1st Pounce

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

[...It really hasn't been all that long since she's had a regular dream, but it feels like it's been forever. Derse was destroyed, after all, so by all right she shouldn't even be dreaming right now.

But that's okay. Given what's been happening lately, dreams that shouldn't be are pretty low on the list of weird stuff.

In her dream, Nepeta is the huntress. It's her. She's back in the Land of Little Cubes and Tea, where the ground is made of sugar cubes and waterfalls are made of every sort of tea imaginable. She's crouched behind a small hill of sugar cubes, watching for prey.

And should she see any living creature at all, she will pounce. Will you see her, green and gray against the white of the sugar cubes, and approach her from behind - or will she tackle you to the ground instead?]

Comments

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

[Nepeta nods, just once, barely perceptible. She reaches up and removes Equius' shades, sits up straight, and for once there's no playful sparkle in the green-blooded troll's eyes.

Were she anyone else, she'd question why what must surely be a figment of her own imagination doesn't know what happened. Maybe that's her imagination's way of softening the blow. And now she'd gone and ruined it by talking about what happened.]

I should have gotten there faster. You were probably the only one strong enough to stop him, but...

[She trails off, and that she chose not to insert a cat pun into the word "probably" speaks volumes about her mood. She's pretty sure the only way Equius would've been able to attack Gamzee at all was if he'd gotten to her first. She knows her moirail better than anyone else, after all, and the fact that someone as powerful as Equius died at all is enough to give her a more or less accurate guess as to what happened before she arrived.

She wants to punch him, because that is the stupidest reason to die she has ever heard, or - witnessed, but instead she shakes her head. She's the cheerful one, dammit, and she's going to work through this for as long as she's got left.]

...But I guess that doesn't really matter now, huh? I mean, it worked out for the best, I think! I told you we'd see each other again, and here we are, so it's almost exactly like I said!

[allofthetowels.livejournal.com]

[He's dead. He's dead. He'd gone in a manner that was socially acceptable and he's dead. He was weak and the situation was convenient and most of all he was selfish because Gamzee was finally there and he let himself want too much, he let himself beg without outright begging for it and none of that would have mattered because he is dead and Nepeta is here with him and there's no way unless -

He doesn't so much as blink up at her when she takes off his sunglasses. His eyes are still, almost hardened.]

And where will you be when you wake up again.

[Say it. Tell me. Because they both already know, Equius is only going to see the dark backs of his eyelids.]

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

Um.

[Nepeta fidgets a little. This is going to make Equius angry, she just knows it. He does hate it when she doesn't listen to him. And this time the consequences are enormous.]

I already told you, remember? I couldn't let him get away with it. So I...pounced out of the grate.

[allofthetowels.livejournal.com]

[Equius is many things. One of them is a hypocrite. A hypocrite of skill many would marvel at, even more impressive is his ability to overlook how much of a hypocrite he is. And right now it's easy. Because all he can do is see blue and his veins are more prominent than ever before he sits up, easily and topples Nepeta off of him without touching her.

He's going to go off to a large mountain of sugary cubes and without missing a beat, STRONGPUNCH it and watch it cave in on itself.

He wishes there were imps. Imps everyone. Foolish inferior things, they bruised and blemished and he could hit them all.]

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

[Nepeta watches the mountain crumble for a few seconds, and then she bounds over to Equius and peeks up at him.]

I think we should have a feelings jam.

[Even though she made this proposition, she's already crouching to tackle him in case he refuses. Being someone's moirail isn't always pleasant!]

[allofthetowels.livejournal.com]

I refuse.

[NO IT ISN'T and Equius doesn't even wheel around when he grounds it out. Instead he walks farther off and in the distance, bright blobs of color suddenly appear.

It's not long before they approach closer, jibber-jabbring in impish tongue as they do. Their stay isn't very long however, they go sailing and screeching back up into the air once they meet Equius' fists.

If you give him ten minutes, chances are he'll create a pile of defeated imps for you |D]

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

[Nepeta frowns and, in typical Nepeta fashion, decides to bother him incessantly, even while he's beating the ever-loving tar out of the imps.]

Equius! This is really impurrtant and we NEED to talk about it, because you are dead and I think I am purrobably going to die soon, and even if you are not real you are still my meowrail!

[allofthetowels.livejournal.com]

[PUNCH. PUNCH. PUNCH. PUNCH.

-wait.]

Don't be absurd.

[He knocks out another imp without even looking at it. It lands heavily in a heap atop the others. It is without a doubt a pile of IMPS.]

I am as real as the pain caused by my bulging muscle.

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

[Nepeta tilts her head inquisitively, and gives the pile of imps a good long look.

Then she crouches low, wiggles her rear end for effect, and pounces.]

[allofthetowels.livejournal.com]

[Whether or not he had punched through the aggression that had snapped in his blue blooded veins, it doesn't matter because his moirail's safety predominates over everything else and he goes down, much like before. Except this time in the pile of imps.

...]

Fiddlesticks.

[Now nothing is sacred.]

1/2

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

[Nepeta laughs and sits on Equius' chest.]

If you want me to get up, you have to make me!

[But she's fully confident he won't, so she continues to speak.]

Okay, so furrst I need to say something really impurrtant!

2/2

[trollplayer.livejournal.com]

I know you're angry, but it's okay! I do not regret what I did at all. I would be the crappiest moirail in the entire unifurse if I didn't try to avenge you! And that is all there is to say about the matter.