John: Meet the )(eiress (Private)

[nintendonut1]

(Mugen, I'm putting this thread in Off the Beaten Path since it takes place in the Dream Bubbles. If you feel like it should go elsewhere we can always move it.

Also, this takes place... I'm gonna say after John met up with Dad but before Karkat is brought in.)

Without the pressures and terrors of the game weighing him down, John found sleep much easier nowadays. It was no Skaia or Prospit or whatever, but Dreamland seemed most appealing in this world. A loss of conscious thought, digging into the strange, deep mechanisms of the subconscious. You know, how dreams are SUPPOSED to work.

So he was confused when this time he was able to acknowledge himself standing in darkness. Which in itself was a surreal sensation.

Then he spotted splashes of color, growing larger by the second. With glowing slivers of slitted eyes.

Then shrill laughter echoed around him and that's when he started to flip out.

It was as if this realization had immediately caught their attention, because suddenly they swarmed him like hoard of roaring wasps. He wasn't sure if he had screamed or if he was trying to, or why he didn't remember that he was FAR from defenseless and could probably wipe them all out in one blow. All he knew was that he was terrified beyond all rational thought as he uselessly swatted at their cackling faces and searched for some way out, some kind of escape!!

Primal night terrors got the best of everyone, even a young god.

[mugenginga]

Feferi frowned to herself as she peeked into more dream bubbles. That was really rude of Jade, she'd just been trying to be friendly! It wasn't that big a deal she was dead, right? She'd been friendly and that rabbit had been super cute! But Jade had gotten so scared and woken up and she'd been looking for her forever now and jeez! It had just been really rude!

So what it came down to what was happening as she peeked into various dream bubbles was a giant pouting fit. One that she came out of only when she pulled herself out of a dream bubble just in time to do a classic double take. Who was that? She was pretty sure she'd never met him before! It was definitely a human like Jade was, and the outfit kind of reminded her of some other dream bubbles she'd seen of her friends. But if he was a god tier why was he flipping out so badly?

Feferi popped into the dream bubble after a moment's consideration and found she could fly (well, swim. It really felt more like swimming) through the darkness. So she came up to float a bit back from where John was flailing with the kind of cute cackling things.

")(ello! Is t)(ere a reasean you're screaming?" Feferi asked. She frowned at the lack of immediate response, "Um, excuse me! You're being really rude! You s)(ould at least say somet)(ing!"

[nintendonut1]

Amongst all the cackling, John thought he heard a voice. At first he thought he recognized it as Jade or Nepeta or Rose or SOMEone who could save him from this nightmare, but none of the girls he knew had that kind of high-pitched waviness to their voice. Either way it was welcoming among the terrors surrounding him.

He turned back towards the source of the voice and found himself face-to-face with OH GOD SHARK-TOOTH GRIN.

"uhhhhaaAAAAGGGHH!!!!" John only flailed more, tripping over his own two feet and kissing the nonexistent floor hard with his face. The laughter around him took to a mocking tone in response.

"sh-shut up! shut up!!!" he hollered in a mixture of pure terror and unbridled frustration, pulling his hood over his face and covering his ears. Even then, he still managed to hear that voice again, expressing her perturbation, and he faltered just a bit. Was it just another trick? Well... it was worth a shot??

"sorry, i'm kind of up to my neck in scary-ass clowns here!!" he shouted again without looking up, hoping she could hear him. "oh god oh shit oh god make them go away please oh god."

[mugenginga]

Feferi looked really annoyed as the new human ignored her. What was his problem, these things weren't scary at all! They were totally kind of cute! She was swimming around to get a better look at the boy, maybe if she addressed him from the front he'd respond better, just when John responded about "scary-ass clowns". Clowns totally weren't scary! They made awesome allies! And these things definitely weren't clowns!

Well, in any case, the boy seemed kind of frightened. Feferi thought for a moment and then a big grin spread on face. She swam down below the boy (she wasn't quite sure how he was acting as if the ground was solid. Even with how good of a swimmer she was she couldn't do that) and then quickly swam up, coming up just in front of and then above him. She grabbed the top of his long hat and pulled up, kicking her legs to pull him upwards with her.

"Come on, silly! Swim up, t)(ere's not)(ing to be afraid of! Sea?"

[nintendonut1]

When the laughter didn't die down, John was pretty much convinced he was fucked. He probably insulted his only escape out of here and now he was all alone and fuck would these assholes ever stop laughing at him--!!

"unhwhoa! waaaghh!!!" He first choked and grunted a bit when he was pulled up by the tail of his hood, and then he flailed a bit in panic, thinking they were finally taking initiative, that they were gonna drag him around and saw him in half or throw knives at him or some shit like that.

But then the voice spoke again. She hadn't left after all. "o...oh."

A bit desperately, he kicked his legs, pushing against nothing, but still feeling an upward pull. The laughter began to die down into a gentle roar that echoed in his ears, like he was underwater. He opened his eyes and loosened the grip on his hood, observing the darkness that also began to fade into a gradient of blue. He even looked up and playful beams of light scattered through the atmosphere that was just like water but not really like water, because hell if he wasn't breathing perfectly fine right now.

Well... he'd have to catch his breath first. Because it was stolen away by the silhouette of a lovely girl against the light beams. The girl that was currently saving his ass.