In the wrong place at the wrong time

You look at the coon as you take off your pants. You don't have any spares and you'll need to wear something as you drive back to your hive. You exam  the coon as you walk around it. When was the last time you slept in one? It had been at lest a petigree. You climb in feet first before curling into it so that your head is under the sopor. You blow bubbles in the slime with your nose you never quite understood how you could breathe in it. You accidently yawn while still under and get a mouthful and swollow it... This was going to be a fun day.

You slept peacefully at first, tossing and turning in your sleep as per usual. Your dream began innocently enough, you were swimming among a pod of dolphins. They migrated to your sea to breed twice a sweep and you enjoyed swimming with them when you had the chance. Before you could realize, you were swimming towards the trench. You couldn't swim away from the pod, and you were swimming across the gaping maw in the seafloor. The black seam seemed to widen, the other edge of the trench forever growing farther away. Something grabbed you by your ankle, and you looked down to see- to see you, grinning darkly up at you. No, it was Erisie. You just knew it was her. She dragged you down into the darkness as you clawed and screamed.

The scream in your dream carried into reality as you woke, escaping your throat as you sat and clutched your head.

You don't sleep as much as just stare out blankly at the bottom of the coon. You have not accidently swollowed this much sopor slime since your hazing days when you first joined the Carnival. Holy shit were you tripping the entire day. You aren't sure what was real, what was sleep, and what was dream. Every time you tried to get it out of your mouth more would come in. This will be fun to explaine when you finally get out of the coon...

Your shriek lasted at least fifteen seconds before you smothered it. You hugged yourself, sobbing, bone achingly terrified. You'd had daymares about the trench before... but this one seemed worse than before. Because you knew exactly what it felt like to cross the crack in the ocean. You could practically feel Erisie's nails digging into your ankle. The memory of that suffocating darkness was all too real, each time you shut your eyes you could see the waterlogged faces of the drowned sailors that got sucked into the trench with you. You couldn't calm down, you couldn't get a handle on yourself, and your crying just got louder as you sat in your coon. Phobee sat on the edge of your coon, making worried murmurs at you.

You jerk out of the coon when the scream reaches your ears. You weren't sure at first if it was real or a slime dream. But the screams were real. You hurriedly climb out, you might have broken the coon a bit in your rush. Getting on your pants were a challenge. Your head spun from the amount of slime you had injested. You would rush up the steps, slipping a little since you were still covered in the slime.

Eisire! Are you alright?!

The slime was still playing havoc on you. Your head span and everything seemed in brighter colors then the should be when you enter her room. Even threw all this you can tell she is crying. You walk over to her and hold her gently, lifting her out of her coon to hold her tight.

Its alright... It's only a daymare...

You hug her and rock her gently like your lusus used to do to you. You even hum the song that he did, it wasn't much of a song as melodic rythums.

You don't realize that you aren't alone until Aarush scoops you from your coon. You cling to him, burying your face in the crook of his neck. Slowly you calm, your sobs turning into hiccups. You relax in his arms, your fingers no longer digging into his skin. "S-sorry I woke you... It was a really bad daymare..." You sniff, wiping your nose on the long sleeve of your shirt, then close your eyes, listening to his humming. Your shoulders bounced as you hiccuped, a typical side effect of your crying. The terror of the daymare was leaving you, you felt oddly safe in his arms.

You smile. She was alright for the most part. You gently remove the hair from her face before kissing her gently.

It is alright Princess... I will not leave you.

You have desided. You will not leave her side. Maybe it was the sopor in your brain but the way she looked, so scared. You could not imagain her alone out on this island. Yes she had the dragons, but the pirates of this area were know to be cunning and ruthless. And she was all alone... You hug her tighter, before resting your head back agenst the coon. Fuck your head was fucked up. How much of that stuff did you swollow? It was almost painful.

You were already feeling yourself drifting towards sleep again. The pair of you were covered in sopor and the smell of it was making you tired. You manage a sleepy smile before falling asleep again, feeling safe and protected. Your head lolls onto his shoulder, your mouth slightly open, your teeth resting gently on the inside of your lip. The hiccups were gone, the only sign of the daymare being the dried pink tear-stains on your cheeks. Phobee, still sat on the edge of your coon, wanders over to where Aarush's head rested against it, lying down and resting her little head and paws on his head.

You bite back a screem. Dragons plus sopor equaled some sort of strange creature thing that you did not need to be seeing. But you stay silent, she needed her sleep, and you apparently didn't for the rest of your life. You close your eyes and continue to hold her. You try to keep yourself calm by controlling your breathing, but every move the dragon makes sends chills up your spine and your sopor addled mind reeling. When the moons finally rise you are still nowhere close to 'clear headed.'

Phobee, who did not appreciate that this new troll was paying her no attention, took notice that with every move she made he seemed to react negatively. So she timed her wriggles, moving when it seemed like he had started to relax again.

You wake in the evening, a little stiff from being curled up for the rest of the day. You yawn, smiling sleepily up at Aarush. "Good evening." You pick up Phobee and set her on the floor, wondering how long she was napping there. You look up at Aaursh, a little embarrassed that you'd slept in his arms. Then you pause, he looked pretty awful. "Aarush are you alright?"

I'm fine...

You sound anything but fine. You sound like someone had replaced your voice with a squeaky toy. Your whole body was stiff from watching the dragon ready to flip. You are defently feverish and a bit sweaty, tho you don't know if it's from the side effects from the sopor or your actual illness. You just know that right now you hate receptacoons and you really do not like that dragon.

Phobee preened herself, acting like she had done no wrong and was completely innocent. You're concern for Aarush grows and you gently help him to his feet. "Lets get some coffee and food into you ok?" You help him down the stairs and into the kitchen, sitting him down in a chair and pushing his hair from his face. You turned the coffee machine on then pulled out a pair of cups, wondering how appropriate it was to be walking around in your nightshirt. Then again, it was very long, with the hem ending just above your knees. You rolled the sleeves up to your elbows and opened the fridge. You could never find anything in this mess. You just stood in front of the fridge biting your thumbnail and trying to look for something that might be breakfast food.

You are shaking a bit as you walk. Oh fuck slime. Really, right now. Fuck it. Everything looked weird, or was becoming weird. You're used to drinking soporifics but raw slime? Hell. Fucking. No. You sit at the table and cover your head with your arms. Today was going to suck big time. If you were at home you would have just curled up on the couch and not do anything and wait for this to pass. But you are not home, you have to get home. How the hells are you going to drive like this? You bong your head hard down onto the table. Today was not going to be a good day.

You bring him a mug full of coffee, chewing on your lip and unsure what to do. You stand behind him, hesitating at first then gently rubbing his back with your small, cool hands. "Aarush, you look terrible... Maybe you should lie down on the sofa while I figure out breakfast."

You slowly worked the knots from his shoulders and neck, you felt bad that he'd sat with you all day long. He could have just stuck you back in your coon... but you're kinda happy he held you instead. You had definitely slept better in his arms that in your coon. Not that you would ever admit that.

I err... accidentally swallowed some slime as I err... went in the coon...

You take the coffee in your hands and drink it. Normally you don't drink coffee black like this. But with your tongue practically numb from all the slime, you can't taste a thing. Not that it helped that you were seeing little monsters with tentacles inside your cup... Nope, no coffee. You cover the top of your mug with your hands as you push it away.

I'm fine... Really...eheheha~

Now you were starting to see tentacles come from her hair. Do. Not. Panic. Don't panic. It's only the slime... It's only the slime...

Your eyes widen slightly. You had felt completely out of your mind when you had tried sopor that one time. Never again. He was definitely not okay. You thought hard for a few minutes, thinking about the chemical components of sopor. You stood biting your thumbnail as you thought, then blinked a few times when you remembered something you had read.

You grabbed a glass from the cuboard and the milk carton from the fridge, placing both on the table in front of Aarush. "Milk can help ending sopor hallucinations early." You poured him a glass before sitting and quietly drinking your coffee.

You sort of just stare at her. Things were going a bit weirder now, as if your mind had not had a bunch of things just happen to it, you were starting to see the kitchen sort of melt together into one big ooze of tentacles gripping and clawing at you. Eisire's hand turned into a tentacle, the milk turned into a tentacle, you were a tentacle. You were tripping so hard right now you didn't know how to speak. You just stared down at the table and hoped to the messiahs that that wouldn't turn into a tentacle too and just stay at changing into weird colors and looking like a hoof-beast. You don't even understand what she is saying. You just nod your head slowly  and try not to scream like a wriggler. You probably would have broken down already if you had been alone.

You felt useless all over again. He seemed to be getting worse, but there wasn't much you could do but wait for the sopor to run its course. You drew your knees to your chest, watching on worriedly. Your mind was still racing from what happened last morning; he had told you he was flushed for you, asked you on a date, and kissed you twice. You were rather nervous, especially since what happened to your last matesprit... But you had Erisie under control now, and you hadn't had an episode since. Or, at least you liked to think you had Erisie under control...

You just set your head on the table. It was cool, okay hoof-beasts are not cool. So your mind was mostly able to put that hallucination out of business. You glance at Eisire, shit she looked worried.

I'm fine really... I used to eat alot more of this stuff when I was a wriggler

You laugh, it was true. In the Carnivals it was sometimes used as a way to get closer to the Messiahs in some rituals, and you used to have a bad thing about trying to breathe in the slime with your mouth open as a kid. But you haven't participated in any of those rituals in a long, long time, or really slept in a coon.

You push back from the table. You should really stop acting like a wriggler, you had things you needed to do. But you couldn't drive, you could barely walk. Maybe you have one of your Ancestor's journals with you? It's a long shot but you don't remember if you had taken them out of your 'dex after your last question's. You start looking threw it and what do you know... You have one of them. Doesn't look like the day was going to be a complete waste. You hold it up to Eisire to show her, and take a step and fall flat on your face. Oh right... You had stood on the chair.

"Aarush!" You're on the floor beside him in an instant, knowing you should have intervened when he decided to stand on the chair. Leaving the book on the floor, you help Aarush up and over to the sofa. "Just... Lay down and try to sleep this off okay?" You help him get comfortable then return to the kitchen for the milk, hoping you can get him to drink some. As an afterthought, you pick up the book as well, then return and set both on the coffee table.

"Whats that?" You ask, pointing to the strange book, and sitting down in your armchair.

Ah shit... Why the hell I do that?

You grumble to yourself as you are sat on the couch. You rub your chin where you had banged it, at least your bones are bloody hard. You lay down on your side on the soft cusions.

You're right... I just can't win these days can I?

You chuckle to yourself. Eisire was still the prettiest thing you have ever seen tentacle hair and all.

That book is one of the volumes of my Anestor's journal. Most of them are just ramblings about how he planned to gain immortality or some thing like that, but he did end up getting a lot of power.

A yawn splits your face as you stretch and get more comfortable on the couch.

He did a lot of research with the 'voodoo's and spirits. They ended up calling him the Clown Prince, say his power up in the mountains rivaled that of the Grand Highblood back in the day. If he was so strong tho... I wonder how come he never  became one of the )(IC's favs...

You really did look up to your ancestor. If he hadn't gone mad you think he might have been pretty awesome.

You ran your fingers through your hair several times, it always felt so gross when there was dried sopor in it. There was a reason why you showed the moment you got out of your coon. You tilt your head as Aaursh talks, curious. "Hopefully he might be able to enlighten you on whats going on." His ancestors name sounded familiar, but you couldn't quite place it. "My ancestor left me a concise diary of her personal life, most of the books I have from her is on genetic manipulation and creature creation. She took the name of the Designer." You smiled, your ancestor had left big shoes to fill, something the Empress demanded you do.

"I have to get the sopor out of my hair or its going to start matting, so I'm gonna jump in the shower. Try to drink that milk and take a nap, ok?" You hop out of your chair and go upstairs, and soon you are working at getting your hair clean. Then it hits you- you had met the Clown Prince. He had possessed Aarush. Didn't he know?

You mull it over as you get ready for the night, braiding your hair back and pulling on the first t'shirt and pair of shorts you find. By the time you've returned downstairs, you've decided that you needed to wait for Aarush to get better before approaching the topic.

You nod.

Hopefully what we can make out of his ramblings and what not... He really loses it twords the end. There's a story that he went completely nuts and culled his entire Carnival before just vanishing into the forest. But no one can take on that many trolls I mean... to classify as a Carnival he would have to cull hundreds of our caste... It's probably another one of those legends that just grew bigger with every telling...

You take the glass of milk and drink it as you lay down, just pouring the liquid into your mouth.

But fuck... What if it was true... How the hell did he pull that off? Maybe this is all just untapped power I'm getting into?

You mull that over for a while in your head as you drink your milk. It was a bit worrying to think about. What if the power was what made your Ancestor insane? For a brief moment your heart seemed to stop as you thought about what if you were going insane and that's why you had been getting all these deadly black outs and the new powers coming were just a sign of how far gone you were. You look at Eisire as you set the empty glass down near you on the floor, no the only insane things that were happening to you right now were from the slime. You'd really like to stop seeing tentacles... It was getting a bit suggestive and mimicking your deeper thoughts a bit too much.

As you bend down to pick up the glass, you plant a quick kiss on Aarush's forehead. "Please try to take a nap. It will do you good." You refill the glass and set it on the coffee table, then pick up your book. You settle in your armchair again, like hell he was getting up until he took a nap. You also didn't want him doing anything stupid... like standing on the kitchen chair and stepping right off of it. You hoped that the milk would counteract some of the sopor. Otherwise, you'd need to do some research to find another remedy. Perhaps one of your chemistry books would help, then again the majority of your books were in the underwater portion of your hive.

You would settle back and close your eyes. As predicted your dreams were too weird to be considered daymares, but not good enough to be considered normal dreams. It was like a weird mix of the two. Still it was better to sleep like this then in a blasted coon. Maybe you just avoid coons for good... but Eisire slept in a coon. You wouldn't mind climbing into a coon with her. A goofy smile crosses your face as you sleep and you hug a pillow to yourself tightly thinking it was her.

Mmm... I love you Princess...

Sopor did have this other side effect on you. You tended to talk more in your sleep.