Klint showing up at his door in the middle of the night, banging on it and ruining his sleep, had driven Faust absolutely insane.
The guy was normally calm as a millpond, quiet, chill at least most of the time. When he was hanging out with the brothers, he'd have everyone dying of laughter. But he was also the type who got pissed off fast, and his mood could tank just as quick. He'd flare up in a second, then instantly adapt to whatever was going on and roll with it.
The way he felt everything so intensely, how his emotions could flip completely in the blink of an eye and that made him kind of… dangerous but for someone trying to survive in a world full of rivals and many other people aganist him where life was already brutal, that danger was usually a plus.
The brothers got him. They'd been together for years, so real problems only cropped up maybe once a year. Strangers, though? They weren't so luck tho.
These weren't going to be Faust's only issue.....yet it was enough for now
Last night, Klint pissing him off like that had messed up his whole night. His head was a mess, he couldn't think straight, so naturally he couldn't sleep properly either. Still, he had to sleep somehow, so he gritted his teeth and forced it somehow as the person he is
But the state he finally passed out in cost him a nightmare.
* * *
Faust was lying in the middle of a forest but only in terms of position. A closer look made it clear his physical consciousness wasn't exactly home yet.
It felt like some weird nightmare, but why wouldn't it? It was a nightmare he knew, yes but his surroundings were saying else...everything around him was lush green, packed with apple-heavy trees, colors bright and vivid. Right in the center lay Faust, flat on his back, out cold. At his head stood a pitch-black cloud resembling a human.
The only thing that really made this a nightmare was probably the idea that the cloud might do something...dangerous? But it didn't seem to have any intention like that…
The cloud talked with a muffled voice...
"Faust. Wake up, Faust…"
The sound of the cloud was… like the devil whispering into a his ear. It resembled a devil that looked beautiful but was evil of course.
"Open your eyes, Faust…"
Hmm…?
The voice was getting closer, but it wasn't getting any sharper.
"Get up. It won't take long, don't worry."
Faust could never accept the idea of being awakened again, even within his own dream. A man like Faust; someone who did whatever he wanted no matter how serious the situation was, could only see this as disrespect and an attack on his own sense of self.
Am I about to get waken up in a dream? Oh hell no! Not again man...
The black cloud didn't have a proper shape, maybe, but there was no doubt it definitely resembled a human; arms, legs, standing about six feet tall. Even if you somehow couldn't figure out what it was, the movements would make you think it's a human anyways.
The cloud brought its hands, which it had been holding behind its back, forward. It raised its right hand…
It looked as if it was about to attack. Faust realized what the cloud was about to do before the cloud itself even did. It was going to crush him along with the ground.
He may have looked dead and passed out but...Faust always knew all the dangers waiting for him.
My eyes might be closed, but I can sense it it. Dumbass.
Whoosh!
BAM!
The black cloud slammed its right hand down right where Faust was lying...
Smoke was rising from the crater in the ground, but it wasn't even normal smoke. The cause of it was the cloud moving at extreme speed, which naturally made the speed's own energy generate heat for just a brief moment. If the one who had carried out that attack were a human… there was no doubt their hands would have hurt badly.
The cloud thought it had done something, but Faust wasn't even there where the blow landed. Just milliseconds before the strike came down, he had already moved out of its range and leapt backward.
After the dust and smoke sent flying by the impact of the blow, Faust's pupils gleamed in the daylight like his own nightmare… and it was very clear that Faust was not pleased with the situation he was in at all.
He shouted, sending the birds around him flying in fear.
"People can't just let me take a nap can they!"