He twitched again, before trying to calm down and actually go to sleep.
Maybe he should do a few more experiments? Get this strange energy surplus/deficit issue finally knocked down?
No, it was night time and late and it was time for bed.
Yeah. Just… Stop for a bit and calm down and go to sleep.
Simple.
His eye twitched.
Maybe… Maybe he could calm down with some mental thought experiments? A bit of idle pondering? Yeah, that might work.
As John 'slept' under two infants, one a mostly normal baby and the other enhanced to incredulous levels beyond reason and science, he began to consider Willpower and how it interacted with the energies of the world.
Because it DID interact with it.
Roxy was powerful beyond measure… But only sometimes. Chip was normal as could be… Until he needed something.
It all felt a bit mystical and was certainly confusing, but that was how things worked in this Realm for some reason.
For example, dinner today (A MASSIVE feast that everyone happily devoured) had included among other things a side slab of ribs.
A serving meant for one person.
The ribs were AS LARGE as Bamm-Bamm himself, and no one said anything.
But some tiny food delivery crew just brought it over along with dozens of other food packages, without difficulty or needing extra help carrying the thing… Despite them being 'normal' locals.
Now, maybe some would argue that the ribs were just… Hollow or something? Or the meat was impossibly light or whatever?
But no.
Bamm-Bamm told a nostalgic story about how Pebble's dad would order this thing when out with his family all the time… And occasionally, if they didn't balance the dish right, the huge rack of ribs would TIP OVER THE CAR!
Including the MASSIVE ROCK WHEELS!
The father seemed CONFUSED when John asked about the waitress, because why WOULD a random woman NOT be able to casually carry a slab of meat able to tip over a car that weighed thousands of pounds?
Just… Willpower seemed to let them ignore physics and mass and stuff for a bit. Until people accidentally interacted with it wrong, or stopped focusing on a target long enough or… Well, something.
John wasn't sure.
Point is: Roxy should be a deadly threat to everyone around her. Each finger could exert SO MUCH force that she SHOULD be tearing claw marks out of anything she tried to pick up or handle…
But instead she acted like she had touched based telekinesis.
The tiny baby could just casually toss around the largest of things without damaging them, unless she WANTED something to shatter or smash.
She SHOULD be at risk of shredding her clothing with every twitch, of crunching bones when hugging her brother, of biting through serving wear at each and every meal…
Yet there had never been an issue.
Some sort of Willpower from the family unit wanting to keep itself safe, merged with a mothers concern for her children and (Later on) Roxy's love and care for her own brother… Those intangible things acted like a natural inhibitor to her abilities.
Like an unwritten rule, or an unseen guideline or restriction.
This place was FILLED with causality clauses like that… This and that will cause trouble, but these things won't. Doing this is dangerous, doing that is trivial.
Thankfully most people just sort of fell into the groove naturally, like his sister and the girls. THEY were following these same rules automatically without care or concern, as if they were given some hidden guidebook and ruleset.
John on the other hand?
Well, there was a REASON he was gaining so much damned excess energy here: When he interacted with the local rules his Body was breaking them down and harvesting them for raw power.
Automatically.
Somehow.
Grace herself still hadn't noticed this strange effect, or something in his System was PREVENTING her from noticing it… Maybe due to another rule she was unconsciously following, one from his Pocket itself?
But for John, such restrictions were just… Extra fuel.
Restraints like this would be unnoticeable, if the destruction of said restraints didn't provide SO MUCH raw power!
It was why John had to keep messing with the configuration settings himself, why Grace was unable to solve it all for him already, and why SHE wasn't having any problems coming up with her OWN workarounds used by the others: Because HER methods fell in line with the unknown restrictions they all worked under.
John's methods did NOT.
Again, this hadn't been a concern before! No where else did raw Willpower have so much IMPACT on the local energies and forces!
But here? Just a little too much desire could alter time itself. Time literally passed faster here when they were having fun, or dragged on longer if they were bored.
In his opinion, this whole REALM should be an unstable mess. And in some ways, it was.
But in others, the whole crazy contraption had stumbled upon its own form of self balancing solidity. An impossible network of self reinforcing constraints and flexibilities that just kept it all from collapsing in chaos and forming something more stable and 'normal', as seen in other places.
It set John on edge.
This place, it felt… A bit too unreal.
Too flexible.
Too malleable.
Like a dream. Or a nightmare.
It was bothering John Doe, it was bothering him a lot.
Just BEING here made him feel on edge.
Unbalanced.
Why?
Why did this Realm, with its friendly people and delicious food and simple quiet living feel WORSE than a reality that had been conquered by monstrous hive minded trash monsters, driven mad to consume all others?
It had been bothering him. Pushing him to keep busy, to keep messing with internal projects, to ignore the others, to ignore his sister and the girls, to just keep working and working and to focus and focus and…
Then it clicked.
This feeling.
This place.
It felt like that place.
That place outside of everything, where time never existed and John hadn't been born yet, where he had been trapped and tortured alone and with all his madness and sorrow.
It… It wasn't the same, not really. Nothing could actually be as bad as that nothingness out there, beyond everything.
But the way reality bent and flowed, due to being undefined and…
There was a similarity there, to here.
A slight one. A connection so tiny, so frail, so undetectable, that even John himself only barely noticed it.
But even such a tiny similarity was too much.
Far too much.
John pulled the animal fur over Chip and Roxy, cuddling the two babies as he curled up away from the world.
He held them close, ignoring the way reality shifted around them, how time slipped and slided a tad too easily.
And he looked within his Pocket, and he carefully counted his friends.
Even the one that was missing.
Each tasted of a place, each felt of a memory, each represented something real that marked a place that knew him.
That knew John was real, that John Doe existed, that missed him and wished him well.
He counted each one, and he waited for the night to pass, for his sister to wake.
They would simply leave here. Leave and never come back. Then this feeling wouldn't matter, this memory would fade (It never faded, it always was there gnawing on his mind), and he could move on to some new Realm and some new adventure.
He could handle this.
John could handle this.
…He was fine.
~~~Pocket System~~~
Jessica blinked. "Wazzis?"
Pebbles was here? "What?"
The mother seemed concerned. "Jessica, I think John needs you."
Huh? "What?" What time was it?
Pebbles nodded. "Just… I was checking on the little ones and your brother seemed to be close to tears and… And I think you should go check up on him."
She felt shocked as she forced herself fully awake. "A nightmare?" Wait, no. It didn't matter. "I'll be right there, give me a moment."
Give me a fresh outfit, something easy to put on fast.
[[Confirmed.]]
Washing up and waking properly could wait for later, her brother needed a sister right now.
~~~Pocket System~~~
Roxy frowned as Glow man got small in himself and cried. "Ba."
She felt the warm covering of arms and her brother held safe, but the one holding them both somehow felt so sad and she couldn't hug him like this.
She tried anyway.
Feel better, Glow man! Roxy hugs fix everything! Da said so! "...Ba?"
Slowly she began working her tiny limbs free of the warm covering, careful not to wake up Chip.
If Glow man was still sad, she just needed to give more hugs. That would do it!
…Huh, this fur was REALLY tough though. Usually she just needed to move a bit and it would have torn open by now.
Super soft too.
And warm.
Mmm.
Wait no! Hugs were needed! Focus! Roxy to the rescue! "Baa…"
She couldn't help but yawn.
Oh no! The power of sleepytime was too much!
At her weakest of moments though, mommy came to save the day! "Ma!"
She'd fix it! She fixes everything!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Pebbles smiled at her still awake little girl, Chip being a good boy like usual and slumbering away. "Shh, let's leave aunty Jessica to take care of John, alright my precious? Tonight you and chip are going to be sleeping with me and daddy."
She carefully ignored the woman comforting the little boy behind her as she moved away with a slumbering Chip and a FAR too awake daughter. "Did he make this fur blanket for you? It feels VERY soft, we should make sure to thank him in the morning."
Tiny eyes looked far too aware. "Ba?"
Shh. She rocked the child and smiled. "He'll be fine. Sometimes when we dream we have scary thoughts or feel things that make us feel unsafe, but everything will be better in the morning. For now, go to sleep my lovelies… Mmm mmm mmm…"
Humming a tune, she worked her way back to the bedroom.
A sleepy murmur that vibrated the room partially woke up. "Everything good?"
Daww. "Just some nightmare or other I think. I brought the kids over for a sleepover tonight, just go back to sleep hun."
Bamm-Bamm barely nodded before he was out like a boulder. Considering that he was able to literally sleep through a hurricane one time, it wasn't that surprising… Though she did appreciate that he always seemed to wake up when she needed something, despite how deeply he normally slumbered.
Right, just nestle chip here against her and Roxy against Bamm-Bamm in case she tries to crawl away and… "Sleep tight, my lovelies. Mommy will be here, and daddy will keep us safe."
As she continued humming a lullaby, her thoughts drifted back to a young boy huddled in furs and protecting her children even as he cried in his sleep.
Something had warned her that it needed to be Jessica Doe, not herself, to wake that crying child… And like the rest of her family, she KNEW to follow her instincts.
Still, the sounds of him and that look of loss…
It had been alarming. Hopefully Jessica could help calm him down a bit.
Pebbles cuddled her children and tried to sleep to the rumbling of her husband's slumber.
~~~Pocket System~~~
"Shh… I'm here John."
"...Sis?"
"I'm here."
"...Where are…"
"Pebbles took the babies for a bit of a family slumber party, they are fine."
"Ah."
"You okay?"
"...I don't like it here."
"In the living room? Do you want to come sleep with me in the guest room?"
"...I don't like it [[HERE.]] This… All of this…"
"Oh."
"It feels… It feels like… I don't like it here."
"Do you want to leave then? We are already packed, and I'm sure Pebbles wouldn't mind."
"...I can handle this. I don't want to be a bother."
"...How about we have breakfast in the morning? You can say goodbye to the little ones, maybe leave a stone mailbox for them to write to us later, and we can just continue on our way?"
"...Can we?"
"Sure! You know your sis loves to travel a lot anyway!"
"Won't it mess up the vacation?"
"If you are not having fun, then it isn't a fun vacation! Besides, I know the girls care more about spending time with you than being in Hollywood… Or Hollyrock, or whatever. They won't mind a bit, I promise."
"...Kay. Thanks sis."
"Anytime, bro. Now scootch over and Craft me a copy of that fur you made for those children. It looked super soft and warm and it's cold tonight."
"...Okay."
