unpleasant walked through the crowded town, trying to chase to the young kasper, calling his name and working himself up over the mischievous little boy, all until eh suddenly found himself in the darkness.
usually in his dreams something terrible would happen, the city or setting he was relaxing in would get bombed with an A-bomb, and he'd have to watch his on get burned alive, screaming for help, maybe he'd witness his son get violence and insults thrown at him like unpleasant has, and no matter how many times he screamed and begged for the imaginary people without a recognizable face to stop, they'd never comply, rendering his own son hopeless, maybe he was back with builderman, this time in a parallel situation where he'd marry him, only for him to disintegrate into nothing but a rotten mass of mauled flesh in front of him. quite traumatizing even for an old man if I do say so myself.
But something about this dream struck a different kind of fear, while not as heavy as the aforementioned ones, still made him feel cold and empty, dreadful even, on the inside, the air so thick with icy coldness his breath would be visible, cloaking his face like a packet of smoke. He was alone, but not the good kind of alone.
he walked around, still managing to remember kasper to call out for him, occasionally stopping, for his knees would throb in the icy daggering air and he'd shiver, hugging himself, feeling the cold to be almost unbearable, but finally, his hard work wouldn't be nothing as he'd a lonely mirror, copying the movement as it was supposed to, making unpleasant confused, he approached the mirror, touching its chilly smooth surface, staring deep into his face(?)
who was this man he was seeing.
he moved his locs away, revealing his dead eye and the seeping scars rendering him "hideous" in some way, he bit the edge of his lips in nervousness with his sharp teeth and let go, letting it cover his face again.
and then in a blink of an eye he saw his younger self within the mirror.
he yelped and looked at himself, still his old usual self, yet in the mirror was different, the so called reflection didn't exactly copy him, more or so eerily and traumatizingly stare at him with the big beady eyes.
geez- is that why so many people were creeped out about me?? I can definitely see why-
but then it walked out of the mirror.
!?!?!?!?!? WHAT THE-
"are you proud of yourself?'
"...what?"
"you know, you did everything we couldn't do. We made it so far, so, are you proud of it?"
"I-.....I don't know?"
his younger selves expression darkened with sadness
"I knew it...we're simply beyond fixin' eh?"
Interesting...broken beyond repair eh? I can make use of that...
unpleasant shook his head, he almost thought he heard a sort of echoing voice, could just be his stupid dream getting the best of him "well..I guess you can say that, but hey, at least we're still standing-"
"Then why are we drowning?"
"what are you talking about? we're obviously-"
and then he opened his eyes, his consciousness jolting him awake like a brick wall making contact with a flying human, he immediately realized what situation he was in as he saw his blurred, almost watered down vision and his lungs not being able to take in air, only water, he felt the burning sensation of water forcefully fill up his lings, making him scream out to nothing, flailing his body, panicking.
then he felt something like a hook strap onto the back of his hoodie and struggling to lift him up.
..
"PULL JIM!!! PULLLL!!!!!!!!"
"I'M TRYING BRUH!!"
the two mannequins near the shore of an empty hillway held the fishing rod as they tried to pull out whatever thing they'd caught, groaning and grinding down their drawn teeth as they gave one last power pull and finally got that fish to the wooden plank
"woah! n' that was one gian'- GRADIENT???"
mark exclaimed in shock as he saw the crippled gradient on the plank, throwing up a mixture of salt sea water and acid, maybe a tinge of blood there.
"what the hell!! are you ok bruh-?" jim asked curiously and concerningly as he tapped unpleasant on the shoulder, making the gradient turn around and hiss in embarrassment and fear as he slapped the mannequins hand away and stumble up, using whatever remaining strength it had to run away to the hillside, away from the two, away from anything. and the two wooden caricatures just stared before mark surprisingly jumped towards the old gradient.
'EH- WHERE ARE YOU GOING BRUH??"
'T' TALK TO 'EM. KEEP YER ASS STILL, KAY??"
...
unpleasant fell to its knees as he heaved and trembled, falling to his hands, bursting out sobbing, crying, breaking down, probably going to end up on his list of worst breakdowns ever. he hugged himself and fell to the floor, crying into the grass and poor worker ants trying to live their lives, the mellow calling of the ravens sort of didn't help. and so did the soft thuds of marks stand hitting the floor as he went up to the lonely gradient and watched in concern.
unpleasant must've recognized that he was being watched, because he wearily forced himself to sit but and hug huis knees to his chest, laying his head low. pretending like mark didn't even exist.
"gradie?"
no answer.
"hey man. now don' be playin' games wit' me. I know what' yer were tryna' do back there."
...
silence.
mark stood there then sighed, feeling a little let down, he slowly turned away before
"I miss him mark."
...
mark turned around, wide eyes.
",,,what?"
unpleasant repeated quietly and hoarsely "I miss him. Builderman."
mark turned back and scooted closer, standing a few feet behind him.
"buildaman? oh man, I miss 'em too y'know-"
"but you didn't know how it felt like to love him, did you?"
mark fell silent.
...
..
"I remember..going to the fields, and he'd talk about the construction of the city far away, I don't remember what it was, but I just loved to hear his voice."
mark stayed silent, a clear sign for unpleasant to continue rambling. recounting and reenacting the few conversations he'd hold dear to his heart.
" "gradie?" yeah? "I'm going to stay and build my world here, you dont have to stay and do this with me y'know?" B-But I want to! "I know you do..but please..PLEASE understand if this fails, I'll probably be wasted, no good anymore, but if this succeeds, if I can finally make my dream come true, we wont be able to return back home to clatter-city, y'know?" why would I even want to leave..when I got you? "...oh gradie.." ha...you're wonderful..." and just like that, gradie interlocked his own hands together "and then he held my hand..." he stared at his hands for a moment before letting go, feeling empty once again. "I...can never have this back.." he hiccupped. "everything that I ever did...I did it for HIM in some way..just to get him to notice my love for him...but it was too late...hes gone now..but I'm still here..and sometimes...I wonder if he could still see me somewhere...oh..oh what would he think of me? this mess I made?" he trembled yet again as he buried his head into his hands.
mark stared at the gradient, feeling a wash of guilt, sadness, confusion, and most importantly: sympathy. for he'd know too well how it felt to lose someone you love, but not to this extent.
unpleasant shut his eyes, preparing for mark to wither walk away, berate him, or awkwardly try to relate in a minimal m,anner, but he almost gasped as he felt mark hug him from behind, his head over his.
"I think yer swell...I'd know 'tat, because infected told me' about yer" mark half-lyingly said, "and I'm sure buildaman is 'proud 'f yer for raising a true man like' 'is son."
unpleasant couldn't even respond to that, just shaking in marks arms as he felt big fat tears run down his cheeks again, his lips quivered as he let out a small, yet grateful sob through his tender smile, feeling a sort of relief with the knowledge that maybe, just maybe, mark was right.