Gulp, gulp, baby~

Hey, there. This is mah aquarium and I'm the awesome Gulpo. If you're a sexy fish lady, feel free to stay for some deep sea lovin'. Awww yeah.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS gave him a gentler look. “Sorry. I know you’re trying your best.” He folded his arms and flew over to his side. The First Level petted his fin. “It… can be hard, but once you do, it’s the best feeling in the world. No more punishments… being free to do as you’d like… It’s a wonderful life.”

He glanced over to the empty door frames. “And such lovely worlds to see every night.” NiGHTS grinned. “How about with the next Visitor, we try things together? I’ll stop you from scaring them. What do you say?” 

[gulpmeister]

Gulpo mentally scoffed.  As if the little guppy could stop him. 

Still, he had to show NiGHTS he was trying so he agreed.

"Yeah, we can totes do that, little guppy."

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

A hand rubbed at NiGHTS’ temples with another sigh leaving his mouth. “No, I don’t,” he lied easily. He wasn’t in the mood to scare anyone with that having just happened. 

Though that scream was rather amusing… no, no it wasn’t.

"You’ve got to resist those. Don’t let them command your life!" NiGHTS looked at Gulpo with some hope. "You are better than those stupid instincts!" 

[gulpmeister]

"Don't be mad; I'm tryin'," Gulpo said with a bit of a pleading tone.  He rubbed his belly with one of his fins in a regretful looking manner. 

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

Things were going well… until Gulpo bit her arm off. NiGHTS flew over, only to have Awakers beat him.

The Nightmaren narrowed his eyes at Gulpo, skulls behind him with red lights in their sockets. “Really, Gulpo? Really?” Some blue fire ignited briefly before NiGHTS sighed to himself. “Visitors don’t like losing limbs! It might be Halloween time, but you can’t be too scary! They don’t like that!” 

NiGHTS gritted his teeth in annoyance as he realized his sounded like Owl. The old bird had rubbed off on him. What a nightmare.

[gulpmeister]

Gulpo wailed miserably.  "I didn't mean toooooo!  It just kinda .... happened.  She had her hand in my mouth.  How do you resist something like that?!?  I've been itching to scare someone real bad and I've been tryin to be good and all dat but it's soooo hard, NiGHTS.  Don't you ever wanna just scare them???  Don't you have any instincts left?"

The guppy didn't eat Nightopians, he didn't scare Visitors, he had no loyalty to his own kind... was there really nothing left of the Nightmaren he once was?

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS smiled at the girl being brave and petting the large fish. His skulls seemed happy as well. “Well, you’re not alone anymore, Gulpo. Look! You’ve made a friend!” He giggled, placing his hands on his hips.

"Why don’t you two get to know each other?" The grey rebel sat in the air, amused that even a larger, scarier Nightmaren could make friends with Visitors.

[gulpmeister]

"Yeah, alright," Gulpo agreed nonchalantly.  He didn't really care about the Visitor but he was playing a role here.  He had to show NiGHTS he was trying, so he could gain his sympathy.  Wait for the guppy's guard to be down and get information out of him. 

"Wooooow.  You have really big teeth!" she commented, her hand running along his head to feel on his teeth.

It was tempting.  TOO tempting.  She was literally putting her hand in his mouth.  How was a Nightmaren to resist?!?

Chomp.

The Visitor screamed a high pitched terrified scream as the blood gushed out of her now pierced hand.  The Ideya of courage dropped and the Awakers raced to her, waking the scared little girl up.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

He rubbed at her cheek gently, quietly hushing her. “It’s alright, it’s alright… he won’t eat you. Not as long as I’m here.”

NiGHTS looked back at Gulpo and frowned slightly. “Well, that’s how it is when you leave Nightmare. You know, you could talk to myself or Reala more. Even Visitors might start to like you if you acted less… noisy and frightening.” He paused, flashing the girl in his arms a gentle smile. “They’re a lot more fun than you might give them credit for.”

[gulpmeister]

"You're always busy with the other guppy for Visitors.  And I'm not frightening and you know I've always been loud, yo.  Can't help it.  Maybe I shouldn'ta left Nightmare, it's sooooo boooring and I'm alllll alooooone and nobody likes meeeeeee," Gulpo wailed.

The little girl wiggled out of NiGHTS' arms and landed on her feet on the ground.  The big fish, while still kind of scary looking, didn't seem so bad.  He was just lonely, that's all!  She walked up to him cautiously, petting the side of his head carefully.  His teeth may be big but now that she was closer she could see he had really pretty eyes!  She smiled and giggled, deciding he wasn't so bad after all!

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS gave his sibling an irritated look. “Gulpo, would you mind not scaring the Visitors with… whatever you’re doing? And could you please get out of the fountain? If it breaks, I have to fix that, you know!” 

After his scolding, he sighed slightly and kept petting the girl. “What’s wrong? Did you eat something bad? Get dumped?” He smirked playfully at her, “Perhaps you were startled by how pretty this young lady is and are absolutely broken about making her upset!”

[gulpmeister]

The little girl peeked away from NiGHTS to see that he had taken her straight to the very beast that scared her!   She clung to the ghoulish looking Nightmaren harder.  "AHHH!  NiGHTS he's scary, don't let him eat me!"

The large fish Nightmaren continued to moan and wail even more when NiGHTS showed up. 

"I ain't gonna break it, guppy.  I'm looooonely.  It's so boooooooring here.  The fish ladies don't like my new pad and I can't hang out wit' all my sibs.  I'm so aloooooooooooooooooooooooooone," Gulpo complained loudly.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

After dealing with some minor acrophobia from the previous child and leaving him in Owl’s hands for the rest of his sleep cycle, NiGHTS blinked at the young girl suddenly embracing him so tightly. He lifted his leg up and slowly got the girl in his arms, keeping her close to his chest. His chest gem flickered slightly, reacting to her troubles.

"Oh dear… What’s the problem? Are you okay?" NiGHTS paused, frowning at the bellowing sounds. "…I have a feeling I know the cause of the trouble…" He gently petted her head and stroked her hair. "Was it a big and scary fish?" NiGHTS asked, slowly floating closer to the pond.

[gulpmeister]

"Yeah," she nodded, hiding her face into him as she clung to the dream demon.  His touch was comforting to her and she didn't pay any attention to where he was going. 

At the Dream Gate, Gulpo was, again, just barely inside the fountain, letting the water splash on him.  He groaned and moaned, clearly in some kind of distress though nothing was immediately physical agitating him.

[gulpmeister]

The little girl waited nervously, for a long time.  She had seen the dream jester she had met once before go into a door with another kid just as she had arrive but he seemed to be taking forever.  She squirmed uncomfortably, trying to ignore the very LARGE problem that was bothering her. 

After what felt like an eternity, FINALLY NiGHTS came back.  The little girl rushed up to him.  "NiGHTS!" she declared and then promptly wrapped her arms around his legs and buried her face in them. 

They had met before in several dreams, but the little girl usually only seemed to remember the one with the pink monkeys and bouncy house type floors.  Still she knew she could count on him to help. 

In the distance, towards the center of the Dream Gate, there was some rather loud bellowing.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS laughed at what Gulpo was saying. “Indeed. I know my day wouldn’t be complete without a little bit of that from Reala,” his laughter turned into light giggles. “You’re welcome to stay here, as long as you don’t terrorize any Visitors. I can keep you safe from Wizeman… if you really mean you don’t want to work for him anymore.”

His eyes had a certain twinkle of hope, one that was easily letting him eat up whatever the aquatic Nightmaren was feeding him. He moved closer for an attempt at a hug around Gulpo’s clawed fin. 

[gulpmeister]

"Dat's coo'," Gulpo said, hugging him with his large fin as he did when NiGHTS was little.  "This ponds a bit small for da laaaadies but I suppose I can make it work."

It was only temporary, after all.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS snickered slightly at Gulpo’s wording. “Just like him to take away the best things just because we don’t want to do what he wants.” 

He huffed slightly, not really wanting Wizeman’s existence to riled him up at the moment. His sibling was being peaceful. That was something to be enjoyed. “Well, if you’re away from him, you’re free to court however many fish ladies your non-existent heart could ever desire.” NiGHTS smiled contently.

[gulpmeister]

"Oh and I totes will, little guppy, I totes will.  Gotta get my bow-chicka-bow-wow on, ya know what I'm sayin'???" Gulpo chuckled.

Hopefully NiGHTS was buying all this.  The bad little guppy had always been fairly gullible and he seemed like he believed what he was saying...

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS rested himself in the water, looking up at his sibling. He shrugged slightly. “Usually I just stay with Reala. We do things together, or when he wants to be alone, I entertain myself with music or dancing.”

He kept his eyes on the big fish. “So… what happened to make Wizeman ban you from romancing your fish ladies? Did someone spit on the Ideya given to him?” NiGHTS snickered slightly.

[gulpmeister]

"It was super retarded," Gulpo said, sounding irritated.  "I was just a little short on my quota this quart and he accused me of being 'too distracted by other things' and took mah fish ladies away!  That's like, soooo not going to work, yo."

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS sat there in the water, blinking from the huge splash. Bits of blonde poked out from his hat while he spat out some water. Along with an unhappy little fish.

Quickly fixing himself up with a small laugh, he made his tail splash some water back at Gulpo. It wouldn’t be much but it would be amusing enough.

[gulpmeister]

He didn't mind the water at all.  In fact, he liked having water on him.  He was a giant fish after all.

"So like, what do you do when your not doing your whole Visitor sha-bang?" he asked.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS led him to the pond, jumping in and transforming into a mermaren to hang out with his sibling. 

"Come on it, the water’s fine! There’s also some small fish in here too!" He smiled, leaning against the land.

[gulpmeister]

Gulpo let himself fall from the air into the pond.  It wasn't a far drop but with as large as the fish was, it created a HUGE splash as he submerged into the water.  He looked around briefly, taking in the new surroundings.  It wasn't as big as his fish tank back home, but it would do for the time being.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

That in itself was a miracle.

NiGHTS smiled in delight. “Oh, that’s just fine! Reala doesn’t really help me either!” 

While he was happy, there still was a bit of nagging going on in his head. Surely if it was a trap set by Gulpo, NiGHTS would be able to get out of it no problem.

"But, could you at least move to the pond? It’s bigger and there’s more water there. You could scare Visitors from being there," he flew over to him, taking Gulpo’s giant fin in his tiny hand.

[gulpmeister]

"Well... 'aight, I guess I can," Gulpo agreed, getting out of the fountain and letting NiGHTS lead him.

So far, all was going according to plan.

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

The First Level lifted a hand closer to his head, giving it a gentle knock. Was this a hallucination? 

"I… you…" NiGHTS shook his head furiously. "Hold on just a moment! Do you mean to tell me you want to rebel too!?"

[gulpmeister]

"Hmmmm," Gulpo thought about it for a moment, trying to decide how best to answer.  "Not for real real.  Not like you, little guppy.  I just ain't going back.  Like I said, I'mma just be lazy and do what I want."

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

"You’re… what?!" Blinking as if he, himself, were dreaming, NiGHTS’s arms dropped. Did Gulpo just insult Wizeman? And forget to use his title? While it made him internally smile, it was so unusual.

"So, you’re mad at Wizeman… Because he’s said no to you getting some fish ladies?" His arms folded again as he floated down closer in curiosity. "Yes that is terribly lame… but, what are you going to do about it?"

NiGHTS narrowed an eye slowly. “You’re not planning to use me to try and win his favor again, are you?”

[gulpmeister]

"Nope," Gulpo said casually.  "I ain't going back.  If he can take away dem ladies once, whose to say he totes won't do it again later?  Fuck dat noize, I'mma just stay here and be lazy."

[redideyanightmare-blog-deactiva]

NiGHTS raised a brow, looking a little skeptical. He didn’t feel any others, aside from an odd Third Level or two lurking around the borders, but that was normal.

"Oh, really? What about? How I’m a ‘bad guppy’ and go back to Nightmare?" The Nightmaren played things coolly, hoping Gulpo didn’t recall anything about his weak point. It really didn’t seem like he did.

[gulpmeister]

"Nah, I'm totes over that," Gulpo replied casually, laying out on his back and lounging comfortable in the fountain.  "MMmm- Wizeman totes sucks.  He told me I couldn't have no more fish ladies!  Can you believe this for rizzile?  ME??? NO FISH LADIES??? It was super lame, man."