brink: (Blank | Mild | Friendly)
Topher Brink ([personal profile] brink) wrote in [community profile] applesaucedream2013-03-12 08:04 am

Finding Nepeta [closed]

Topher's been looking for Nepeta for quite a while now. When she first arrived, he'd gotten her set up with an apartment, but then she'd disappeared without a word, and never came back to the place. Obviously he's been worried. While he's got nothing to indicate anything untowards has happened to her beyond her disappearance, there's not been anything to confirm she's alright either.

While he can aim for a specific mind if he's been in it before and find it without too much trial and error, finding a new mind is difficult, so he's so far been unsuccessful in finding her. That is, until now, as he finally appears in the right dream.
pawsitivelynepeta: (cutie :33)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-12 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Nepeta isn't dreaming of Earth, but she isn't dreaming of Alternia, either. No, she's dreaming of her own world, from inside the Medium. The sky is a rich yellow with little, swift-moving tufts of clouds. The ground is covered in what looks like snow but is, in fact, white sugar. There are hills scattered across the landscape, made from huge blocks of sugar. On their tops are perched large, surreal teapots, decorated with paintings of cats. Here and there are little brooks of green tea, bubbling and babbling. The air is sweet and aromatic.

Amidst all this, Nepeta is tearing across the scenery, riding on the back of a white cat roughly the size of a tiger, which seems to have two mouths. When she spots Topher, Nepeta leans down to say something into the cat's ear, and it slows down, changing direction to head toward him.

"Hello Tofur," she greets him with a wide grin. She doesn't appear to realize that there's anything strange about him being here.
pawsitivelynepeta: (cutie :33)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-12 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"Purrfectly well." She slides off Pounce's back and, without warning or hesitation, wraps her arms around Topher's chest in a tight hug. Let's just say her dream inhibitions are even less existent than her waking ones. The large cat, also an expression of Nepeta's subconscious, stalks in circles around the two of them, rubbing her head against Topher's legs affectionately. When Nepeta pulls away, she says, "Did you read Karkat's silly memo about the humans?"

It doesn't seem to occur to Nepeta that Topher, himself, is a human, and has never met or spoken to any of the other trolls. Her dreams have always been rather jumbled up like this, and friends are friends, regardless of species.
Edited 2013-03-12 22:42 (UTC)
pawsitivelynepeta: (curious)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-12 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
This statement takes a moment to sink in. Nepeta pulls away, squints up at him in surprise. Sure enough, there are no horns, and how could she have missed the fact that he's so pink? Her initial realization that she had missed something sets off a chain-reaction of questions in her mind. It's all terribly confusing. She sits down on the ground - well, it's more of a flop, really, and runs her hands through the sugar idly as she asks.

"How come you're here?"

pawsitivelynepeta: (wide-eyed)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-12 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Nepeta blinks a few times, looks around her, looks back at Topher, and appears to accept what he's saying. Perhaps it is his presence there, but she is growing increasingly lucid and aware of the inconsistencies around her. Curled up beside her is Pounce, purring faintly, her tail thumping now and then against the sugary ground. Except... Pounce died. So if she is here, Topher must be telling the truth.

"I'm asleep," she says aloud, wrapping her head around the concept, "in my cave in New York. And you're asleep too."
pawsitivelynepeta: (curious)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-12 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Topher's question reminds her of the apartment, of how he had gotten her set up only for her to run away. It hadn't occurred to her that he would be unable to find her, since she hadn't used the online network he'd shown her or left any kind of note.

"It's more like home," she explained, a little impressed by the way he conjured the candyfloss out of thin air. "Were you looking for me?"

As to his dream power, well, she accepts that without much question. It's not a power that she's come across before, but it doesn't sound all that strange.
pawsitivelynepeta: (STRONG)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-13 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
Nepeta, constitutionally incapable of either judging and dismissing, flushes pale green with happiness when Topher reveals that he was worried about her. He reminds her, just a little, of Equius. Of course, in most ways they are entirely unalike, but his concern for her is touching.

"Silly," she says, but her smile offsets any potential sting, "I'm purrfectly capable of taking care of myself."

She had just been better at doing it in a place that was a little more like environments she had known growing up. Apartments, stores, traffic: all these things are a mystery to her, easier avoided than navigated.

"Maybe I should have to come visit," she admits, feeling the tiniest pang of regret. The last thing Nepeta liked thinking about was making other people sad, particularly on accident. "Checked up on you."
pawsitivelynepeta: (hugs :33)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-13 12:35 am (UTC)(link)
Nepeta nods, surprised that he knows of it. Most of the humans who go by in the park seem completely oblivious to its location. "You should come, it's very comfurrtable."

Sitting up, Nepeta tilts her head to the side, considering. She's surprised that Topher would worry about her, considering they only met for a little time. It crosses her mind that maybe he doesn't have a lot of friends in the city either, and that he might be lonely. In characteristic fashion, she decides to merely ask.

"Did you want to find me beclaws you were lonely?"

There's no implied judgement or expectation in the question - she merely wants to know. After all, there's nothing wrong with being lonely.
Edited 2013-03-13 00:36 (UTC)
pawsitivelynepeta: (<3)

[personal profile] pawsitivelynepeta 2013-03-13 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
Nepeta, who knows how hard it is being separated from friends, scoots a little closer to Topher. She has no difficulty, with open expressions of friendship and support. They are, in fact, rather her speciality. She guesses from the way that he's holding himself that it isn't quite so easy for him, to share what he's thinking and feeling, but she's used to accounting for that. Plenty of her friends had been the same. Even the ones who seemed friendliest on the surface hid things and didn't like admitting when their relationships got complicated. Nepeta still got things out of them one way or another, though.

"Almost all?" she prompts simply, eating the candy floss he handed her and waiting for Topher to fill in the following silence or to tell her to bug off.