Ok wow I haven't posted in forever but uh-- yea my phone died and I was busy with graduation! This isn't really canon Jovial related but here's a writing prompt for a dream world OC contest! 🍀
It was a particularly chilly night, and Clover had happened to be camping in the dense forest past the playground’s sun paradise. She decided to further her studies on the wildlife in the area, bringing her art supplies for documenting her findings and gear she usually brought on camping trips. The day before Clover had even caught a ‘goo-fish’ in the lake, surprised to find it had much more intelligence than a normal fish, but that is what her new home had to offer. At least it kept her busy, she thought. She sat in front of her make-shift campfire, eating beef jerky she brought while staring up at the flames; Watching the black soot dance into the canopy of trees above her and disappear. Other than the occasional moon beam shining through the leaf cracks, the trees made the forest completely pitch black. However clover wasn’t particularly worried... She had known this part of the forest well and there were no signs of creatures that could harm her. But still, she wondered if the smoke could have escaped the trees so Eidolon and Illusia could see it; And that made her feel much less alone. Once she was finished with her meal, she snuffed the fire out and headed into her tent with her lantern, snuggling into her sleeping bag as best she could. Although she was surrounded by the tents' plastic walls, she still felt at will to the wind which whistled through small holes and cracks. She huffed and snapped her eye-mask on, listening to the noises of nature in which she loved. Her eyes became heavy and she soon let sleep take her in.
Clover felt a cold raindrop fall onto her forehead, rolling down her face which jolted her awake. Ah.. a nightmare, and a slight headache.. It made her brain feel fuzzy as she rubbed her temple, unzipping her tent and crawling out, stretching and yawning. It seemed to be raining, however only some drops fell onto her head; The tall trees protecting the forest floor. She began packing her things, shooing a skrunklebug off who tried getting a piece of her granola bar. Now that her back pack was full of her belongings along with her tent, she began making her way through the forest again. The beautiful scenery calmed her down from the nightmare she had even though she couldn’t remember it; Which was a common occurrence. Terrible night terrors that shot her awake which left her mind as quickly as she woke up. She had heard the others talk about them too, mainly Plum, but she wasn’t surprised after what they’ve been through. As Clover parted a tree branch which blocked her path, she saw something strange… It wasn't physically strange, quite the opposite. It was a beautiful field of clovers hidden in the forest, the air felt fresh and for once the sun beamed onto Clover - as well as light rainfall which made her hesitant. She dropped her backpack off at the entrance, cautiously walking into the field. The clovers made the floor feel fluffy and soft, but she still felt a terrible sense of anxiety; In which she felt as though she had already been here at one point, but this was her first time in this part of the forest.
Everything around her felt suddenly quiet, other than the rain drenching her body - A part of her was begging to leave and head back to Jovial Playground, but the other was overwhelmingly curious to see what was in the middle of the field. The stench of something rotting had become apparent as she crossed a lump of clovers in her path, which seemed to be overgrown over something that died there.. flies buzzed around it which made her pinch her nose from disgust, leaning down and beginning to rip the clovers and vines off of the body. Why was she doing this? Why was she here? She didn’t know but it felt right in a twisted way. It felt as though she was meant to be here and find this. She had removed what felt like dozens of layers of the vines off, whose thorns scraped the fur and flesh off of her fingers; But through the adrenaline she could not feel pain. “Oh god…” she mumbled to herself, standing up with wobbly knees and backed away from the body. It was indeed a body - a young girl that bore striking resemblance to Clover - Though something was off, it didn’t have any fur, no antlers, not even a tail, and it was terribly decomposed. What is this!? She thought, her mind racing of the possibilities of what it could be. She began investigating the body more, finding a small tattoo on its forearm. This made Clover's stomach drop even harder, she quickly rolled her sleeve up and pulled away her own mint colored fur, revealing the same tattoo of flowers wrapped around her pink skin. This was impossible, this couldn’t be her. She was alive - this made no sense. She must have been dreaming. She began frantically pinching herself until her skin would most definitely bruise from the pressure, tears swelling her eyes as she became more and more terrified. She wiped her eyes until they became red and puffy as the saltiness of her sweat stung them, before hearing a familiar voice call out to her.
This snapped her out of this trance completely, looking over to see the distant silhouettes of Eidolon and Illusia. “Hey, dumbass, we’ve been looking for you everywhere!” The child’s voice echoed throughout the field, making Clover sigh of relief even though it had just insulted her. She looked back at the body, it was gone, replaced by the clovers that covered the rest of the field. She shook her head and made her way back to the entrance, wiping her face off with her shirt. She hugged Eidolon who was propped up with his wooden cane; She would hug Illusia too but.. They weren't too keen on physical touch. “We were worried sick about you, you’ve been gone for at least four days. What happened?” Eidolon referred to Clover’s red eyes and the scars on her hands and arms which were fresh and drenched her fur in dried blood. “I… I fell in a thorn bush, I must’ve gotten lost- I don’t remember what happened but I’m so glad you guys are here..” Clover shook her head, refraining from telling them what happened so as to not seem crazy. She must’ve been hallucinating - Maybe she shouldn’t have eaten random mushrooms she found? But that doesn’t explain the tattoo she had never remembered getting. Before she could dwell on this more, Illusia rolled its eyes at her and began walking back into the forest. “Well let’s go before it gets dark out! If we get lost we can eat you first. Ugh, my fish meal is probably cold right now..Hey, you owe me one.” it huffed. Eidolon looked over at Clover and shrugged, the both of them smiling awkwardly. She put her backpack on and followed the two, taking one last look back at the clover field.
