, the sun a gentle, predictable warmth. Then, out of the shimmering heat haze, a cheetah loped into view. Not a regular cheetah, mind you; this one wore a tiny, impeccably tailored tweed vest and carried a rolled-up newspaper tucked under one paw, which it then sharply unfurled and tapped against the grass, looking utterly fed up.

"Well, don't just stand there, pal," it grumbled, its voice surprisingly gravelly, like a perpetual smoker. "We haven't got all day for you to decide if you're ordinary enough for *this*." I, of course, felt very ordinary indeed, a bit flustered at being singled out by a talking, vest-wearing big cat. But something in its impatient stare, a direct challenge to my usual 'just go with the flow' self, made me drop the watering can and simply follow. We walked down a sidewalk paved with pastel-colored marshmallows, the cheetah occasionally huffing and muttering about my slow pace and general lack of urgency.

It led me to a ridiculously oversized tea party set up in the middle of a bustling intersection, where all the cars were miniature and made of marzipan. "See?" the cheetah declared, nudging me with its newspaper towards an empty, wobbly chair at the end of a long, brightly colored table. "It's not so bad. Just a bit... different. Someone's got to fill that seat, might as well be the least assuming one around." As I sat down, feeling a strange mix of bewilderment and a peculiar sense of belonging, I realized that perhaps being the 'everyman' didn't always mean staying on the perfectly manicured lawn.