L'ecole d'Idiots

Okami simply smiled before walking after her, putting a hand on her shoulder to slow her pace.

"Hey, werewolf, remember? I've got a good chance at finding the food."

~ = ~

"Dude!" Justin called after him, a bit lost to the reason as to why James left. "I'm not gay! I don't care if you change in here or not!"

As he said this,he idly wandered around the room, tugging off his jeans and pulling on a pair of cotton, black and red plaid sleep-pants, tying the strings. Then, sucking in a deep breath, he pulled off his shirt, exposing the ugly, fresh scars to the midnight air.

Who the hell left the window open...

"Pffft fine. I'd probably only get us hopelessly lost anyway," she gave in, hopping from foot to foot impatiently. She could just tell that black would soon leak into the edges of her vision. Then her head would start killing her again. Then she would feel like a weightless balloon, then she would fall over, unconscious. The girl really wanted to avoid putting Okami through the annoyance of having to deal with that.

~~~

James returned a minute layer, yawning and scratching the back of his head.
"Sorry, didn't know if you were comfortable with changing in the same room or not. A childhood friend of mine had this phobia with that, so I try to respect everyone's privacy if I can."
He flopped on his bed with a sigh.

"Turn around." Was the only direction he gave her, grinning.

~ = ~

"Yeah, well, this kid must'a thought you were gay or something." Justin tugged a deeper red t-shirt over his head and moved to lay on his own bed, patting out a wrinkle.

".... So how's this gonna work?"

Leah sighed dramatically, and spun on her heel, then shrieking as the building suddenly came into view. Yeah. She was getting dizzy now. Bad sign.
"You found it! Let's go!"
Hopefully some extra enthusiasm would cover up her swiftly declining physical state.

~~~

"Actually she was a girl and she had this really bad skin condition, and she refused to go swimming with me. This was when we were like, seven. So it wasn't at the point of awkward guy-girl relationships. She just hated showing any skin, and seeing other people with a lot of skin showing freaked her out a bit. I dunno. Anyway. I think after I fall asleep, I'll talk to someone about how to bring you through and that'll work. If it doens't, well you obviously won't be sleeping tonight."
He shrugged.
"You gonna get the lights? They're closer to you."

He laughed, not missing the misstep of exhaustion, running closely behind her in case she ever stumbled along the way.

~ = ~

Justin flicked the switch. There wasn't much else to say.

She threw open the doors of the cafeteria with gusto, surprised that she didn't lose her balance in the act.
The building was huge. It looked like a foodcourt in a mall. In fact...

Leah blinked, and swayed slightly, before shaking her head and marching off to the closest food stand. It didn't matter that this didn't resemble a cafeteria in the least. It didn't matter that there were screaming people and drops of blood flying as people bit into each others necks outside the gates of said "court".

She just wanted food.

~~~

James sighed and closed his eyes, forcing himself to let the exhaustion of the day take him over. Hopefully sleep would come quickly.

Okami blinked at the carnage surrounding him before grabbing Leah by the arm and pulling her out with all his might and a shout, shuttin the door.

"Shit! That was crazy!" Panting he could only look at her. "... Why the hell did you go in there?! Look, I've got food, I remember, I have Chex Mix in my bag! Eat that!"

~ = ~

Justin watched as the boy relaxed and fell to asleep, unable to fight off his envy. Lucky humans...

"Well you could have told me that when we were back in our room!"
Finally her cheerful facade was cracking. And her vision was starting to go dark. Wonderful.
"I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it back to our room," she muttered, shaking her head again to try to clear her vision.

~~~

Camden sighed in relief as he appeared in the Lucid realm. Finally he would get to see Rowan and tell her-...Right. She wasn't going to sleep tonight. He would be all alo-....no. That Justin kid. Something about him...
There was a crackle as a new figure appeared a few feet in front of him.

(cue Lucy. XD you can write her, just text me if ya have any questions about what she can and can't do and whatnot)

Okami yelped as she fell, catching the girl, shocked at ho thin she was. And how light. Unsure of what else he could do, he hoisted Leah into her arms and carried her bridal style to their room.

~ = ~

"Eyyo!" Lucy exclaimed, grinning like the cheshire cat. "What can I help ya with, Camden? A little relaxation, maybe some favours, a nice sex doll, whatever ya need!"

She paused.

Then jabbed her middle finger at him accusingly.

"But don't you dare hurt my Jubby."

Leah grinned as she stepped into the familiar roiling darkness of the Nightmare realm. She felt so empowered here.
There was a whoosh of hot air as a Nightmare appeared before her.It was small and catlike, with dark, crusty red skin that crackled and oozed a clear, bubbling liquid with each little movement. Small chunks of red skin flaked off. Its eyes were a nasty yellow-greenish color that had little specks of red in them. It had no pupils or irises.

"You have returned early! Why, pray tell, do you grace us with your heavenly presence now, Leah?"
Said girl smiled sweetly as she walked right up to the creature and patted it on the head, causing it to yowl in pain. She had quickly discovered that the Nightmares hated her touch.

"Decided to take a little nap so I could check up on how everything's coming. Tell me, what say you to the possibility of bringing another person here to join our cause?"

The creature crouched down, as if trying to sink into the floor under her intense gaze and replied meekly, "If they are anything near as powerful as you, then I say we would be assured victory."

"Mmm, I'm not so sure you're speaking the truth. Need I call in your more powerful friends to tell me what they really think? I so detest dishonesty. It repulses me like you wouldn't believe," she cooed, advancing on the trembling creature.

"That is not necessary," called a deep, booming voice that never failed to send shivers down Leah's spine. She sighed and turned on her heel, calling, "Alright, no need to be so mysterious. Show yourself and tell me your thoughts on the topic."

Her skin was quickly covered in goosebumps. She couldn't see the Nightmare, but she could sure feel its presence.

"You know, invisibility isn't too creative."
She was pleased when she kept the tremor out of her voice. She was most definitely getting better at this.

"I think it serves the purpose nicely, "hissed the same voice, right in her ear.

It took everything in Leah not to step back from the voice.

~~~

Camden blinked, taken aback.
"......Erm....I told...my friend Justin that I would try to bring him here. I was hoping maybe you could pull some strings? He says he knows you and you owe him."

Okami placed Leah gingerly on the bed, pulling a light sheet to cover her body. He began to pace them room, palms sweaty, completely at a loss...

~ = ~

"Justin? Jubby! Dude, I owe him, like, ev-er-y-thing! He's, like... I don't know! Dude! Yes! He can come!"

She bounced excitedly, now laughing. "This is gonna be perfect!"

"I take it you heard my request? Since there seems to be no such thing as privacy here, "Leah inquired casually, raising her voice with the last sentence. She knew that probably 80% of the Nightmares inhabiting this Realm were listening intently.

"Indeed, I did. I am not impartial to the idea. What harm could a little more entertainment do?"
A deepthroated chuckle echoed. She sighed impatiently as more Nightmares took up the oh so original idea by joining in with choruses of their own laughter. They did this at least once a Night. The creepiness of the high pitched shrieking laughter, etc. had worn off after a week.

"Can we stop wasting time now? I don't know when I'm going to wake up, it could be a while, or a few minutes, so we need to plan how we're going to do th-"

Leah groaned as she opened her eyes. The bright light of the room blinded her for a moment, before she was able to make out the frantically pacing figure of Okami.

She coughed weakly, before sitting up. Bad idea. She fell back down and moaned,. So dizzy...

~~~

"...Well you might wanna get to doing that then, since I've probably been asleep for like 15 minutes now. He's probably starting to doubt whether anything's gonna happen."

Okami stopped short at the cough before rushing to her side.

"Hey! Are you alright?" he felt her forehead, eyebrows creased in worry. "Please tell me you're okay..."

~ = ~

"Oh, please, Jubby is the most patient soul there ever... Wait, no, that's the opposite."

Lucy just stared at Camden before snapping her finger (Justin clutched the sheets as panic swept over him before he passed out, gasping) and disappearing. Justin stumbled in her place.

Leah smiled weakly and swatted his hand away.
"I am fine. Just gimme food."

~~~

Camden reached out a hand to steady Justin, grinning.
"Welcome to the Dream Realm! ...Wait crap. You don't recognize me. Sorry," Camden grinned sheepishly, before transforming back into James. He made sure Justin was the only one who would be able to see him in Awake form. Anyone else looking would just see Camden disappear into a puff of blue smoke.
"Don't worry, it's me. Just make sure you don't say your name or my name here. I'm Camden here."
He melded back into Camden with the flick of a finger.

He tossed the bag of Chex Mix at her.

"Are you sure?" He questioned, running a hand over his face.

~ = ~

"... OKay, Camden. If I can't have my name here, what should it be?"

"Yep. This happens sometimes when I don't eat for a while and I'm a bit more stressed than usual."
She tore open the bag and poured some Chex Mix into her hand before stuffing it into her mouth with animal-like hunger. She finished the bag in four minutes flat.

~~~

"I dunno. What's a name that you like? You're probably also going to have to change how you look....Though I dunno if that's even really necessary at this point..."

Okami cocked a brow. "Damn, girl, gonna make yourself sick. Did you do that dreamy thingy?"

~ = ~

"Uh... I don't know..." Justin bit his lip, thinking back to this odd... thought he'd had a couple of days ago. It didn't even seem to be his but a name was repeated over and over in it, so...

"I guess Okami?"



(LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL)

"Nah, I'm healthy as a horse. And, yes, I did. I didn't have enough time to work anything out that I wanted to, but oh well. Winging stuff is usually more effective anyway."
She trailed off into thoughtful silence, setting the bag of chex mix on the floor. She blinked.
"...Our room looks...different."
She hadn't even noticed, but the walls were now a soft beige, the beds were freshly made, the wood floor had been polished and the cracks fixed, and the door was in perfect condition.
"This place just gets weirder and weirder," she muttered.

~~~

Camden shrugged.
"Sure, sounds good to me."

(XDDD AND SORRY I FORGOT TO REPLY TO THIS PART DUN EAT ME)

Okami glanced around as well, not sure what to say.

"... Yep."

He turned to her.

"Indeed it does."

~ = ~

Justi- excuse me, Okami nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets, only barely registering that, hey, it was a trenchcoat! Nifty! And his his blue jeans and changed into black jeans, tighter than his old ones, which was odd. A green t-shirt, as always, though it was a v-neck. And his shoes and transformed into black, leather combat boots with steel toes, perfected for kicking the shit outta someone. But the oddest thing was this golden locket with a purple floral design and a red centre gem for a rose that hung on a gold chain around his neck...

She sprawled on her bed, closing her eyes again. No point getting changed. She still felt too weak to stand up.
"I dunno if you're gonna stay up late or whatever, but I'm gonna get some sleep. You can keep the lights on if you want, I can sleep if there's light."
She turned to face the wall pulled her blankets up over her head, like a cocoon to block out the light. It felt so good to just lay there. Not having to waste so much energy in the effort of giggling and smiling...

~~~

Camden raised an eyebrow, thoroughly impressed. Either Lucy was up to something, or Okami was more powerful than he let on.
"Did you do that?"

Okami just nodded, before crawling into bed himself. Then, scowling to himself at his forgetfulness, threw one of his shoes against the light switch. Yes! 10 points!

~ = ~

"Well, yeah." Okami frowned. "You said I could, right? Am I not supposed to?" he paled. "Shit did I do something wrong??"

Leah barely heard the thud of the shoe. She was already nearly asleep.

~~~

"No, dude, it's fine. I'm just surprised you were able to do that so easily. It usually takes the inexperienced people like 3 times the effort to do that. You would make an awesome Lucid!"

Okami nodded off, falling asleep into the regular dream that plagued his mind even when awake.

~ = ~

Justin relented a smile. "Yeah, well, a Lucid sounds kinda like a drink you'd get at a seedy bar. Or a drug." He looked around.

"What is this, anyways?"

Leah murmured in her sleep as she appeared back into the Nightmare Realm.
On second thought...This realm would probably be a bit much for him to start with...Don't wanna freak out the poor guy...We'll start in the Dream Realm.
She whispered softly to the roiling darkness and it changed into the deep blue swirls of the Dream Realm.
Now let's see....Guess I could try imagining him appearing here...But that would probably just be a ghost of his real self...
She bit her lip, before deciding to try it anyway.
The girl sat down criss-cross-applesauce on the floor and closed her eyes, imagining their room. Okami would be slightly huddled in his bed, whimpering slightly from a nightmare. She smiled to herself. She would show him how to handle those. She touched his forehead lightly, imagining a white light seeping into him. The light would show him a way out of his recurring nightmare and into the relief of the Dream Realm.
Hopefully...

~~~

Camden chuckled.
"Well, do you know about Lucid dreaming? When you know that you're asleep so you can control your dreams and stuff? Well you might say this is a form of that, except it's...real. This place is the Dream Realm. There's a few other Realms and you can do different stuff there. It's all pretty much controlled by your mind, I guess you could say."

He wished Lilith and Derek were here to help explain...They were so much better at this.