seasonsrpg | *Yoshi-p voice* NIGHTMARE

WHO: Tsutomu and youuuuu
WHAT: Tsutomu is in the wilderness thanks to the concerning noises he is forming from his night terrors. Perhaps they catch your ear?
WHEN: Sometime after Halloween
WHERE: Somewhere half a day's walk away from the city in the Spring segment, but quicker by airship or teleportation.
WARNINGS: Unsure how much Tsutomu is willing to share of himself to someone he's just met, but if it somehow comes down to it, there could be possible mentions of trauma, abuse, and PTSD behaviors

It starts as whimpers.

A small camp is settled nearby. There's a well built fire pit with a good foundation and surrounded by rocks. Whoever made it clearly has experience with the outdoors. A makeshift tent that's crude yet sturdy lies facing the fire. Next to the tent is a makeshift clothesline, holding up a humble, dampened yukata.

The whimpers grow louder, and turn into concerning groans that can be heard from a distance, likely attracting nearby life or passerbys.

Near the fire are sticks stuck into the ground, sharpened at the tip. One of the sticks has a half eaten fish impaled on it. A meal unfinished. Tsutomu is inside the tent, sleeping atop of a cloth protecting him from the ground. He's wearing his hakama, but his torso is bare, his clothes drying outside. What is he doing here? Why is he out in the wild when a safe and warm apartment waits for him in Nightwake? Why is he so troubled in his sleep?

The groans and whimpers turn into a terrified scream. Tsutomu thrashes about, his eyes kept shut.

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A loud, terrified gasp makes its way out of Tsutomu's mouth when his leg is grabbed.

The corpses now come out of the ground, grasping at his legs, ready to drag him down to hell.

"No! NO!!" Tsutomu shakes at the hand at his leg, and curls up into a fetal position, his arms clinging onto his head.

"Don't take me! There's so much I still need to atone for! I'm not ready!"

E'kayan's grip wasn't a tight one and is immediately released when the man struggles against him. His ears prick up, the fur on the end of his tail puffing out slightly, and though he's not sure if Tsutomu is actually awake or not now he scoots around him a little so he's more at his side than seeming like he's sneaking up on him.

"I'm not trying to take you anywhere."

Hmmm...

"You're having a bad dream."

Normally a bad dream just had Tsutomu murmuring to himself or whimpering or screaming in his sleep. Perhaps with an outside party intervening, Tsutomu appears to be speaking more coherently.

But alas, a night terror was hard to wake up from, and Tsutomu still sleeps, his body curled up, his stress-graying hair seemingly about to be ripped off of his scalp with his hard Tsutomu was clinging to his head.

I'm not trying to take you anywhere. You're having a bad dream.

But it seems the stranger's words seem to have reached him regardless. His body relaxes. He hears those gentle words, but in his ears, they come from a gentle woman.

"Bad dream?

...

Mother...?"

For all the things he's been through and the nightmares that come out of it, night terrors aren't something that he's ever had to deal with too much. At least, not that he really remembers.

He stays sat back on his heels, his tail flicking idly back and forth, and watches as the man slowly comes around from his frightening dream. Rather than touch him again he just listens, his head cocking slightly at the words he hears.

"No, I-- I found you out here."

If he's getting into this sort of state, E'kayan really has to question if it's safe for him to be out here like this.

"Try to open your eyes, okay?"

"Mother..."

The woman gently embraces her son, comforting his trembling state.

"I found you out here." She gently soothes, but it only gives Tsutomu confusion. He wants to ask what she means, but she begins to fade.

"Wait, mother!"

Try to open your eyes, okay?

"Huh? Why would I...?"

Tsutomu jolts awake and gasps for breath. His head is pounding, darting around until he spots a person next to him.

"GAH!"

He's expecting a bit of a jolt when the man wakes up but not a yell loud enough to wake several birds sleeping in the surrounding trees. The Miqo'te flinches back from his balanced crouch, yelping slightly as his ass hits the floor and the fur at the end of his tail puffs up in alarm.

"Whoa!"

Then his ears pin back and he looks around quickly.

"Keep your voice down, who knows what's out here."

"Huh, wha?? Who are you?"

Tsutomu slowly comes to, eyes adjusting to the darkness. As he begins to see, the samurai notices the familiar-looking ears atop a young man.

"...A miqo'te? Why is...am I back in the Twelveswood?"

A blink, then a snort.

"The Twelveswood?"

Yes, he knows that there are Miqo'te in the Twelveswood, though he can't for a moment understand why this man would think he was there of all places.

"You're not in the Twelveswood. You fell asleep in the forest and were shouting in your sleep loud enough to draw anything from half a mile away."

And E'kayan's accent, should Tsutomu have enough mental clarity to notice, is distinctly Lominsan.

"Ah. Oh..." Tsutomu's eyes widen before he turned downcast, greatly disappointed by the miqo'te's answer.

"So I'm in a forest but not the Twelveswood? Then I guess I'm still in Ellipsa."

There's a moment of silence as his holes of everything being a dream were shattered. But the silence is immediately interrupted when Tsutomu realizes what the (apparently Limsan from the sounds of it) miqo'te just said.

"Wait, is that why you're here!? You heard me??" Oh Gods. Oh no. Tsutomu's face is a ruby tomato right now.

The level of confusion is perplexing. Did the man really not know where he was..? It must have been quite the nightmare to leave him so unaware of his surroundings. Then the man speaks out again and E'kayan cannot quite help but put a hand to his face in brief agitation.

"I told you, stop shouting. Don't you have any sense?"

He shifts to a more comfortable sitting position and shakes his head, one of his ears flicking as he hears a noise from somewhere in the trees. Not too close, thankfully.

"But yeah, that's why I'm here. Most people would come and look for somebody they could hear yelling in the middle of the night. You could have been hurt."

Tsutomu buries his face in a palm, desperately trying to hide his embarrassment.

"That's the whole point of me being out here! I'm trying not to be heard by others and attract attention..."

Uh... huh. He's clearly not doing a very good job of that, but then, most people aren't out here wandering around to hear him.

"Don't you think you'd be safer if you weren't in the middle of nowhere..?"

As isolated as this is, Tsutomu isn't really giving him the impression of someone who is going to be able to jump up and defend himself if something happens, just now.

"This seems... extreme."

Yoshi-p voice NIGHTMARE

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