The Night Terror

The Night Terror is Alice's hero alter ego, a shapeshifting kaiju that she controls multiple times every night through her dreams.

Biology

Appearance

The Night Terror is entirely black in color, with no discernable features (including eyes) on its body. It has the ability to shapeshift, but it most often exists as a formless blob slightly taller and bulkier than the average human. It is capable of shrinking down to approximately the size of a cat and growing to a much larger size (up to 30 feet tall or more).

When it has limbs, it typically has two arms and two legs, or two legs and two wings, though it will occasionally have both arms and wings. It can also have a tail. Its larger forms often resemble a mythical creature such as a dragon or werewolf.

The Night Terror's body remains at room temperature, but this can change with its emotions. Feelings like love and anger change it to warm/hot, while discomfort and fear make it colder.

Abilities

Along with the ability to shapeshift, the Night Terror has the power to move across large distances by traveling through a shadow dimension, though this has some limitations. It can only reach one of three types of destination: a random location nearby, somewhere it can see clearly, or Cecil's location. This transportation isn't an instant teleport, and the time it takes to move through the shadows varies depending on the distance traveled. It can take several minutes to move across a continent, and space travel would be impossible as Alice's dream would end before the Terror ever reached its destination.

When shapeshifted into the optimal form for it, the Night Terror's bite force exceeds anything the GDA has recorded, and it is capable of causing damage to materials that the agency once thought were unbreakable. Its bite is its most powerful weapon, though it can form claws that could easily kill lesser targets as well.

The Night Terror can be defeated, but killing it for good is impossible as long as Alice is unharmed. If the Terror is sufficiently damaged, it will disappear for several minutes before reappearing again, and it will continue to return until Alice's dream ends.

Minor powers include good vision in darkness, flight when it has wings, superhuman reflexes (but not super speed), and the ability to see the contents of the White Rooms in the GDA due to its sight being separate from Alice's human eyes. It also doesn't need to breathe.

Weaknesses

The Night Terror only exists while Alice is dreaming, and though her powers also come with increased REM sleep compared to a normal adult human, use of the Terror is still unreliable.

Intelligence

The Night Terror's lack of intelligence is one of its greatest weaknesses, as without the part of Alice's brain responsible for critical thinking, it isn't much smarter than a (non-human) animal. It has been shown failing at tasks that a small child would easily get through, such as recognizing itself in a mirror and solving a block puzzle meant for toddlers.

Its memory is very poor, only storing events clearly for a few minutes before they're forgotten. It is capable of recalling who is a friend or foe, though it doesn't know much else. Excluding Cecil, it can't remember anyone's name, and it easily misunderstands people's words (though it's unlikely to listen to most orders unless they come from Cecil anyway).

Biography

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Personality

The Night Terror is curious, easily distracted, and skittish. It tends to run if it encounters a human it doesn't know, but it will quickly resort to violence if it recognizes an enemy. Alice's thoughts during the day can enter its mind if they're repetitive enough, making her worries the most likely thing to get through to the Terror. Despite this, it still acts for what it believes to be self-protection, ignoring her logical thoughts that its "death" is temporary and far less consequential than a human's.

It does manage to listen when she worries about it being too affectionate towards Cecil, as she's more familiar with denying her feelings than being in a life-or-death scenario when she's awake. That still doesn't keep it from kissing him after a battle.

Interests

The Night Terror likes plushies (as Alice does) and can be distracted for a short time by simple toys. It enjoys flying and exploring nature, though the opportunities it has for such activities are limited. If it doesn't have anything to do, it is likely to try moving to Cecil's location.

Notes

• The Night Terror is usually drawn by the author with a visible mouth, even though the story describes the Terror as just a black void. Liberties can be taken with its appearance in art, including adding eyes.
• Its behavior, abilities, and appearance are all heavily based on the author's experience with their own dreams.
• The humanoid form of the Night Terror was originally planned to have six fingers on each hand (another reference to the author's dream self), but this design hasn't ever been implemented.
• The Night Terror uses it/its pronouns instead of she/her like Alice. At one point in A Dream Come True, its inner thoughts reference being a man or woman on occasion, but its pronouns never change in the story.

Gallery

More pictures can be found in the Gallery.