Wanderlust - Ninjago SI-OC

CHAPTER ONE: BEFORE TIME HAD A NAME

It takes Vale half an hour of hyperventilating and one full hour of dry heaving to get to a somewhat calm state.

But holy fucking hell she's not real she's not real nothing is fucking real holy shit-

So yeah she's a bit more calm now. Or at least not struggling to breath.

Her eyes flit around the trees, the ground beneath her body, her own clothes, the silhouette of a village from beyond the cliff. Nothing looks real, and Vale takes that with a pained inhale and dull senses.

And though her mind recognizes that this can't be real, that the world cannot look anything but real, she finds herself not panicking, anymore. Her mind's just...null. Her body is null. All the burning of her muscles, her tears, her throat, all of that gave way to a feeling of not-belonging, of not acknowledging her muscles like her own, of feeling like she's looking from somewhere above where her body lays.

And still, with no fear clouding her brain and no more frantic running, the world stays cartoony-looking and Jade's nowhere to be found.

It's kind of like a mix, the way the world looks, Vale detachedly registers while her tears dry up. It's almost 2D, all lines and careful details, but it also looks 3D, because there's depth when she turns her hand over, and not just smooth animation. She's never seen this particular style before in any movie or show, so she's got no name to give it, and having no name for the way reality settles around her only pushes her mind more into a hazy, unfeeling state.

And what can she do about that? About the world not looking real anymore? About her bleeding, missing sister, about the Pink Horror, about being nowhere near her town?

...

Vale stands up, unstable despite the steady ground, and one foot after the other, she makes her way down the cliff.

It's all so colorful.

So alive.

And it's not real, not real at all, but the way the clouds swirl up above like in an old chinese painting, the golden, warm tones of the sky clashing with the green of the fields, and the dashing red colors of the village, looking worn down and lived in even from so far away is so- is so...

Vale feels her heartbeat in her fingertips, feels the weight of each of her steps hitting the ground, feels the bite of a cold breeze against her cheeks. The world is not real and neither is she, but people live here, in this cartoony, not real world. And that's enough to breathe a bit of life back into her body.

It doesn't stop the image of the Horror from flashing in her head whenever she blinks, or ease her growing headache, or rid her of the Pit, still present even after calming down from her panic. But it's a start, she thinks, so she takes a painful breath and continues walking.

Soon enough, Vale finds a path between the wavy fields, and with hopes of finding civilization, she starts following along. Slowly, as she regains strength and life, the path turns to stone, and electricity poles start marking the way. The village becomes closer, step by step, and then there's people siding the path, planting and harvesting, and Vale can't help but stare at them, mind going hazy once more.

They, like her, are a weird mix of 2D and 3D, looking animated but having depth and detail, like an ever-shifting piece of art, not settling for one style or the other. Her staring earns her the attention of the workers, and Vale musters up what little control she has over herself to offer them a doubtful smile. The workers smile in return, some even waving at her, and Vale's smile becomes a little less strained as she waves back.